He has also proposed that illuminated signs around the city reminding drivers to watch out for cyclists or even saying 'what's the hurry?' could genuinely help. Look at it another way – it doesn’t take a blood passport to make one entry in this sequence look rather suspicious: DNF, DNF, 20th, DNF, 10th, 1st, 30th, 67th. In fact, he can tell us anything – firstly, because he’s not accountable; and secondly, because he probably doesn’t exist. No book like this can avoid some discussion about performance-enhancing drugs: it is indeed covered, but with a twist. The Secret Cyclist's view is that in some ways things are better than they were – but 'It's a shame that more of the dopers from my generation haven't opened up about what really happened because I think there are still some doctors and managers involved in the sport who have a lot of questions to answer'. Perhaps surprisingly, he did not include riders in that list.

If the ghost-writer’s poetic licence can shine through so blatantly with the words – then what of the facts? So much of the book will be already familiar, even to the casual cyclist like myself. In particular, the Sky debacle and niggles about Sky's financial clout have been done to death in the cycling and everyday press over the last two years. Some of the videos on Botley Road I'm in solid traffic and a bus pulls out to overtake me even though they can't go anywhere.

Besides, in the latest column, TSP lays into @UCI_Overlord following the much-publicised issues with the Paul Kimmage fund – and Koen has been a good friend to Not Pat McQuaid. The Dutchman already has a column with Cyclingtips too, which would make him being TSP a bit obvious (not to mention barrel-scraping). Keen to stir the pot, yours truly partook in some of the speculation by commenting that this has not been a good week for Bradley Wiggins – deprived of Tour de France leadership, subject to a Colombian conspiracy, and then discovering that he may not have been the first Briton to win a Grand Tour anyway, that his nemesis Chris Froome may have beaten him to it.

The Secret Cyclist has asserted his right to be indentified as the author of this Work..." if you're anonymous, how can you (legally) identify with a published work, without revealing that identity if challenged?

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I can’t say who it is but when the news breaks you’ll know who I’m talking about. If it’s true, it’s a good thing that’s [sic] he’s been found out; it shows that the biological passport is doing its job.” As for his solutions, the Secret Cyclist is calling for the same thing city cyclists have been demanding for years: more cycle lanes on all roads of better quality.