Vos puts on a show! GP de Plouay 2012

The GP will consist of five laps of the red route
(click to enlarge)

25.08 Official site
France, 135km, UCI CDM (final round, Women's World Cup)

Plouay is a four-day festival of cycling. It begins on Thursday 23rd of August with a farmers' market and a BMX event; Friday 24th offers the open-to-the-public Cyclo Morbihan in which 3,358 people took part last year, a race for journalists and the senior's race. Saturday 25th has the Women's World Cup round and Sunday 26th has the legendary GP Ouest-France for Elite Men.

↓↓↓Starters, race report, results↓↓↓

The UCI announced in March this year that it had confirmed the GP de Plouay's status as a Women's World Cup venue until 2016, and it's not hard to see why - it's always been a fantastically well-organised event with enough going on to keep the huge crowds that show up to watch happy. With a selection of music, food, drink and all sorts of other entertainments going on in addition to the racing, it attracts a wide range of people, even many with no real interest in the sport who are simply looking for a good day out. It all comes together to form a superb showcase for cycling, and this year was no different - Plouay isn't the easiest place to get to in France and the weather forecast was decidedly unfavourable, but still hundreds of thousands of fans turned out to watch some of the top female riders in the world.

In these times when numerous women's races are having to scale down as sponsors pull out or, as has happened with too many events already, vanish forever, Plouay has been growing. Last year, it consisted of six laps of a 19.1km circuit to make a total of 114.6km; this year riders will complete five laps of 27km to make 135km. It helps that the race takes place in Brittany, the heartland of French cycling, but it's also indication that the organisers know the formula for getting things right. Nevetheless, not all the riders liked the look of the new pacours - Lizzie Armitstead (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) had said she preferred the older one, but the changes seemed popular overall with riders and fans.

Start list - click to enlarge. It says "finale," but as always in women's cycling the results list after the race may contain a very different set of names.

The Race
The GP de Plouay and GP Ouest-France are Plouay's main claim to fame, so the road upon which it begins has been named the Boulevard des Championnats du Monde. It lies just outside the town and a little way to the north of the velodrome with a hard-surfaced area set aside specifically for the team vehicles and race infrastructure; the initial 500m is straight, slopes slightly downhill and tends to encourage the sort of spectacularly fast start that those spectators who were fortunate enough to find space on the raised grassy area along the northern edge of the road got to see today. A number of serious contenders took immediate control, getting into prime positions at the front of the pack even before the gentle right and left bends that carried them past what may the world's ugliest Carrefour (quite an achievement, it has to be said), then, 0.75km from the start, into the first corner and onto the D2. The corner is 90 degrees but reasonably wide and fast; with several shops and industrial units nearby it looked to be the sort of junction that frequently suffers from fuel spillages but fortunately it seemed to be a lot less hazardous than expected.

Riders followed the D2 for 0.52km with the road beginning to climb the Cote du Lezot, gradient around 7% in several places . There was a roundabout near the end, then some 60m later the second corner leading left onto the Rue du Moulin, which traveled uphill for 220m to a tight right corner onto the D178 (there's a nice view over Plouay looking south from the little white cottage on the junction, which the riders never got a chance to see as they were going the opposite way).  The D178 headed straight into a wide left-hand bend with forest to the right, then to the 140m summit of the Cote du Lezot just after a footbridge over the road and shortly before a gentle right-hander - there is another raised section to the left of the road, an ideal place from which to watch the race. 0.75km after the footbridge, they arrived at a junction and turned left towards the village of Kerscoulic 1km away (note the several rather non-French-sounding placenames in the area - Brittany is to France as Wales is to England and has its own distinct Celtic culture, traditions and language). The road climbed for a short way just after the junction, then descended before a very small climb to the village.

Profile - click to enlarge

 At the far end of the village, the road bent gently left and then right before it passed Questenen Plaine along a 0.61km straight section which descended for most of its length, then kicked up at the very end before the junction with the D110 (shown on the route map as the D10). Just after the third bend, the riders arrived at a roundabout (Le Pont Neuf) and followed the road to the right to continue along the D110. The roundabout marked the lowest point between the Cotes du Lezot and the Chapelle Ste. Anne des Bois, meaning that as soon as they'd passed it they began to climb again - and they continued to climb for the next 6.9km as they followed the course of the Le Scorff river  through the Foret Domaniale de Pont-Calleck (if you ever have a holiday in Brittany, make time to visit the Moulin de Coat-Cren around 1.5km along the D110 from the roundabout - Virginie, Les Déesses' locally-born guide to all things Breton, says it's one of the most beautiful sights in the region).

