Tag: Shane Sutton

I’m trying to remember that last time I followed a rider in a Time Trial – Bradley Wiggins through the grubby back streets of Milano in the Giro’s closing time trial, with Martin at the Tour watching Michael Mørkøv blast those 52km to Chartres or that time we followed Charly Wegelius through the glorious vineyards of Champagne? No matter, what a nice way to spend a Thursday afternoon, chasing Zeb Kyffin around the beautiful, sun-drenched parcours beside the Solway Firth at the British Time Trial Championships, won by Ethan Hayter.

If you were on the UK race scene in the late 70’s through to the mid-90’s then you’ll be familiar with the name ‘Paul Curran.’ The man could do the lot – he was British Champion in the team pursuit, madison, points, motorpaced, pro criterium, amateur road race, team time trial and hill climb.

Amidst the welter of Tweets, outraged forum posts, recriminations and blame culture which have followed in the wake of 'LanceGate' we decided that it may be educational to speak to a man who's ridden the whirlwind of a dope test positive, Joe Papp.

Kris heads straight for breakfast from the camper but I’m not man enough for that, I need the shower to bring me to life before I can face Rotterdam Six Day 2019, Day Four...

John Atkins is Britain’s greatest ever cyclo-cross rider; 13 times a British champion and still the nation’s best ever finisher in the Worlds – and at a time when ‘cross gods, the de Vlaeminck brothers were at their zenith. He lives quietly in retirement in Wales, doesn’t ‘do the internet’ and isn’t a man for the ‘stats.’ He was surprised we wanted to speak to him but gave freely of his time and anecdotes. Here’s what John had to say to VeloVeritas just after young van der Poel had won the Worlds in Tabor.

The worst thing about going to the Tour? Coming back. ‘Cold turkey’ is tough – Dave and I used to go to a kermis on the Monday after the Tour finished to ease our ‘crash.’ And last year Callum and I went to the post Tour crit in Aalst. Not this year however because we flew home from Geneva. But our man Callum found another solution; he got himself down to the ‘Ride London’ race; whilst we had to watch it on TV – with no coverage of the crucial last few K. But Callum let us have some pictures - we hope you like them.