1990 was the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Communism fell in the Soviet Union, Iraqi troops invaded Kuqait, East and West Germany reunited, Margaret Thatcher resigned, The Simpsons hit the air, the World Cup in Italy was won by West Germany 1-0 against Argentina and Gret LeMond won the Tour de France for the third time.

Teams: Z, Castorama-Raleigh, Banesto, PDM, ONCE, RMO, Panasonic-Sportlife, Chateau D’Ax, 7 Eleven-Hoonved, Seur, Weinmann-SMM-Uster, Helvetia-La Suisse, Toshiba, Ryalcao-Postbon, Histor-Sigma, Lotto-Superclub-MBK, TVM-Yoko, Carrera Jeans-Vagabond, Buckler, Ariostea, Kelme-Ibexpress, Alfa-Lum.

Story of the tour

1990 was still very much an innocent time to be a cycling fan. Nobody knew much about doping and we took everything we seen at face value and Greg LeMond was by far the most famous American cyclist of all-time. The previous year had seen the closest ever finish in a Tour de France when LeMond pipped his great rival, Laurent Fignon by eight seconds during the time-trial into Paris, but the 1990 route ensured that a sprinters finish into the capital city though the race against the clock would still very much be decisive in how the Tour was won.

The race began on June 30 of that year and was a 3404 kilometre route in that would be covered at a staggering 38.62 km/h average but would, at the time, make it the sixth shortest tour of all time. Of those 3404 kms, a staggering (by modern Tours’ at least) 146.8 km were against the clock, and that doesn’t include the team-time-trial. By comparison, the 2012 Tour — that they are calling a time trialists dream — has but 96.1 kms.

Thierry Marie, a prologue specialist won the opening stage which was followed the next day by a split stage with a race in the morning and a team-time-trial in the afternoon. Following this bout of early action and thanks to getting into a break on the race stage that seen a group of four (including Claudio Chiappucci) take over ten minutes out of the main bunch, Steve Bauer became the first Canadian to pull on the yellow jersey. It was an honour he would hold for the next eight days when on stage ten and onto Mt. Blanc he lost enough time to Ronan Pensec — a man who had been in that stage two break with him — and who would take over yellow.

The next day seen the race go up the coveted Alp d’Huez with Gianni Bugno winning from Greg LeMond though Pensec held onto his race lead after a strong ride. The following day the race lead swung onto the shoulders of Italian climber Claudio Chiappucci who had limited any serious losses to the big names while gaining enough time over Pensec to grab the overall lead. Chiappucci’s opportunists move on the second stage that seen him grab so much time over the rest looked to have been the best move of the Tour.

Chiapucci would hold the yellow jersey all the way to the penultimate stage as race favourite and defending champions Greg LeMond chipped away at his lead, particularly when against the clock. That second to last stage was a time-trial and much like the final stage the year before it came down to the race of truth for Greg LeMond and a rival. Chiappucci’s lead was down to just five seconds which was never going to be enough against the time-trial specialist. LeMond took 2-21 out of the Italian putting him into yellow for the first time in that tour, but at the most important time.

In all Chiappucci, who had gained so much time in that early break, lost 3-40 to Lemond in the individual time trials and it cost him the Tour. Had the route been more like it has been in recent years, Claudio would surely have been able to climb well enough and hang onto win it.

In retrospect
Although the time-trial distance was enormous compared to anything we have seen for many years, there are some striking similarities to the recent 2011 edition of the Tour. Andy Schleck may not have snatched ten minutes from Cadel Evans in an early flat stage, but he did hold the yellow jersey going into the penultimate time-trial. The gap was bigger than the five seconds,Chiapucci held, but Evans, much like LeMond, was much stronger in a time-trial and duly overturned the gap to pull on the Maillot Jaune with a day to go.

The men who wore yellow
Thierry Marie (1 day), Steve Bauer (8 days), Ronan Pensec (2 days), Claudio Chiappucci (8 days), Greg LeMond (1 day).

Interesting facts
Mont St Michel ~ The famous tidal island hosted the Tour de France for the first time when the race finished there on stage four.
Dritri Konishev ~ Became the first Soviet to win a stage in the Tour de France.

Went on to greater things
Miguel Indurain ~ This was the young Spaniard’s 7th Tour de France, but his first top 10. He would go on to win the next five editions of the race.
Djamolidine Abdoujaparov ~ Riding in his first Tour de France The Tashkent Terror would go on to win eight Tour de France stages and three green points jersey competitions.

Disappearing from view
Greg Lemond ~ This would be the last time the great American would win the Tour de France, and in reality, would never again be competitive.

