Cheating doesn't have to be HI-tech

After a long day in the saddle on Monday in training for the End to End, there were two time trials in the week to contend with. Normally I am filled with anxiety before the start of a club event, call it performance anxiety. Unfortunately there isn't a blue diamond pill i can take to help. Tuesday night was the Hilly 20 and with the thought in the back of my mind that I wouldn't do well after a big day previously. Surprisingly i posted my best time and felt really good, and this carried onto Thursday night when i was again feeling good and going well. Having just caught my minute man on the Thwing 13.7mile course, I suffered a puncture and posted a DNF!! No matter how much money you spend on your carbon fibre, light weight finely tuned bike, you are at the mercy of a thin piece of rubber holding the air in!

 Talking of Tuesday nights Hilly20, there is a stewards enquiry in to the results. Cheating takes many forms,hi tech blood doping, EPO, underweight bikes, secret training dressed in black clothes etc etc. At a more mundane level the ungentlemanly conduct is much more subtle, much more low tech. It has been discovered that one of the top riders had an aide shouting out split times at various points around the course. Did this give him an unfair advantage? Well the bloke won by a slender three seconds from Martin, that was after the dodgy rider had been out for 150miles the day before. The definition of cheating  is complicated but it boils down to giving an unfair advantage. Surely a candidate for the Superman pants, you decide, please comment