Tag: Tyres

Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) may well be intent on a great feat this year, as today he took his third stage into Puerto de Ancares, taking the race to the others and exploiting his amazing uphill sprinting abilities by out-kicking Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) at Puerto de Ancares, the first of three consecutive stage summit finishes.

VeloVeritas mentor and soothsayer, Viktor maintains that if it's a 'road race' then it should be just that - a public highway, not a concrete track to nowhere. And the Bola Del Mundo certainly goes nowhere, there's nothing to do at the top but come back down again. But when you're up there, the sun is out, the fans are going crazy and you could reach out and touch Alberto as he grimaces past, you can't help but get bound up in the sheer wonderful madness of it all...

"Ate that bunny on main climb of day! Went down a treat!" It's texts like that which make it all worthwhile - mission accomplished; Dan Fleeman's Easter bunnies delivered. Vik, Dave and Ivan all 'passed' on the Doon Hame gig; that left it down to Jimmy Leslie and I. The Saturday night crit around Victory Park used to be the traditional pilgrimage - now it's Easter Monday.

In a sunny but very windy Lincolnshire Endura Racing's Russell Downing rode a strong race of attrition today to take his fourth Lincoln GP in a sprint ahead of breakaway companion Marcin Bialoblocki (NODE4 Giordana Racing) and over a minute an a quarter ahead of previous winner Kristian House (Rapha Condor Sharp).

A pictorial summary of the Gent Six Day and our trip to the Koksijde Cyclocross race in the beach dunes of Flanders. At the track, it took me back to the days when I stood on the apron, bottles at the ready for Kris to hand up – but not too much in them so they don’t splash when the rider grabs them - just taking in the speed, noise, music, heat, people and that Gent buzz - high as a kite on the Gent Six Days.

My pal Vik called me this morning; ‘the racing at the Grenoble Four Day can’t be very good if you’re spending so much time taking pictures of boys on the trapeze!’ If I could get him down here it would be different. It’s not just a bike race; if he was here, eating the nice food, drinking champers with friends, with the race whizzing around him and the amazing shows, he'd see things in a new light.