091 – From Rigid Bikes to World Champion: Tim March on Ghost-Writing Steve Peat's Autobiography - Mountain Cog

Episode Transcript
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Tim March (00:12):
what's big, red and eats rocks?
Oh god, okay, what's red andeats rocks?

Josh (00:23):
Oh God, oh God, what's big red and eats rocks it's not
Santa Claus, the big red rockeater.

Dane (00:32):
See, I'm going to have to remember that one.
That's like my dead chicken one.
I like it a lot.
Yeah, it's like so obvious.

Josh (00:38):
It's awesome.
If you are a mountain biker, Iam sure you know the name, steve
Pete.
Uh, steve, currently the headcoach team manager of the Santa
Cruz syndicate, you know justprolific downhill racer, one of
the best in the world 17 worldcup wins, two world cup overalls
and a world championship title.
He's from Sheffield, uh, unitedKingdom.

(00:58):
Uh, and just recently, um uh,steve came out with an
autobiography that wasco-written by Tim March, called
Forged by Speed, the Making of aMountain Bike World Champion.
And today we are joined by TimMarch.
How are you doing, sir?

Tim March (01:13):
Yeah, I'm very well, thank you.
Thank you for inviting me intoyour show and to an audience
that may be interested andhopefully are interested in the
book.

Dane (01:24):
Absolutely.
I'm excited because you've gotsome history that we were
starting to touch on.
Uh, x BMX.
Were you a pro?
I guess a pro right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was a pro.

Tim March (01:36):
I started off my history straightforward.
Like I'm 61 now, I started offracing motocross bikes when I
was 14, 15.
Went into adults, was sponsoredby Mako for a little while and

(01:59):
at the time that I was racingmotocross bikes, BMX was
beginning to gather some realenergy and you can start to see
BMX bikes in the pits at GrandPrix races, in American Grand
Prix races.
So pictures were appearing fromCarlsbad with motocross riders
riding BMX bikes Bob Hanna,these kind of things.

(02:21):
So that crossed over into whatI was doing with motocross bikes
.
So I just got into BMX and Iended up being a pro in BMX and
stopping racing motorbikes andgoing into that.

Dane (02:32):
So, yeah, that's what I did for I don't know, five or
six years, but I um, then you,then you moved to um you, you
moved into, like organizing theevents after you raced and kind
of no, I had a team.

Tim March (02:46):
I had a really, really big team that was global.
We met.
All our bikes were made byRickman in America, over here in
in England, so they were all exmotocross riders and so we had
a big international presence.
But when I stopped riding I hada brief period out of the not
out of the sport, but just outof the limelight and then got

(03:07):
back into publishing.

Dane (03:08):
Oh yeah, and you worked for Dirt.
Yeah, I worked for Dirt yeah.

Tim March (03:12):
So I started to work and they were doing Ride BMX
Magazine as well at the time,and then we did Moto Magazine, a
few other things, but yeah, Igot into publishing and that
gets me to like, how did you endup doing this with Steve?

Dane (03:23):
Like, how did you end up connecting with him and being a
co-writer?

Tim March (03:28):
Because before I started working for Dirt
Magazine at 4130 Publishing, Iwent to a couple of downhill
races because I had a couple ofmates of mine that were working.
I don't know whether you everheard of the magazine Grip.
Did you ever hear of that?

Dane (03:45):
No, with a, b at the end.

Tim March (03:47):
Grip was before was really a really, really good
magazine and it was.
Jerry Dyer and Paul Bliss had adownhill mountain and it was
excellent and I'd known Paul andJerry for a while, but Paul
better, and Jerry knew that Icould write.

(04:08):
You know I'd written some stuffNot a lot but I and so I was
going.
I went to a couple of downhillmountain bike races that Steve
was at and so whilst I was thereI witnessedve win some races
and so one of the articles Iwrote appeared in grip.

(04:28):
That steve read back then, andthen maybe another one that I'd
written that had gone in dirt orsomething I can't remember.
And so he, he really, reallyliked that.
I didn't know at the time, Ididn't know he really liked it
at the time.
I just wrote it because at thattime I didn't know he really
liked it at the time.
I just wrote it because at thattime I didn't know Steve.
I knew of his writing, I knewof his notoriety and his

(04:50):
populism and all those thingsthat get dragged along with him
because he's very popular.
I mean, he's a huge character inthis country and so when I got
approached to write the book andit wasn't just me that was
approached, I think there wereprobably three or four people in

(05:11):
the pot I would think to do it.
Maybe I ended up writing itbecause I was the least
expensive.
I don't know.
I don't know.
You'd have to ask thepublishers about that.
I don't know.
You'd have to ask thepublishers about that.
I was in the pot because Stevewanted me in the pot.
I know that Mike Rose was alsoin the pot and Mike was the

(05:34):
editor at Dirt Magazine.
And the reason I made the jokeabout the money is because I
know Mike asked for more moneythan I did.
So if I'd have known how hardthe writing the book was going
to be, my fee would have beenout of the ballpark, but that's
another story.
But that's how it started, fromwhen Steve told me that he'd

(06:00):
read the stuff that I'd writtenabout him a long time ago, that
he really liked it, and I think,with the publisher, the
publisher wanted to provide myunderstanding is they wanted to
provide someone to write thebook that wasn't from mountain
biking and steve was prettyadamant.
I think I I stand to becorrected on this, but I think

(06:21):
steve was pretty adamant.
It had to be someone who knewabout mountain biking and knew
him and and had an understandingof what his legacy was now,
rather than someone who didn'tknow.

Dane (06:31):
That you know yeah, now did you?
Did you end up like, do you gettogether with him and then
write the book together, or doeshe write portions and you write
portions?
How's that work?
I wrote all of it.
You wrote all of it.

Tim March (06:42):
You wrote all of it, okay, but you're using him.
It happened at a funny timebecause it was just before COVID
, yeah, so when we'd agreedterms to do the book, we thought
that we'd probably end uphaving maybe four or five
meetings.
I'd go to see Steve inSheffield, we'd sit down, put
the tape recorder on record, aload of stuff and that would be

(07:08):
some of the book.
And that never happened becauseof covid.
And then we had a couple I inmy family, we had some uh, uh,
very, very.
You know people died duringcovid sadly sorry then um, and
so we went through.
That's okay, it's okay.
Um, we went through about abumpy time, so it made um

(07:28):
sorting it out and how it wasgoing to manifest made it quite
difficult.
And so steve then told me thathe had some diaries and he had
all his press cuttings fromriding and I just go okay, great
, you've got them.
He goes well, I'll bring themdown if you want, because then
you could still drive as long asyou were kind of driving

(07:49):
somewhere yeah stay so manymeters away from somebody else.
You know you could do that, sohe drove down from sheffield,
which is probably three or fourhours away, maybe a bit longer
and tim you're in london no, I'mdown on the south coast, in the
middle of the south coast, in aplace near paul gotcha, which

(08:10):
is yeah, yeah, right on theright on the south coast in the
middle.
So he drove down here, boughtmy partner a lovely bunch of
flowers and some whiskey to tokind of soothe our aching hearts
at the time and it was justlovely.
But what I didn't realize aboutSteve's diaries was that there

(08:30):
were, I think, probably over 20years' worth, and every single
page had an entry in it.
Wow, every single page had anentry.
And so when I started goingthrough it and the fact that we
couldn't see each other, reallyit was difficult for me to
travel.
I'd had I before COVID had hitand everybody knew about COVID.

