Britain is Awesome at Track Cycling

Britain has always had a good pedigree in track cycling. It dates back to Chris Boardman over-taking the German world champion in the individual pursuit final in the Barcelona Olympics.

But at the track cycling world championships, being held in Manchester, U.K. this week, things have been getting kind of ridiculous.

The current medal table has Britain leading with 9 golds and one silver (which shmuck got a silver??) 'closely' followed by Belarus with 2 golds and a bronze. The only events British riders aren't winning are those that haven't got any Brits in them. In fact, between them the British track cycling team have also set three world records, two of which came only twenty minutes apart!

Now this is nothing new, Great Britain has always been uh... great at cycling, but even when you take home field advantage into consideration, this medal haul is pretty incredible. The big question is, can they repeat this performance at Beijing 2008?

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Oh For Petesake, Aren't Any of Them Clean?

Reports are coming in that the Tour de France pre-race favorite Alexandre Vinokourov has failed a drugs test. The Kazakh rider has asked for a second sample to be tested but well, this is cycling... I think we know what's going on by now.

So not only do we have the leader of the race missing a test but we also have two other riders with failures to their names. This year was supposed to herald the 'New Cycling' but so far it's looking to be worse then the 'old cycling'.

So because of this one schmuck, the whole of the Astana team has been pulled out of the race by their sponsors. What with this and the German news team pulling out last week, you have to ask yourself how long cycling can last as a legitimate sport. Oh wait, that boat already sailed...

[BBC Sport]

Tour de France Stage 8: Mental

Stage 8 of the Tour de France yesterday (which I'm sure you watched) was pretty insane by cycling standards.

First of all it was the second day in a row which took place in the Alps with this second stage being approximately 90% uphill. And this is the Alps we're talking about here, not that little slope you've got to haul your fat ass up on your way to work.

Then there was the umpteen crashes, one of which threw Spanish rider David Arroyo, not just over his handle-bars, but over the side of the mountain as well. If it hadn't been for the large amount of foliage to catch him it may well have been the last we would have seen of Mr. Arroyo. As it happens though, he scuttled back up the side, jumped back on his bike and carried on riding. Albeit more slowly around the faster corners.

To top it all off were the fans and crap there were alot of them considering how high up in the damn mountains they were. This stage saw a lime green lycra swimsuited Borat running along side the Kazakstan team as they passed by, a couple of blond clowns (?) and the return of the Elvis dude sporting a sparkling black number.

Seriously, you don't know what you're missing.

[Official Tour de France 2007 Site]
[BBC SPORT]