You’d think you’d get splendid isolation at the top of the most cycled climb, Le Col du Tourmalet, but you don’t. It’s the Tour de Friends!
I have a chequered history of cycling which shouldn’t qualify me to join my fellow Scot Robert Millar in that chequered shirt as King of the Mountains.
Hiring bikes with the-then Miss F in Cabanas in the Algarve I was eating dust yards into our ride.
While I also took a turn too sharply in the Ria Formosa in Quinta Do Lago and almost ended up in the lake.
But that didn’t put me off when I started working nights and opted to cycle in and, out of Edinburgh, through Holyrood Park to the office.
And I’ve got the lead
Never mind the Tour de France, the Tour d’Edinburgh is the real endurance test!
I’ve had lads party spray paint me when I was on my bike, been waterbombed and been knocked off my bike.
But I got there in the end… ‘on top of the world, Ma.’
With a little help from my friends.
I’ll let you into a secret here. I only borrowed a real rider’s bike at the top of the Pyrenees… don’t tell.
Mind you this is the Tour where the rules are there to be bent.
The Tour started this weekend and I’m thinking they’ll have a devil of a time stopping the public come out to cheer.
Vive Le Tour!
And newsflash here from A Queer in Provence who has sent me his vlog on Le Grand Depart from Nice…. https://youtu.be/XQ2Udd7rcLg
Paralympic heroes
As a young lad running around the UK’s boggy fields and dirty streets I always envisaged that I would get my hands on Olympic gold.
The Olympics’ loss was Newspapers’ gain.
But destiny was calling when I met Irish Paralympian hero Brian Rohan at The Campus in Quinta do Lago.
I’d thought of running off with his medal but he’d have hunted me down in that dream machine.
The Paralympics were due to have started this weekend… but it will be back in Japan next year. Don’t miss it!
Chuck me a hot dog
With two thousand fans being allowed in at Brighton’s ground for their friendly with Chelsea.
And Scottish rugby bringing back a sprinkling of supporters into Murrayfield for the Glasgow v Edinburgh match.
It beggars the question… how do we get fed?
Well, here’s something we could take from American sport… the chucked hot dog.
As I lapped up (including the mustard) at the California Angels game in Anaheim.
Maybe pass the Bovril along the line though.
MEET YOU AT THE BALL GAME
