Ed: They’ve never been the same since Daniel Morelon retired and Hughie Porter had that crash, then they ditched the big motors and...  

Editor: Hold on - go and speak to Craig MacLean! 

 Ed: Aye, right, he’ll know a bit, being an ex-world champ and all...

Craig, thank you for taking the time to talk to us; are the qualifying criteria too strict for the Worlds now – we seem to have lost a lot of the characters? 

"It’s been like that since they streamlined the Worlds in the mid-90’s; I don’t think it makes any difference to the eventual winners. 

"But outsiders can still make it through; Olga Panarina of Belarus, who was fourth in the Women’s sprint was in on a wildcard, she only rode one World Cup."

Much of the racing took place in front of small audiences.

What happened to the fans? 

"Apparently it was sold out over the weekend but there were a lot of no-shows; they certainly weren’t a vocal crowd. 

"It seems that it was hard to actually get your hands on the tickets until immediately before the events; a lot of people didn’t want to take the chance of travelling and not getting their seats."

A good track? 

"It looks good; Nimke’s kilometre record certainly showed the potential. 

"The way it’s designed, it’s hard to come from the back; the transitions are difficult if you’re trying to get over someone who’s on the black line. 

"Once the riders had figured that out, you could see that they wanted to go from the front."

Who knows what would have happened, were it not for the crash.

Would Kennaugh and Cav have won the Madison if there hadn’t been the crash? 

"People could see how the race was unfolding as well as I could; they certainly didn’t seem to have taken a grip of the race, like the Danes did, but maybe they were biding their time – who knows?"

Cav’s 7th place in the scratch was a bit disappointing. 

"I think he was just using it to find his track legs for the Madison; but maybe he was just a little over confident - I thought he made a lot of little moves, instead of saving himself for one major attack."

Phinney, Wiggins; hugely impressive - but hasn’t the pursuit lost it’s cachet since the big road stars stopped riding? 

"I think that it gives it more credibility that guys can’t just come off the road and win it – if it was that easy then it would demean the event. 

"We’ve moved into a different era now; specialisation - if you don’t specialise then you can’t win."

Taylor Phinney will break many more records, when he gains strength and uses the big gears that everyone else does.

Phinney, pursuit gold, kilometre silver – special! 

"He’s an awesome athlete, but I think that the UCI might be looking into that suit he was wearing, he could hardly move his arms; it looked as if it was designed to hold him in the perfect position. 

"If you look at his kilometre time, it shows you how much he has in reserve when he goes through the first kilometre of a pursuit."

Daniel Davie; a 1:02 kilometre, but we saw a 1:01 from him in a World Cup – a disappointment? 

"I don’t think so, he hasn’t trained for it; he hasn’t done the lactic tolerance training that’s required for a kilo. 

"He’s trained as a sprinter and won’t have gone beyond 500 metres; that shows because his first half is very quick.

"I think he has a lot of sprint potential; he did 10.1 at a Revolution meeting at Manchester. 

"With the kilometre not being an Olympic event, British Cycling isn’t going to spend the money on training for it."

The sprint seemed more tactical this year – less ‘drag racing?’ 

"It was a good series; but if you look at the qualifying now, it takes a 10.2 to get through – it used to be 10.6. 

"And there’s very little between the times of the qualifiers, that means that you can’t just ‘take off’ and leave a guy, it’s too close for that, you can’t be certain you’ll beat him.  

"The silver medallist, Awang from Malaysia was very exciting, he’s got a big future ahead of him; he made one error against Bauge and paid for it – but I think he’ll be world champion, one day.

"He’s trained by John Beasley in Melbourne and has a lot of track time with the Aussies."

Awang has arrived - and has a big future ahead of him.

What’s your take on Bos going to the road? 

"It was something he talked about as long ago as Athens; if he’d won there, I think he’d have made the move. 

"He’s not getting any younger and, if he wants to do it, it has to be now because it’ll take him a year or two to get fully into it – I also think that Chris did his head in with his performances at Beijing."

Silver for the GB team sprint, will they be happy? 

"Yes, it was a good time and Matt Crampton rode a sound third lap; but they were never going to beat the French."

Only fourth in the team pursuit.

"They’ve had a few problems – Ed Clancy broke his foot and they had a food poisoning scare. 

"Their times weren’t exactly slow (4:00); I spoke to their coach and he reckoned that the potential of that line up if they’re all on song is a 3:57 – given that their eye is on the London Olympics in 2012 and they have four years to work on it, I don’t think they’ll be unhappy."

This one was for her.

Vicky Pendleton was tearful after the sprint.

"It meant a lot to her, previously she’s always felt obliged to win for someone else, but his time it was for her self; that was why she was so emotional.

"She took three medals from three events and so did Lizzie Armistead; those were very gutsy performances."

Will David Brailsford be happy? 

"He’ll be more than happy – he’s already said so. 

"He was adamant that they hadn’t come here with domination in mind, but they took away nine medals."

Could the SKY road team launch and hype cause team GB to take its eye off the track ball? 

"I don’t think so; they’ll draft in the management to handle it; I think Shane Sutton will be very happy to be involved with the road again and there’s a full structure of coaching and management in place for the track. 

"To a large extent, the riders drive the programme now, anyway; they want their place on the plan, the competition, the medals."

Did you enjoy commentating? 

[Craig worked for the BBC during the Championships, doing trackside with Gabby Logan and in the box with Hugh Porter - ed.]

"Yeah, it’s different, quite stressful, you have a narrow window to say something concise and relevant – I don’t think people realise how difficult it really is."

With thanks to Craig for his time and insights.

The press horde.

