The week in numbers: w/e 16/5/10

56 - The number of people who died in the Bradford City fire, 25 years ago last week.

0 - After six races of the F1 season, we have yet to see any car other than the two Red Bulls start from pole position. (Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have three each.)

0 - The FA Cup has never been won by a team relegated from the top flight of English football in the same season.

2 - The number of missed penalties in Saturday's FA Cup final, the first time this had ever happened.

4 - The number of times the leader's pink jersey has changed hands so far during the first eight stages of the Giro d'Italia. Bradley Wiggins claimed it on stage one, since when it has gone to Cadel Evans (stage two), Alexandre Vinokourov (stage three), Vincenzo Nibali (stage four) and Vinokourov again (stage seven).

2 - Last Wednesday's Europa League final was the second time goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer had played in the final of Europe's second cup competition, with two different clubs. On both occasions he has lost to a Spanish side.

1 - Yesterday was the England men's cricket team first win in five attempts in a world final. They beat Australia by seven wickets in the final of the World Twenty20.

17 - Runs required by Australia off the last five balls of their World Twenty20 semi-final against Pakistan. Mike Hussey then hit 22 off the next four.

99 - Final points total for Barcelona, who clinched the Primera Liga title last night. Runners-up Real Madrid finished on 96, which also surpassed the previous record total.

4 - The number of seasons Oxford United spent in the Conference before earning promotion back to League 2 yesterday with a victory over York City. Oxford had been the first winner of a major trophy to be relegated from the Football League in 2006.

120,000 - Pounds per week reportedly demanded by 33 year old William Gallas during his contract talks with Arsenal. Bye bye.

Vino's no dope as crashes gift him the maglia rosa

The race leader's pink jersey has been more patata calda (hot potato) than maglia rosa thus far in the Giro d'Italia. During three days' racing in Holland, the jersey has been worn on the podium by three different riders: Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans and now Alexandre Vinokourov.

Both yesterday and today, crashes on routes which have been narrow, twisty and full of road furniture have contributed significantly to the jersey changing possession.

On yesterday's stage between Amsterdam and Utrecht, major crashes in the peloton 40 and seven kilometres out brought down or delayed dozens of riders. Wiggins's Sky teammates were able to bridge the gap after the first crash, but not the second, allowing Evans to assume the race lead.

This afternoon, another crash on an extremely tight and dangerous turn ten kilometres from the finish in Middelburg brought down Wiggins, among others, and delayed Evans who, despite a heroic solo effort to regain contact with the chasing pack still finished 46 seconds down on the leaders, gifting the pink jersey to Vinokourov. In addition to his losses yesterday, Wiggins gave up another four minutes today, eliminating him from overall contention.

It is difficult to imagine a less popular - or more controversial - race leader than the 36 year old Kazakh. Less than a year after returning from a two year ban for blood doping at the Tour de France, Vino has already won Liege-Bastogne-Liege, one of the most prestigious Spring one day classics, and now leads the Giro, a position from which it may prove difficult to unseat him. Evans remains within striking distance, but Garmin's Christian Vande Velde was forced out today with a broken collarbone, and Wiggins is one of several other contenders now effectively out of reach.

Add to that the absence of the top three finishers from last year's race: winner Denis Menchov (who elected to miss the race to prepare for the Tour), Danilo di Luca (doping ban) and Franco Pellizotti (withdrawn due to ongoing investigation), not to mention Messrs Contador, Armstrong and Schleck (both of them), and the number of credible challengers to Vinokourov has already dwindled significantly.

It will be a sad state of affairs if Vinokourov is still wearing pink in Verona on May 30th. Not so much because of his original crime - for which he has served his time - but because he was so utterly unrepentant of an offence of which he was so clearly guilty, and for which he still protests his innocence. (When tests reveal you have another person's blood in your system, there isn't much of a defence.) And, even more than that, he betrayed cycling fans everywhere by shattering the illusion that his swashbuckling, kamikaze attacks we loved so much were fuelled by more than mere talent and determination.

Tomorrow is a rest day as the circus decamps back to Italy. Which, given the travails of the last couple of days, is probably just as well. I'll be hoping that the extra recovery time for some pretty banged-up teams will help someone depose Vino in Wednesday's team time trial.

The week in numbers: w/e 9/5/10

138 - In millions of pounds, the current debt of Portsmouth FC, about double what it was when the club went into administration at the end of February.

0 - The number of Grand Tour stage wins for both Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins before his two second victory in the opening time trial at the Giro d'Italia on Saturday.