(08:53):
My partner and I had COVID, butwe didn't know what it was at
the time and I was strugglingwith, um, really really badly,
with vertigo.
So I was not.
Sometimes I couldn't stand up,I'd be walk, sometimes I was in
bed and I was really strugglingto know when I was going to be
able to travel.
So I just thought, right, I'lljust immerse myself in what
these was in these diaries.

(09:14):
So I just got a load of post-itnotes and started making notes
on, year by year, on what washappening and and very, very
quickly, I kind of had an ideawhat the book would be like.
I got, and then that coincidedwith me having a couple of

(09:34):
really good conversations withhis mum about his childhood and
which was just hilarious his momis the most amazing person like
she is.
You know, if you want to knowpart of team p, team p is is the
.
She couldn't be more team steve, like right.
She's amazing and so herinfluence did she?

Dane (09:56):
go with him?
Did you know if she went with?

Tim March (10:00):
no, not really this, this is more when he was
younger oh, okay becauseobviously, reading in the book,
you know it is his upbringing'spretty interesting in terms of,
uh, the things that went on forhim and his brothers within the
family home and stuff.
You know it's not uh, it's notall um, what is it?

(10:22):
Partridge family?
Let's say, yeah, yeah, his, his, his dad was sounds like his
dad was uh pretty strict, strictis probably an understatement.

Josh (10:31):
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Tim March (10:32):
Yeah, His dad.
His dad had a temper.
I don't think that would besomething Steve would disagree
with and so his mom was amazing,through through that Very, very
supportive of him, and you getthe idea that he's not formed at
all in those early years.
He's just a kid that just lovesgoing out, having a good time
with his mates.
He's the guy.

(10:53):
If you want to go out on aFriday night and have a weekend,
he's your man.

Dane (10:57):
Yeah.

Tim March (10:58):
He is full on, your man.
You won't get anybody else likehim, and he's been like that
for a long time.
You know it was in him beforehe got on a mountain bike, and
so the story was quiteinteresting, because when I
started to read the diaries,it's not like that stopped.
Yeah, it was like, um, I don'tknow what, what you you would

(11:21):
have in america in terms of yoursportsmen that carried on like
they were in a rock band.
So you've got this.

Josh (11:29):
Like Keith Richards.
Well, yeah, he just keeps doingit.

Tim March (11:34):
He's just like over here we make a joke.
He's like a 70s football star,because there was a big drinking
culture in football in the UKin the 70s I'm sure there was
before that, but that's my erathat I know about it and those
guys played great football too,and Steve is just one of those
people that's managed to have alifestyle that he has not

(11:57):
compromised either side of it.
Right, wow, the social side isjust as important as the as the
ride inside.
Yeah, it's.
It's incredible.
I'm in awe of it because I'mnot like it.

Josh (12:12):
yeah, that was one thing that that blew me away about the
book.
Like if you've known aboutsteve pete at all, you kind of
knew he was what we'd call likea party animal and he had a big
personality and liked to go outand do shenanigans.
But I didn't really understandhow much he was partying until I
read the book and I thoughtholy shit.
And then I noticed, you know,when he finally won the world

(12:33):
championship that weekend, hedidn't drink.
So one of the things I wantedto ask you is, if he had
balanced that differently, doyou think he would have won more
?

Tim March (12:42):
Well, they're the questions I asked him Because
the conversations that we hadget back to your original
digging about.
But yeah, we had a lot.
We had a lot of conversations.
Steve and I and I've known himfor a long time because I I was
working at dirt from 2000, yeah,until probably 2009 maybe or

(13:04):
something like I mean, and andthey're good years for steve,
those and and I know mike reallywell and all the crew, steve
jones you know that's a heavyduty down.
Alex ranking doing all theearth films yep, I got I, yeah,
I got alex in at 41 30 to makethe films for us.
So we, we were kind ofmainlining downhill at that time

(13:27):
and we knew what steve was waslike we knew steve, like I
wouldn't say I knew him verywell.
Then I, I I'd helped him I, youknow, when he was with gt he
phoned me up or I phoned him upabout something or other and I
ended up having to recommendinggo and see you to accountants
because of a tax issue we hadover here with.

(13:49):
You know, with all the money hewas earning with um, with GT,
and the funny thing it was thatwas in his diaries and he
couldn't even remember that Timphoned me about you to
accountant, you know, and allthis stuff.
But you know and all this stuff.
But you know, steve's way ofdoing things is unique to him.

(14:13):
Some people can't.
I don't think that many peopleare that confident in their
ability and their mentalstrength, resilience, whatever
you want to call it to be ableto pull those two things off
Like some.
And you can see, there's beensome casualties in mountain
biking.
I'm not going to name names,but there's some casualties who

(14:36):
have struggled with that.
You know, and it's hard.
Steve maintained it all the waythrough.
The question you've asked me isyou know I asked him that
question.
I said you know, you do realizethat your career would have
been way different if you hadn'ta drunk.
I mean, one of the main thingswas which I mentioned in the
book, which was, um, every timehe would and he got run down,

(15:02):
picked up viruses, yep backissues, it's usually following
some kind of pattern in terms ofwhat he was, um, let's say what
, what downtime was, yeah, youknow in what he was doing.
But also there's another sideof it, I think, which, because

(15:26):
we dug around this stuff, thesewere the.
I didn't want just it to be abook that you could read and
then think oh, I really didn'tlearn much about steve yeah then
I didn't know already, becauseyou, you guys know, I'm sure
he's he's probably one of themost photographed, written about
, interviewed downhill mountainbikers in the world, anyway,

(15:49):
right, and so once you start towatch all that footage and
listen to that, you realize thathe's got a very, very
straightforward, straight way ofanswering stuff.
I was not really interested inthat myself for writing the book
.
So when I was talking about mewriting the book, I said I don't
really want to that myself forwriting the book.
So when I was talking to aboutme writing the book, I said I
don't really want to tell thatstory of you.

(16:09):
I want to go in a bit deeperthan that.
I want to get some stuff thatwhen people read this, whether
they're from mountain biking ornot, that they actually learn
about you.
And it's a story about you, youknow.
And so to answer that question,he said well, of course I

(16:29):
probably would have won more,but I wouldn't have had anywhere
near the amount of fun I didthat's a good answer actually
and so why would I do that?
yeah, yeah you know, if the endresult of that was just kind of
winning more races.
Well, so so what you know, allright, and I know there's a
payoff for that, because you cantell there is, when he wins the
Worlds, like that feeling I'msure is like it's been so close.

