what about ANC Halfords brit team in le tour, they were on blue peter you know...

I hadn't heard of them.............it was before started to be interested

But I've checked out the wiki entry. It's an interesting read.......here's an abstract............

"In 1987, the team rode under the name ANC-Halfords. In races outside of England, the team was co-sponsored by Tönissteiner.[2] ANC got a wildcard invitation to ride the 1987 Tour de France. The team were inexperienced as only Graham Jones had ridden a major stage race. The team turned up in Berlin and were promised the best equipment such as specialist time-trial cycles. Instead, they rode the opening time trial on standard road bikes, with only four disc wheels between nine riders. Only four riders made it to Paris. The only success was Malcolm Elliot's third place on one stage. The best ranked cyclist in the general classification was Adrian Timmis, ranked 70th.[3] The Tour de France had required a £37,000 entry fee.[4] Some of the cyclists stopped early in the race, and Tony Capper invited guests (including his family and potential sponsors) to take their already reserved hotel rooms.

In the last week of the race, Tony Capper left the team, and they did not see him anymore.

After the Tour de France, the ANC team was only revived for a few races. Joey McLoughlin won the first Kellogg's Tour of Britain and Malcolm Elliott won two stages in the Nissan Classic in Ireland. By the end of the season, the team ran out of money and was no more.

The team's period in the Tour de France and the chaos that surrounded it is captured in Wide-eyed and Legless by the British writer Jeff Connor.[5]


Bit of 'Cool Runnings' going on there !...............

Anyway, Tour de Pologne is on, another Italian mountain today.

Around 38K to go..............group of 6 men away on a climb

Haven't seen any time gaps back to the peloton

Nibali is in the breakaway............he got dropped lower down the slopes but has fought his way back

we got a time gap..............4 minutes

Finally got an overall result for the Tour of Poland yesterday - it's shaping up to be a good race once they get back home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23485192

1. Rafal Majka (Pol) Saxo - Tinkoff 11hours, 4 minutes and 43 seconds.
2. Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky +4 seconds
3. Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R +6
4. Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica +7
5. Jon Izagirre (Esp) Euskaltel +9

Wiggo 23 minutes down after 2 stages............

We'll get more idea of his form in the time trial, which I think is the final stage of the race, comes up next weekend

At least he is 8mins ahead of Nibali.

The former sprinter, and current Katusha sprint coach, Eric Zabel has admited using EPO, cortisone, and blood doping from 1996 to 2003: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/15...od-of-use.aspx

Nobody has mentioned the result of the San Sebastian Classic.................

Just for the record Tony Gallopin won, a French rider...........he'd won a few minor events over the last half dozen years but this appears to have been his first success at World Tour level.

Late start for live coverage of today's stage in Poland............4.30 !

Thor Hushovd won yesterday's bunch sprint finish

Good one today...............Taylor Phinney came out of the pack with 6 or 7 K to go, got about 15 seconds and hung on grimly as they came around all sides of him in the last 100 yards................well done ta man. Fortune favours the brave.............

Edge of the seat stuff, thought those jumps out of the peloton were a thing of the past.

Behind him,, Mark Renshaw doesn't look that impressive as lead sprinter for Belkin. Hoping he gets in his former lead-out man groove next year with Cav.

Have just seen ITV4 announce on twitter that they will be showing the Tour Of Britain live on TV and online. Which is nice.

woo hoo !............they did a great job last year

I wonder if teams are already picked ?

Maybe better teams might take up an invite if they know it's on TV ?..............or would it be to late to be inviting World Tour teams ? They probably have their schedules arranged a year in advance I suppose

Omega Pharma has just announced that it's signed Sky's Rigoberto Uran for next year. Interesting.

Oh blimey...............Cav won't be happy !

Yeah, I mean, I can't believe Uran has been signed up to nanny Cav through mountain stages or to help with his lead-outs. I wonder if Omega Pharma think that Cav's on the decline and have decided to look at GC?

Well that'll make Froome and Wiggins happy, their leadership of Sky is even more clear. Cav not so much - OPQS don't seem to know what they want to do!


OPQS are starting to look a lot like the Sky train 2012 - sprinter v GC contender conflict central.... and having your cake and eating it rarely works...if Uran is backed for GC, Cav will have to rely on other teams in the autobus as he won't have help in the mountains. And if they build the team around leading out Cav, then Uran won't have too many who can stick the mountains to help a GC bid...

Looks like they are trying to have their cake and eat it. They've also signed Cav's old lead-out man:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/...h-in-2014.html

Cycling Weekly's take on this is that he'll be happy with this. Well, yes, but he can't be happy with the team's apparently divided focus. It's precisely why he left Sky. Why would it be any different this time around?

Would it make any sense to choose a team to support Cav in some tours and a different team to support Uran in others? (I'm no expert, so sorry if that's a silly suggestion.)

I dont under stand why armstrong has been completely wiped from race history and yet people like this still have their "wins" recorded.

Surely it should be the same for all?

Zabel is a cheat and liar. Ulrich is a cheat and liar. Armstrong is a cheat, liar and bully.

It's a complete mess. You will also notice that all the self-confessed French dopers from the doping era - Virenque, Jalabert and Durand - still have their victories listed.

I think they could feature in the same team. OPQS are different to Sky, Movistar, and Saxo-Tinkoff. Those teams are dedicated to wholly supporting the leaders on GC. OPQS had more diverse aims in the Tour: Martin in the ITTs, Cavendish in the sprints, Trentin and Chavanel chasing stage wins, and Kwiatkowski in white jersey GC race. Lefevere's aims for next season are unclear.

Whether they are spreading themselves too thin with Uran in the mountains and GC will be interesting to watch. The two new lead-outs for Cavendish along with Steegmans should outgun their rivals in Argos Shimano next season.


LA should not have embarked on his comeback. Results cannot be stripped more than 7 years after the event. But, if an event within the recent past can be traced back more than 7 years, then all the related offences can be included.

Good up and down stage today in Poland with lots of climbs and the last 30K was quite an exciting finale...........

Riblon takes over the leaders jersey with just the time trial tomorrow to finish the race

Riblon is having a cracking month............he won the dual Alpe D'huez stage in the Tour and one of the big early climbing stages in Italy at the start of this Tour of Poland.............

he could be about to join the ranks of potential Grand Tour contenders.............not sure what his time trialling is like though

Has anyone caught up with this event happening in London over the weekend ?

I'm not clear what it is but it lasts two days and seems to include a Pro-Am 100 mile race on Sunday which incorporates a Classic for pro riders and a race for thousands of amateurs, a bit like the London marathon

Sagan is riding amongst a host of pros

Eurosport is covering it on Sunday afternoon