Daily Cycling Facts 12.05.2014

Alfredo Binda

The Giro d'Italia has begun on this date five times; 1928, 1953, 1983, 1986, and 2007. 1928 covered 3,044km over twelve stages, six of them won by Alfredo Binda who led the General Classification from the fourth stage to the end. Albino Binda won Stage 8 after Alfredo, his brother, urged him to attack as the peloton slowed to wait for him to change a tyre. By 1953 the race had adopted the 21-stage format that it has today and covered a total of 4,035km - it also saw the first inclusion of the Passo di Stelvio, at 2,757m the second-highest pass in the Alps, which Fausto Coppi used to his tactical advantage by attacking leader Hugo Koblet and going on to win outright.

30 years later in 1983, the race had increased to 22 stages but shrunk to 3,916km. The winner was Giuseppe Saronni, who had also won Milan-San Remo that year; however, had Saronni not have won stage bonuses, Roberto Visentini would have won - as he did in 1986 when he beat Saronni by more than a minute. Once again, there were 22 stages and the length shrunk to 3,858km; the race being shaken by controversy when the American Greg Lemond made an official complaint to organisers that Italian riders had illegally drafted behind him in the Stage 11 individual time trial and the (Italian) organisers chose to overlook the incident.

The 2007 Giro d'Italia
In 2007, the race was held for the 90th time. Back down to 21 stages, it covered 3,486km and included three stages on Sardinia. Danilo di Luca won the General Classification while Andy Schleck took second place and won the Youth Category. Three doping scandals hit the race that year: Iban Mayo was found to have abnormally high testosterone levels, but the Basque rider was rapidly cleared when his Saunier Duval-Prodir team produced evidence to show that not only was this natural, they'd also already informed the UCI of it and provided evidence from a doctor confirming it.

Danilo di Luca
(image credit: Pitert CC BY-SA 3.0)

A sample provided by Swiss-born Italian Leonardo Piepoli was found to contain 1,800 nanograms per milliliter of the asthma drug Salbutamol, a considerably higher level than would be expected through normal medical usage (the maximum amount permitted in samples provided by athletes who have a genuine medical reason to use the drug is 1,000 nanograms per milliliter), but he was cleared by the Italian Federation (two years later, he would be banned for two years after he confessed to using EPO). Alessandro Pettachi was not so fortunate - he too tested positive for an abnormally high level of Salbutamol with 1,352 nanograms per milliliter. The Italian Federation also refused to sanction him, but although the figure was lower and the Court of Arbitration in Sport found that he had probably not intentionally doped (while declaring him negligent in not observing the "utmost caution" required of all athletes when using medicines), he was stripped of his five stages wins and banned for one year. He was subsequently fired by his Milram team, but would later make a triumphant return to professional cycling with three stage wins at the 2008 Tour of Britain and then, in 2009, two at the Giro. One year after that, he won the Points Competition at the Tour de France.

Winner Danilo di Luca also provided a suspicious sample. Having been found to be clean in a test taken immediately after Stage 17, he was then subjected to a random control some hours later. Doctors claimed that hormone levels in the second sample were like "those of a child," thus leading them to suspect that he was either using a masking agent to disguise the presence of some other, unknown drug or that he had received a blood transfusion in the intervening time after the first test. However, they could not provide sufficient evidence for him to be disqualified and his results remained intact - but 2008 would be a quiet year as many races, loathe to risk scandal, chose not to invite his LPR Brakes-Ballan team to take part. In 2009, they received a wildcard entry to race in the Giro and his luck ran out - he tested positive for EPO after Stages 11 and 18, which led to a two-year ban (reduced on appeal to nine months and seven days) and a €280,000 fine (reduced to €106,400).

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1937, Beryl Charnock was born in Halton near Leeds. She was not a healthy child and suffered a series of chronic illnesses, once remaining in hospital for fifteen months with rheumatic fever, a  sometimes fatal disease that can leave patients permanently disabled.

However, Beryl got better and, having been introduced to the sport by her husband Charlie Burton, began cycling. She turned out to have quite a considerable talent for it, too - in fact, she won seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles, in addition to winning a World title in track cycling almost every year for 30 years. In the British time trial scene, Burton was quite literally unbeatable when she was at her best and she remained at her best for a very long time, winning the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for an incredible 25 consecutive years.

Beryl Burton, 12.05.1937 - 08.05.1996

As well as racing, Burton set new records with around 50 to her name, including 10, 25 and 50-mile records that would not be broken for 20 years, a 100-mile record that stood for 28 years and in 1967 a 12-hour record that still stands today. Whilst setting it, she caught and passed Mike McNamara as he was riding to a new men's 12-hour record and passed him a licorice allsort. McNamara covered 276.52 (445.02km) miles for his record. Burton covered  277.25 miles (446.19km). No man would beat her for two years.

In common with many people who have suffered rheumatic fever, Burton experienced heart complaints throughout her life and had to learn to live with arrhythmia. Yet, it was not in the heat of competition that she died - while out on her bike delivering birthday party invitations on the 8th of May in 1996, four days before she turned 59, she had a heart attack.

Burton was added to the Cycling Weekly's Golden Book of Cycling - a single-copy manuscript that pays homage to Britain's best cyclists - in 1960. By 1991, she had won so many races that it became necessary to give her a second page, something that had never happened before in the book's six-decade history nor in the 21 years since. She is now widely recognised as the greatest athlete Britain has ever produced.

Cath Swinnerton
Burton was not the only successful female British cyclist born on this day - 21 years after she was born, Cath Swinnerton came into the world at Fenton in Staffordshire. Swinnerton was twice a bronze medal winner at the National Road Race Championships and twice silver - and won the gold in 1977 and 1984.

With her brother Paul (a racing cyclist himself) and their extended cycling family, she now runs Swinnerton Cycles - a chain of bike shops established by their grandparents in 1915. The first shop is still in business and can be found at 69 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent (53° 0'6.74"N 2° 9'41.86"W).

