Tag: Gent Six Day 2015

Big Race: Small Race. Mid June has been and gone, and I find myself up in the northeast of Italy once again (Arona to be precise), this time at a couple of tiny one day races. We came through the same area for the finale of the Giro, where Ivan Basso turned the screws over the final few days to win the overall.

A cracking ride from 18 year-old bearded American Quinn Simmons, a barn door of a man who goes to World Tour team Trek Segafredo for 2020. We were roadside to take in the action.

Vic Haines - does the name ring a bell? If you're into time trialling you'll know him as a long-term sponsor in English cycling and a multiple tandem time trial record holder. Closer to home you'll recognise him as the man who organised Graeme Obree's successful Hour Record attempt in Hamar, Norway. But his controversial 'split' with Obree came not long after the Scottish phenomenon had eclipsed Italian legend, Francesco Moser's record - with, according to Haines, the new Ayrshire Hour Record holder due him a lot of money. We thought a chat with the man might be worthwhile...

Jörg Jaksche is an interesting man to talk to; a top rider in his day - until he was one of the relatively few actually punished as a result of being implicated in Operatión Puerto. But unlike most, Jaksche didn’t, ‘deny, deny, deny.’ He did the ‘right thing’ and ‘fessed up’ – but the UCI twisted his words and to the teams he was a pariah.

The Saunier Duval Team Launch 2008 squad changed a little from last season - the team is made up of 26 riders, and one of its distinctive features will be it's youth: there will be no less than nine men under 24 years of age, and thus the team will be the second youngest in the ProTour peloton. The second distinctive feature of the team this season will be improved training: two personal trainers have been hired: Sergio Gelati, who worked with the team in 2007.

'Why do you want to go further, nothing is there?' the cute park ranger asks us; she's guarding the last section of the fabled climb. We're beside Lago Enol, one of the beautiful Lagos de Covadonga and we need to drive the finale to complete our mission for the day. 'Two minutes?' we plead with her - 'you have ten and then I come looking for you!' she smiles. She's right, low cloud, grass, rock and no lightweight climbers - just a lone Asturian cow...