This was a great performance by the big fella, and the bare minimum of what I believe he deserves for his persistence, determination and talent.

Trav looking like he's been shot by a dirt bazooka.

The race had been very tough on our boys, some coping better than others. The final stage ended in Genk, a town on the eastern side of Belgium, right near Holland and Germany, and as usual we were to head back to Girona (in north eastern Spain) afterwards.

As a rare bonus, we were booked to fly back as all of the vehicles we would normally drive were to head to another race in the area. Sweet!

Then our physiologist Marc Quod (Quody) read about a Trappist brewery that apparently served the best beer in the world, and we made a snap decision that despite the rules of getting into this place being pretty strict, we’d turn down the flights and offer to drive the only car going back to Girona.

It was somewhere around here that the fail-athon really kicked off. I should have known that Quody reading non-scientific journals was a bad idea.

JackyBobby after the final road stage: I swear it was tougher than it looks!

As I noted, the brewery was pretty tough to get in to: there were no official booking hours, and no official booking office, you just called as often as you could. If you did get through, you would only have one chance to book, and then your phone would be blocked for a month, and the one time you did book, you had to provide your car license plate, which would be allowed to enter once only for the month.

And you could only take one case of beer off the premises per car.

“Pretty tough” here means getting in to the place was akin to hitting all of the notes of the final, key changed “I really need you tonight” line in Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. It is possible, but you’ve got to be bloody lucky, and it happens nearly never. I’m still waiting for both my time with the perfect notes, and to go to that brewery.

Fail number one.

We had already committed to driving, so figured we'd see about going to another brewery in the area, which we duly organised, and which didn’t require seventeen hoops to be jumped through. Excellent.

The hotel we stayed at that night was in Ghent, a beautiful, happening university town with a great night life. We chose there for closeness to the brewery, and the possibility of having a bit of a good night out. University towns, however, are not so good for nights out when the uni is on a break.

Fail number two.

Quody had been to Ghent previously, and had been enthusiastically regaling me with his recollections of the Aussie Pie Shop (or so he called it), which was in Ghent, and allowed homesick Australians the chance of a true taste of home – a hot meat pie.

We were particularly excited about this, and so decided to forego the (included) breakfast at the hotel so we could maybe fit a third pie in when we hit the pie shop.

Fail number three.

We then headed in the vague direction that Quody thought the shop may be, and there were several moments of “ooh this looks familiar” followed by “nup.”

We attempted to use the technology we had with us, putting “Pie” “Aussie” and other similar search terms into our Garmin, but to no avail. Garmins are good, but they can’t completely overcome the hurdle of being used by two starving Australians desperate for a pie.

We definitely saw a great deal of Ghent, and found ourselves at the Great Australian Ice Creamery twice (it was news to the two of us that Australia is a noted ice cream making nation – I’m sure there’s fancy Belgian ice cream you can buy in Aus), which was (predictably) closed.

It turns out we should have searched The Great Australian Bite, which I’m told does a great meat pie. I can’t comment either way, although I will attest to it being particularly difficult to find.

Fail number four.

We ended up with quiche and coffee from a nice little cafe, but this was several hours after we’d skipped breakfast, and several kilometres of walking later. Curses!

A grand booty after a less than grand trip.

Things definitely took a turn for the better thenceforth though, as we found the St Bernardus brewery without too much difficulty, and despite the proprietor locking himself out of the brewery when he came to greet us (true story), we had a great visit.

So good in fact, that we bought two cases of beer, two cycling jerseys (got to love Belgium!) and two beer glasses (you apparently MUST drink St Bernardus out of St Bernardus glass).

If you ever get yourself there, talk to Markus and tell him I sent you. It won’t make a lick of difference, but will add a pleasant piece of random to his day. He’s a great bloke, and makes a cracking beer.

Admittedly it wasn’t all “fail” after Eneco.

That was how Britain’s Cycling Weekly magazine recorded my first ever memory of the man; cycling on British TV was rare back then but those producers know a good image when they see one and I must have seen that footage of the Frenchman’s bottom bracket axle breaking and catapulting him over the ‘bars to end up sitting on the tarmac a hundred times.

Laurent looks with dismay at his Campag pedal and crank.

The race was Blois-Chaville 1982 - one of the incarnations of Paris-Tours - and the winner was Jean Luc Vandenbroucke, uncle of the late, great Frank Vandenbroucke.

And it’s with sadness that we record the passing of another great, the man who landed on the tarmac that October day and who, not for the last time would sit stunned at the end of a race which should have ended in triumph for him – Laurent Fignon.

In those days before the internet it was hard to get continental race results but if I had been paying attention, beneath the Cycling Weekly headline that read ‘Yates seventh in Cannes despite crash,’ back in March of that year, I’d have observed that Fignon had wasted little time in grabbing his first pro win – and yes, it was Sky DS Sean Yates taking that seventh spot.

And by the end of that month, the headlines were reading ‘French find another star’ as the 21 year-old held off no less than Sean Kelly to win the Criterium International.

If his first year as a pro was good, his second was spectacular with stage wins in Tirreno, Tour d’Armorique, Tour du Limousin, Criterium International and the Vuelta dwarfed by his winning the Tour de France at his first attempt at the age of 22 – all French riders must have a nickname and ‘le professeur ‘did indeed seem appropriate for the Parisian with the round, gold rimmed spectacles.

Laurent and Greg battle it out at the Tour.

The following year he dominated the ‘84 Tour after taking second in the Giro – behind a rejuvenated Moser after the hardest mountains stage of the race was cancelled due to ‘bad weather’ or Fignon being a much better climber than Moser, the correct choice depending on which side of the Alps you live on - and winning the French pro road championships.

The years which followed were leaner, due to the illness and injury which dogged his career; 1985 saw the Coppi-Bartali as his best win.

The 1986 Fleche – Wallonne, a Dauphine stage and the TTT in the Tour would mean a good season for most riders but it wasn’t a great year by his exacting standards

In 1987 there were stage wins in the Tours of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain with home stage wins too in Paris-Nice and le Tour; but seventh on GC was of no use to Fignon.

Laurent with his legendary DS, Cyrille Guimard.

A brilliant solo win in Milan-Sanremo commenced his 1988 campaign but that was the highlight, although he did win the Tour of the European Union.

Winning in Sanremo was the height of Laurent's 1987 season.

With wins in Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of the Netherlands and the Giro his 1989 season could hardly have started in better fashion and boded well for his hat trick of Tour wins.

That last TT stage into Paris where Lemond clawed back a deficit of 50 seconds and put a further eight seconds into the Frenchman to win has become the stuff of legend.

Whilst much has been written about Fignon’s ‘failure’ it should be remembered that some 21 years later, Lemond’s 54.545 kph average still stands as the Tour’s fastest ever time trial at a distance above 20 kilometres (David Zabriskie’s 2005 stage one 54.676 kph was over 19 kilometres).

Laurent heading for a crushing defeat.

The argument has always been that after that Tour Fignon was a broken man; but the record books show that he won the Grand Prix des Nations individual time trial (the then equivalent of a world time trial championship) plus the Barrachi Trophy and Baden-Baden team trials with team mate Thierry Marie in the fall of 1989.

Trying to come to terms with losing yellow.

The Criterium International fell to him again in 1990, as did the Grenoble six day; but his best days were clearly behind him, albeit in 1991 he was sixth on GC in le Tour and pulled off his final Tour stage win in 1992 at Mulhouse in the colours of the Italian squadra Gatorade after ten years with the Renault/Systeme U/Castorama dynasty.

The end of the line came in 1993 with a final win – to take his career total to near 100 – in the unlikely Tour of Mexico.

After his career as a rider finished he took on various roles; race organiser, bike tour operator - and the one for which he was best known and loved, that of TV race commentator.

A role he performed, gravel voiced to near the end of his life, through the 2010 Tour.

Laurent enjoyed his work as a commentator.

My final memories of the man are eclectic, like the man himself.

The 1990 Escalada a Montjuich hill climb in Barcelona and Fignon is riding back down the hill after his warm up, a gang of tough looking local thugs are pointing at Fignon and poking fun at him in bad French; he switches across the road, brakes, fixes them with a stare and spits spectacularly at their feet – the ‘hard men’ fall silent as Fignon sneers at them and lets the brakes off to freewheel back to his team car.

