Life of Brian - May 2009

British Cycling's President, Brian Cookson, raises his head above the blogging parapet after a hectic post-Beijing period and shares with us his thoughts of the moment:

Well, I suppose I must be the world's worst blogger - it's ages since I left you hanging, back in the middle of the Olympics in August last year, and this is the first time I've been able to find a few minutes to update you. So, sorry if you've missed me, the world began to go crazy as we won medal after medal at the Olympics, and it hasn't really stopped since.

As a sport, we stepped onto a huge escalator thanks to the Olympics, and the demands on all of us have increased dramatically. Not that I'm complaining, we used to have the problems that come with failure, now we have the problems that come with the success. I know which I prefer!

The basic problem for me is that I have to hold down a day job as well as being President of British Cycling, so I simply haven't had the time to put aside to gather my thoughts and put them down in writing.

At the moment, I'm off work for a few days, getting over a minor operation (a hernia, nothing too serious, but thanks for asking!), so I'll try and have another go.

Brits in Italia

Let's start with the latest British successes on the road.

Mark Cavendish's win in Milan - San Remo was fantastic. The first British win for over forty years in a monument of our sport. What more can you say? Watching it again at the weekend, it was clear Mark and his team did everything just right. But that was what you call a tight finish!

A couple of months later and here we are at the Giro, with nine Brits on the start line of the second biggest stage race on the calendar, that's certainly a record before the race even started. Then on stage one, Cav crossed the line at the head of the Columbia team to take a historic first-ever pink leader's jersey.

Even more remarkable, though Cav couldn't quite pull off the win in the first en-ligne stage, right on his wheel was the brilliant young Ben Swift - two British riders in the first three on a stage of a Grand Tour! I can't remember that ever happening in the past. Both riders products of the BC Academy too - huge credit to Rod Ellingworth, Max Sciandri, and everyone else behind the scenes.

Next thing we know, Bradley Wiggins is hanging in there with the climbers, and heading towards a very respectable overall place. As Garmin's top man, and with a long time trial to come too, maybe this is Brad's big breakthrough as a stage race rider.

Keep watching, with all the Brits looking in good form, and Ian Stannard having shown his face already as well, I predict further British success before the race finishes.

Dopers

On a more controversial note, hardly a week goes by without more dopers being caught, followed inevitably by more of their pathetically amusing excuses and/or denials. I don't know how stupid these people are, but they must think we are thick if they think we will accept their idiotic protestations of innocence.

You know, I can forgive the ones who hold their hands up and admit it when they're caught, it's the ones who try and wriggle out of it that get me, with their attempts to question the testing procedures or challenge the laboratories or claim the samples got mixed up, or just plain denials. The worst are the ones who come up with plaintive and pathetic attempts to gain public sympathy, like "Ooh, I'm depressed?" - yes, of course you're depressed, you lied and you cheated, time after time, and when you were caught you tried to deny it, until you finally ran out of excuses. Give us a break!

The only thing that annoys me more is the smug attitude of certain other sports who won't admit they've got a problem. Sports in which the overpaid stars have suddenly decided that the kind of testing that our competitors have accepted for years is somehow an infringement of their human rights. You'll have read the reports so you know who they are.

As I've said before, where doping is concerned there are only two types of sport - those who have a problem and are doing something about it, and those who have a problem and are in denial. I'm glad we are in the first group, and if it means a few more high-profile stars of our sport get caught, then I'm proud of that. As for the other sports - well, what goes around comes around. Their time will come.

Cycling Weekly, the Premier Calendar and Road Racing

Whilst clearing out a few cupboards last week, I came across a few old copies of Cycling Weekly. They were very interesting. Once the voice of our sport, full of reports of races and interviews with riders, there's no denying it has changed a lot over the years. I don't object to that. In many ways, it's a really good magazine, and I'm not one of those who says it isn't worth buying any more. It is.

I like the articles about fitness and nutrition, the new products, the interviews, and I think the coverage of sportives is a good thing, if perhaps a bit biased to those events within easy reach of the South East. Come up to the Pendle Pedal guys, if you want a really hilly challenge!

But it is a different magazine these days, it's targeting a different market, more focussed on newcomers, novices and the general reader. The publishers are in business to sell magazines, they've done their research, and what you see is what they believe will sell the most. That's fine. I'll still buy it every week, and I recommend you do too!

The only thing that puzzles me is their editorial policy when it comes to covering the British scene. The last few months have provided a good example of this. I think it's fair enough that they have devoted many, many pages to covering the problems of the Premier Calendar in particular and road racing in general. It's right for them to criticise British Cycling and to try to tell us how to do our job (though they haven't actually suggested anything we haven't already been doing).

No, what baffles me is this - if the Premier Calendar and road racing is so important that the problems merit such extensive coverage, why does Cycling Weekly cover the actual events so poorly? And before you say it, yes, I've asked the editor, but not had a reply.

There are a couple of exceptions to this, for instance the Lincoln Grand Prix always gets the coverage it deserves. But the fact is that Cycling Weekly has treated the majority of Premier Calendar events with relative contempt for the last few years. Coverage has often been minimal. But when an event has been cancelled or has hit problems, then there seems to be no shortage of space. So come on Cycling Weekly - if you really care about British road racing, give the Premier Calendar the coverage it deserves.

Eurosport

I've been enjoying the excellent coverage of the classics and the Giro, especially with the combination of David Harmon and Sean Kelly, whose comment and analysis is always first class. But there are a couple of things that puzzle me.

First, why are the adverts, especially the trailers for other Eurosport sports coverage, so much louder than the rest of the broadcast? That really is annoying.

Secondly, what the hell is going on in that Sidi advert? Alberto Contador, Samuel Sanchez and er, I'm not sure who the guy in the French national champion's jersey is, appear to be playing a variant of the adolescents' spin the bottle kissing game, but with, er, a Sidi shoe. Please could someone explain what message the advertising agency is trying to get across with this one? Bizarre.

Sky

Our partnership with Sky is looking increasingly good.

Next year the Sky ProTour team will be a force to be reckoned with, there's no doubt about that, but in many ways that will be the tip of the iceberg. The face of British Cycling has changed dramatically over the last decade, and now it's going to change again.

This partnership will break new ground in the way we will be weaving it into our whole development plan for the future, and every aspect of our sport should benefit. Ian Drake and Dave Brailsford in particular are putting a massive amount of work into every aspect and the final details will soon be completed.

This is truly another major step forward for our sport.

Etape du Tour

Just ten weeks to go, and here I am laid up and off the bike. Up till last week, I'd been getting some decent long rides in, and was starting to feel reasonably OK, but then the chance came to get my little problem sorted out and I went for it. The medics say 6 weeks off the bike, but I can't see how it's going to take that long. Still, I won't do anything risky, and I'll certainly take it steady when I do get back on the bike. But like all bike riders, not being able to get out on the bike is the worst form of punishment - especially when you can see everyone else getting fitter as you languish at home!

That's it for now - I'll try not to leave it for another 8 months before the next blog.

Brian Cookson