2
My thoughts continued…

The last week has been a fantastic week for cycling. The World Championships are not exactly the pinnacle of the season, but they are often high on the priority list of quality riders wanting to add the rainbow stripes to their palmeras. The World Championships are also the only chance, outside the Olympics, that we, the cycling fans, have to support our country. We have allegiance to the riders from our country, but not necessarily the teams they ride for. This will change even more next year when we’ll have allegiance to a team from our country (presumably) but not necessarily the riders from that team. There may be mixed feelings if, for instance, Edwald Boassan Hagen, riding for the British Sky team were to out sprint Mark Cavendish, riding for the American backed Columbia HTC squad. The World Championships in Mendrisio will not be fondly remembered by the British Cycling fans. The U23 lads performed well both in TT and Road race, but the performances that we are becoming used to seeing by our senior squads were disappointing.
Bradley Wiggins brake problem was unlucky in the TT. He said that as he approached the summit of the climb he felt his rear brake jam on. I thought that was funny as I always feel like that at the top of a climb. Even in a brake free environment Bradley would have needed either a superhuman effort or a Honda Fireblade to catch the winner Fabian Cancellara. I actually had “goose bumps” watching the master class in TT handed out by the home favourite. Mr Wiggins still had enough humour left though to have a “twitter based” pop at some of the British Cycling media that evening.

Nicole Cooke was not having a good day in the Women’s Road race. The defending champion was the subject of a “did she fall or didn’t she fall” saga. Again most of this was played out on the ever growing popular social networking site Twitter. Weather Cooke fell or not mattered not as the responsibility of British success fell to Emma Pooley. The tiny TT specialist worked very hard to break clear from the lead group as she, by her own admission, has no sprint finish. The rest of the group were too strong and Pooley is now far too respected to be allowed any gap and all her hard work was in vain.

The finish to the men’s Road race was very exciting. After a mammoth 17.5 laps of the circuit the real contenders began to show themselves. It appeared that a break of 22 riders had ridden clear and the race would be settled between them (Sean Kelly certainly thought so). Cancellara had other ideas. The super strong Swiss machine powered across the 90 second gap within half a lap and tried to break the rest of the bunch who had “hopped onto his train”. Unfortunately his brave move didn’t work and Cadel Evans broke clear in the last 5km to earn a popular victory. Evan’s victory had many people calling for those who have accused him of being defensive to eat their words. I actually thought that the stroppy Australian had simply completed the finest “wheel suck” of all time when he latched onto Cancellara’s attack and then, while the rest of the “pretenders” waited for another burst from “Swiss Tony”, Evans sneaked off down the road. Just my opinion, but that’s how I saw it. I’m just waiting to see how many bodyguards Evans needs now he’s World Champion.

My own riding has been improving this week. I’ve actually named this week. Pigs and Cappuccino as many of my rides have encountered both. The weather has been fantastic and unusually coincided with me having some time off work so I’ve really taken advantage. I’m attempting to build the long range base that I will need for next year’s Sportives. I have a dilemma though. There is a local 100km sportive that unfortunately clashes with my only chance to visit the Cycle Show in London. I can’t decide which to do. I’m off to do some more Pig spotting now, but, on advice from my nutritionist, need to switch my coffee for green tea.