(16:54):
And if you think when he spunout so close to the edge
previously, when he was miles infront, you know that was the
party steve, that wasn't thenon-drinking steve or that was a
guy that was way in front,miles in front.
He only had to cruise to thefinish line and blows it out in

(17:16):
a turn.
So yeah, he's got no regrets,like there's there's.
There's no regrets.
That was my understanding of itand that's, I think I'm hoping,
what you kind of comes across inthe book, because it does, I
think mainly as well as becausehe's seen some stuff.
He's seen some friends have ahard time because of choosing

(17:36):
other ways of life and and otherthings.
And I think the one thing Iknow about him, and this is
Steve absolutely loves mountainbiking.
You know, if you cut him inhalf, he's got mountain biking
written through him.
He's, he's a mountain biker,that's what he is.
And so you know you can't, youcan't really fault that it's.

Dane (17:58):
it's amazing to me because I've, you know, I've run teams
and I've been a, an athlete, ifyou want to call it that.
I had a career, which Iwouldn't call a career cause I
never got paid, but I've metthese people, the there's a,
there's this person, this typeof person who can jump into an
like a sport and, just withouteven thinking about it, just do

(18:21):
so well.
And then I've met the other onewhich is more like me, which
works so hard and never getsthere I think I think he worked
hard.

Josh (18:29):
At least from the book it looked like he worked really
hard.
He just, he just partied a lottoo.

Tim March (18:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, yeah, I think, I think, um
, I think there's.
It's difficult to.
Yeah, I couldn't separate thosethings.
But what I Steve's a hardgrafter Like Steve is if Steve's
gone out and, um, this is allin the book.
But if he's gone out and he'sdrunk eight pints of beer of a

(18:54):
night in the morning, he'll beup at seven o'clock and ride 50
miles in the sheet snow andsleet and, uh, to the sheet snow
and sleet and to ride that off.
And he will ride it and he'lllog how long it took him and
he'll log how, what his averagespeed was.
You know, the whole thing willbe logged and it's not because

(19:17):
he's doing it, because it's astatus thing, it's just that's
what he does.

Dane (19:22):
Yeah, he's just keeping track.

Tim March (19:24):
He just he does the work, yeah, like, and and you
know he rode over here which inthe early days, on a rigid bike,
because he came from a crosscountry background.
He was a cross country racerthat ended up racing downhill,
you know, and he went fast on arigid, a rigid bike.

(19:44):
You know, he was a big thingand and I hadn't heard of him,
uh, right, right, early on, andthen all of a sudden everybody
started talking about him.
So this is when he was on hisKona his rigid bike, his
sponsored bike.
You know he's getting a bit ofhelp from the bike shop and
everybody's going because JasonMcCroy is kind of around at that

(20:04):
time and you've got these otherbig names that are about but
everybody's talking about thisreally skinny kiddie from from
sheffield who is just anabsolute hammerhead.
Like an absolute hammerhead,you know.
And um, you know that was whereit started.
He did put the work in, youknow, but not not necessarily on

(20:27):
the on the um tracks to startwith.
He's just all his brothers allrode bikes.
You know they all have pushbikes.
Yeah, he's all up in it.
You know his dad had a trialsbike and was very good at trials
and very well respected trialsrider up in yorkshire, which is,
you know, a big thing up there.
It's a big thing moto trialsyeah, yeah, yeah.

Dane (20:48):
And when you say push bike just that's.

Josh (20:50):
That's british for just pedal bike pedal bike, not a
motorcycle.
Yeah no, it's just, yeah, justa pedal bike, yeah okay, yeah,
yeah, tim, I was stationed at rfmildenhall for a couple years.
Uh, just, outside of cambridge,so I can translate, yeah
between uh and american english.

Dane (21:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's, he's a hard worker, he's a hard
worker yeah, I grew up on inthat era and kind of
participated a little bit inthat stuff and got to see these
guys from a spectator standpoint.
And they were just bigger thanlife and he was always one of
the top, top, top people thatyou would talk about after a

(21:28):
weekend of racing.
He's the guy that not only didit on the course, but then you
were talking about what.
He's the guy that not only didit on the course, but then after
the course.
Then you were talking aboutwhat he did after the course.

Tim March (21:37):
So yeah, like, yeah, he, he reminds me of like, the
like, the determination and thehammerheadedness of tomac, you
know like, because he's, he'sgot that in him.
He's like, like he's.
He just likes riding a bikecross country, downhill, doesn't
matter, but he's got that other, you know the, the party side,

(21:59):
which is obviously, you know,important too.

Josh (22:02):
Yeah, you know, some of the things I wanted to ask you
about, um, and you you touchedon one already is like some of
the keys to his success and weuh, we talked about the Kona and
the rigid bike and in the bookyou say like multiple times, you
think like this, because heactually raced some downhill
races on a rigid bike.
Really, yeah, I didn't knowthat that's to me, that's crazy
yeah, I mean he won them.

(22:23):
Yeah, he won them yeah, right,and in the and the companies
kept sending him, and my partner, dane here, is like a, we call
him the guru, the suspensionguru, but they kept sending him
forks and he's just like no no,I don't, I don't want it.

Dane (22:36):
It's too, it's too too wishy-washy, but how much do you
?

Josh (22:39):
think that played like the skills that he learned on that
on those rigid bikes early on.
How much do you think thatimpacted his success when he got
better gear and betterequipment in the future?

Tim March (22:50):
I think probably I don't know how old you are, but
I think if we're roughly within10 years of each other in age,
we'll all know that if you canride a rigid bike fast over
loose terrain or pick your waythrough rocks or ride cambers or
whatever it is, you are goingto have way more of an advantage

(23:10):
than someone who doesn't knowhow to do that and has only
ridden a suspension bike thatyeah I totally, totally agree
with that.
That's for sure, and so I thinkI think that was key.
What was also key was, um, ifyou go on youtube or whatever
where you go to have a look athim riding, you just type in the

(23:32):
places where he rode which werejust up the road for him, which
is the chapel town woods andthe the woods that were just on
his back door.
Yep, you'll see that it's just.
It's really gnarly fast,horrible, pick your way through
stones, single track stuff, buthe's doing it at such a high

(23:52):
speed.
Yeah, and the thing is, withsteve's riding style, you can
see how he weights the pedalsreally intelligently and will
ride a line by pushing on thepedals, which you learn that
when you're riding a rigid bikeyeah it's very different on a,
on a fully suspended bike, andespecially now without good day,
are because and also the factthat they've done down downhill

(24:15):
tracks a lot of them, especiallyon the world cup.
You know, the bike almost I'mnot saying it covers up a
multitude of sins the modern,modern day downhill bike, yeah,
as opposed, as opposed to whatthey were having to ride back
then.
Well, like that, like that, ifyou, if you look at that bike

(24:36):
you were riding that you andNigel rode, you know the Intense
.
I mean, that was state of theart back then.
But if you look at that now, itwas short wheelbase, completely
wrong riding position and therest of it, but it taught you to
ride in a way where you wouldhave to pick your way down and
through things.
Otherwise, if you didn't, in away where you would have to pick
your way down and throughthings, otherwise, if you didn't

(24:57):
, you're going to come unstuck.
Whereas 29-inch wheels and Idon't know what, the suspension,
they change, don't they, howthey set the bikes up, but the
travel on suspension, therebound and all that stuff is
very different now.