103 - The final tally of Premier League goals for Chelsea, who hammered eight past Wigan yesterday. It is the highest total for a season in 47 years.

18 – Yesterday was the 18th consecutive league game without a win for Wigan in London, underlining quite how remote Man U's chances of securing the title really were.

1 - Mark Webber became the first F1 driver in five races this season to convert pole position into a race win at Barcelona yesterday.

85 not out - Runs scored by Cameron White off just 49 balls (including six sixes and six fours) in Australia's World Twenty20 win over Sri Lanka last night. The entire Sri Lankan side managed just two runs more than White.

31 - The number of league wins (from 37 matches) for Real Madrid after their 5-1 thumping of Athletic Bilbao. This is one more than Barcelona, who still lead Spain's Primera Liga by a point with one game remaining. The previous record for wins in a season was 28, jointly held by ... Real Madrid and Barcelona.

92 - The previous points record for a Primera Liga season (set by Real Madrid in 1997), already broken by both Barcelona (96) and Real Madrid (95).

00:54 - The time on Tuesday morning at which Australia’s Neil Robertson finally overcame Graeme Dott to win the World Snooker Championship.

Pretty in pink as Wiggins takes Giro lead

In the greater scheme of things, the Giro d’Italia represents little more than a tune-up opportunity for Team Sky’s British leader Bradley Wiggins. However, any stage win in one of cycling’s three Grand Tours is a big deal, and victory for ‘Wiggo’ in today’s opening time trial in Amsterdam will have come as a welcome confidence boost.

But Wiggins’ single-minded focus remains the Tour de France in July, where he will seek to become, as a minimum, the first Briton ever to finish in the top three, with his ultimate ambition being to unseat defending champion Alberto Contador as the wearer of the yellow jersey in Paris on July 25th.

Both Contador and defending Giro champion Denis Menchov are absent from Italy this month, as are other top Tour contenders Lance Armstrong and the brothers Andy and Frank Schleck. Nonetheless, perennial nearly man Cadel Evans heads a strong field which includes Christian Vande Velde and 2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre, as well as Ivan Basso and Alexandre Vinokourov, two top riders who have both served doping bans. They will provide a good benchmark for Wiggins, who should still be a fraction short of peak form at this point in the season.

Wiggins completed today’s 8.4km stage in 10:18, two seconds faster than BMC’s Brent Bookwalter and his team leader Evans. Victory earned him the right to wear the race leader’s pink jersey, the maglia rosa. Afterwards, Wiggins said:

"It was hard but I just went for it, especially in the corners. If you want to win it, you've got to commit 100 per cent, like a sprinter when they go for a sprint. For me it's beautiful to be wearing the pink jersey. It's iconic and one of the most special jerseys. To wear it means a lot to me and is a big honour."

However, he also insisted he will not getting carried away by his early success.

"I don't want to make the mistake of being at my best form and getting carried away in the Giro and then being knackered at the Tour. A lot of guys tried that last year, and fell short in July.”

The race will spend two further days in Holland before making its way back to Italy, ending in Verona on May 30th. Wiggins is unlikely to stay in pink for only a few days at most. The maglia rosa is a welcome addition to a trophy collection which includes three Olympic golds, but the biggest prize of all remains over two months away.

Pellizotti investigation casts a cloud over Sky's Giro debut

I should be really looking forward to Team Sky's Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia, which kicks off in Amsterdam tomorrow and concludes in Verona on May 30th. It will provide the first real yardstick to assess Bradley Wiggins' prospects of improving on his fourth place finish at last year's Tour de France, as well as the progress of several other leading contenders.

Actually, I am looking forward to it.

However, my anticipation of the race comes in spite of rather than because of events leading up to it, with news breaking on Monday of yet another doping investigation into three riders, including Liquigas's Franco Pellizotti.

Pellizotti finished third on the road at the 2009 Giro, having placed fourth the previous year. That was subsequently upgraded to second after the original runner-up (and 2007 winner) Danilo di Luca returned two positive tests for the prohibited blood-booster CERA during the race. Add that to the 20-month ban recently completed by Riccardo Ricco, the 2008 runner-up (positive for CERA at the 2008 Tour), and you have a grim record which shows that half the podium finishers - all Italian - from the past two Giros have been either banned or suspended for actual/suspected doping offences.

It's not great, is it? Despite the considerable efforts (and money) invested into sophisticated and comprehensive drug-testing procedures - for which the sport should be applauded - it seems the potential rewards for those willing to cheat continue to outweigh the growing risks of detection. Ricco has already returned to professional racing. So too Michael Rasmussen, who was thrown out of the 2007 Tour while wearing the yellow jersey.

