Food for thought - when Brad won a silver medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, one of his 2015 ECh teammates was probably still in nappies.

Kittel's switch to EQS is now official. It will be interesting to see if there are any similarities between his relationship with Gaviria and Greipel's relationship with Cav from back in the Highroad days.

Oh, and here's what the newly-crowned RR world champions look like in their new kit...

The route of the 2016 Giro: https://youtu.be/Fid5vpdV9Is.

Binche-Chimay-Binche (Ardennes autumn semi-classic) is on Eurosport today at 14:00

4 stage Tour of Abu-Dhabi starts live on Thursday on Eurosport, then gets messed about by snooker and darts.

Paris-Tours on Sunday, on Eurosport and also in Welsh on S4C!

And I think that will be it for road racing until the Tour Down Under in the New Year.

Ivan Basso has said he is not returning to racing despite his recovery.

Basso won the Giro in 2006 and 2010. A decade ago, he arguably took over from Ullrich as Armstrong's main adversary in the Tour. This dour documentary, that was meant to show Riis and CSC overcoming the TdF odds, ended in a disappointing Alpe d'Huez mountain ITT: https://youtu.be/rAtWk9IAH5o?t=1h26m23s

Just reading Basso's wiki page and it appears that he was never actually done for doping......he admitted to having contacted the Spanish Doctor with a view to doping but had never gone through with it

He accepted his ban though for 'attempted doping'

In my eyes he redeemed himself in the last few years when he was happy to ride as a domestique which not many former champions would be.

It is reported he stored blood for the 2006 TdF but was prevented from starting when the scandal broke. It sure sounds like a I'll admit what you can prove admission. His sister got popped for separate offences dating from around the same time: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mazz...-dealing-case/

On his return, he worked with Cadel Evans trainer, Aldo Sassi, who vouched for his new career path. http://inrng.com/2010/12/goodbye-aldo-sassi/

As you say it looks like ES are only covering stage 1.........there might be recorded highlights of the other days but I tend only to watch the live coverage. So effectively it's a one day race.......

Shame as there's quite a big British interest..........Team Wiggins are riding with an all British line up. I'm guessing they must all be youngsters as frankly I've never heard of any of them.

Sky have Andy Fenn and Ben Swift

Sagan is riding in his World Champion colours

Movistar have a strong team with Valverde, Lobato, Moreno

Kittel and Tom Dumoulin turn out for Giant

The Team Wiggins A team are of course now going to be on the track all winter.

I watched this and unlike in Europe there was very few members of the public watching there was a complete absence of females watching pretty well all males and boys.
Are females not interested or not allowed to watch.

Unusual to hear a roar like Guardini's so clearly on the finish line yesterday. Shows how little noise the few spectators were making.

Smooth open roads. Featureless terrain. No spectators. Excessive heat. Who'd have thought it would make an uninspiring TV watch?

Boonen has a 15cm crack in his skull from today's crash
https://instagram.com/p/8n9K_5Qawd/?taken-by=bomtoonen
http://www.etixx-quickstep.com/en/ne...i-3rd-5th/2446

The last 10km of today's stage is worth at watch in the highlights at 9:30. Stage ends with steep climb up a high spec road to nowhere: https://youtu.be/BmvJ59kFh74?t=48s

I watched it after seeing your post

It was a magnificent mountain road, beautiful to look at..........but poor old Poels !

Blimey.......after all that work in searing heat........

Chaves, ever the gentleman, declined a victory salute at the line after Poels slid out on the final bend.

On the final ramps, Chaves' was desperate for oxygen with his big lungs forcing out his stomach: https://youtu.be/mbck_VTMsWk?t=13m15s

Eurosport really going all-in on track cycling over the next couple of weeks

European Champs next week
London six-day the week after
And even live coverage of the Revolution Series from Manchester

And absolutely the last, final and ultimate road race of the season, the Saitama Criterion in two weeks time.

They showed one of the 6 day meetings last year, was it Ghent ?.......bit of a strange event !

but OK to dip in and out of if there's nowt else on

DirectVelo say that according to their sources (article in French), the 2018 Road WCh has been awarded to Innsbruck. No comments from the UCI yet.

Reminder that the European track championships starts tonight (6pm on Eurosport).

Has anyone found a straightforward schedule of events in English ?

I can't find one.......

Timetables are available on the organisers' website; for the first time, start lists and results are published on the Tissot Timing website as they're compiled.*

Back on the road, the Chrono des Nations will take place on Sunday - a rare standalone ITT event on the pro tour calendar. The men's elite field has 3 of the top 4 from Richmond (including Kiryienka in the stripes), and the women's elite field includes Pooley^ in her first pro cycling race since Glasgow 2014.

[* That site is usually reserved for the UCI champs, as far as track cycling is concerned anyway]
[^ Now a two-time duathlon world champion as well]

cheers........I'd looked at that site but never noticed any timetable

I now see Day 1 Schedule.......looks like it's just the Mens and Womens Team Pursuit qualifying tonight

I thought Emma Pooley had retired......

I saw her on University Challenge.......might have a been a special mini-tournament for Alumni around Christmas/New year

GB girls slam-dunk it !

Fastest in qualifying by a long way

......and the men go fastest as well

Two sessions on TV tomorrow.........10.30AM and 6.00PM

The team pursuit semi-finals are in the morning with the finals at night. There's also the team sprint qualifying in the morning with the finals at night

Two long races tomorrow night.......Men's Scratch and Women's Points

Looks like the TT website results are available to those without a PDF reader as well, which wasn't the case before.

The men clearly have more to give, as do the women (perhaps to a lesser extent - 4:21 was somewhat extravagant for a qualification ride). Judging by the commentary on Eurosport, Wiggo being man 2 in the squad is apparently a big deal.

Off we go again, team sprints and the medal qualifiers for the pursuits.

Oh dear.......British girls already out of the top four in the team sprint which means they won't race in the medal races

I think they were expecting to do a bit better than that.......