I think it's because a lot of those that work there are freelance and any new face could be taking work from them. But even in the 'real' world, if you don't speak first, no one will talk to you.

Oh look, a beer garden...

In Belgium, folks always ask what you're about and then you have a pils together - or a dozen pils, more like.

In Germany, maybe because they are conservative by nature, there's not a lot of chat. Anyway, enough of my un-PC attitudes and racial stereo-typing.

They're off.

Sometimes you just know when someones going to win, Cancellara for instance and Bettini too. The road race is obviously much more of a lottery than the test, but when I saw Bettini training on the circuit on Friday, it was apparent that he was a driven-man. He wore a mask of concentration and determination that spoke more than any words in a newspaper. This morning (Sunday) too, business-like, focused, no time for autographs, there was a race to win.

Carlos Sastre.

However, it would be wrong to forget the role played by Italian coach, Franco Ballerini, who once again welded-together a strong, united team, which ran rings round a Spanish squad; which was every bit as strong as the Italians, on paper.

The early break.

Millar was well-in the mix until the bell lap, but that's when it really matters. The Worlds is like Milan-San Remo, it's all going to happen between the Poggio and the Via Roma, but you have to get there with the "heads" to be in the race. The Worlds is really just two laps, but it's just two laps with five hours plus, in your legs.

Oscar and Dave.

Mark Cavendish looked OK until mid-race, but it was no surprise to see him off the back as the shadows lengthened. The Italians didn't pick Benatti or Petacchi, so there was no way that Cavendish was going to get a result. No disrespect to 'Cav'; he's had a marvellous first season and if he continues to progress, is a real star in the making. But let the laddie pay his dues at this level before we think about him battling with the Azzuri for the last two laps.

Snack time.

Before the race it was chaotic around the Italian bus, there were hundreds of fans, looking for a glimpse of the Squadra.

Schumacher before the race. We just can't quite get behind this guy for some reason.

Meanwhile, home favourite, Schumacher was able to get out of his car, stretch and chat to friends in complete peace. I think the Germans like the actual sporting event, but they're not into the Belgian or Italian pagan idolatory stuff.

Race watching is thirsty work - time for a beer.

It was a beautiful day in Stuttgart, in the first couple of laps, riders were removing under vests as it got hotter and hotter. It made for a different race from the U23 event where strong headwinds on the climbs and strong tail winds on the fast parts of the course, conspired to make it very difficult to form a breakaway. There was little wind today and the result was an attacking race.

Dave and Paolo on the big screen.

The official finishing sheet lists two pages of DNF, virtually three quarters of the field, that tells a story. The organisers were lucky with the weather, earlier in the week it had almost felt as if there was snow in the air. One year, in a Northern European Worlds, the UCI are going to get "caught" by the weather with this new, late date. At Plouay in 2000 it was horrible, wet and very cold. In addition, many riders have had a long, long season, the racing starts in January and by the end of September, they've had enough.

The three best riders in the world. Maybe.

It's 10.00 am Monday CET and I'm sitting in Stuttgart airport, waiting on my flight to Gatwick. That's The Worlds for another year, Varese in Italy for 2008.

Still, Trossachs next Sunday. Braw.

Kolobnev deserved the silver - at least.

Oscar's team couldn't match the Italians.

The ladies race was on first: I have to rant, I'm afraid. What is Jeanie Longo doing? What is the French Federation doing? What is the UCI doing? It's not good for the sport for a woman who looks about 60 to finish in the bunch; she's a remarkable athlete, no doubt. But that's not the point, it's time to stop, Jeanie. Now!  OK, I feel better now.

Cool Italia.

The idea I had today was based on what "espoir" means - 'hope' in French. I decided I'd 'chap-up' some guys I know and see what their hopes were for the race. I thought that I would just do a 'post-script' with their results, but as the day went on, it dawned; "why don't I grab them at the finish, and a get an 'after' quote, to go with the 'before' one?"

I had also thought about covering the disparity there is between teams, many are on tight budgets, whilst the Italians slide-in, looking like an ad for Prada shades.

The Italians had to ride their "B" bikes after their hotel garage was robbed. They still looked gallus tho'.

I was lucky, but as a famous golfer once said; "it's strange, the more I practice, the luckier I get!" It's a bit like that with writing about cycling, the more you are out scraping about car parks before races, the more story and photo opportunities you find.

I was at the team car park about three hours before the start, there wasn't much doing, so I took to barrier-hanging at the Ladies event. There were girls minutes-down within a lap, but they all had the best carbon kit, and - radios, I can only surmise this is so their manager can tell them when it's time to 'keep over to the right', as they get lapped.

Back at the car park the teams started to arrive, I had a wee bit of that luck with the Aussie team - Simon Clarke rode the Grenoble six last year and was happy to chat about the Aussie game plan. At the finish, I'd be even happier I'd talked to Simon before the start.

The young Danish Squad.

Michael Mørkøv of Denmark, who I've looked-after several times at sixes is always happy to chat; and he looks skinnier than ever. I wouldn't put it on Pez, but Michael's six day partner, Alex Rasmussen - who beat all the CSC guys to win the Danish Elite road championship and was world scratch race champion - is, according to Michael; "fatter than ever!" He had a bad crash in the summer and broke his hand, so he's been off the bike and had his paws in the cookie jar.

Daniel Martin will be with Team Slipstream next year.

After Michael, I tracked-down Kurt Bogaerts who looks after the 'Sean Kelly House', he took me round the time trial course in the car, behind David O'Loughlin at last years Worlds in Salzburg. One of his charges is hot property; Daniel Martin, he has good genes, his mum is Stephen Roches sister and he's been getting good results. So good, that the 'boys in Argyle' - Team Slipstream, have signed him, so next year he'll be with Backstedt, Danielson, Millar and Zabriskie.

