Astonishing ride in Beijing

I know Flecc has already posted on Nicole Cooke and there has been some cynicism expressed about the whole Olympic jamboree......... But this morning's ride by the team pursuiters was out of this world. They took 3 seconds off their own world record set only a couple of days ago, which is an enormous margin for an event lasting barely 4 minutes.

If you are at all interested in competitive cycling go to the BBC website to see the video - you will be watching cycling history. I was at Manchester velodrome in 1996 when Chris Boardman established the Hour Record at 56.6 km in the so-called superman position and put it so out of reach that the UCI felt compelled to ban the position! What happened this morning was on the same scale, without anything like a new position for the suits to complain about!

Seconded Chris, it really was quite something, and from Britain's first medal onwards, our cyclists have done us proud.

It caused me to reflect afterwards on a bit of an odd fact. Compared with European countries, India, the Far East and quite a few others, Britain and the USA are not cycling nations, yet we produce incredible sporting cyclists, the US recent history in the Tour de France also being astonishing.

It seems that the countries who have a high proportion of the population utility cycling produce no more top level sporting cyclists at best than we do, and very often far less. Perhaps we shouldn't try to encourage the mass population to take up cycling for utility purposes!

Seriously though, psychologically, I wonder if the sporting cyclist feels more special in a non-cycling general population and works on that perceived special nature more.

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Hi Tony,

I think (as others have observed) that the crucial difference in UK cycle sport over the past 10 years has been the organisation. The British Cycling set up is both awesome and ruthless - requiring complete dedication from the sportspeople but offering a level of support unrivalled anywhere else in the world. I have been priviledged to see a bit of this organisation at the lower levels first hand. If other sports can emulate this between now and 2012, the London games could be very special!

ps. We've just won a gold in the women's sprint and both gold and silver in the men's. One of the other great things is that some of these elite cyclists are such nice people. I remember Vicky Pendleton racing at Halesowen a few years ago in a meeting where my youngest crashed quite badly and wrecked his front wheel. She was straight across to lend him her spare for the next race. What a woman!

Yes, there's no doubt about their single minded dedication Chris, something for all the other sports to emulate. Alarming though to hear of potential cuts in funding for the sports that haven't done so well, a cockeyed approach if ever there was!

I've seen the latest results on TV and Dick Lai of Wisper China posted about them in the main forum. Fingers crossed it seems like there could be more to come from cycling.

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