Dane (25:13):
I got one of those old Intenses in the garage and I can
go out and hit the trail on itand it's like a cross country
suspension or a geometry.
Now you know, it's amazing.
You know, short top tube likereally steep head angle compared
to a cross country bikes thatwe're selling in the shops right
now and and uh, I, you know, I,I totally get that, because
during COVID I sold all my bikesand I had to pull out one of my

(25:35):
old ones and start riding it onthe trails you know, until the
bikes became available and 26inch wheel out at some of the
trails that we ride which arereally rocky and lots of wheel
grabs, and it was alarming howunstable it is compared to a
modern bike and we werecareening down the hills.
I remember racing in a world cupat Durango and I'm pretty sure

(26:01):
Steve was there, but I'm not ahundred percent, but that
terrain, you know, it was justinsane.
And then a couple of yearslater they just started, like
you said, dumbing down thecourses and they would get more
aerial.
Like you said, dumbing down thecourses and they would get more
aerial, uh, more machine builtjumps gaps, you know, more
impressive to watch becauseright for the spectators, yeah,
because it's hard to appreciate,like going off a rock, what

(26:23):
you're doing through a rockgarden, yeah, so it's definitely
different now.
So well tim if I'm sorry, goahead no, I agree with your
point.

Tim March (26:32):
Yeah, it helped massively.
Yeah, yeah, that era of hisriding.

Josh (26:39):
If we keep pulling the thread on the attributes from
his youth or from his upbringingthat contributed to him being
super successful.
After living in England for acouple of years, let's face it,
the weather's like shite inEngland.

Tim March (26:53):
It just is awful, especially where Steve lives,
because I live in the southcoast.
It's way better down hereweather-wise, but I think that's
helped steve as well.
Because of the weather stevewill go out riding.
It doesn't matter what theweather's like for him, he, he
doesn't care, um.
So he's learned to ride anddrift and all that in all

(27:13):
different.
You know situations andobviously he's helped it.
You look at the world cup.
Yeah, you know you had a lot ofthem, especially when you go to
canada at mountain, and I can'tremember seeing that many dry
races there.
Right that they have the worldcup.
I'm sure there have been some,but but not too many.
So I think you know it's.
It's helped him.

Dane (27:33):
The terrain he's ridden on for sure yeah, I can't ride
roots or moisture to save mylife well, yeah, we live in the
desert, yeah, so it's, we don'tget rain here.
Yeah, yeah, so I can handlerock gardens, no problem, but
man you get a root in front ofme and I start freaking out so,
but it's very different.
So what?
So in this book, you know, oneof the things that we want to

(27:55):
talk about is this book, and youhelped write this book.
Well, he wrote the book.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I keep sayingthat because it's about Steve
Peet.

Josh (28:02):
So I think Steve wrote it and it's written in the first
person, as if Steve wrote it.

Dane (28:06):
Yeah, yeah.
And so you have to kind of wrapyour head around the fact that
you know.

Tim March (28:16):
They call it ghost writing, I think is, yeah, it's
a technical term, but um, yeah,and and writing it in the.
In that, you know, I think ithelps that I know him quite well
and we have some conversationsso every chapter.
How it would work was that I'dwrite a chapter on what I
thought would be of interest andwhat we could bring forth from
conversations we'd had, that I'drecorded.
So I'd have literally hundredsof, probably over 100 hours of

(28:39):
audio and I'd pick some stuff.
I'd write that up, edit it,send it to Steve and Steve, when
he would be away, would beticking off.
Yeah, that's great, change thatbit, do that bit.
And to be honest with you, thatthat was getting.

(28:59):
The time for steve to do theediting was hard because he's
busy lad.
You know, yeah, he's a verybusy, busy lad, and so that's
how we moved through.
The book was literally mostlylinearly.
Um, you know, one chapter afteranother, except there was a few
that I kind of thought I wasn'tsure where they'd fit, and you

(29:21):
know, I think a hundred thousand.
To write the, the publisherstold me you've got to do about a
hundred thousand words and thenit's going to end up down
probably maybe 80.
I don't know how many wordsthat book is, but what's it?
228 pages or something likethat.

Josh (29:38):
You know, I read it on the on the Nook e-reader, which is
Barnes and Nobles.

Tim March (29:43):
I don't know if you guys have Barnes and Nobles
there, but it was 285 pages onthat e-reader.
So you know that's how it waswritten.
So Steve has read.
Even though I've written it,steve has read and corrected
every single bit of the book.
That's awesome.
Sometimes you might find thatif someone's ghostwritten a book

(30:06):
, the person they've written itabout has not been involved in
it.
But how I wanted to do it withSteve was I wanted him to be
involved in it.
But my how I wanted to do itwith steve was I wanted him to
be involved in it every step ofthe way.
And the conversation that we'dhad about it, the two of us was
that I want, you don't want,someone else later on.

(30:29):
Well, I didn't personally wantsomeone else later on to go oh,
we could do another book aboutsteve pete you want to write
that.

Josh (30:38):
You want to write the full , the full story it's like no,
you fucking can't.

Tim March (30:41):
I'm sorry that's been done.
So, um, yeah, not, not, notgonna happen.

Dane (30:51):
Well, we want to get we want to get people to to read
this book, so we don't want togive away stuff, no, but at the
same time, is there any kind ofnuggets that you want to throw
out there, like things that you,things that surprised you?
Yeah, maybe that surprised you.
You're like wow, I had no ideathat little teasers that we can
give people.

Tim March (31:10):
I think there are interesting things that have
happened in there so I won'tgive them away.
But his meeting when he had a,the first initial meeting with
roscop from uh syndicate fromsanta cruz, if you want to know
about, uh what, when it reallystarts to kick off and where he

(31:33):
feels it's starting.
And up until then, good time.
He's been on GT, been on agreat team, been on Orange, he's
ridden for his country, butthat meeting there is very, very

(31:53):
important.
I think the bits about hischildhood are really.
The bits that aren't aboutmountain biking are just as for
me, probably more interesting.
But it's like when you look at,you know, when you look at

(32:14):
success and we all could befascinated with it, right in
what makes great riders or greatmusicians or whatever it is
you're never quite sure howthose flowers grow in the garden
.
You know, like, where they comefrom, how do they get formed.
And I think his willingness andI don't and I see this as a

(32:40):
gift that he gave me and thatmight be to do with because he
felt safe with me digging abouthis character, but I wanted to
really dig in.
You like to find out and tellhis story.
It wasn't ever about me.
I didn't want to be on the, Ididn't want to be named.

