Society’s addiction to sugar is a rather alarming one. There are no evening news headlines about kids strung up on the white stuff, no award-winning documentaries about the growers, the sugar dealers or the effects it has on the population, yet at the same time, sugar is responsible for the growing number of obesity cases found in kids and indeed adults.

Robert Lustig gave a talk where he called fructose poison, and compared the metabolic effects with that of ethanol. Now, you may be thinking (like I did at the time) what a crackpot! But after watching his video, it all started to make much more sense. if you have the time, i’d urge you to view the talk. Let’s face it, people are fatter and you often see incredibly large kids these days, something that wasn’t so commonplace a decade or two ago (at least when I was in my teens).

Sugar is everywhere. Ever since I’ve made a push to remove it from my diet, I’ve become obsessed with the contents label, to understand what I’m consuming and what the potential damage could be. For example, that drain water Coke bill as ‘healthy’, Vitamin Water, has a staggering 32 grams of sugar per bottle. 32 GRAMS of the stuff. It doesn’t end there, there is sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in most food today. We’ve become a society addicted to the shit, like crack whores at 2am, we all need our daily fix.

As a result, I’ve noticed that I too am addicted to the poison. I crave a sugary substance at least once a day and do exhibit the telltale signs of addition when I don’t have it.

So enough is enough, from today, I’ve now made the conscious effort to remove 90% of all sugar from my diet. I’ve already cut out the soft drinks (ok, I’ll admit to having a sneaky can of coke every now and then) but for me the hardest will be the KitKat and the choccie digestives, I’m more addicted to those than a crack whore on payday. It seems that this approach is something Mr Cavendish is also trying out, with some success to boot.

The plan is to see how this effects my riding. I already have an issue with wheat, which makes for interesting times, will this be too much? I’m also applying some common sense to this test. I enjoy my coffee and there isn’t a cat in hells chance I’m not having my brown sugar in it. It will be my one guilty sneak fix every morning. I’ve given myself four weeks to see a noticeable change in my mood, my weight and overall health.

Bucket lists, a sure sign you are getting older.

With my newfound passion for riding, I’ve become slightly obsessed with riding some of the most amazing roads in the world. After the great time I had in Mallorca, and grinding up the mountain roads there, I felt it was time to create a bucket list of my own – a hell bucket list of the best mountain passes one should do before the knees give in.

One could choose the cliched routes, Alpe d’Huez, Ventoux and so on, but that would be boring. I’m after roads that are not only tough to get up, but also have visual appeal. There’s nothing harder than grinding up a steep bastard of a hill when the scenery is as flat as a white wall.

My first road would be possibly one of the sexiest bits of tarmac I’ve ever seen: Passo dell Stelvio (2,758m) in Italy.

It’s almost sexual in the way that road twists and turns and still offers the poor sod climbing it, visual pleasure whilst hurting them. Daniel Friebe mentioned in his ‘Mountain High: Europe’s 50 Greatest Cycle Climbs‘ book that the road was ‘a serpent of asphalt with the most horrible descent‘. What more could someone want when tackling a climb over 2000m?

 On a side note, his book is well worth the money. Stunning photography by Pete Godin and great editorial by Daniel himself. Go and get a copy now if you don’t have it in your collection already.

Starting cycling in the 80′s (well to be honest, it was BMX racing) I had some amazing heroes to look up to in the cycling world. As I matured from BMX racing into road cycling, the greats of Miguel Indurain and Marco Pantani graced the telly at the time and watching them ride the tour was nothing short of inspirational.

Back then, South Africa was still suffering from sanctions, so although we received Tour de France coverage, it was usually a day later. Unfortunately there was no Intaweb’s back then (ok hang on, yes there was Roblist, but that was pants for anything like cycling back then). So, back to the history lesson, there was this teenager looking at these athletic monsters on telly and being blown away by how they rode and also the kit they had.

