Me versus Mont Ventoux - the good, the bad and the ugly

I keep going because the mountain won't give up. I pedal harder and harder because the mountain won't complain about cross winds, unfamiliar chainsets or a spiteful sun sitting high in French sky.

I fire up another sprint, pushing my power output into the 320 watts territory as sweat surges out of my pores. My tongue lolls madly out of my mouth and my heart rate rises into the red zone. It is a Monday afternoon and I am enduring another interval training session at the local gym, as part of my preparation for this July's ascent of Mont Ventoux.

As well as creating a sweat-streaked monster in the depths of Lewisham PureGym, my training for the epic climb has revealed the good, the bad and the ugly of cycling in Britain.

Early days: a Sunday spin leads me to an out-of-town retail park 

Since buying my first proper road bike in January (the undersized Carrera MTB travesty I used in Manchester has been successfully erased from my memory) the pure joy of speed has lit up my hours in the saddle. The poise and control of the dropped handlebars, the grip when accelerating out of a corner and the blessed relief in shifting down to the small ring when climbing are all fantastic sensations for a road rookie. Even donning one's first pair of bib shorts has its own vaguely kinky thrill, quite apart from their aerodynamic benefits.

Despite these delights, some persistent problems prevent cycling from becoming an automatic choice for London commuters. The capital's roads remain a mixture of pristine and the precarious, with hazardous potholes and inexplicably gnarly gravel roads popping up fairly frequently if you take routes suggested on Google Maps.

How the pros do it: Alberto Contador and Chris Froome do battle on Ventoux

As well as physical hazards, London cyclists have to keep an eye out for the city's other road users. While most drivers are now at least aware of the existence of cyclists, there is some way to go before pedal-powered travellers get parity of esteem on the road. A significant minority of motorists are still prone to gamble with other people's lives in order to shave a few seconds off a journey, pulling out without warning.

Other commuters actually drive relatively safely, but seem to live for confrontations with cyclists, beeping their horns manically and leaning out of windows to hurl the sort of invective usually reserved for someone you've caught in bed with your spouse.

While the recent hot weather in London might contribute to drivers' frayed tempers, it makes for ideal training for my upcoming ride in the Provence region of southern France. Recent temperatures near Mont Ventoux have hit 37 Celsius, with the fearsome Mistrale winds from the Mediterranean also contributing to the mountain's unique climate.

In the heavens: the summit of Mont Ventoux

As well as the recent continental weather in London, my training efforts have been blessed by the digital gods, in the shape of some interesting new apps. Strava, even on the free version, lets you track your pace against other users, creating some occasionally ill-advised sprint sections on the streets of south London.

Since leaving my last job, I've even been able to contort the gig economy to the benefit of my training, using Deliveroo to earn money whilst clocking up the hours in the saddle. 

The ride itself has already raised over £900 for the Campaign Against Living Miserably, which is a brilliant effort. With two weeks to go, you can add to these heartening tributes to my great friend Matt Robinson at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Thomas-McMahon2 .

Daily Mirror article on Voting in 2017 General Election

Take a look at my guide to voting in the 2017 general election, originally published by the Daily Mirror:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/need-polling-card-vote-uk-10576714?service=responsive

Foul play finds a home online with General Election looming

The Crown Prosecution Service last week confirmed it will not press charges against members of the Conservative Party over expenses relating to their “battle bus” in the run-up to the 2015 general election.

While Jeremy Corbyn admitted he was “surprised” by the CPS's decision, it is perhaps more startling that this was an electoral controversy focusing on traditional, offline campaign tactics. Intrigues around recent overseas elections suggest that any foul play is now much more likely to be conducted by digital means.

Old School: The Conservative Battle Bus of 2015

With Britain heading to the polls again in a little over three weeks' time, the prospect of online subversion is already looming as a threat to the integrity of the general election. Facebook has been sufficiently concerned to place a full-page advert in a number of British newspapers, providing ten tips on how to spot “false news” online. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, the site has also removed tens of thousands of bogus accounts in a plan to tackle what it describes as “spam, misinformation or other deceptive content”.

Fake news first came into the public consciousness in the wake of Donald Trump's victory in last year's US Presidential race, with an array of outlandish news stories circulated on social media. An article reporting that Pope Francis supported the Republican candidate's campaign was a particularly successful hoax, receiving almost a million shares on Facebook.

