Results tagged “BBC”

While riding the Etape du Tour, I also found time to make a video report for BBC Sport

You can watch it on the BBC Cycling site: Tour de France 2010: How tough is the Col du Tourmalet?

My favourite shot in the whole piece is at about 01:00 in as we climbed the Marie-Blanque. Absolutely beautiful moment.

Filming is also part of why I took so long as I had to ride well within my limits so that I was able to compose my thoughts and figure out filming opportunities. That probably added about half an hour to my time to the foot of the Tourmalet.

If I hadn't been worrying about shooting I'd have gone all in, all day and pushed for a faster time up the final climb as well. But it did mean I got to take in the experience a bit more than I would have otherwise.

Big thanks to:

• Thida at ASO for sorting me out with an entry
• Joe at Rapha for the kit
• Sandy and Phil at Cyclefit for sorting out my position
• Jimmy at Sigma Sport for giving me a second opinion on the position and sorting out a new saddle (Specialized Romin) which was very much an improvement on my old one
• Perry for the bike box loan
• Everyone who has donated money towards Roy Kinnear House so far

This is a public service broadcasting announcement on behalf of Ken Iino and the London Cyclocross League:

"The BBC would like to do a short feature on Cyclo-Cross for the national weekend news, and we need your help to make it happen.

The film crew and presenter can't film at weekends so instead of a normal league race we're inviting them to a one off mid-week session at Herne Hill on Thursday 5th November from 1pm-4pm.

National champion Jody Crawforth has kindly agreed to come along, but we need riders of all ages and abilities to take part. The afternoon will include a free coaching session with British Cycling coach Bill Wright, and we'll also be putting on a 30 mins mini-race at the end.

This will also be a chance to promote Herne Hill velodrome and help ensure its future, so please do come and have a go if you can.

Filming starts at 1pm on Thursday 5th November and finishes at 4pm. A map of how to get to Herne Hill can be found here - http://tinyurl.com/ylbd9fu

If you think you can come along or if you've any questions please email back - if you can't make it please help by spreading the word.

Cheers

Ken Iino
London Phoenix"

The reporter is, I think, Mike Bushell who bravely takes on just about every sport that people participate in and took on Ventoux last summer. I would love to be there but work schedule doesn't permit. If you can make it, please support it. I say this with a foot in both camps, as someone who loves cyclocross and as a BBC Sport/5 live person.

So at last we've got some names in the book for Team Sky:

• Geraint Thomas
• Pete Kennaugh
• Steve Cummings
• Rusell Downing
• Ian Stannard
• Chris Froome

Clever PR to start by naming the British core of the team thus establishing the team identity in the mind of the public. Apparently there'll be a couple more names this week and the rest will come out over the next few months.

For those of you given to conspiracy, here's the pictorial equivalent of leaving an arsonist alone with a box of matches and four litres of unleaded.

Remember: "Careless talk costs lives" as the poster said. And yes, that does look a lot like Ben Swift of Katusha and Jonathan Bellis of Saxo Bank who just happened to be passing when they were filming.

Hang on, there's still another 19 riders to be named. so naming six today still means that the process is the equivalent of a 10,000 piece puzzle: slow but ultimately rewarding.

I can punt on about a dozen of them maybe, with the implication from Bob Stapleton being that five of them will be coming from those leaving Columbia-HTC.

As for the rest, I haven't even had the time or energy to speculate properly. Actually if you want proper speculation you have to follow Bradley Wiggins on twitter.

If speculation isn't your thing then please feel free to read my latest piece for the BBC Sport website: Team Sky names the Brit pack in which I look at the prospects for the riders they've announced.

For the riders, it's the heat, the wind, the Netherlands (WTF?), the mountains and the bleached scenery. For me it's trying to find an angle to write about the damned thing. Well, I managed it in the end:

Read "Has the Vuelta lost its way?" on BBC Sport

That journalistic trick of asking a question then not entirely answering it in several hundred words once again proves its worth and allows me to mention most of the important information that I could knock together off the top of my head in a couple of hours.

I am going to be watching, I'm just not sure how excited I can get about it.

Andy Schleck is, on paper, the odds on favourite based on recent Grand Tour performance but I'm intrigued by an article on Velonews in which Sean Yates says Chris Horner will get a crack at the GC:

Read Yates: 'Horner will get his chance at Vuelta' on velonews.com

Like everyone else I had assumed that Vinokourov had got his Astana bat and ball back and he would decide who gets to play with it.

My lucky girlfriend is going to be in Spain when it passes through the Valencia/Alicante/Murcia stretch so might (if I can figure out before she goes away) get to watch some of it roadside.

From what I remember of the last time I was in Spain when it was on, it's also wall-to-wall on Spanish telly throughout the afternoon when it's otherwise a bit too warm for being outside. But for me it's Eurosport live in the office when I can and highlights in the evening when I can't.

Interesting piece in the BBC's More or Less programme about testosterone tests:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/more_or_less/6120744.stm

You can listen to it again at the moment but I'm not sure whether it will be archived.