Thom Van Dulmen in the Tour de Bretagne time trial held on Victoria Avenue last year

So great news, the Tour de Bretagne is returning to Jersey in April. If you missed it last time, don’t miss it again!

If you have never seen a Continental style professional cycle race you’re in for a treat. As a spectacle it’s unsurpassed, nowhere else will you see colour, noise and physical effort brought together so well.

The entourage of over 400 people arrives on the evening of 24^th April. Condor, who are one of the principal organising bodies, is running a special ferry to bring the Tour over.

On Sunday 25^thApril, the first stage, a 150 kilometres road race, will be held on the eastern side of the island with the start and finish at Gorey. There promises to be a carnival atmosphere at Gorey with various stalls and amusements, giving the place a typical Continental race- feel.

On the next day, the arena moves to St.Ouen, where the riders will ride an individual 10 kilometre time trial against the clock.

The tour sails back to France that afternoon, and the race recommences the following day with a stage that goes from Saint Malo to Saint Gildas des Bois. The tour winds up on the 1^St May with a stage between Iffendic and Dinan.

Braking News

Shimano unveils new 11 speed Alfine hub gear
Following in the tracks of the popular Alfine 8, Shimano have just unveiled a new 11 speed Alfine hub gear. This one has lots of advantages over its predecessor, and it’s not just a few more gears! As one would expect the new hub has a wider range of gears than the old Alfine 8, in fact the new hub has been completely redesigned from the ground up. It uses a helical gear system that runs in an oil bath. Service intervals have been lengthened: oil changes are as simple as sucking the old oil out with a syringe and refilling with new oil using the same gadget.

The gears are selected using a Rapid Fire type gear shifter and are said to be smooth and easy.

Are you a high mileage rider?
If you think that you can compete with the best, that’s to say you’ve already logged more than 300,000, yes that’s 300,000 miles in your lifetime then contact Graham Kelly, secretary of the 300,000 Mile Club. If you qualify, you’re in good company. The top banana at the moment is 72-year-old Chris Davies, who had cycled 906,000 miles over a 60 year period. Mr. Davies has kept a record of all his mileage in an exercise book that he bought when he started. Tenth place in the mileage stakes goes to 76-year-old, George Hugill, whose log book records 994 hours at an average speed of 14MPH.

Have gun – Will travel (by bike)
After recent events at a bike shop in Isaaquah, in Washington, in the United States, there are obviously great health benefits in selling downmarket bikes.  After casing the shop the previous day, to check out how easy it was to move bikes on show and to enquire which were the most expensive, a man returned to the shop and attempted to make off with a $11,000 Pinarello Dogma.

When he was approached by a salesman, he produced a gun, pushed the assistant out of the way and ran off with the bike.

Sprint Bonuses

• Comedian David Walliams is due to ride John O’Groats to Land’s End in a bid to raise £1 million for Sport Relief. Riding with him, although I suspect not all the way, will be Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Russell Howard, Patrick Kielty and Davina McCall.
• Shimano have just released a new 105 groupset. It’s available in either black or silver, and incorporates several features taken from the higher Ultegra groupset of 2009.
• British team; Team Sky have recently won the opening time trial in the Tour of Qatar.
• Do you remember my piece about the Etape Caledonia a few weeks ago? That was the event that was marred by someone spreading thousands of carpet tacks on the route. Well it hasn’t put riders off by any means, over 4,500 cyclists have already signed up to ride the event in May. This is a 50% increase on last year’s entry.
• Giant has opened a fourth dedicated Giant only shop in Twickenham. This follows stores being opened in Bristol, Liverpool and Cambridge

And Finally,

Italian cyclo-cross rider, Vania Rossi, has been suspended from racing since being tested positive for the performance enhancing drug CERA in January. Rossi categorically denies using the drug, saying that she is still breast-feeding her six-month-old son, and she wouldn’t want to jeopardise his health.

Her partner, Riccardo Ricco returns to racing in March, after serving a 20 month ban for using the same substance during the 2008 Tour de France.

Arthur Lamy is a freelance writer who has written books, guides and articles for, among others, IPC Media, Ottaker’s Bookshops, Seaflower Books and Jersey Tourism.

He is a Blue Badge qualified tourist guide specializing in cycling and walking tours.

He is also a keen photographer – Joint winner of the 2009 Jersey Telecoms ‘Front Page’ competition.

More information can be found on his website: www.arthurlamy.com