"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglay," Rabbie Burns must have had a premonition about the Giro when he wrote that. It should have been a short hop over the Pordoi Pass from the digs to the start at Arabba to Marmolada. The jobsworth policeman at the top of the Pordoi settled our hash though; "No, you stop now, road closed, no journalists, only team cars!" Aye, cheers pal, you'll soon get that job you want in the riot squad, bludgeoning students. Sorry..., I was ranting, wasn't I?
It's a pleasure to be given the opportunity to write the Peter Smith Blog for the guys at VeloVeritas, and hopefully this might give a little insight as to what it's like for the lesser-known riders, trying to establish a career in such a cut-throat sport.
Fullerton Wheelers present the Scottish Olympic Time Trial Championships 2007 this weekend, with double British TT Champion Jason MacIntyre (Edge RT) starting number 39 and last off, in a small field which all the same contains a lot of quality riders.
You have to be in the right frame of mind to rant – unless you’re a Master, like Vik – VeloVeritas’s cycling sage and soothsayer, Vik can waken up ranting and probably rants in his sleep. I can’t do it to order – but the stars have aligned this morning and there’s a lot to get off my chest...
VeloVeritas missed the 100 Champs again-we're not men enough to disappear to the Tour for two weekends then vanish to Invergordon at 04:00 the first Sunday we're back.
The trouble with getting up before 06:00 and not getting to bed 'til 01:45 is that by the time the next day - that's today, comes around, it seems like last year. And today is the circuit race at Queens Park.
There I was, sitting track side at the Copenhagen Six Day 2010 getting my copy up to date and the BlackBerry rings - Viktor. "I've just seen the stage from Qatar; Boasson Hagen punctured and the rest of them are nowhere to be seen!"