Friday night, at this time I'm usually battling to get over the Forth Bridge before the traffic goes critical mass. Not tonight though, we may be battling through the tail-backs, but it's on the motorway out of Ghent, headed for a night at the races, Oosterzele and a 70 kilometre criterium. And besides, the reverend Al Green is on the car stereo telling us that; "Love is the message!" For sure, Al.
It’s hard to believe but it’s now 13 years since VeloVeritas’ Belgium and East Europe archivist, Ivan and I drove through to Strathaven to meet Mr. Norrie Drummond, former racing cyclist of note in Auld Scotia and Belgium and patron of the Drummond Trophy Road Race, one of few remaining ‘landmark’ races in Scotland. We chatted to Norrie recently to hear some more stories about the old times...
It was back at the start of last year we last spoke to Englishman, Toby Perry and when we saw he’d ridden the inaugural Gravel Worlds – an aspect of the sport which has piqued our interest – we thought we’d best have another word with the man.
Originally we hadn’t planned to go down to The Scottish Borders to see Stage Two of the Tour of Britain 2022 – but the sun came out, we made a few time calculations and as I said of yesterday; ‘it’s not every day you get the chance to see some of the world’s best bike riders on home soil.’ One of life’s simple pleasures is surely sitting on the grass verge in the sunshine, waiting on a bike race coming up the hill.
Today heralds the start of a new chapter for Team Ineos. Ineos are now the sole owners of Tour Racing Limited (the Team’s holding company), signifying a fresh start following the conclusion of Team Sky’s decade-long ownership by Sky and 21st Century Fox. Team Ineos officially launched at a press conference, held at The Fountaine Inn in Linton with Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Ineos team principal, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and Chairman of Ineos, in attendance.
In what has been a hugely progressive winter for the Matrix Fitness-Prendas team where new partners have seen the potential of the all female squad, Hargroves Cycles have become the latest addition to the team's list of sponsors.
In the language of the Gael, Glasgow is, ‘The Dear Green Place,’ on Sunday for the European Road race Championship 2018 it was certainly ‘green’ – we’re not do sure about ‘dear’ though; it was grey, miserable, and wet – just plain DREICH. But we still love the city – last time we went west for the Commonwealth Games Road Race, this time we decided to get soaked in the East End.