Mark Cassidy - finished 76th out of 111 finishers. Mind you, there were 56 DNFs!

With that part of the job done, I stationed myself at the top of the hill after the start and watched the race, in between writing my Pez copy on my BlackBerry.

There was an early break of three, then two and when that crumbled there was a lot of activity but nothing could stick.

Having walked the course, I would have bet money on a breakaway. However, what Daniel Martin was saying at the finish was that it was really difficult for a break to make progress, the hard bits were straight into the strong wind, which blew for most of the day, and the fast part of the circuit had a howling tail wind which made it nigh-on impossible to escape the flying bunch.

Dane Michael Mørkøv in the early laps.

Therefore, to my surprise, 50 young men, all set on glory, hammered into the finishing straight; a crash was inevitable and it was pre-race favourite Hagen, among others, who wrote-off his lovely Norwegian kit, the crash was caused by; "a French guy". Everyone nodded sagely at this explanation as if it was always French guys who cause the stack-ups.

Michael Mørkøv, 81st.

I had managed to position myself just past the finish, keeping out of the way of the stewards - who really are on the big power trip - so as I could pounce on 'my' guys at the death.

Silver!

To my absolute delight, Simon's team mate, Wesley Sulzberger grabbed silver among the mayhem behind winner, Peter Veltis and I got a couple of decent pics of the two of them after the finish. I then stalked Simon, Michael and Daniel to their respective pits to get quotes and more pics. I managed to grab all three of them and got what I wanted.

Then it was time to scurry back to the Press Centre, tidy and send the words on the BlackBerry, edit and label the pics, then send them - which all takes a lot of time.

Simon Clarke (Australia) before.

Adam from City Couriers is over, along with fellow die hard Worlds follower, 'Wee John' and a meet for a beer was pencilled-in, however, I was a tad tired and when I finish in the Press Centre it's an hour of travelling on two trains then a 15 minute walk back to the flat. Sorry guys, we'll get one today, for sure !

Just tidying this up at 08.25 Sunday in the Press Centre, it's a lovely blue sky and there are car parks out there to scrape about, gotta go!

Simon Clarke (Australia) after.

The fans baggy their pitch for the whole week.

Today was “course preview” day, I had hoped to borrow a bike, but eventually I thought; ‘ach, I’ll just walk!’ for the first couple of hours this was fine, especially since there was lots to see; not least ‘still banned’ Danilo Di Luca, training with the Italian team.

However, as I got round to the last quarter of the 19 kilometre course and I was walking on an uneven verge with traffic whizzing past and feeling like I was on an SAS training mission, I had to question the wisdom of the wheeze.

I made it though, and it’s a good ‘war story’ – the results of my wanderings, ranting and snapping are up on Pez.

Danilo Di Luca - a victim of the politics, or a man on borrowed time?

The Dutch qualify quite a few riders for this race.

My Elite TT piece hasn’t been up until now here, but yesterday we had plenty of content for the site, today there’s no race to report, so Pez will have held the piece over until today, bearing in mind that in Vancouver they are eight hours behind us.

Richard (aka Pez), and Jered (who does a lot of the computer stuff), are both at Interbike in Las Vegas.It’s sponsorship that keeps the site going, so it’s essential that they gets out there and meet potential advertisers, Interbike is ideal because absolutely everyone is there.

Anyway, it means I’m pretty much left to get on with it; I’ve been lodging my stuff direct into the site via our dedicated system, which is a bit scary for a computer philistine like me.

Dave Zee cruising with the local riders.

The course is a stotter, very hard, there’s a tough little snap at Herdweg and the Birkenkopf climb is a killer, very long and tough, in addition the run-in to the line is heart breaking, dragging relentlessly upwards - these three obstacles have to scaled 14 times each.

Paolo and chums get to know the climb.

If there was ever a circuit for Moreno Argentin or Giuseppe Saronni, then this is it; that uphill sprint would have seen either of them leave mere mortals in their vapour trails. A circuit like this is what pro racing is all about, a gradual wearing-down process, like Billy Bilsland says; ‘the race is the last hour – but you have to get to that hour!’

1k to go.

As you might expect in the City of Porsche and Mercedes, the organisation seems to be to a very high standard, with practically every inch barriered-off.

Tram lines criss-crossing the parcours.

The surface look good, but as is always the case with an urban circuit, it will be very dangerous if it rains; many vehicles here are diesel and there are a lot of tram lines on the circuit.

Barriers everywhere.

As far as picking a winner, it’s made for small guys with excellent power to weight ratios – Di Luca (if he rides?), Valverde, Freire or maybe Old Bettini has been timing everything for today. Home advantage is a big factor too, so Stefan Schumacher has to be worth a medal. But I certainly got the impression today of a man fully focussed and very determined to do a job in 'The Cricket' today; the legal action the City of Stuttgart was trying to take against him riding has been rejected by a judge and the Italian is free to ride.

It's not an easy hill - even when just on a recce mission and saving your legs.

There are a lot of politics in the air here, never a good thing during a big tournament; it detracts from what the events are meant to be all about.

The Germans have banned Eddy Merckx, Gianni Bugno and their own countryman, Rudi Altig from official appearances at the series, this hasn’t gone down at all well with a lot of people. Merckx, in particular was banned for criticising them – which amounts to censorship, not a popular concept in Liberal Europe. Anyway, enough of the politics, already!

This place is the pits.

I said on Pez, that if a tall guy wins, then he’ll need to be skinny – step forward Samuel Sanchez or ‘Pippo’ Pozzato – another class act if his mind is in the right place. It’s the under 23 road race tomorrow, I’ve not decided how I’m going to approach it yet, but I’m looking forward to it – if only the sun would come-out!