Adelin Benoit, 12.05.1900 - 18.06.1954

Belgian Adelin Benoit, born in Châtelet (where René Magritte spent much of his childhood) on this day in 1900, was an all-but-unknown newcomer at the 1925 Tour de France. The peloton was therefore surprised when he held the maillot jaune through stages 3, 4, 5 and 6, then  took eleven minutes from the great Ottavio Bottecchia in the Pyrénées to wear it for a fifth and final day. He never managed anything quite so spectacular again, though three stage wins in later editions and one victory at the 560km one-day Bordeaux-Paris are impressive.

On this day in 2002, Frenchman Eric Barone set a new record for highest downhill speed achieved on a standard production bicycle at 163kph on the slopes of Cerro Negro, a volcano in Nicaragua. The record would not be beaten until 2011, and then by less than 2kph. Barone holds the current record for custom-built bikes too, having reached 222kph in 2000.

Damian McDonald was an Australian cyclist born in Wangaratta, Victoria in 1972 and a gold medalist in the 2004 Commonwealth Games. He died on the 23rd of March 2007 in the Burnley Tunnel Explosion that occurred after a crash and fire in the Melbourne tunnel.

On this day in 2012, rumours began to circulate in public that RadioShack-Nissan boss Johan Bruyneel had served with a subpoena as he stepped off his plane and onto US soil this week on his way to the Tour of California. Many people believed that the subpoena was part of an ongoing investigation into doping at the US Postal team during the time of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories - as in fact turned out to be the case when Armstrong was stripped of his seven victories. As of this date in 2013, the case is still ongoing.

Other cyclists born on this day: Andreas Hestler (Canada, 1970); Suwan Ornkerd (Thailand, 1941); Lieselot Decroix (Belgium, 1987); Jozef Schoeters (Belgium, 1947); Gunnar Andersen (Denmark, 1911, died 1981); Zeragaber Gebrehiwot (Ethiopia, 1956); Gustaaf Hermans (Belgium, 1951); Héctor Palacio (Colombia, 1969); Jürgen Barth (Germany, 1943, died 2011).

Daily Cycling Facts 08.05.2014

Germain Derycke

The eighteenth edition of La Flèche Wallonne was held on this day in 1954, following the same 220km parcours between Charleroi and Liège that it had used for the last three years and would use again the next. The winner was Germain Derycke, a rider who had won Paris-Roubaix the year before and would add the Dwars door Vlaanderen, Milan-San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Ronde van Vlaanderen over the remainder of his career.

The Giro d'Italia started on this date three times, in 1937, 2004 and 2010. 1937 brought the second of two consecutive victories for the legendary Gino Bartali, who would win for a third time nine years later when the race started up again after the Second World War. The 2004 edition was won by Damiano Cunego, the race having an especially international flavour that year as it ventured into Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia. 2010 started in Amsterdam and spent three stages in the Netherlands, then moved on to Italy where riders were faced with one of the most fearsome series of climbs in many years: Zoncalan, Kronplatz (Corones), Mortirolo and the Passo di Gavia. The winner was Ivan Basso after a number of riders were prevented from starting due to doping investigations and the controversial non-selection of Dutch ProContinental teams Vacansoleil and Skil-Shimano.

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1996, Great Britain lost its greatest ever athlete with the death of Beryl Burton, winner of seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles. Burton was born on the 12th of May 1937 in Leeds and remained in that area for the remainder of her life. Medical problems during childhood kept her away from sports and she didn't discover cycling until introduced to it by her future husband Charlie - two years after first taking it up, the won a silver medal in the National 100 Mile Time Trial. (More on Burton in four days' time, the anniversary of her birth. If you can't wait, here's Ian Street.)



Ciarán Power, born in Waterford on this day in 1976, turned professional in 2000 with the ill-fated Linda McCartney Team and rode the Giro d'Italia with them - the first Irishman in a Grand Tour since Stephen Roche in 1993. He retired in 2008.

Polish climbing specialist Marek Rutkiewicz was born in Olsztyn on this day in 1981. In 2009, he won the Mountains Classification at the Tour of Poland and in 2010 he became National Hill Climb Champion.

Harry Hill

Harry Hill, a record-breaking British cyclist and bronze-winning Olympian, was born on this day in 1916. Hill's Olympic appearance came at the infamous 1936 Games, held in Nazi Germany, and he may have won silver or even gold were it not for the fact to get to Germany, he needed to first get from his home near Sheffield to London. He had no money, and nor did his mother who had raised him alone after his father was killed while fighting in Africa in the First World War. So, he rode the 200 miles (322km) on the bike with which he planned to enter.

Once back in Britain, he faced the same problem - but this time it was worse. On the way there he'd had just enough money to buy food and had carefully saved enough to do the same on the way back home, but whilst in Germany temptation had got the better of him and he'd spent it all on a souvenir jacket. There was no alternative: he'd have to do it without eating. He couldn't, of course, and "only" managed 170 miles before he cracked and had to thumb a lift.

The following year, Hill set a new Hour Record for an outdoor track in Milan, covering 25 miles (40.23km). In 1976, when he was 60 years old, he cycled across North America. He claimed to have never smoked or consumed alcohol in his life. He rode his bike every day from the age of 13 until 2004, when he fractured his hip. He was Britain's oldest winner of an Olympic medal when he died aged  92 of pneumonia on the 31st of January 2009.



Other cyclists born on this day: Han Song-Hui (South Korea, 1983); Boris Shukhov (USSR, 1947); Miguel Droguett (Chile, 1961); Raido Kodanipork (Estonia, 1969); Igor Sláma (Czechoslovakia, 1959); Châu Phươc Vình (South Vietnam, 1927); Silvia Fürst (Switzerland, 1961); Law Siu On (Hong Kong, 1964).