Some years ago Cycling Weekly magazine decided to do a full colour feature interview with the man and he was allowed to pick the venue – the legendary Café de Flore in Paris, hang out of Hemingway and Sartre.

Laurent directing his beloved Paris-Nice race.

Laurent Fignon, we’ll miss you, RIP.

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

Cervélo have cited escalating costs as the main reason for their decision.

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

‘A well known Italian former six day star’ who’s extremely well connected at all levels of Italian cycle sport told me that one of the biggest names in Italian frame design imported their oversize aluminium frames by the container load from the Far East, sprayed up and with the carbon forks supplied.

‘At what price?’ I hear you ask.

A frame retailing at €1200 Euros cost them less than 100 Euros to import – in other words, the gross margins are huge and there’s cash to be made if you get it right.

Even so, the costs of running a big Pro Continental squad are astronomic – the Vacansoleil budget for 2010 is around five million Euros and they don’t ride anything like the programme that Cervélo do or have the likes of Hushovd or Haussler on the books.

Apparently there were financial concerns within the team back in the spring – but not that we heard of.

It was after the Tour that the stories began to circulate; a giveaway was that the riders whose contracts expired at the end of 2010 were not approached by team management regarding renewal.

Sastre’s jumping ship from the Cervélo team was a sure sign of all not being well.

Sastre quitting Cervélo, the team he helped get off the ground, was a strong signal.

The situation at the moment is that the best nine or ten riders from Cervélo will get a place with Garmin, Jonathan Vaughters has endorsed that.

The likes of Hushovd, Haussler, Klier, Hunt and Hammond will have their contracts rolled on to Garmin.

However, there will be some riders whose contracts will be ‘bought out’ – they’ll get their wages but won’t get a ride.

If their agent handles this well for them then it could prove very lucrative, even if they have to take less than market value then they still have the Cervélo moneys.

Just this morning, we received that a press release from Caisse d’Epargne that ’31 year-old Catalonian grimpeur Xavier Tondo will join the new squad Movistar after the 1st of January 2011’ – and is no doubt breathing huge sighs of relief.

Xavier Tondo takes the kisses at last year's Vuelta a Andalucía.

We believe that talk of Hushovd and Haussler ‘looking around’ and ‘negotiating’ are a red herring; these riders were on big contracts, and besides, most team’s 2011 rosters will be filled and won’t be in a position to find the seven figures that a Hushovd needs at the top of his pay slip.

For the Cervélo riders who are out of contract it’s late but not yet disastrous, although their agents can’t waste any time in getting on the phone; and some will not be riding a 2011 programme anything like their Cervélo 2010 one.

For the stagiaires, it’s a dream tuned to nightmare, the contract with the high profile team turns to dust in your hand.

Thor will be ok, but what about many of his team-mates?

Over at the American orange and blue team it’s a similar tale, contracts will not be renewed or ‘bought out’ - and you should use your Transitions lenses to look out for some very high profile redundancies – remember where you heard it first.

Their new recruit’s contracts will be honoured however, we believe.

Whilst Cervélo and Garmin can’t afford any scandals or too many cries of ‘foul!’ once again it serves to underline the fact that when it comes to cycling teams, cash and contracts – if you’re a rider it really does pay to sign the best agent and lawyer that you can afford.

Mike's with Raleigh for a second year.

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...

Mike, this year you’ve signed for the resurrected Team Raleigh which is a UCI Continental registered team, what were your thoughts when you received the offer?

"Yes, I was made-up to get asked to join them, especially when I heard it was going to be a UCI team so I was surprised to be a part of it - even more so when I heard the names of some of the other riders."

Tell us about the team, what is their aim?

"They have a three year plan to be racing back with the big boys.

"For this year the Tour Series crits are an important part of their season for the publicity - but our Manager, Chris Truett really wants to get the team racing abroad."

Dan Fleeman came to the team from Cervelo, has he been a driving force?

"Well the first time we all got together at our managers house I was sitting next to him and had to go out off the room to ask Rich Handley (another team-mate) 'hey Rick see that bloke over there, is that Dan Fleeman?'

"It was great when I found out he would be part of the team, it made me feel like I was going to be part of something big."

Mike at the Team Launch at the start of the season. Photo by Raleigh.

The season before you rode for the Raleigh Avanti RT, did this give you a good base to move up a league?

"Yes - we didn’t really work as a team, we all did our own thing which suited me - and they provided me with everything I needed and I got to know the guys at Raleigh who really helped me like Geoff Giddings, Raleigh’s Marketing Director.

"You could really tell the difference between the two years - the Avanti launch consisted of three of us sharing some crisps and a couple of packets of sandwiches and a coke at the Nottingham factory- and the following year I was in a posh hotel with fancy food, lots of photographers and naked chicks - even though Rick didn’t look impressed!"

Mike is ambitious and laid-back in equal measure.

Tell us how you got to where you are now?

"I’m still trying to get there!"

Have you had any contact with the British Cycling Plan?

"No chance - you’ve got to be willing to do track and it’s not for me, riding round in circles for hours!"

Do you have a coach?

"Yes, Andy Patterson, he lives in New Zealand so it’s dead handy for me!

"Actually, it works quite well because we can do everything over the internet and talk on Skype."

What about education, you’re 19, college, university?

"Finished college after A levels and the rest is on hold - forever!

"Studying and I don’t really go together."

Your father, Dave, was a top British amateur and professional rider in the 70’s and 80’s, riding in Belgium for many years as well as in the then burgeoning British Pro scene. I guess he has helped you a lot?

"He’s my Dad and I try to take no notice of him."

Mike's dad Dave, Viking and Fangio Pro.

Another son of a famous rider; Tom Barras (son of Sid and ex Viking team mate of Mike's Dad) is in your team, he had been based in Belgium, is that something you would want to try?

"Hey if going to Belgium allows me to grow facial hair like Tom then I’ll be there tomorrow!

"Yeah, I think I would really enjoy that, but I would want a bit of racing in the sun too."

Your Dad was always good for a long, lone break and your Mother (Louise) and Grandfather (Jim Ogden) were top time trialists, so solo riding is in your DNA. What kind of rider do you see yourself?

"I do enjoy riding time trials. Time trialling is something that I have always done, my first race was a time trial and I still do the local 10’s and 25’s because I enjoy them, and they're a great way of training.

"As you say, I have good DNA for long solo riding - it’s just a pity I can’t sprint like Cav, that’s where the wins are at."

Mike starting the break at the Peterborough RR. Photo by Peterborough CC.

You broke your wrist at the start of May, but after only four weeks you were back mixing in the action with a plaster cast on the arm. Can you tell us about it, or does it still hurt?

"I was absolutely gutted when it happened - I had just started to get some form with a win and a few placings, it was at the Chas Messenger Road Race.

"The lead motorbike went slightly off course and a few of us at the front followed him. I had slowed right down to turn and someone hit me from behind - so I can’t have been going more than a few miles per hour, but put my hand out to stop the fall and cracked my bone in three places.

"Four weeks later I was put in for a Tour Series event whilst the majority of the team was in Norway, purely to make up the numbers.

"A crit can be hairy at the best of times but having just broken my wrist it made it seem worse!

"I managed to scrape 'round them both, even having a bit of a dig in the round in Exeter event, and didn't really have bad pain coming from the wrist so I was happy to get back.

"Also, I was in the break of a Premier event; the Ryedale GP. Three of us were away at the start of the race for about 40 miles.

""The race was 112 miles, the first long race after my broken arm.

"I was off the front for 40 miles and stayed with the bunch until 100, but then blew with a vengeance! The plus was the great coverage on the TV for Raleigh when they showed the race, lots of shots of the break, but the bad news was the commentator (sorry Brian) got my name wrong again and again - so a 2nd cat called Stephen Guymer who rides for Raleigh Avanti got his moment of fame, whilst I was the one busting myself."

Mike (r) ties with Matt Stephens (Sigma Sport) in the Cycling Development North West race.

The race scene in Britain at the moment is quite big and varied with the longer Premier category road races and the televised town centre crits, what do you prefer?

"Road races - no question!

