Monday, April 21, 2025

World Road Championships 2006 – Day 1: Getting there

-

HomeDiariesWorld Road Championships 2006 - Day 1: Getting there

It was a 04.00 alarm job to get ready to leave at 06.00 and I hadn’t had time to pack the night before. I’m off to the World Road Championships 2006. 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. 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.

World Road Championships 2006
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!’

World Road Championships 2006
…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.

World Road Championships 2006
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.

Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed was involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he was a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He was also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months often worked in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed was a highly respected journalist, his tales of chasing the Giro, Tour, Vuelta, Classics and World Championships - and his much-loved winter Six Days - are legendary, never the same twice, they gave our site an edge other cycling media could never duplicate or challenge. Sadly Ed passed away in January 2025, two years after suffering a devastating stroke.

Related Articles

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 20; Paris: Cav, of Course

This morning at 07:00 we had Serge Gainsbourg with 'sea, sex and sun,' it's noon now and we've got Jane Birkin, '69, annee erotique.' Do these people never give it a rest ? We're nearly at the stage start, Dave has done the biz all the way up from Bordeaux.

Copenhagen Six Day 2010 – Day One

It's 01:41 Day One at the Copenhagen Six Day 2010 and I've decided to rattle off a few lines before I succumb to the coma that surely awaits me. It wasn't vintage racing tonight; there wasn't much of a crowd, the whole bunch looked like it was pedalling in mud and Franco said he'd never seen Bruno struggle the way he did in the first chase.

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 10: Limoges > Issoudun, 194.5km

I didn’t think that Cav could win the Primavera now, after today's display in Limoges, I think that he can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to within the scope of his physical characteristics. He can win the green jersey on the Champs Elysees in Le Tour de France, Paris - Tours and the Worlds too-when the parcours suits him.

Flatlands Friday – Preparing for Het Nieuwsblad 2019 and KBK

It's the start of the season proper with UCI World Tour Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and UCI 1.1 HC Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday. It was a tad savage when the alarm blasted at 03:10 on Friday but on the other side of the scales we were on Belgian soil bright and early.

At Random

Grenoble Six Days 2011 – Third Night

Grenoble Six Days 2011... One day, I'd like to come here and sit at one of the big tables with friends and family, watch the cabaret, and the racing, chat, eat and drink too much. It's good value at 63 euros per head: that gets you in, allows you to attack the beautiful buffet and provides you a bottle of wine, mineral water and a coffee as you watch the racing and the cabaret - one day...

Copenhagen Six Day 2012 – Day Five

It’s another big Madison tonight here at the Copenhagen Six Day 2012; 75 kilometres/300 laps, but with a ‘twist’ — it’s a handicap. Bartko/Lampater, Stam/Stroetinga and Alex/Michael give away six laps to Jackie/Schröder — with the rest of the field somewhere in between.

Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 12: Fougères > Tours, 218km. Kittel’s Third Win!

We left Fougères this morning and Martin summed it up best; ‘normally you’d have expected Cav to be all but unbeatable in those circumstances.’ I felt the same, especially with Tony Martin winning the chrono, QuickStep morale being sky high and Cav being desperate to make amends after his brush with Veelers the other day.

Steve Taylor – Hanging out the ANC team car roof at the Tour

The legend of the ANC team and participation in the 1987 Tour de France - the story continues. Our man in Shropshire, Martyn Frank said to us recently; ‘you should speak to Steve Taylor, he was a mechanic with ANC.’