Tag: World Junior Sprint Championship

The crowd is good, the riders' contracts have been paid, there's one more procession, one last picture of the Folies girls, I've polished the bikes of Jens and Franco Marvulli, most of the stuff is out of the big cabin, the strongmen are going through their routine and there's a buzz in the air.

Last Sunday’s Scottish 50 mile time trial championship at Irvine saw Dooley’s Iain Grant make it the ‘double’ – adding a second gold to his 25 mile title won earlier in June at Stonehaven, with Silas Goldsworthy (Sandy Wallace Cycles) taking the silver-medal spot.

The trouble here at the Grenoble Four Day 2012 is that when folks see you with a camera and hear you write for a website, you've had it. I spent a chunk of the afternoon taking pictures of Gunther, one of Iljo Keisse's soigneurs. He's back on the bike as a 'master' and has the track bike down here with him, he trains on the boards in the afternoon and actually looks good on the bike.

Today we saw Riders in the Mist... When I read folks saying that the Giro is better than the Tour, I have to shake my head. Better, how? The scenery in Italy can be stunning, sure - but like yesterday, it can be ghastly, too.

If you watched the recent live stream of the Parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee hearing (part of the inquiry into "Combatting Doping in Sport") you'll know the bulk of the session focused on the key question "what was in the jiffy bag?" which was transported from the UK by Simon Cope, handed to Dr. Richard Freeman at the end of the Critérium du Dauphiné, for use by Sir Bradley Wiggins. Committee member John Nicolson (Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire and the SNP spokesperson on Culture, Media and Sport) demonstrated an amazing ability to ask logical, 'boiled-down' questions which presented a narrow set of options as answers.

It's too long since I had a rant; I'd like to thank Mario Cipollini for providing the spark for this one. I meet my pal Ivan on a weekly basis for a 07:45 coffee at a secret location. The theme of this morning's rant-fest was what would happen if Rik Van Looy met the Schlecks? We reckoned that 'The Emperor' would just need to look at Andy before the start and the 'Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project' (great name for a team) rider would run off home to Luxembourg and his Teddy bear...