Big Vlad looking for someone to chum him round the course - if only Ed had borrowed that bike.

It’s a wet day in Stuttgart, there are still nearly three hours until Simon Zahner of Switzerland rolls-down the ramp as first starter in the Elite time trial, let’s hope that the skies have cleared by then, apart from me wanting to keep dry, a lot of the course will be damn dangerous if it’s damp.

Getting to the Killesberg Messe (exhibition centre) was much easier today, the train system is straightforward once you are over the initial anxiety of getting organised. The big thing is the accreditation, without it you can do very little, the security here is very tight, there are stewards everywhere and passes are checked at every point.

Peek-a-boo Bjarne! What's up? No creds?

The trains are full of ‘salary men’, shop assistants and students, just like in Scotland, early morning smiles are few, but at least you can get a decent coffee.

I’m hoping to follow a rider again today, an early starter then watch the comings and going of the ‘big-hitters.’

Fast forward to 20.15. Didn't get my Hugh Porter interview, I was "too late", never mind, try again tomorrow.

I left the Press Centre at around 11.30, in search of a brolley, it was teeming-down by that time and I had a lot of wandering about to do. Eventually, I 'obtained' a Stuttgart brolley (don't ask) and headed-off, in search of a lift. I'd decide to do a piece where I checked-out the Elite course but also looked at the pre-race goings-on.

Dave Miller heads for the start.

I had a brain-wave for my lift, Giovanni Lombardi (ex-Cipo lead-out man and Olympic gold medallist with 44 wins on the road, to boot) is now looking after the Argentinean team. I helped look after him at the Copenhagen six a few years ago and a deal was soon done.

Giovanni Lombardi - my lift.

I had a good wander round the pits after that, the rider we were following, Matias Medici wasn't off until 12.42, so I had time to explore.

Ben Day, the Australian was warming-up; more like a 'death-sesh' on the turbo. The riders went off in 'waves' to avoid a confusing situation with riders on different laps catching each other and chaos developing. The last wave contained all the favourites, but I was surprised they hadn't put Grabsch in it after his time trial stage win in Spain.

Vlad Karpets gets his bike check.

Ben Day was in the first 'wave' with Medici and Plowman Craven's (maybe not for long after the move he pulled in the criterium series, though) Kiwi, Gordon McCauley. He remembered me from Girvan and we had a blether for few minutes, he explained that he hasn't got absolute top-end speed but has strength and likes it when it's cold, wet and hard. That's why he likes Girvan, so much.

The rain never halted, I reported back to the Argentinean pits at the appointed hour, Giovanni pointed at the rear door handle and we were off. Like I usually say, it's all on Pez.

Medici of Argentina hammers it.

I didn't go too overboard on that description but I did want to see what extra work the pros had to do. It wasn't too sore for them, the dog-leg on the flat and fast dual carriageway was extended and if anything, the course was less technical.

The under 23s had a tricky turn around an interchange on that leg whilst it was a simple fly-over turn for the pros.

Brad Wiggins.

After my two laps I decided to lurk around the pits of a few of the favourites, Zabriskie, Cancellara, Millar and Wiggins. Again, it's all on Pez here, but are we taking things too far with team GB? All those 'minders', the Barloworld bus, the riders stashed-away; it's all very well trying to get every advantage, but we simply weren't in the same race as Cancellara.

Move back please - Dave isn't seeing anyone today.

Meanwhile, the Swiss warmed up in the most informal of ways [below], no minders, no bus, you could almost feel the serenity around him.

Cancellara - relaxed, focused, in control. Nae drama.

I was lucky-enough to be right on the spot when Zabriskie had his brush with the technical commissars, it really was touch-and-go whether he rode; 'no, no, it's not OK, your bike is not legal!' was what was said to him.

C'mon man, the bars have been are cool all year. DZ and JV fret a little.

I think I would have had the bike checked earlier, if it was me.

Tsk Tsk. Dave Zee's tri-bars are 4mm too long! Actually, they measured them to a different point at the Worlds - to the end of the level, rather than the centre.

Anyway, a good race, a great winner and time for bed, now!  Road race course preview tomorrow, talk to you after that.

We’re here for the Worlds in Stuttgart, the Under-23 time trial was this morning and ladies time trial was this afternoon. I was lucky-enough to follow the Latvian rider, Gatis Smukulis in the test.

Last year it was very straightforward getting a ride in a team car, the second manager I asked, Kurt who looks after the Irish guys in the ‘Sean Kelly house’ in Belgium, said; ‘sure, no problem.’ This year was hard work, but when you sell windows all your life, you get used to folk saying ‘No!’.

It's only September, but the plans are in place here for the 6-Day in January.

Gatis gets the radio tuned into Kingdom FM. Meanwhile the Moldovan rider adjacent uses his race wheel on the turbo...

I eventually managed to get aboard the Latvian car, behind their rider, Gatis Smukulis, he rides for the French club VC La Pomme, Marseille.

This was Vainsteins club, back in the 90’s. He and David Millar won a lot of races for La Pomme, grabbed the Directors attention and got themselves pro contracts.

Latvians Gatis Smukulis and Arvis Piziks, think maybe they better get along to the timekeeper...

It’ll be harder for Gatis, there are going to be fewer teams next year and getting a contract won’t be easy. All that said, he’s a good rider; the team manager for Latvia is Arvis Piziks who was a pro from ’95, when he was with Novell, through to 2003 with CSC, via Rabobank, Jack & Jones and Memory Card. If you know anything about pro racing then you’ll know that to be a pro for nine years on good teams isn’t easy to pull-off.