Something needs to be done. But what?

Review: 'Lance Armstrong: Tour de Force'

Now updated to include a new chapter covering Lance Armstrong's return to the Tour de France in 2009, Daniel Coyle's account of the American's build-up to the 2004 race which saw him claim his record-breaking sixth win focuses more on the day-to-day life of a top professional road cyclist than it does on the racing itself.

In so doing Coyle, who gained unprecedented access to Armstrong and his US Postal Service team throughout the season, provides many fascinating insights into a peculiar world whose inhabitants fear infection and watch their weight as obsessively as the most anorexic hypochondriac. It is a world in which its occupants push lift buttons with their elbows to avoid infections spreading via their fingers, and for whom every handshake is a potential hotbed of germs. It is a world of masochistic training rides and of lung-bursting tests to assess performance and condition, where the only things that matter are the numbers. And it is a world of cloak and dagger, where every rider is constantly assessing their rivals’ form and physical condition, and full of intra- and inter-team political intrigue.

Above all, this book is as close as any writer has ever been allowed to get to the man behind the façade of Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion. In so far that any book authorised and signed off by the man himself can be, this is an honest appraisal of what makes Armstrong tick, from his single-minded focus on hitting peak physical condition in the month of July to his overwhelming need to not just beat but destroy anyone who stands in his way, whether they are wielding a bike or a keyboard.

The book also touches upon the racing year through the eyes of Phonak’s Tyler Hamilton (a former US Postal teammate), and Floyd Landis (a Postie in 2004, but one who would leave for Phonak in 2005 to escape Armstrong’s long shadow). It even tackles the multiple accusations and litigations being aimed at Armstrong at that time, including the infamous book L.A. Confidentiel by Irish journalist David Walsh, and while the examination of these carries a hint of red-white-and-blue tinted spectacles, it is largely handled in an even-handed way; it is not simply an extension of the Armstrong PR machine.

For anyone who is interested in an external portrait of Lance Armstrong, or in the fine detail behind the broad brush-strokes which comprise the annual spectacle which is the Tour de France, this is one to add to the collection. It’s not necessarily a book for the cycling ingénue, but it is a richly rewarding read nonetheless.

5 stars (out of 5) 

Available at amazon.co.uk here and at amazon.com here

Tour de France wildcards aren't so wild after all

With 95 days to go until the start of the 2010 Tour de France, we now know who the last six squads are who will make up the full complement of 22 teams when the first wheel is turned in Rotterdam on July 3rd.

In addition to the 16 ProTour teams who were already guaranteed a seat at cycling’s top table, there were no real surprises when the six wildcard entrants were revealed earlier today:

- Sky, the new BSkyB-sponsored outfit, who will be led by triple Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins, fourth in last year’s race

- RadioShack, another new team led by seven-time winner Lance Armstrong and including previous podium finishers Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden

- Garmin, Wiggins’ former team and the home of both Christian Vande Velde, a top 8 finisher in each of the last two Tours, and Tyler Farrar, a genuine green jersey contender

- Cervelho, the team of both 2008 yellow jersey Carlos Sastre and current green jersey holder Thor Hushovd

- BMC, led by two-time runner-up Cadel Evans, and aided and abetted by Armstrong’s former right-hand man, George Hincapie

- Katusha, the Russian team which boasts three-time green jersey winner Robbie McEwen, Italian national champion Filippo Pozzato and Vladimir Karpets

All the first five teams are able to boast at least one marquee name who will each command considerable media interest in key global markets come July. And although Katusha’s big names are not quite at the same stratospheric level (with the exception of McEwen, who is now nearing the end of a glittering career), their record since their formation last year is ample qualification for their inclusion in the Tour.

Given that this year’s Tour will spend its first two days in Holland, Dutch teams Vacansoleil and Skil-Shimano will be particularly upset at having been omitted (as will the new all-French Saur-Sojasun squad), but in truth neither possesses a marquee name or the prospect of delivering anything more than a successful breakaway stage win. Their absence is regrettable, but will be barely noticed once the racing begins.

The fact is that the six teams selected as wildcards were neither particularly ‘wild’ nor a surprise, because they were clearly the ones most likely to have an impact at this year’s Tour. You can’t really ask for more than that.

The Tour may still be over three months away, but it is now less than six weeks until the first of this year’s Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, which coincidentally also starts in Holland (in Amsterdam) on May 8th. I can’t wait.

