The first Brit to win the Tour de France wasn’t Bradley Wiggins. It was Nicole Cooke. She also won the gold medal in the road race at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. She and I were in contact about her feisty and hugely enjoyable autobiography The Breakaway. After I had written about it on the ESPN website she and I agreed to meet. She asked if I could take her birding.
That brought us to Hickling Broad in Norfolk as the short afternoon hurried towards night. It’s a special spot, this, as far from civilisation as you can get in lowland Britain. And here the raptors share a roost in the glorious big-skied marshes. It’s a good place to take a neophyte: no soul can escape unstirred.
The harriers came cruising in one after another after another – I think only marsh harriers, but since most were in silhouette I can’t be sure. Observe the glide, I said, the energy-efficient form of flight. As you freewheel down a hill, so a hawk glides.
A big skein of geese passed overhead, honking hard, pinkfeet for my money though again, it was just a series of dark shapes. They flew in echelon, each following bird getting an easier ride because the bird ahead is taking away the resistance of the air.
And that’s the basis of road-racing on a bike. You have to take your turn at the front if you want the breakaway to succeed: hide behind the others and you’ll all be caught by the pack. But of course, it gets a bit more complicated than that: and there above us the geese were taking turns to lead the flight home to their watery roost for the night.
Nicole has spent most of her life trying to be first: trying not to be last. Fighting in races: fighting, often enough, for the right to race. Here is the growing darkness was something else. But time to move. I cooked up a curry and Nicole supplied a bottle of Welsh champagne.
Good day. Damn good day.
Thank you very much for this lovely insight !
Thanks.
Thanks for the post; I hadn’t previously seen this book, but have just hugely enjoyed it. Also good to find a cache of your writing at ESPN!
Good on you! Very pleased you’re enjoying my stuff.
Great journalistic writing as ever in your blog.
“Some burn damp faggots/Others quite consume the entire combustible world in one small room….”
– but may your spark not go out.
There were three reasons I bought the Times: articles from SB, Danny the Fink and Phil. Collins –
But I havn’t found a better ‘ole yet.
Still read yr ancient appreciation of Ramsbottom cc ground appreciatively – nearly flooded today.
Go well,
David
What a nice message. Thanks a million.
Add to previous: David Aaronnovich .
And we may catch one another in The Dolphin
Have so missed your writing in the Times, so great to find your blog. Thank you.
Delighted to have you with me here. I’m flagging up the pieces I write elsewhere on Twitter: The sports stuff is mostly on ESPN.
Simon i am a huge fan of your work. I was never interested in wildlife/conservation but you’ve really opened my eyes with your heartfelt appreciation. I’ve been an avid reader of your sports columns since i was 15 (now 34!). Most enjoyable writer ever. Times sports pages (and life for that matter) much duller without you. I cancelled my subscription in protest. Thought you might like to know.
Thanks for your lovely message. Hope the Times are still smarting and hope you’re catching my sports stuff on ESPN; it tends to get flagged up on Twitter.
Excellent to know about ESPN,will now follow you on Twitter. I wonder where Nicole got the Welsh champagne from?
Andy Lloyd Williams
Hope you’re enjoying the ESPN stuff now. I’m afraid I’ve recycled Nicole’s bottle, but it was genuinely drinkable!
Really missed your writing in the Times Simon…one of the reasons I signed up to the online edition!! Doh! So pleased to have rediscovered your wisdom herein. By the way…”The Meaning of Sport”….right up there with the best sports books of any year!
Many thanks for a lovely message. Hope you’re catching up with my sports stuff on ESPN. If not, check Twitter @simonbarneswild.
Eureka. Bought an iPad – found you. Life just hasn’t been the same without your take on the world: nature, sport, ethics and Eddy. Couldn’t cancel the times though I deplored what they did because of Melanie Read and one or two others. Love your ‘little brown job’ bird books too.
It’s worth making any sacrifice for Melanie.