I asked him how he was enjoying being a coach;

‘I’m enjoying it, so many guys, when they quit as a rider have nothing to do with the sport, because they hate it so much, but I still like it.’

I enquired as to how Latvian’s most famous cycling son, Romans Vainsteins is doing;

‘I don’t know, I haven’t seen him for years, but he’s Italian now, anyway!’

It's nearly time for Gatis.

I asked him about Gatis;

‘We’re hoping to pick-up a pro contract for him, but nothing is certain yet. He has a great career as a junior, he won five junior stage races across Europe and this year he’s won five races, including two French cups, he was second on GC in the William Tell GP and had some good stage placings in the L’Avenir. He’s a natural athlete, very strong.’

It was agreed that I would meet up with them again at the start house. It’s a great buzz at the ramp, the top guys were all there getting their bikes checked by the UCI commissar then trying to compose themselves for the big ride, a good day here could mean a pro contract. There was some nice hardware on display; with probably the nicest being the shiny black carbon, German Federation FES.

The Iranian team made it here okay, unlike the Irish Ras earlier this year.

Look was well represented, and Cervelo too; David Zabriskie and Fabian Cancellara have sold a lot of bikes! The course was an eye-opener, with some heavy duty climbs, tricky descents, bad bends, adverse cambers and railway crossings – certainly no drag strip.

The full story is on Pez, but it was a great experience, more so than last year when I followed David O’Loughlin: this course is much more technical.

Tomorrow it will be interesting to see how Millar fares, I think he’s worth a medal, Bradley I don’t know about, but I think Cancellara has liked being World Champ too much to be beaten this time.

Heaving some massive gears, Gatis makes this look hard.

‘Our boy’ Gatis struck me as over-geared for the first lap; he just wasn’t on top of it. Once the French guy caught him, he rode much better; it wasn’t just having someone to chase, it was as if he thought; ‘yeah, lower gears would be better around here!’

Edvald Boasson Hagen.

Edvald Boasson Hagen was very impressive, according to my reference sources, he’s had 16 wins this year. These aren’t all in UCI races, but they are all good results – he’ll have no problems finding a big squad for next year (word is, Columbia have him as good as signed) and a win on Saturday would be the icing on the cake.

Glad that's over.

At the finish, Gatis was disappointed, I think he knew he hadn’t done the ride he was capable of, but that’s cycling.

It's amazing who you bump into here. This is 6-day rider Gert Dorich flexing his pecs for us.

It was well after 6.00pm by the time I got the pics for this piece organised and then had to go across the city by train to Boblingen. I was struggling to get digs and one of our readers offered me his flat, it could be closer, but I’m not complaining, and anyway the trains are clean, on time and let you see the city and its people.

As I was walking out of the press room, I spotted the press release about Lars Boom, who won today:

2003: World Junior cross champ
2004: Dutch u 23 cross champ, European u 23 cross champ
2005: Dutch u 23 cross champ
2006: Dutch u 23 cross champ
2007: World u 23 cross champ, two stages + GC Tour of Brittany, three stages + GC Olympia Tour, Dutch u 23 TT champ, World u 23 TT champ.

As we say on Pez - wow !

Elite test tomorrow, can’t wait! Talk to you then.

Live clean, drink Becks!

British Keirin Champion; you're becoming a specialist in that event...

"I wouldn't say I was a specialist! That would mean that it was the only event I rode: I do the sprint and team sprint too. My coach when I was at the UCI coaching centre at Aigle in Switzerland [Fred Magne], was a specialist - that was the only event he ever prepared for."

There are tips that you can apply when racing in a Keirin, however do you think there's no substitute for experience?

"I've been riding them for a long time now, and you pick-up a few tricks as you go along. Fred used to tell me that you should only make one move in a race, but it should be a good one. Obviously, positioning is important, as is timing your effort."

Ross winding it up at the Meadowbank track in Edinburgh.

Ross had a great Commonwealth Games, with three medals, and we wondered whether he had expectations going into the Games?

"I never go into a race with expectations. I go in with an open mind. Coming in to the Games I was confident, had good form and was looking forward to the races - it all worked-out well."

Although the Commonwealth Games were tremendous, were the World Championships a bit of a disappointment?

"They definitely were, I had peaked for the Commonwealth Games and there wasn't enough time to do the base training for the Worlds then build-up to taper-off and peak again."

What did you do over the summer?

"I had a week’s holiday then it was back on the road bike, then two months of track work including a couple of Grand Prixs in Germany."

As well as Keirin you ride the team sprint. Is there are a conflict in the way you have to train for the two events?

"No, not at all I do the same training for both."

Do you know which events you'll be riding at the 2007 Worlds in Palma?

"No, I don't know yet: we'll have to qualify riders through the World Cup events which are coming up. I would like to ride them all though - the Keirin, the Individual Sprint and of course the Team Sprint - my main goal is the Individual Sprint though."

What's the programmme between now and the Worlds?

"I'll be riding World Cups in Sydney, Los Angeles and Manchester as part of my build-up."

What do you think of the Worlds being in the spring?

"It works out well for us in the UK because it means we are doing our base miles during the summer so I think it's good."

You are one of the 'new wave' of track men coming-up. Has it helped to be working with riders of the quality and pedigree of Jason Queally, Craig MacLean and Chris Hoy?

"Definitely, you feel that it's up to you to keep the good results coming. Initially it was quite hard for me because I hadn't come through the system behind these guys.

"I had three seasons at Aigle with the UCI so I didn't have that bond with the guys. I'm a part of the team now though and a lot closer to the other riders."

Was the coaching at Aigle a big help?

"Put it this way, when I went I had a best of 10.7 for 200 meters, when I left it was 10.2."

