The Tour from the inside

TV sports coverage is truly spectacular these days but for any great sporting event, nothing beats witnessing the drama at first hand. Okay, maybe it's not so good if you're below two metres in height but by being part of the crowd you're part of the Tour itself! We last witnessed a Tour stage on foreign soil back in 2012, when we were privileged enough to see history in the making as (Sir) Bradley Wiggins lapped the Champs-Élysées clad in yellow. Fast forward to 2015 and Utrecht, the Dutch city hosting the Grand Depart. We find ourselves rubbing shoulders with the world's cycling press in an exhibition arena-sized media centre. We're still as starstruck by the Tour as we were before launching the magazine. The sheer size and scale of the event still blows us away. Some might dismiss it as a cash cow - a cynical money-making opportunity - but for us it's still the greatest spectacle road cycling has to offer. When we were offered the chance to witness the opening stages of this year's event as part of the press community, there was a split second of hesitation caused by a fear that we might lose our Tour innocence and become drawn into the cynical world of cycling journalism we so hate and resist. But on the plus side we were being presented with every fan's dream of behind-the-scenes access to exclusive areas where the team buses are situated, mechanics fettle bikes and riders warm up. On this basis we were prepared to take our chances! We can't say too much more about how our day(s) unfolded - you'll have to wait for issue 8 to find out more - but let's just say we're still smiling about the experience days after returning. It's great watching the Tour on TV but it's so much more special to go in person to become part of the show. Remember, you still have two and a half weeks. Go on, get involved!

Well done Wiggo

A victory at Paris-Roubaix would have been a fairytale ending to Bradley Wiggins’ five-year stint at Team Sky but on this occasion it was not to be. The man who has done as much as anyone to transform cycling in the UK in the last few years put in a pretty heroic performance. When he briefly left the pack behind to chase down the breakaway group with 32 kilometres remaining there was a real sense of excitement that it might just happen – that his dream of signing off with Sky with a win at this most fabled of all Monuments might actually come true. It would have been fitting to score that final victory at a velodrome too – a nod back to his early track successes. But let’s not be too downhearted that the dream didn’t come true. Wiggo was beaten fair and square by an incredibly impressive John Degenkolb, whose strength in bridging the final gap and then finding a winning sprint just minutes later deserves enormous respect. Wiggins’ reaction was typically classy, honest and funny. He said: “I was pleased with the race, you know? Just to be able to attack in Roubaix. When I attacked, I was right up the back of the motorbikes and it was like I was 16 again, training on the mews outside my house, thinking I was it. That was nice. Something to tell the kids. 'Your Dad was shit at Paris-Roubaix but he was leading it at one stage!' “I attacked with Sep Vanmarcke with five kilometres to go but by then it is bit like the Titanic when it is going down in the film and they are all hanging on, and people are falling. But I'm pretty happy. I've won the Tour, you know? I've had a good run.” It must hurt not to have won the race he’s been dreaming of winning since he was a teenager but we hope Brad’s pain is soon replaced by a richly deserved sense of pride about five glorious years at Team Sky and a sense of keen anticipation about the next chapter with Team Wiggins.

Show business

The London Bike Show is one of those events that acts as a bit of a teaser for the season ahead. Taking place at the beginning of the new calendar year, just when our thoughts are starting to turn to the cycling season ahead, it provides us with a little nudge - a wake up call. Some will need little reminding of the targets they have set themselves for the year ahead while others might need a little jolt to turn their thoughts towards more intensive, targeted training. Shows like this one can act as a refresher course, giving us an opportunity to take stock and assess what we might need to up our game. It's a chance for cyclists to congregate, to meet and greet the suppliers and manufacturers of the machines they ride and the accessories and clothes they wear; to talk to the experts and exchange experiences and opinions. More often than not, there's also a sneak preview of some of the new and upgraded kit that will shape the season ahead. We're sure shows like this attract the full spectrum of visitors, from casual bargain-hunters to those looking for a new helmet to match their new bibs, right the way up to the seasoned racer in search of a brand new bike. All are drawn to shows like this; moths to the light. As you stroll round, it doesn't take long to hit the hunger, thirst and tiredness sweetspot, yet on you trudge to stand after stand - never entirely convinced you've seen everything and increasingly weighed down by the carrier bags full of glossy catalogues you'll never read again. We came away from the Show having met up with friends old and new but it was one manufacturer's ad slogan that crystallised our thoughts about shows of this nature, acting as a timely little reminder of something so easily over-looked in the presence of such a vast collection of shiny new kit. It simply read: 'Don't let your body let your bike down'.

Cold on the outside, warm on the inside

February has provided many UK-based cyclists with their first sightings of snow this winter. It's meant any training programme has to include either a turbo or rollers session to keep us safely ticking over. The more privileged among us may have imitated the pros and jetted off to the warmer climates of Majorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Girona or Andalusia. But for the rest of us the only real positive factor about this time of year is the fact that the days are slowly but surely starting to lengthen. Coming hot on the heels of the Tour Down Under at the start of the pro racing season, the Dubai Tour is one of the latest additions to UCI calendar. It ran for the first time last year and although it might sound more like a golf event than a bike race, this four-day tour neatly slots into the warmer climate early season events that attract the pros. We've just come back from London cycle café Look Mum No Hands having witnessed the penultimate stage of this tour. It's a crazy, almost surreal experience to see a live televised sporting event in a setting that seems the stuff of far off dreams. For us, the days of just jerseys and bibs remain months away. This year's Tour leaders' jerseys were designed by British fashion icon Paul Smith and one was elegantly modelled by GC race winner Mark Cavendish (who also had the honour of donning another PS designed jersey when he won the 2013 Giro d'Italia points classification). The Dubai Tour has whetted our appetite nicely for the season ahead. Bring it on we say!

Going wild in the country

If you think cyclo-cross has taken off in the UK in recent years you should do yourself a favour and visit Belgium for a Superprestige series race meeting. Last weekend we visited the Gavere meet just outside Ghent, where tens of thousands gathered to watch huge stars such as Sven Nys and Kevin Pauwels power round a ridiculously muddy and technical course in the grounds of a stately home. The riders’ amazing bike handling skills were matched only by the enthusiasm of those watching them from every possible vantage point around the course - more often than not with a plastic glass of beer in one hand and a paper plate of mayo-sodden chips in the other. TV cameras were there to capture the action, the highlights of which were shown on national news programmes at the end of the day. After the races, hordes of rowdy CX fans poured into the vast fan tent to cheer on the cheesy but wildly enthusiastic singer and his dancing girls as they belted out Europop anthems and pranced around the stage. It all shows just what’s possible when TV coverage generates enough commercial sponsorship to turn what could so easily have been a bunch of grim-faced riders charging around a soggy, deserted field into a joyous, circus-like celebration of a fantastically watchable and thrilling sport. We’ll be sharing our wonderful Belgian CX adventure in much more detail in the next issue of Simpson - including what it feels like to ride an elite-level course on a top-of-the-range Ridley CX bike with the latest SRAM ‘cross componentry. Meanwhile, it’s back to the warm tea and wintry delights of the British CX scene for us.