VeloResults

Cervélo , Contracts and Consumerism (0)

It’s not until you go to a big Fondo, Marca or Sportiv that you’re able to figure out how the likes of Cervélo can sponsor a pro team.

On the start line you’ll see hundreds of Looks, Colnagos, Treks and – Cervélos; all sold at full price.

But how much money can you make on a bike frame?

The UCI Should Stop Messing with Nature (3)

‘With the current system we’re shafted’ says BC coach Rod Ellingworth regarding the fact that the world’s best roadman sprinter will have a whole two team mates in Melbourne.

The GB and Sky ‘spin machine’ continually tell us how strong British Cycling is; but when it comes down to it, we’re actually joint 22nd in terms of numbers of riders we’re eligible to send to the Elite Worlds. This puts us on par with great cycling nations such as Korea and Brazil.

How a Positive Could be Buried (6)

We’ve all been hearing recently about the riders who showed questionable figures in their Biological Passports but who have escaped any sanctions so far, whilst certain others have been lambasted, suspended, and are facing the possibility of – or are currently serving – lengthy bans. Last year the word was that a number of very big names in the sport were in the same boat, and may have been asked by officials to ‘lay low’ for a while until their numbers returned to more normal values, or until the heat died down. And now, thanks to Landis, we are presented with the allegation that Armstrong paid the UCI to bury a positive test result from the Tour de Suisse – but how is that possible?

Track Worlds – or training session? (4)

The women’s 500 metre time trial was the first race I caught sight of on the TV – it’s hard to get excited about it.

But the Ballerup track was looking great, freshly sanded and with new advertising – what you don’t realise until you look at the down tube of a bike that has just finished in a Derny race is the amount of soot and oil that the little motorbikes pump out – the joiners have buffed all that off, though.

San Seb From The Outside (0)

A week after the Tour, and Mands and I got ourselves over to San Sebastian for a bit of vacation relaxery after the saga that is the nose to the grindstone month of the Tour.

We needed to drop off some key stuff for the team that was working the race (as an excuse to get over to one of the coolest towns in Europe – not bad!) Two birds, one stone, all of that!

We rocked up at the team hotel the morning before all of the riders arrived, dropped off what was needed and skedaddled.

Dan takes his first win in the Heartland! (1)

Racing for Asfra flanders, VeloResults contributer Dan Patten bagged his first win of the year in Belgium, at a kermis in Ghoy.

It has been on the cards for a while but Dan finally got the first one under his belt.

Away from the beginning of the race in the break, Dan rode away from what was left of the group with around 30km remaining as they were being chased down by another group – so even though it was still a long way from the finish he felt it was the right moment to go…

Callum Macgregor – organiser of the Duncan Macgregor Memorial (0)

Last weekend saw the Duncan Macgregor Memorial road race take place in Fife. The race almost didn’t happen, so we thought we’d ask organiser, Callum Macgregor what the story was.

On Being a Pro (2)

I clicked on Hamish Haynes’ name on a palmares website, just to see who it is that he’s beating to win these races in Flanders; ‘Melle 2005′ that was Steven de Jongh – twice a Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne winner.

Or how about when he won the British Elite road champs in 2006 – Roger Hammond was the victim.

Despite the fact that year in, year out, he competes with and regularly beats the best cyclists that Flanders has to offer – including quality East Europeans – he’s one of British Cycling’s forgotten men.

Mike Cuming – a Very Young Pro (0)

We all know everything about Armstrong, Contador and the other top names in Pro cycling, but they all had to start somewhere.

A young English rider called Mike Cuming has shot from club cyclist to promising Pro in two seasons so nothing is impossible.

This is his story so far…

Michael Mørkøv – on not being allowed to ride La Vuelta a España (0)

Dozens of SMS and emails flash up on my BlackBerry each day, most are chaff and get deleted after a quick glance – but when one comes in to tell me that ‘Michael Mørkøv excluded from the Vuelta by WADA’ that makes me take notice.

There’s only one thing to do – call the man himself.

Ruaraidh McLeod – First Win in Belgium (1)

It’s been a month or two since we last spoke, and it’s nearly time for Ruaraidh McLeod to head home to land of the long white cloud – but we thought we’d best say ‘congratulations’ on his first win (and see if he’s crossed paths with those Scotsmen that are also over there in Belgium).