Final overall classification 1 Greg LEMOND (USA) Z in 90:43.20, 2 Claudio Chiappucci (Ita) Carrera Jeans-Vagabond at 2-16, 3 Erik Breukink (Ita) PDM at 2-29, 4 Pedro Delgado (Esp) Banesto at 5-01, 5 Marino Lejarreta (Esp) ONCE at 5-05, 6 Eduardo Chozas (Esp) ONCE at 9-14, 7 Gianni Bugno (Ita) Chateau D’Ax at 9-39, 8 Raul Alcala (Mex) PDM at 11-14, 9 Claude CriquiÈlion (Bel) Lotto-Superclub-MBK at 12-04, 10 Miguel Indurain (Esp) Banesto at 12-47. Points jersey 1 Olaf LUDWIG (Rda) Panasonic-Sportlife 256 pts, 2 Johan Musseuw (Bel) Lotto-Superclub-MBK 221 pts, 3 Erik Breukink (Hol) PDM 118 pts. Mountain jersey 1 Thierry CLAVEYROLAT (Fra) RMO 321 pts, 2 Claudio Chiapucci (Ita) Carrera Jeans-Vagabond 179 pts, 3 Roberto Conti (Ita) Ariostea 160 pts. Team prize Z. Combativity Eduardo CHOZAS (Esp) ONCE. Young rider jersey Gilles DELION (Fra) Helvetia-La Suisse.

UK number 1: “Sacrifice / Healing Hands” by Elton John
Box Office smash: Die Hard 2

The sun was beating down. The kind of sun that you long for all winter but find almost unbearable once you begin to sweat hard underneath it. My heart rate was somewhere around 190 and that was thirty seconds ago. If I had to guess now it was probably pushing 195 and showing no signs of levelling out, just like the climb in front of me. I was but four minutes into my first mountain bike race in anger in the better part of a decade.

I had already slipped off the back of the main field but made no attempt to try and go with them. I knew the distance of the race in front of me and the goal here was seeing the finish line, not the man in front. My carefully constructed plan that I had put together on the ninety minute drive home from the course following open practice the day before had been to pace myself to the conservative degree. To find myself riding at about 80 percent, and then ease off just a little. At least until the final lap.

But the reality was hitting home hard. It didn’t matter that I’d been riding 20-30 miles (and sometimes nearer 50) home from work most days, when it gets down to the nitty gritty of a race, you can never replicate it. I was trying to follow my big plan, but as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry. I had seen the big climb the day before during practice, I had warmed up pretty well, but as I rolled over the top of the first climb of my first race back on my brand spanking new mountain bike I looked behind me to see where abouts on the climb I had coughed up my right lung.

“What in the hell is going on here?” I asked myself, before telling myself that “you’re a dammed moron for buying that bloody bike and thinking this was ever a good idea.”

I also took a moment to curse the man who decided it was a good idea to stick the climb right at the start of the race. Of course I knew why they put the climb there — and if truth be told, for the well conditioned rider, the climb was far from savage — but suffering clouds rational judgement.

“Two more runs up that, not to mention the tough challenge that the rest of the course brings,” I told myself as I gulped at my water bottle and tried to compose myself for the single track section ahead. Like only ever seems to be the case when you’re on a bike by yourself — in particular on a single track trail in the middle of the woods — with an elevated heart rate, I could hear the thump thump thump of my heart inside my head. I knew I hadn’t gone all out, if I had I might have been lying somewhere about fifty yards short of the top of the hill, but I knew I had pushed a little harder than I knew I needed to, so I backed off a little more and decided that the man ahead would have to be beaten another day and got ready for the wave of riders from the next category that started one minute behind to sweep up on me and start looking to get past.

The thing about mountain biking that is different than racing on the road, is that there is rarely ever a point to properly recover. On the road you can file in behind a group, shelter from the wind over a long flat section, or indeed enjoy a long descent after a tough climb. On the mountain bike the flat sections are normally in the woods and so you are navigating loose rocks, slippery roots, off camber corners, drop-offs, or indeed short sharp little climbs or jumps that force you out of your saddle and to call on your upper body strength to heave the bike up and over. And if truth be told, there is no such thing as a flat section on a bike. The downhill sections are never smoothly paved . . . they’re either single tracks with more loose rocks, slippery roots and off camber corners, or it’s on a gravel path in which a crash can be spectacular if only for those watching it. If the climbs require the heart, lungs and leg muscles, then the descents and rolling single track requires the brain, upper body muscles and a different kind of heart. I’ve raced both road and mountain bikes over the years and while both are challenging and, in a perverse kind of way, fun in their own right, the mountain bike is infinitely harder. You only have to look at the cross over ability in the sport and how many more mountain bikers make a success on the road scene than the other way around. Some of that is down to the fame and riches that come with the road scene — because road races are easier to track with cameras — but many pure roadies you just know would be out of sorts in a mountain bike race.