Dane (33:05):
Yeah.

Tim March (33:06):
They put my name on the book.
I didn't want my name on thebook.
I don't mind now that they'vedone it.
But the reason I didn't want myname on the book was because I
was able to.
I know this is sound odd, youknow, like when actors talk
about becoming method actors.

Dane (33:23):
Yeah.

Tim March (33:24):
I was right in it.
I didn't write it as me.
Yeah, yeah you channeled and Iwas.
I was, I didn't.
I kind of got into a weirdtrance state of which I would
and you'll laugh I wrote all ofit, most of it, when I'd have a

(33:45):
beer, because I'm not a bigdrinker, I'm not in any way, but
I wanted to bring the spirit ofSteve through and have him talk
through me.
So I ended up being like hispuppet, if you know what I mean,
like it's really him speakingthrough me.
Um, and and just the fact thatI can write, yeah, you know,

(34:07):
like that.
That's why I think a bit, youknow, that I have that ability
to be able to do that and I andthat, and that was what was the
most important thing for both ofus really was that it was only
ever about him.
And I think that early part ofthe book I think sets the stage
for you to understand how thatnext bit started.

(34:32):
And I think that bit I'm notgoing to give any bits away
about his childhood and what hegot up to, and also team riders
and and the rest of it.
I I just think as a book when Iwas, you want it to be like a
good meal, don't you like?
There's a starter, you've got,you've had.
Just how do you like yourstarters, you know?

(34:52):
And it's like well, what do you?
How do you want your steak?
Do you want it?
Do you want it medium?
Do you want it rare?
You know you're a vegetarian.
Well, there's something inthere for everybody.
Yeah, and that's how I wantedthe book to be and I think, with
steve, I think what it's doneand this is what we hoped to do,
and maybe why he might havechosen me to write it is is that

(35:12):
I always think that there'slike some people write like in
the same way that mountainbiking might be portrayed by TV,
where they have this idea ofwho the viewer is or who the
reader is, and they thinkthey've got this duty, like

(35:33):
which they have at mountainBiking.
At the minute it's happening inSupercross, where they kind of
dumb things down a bit.
You know like, oh no, let'shave a motorway there, it
doesn't need to be too technicalthere, everybody needs to see
all the races closer togethertime-wise.
This is not that for me and forhim, not a way to write the
book.
What we wanted to do was almostwrite the book like we wanted

(35:58):
downhill mountain biking to be,which was all the natural,
horrible terrain, the goodterrain, the the bit, the whole
shebang, you know yeah and uh,from top to bottom, and so I I
think it's difficult to in abook like that.
It's difficult to in a book likethat, it's difficult to pull
bits out, because it justfollows a narrative of a series

(36:22):
of years where someone ishaunted by a person.
What's the French kiddie thatrode sun, excuse me for not
remembering that beat him at theworld championships.
What's his name?
Nico, nico, oh, yeah, yeah, youknow, and, and that's there.

(36:48):
You know that, that, that'sthere in the book.
You know that that and it'sreal.
It's not.
It, that's not made up by thepress that steve really, really,
really wanted to beat nico.
Yeah, you know, and what's inhis mind at the time?
How frustrating it is when he,when he doesn't beat him, how

(37:09):
amazing it is when he does.
But you don't, you know, I cansay that, but it's very's very
different than how it reads inthe book.

Dane (37:16):
Yeah.

Tim March (37:17):
For anybody that wants to know what it's like
being on the road.
I don't know.
What are they on the road sixmonths of the year, yeah, At
least.
And Steve doesn't say no toanything as well.
So you've got to understandthat that kind of makes his
world bigger as well.
Then, yeah, I think you'd bequite surprised by reading it,

(37:39):
because I think it is so muchdifferent than what if you typed
in the word steve pete on now,online now.
It's very different than whatyou'd get that's from seeing.

Josh (37:50):
Yeah, you guys didn't pull any punches at all.
No, it was in in the amount of.
Like one of the things thatfloored me, tim, was like the
amount of details and I wastrying to figure out early in
the book, like how in the hellis, does you know?
Regardless of whether you wroteit or steve wrote it, how do
you remember something thathappened like 30 years ago in
this much detail?

Tim March (38:07):
and it wasn't until you mentioned the diaries, which
you actually reference in thebook that I figured out that's
where the details are comingfrom yeah, yeah, and they're in
there, and then I've had to timestamp it by going back and
finding the race yeah and so Iwatched the race and I know I'm
having to correct it.
I was going no, it's not thatbit.
Do you remember?
You said that he goes.
Oh well, that's.
I wrote that bit a day afterthat bit and I'd forgotten that.

(38:30):
That's awesome.
Yeah, so we had to correct allthat and so you know, when
you're doing this stuff, ittakes absolutely ages to do it.
You know what I mean, becausethe last thing we wanted was
someone to read it.
Go now, that's not whathappened there, you know, and
you don't want any of thatartistic license crap in it
either.
Yeah, yeah, you know that wouldbe the worst thing in a steve

(38:51):
peep book, because you don'tneed any artistic licenses.
It's what it is, you know.
Because you don't need anyartistic licenses.
It's what it is, you know.

Dane (38:56):
Yeah, you don't need to dramatize it.
Yeah, no, he's got, it'salready there.

Tim March (39:00):
Yeah, you know and there's stuff that's been left
out, you know, for good reasonyou know, you know that's.
That'll be down to the lawyerslooking at stuff and thinking,
well, you can't put that in, orwhatever it is.
But it wasn't too much of that.
But I'm sure that the powersthat be were just like nope,

(39:21):
nope, that's it, we're not doingthat bit.

Dane (39:25):
Is there any little secrets that come out that you
think people will get a kick outof trying to find?

Tim March (39:33):
I think the whole things are revealing.

Dane (39:35):
Yeah.

Tim March (39:36):
You know what I mean .
It would be like if you look atSteve as a bit of origami.
The thing is, the book allowsyou to unfold it bit by bit and
see into the folds and theshadows and the little bits.
I wouldn't say there's anysecrets in there.
I would say it's just an honestrevealing of a thorough,

(40:01):
well-lived mountain bike career.

Dane (40:05):
Now, is there anything in the book about what he's doing
now?
How far forward did you go?

Tim March (40:11):
I didn't want to do too much about that Because I
think that that for me theinterest and that may be
something Steve wants to dolater.

Dane (40:21):
Yeah.

Tim March (40:22):
But I didn't want to do that and we talked about
that and we said we'd stop atwhat we thought would be the
worlds there is a mention of.
Like he's got a very, verysuccessful company that make
cleaning products, handle grips.

Dane (40:40):
PDs right.

Tim March (40:42):
That's run with Martin Murray, who's Steve
Murray's brother.
I don't know whether you know,but the Murray's family.
So you know Stephen Murray, whobroke his neck doing the double
backflip at the X Games.
Oh yeah yeah, his neck doing thedouble backflip.
Yeah, at the x games, oh, yeah,yeah.
Well, martin murray is um, runswith steve runs, the company
that do the cleaning product, sohe does that.