Sir Chris rises above the Hoy polloi

Chris Hoy’s rivals in the keirin had clearly decided they were no match for his pace and power in a straight race, opting instead to give him the type of treatment opposing sides often target Arsenal with.

In other words, they tried to rough him up. First Josiah Ng Onn Lam cut across Hoy during the heats, knocking the Scot off his bike and earning a clear disqualification. Then, in the final, Azizulhasni Awang attempted to elbow his way through but Hoy – a man as strong as Usain Bolt is fast – continued undeterred to beat the Malaysian to the finish line by half a wheel.

The keirin is a unique event. For those who think track cycling is a non-contact sport, a simple test of man and machine against the clock, the keirin is a bit like coming out of the Last Night of the Proms and getting caught in a pub brawl. Six cyclists cruise around behind a pootling, pace-setting motor scooter – the ‘derny’ – which pulls off with two-and-a-half laps left, resulting in a madcap, free-for-all dash to the finish. (It’s not unlike watching greyhounds jogging carefully behind the hare for a couple of warm-up laps before the race actually starts.)

It is an event which rewards those riders who can combine tactical acumen with savage acceleration and the ability to sustain maximum speed. Having pointy elbows doesn’t hurt either. Hoy, a four-time world champion in the one kilometre time trial and now a three-time winner of the keirin, possesses each of those qualities in abundance.

It has so far been a disappointing Track Cycling World Championships for Britain, although the team is missing several key stars such as Bradley Wiggins, who this year is focussing solely on road racing and July's Tour de France. Hoy’s was GB’s first win of these championships, and his tenth world title overall. (Only France’s Arnaud Tourmant, with 14, has won more.) Even at 34 – it was his birthday on Tuesday – and with a knighthood and four Olympic golds to his name, Hoy’s prodigious power and competitive fire remain undiminished.

Only a fool would bet against Hoy adding to his Olympic tally at London 2012. Or against him adding gold in Sunday’s individual sprint to yesterday’s keirin. Aside from his devastating speed, you can be sure he will have his elbows at the ready, just in case.

Review: ‘My Comeback’, Lance Armstrong

This coffee table tome – titled Comeback 2.0 elsewhere in the world – certainly lives up to its subtitle of ‘up close and personal’, providing the reader with genuine insight into the year that Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, returned from retirement.

And what a year it was too, encompassing not only a podium finish at the Tour in his racing comeback, but also the birth of a child and his second ‘job’ promoting global cancer awareness and fund-raising through the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The book is essentially a photographic account of the twelve months following Armstrong’s decision to return to racing in September 2008, annotated with his own, frequently wry, commentary.

Elizabeth Kreutz’s excellent photography strikes a nice balance between journalistic and candid images, recording meetings with global heads of state, training and race preparation, and more intimate moments with his family and the seemingly ever-present drug testers. Kreutz’s images capture, amongst many other moments in time, Armstrong in the company of former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush (possibly the ultimate in jaw-dropping name-dropping); a shot of Ben Stiller posing on Lance’s bike, to which is attached a little-known tale of near-disaster (the actor broke the bike’s chain mere minutes before the team time trial, necessitating a rapid repair), and the great man’s obvious joy at the miraculous birth of his fourth child, Max (having been told by doctors during his cancer treatment that he would be unable to father children naturally again).

If you want Armstrong’s life story, this is not the book for you. (Pick up one of his previous two autobiographies, It’s Not About The Bike or Every Second Counts instead.) Or if you are looking for the full story of his 2009 comeback, there are a number of other books out there covering the 2009 Tour de France and Armstrong’s role in the race.

But if you are looking for a book which conveys both breadth and depth lacking in press coverage or other, unauthorised biographies, then this admirably fills in the background detail behind the big stories with the aid of some fantastic – and exclusive – photography. It is, at most, an hour’s leisurely read, but to judge the book purely on its length is to miss the point. My Comeback is a fascinating year-in-the-life record of one of sport’s most successful, intriguing and charismatic sportspeople. Well worth seeking out, particularly at the kind of discounted prices readily available online.

4 stars (out of 5)

For more information about the Lance Armstrong Foundation, or to make a donation, visit the Live Strong website here.

Defining moments 4: Armstrong’s last stand

An occasional series looking at the defining moments which explain why sport captivates us so much ...

In sport, you often hear competitors talk about “110 per cent effort” or similar to emphasise that they’ve given absolutely everything. While one might quibble over the mathematics of such a statement, it’s nonetheless a valid reminder that sportsmen and women do push their bodies to the very limit of their capabilities, and sometimes beyond.