It was after the first single track section, which involved nothing but lifting the front wheel up and over obstacles or avoiding a fall that my thighs began to really burn and I knew something wasn’t right. They weren’t hurting as they should and I was slowing drastically. The next fire road climb confirmed that something was wrong when suddenly I realized it. My saddle had worked itself loose and had drooped several inches in height and I was putting nowhere near the kind of power through the pedals as I should have.

How long had this been going on? Had that first climb, that seen everyone else ride off on me, made me suffer as much as I did because of the dam saddle problem? How on earth had I not noticed already? On any given casual ride you would notice almost immediately, but with the heart pumping, the lungs stretching and the mind working on keeping me upright, I clearly didn’t notice. I stopped, fixed it, got back on and immediately felt better. Certainly not enough that I would claim this cost me the win, heck not even enough to claim I would have been on the back wheel of the man in front, but I felt stronger.

Until I hit the opening climb again at the end of the start of the second lap.

In the end my pre-race plan came good to a degree. I suffered hard at times in the second lap, stopping for about two minutes at one point to get myself together, and it took that to remind me that I still had to pace myself and that since fixing the saddle I had probably gone on a little too hard in that first lap. By the third lap I was starting to ride into the race and — perhaps with the knowledge that the serious climbing was over — I began to ride stronger. I caught and passed a handful of people that belonged to starting categories from behind me that had caught and passed me earlier in the race and finished if not feeling I could hammer in another couple of faster laps, then that I had listened to my own advice and left enough in the tank to ride the third lap better than the second.

In the end I finished the three laps in 1 hour, 45 minutes and 52 seconds. I navigated the first lap in 32:33, the second a lot slower in 37:05 as fatigue began to set in, but proving I left enough in the tank I completed the final lap in 36:12. Had I thrown all caution to the wind the last part of that second lap, I dread to think the time I’d have put up in the third circuit. I placed 12th of 12 in my race, but as I knew all along, I was out to finish the race and enjoy the fact I was riding in a race again.

The word enjoy only came into it once I was back at my car, had washed the bike, got changed and got my heart rate back to normal. It’s incredible the bodies ability to forget self inflicted pain. If it couldn’t nobody would give birth twice and certainly nobody would ride the Tour de France a second time. Likewise, I was congratulating myself for buying this bike and looking to sign up for the next available event.

* * * * *

That next event came just a few weeks later in a new event called ‘The Tour de King’ in a region just north of Toronto. It was a point to point race over 50 km with about 50 percent on single track and the other 50 on fire roads and paved roads. The race was split into two waves, the first wave was for those out to put in a serious time, the second wave was for those like me looking to race it, but enjoy it as well. In those few weeks since that first race I had spent some time riding the trails near my home and getting used to the mountain bike as opposed to the road bike once again. As a result I felt infinitely stronger than in the Championships race.

I entered myself into the unique ‘Clydesdale 200lbs Plus’ category and finished 8th of 22 in severely contrasting conditions to the first race. The temperature was about 4 degrees Celsius and halfway through the skies opened and it began to pour down. The single track was slippery and challenging in parts, but fast and smooth in others. Those who entered the event on a cross bike however struggled badly.

The event organizers had put on a wonderful barbecue at the finish line with a live band and cold beer, though the weather meant that most of us whose cars were parked back at the start, sat shivering and freezing while munching through the grub. It didn’t stop me, among many, from drinking that cold beer though. Eventually school buses shuttled everyone back to the start to get cars and return to the finish to wash down the bike and head home again.

Still it was a fantastic event, the first point-to-point race I had done and one I’ll enter again next year, though I hope that that the temperatures are more favourable.

* * * * *

The funny thing is, this winter in southern Ontario has been one of the mildest in recent memory. There has been some days in the high negative temperatures, but for the most part the snow has stayed away and a number of days have seen positive temperatures with just yesterday topping out at 12 degrees C at 9.30 p.m. The Tour de King in early October took part in one of the more miserable days of the fall/winter, which in this part of the world given the typical December/January temperatures, is just bizarre.

As a result I was able to get out on the trails a long way into the winter and enjoy that new bike. The Tour de King, however, marked the end of the competitive events until next April, but now that I’ve got the racing bug again, despite what my body might tell me halfway up a tough climb, I cannot wait to race again in 2012.

Some braves soles will be out there somewhere beating out the miles, determined never to let the Canadian winter get the better of them, though I fold easily to the temperature gauge and when it falls this low I know it’s time for the dreaded gym alone. So why is it then that I’m already excited about the prospect of April, of a gradual turn in the temperatures and the first competitive events of the 2012 Ontario mountain bike calendar? Well, because in cycling terms — or should that be, my cycling terms — it’s the first decent shot at getting outside on the bike again, and even if it does look as far away as ever on the other side of the window in front of me, a morning spent scanning the Ontario Cycling Association websites calendar has spiced that excitement.

