News, reactions and information on what's happening in cycling in Scotland.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

It's Snow Joke


It's been one hell of a winter in bonny Scotland, snow, ice ,more snow. Snow again all day and forecast to the end of the week. I think I'll have to get one of these soon...
 

Saturday 20 February 2010

Tour du Haut Var

The weekend event of the Tour du Haut Var in the South of France kicks off today, of UK interest is the participation of Sky & Endura in this event. Sky are winning big races, with a multi-million budget and their ultimate back up team. Endura are hitting only their 2nd big event after perhaps expecting a different event in Med, it turned into a bottle freezing 33mph carnival, not the best introduction to Pro racing, but they nearly all got through it (the timing system didn't agree, but we all know what happened) apart for Jimmy Mac who went sight seeing over a cliff, no serious injuries.

This event sees UK riders Froome, Kennaugh & Swift lining up for Sky, with Davy Lines, Gary Hand, Rob Partridge, Scott Thwaites, Ian Wilkinson & Evan Oliphant lining up for Endura. Sky will be expecting a result, but I'm more interested in the Endura team's continued exposure to euro pro racing, it's gladatorial stuff, racing in that kind of environment at a time when they're not normally racing.

The guys with the best form in the Endura team are expected to be Frenchman Alexandre Blain and New Zealand Champion Jack Bauer. Blain was unlucky in the Med, on one stage sitting on 4th wheel at the finish only to get sent the wrong way, so expectations firmly placed on him. Bauer is fresh from a Kiwi summers racing and is capable of taking on Pro-Tour riders and beating them, as he showed in the Kiwi champs, outwitting Garmin & Columbia riders.
Oliphant is proving his class too, so expecting him in a team role supporting Blain & Bauer.

Predictions, I think a top 5 result on a stage is a real possibility in this event for the Endura guys, expect the UK guys to bury themselves for Blain & Bauer.
Good luck again!

Riders list.
http://www.tourduhautvar.com/fra/2010/12;coureurs_partants.html

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Tour of Scotland

Tour of Qatar, Tour of Oman, what about a professional Tour of Scotland? Ok, so maybe not so hot and sunny, but it existed in the distant past, before I was involved in cycling and I really have little or no knowledge about it's former status, but could we get it up and running again?

We've had successful stages of recent Tours of Britain in Scotland, but possibly not on the most demanding or scenic of routes that could have been selected, but chosen for fully understandable logistical reasons to link up with the other stages. Having something similar to the Ras in Ireland is a possibility, it slowly built it's status and appeals more to the 'Continental' pro teams and domestic squads, so no huge financial demands which would involve the hard to secure TV coverage deal.

The 'Girvan', a 3 day race, has sat nicely in the a largely domestic calendar for many years at Easter, known as a well organised and brutal race in sometimes difficult Scottish spring/winter conditions. For club racers this has been the highest level race a rider with ambition can ride in Scotland, but doesn't have anything like the same standing the Ras has with the locals, I've ridden both and no local schools out cheering the fans in Scotland, no huge crowds at the finish. The Irish have managed to grasp the public with their event and it's shown on the evening news programme.

Ireland has a population of 4.5 million, Scotland 5 million, so does having a week long stage race with a high profile contribute to their much bigger success on the international stage? The answer has to be a resounding "yes". We obviously have the talented individuals with the knowledge and expertise to able to run great events, otherwise the Girvan would not exist after all these years, but do we lack the marketing skills to attract a big name sponsor who has the 'shock and awe' title to convince regional police and local councils to all work together to make it happen, is this what's holding us back?

We have towns stuck right in the most marketable Scottish scenery which have the facilities to look after a peleton for a night, Fort William, Aviemore, Oban, etc, intersperced with the larger towns and cities, avoiding large transfers between stages. So what does it take to bring all this together, a willing organiser in each region (co-operation again, this time within the Scottish cycling community), a sponsor, somebody with detailed knowledge of the media, a date in the middle of our summer, support from the Scottish government?

We could have something our young riders would see as a stepping stone to greater things, a semi-pro stage race just like the Ras which would provide a focal point for the season and hopefully boost the sport, raising the level.

We have talented riders, are they simply missing an opportunity, getting a pummelling at Easter and getting demoralised, Easter's for the hard men. The July Tour of Scotland could be as close as we could get to a European stage race, where different riders would be in a position to show what they can do, there's currently no stage a talented climber can prove their worth unless they can also ride track for the GB squad (look at Dan Martin) or up and leave to go to France, is a stage race the stage we're looking for?

