VeloVeritas

Omloop Het Volk & Kuurne Brussel Kuurne – Day 1 (0)

You know you’re in Belgium, when . . the barman is Iljo Keisse’s dad – and when there are posters for bike races in the loo!

But I’m getting ahead of myself; “live cargo”, that’s how the airlines refer to their passengers.

And that’s how we feel: the flight is two hours late and we’re sitting on the floor at Prestwick Airport, or ‘Glasgow South’ as Ryanair would have it, despite the fact that we’re 50 kilometres from the city on the Clyde.

Rock Racing’s solid performances at the Tour of California (0)

Michael Creed’s extraordinary ride yesterday capped an impressive performance for Rock Racing at the Amgen Tour of California.

Attacking from the start of the 93-mile (150 km) stage, Creed played an instrumental role in a pair of breakaways that stayed clear of the peloton on a rain-soaked, bone-chilling ride from Santa Clarita to Pasadena.

Aggressive to the end, Rock Racing nearly scored its second podium finish of the race when Creed attacked inside the final mile and finished fourth in a five-up sprint in front of the Rose Bowl.

Super Six Series – Event 1, Gifford: Preview (0)

Snowdrops by the roadside, fluffy white clouds scurrying across a blue sky, bright sunshine requiring the Ray Bans to get dusted-off, and a breeze that was fresh but not chilling-has Spring arrived in Gifford on this February Sunday?

Nah! It’ll be snowing, tomorrow!

Still, it was a lovely day to recce the course for the first of James McCallum’s ‘Super Six’ series; the timing was perfect, organiser Chris Harney pulled-on the brakes of his Orbea outside Gifford town hall, just as I stopped the Toyota beside the village green.

Alan Buttler – Lance’s Mechanic (0)

So, was Lance’s bike nobbled in the 2003 Tour? I’m referring to the rubbing rear brake story… “Media hype, the calliper was probably bumped against a wall or another bike on the way to the start.”

When the man telling you this is one of Big Tex’s mechanics and a no-nonsense Nottingham man to boot you cannot argue.

Eh – a Nottingham man? You thought that Lance’s personal mechanic was Belgian? Only for Le Tour – the rest of the season Lance’s Trek is cared for by the USPS team of mechanics under the leadership of Julien de Vries. The Nottingham connection comes with Alan Buttler, his broad accent and bizarre phraseology causing USPS main man Johan Bruyneel so much of a problem that Buttler had to buy him a Nottingham dialect phrase book. When you have one of Lance’s spanner men sitting across the table you have to ask the big questions…

Astana Training in Spain (0)

On a cold morning in the town of Javea on the East coast of Spain a bunch of cyclists look at their new bikes for the coming year.

This group are a mix of Astana and Discovery Channel riders that next season will become the new Astana team and the man at the helm, Johan Bruyneel, has the job of welding these two distinctly different elements into one super team and with Tour winner Alberto Contador leading the charge it should be another successful season for the man that was behind Lance.

Gary Wiggins – Nobody messed with ‘the Doc’ (0)

The tall, raw-boned rider ambled across to the barrier; he was broad and square across the shoulders, big-thighed and walked with a loose-limbed gait. His long legs made easy work of straddling the steel fence which separated the riders’ enclosure from the paying public at the Gent six, back in the early 80′s.

As he headed-off to his cabin, a mechanic looked-up from the already-gleaming machine he was polishing and gave a cheerful; ‘Hi Gary!’
The rider said nothing, but acknowledged the greeting with an ‘energy-saver’ nod.

My buddy, Fraser who was staying in Gent at the time, explained the dynamic to me; “that’s Sercu’s (Patrick Sercu, undisputed king of the sixes, with 88 wins) personal mechanic, he speaks to no one, he thinks he’s superior to everyone, he always talks to Gary though – ‘nobody messes with The Doc!”