I’ve been looking at some early season events to enter and to say I was surprised at how thick and fast they come would be an understatement. By my reckoning there is about three or four mountain bike events in April, though it’s unlikely I’ll actually ride them all. The first Ontario Cup race is on April 29th, three months to the day, and I’ll definitely be riding in that, but before that there is at least one event I’d like to register for.

Of course the weather in Southern Ontario at any time in April can be highly unpredictable and if the unpredictability of this winter has shown me anything it is that those races in April will either take part in an early season heat wave, or under half a foot of snow. Regardless it should make for some interesting riding.

I’d been on a self-made ‘pre-season training plan’ which consists of nothing more and nothing less than a short visit to the gym each day, which for anyone who knows me, gives me little to no pleasure. There are people out there who can spend hours in the gym and their entire existence is made up of going there each day, but I’m not one of them. I don’t think there are many people who have cycling as a hobby who enjoy the gym. When you can ride for two or three hours out on the road, looking at the world go by and enjoying the idea of actually going somewhere, the gym and fifteen minutes on a bike machine can be exceedingly dull and feel at times longer than the longest outdoor ride. And yes, I know, I could still go out for a ride, but that would be breaking my ‘rules of temperature’.

That incident involving Contador happened a long time ago. You may or may not remember it, but if you think long and hard and look into your hazy past you might well recall the moment it broke. Yes that really was eighty weeks ago . . . I know, I know, you thought it was way longer than that the way it’s been dragged out. Well, now after more delays than a New York airport at Christmas, we’re finally about to hear the verdict of the doping case and it’s appeal to end all doping cases and their appeals.

“If I’m ever found guilty then an innocent person will have been condemned,” sobbed Contador last October while this process was still in full flow. “I’ve always encouraged the fight against doping, and now things are turning against me,” he continued which raises questions as to whether he will continue the fight against doping going forward since it has now turned against him?

Did I mention the meat was ingested some eighty weeks ago? Eighty weeks ago the world was a very different place to what it is now. I was an unmarried man without a kid on the way, Australia had never had a Tour de France winner, Liverpool were still under the command of Rafael Benitez and under the control of Gillette and Hicks, Osama Bin Laden was very much running Al Quida, Colonel Gaddafi was the leader of Lybia, and Lance Armstrong was still a free man… err, wait . . . ignore than last bit.

To figure out who is going to win the case, you simply have to call innocent as heads, guilty as tails and then flip the coin to see what comes up. I dare say they’ll take it more seriously at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which is the current level (and last level) at which this long and winding case has taken us.

Should Contador win his case it’ll open the floodgates for future athletes testing positive to find a fairytale yet somehow believable excuse and then defend it in much the same manor Contador has. Of course, the one fall back being, most people aren’t quite armed with the same size and quality of legal team.

Contador obviously professes his innocence. “I am one of the five most tested athletes in the world. Do you think I’d risk doing something wrong?” he asked sounding very much like that impregnable fortress of moral fortitude that is Lance Armstrong. Well, why didn’t you say so sooner Alberto . . . in that case, throw out the charges and let this man go. For crying out loud. The humanity of it all.

Ah, but if only it were so simple. We knew deep down in our hearts that this thing was going to drag out as long as it has and innocent or guilty, it no longer really matters. Regardless of the verdict, we just want any verdict so that once we can celebrate the guilt of a cheat, or indeed lambast a decision to let one go we can get on with our lives without ever having to read about it / listen to it / or debate it again.

The Autobus’ prediction: *flips coin, comes up heads* — NOT GUILTY, and cleared with a reputation tarnished but as winner of the 2012 Tour de France.

Both Cavendish and Wiggins have the opportunity to help bring unprecedented glory to British cycling

Twenty hundred and twelve has the potential to be a huge year for British Cycling. With both Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome proving last year they can podium in a grand tour and with the 2012 Tour de France route suited better than ever towards one or both of them competing for the GC, and with Mark Cavendish going for Green again, not to mention the Olympic road race, and a stack of track riders looking to aid to Britain’s gold haul, this could be the year Britain becomes the best cycling nation on earth. To have said that not even ten years ago would have brought sniggering from all angles and much ridicule.

When Team Sky’s team boss Dave Brailsford popped up and claimed that he hoped to have a Tour de France winner “within five years of setting up a team” the sniggering begun in earnst. But what nobody knew then that I can only assume Brailsford himself seen was that Brad Wiggins was more than just a man who went very fast for a distance of 1,500 meters around an oval strip of wood. Wiggins hadn’t offered much in his early Tour de France days except to be the next Chris Boardman for Britain in prolgues, but in 2009 that all changed when he blew away all expectations and finished fourth into Paris.

