VeloResults

Deno Davie – from Manchester Wheeler to Carrera Pro (2)

Back in the day, when I started racing in the mid to late 80’s, two riders dominated British road racing; Deno Davie and Paul Curran.

Both raced for the mighty Manchester Wheelers and I was lucky enough to get to know both later on in my life.

La Vuelta a España 2010 (0)

The Vuelta presentation was in Sevilla this year (normally Madrid), the start town of next year’s race. Some of the old stars of cycling where in attendance; Thevenet, Olano, Hinault and introducing the show Pedro Delgado.

Hinault pointed out that one of his hardest day on a bike was the stage to Avila in 1983 which he won stage and overall.

It Was The Best Of Years! (0)

Ed Hood is a sad old git who is stuck in the minutia of cycling facts and figures! The trouble is that so am I, maybe even worse! Ed was very excited by the book (Tu vueltas) I sent him with all the details of all La Vuelta a España’s from 1935 to 2008, lots of info for us sado’s.

Ed touched on some details earlier, but two specific years caught my eye.

All To Play For (0)

Talking to people who had been to the start in Holland and the stages through Belgium and Germany it was a great success which attracted bigger crowds than expected, if they could only have moved the Spanish weather there it would have been perfect.

The stages up there were not expected to affect the eventual overall out-come, but the next week in the area of Valencia were, and did!

Is the Vuelta too hard? (0)

La Vuelta; have you seen the parcours ? Brutal !

In my opinion, too hard; if it was Italy or Spain they’d engineer it to suit the characteristics of the ‘home boy,’ but in España it’s one for the mountain men – maybe they forgot that Alberto wasn’t riding; that we may have seen the best of Carlos; that Valverde will have a bad day and that José Manuel Fuente and Luis Ocaña have left us (God rest their souls).

La Vuelta a España – Day 5: Stage 15, Cudillero – Ponferrada (0)

The last day for us, but the sun was out, Asturias was looking at it’s best and Bill Medley and Jennifer Warne were on Kiss FM; “I’ve had, the time of my life,” – damn right!

Cudillero is a nice spot, not unlike one of the ’smugglers villages’ in Cornwall, piled high into a steep cleft in the cliffs.

We were there before the teams and had time for a wander, a coffee and to buy an Asturias T-shirt, I’m 53, it’s sad, I know.

La Vuelta a España – Day 4: Stage 14, Oviedo – E. E. Fuentes de Invierno (0)

The weather was glorious on Sunday morning. After liberating the car from the car park – at huge expense – we were off, and stumbled right onto race route. The direction arrows made life very easy as we followed the whole 100 mile parcours.

Race route ran through El Padrun, a tiny hill top village, in fact it was the first classified climb of the day. Four years ago, Davie and I stumbled upon El Padrun whilst searching for the Angliru.

La Vuelta a España – Day 3: Stage 13, San Vicente de la B. – Alto de L´Angliru (0)

Hola!

It’s 15.10 Saturday and we’re two kilometres from the finishing line of the Angliru – it’s cold, nippy hand, freezy feet cold. It’s been glorious weather until now, but low cloud has descended and we’re a wee bit panicky about photography, albeit there’s around two hours ’til race time.

Davie had us up early, we got lost trying to exit Oviedo in the correct direction, but on the second pass we picked up the A630, hung a right to El Foz and in no time were drinking café con leche in a café at the foot of the Angliru.

La Vuelta a España – Day 2: Rest Day (0)

Hola!

“Adiós Valverde” – so says the sports paper AS in response to Alejandro dropping 3′ 23″ yesterday in what should have been an innocuous transition stage – those Spanish journos aren’t shy.

Sleep came easily last night; but I was on the laptop for 07.00 to get my Angliru piece written.

La Vuelta a España – Day 1: Stage 12, Burgos – Suances (0)

There’s gas in the car, the sun is out, we just had Donna Summer on Kiss FM and we’re en route Comillas to pester the Astana mechanics about what gears Bert and Levi will be riding tomorrow – what more could you want out of life ?

I wasn’t so chirpy at 04.45 yesterday in the Days Inn at Stansted when the alarm rang.

Life and La Vuelta ’08 – According to Fabian Jeker (0)

Every year I write a route preview of the up and coming Vuelta a España for Pez Cycling News, normally I talk to the locals in my village and last year I had the input of Alex Coutts (Babes Only-Flanders) and David Harrigan (DFL). This year I managed to enlist the help of ex-pro, Fabian Jeker, and we spoke about next year’s Vuelta – but as these things often go, we spoke at length on many other topics: life; cycling; Festina; and the future.

Fabian has the perfect background to give a pro riders insight into La Vuelta. He was a pro from 1991 to 2005 and in that time rode 5 Tours de France, 4 Giro d’Italia’s and 9 Vuelta a Epaña’s and he likes to add that he has also driven a VIP car in 2 Vuelta’s, so that makes 11 Vuelta’s that he has “competed” in – and if you see the way he drives, well, its still a competition!

On The Road at La Vuelta (0)

Here we are at the start of this year’s Vuelta a España in the Galician Town of Vigo – if you don’t know where that is, its on the most westerly coast at the most northern bit, just above Portugal, in fact it’s only 30 kilometers from Portugal.