Phil Cavell

Pain is no signal to stop

Tim Krabbé – The Rider

The Cycling Addiction

A follow-up to Phil Cavell’s cycling best-selling book and audiobook, The Midlife Cyclist

The Cycling Addiction explores the fundamental antecedent of why? For why do we seek to suffer?

The why takes the reader to a largely unmapped space that intersects sports-psychology, neurobiology, philosophy, and most importantly, shared anecdote and reflection.
The book tells the enthralling and often unexpected stories of selected cyclists, living and dead, obscure and famous, triumphant and tragic, in an attempt to grasp how finding the bicycle changed the course of their lives. Some rode to escape or redeem, improve, or re-invent. For many the act of cycling simply alchemised loneliness into a state of being peacefully alone.
Our motivation to suffer as we relentlessly test and expand our physiological boundaries, is reviewed by emerging neurobiology and sports psychology. And when the science stumbles, as it inevitably must, we continue to follow the breadcrumb trail to the doors of philosophers, who in turn may even call question our very notion of free-will, that inevitably underpins any proposition of why we do anything at all.

Testimonials

  • A tour de force which makes me re-appraise how I think about pro cyclists and my understanding of what they endure, while reinforcing my appreciation of this beautiful, crazy sport.

    Andy McGrath (author of Tadej Pogačar: Unstoppable)

  • Phil Cavell reveals himself to be a Philosopher of Cycling. The Cycling Addiction is a fascinating journey of self-reflection and exploration.

    Peter Keen MBE

  • The Cycling Addiction offers readers not just insight into what drives us to ride, but also a vocabulary for understanding when that drive becomes too much

    Dr Michael Liebrenz – Head of Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Bern

Additional Quotes:

Every cyclist will see a part of themselves in these pages. Honest, insightful and impossible to put down!’ PFEIFFER GEORGI

‘Cavell interrogates our collective motivations to ride, race and suffer. [and] skilfully weaves evolutionary science, expert analysis, pro racing anecdotes‘ BIKE RADAR

‘Superb is scarcely an adequate description.’ THE WASHING MACHINE POST

To contact Phil Cavell: Please email Donna Edwards