The Chapelle Ste. Anne, just west of Pont Callec, looks exactly like a scaled-down model of a grand Baroque cathedral with only three windows along each side. Anne is the patron saint of - among many other things - lost objects; riders who suffered on the climb to reach her chapel and had been losing hope may find it again half a kilometre further on where the parcours flattened out for 4km as it passed Poulgroix, then descended for the next four. 5.1km from the Chapelle, the race arrived at a junction with the D204, within sight of the Le Pont Neuf roundabout negotiated earlier.

Château de Manehouarn, Plouay; as seen on a million
jigsaws, postcards and boxes of chocolates

The D204 section was fairly flat and straight, offering an opportunity for those who may have conceded time on the climbs to try to win it back before the final Cote de Ty Marrec. At the end, the riders came to a junction and turned left onto the D769 - one of the main routes through the region and into Plouay, it has little of the rural charm found along some of the earlier roads. Fortunately, after around 0.15km (which takes them past the 5km to go point), the riders turned right onto the smaller Pont le Bris road leading for 1.6km past a lake and through forest before rejoining the main road. There was a sharp left-hand turn in the forest after 1.2km, marking the beginning of the Cote de Ty Marrec climb, and the reason the organisers had directed the race away from the D769 was to take in Minojehn du Calvaire, just after the left-hander - it climbed 45m in around 0.4km and was the steepest section of the entire parcours, surpassing 10% (in fact, it looks to be nearer 15% at the steepest part). It must have been an unbearable prospect for those riders who don't the hills, lurking near the end of every lap.

After rejoining the D769, riders faced another 0.3km of much gentler climbing followed by a flat 0.45km to the 3km to go point then 1.5km downhill, at the end of which they needed to scrub off speed to be able to negotiate a sharp left turn leading via a right turn 0.17km later back onto the D110. The 1km to go point lay 0.15km ahead, just around a sweeping left bend; then it was downhill all the way back to the start/finish line.

The first hour passed without notable incident other than a puncture for Marianne Vos, but with the assistance of her strong Rabobank team she was returned to the front of the race in no time at all. Speeds remained relatively sedate during the first couple of laps as the riders tested the roads to see what sort of speeds they'd be able to safely sustain around the corners later on and tried out new lines; but after 1h05' a split had formed - 55 riders were starting to open up a gap between themselves and the remainder, and the pace was already picking up. It wasn't much longer before some riders bridged and others fell back, the numbers changing to 45 and 30; the leaders were then whittled down to ten in the penultimate lap. During the final lap, the lead group was reduced further, down to a trio made up of Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-GreenEDGE), Elisa Longo-Borghini (Hitec-Mistral) and Vos, all of them sufficiently strong that the competition looked certain to have been slashed to three contenders. Their 35" advantage had almost doubled four minutes later, then doubled again over the next ten minutes, remaining at 2' as they climbed Ty-Marrec for the final time towards the 4km to go point.

Marianne Vos: 2012 Olympic
champion and winner of the
World Cup. World Champs
next? Very possibly - it seems
there's no race she can't win
eventually!

Vos doesn't always win (though it sometimes feels like it) and she's lost out in a few sprints this season. She also didn't need to win today, because the race offered 75 points to the winner whereas she started with an 84 point lead on second-place Judith Arndt's 176 in the World Cup so she may as well have already had that trophy on her mantlepiece, but Plouay was one of the increasingly small number of races she had never won. So, she rode to the utmost of her ability and put in superhuman effort to cross the line so fast her tyres were probably beginning to melt, her determination and sheer power driving 35" wedge between herself and Cromwell. When a rider puts in a show like that (and with that look of pure happiness that she still has each and every time she wins) who could ever tire of watching her take another victory? The takeover of Nederland-Bloeit by Rabobank earlier this year was predicted to put Vos into a position from which she would dominate competition, but there have been a few times when it looked as though the 25-year-old was simply too good for the team to be able to keep up and help when she needed it - directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens says that he picked a new squad for Plouay, and it looks as though he's found the combination that his champion needs. Perhaps 2013 will, therefore, be the year that she tops Eddy Merckx's record season total of 56 victories?