Borut Božič – Vacansoleil’s Sprinter (1)

It’s only metres from the finish in the final stage of the 2006 Vuelta a Cuba and US rider Joe Papp has it in the bag.

His wife is in the cheering crowd as he begins to raise his arms in celebration – but an instant before he crosses the line there’s a yellow and red haze to his right – Slovenian Borut Božič glides past the American to take his third stage win of the race.

Papp’s exuberance turns to despair, amplified by the ease with which Božič slipped past him, admonishing Papp beyond the line that; ‘you’ll never do that again!’

- Contributed by Joe Papp and Ed Hood -

Le Tour de France, Stage 20; Paris: Cav, of Course (1)

This morning at 07:00 we had Serge Gainsbourg with ‘sea, sex and sun,’ it’s noon now and we’ve got Jane Birkin, ’69, annee erotique.’

Do these people never give it a rest ?

We’re nearly at the stage start, Dave has done the biz all the way up from Bordeaux.

Le Tour de France, Stage 19: Bordeaux – Pauillac 52km ITT; Schleck Surprises, But It’s Bert (0)

“Sea, sex and sun,” sings Serge Gainsbourg on Radio Nostalgi – all very well, but the boys have 640 K to drive, this Sunday morning.

But that’s today, let’s get back to Saturday . . .

Today’s chrono is 52 kilometres, but Saturday’s L’Equipe glossy magazine takes us back 30 years to a much shorter effort against the watch – the Olympic one kilometre championship in ‘Moscou.’

Le Tour de France, Stage 18: Salies-de-Bearn – Bordeaux; Cav’s Fourth (0)

Cav: he really is impressive – we were at five K to go when Oss passed on his death or glory bid out of the break; he was flying.

The bunch? Like some high speed linear motored Japanese train – whhoooooooossssshhhhh! Those carbon rims slice the air.

We dashed back in to the chipper to watch the finale on the tele, respect to Sky, they were in the race – but Cav really is a cut above.

Le Tour de France, Stage 17: Pau – Col du Tourmalet; Top Two Ahead, Big Gaps Behind (0)

‘Andy talks tough !’ say the headlines, he did try his best yesterday, his men used whatever was left to drive up the lower part of the Tourmalet – then he went for it.

However, not for one moment did it look like Alberto Contador was under pressure.

British Road Race Championships Redux (0)

The British Championship Road Race on the 27th June was a race of attrition, but the riders started leaving via the back door very early in the race, due to the severity of the the seven-mile circuit around the Lancashire town of Barley, which was pretty much either up or down all day – but perhaps it had more to do with the pace set by the riders from Team Sky, who, with their numerical advantage and ProTour status took responsibility for the race, forcing the major break on the first of the fifteen laps.

Le Tour de France, Stage 13: Rodez – Revel; Vino’s Day (0)

Bonjour! Vino – he’s a boy.

Born 16:09:1973 in Petropavlosk, he was a stagiere with Casino in 1997; he won the Dunkirk Four Day in his first full season and finished that year with six wins – an impressive debut.

He left Casino at the end of ’99 with another seven wins under his belt to go to Telekom where he stayed until 2005 after notching wins that year in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and two Tour stages. He went south in 2006 to Liberty Seguros and a win in the Vuelta.

Le Tour de France, Stage 12: Bourg-de-Peage – Mende; Bert’s Back! (0)

Bert’s back!

And we were there to see it, a privilege.

L’Equipe today says ‘Fin de la Trêve’ – that’s ‘end of the truce, (or respite)’. That’s how it looked to us, Contador letting Schleck know that he’s just fine.

Bert had his ‘pedalling back from the paper shop’ look on his face – but many riders didn’t.

Le Tour de France, Stage 11: Sisteron – Bourg-les-Valence; Reinstate Renshaw? (0)

Big Macs may pig you out towards an early grave, but damn, the wi-fi is good in there!

Thursday was hectic, finished off with a train journey via Carstairs – I was a bit worried they might grab me – to Penrith, where I was meeting Dave to head to Stansted and La Belle France.

Dave’s working at Sellafield just now so I gave him a quick once over with the Geiger counter as he scoffed his chicken sandwich – all clear.

We fired up the Toshiba to see what all the fuss was about and much as I admire Mark Renshaw, he did rather ‘radge oot’ in that finale.