Team: Cooper Commique #2

TEAM COOPER GARETH - Day 4

Good morning, nice to have representatives with us again today from Team Cooper Gareth. We understand they are busy with final preparations for a big 300km ride tomorrow, so we appreciate their time with us. It is great pleasure to introduce the Super Domestique - Mr Peter Callan, who has only been on the team for a couple of years but brings a wealth of riding experience from all over the world and has first hand knowledge of the northern hemisphere conditions where Gareth is riding.

Super Domestique Callan (the Flunky with a chip on both shoulders) : It is not easy being Super Domestique (aka. Super Flunky) to Cooper "Lance" Gareth - but it has been my mission and dubious pleasure to serve this Great Man on a number of his heroic cycling challenges. It is most unfortunate that he did not feel me worthy to accompany him on this, one of the greatest of all cycling challenges. It is not for me to reason why - just for me to ride or die. I just hope that Cooper does not come to regret that rather short-sighted decision to go it alone.

Having trained extensively with him in Singapore, my aim is to provide a well-balanced insight on Mr. Gareth's (as Cooper prefers me to call him) performance from the perspective of a faithful (albeit unappreciated) Domestique - who has given years of thankless servitude to the "Great Man".

Over the past couple of days, Cooper Gareth will have had to come to terms with a couple of the unpleasant realities of cycling without his Super Flunky. First of all: Welcome Cooper, to the world of pain called "headwind". Yes, it is a very, very, very long time since Cooper actually led a peloton (much less set any kind of impressive pace) into the wind. I am always sent up front, to provide shelter and a wheel for the Great Man. I hope that he can cope with the wind-burn on his delicate features, which will already have begun to erupt from the biting cold Northern European Summer headwind.

Secondly: Cooper will have realised by now that, the continuous stream of nutrition, which he normally takes for granted on these epic rides, does not appear in his pocket, or in his hand or in his mouth by magic. Without his faithful servant there, to fetch and carry his special 98 Octane bananas, Overstims, fish and chips and Earl Grey tea from the team bus - and practically feed it to him - Cooper will be having to GO AND GET HIS OWN FOOD. A shock to his pampered system.

That's it from me today perhaps I'll offer some insights into Cooper's hill-climbing prowess ;-) next time, in addition to my totally objective "insiders" analysis of his progress so far.

Soigneur Kragelund - Thank you Super Flunky, or as I nicknamed you in the showers after we’ve surveyed the Paris –Roubaix parcours in ‘94: “Super Fly”

Headwind indeed… this English invention is as British as Scones and Jam and queues at Buckingham Palace. No matter what route you take on the LEJOG, the headwind always seems to come from a 0 degree angle, i.e. straight ahead. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with Mr Gareth’s choice of mojo voodoo. He’s reportedly to have visited Stonehenge prior to his “grand depart” and performed a series of stretches that would have put even Pink Barry to shame.

But I do digress. I want to briefly touch upon Mr Gareth’s most well known attribute: “The Hand of God” If you have ever had the pleasure of riding with Mr Gareth you could have been blessed with the famous “Hand of God” touch. Some would go as far as calling it a “feel”, but those of us who have been fortunate to have had multiple occurrences know that it is a religious experience. The Hand of God is Mr Gareth’s way of assisting riders less fortunate than himself, especially on the hills. A firm grip on especially the left buttock of the rider in front of him and Cooper G is able to literally impart up to a whopping 44 watts and an extra 26 heartbeats per minute to the affected rider. Now those numbers you ain’t getting from CERA or EPO… and it’s highly legal.

Manager Silk - Try riding with these two!! But they do make a good point about headwind. Gareth has not really had the opportunity to train in those conditions recently, Singapore has made him a bit soft with minimal winds and warm rain, but his endurance will for sure push him through, but not sure which "hand of god" that will be. Today and tomorrow will be a couple of the most important riding days for Cooper Gareth, to really get some distance under his belt. He is a bit sensitive to the weather, so we hope it stays good, with some flatter terrain on the horizon we should really see him stretch his legs and crank out some miles. Navigation though is not one of the team's strengths, we have had our fair share of incidences over many a ride most notably between dueling Super Flunky and Cooper, but if he manages to stay on course we expect some good riding to come. To date his total distance is 415km.

So there you have the latest updates and more insights then you may have bargained for.. Looks like the "hand of god" will be missed by a few riders on the 300km ride tomorrow, but stay tuned for some more team insights as we continue to follow Gareth Coopers progress from End to End.