A cyclists' take on Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie

A few weeks ago we saw The Armstrong Lie as part of the BFI London Film Festival. My column looking at the film from a cyclists' perspective is now live over at the recently re-launched and truly excellent puremovies.co.uk.

Being a pro cyclist fan is now, and possibly forever more, a case of mixed emotions. Likewise, I enjoyed the film, at the same time that I found it incredibly depressing!

Here's an excerpt:

In responding to innumerable allegations against him, Armstrong has given every conceivable answer to the question, “Are you doping?” As a result, no one can ever give a truthful answer to that question which isn’t basically the same as a lie that Armstrong has told.

As I say in the peice, I'm honestly conflicted as to whether I can carry on enjoying pro cycling. Only time will tell I guess, but at least there's nothing that can take away the joy of actually being on the bike myself!

More at Pure Movies: It's more than a lie

It's Tour Time!

The Tour de France starts today with the prologue in Liege. I'm really looking forward to following the tour this year, although I don't seem to have been clever enough to have a week of holiday coincide with it as I did last year - so it will be harder to keep up with all the comings and goings.

Road Cycling UK are running a fantasy Tour de France where you can pick a team of riders, and Alberto and I are both participating in that. I appear to have bought into Britain's hype about Bradley Wiggins as my team is centred around him and Samuel Sanchez, as well as featuring most of my favourite pros like Jens Voigt and Tommy Voeckler.

My fantasy Tour de France team

Alberto has selected an all-Spain team headed up by Samuel Sanchez and with sprinting prowess provided by JJ Rojas. It wasn't easy to create a team of all Spaniards within the game's rules; you aren't allowed to have more than two players from each real team on your team, and Spain's representatives in the tour are concentrated in Euskatel-Euskadi and Movistar. But we've managed to make it work!

Alberto's fantasy Tour de France team - Viva Espanya!

Fortunately we're able to make changes to the team as the Tour goes on, as we all know how unpredictable and unforgiving the Tour can be!

Sunday in Hell (Paris-Roubaix video)

Hello! We're still cycling the Camino de Santiago but thought we'd schedule some posts while we're away. Enjoy!

Not so long ago Lucy and I found ourselves watching Paris Roubaix up close. Now the season seems to be well underway with the Giro de Italia and all the big races coming up.

Sunday in Hell is a superb video about cycle racing, and in particular, the Paris Rouabaix. If you are remotely interested in cycling, and want to see some of the legends (e.g. Eddy Merckx) in action then it is a really good watch. It is funny to see how those seventies bikes and gear are now sooo trendy, at least here in London. Somehow they don't see outdated anymore!

Here is the video. Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

Watching Paris-Roubaix up close

 About this time last year it occurred to me that watching the Paris-Roubaix live could be fun. Not that I am into professional cycling that much, but this spring classic is well known as one of the toughest one-day road races.

It fell on Easter Sunday, and over that period we had a mini-tour of Northern France/Belgium in mind (will be posting on this soon). Train and ferries were booked, route was plotted. All we had to do was ride to one of the cobbled sections.

We camped in Saint-Amand-Les-Eaux, near the Belgium/France border, and got to one of the nearest pavé sections by noon. Some caravans and even more supporters were already waiting for the peloton, scheduled to go through after 2:30 pm.

Entering the official route

As expected, the atmosphere was great and everyone seemed in a great mood. People had set up their own stands with food and booze, despite the cold weather, and only seemed too happy to try and talk to us when they saw us riding on the pavé. Some even cheered us on with a "bon courage"!

Great atmosphere

Lucy practising her French with the locals

We rode on the pavé section up and down a couple of times. Can tell you is no easy job on a heavy tourer!!! Lucy seemed to be handling it ok though, although she, as did the pros, rode mostly on the verge of it, where it is flatter. I tried and ride through the middle of it, which was quite fun as the video demonstrates...

Cobbles

We started to see the teams' cars rushing through the cobbles, an indicator of the riders' proximity. One of the things I noticed was that hand-built wheels are used on this event (rather than fancy, lightweight factory wheels). They are probably much more reliable and will provide a more comfy (if at all possible?) ride on the cobbles. Also saw a few riders carrying an extra brake lever similar to that found on cyclo-cross bikes.

Team cars

Without much delay, the first group flew past us. We reckon Boonen was there, although we could not identify any of the riders. They all seemed pretty knackered, but specially the ones at the back of the peloton.

Riding on the side of the road is a lot easier

Not everyone fits on the verge though!

Allez allez!

