Les Woodland

Why would a man publish a picture of himself in the shower? Because this isn't an ordinary shower. It's one of the showers in which riders wash away the blood, grime and exhaustion at the end of Paris-Roubaix.

I've been a writer ever since my mother told me it was no fit job for a grown man. That, of course, was all the incentive I needed and I joined the staff of Cycling in its greatest days. And I've carried on writing ever since, a job I recommend because it rarely demands going out in the rain for hours. Unlike cycling, where it seems to happen an awful lot.

I've spent all my life unearthing strange stories and personalities behind the world's greatest and oddest sport. It's been a huge pleasure.

People seem to expect this sort of thing, so... I'm French, I live near Toulouse, I never much troubled judges at the end of road races beyond making them stand around in the cold when they wanted to go home, and I have thinning hair.