Daily Cycling Facts 12.05.2013

Alfredo Binda

The Giro d'Italia has begun on this date five times; 1928, 1953, 1983, 1986, and 2007. 1928 covered 3,044km over twelve stages, six of them won by Alfredo Binda who led the General Classification from the fourth stage to the end. Albino Binda won Stage 8 after Alfredo, his brother, urged him to attack as the peloton slowed to wait for him to change a tyre. By 1953 the race had adopted the 21-stage format that it has today and covered a total of 4,035km - it also saw the first inclusion of the Passo di Stelvio, at 2,757m the second-highest pass in the Alps, which Fausto Coppi used to his tactical advantage by attacking leader Hugo Koblet and going on to win outright.

30 years later in 1983, the race had increased to 22 stages but shrunk to 3,916km. The winner was Giuseppe Saronni, who had also won Milan-San Remo that year; however, had Saronni not have won stage bonuses, Roberto Visentini would have won - as he did in 1986 when he beat Saronni by more than a minute. Once again, there were 22 stages and the length shrunk to 3,858km; the race being shaken by controversy when the American Greg Lemond made an official complaint to organisers that Italian riders had illegally drafted behind him in the Stage 11 individual time trial and the (Italian) organisers chose to overlook the incident.

The 2007 Giro d'Italia
In 2007, the race was held for the 90th time. Back down to 21 stages, it covered 3,486km and included three stages on Sardinia. Danilo di Luca won the General Classification while Andy Schleck took second place and won the Youth Category. Three doping scandals hit the race that year: Iban Mayo was found to have abnormally high testosterone levels, but the Basque rider was rapidly cleared when his Saunier Duval-Prodir team produced evidence to show that not only was this natural, they'd also already informed the UCI of it and provided evidence from a doctor confirming it.

Danilo di Luca
(image credit: Pitert CC BY-SA 3.0)

A sample provided by Swiss-born Italian Leonardo Piepoli was found to contain 1,800 nanograms per milliliter of the asthma drug Salbutamol, a considerably higher level than would be expected through normal medical usage (the maximum amount permitted in samples provided by athletes who have a genuine medical reason to use the drug is 1,000 nanograms per milliliter), but he was cleared by the Italian Federation (two years later, he would be banned for two years after he confessed to using EPO). Alessandro Pettachi was not so fortunate - he too tested positive for an abnormally high level of Salbutamol with 1,352 nanograms per milliliter. The Italian Federation also refused to sanction him, but although the figure was lower and the Court of Arbitration in Sport found that he had probably not intentionally doped (while declaring him negligent in not observing the "utmost caution" required of all athletes when using medicines), he was stripped of his five stages wins and banned for one year. He was subsequently fired by his Milram team, but would later make a triumphant return to professional cycling with three stage wins at the 2008 Tour of Britain and then, in 2009, two at the Giro. One year after that, he won the Points Competition at the Tour de France.

Winner Danilo di Luca also provided a suspicious sample. Having been found to be clean in a test taken immediately after Stage 17, he was then subjected to a random control some hours later. Doctors claimed that hormone levels in the second sample were like "those of a child," thus leading them to suspect that he was either using a masking agent to disguise the presence of some other, unknown drug or that he had received a blood transfusion in the intervening time after the first test. However, they could not provide sufficient evidence for him to be disqualified and his results remained intact - but 2008 would be a quiet year as many races, loathe to risk scandal, chose not to invite his LPR Brakes-Ballan team to take part. In 2009, they received a wildcard entry to race in the Giro and his luck ran out - he tested positive for EPO after Stages 11 and 18, which led to a two-year ban (reduced on appeal to nine months and seven days) and a €280,000 fine (reduced to €106,400).

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1937, Beryl Charnock was born in Halton near Leeds. She was not a healthy child and suffered a series of chronic illnesses, once remaining in hospital for fifteen months with rheumatic fever, a  sometimes fatal disease that can leave patients permanently disabled.

However, Beryl got better and, having been introduced to the sport by her husband Charlie Burton, began cycling. She turned out to have quite a considerable talent for it, too - in fact, she won seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles, in addition to winning a World title in track cycling almost every year for 30 years. In the British time trial scene, Burton was quite literally unbeatable when she was at her best and she remained at her best for a very long time, winning the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for an incredible 25 consecutive years.

Beryl Burton, 12.05.1937 - 08.05.1996

As well as racing, Burton set new records with around 50 to her name, including 10, 25 and 50-mile records that would not be broken for 20 years, a 100-mile record that stood for 28 years and in 1967 a 12-hour record that still stands today. Whilst setting it, she caught and passed Mike McNamara as he was riding to a new men's 12-hour record and passed him a licorice allsort. McNamara covered 276.52 (445.02km) miles for his record. Burton covered  277.25 miles (446.19km). No man would beat her for two years.

In common with many people who have suffered rheumatic fever, Burton experienced heart complaints throughout her life and had to learn to live with arrhythmia. Yet, it was not in the heat of competition that she died - while out on her bike delivering birthday party invitations on the 8th of May in 1996, four days before she turned 59, she had a heart attack.

Burton was added to the Cycling Weekly's Golden Book of Cycling - a single-copy manuscript that pays homage to Britain's best cyclists - in 1960. By 1991, she had won so many races that it became necessary to give her a second page, something that had never happened before in the book's six-decade history nor in the 21 years since. She is now widely recognised as the greatest athlete Britain has ever produced.

Cath Swinnerton
Burton was not the only successful female British cyclist born on this day - 21 years after she was born, Cath Swinnerton came into the world at Fenton in Staffordshire. Swinnerton was twice a bronze medal winner at the National Road Race Championships and twice silver - and won the gold in 1977 and 1984.