"Although I did enjoy the Tour Series races - they are very exciting to ride and I think they're just as exciting to watch."

The Raleigh team will ride the Tour of Britain, any chance we will see you on the start line?

"That would be the dream - especially as the race goes up ‘Gun Hill’ - a climb about 5 miles from my front door.

"With the broken arm however, I have missed all the stage races with Raleigh - and probably haven’t had the preparation, so I can’t see it happening.

"It’s been a tough first year with the lows and I have yet to experience the highs."

Armstrong or Contador?

"Can’t beat a bit of Lance - unless of course you’re Contador, then you can."

What about Cav, Millar and Wiggins?

"Can’t really forge a decent opinion on them because I’ve never met them, but I bought some wheels off Wiggo last year and he did them me cheap so he seems all right."

Heading for a top ten placing in another Cycling Development North West League race.

Do you have a cycling hero?

"No!"

Are you interested in other sports?

"Football. I love to play it and love watching it."

Without being too controversial; Liverpool or Everton?

"Liverpool, been a red all my life."

Is there a Mike Cuming career plan?

"No not really. I just go with the flow."

Mike just goes with the flow. Pic by Raleigh.

Forget reality, what would be your cycling dream?

"To get to ride a Grand tour, classics, biggest and best races all over the world.

"And to win some as well!"

Young Mike has the DNA and the ambition to get where he wants in cycling, good luck Mike -maybe you will get the facial hair before the Tour win?

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

It's a shame we won't be seeing Michael use his current good form in Spain.

What’s the story, Michael?

"It’s really frustrating; the team have to submit a list of 15 potential riders for the race, 20 days before it starts - but I’m not on it.

[This is to allow closer scrutiny of the riders who may be lining up; the thought process being that some riders ‘prepare’ for the race before it and not actually during it.]

"I wasn’t originally considered for the Vuelta squad but then I produced good performances in Limousin and Plouay and was selected to replace Baden Cooke when he was injured."

An administrative error?

"Yes, but I don’t blame the team, they’ve done everything they can to get me in the race, talking to WADA and the UCI, but it’s no good.

"It’s really frustrating because I’ve always been a rider who takes a very strong stance against drugs and I’m a little worried that people may get the wrong idea about why I’m not getting to ride."

When did you find out?

"My sport director, Bradley McGee told me this morning, I’m here in Seville and was out training with the rest of the team this morning – I fly home to Luxembourg, tomorrow."

Michael has been World Track Champion.

Will the team start with one man short, then?

"Hopefully not, Kasper Klostergaard was on the list and they’re trying to get him down here in time for the start so they’ll have nine riders."

You were going so well in Limousin and Plouay.

"Yes, since I finished the Giro and recovered from it, I feel like I have moved up a level.

"In Limousin I was third in the bunch sprint on stage one, then seventh in the stage two time trial, sixth on stage four and finished fourth on GC, but obviously I also had to work for Gustav Larrson who was leading for us after the time trial and eventually won the GC.

"In Plouay I got my timing wrong for the sprint but still managed 12th – my shape is good and I was looking forward to using that to good effect at the Vuelta."

What now?

"I hope to ride the two UCI races in Canada and maybe the Tour of Britain – and I’m hoping to ride the Worlds in Melbourne.

"If I am selected to ride the Worlds then that will be my main focus."

And will we see you on the six day boards over the winter?

"Alex [Rasmussen] and I have spoken to Bjarne and we will ride at least the three we won last year – Gent, Berlin and Copenhagen.

"It’s possible that we may ride Zurich and Rotterdam but it depends upon our commitment to team training camps."

Are you staying with Bjarne for 2011?

"I was never too concerned about the future with Riis Cycling, I always had the feeling that there would be new sponsors and the team would continue.

"I’ve signed with the team for another two years and when I did that I told Bjarne that the two years I have spent with the team have been the happiest of my cycling life – I enjoy every day.

"There were other teams which approached – and that was nice - but I was very happy to re-sign with Bjarne."

Michael and Alex are very happy with Riis.

You'll be teammates with a three time Tour winner in 2011.

"I’ve ridden with big riders here – Fabian and the Schleck brothers – but I’m really looking forward to riding with Alberto.

"He’s won three Tours so there’s no doubt that he’s a dedicated professional and there will be a lot I can learn from him.

"I’m not sure that our programmes will overlap that much but I hope to ride at least a few races with him and do a job for him."

Do the big names have time for a young pro?

"Oh yes!

"The Schleck brothers and Fabian have always been nice to me and very helpful – just today Frank Schleck was making phone calls to his contacts to see if we could get me into the race.

"The guys at Saxo are all good guys - it’s a very friendly atmosphere on the team and that includes all the big riders.

"And I’ve already met Alberto, he came over to talk to me at the criterium in Denmark which we rode together – he was very friendly."

Will you and Alex be riding the Track Worlds?

"No, we have decided that the Worlds in Copenhagen this year were the last we will ride for a while - we want to concentrate on the Spring Classics."

The big one – the Tour, is it a possibility?

"It’s every rider’s dream to ride the Tour and of course I think about it.

"Last year it may have seemed unrealistic, but after the Giro and the way I’ve been riding recently, I think it’s a possibility."

We think so too; with thanks to Michael and wishing him all the best in his quest for Worlds selection – we think he’ll make it.

In particular the Mur de Huy, a nasty climb that starts on an increasingly steep grade until a left turn kicks the road up to around 20%.

Svein was still sitting in fourth place on GC, a couple of seconds away from the podium, and we were all hoping that he could stay in touch on this stage as he is in very good time trialling form, and may be able to do some damage on the final day time trial.

The job for all of the boys was thus to help Svein out as much as possible, and get him over the Mur in touch with the leaders.

This job became a little more difficult seeming when we lost two more riders early in the race, through sickness and plain bad luck.

Big Johan Vansummeren crashed today and damaged his hand. Photo©ispaphoto

We were down to Svein and the three Australian kids: JackyBobby (who was pretty busted up from his heroics on Stage 5) and the Meyer brothers (Cam and Trav).

It was gratifying to see Svein get to the top of the Mur with all of the big hitters, but briefly worrisome as he appeared to be isolated.

Then the cameras panned back to a small group of six riders chasing hard to get back in touch, with Cam and Trav taking turns to get bring their group up, grimaces of pain and strain on their faces, closing it down quick smart. Brilliant stuff! Everything was as good as we could hope.

The final 40km flew by, with flat tyres and a few moments of worry, but Svein had done the job well, lost no time, and has it all to ride for in the TT.

It has been a great performance for the whole week, and he has been ably supported throughout by the boys. Triffic stuff!

The aftermath of the stage chatter (particularly from the Meyers) was about who flatted where, and how hard it was to get wheel changes when the race had been blown apart, meaning team cars couldn’t follow as closely as we would like.

Cam did laugh that he had a wheel change from the neutral service guys ahead of Robbie McEwen, who at the time had the points jersey and flatted at about the same point as Cam had).

Cam managed to get back to the front group, while McEwen didn’t: you need the luck some times!

Jack had a tough day for a different reason – paying for how hard he’d worked the day before.

He did have a chuckle about all of the congratulations and words of advice he received from the commissaires and other sports directors throughout the stage.

He survived the day in the gruppetto (which he was waiting to see form up from about kilometre thirty he said) and will see what he can drag out of his legs for the time trial in the finale.

We’re all looking forward to seeing how our boys do today.

On the Tour, many of the teams will have the team vehicles parked ‘wagon train’ style or have ‘crime scene’ tapes to keep the civilians at bay.

Not at Euskaltel.

Sammy doesn't mind the interviews. (click for the full image)

Riders, mechanics, kids, old folks, journos, camera crews and anyone else who’s in the neighbourhood mill around in happy confusion – but the job still gets done.

He has time for his fans too.

Sammy and his boy, plus Basque supporters.

In the midst of it all, rims get cleaned off ready to accept cement, rims are cemented, tubs are stuck on and Orcas get washed.

The disc's rim is cleaned of old glue.

The first coat of new cement is carefully brushed on.

Tyres are fitted, and impressively no cement on the sidewall!