Sunday 7 February 2010

Tour Méditerranéen

This is unheard of, a possibility of 4 Scots taking part in a famous race on the continent, against Pro-Tour competition!

By the looks of the Endura website the team will consist of Scots Evan Oliphant, Gary Hand, James McCallum & Ross Creber, along with Welshman Rob Partridge and England's Ian Wilkinson & the teams highest profile rider Rob Hayles.

Now to get an idea of the level of event this is, a simple team list should provide enough information on the task that's being taken on (see below). This is no soft entry level race and certainly not a training race these days, this is the real thing and the competition includes some of the worlds best riders, who won't be wanting any of the smaller teams to make them look human.

CAISSE D'EPARGNE (ESP)
ASTANA (KAZ)
RABOBANK (NED)
GARMIN SLIPSTREAM (USA)
SKIL SHIMANO (BEL)
AQUA-SAPONE (ITA)
ENDURA (GB)
VACANSOLEIL (NED)
AG2R LA MONDIALE (FRA)
BOUYGUES BOX (FRA)
COFIDIS (FRA)
FDJEUX (FRA)
SAUR-SOJASUN (FRA)
BRETAGNE SHULLER (FRA)
ROUBAIX METROPOLE (FRA)
AUBER 93 (FRA)
MICHE (ITA)

What is expected of the Endura team? Well, hard riders such as Wilkinson & Oliphant and any of the others are capable of getting in the breaks, we've seen Hayles take on the best riders in the past, winning a sprint in the Kellogs Tour some time ago. If they can set Jamesy up, can he get up there in a final sprint? This is all new to everybody, but if the guys show themselves in the race on a similar level with the French continental teams, that would be an excellent result in itself. Any home grown team with these kinds of ambitions deserves our support, it takes guts to go to a race like this, even more to relish it, the experience should help them move up a level, so for me there are no down sides to this, a seriously positive move from a forward looking and ambitious team.

I wish Team Endura all the best for the event next week, I'll be following it closely.


The cycling underclass, the pure tester.

I'm not talking about your occasional indulger, I'm talking about your typical flat course, fixed distance tester, socially inept and involved (to an obsession) in the aerodynamic arms race with his fellow old duffers.

This is a phenomena you only see in the UK, you won't see one of these guys riding a bike in the rest of Europe, they're a throwback to the days when road racing (which had become established in Britain in those days) was banned by the authorities, perhaps fuelling the current anti cycling brigade who also don't exist in the same numbers on the European continent. This was when these fixed distance events took a stronghold and courses were described/whispered to each other and read from a small black book, kept in an alpaca jacket. This avoided any untimely contact with the local coppers and you could say, "I'm just riding my bike" (exactly one minute behind another) and definetely not racing. The rule that you have to shout your number also came about from these far gone days, when you obviously couldn't wear an number on your back, but is still practiced now!
You'd have thought things had moved on, but sadly not, there is somehow still a demand for this type of racing on irrelevant dual carriageway courses, the kind of roads that cyclists avoid in their usual riding patterns, but testers flock to in order to get a traffic assisted time, even riding out into the lane to get as much drag as possible from passing juggernaughts. Testers will tell you this kind of race had bread a host of worldbeaters, naming Boardman, Obree, Beryl Burton, Sean Yates , MacIntyre etc, but if you look past this you'll realise that most good riders have at some point tried testing, but quickly moved on to other areas of the sport before they lost complete use of their brain.

The pure tester also carries with him a rather peculiar social ineptitude, unable to interact constructively with normal people, normal people are not particularly interested that a 53x13 equates to a 114.1 inch gear (I had to look that up, don't get the wrong idea), but pure testers can chat to each other for hours on the merits of one particular gear ratio. It must be an incredible surprise when they leave the cocoon of their race HQ, a layby on a semi-motorway in the middle of nowhere, then drift into the real world with all it's intricacies and those 'odd' people who have no interest in the aerodynamic advantages of not fitting a bike computer. These people are the nerds of the cycling world, but unlike nerds they rarely have the ability to operate in cyberspace, closing their social world into brief exchanges with other ageing social retards in a layby, wearing a lycra skinsuit one size too small, just picture this for a second, it's not a pretty sight.