(41:03):
He's still heavily involvedwith santa cruz help.
They're all sponsored by foxnow, so he's doing that.
I think he's an ambassador forI got a funny feeling he's an
ambassador for.
I've got a funny feeling he'san ambassador for Triumph bikes
motorbikes.

Josh (41:18):
Interesting yeah.

Tim March (41:20):
So it's a full-on job being Steve Peat.
Yeah, and he loves it, he's notfading away.

Dane (41:26):
He's still going.
That's my point.
It's like when this book ends,it doesn't end.
Steve he's still going.

Tim March (41:34):
Steve's 100%.
Then he's 100%, he's 100 now.
Yeah, it's not, it's notchanged, it's just different.
That's what's so impressiveabout it is that he's just one
of those people that, yeah,people like myself, I've had
success in sports, but I I knowin my own character that I would
never have had a career likehim because I'm, I'm not.

(41:57):
He's just one of those peoplethat you, they only come along,
you know, every now and again,yeah, and we're lucky to witness
it, you know, because they arequite unique.

Josh (42:11):
It seemed like the book that he was doing his best when
he had a rival and you talkedabout Nico and you have several
chapters dedicated, or at leasttalked during that time when he
was going against Nico, and thenI think Nico fell off at some
point and then that was replacedby Greg Menard.
Did I get that right?
Yeah, sam, sam, and then Neil.

Tim March (42:32):
Yep, it's hard, isn't it to get when you're
trying to be motivated.
You know, all right, you'recoming down the hill on your own
and you've and you've got to dothe best you can, and you you
want to go as fast as you can.
Sometimes it does help ifyou've got a bit of a niggle,
you know, and there's someoneyou enjoy beating and rubbing

(42:53):
their nose in it a bit.
In the same way.
It might be the same for them.
You know, right, and um, youknow that that can be part of it
.
You know, those things, likeyou're saying, they don't always
last too long.
Somebody might fall off the thepace, let's say, for whatever.
I think the interesting thingwith steve that you know, like
you look at winning the Worlds,it's probably the one time that

(43:19):
he did, he doubted, he did haveso many doubts.

Josh (43:25):
Yeah.

Tim March (43:26):
And you have to go back to real basics to work out
how to win that race.
And I don't think, if you readin the book I think I'm probably
probably he probably says it isthat um it.
It didn't start like I've gotto win the world.
It started by.

(43:47):
I don't even know whether Iwant to go I've been there, yeah
, yeah, and then and then he gotsome advice from someone right
that said just go and andevery day solve one problem yeah
, or tackle one issue, yeah,yeah.
So yeah, I think um, yeah, he'sum, I think we covered probably

(44:08):
everything, like in the book.
Uh, we covered probablyeverything that you could cover
in in what was, you know, hisrace career, you know, and what
he did in the off season whatyou know, did he eat great.
You know he had loads of food,you know, and what he wanted
when he wanted.
And uh, you know, there's thatcomment I've seen it on a, I

(44:31):
think, a review somewhere wheresomeone said they found it
really funny that Steve saidthat he was getting serious
about training so he stoppeddrinking lager and started
drinking Guinness.

Josh (44:43):
Cause he thought that was better for him.

Tim March (44:44):
It's a meal.
He actually did believe thatlike that was a serious thing.
So it's not like.
It's probably a lot differentmentality than maybe I don't
know.
You know, someone in the tourde france is having right um
with their nutritionalist, yeah,and and obviously with big

(45:05):
difference when kathy came alongwith santa cruz.
Yeah, you know that.
That.
That I think it's a massivechange.
So, yeah, I think those pivotalbits are covered in the book.
The bits that, your bitch,you're talking about.
What are those pivotal bits arecovered in the book.
The bits that you're talkingabout.
What are the pivotal bits?
You know they're, they're inthere.

Dane (45:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing.
I think of my little littleworld.
And you know the same thing Ihad nemesises you know, on one
season.
you know that you're going backand forth and trying to beat
Sometimes they were my ownteammates, you know, and I'm
trying to beat my own teammates.
And then, uh, nutrition.
I mean back in the day we usedto just drink flat Pepsi or Coke

(45:40):
.
You know, put that in the waterbottle and let it uh defizz and
and uh.
Then all of a sudden there wasthis revolution in nutrition and
he was right on the cusp ofthat.
So he's not far off, you know,figuring out what you're going
to eat before a race not far offyou know, figuring out what
you're going to eat before arace Nowadays is a big deal,
yeah, but back then it was stilla big deal.
But you were doing it with justregular stuff and you didn't

(46:04):
have, like a nutritionist oranything like that.
You just kind of had to figureout what works for you, what
didn't upset your stomach, whatdidn't make you throw up at the
end of the race, things likethat.
So it's pretty crazy.

Tim March (46:18):
I think he was lucky as well with the publisher we
that chose him.
If that, because vertebra uh,they publish books on um, rock
climbing outdoors.
They, they're, they're climbersand I don't know.
You know you've got someserious mountains and walls of
rock in your country.
They're an interesting bunch,those people, and when you read

(46:42):
about their exploits it's notsomething that your mainstream
publisher is going to pick up onas a story about some climate,
not averagely.
And I think with Verte,vertebrate, which is the name of
the publisher.
So they're from sheffield,they're from the same same same
town, he's from same city thatsteve's from um.

(47:05):
I think that book would havebeen very difficult to get
written if it would have been amore mainstream, bigger
publisher.
I think they were reallyaccommodating to the fact that
he's a character and had a storyto tell, and they were.
You know, I think they wouldhave much rather, it would have

(47:28):
been written much quicker.
I mean it took over three years, oh wow.

Josh (47:33):
Did it take three years?

Tim March (47:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's not how they
envisaged it, but they allowedthat to continue so we could
finish it, do it right, and wedid get it right.
And I think there's a titleamongst their titles.
I think there's a title amongsttheir titles.
I think it's something you know.

(47:56):
I'm hoping that you know youlook back on that in 10 years'
time and the reviews on thatbook will hopefully warm them in
some way.
You know of the commitment andthe fact that they plumped up
the money to get it done.

(48:17):
You know and both of us arevery, very grateful for them
doing that, because you knowwe've had free hand.
At no time did they phone upand say you can't do this or you
can't do that.
It was more like we've donethis, we're doing another
chapter on this and I was givingthem feedback all the time.

(48:37):
So we had a lot of support.

Dane (48:42):
So lucky that.
Do you think that this is agood formula?
Because it sounds like theformula that you've kind of
developed?
I'm sure other people have too.
But your keys are you know theperson, you got to know them,
you participated in theactivities they do and then you
can deep dive into their livesand, like you said, almost

(49:02):
become a method writer for them.
Do you think that's a formulathat's going to be super
successful and are you going todo it?

