Ponferrara World Road Championships 2014 – Juniors & Women. Jonas Bokeloh & Pauline Ferrand-Prevot

I hate to keep moaning about these Worlds, but …

There’s no way you can get from the two K to go sign at the foot of the final descent and up onto the climb.

Barriers, tapes, police, volantarios (volunteer janitors) – grim !

A man who can’t walk the course ends up in too many bars.

But on a positive note, I met Abdou, today.

He still looks like you wouldn’t mess with him, although his English is good and he does smile a lot. ‘Sometimes I help teams and sometimes I do nothing!’ He’s promised us an interview – let’s hope so.

The junior race was mad – crashes aplenty but a good finish with the big German lad Bokeloh too fast for everyone.

The wee Russian Alexandr Kulikovskiy who was second looks ‘well hard’ – he’d get no lip from anyone in a chip shop in Whitburn.

Kuurne winner, James Shaw made the top 20 for GB after having been in the right place most of the time, missing the encounters with the tar.

The Ladies race, well, I hate to neg. but I can tell you that for the first five laps there was only one lass off the front on one lap, when they passed me.

For five laps it was a procession; simply not a good advertisement for those argue for ‘parity.’

Anthony McCrossan made a good fist of ‘speaking’ – but you could almost hear him thinking ‘do something, someone, anything, please !‘

I can never understand why there aren’t more attacks in ladies’ racing – if it comes down to a sprint then only a very limited number of the field have any chance.

The race was the last lap but I couldn’t figure the tactics, when a girl would jump away on the long drag out of town, rather than go across solo, the girls who countered would drag others across.

And in the finale when the four were away, it was madness to look at each other as they did when well inside the red kite.

If any one of them had gone then the others would have responded and fourth was the worst any of them would have finished.

Lizzie’s Team – Sky/GB; it never seems like fun, when you’re on the outside looking in at the regime there are droves of ‘helpers’ but it all seems as if everyone is on edge, nervous, worried with no ‘buzz’ at all.

The US girls, whilst a wee bit too ‘way to go‘ for my tastes were smiling, joking and looking forward to their race – and the Swedish girls sat chatting and smiling in the sun.

And let’s not talk about ‘focus’ or ‘winners’ – the US tried hard, the Swedes were on the podium and GB weren’t.

“But when you analyse the performance in the context of stepping stones on the road to Rio, the right boxes have all been ticked.”

Yeah…

On a happier note, I have to say I’m impressed with the prices of beer and cafe con leche in Ponferrada – €1:50 and €1:00 respectively.

No complaints there – and I need one of those coffees right now.

It’s 07:00 Sunday as I write this, en route the start, one of the French team trucks has just passed us.

Might it be their day?

Chava up the road, then Gallopin with Bouhanni to complete the job?

On the subject of Nacer, his wee brother Rayane was in tears after the junior race, yesterday – he was here to win.

Belgium have Boonen, Gilbert and Greg Van Avermaet; Italy have Aru, Nibali and Colbrelli; Australia Gerrans and Matthews; the home nation, Valverde.

GB?

One of the Yates Bruvs top ten is the best we can hope for; ‘Swifty?’ – I can’t see it but I’d be happy to wrong on that one.

Tortilla, cafe con leche and the world’s biggest one day race are calling.

I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, meanwhile …

Ve con Dios.

Results - World Road Championships, Junior Men and Women