Quack science in the cycling press

Back in the 1970s, when I nearly took up competitive cycling as a teenager, I was a failrly regular reader of Cycling, then the weekly cycle sport magazine in the UK (known colloquially as The Comic).  Of course, I went off to University and discovered a variety of youthful interests that put paid to any serious involvement in cycling as a sport.  My memory of Cycling at that time was of a black and white newspaper like magazine, printed on pulpy paper, but full of stories about the great time triallists of the era.

Fast forward about 15 years.  I had just spent the last four years of the 1980s working in a lab in London, when the whole lab moved to Scotland, lock stock and barrel.  I decided to get a bit more exercise as a largely sedentary lifestyle had filled me out somewhat, and what better way than to take up cycling again, and explore the Scottish countryside.  I bought a bike, and started buying Cycling Weekly (as it was known by then) again.  Having plucked up the courage to join a local cycling club, I finally started racing club then open time trials.

There were many things to encourage a novice time triallist.  In addition to the obvious improvements made, the regular club meetings involved a good deal of encouragement during the rather formal reporting.  Added to this was the awards of handicap prizes to the riders who most improved over their personal best times: and then there was the added delight of seeing one's name in the time trial results listing at the back of Cycling Weekly.

Fast forward another ten years, and I've moved back south again, joined  a new club, and in my early years of veteran status I continued to improve my time trialling.  By this time I'd subscribed to the comic.  In the decade or so since, I've seen a steady decline in the relevance of the comic to my cycling (mostly a mixture of touring, commuting and time trialling).  In the face of the rise of cycling as a consumer activity, the comic has reduced it's coverage of domestic UK racing (particularly time trialling), increased the coverage of sportives, product reviews (often seeming to be mere rehashes of press releases) and some times more alarmingly a profusion of dubious fitness articles that I generally characterise as "get fit while you sleep" articles.  by about 2006, I had chosen not to renew my subscription, and nowadays I rarely look at the comic.  I get the coverage of timetrialling from a variety of online sources, such as the CTT website and various forums.

On a recent visit to Edinburgh, I picked up the February 11th issue of the comic (about 4 weeks old at the time), and was rather depressed at what I saw.  I'm not too bothered by the pages spent listing 185 upcoming sportives - after all, that's a growing part of the sport, and probably important for its growth.  Nor was I bothered by the absence of time trialling - this was before the season had begun.  No, what I was most concerned about wa the amount of crap reported in the magazine, in the "get fit while you sleep" category.  Some examples:

Dean Downing was having some trouble with form and a bad back, and ended up consulting a Reiki practitioner.  This is on dangerous territory.  Reiki is little more than mumbo-jumbo masquerading as a traditional "therapy".  The article is a two page spread, with separate sections.  The main part is an account by Downing of how he came to consult the Reiki practitioner.  Clearly he was having problems (personal, money, and the aforementioned back problem).  Reiki offers a rather "hands-off" treatment, described in the article as consisting of the "healer's" hands being held above various places, the patient felt warmth and "other sensations".  Lo and beold, the treatment

From the excellent Quackometer blog:

Reiki
Reiki is a technique that claims to be able to channel healing energy from the ‘cosmos’ through an ‘attuned’ practitioner, and into the customer. Its language is that of mystical cosmic energies and draws on its Eastern origins. In fact, Reiki was invented in 1922 by Usui-Sensei and has been criticised as being little more than a pyramid scam where ‘attuned masters’ get paid to ‘attune’ new recruits.