Wiggins didn’t ride for Sky then — there was no Team Sky — but Brailsford knew his man and immediately got him on board. Following Britain’s dominant display on the track at the Beijing Olympics — to a level that many didn’t see coming — in which Brailsford was the grand arcitect, Team Sky became his virtual British road team. Yes there are a handful of imports including the ubber talented Edvald Boisson Hagen, but there’s no doubt who this team is built around . . . as in what nation the team is built around?

For that matter, the Tour de France route would appear to be built around the team also. There are few super high peaks that would hinder Wiggins and Froome and aid Evans, less summit finishes than in recent years to the no doubt dissappointment of Contador and there is the return of the two long time-trials as well as the opening prologue to really stick a spanner into the works of the pure climbers such as the Schlecks.

As to who the team itself is built around, is generating much early season debate after the recruitment of Mark Cavendish. The fastest man in the world, Tour de France Green Jersey winner and recently crowned World Road Race Champion, Cavendish has become — along with Chris Hoy — a house hold name in Britain. He proved that by winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award this past December, something else I’d have sniggered and mocked you for ten years ago had you suggested that might one day happen, nevermind twice in four years. Because of the status of Cavendish and his ability to win any race that gets into the final kilometer with the bunch altogether, the question asked is whether Team Sky can deal with the ambitions of both Wiggins and Cavendish, and throw in Froome for good measure?

Will Brailsford be able to create a scenario whereby Sky can chase down breaks and set up Cavendish for sprints without wearing down the energies of Wiggins and Froom and their support men in the mountains, along the way? Can Cavendish survive on say a five man train of which he is one while leaving Wiggins, Froom and perhaps one other to conserve themselves? If Cavendish struggles to win races early and starts to look for more help will Brailsford stick to the game plan, or more interestingly, will Wiggins and Froome be willing to chip in? Cavendish will want the Green Jersey but make no mistake about it, it shouldn’t ever come before a shot at the Yellow.

And what of Froome and Wiggins if both are strong going through the mountains? Will a team leader be assigned or will they be allowed to race? What if the team leader cracks, shall the other press on? We’ve seen how Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador’s relationship went in such a scenario, though it must be pointed out Contador went on to win that Tour regardless.

But why not? Why can’t it work? Team Telekom in 1996 won both the sprint crown with Erik Zabel and the GC with Bjarne Riis, albeit as a team doped to the eyeballs. Does it take such a team to manage and handle both competitions? These days when we persume the sport to be as clean as it’s been since the days when a rider cheating was him hopping on a train before popping up close to the finish to cross the line and be declared the winner, I don’t see why it isn’t possible.

Cavendish has proven before he can win sprints without the train and while his team will be looked to as the team to claw back breaks meaning Cavendish might have to sacrifice a couple of stage wins, he can still do enough to take Green. Wiggins and Froome will no doubt sort it out on the higher mountains and will soon establish which is going strongest and if a designated number one is established one can certainly rely on the other as the kind of super domestique other teams could only dream of.

Which leads us onto the Olympic games just a week after the Tour ends. So long as the above mentioned protagonists can recover and recover fast, Cavendish will look to a group of Brit’s that probably won’t include Wiggins — who will be saving himself for the time trial — to help him to the road race gold, followed by the high expectations of the track team. It’s the track team that Britain is really pinning its hopes on to bring in a slew of medals and these games have been the vocal point of British cycling for over half a decade now. Everything is geared towards a Beijing style encore and any kind of slip up, let down, loss of form, or choke under pressure, doesn’t much bare thinking about.

Which leaves us with only the outlandish possibility that Cavendish wins a couple of stages, the Green Jersey and later the Olympic road race title; that Wiggins takes the Yellow and the Olympic time trial Gold; Froome wins a stage and takes the King of the Mountains; while Gold to a simular weight of that in Fort Knox is won by the British men and woman on the track. It’s at this point Britin should announce its withdrawl from the sport having reached the peak and with no desire to come back down again.

Awards and Gongs

The gong for The Cycle Seen’s most outstanding cyclist of the year
Philippe Gilbert. Was there ever anyone who truly came close? The Belgian dominated the spring classcis season before taking a stage win in the Tour de France. He even rode high up the overall well into the big mountains before finally sucumming to the little men. There’s a belief that if Gilbert trained for it he could win a Grand Tour and while that would be something to see, it’s still fun to enjoy the aggressive riding style he current entertains us with.

The Steve Bauer Canadian cyclist of the year award
Ryder Hesjedal. Not quite at the level of 2010 but still Canada’s biggest hope.

The Sean Yates British cyclist of the year award
Mark Cavendish. This doesn’t need much explination though Chris Froome deserves a mention for his second in the Vuelta.

The ‘I swear it was a bad dose of meat’ award for best excuse
Ricardo Ricco. Having already been suspended for a doping violation at the 2008 Tour de France, in February of 2011 he was fired by his team, Vacansoleil-DMC, after taking seriously ill through what was believed to be a self-administered autologous blood transfusion with 25 day old blood. Ricco tried to deny it, blaming his girlfriend though later admitted it was a transfusion for himself before his lawyer retracted it. The case is still open but don’t expect to see him in a professional peloton before his 40′s.

