A dose of luck this morning leaves me in need of either Ikurriña or a Leeuw van Vlaanderen flag. Preferably both. So I was wondering if PdC could help. In particular I'm looking to Albertina and her Basque contacts and the Belgian contingent (tgsgirl, broerie) for any help they can provide but other offers of assitance will be welcome. I will of course cover costs and shipping. Email address is in my profile if you can be of assistance...

Hello everyone and in particular London-based PdC-ers.

I'm currently between jobs so have been taking the opportunity to go on midweek rides. Today - as I pootled up Box Hill for the first time this year - I thought I should really go out and recon the full route of the Olympics road race that will climb it 9 times and decide one of the first gold medals of the games. And then I thought some other members of a well-known internet-based cycling café mights be interested too.

I reckon we'd meet on the Mall and do a maximum of two laps of the Box Hill circuit making for a total distance of about 140km. Pace would be nice and social and there'd definitely be a cake stop at Box Hill and maybe a pub lunch on the way home.

So... would anyone else be interested?

If so which of the following dates would work?

• Monday 7 May (Mayday bank holiday)
• 2-5 June (Diamond Jubilee weekend)
• Sunday 13 June

Enthusiasm for 'cross racing seems to be growing in the UK just as it is across the pond. This weekend saw two big events in London: the third running of Muddy Hell at Herne Hill velodrome and the second in the Rapha cross series at Ally Pally. I headed down to Herne Hill for Muddy Hell and took lots of photos which I thought I'd share...

The event is floodlit and Halloween themed (though the front runners tend not to take the theme seriously) and a fun course with a bridge, jumps, rollers (styled as graves) and a hurdle in the beer tent. There were junior, women's, veterans' and novice races as well as the main men's event which was pretty much all I caught. Riders ranged from skinny cross-whippets on the latest carbon frames with disc-brakes to Mr. Blobby on a single-speed mountain bike. Everyone had a lot of fun and they ran out of beer...

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Cav signing meeting the fans before the time trial

It's not everyday a major biggish race comes to town and today was extra special: London got both a time trial and a road race. Neither was realistically going to change the overall outcome of the Tour of Britain (the TT was only 8.9km and the circuit so flat a bunch sprint was inevitable) but it was fun to see who was going to win and might be showing good form ahead of the world champs, so into town I went. I took my camera with me and shutterbugged all day. Here are a selection that tell the story, even more can be found on my flickr account (and some are lacking names - please add them if you can)

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The Tour of Britain is now underway. Sadly there isn't any live coverage but they have a twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/tourofbritain) and a pretty map thing on the website which shows where the various groups are on the road (http://www.tourofbritain.com). In addition various PdC-ers may be out and about watching it and able to provide updates...

So I thought I'd set up this fanpost for anyone who wants to chip in with live updates or pictures as stages progress, and as a place to collect the results each day.

And if you want to know more about the race you can read my preview here: http://www.podiumcafe.com/2011/9/7/2411099/tour-of-britain-preview-and-vds-smack-talk

The Tour of Britain starts this Sunday in Peebles in the Scottish Borders. The race can trace it's history back to 1945 and can count some pretty decent riders as its winner over the years: Hennie Kuiper, Robert Millar, Phil Anderson, Maurizio Fondriest, Stuey O'Grady.

It was resurrected in 2004 after a five year absence and his been growing in ambition and stature since. So what does the 2011 have in store? Who might win? And who's on you VDS team? Find out on the flip.

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This weekend saw the dry run for the 2012 Olympics road race - a 130 km romp out of London into the Surrey Hills and back. Albertina has already shared her photos which mostly seem to involve stalking poor, defenceless, topless cyclists. I'll try you some of what went on in the race.

But first the sign-on and some teams the PdC may like:

(Yappie) Aussies

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Sometime at the start of the year my mate Nick said to me, "Will, we've done a bit of cycling, wouldn't it be nice to cycle to Paris?". "Yes" I replied "it would". "What about doing it in 24 hours?" said Nick "in time to arrive for tea on Saturday?". "Why not?" I replied.

Such conversations have led to my first marathon, riding the etape and attempts to cycle around Malaysia, Syria and Lebanon. Beer is often involved. Once the gauntlet has been laid down pulling out is unthinkable.

So in May Nick and I lined up outside the Houses of Parliament in London with four of his colleagues, a support van full of food and bike bits, and a few friends to drag us to the coast. 23 hours 20 minutes, 200 miles and one ferry journey later we were in Paris and in want of something stronger than tea.

Today's the Olympic test event - a 130 km romp from London out to Surrey and back. I'm currently stood at the start watching the teams being introduced (highlight: Dominique Rollin promising to take it to Cav - Go Canada!). Not sure if there'll be any coverage but I'll try and post up any updates I can. Also taking lots of photos (4 Luxembourgish riders none called Schleck!) and will post them later. Including hopefully Cav winning!

