EDWARD PICKERING

T om Boonen and Alejandro Valverde have been making me feel good about my age these past few years. Both were born in 1980 - a bit after me, but close enough that we’re all Generation X-ers, and I can identify fairly easily with them, cycling ability aside. (Like all cycling followers of my age, I’m nervously counting down the years before there’s a WorldTour rider born after 2000, which could be as soon as 2019...)

This has been a big year for both riders. Boonen has just bowed out of pro cycling, after a stellar career. Valverde, six months younger than the Belgian, has had extraordinary form - he just keeps on winning, whether it’s Classics or stage races.

We’ve taken a look at both riders this month. The features touch on the public reactions both riders provoke. Boonen is one of the most popular men in Belgium, his reputation unsullied by occasional lapses of judgement, including testing positive for recreational drugs. Valverde continues to exercise many cycling fans with his continued reluctance to address the mid-career ban he served for his part in Operación Puerto, or answer quite pertinent questions about why he’s able to ride even better since coming back from his ban. The contradictions are complex.

I don’t have the answers. It would be easy to condemn Valverde, but there’s another rider featured this month who was involved in Puerto. Our obituary of Michele Scarponi is a look at one of the most popular riders in the peloton, who became a cult hero with the videos of him riding with a brightly-coloured macaw called Frankie. Scarponi also served a ban for Puerto.

It’s easy to judge riders. I do it myself. But what we need to realise is that life is sometimes too complicated to put people into boxes. Sometimes, it’s more important to understand the grey areas before we come to a conclusion.