Brad is paying the price for doing no training between the Olympics and Christmas. I am gutted for David Walsh. Who is going to drive him round France in July now?
A good day to be Chris Froome, he now has 100% support and attention of Team Sky. His chances of winning would have been severely diminished with the presence, distraction and drain of resources that is SBW.
Froome is more riddled with stuff than SBW
Mauro Santambrogio, 9th in the Giro this year, has been suspended after testing positive for EPO after stage 1 of the event.
I know heās 28 but he was expected to be the next big deal from Italian Cycling. Thatās the two main Vini Fantini riders caught doping in the Giro after Di Luca was already caught.
Vini Festini as some are referring to them now Scrunchie:D
And of course the manager was letting on that Di Luca was the only rotten apple.
Froome won the Dauphine comfortably this week. Contador wasnāt up to it but give him a few more weeks and he will be a contender. Dan and Nico are riding the Tour de Suisse this week. Martin very active today.
Froome accelerating away from Contador during the week at the end of one of the mountainous stages was LA-esque.He says today itās proof that cycling is now clean. 
I wonder will he get a knighthood when he wins the Tour.
[SIZE=16px]Here is my contribution to National Bike Week, which starts on Saturday: cyclists are the spawn of the devil. This statement may contain the tiniest tincture of unfair generalisation. But given the widespread tendency to mistake a cycling helmet for a halo, it needs to be said that not all of Hellās angels ride Harleys. Cyclists like to see themselves as the great oppressed minority of the streets. The truth that dare not speak its name is that the worst oppression is inflicted on the defenceless pedestrian and that two-wheeled yobs do most of the oppressing.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=16px]Cyclists have issues with self-esteem: they have far too much of it. It is hard to blame them. Cycling is indeed a many-splendored thing. It is good for the environment. It shows personal responsibility in the fight against ill-health and obesity. It affords the rest of us images of heroic perseverance: an old lady pedalling up a hill against a rain-sodden West of Ireland winter wind is the visual epitome of human doggedness in the face of the innate cruelty of an absurd universe. The cyclist is Christ on a bike, martyr and saviour all in one.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=16px]The problem with all this goodness is that it creates a sense of rectitude entirely divorced from actual behaviour. Being on a bike is itself irrefutable proof of your decency, care and civic worth. You donāt have to do anything else - like show a modicum of concern for those with whom you share public space.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=16px]Whatās happened with cycling is a classic case of the āand the office boy kicked the dogā syndrome. On the road, trucks bully cars and cars bully cyclists. So what happens? The cyclists move onto the footpath (hint: the clue is in the name) and bully the pedestrians. Those on foot are the lowest of the low. Their space can be invaded with impunity; their safety is of no account whatsoever. W.B. Yeats wrote satirically of the revolution after which āa beggar on horseback lashes a beggar on footā. In the great cycling revolution, the new master of the footpath is in a smaller saddle, but for the poor beggar on foot the lash goes on.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=16px]Most weekday mornings, I do a circuit on foot (the activity might be called running if that word did not suggest notions of velocity and alacrity) around the area of north Dublin where I live. A long stretch of it has a very good cycle lane. Maybe once a month, I might see a single person on a bike in the cycle lane. This is not because there are no cyclists - there are dozens of them at any given time. Itās because the cyclists simply decided at some point that they would all use the narrow footpath. They wheel along it like a panzer division while the red surface of the cycle lane glows in stark, staring nakedness.[/SIZE]
didnāt know you were a cut and paste merchant, Runt
I thought I had included the link. I obviously wasnāt trying to pass off an article from todays Irish Times as my own! I also posted the link in another thread, you spawn of satan.
What a load of absolute twaddle.
I saw that after kid, no worries.
Pat McQuaid wonāt be nominated by Cycling Ireland, looks like heāll be forced out of the UCI 
I thought he had already secured a nomination from Switzerland ?
Thereās a legal challenge against that now.
Sad and pathetic that it took a public outcry to make them review their original decision well done to that fella who stood alone, was it Moran?
A load of teams have named their Tour lineups in the last 24 hours.
I think the Saxo-Tinkoff selection looks strong and would make me pick Contador to win the GC. Kreuziger, Rogers, Nico Roche, Paulinho all there, rest of the team is solid too, although I would have picked Chris Anker Sorenssen to go as heās a decent grinder on the massive mountain stages.
Blanco go with Mollema to lead the team ahead of Gesink, who completes his decline from future star to also-ran. Renshaw left out. Cavendish gets Martin, Trentin, Chavanel and Steegmans. Argos pick both Kittel AND Degenkolb, which is puzzling but also indicates that they may already be resigned to Cav/Sagan winning Green. Schleck leads a nondescript team of no-marks and ould lads.
Ger Gilroy interviewing Pat McQuaid on Newstalk right now. Forensic and adversarial interview. Great stuff.