Tag: Peaks Two-Day

We last spoke to up and coming 23 year-old Swiss star, Silvan Dillier back in the spring after his win in the Tour of Normandie; since then he’s been a busy man. There was stage win in the hotly contested Triptyque Ardennaise in Belgium, a win in Cham-Hagendorn in Switzerland and stage in the Fleche Ardennaise in Belgium. Then came a ride as a stagiaire with the BMC World Tour team – and an excellent win in Stage Two of the Tour of Alberta.

Mark Cavendish soared to his second straight win in the Tour de France today to La Grande-Motte, winning the sprint from a small bunch and strengthening his overall hold on the green jersey.

The Black List... It's been a good week if you read the Guardian's cycling coverage and like a rant. 'I'm better than Armstrong now,' says Wiggins - reads the headline; of all the bike riders in the world that one should not make that statement about, Lance Armstrong is the absolute top of the list.

Today is Strada Bianchi day. Once you have your Giro d'Italia creds you feel better, despite the fact that a colleague had organised them for you a week ago, it's still a relief to hang that pink lanyard round your neck and stick those big lumps of sticky-back plastic on the hire car windscreen.

I just don't feel right in the mornings at the Giro d'Italia 2009 'til I get my Gazzetta. Dave drove past a couple of newsagents this morning, I could see the pink pages, but not get to them - it was terrible! Dave predicted that Carlos would get 9 out of 10 - he was spot on. Levi got 4 and the man that the Gazzetta loves to hate; Gibo Simoni didn't even get a mention. Silvi Marina was the destination; Dave battered the Peugeot down the Autostrada for our rendezvous with Rubens Bertogliati, Ben Swift and Dario Cioni.

Germany, somewhere near the Taunus mountains at 09:22 Sunday. We left the Zürich Six Day at 03:00 and there are still 400 kilometres to go to the ferry at Amsterdam. It began to snow like Hell about an hour into Germany; there were roadworks, we were diverted off the motorway and there were either no diversion signs or they were snowbound. Whichever it was, we ended up hideously lost and dropped a chunk of time.