Industrial Revolutions is the amazing new film from street trials riding star Danny Macaskill. Filmed and edited for Channel 4 ‘s documentary Concrete Circus.

Whilst spending more time on my bike recently, I re-read It’s Not About The Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong.  Many people who’ve read the book complain that it doesn’t tell you enough about his training regime, or his amazing achievements as an athlete, but I don’t think that is the point of this book.  First and formost this is about his fight for life, and the people who helped him so much during his battle.

A particularly moving part is when Lance is feeling depressed & sorry for himself, and probably in need of a kick in the pants, and the hospital engineers a visit to the children’s cancer ward, where Lance discovers children younger than 10 who were optimistic and determined to beat this thing, and it became a real turning point for him.

I should imagine it is very inspiring for a cancer sufferer (of which I’m extremely thankful I’m not).  This disease is no respector of age, class, creed, money or power, it can & will strike at any time.   Frightening, but Armstrong’s story shows that even those given little chance of survival, as he was (less than 20%), can & do recover.  And what a recovery. The ultimate athlete in the ultimate test of athletic ability.

Whilst on holiday I saw a copy of One More Kilometre and We’re in the Showers by Tim Hilton in a charity bookshop.  I thought this would be an interesting book looking at the life of a seasoned 60 year old racing cyclist.  The book describes how Tim was brought up in a Midlands Communist party household and cycling being part of his escape to all sorts of places and people. He then goes on to cover the history of club cycling in Britain – the racers, races and politics / organisations; and the history and characters of the classic races in Europe.

At times I felt it got a little too dense, and a bit too pretentious, focussing on the golden time of cycling, and very dismissive of the modern versions of races such as the Tour de France.

If you’re a keen cyclist it’s worth a read, but otherwise I’d suggest giving it a miss.

Human-Powered Health from solve on Vimeo.

It’s now called the “special flip” because “Special Greg” Powell was the one who accomplished it. This performance of Nitro Circus was recorded in Gosford, Australia