Entering into the final years of his life, inflicted by an increasingly deteriorating and failing body, Marx (1993: 156) penned that “there is only one effective antidote for mental suffering, and that is physical pain”. While this figure could not be further removed from the world of sport, the insight expressed by the infamous philosopher may hold sway against the backdrop of those engaged in professional road cycling.

Noted as one of the most physically demanding sports in the world, road cycling is sadistically revered not only for the corporeal toll waged upon the rider but also the cerebral mountains that need to be conquered to enter the ranks of the professional peloton (Nimmerichter, 2018; see also Dekker, 2017; Hamilton and Coyle, 2012). Building a longitudinal sociological study of professional road cyclists in Europe and North America, I have been interrogating the subject of suffering as emotionally experienced and physically performed by those within the sport. While important work has been done on the structural and physiological dynamics of suffering in professional road cycling, there is a void when concerning a broader examination beyond the hyper-masculine vibrato of ‘pushing through the pain’ or the critical management of athletic bodies by those in places of industry and power (see Case, 2015; Gains, 2015; MaMahan, 2015; Newill, 2015; Abdel-Shehid and Kalman-Lamb, 2011; Burstyn, 2009; Hardie, 2009; Gilley, 2006).

What distinguishes this research is the interest and attention to examining the weight that emotional duress has on a rider’s capacity (or desire) to enter into self-imposed suffering. From a sociological perspective, the work seeks to both augment and fill a gulf within the academy and literature on professional road cycling (and sport in general). Through the employment of qualitative research, the work has the potential to holistically broaden an understanding of how and why some cyclists may endure the pain associated with their profession and how temporary physical suffering might be an anecdote employed to offset deeper emotional wounds.

James J. Brittain, PhD (he/him)

Professor, Department of Sociology

& Social and Political Thought Graduate Program

Acadia University

Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Canada B4P-2R6

Office Phone: (902) 585-1292

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Dear All,

New to this group and fairly new to academia. I finished my PhD in 2020 looking at the effectiveness of repairing and refurbishing bicycles on unpicking experiences of psychological trauma (i.e. 'recovery'). Thesis was summarised in this paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13357. I work within 'actor-network theory' as an approach that precisely matches my sensibilities as a bike mechanic.

I am now working on the Elevate project - https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/elevate/ - as researcher, instructor and mechanic. I don't think this group is as active as Cycling and Society but it seems perhaps a better forum for the promotion of bicycles as therapeutic objects - in use (of course) but also as sites of contestation and co-operation, fettling, mess, spectra of 'working' or 'not working'-ness, ideation, and all sorts of other interesting things!

Nick

Dr Nicholas Marks | Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Humanities and Social Science
University of Brighton
Mithras House
Moulsecoomb
BN2 4AT
Direct Line: 07854 603523
Email: [log in to unmask]

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