The Halfords Tour Series is pitching up at Canary Wharf this Thursday. Since it is directly outside my office, and because anything to do with cycling is vastly better than working, I thought - work, weather and wife permitting - I might pitch up and take a dekko. I may even let Halfords try to tell me that they are interested in cycling as opposed to being box shaped retailers of interesting plastic car clutter with no customer service and less knowledge of biycles.

The weather forecasters are promising us Cats, Dogs and everything short of a plague of frogs, frankly, so it may be that I decide that a detailed investigation of the submarine performance of high end road bikes isn't strictly what the doctor ordered, but assuming Noah keeps his family dingy on the stocks for another day I was wondering if there were any PdCers were thinking of doing the same.

I will probably be wandering round in decidedly unflattering skin tight, orange, PdC lycra to show the flag, so should be reasonably identifiable if you want to come say hello (and / or avoid like the plague). Alternatively we can nominate a place to meet / avoid and meet up.

The course sadly has a gross climb of about 5 vertical metres so will presumably be a combination of sprinting and shouting, but could be good fun anyway.

This story is by a rugby player, but I would think the sentiments translate across most sports. Sometimes I wonder if we fall into some of these traps occasionally. We blend rapidly from comments on race tactics to comments on personality... sometimes I wonder if we know what we are talking about, and know how we (occasionally) sound.

This especially resonates with me:

"But a minority see the sites as a forum to share their views in an abusive manner. They write off someone's career, assassinate the character of the men who have come up short, then press send and nip off for a cup of tea. No thought." Ipso dixit, we can all look at ourselves.

Anyway, food for thought

The story so far:
B&S were banned by the team for suspicion of being involved in a Gazetta dello Sport article. Then they were unbanned, after BMC cleared them on no particular evidence apart from a general feeling that you should never believe what you read in the newspapers. Then they were banned again, as the Italian police were investigating activities at Lampre and possibly leaked new information to BMC, for purposes unclear (are you keeping up at the back?)

Well, the left leg is out again (for the moment) as BMC reverse their reversal and have reactivated the two riders, just in time for Ballan to have missed the Giro and not be selected for a Tour squad which is all in for Cadel. Which is fine, because doping scandals are not particularly high up the agenda right at this moment.

Anyone with any good ideas, please send them to the Clue Department, BMC racing team, as soon as possible. Either these two stink to high heaven and are getting a free pass, or they are seriously getting screwed around by a management which has no idea what it is doing.

Either way, it ain't great

Given all the doom and gloom around cycling at the moment, it is sometimes remembering the sheer, unadulterated beauty that is our sport. So, to anyone who needs cheering up, may I suggest they mosey over to Cyclingtips and balm their eyes in a parage of beautiful photos.

Bliss.

Whichever way you want the result to come out, a delay (if true) is really, REALLY, bad news.

The power of the "storyline"... I am sure the tyre was soft and deflating, but it still looks pretty well operational in this shot of JVS coming into the velodrome.

Try as I might, it is tough to see much difference between front and back tyres here

Clever chaps, science wallahs. Too clever for a history grad like me. But the guys in white coats seem broadly supportive of the Passport, and have some graphs to illustrate progress. I will simply link to the bright lads at the Science of Sport, and let others have their say

I am sure that at best it is two steps forward, one back - but that is still a net one step forward. Which is a start.

I'm not sure of the rules in cross linking - so Gav/Chris feel free to do what you like to the post.

But for those with the time and sympathy, hop across to Cyclocosm who has the written evidence that the UCI are the most ******** ******* ******* who **** ***** a ******. The ****.

Floyd 1, detractors 0

More middling to big names head over the the Schleck love- fest that is the Luxembourg cycling team. Which confirms the underlying story - that CrashFrank and Schlecklet are the two best loved cyclists in the Peloton, because in the absence of any title sponsor (or indeed any sponsor at all), we have to assume all these guys are doing it for love.

Seriously, wtf is going on here? There's more salary signed up than can be found in the average investment bank, and nary a sign of anyone who can actually cut a cheque...

Mr Cavendish is spending September in Spain. Guess it is not a shit small race.

And will he stay for the duration and try to win a jersey?

Slightly to my surprise, Contador is leaving Astana. Wheels within wheels for sure. So which team gets to win the Tour for the next three years?

So the dust has settle somewhat, which leads us to the logical question as to whether this was a dope free tour. How's it hanging: Optimist, pessimist or realist?

What I do know is that the Tour is an uncontrolled environment so that it is quite hard to know what you are watching, even when you are watching it. However, the guys who write this blog "The Science of Sport" also know it. And they are a hell of a lot smarter than me. So have a read and see what you think.

My glass is definitely half full.

I am sure most of you guys have spotted this, but Jens! is doing a blog over at Bicyling.com. Really excellent stuff and much better than the usual "I was lucky enough to be on a good day" mularkey. The money quote "Hey, I might be human after all". No Jens!, you're definitely not... :)

Anyway, fun read from a fun guy - who has a sense of how to tell a story.

Four percent body fat, too. Really brings home how extreme you have to go if you are serious about racing uphill on two unpowered wheels. Interesting little article from the London Evening Standard (of all places) on Wiggo and his diet. Training is apparently gym free, which is also a surprise to me.