The Modern MAMIL (Middle-aged Man in Lycra): A Cyclist's Journal

Every weekend, across the nation's rolling countryside, watch out for the Mamils: middle-aged men in lycra’ – BBC News

‘Mamils make Oxford English Dictionary debut’ – Telegraph

‘Oh the shame of being married to a MAMIL’ – Daily Mail

There is a new breed emerging.

They hunt in packs, dressed in unforgiving lycra.

Their natural habitat is the local espresso bar, where they obsess about power-to-weight ratios and worship the latest high-tech road bikes.

Desperate to shave a few milligrams for speed, they will spend thousands on anything made out of carbon – conveniently forgetting about their own waistlines.

At night they dream they are Bradley Wiggins or Alberto Contador.

They are the Mamils. And they are taking over the world.

The Modern MAMIL – a cyclist’s Notebook can be used as a training log, a place to record race dates, targets and route notes.

JOEL RICKETT is a publisher and a (very) occasional writer. His previous books include How To Avoid Huge Ships and Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage. He lives in North London (of course), where he's a thoroughly modern parent to two gorgeous, demanding girls.

SPENCER WILSON is an illustrator and co-founder of the design and animation company Peepshow Collective. He has been working to commission since 1998 in a world of coffee cups and ordered chaos; his work follows this theme with the creation of sketchy ideas and twisted thoughts. He lives in the modern parenting paradise that is Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, with his wife and two girls who never cease to inspire him. www.spencerwilson.co.uk