Tag: Le Tour de France 2017

A 19 minute ‘10’ is pretty rapid by any standard – but how about stringing together 10 of them, back to back? That’s exactly what 44 year-old Richard Bideau (Pendle Forest CC) a self employed potter from Burnley did in his first hundred; recording 3:18:54 in the Stockton Wheeler’s event a week past Sunday to slice a stunning 3:51 from multi-BBAR Kevin Dawson’s 12 year-old competition record.

Barring accidents or a dreadful time trial on Saturday it looks like Alejandro Valverde has stitched up his first Grand Tour (at last!). At the end of all of the big stage races we need to ask some questions and La Vuelta a España throws up some thought-provokers!

One result which caught our eye recently was a win in the InterClub race at Zandhoven over 138 K where Englishman Jake Scott beat Stef Vermeulen of KWC Heist Zuiderkempen to take the win. InterClubs are ‘big deal’ races and the pro teams keep a close eye on the results – naturally, they’re not easy to win.

We caught up with James McCallum after a busy weekend which combined the British Madison Championships, a Revolution meeting and a cyclo-cross.

Righteous indignation - we’re all good at it. The Astana situation gives us the opportunity to use words like ‘scandal,’ ‘disgrace,’ ‘joke,’ ‘appalling’ and all the rest. Here’s the ‘but’: whilst here at VeloVeritas we’re not card carrying members of the UCI and Brian Cookson Fan Clubs we do understand that that the organisation has to work within a framework called ‘rules.’

The recent UCi 2.1 Tour of Taiwan was a good one for ex-Raleigh riders; Bernie Sulzberger backed by his strong Australian DRAPAC team took the overall win. Whilst former team mate, Englishman Liam Holohan now with the Madison Genesis team took ninth on GC, a slim 15 seconds from the overall podium. On his return to UK, Liam took time to tell VeloVeritas about Asian racing, the return of steel frames and the UK race scene.