Pope Francis: Not actually a Republican

Trump's team, while not openly condoning the dissemination of fake news, have acknowledged the power of social media as an electoral influence. Gary Coby, the Republican Party's director of marketing, enthuses: “If you are on Facebook, I can match you and put you in a bucket of users that I can target”.

While Trump's campaign spent around $70 million on Facebook advertising to hammer home key messages, it has also been widely alleged that a more underhand digital campaign was secretly underway, in collusion with Russian hackers.

FBI director James Comey's dismissal this week, against the backdrop of the Bureau's ongoing investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia, has done little to quell suspicion. The FBI probe centres on Kremlin-sanctioned e-mail hacks against the Democrats which destabilised the party's White House campaign, and Trump's security advisor Michael Flynn has already been dismissed after covering up his meetings with Russian officials.

Departed: Former Trump security advisor Michael Flynn

A similar hack on the eve of run-off voting in France also threatened to derail Emmanuel Macron's successful Presidential race, with Macron's team claiming that hackers added fabricated messages to “five entire mailboxes” of stolen e-mails. Cybersecurity experts have since attributed the breach to the APT-28 hacking group, who have been linked with Russian military intelligence and also orchestrated last year's leak of Western athletes' medical records.

The hacked emails, hosted on anonymous document-sharing site Pastebin, failed to make an impact on the outcome of France's election as Macron stormed to 66% of the vote. The constant threat of online interference in the run-up to the polls, however, means that democracies now have to work harder than ever before to protect the integrity of their elections.

'A Sunday in Hell' - The 2017 Paris-Roubaix Preview

There’s a trend for endurance events at the moment. Established challenges such as marathons and triathlons are complemented by a new wave of quasi-military assault courses, with millions of plucky participants signing up to events with names like Spartan Race, Tough Mudder and the unfortunately-departed BattleFrog.

While a combination of corporate team discounts, and the opportunity to clamber over and under obstacles while shouting encouragement in clipped tones to your colleagues was always likely to find an audience among Britain’s Russell Group-educated elite, these rigorous races do at least provide a positive impetus to train towards a fixed goal.

However challenging these weekend events must be, however, and despite their uniformly macho branding, I’ve yet to see one labelled as ‘A Sunday in Hell’.

Paris-Roubaix: a unique challenge

That title belongs to the Paris-Roubaix, a one-day cycling race in northern France which takes place every April. This Sunday sees the 117^th edition, with a field of 200 riders from 25 teams undertaking a 257km course, finishing in a sprint around Roubaix’s concrete velodrome.  

The course itself is generally very flat, lacking even the short-but-steep inclines common in other spring classics such as the Tour of Flanders, but the cobbles, or pavé, that cover 53km of the course   make Paris-Roubaix a notoriously difficult ride. British cyclist Roger Hammond once described the experience of riding the pavé as “bone-shattering chaos”, and cyclists as decorated as Fabian Cancellara and George Hincapie have been humbled by the cobbled roads in the past.
     

Man down: muddy cobbles get the better of Cancellara in 2016

The pavé are particularly hazardous in the wet weather that typically prevails near the Belgian border in spring, as mud on the primitive roads reduces traction even further. This year’s forecast is for sun before and during the race, but in the drier years the peloton has to contend with plumes of dust rising up from the cobblestones, prompting French writer Louis Nucera to compare the 1980 edition of the race to a desert crossing.

Such a troublesome riding surface has turned the humble pavé into an icon of the race, with the  winner receiving a mounted cobblestone as their trophy. Belgian rider Tom Boonen already has a personal collection of four of the stones, and Sunday marks the 36-year-old’s final chance to overtake compatriot Roger de Vlaeminck as Paris-Roubaix’s most successful rider.

While retirement beckons for Boonen, the next generation of cycling superstars will be looking to spoil his farewell race. The reigning world champion, Slovak sprinter Peter Sagan, is the bookies’ favourite to add a first Paris-Roubaix victory to his crowded collection of palmeres but may still be recovering from a mild crash in last weekend’s Tour of Flanders. 2016 winner Mathew Hayman, while a hardy competitor, may at 38 years old lack the raw pace needed to lead from the front again, particularly on a dry course.

Greg van Avermaet has started 2017 in fantastic form

Perhaps the best bet would be to back BMC's Belgian rider Greg van Avermaet to collect his first cobblestone on Sunday. The 31-year-old claimed a bronze medal in the 2015 Paris-Roubaix and comes into this year’s race in sparkling form, having won the Gent-Wevelgem and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad one-day events already this season, beating Sagan on both occasions.

