Over the next three weeks, 190 professional cyclists take on one of the toughest challenges in sport. The gruelling mountain climbs and high-speed sprint finishes in the 3,430km Tour de France are, says the writer Bella Bathurst, the most intensely self-punishing experience she's come across. One of those riders, David Millar, vividly describes last year's tour as a "personal journey through suffering", in his new book Racing Through the Dark. After one stage, he weeps.
Bathurst and Millar are inheritors of a fine tradition of cycling literature, from the painful (ex-pro Paul Kimmage's award-winning Rough Ride) to the hilarious (Tim Moore's travelogue French Revolutions). The offerings lately, however, suggest an emerging golden age for the form. Bathurst is a novelist and author of intriguing non-fiction books about shipwrecks and lighthouses, rather than a typical sports journalist. Millar lists JG Ballard, Bret Easton Ellis and Cormac McCarthy among his literary influences. There's the sense, then, that as cycling continues its dramatic rise in popularity in many countries - as both a spectator and a participatory sport - its literature is not only more broadly read, but significantly more interesting and better written.
"There was nothing for people like me, who really loved cycling but wanted to know more about its history, the stories and the different types of tribes that are involved in it - from couriers to mountain bikers, to pro bike-riders and bespoke frame makers. So that was what I set out to write," says Bathurst. Her journey to understand cycling takes her around the world - indeed, one chapter on India has its genesis in a travel piece she wrote for The National. It's a fascinating piece of social history, because, although the cities are clogged with traffic, to ride a bicycle is to be seen as backward and poor.
"In the existential pecking order, it's down there with the goats," Bathurst jokes.
It's interesting that she should mention existentialism. Just as the novelist Haruki Murakami fashioned a meditative discourse in his 2008 non-fiction book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the often solitary pursuit of cycling lends itself to thoughtful writing. In 200 Lance Armstrong, the seven-times Tour winner, wrote an account of his battle with cancer called It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. But he failed to convince the documentary-maker and writer Robert Penn, whose new paperback is called It's All About the Bike and has the subtitle The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels. In the book, happiness is a perfectly fashioned saddle as Penn documents his travels around the world to build his perfect bike. But it's also about something more fundamental. Cycling, he writes quite beautifully, allows him to take the "flight from sadness to the rhythm of two spinning wheels. The bicycle saves my life every day".
"And I genuinely believe that learning to ride a bike is one of the handful of universal experiences that the majority of the planet can share. It's up there with childbirth!" he laughs, happily exhausted after one of his daily rides in the Welsh mountains. "It encapsulates our first experience of independence and freedom. And going fast! Whizzing down a hill on a bicycle. Wow! Everyone knows what that feels like."
Bathurst's and Penn's achievement in their books is that they play to the inclusive, elemental joy of cycling. Investigating the bicycle's long history while he's at it, Penn makes building one's own bicycle seem like the most natural, obvious and enjoyable thing to do. The book never declines into a dull, niche, "how to" guide. And yet, both writers say they would have struggled to get such books published in the past due to lack of interest.
"I used to know the first name of every cyclist on my commute," Penn laughs. "Now, in London, there are - honestly - bike jams."
So what's changed?
"Many things," says Bathurst. "Environmental issues, financial reasons in times of recession and health concerns have all got people on to their bikes in recent years. But what I think's interesting is that unless you love it, you're not going to stay on it. And people do realise that they have fallen in love with a bike in the same way they did when they first learned. Anybody can stay upright on two wheels and enjoy it."
Ned Boulting, a television reporter on the Tour de France who has just published his first, hugely entertaining book about his experiences on Le Tour, thinks that's why thousands of people line the route of each stage, camp on mountains to see a fleeting glimpse of their heroes, and watch in their millions across the world on television.
"This is one of cycling's great paradoxes," he says, packing his stuff for another one of the three-week jaunts around France so memorably deconstructed in How I Won the Yellow Jumper. "On the one hand Le Tour requires inhuman suffering. As a physical test, I would say, it's almost grotesque. But when you and I get on our bikes and ride five miles we are in effect doing exactly what they are doing. In our pathetic imaginations, we feel a bit like them, because if you look at the way you, me or [last year's winner] Alberto Contador pedals a bike, there isn't much difference. So you can lose yourself in this world where you think you are that person on the television. I can't do that with football, and I can't pretend I'm Roger Federer. But I can get on a bike. We can all do that."