With her brother Paul (a racing cyclist himself) and their extended cycling family, she now runs Swinnerton Cycles - a chain of bike shops established by their grandparents in 1915. The first shop is still in business and can be found at 69 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent (53° 0'6.74"N 2° 9'41.86"W).

Adelin Benoit, 12.05.1900 - 18.06.1954

Belgian Adelin Benoit, born in Châtelet (where René Magritte spent much of his childhood) on this day in 1900, was an all-but-unknown newcomer at the 1925 Tour de France. The peloton was therefore surprised when he held the maillot jaune through stages 3, 4, 5 and 6, then  took eleven minutes from the great Ottavio Bottecchia in the Pyrénées to wear it for a fifth and final day. He never managed anything quite so spectacular again, though three stage wins in later editions and one victory at the 560km one-day Bordeaux-Paris are impressive.

On this day in 2002, Frenchman Eric Barone set a new record for highest downhill speed achieved on a standard production bicycle at 163kph on the slopes of Cerro Negro, a volcano in Nicaragua. The record would not be beaten until 2011, and then by less than 2kph. Barone holds the current record for custom-built bikes too, having reached 222kph in 2000.

Damian McDonald was an Australian cyclist born in Wangaratta, Victoria in 1972 and a gold medalist in the 2004 Commonwealth Games. He died on the 23rd of March 2007 in the Burnley Tunnel Explosion that occurred after a crash and fire in the Melbourne tunnel.

On this day in 2012, rumours began to circulate in public that RadioShack-Nissan boss Johan Bruyneel had served with a subpoena as he stepped off his plane and onto US soil this week on his way to the Tour of California. Many people believed that the subpoena was part of an ongoing investigation into doping at the US Postal team during the time of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories - as in fact turned out to be the case when Armstrong was stripped of his seven victories. As of this date in 2013, the case is still ongoing.

Other cyclists born on this day: Andreas Hestler (Canada, 1970); Suwan Ornkerd (Thailand, 1941); Lieselot Decroix (Belgium, 1987); Jozef Schoeters (Belgium, 1947); Gunnar Andersen (Denmark, 1911, died 1981); Zeragaber Gebrehiwot (Ethiopia, 1956); Gustaaf Hermans (Belgium, 1951); Héctor Palacio (Colombia, 1969); Jürgen Barth (Germany, 1943, died 2011).

Daily Cycling Facts 08.05.2013

Germain Derycke

The eighteenth edition of La Flèche Wallonne was held on this day in 1954, following the same 220km parcours between Charleroi and Liège that it had used for the last three years and would use again the next. The winner was Germain Derycke, a rider who had won Paris-Roubaix the year before and would add the Dwars door Vlaanderen, Milan-San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Ronde van Vlaanderen over the remainder of his career.

The Giro d'Italia started on this date three times, in 1937, 2004 and 2010. 1937 brought the second of two consecutive victories for the legendary Gino Bartali, who would win for a third time nine years later when the race started up again after the Second World War. The 2004 edition was won by Damiano Cunego, the race having an especially international flavour that year as it ventured into Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia. 2010 started in Amsterdam and spent three stages in the Netherlands, then moved on to Italy where riders were faced with one of the most fearsome series of climbs in many years: Zoncalan, Kronplatz (Corones), Mortirolo and the Passo di Gavia. The winner was Ivan Basso after a number of riders were prevented from starting due to doping investigations and the controversial non-selection of Dutch ProContinental teams Vacansoleil and Skil-Shimano.

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1996, Great Britain lost its greatest ever athlete with the death of Beryl Burton, winner of seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles. Burton was born on the 12th of May 1937 in Leeds and remained in that area for the remainder of her life. Medical problems during childhood kept her away from sports and she didn't discover cycling until introduced to it by her future husband Charlie - two years after first taking it up, the won a silver medal in the National 100 Mile Time Trial. (More on Burton in four days' time, the anniversary of her birth. If you can't wait, here's Ian Street.)



Ciarán Power, born in Waterford on this day in 1976, turned professional in 2000 with the ill-fated Linda McCartney Team and rode the Giro d'Italia with them - the first Irishman in a Grand Tour since Stephen Roche in 1993. He retired in 2008.

Polish climbing specialist Marek Rutkiewicz was born in Olsztyn on this day in 1981. In 2009, he won the Mountains Classification at the Tour of Poland and in 2010 he became National Hill Climb Champion.

Harry Hill

Harry Hill, a record-breaking British cyclist and bronze-winning Olympian, was born on this day in 1916. Hill's Olympic appearance came at the infamous 1936 Games, held in Nazi Germany, and he may have won silver or even gold were it not for the fact to get to Germany, he needed to first get from his home near Sheffield to London. He had no money, and nor did his mother who had raised him alone after his father was killed while fighting in Africa in the First World War. So, he rode the 200 miles (322km) on the bike with which he planned to enter.

Once back in Britain, he faced the same problem - but this time it was worse. On the way there he'd had just enough money to buy food and had carefully saved enough to do the same on the way there, but whilst in Germany temptation had got the better of him and he'd spent it all on a souvenir jacket. There was no alternative: he'd have to do it without eating. He couldn't, of course, and "only" managed 170 miles before he cracked and had to thumb a lift.

The following year, Hill set a new Hour Record for an outdoor track in Milan, covering 25 miles (40.23km). In 1976, when he was 60 years old, he cycled across North America. He claimed to have never smoked or consumed alcohol in his life. He rode his bike every day from the age of 13 until 2004, when he fractured his hip. He was Britain's oldest winner of an Olympic medal when he died aged  92 of pneumonia on the 31st of January 2009.



Other cyclists born on this day: Han Song-Hui (South Korea, 1983); Boris Shukhov (USSR, 1947); Miguel Droguett (Chile, 1961); Raido Kodanipork (Estonia, 1969); Igor Sláma (Czechoslovakia, 1959); Châu Phươc Vình (South Vietnam, 1927); Silvia Fürst (Switzerland, 1961); Law Siu On (Hong Kong, 1964).

