Exclusive: sneak peak of British Cycling’s new bike

The new edition of by Richard Moore, with a new chapter on Team GB’s ultra-successful Olympics, has revisions on Chris Boardman’s ’secret squirrel club’ equipment store.



However, Moore’s book doesn’t contain the very latest equipment Team GB will be using at all future track meets.

Here’s the first spy shot of the new men’s bike, made in Britain by Pashley. The actual bike won’t be yellow, it will be painted black. Where other nations ride carbon fibre bikes, Team GB is now opting for steel and is eschewing aero equipment.

Performance director Dave Brailsford told Quickrelease.tv:

“Riders like Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Victoria Pendleton are now so much faster than riders from America and Australia we thought we’d sportingly level the playing field a bit. All Team GB athletes will be on this style of custom-built bike from the World Cup events onwards. It’s only fair.”



The women’s bike - also by Pashley - will feature a freezer compartment. John Conod of Pashley said:

“The plan was for Victoria Pendleton to dispense cold drinks and lollies to the Aussies as she lapped them.”

GB’s trackies rule the world. Here’s why.

[RE-POSTING] I’m in an index. I’ve always wanted to be in an index.

Reid, Carlton 180-6

I come after Queally, Jason and before Road racing…and doping.

The book is . It’s another stonker from Richard Moore, author of . That title won the ‘Best Sports Biography of the Year’ award at the British Sports Book Awards in 2007 and more awards will surely follow for ‘Heroes, Villains and Velodromes’.

According to publisher HarperCollins, the book “reveals how an elite athlete, Chris Hoy, lives, breathes and pushes the boundaries of his sport. How does he do it? And why? What drives him to put his body through the physical and mental hurdles to become the best in the world?”



Moore shadowed Hoy for a year, from the World Championships in Mallorca at which Hoy became a double world champion, through to Hoy’s attempt on the world kilometre record in La Paz, Bolivia. Hoy has won two Olympic Golds so far in Beijing, and is favourite to win a third on Tuesday.

But this book is much more than a biography of Hoy, it’s a dissection of how Britain went from being a pariah nation on the boards through to the world’s all-conquering track team, better even than the Australians, a team so bereft of cycling medals at this Olympics you’d think the team had boycotted the Games.

It reveals the stunning levels of professionalism and dedication that go on behind the scenes at the Manchester velodrome, HQ for British Cycling.

So, how come I’m in the index? It’s all to do with my battle with the UCI in 2005. The gnomes of Aigle had decided to axe the kilo from the 2008 Olympics, a crazy decision when there were lesser track events to chop first or even the road time trial, a race that never attracted the cream of the world’s cyclists.

I created an petition which quickly gained 10,679 signatures including lots of top cycling names from around the world. Along with trackie Julie Dominguez I took the petition to the UCI and met with Pat McQuaid, then UCI president in waiting, now the actual UCI president.


He said some daft things about about the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, and I reported them on BikeBiz.com, grabbing a wifi connection in the dining hall of the UCI’s HQ. We hopped on a train to the Olympic HQ in Lausanne and by the time we got there, the PR man had already read the story and was waiting with an official rebuttal of McQuaid’s statement.

So, the kilo might have gone but that hasn’t bothered Chris Hoy. Team GB’s cyclists are a credit to the nation, and a credit to hard work. Many in the media, while praising cycling’s success at this Games, add that it’s because cycling is awash with cash. The BBC’s James Munroe said:

“Britain are the new Chelsea of the cycling world - with lottery cash in place of Russian roubles.”

What he fails to mention is that Britain’s pro trackies get less wages per year than a Chelsea footballer gets per week. In fact, the wage of one top-flight footballer could pay for the whole British elite track programme and still leave enough change for a brilliant grass-roots programme to bring on the next generation of Chris Hoy’s and Victoria Pendleton’s.

We’re crap at cricket; useless at football. We’re good at cycling. I hope the mainstream media’s current love affair with the sport lasts.

Until the lustre dims, it’s great to bathe in the reflected glory of Britain’s track superstars. I’m pretty sure motorists are giving me a slightly wider berth at the moment. Cyclists, for now, are all heroes. Now, where’s my aero helmet?

Great quote, where did it appear?

Is the following quote from Cycling Weekly, Cycle Sport, VeloNews, Bikeradar.com or Cyclingnews.com?

“Surely now Wiggins, Hoy, Romero and Victoria Pendleton are on the cusp of the transition from sportspeople we talk about three or four times a year to major public figures, in the forefront of our thoughts.

It’s a farce that triumphant Olympians entertain a whole country and then retreat to sport’s backbenches. Beyond Olympic gold, this is the prize for Britain’s cyclists.

They can demonstrate the value of investing in sport rather than just pontificating about its uses.

They can show footballers, cricketers and rugby players how much can be achieved by a concerted national effort.

None of the above. It’s actually from - wait for it - the footy-mad Daily Mail. There’s lots of similar coverage in the other tabloids. The broadsheets, of course, have always been a bit more ‘on message’, but to read this in the Daily Mail is something else.

PS
The pic shows one of my daughters with [Sir] Chris Hoy. It was taken at a Revolution event a couple of years back, see video below. Do you think this year’s first event might have a golden lap of honour? Too right!

Dreamy British cyclist demonstrates what to wear when it gets hot and steamy in China

Nicole Cooke may have won Olympic Gold in a downpour but she did so smothered in wet-look Lycra. This can get rather stifling in the hot and humid conditions in Beijing.

Thankfully, fellow Team GB rider Victoria Pendleton has a secret weapon up her sleeve. No sleeve. In fact, no togs at all. She plans to rule the roost at the 2008 Olympics by cycling in the nude, as this magazine cover reveals:



Want more pix of Victoria ‘pin-up’ Pendleton? There’s a photo set here. 12 fetching shots of Ms Pendleton in Jimmy Choo high heels and Amanda Wakeley designer dresses. Yet another reason China installed cold showers for Beijing’s blokes.

Well done, Nicole Cooke!

Earlier today, she won Britain’s first Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Back in January I produced this film on the launch of Team Halfords Bikehut, a team built around Cooke:



In the audio you can hear the Welsh wonderwoman talking about her preparations for Beijing, including riding the course and visualising the victory.

Google goes for Gold

Google has just tonnes and tonnes of useful .

Maybe I’m out of the loop on this one, but the product manager making the announcement is pro cyclist - and US Olympian in 2000 - Dylan Casey.

Need cycle-specific Olympics site-scraping? KWC has been working hard on cyclodro.me.