The remaining bikes are washed. (click for the full image)

‘Vamoose!’ The cry goes up and the boys are off on their rest day leg loosener, lead by Olympic champion, Samuel Sanchez.

We’re here to have a look at Samuel’s gold high-lighted ‘special’ but since he’s just pedalled off on the beast; that will be difficult.

It’s no problem, head mechanic Tomas tells us they won’t be long and gets us up to speed on the basics, using Sammy’s ‘B’ bike which has an identical position and apart from the gold high-lights, BB 30 bottom bracket and ceramic replacement bearings, is the same machine.

As regards the bracket, it will take BB 30 or standard brackets with the addition of an alloy sleeve – and don’t worry about weight, it’s down nudging the UCI minimum.

Sturdy bottom bracket. (click for the full image)

Stiff in every direction. (click for the full image)

Pros must have identical positions on their machines, if the ‘A’ bike is damaged in a crash and the rider has to change to the ‘B’ bike, delicate knees will pick up any change in position, however slight, and a whole season could be compromised.

This year’s Orca has had a virtual complete re-design, including a new sleeker head detail with super neat cable entry and over-sized 1.5” lower race; new front fork; fluted down tube, reworked seat tube and radical new aero seat stays.

Dave and Tomas.

The clever seat stays. (click for the full image)

Kuota introduced something very similar a few years ago, with their Kalibur TT frame.

Lovely shaping on the head tube.

The downtube. (click for the full image)

‘Attraction’ is the name that Orbea have given this new concept of tube design, claiming that it minimises road vibration but leads to a more efficient laying down of power through the pedals.

The range of sizes has also increased, last year the frames were available in 48, 51, 54, 57 and 60 – for 2010 the 54 has been discontinued and 53 and 55 are available.

At this stage it’s time to throw in the second buzz word – SSN, ‘size specific nerve,’ a concept, where, due to the fibre lay-up, an Orca will give the same sensations to its rider whether it’s a 48 or a 60 cm frame.

The group set is by Shimano and incorporates electronic shifting.

We asked Tomas if there were any ‘tricks of the trade’ necessary or quirks to deal with, ‘no, obviously we had to get used to it but once you do, there’s no problem, the riders like it and one advantage that I’ve not heard mentioned is that because the brake levers don’t have to accommodate the gear actuation they are narrower and more comfortable.

Samuel uses shifter buttons on the top of the bars so as he can change gear without moving his hands to the levers.’

Battery mount is below the chain stays – neat.

Gear controls. (click for the full image)

Bottom bracket underside. (click for the full image)

Cable routing is very neat and rear brake operation smooth; bizarre though it may seem at this level, when you give the rear brake lever of some of the big team’s bikes the ‘squeeze test’ the feel is spongy and the return slow and imprecise – not on the Orbea.

That’s thanks to ‘DCR’ direct cable routing coupled with GORE RideOn cables.

Neat cable routing. (click for the full image)

Back to the subject of hands, Samuel uses FSA bars and stem, with a deeper bend than is currently fashionable; bar width is 42" carbon but because he requires a 14cm extension, this is in aluminium - carbon not being available above 13cm.

Most pros are riding shallow drops these days - not Sammy.

14cm isn't unusual to see in use in the top tier. (click for the full image)

The gold taped deep bars accentuate what is already an aggressive position; ‘is he comfortable?’ is the obvious question for Tomas.

Sammy prefers a very low position. (click for the full image)

The gold tape makes the bars look even deeper. (click for the full image)

He explained that Samuel and team mate Igor Anton spent time in the wind tunnel in San Diego over the winter and their positions are aero, efficient and comfortable.

The Olympic champion sits on a gold Selle Italia ‘gel flow’ saddle, but with a twist, the saddle manufacturer has collaborated with the Basque company to design unique rails which together with the specially designed aero seat post gives an extremely neat solution, exclusive to Orbea.

The Selle Italia doesn't stay gold for long. (click for the full image)

Unique seat post clamp. (click for the full image)

Oodles of adjustment. (click for the full image)

On the ‘A’ bike the seat clamp is gold – naturally.

Where possible, every component is customised. (click for the full image)

Yours could be any colour too. (click for the full image)

On the subject of aero, its buzzword time again, ‘AizonE’ is the name given to the aerodynamics package applied to the machine, taking it closer in spirit to a time trial bike with a claimed improvement in drag of 14%.

Perhaps the most striking feature is the cranked seat stay arrangement but the front fork blades – which have a carbon steerer - have been brought closer together and all gaps between the wheels and the frame tightened to improve ‘fluidity.’

The drive train is by Shimano 39/53 x 11 to 23 normally but we were visiting the day before the Tourmalet summit finish and a 28 was going on at the back [Dave and I pondered the question; ‘if Sammy needs a 28, what the hell would we need?’]

On the ‘A’ bike the gold chain is by KMC and the gold quick releases by KCNC are in titanium – and match the drop out, hanger, and jockey rollers.

Gold anodisation galore. (click for the full image)

KCNC titanium skewers. (click for the full image)

We asked for Tomas’s take on oversize rollers and at Orbea they’re unconvinced – he doesn’t like the closeness off the gap between the sprockets and top roller in the smaller cogs and says that their research shows no advantage.

But Craig Geater, mechanic at The Shack reckons, ‘they save watts!’

Pedals are Dura Ace alloy and carbon and are stamped on by Samuel’s custom gold Sidis.

Shimano Dura Ace pedals. (click for the full image)

Custom Sidis celebrate Sammy's Olympic Gold medal. (click for the full image)

The Olympic theme continues on Samuel’s helmet, too.

Like Sam, his boy is bike daft too.

And it’s carbon that holds the bottles in place, courtesy of Elite.

Elite carbon bottle cages. (click for the full image)

Wheels are Dura Ace and rubber by Vittoria, Corsa EVO CX.

There were two more questions – Sammy wanted to know if he could use a different bike for the Tourmalet?

Sammy used to race motos at a high level in his younger days.

And secondly, when does my Orca to road test during my come back arrive?

With thanks to Tomas, Samuel and all at Euskaltel – but remember, he may be Olympic champion and mountain hard man to us, but he’s also just plain old ‘dad.’

Sam may be Olympic champion and mountain hard man to us, but he’s also just plain old ‘dad.’

This piece originally appeared on PezCyclingNews and is republished with the kind permission of Richard Pestes.

Svein was still in contention for a podium position on the over all, and the main role for the boys was to make sure he didn’t lose time on any of his close rivals. That job unfortunately became more difficult on the start line as Robbie Hunter was too unwell to ride his bike, despite signing on for the start.

I was lucky to again be riding in the second car with team physiologist Marc Quod (Quody) and Andrezj our mechanic.

We were hopeful of some breakaway action that would mean we’d be up the road supporting our man in the break, but obviously that is never guaranteed. Before we started that though, we had to take Robbie back to the hotel so he could begin recuperating.

Thus there was a mad dash for those of us in the second car to drop Robbie off, work out approximately how long it would take us to get to various points on the course, and work out at what time the race would be heading through there, then decide if we could make it on time or not.

We had an option of going a long way ahead of the race on a motorway to guarantee things, but we’d be out of the action for over an hour. And it would be a whole lot less fun than driving back roads and side streets hunting for the race at full gas.

The break before the fireworks.

We did get back to the race fairly quickly (the joy of having a top-end Garmin in the car), and literally pulled into line on the convoy when we heard that Jack Bobridge had made it into the break. Perfect timing!

After some last minute instructions from director sportif Matt White (Whitey), and then some last last minute instructions phoned to us, we got in behind Jack and settled down for the day, keeping him updated on where people were in the race, how he was looking, and also keeping him fed and watered.

The break was never allowed to go away by more than 4minutes or so, so we all held only a faint hope that things would stay away for the whole day.

Jack was of the same mind, but figured that since he was there, he might as well stick around and have a crack. It was funny watching some riders, knowing Jack is a Neopro (first year Pro) try and con him into doing more than his share of work so they could take it easier.

If there is one thing JackyBobby isn’t short of, it’s self-confidence. He was having none of that, and they stopped trying to put it over him in short order.

Wise words coming from Quody to Jack.

