Tag: La Vuelta a España 2013

I can remember perfectly where I was when Marco Pantani died; sitting in my living room in Dysart. The flash came over Eurosport News and I rang Viktor to tell him; ‘hardly surprising’ was the reply. I knew what he meant, the little Italian’s life had been on a self destructive spiral for a some time - rehab or disaster were the only two possible destinations. It was the Spartan philosophers who first coined the expression, ‘never speak ill of the dead.’ And whilst it’s always dreadfully sad to see a young life wasted, I’m puzzled by the current revisionist accounts of his life which are doing the rounds on the 10th anniversary of his death.

On the weekends I take my dog for big walks and have started listening to podcasts as we enjoy the Fife Coastal Path and the mighty River Forth. My favourite listen is ‘Life in the Peloton’ hosted by the man with the mullet, ‘tache and natty choice in head wear – Mitch Docker.

Cav: he really is impressive - we were at five K to go when Oss passed on his death or glory bid out of the break; he was flying. The bunch Like some high speed linear motored Japanese train - whhoooooooossssshhhhh! Those carbon rims slice the air.

A Matter of Scale. The first (of two) Individual Time Trials in the race, the riders are looking at 41km on a relatively hilly parcours where the stronger time triallists in the field will attempt to put some more space between themselves and their “mountain goat” rivals.

Here at VeloVeritas we felt that those Endura Racing boys would be giving us plenty to write about in 2009, so we thought we'd better sit them down with them and have a few words. As well as Jonathan McBain (owner of Pedal Power Cycles) and a lean and fit looking Gary Hand, a keen as mustard James McCallum was there too; so it turned into a lot of words!

Saturday morning dawned bright and mild; this gives rise to mixed feelings - on the one hand you want a freezing, wet, death race, but on the other, it's no fun standing in the cold and wet for hours. One thing is sure - sunshine would have been of no use to Viktor at the Kuurne Brussels Kuurne!