CQ27_FINAL_SPREADS (1)

I know that every article on the
subject mentions all these things
because I read every single one
of them when I was researching
Conquista’s own keirin feature,
published in issue 10. I spent
hours on the internet looking for
any information I could find (or
at least, any in languages I could
read). I ordered back issues of
niche American hipster fixie
magazines. I dug deep.
But eventually my spade hit
bedrock and turned: I had read
everything there was to read.
I was rather proud of the final
piece, which (thanks to our
friend in Japan and keirin insider
Ryu Yukawa) was accompanied
by an interview with Yudai
Nitta, one of the all-time
greats, and photographs by the
incomparable Brian Hodes.
Nonetheless, I was left
frustrated. Despite all my
efforts, there were questions
that I just could not find answers
to, among them:
Who came up with the keirin
rules and race format, and why?
Why did women stop racing in
1964, then start again in 2012?
Why isn’t anyone trying to sell
me, or seemingly anyone else, a
keirin bicycle?
Why does no one ever talk or
write about South Korean keirin?
And most interestingly of all,
what does the future hold?
As its audience ages and
dwindles, can keirin be saved?
Can it be modernised, or
internationalised? Should it be?
Not long after issue 10 was
published I was contacted by
James Spackman, creator of
Pursuit Books, publishers of such
diverse and wonderful cycling
writers as Emily Chappell, Paul
Fournel and Kenny Pryde.
James had been debating the
possibility of commissioning an
English-language book on keirin,
and – over a double espresso in
the sort of stylish Peckham café
in which the tall, immaculately
turned-out and athletic James
looks wholly at home, and in
which I look and feel like a
member of Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts
– he tentatively suggested that I
might be the man for the job.
But by then I knew enough to
admit with regret that I was not,
and only partly because I had
already completely exhausted my
knowledge of the subject matter.
Some years before I had read
Adharanand Finn’s The Way
of the Runner, a book about
Japanese distance running and
specifically the phenomenon of
the ekiden, a form of relay race
run in teams of six (or more, or
fewer), usually (but not always)
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