The Road Book 2018: Ned Boulting's hymn of praise to the sport of cycling

Firstly, can I say what an achievement this is?
Ned: Thanks, it sounds like a simple idea on the face of it, but as soon as you drilled down into the complexities it became really quite a mission. Obviously, Wisden is our template, but it is put together by a team of dozens of people and basically there was four of us. We are incredibly proud and satisfied with what we have done.
 

Part of me wonders why it has not been done before and the other part why someone would want to take it on?
Ned: It has been an idea that has been knocking about in the publishing world for years and years and eventually someone was going to do it. Cycling, much like cricket, is sprawling and a constant churn of a season that never seems to end. It is very hard to assimilate. I also think there is a natural bookishness about the cycling public that was crying out for something like this.
We took it around all the established publishing houses and they all expressed an interest, but all of them got cold feet about the practicalities of getting it done. To give you an idea, we decided the last World Tour race that needed to be included in any book about 2018 was the Tour of Guangxi. That finished October 21 and we needed to have the book ready to be shipped by the very first week of November. We were there with our finger over the button to press send as soon as that race was finished. It was a ridiculously tight turnaround.

Geraint Thomas of Team Sky. Picture: SWpix.com

What was that feeling like when it was finished?
Ned: What we are hoping to inspire people with is not so much a book as an object. With that in mind it was so critical that when the printed matter came back and you picked it up, felt it and looked at it, it said the right things to you. It wasn’t until we actually physically got hold of it and saw this thing that weighs two kilogrammes, printed on high quality paper that we could actually relax. Not only because it was important to get right, but also because whatever we decided on in year one, in theory in 50 years time it should look the same. This was a decision for years and decades to come that we had to get right.
 

Why 2018? What made last year stand out?
Ned: To be honest, there was no reason other than ‘let’s do it’. As it happens, what a year to start! We were incredibly lucky in that regard. Everytime you think British road racing has done all it possibly could do something else pops up like three British Grand Tour winners representing two different teams and three different riders in one calendar year – it just doesn’t happen in the entire century-long history of cycling. You will have to wait an awfully long time to see it again. I will never forget 2012 and the sight of Wiggins in the yellow jersey leading out Cavendish in the rainbow jersey from the same team to a victory on the Champs Elysees, in a way it was like fantasy cycling. I think we will have to wait a long time to see that again and I don’t think it will happen this year.

What does it say about the state of British cycling?
Ned: Every time you think the Wiggins, Thomas, Froome generation are maybe at the end of the road you look at the young upcoming talent and realise that is just not the case. There seems to be a proliferation of riders spread across the peloton now and not instinctively going to Team Sky. We are still on upward curve of a virtuous circle right now, we are still deriving the benefits of the comet blazing of the Cavendish/Wiggins generation and probably for some time to come. 
 

Who is this book aimed at? Riders, fans or both?
Ned: People who adore road racing, people who are fascinated and obsessed with the sheer chaos of it because it is so incoherent – you have three week races, five day stage races, one day races over cobbles in the rain and then baking heat in the south of Spain – none of it seems to make sense. In fact, the act of racing a bike in a peloton doesn’t really make sense either. It’s an incredibly sophisticated physical and tactical conundrum. This book is aimed at anyone who embraces that complexity and beauty as so many thousands of people in this country do ... it’s a bible, it’s a hymn of praise to a sport that I love.
 

Has modern technology helped with this book or hindered it?
Ned: The main mastermind in the technical sense of this book is the Irish statistician Cillian Kelly, who is the only man on planet earth who could have completed this task. He has got a really fine editorial mind, he is an obsessive world class cycling statistician and, most significantly, is a computer coder.
He literally wrote a bespoke bit of software that trawls the internet and all the public sources of information for all these different race results. He had to cross reference different sources to flag up anomalies, in case there were mistakes, identify those mistakes, go right to the source to find the correct answer, identify the prevailing weather conditions, find who was in the breakaway on any given day – information that isn’t available anywhere else – and then put all of that into the right holes on these beautifully laid out pages. If you did that a generation ago, by hand in an analogue age, you would need an office full of people working full-time for a year. Technology has enabled us to get this thing over the line.     

Julian Alaphilippe of Quick-Step Floors celebrates as he crosses the line to win the stage. Picture: SWPix.com

So what about 2019, who should we look out for?
Ned: Julian Alaphilippe, the national star of France, has been scintillating to watch so far and I expect him to take that form to the Tour de France. Whether or not he will ever win it is a different matter. He certainly won't win it this year and probably never, but he has been brilliant to watch. He is the new Peter Sagan in many ways. Other than that, there were will two more things of note in 2019, one is the emergence of a generation of completely brilliant young Colombians who are just about to take the sport by the scruff of the neck and I think from our perspective the big intrigue will be how on earth do Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas work this one out in July at the Tour de France? In terms of Team Sky becoming Team Ineos, from all I read it will be success squared. For the opposition, it is probably the most disheartening news they could have imagined, because if you thought their budgets were big then they are about to become a whole lot bigger. The approach is now no longer about return on investment for the sponsor, it strikes me this is about a little bit of greenwashing from the company's image possibly, but actually it's about the backing of a phenomenally rich man. I think we are looking at a Roman Abramovich situation here. 

Finally Ned, if there's one fact that this book contains that might otherwise go under the radar what is it?  
Ned: One of the facts that intrigued me more than anything else was the number of kilometres that Thomas de Gendt spent in breakaways last year, compared to everybody else. No one else came close and when you see it in black and white it is truly remarkable.  

• On Wednesday, May 1, Ned Boulting will be at Cycle Heaven in York for an event ahead of the start of the Tour De Yorkshire. Ned will be talking about The Road Book as well as providing insight into the cycling calendar. For details visit https://ticketlab.co.uk/event/id/2710. You can find out more about the book at www.theroadbook.co.uk

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• You can WIN a copy of the The Road Book 2018 by answering this simple question. Name the three British riders to win Grand Tours in 2018? Send your answers on email marked The Road Book 2018 Competition to matt.westcott@nne.co.uk to reach me by Monday, April 8. Please include name, address and daytime telephone number. Usual Newsquest rules apply. One winner will be drawn at random.​

• The Northern Echo is pleased to announce an exclusive offer in association with The Road Book. Our readers are invited to use the discount code “N-ECHO19” to receive an exclusive 15% discount upon purchase of The Road Book 2018 (RRP £50). To purchase a first edition copy and own a piece of history, visit www.theroadbook.co.uk.