Varnish denied access to her performance data, claims meetings were summarily cancelled, and escalates her allegations against male team managers. One article says in 2012 she lost 7kg of muscle after a long layoff due to injury and another suggested riding at Rio had still been an option. Her former track partner, Pendleton, also had strong views on BC managers. An outburst during BBC punditry last year showed some animosity remains. http://gu.com/p/4ttvy

Last of the Ardenne classics, Liege Bastogne Liege, tomorrow afternoon at one. Looks like an open race with no clear favourites. Weather predicted to be cold and wet. Race trivia: the last few kilometres pass through the industrial suburb of Seraing where most of the Dardenne brothers movies are based.

My friend who has been heavily involved with BC said they are getting more draconian if it is possible and there is no room for criticism. She said that Jess is one of a few at a similar level so after her outburst she was the one to go. She said VP had to fight every inch of the way during her time, the male dominance etc.

I think a lot of the coaching team who were key to golden years - Jan van Enden etc - have moved on to other opportunities, so it's probably like the situation in British Swimming a few years back, lots of second rate time servers living the high life on lottery millions, not so much of a focus on the athletes.

There seems to be little sensitivity to the needs of the athletes. It's the coaches way or no way. Shame as there are several embittered athletes being left by the wayside. Don't they have a duty of care in cycling?

Some of the slowest racing you will ever see in Croatia today - it's a Team Time Trial and the last kilometre goes over wet roads that are thickly covered with zebra crossing and advertising slogans, so teams are taking them at practically walking pace. Team Wiggins and One Pro both going well.

I went on a package holiday in the 1960s to Porec, the town where the TTT started in Croatia today.......unfortunately I can't remember anything about it now but still have some home cine camera footage of the 'English boys' playing football against the hotel staff..........I was about 14 I think

And I'm afraid the embittered athletes all/mostly seem to be women - Nicole Cooke, Pendleton, VD Houvenhagel, Romero, Dani King. Emma Pooley is back involved now but I think she has had a rough ride at times & I can see Katie Archibald going the same way if they're not careful after Sutton's very public dressing down regarding her. And Shanaze Reade was bought into the Track Squad a while ago now but hasn't been picked for any World Cups etc. On the whole looking form the outside the women's squad is very badly managed in comparison to the men.

And for the track specialist it isn't like some other Olympic sports such as athletics or Swimming where you can go off and do your own thing away from the system with no central funding & still compete at major champs.

So, how did LBL go? Here's what happened:

So another busy week - Turkey on Eurosport all week, Romandie on the Bike Channel, starting on Tuesday and then Friday-Sunday Yorkshire on ITV4 (every single minute, it seems) and Eurosport, with the women's race on Saturday morning.

The Istanbul Tourist Board did a great job with today's Stage One in Turkey..................the race must have gone past every building in the City that's more than a hundred years old

To be fair though, it is a spectacular City

I guess it was only a matter of time.......

Channel 5 are making a Celeb RTV show based on cycling. Victoria Pendleton will coach a group of eight celebrities to take on some Tour de France stage routes in the Pyrenees. Already signed up are ex cricketer Darren Gough, ex rugby player Austin Healy, ex Winter Olympian Amy Williams plus some Towie types ........more 'celebs' to be announced

I know that Darren Gough has already done some serious cycling as he took part in one of those charity rides that was nearly 400 miles in 5 days

I gave up watching this kind of show ages ago but I might give this a go......it'll be interesting to see how non-Pros cope with the route.

Due to be screened in July to coincide with the Tour

Cracking stage in Turkey today.......we saw about the last two and a half hours but the last hour was terrific

Cross winds and splits.......

Poor turn out for the race though.......I think there's only 2 world tour teams. I'm sure it's been better supported than that in the last few years

I guess this will happen more often as more and races get a place in the calendar....Turkey is now effectively competing for world tour teams with LBL, Romandie, Yorkshire and Croatia which all overlap it

Wonder if they get "smarties" to help them on the hors catégories.

Sad to see that Michael Rogers has had to retire with a heart "ailment"

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mich...heart-ailment/

Good to see British rider Grant Ferguson make a promising debut at the UCI Men's Elite MTB Cross-Country (XCO) race in Cairns. Having a Union Flag helmet design made him easy to spot.
2016 races are online on Red Bull TV: http://www.redbull.com/uk/en/bike/mtb

Cross winds again in Turkey......race blown apart

24 riders out front with big groups at 7 minutes and 15 minutes.......about 45k to go

Looks like the race is over for everyone outside this first group

Blimey.......this is such a long straight road that you can see the second group who are now at 6 minutes.......

the race leader is in the 3rd group at around 13 minutes

I thought this was going to be a boring day bar a sprint at the end but the cross winds have made it a good watch

Sounds like someone in the Tour du Sénégal screwed up big time today - Stage 4 result according to ProCyclingStats:

So Shane Sutton has been suspended pending an investigation into alleged discrimination

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/36147120

Dosent look like there are any cross winds today in the tour of turkey, 6 man breakaway up the road with just 1'40"

Shall I start the conspiracy theory that it's an aussie masterplan to undermine the GB team in the build up to Rio by having the Sutton bros in cahoots? No, ok I won't.

Whatever is going on it seems bad for GB cycling that only those outside the team, or on their way out have raised concerns (not sure on current status of the para-cyclists involved) . Like those still inside know they'd be 'varnished' if they spoke out.

It reminds me of the criticism there was not that many years ago regarding the GB swimming team management and their underpar performances. Fortunately that was resolved and the team have gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Hope this is either nothing serious or is dealt with swiftly and with minimal impact on team morale and Rio preparations.

Seems like a back to normal day with a probably bunch sprint finish.

And a pretty quick stage as there were only 30-odd K to go when we joined the race so about 45 minutes coverage

very unusual GC with the two teams dominating but without having had a team time trial

I think that is partly down to the lack of quality teams this year, south east seemed very poor on the first stage and couldnt bring back the lampre rider, until lotto put a man on the front.

I was watching the race from 12.40 on TRT Sport, they take it from when the live pictures become available.

Romandie underway on The Bike Channel..........lots of snow and the course has been modified with the first approx 70K chopped off leaving a stage of around a 100K

51K to go as we join the race