The Thomas Voeckler award for most Thomas Voeckler like effort
Thomas Voeckler. If you watched the Tour de France you will know exactly what I mean.

The Graham Obree award for best time-trial of the year
Cadel Evans to secure the Tour de France crown.

The Jens Voight hard man of the year award
Johnny Hoogerland. Who would have thought anyone could have taken this gong other than Jens himself while still active?

The bonehead of the year award
The driver of the French TV car that wiped out Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha on the 9th stage of the Tour de France. It did however lead to the following award…

Crash of the year
See above. (And below).

The Bradley Wiggins gong for coming from nowhere to be a contender award
Chris Froome at the Vuelta a Espana.

The most tedious story of the year award
Alberto Contador’s CAS hearing which absurdly is still not resolved a year and a half after the incident. I’d hate to see the legal process if the UCI/CAS et al. were involved in criminal hearings.

The Lance Armstrong award for refusing to just admit it
Alejandro Valverde who has served a suspension for his roll in Operation Puerto but still denies any involvement given he never physically tested positive. He has since served his time and will be back racing this month at the Tour Down Under.

The inagural Floyd Landis award for humour on Twitter
Floyd Landis @GreyManrod

The ‘This guy is the new generation and has to be a clean cyclist’ award
A prestigeous award with such past winners (if I’d been doing this in the past) as Richard Virenque, Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso, Alberto Contador and Riccardo Ricco, goes to Pierre Rolland. He won a-top of Alp d’Huez and scooped the young riders prize at Le Tour. The French (as well as myself) are all hoping he’s for real.

The revelation of the year award
Tyler Hamilton. There was nothing that shocked anyone but it was still a bit crazy to hear.

The Cedric Vasseur memorial award for best loan attack of the year
Movistar’s Vasili Kiryienka who in honour of his recently killed teammate Xavier Tondo, rode to solo victory in the 20th stage of the Giro d’Italia, winning by over four-and-a-half minutes. He spent just over 200km of the 242km race on the attack, first with a group of riders, before taking off on his own on the first of the days two big climbs to Sestriere.

The Mario Cippolini award for best sprinter — and he knows it, award
Mark Cavendish, of course.

The mountain goat climber of the year award
David Moncoutie for winning his forth mountains classification title in the Vuelta a Espana.

The Cycle Seen’s best result of the year
Yes Cav winning all those Tour stages, the green jersey and the World Championships were monumental for British cycling, and yes Philippe Gilbert dominating the one day races was great to watch, but I’m going with Chris Froome coming from nowhere to win a stage and finish second overall in the Vuelta a’Espana — the best finish ever by a British rider in a Grand Tour.

The Cycle Seen’s moment of the year
The grimmace on the face of Thomas Voeckler as he fought tooth and nail to hang onto his Yellow Jersey. When people say “The Yellow Jersey brings that little bit extra out of you and makes you go that little bit further” we consider it a bit of a cliche, but men like Voeckler put weight behind such cliches.

I just so happened to have opened up this site on the eve of the first WorldTour race of the season. It wasn’t planned that way but since the the pro season is about to kick-off, I might as well say a few words about it and indeed give you someone as a prediction to put your hard earned cash on, but with no guarantees it’ll actually make you rich.

The thing about the first race of the season is it’s so hard to call as to what might happen. Cycling isn’t like many other sports; there isn’t a pre-season race schedule (that I’m aware of, unless you classify the pre-Tour Down Under criterium on Sunday as the pre-season in which case winner André Greipel is in fine form) and so unless you are a spy working for one of the teams trying to scout out what the others are up to, a fanatic bordering on the obsessive kind of fan that is probably close to getting some kind of restraining order against him, or someone who happened to be on a cycling holiday in Majorca — the pre-season cycling hotspot of earth — when a group wearing what looked like the Team Sky logo flashed past you up that climb at the sort of speed you came back down the climb, then you’ll have no clue as to the form of anyone.

Most will try and tell you they’re in good form, and one or two will inevitably look to peak early in order to take an early season scalp for their resume, but make no mistake about it, all of them are aware that this is January and the Tour Down Under — while good for points in the rankings — is more about finding that race pace form and looking towards the bigger events back in Europe in the spring.

Still because this is the first race of the year and because of the unpredictability of it all there’s a fair chance that this Tour Down Under could be full of entertaining racing. Some breaks may stick because there is still a lack of cohesiveness between teams, and some might find themselves slightly ahead of the fitness curve than others. Likewise, some big names might realise they’ve still work to do.