What's your ultimate goal in cycling?

"I want to be a World and Olympic champion, preferably in the sprint because I think it's the most prestigious."

What's been your worst cycling moment?

"Riding so poorly in the Worlds at Bordeaux."

And the best?

"There are two; finishing fifth in the sprint at the Olympics, and also winning the team sprint with the Scotland team at the Commonwealth Games - that was really special."

Finally, what's the Scottish connection?

"My dad, he comes from Kilwinning."

VeloResults would like to thank Ross for his patience in answering our questions, and wish him all the best for the coming season.

Allesandro Ballan.

It's hard to find a proper bar but this one seems OK, complete with busty barmaid.

Opinion is pretty-well unanimous that Bettini is a good World Champion. He has good palmares, a human personality, is a real pro who races a full season and was no, 'sit in and sprint' winner.

The only thing I'm worried about is what horrors will unfold bicycle-wise. His Time, complete with gold saddle and tape - to commemorate his Olympic road race win (not forgeting the gold crash hat and shoes) still makes me feel faint.

As with most things to do with posing, Cipo did it so much better. I've never been a big Zabel fan; tad too uncontroversial for me, but you must respect the man - the pro's pro.

The Worlds are in Stuttgart next year, so maybe he'll make me eat my words about: 'his last chance to win the Worlds is gone.'

Valverde is a class-act but he was up against two of the fastest men alive when it's a sprint at the end of a long shift.

I think Sanchez may just be better than him one day though.

Kevin Hulsmans. A bit cool.

Much as I'm an Euskaltel fan, Samuel has to move-on now to see how far he can go.

It was gone 10.00 last night when I stumbled out of the press centre and I needed a beer.

Twee though Salzburg may be, it is civilised and there are caravans dispensing every type of sausage known to man - and cool beer - open until the wee small hours.

I bumped into two well wrecked Belgian guys: “What happened to Tom?” I ask.

The tall one took a final slug of beer, a long drag on his Marlboro, then covered me with sausage as he explained: “Bettini, Quickstep, he goes and Tom must put on the brakes, eh?”

“In vino veritas“ as some Roman boy once said. I asked my new found buddies if they were driving home in the morning: “no, no, tonight.”

After us all agreeing that kermesse-king Guy Smet was a God, we shook hands and they Lurched-off to find their car.

Vino's turn to make his mark.

David Millar, love him or hate him, he's back. I didn't realise until I spoke to Max Sciandri the day after the test that Millar punctured seven kilometers into his ride.

At that level where seconds can make the difference; after the flat his head was gone. In the road race he played a key role in the finale; I'll stick my neck-oit and say he'll be road race champion one day.

Britain came out of the Worlds with one bronze, courtesy of Nicole Cooke, a decent ride by Cavendish (11th) and some classy riding by Millar.

'Plus sa change’ . . . as we say in Dysart.

And a 'thank you' to Adam and John for the beer, your good for the cabins on any Six I'm on boys.

Trossachs next, see you there.  Did I say this was a gay bar?

Erik Zabel’s last chance of a rainbow jersey is surely gone, Valverde has another Worlds medal and I’d better try to get this diary up to date.

I left you yesterday as the women’s race was running its course.

Phillip Deignan.

I was supposed to be doing interviews with young Irish riders Phillip Deignan and Nicholas Roche, son of legend, Stephen Roche yesterday afternoon, however it didn’t come off and it was back to the drawing board.

As I think I said, I installed myself in the photographer’s part of the press room so as I could go hard-wired instead of wi-fi (wee-fee as they call it over here).

Who sits down beside me? Photo-legend Graham Watson,that’s who. There’s my other story for the day, I thought to myself.

He was easy to talk and you can read the interview on Pez this coming Tuesday.

Sitting beside him is an education, his pictures are amazing and his hands flash across the key board as he crops, edits and emails his shots.

Italian coach Franco Ballerini explains the win.

Most of the photographers and many of the journalists use Apple Macs; I’ll need to look into that, they all seem to have a bigger screen too and I like that.

I heard one of the photographers say that it’s well nigh impossible to get viruses on a Mac. If anyone out there reading this can tell me if that’s true and what the other benefits of a Mac are, I would be most grateful.

It was another late one, I would have loved to have a good stroll round Salzburg’s bustling night life but I wanted to be on top of my game for the big one.

I did a real-time BlackBerry diary of Sunday on pezcyclingnews so rather than me write and you read the same thing twice I’ll try to cover stuff that’s not up there.

Luxemburg fans back Frank Scelke.

I was up early and on the street for 8.00, I couldn’t face breakfast at the digs, I was high and didn’t want to be dragged down by the wax work dining room.

The streets were already hotching with fans and officials and I decided just to wander up and down the finishing straight, taking it all in and popping pics.

I decided to do the running diary thing plus settled on my two pieces for the day for Pez - who the cool guys are at the worlds and a photo-based piece on the various fans here.

There were Boonen fans everywhere plus a huge number of deranged Dutchmen who went absolutely bonkers after the Dutch girl won the ladies race. They have an oom-pah band who were giving it big licks after her win. There are flags from all over the world and I thought we could make a good piece if I got enough shots.

I got good shots of fans from Belgium (easy _ there are thousands of them) Slovenia, Holland, Finland, Norway, Brittany and more I can’t remember just now.

From left: Italian coach Franco Ballerini explains the win, Luxemburg fans back Frank Scelke, Spectating in style.

Spectating in style.

Out of the blue the Belgian team just appeared and I managed to rattle-off a few shots; Boonen is just so charismatic.

After that I headed up to the sign-on and likewise got a load of good pics of the riders before the rabid guys with the big lenses appeared. It’s real paparazzi stuff, they just barge you out of the way.