Cromwell took 50 points for second place and Longo-Borghini earned 35 for third, finishing 4" later. First of the remainder and 2'40" behind Vos for 30 points was European Under-23 ITT Champion Anna Vanderbreggen, who is having a superb season with Sengers after a couple of quiet years; Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) recorded the same time and took 27 points for fifth place.

Result
Top Ten
1. Marianne Vos (Rabobank) 3h39'45"
2. Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-GreenEDGE) +35
3. Elisa Longo-Borghini (Hitec-Mistral) +39
4. Anna Vanderbreggen (Sengers) +2:40
5. Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) +2:40
6. Luisa Tamanini (Faren-Honda) +2:43
7. Fabiana Luperini (Faren-Honda) +4:09
8. Trixi Worrack (Specialized-Lululemon) +4:09
9. Marta Tafliaferro (Mcipollini-Giambenini) +4:09
10. Judith Arndt (Orica-GreenEDGE) +4:09
Full results


TV/Video
Eurosport 2 will be showing footage from Plouay at 19:30 on Saturday the 25th in the United Kingdom; but the half-hour show will be shared with reports on the amateur race and other events and, as a result, the time devoted to the women's race is likely to be very short.

Photos: Vos (MarieTiburce)

Other Sites 
The legendary Gwéna, queen of women's cycling reporting, has an interesting post on the differences between this edition and 2011.
Monty at Podium Cafe has a guide which will be especially worth keeping an eye upon for the comments added during the race.
With a bit of luck, Meredith Miller will be writing one of her always-excellent reports after the race, bringing us news from within the peloton.
Tiffany Cromwell of Orica-GreenEDGE has a pre-race report.

Energiewacht Tour 2012 Stages 4a and 4b

Stage 4a - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 4a (Saturday 7th) both starts and ends at Winsum, a town sometimes termed the treasure of the north according to the Tour website - with two traditional Dutch mills and what is reputed to be The Netherlands' oldest pub (Der Gouden Karper) set among quintessentially Dutch countryside.

The parcours leaves Winsom to the north, travelling up to Baflo and then taking a long, fast loop west and south-west to Mensingeweer. Next, it heads east along a road called the Wildeveldseweg (which must sound fantastic in a Dutch accent). Just visible to the south-west from this point is Ezinge, the oldest continually-inhabited village in the country.

The terp at Ezinge, the Netherland's oldest village
(image credit: Ruben Binnendijk CC BY-SA 3.0)

Long before the ancient tribes who would become the Dutch worked out how to drain the boggy landscape, they would create artificial islands upon which to live (now known as terps and, since drainage, resembling low hills) - the example at Ezinge is still evident and is now occupied by the village's 13th Century church. During the early 20th Century, worked who dug peat for fuel began finding strange objects that were obviously of great age in the area, soon attracting the attention of archaeologists who found many more - including Roman artifacts and part of a sword almost identical to another dicovered at the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Great Britain. By dating the objects, they determined that people have lived in Ezinge since at least 600BCE, making it among the oldest continually-inhabited villages anywhere in Europe. The riders will complete five laps of the route, which should allow Ezinge to be seen even if there is early morning mist, bringing them up to a total of 76.6km.

Stage 4b, the team time trial, takes place on Saturday afternoon and covers 26.5km, beginning at Veendam some way off to the south-east from 4a. After beginning in the centre of the town on JG Pinksterstraat (53° 6'19.91"N 6°52'27.74"E), the teams pass through the streets and cross the canal, then the N33 motorway as they head into the flat fields. A route made up of fast straights punctuated with 25 bends and corners will make for a fast stage, but one in which a slower rider could very easily be dropped off the back of the squad and never find her way back. When they arrive at Oude Pekela, they follow Feiko Clockstraat into town, then turn left to arrive at the finish on Raadhuislaan (53° 6'17.39"N 7° 0'24.65"E).

Stage 4b - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Marianne Vos has pointed out that Stage 4b is likely to prove the pivotal point in the campaign of any rider - including herself - who hopes to win this race, because a race leader's General Classification advantage can very rapidly be wiped out by a slow team. For fans and rivals, this is our first opportunity to see how well the Rabobank Women's team, which was formed with the express intention of supporting Vos, performs under team time trial race conditions; making this stage one of the most important races so far this season.


