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save the kilo

the union cycliste international in their infinite wisdom (and i use the word in its loosest form) have decided to axe the men's kilometre sprint and the women's 500k sprint from the olympic cycling disciplines in order to make way for the inclusion of bmx as an olympic sport. they were expected to remove the points race or the road time trial, but have opted for the bizarre option. in order to point out the error of their ways, david hoy, father of scottish gold medallist in the kilo discipline, chris hoy, has set up an online petition at www.petitiononline.com

if you feel that this is a particularly crazy decision, as the post indeed does, click and sign.

when is a race not a time trial?

bit of a play on words and phrases here, but on sunday 29th may, bruichladdich distillery were nice enough to sponsor a 10k run from islay house square in bridgend to the distillery and also (and more importantly if we're brutally honest) a 32k bike ride round the rhinns of islay. in fact, if you take a look at www.isle-of-islay.comcycling then you'll get an overview of the route if only from the croft kitchen in port charlotte.

velo club d'ardbeg had suggested just calling this a bike ride, which, in all honesty it actually was, but bruichladdich wanted a more exciting title so it became a race and then a time trial which it wasn't (the former or the latter). as we all know, a time trial involves cyclists heading into the hinterlands one at a time at least one minute apart. we actually all left bruichladdich distillery at the same time - nearly - and actually four of us finished all at the same time. not that anyone noticed.

however, it's possible that a number of potential participants were put off by the competitive titles even if they did turn out to be vacuous. so bruichladdich bike ride would have seemed more than appropriate.

anyway, the semantics were unable to spoil a wonderful bike ride - sunny, dry, warm, not much wind and pleasant company. in fact the not much wind was so favourable on the return leg from portnahaven, that it only took fifteen minutes to reach bruichladdich distillery, a distance of around 15k. the distillery were nothing if not generous in their prizegiving; despite the fact that we all finished together, we had to nominate someone to be the winner, so the directeur sportif was duly nominated and received a bottle of ten year old bruichladdich single malt and a super little trophy. second finisher received the same and the next three were presented with a bottle of ten year old. not exactly isostar and undoubtedly dreadfully detrimental to the active cyclist (i'm not sure it isn't on the uci's banned substance list) but probably a cut above the normal prize received at the end of such events.

anyhoo, sportive bike rides are becoming more and more popular by the minute: italy has a plethora of gran fondos, from the felice gimondi fondo, the gran fondo marco pantani, gran fondo colnago, gran fondo campagnolo etc., etc and for the past two years thewashingmachinepost has held the gran fondo bruichladdich (there's that distillery again, though the main reason it's called that is because it's the best place to start a 100 mile bike ride).

admittedly, gran fondos usually encompass a bit more climbing than the col du kilchiaran but since it's the best islay has, apart from port askaig brae, it will have to do. it would be great to have feed stops, special jerseys and cheering fans at the side of the road, but we can all dream. and if you are a regular reader of the cycling mags, you cannot fail to have noticed that the bike companies are now producing bikes specifically targeted at this emergent market. not a heck of a lot cheaper than the colnagos and pinarellos of this world but apparently featuring more relaxed geometry and as much comfort as it's possible to get away with.

i'm not entirely sure that this is a necessary step, but if it sells more bicycles, then i have no real qualm with it - probably the road bike equivalent of those full suspension freeride bikes that seem to have taken over the mountain bike market. since velo club d'ardbeg are not only not in the correct geographical position to race, but probably not in quite the most favourable physical condition to do so either, though if you tell anyone, i shall vehemently deny it, the cyclo sportive event has its attractions and it is almost certain that we shall attempt a similar pedal on bruichladdich's open day next year.

while i'm here, it seems a good idea to point out that this year's gran fondo bruichladdich will take place on sunday 7 august, starting just outside the front gates of bruichladdich distillery at 10am in the morning. due to the minimal (non-existent) support, you'd be well advised to take enough sustenance with you, though we do stop off at the old kiln cafe at ardbeg around half way through the trip. if you're interested, drop me an e-mail.

by the way, i've already had promises of photos for the velo club d'ardbeg web page, so just a reminder: if you've bought an ardbeg cycle jersey, get a photo of yourself wearing it along with your favourite bike, and we'll put them up on a vcd'a page on the post, before we start hassling the good folks at ardbeg to incorporate similar onto their own website. and remember, the official tea stop and club hut is at the old kiln cafe at ardbeg distillery. wear your jersey anytime you visit. if you missed the ardbeg cycle jerseys, click here for a look see.

this website got its name because scotland's graeme obree built his championship winning 'old faithful' using bits from a defunct washing machine

as always, if you have any comments on this nonsense, please feel free to e-mail and thanks for reading.

this column almost never appears in the dead tree version of the ileach but appears, regular as clockwork on this website every two weeks. (ok so i lied) sometimes there are bits added in between times, but it all adds to the excitement.