Sprinters are the superstars of cycling. I’ll never be a sprinter myself, but I love watching them in action. The greatest cyclists who win grand tours are quite often perceived as dull riders (perhaps unfairly), e.g. Miguel Indurain who dominated in the time trials and then defended in the mountains; Armstrong who ’tediously’ overpowered his [...]
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Mark Cavendish World Champion
Congratulations to Mark Cavendish and Team GB for finishing off an amazing victory in the World Road Championship – the first since Tom Simpson in 1965. Despite my love of cycling, it’s not often I get excited about watching cycle races – often they are pretty tedious events. But, today I felt quite fortunate to [...]
Tour De France Questions
The tour is one of the biggest sporting spectacles in the world. No matter how many scandals and allegations of doping, we can’t resist the allure of watching 180 Lycra clad men, cycling their lightweight bikes around France.But, if you’ve ever wondered at the range of seemingly strange tour vocab, hopefully, this will explain the [...]
Lance Armstrong Story
Sunday was a good day. First I suffered in the 100 mile race. Then I return home to watch others suffering on a much larger scale. It wasn’t just the usual suspects suffering on the mountain passes (the sprinters like Cavendish) but no less than the global phenomena of Lance Armstrong. Even the greatest champions [...]
List of Tour de France Winners 1903 -2010
Despite breaks for the two world wars the Tour de France has been held every year since 1903. It is not the oldest cycling race. But, it is the oldest and most prestigious stage race. All the great names of professional cycling can be found in the list of Tour de France winners. 5 Cyclists [...]
Why Are Drugs Cheating?
Readers Question: I don’t know the answer to the following question, and it bothers me. What is the difference between trying to gain a competitive edge through doping and trying to gain a competitive edge by using better equipment? Firstly, doping is prohibited. There is a long list of prohibited substances athletes can’t use. Using [...]
Olympic 4Km Track Cycling
“Citius, Altius, Fortius.” – “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” The motto of the Olympics is a great inspiration. Yet, these days the Olympics deviates from this pure motto of athletic inspiration. We have events like synchronised swimming (though thankfully, the solo variety of synchronised swimming was not continued after 1992), even golf is going to be admitted [...]
Tour De France 2009
It’s that time of the year, when I try to summon up my will power and avoid spending 3 hours in the afternoon listening to what the Eurosport commentators had for dinner last night, and the history of the local Chateaux. It is of course, the 2009 Tour de France and what cyclist can remain [...]
Cavendish Wins Milan San Remo 2009
Mark Cavendish won a thrilling sprint to take the 100th edition of Milan San Remo by the narrowest of margins. Second place Heinrich Haussler surprised everyone by jumping the leading group of 40 riders with under a kilometre to go. He looked to have the victory in the bag, but Cavendish came back and took [...]
Lance Armstrong and Paul Kimmage
I have great respect for Paul Kimmage. He was one of the first professional cyclists to ‘lift the lid’ and speak about the culture of doping. For his efforts he was widely condemned and ostracised by the procycling community who closed ranks and denied doping was a problem. It’s taken innumerable doping scandals, failed dope [...]