How I Won the Yellow Jumper also skilfully makes it seem that we could all report on it too; refreshingly, Boulting isn't a grizzled ex-pro who has embarked on a media career. In fact, when he was first asked to cover Le Tour in 2003 he was so unaware of what cycle racing entailed, he was astonished to learn that the riders were grouped in teams. But the book isn't just a voyage of discovery about what Boulting calls this "mysterious, alien world of European bike racing". It also functions as an account of how, once we spin the pedals, cycling can make devotees of all of us.
Devoted enough to build our own bicycles? Maybe not. But it is striking that both Bathurst and Penn were intrigued enough by their investigations into the history of the bike that they realised it was the logical next step.
There are many famous people in Bathurst's book, from 2011's professional riders to Zetta Hills, who hit the headlines in the 1920s when she tried to "watercycle" across the English Channel. But Bathurst's hero is the man who helped her to make her bike frame.
"Seeing Dave Yates in action," she pauses, almost lost in the moment, "... well, there's a joy in watching anyone do something really, really well. But it was like pure alchemy. He is somebody who, genuinely, builds people's dreams."
And Penn's dream, built by Brian Rourke in the English Midlands using components gathered from across the world, is now also a reality.
"It's a total delight to ride, and I do so a lot," he says. "Is it a better bike in terms of performance than any other bike I've owned? I don't know. But do I get more pleasure from it? Absolutely."
The new wave of cycling literature suggests that there's just as much pleasure in reading about it, too.
• Follow the Tour de France until July 24 at www.letour.fr.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 611bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Price: upon application
On sale: now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds
Price: Dh230,000
On sale: now
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEdited%20by%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Idries%20Trevathan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20240%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hirmer%20Publishers%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Clinicy%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Prince%20Mohammed%20Bin%20Abdulrahman%2C%20Abdullah%20bin%20Sulaiman%20Alobaid%20and%20Saud%20bin%20Sulaiman%20Alobaid%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Riyadh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2025%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20HealthTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20More%20than%20%2410%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Middle%20East%20Venture%20Partners%2C%20Gate%20Capital%2C%20Kafou%20Group%20and%20Fadeed%20Investment%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO
Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday
Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD
The permutations for UAE going to the 2018 World Cup finals
To qualify automatically
UAE must beat Iraq.
Australia must lose in Japan and at home to Thailand, with their losing margins and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.
Saudi Arabia must lose to Japan, with their losing margin and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.
To finish third and go into a play-off with the other third-placed AFC side for a chance to reach the inter-confederation play-off match
UAE must beat Iraq.
Saudi Arabia must lose to Japan, with their losing margin and the UAE's winning margin over Iraq being enough to overturn a goal difference gap of eight.
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures:
Monday, 1st 50-over match
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
Match info
Athletic Bilbao 0
Real Madrid 1 (Ramos 73' pen)
THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
The squad traveling to Brazil:
Faisal Al Ketbi, Ibrahim Al Hosani, Khalfan Humaid Balhol, Khalifa Saeed Al Suwaidi, Mubarak Basharhil, Obaid Salem Al Nuaimi, Saeed Juma Al Mazrouei, Saoud Abdulla Al Hammadi, Taleb Al Kirbi, Yahia Mansour Al Hammadi, Zayed Al Kaabi, Zayed Saif Al Mansoori, Saaid Haj Hamdou, Hamad Saeed Al Nuaimi. Coaches Roberto Lima and Alex Paz.
Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
The schedule
December 5 - 23: Shooting competition, Al Dhafra Shooting Club
December 9 - 24: Handicrafts competition, from 4pm until 10pm, Heritage Souq
December 11 - 20: Dates competition, from 4pm
December 12 - 20: Sour milk competition
December 13: Falcon beauty competition
December 14 and 20: Saluki races
December 15: Arabian horse races, from 4pm
December 16 - 19: Falconry competition
December 18: Camel milk competition, from 7.30 - 9.30 am
December 20 and 21: Sheep beauty competition, from 10am
December 22: The best herd of 30 camels
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Newcastle United 1 (Carroll 82')
Leicester City 2 (Maddison 55', Tielemans 72')
Man of the match James Maddison (Leicester)