As the day progressed and time gaps remained stable, the main job for us in the car (having since received Whitey’s last last LAST minute instructions, then I-swear-this-time-is-seriously-the-last-time last minute instructions) was to keep Jack from getting too excited too soon.

He would drop back to the car, grab some food and a drink, then ask if he should “hit ‘em” at 50km to go. Quody and I would both yell out “NO… WAIT” and Jack would just smile at us and roll back up to the bunch for another turn. Cheeky bugger.

The 204km of rolling hills and steep kickers started to take their toll, and at one point Jack rolled back to say he was hurting. All we could do was encourage him to stay with it as long as he could and help Svein out if he was dropped.

Secretly we knew that when he started to get a sniff of a win, JackyBobby would find a few extra gears.

Slowly things were whittled down: firstly the number in the break, and secondly the size of the gap to the peloton.

We in the car thus started to oscillate between hope that Jack could do something special, and acceptance that the peloton would catch the break and things would go back to bunch sprints.

With 15km to go there was 1min 41sec, at 10km it was 1min 7sec, at 8km it was 45sec… it was going to be very close!

Here come the cavalry... Or peloton.

As the break hit the final climb is looked like they were going to stay away, and Jack was not going to keep up: he just started to drop off the back, but fortunately the top of the hill came before he lost touch.

The next thing we saw on the in-car TV (we had been told to pull aside for the oncoming peloton so were no longer close enough to watch things unfold live) was what looked like Jack on the front, but it kept dropping in and out with static.

Quody was too excited to drive, Andrezj and I were not watching the road either, so in the interests of safety, and also to get better TV reception, we pulled the car over to see that Jack was slowly pulling away from the rest of the break, and it looked as though none of them could do anything about it.

I will admit to a lot of noise coming from the inside of that car as the final metres ticked down, and as Jack turned the corner for the final 300m, we all knew he had won the stage, and so we started going on like porkchops, yelling and punching the air and hugging.

The only other sound that filtered through was Whitey on the race radio saying “You’ve bloody done it Jacko! Well done.”

A 21yr old first year pro just won his first major race on the road as a senior, and those of us who saw it all were beside ourselves with happiness for him. It was a great moment, and a great ride.

Congratulations to JackyBobby, and the team for getting him there. Gold.

Accordingly, those who have been feeling the pinch after some heavy days of hard work were able to take it easy in the bunch.

The only job was ensuring that Svein was doing the least work of everyone in the team whilst maintaining touch with the front of the race.

Despite the seemingly low intensity of the day, most of the lads got off their bikes today talking about how hard it had been.

The first hour of riding saw the peloton cover 51km, and the whole stage (which was 214km) was completed in only 4hr and 30min (ish). And in this part of the world, the roads are always a source of irritation.

Apparently today a great swathe of roadway was made up of concrete slabs, which were at times not particularly well fitted. The description was “It’s an annoying k-knk, k-knk, k-knk, k-knk and then all of a sudden WHAM, then back to k-knk, k-knk, k-knk…”

Chatting about the days events after the stage.

Atop the general complaints regarding roads and race pace, there was a funny little interlude where one of the boys was claiming that his nemesis was trying to prevent him from riding in the last position of the peloton. His exact words were that “He kept chopping me for last place.”

The usual result of “chopping” is losing position, so when I asked how the reverse chop worked, where you’re actually bumped forward a place in the peloton, I was met with nothing but grumbles about not letting logic get in the way of a good story.

From a physio point of view, this week has been interesting to me seeing how tiny adjustments to the set-up of a rider on the bike can lead to surprisingly significant problems.

Working with pros in some ways is the same as working with the general public: bike position is the first port of call with any non crash-related injury. The difference is that pros are sensitive to changes so small that Joe Average wouldn’t even be aware that they have happened.

I figure that their normal load of riding includes such a huge amount of time, and thus so many more pedal strokes than Joe Average, that minor changes at times become major issues.

I’m working with one of the boys on various different parts of his body that all seem to have been flared up by a change of less than a degree in his position.

It’s not that suddenly he’s in a bad spot, more that different muscles are being recruited slightly differently, and they are feeling the pinch as they’re not yet used to the load.

Ok. Boring physio talk. I’ll shush. But it IS interesting! I swear!

It’s back to the lumpiness tomorrow, so game faces shall once again be in place.

Cameron Meyer on a cobbled sector.

The day was also pretty hot, meaning we had a large number of bottles to be handed out, in a lot more places than is normal, so Joachim our swannie designated to making up the bottles this week had a bit of work to do.

The stage was different from the sprint stages in another way, in that it never really went more than about 40km from the start/finish town, despite being a 192km race.

J-Quan working hard.

The course zigzagged all over the place looking for any hill of note to throw the boys over. Thus we were looking to get in front of the lads at various points to make sure they could get bottles without losing position on the ridiculously narrow roads.

It was similar to what we do for the Ardennes Week races (Amstel, Flech-Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege).

As Trav Meyer noted, he started one climb in about 50th place, and felt fine going up the hill, passing blokes whenever there was space, but half the time he was waiting for a gap to open up to move forward.

At the top he felt fine, but was dropped from the front group simply because he’d not been able to get himself into the right position.

200 riders on a road this wide?

Our day started with strapping for those in need, followed by obligatory Belgian radio 80s mix (Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights” was the highlight) for those in the car.

I ended up being lucky to find myself in car 2, with Marc Quod (Quody) our driver, and Andrezj Poznak our mechanic.

Each team has two race cars following the riders, with the order of the cars determined by the position of the highest rider on GC for each team. We were car 1 (go Svein) and so were the first of the line of the second cars.

Why two cars? We can at times have someone in the break, and the rest of the team in the peloton.

This is a several km spread on a road that you can only drive in one direction. It’s impossible to cover a whole team with just one car, so whenever things split apart (either in front of or behind the peloton), car 2 gets called into action.

There was a hilarious moment today when I realised that instead of sticking the race signs to normal street signposts (which most every other race does) they had two skinny old blokes working it as sign holders, similar to the bikini models holding up the signs between rounds at a boxing ring. Hare-brained left-fielded low tech can-do Belgie-ness at it’s absolute best!

Bikini girl Belgian bike race style.

As the race rolled on we started looking after lads who had a bad patch at the wrong time and found themselves out of touch, or who were in the wrong position on a climb, or who had done their job for the day.

It can get very hectic, with a couple of near death experiences through the day being about par.

Jack & Quody having a chat.

Our man Svein boxed on over all of the tough hills and particularly with the help of Trav Meyer (who rode out of his skin all day) he managed to stick with the big hitters group, keeping himself in third place overall (two blokes had skipped off the front in the final 20km and the bunch couldn’t drag them back in.

Stage 4 is another flat stage, so things should be a little less worrisome for us.

The stage was another flat one, so the boys knew that once again they would be doing most of the grunt work making sure that the stage’s breakaway riders didn’t get so far up the road that they took the lead from Svein.

In a similar vein to yesterday, they then had the majority of the lead work taken from them by the sprinters’ teams and just protected our man in to the finish.

The big Canuck in the leader's jersey, ready to go.

The reports from the boys after the stage were pretty low-key – we’d controlled things well, with the main point of interest being the 7km tunnel that people were a little nervous leading in to, and so Trav Meyer (who was on the front at the time) had to keep dialling up the pace and hit slightly over 60km/hr in the middle of the race! It was with a tailwind, but still.

The other thing that was spoken about was the amount of road furniture on the Dutch lanes. Median strips, speed humps, little mini gutters so that the tramways were slightly higher than the roads, roundabouts, and parked cars.

Paradoxically, the Dutch roads are extremely cycle-friendly because they have nice smooth bike lanes usually on both sides of most roads.

Understandably, during the race the riders would become fed up with the stress of riding on the roads, and so would try and get across to the bike lanes for spells.

The problem with this was that the furniture, as well as parked cars, spectators and bollards was in much higher density there, and so even though they were pros, many misjudged their jumps and went down.

Jack Bobridge noted that one bloke hit a normal sized median strip, buckled his front wheel and went down hard. His statement “ooh that’ll hurt” said it all.

Once again, we were blessed with no crashes – mainly thanks to our boys riding on the front out of the all of the trouble. Svein rolled across the line and managed to maintain his hold on the leader’s jersey, so it was a good day all around.