While van Avermaet should be confident ahead of the race, the ‘Hell of the North’ is always liable to spring a few surprises, with changeable weather and jagged cobbles just some of the variables. No matter who prevails in Roubaix’s velodrome on Sunday afternoon, they will certainly have earned their victory.

The 2017 Paris-Roubaix begins 10:00 on Sunday 9^th April, with live coverage on British Eurosport.

Theresa May's Mask Slips in Grammar Schools Discussion

After Monday’s announcement that Article 50 will be triggered on 29^th March, and before the horrifying scenes that unfolded around Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square on Wednesday afternoon, Theresa May had a brief window of opportunity in which to focus on running the country.

The NHS might be in crisis and the Scots may be making a dash for the Second Referendum lifeboats, but Prime Minister’s Questions at noon on Wednesday gave Theresa May the opportunity to promote her pet project: the repeal of a 1998 law outlawing the building of new grammar schools.

Jeremy Corbyn, these days the only leader operating out of North London capable of making Arsene Wenger look popular, pressed the Prime Minister on the wisdom of spending £320 million to open the floodgates for new grammars, when her government’s funding squeeze has already imperilled the finances of some 9,000 state schools. Reciting a letter from Eileen, a headteacher who has seen her staff reduced to purchasing their own stationery for primary school classes, it was a well-directed line of questioning from Corbyn, who looked re-energised by the latest round of internecine squabbling within the Labour Party.

Theresa May set out her vision for education on Wednesday

With Corbyn pressing the Prime Minister on whether budget cuts would result in “larger class sizes, shorter school days, or unqualified teachers”, May pointed to grammar schools as one of the “choices” that will enhance opportunities “for every child”.

After the Leader of the Opposition converted an open goal by querying the value for money of new grammars when existing schools are struggling to afford pencils and notebooks, May hit back that Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow General Attorney had both sent their children to private school, while Corbyn himself had benefited from a grammar school education. In the Prime Minister’s eyes, this was “typical Labour – take the advantage and pull up the ladder behind you”.

May’s response was at first glance a stinging retort, and was cheered by the Tory benches, but her lunging attempt to expose Labour hypocrisy actually served to expose the utter folly of expanding the grossly outdated grammar school model.

Her tone, focusing on the “the advantage” of private and selective schools, removed the pretence that these schools can function as part of a “diverse” and universal suite of education options. Her words cleared the smokescreen of parental choice, and laid bare the fundamentally elitist agenda of her proposed reforms: grammar and private schools – with their advantages in teaching quality, funding and academic prestige – are for the parliamentarian class, whether they happen to be coloured red or blue. All other schools are to be consolation prizes.

Corbyn noted that even former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan (by comparison a progressive rose between the retrograde thorn thickets of Michael Gove and Justine Greening) couldn’t bring herself to support the proposals of her party, noting in The Guardian that “all the evidence is clear that grammar schools damage social mobility”.

More than this, however, May’s personal slights against the Labour frontbench offer a preview of British society once grammars have been reintroduced to mainstream British education: a new dividing line of privilege between the “academic ” (officer class) and the “vocational / technical” (proletarian) streams of schooling. It will be a society in which the middle class grammar school students will progress smoothly to Britain’s elite universities, accompanied by a cohort of working class quota-fillers for the PR managers to focus on, while the rump population can quietly shift to second-class schools and pursue second-class qualifications in preparation for second-class careers.
     

With contemporary Britain already bitterly divided along economic, regional and cultural schisms, the temptation to further divide the population by educational background must be resisted.   

Karanka Suffers Mentor Mourinho's Fate as Third Season Syndrome Bites

As they slumped to a deflating, demoralising 2-0 defeat at home to Manchester City, Aitor Karanka’s Middlesbrough side had finally come full circle. Just over two years after a famous, fully deserved FA Cup win at the Etihad marked the high point of the Basque manager’s reign, Boro crashed out of the cup against the same team, by the same scoreline. Four days later, Karanka is out of a job.

Sunday’s loss at the Riverside felt heavier, more comprehensive than the eventual two-goal margin suggested, with Boro bamboozled by the swashbuckling speed and skill of City’s Leroy Sane, David Silva and Raheem Sterling. On home soil, Boro mustered just 31% possession. Their beleaguered goalkeeper, Brad Guzan, was named man of the match. Top scorer this season with just seven goals, Alvaro Negredo replaced injured January signing Rudy Gestede in the first half, only to turn in another study in isolation as Boro’s sole striker.

