Post Race Blues and The Cycle Show

Usually about this time it feels like the end. The Tour is over and there’s a big hole in your evening where the highlights show should be. Then you try and get as excited about the Tour of Britain and the Vuelta but they just don’t hold quite the glamour of Le Tour.

This year however it feels a bit like just the start of things. Not only is Bradley fever sweeping the nation, with everyone now suddenly a cycling fan, but there are events coming up to get everyone just as excited and asking just as many of the sort of questions you seem to keep getting asked as a cycling fan.

Talking of Bradley there was an interesting view from the man himself in the Guardian.

As you might have noticed the Olympics are coming. Inevitably I’ll mention this again but let’s start with a look at the way BMX has changed.

On the subject of non-road racing, which, as you know, I love, let’s not forget the British National Downhill Championships happened on Sunday as well, with Gee and Rachel Atherton keeping it in the family to take both races.

For televised cycling, last night was the start of the new show on ITV4 called The Cycle Show. In some ways I am fashionably live-blogging the show, but you’ll only read this in the morning with my final thoughts as it follows on from an updated version of the show on Bradley Wiggins’ career including the win on the Champs Elysees.

To be honest it wasn’t a surprise. Slick intro sequences followed by decidedly average conversation and features, talking to Nigel Mansell (who now owns UK Youth cycling team) and Greame Obree (who seems to have overcome a media aversion), and profiling the Box Hill climb with Rob Hayles (who is a better cyclist than presenter), by the first break I was considering cancelling the series recording.

Luckily Gary Fisher was brought in for part two to add a spot of eccentricity, backed up by Obree’s human-powered suicide machine for the speed record. Then there was a bit of the inevitable with a yawn-fest of safety dos and don’ts on a bike explaining how not to die on the London roads. This came down to avoiding lorries and making eye contact. Who knew?

To ramp up the action there was some Rollapaluza action between Gary Fisher and Greame Obree, and then that was it. They left us with the promise of a bit of Megavalanche on Alpe d’Huez next time, which has to be better, right?

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