I can only hope he holds on for longer so we can avoid the carnage behind for more days.

Rod Ellingworth assists Steve Cummings.

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.

Last year we had nine riders on the line at Mendrisio on a course that didn’t suit any GB rider, this year, on a course which suits Cav down to the ground, we have three.

I recall that last year we were told that even though we didn’t get anyone remotely near a medal, ‘it was good to practice team work for the 2010 race.’

As the future has a habit of doing, 2010 has rolled around and we don’t even have a road team – you can’t call three riders ‘a team’ unless it’s for the team sprint on the track.

And the fact is that there isn’t actually much we could have done about it – except for our ProTour riders to get better results - because the system is undoubtedly complex.

I was talking to the Slovenian sprinter Aldo Ilesic, and he told me that whilst his country has nine slots available, only seven can go; he’s excluded because he hasn’t scored points in European or ProTour events – even although he’s had six stage wins in UCU Tours this year.

Sadly for Slovenia, Aldo's six wins have been in the Tour of Morocco, the Vuelta Telmex in Mexico, and the Tour do Rio in Brazil

Ben Swift’s and Russell Downing’s wins don’t count because they are ProTour riders competing in European Tour races – my understanding is that if Sky was a Pro Continental instead of ProTour team then those points would count.

It’s not just GB ‘spin’ that rankles; the UCI’s lemming-like ‘mondialisation’ policy simply makes no sense.

There will be six riders each from Iran, Morocco and Venezuela on the start line, as well as three each from Korea and Brazil.

This is because they have qualified through regional or ‘Continental Tours’ – but no matter how well you ride in the Tour of the Qinghai Lakes or Tour of Guatemala it simply does not bear comparison to European racing.

The UCI wangling these countries into the Worlds will not miraculously turn them into cycling nations and most of these riders will be blown away before the circuit is reached at Geelong.

Cycling has to happen ‘organically’ like it did in the USA; but even there the question is being misunderstood – running the Tour of California at the same time as the Giro just doesn’t make sense.

The debacles that were the ‘Wincanton Classic’ and ‘GP Montreal’ have obviously been forgotten – cycling cannot be ‘imposed’ upon a nation.

Who will be in a position to control the Worlds peloton this year?

And Ellingworth doesn’t mention that ‘we’re shafted’ as regards the U23 or women’s teams because we qualified the maximum number of riders – only the Elite qualification gets ’spun’.

He should just tell the truth; ‘we simply don’t have enough good Elite riders at the moment,’ there’s nothing else to say.

Richard Moore had a different slant on it in a piece in the Guardian on Thursday; ‘First Olympics, now the Worlds – Wiggins spoils it again for Brad.’

I hadn’t thought about it that way; but Brad’s depth charge-like drop down the rankings from 2009 certainly hasn’t helped.

But I do fear that Richard has blown his exclusive interview about "Brad’s new scooter" with that piece, though.

As for the UCI, they should stop messing with nature: it’s a World ‘Elite’ Championship and only the best riders should be allowed to ride; if 18 of them happen to be Italian, 15 Spanish and 12 Belgian – then so be it.

It’s a different vibe controlling the race to get close to the finish and then letting the sprinter teams take over: normally we’re in the situation of wanting to control things late, especially when Tyler’s in the show.

Watching the race unfold, it was great seeing the whole team rolling along on the front, particularly from a physiotherapy perspective as that is the place where they are least likely to get into trouble with crashes and the like.

Sven Tuft still in the lead at the Eneco. Photo©ispaphoto.

And as the race started to move to the pointy end of the day, the crashes did indeed begin to take place further back in the bunch. It is always a heart in your mouth moment when you see a crash, with the two thoughts flashing up (yes I can think of two things simultaneously sometimes) being “I hope it’s not one of us” and “I hope they’re ok.”

Fortunately for us, it wasn’t ever any of our boys, with some of our lads saying that they didn’t even know there had been any crashes they were that far ahead of the dramas.

That is always the best part of the job for mine – the talk after the race to hear what happened within the bunch itself.

There is chatting and joking, commiseration from fellow competitors if you’re doing the work for the day, an inevitable “nemesis” character who apparently is always taking the gap that you were about to move through and cutting you off (nemesis stories can get quite hilarious in 3 week stage races with over 90hrs of potential cut-offs by said nemesis), talk about who was shooting for the break and how hard it was for one to get away, and just general war stories.

The finale to all of the stories of yesterday was that we managed to help Svein to the finish in the group that had the same time as the sprinters, thus ensuring he maintained his hold on the leader’s jersey for today’s stage at the least (and hopefully deeper into this race!).

It should be something similar today, and then the course gets a lot hillier, twist-and-turn-ier and difficulter (heh) tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to seeing how we figure through the tougher stuff.

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.

'Money doesn't bring you happiness, but at least it helps you be miserable in comfort'. - Helen Gurley Brown.

The Biological Passport system is facing some serious legal challenges, and together with each country's national body dealing with doping sanctions in a unique and largely isolated manner and the UCI trying to blame everyone else for the situation, the state of anti-doping in cycling - whilst it's universally agreed is far better than ten years ago - isn't really becoming any clearer. UCI President Pat McQuad doesn't help matters with his 'theories' - why he simply isn't advised by his lawyers to keep quiet on the subject is beyond me. If he does have to say something, surely it would be "better for the sport" - his apparent priority - if he said something along the lines of:

"...there are various investigations under way on these matters and it's not for me to comment. I'll be more than happy to talk about it once the investigations have run their course, but speculation is of no help or purpose at this stage."

Even before the Biological Passport came into being, it was perhaps always the case that certain riders were 'shielded' by the powers-that-be, whilst others were cast to their fate following doping infractions.

Thanks to Floyd Landis deciding in May to change his four year old story and come clean about his past and his involvement with Lance Armstrong and the dominant (in the Tour at any rate) USPS team, 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?

The logistics for this kind of thing could actually be quite simple; for discussion's sake, let's stay in Switzerland and talk about a small circle of people who all know each other. The race in question as well as the lab analysing the samples (and the UCI) are all located here, the renowned 'land of confidentiality'.

A positive 'A' sample would have been known to perhaps just one or two people at the lab, and one or two people at the UCI.

Assuming the above, a plausible sequence of events could (this is just a suggestion, remember) be:

1. The Lausanne lab analysing the samples taken at a race reports a positive test for EPO. The lab doesn't know the name of the rider involved (since this information is only held at the UCI), and it passes the case to UCI together with the rider's code number.

2. The UCI gets the word via a phone call ahead of the receipt of any official paperwork, and cross-checks its rider code database for the name. It's a biggy, a Tour de France winner.

3. UCI management decide this can't get out, it would be too big a scandal for the sport (this is prior to Landis's own bust at the Tour in 2006 ). It could threaten corporate sponsorship in cycling, cause the sport to be excluded from the 2004 Olympics, and could even result in calls for the ousting of the UCI leadership itself. So, the UCI management decide that it would be best to handle this "within the cycling family". Top Man at the UCI places a call to the rider's Team Director, whom he knows personally.

4. The Team Director and the rider fly to Switzerland to meet with UCI Top Man and together they come up with a plan. The rider agrees to lay off the hotsauce, and makes a commitment to donate a 'generous' amount to the UCI for its anti-doping work. The UCI agrees to overlook the positive sample as a 'borderline' case, an acceptable approach they feel as the test for EPO is still quite new and 'subject to interpretation'.

5. All parties agree that the donation will be kept secret until the rider retires. Furthermore, the actual payment would be best delayed by a few years in order to separate the positive from the payoff.

6. Both sides convince themselves that this is technically not a bribe, since the rider is really 'helping cycling' and not any one individual. No-one will ever know about the EPO positive since both sides have a vested interest to keep that quiet.

7. The Lausanne lab is told by the UCI that the sample in question did not result in a sanction due to the borderline value, or an existing TUE, or some such excuse, and the lab is never required to report the positive to IOC, to WADA or to elsewhere since the 'B' sample was never touched. Case closed as far as the lab is concerned. No record of a 'positive test' or even a 'positive sample'.

8. Few people within the UCI would know the real facts, and in any case all would share the boss's view: it was all handled in the best interests of cycling. No documentation exists, other than the rider's donation (which would happen years later in any case).

