The British Road Race Championships 2010 on the 27th June was a race of attrition, but the riders started leaving via the back door very early in the race, due to the severity of the the seven-mile circuit around the Lancashire town of Barley, which was pretty much either up or down all day.
VeloVeritas is heading down to the British National Elite Road Race Championship on the 27th of this month. We thought we'd check in with 'our' boys, Hamish Haynes, Dan Fleeman, Dan Patten and Tom Copeland to tell them we'd be around to pester them, and to lend a hand with bike prep, feeding and anything else they might need. Here's what Tom Copeland had to say to us, in reply.
GB's 21 year-old Kian Emadi – another product of British Cycling’s ‘Podium Programme’ which churns out a seemingly endless stream of super-fast track men - confirmed that his fourth place in the world kilometre championship was no flash in the pan with a sub 59 second ride to make him one of the fastest men in history. The tall man from Stoke-on-Trent took time to speak to VeloVeritas not long after he returned from Mexico.
He's raced in Belgium and spent time in The Basque Nation but the pro contract for 2016 has come closer to home with Raleigh. Aberdonian Craig Wallace joins Evan Oliphant at the 'Heron squad' for the next phase of his career - here's what he had to say to VeloVeritas, recently.
Here at VeloVeritas we're die hard track fans and one of several results which caught our eye from Columbia – along with Pervis’s brilliant sprint treble and the Kiwis winning the team sprint – was the madison result, with Spaniards Albert Torres and David Muntaner taking the crown in Cali. David recently very kindly agreed to speak to VeloVeritas about his elevation to World Champion status.
The crowd counts us down; the pistol cracks; I give Franco a hefty shove; 'Cara Mia' blasts from the PA and the 2009 Copenhagen 6 Dages Lob is well and truly under way. Two minutes ago I was wondering why I put myself through that nightmare journey from Portobello to Ballerup-the suburb of Copenhagen where the Super Arena and it's pine velodrome live-two buses, a plane, another bus, a long train journey then waiting in the freezing cold of a Copenhagen night for my lift to the track.
Last night at the Gent Six Day 2010? It's tonight, already! No-one stood out, the home boys had to be seen to do well and De Ketele, Mertens, and of course Iljo, all did the biz.
‘Sprinter stages,’ why are they so dull? Albeit ‘Bison’ Bodnar (Bora hansgrohe & Poland) did a job of enlivening the last wee bittie of yesterday’s procession. Maciej Bodnar ended the day on top. Firstly, the GC teams won’t go in the break, they’re there to look after their team leader; mountain stages are different where they’ll put men up the road so as the team leader can bridge up to them.