It is the end of the line for Floyd Landis almost two years since his tainted Tour de France win. Floyd’s latest court case was at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, but the case was thrown out and now Landis has nowhere else to turn.

Landis was looking to get his 2006 Tour title back after being stripped of it after testing positive for testosterone following his Stage 17 win. The biggest disaster for Landis now is that he must repay $100,000 towards the legal fees of the USADA as well as his own legal fees. The total could top $2 million. Landis wont be eligible to race again until January 2009, if he does in fact chose to race again. MORE »

British Cycling’s top brass have today announced that they have plans in place to have an all British team entered into the Tour de France by 2010. Just as I thought my dreams of riding in the big time were gone, this little news article has seen them spring back to life like Floyd Landis in the 2006 Tour after he looked down and out. Dave Brailsford’s news is to me what that little shot of Testosterone (or a pint of beer) was to Floyd.

I guess within the article I can pin-point the very moment I felt I was back in with a chance: MORE »

Six NDCC men took part in the tough Sperrin Sportive yesterday. There was a choice of 60 or 90 mile routes, with the 40 or so 90 milers having to do one of those infamous ‘extra loops’. All of us chose to do the long run. This was hard in itself but heat on the day was an equally debilitating factor, with gallons of water having to be consumed.

 Starting in Cookstown, the first 30 mile section wasn’t too bad with modest climbs and any steepness fairly short. The 10 minute stop just outside Sperrin was welcome, but no sandwiches - which we have become used to on such runs! Shortly thereafter a right turn into a long steepish single track road deep into the mountains, very scenic and a nice descent, with not a car in sight - great. A few more modest climbs and a fast descent took us into Plumbridge, the only village of the day. Then climbing again back in single track roads before one of the stiff ones - Barnes Gap, which broke things up a lot. MORE »

In 2007 it was the Tour de France, in 2008 it is the Giro.  Young Alberto Contador of Astana continues to build an impressive cycling resume with another major tour victory to his name.  He becomes the first non-Italian to win the three-week race since 1996 when Pavel Tonkov won.  That was a stat I wasn’t aware of until today but it makes his win even more impressive. MORE »