June 28th 2006, Pride of Dover - English Channel The waters are calm at the moment, but the forecast from what I have been reading is for rough seas. Yes, another drug storm has landed and is creating havoc to all in the cycling world. Not good. The amount of destruction is difficult to forecast, but it will be widespread. Yes. I am on my way to the TDF. Its 22 years since I first left to this race, time flies. I would give my right arm to be 22 years younger, but I would not give the other one to be able to ride the Tour this year, too much shit going down. I have been back at base for a few weeks since the Giro, with just one trip abroad, that was to the TTT in Eindhoven were we came second to CSC. They again gave us a right good caning. They are for sure very unhappy that there is not one in the TDF this year. They would have loved to show us how it is done. I guess they will have to wait a little bit. I have done a few TT myself and the form has been ok. I beat my team leader The Hutch in a 10 one evening, which needless to say I was pretty happy about. I rode the Tandem with my brother Chris in another 10, my legs were really bad there though, not a happy camper. I have asked Michael if he will have a go at the 25 record with me on said Tandem, he said that Pete the big boss had already asked him, he told him that if he did not win the 25 title he had to do it. I reckon he is stuffed then. While we are on the subject of The Hutch I will recommend a book that he wrote about his attempt on the Hour Record. I am almost finished with it and I think it is really good. It really gives you a great insight into everything really, including Michael himself. Its called The Hour Sporting Immortality the Hard Way, its published by Yellow Jersey Press. A bargain at 12.99 OK. I promise I will give you a regular update of what's going on at this years Tour. I was slack at the Giro but will make it up to you all. As mentioned earlier, I think that there will be a pretty hectic start to this years event. But hopefully things will calm down and there will be some good racing. I certainly hope so. The sport will definitely need it. Log on for my report on the Prologue Saturday night. Cheers Sean June 11, Forest Row This is more like it, the weather that is, getting ready for the TDF. It's great, how long it will last is anyones guess. Anyway today was a good one for riding a bike. I did just that and rode the Sussex CA 50. The only other time I rode this event was in 02 when Steve Dennis beat me, I blew up big time and suffered like a dog I remember, I had a good excuse though, I had stayed up the whole night to watch a Mike Tyson fight, you know the scene. They say the fight starts at 2 am, so you pay your money and settle down, but the fight thats on at AM is not the one that you want to watch, nor is the one thats on at 2.30, etc etc. Eventually the fight comes on at AM and lasts all of 6 mins or so, was it worth it you ask yourself, I think that is open to debate. Anyway, no late nights this time round, because Iron Mike has packed it in you see. So bed at 10 and a good nights sleep for the revenge match. I had a new Rotor chain ring fitted to my bike, Mike Ives assured me there is no way I would lose with hat piece of weaponry on my side. I must admit it felt ok, and so did the legs. And I got my revenge running out the winner over that man Steve Dennis, who had won this event more times than I can remember. For the record my time of 1.50.31 was a new course and event record and 40 seconds to fast for Steve. I had been thinking during the ride, if he beats me today "Chapeau" because I was going well for an old boy, as it turned out he ran me quite close. I also was fastest Vet on standard with a plus of 32.48, I think that is a good indication that I am not as bad as I thought I was after last week's performance in the Nat 25. Meanwhile, over in France in the Dauphine things are going OK, with my tip for Tour glory George Hincapie of the Discovery team doing nicely in the Dauphine, he has not raced since his crash in Paris Roubaix, but he has obviously made a full recovery and been damn serious in his time off. I will be with him next week when I go to Eindhoven for the Pro Tour TTT. Report on that race will follow. My TT bike with Rotor ring   Friday June, 9, Forest Row Tour of Italy 2006 Now that was a long hard race. With our leader El Falco coming in with a 5th place overall at the end of the three weeks most people have been asking me am I not disappointed. My answer to that is always no. All the riders on the team came into the race highly motivated and raring to go. And in the race itself they always gave it 110%, and you cant ask any more than that. The big problem was that Paolo was suffering from allergys to the very high pollen count. It was not something we expected to have to deal with, and it definitely had a major effect on his performance. But, he would be the first to admit that even if he had been at 120% he would not have beaten Ivan Basso who was head and shoulders above everybody he and his team basically did what they wanted when they wanted, very impressive. On top of Paolo's 5th overall we had the prologue win and the jersey for a couple of days. We finished 3 overall in the team GC, and Tom Danielson showed that he has matured a lot. He not only rode well in the mountains, he also did a very good time trial in the middle of the race, and has improved a lot his ability to ride well in the group. So, all in all it was a good experience. And me and Lorenzo Lapage are keen and ready to go back next year to try and win again. Since I have been back here in the UK I have ridden a couple of races. The biggest one was the National 25 mile TT Champs at the weekend. I felt quite good, but did not go very fast. Although I did win my age group by a couple of minutes or so. Obviously not having raced much this year, and having been away for 6 or so weeks did not really help much I have come to the conclusion that I have reached that age (46) were its no longer possible to expect to be competitive at a national level with guys who are 20 years younger than myself. Sad but true. Whatever, I still enjoy it and thats the main thing. I have a local 50 this weekend, with the temperature expected to reach 28 it should be fun. Better get that bottle cage fitted. Back

 

Professional cyclist for 15 years
12 Tours de France
Tour de France yellow jersey
Tour de France stage winner
Fifth in Paris-Roubaix
Tour of Belgium winner
UK pro road race champion
UK 25 and 50-mile TT champion