David Millar’s ‘Bat Wing’ skinsuit

Posted on September 4, 2010 by admin

I’m not hugely into time trialling but this item, heard on the Joe Beer podcast, and about Scotland’s top pro racer was interesting. I also hadn’t heard or seen it anywhere else so thought it was worth posting.

At about 55:50 on this podcast, coach Joe Beer talks about ‘aero going bonkers’ at the 2010 Tour de France. Items included Lance Armstrong’s ‘burner’ rear mech and Dave Millar’s ‘Batsuit’. Co-host Martin Crocker commented that his wife noticed that Dave Millar seemingly hadn’t pulled his skinsuit on correctly. In fact it was a special cut to create a smoother line between the body and the arm area.

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Pics of the day: David Millar by Ed Madden

Posted on July 14, 2010 by admin

Up until now I haven’t really posted much about the Tour de France, because it is covered so well on so many other blogs, not to mention the professional news and photo sites.

But today, photographer Edward Madden was kind enough to send me some images of David Millar on Stage 8 to Morzine-Avoriaz. Ed has recently updated his homepage, which has several pro cycling photography galleries, and has some great cycling images on his flickr stream.

It’s pro quality stuff of the kind you’d expect to see on cyclingnews.com or in Pro Cycling or Cycling Weekly.

On days as bad as Stage 8 and 9, more water isn’t enough

Like the custom Scotland shoes

Millar’s nightmare day

Posted on July 14, 2010 by admin

The quotes from interview seem to be in the public domain, and you can find them in articles on Sportinglife.com, Road.cc and Velonation, and in French on velochrono.fr- so I don’t have too many qualms about reposting them here.

David Millar has been the only Scot riding the Tour for some time. Yesterday he had a jour sans, but struggled through one the hardest stage of the 2010 Tour so far alone, to finish just inside the time limit.

“Today represents a brand new entry into my top five worst-ever days on a bike, I spent 180 kilometres by myself convinced I was going to abandon or be eliminated.”

He has loyal fans and vehement detractors in equal measure, and interestingly his ride yesterday was seen as either a heroic struggle or with schadenfreude, depending on which side of the fence you come down on.

“I crashed three times on Stage 2, and the third time I flipped over the handlebars and knew I’d really hurt myself. Ever since I’ve been battling injuries from that crash, plus a fever and stomach bug, and just basically hanging on for dear life. I started today motivated, but knew immediately something wasn’t right. My left side where I’d crashed just locked up and then my back started having spasms.”

“I spent about three hours packing in my head, at 100 kilometres to go I was 30 minutes down on the leaders. All I could see in my head were the contours of the stage from the maps. I broke it up into five-kilometre climbs and kept thinking – I have to get through this.”

“The fans on the side of the road were brilliant, they were cheering and telling me not to give up, and that made a huge difference for me. By the time I got to the finish, I didn’t know if I’d made the time cut – all I knew was that I’d finished.

Millar said: “And at the Tour, it’s about finishing. This is not a race you want to leave, or one you’ll give up on without turning yourself inside out.” One of the things I love about cycling is that a last placed finisher can be celebrated like this. The effort and struggle required to complete a ride when you are having a bad day is an achievement in itself, and something all cyclists can relate to.

This leaves him 147th on GC at 1:32.33. It’s meaningless statistic- that he’s still in the race is all that matters, If he survives the Pyrenees, he will be able to lead out Tyler Farrar (or perhaps Mark Cavendish) in the later sprint stages, and go for the win in the Bordeaux time trial.

Reveiew of ‘podcasts’: BBC live Tour

Posted on July 6, 2010 by admin

Here is another new media way to enjoy the Tour de France. It’s a contradiction in terms, because it isn’t a podcast, it’s a live feed from the BBC website.

Every day the BBC Tour de France reporter Peter Slater commentates on the last hour or two of every stage, and this feed is available via the cycling section of the BBC website. There are no podcast downloads, but it’s a good way to keep up with the race as it happens, if you can’t watch it on tv or sit watching twitter all afternoon.
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Review of podcasts: Procycling

Posted on July 5, 2010 by admin

With the Tour de France on, there are a few podcasts that suddenly pop out of the woodwork.

During the Tour, the cyclingnews podcast transmogrifies into a daily download under the banner of Procycling, which is the print stablemate of cyclingnews, under the Future Publishing banner.

Those who dislike the regular podcast (see comments in my cyclingnews review) would do well to check it out again as it’s very different.

