Tag: Cycling Academy Team

"Elusive cyclist (Robert Millar) is rediscovered as 'queen of the mountains' "- so says the headline in the Sunday paper, The Star? The News of the World? The Sport? No, it's our "quality-read" for the sabbath - Scotland on Sunday. Whilst George Best drank himself to death, and as "Hurricane" Higgins trots down the same trail, many of the gentlemen of the press struggle to conceal their admiration for these 'lads'.

If you were on the cycling scene in Scotland in the early 80's then you'll be familiar with the name of Finlay Gentleman. A precocious talent, winning the Tour de Trossachs whilst still in his teens then the Scottish Road race Championship and a member of the Scottish team which won the British 100 kilometre Team Time Trial Championship. A move to France to catch the eye of one of the professional teams and 'do a Robert Millar' was the next step.

Paolo Savoldelli 10 out of 10, Danilo Di Luca 9.5 out of 10: the Gazzetta gave Friday to LPR - and so they should. Stage racing at it's best; even if Contador wins on Sunday in Milano, Di Luca can hold his head high. Ricco gets a 9; if he can keep his feet on the ground then he must surely win a giro - but not this one. Contador on 6.5; as Diquigiovanni's DS, Savio told us yesterday; "Perhaps Contador will have a bad day."

At VeloVeritas we pride ourselves on keeping an eye on who’s on the way up – but this gentleman caught us unawares. We should have spotted that stage win in the 2011 Tour de l’Avenir – there are no ‘soft’ stage wins in that race. So when 20 year-old Simon Yates took the rainbow jersey in the Worlds points race it shouldn’t really have been a surprise. But the man from Bury has been a World Champion before, with Dan McLay in the junior madison in 2010 – he was also silver medallist in the junior team pursuit that year.

Once again its been a hectic month or two and so too much to write about in a single blog post. I really should start writing a book! So I am going to keep this fairly short and sweet focusing on another victory (in the Winston Criterium) added to season 2013 and a return to Europe after five months away!

It was a typical cold grey Scottish autumn day for the 14th International Critérium de Levallois - even though we were in Paris.