Tim March (49:10):
Are you going to do it again?
I haven't got any plans to doit again.
I don't know what it would belike if someone asked me, and it
would have to do with who theywere or what I knew about them
right, but I think I never themoney was.
You know, you don't get a lotof money for writing, for for
what you write, for a hundredthousand words.

(49:31):
You know it's.
It's much more profitable towrite, be a feature writer in a
dirt magazine than it is towrite a book.
Um, I don't know what steve'sfee was, but that's not why I
wrote it.
I felt privileged to be chosento write it and I felt like I
could.
Really, after speaking to himabout it and the publisher, I, I

(49:53):
thought I and I'd said to him Ithere's three books that could
be written about him and I said,and they'll all be different.
I said, but this is what minewill be like from what I know
about him and how I feel abouthim.
And so I never reallyapproached it in a way that
where it was about the, thecommercial aspect of how it was,

(50:16):
it had to be about him and andonly about him, because if I
didn't do that I've completelyfailed in my job as being a
ghost writer.
Yeah, you know, like that's myjob is is for steve to come
through me.
It's not for me to just quicklyknock out a hundred thousand
words and choose a load of stuffthat's already out there and a

(50:38):
few other little stories we'vehad when we've got drunk and oh,
ha, ha, ha ha.
You know, no, that's not goingto happen with me.
I wanted, I really did want, totell his story and I feel very,
very lucky and privileged thathe did.
Let me do it.
You know, I think lucky andprivileged that he did.
Let me do it.
You know, I think I think I'veI've you know between us.

Dane (50:59):
I think I'm um, hoping he can hold the book and think,
well that you know, that's me init, you know, because there's
none of me in it yeah, you knowit's all him like that so that's
a hard combo to get sometimes,to you know, for somebody to
want, you know, to put somethinglike this out there and then to
actually be able to findsomebody they connect with who

(51:20):
can then actually write right,you know, I mean, you can always
have friends, but having awriter as a friend who can
actually tell your story for youwith that kind of heart, is
going to be hard to produce in away, tim, did you guys have any
disagreements about what wentin or what did not go in the
book?

Josh (51:36):
throughout the process, you and Steve.

Tim March (51:38):
We had a couple of things where we weren't sure how
to approach a couple of mattersthat would draw people's names
into something that possiblydidn't need to be named.

Josh (51:53):
Protect the innocent simply because what?

Tim March (51:57):
which is we both?
Which I said to steve becausehe wasn't sure about it.
I wasn't sure about it and Ijust said to him look, it's your
book, you know.
Anyway, it's not.
I could, I can tell you what Ithink, but it's not, it's not up
to me.
I said but if you want me to,if you want me to help you say

(52:17):
that thing, without it involvingany of the things that you're
worried about it, there'sanother way of doing it.
Why don't we look at it in thisway?
We did that a couple of timesand they were just like little.
They weren't big, they were bigtopics, but they were easily

(52:38):
remedied by taking, you know,like a different fork and just,
it's the same thing butdifferent.
If you know what I mean.
Yeah and um, it didn't takeaway from the book, it, it, it.
The same points were made aboutit.
You know, it's just about um.
It's very difficult when you'reyoung and you're out and your

(53:00):
mates are having fun and you'rehaving fun and you're growing up
in a city and you like goingout, and all of a sudden you've
got an interest in something andthey've got their interest in
that and it's not what you'redoing, got their interest in

(53:22):
that and it's not what you'redoing and for you to it's like a
fork appears, you know, likeit's like yeah, and the pull's
hard because if that's all yourmates and that's what they're
doing and it's fun and you likeit, you know, and, and, and I
think luckily for steve, youknow, mountain biking came along
at the right time.
Yeah, and what he's talkingabout is basically hard drugs.

(53:44):
Oh yeah.

Josh (53:46):
I think, some of Steve's mates were going down that path
and he did not take that path.

Tim March (53:51):
Yeah, and that's a hard part for him because he's
had mates that haven't made it.
You know Right.

Dane (53:56):
Yeah.

Tim March (53:57):
And he has.
You know, there's there's beencasualties, which is a shame,
but I think you know, luckily,we'll all know, you know,
whether it's mountain biking,bmx, motocross, it's all saved a
few, a few of us from differentlives.
Having having that in thoseinterests and passions about,
about things that get us out oftoo many thinking too much,

(54:21):
that's probably a better way ofputting it.
Maybe you know.

Dane (54:24):
I've got one.
I can't speak for Steve.
I got one of my teammates whohad to make a decision of
hanging out and racing with usor continuing to be in a death
metal band, and so we saved himfrom being in a death metal band
If it was a punk band, it wouldhave been okay.

(54:47):
No, no, it was full on likeguar kind of death metal.
So yeah, we saved him from that.
So I can say I feel like I dida good thing there.

Josh (54:57):
So, tim, one of the things that I thought you did a great
job at, you know, as I wentthrough the book, I really kind
of felt and understood likeSteve's relationship with his
dad and and how that impactedhim.
Uh, really saw, like, like Isaid earlier, like his, his
rivalries.
I really felt like that, like Iwas in there with him and then,
like he lost throughout thebook you mentioned he's lost

(55:20):
several people in his life andlike the impact that that had on
him.
So I want to commend you on youdid a great job, um, with the
words that you chose, tellingthat story because I really I
really felt it yeah, thank you,thank you.

Tim March (55:32):
Yeah, well, we.
You know, when you you go on ajourney, when you read a book,
you don't know where you'regoing to be taken, do you?
So there's an element of youwhere you just have to let go
and you're on your way and Ihave to be.
You know, when I was writing itI was mindful of that, and so
was Steve.
You know You're going to remindpeople of things.

(55:57):
They're going to think aboutthings in their lives that
might've been similar orwhatever it is.
So, yeah, you try and bedelicate about things.
You know people's well.
Look at Jason McCroy dying.
Yeah, you know you've.
You know that's a.
I've no idea what that was likeseeing him leave a house when
they they don't want him toleave the house, they want him

(56:17):
to stay, and that's the lasttime they see him he, uh, he
left.

Josh (56:22):
They had a group at a party of the house and he left
and took his motorcycle and thelast thing they saw was him
riding out and I think he wasknocked off the road by a lorry.
That's a yeah, big truck, bigtruck, yeah and uh, another
lorry hit him, I think, and killhim, if I remember the story
correctly.

Tim March (56:38):
Yeah, just tough things.
Yeah, you know, for young ladsto go through, you know like not
great.
You know, and that's a whenyou're a close-knit community of
people as well, then you know,I think they give him, you know
you can read in the book, theygive him a good send-off and the
rest of it, but like you talkto steve, they're all

(56:59):
everybody's still upset about it.
Yeah, yeah, you know it's aheartbreaking story.
You know it's not great.

Josh (57:05):
Yeah, it's tough well, hey , the book is uh, forged by
speed.
The making of a mountain bikeworld champion.
Autobiography of steve pete,one of the best mountain bikers
ever?
I guess not.
Was, but continues to be agreat mountain yeah, that's that
.