Expect the all new Australian outfit, GreenEDGE, to be at the fore of almost everything as they look to expose their brand. They’ll have someone in every break, they’ll hope to win at least one race and would love to have a man feature in the General Classification. It’ll be interesting to watch this team this coming season. I suspect they’ll be much like Team Sky in their first year — realising it isn’t as easy as it looks and that results don’t come cheap — but should otherwise be a good group. Of course they failed to prize Tour de France champion and native Australian Cadel Evans away from the mighty BMC team, and likewise with Mark Renshaw who elected to sign with Rabobank instead after Team Highroad folded at the end of 2011.

Talking of the BMC team. 2012 looks set to be the season of the ‘Super Team’. BMC have loaded up on talent, Quick Step and Omega Pharma have joined forces to create Omega Pharma – QuickStep, while Sky in signing Mark Cavendish and RadioSheck with the Schleck’s will make the team classification category more intensely fought over than ever before. There are so many questions to be answered as to how it’ll work out for each of them, such as will Cadel Evans — the BMC team leader — enjoy having the likes of Philippe Gilbert and Thor Hushovd going for individual stage wins? And will the previously tested friendship of Brad Wiggins and Cavendish be strained again when they share the same strip of road at the Tour in July with one man looking for a lead-out train and the other looking for men capable and fresh enough to aid him in the mountains?

None of these questions will be answered down in Australia of course, but no sooner will the pedals turn in anger than we’ll surely get some riders and their teams trying to lay down a marker for the season to come.

The six stage race itself is confined to South Australia and on the southern edge of that, hugging the coast of the Great Australian Bight. It is romantic to think of a race that would circumnavigate the country, but let’s face it, Australia is so big and any realistic tour that would hope to cover all the corners of it would either have to last several months and make the Tour de France look like your Sunday coffee run, or have the teams rack up so many air miles they could fly home for free. Saying that, maybe some year they ought to run a race right across the country — which would be 95 percent desert. A real test of attrition. The winner is the first man to get from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of Australia . . . on your marks, get set, GO! And we’ll even allow race radios.

This Tour though is still 803km over the course of six days. That’s 134km per day on average which is pretty remarkable for the middle of January. It’ll be hot summer weather down there, but for the riders taking part, this is still essentially their winter. The majority of the stages are flat which should lead towards bunch sprints or a medium size breakaway sticking, though stages two and five should make for an interesting finish. Both are uphill slogs to the line with stage five being most challenging and the belief is that if a sprinter wants the glory on the GC they’ll have to carry a good 30-40 seconds into that final climb up Old Willunga Hill (7.6 percent gradient for 3km).

Look for the usual suspects to make a mark on the second stage, and in particular stage five. The likes of Greipel (two times winner of this Tour), Edvald Boasson Hagen, Luis León Sánchez (another past winner) or indeed the returning badboy of the pro-peloton and former stage winner at the TDU, Alejandro ‘I didn’t do it’ Valverde. The two stages would be ideally suited to Philippe Gilbert, but sadly he isn’t here so everyone else gets a chance. With no basis on which to back it up, I’ll say Bo Hagen will win at least one stage and will walk away with the GC though Valverde will certainly run him close in looking show he’s back with a bang.

Enjoy it and if I get the chance or can get some TV coverage of the event I’ll try write some more before it’s all said and done.

TCS Tour Down Under GC pick Edvald Boasson Hagen

As I sit here writing this, 18 stories above the frozen, frigid and snow lined streets of Toronto, Ontario, we’re already entering the third week of January and depending on who you are and perhaps your location on the globe your 2012 cycling year will be at some stage or another. If you’re one of the paid few on the books of this new WorldTour, your season of racing is only a day away down at the Tour Down Under. If you’re an amateur enthusiast from a part of the world with an acceptable year round climate (ie. not Canada) you might well be trudging out the miles and racking up the stamina on those weekend road rides ahead of your season (if you race that is, for otherwise your season may never begin and therefore never end). Or, if you’re like me — the fair weather cyclist — in a climate that sits well into the negative digits for three-point-five months per year, with a mental allergy towards gyms, you’ll be on the fringes of beginning a pre-season — having put it off long enough — in the hopes that the mountain bike sitting in the spare room (soon to become a nursery) and very soon to be relegated to the storage cage until the snow melts, will get value for money when the hammer drops on the first race of the season in 15 weeks time.

I hadn’t raced a bike in anger for a number of years until last year when I finally got the cash together to buy a new mountain bike. I’d missed the thrill of racing the MTB and wanted to get back involved, but with my ten year old MTB back in Bangor, Northern Ireland ever since my immigration three years before I had to go without. I purchased the bike at the tail end of last season, but thankfully early enough to allow me take part in two events. Hooked, I got the most out of a mild autumn and early winter before shutting it down for the season.