Nowhere is such single-minded effort more necessary – or indeed more obvious - than it is every July at the Tour de France.

There’s something about the Tour that sets it apart. It provides the most strenuous examination possible of speed, stamina, strength and sheer obstinacy, with its long flat stages, savage mountain climbs, and against-the-clock time trials stretched over a gruelling three-week schedule.

To put this challenge into context, here are some basic facts and figures about the 2003 edition, which provides the setting for this post. That year’s race comprised 21 stages over 23 days, covering a total of 3,428km, roughly the same distance as Paris to Moscow. The furthest covered in one day was 231km (London to Cardiff), and the longest stage took over six hours to complete. En route, there were fifteen climbs higher than the peak of Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain. And at the end of it all, the race was won at an average speed of 41kph. At this pace, you would run the hundred metres nearly a second faster than Usain Bolt.

Three weeks. Two wheels. One living hell. Welcome to Le Tour. This is not an event you choose to participate in unless you are the hardest of masochistic hard men (or doped up to the eyeballs, but that’s an entirely different topic).

I can’t stress enough just how tough the Tour is to even complete, let alone win. It may share the same means of propulsion as a Sunday afternoon bike ride, but it has about as much in common with it as the marathon does with my walk home from the corner shop.

Over the years, the Tour has provided a plethora of memorable images and defining moments, many of them involving Lance Armstrong, the most successful Tour rider of all time. This is my favourite.

Tour de France, July 2003

No matter how good a climber you are, this is the kind of day you know is going to hurt in a way that no amount of training can truly prepare you for. Covering 160km and culminating in three major climbs – the Col d’Aspin (the warm-up act at a mere 1,489m above sea level), the Col du Tourmalet (2,114m) and finally the finish at the top of Luz-Ardiden (1,715m) – this is four-and-a-half hours of intense suffering for the very best; an extra thirty minutes or more for many others.

The American Lance Armstrong is seeking a fifth consecutive Tour victory, but he has not dominated this race in the manner of his previous wins, looking vulnerable in the Alps and conceding a massive 96 seconds to Jan Ullrich in the individual time trial three days earlier. His advantage over the German is now a wafer-thin 15 seconds, with Alexandre Vinokourov just three seconds further behind. Armstrong’s objective today is simple, at least on paper: build his slim cushion over Ullrich and Vinokourov, ideally to a minute or more, ahead of the potentially decisive second time trial.

The slopes of Luz-Ardiden are to be the battleground for Lance Armstrong’s last stand.

Four hours into the stage, the leading riders are bunched together at the foot of the final climb. They are watching each other, waiting for the attack they know must come soon.

Sure enough, the yellow jersey eases into position at the head of the group, the orange-shirted Spaniard Iban Mayo and Ullrich at his shoulder, the others a few metres further back. And then suddenly, inexplicably, Armstrong’s bike twitches violently and he crashes to the ground, taking Mayo with him. (TV replays will later show his handlebars had caught the straps of a spectator’s bag.)

A second passes, then two, then three. Is his bike broken? How badly is he hurt? Is it all over for Lance Armstrong – just like that?

The wait is excruciating, like watching a jelly-legged boxer struggling to beat the referee’s count. Ullrich and the other leading riders cycle past. Armstrong is clearly dazed and shaken as he picks himself up and rights his bike, pausing to refit his chain before setting off in pursuit. A TV camera zooms in on his bleeding elbow, then pans up to his face. His wide-eyed, adrenaline-fuelled fury tells you everything you need to know: I will not let it end like this!

Armstrong strains every sinew to regain the lost ground, but not without one further flirtation with disaster. Charging up the mountain in pursuit - out of the saddle, standing on the pedals, maximum effort - his right foot slips out of the pedal, and he lurches forward precariously, his balance utterly compromised. For a moment it looks as if he’s either going to lose his manhood on the bike frame or else come off his machine altogether. Fortunately he does neither. He instinctively catches himself, regains his balance, and quickly slots his foot back into the pedal. A hiccup, no more.

At this point, any ordinary human would probably be content to thank their lucky stars and follow the pack to the finish. But professional cyclists are not ordinary humans, and Lance Armstrong is no ordinary cyclist. He has been in this situation – hunted, disrespected, written off as lacking a winner’s quality – before, and he knows what to do.

