Tag: Haut Var 2012

"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike," the words of 'il Campionissimo'-'champion of champions,' Fausto Coppi when asked to give advise about training. The same advice holds still holds good for the 21st century, but it's a tad more sophisticated in these cyber days.

Dave Bonner's career was ending when I was just getting into cycling, but his name was one which kept cropping up in Cycling Weekly in the early 70's and in the chats where the 'young boys' learned from the older guys in the club about cycling's rich history. He was a star on the track, in time trials and on the road; and 40 years after he quit the pro scene he’s still riding his beloved Condor in the mountains of Southern Spain. Back in 2010 Cycling Weekly even ran a feature about his five hour runs through the mountains of Andalucía – good going for a 70 year-old.

"Lang Whang" is Auld Scots, it means 'long way' - it's fair to say that Endura's Gary Hand was in the break for a lang whang and he won the finishing sprint by a similar margin from wanderer returned, Alex Coutts (I looked at his jersey but the team name looked like Greek to me).

Alejandro Valverde winning his fourth Doyenne as last Sunday’s hi-lite? Well, we were expecting that – the Movistar Spaniard and Sky’s Polish flyer Kwiatkowski were ‘super favourites’ and delivered two of the three podium places. But what we weren’t expecting was the phone call from VeloVeritas soothe sayer and mentor, Viktor on Sunday evening; ‘your man Dan Fleeman’s just won The Rutland!’ Now, that was a surprise!

Sunday starts with the climax of the under 23 Six the AVS Cup. Not long ago I would have struggled to believe that home grown Scottish talent would be riding Gent but with Mark Stewart in the elite event and Andy Brown and Grant Martin in the U23 this is a Scottish success story.

Snapshots from the Gent Six Day 2012, as we roam around the city and spend time with the winners in the bar.