The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Ned Boulting, Tour De Ned
Webster Memorial Theatre, Arbroath, October 22
The Tour de France is one of the great spectacles of modern sport. A mass of bikes and a lot of blood, sweat and tears dart across France every July, taking in Brittany, Normandy and Paris, with the cream of the road cycling world keeping a firm eye on that feted yellow jersey.
It’s a world that ITV commentator Ned Boulting has been fully immersed in since 2003, but he’s happy to take his place in the commentary box rather than in the saddle.
“Nothing on this earth would make me do what they do,” says Ned. “There is a large amount of riders who have come to grief down the years, but because of the nature of what they’re doing, the more remarkable thing perhaps is how infrequent it is.
“What you notice is that the older the cyclist gets, the more they withdraw from the overt risk-taking that they would have done as a younger man. By the time they have families, I think their life flashes through their eyes a bit.”
In 2017 Ned went on his own tour by taking his Bikeology across Britain. That show was a mix of material about his experiences at the Tour de France and an often ribald look at the cycling community as a whole, while his new one (Tour de Ned) is fully focused on this summer’s events at the Tour.
While the sport has received its fair share of knocks down the years (mainly due to a plethora of scandals concerning performance-enhancing substances), it seems more popular than ever.
“It might be a poisonous name to mention,” offers Ned gingerly, “but the British market absolutely benefited from the original story that was Lance Armstrong.
“He was a charismatic presence and a superstar and he had this extraordinary back story. The fact that it was partially a load of nonsense is really neither here nor there: he attracted the attention in the first place. Following hot on the heels of the chaotic years after Armstrong’s retirement, you had the advent of Mark Cavendish, the creation of TeamSky, and the extraordinary transformation of Bradley Wiggins.
“It’s a remarkable story that shows no sign of coming to an end.”
A born communicator, it has taken many years for Ned to get back up on the nation’s stages after being hit with the performing bug in his student days.
“I was briefly involved with Cambridge Footlights around 1991 but with no noticeable success.
“Mel and Sue were in there and they’ve gone on to become national treasures. Rachel Weisz was also in it at the time. She’s kind of done half-decent in her acting career, though I’m not sure she could do a stand-up show about cycling.” webstertheatre.co.uk