Archive for January, 2011
January 25, 2011 at 7:08 pm · Filed under Cycling, Le Tour, The history of cycle racing
Back in the day I wasn’t much of a fan of Jacques Anquetil, mainly because he was the only rider who could beat my hero Ercole Baldini against the watch. That and the fact that he won the Tour five times in a manner that made Big Mig seem exiting. I havebeen reading Vin Denson’s book and Vin is a big fan of Jacques if only because his time with Ford France labouring for the Norman was the one time that he had a decent job as a pro.
So I checked out my back issues of Sporting Cyclist and read about the 1961 Tour de France. Anquetil took the jersey on the first day in a time trial and held it for three weeks, God it was boring! In 1961 the Tour was contested by national teams and there was a British Isles team with Robinson, Simpson and Shay Elliott backed up by a motley crew including Denson, Stan Brittain and Ken Laidlaw. On paper it didn’t look half bad as that season Simmy had won De Ronde and Robbo had won the Dauphine Libere but within a few days Simpson had packed with a dodgy knee and the team was reduced to an Englishman Robinson, an Irishman Elliott and a Scotsman Laidlaw.
But back to the first day and that time trial over just 28km. Robinson, who don’t forget had just won a major stage race and was looking for a high finish at Paris took 43min 38 sec. Denson, a good English tester had a time of 45min 55sec and Simpson was slower in 46min 32sec. And Anquetil? He took just 39min 43sec. and crushed second placed Bouvet, a world class pursuiter, by two and a half minutes and the rest beaten out of sight! So by the end of the first day the Tour de France was over.
I took the photo at the 1966 Worlds on the Nurburgring. Anquetil was second to Rudi Altig. The GB rider is Alan Ramsbottom.
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January 20, 2011 at 9:58 pm · Filed under Cycling, Pic of the day, The history of cycle racing
A young and slim Keith Butler presses on to keep this break away with Bill Bradley and Billy Holmes grimacing at the camera. Jim Leach, who kindly gave me permission to use the photo says that it was taken on stage 8 from Aberystwyth to Buxton (142 miles) but I have my doubts about that.
Chas Messenger writes, in possibly the worst book ever written about cycle racing, Where There’s a Wheel, that at the end of stage 7 the New Zealander Warwick Dalton took over the yellow jersey. This is confirmed by Sidney Saltmarsh writing in Sporting Cyclist. It follows that on stage 8 Dalton was in yellow but in the photo Holmes is surely wearing the jersey. But there was a big break on stage 8 and it did contain Butler, Bradley and Holmes so maybe Jim is right.
Copyright: J. Leach Cycling Archives
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January 14, 2011 at 1:17 pm · Filed under Cycling, Pic of the day, The history of cycle racing
Bill Bradley, reaching for his bottle at Hereford on the Llandrindod Wells to Weston Super Mare stage of the Tour of Britain 1958. Jim Leach, who sent me the photo, says it contains Ron Coe but I am not so sure of that. It is Billy for certain, probably in a Merseyside jersey, and I reckon that the big fellow in the GB jersey is Stan Brittain but after that I am struggling. If you recognise anybody post a comment.
Copyright: J. Leach Cycling Archives
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January 11, 2011 at 5:10 pm · Filed under Cycling, Doping
The UCI says that the Killer will not be allowed to ride for free, Katusha must pay him the minimum wage of 33,000 euro a year. There is also the matter of a fine of 173,000 euro outstanding from 2009 when he was suspended for the use of Epo Cera.
The UCI say that Ernst & Young must check out the Killer’s contract. Is not E & Y the mob that were unable to keep track of Lehman Brothers dodgy dealings despite receiving millions to do so? Good luck to them, they will need it.
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January 10, 2011 at 11:42 pm · Filed under Cycling
Peter Yates the British director of the 1979 bike racing film died on 9th January aged 81. It is, of course, far more than a cycling film and although I am way out of my depth here I would say that it is a “town v gown” and “coming of age” film which I am sure you knew already as you must have seen it. If not you can probably buy the video in your local charity shop for a quid. It will be money well spent.
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January 10, 2011 at 3:59 pm · Filed under Cycling, Doping, My thoughts on recent races and events
President of Team Katusha, Andrei Tchmil has signed returning doper Danilo Di Luca on a one year “paid by results” contract. The Killer received a two year sentence, later reduced to fifteen months for co-operating with the authorities, having twice testing positive for Epo Cera in the 2009 Giro.
Di Luca says the peloton has changed and there is now some chance of winning clean so he is happy to ride “for free” and pick up win bonuses. The 2007 Giro winner, now aged 35, says he feels like a new man and although Astana wanted him he needed a “big change” so went for the Russian team.
All this is good news for Di Luca, if not for the sport, but I don’t expect the staff and riders at LPR brakes who were thrown out of work when the team folded will be over the moon.
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