Ultra-distance Cycling: An Expert Guide to Endurance Cycling
Founding partner of people development consultancy, Epiphanies LLP and record-breaking ultra-distance cyclist, Dominic Irvine and leading sports scientist, Professor Simon Jobson, have co-written a new book entitled ‘Ultra-Distance Cycling: An Expert Guide to Endurance Cycling’. Writing from experience the duo were keen to publish a book on applying business principles to sport, which enabled two amateur athletes to succeed where Olympians have failed.
Ultra-Distance Cycling is both experience and science based, offering practical and performance enhancing insights on a wide range of areas, whilst nominally a book on cycling, it offers much more, as the principles within are the same as those required to help transform employees in organisations to achieve extraordinary results.
Ultra-distance events are among some of the greatest challenges a cyclist can face, with riders spending hundreds of miles in the saddle over a 24-hour period, battling the elements and overcoming both physical and mental hardships. What was once elite is now commonplace. Today thousands of dedicated riders cycle up to and over 100 miles on ultra-distance rides every week, drawn to the challenge of ‘nonstop’ endurance cycling and major events.
The book capitalises on Dominic’s business experience and how he used this to drive his sporting success. Dominic Irvine was part of the winning duo to smash the iconic Lands End to John O’Groats tandem record – the team managed to complete the epic challenge in a remarkable 45 hours 11 minutes, averaging 18.7mph and beating the record by a staggering five hours, succeeding where several Olympians had failed. Dominic believes sport has much to learn from business rather than the commonly held view about sport educating business.
The book took 18 months to write, five years to research and built on Dominic’s two decades of working with businesses to help improve their performance as well as his experience as an ultra-distance cyclist. The book includes insights into mental preparation, teamwork, work-life balance, PR and sponsorship, nutrition, as well as sections on equipment and fitness. This definitive manual also provides riders with everything they need to ride longer and faster, and to excel at ultra-distance cycling events. Many of the tools and techniques explained are as applicable in business as they are in sport.
Dominic Irvine commented on how the book came into being: “When the idea of a training bike ride from London to Paris to have lunch and then turn around and ride home again, seems like a good idea, it’s probably time to share the lessons with others.” Recognising the immense amount of time it had taken to research the many facets of high performance Dominic felt he had a duty to share the lessons to prevent anyone else having to go through the same pain and to enable them to build on what he had learnt.
“This book very much draws on my own experience regarding performance and innovation and how ordinary people can deliver extraordinary results, by changing the way they think about what they do.”
Ultra-distance Cycling: An Expert Guide to Endurance Cycling by Simon Jobson & Dominic Irvine is published 6 April, 2017 by Bloomsbury, priced £18.99/ £14.99 eBook.