This guy seems to be chilling

Some of them were completely lonely at the back...vamos Euskatel!

Notice the hand-built wheels with plenty of crossed spokes

It was great to see this event, its atmosphere and observe the faces of the riders. They still had another 100 km to go after this, and lots of them had already DNF as we later saw in the broom bus. Perhaps next year we will try and see the Tour of Flanders? Until then, no more cobbles for us.

Behind the Scenes at the Tour of Britain Stage 8

This summer we have been lucky enough to see a few pro races in action, and although they are fun, we don't necessarily feel the need to go out of our way to see every possible race. This Sunday I knew that the Tour of Britain's 8th and final stage was taking place in London, but I didn't plan to go watch it. Nevertheless I ended up having an interesting peek at work that goes on behind the scenes at a cycle race, and some celebrity spotting to boot!

I was in Trafalgar Square with a friend and we came across the course during the morning's time trial. I stopped to watch a few riders go past, and then we wandered along toward the river. Suddenly, I saw a side street with all of the team vehicles parked there. We decided to go in for a closer look and I realised that this was where the teams had set up to transition between the morning's time trial stage (8a) and the afternoon's final group stage (8b) around London. There were loads of time trial bikes waiting to be cleaned, and road racing bikes ready to be adjusted to their riders' liking.

As we went  along we saw a few different riders sitting on the bikes making sure they were right. We also saw, from a distance, Geraint Thomas signing autographs for the crowd. I hadn't been following the race that closely so didn't have any favourite riders that I was dying to see... but then we walked by the van for team HTC-Highroad.

There was a crowd of people outside it, but nothing much was happening. It seemed like the right thing to do to see if we could get a glimpse of Mark Cavendish, Britain's most famous cyclist and the most dominant sprinter in the world at the moment. But I don't think I actually believed that I would get to see him.

Then it happened! He came out of his trailer wearing all black HTC-branded sweats. It was so exciting! He signed a few autographs and then there was a moment of drama when the reporter who was interviewing him seemed to piss him off. He walked away angrily and said that he had been asking about doping! But a few moments later he was back to happily signing autographs. He never came over to where I was standing, but I was just happy to stand by taking pictures!

So, now we have a third perspective on what it's like at a pro cycling race. It gets more interesting each time!

Watching La Vuelta a España from the top of a hill

Last weekend, we went to Madrid to visit Alberto's family and spend some time in a place where summer actually exists, unlike the UK! As luck would have it, the Vuelta a España (like the Tour de France, but in Spain) is on at the moment and Stage 8 on Saturday finished in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, a beautiful town outside of Madrid and only about 20 minutes drive from where Alberto's family lives. We knew we had to go check it out!

About 500m from the finish (and no, we didn't write that!)

We've been to see a pro cycling race before, but this one was different in a number of ways:
1. It's the Vuelta a España, one of the three Grand Tours and a major event on the cycling calendar, not a dinky little classic in the UK! There were a LOT of big names.
2. We were at the finish of the race (we stood between the 200 and 300 meters-to-go banners), rather than a random spot along the route. This meant much more excitement and bigger crowds.
3. It was an uphill finish. And when I say uphill, I mean UP. HILL. The slope reached 27% at some points. This meant we could watch the riders go past slowly. The final 1km went straight up a narrow, straight road -- so the riders came past us in little bunches and we had enough time to see the names on their backs and shout out at them.

View from close to the finish line.

We arrived in El Escorial in the early afternoon, and the riders weren't expected until 5:30 or so. We had time to walk up the race route (and it was steep enough to be difficult to walk!), take in the atmosphere, and have lunch in town before heading back to the route to find a spot to watch. It was quite busy already by 4:30 but we eventually found some space. Unfortunately, it was right next to a guy holding the Madrid flag who thought that it was funny to hold it out in front of everything that went passed...not just cyclists but cars and motorbikes as well! It was annoying because it blocked the view for a lot of the time.

For a sense of the angle. Note struggling children in background. 

While we waited, we were entertained by a radio announcer who stood near us broadcasting the race. Those of our readers who understand Spanish may find the video amusing. (Ok, those who don't understand it might still find it amusing!)



Anyway, we waited in anticipation until eventually we could see a helicopter overhead and a few official cars and motorbikes flew past. Finally, we saw him -- Joaquim Rodriguez of team Katusha, or Purito as the Spaniards call him, flying up the mountain, followed closely by Lampre's Michele Sarponi. As the main peloton passed I shot this video. Apologies that it starts a bit slowly -- I really didn't want to miss the riders coming by! The riders arrive at about 1:15 in the video. (You can even hear the point where I spotted Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins and shouted out his name. A few days later he took on the leader's red jersey and at the moment still has it!)



