In Part 1 of "When Scotland had a National Stage Race" we saw the domination of the East Europeans that ended with the introduction of Professionals in to the Scottish Milk Race. The first year it was the British based pro's, then the big boys in the shape of the Belgian Isjberk-Gios team arrived in 1978 and set fire to the race, so instead of an East European domination we now had a Continental Pro domination, but they had something the Czechoslovakians, Poles, East Germans or Russians didn't have: style; class; and that "Pro-appeal".
'How's it goin' Shane?' we ask Skyman Shane Sutton as we cross the car park in search of Michael Barry for a rest day interview at the Le Tour de France 2010. 'Been better, mate!' he fires back between hard draws on his fag - it's difficult for a man who wears his heart on his sleeve to 'spin.'
Continuing our series of interviews with Scottish Cycling selections for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month – but with the track events held in London on the Lee Valley ‘Pringle’ Olympic velodrome – we spoke to para tandem pilot, Jenny Holl.
GreenEDGE - pectations... oh yes. How about THAT for a play on words! 2012 is here and I’ve managed to get a blog post going in the first week of the year. Two New Years resolutions in one; get a blog post a fortnight out there, and at least make it past January 10th prior to failing at keeping to all resolutions.
That Kyle Gordon character is threatening to take over our website; what with his Commonwealth Games adventures, ‘25’ championship win, ‘50’ championship win and competition record - and if that wasn’t enough he’s gone and won the ‘100’ championship too, taking 10 minutes off competition record with a dazzling 3:36:10 ride - some 16 minutes clear of silver medallist, Stephen Williamson.
The 'Sutton Saga' has me yet again scratching my head about cycle sport and this nation's attitude towards it. Great rides by Ben Swift and Steve Cummings get hardly a mention but Saturday’s Guardian sports section screams; "The Sutton Saga: 10 questions after a week of crisis." There's one question missing though - 'in a week's time, who'll give a rat's backside?'
At the end of 2012 young American Joe Dombrowski had the world at his feet; he’d won the Baby Giro - ahead of a certain Fabio Aru - and placed fourth and tenth respectively in the Tours of Utah and Colorado – and there was a nice crisp Sky contract to be signed. But his two seasons with Sky didn’t pan out as most had expected – with the reason finally tracked down to an iliac artery problem which he’s now had surgery on.