Bikeology

I am, I'll admit, slap bang in the middle of Ned Boulting's target audience. I've been known to enjoy riding my bike on the odd occasion. For those unfamiliar with the name, Boulting has been a core part of ITV's Tour de France coverage since 2003. He is the tweedle dum to David Millar's tweedle Dee. But if you didn't know that, then you're probably not coming to this show anyway. 

That's not to say that Bikeology is just a bikey group jerk off. In fact, Boulting's core sermon to the assembled choir is probably something along the lines of, 'Be less of a bike nerd and enjoy it for what it is'. He does well to puncture cycling's hipster mystique, and his backstage stories about colleagues Chris Boardman and David Millar serve the dual purpose of slaking fans' thirst for juicy gossip, while pouring cold bidons on any airs of pretention.

It's not all chalk and talk, either. Less 'An evening with...', there's a clear attempt to turn this into a performance, with some deft theatrical techniques. Bathos is his primary mode, which works well to do away with any 'man off the telly' grandstanding. Some good scripting lifts moments which need to be dramatic (describing tour stages) or poignant (on learning to ride a bike). Nor is it, though, an emphatic stage win. He shouldn't lose his place in a show he's toured for a while now. And the conspicuous absence of competitive women's cycling is unfortunate from such an ambassador. It's okay to play to a niche audience, but not to build barricades.