The tour has been an international affair from the start with at least one non-Frenchman on the start line in Montgeron in 1903 (German Josef Fischer who finished 15th overall) and national teams from 1930 to 1961, albeit alongside multiple French regional teams. Since the return of trade teams the French hold on the race has diminished both in terms of victory and participation. First the traditional heartlands began breaking out of their regional ghettos - at some point even Italians realised they couldn't claim to be the best just because they'd won the Giro - and in the 80s the foreign legion of Americans, Canadians and Aussies started arriving changing the face of the tour forever and turning it into what it is today. The mondilisation has continued ever since with the French just being the largest nation in this year's peloton, thanks to ASO's instance on inviting French teams who probably wouldn't all make the cut if selection was on merit alone*:

The same as last year, it's the countries at the bottom of the list I'm interested in and the guys who carry the weight of a nation's expectation - here are five of the eight I particularly like...

Ryder Hesjedal - Canada - Garmin-Cervelo

The original "weight of a nation" Hesjedal comes into the tour on the GC side of Garmin-Cervelo alongside Vandevelde and Danielson. Starting as a mountain biker then a domestique he's yet another rider who has bloomed under Vaughters' wing relatively late in his career. That culminated last year with strong placings in the Spring one day races (strade bianchi, amstel, san sebastian), 7th at the tour, and more strong rides in Quebec and Montreal where the weight of a nation was at its greatest.

Success this year will be a top 10 on the GC himself or helping another Garmin-Cervelo rider get there. To me top 20 feels more likely. While there have been promising signs - 7th at the Criterium International, 9th in the Basque Country - he ended up 20th overall in Switzerland and most notably behind Danielson, and I don't think a climby tour suits him. That said I hope I'm proved wrong on this as I'm a sucker for the team and their plucky GC hopes.

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How the seasons turn... But a few week's ago we were agog for cobbles but now thoughts turn to stage racing... Well let me take you back to those heady times with some video and photos...

Paris-Roubaix has a special place in my heart - not only is it a great race it's the one which turned me from a follower of the Tour de France into a cycling fan. It's probably not my favourite race (the Ronde or the Giro take those honours) but it's still up there. And with northern France being not far from London it was inevitable I'd go and watch it one day. With A.S.O. deciding to run a sportive version over mostly the same roads the day before this was going to be the year I both rode it and watched the race...

So how was it? Find out after the jump plus some photos from the pro race...

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Hello. This weekend I'm heading to Northern France, to ride the Paris-Roubaix Challenge on Saturday and then to watch the pros on Sunday. I haven't been to P-R before but I know various members of PdC have so your views on how to watch it would be appreciated, in particular:

• How easy is it to get into the velodrome and how far in advance do you need to be there?
• How easy is it to get near the cobbled sections by car? And how feasible is it to see multiple sections? We'll have transport so can move about.
• How easy is it to find a bar or similar showing the race on TV so we can see what happens after it goes by?
• Any particularly good places to watch it besides the Arenberg or the Carrefour de l'Arbre?

Thanks for your help. In return I promise a report on the challenges (possibly a video!) and lots of photos.

The organisers of the London Olympics announced the route of the men's and women's time trials today. For both they're going to be single loops starting and finishing at Hampton Court - Tudor masterpiece of  Henry VIII - by the Thames in suburban west Lodon. For the guys it's a 44km race and 29km for the women. My take on the course and the favourites below.

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I thought I'd follow ant1's lead and post some cycling stoke to help us get through the off season. So I hope you'll enjoy my little video from this year's Gruyere Cycling Tour held back in August. It's not the longest or hardest ride but the scenery in the Vaudoise Alps is stunning and it's incredibly well organised. They also serve cheese and bouillon at the feed stations.

WillJ rode it too so may make a fleeting appearance in here somewhere - not that I've spotted him.

Officially a shit small race - Andre Greipel's presence confirmed it - the Tour of Britain finished last weekend with circuit race in the "Olympic borough" of Newham. Not the most scenic of places but on a sunny day there was a reasonable crowd out around the start finish even if the rest of the course was deserted.

Thanks to a friend I had a ticket to the VIP area: free food and drink, the best view in the house and the opportunity to hobnob with celebs (Phil Liggett, Hugh Porter, erm, Dean Downing, and possibly Paul Smith - not that I hobnobbed as my attention was focussed on the beer). It also meant some good photos I thought I'd share...

Mark Renshaw at the start

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With the excitement of the Vuelta - in particular today's drama - and the Pro Tour races in Quebec some may have forgotten that the Tour of Britain started today. Chris promised more in depth coverage so I'll refrain from a preview of either course or contenders. But as the first stage is over thought I'd set this up to let people know what's happened. Results of the first stage on the flip...

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