Because of the hill, the riders were very spread out so we had a chance to see lots more cyclists come past and some of them really needed the moral support as they suffered up the mountain.

When it was all over, we walked back down to the exhibition area and looked around. I was excited to find a bike that had been signed by Jens Voigt, probably my favorite pro (and blogger)!

And to top off a great day, while walking through town, we even caught a glimpse of Purito as he cycled back down to his hotel after he had won the stage and took the leader's jersey for the day!

Off to see La Vuelta!

We're off for a long weekend in Madrid! Planning to catch stage 8 of the Vuelta a España in San Lorenzo de El Escorial tomorrow!

Watching a pro-cycling race

Last weekend, we decided to check out the London-Surrey Cycle Classic, yet another event of the London Prepares series. The race took the route of next year's Olympic road race, except the peloton only did two laps of Box Hill, rather than the nine that the men will do next year.

The Olympic route starts and finishes on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace, and goes through Richmond Park (fast becoming a favourite) both on exit and entry from London, then does a loop through Surrey. We thought we'd go watch the race from there since we know it well and we predicted there would be a good atmosphere of machacas there.

We caught the train to Richmond in time to watch the peloton come through on their return to the mall; the riders would have about 20km left in the race at that point. A fellow spectator told us that he had watched the riders leave west London earlier in the morning and there had been a breakaway of four riders, about a minute ahead of the peloton, so we were excited to find out how the race would look at this point so close to the finish line.

We knew the riders were nearby when a series of cars and motorbikes came flying past. First was a race radio car with loudspeakers on top. As it went by, it broadcast the current status of the race, so we heard that there were still two men in the breakaway and they were about 20 seconds ahead. Then several police motorbikes came past, from all across the UK, followed by the cars of the race officials and other important figures.

Finally, we saw two riders coming around the curve in front of us. We cheered them on and waited for the peloton which were knew were right behind them (they had even cleared the race vehicles from between them, a sure sign that  the peloton were going to catch up any minute now. The peloton flew by, team GB at the front, and it was all over in a few seconds.

The breakaway

The peloton

Many people in the crowd started crossing the road and leaving, while the race marshals (who are also practicing for next year!) tried to remind us that we hadn't seen the sweep vehicle come past yet. People were milling about, standing in the road, wandering off, when all of a sudden a second group of riders came into view in the distance! The marshals started frantically trying to get everyone out of the road, just in time for the second peloton, almost as big as the first, to come past. We were left wondering what could have possibly happened to split the peloton like that. Was there a crash that held people back, or maybe its just that there were two types of pro-riders on this race, the world class ones like Mark Cavendish and Tyler Farrar, and the middling racers who ride for smaller trade teams.

Surprise! Peloton number 2!

After the excitement of the second peloton, we waited around and watched a few more small groups of riders come around the bend. There was a long gap where no one came past... except for some normal Richmond Park machacas who had somehow managed to get on the road without being stopped by a marshall--the crowd was cheering them on unwittingly! During all this time, the marshals didn't have any more information than the spectators, except they knew that the sweep vehicle had not come past yet. Finally, a marshal somehow heard that there were two riders at the back, who had been involved in a crash. We waited for this last rider, gave him as much encouragement as we could muster, and watched the sweep vehicle come past.

It was more excitement than we had planned for and a lot of fun to watch the pros in action. Although I do hope they sort out the communication with the marshals for the next time around!

Machacas of the Tour

Well, the Tour de France has ended, so Alberto and I will have to adjust to life without the daily scramble to find a computer and/or TV at about 4pm everyday to watch the final km's of each stage. As a final goodbye to the Tour, we thought it would be great to identify a couple of riders who are the embodiment of the idea of machacas.

Machaca of the Tour: Thomas Voeckler

Voeckler (Team Europcar) is known for fighting it out on the breakaway, and this is how he won the yellow jersey in stage 9. So he's always been pretty machaca. But he exceeded all expectations by hanging on to the yellow jersey through the Pyrenees and on the first day in the Alps. Every day, Voeckler would say that he expected to lose the yellow jersey the next day, but he would fight on anyway. He blew everyone away with his ability to hang with the favourites and the hard-core climbers, while remaining humble and humorous. We love Tommy!

Thomas Voeckler in the yellow jersey (image source)

Machaca of a Single Stage: Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha

This has to be a joint title, going to the two riders who kept riding after being horrifically hit by a media car while riding in a breakaway. Both riders finished not just the stage, but the tour, fighting through all the pain and riding with every extremity in bandages.