Cyclopunk's prediction: GreenEDGE take the stage, but with an insufficient advantage to knock Marianne off the top spot in the GC

Weather: The riders face a chilly start to the day - it's currently only 4C at Baflo, and with a northerly wind of 25kph it feels more like -2C, possibly -4C in exposed places. At present, it's raining lightly - it should dry up later, but further showers are likely. Veendam looks set to be similar, though afternoon temperatures of 7C will at least feel above freezing though not by much, perhaps 3C.

As ever, the best way to get information during the race is by following the official Twitter @ewacttour, hashtag #EWT12 and @richiesteege. Local TV RTL7 is broadcasting a short highlights show daily: Stage 4a will be shown at 14:45 BST (+1 hour for local time/CEST), Stage 4b will be shown along with Stage 5 tomorrow at the same time.

Stage 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a-4b / 5 / Guide / Video Vault

Energiewacht Tour Stage 3

Stage 3 - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiewacht Tour)

Stage 3 (Friday 6th) consists of six laps of an 18.4km circuit  around the Oldambtmeer lake (53°10'16.18"N 7° 1'31.82"E). It begins on Hoofdstraat by a church (53°11'40.37"N 7° 0'36.38"E), then heads briefly south before rounding the southern edge of the water. At 800 hectares, Oldambtmeer is one of the largest lakes in the Netherlands and is completely artificial, having been created as part of an environmentally sustainable project that includes Blauwestad, a new village designed specifically to encourage bicycle use - since the Dutch in the rest of the country are already well and truly in love with the bike, it seems likely that the locals here are going to turn out in huge numbers to see the race.

Kirsten Wild
(image credit: AA Drink-Leontien.nl)

After passing between the two smaller lakes on the western side, the riders follow the road along the southern banks and then turn north onto the N967. They arrive at Oostwold and then head west along Huningaweg, back to Hoofdstraat and on to the finish line located at the same point they started. It's another very flat parcours, with a straight and slightly downhill initial section that will promote fast starts and, as was the case yesterday, encourage breaks - if a group of favourites forms in the early part of the race again, they could easily dominate the race. If they don't, expect attacks aplenty from the lesser-known riders - and a concerted effort from the big guns as they pull them back in the final lap.

Marianne Vos (Rabobank) prefers a twistier parcours but since she excels on any route, chances are she'll retain and probably increase her General Classification lead today. The stage will in all likelihood finish with a large group crossing the line together, which means that with  the 2.5km, ever-so-slightly uphill final section between Oostwold and the church it'll be the powerful sprinters such as Lizzie Armitstead and Kirsten Wild (both AA Drink-Leontien.nl) who are the ones to watch.

Note: Oldambtmeer is an important nature reserve - if you're fortunate enough to be at the race or to have access to footage, look out for the spoonbills which nest in the reeds at this time of year.

The weather's not looking bad for the stage with sunshine expected for at least part of the day. However, there's a reasonably high chance of light showers and although it won't be windy the temperature as the race begins will feel cold at 6C. Maximum temperature today will be about 9C.

Follow the official race Twitter @ewachttour for details during each stage and information on the race. Local TV RTL7 is broadcasting a short highlights show daily, today's edition being at 16:45 BST (+1 hour for local time/CEST).

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Energiewacht Tour 2012 Video Vault

Here.

Energiewacht Tour

The first women's stage race of the European season, Energiwacht Tour begins on Wednesday the 4th of April at Appingdam in  Groningnen. It's not an especially well-known race outside the Netherlands and the world of women's cycling; however, since it brings together the very cream of the crop for six stages (one split), it ought to be: the 2011 edition, won by Adrie Visser, was one of the highlights of the season. Take a look at the placings - with riders such as those finishing in the top 20, it was top-notch racing all the way.

Fast and furious - last year's edition

This year, the race has grown to five days - a promising sign in these times when so many races are disappearing for lack of sponsorship or, worse, interest. There's not much in the way of hills in this part of the world (in fact, at a few points along the way the riders will be below sea level), which makes some people think the race will be boring. That couldn't be further from the truth - flat stages such as these promote breakaways and attacks, leading to a fast and furious sort of race, and with a large field of well-matched riders we can expect some very exciting competition. In the final stage, we're likely to see a different sort of racing in which good team trial tactics work well: it's a parcours made up of several very long, very straight and very fast sections where the best plan is also the simplest - stick with the team, get your head down and concentrate on turning the pedals. A full list of the teams and riders (subject to change - Martine Bras and Irene van den Broek definitely won't be there) is available here.