Daily Cycling Facts 12.05.12

Alfredo Binda

The Giro d'Italia has begun on this date five times; 1928, 1953, 1983, 1986, and 2007. 1928 covered 3,044km over twelve stages, six of them won by Alfredo Binda who led the General Classification from the fourth stage to the end. Albino Binda won Stage 8 after Alfredo, his brother, urged him to attack as the peloton slowed to wait for him to change a tyre. By 1953 the race had adopted the 21-stage format that it has today and covered a total of 4,035km - it also saw the first inclusion of the Passo di Stelvio, at 2,757m the second-highest pass in the Alps, which Fausto Coppi used to his tactical advantage by attacking leader Hugo Koblet and going on to win outright.

30 years later in 1983, the race had increased to 22 stages but shrunk to 3,916km. The winner was Giuseppe Saronni, who had also won Milan-San Remo that year; however, had Saronni not have won stage bonuses, Roberto Visentini would have won - as he did in 1986 when he beat Saronni by more than a minute. Once again, there were 22 stages and the length shrunk to 3,858km; the race being shaken by controversy when the American Greg Lemond made an official complaint to organisers that Italian riders had illegally drafted behind him in the Stage 11 individual time trial and the (Italian) organisers chose to overlook the incident.

The 2007 Giro d'Italia
In 2007, the race was held for the 90th time. Back down to 21 stages, it covered 3,486km and included three stages on Sardinia. Danilo di Luca won the General Classification while Andy Schleck took second place and won the Youth Category. Three doping scandals hit the race that year: Iban Mayo was found to have abnormally high testosterone levels, but the Basque rider was rapidly cleared when his Saunier Duval-Prodir team produced evidence to show that not only was this natural, they'd also already informed the UCI of it and provided evidence from a doctor confirming it.

Danilo di Luca
(image credit: Pitert CC BY-SA 3.0)

A sample provided by Swiss-born Italian Leonardo Piepoli was found to contain 1,800 nanograms per milliliter of the asthma drug Salbutamol, a considerably higher level than would be expected through normal medical usage (the maximum amount permitted in samples provided by athletes who have a genuine medical reason to use the drug is 1,000 nanograms per milliliter), but he was cleared by the Italian Federation (two years later, he would be banned for two years after he confessed to using EPO). Alessandro Pettachi was not so fortunate - he too tested positive for an abnormally high level of Salbutamol with 1,352 nanograms per milliliter. The Italian Federation also refused to sanction him, but although the figure was lower and the Court of Arbitration in Sport found that he had probably not intentionally doped (while declaring him negligent in not observing the "utmost caution" required of all athletes when using medicines), he was stripped of his five stages wins and banned for one year. He was subsequently fired by his Milram team, but would later make a triumphant return to professional cycling with three stage wins at the 2008 Tour of Britain and then, in 2009, two at the Giro. One year after that, he won the Points Competition at the Tour de France.

Winner Danilo di Luca also provided a suspicious sample. Having been found to be clean in a test taken immediately after Stage 17, he was then subjected to a random control some hours later. Doctors claimed that hormone levels in the second sample were like "those of a child," thus leading them to suspect that he was either using a masking agent to disguise the presence of some other, unknown drug or that he had received a blood transfusion in the intervening time after the first test. However, they could not provide sufficient evidence for him to be disqualified and his results remained intact - but 2008 would be a quiet year as many races, loathe to risk scandal, chose not to invite his LPR Brakes-Ballan team to take part. In 2009, they received a wildcard entry to race in the Giro and his luck ran out - he tested positive for EPO after Stages 11 and 18, which led to a two-year ban (reduced on appeal to nine months and seven days) and a €280,000 fine (reduced to €106,400).

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1937, Beryl Charnock was born in Halton near Leeds. She was not a healthy child and suffered a series of chronic illnesses, once remaining in hospital for fifteen months with rheumatic fever, a  sometimes fatal disease that can leave patients permanently disabled.

However, Beryl got better and, having been introduced to the sport by her husband Charlie Burton, began cycling. She turned out to have quite a considerable talent for it, too - in fact, she won seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles, in addition to winning a World title in track cycling almost every year for 30 years. In the British time trial scene, Burton was quite literally unbeatable when she was at her best and she remained at her best for a very long time, winning the Road Time Trials Council’s British Best All-Rounder Competition for an incredible 25 consecutive years.

Beryl Burton, 12.05.1937 - 08.05.1996

As well as racing, Burton set new records with around 50 to her name, including 10, 25 and 50-mile records that would not be broken for 20 years, a 100-mile record that stood for 28 years and in 1967 a 12-hour record that still stands today. Whilst setting it, she caught and passed Mike McNamara as he was riding to a new men's 12-hour record and passed him a licorice allsort. McNamara covered 276.52 (445.02km) miles for his record. Burton covered  277.25 miles (446.19km). No man would beat her for two years.

In common with many people who have suffered rheumatic fever, Burton experienced heart complaints throughout her life and had to learn to live with arrhythmia. Yet, it was not in the heat of competition that she died - while out on her bike delivering birthday party invitations on the 8th of May in 1996, four days before she turned 59, she had a heart attack.

Burton was added to the Cycling Weekly's Golden Book of Cycling - a single-copy manuscript that pays homage to Britain's best cyclists - in 1960. By 1991, she had won so many races that it became necessary to give her a second page, something that had never happened before in the book's six-decade history nor in the 21 years since. She is now widely recognised as the greatest athlete Britain has ever produced.

Cath Swinnerton
Burton was not the only successful female British cyclist born on this day - 21 years after she was born, Cath Swinnerton came into the world at Fenton in Staffordshire. Swinnerton was twice a bronze medal winner at the National Road Race Championships and twice silver - and won the gold in 1977 and 1984.