The leading group is now back together again, and almost immediately Mayo launches an attack, his tired legs developing an instant burst of speed in an attempt to put a decisive gap between him and the others. Armstrong’s response is immediate, surging forward to catch the Spaniard’s breakaway, and then without pause for breath he does what he has always done best – launch an attack himself. A devastating burst of acceleration, a quick look over the shoulder to see if anyone can respond - they can’t - and he’s away, a yawning gap opening up rapidly behind him: five seconds, fifteen, thirty …

Literally and figuratively, Lance Armstrong never looked back again. He finished 40 seconds ahead of the rest that day, but it might as well have been 40 minutes. The war was not yet won, but the key battle had been.

Put firmly on the back foot, Ullrich would go on to crash in a torrential downpour during the final time trial in a desperate attempt to make up time, confirming Armstrong’s fifth Tour de France victory. The American would go on to win the next two Tours; Ullrich would never get as close again.

Armstrong’s stirring fight-back on Luz-Ardiden was potentially the difference between him losing his stranglehold on the world’s greatest bike race and becoming its most successful ever participant. On such critical, defining moments are sporting legends made.

Keeping the C-word private

It's not a word sports fans like to use in polite company, but we have seen the C-word an awful lot in the media in recent weeks.

I mean 'cheating', obviously. (Did you think I was talking about a different word? Shame on you.)

Bloodgate

We have had 'Bloodgate' in rugby union, a very public controversy about Harlequins' mainipulation of the blood rule, where a player with a 'blood injury' can leave the field, substituted, for treatment and subsequently return. This can certainly confer a small advantage: for instance, a fresh pair of legs is brought on, affording the substituted player a few minutes' rest before returning. (Compare this to the rule in cricket which allows a substitute fielder to temporarily replace another player, a loophole which teams regularly exploit to the hilt to routinely rotate players on and off the field, bringing on specialist fielders while allowing bowlers to take a breather.)

The Bloodgate scandal has resulted in Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards resigning in disgrace with a three-year coaching ban, as well as the departure of chairman Charles Jillings and physio Steph Brennan. (The club has also been fined £260,000, a hefty sum in rugby terms.) 

This has largely been treated as an isolated incident in an otherwise honourable sport, even though others have come forward to suggest that faking blood injuries and other cunning circumnavigations of the rule-book are far from uncommon practices. Indeed, rugby union is a sport often held up - particularly by the football community - as a model of good behaviour, where players properly respect the referee's authority and spend their spare time polishing their halos. It is also a sport where gouging, stamping, biting and any number of other unpleasantries more usually associated with a Friday night pub brawl are commonplace in scrums and rucks, where they frequently escape the attention of referees and TV cameras. Some brush off such acts as part and parcel of a physical game; I think of them as systematic cheating. But apparently we don't talk about that sort of thing in public, do we?

Crashgate

By contrast, Formula 1 is a sport which has historically thrived on the column inches spawned by ongoing controversies, accusations and counter-accusations. Technical arguments over whether so-and-so's front wing or rear diffuser or energy recovery system is legal are commonplace - pick any season in F1's history and you will find at least a couple such disputes. Conspiracy theories abound. We have had the controversy over team orders influencing the outcome of races, which came to a head after Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was ordered to pull over in the closing metres of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix to gift teammate Michael Schumacher the win. 

But very rarely in F1's not exactly whiter-than-white history have we seen a case as bizarre as the current 'Crashgate' controversy.

The potted summary is thus. At last year's Singapore Grand Prix, Renault's Fernando Alonso, starting towards the back of the grid in a very competitive car, won the race courtesy of a safety car period initiated by teammate Nelson Piquet Jr crashing into a wall shortly after Alonso had made an early fuel stop.

Piquet was sacked by Renault last month, ostensibly for being rubbish (which, to be fair, he generally was); the news caused barely a ripple in the media, being largely expected.

What was much less expected was the announcement two weeks ago of an FIA investigation into the events of the Singapore GP, based on claims that Piquet was ordered to crash deliberately by team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds as part of a plan to help Alonso win.

Who knows? Renault, naturally, are claiming Piquet is motivated by bitterness and a desire for revenge. But given F1's chequered history of rule-bending it is far from implausible, particularly given the street circuit nature of the Singapore track, where it would be possible to deliberately crash at relatively low speed with minimal risk to the driver and guarantee the appearance of the safety car by scattering debris across the track.

Regardless, it is a delicious story which the mainstream media have bitten into, and which promises to run and run. F1 aficionados, however, know that such Machiavellian machinations are far from unusual in the sport; 'cheating' is just part of F1's DNA. It always has been; it probably always will be.

