Grid of Posts 3×2

  • My own Angliru: Cobo gearing

    When Campagnolo decided to market a 12-30 Centaur cassette it was so beyond the normal boundaries it barely fitted the box (designed for at maximum, a 13-29). I had such a torrid time in the last section of the Mills Hills sportive that I decided to down-gear to match some of the rather challenging hills close… Read more

  • Salmon in the Rain

    Yesterday’s ride included some of the most torrential rain and hail I have seen. None of this crazy weather was predicted, and despite misgivings I chose to take my very best 80s ride, painted and built by Daniel Salmon. Crimped 653 tubes, Mavic, topped by a Flite: ‘trés nerveux’ and stiff for steel. It, and… Read more

  • Haunting Malcolm Elliott

    Photographs are obvious catalysts for memory. They sometimes deliver more than one expects. Someone I follow on twitter posted some old pictures of the Kellogg’s 1988 Tour of Britain (which spookily include a blurred Jimmy Savile) today. I was there at the final criterium in Westminster,  and my hazy memories are formative in my passion… Read more

  • Mills Hills Sportive: at last I enter an event (and finish too)

    Over the last few years I have been failing to achieve even the modest riding objectives I aspire to. Despite the improved quality and quantity of my ‘training’ I haven’t completed a single organised ride; more accurately I haven’t started any. I entered two audaxes this year, and failed to start either, and this weekend… Read more

  • Secret Race vs. Human Race: it’s all about Tyler Hamilton

    I wrote the other day about why we should resist the tendency to focus on individuals in efforts to combat sporting fraud, especially doping. Instead, I argued, we should focus on the institutions and values that facilitate and encourage such behaviour. Paradoxically, it is individual cases and the personalities of individuals that can be pivotal… Read more

  • Doping scandals: lessons learnt?

    Ben Johnson, BALCO, Festina: sport often learns the wrong lessons from doping scandals. It learnt that coming clean about your doping when caught screws you and leaves others just as dirty to win; that if you have the right drugs and advice you will only get caught if someone gives you up; and that all… Read more