Friday, May 17, 2024

Tag: Estaing

Le Tour de France 2011, Stage 10 – a little tourisme

Yesterday we arrived in Rodez as planned, picked up the hire car without any bother, and got ourselves, eventually, after getting lost a couple of times, to the hotel - one of these typical French 'pod' rooms, but it's okay with it's bunk beds and little shower room / toilet. A drive up to the Permanence, aka the Press Headquarters, to pick up our race accreditation, and we'd be all set for a pretty cruisy Rest Day. Only, the Permanence happened to be over two hours drive away, and once there, we found that only Ed's 'creds' were ready - mine hadn't been "approved by Julia" (the head ASO cred issuer).

At Random

Marc Anderson – Tour of the Meldons Winner

Congratulations to Marc Anderson of GTR Return to Life p/b Streamline on winning the CTT Scottish District Olympic Time Trial Championship which was incorporated in the classic Tour of the Meldons. We caught up with this year’s winner a few days after his ride:

John Archibald – New RTTC 10 Mile TT Champion

In the car on the way down to Irvine on Sunday morning it never occurred to VeloVeritas editor Martin and I that we’d soon be witnessing anything other than Marcin Bialoblocki (NOPINZ) making it a clean sweep of RTTC titles from 10 to 100 miles. Not for the first time, we got it wrong. Commonwealth Games pursuit silver medallist, John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) relegated the big Polish power house to second place by three seconds with a sparking 18:18 – Big Marcin looked a tad stunned when the news broke that we had a Scottish winner of a British title on Scottish roads.

“Argyle Armada” by Mark Johnson

"Argyle Armada" by Mark Johnson takes readers on a journey into the world of professional cycling, specifically focusing on the Garmin-Cervélo team led by Jonathan Vaughters. The book offers a fascinating blend of captivating storytelling, really nice photography, and an exploration of the team's fight against doping, its difficult decisions, and quite a few personal dramas.

La Vuelta a España 2014 – Stage 7; Alhendin – Alcaudete, 165.4 km. Alessandro De Marchi Stays Clear

As Dario Cioni once told us; ‘sometimes it’s nice for the big teams to get it wrong and the break to stay away.’ Big Italian Alessandro De Marchi was originally a team pursuit rider and paid his dues for three years in the low budget but big achieving Androni squad before stepping up to the World Tour with Cannondale, last year.

Shay Elliott – Irish Legend and ‘All Time Great’; a Story of Firsts and Mystery

Dublin's Shay Elliott was a man of firsts: the first (and only) English speaker to win Het Volk in 1959; the first English speaker to win a stage in the Vuelta and to wear the amarillo jersey of race leadership in 1962; the first English speaker to win a Giro stage in 1960, and the first English speaker to hold the yellow jersey of race leadership in the Le Tour in 1963, but his pro career ended ignominiously and his premature death at just 36 years of age is still the subject of speculation in Irish cycling circles....

Katie Archibald – “The Team Pursuit with GB is my Path to Rio”

Glasgow’s Katie Archibald has gone from ‘good Scottish rider’ to British championship medalist to European Champion and world team pursuit record holder - and now double World Cup medalist in a matter of weeks. We thought it was high time to have a word.