Aitor Karanka left Middlesbrough on Thursday

Such anaemic attacking performances had become the norm under Karanka, with Middlesbrough’s failure to score in each of their last four league fixtures contributing to the club’s slide to 19^th in the Premier League table. Boro still boast the fifth-meanest defence in the top flight, even in spite of a winless run stretching back to before Christmas, but the side’s lack of menace in attack eventually convinced Steve Gibson that Karanka was no longer the right manager to stave off relegation to the Championship.

While Gibson will have thought long and hard over the decision to replace Karanka, there is a certain inevitability to the former Real Madrid assistant manager’s departure in his third full season on Teesside. Indeed, Karanka’s reign at Middlesbrough has clear echoes of the problems his friend and mentor, Jose Mourinho encountered in his third seasons at Real and in his two spells at Chelsea. Although played out on different stages, the narrative arc of promising beginning, glorious middle and fractious ending can be seen in each of these three-act tenures.

Mentor: Karanka was assistant to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid

Taking over from Tony Mowbray at 16^th-placed Boro in the November of 2013, Karanka tightened up the defence and steered the side to the safety of 12^th place in Championship table at the end of the season. He began to impose a physical, but nonetheless possession-based playing style on the team, too, exemplified by the January signings of towering centre back Daniel Ayala and portly playmaker Lee Tomlin.

It wasn’t until Karanka’s side had their first pre-season under their belt, however, that the side really started to sparkle. Of the Spanish Armada signed in the summer of 2014, only Kike Garcia would shine on Teesside, but Karanka’s other signings proved astute at Boro romped to 4^th place in the Championship. Adam Clayton added bite to the midfield alongside the craft of Grant Leadbitter, while Chelsea loanee Patrick Bamford was a revelation. A lightweight but wonderfully deft forward, the 21-year-old Bamford scored 17 league goals and had a hand in many more on his way to Championship Player of the Year. Boro’s lack of Premiership guile would be cruelly exposed in a 2-0 play-off final defeat to Norwich City, but Karanka’s first full season had brought the good times back to the Riverside.

Patrick Bamford led Boro to the play offs in Karanka's first season

Mourinho’s first-season successes at Chelsea are well-documented, with a league title in 2004-05 and a third-place finish in 2013-14, but he also made a promising start with Karanka as his assistant manager at Real Madrid in 2010-11. Succeeding Manuel Pellegrini, Mourinho led Los Merengues to victory in the Copa del Rey, ending a three-year trophy drought in the process, although a 5-0 league hammering to Barcelona revealed the gap still to be bridged between the two sides.     

The similarities between Karanka and Mourinho’s second seasons are similarly striking, with notable triumphs for the two managers in Madrid and Middlesbrough alike, as well as in West London. In Karanka’s second full season, his Boro side went a step further than his first campaign, claiming automatic promotion as runners-up in the Championship. The defence, in the Mourinho mould, was nigh-on impregnable as Ben Gibson emerged as a perfect partner for Ayala in the back line. There were memorable moments, too, with a 3-0 win at Brighton in December a particular a highlight, as Boro ended their hosts’ unbeaten record in some style.  

Boro achieved promotion in Aitor Karanka's second season

However, it could be said that even as he steered his team to promotion, Karanka’s faults were already beginning to emerge. With Bamford and Tomlin both trying their luck in the Premier League, goals, flair and creativity were at a premium, as Boro managed to score five fewer goals than the previous campaign but still finish higher in the table. Indeed, no side in the Championship’s top six scored fewer than Middlesbrough that season.

The manager’s signings began to become increasingly erratic, too, with puzzling continental prospects (Julian de Sart and Kike Sola, anyone?) linking up with grizzled Championship veterans such as Jordan Rhodes and David Nugent. Only Gaston Ramirez, brought in on loan from Southampton in January, was an unqualified success in adding seven goals from midfield.

Underwhelming: Kike Sola failed to make an impact on Teesside

Most troublingly, there were signs of underlying unrest on the training ground and in boardroom, with Karanka storming out of training to“consider his future” and leaving Steve Agnew to manage the team away to Charlton Athletic.

