Tag: Montreuil sur Mer

At the next Commonwealth Games there’ll be no David Millar or ‘Jamesie’ and even the perennial Evan Oliphant might not make it to Gold Coast City, Australia in 2018. But Dundee’s Mark Stewart should be there; at just 19 he took sixth place in the 20 K Scratch Race in Glasgow behind New Zealand’s World’s Omnium medallist, Shane Archbold with the distance being covered in 22:43 @ 52.819 kph – that’s quick.

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.

The last time I wrote on this subject my pal ‘Denis from Montreal’ said; ‘Hood should stick to derailleur reviews.’ But you have to give grudging respect to any man that still refers to a rear mech as a ‘derailleur.’ Least I be accused of practicing ‘Omerta’ here’s what’s on my mind regarding a certain cycling commentator and his much criticised views on LanceGate..

There is no doubt that Biniam Girmay’s win on Stage 10 of the 2022 Giro d’Italia was a historic one but it was not the first stage win by an African in the race; on May 4th 1979, Stage Seven, Chieti to Pesaro over a massive 252 kilometres, Peugeot’s South African rider, Alan van Heerden became the first African to win a Grand Tour stage.

It was a difficult phone call to make, he picked up on the tone of my voice at once; 'no, don't tell me, please!' But it was best he heard it from me; 'Flecha, he won Het Nieuwsblad well, Viktor, sorry!' 'That's it, I'm finished with Pro Cycling, for good!'

The trouble with Richard Virenque was, that if he was seven times King of the Mountains; he was at least eight times King of the Erses.