Flecha with his bandages the day after the crash (image source)

Johnny Hoogerland keeps riding after being thrown into a barbed wire fence (image source)

Machaca of the Saddle: Fabio Sabatini

In Tour tradition, Fabio Sabatini (team Liquigas-Canondale) will receive the honour of the Lanterne Rouge for being the rider with the slowest overall time. Finally, a machaca after our own hearts! By finishing dead last in the Tour de France, at 3 hours, 57 minutes, and 43 seconds behind the leader, Sabatini has spent the most time in the saddle of anyone on the tour. We always say that the biggest challenge of riding long distances is the amount of time spent in the saddle, so we salute Fabio Sabatini for his perserverance on this measure!

Sabatini at the back of the ride (image source)

Goodbye Tour de France 2011. Bring on La Vuelta!

Taking on Contador

On Saturday night, Alberto and I have a showdown with Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and the rest of the 177 riders still in the Tour de France. That's right. And we are pretty sure we're going to beat them.

This is because on Saturday, the participants of the Tour will ride a total of 168.5 km in Stage 14 from Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille. Meanwhile, Alberto (not Contador!) and I will be cycling 180.7 km overnight on the Dunwich Dynamo!

Okay, so the riders of the the Tour will take care of these km's in an afternoon, while it'll take us all night. They'll be greeted by spectators and shouts of "Allez!" while the best we can hope for are some drunk Londoners shouting abuse at us. They'll have support cars carrying everything they need for the ride and more, while we'll have our saddle bags and a couple of 2-liter water bottles. And at the end of their ride, they'll get a nice, relaxing sports massage, while we'll get to feel the sensations of hundreds of little flies landing on our skin.

But the fact remains that we will ride further than Contador on Saturday. And I can't predict how he'll fare in the Pyrenees, but I can guarantee that Alberto and I will both be wearing yellow at the end of the day!

Great writing about pro-cycling

I am currently back home in Philadelphia visiting my family, and a happy combination of jet lag making me wake up early and my parents having finally decided to get cable TV a few years ago means that I have been watching every stage of the Tour de France live! I've kept up with the Tour in past years, but never to this degree. It's fantastic!

The problem is, as a newbie to cycling I feel like there is so much I'm missing out on because I don't really understand it. The team tactics, the following cars and feed stations, the camaraderie and competition amongst the riders... the things that make these racers into humans. For instance, in Stage 3 I thought it was really amazing that the peloton allowed Anthony Charteau of team Europcar to break away from the peloton so he could meet his family on the side of the road, stop and say hello to them, and then rejoin the peloton as it passed by!

Anthony Charteau pulled over on the side of the road to greet his family. Photo from dailytelegraph.com.au.

These are the kinds of things that aren't easily communicated by commentators on TV and are not really covered in Wikipedia. In searching for more information on all this, I've come across some great writing about the sport:

First, a great story about the way that the riders in May's Giro d'Italia paid tribute to Wouter Waylandt, along with some critique about the way pro races are organised these days and the way the media covers crashes and injuries.

Back in March, there was this article by Michael Barry which helped me understand how pro-cyclists use drafting or slipstreaming. Not just of each other, but of the motorcycles and cars associated with the race as well! It's a pretty good introduction to understand what's allowed and not allowed in that area. I thought it was an interesting point that it is impossible to simulate a pro-racing situation without actually motorpacing, because nothing else creates that drafting effect of a 200-strong peloton.

Then there are the pro riders that have their own blogs. It's really fun to watch a race on TV and then read about what was actually going through riders' minds at the time. Of these, my favourite is Jens Voigt's Hardly Serious. Jens (team Leopard-Trek) is the oldest rider in the tour so he's got a lot of perspective -- plus I think he's a great writer!

Until yesterday there was also Chris Horner's blog (team Radioshack) but sadly he crashed out of the race.

There are also twitter accounts -- too many to mention. But I did thoroughly enjoy Alberto Contador's tweet after a crash that left his jersey torn up -- "Here's my summer jersey," he said!

All this has really enhanced my experience while watching the tour. Now, if only I knew other cycling fans to show off my knowledge to!

A Real Machaca

Just in case you were wondering what a real machaca is, you can read this article about Ryder Hesjedal, a Canadian pro cyclist.

My favourite bit:

"To race bicycles is to drink greedily from the chalice of agony."

... and that's why I don't think I'll be entering a race anytime soon!