Unfortunately the chance of owning an Eddy Merckx or a Pinarello Banesto was nothing short of a dream. I often lusted at those steel steeds and had immoral thoughts about owning one with a set of Campagnolo Delta brakes, but often reality came crashing and I continued riding/racing on my steel Peugeot. Buying anything imported in South Africa in the late 80′s and early 90′s just didn’t happen easily.

Fast forward 15+ years and the opportunity to purchase a load of parts from those immoral thoughts presented itself. Automatically being taken back to watching the Tour at my grandparents house, I started to build up the bike I wanted when I was thirteen. This weekend, one of those bikes finally came a reality and was built up by myself and Rohan. A 1987 Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra with a mix of Campagnolo Record/Delta components.

It’s not a weight-weenie. There isn’t a hint of carbon anywhere and it won’t be to most peoples taste but for me, it’s a slice of heaven. Many belittle the Campagnolo Delta brakes, often citing that they were shit at stopping the bike (ok, then do explain how they were found on so many pro bikes back in the day on the Tour?) Thing is, they are quirky and yes, do require a considerable amount of skill to set up correctly. Thankfully Rohan possesses such skill and made them work.

On the anniversary of Il Pirata’s death, it’s all rather fitting that the bike is ready to ride. Alas, I won’t even climb mountains like the pirate, or power past opponents like Big Mig, but I can be happy with the fact that I finally get to ride a bike like they used to ride and pretend for a moment.

So here’s to you Il Pirata, a legend of cycling. R.I.P

You spend hundreds, if not thousands, on the bike you ride and yet many overlook the skills it takes to get it running 100%. With older groupsets, there was always room for error, but with todays modern 10/11 speed groupsets and components, it does take having some knowledge in order to get them running 100%.

Unfortunately, I had yet to find a mechanic in Central London, who knew how to do this (went to a number of big-chain bike shops, not the cheap ones either and the bikes always returned with me unhappy). Thankfully, an evening with Roleur and Rapha introduced me to one Rohan Dubash.

Here’s a man who lives and breathes bikes and has the most obsessive attention to details one could wish for. Simply put, there wasn’t anyone else I felt could tune the Colnago Master to how I wanted it to be.

Armed with the frame, various boxes of bits I’d collected over the past year, I headed down south to his place to start the build. Thankfully he offers a service that allows you to have a one-on-one session at the same time, which is great in that it allows you to ask stupid questions without feeling like a tit.

Once we had stripped down the Dream, attention was placed on the various bits. To give you an idea about the obsessive nature of Rohan, he spent a good five minutes polishing up the Colnago carbon fork, before installing it. I’d never done that, let alone a bike shop that had the audacity to charge me £150 quid. The frame was prepared, and the installation begun. Because I’d decided on using Rotor Q-rings, with the required chain catcher, we stumbled upon a problem where the braze-on bolt wouldn’t work. Now usually how this ends up, is that the mechanic would pick up the phone and go “sorry mate, part wont fit, will need to buy ‘X’ instead.

All rather bollocks really, thankfully Rohan had the insight to fashion out a suitable washer out of one from his vast collection of bolts. Ten minutes later, numerous tweaks with the file and we had a working bolt and a chain catcher that fitted snuggly into the bracket. The rest of the build was educational, from getting the Campagnolo rear derailleur shifting as it should (smooth as a baby’s arse) sorting out the sticky brakes (again, this would have been suggested to me that they were knackered and I should replace).

The end result is a bike that not only feels amazing to ride, but components that work. So many on Internet forums complain about their Rotor Q-rings shifting badly, yet mine are 100%. I think we are too quick to overlook the skills and talent that some have and it was a pleasure to see Rohan work and use his experience in solving bike-related issues.

As more people turn to cycling, and indeed spend a fair sum on getting the latest bling, I think services like the ones that Rohan offers, become all the more important. He will be building up my race Colnago shortly, as well as my Campagnolo Delta-equipped Eddy Merckx.

Cannot wait.

Oh if only all winter training was like this. I don’t normally feel the need to share adverts but this is possibly one of the best i’ve seen, cinematographically. It also serves as a brilliant motivation booster, for when your outside winter wonderland is more grey, miserable and cold.