With her brother Paul (a racing cyclist himself) and their extended cycling family, she now runs Swinnerton Cycles - a chain of bike shops established by their grandparents in 1915. The first shop is still in business and can be found at 69 Victoria Road, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent (53° 0'6.74"N 2° 9'41.86"W).

Adelin Benoit, 12.05.1900 - 18.06.1954

Belgian Adelin Benoit, born in Châtelet (where René Magritte spent much of his childhood) on this day in 1900, was an all-but-unknown newcomer at the 1925 Tour de France. The peloton was therefore surprised when he held the maillot jaune through stages 3, 4, 5 and 6, then  took eleven minutes from the great Ottavio Bottecchia in the Pyrénées to wear it for a fifth and final day. He never managed anything quite so spectacular again, though three stage wins in later editions and one victory at the 560km one-day Bordeaux-Paris are impressive.

On this day in 2002, Frenchman Eric Barone set a new record for highest downhill speed achieved on a standard production bicycle at 163kph on the slopes of Cerro Negro, a volcano in Nicaragua. The record would not be beaten until 2011, and then by less than 2kph. Barone holds the current record for custom-built bikes too, having reached 222kph in 2000.

Damian McDonald was an Australian cyclist born in Wangaratta, Victoria in 1972 and a gold medalist in the 2004 Commonwealth Games. He died on the 23rd of March 2007 in the Burnley Tunnel Explosion that occurred after a crash and fire in the Melbourne tunnel.

Other births: Andreas Hestler (Canada, 1970); Suwan Ornkerd (Thailand, 1941); Lieselot Decroix (Belgium, 1987); Jozef Schoeters (Belgium, 1947); Gunnar Andersen (Denmark, 1911, died 1981); Zeragaber Gebrehiwot (Ethiopia, 1956); Gustaaf Hermans (Belgium, 1951); Héctor Palacio (Colombia, 1969); Jürgen Barth (Germany, 1943, died 2011).

Daily Cycling Facts 08.05.12

Germain Derycke

The eighteenth edition of La Flèche Wallonne was held on this day in 1954, following the same 220km parcours between Charleroi and Liège that it had used for the last three years and would use again the next. The winner was Germain Derycke, a rider who had won Paris-Roubaix the year before and would add the Dwars door Vlaanderen, Milan-San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Ronde van Vlaanderen over the remainder of his career.

The Giro d'Italia started on this date three times, in 1937, 2004 and 2010. 1937 brought the second of two consecutive victories for the legendary Gino Bartali, who would win for a third time nine years later when the race started up again after the Second World War. The 2004 edition was won by Damiano Cunego, the race having an especially international flavour that year as it ventured into Switzerland, Croatia and Slovenia. 2010 started in Amsterdam and spent three stages in the Netherlands, then moved on to Italy where riders were faced with one of the most fearsome series of climbs in many years: Zoncalan, Kronplatz (Corones), Mortirolo and the Passo di Gavia. The winner was Ivan Basso after a number of riders were prevented from starting due to doping investigations and the controversial non-selection of Dutch ProContinental teams Vacansoleil and Skil-Shimano.

Beryl Burton, one of the greatest British athletes of all time
(unknown copyright)

Beryl Burton
On this day in 1996, Great Britain lost its greatest ever athlete with the death of Beryl Burton, winner of seven World Championships and more than 90 National titles. Burton was born on the 12th of May 1937 in Leeds and remained in that area for the remainder of her life. Medical problems during childhood kept her away from sports and she didn't discover cycling until introduced to it by her future husband Charlie - two years after first taking it up, the won a silver medal in the National 100 Mile Time Trial. (More on Burton in four days' time, the anniversary of her birth. If you can't wait, here's Ian Street.)





Ciarán Power, born in Waterford on this day in 1976, turned professional in 2000 with the ill-fated Linda McCartney Team and rode the Giro d'Italia with them - the first Irishman in a Grand Tour since Stephen Roche in 1993. He retired in 2008.

Polish climbing specialist Marek Rutkiewicz was born in Olsztyn on this day in 1981. In 2009, he won the Mountains Classification at the Tour of Poland and in 2010 he became National Hill Climb Champion.




Harry Hill

Harry Hill, a record-breaking British cyclist and bronze-winning Olympian, was born on this day in 1916. Hill's Olympic appearance came at the infamous 1936 Games, held in Nazi Germany, and he may have won silver or even gold were it not for the fact to get to Germany, he needed to first get from his home near Sheffield to London. He had no money, and nor did his mother who had raised him alone after his father was killed while fighting in Africa in the First World War. So, he rode the 200 miles (322km) on the bike with which he planned to enter.

Once back in Britain, he faced the same problem - but this time it was worse. On the way there he'd had just enough money to buy food and had carefully saved enough to do the same on the way there, but whilst in Germany temptation had got the better of him and he'd spent it all on a souvenir jacket. There was no alternative: he'd have to do it without eating. He couldn't, of course, and "only" managed 170 miles before he cracked and had to thumb a lift.

The following year, Hill set a new Hour Record for an outdoor track in Milan, covering 25 miles (40.23km). In 1976, when he was 60 years old, he cycled across North America. He claimed to have never smoked or consumed alcohol in his life. He rode his bike every day from the age of 13 until 2004, when he fractured his hip. He was Britain's oldest winner of an Olympic medal when he died aged  92 of pneumonia on the 31st of January 2009.



Other births: Han Song-Hui (South Korea, 1983); Boris Shukhov (USSR, 1947); Miguel Droguett (Chile, 1961); Raido Kodanipork (Estonia, 1969); Igor Sláma (Czechoslovakia, 1959); Châu Phươc Vình (South Vietnam, 1927); Silvia Fürst (Switzerland, 1961); Law Siu On (Hong Kong, 1964).