Festina-gate the turning point for cycling

Particularly over the last decade or so, cycling has - literally - had cheating in its bloodstream. In a sport as demanding of strength and stamina as road cycling is, it is hardly surprising that cheating has been prevalent among cyclists for decades. In the early days of the Tour de France, we had competitors disqualified for hanging on to trains; in the 60s it was amphetamines; since the late-90s it has been about highly efficient blood-boosting drugs such as EPO and Cera, or even blood swapping.

For the current generation of cyclists and cycling fans, it was the Festina-gate scandal at the 1998 Tour de France which exposed the doping culture in the sport for everyone to see, and which nearly brought one of the world's great sporting events to its knees. And the roll-call of scandal has been incessant ever since, from Operacion Puerto to the disgrace of Floyd Landis, Alexandre Vinokourov, Riccardo Ricco and Stefan Schumacher (I could go on and on) repeatedly twisting the knife ever deeper into the sport's reputation.

The recent announcement of positive EPO tests from samples provided by Spaniards Mikel Astarloza and Inigo Landaluze of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team in June barely merits a mention in the context of a sport which continues to inflict collateral damage on itself, but which has at least been open and increasingly vigilant about pursuing the cheats and trying to make itself clean.

Cycling should be applauded rather than damned for its attitude. It is at least confronting reality, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.

Football has its head in the sand

Like cycling, cheating has long been endemic in football, whether it is the righteous indignation over Eduardo da Silva's dive, Diego Maradona's celebrated 'Hand of God' goal against England in 1986, or the common practice of systematically committing deliberate acts of cheating - such as tugging an opponent's shirt - which are technically fouls but generally deemed minor enough to escape punishment.

The authorities' success in enforcing rule changes and purging the game of cheating have been distinctly mixed. By and large, major rule changes such as outlawing back passes and tackles from behind have worked well, as has the practice of issuing a straight red card for professional fouls (not that this has stopped defenders committing them, but at least the punishment now fits the crime). However, 'cheating', which runs the whole gamut from shirt-tugging and waving imaginary cards at a referee to diving and other forms of 'simulation', remains largely ignored. And the less said the better about the complacent attitude to drug-testing, where football remains steadfastly a decade or more behind sports such as cycling or athletics.

Video technology is available to help punish the cheats - and aid match officials in making correct decisions - either during or after the fact, as it does in both codes of rugby and several other sports. But both FIFA and UEFA remain vehemently opposed to it. Go figure.

In an ideal world there would be no cheating at all. But most of us are realistic enough to know that where there are rules, then sportspeople will always push the boundaries to the very limit, and will continue to systematically commit deliberate but minor infringements to gain an advantage.

Like it or not, cheating is part and parcel of competitive sport. It can never be completely eliminated, but it can be controlled and punished. What is particularly hard to swallow, though, is when sport's dirty laundry is aired in public to do little more than damp down an outcry or to set an example, with no intention of actually addressing the underlying issue.

It is here that cycling is doing a good job in battling the cheats, backing up words with actions (and results). Football - and I cannot stress this enough - is not. Even though the evidence is there for all to see - frequently from multiple angles in super slow motion - it appears the powers that be would rather keep the C-word private, except where it is convenient and politically expedient.

The Sky's the limit?

You have to give Team Sky credit for having lofty aims. Led by David Brailsford, the mastermind behind British cycling's unprecendeted success at the Beijing Olympics, the team aims to achieve the following three-point plan:

- Create the first British winner of the Tour de France within five years
- Inspire people of all ages and abilities to get on their bikes, through the team's positive profile, attitude and success
- Add further support to competitive cycling in Great Britain

The team, one of two high profile new entrants onto the road race scene for 2010 - Lance Armstrong's Team Radio Shack being the other - has today announced its first six riders, all of whom are British.

The line-up includes Geraint Thomas, an Olympic gold medallist in the team pursuit; Chris Froome, Thomas's Barloworld teammate and a fellow veteran of the Tour de France; Russell Downing, winner of last month's Tour of Ireland; Ian Stannard, third in the 2008 Tour of Britain, who competed in his first Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia in May; Steve Cummings of Barloworld, and Peter Kennaugh of the GB Academy team.

It's a promising start. Sky will announce a further 20 or so names in the coming weeks; some may be British, although many will not.

Sky's commitment to items two and three of its three-point plan is obvious and unquestionable. The series of six city Skyrides to promote cycling among the general public - you may have seen London Mayor Boris Johnson and TV presenter/actress/model Kelly Brook promoting the London Skyride (which takes place on September 20th) yesterday - is perhaps the most visible component thus far.