They all shoot on motor-drive or whatever you call the digital equivalent, they’ll maybe shoot ten to get one and they edit down from hundreds of shots back at the press room.

Bjarne Riis was there saying hello to all his guys - he was surprisingly warm with them all, especially Zabriskie. I tried to pin him down to an interview about the success of his CSC riders in the Time Trial Champs (three of the first four) but he can fob-off better men than me with ease.

After a while I bolted up to the start and was right in among all the riders, nobody seemed unduly bothered and I was there right until the start snapping-away, which wasn’t quite as chaotic as the under 23 one.

Cipo - coolest man on the planet.

I had a load of pics to edit, so it was back to press room and head-down. On the way back I practically walked-into Mario Cipollini.

The man has an aura, he looks as slim as he did when he raced and could have walked straight out of GQ Italia.

I managed to resist the temptation to touch him but rattled of a quick shot which fortunately turned-out fine.

Back at the press room you have to set-up shop then transfer your pictures from the camera to the laptop, ditch any bad ones, rotate any that need it then email them with a note of what they are, Pez doesn’t like you to label them.

That done I was back on the street, like I said you can follow my progress round the circuit on Pez. I have to say it was a wonderfully well organised event; despite a few volunteer officials being on a power-trip. The hilly part of the circuit was just one huge party-zone and it would have been great just to be a spectator, it was baking up there, with glorious views to the mountain.

I watched the finish on TV back in the press room and it was good to see Millar in the thick of the action; I think he’s a changed man - for the better.

I wasn’t surprised by the Italians win, sometimes they get it right for most of the race then lose control in the finale but Franco Ballerini, the team coach has done a great job of forging them into a cohesive unit. If you check-out my Pez diary of today you’ll see that I reckoned it was going to be their day.

I had thought Paolini was the man; Cioni and Backstedt were both waxing lyrical about his form when I spoke to them for Pez during the Vuelta - watch for him in the late season classics though.

The first thing I did after the race was to just press send on the BlackBerry, I wasn’t sure if they would use it or not but it was on the site within minutes along with a lot of my pics. I had taken another batch of pics, mainly of fans on my travels so I had to do the needful with them and then write-up my cool article. I gave the award to Di Luca by the way, mainly for having his Bianchi colour-coded with his jersey, it looked the absolute biz. That done, it was VeloResults time.

It’s 9.00 pm now and most of the photographers have bolted. I obviously made a great impression on Graham Watson, he just got up and left without so much as a cheerio. Next-up I’m going to see if I can get you some pictures to go with these words.

Talk to you tomorrow and thanks for reading.

The first rider I saw was from Brazil, then the Russian team - looking good in their Itera kit on white carbon Looks. 177 riders from all over the globe; 47 nations. I just saw the Mexicans sign-on.

A relaxed looking Cav gets his gear sorted for the training ride.

Mark Cavendish of GB looks relaxed, no GB team Trek for him - a shiny new T-Mobile Giant is his mount for the day. Team mate Greenwood is introspective, not a good sign, but we'll see.

It’s a bit of the old organised chaos at the start here.

It’s supposed to be a choreographed, nation by nation roll-out but the Belgians ignored this, of course, and arrived in their own time.

To add insult to injury they burst-open the crowd-control barriers to get on to the course instead of coming through a gap in the barriers like the other 46 teams had done.

No sooner had they arrived than they left again to do a spot of synchronised team-peeing just off the street. Dominique Cornu who won the under 23 time test looks more like a pro than most pros. He’s a big guy and I can just imagine him riding the bunch off his wheel in the kermesse.

Dominique Cornu.

Once the show is on the road it’s time for my main gig of the day - a course review, with pictures.

I grabbed a lift from one of the shuttle-buses which lap the circuit to put-down and pick-up the photographers and any journalists who can be coaxed out of the free bar and catering.

By the time you read this the full piece should be up on pezcyclingnews, but briefly it starts in the city, runs out of town on big, wide fast roads past the pits to the first climb.

This is a long, wide, fast, snaking job which hangs a left into the back roads at the top for a little more pain. The second pits are at the top, then it rolls over a lumpy, twisty plateau to where it drops fast and short into a little valley where the second and main climb of the day rears-up.

Entries from all over the globe.

This one is different, steep, sinuous and narrow - not a good climb to be stuck at the back on.

There’s another plateau then a really fast but well-surfaced descent to the suburbs of Salzburg then a fast run-in on wide, urban tarmac and a finish that is straight and wide.

I left my pal, Gerard the bus driver and headed for the press centre.

Having had my fill of the wi-fi in here I marched right into the photographer’s area, they have hard-wired, high-speed internet connections to cope with all those pixels.

The speed of access on this system is great and I was smugly congratulating myself on my astuteness until I tried to log-on to Hotmail. It wasn’t having any. Furthermore my mobile had decided to pack-in. There’s much fun and satisfaction to be derived from doing the Pez thing but when you are an electronic Neanderthal like me and things go wrong then it’s stressful.

I mucked-around with my Hotmail but just couldn’t get-in, as the tears formed in my eyes I remembered that I have my Pez mail as a favourite on the laptop.

Italy's under 23 lads - these boys look more like Pro's than the Pro's.

I was back in business. I stripped the BlackBerry down to the SIM card then re-assembled it. Miraculously it picked- up a T-Mobile signal and I was back in the race.

It’s a while since I’ve used the attachment facility on the Pez mail but it seemed to be OK _ fingers crossed!

The under-23 road race was running its course as I was going through all this electronic opera, that’s the thing about doing features-type pieces, you don’t actually see much of the racing. The most notable aspect of the race was that it ended in a bunch sprint, those two climbs didn’t break it up - remember Boonen says the Elite race will end in a bunch finish.