Cycling Evening News 01.05.12

Concerns over GreenEDGE's new sponsor - New women's race - Tour of the Gila - Iglinsky wants a Tour stage - Rabo and Astana at the Giro - Dehaes out for three weeks - No Giro for Dekker - Colorado velodrome closes - BBC Radio to broadcast Beryl Burton play - Other News - London mayor angers cyclists - Newswire

Racing
GreenEDGE's new sponsor is far from Green
GreenEDGE's new sponsor has been revealed to be Orica, a chemicals company with an international presence as the world's largest producer of mining explosives - and an unenviable environmental track record that has seen the organisation widely criticised since 2011 for its apparent reluctance to notify the New South Wales Environmental Protection Agency whenever an accident occurs (for example, the six serious incidents between August and December last year; including the release of 1kg of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium into the environment at Kooragang Island on the 8th of August last year, a leak that affected 70 households and which Orica failed to report to the authorities for 16 hours - the people living in those 70 households didn't get to hear about it for three days; or the arsenic leaked into the Hunter River during the hexavalent chromium clean-up operation; or the 900kg of ammonia leaked into the atmosphere from the Kooragang Island plant, ironically one hour before the EPA announced it was going to take Orica to court over the hexavalent chromium leak; or the mercury leak in December 2011 at a Port Botany plant that drove airborne sample readings to 245% the legal limit, which Orica kept quiet about until the 17th of January 2011).

The deal was questioned as soon as it was announced, chiefly for the reasons outlined above. Many people have since pointed out that 1t4i didn't come under attack when they revealed their own sponsorship deal with the Argos North Sea Group, a Rotterdam-based oil company. However, they're missing the point - it's not what Orica do, but the way they go about it. The oil industry has much to answer for, but Argos have never been charged with the sort of cavalier attitudes and apparent total disregard for the environment and public safety that Orica have displayed in the past (Argos also trade in biodiesel - which isn't entirely "environmentally friendly" but is a damn sight better than standard diesel - and operate "green energy" supplier HummelEnergy, incidentally).

We all know that top-level cycle racing isn't quite as environmentally-sound as we'd like it to be - all those official cars and motorbikes chuck out some serious pollution, as do the helicopters at the major races and the airliners that take the teams to the races. Also, with the world economy in the state it's in, teams can't afford to be too choosy about whose buck they take - chances are one or two others wouldn't hold up too well under close examination, either. It's also possible that Orica have cleaned up their act after some bad years and are now a fine example of how a chemical company ought to behave, and that they want to get involved in cycling as an expression of their new, green policies; but the fact remains that as far as the public are concerned Orica are evil. GreenEDGE's decision to link itself with a company that, in the eyes of many, is the Australian version of Monty Burns' nuclear power plant might prove an unwise one if it results in difficulties attracting sponsors in the future due to loss of current popularity. After all,  we judge people by the company they keep, which is a concept that will be very familiar those GreenEDGE rides who spent 2011 with HTC-Highroad - a team that did more than most to stamp out doping, yet died because sponsors didn't wish to be associated with a sport that they believed was tainted by a bad image.

It would be a very great pity if a team that has already done so much for cycling - including women's cycling, which they have no more obligation to take part in than the various other Pro Teams that do not - turned out to have shot itself in the foot during their very first season.

New women's race
News about women's cycling is, these days, all too often depressing - as has been the case in recent weeks with the demise of two races and shortening of another as organisers have struggled to find the financial backing they need to continue their events.

Very welcome, therefore, is news of a new race: after sixteen years as a men's race, the Baby-Dump Kempenklassement in the Netherlands is to be joined by a women's class that will be named the Kempenklassement voor Vrouwen.

Tour of the Gila

Leah Goldstein won the Tour of the Gila in 2008

The SRAM Tour of the Gila starts on Wednesday at Silver City in New Mexico. Since it began in 1987, the race has been dominated by American riders - American men have won eighteen editions, American women the same number - but changes to the UCI classification have brought ever-increasing numbers of top riders from elsewhere, as was the case last year when the men's race was won by the Spaniard Francisco Mancebo and the women's race by the Canadian Clara Hughes. Champion System - the first Asian ProTour team in cycling - will be making their American race debut at the event

There are some tough climbs along the way: Stage 2 reaches 2,278m above sea level, with the men and the women taking in the climb. Good quality maps and altitude profiles can be downloaded from the official race website, as can the complete "race bible."

Iglinsky wants a Tour stage

Maxim Iglinsky

"The next race I will participate in is theTour of Belgium," Astana's 31-year-old Maxim Iglinsky told press at a team conference. "Then I will ride in the Critérium du Dauphiné and I will compete to win, and then I will fight to win a Tour de France stage. I have always dreamed of winning a Tour de France stage."

Iglinsky denied rumours that his hotel room was searched prior to his unexpected winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier this year, then said he also has his sights set on the World Championships: "All cyclists want to win the World Championship. The one who wins earns the right to put on the rainbow jersey and can then ride in it for the whole year - it is very prestigious. Yes, I've thought about that, too; I will be training for the Championships."

Moser wins in Germany
Moreno Moser won Germany's biggest one-day race the Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt after attacking the lead group in the final kilometre. The race was especially notable as the first since being injured during a training ride for the the current World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, who split the peloton with an attack at the 44km to go point.

Moser's team mate Dominik Nerz was 5" behind him as he crossed the line, hotly pursued by Sergei Firsanov who took the same time.

Top Five
  1.  Moreno Moser Liquigas-Cannondale 4h54'16"
  2.  Dominik Nerz Liquigas -Cannondale +5"
  3.  Sergey Firsanov RusVelo ST
  4.  Tony Martin Omega Pharma-QuickStep ST
  5.  Andre Greipel Lotto-Belisol 24"
Full results (when available)

Rabo and Astana at the Giro
Two more teams have revealed their Giro line-ups. Unsurprisingly, following his two stage wins at the Tour of Turkey, Theo Bos is team leader for Rabobank with Graeme Brown and Mark Renshaw onboard to pick up sprint points while Stef Clement looks after time trials and Juan Manuel Gárate takes care of the mountains. Protecting them and ferrying the bidons are Tom Leezer, Grischa Niermann, Tom-Jelte Slagter and Dennis van Winden.