A catastrophy for the sport is averted. Well done everyone.

Armstrong - filmed during the Tour - zipping it.

With thanks to 'Tubeless' of the CyclingNews forum for the original idea.

The rankings determine key factors such as automatic entry into the biggest races of the following year, and so there is a great deal at stake in races such as this for all of Pro teams riding next year.

As seems to be typical for this part of the world (we’ve started in Zeeland, Holland – I struggle to not call it Old Zeeland whenever I mention it – see? I did it again) it is at least a little windy, and quite wet. The Prologue yesterday was a very technical 5km zip around a little town called Steenwijk.

Seeing the uniform drabness of the forecast, our boys were sent off the line in an order where our men most likely to do some damage were in the last part of the race. In this way they had an opportunity to follow some of our earlier boys in the team car to see how they coped with corners, and to get a better handle on the course itself.

As the day progressed, all of our boys were coming through unscathed, but without genuinely setting the world on fire – just getting the job done, and giving their opinions and feel to our final boys about the key parts of the course. Our final three were Jack Bobridge, Cam Meyer and Svein Tuft: U/23 world TT champ, Aussie TT champ, Canadian TT champ. Not a bad combo!

As an aside, Jack and Cam are also members of the World Champion Team Pursuit team, and Leigh Howard, a rider for another team was also part of the pursuit group. There was a little mini-rivalry between those three lads as to who would be the quickest over the technical 5km course which added some humour to the day.

Jack put out a good effort, taking himself deep into the hurt basket (the time that it took him to be able to speak in complete sentences without gasping for another breath was about double the time that it took him to ride the race itself) and crossed the line in about the same time as we’d seen Leigh cross the line a couple of riders before Jack (we don’t have ready access to complete results, so unless someone crosses the line in the lead, accurate times compared to everyone else are difficult to obtain in real time).

Cam rolled through next, and while not in quite the dramatically breathless state that Jack was in, had stated that he didn’t like how deep you have to take yourself, and then estimated he was in about the same time as Jack and Leigh. It would all come down to the official results sheet for those three!

We then all popped in to the bus, glued to the screen to see how Svein would go. He is a very unassuming bloke – he’s extremely talented, and very professional, but he just gets his job done quietly without interest in being in the limelight.

So whenever he says anything like “I’m going to give it a dip” or “I haven’t crashed in a while, so I reckon it might be time to take a couple of risks” we know he is going to be on a good one. And it was very good!

He crossed the line 6s in front of the race leader for the whole day. Svein came back, and after the hugs and backslaps from we at the bus, he headed across to warm down, while the rest of us watched (with trepidation) the remaining riders head for the line.

It was a sign that he’d taken himself quite deep when he was about to get on his bike, then had to stop as he looked to be on the brink of throwing up. Always a good sign!

Slowly the remaining riders came through, and none seemed to be getting close to Svein – and the excitement ratcheted up with each finisher. Eventually only the winner from last year remained on the course, and as the time flashed up with a couple of hundred metres to ride, Matt White, our director sportif led us in the start of the celebrations.

It was a great moment, and a great day for the team overall as Dan Martin had backed up his win in the Tour of Poland last week with a big win in an Italian one day race as well.

A double victory for Garmin-Transitions, and so today Svein rides in the leader’s jersey for the race, meaning the boys have some work to do to defend our top spot.

Bring it on.

The body has taken a bit of a pounding and I have less skin now than the start of the month, but no broken bones or injuries that will keep me off the bike, which is always a bonus in my mind.

Midway through July I decided it was time to take a bit of a break anyway. A lot of racing up until that point and the body was calling for a rest.

Feeling ok, despite the road rash.

Maybe a year or two ago I would have had difficulty taking a break, especially at this point of the year, however experience has taught me that when the body is that tired rest is needed. Nothing will be lost by doing so, but continuing to race and train when the body is clearly depleted will send you into a big hole, which you may take a long time to come out of. Blood tests confirmed that a number of key things were depleted and so it was certainly time to rest up.

What was the outcome? A fresh Dan Patten racing again. Soon after returning I was back to my usual self, feeling fresh and riding aggressively.

I placed 9th in a kermesse in Bottelare, a race dominated by the big hitters such as Mario Willems and Tony Bracke. However I was there also and it was only the final decisive spit that I missed out on, otherwise I would have been challenging for the win with these guys. As it was I had to settle for 9th and a Primie, but was certainly a good sign of how the body had recovered and whats still to come.

It was a day later when I was hit by the car.

Nothing I could do to avoid it, as it crossed the bike lane not seeing me descending down it and bam straight into the side of the car. I think I instinctively turned my body (as much as possible) away to prevent going head first through the window and instead bounced off the side. However quite a shock and had me seeing stars for a few days after. However luckily I somehow managed to escape without any broken bones (they must be strong!), which would have been the end of my season there and then.

Racing in Erondegem.

This obviously put in doubt whether I would line up for the Ronde van de Provincie Antwerpen just 3 days later, but I decided to start. Four days of flat, fast racing with the likeliness of bunch sprints or very small time gaps I decided to ride a bit more conservatively the first two days and ride myself into the race.

That I did and was feeling surprisingly strong and fresh in doing so. The final two stages I would go into attack mode.

On the third stage I got away and it was a fellow Brit in Steve Lampier who came with me - two Brits away in the Tour of Antwerpen!  LOL.

We soon established 30+ seconds before another group came across to us. It was all going to plan so far - that was until I got wiped out by another rider's bidon whilst going round a corner. Out it popped and down I went, another heavy tumble.

I chased back through the cars and once recovered and back in the peloton - injuries aside - I felt comfortable following the wheels for the rest of the day.

And so to the final, queen stage; 185km, windy, wet and some (smooth) cobbles.

I decided to go for broke. Once again I got away early and formed the break. With the gap going to one minute plus and the cars being brought through there were good signs.

Caught by a few others after being out in front.

However around 80km in the cars were taken out and bunch was closing in on us... my cue to attack again! One rider came with but then he sat up so I was left alone. Eventually another group come across to me and with some fresh legs in the group they gave me a bit of a hard time.

I was also very much outnumbered as many teams had two or more riders in the group. I went through a bit of a bad patch without a drink and by 140km the race had split into a number of groups and I found myself back in the peloton. I had ridden so aggressively to get the time needed to challenge but it wasn't to be this time.

I was to win the bunch sprint though - a small consolation, after what had been a pretty crazy day in the saddle. Have a look at this video of the stage (I'm the one with the bandaged arm and leg!):

So I returned from Antwerpen without the result that I wanted and with less skin than I started, but I'm more than happy with the way I felt in the race and coming off the back of the month I've had, it can only be a good sign for the rest of the season.

'Til next time!  Dan.

Ruaraidh takes his first win in the heartland at Aarsele. (click for the full image)

Your first win, congratulations.

"Thanks! It was in Aarsele, two minutes from where I live, an U23 race.

"It was windy and raining; I got away with eight others and had two team mates with me – that meant in the last few laps it was up to us.

"We were away for 100 K and in the last few laps we tried to get to get clear but it came down to a nine man sprint and I took it."

And the results are coming now?

"I got second behind Patrick Cocquyt the other day in an ‘elite without contract’ race.

"Cocquyt is just so strong.

"And I got a fifth behind Mario Willems – he’s top winner this year on 17 – but he was quite lucky to win that one, a Lithuanian crashed behind him and that let him get the gap.

"Guys like Cocquyt and Willems, you have to watch them all the time – they’re the race winners."

Ruaraidh is certainly enjoying his racing.

Who do you train with?

"Normally on my own but I was out the other day with Clinton Avery (read his interview on Pez) who’s just gone stagiaire with Radioshack.

"But there are Aussie and English guys with Kingsnorth that I can go out with, there’s a good community of English speakers."

Have you come across any Scotsmen out there?

"Yeah, there’s a skinny guy (Mr. Young?) and a solid-looking guy (Mr. Nicholson?).

"I’ve seen them at races a few times; the 'solid guy' is starting to come into a bit of form, getting some results."

Who’s been coaching you?

"Allan Peiper from Columbia has been helping me a lot; he was out here when he was even younger than me, so he knows what it’s like.

