a close call

I raced last night at a local 10mile tt which was a good chance to see how much quicker the new tt bike is versus the roadie and it should be no surprise but it is significant. I did almost meet my death though as on the way back from the turn i looked up and saw a van in my lane heading towards me. Well its fair to say it dirtied the chamois as i dived for the side of the road narrowly missing it. I am please i looked up when i did, the guy who was sitting on me, its another story!, said it was a pretty close call. Oh well all part of the fun.

Now its up to sitting around and waiting to see if we get to race this weekend. With all the rain we have had it is unlikely that we can race because most of the courses are under water still.

Other than that it has been pretty quiet around here, alot of time watching the tour and working on how the sport can be helped, but thats another issue

Le Shame!

I went to the pub tonight for a couple of quiets with Pammie and Gordy and found out while there that Rabobank have pulled Rasmussen from le tour for lying to them while he was tackling up in Italy. This pisses me off no end as all it does is brings embarrassment on the sport as well as to me as a fellow professional cyclist.

I know that i am going to found questions from all my mates about how many people are tackled in the tour and what not but i don't really want to answer them. I have some faith in the sport, the beautiful sport that it is, that it will come through this. But when you look at the record it looks like it is getting worse and worse, we have now lost the last 2 tour winners due to doping.

I know guys on a lot less that managed to fill out the forms he needed to fill out to meet the uci regulations. All it can mean is that he was off on a pre determined and calculated doping program with the pure intention of winning the tour and deceiving everyone. Thanks for that! You have shat all over the sport that I love and work my arse of for. I don't know and dont care what you were on last year but obviously it wasn't enough for you.

I dont know what is going to happen tomorrow when the tour rolls out but i would fully understand if the peloton dont roll and the event is turned into the biggest laughing stock that goes around. thanks guys, the sport is undoubtedly one of the hardest going around, just ask me about it, a sport with very little skill, based purley on hard work and an ethic of suffering, and yet guys aren't prepared with what they are dealt...always looking for more.

Thanks Michael, this year we had the chance to show how exciting a clean tour can be, but you took the piss out of all of us!

I'm not sure how i am going to feel in the morning but these are me thoughts right now.

Bastard Vino

Well the news has broken that Vino is out of the tour after returning a positive blood sample for a blood transfusion which is just what the sport needs right now. I think that the Cofidis DS has summed it up well when he said "Vinokurov is a Bastard".

Yeah sure it proves that some testing works, and I do think the sport is getting cleaner ever year but i don't think it is enough. I think a major step forward would be to increase the deterrents by making it a criminal offence akin to match fixing. With this the penalty wouldn't be a weak 2 year ban but a term in prison, making it sporting fraud to dope.

Does this mean that the remaining competitors in the tour are clean? I'd love to say yes but i don't think you can be that naive, which is a great shame as this is a beautiful sport.

Stand back and wait for the rest of the fall out....

Global warning, Yeah Right!

Yes this is going to be another moan about the weather, but this time with a touch of drama. I am currently down in Reading and I had read that there was supposed to be flooding over night when when all the water from down south, which is underwater, made its way down the Thames. I thought it was just a bit of a beat up for news sake but when the the council turned up with a sandbags for all the houses in the street, i thought it was time to start taking things a bit more seriously.

So the sandbags were put around the doors and the garage as the coucnil man said there was a 75% chance that the river would be coming calling during the night. Also took a couple of extra precautions like making sure most things were up off the floor and that there was plenty of drinking water on stand by.

who knows if the waters will come but maybe the next blog will come from an emergency shelter.

Heart Attack hotel

I have been up in Blackpool for the last 6 days for a series of 3 races, staying up there saved me about 15 hours of driving back and forward from London, which was appreciated. My view of Blackpool was a nice seaside holiday town, well was i in for a surprise. The place is stuck in some bizarre time warp and everything looks like it would have been 30-40 years ago. There is a giant promenade that runs for a couple of miles along the sea front which is covered in entertainment complexes, much like a massive theme park.

The hotel we were staying at was also very dated, our first room didn't have a shower and Milly and Ken's room had roof tiles that would move every time a breeze would blow through the room. The best bit of all were the other guests, 95% would have been over 60, so hence Jas and I labelled it the heart attack hotel.

Because Jas and i spent an extra 3 nights in Blackpool than the rest of the team, we got a chance to see the real Blackpool. We went out for a pint after the prem cal victory on Sunday and it seemed that more people were interested in fighting each other than drinking, which didn't really bother us as it gave us something to cheer.

We have seen some pretty nice places so far this year, unfortunately Blackpool isn't going to be a highlight, except for the racing that is where the team went 3 for 3.

Race Report -Blackpool Crit

This was the first of a 3 race stint up on the north west coast and required a 5 hour drive in the morning to get up there in time for the early evening start time. And by the time the start rolled around it was no surprise that it was throwing it down. The course was a 2.5km hot dog with a downhill hairpin at one end and an hairpin into a cobbled climb at the other....right up my alley! We were racing on the edge of the beach, in fact if you had binned it bad enough on the back straight you would have ended up lying in the sand.

I punctured pretty early on going up the climb and when i rejoined a pretty decent move had gone, which we had 2 guys in so it was a case of covering everything. Gaywood, who was leading the series, told me to cover Russ Downing which led to some rather interesting facial expressions from me as he tried numerous times to try and get across to the move.

The boys up the road had things under control with Gordy soloing in to win comfortably with Gibby rolling 4th. We kept everything in order back in the dwindling peloton so it was a great result for the team. The only downside was spending all night getting sand and grit of the body, it becomes a problem when you race with contacts like I do as visibility is restricted which makes racing all the more fun.