However, there is still much work to be done to deliver on its ultimate aim of creating a British Tour de France winner. Which, talented though today's announced signings are, will only be achieved by the presence of a genuine marquee name.

That must surely mean that the name at the top of Brailsford and Sky's wish-list is Bradley Wiggins.

Not Mark Cavendish. The Manxman would certainly guarantee stage wins (he notched up his 23rd of the year - and 51st overall - at the Tour of Missouri yesterday) and a massive public profile for the team. But Cavendish already rides for one of the strongest squads, Columbia-HTC, in the pro peloton, is the central focus of his team, and has stated that he will not be moving for 2010. Sky may one day become Cavendish's home but I wouldn't count on it while the team's primary aim is the Tour's yellow jersey, which is incompatible with Cav's single-minded focus on winning stages and the sprinters' green jersey.

It won't be David Millar either. The 32-year-old remains a contender in individual time trials - he was second, trailing only Fabian Cancellara, in the time trial at the Vuelta A Espana last week - or for breakaway stage wins, but his days of looking to be an overall contender are long gone. He would, however, be a valuable addition to Team Sky, as he amply demonstrated at this year's Tour, where he buried himself in the service of his Garmin-Slipstream team leaders Wiggins and Christian Vande Velde. I would be very surprised if Brailsford wasn't at least asking after his availability. But Millar won't be the team's linchpin.

Which brings us back to 'Wiggo', a multiple gold medallist on the track but an unknown quantity on the road until his breakthrough at the Tour de France in July where he placed a strong fourth, equalling the best ever finish by a British rider. Before then, the prospect of even a top ten finish looked like a pipe dream, particularly when you consider that Carlos Sastre (the 2008 winner), Cadel Evans (2008 runner-up) and Denis Menchov (2009 Giro d'Italia winner) all failed to make the top ten in Paris this year.

Without Wiggins - the only Briton in more than 20 years with the combination of talent and experience to race at the sharp end throughout a three-week Grand Tour - the chances of achieving the top step of the Paris podium within the next five years are either slim (if you're wildly optimistic) or none (if you're anything else).

If Team Sky is serious about delivering a British yellow jersey winner, then extricating Wiggins from his Garmin contract must be the top - make that sole - priority. Today's announcements are a promising start, but that's all they are.

Cav brings up his half-century

If there's one thing Mark Cavendish possesses in spades, it's an immaculate sense of timing. I've written about this amazing bike rider twice in the past four days, firstly about his sadly all but non-existent chances of winning the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in December, and then heaping praise on his autobiography, 'Boy Racer'.

The Tour of Missouri kicked off yesterday, and continues to be a happy hunting ground for Cavendish. Last year he signed off his 2008 season with three stage wins and first place in the overall points classification. Yesterday he was first across the line at the end of stage one around the streets of St Louis, seeing off the challenge of J J Haedo and Thor Hushovd, and bagging a $12,500 Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the process.

It was his 22nd victory of a remarkable 2009, marking the 50th win overall of a professional career which is less than three years old.

Like the old saying about death and taxes, there are two things you can guarantee with Cav. Firstly, if he is involved in a sprint finish, put your house on him to win. (His success rate in sprints he has contested this year is close to 90%). And secondly, you can always rely on him to give good quote.

"We try to take control of the finish, we try to take control of the race. It was like a carrot on a string at the finish line."

As ever, he was quick to recognise the contribution of his team in setting up the win, making a point he repeatedly emphasises about how the hardest thing he has to deal with is not the high-stakes, high-intensity last ten seconds of a stage which is his bread and butter, but having to face his colleagues on those occasions when he doesn't deliver victory.

"I don't feel any pressure at all, it's what I enjoy doing. For sure, when I lose then it's hard. If the guys ride like they rode all day and I don't win, that's hard to deal with."

Yesterday, his post-race comments included special recognition for George Hincapie - who Cavendish calls the "grand-daddy of the team" - the grizzled, 36 year-old veteran who is leaving Columbia-HTC for the BMC team at the end of the year. Despite being Lance Armstrong's right-hand man for all seven of his Tour de France wins, Hincapie describes 2009 as one of his "most memorable" years ever.

Talking about 'Big George', Cavendish said:

"To be perfectly honest, I get really emotional about it. He's like a big brother to me. We've worked so well the last few years and he's such a big, big part of the team."

And that's Mark Cavendish for you in a nutshell. Instead of focussing on the milestone of his half-century of wins, he lavished praise on the unselfish heroes who helped him get there.

Like I said, an amazing bike rider. In more ways than one.`