Tag: Selle Italia

You know you're in Belgium at the Kuurne Brussels Kuurne when the barman is Iljo Keisse's dad - and when there are posters for bike races in the loo! But I'm getting ahead of myself; "live cargo", that's how the airlines refer to their passengers. And that's how we feel: the flight is two hours late and we're sitting on the floor at Prestwick Airport, or 'Glasgow South' as Ryanair would have it, despite the fact that we're 50 kilometres from the city on the Clyde.

Them sprinters are big guys-I passed them in the tunnel tonight, they looked cool, cocky, stylish. The public here love the sprinters; at intro time, they actually get their big build up from Daniel Mangeas after the Six Day riders. Bauge did a standstill for more than half-an-hour, in Gent there would be bricks getting lobbed at him, but in Grenoble-they love it.

Danny Clark; in a world where the word ‘legend’ is used too often, it’s wholly appropriate in the case of the Australian. He holds the record for the number of six day starts at 236 and he’s second in the all time winner ranks with 74 — unsurprisingly he’s ‘double Recordman’ here at the Copenhagen Six Day with eight wins off 21 starts.

Steve Cummings? He’s the real deal; a world champion on the track in the team pursuit; he paid his dues with Landbouwkrediet and Barloworld; rode for the ‘mega’ teams, Discovery, Sky, BMC; was part of that famous team which carried Cav to a rainbow jersey in Copenhagen but now he’s found his true niche – with South African squad Dimension Data. Last year the team raced as MTN-Qhubeka with Cummings netting a brilliant stage win in le Tour; this year the squad, with new sponsors has taken Cav on board and moved up to the World Tour.

The VV View: The UCI constitution is a little bit of a scary document, running to 23 pages with 87 articles, some of which have up to seven sections. We thought we might pick out a few quotes; it's 'a non-profit-making organisation' and should 'encourage friendship between all members of the cycling world' as well as 'promote sportsmanship and fair play' and there should be 'non-interference in the internal affairs of affiliated federations.'

VeloVeritas recently took time to talk to the man from Devon who is setting the early season roads of Southern France aflame - Endura's Jonathan Tiernan-Locke. We spoke to him soon after took his fourth and fifth wins of the season-the second stage and the GC in the tough Tour Cycliste International Haut Var.