Astana are sending Roman Kreuziger as leader, backed up by a more all-rounder squad consisting of Alexandr Dyachenko, Enrico Gasparotto, Simone Ponzi, Kevin Seeldraeyers and Andrey Zeits. Tanel Kangert, Evgeny Petrov and Paolo Tiralongo will be the men for the mountains points. The team comes as something of a surprise as the squad was widely expected to include Alexandre Vinokourov.

Three weeks off for Dehaes
Lotto-Belisol's Kenny Dehaes injured his elbow more severely than was initially believed in a crash at the Tour de Romandie - X-rays have since revealed a fracture, and he has been told to rest for three weeks.

Kenny Dehaes ‏ @Kennydehaes
Took x ray from elbow and showed fracture... F*ck!!! 3 weeks out!! #damn.

Thomas Dekker

No Giro for Dekker
Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Barracuda) is pinning his hopes on the Tour de France after doctors told him to stay away from the Giro due to a knee injury sustained at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "Starting the race would just be too risky - I could be forced to abandon after a couple of days. There's no point starting a Grand Tour unless you're 100%," the Dutch 27-year-old said.

Colorado loses one of its two velodromes
Days after the great news that Cleveland in Ohio is about to get a new velodrome - one that will be free for under-18s to ride - comes more depressing news that one of only two velodromes in Colorado will close after only three years. The Boulder track, housed in a converted warehouse alongside an indoor mountain biking course, has attracted far fewer riders than predicted - "The single biggest factor was the seasonality," said Bruce McPherson, president of the facility's management team. "We had riders for essentially four months of the year. We had a core group that rode all year long, but it wasn't enough."

BBC R4 to broadcast Burton play

Beryl Burton will be played by author
Maxine Peake

A dramatisation of Beryl Burton's life will be broadcast by BBC Radio 4 towards the end of this year. Titled La Yorkshire Dame a Bicyclette, the play will star Maxine Peake - who also wrote the script, her first - as Burton, who won numerous titles and set world records during the 1950s and 60s.

"Despite beating men and women in championships across the globe, Beryl received no support, training or sponsorship and in fact, very little acclaim in the UK and Maxine wanted to dramatise her story," says producer Justine Potter. No date has yet been set for the broadcast, but it is likely to go out in the station's 45-minute Afternoon Drama (formerly and popularly Afternoon Play) slot.

Radio 4 is available worldwide on the Internet.

Other News
"The Afghanistan women cycling team will compete in Pakistan for the first time in the National Cycling Championship" (Herald Tribune)

"South Korean Pro Cyclists Killed in Road Accident" (Bicycling)

"There’s absolutely no room for complacency, we have got to keep working hard" - Joanna Rowsell on the Olympics (British Cycling)

"Italian women turned away from Box Hill" (Cycling Weekly)

"Sky look ahead to Giro's team time trial" (Cycling Weekly)

"Women’s Cycling: The Winning Formula Continues" (Irishcycling.com)

Kristin Armstrong makes name for herself as Olympic champ (USA Today)

"74-year-old cycling enthusiast had a heart attack while competing in a 60-kilometre club race" (The Press, New Zealand)

"Tacks cause havoc at cycling event Tour of the South" (Herald Sun, Australia)

"Cyclists in inspired return to Trinidad & Tobago" (Guardian Media)


"Goss the key to Giro cycling success" (SBS Australia)

"Paula Radcliffe vows to campaign for tougher bans for drug cheats" (The Independent)

"Tour de France 2012 Videogames Confirmed for PAL Release" (ElectrinicTheatre)


Cycling
Boris' big gob bothers bikers

Boris - a bit of an idiot at times

Boris Johnson has based a large part of his London mayoral campaign on his own cycling credentials and the fine work he says he's done for the capital's cyclists during his time a mayor over the last five years - so it seems rather strange that he risked annoying the very people he's been courting for so long with some ill-advised comments yesterday at a hustings designed to highlight the candidates' commitment to cycling and cyclists' safety.

After showing up on his bike - points there, Boris - the tousel-headed Old Eonian scamp started to dig himself a hole. "I can humbly say to you, I may not conform to your idea of a stereotypical cyclist. I do not have whippet-thin brown legs or dreadlocks, I do not charge around in Lycra, I do not jump lights - and nor are you, but I ask you to recognise that I have cycling in my heart. I love cycling. I think it is wonderful and I will continue to invest in cycling," he told his audience, adding: "We have got to move away from the idea that - and I am sorry to say this, you can lynch me now - that cyclists are somehow morally superior to other road users" before the four main candidates went about trying to pick holes in one another's doubtless expertly massaged figures.

However, Johnson did promise that if re-elected he'll appoint a Cycling Commissioner (or cycling czar, as the newspapers have for some reason decided such a figure should be called) - something that many cyclists will be happy to hear. Provided, of course, that it's somebody capable of independent thought and with a genuine interest in cycling, not one of his jolly chums from school.

According to Londoners on Bikes, a biking advocacy group, he "has lost the bike vote."

Newswire
Britain
"Kingston women's cycling pioneer in line for award" (Your Local Guardian)

"New Cycle Surgery Store Opens Along Popular London Biking Route" (MarketWatch)

"Sky Ride Local group spawns beginner friendly Tees Valley Sportive" (British Cycling)

Worldwide
"Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession at 7 p.m. May 16 to remember those who have been killed or injured by a motorist while cycling on public roadways" (Argus Press, Michigan)