News - Colin Lewis Cycle Chat June 2010

Cycle Chat 05.06.10

Yanto Barker (Pendragon-Le Col) struck silver at Portsmouth in the Halford's Tour Series on Tuesday putting his team into 2 position in the series. I have the race recorded but just haven't been able to watch it yet.

Last night it was Exeter with Jon Locke's team Rapha - Condor - Sharp taking the overall honours putting them second in the competition with Yanto's team back to forth.

Jon Locke has a preference for the road racing rather then the Criteriums and he is off to Yorkshire for the Ryedale Grand Prix this Sunday. Yanto has also been able to fit this into his busy schedule. It was good to see Yanto being interviewed as the local man on our local TV last night and he came over well. (Could have been a politician!!)

Back to Jon Locke who finished a very successful fbd-insurance-ras (Tour of Ireland) on Sunday keeping his 5th spot which he gained after a win on stage 5. This was an excellent result for Jon who was up against some of the top European teams.

The Tour of Italy finished on Sunday with the Time Trail with a 7th for Bradley Wiggins (Sky). Overall winner was Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) and top Brit was Charles Wegelius (Omega Pharma-Lotto). Bradley was 40th.

Just read a story about Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara that claimed he won the Paris Roubaix with the aid of a battery powered motor!!?? There was a link to a video on You Tube which showed a video featuring a cyclist seemingly showing a bike operating with what he claimed was a motor in the seat tube, with a button to operate the device hidden on the handlebars. It also showed how the motor was fitted into the tube connecting to the crank.

I thought it was back to April 1st again!! Having watched the race on Eurosport I would agree with Fabian that "It's so stupid I'm speechless".

It will be eyes down for the Tour de France soon which will again be very open. Lance Armstrong is confirmed to ride the Tour de Suisse and it will be the first time the RadioShack rider has ridden the race since winning it in 2001.

The Tour de Suisse runs over nine stages from June 12 to 20, for a total of 1353.1 kilometres.

Lance will use the race as a final preparation for the Tour de France, which starts in the Netherlands on July 3. His last race was the Tour of California, which he had to abandon after a crash. He is scheduled to ride the Tour of Luxembourg, starting Wednesday.

Until next week,

Bob.

Colin Lewis Cycles Limited, 17 Dartmouth Road, Paignton, TQ4 5AD. Telephone: 01803 553095. Registered company number: 4095543.