I had good intentions of keeping up any base level of fitness I had gained from after work road rides and those days out at Kelso Park on the mountain bike, but like anything when the only option for someone who prefers not to ride in temperatures below freezing due to the misery outweighing the enjoyment, became the gym, the fitness began to dwindle. And if I’m to be perfectly honest, I shouldn’t really have an excuse – the building I live in has a gym and a swimming pool on the ground floor that is free to use for residents. I started out okay, got down there several times per week and felt that I’d be in good shape for the new year, but it couldn’t survive December and the temptation to sit by the Christmas tree with the heating on, the Yankee candle burning and a good movie or hockey game on the TV, then later of course the week of indulgence that is also known as Christmas.

I got out for one run (actual run, not a run on the bike) when up at the lake over Christmas and my fear was confirmed. I struggled around the 3km jog and knew it was time to get back to training regularly if I didn’t want to end up slogging around at the back of the field in the 30-34 age class. I got back to the city on New Year’s Day full of good intentions and despite officially labeling it as a ‘resolution’. Sadly I came down with a nasty dose of the cold for that first week of January and that was followed up with a nasty dose of laziness for the second week. So here we are, Monday, January 16th at the beginning of the third week of the month and with no excuses left.

I’ve fifteen weeks exactly left until the first mountain bike race of the year. Fifteen weeks of fat burn, stamina gain, healthy eating, no boozing and the dreaded gym. Actually, I figure about ten or so weeks of the gym before it finally reaches temperatures acceptable enough, and post-work evenings bright enough, to get back onto the traffic light loaded roads of suburban Toronto and into the fringes of the countryside. And of course into the secluded trail lined forests away from the world. The first ten weeks will be miserable, will require building up a habit and a strong willpower, but the final five should be fun and hopefully productive.

Over the next fifteen weeks I’ll post a diary of my pre-season winter training boot camp on this link if you’re interested in seeing how it goes, whether it turns out to be enough, too much, or whether I managed to stick to it. I’ll not punish myself every day and other commitments will at times take preference, but hopefully I’ll do it enough and though I make no guarantees I’ll stick to it — this is live, there is no editing — I hope I will and we’ll see what it does for me come Sunday, April 29th.

Hello! I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and in good spirits in the early throws of 2012? Good to hear. Well, you’ve either happened upon here by design or by freak accident, though I make no apologises for either, but I hope you’ll stick around for a little while or at least to hear me out as I take a minute to explain what this is all about.

The Cycle Seen is a gawk into the life of one average amateur cycling hobbyist who rides for fun and spends some time indulging in armchair expertise by watching the little stickmen do it best on the television as well. Hence, my own cycle, or the wider cycle scene, as seen by me.

Most people in cycling see their hobby begin and end with the throwing of their leg over the saddle or watching it on the TV, but for me writing is another hobby that allows me to delve into the sport that little bit extra. The Cycle Seen will be my observations and experiences on my road or mountain bike — either for pleasure or from the pain of competing — both past and present. I’ll review old touring trips I’ve completed with route maps and info, I’ll tell stories of fact and fiction, I’ll write about a race I enter, I’ll dabble in nostalgia, I’ll share pictures and video, I’ll do the odd book review or tell you a good album to blast on your iPod when your out for a ride, and when you’ve had enough of reading about my experiences, I’ll indulge in the professional scene from a rarely serious, more often satarical angle. Come on, they often bring on the jokes themselves even if they are the finest athletes on the planet and deserve greater respect from the wider media.

If you’ve come here looking for the latest and most up-to-date news on the world of cycling, indepth race reports on every race this side of Jupiter or cliche loaded interviews then you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m not out to rival Cycling News for reasons of time, sanity and the fact I like to spend more time actually on the bike than writing about it, but if you’ve come here for, what I hope to be, half-decent writing about the joys of the sport from myself and perhaps others, then I hope you’ll like what you see.

Regarding stuff from others. I don’t want to make this site a one-way street in which you do nothing but read about my own meandering experiences. I want to encourage others to write about their own as well. Tell us about a wild race you entered, a funny training ride you went on last week, share a stunning/silly/interesting picture you took. Write a story, heck, make it up if you have to, or just give your two-cents on the latest drug bust in the pro-peloton.

The great thing about the Internet is it gives people like me the chance to write to a wider audience about something I’m passionate about. The reader can get more indepth in the culture of a specific topic and get a more subjective opinion on a subject. The main-stream media be it print or television is all well and good for what it does: It gives you main-stream coverage on select topics or a profit orientated agenda. But the blogosphere has opened up opinions to the average man or woman on the street and with no bridges to burn it often makes for some of the most interesting reading.

One of the other great advantages of blogging and social media is the interaction. Anything written here will have a comments section and The Cycle Seen will also have a Twitter wing for back and forth chat. So join in, give your opinion, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms and even praise.

So without further ado, I give to you The Cycle Seen…