Dane (57:19):
That's the thing that I'd like I want everybody to
remember is he's still there,he's still doing a ton of stuff,
he's a coach and team managerof the syndicate yep yeah still
he's got his company pds, pdsand royal royal.

Josh (57:30):
He actually sold his shares in royal.
Oh, did he?
Yep oh?

Dane (57:33):
nice, I still have my royal jacket.

Josh (57:34):
Yeah, that was an interesting merchandising
company that I think their wholemission was to focus on rider
development.
They did a lot of riderdevelopment.

Dane (57:42):
Yeah, rider develop yeah, he's been big, big influence.
I think uh I have no doubt thatin the future he's going to
start uh being more of a mentorto people.
You know, I think that's a bigportion of what athletes tend to
go towards as they get olderand like he's 50 years old.
They, they have their own kidscoming up or you know friends,
their age kids, and they startto get into that role.

(58:04):
And so I I'm excited to seethat I saw that with uh oh man,
uh Sean Palmer.
It was crazy.
Sean Palmer took over a uh knowsean palmer.
Sean was tight with yeah, withyeah steve.
That's a big part of the notalways the best uh role model uh
, but, but.

Josh (58:24):
But running a junior development team, how you like
your role they got into somedebauchery up and oh yeah, uh,
in tahoe for sure.
Oh, big time which is uhprevalent in the book.
Yeah, yeah.

Dane (58:35):
So, yeah, this, this book's got everything.
It's uh, I'm really excited forpeople to read it, um, you know
, to kind of see a little bit ofwhat what a writer has to go
through, um, to see how heintegrated his life into his
writing and and then I think timjust did just such a great job
of like channeling steve and andbringing it out.

(58:55):
And having that many, you know,that much resource at your
hands really makes it nice.
It's a super deep read.

Josh (59:06):
So the book's available today as an e-book and, tim, 90%
of our listeners are in theUnited States, so available on
Amazon Kindle and Barnes Noble'sNook.
It looks like the hard copiesare not yet available, at least
on Amazon in the US.
It looks like December 31stthose books will be available,
so you can get a hard copy onDecember 31st, but you can get

(59:26):
the Kindle version right now.
I think it is available onAmazon UK for our folks across
the pond.
Steve, you got any finalthoughts for our listeners,
brother?

Tim March (59:39):
No, the only.
Thing.

Dane (59:40):
I think steve's just doing an audio.

Josh (59:41):
The audiobook version now is nice awesome.

Tim March (59:41):
Yeah, yeah, he's doing it.
He's doing it, which would begood because he's got a really
good speaking voice oh, that'sawesome right now that'd be good
, just to let on.
This is a funny thing that youguys will, I think some of your
listeners will find funny.
I needed a working title for it.
When you know like in my brainI was just like what's it going

(01:00:02):
to be called.
I had a funny feeling thepublisher wouldn't use any of my
suggestions, probably becausethey were just a little bit left
to center or whatever you wantto call it.
But one of them was there's alovely picture of Steve in the
book.
As you open the book on, Ithink, probably page two or
three, he's probably I don'tknow 17, 18, with a piss pot

(01:00:27):
helmet on his head and it's justgot like a hammerhead sticker
on the helmet.
You can just barely read it.
It's in black and white, thepicture, and it just says
hammerhead, which, of course, iswhat steve is like.
He.

Josh (01:00:44):
He's the original hammerhead yeah we're just, we
were pausing there.
We're just, we're looking atthe picture right now.

Tim March (01:00:54):
So yeah, that's it.
So that's got ham.
So I was just, you know, thatwould have been for me quite a
good title.
But like I said, you know, atdirt we were always left to
center, so maybe that wasn't.
But as I started to kind of getmore into it, I was just like
well, this is 11.

Dane (01:01:14):
Well, you know, like spinal tap yeah, yeah, yeah, it
goes all the way to 11.

Tim March (01:01:19):
He goes and he goes.
But what if just make 10 louderand steve would be just like no
, but it's not 11.
What I'm trying to explain isand and it was a serious thing
is a paradox is steve, is isalways.
For me, it's one more thaneverything else, because that's

(01:01:43):
what makes him unique it.
There is something magical.
You speak to people that he'sspoken to and and they light up.
They actually light up.
He takes time to speak topeople.
You can go and have a beer withhim.
You could walk into a pub andnot know him and and you could

(01:02:06):
have a beer with him.
One of those exciting, one ofthose examples is in the book
where he walks into a pub in umdown by the forest of deans.
So he's gone down there, he'sin a pub in the Forrester Dean,
he's just been riding but gotnormal gear on and he just bumps
into a chap at the bar and juststarts talking to him.

(01:02:27):
And this is just as he's putthe Orange deal together and he
hasn't got enough money for AndyKiffin.
So, andy Kiffin, he needs somemoney, he's got no money for a
mechanic.
And so he starts talking to thisguy and he's just bloke, says
how are you getting on?
He goes oh, all right.
He said well, I'm just tryingto put a bit of a deal together.

(01:02:48):
What do you do?
What do you do?
And oh, I miss, I've just soldmy business and yeah, I don't
know what I'm going to do.
I'm just on and Steve justtells him this story about he's
just signed with Orange.
He's really over the moon, butnot for much money.
And the guy just goes well,I'll pay Andy's money.
I've got some money.
I'll give you the money forAndy Kiffin and this is a bloke

(01:03:11):
that he's met in a pub.

Josh (01:03:13):
So he got his mechanic funded.
That is amazing.

Tim March (01:03:16):
And this is what I mean about that paradox, paradox
of being 11.
It's like it was.
It is an in-joke, of course,which is hilarious because it's
it's probably one of thefunniest things ever, isn't it?
The spinal tap, yes, but thepoint is that there's, he goes
into territory and I don't knowhow.
It's just his character, howhe's, how he's made.
He's just a bit different andhe's, he's a bit special for me,

(01:03:41):
you know.
So you know, I'm just hopingyou know that I I've done, I've
got a bit of that across, butthe only way you're ever really
going to know that is if anybodyis out there and they meet and
he's anywhere.
Yeah, go and say hello to him,you know, because he's the kind
of guy you can just talk to andbuy him a beer.
He'll be over the moon.

Josh (01:04:01):
Buy him a beer and read the book.
Yeah, get the book, tim.
Thanks a lot, brother.
I really appreciate you takingsome time with us.

Tim March (01:04:06):
I really appreciate your time, gentlemen.
Yeah, and you know, I hopepeople buy it and read it and
enjoy it.

Dane (01:04:26):
And if they don't send me any bad reviews, that's awesome.
Thanks, jim.

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091 – From Rigid Bikes to World Champion: Tim March on Ghost-Writing Steve Peat's Autobiography

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}091 – From Rigid Bikes to World Champion: Tim March on Ghost-Writing Steve Peat's Autobiography