"I bounce ideas off him – and I’m in touch with my coach back home, Terry Jayde.

"Terry has coached guys like Greg Henderson and was New Zealand coach, he’s really good."

Twice up the Kemmelberg makes for a hard race. (click for the full image)

What’s a typical week like?

"I can race three times each week but if I have a big race for the club at the weekend then I’ll just train in the week, so I’m not tired for the race.

"Monday is always an easy day, though – cruise for an hour and have a coffee."

Are you still with the family?

"Yeah, but I cook for myself, their meals are a lot different to mine – they like their frites!

"I enjoy cooking for myself, you can have a lot of time on your hands here and it’s good to spend time in the kitchen."

And is the big bowl of pre-race pasta still the thing?

"Yeah, that’s part of the religion – three hours before the start!"

Ruaraidh is keeping a level head, taking the highs and lows in his stride. (click for the full image)

How’s your weight?

"Up and down, but I don’t worry about it – there was a time when I did ‘that cyclist thing’ and decided to lose weight so I could climb better, but I lost a lot of power too and now I don’t fret about it.

"I weigh 74/75 kilos and feel good at that."

How’s the equipment standing up?

"I’ve been really lucky having the connection with Allan and Columbia, I broke my bike – that’ll be a warranty job back home – and Allan gave me George Hincapie’s Scott from last year – it’s amazing.

"Allan understands and just helps out."

How’s that Belgian weather?

"It’s cracked a little – more wind and rain.

"But we had four crazy weeks of scorching sun, 30/33 degrees, I was enjoying that!

"But lately, every race has been in the rain."

Are you going home for the Tour of the Southland?

"Yeah, in two weeks – my first season in Belgium and I’ve enjoyed it.

"I’m organising things for next season and hope to stay for eight months.

"I’ll be riding the Southland back home and hopefully the Oceania track champs, but I’ll take a couple of weeks break, first."

Rightly enjoying the attention and fruits of all the hard work. (click for the full image)

Advice for riders thinking of coming to Belgium?

"If you wanna do it – do it!

"It’s a great place; come with friends and make friends here, that way it’ll help keep your head on when you get the ups and downs.

"One thing’s for sure – you’ll find out if you’ve got what it takes to be a bike rider!"

Sound advice. With thanks to Ruaraidh for taking the time to talk to VeloResults, and wishing him all the best for 'The Southland'.

Pictures courtesy of Roland Desmet.

So to spice it up a little, here's something you probably haven't seen before - a DS (in this case, Whitey) needing a pizza midway through the last stage of the Tour!

Since the Tour, I’ve been having a relatively quiet time, reboosting the energy reserves, and catching up with the boys who need treatment in Girona as and if they need. And now, on the eve of heading off to the Eneco Tour, I finally get myself into gear to post another blog entry. Quality.

This has been a little thing of mine throughout the year to stay atop of how many hotels, miles, and so on that I use in a season.

It’s an approximation as far as the distance travelled goes – it’s not that I don’t possess the technology to measure how far I drive (we are sponsored by Garmin after all), it’s more that I invariably forget to write down the distance at some point through the month. Then someone else takes that Garmin Nuvi out for a drive, and all the numbers are ruined, and I go into a little bit of an internal meltdown over it. So bear with me.

The stats, particularly the km driven, are only for transfers to - and from- races, as the between stages part is frankly too hard for me to cope with.

Tally at the end of July

• Countries – 5 (2010 Total 9)
• Hotel Days – 27 (118)
• Hotels – 20 (61)
• Flying km – 0 (29281)
• Driving km – 1816 (13619)

Other than the above numbers of awesomeness, a few other things have gone down in the world of Garmin-Transitions: we have scored a top 10 in the Tour, then San Sebastian with Ryder Hesjedal; then followed this up with a victory for Irish prodigy Dan Martin at the Tour of Poland; and finally just today we saw Tyler Farrar back on top of the winner’s podium having won the Vatenfall Cyclassic for the second year in a row.

All of these results on their own are fantastic. Put them together to have all come from the one team, and couple them to the mysterious scoring system that is used to rank cycling teams on the UCI Pro Tour, and Garmin-Transitions has had a very good three weeks since the end of the Tour de France.

Sports Director. Lionel Marie and me.

I am off to the Eneco Tour tomorrow (which is a week-long stage race through Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg), which will be good to get me back into the swing of things, and also to take my mind off my fiancee Mands being back in Aus.

Jez Hunt in the break.

After over five hours of undulating torture, Geraint Thomas outsprinted his teammate Peter Kennaugh for the title after the third Sky rider in the break, Ian Stannard - who was suffering like a dog, was finally dropped, leaving the two youngsters to it.

VeloResults travelled to the Championship, to watch the action and help out a few of the riders with bottles and the like, so we thought you'd like to see the photos from our trip - particularly since Geraint wore his British Champion's jersey with such valour in the Tour de France.

Gallery

Result

1. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) 180 kilometres in 5-07-08
2. Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) at same time
3. Ian Stannard (Team Sky) at 2-20
4. Jeremy Hunt (Cervelo Test Team) at 7-59
5. Simon Richardson (Sigma Sport-Specialized) at 8-23
6. David Clarke (Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago) at 10-41
7. Dan Fleeman (Team Raleigh) at 10-43
8. Andy Fenn (100% ME) at 13-56
9. Rob Partridge (Endura) at 17-24
10. Paul Esposti (BCV) at 17-25
11. Chris Froome (Team Sky) 17-54
@ 1 lap
12. Rhys Lloyd (Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago)
13. Kristian House (Rapha-Condor-Sharp)
14. Ross Creber (Endura)
15. Ben Greenwood (Rapha-Condor-Sharp)
16. Richard Cartland (Corley Cycles)
17. Doug Dewey (Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago)
18. Tomas Swift-Metcalfe (Palmeiras Resort)
19. Steve Lampier (Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago)
20. Tim Kennaugh (100% ME)

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.

It was a strange sensation – seeing things getting set up and just departing – not a pattern I am used to following at all! We then headed to our hotel, which hilariously was the race hotel for two of the other teams in the race! Bloody hell. And here I’d been promising a quiet weekend, barely any bike racing: “We’ll just be watching the finale on Saturday afternoon, otherwise it’s a total holiday babe…” Famous last words or what?

We did indeed have a triffic time, doing the time honoured travel cliche when in San Sebastian of hitting the Pintxoserias the night before the race (having almost avoided seeing anyone related to the race for a whole day). Pintxos (pronounced “pinchos” with the “os” being pronounced like in “possum”) are little niblets of food on a toothpick served over bars. You go in, grab a plate, pick up whatever tickles your fancy then pay depending on how many toothpicks are on your plate when you’re done. It’s a fantastic way to cruise through an evening, and was an dining style originated in the Basque country (of which San Sebastian is a major town) forever ago.

Ok. So you may have noted “almost” in the paragraph above when talking of avoiding race-related people. We did stroll out of our hotel room to the (ahem) glorious view of a couple of the riders being massaged by their soigneurs. Bike riders are nice blokes on the whole. They’re also very good at riding bikes, and are the main part of a very small global population that looks relatively good, or at least cool, in body hugging bike riding kit. However, as my fiancee’s shudders upon through-door glimpses of them receiving massages attested, their skinny, milky white frames are not the finest sight in the world. Heh.

When the race was finally underway, we continued our touristic jaunt, getting a bit of sun, having a bit of a swim, doing a bit of people watching and enjoying the day. Again, a very odd feeling for me while being in a town where there was a big bike race on. We did roll up to the team bus to see how the staff were, and then rolled to a pub to watch the finale. It was great (although unsurprising) to see Ryder getting dropped off at the bottom of the key selective climb by Jules: stalwarts and hard nuts of the team getting the job done yet again!

Ryder has enjoyed some great results recently.

We then watched the show unfold with attack, counterattack, move and reaction all going down before our eyes. Ryder was strong, as ever, and produced a great result in finishing in fifth place. We celebrated his performance in the bar, then moseyed down to the team bus to have a chat to the crew before they headed back home, and we continued with our holiday. It was a very different feel to any other race I’ve been to.

I’ll be back in the thick of it soon though!