Gerald Ciolek (Wiesenhof & Germany) won. He took a stage in the Tour of Germany and was second in the Henninger Turm this year so the Pro Tour teams will already be after him; it should be a tasty contract now.

Best British rider was Mark Cavendish in 11th place, Ben Greenwood was eight minutes back in 127th place.

The ladies race is on just now, 136 starters and it has to be said that it doesn’t look like the processions we used to get.

I’ll draw a line just now and get back to you later – there’s work to be done.

I was sat in the press centre immediately it opened at 9.00 and I’ve been writing ever since. I did my piece about Vino, Zabriskie and Cancellara plus their respective bikes and since then I’ve been getting the old Veloresults dairy up to date.

I’d better get some pictures off to Martin now then think of what I’m going to write about today – maybe an interview or two.

Fast-forward to 8.55 pm, back in the press room, just after I wrote the above the wi-fi went down, it’s still down now, I’m on a hard-wire connection just now. Believe it or not it’s a T-Mobile gig – it’s like Ford saying we’ve no cars available. After I had sussed-out what was up (because I’m a computer novice I always think that it’s my fault when things go wrong) I decided to bolt and get some work done then return here later.

Max Sciandri.

I rang Max Sciandri (name-dropping I know) and asked if we could meet-up to talk about his new role with the GB squad.

The team hotel was up at Anthering, a lovely spot at the foot of the hills near the time trial course. I had to get a cab but it was a nice run and the fare wasn’t too sore.

When I arrived Max was outside chatting with the other team officials, as we walked to the hotel for a coffee David Millar strolled-out. ‘Hi-there how are you?’ says he to me. I don’t know if he was just being polite or he remembered me from the Tour but I’m going with the latter!

Max is a nice guy and articulate to boot and if you want the full interview check-out www.pezcyclingnews.com What’s not on Pez is the closing part of our conversation when he told me about the day he quit cycling.

The last days of his career were spent with CSC and don’t forget that despite the fact that the Linda McCartney team (with whom he spent his last full season) was a disastrous scam, he won the Tour of Lazio (a BIG race in Rome ) for them just the season before he signed for Riis. " I had been riding the Tour of Georgia and we had won the team points prize.

I was standing on the podium with my bottle of champagne, looking-down at the huge crowd and I just got this feeling of satisfaction. I decided to go down to Miami to see my brother, I remember Lance (Armstrong) saying to me; 'if you go to Miami that’ll be the end Max'.

I said: 'No, no man I’ve got the Olympics in Athens'. But he was right, my motivation had gone and I never raced again. I’ve got no regrets though, maybe I could have been a bit more dedicated but like I say – no regrets."

It was a taxi back here after that to write-up my interview and email it and the pics off to Pez world HQ in Vancouver. Next-up I got some pics off to our editor Mertin, then I wrote this.

It’s 9.25 pm and my brain is crashing – must be all those faulty T-Mobile micro-waves in here.

Talk to you tomorrow.

It’s always the same driving to Prestwick – you think you are making great time until you get to Stepps and the vast car park that is the M8 during the rush-hour.

Check-in at Prestwick wasn’t too bad but the Colgate had to go – I wouldn’t mind but it drives me crazy not knowing how to convert it into an explosive device.

I had a long wait at Stansted for my connection to Salzburg but had committed to writing a preview of the elite time trial for Pez. I thought I would have nothing better to do than grab one of those trendy ‘buy time’ computer stations, but at a quid per ten minutes I thought better of it.

Austria, Hitler's birthplace...

They’ve thought of everything; there isn’t a USB on any of the terminals so you can’t produce your copy on the laptop, transfer it to memory stick then attach it to an email.

It was a BlackBerry job then -That's a great wee tool for keeping in touch with your emails, but for high word-count it’s quite hard work if you have big paws - so is the unpalatable fact that despite your vanity your eyesight isn’t what it used to be.

I guess I’m going to have to do something with the results from that eye-test soon. Reviewing the test got me thinking about who is going to win.

Way back when Fabian Cancellara first signed with Riis at CSC I remember thinking: ‘that’s the World Test Champs won then!’

...and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Despite David Millar’s past I have soft-spot for him. I know all about his past but he has come back with dignity and most people cannot imagine how hard it is to win a pro race, never mind a major Tour stage. That Vuelta test win was sheer class but I couldn’t help but think he shouldn’t have gone all the way to Madrid.

The Vuelta finished on Sunday and the test is Thursday with a lot of traveling in between. I still thought he could get a medal though and my top three are Cancellara, Millar and Gonchar.

The check-in queue was horrific; the security queue was dire and it took almost two hours from first joining the throng to sitting down in the departure lounge.

The flight was grim, full of Austrian school kids who were out of control, their teachers huddled at the back hitting the trolley bar hard no doubt. It was such a stramash at Salzburg that it was easy to slip to the head of the immigration queue and I sprinted-out through the ‘nothing to declare’ door.

I could see the customs guys behind me trying to get a handle on the little horrors with no success. I couldn’t face any more mass transportation and grabbed a cab.

Dave Miller's Scott Carbon.

The driver was a chatty, eccentric lady who recognised my Scottish accent.

It transpired that she loves the place and a map of old Scotia quickly appeared from her glove box.

I had to dutifully point-out Kirkcaldy on the map as we drove through the streets of Salzburg. The hotel was basic but clean and the bed looked great.

I needed some fresh air and a beer so I slipped-out into the cool air, a hotdog and a beer at a stand over-looking the floodlit city was just the job. It must have taken all of one minute to fall asleep.