07.00, Saturday, San Remo - a dream come true. I've been to, I can't remember how many Tours, a clutch of Vueltas and Giros, but there's something special about wakening-up here. The Via Roma is just two streets away and the Poggio is a five minute drive - all those boyhood hours spent staring at pictures of Eddy Merckx notching-up his seven wins - and here I am.
To my shame, I couldn’t tell you who the reigning BBAR is, but if this was the 80’s I‘d have little problem in informing you. Cycling Weekly printed regular updates of the table standings, with the final ‘50’ on Boro’ always a big deal – that race could make or break your bid for the prestigious top twelve.
We caught up with Joe after his Boxing Day training ride (I can just about remember those, up into North Fife with Dave Chapman for a couple of hours then home for steak pie at Mum’s)... Here’s what he had to say:
Fabian Cancellara rode a clever race to take his first Ronde van Vlaanderen this afternoon, making sure he was always in the important part of the peloton, biding his time perfectly, and attacking with such force that only Tom Boonen could go with him.
It’s been a while since David McLean posted, he intended to do something a little more regularly but unfortunately he's been preoccupied with health problems for much longer than expected.