At French WorldTour squad Groupama FDJ, Lewis Askey has come close to a French UCI 1.1 semi-classic win and is always in the thick of the televised action. Unfortunately, his progress has been pulled up short by a crash at Paris-Roubaix – most likely caused by the dreaded disc rotor. We caught up with him as he recuperated back in England.
Lady Luck certainly wasn't on Team Liquigas' side at last Sunday's Paris-Roubaix, as things went from bad (even before the race) to worse! Still, Manuel Quinziato, Murillo Fischer, Filippo Pozzato and the guys in green gave it their all at the world's toughest race. So, here is a list of 10 things you may not have seen from Paris-Roubaix coverage elsewhere...
We're at Paris - Roubaix 2007 and it's more like July in San Trop than spring in Northern France. We're in Wallers to take-in cobble sectors 19 and 17, both of which are on the outskirts of the village but at different ends, we had thought about watching at sector 18, Arenberg, but half of France has the same idea, it's heaving, and we have to get up to the finish "soon-as" after we've cobble-watched.
Paris - Roubaix 2007. My lift was late; the architect at the site meet was a pain, then the car broke down. It was therefore a stressed Ed who lurched onto the 12.30pm London express at Waverley on Thursday afternoon to rendez-vous with VeloVeritas Editor, Martin.
We race at the Dwight Yorke Stadium today. "Abraham takes on the world," said the headline in Thursday's paper; USA, Canada, Jamaica, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Switzerland - that's not a bad cross section. But did he beat the world here in Trinidad & Tobago? All will be revealed.
Putting to the side for a minute the fact that Tyler lied for years about his PED use before finally coming clean and whether that means everything he says can or can't be trusted, and just reading this book with an open mind, it quickly becomes clear just how much an everyday part of pro cycling in the 1980's, 90's, and 2000's PED and illegal blood manipulation actually was.
Of course, anyone with an interest in the sport already had more than an inkling that such cheating had always played a part, and fans of the sport have had to contend with scandal following scandal since forever, and particularly since the Festina affair in 1998.
What was it Oasis sang? ‘Don’t look back in anger.’ We look back on 2020 not with anger but with sadness - if you or your friends, colleagues or family have had the misfortune to encounter Covid then you have our commiserations. Here's our hindsight view of the VeloVeritas year.
It's a glorious day in Grenoble, warm, calm, sunny - not a day to be stuck in a stuffy stadium. But that's the runner's place in the way of things - scrambled eggs on fresh baguettes for breakfast eased the pain. The 35 minute chase was a better show tonight and the French guys didn't get pummelled quite so savagely.
As we’re all too well aware, the sport has lost five top line teams for 2014 with no new teams coming in at Pro Continental or World Tour level to replace them; a sad state of affairs. But bucking the trend and moving up from Continental to Pro Continental level – the only team to do so - is Australian outfit, Drapac.