Stories 
So what was Nicholas Parsons doing at the Shay Elliott Memorial race in 2005?(0)
Truth be told it wasn’t him but his double, Paul Tabak, manager of Dutch outfit BRC Kememesland-burgundy blazer, black gingham shirt, grey flannels and shades-dapper guy! Dead ringer for Nicholas. A tad incongruous among the club jerseys, tee-shirts and fleeces at the managers’ meet though. The UCI guys were really nicely turned out in blue, logo-ed shirts and body-warmers, so now you know where all that money goes.
Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor announce sponsorship deal with Edinburgh Road Club(0)
The Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor has announced that they will sponsor Edinburgh RC/The Bicycleworks, one of the UK’s biggest cycling clubs.
The sponsorship deal will see the hotel’s logo appear on the club’s kit, website and race support vehicle.
The Copenhagen Six Day 2005(0)
Danny Kaye is telling me over the public address that it’s “Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen”. I’m not so sure: it’s gone 1.00 am and we have 18 Lycra jerseys; 18 under-vests; six pairs of chamois-lined cycling shorts; six pairs of socks and six pairs of track mitts to hand wash, spin dry and hang up to dry in our ‘cabin’ in the bowels of the stadium. Welcome to the glamorous world of six-day bicycle racing.
John Kennedy – Helping Simpson in Le Tour(0)
July 1960, the GB Tour de France team hotel somewhere in France. Britain’s white hope for Tour de France glory, the late, great Tom Simpson is discussing the events of the day with team mate, Brian Robinson.
Simpson had punctured during the stage and one of his GB team domestiques had brought him back up to the bunch; “I’ll tell you what, Brian – that Kennedy is strong, he was riding like ten men today when we were coming back from that puncture.”
3 Days of De Panne, 2004(0)
Continuing our look back at Classic, Belgian RockHardMan, Enthusiast-tastic races, to get you into the mood for the upcoming Continental Classics, we bring you the story of our trip to the 2004 edition of “De Panne”, a stage race based around the province of West Flanders. Enjoy!
John Hardie – Grass Track Star!(0)
Forget the super fast boards of Manchester. Imagine a track meeting whose roots go back to the year 1314; where the track is only 200 metres and one of the straights is bordered by a burn (that’s a stream in Queen’s English)… a track meeting which goes ahead even in a torrential rain — welcome to the world of the Highland Games.
An Introduction to Six Day Racing(0)
Six-day races; they’re all fixed, aren’t they?
Yeah, for sure… all you have to do is take a lap from Bruno Risi and Franco Marvulli when they are at 97.5 % instead of ‘full-gas’. That’s maybe 57 kph instead of 58 — Easy!
That’ll be how then-reigning World Champions, Bob Hayles and Mark Cavendish, were 34 laps down at Ghent last year: because it’s so “easy”. The truth is that the sixes are ‘choreographed’, but if you don’t have the legs, you can’t win.
Phil Young – A Tribute(0)
I didn’t make it up to the Phil Young memorial race this year, work got in the way. I need to get my values sorted out.
I should put the memory of a friend before commercial activity, but when you are under client pressure to get a job finished, it is difficult. Phil had his priorities right, though: “the bike” was number one, and everything else was organised around that.