You have the host, Daniel Friebe who is the Procycling editor, along with author and journalist Richard Moore, who should be well known to Scottish cycling fans. This year they have a cyclingnews reporter Anthony Tan, a lively Aussie who I haven’t heard of before.
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Port de Balês: descent

Posted on June 28, 2010 by admin

I posted on the on the Port de Balês climb, which will be part of the potentially decisive Stage 15 of this year’s Tour de France.

Alex Murray posted some useful comments about the length and gradient of the climb. He also said: The descent on the other hand was amazing. Never mind worrying that there’s no rail and a sheer drop, it was fast and open and spectacular.

On Michael Barry’s site, there is a long video of the descent accompanying a blog post flagging up how significant it could be for the stage, which finishes at the bottom.

I think I’ll be taking some spare brake pads with me to the Pyrenées this July.

The Port de Balês

Posted on June 23, 2010 by admin

Stage 15 of this year’s Tour de France sees a return to the daunting Port de Balês, which was included for the first ever time in 2007.

For many years the Port de Balês was passable only by forest tracks, or later, in the 1990s by 4×4 over a deteriorating surface. The road was specifically resurfaced during the summer of 2006, partly at the instigation of the Tour de France organisers, who were looking for new challenges for the route. The 2007 Tour de France crossed the col for the first time on stage 15 (on 23 July). (via wikipedia)

Climbybike describes it as 6.3% average, which doesn’t sound too bad, but 18.87km long and 1200m of ascent puts it in perspective- it’s a biggie. It’s described in detail on the Rapha blog, for the 2007 Etape du Tour.

The Port de Balês featured on the first and only Tour de France stage I have seen live, back in 2007, which went from Foix to Loudenvielle, taking in four cols. I wasn’t a big cycling fan then, so it will be good to return and see more racing with a more informed head. I will be heading for the climb, rather than one of the villages in between the cols, where the peloton whizzes past in a flash of colour. Image below was taken in St-Béat, 2007. Rasmussen in yellow days before he got the boot.

Pic of the day: Robert Millar Fagor 1988

Posted on June 14, 2010 by admin

I came across this image on Simon Lamb’s Gazzetta Della Bici blog, who in turn found it on a facebook group called 80s cycling remembered. The group has over 3000 images of 80s cycling. This one was added by Duff Fawcett but there is no indication who the photographer was or what the source is.

Wikipedia tells us that in 1988, Millar rode for the French Fagor team and managed his best position in a one-day Monument Classic, third in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which is the race pictured above.

In the Tour de France, he lost the opportunity of another mountain stage win in Guzet-Neige when, sprinting uphill to the finish with Phillipe Bouvatier, both riders mistook a gendarme’s signals, took a wrong turn and ceded the win to Massimo Ghirotto.

From what I remember of Richard Moore’s book, 1988 was an otherwise uninspiring season.

Possible route for bike ride Monday 19th July

Posted on April 18, 2010 by admin

Thinking about a route for a wee bike ride in July. Monday 19th July, in the Bagnères-de-Luchon in the Pyrenees, to be precise. The objective is to watch the final climb on this stage of the Tour de France.

It’s very tempting to bag a few cols before heading to the ‘big hill at the end’ – I’ve wanted to do the Col de Menté and comparitively puny Col des Ares since driving over them in 2007. The Port de Balês is a bit of a monster though, at 19.2km long, 6.2% average, and climbing to a height of 1755m.

I can easily ride 100k in a morning, taking in a few Scottish hills, and usually average 19-20mph / 32kph (albeit in a bunch). Even taking it down to a modest 15mph / 24kph average, and including an hour for lunch, it still seems doable if I leave first thing in the morning. Wishful thinking?

I’d want to be on the Port de Balês in time for the race, which is expected to pass through there between 16:30 and 17:00. It’ll probably be mobbed and the Caravan will already be arriving by 15:00. I have no idea if the roads will be closed to cyclists by, say 14:00? It might be wiser to cut out the two cols and head straight up to the Balês and bag a decent spot in plenty of time.

Anyone with personal experience of this sort of lark please let me know what to expect!

Jens Voigt: “Shut Up Legs”

Posted on January 30, 2010 by admin

This is absolutely brilliant. Thank you Jens, I love your gutsy riding style and your dry sarcastic sense of humour, delivered in that German twang.

I used this phrase today on my club ride, and I will be using it again in the future.

The “Shut Up Legs” quote is going viral- Cycling Tips will be doing t-shirts if there is enough demand

Other classic Jens quotes to live life by:
“Shut up body and do what I tell you”
“I get paid to hurt other people! How good is that? I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel- that’s good!”

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