While Karanka did return to win promotion with Middlesbrough, Jose Mourinho’s second seasons have been similarly successful, although often tinged with the same grinding pragmatism. Despite winning titles in both of his second seasons at Chelsea, it is worth noting that in both of his second seasons at Stamford Bridge, his side have been “Champions elect” by Christmas before slowing down considerably on the final straight. The Frank Lampard-inspired 2005-06 vintage saw their lead over Manchester United cut by half in an awful March, while the Hazard-Costa axis of 2013-14 had a similar late-season wobble punctuated by draws and scrappy victories, as the January addition of Juan Cuadrado curtailed the fine form of Willian and Oscar.

In Mourinho’s defence (no pun intended), his second season at Real Madrid was more or less faultless: a La Liga title won with record totals in points and goals, and denied a place in the Champions League final only by the iron law of Bayern Munich winning a penalty shoot-out.

Mourinho, Ronaldo and co romped to the La Liga title in 2011-12

If the Real Madrid exception proves the rule, it’s now possible examine the point where Karanka and Mourinho’s teams really fall apart: the third season.

In Karanka’s case, it is more excusable, with Middlesbrough moving up to the Premier League and lacking the resources of the league’s biggest spenders. Even discounting Boro’s relative lack of financial muscle in the top division, however, the Spanish coach has made some unusual signings and transfers throughout this campaign. From summer’s sale of rangy winger Albert Adomah to Aston Villa, to the recent reticence to play Ayala since his return from injury, Karanka has made a number of odd calls.

Influential: but Albert Adomah was sold after promotion

Perhaps the most egregious omissions are those of Bamford, who re-signed on a permanent deal in January, and Ramirez. While Negredo remains a dangerous finisher in the penalty box, he has recently been starved of service, with only the erratic Adama Traore and the static Cristhian Stuani for support. Asked about Bamford’s absence recently, Karanka only commented that he needed “18 fighters” for matchdays, which makes the initial decision to purchase the talented, but rather laconic forward hard to explain.

Similarly to his mentor, Karanka also found himself at odds with the club’s ownership in his third season. He recently bemoaned the lack of investment in the squad, despite Gibson sanctioning January moves for Bamford and Gestede, who cost £5.5 million and £7 million respectively.

In the third season of Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, the problem was more with who the Stamford Bridge hierarchy did bring in, rather than who they failed to. Andriy Shevchenko, a personal favourite of Roman Abramovich, rocked up about three years past his devastating peak, while young stars Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel largely flattered to deceive. Khalid Boulahrouz, meanwhile, didn’t even manage to deceive.

Frosty: Mourinho struggled to get the best out of Andriy Shevchenko

Mourinho added an FA Cup in 2006-07 but Chelsea lost out to Manchester United in a tight title race, unable to keep pace with the firepower of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. By September, he had departed in the wake of a 1-1 Champions League draw with Rosenborg in front of a half-full Stamford Bridge.

At Real Madrid, Aitor Karanka looked on as his mentor’s third season unravelled into trophyless catastrophe, with the infamous eye-poke on Tito Vilanova a particularly embarrassing nadir for club and manager alike. Even Real's own players felt the Portuguese’s ire in his final season at the Bernabeu, with Pepe slammed in the press and replaced in central defence by a 19-year-old Raphael Varane after he dared to question the wisdom of dropping club legend Iker Casillas.

John Terry was scapegoated in similar fashion after Chelsea made a poor start to their title defence in 2015-16, with Mourinho slipping into a deep paranoia in towards the end of his second spell at Stamford Bridge, accusing his squad of “betraying” him before eventually departing in December. Referees, opposition managers and club physio Eva Carneiro were all blamed for defeats, with Mourinho keen to look anywhere except the mirror when apportioning blame.

Departed: but Karanka's replacement can still keep Boro up 

While the symptoms of third season syndrome have brought the same managerial morbidity to Aitor Karanka as suffered by his mentor Mourinho, Middlesbrough do at least have a chance of retaining their place in the Premier League. Sitting just three points behind 17^th-placed Crystal Palace, and with a superior goal difference to most of their relegation rivals, whoever takes charge of Boro for the remaining 11 games of the season will feel confident of securing survival after reviewing the fixture list. Home games against Burnley, Sunderland and a comfortably mid-table Southampton look eminently winnable, as do trips to Swansea and Hull.

If the shackles that seemed to grip the side in the last months of Karanka’s tenure can be loosened, Boro might be able to start planning dreaming of how to avoid their own third season syndrome in the top flight.