Bec CC 10mile TT

While most of the worlds top testers were still in bed before there big showdown in London, the remainder of us aspiring time trialist were lining up at the Bec CC 10mile. The main reason we were down to ride this event was because it was our Team manager Garry Becketts home club and he wanted us to put on a show for his clubmates.

Part of the build up included the job of building up a new tt rig. It had been sitting around the house for a while but seeing that Jason never got around to build it, the team said I could build it. Now seeing that I am to bike building what Helen Clark is to modelling, it wasn't always pretty but with a bit of help from Gordy and only 1 trip to the bike shop I was set.

After having only a short spin on the bike on Friday it was straight into it at the very early start time of 6am. Anyway the ride went pretty well and I was pretty pleased with how my position felt after being a little worried that it might be a touch too aggressive but it was fine.

I ended up doing a 21.41 for the course which wasn't flat and had a tough little headwind to push home into. it placed me 7th out of the 120 riders which wasn't bad especially since i have hardly being doing any tt prep. We would have also won the team prize except we had one rider miss his start by 5 minutes and the other puncturing on the way to the start.

never mind though, a good show put on for Garry.

Its prologue time!

Tomorrow sees the start of the Tour in London which seeing that our team haven't been given a last minute call up, I'll be standing along the course with the expected million others. But before that I have my very own TT to get out of the way. I'm racing the BECC 10 miles tomorrow morning, well its not really morning its more tonight as we have to be up at 4am to get to the race and warmed up on time.

i have got a little trick just for the day, which might make the start time bearable...a new TT rig all set up. the frame has been sitting in Jas's wardrobe since the start of the year and since he never got round to building it, Gibby gave me the green light. Given that i am to bike mechanics to what Helen Clarke is the supermodels, it was an interesting experience. thanks to a bit of help from Gordy and only 1 trip to the bike shop its all up and firing. It looks pretty hot and i'll try get some snaps of it up during the week.

Back to the other minor TT in London tomorrow, Its certainly going to be interesting to see who fires on the day. Millar and Wiggins have been talking it up alot, in fact some riders have been talking up their chances who haven't even been given a start but thats for another time. Im picking Paolo Salvodelli for the win, with Hincapie, Wiggins, Rasmussen, O'Grady, Vino...well maybe one of those is taking the piss a bit.

As for the overall -Why they can win and why they cant
Vino -Only Grand Tour winner with best team in the race, wont win if he has 2 bad days.
Leipheimer -Learnt how to attack last year and can gain in the TT. Wont win because he is scared of vino...he actually is!
Menchov -Consistenly hangs around on the climbs as others falter, wont win because
Valverde -He can do it all and will be fresher than at the Vuelta last year. Wont win because getting the 3 weeks will be a challenge.
Evans -Can hide for the first 18 stages then roll everyone in the last TT. Wont win cause he'll break his collarbone.
Kloden -Everyone watches vino and doesn't cover Kloden, like cunego won the '04 Giro. Wont win because he is no longer on T-Mobile
Sastre -Probably the best climber in the top 10. Wont win because even on the fastest tt bike in the peloton he looses bagfulls of time against the clock.
Moreau -Hes flying and gets in a sneaky break that takes alot of time. Wont win because he is french.
Fothen -Will attack and attack when the road goes up. Wont win because he is too young
Rogers -Double world TT champ and has the frenchies on his side a bit. Wont win cause he cant climb well enough
Popyvich -3rd in the Giro was along time ago and with the pressure of after last years flop he could come good. Wont win because his best days are behind him

Its probably going to be completely wrong..wait wait, gordon wants a cheeky darky horse so here you go...Juan Cobo...dont ask why cause its a secret, but you wait!

check back later for my other classification picks.

oh well i'll check back here in 3 weeks and see but now its time to pack the bags and get some sleep.

Wet Wet Wet

With the number of 90's British pop bands reforming recently including Take that and the Spice Girls, this post would be more enjoyable to write if it were about pop music rather than the weather.

I hate to sound like a whinging pome but i think it is needed at this time. It was all over the news the other day how June was the wettest on record over here, so foolishly i thought that July might mean summer was on its way. Oh dear was I wrong! So this is the summary of the last 48hours...

Head out on a 70km ride yesterday well equipped for a shower or 2, even though the sun was out and it seemed like a day for a tan. 20minutes down the road and I'm sitting in a bus stop as the rain is just stupidly heavy and as I am doing a point to point ride there is no turn around quickly option. I do quickly count to see if i have enough cash for the bus but realise that's probably not logistically possible from where I was.

After realising I'm going to get wet regardless I push on and eventually arrive home soaked to the bone. So after drying up a bit its off down the high street for some lunch, when a thunder storm arrives and i get my second drenching of the day. This was no normal thunderstorm as it flooded most of south London in an hour of crazy rain.

So after a second shower and getting warm and dry, its back into riding kit (dry and clean!) for a local race. The circuit is filthy but the racing must go on, the biggest hazard on the night weren't the lapped riders like usual but the number of snails on the circuit. There were hundreds of the little fellas all over the circuit! The race went alright, took a flyer with 3 to go and unfortunately no one came with me so got caught at the bell, so tucked into the bunch and run top 10 in the sprint. Oh bike, car, kit and rider were completely filthy and wet.

So today i was hoping for a bit better luck weather wise but to no avail. Over the course of 5 hours i got completely drenched 4 times but each time did manage to dry up just in time for the next downpour. i even had a motorist pass me on a blind corner in the rain going downhill with me at almost 60k, it doesn't bear thinking off what might have been...especially when i rolled by him again at the bottom as he run into traffic.

oh well thats my weather rant, hopefully the last for a while.