So, unless you only like mountains, this race pretty much has everything covered. Unfortunately, there seems to be no live coverage of the race but video may appear online after each stage - if it does, it'll be added to the daily stage reports on this blog. Local TV station RTL7 has some limited coverage, details can be found at the bottom of this article.

The Stages

Stage 1 - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 1 (Wednesday 6th) is a 15.1km individual time trial heading west out of Appingdam (53°19'13.91"N 6°50'48.52"E) and through the flat pastureland to Garrelsweer (53°18'48.25"N  6°47'0.82"E) where it turns east to head back, following the canal past some grand country houses. With good roads and no hills, it promises to be a very fast parcours indeed - definitely territory for the time trial specialists.

Stage 2 - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 2 (Thursday 7th) starts and ends at Bad Nieuweschans (53°10'60.00"N 7°11'60.00"E). It takes us further out into the countryside, covering 107.3km over four circuits of the route and making a sortie over the border into Germany. Once again, there are no hills, which makes this an ideal parcours for a breakaway - a group of fast riders who manage to get away early on and keep going might just succeed in escaping the peloton for the rest of the race, but with the flat run to the finish they'll have their work cut out for them as the stage reaches its climax.

Stage 3 - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 3 (Friday 6th) consists of six laps of an 18.4km circuit  around the Oldambtmeer lake (53°10'16.18"N 7° 1'31.82"E). It begins on Hoofdstraat by a church (53°11'40.37"N 7° 0'36.38"E), then heads briefly south before rounding the southern edge of the lake. When at the eastern end, they turn north and follow the N967 to Oostwold and then west along Huningaweg, back to Hoofdstraat and on to the finish line located at the same point they started. It's another very flat parcours, with a straight and slightly downhill initial section that will promote fast starts and encourage breaks. If they don't, expect attacks aplenty - especially in the last lap as the riders try to gain an upper hand before it's too late.

Stage 4a - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 4a (Saturday 7th) both starts and ends at Winsum, a town sometimes termed the treasure of the north according to the Tour website - with two traditional Dutch mills and what is reputed to be The Netherlands' oldest pub (Der Gouden Karper) set among quintessentially Dutch countryside. The parcours leaves Winsom to the north, travelling up to Baflo and then taking a long, fast loop west and south-west to Mensingeweer. Next, it heads east along a road called the Wildeveldseweg (which must sound fantastic in a Dutch accent). Just visible to the south-west from this point is Ezinge, the oldest continually-inhabited village in the country. Long before the ancient tribes who would become the Dutch worked out how to drain the boggy landscape, they would create artificial islands upon which to live (now known as terps and, since drainage, resembling low hills) - the example at Ezinge is still evident and is now occupied by the village's 13th Century church. During the early 20th Century, worked who dug peat for fuel began finding strange objects that were obviously of great age in the area, soon attracting the attention of archaeologists who found many more - including Roman artifacts and part of a sword almost identical to another dicovered at the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Great Britain. By dating the objects, they determined that people have lived in Ezinge since at least 600BCE, making it among the oldest continually-inhabited villages anywhere in Europe. The riders will complete five laps of the route, which should allow Ezinge to be seen even if there is early morning mist, bringing them up to a total of 76.6km.

Stage 4b - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 4b takes place on Saturday afternoon, a 26.5km team time trial located at Veendam some way off to the south-east from 4a. After beginning in the centre of the town on JG Pinksterstraat (53° 6'19.91"N 6°52'27.74"E), the teams pass through the streets and cross the canal, then the N33 motorway as they head into the flat fields. A route made up of fast straights punctuated with 17 right-angled bends and corners will make for a fast stage, but one in which a slower rider could very easily be dropped off the back of the squad and never find her way back. When they arrive at Oude Pekela, they follow Feiko Clockstraat into town, then turn left to arrive at the finish on Raadhuislaan (53° 6'17.39"N 7° 0'24.65"E).

Stage 5 - click to enlarge
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 5 (Sunday 8th) covers 103.3km in total with riders completing three laps of a parcours made up of numerous long, flat stretches with sharp bends between them - not dissimilar to an extended version of Stage 4b, in fact, and almost a stage for a sprinter. The riders set out from the museum in Fraeylemaborg along a street lined with the sort of houses that in the USA are called Dutch Colonial (and here, presumably, "Dutch") and then almost immediately comes to a tight and, by the looks of it, potentially slippery left corner - with the peloton still closely packed just metres from the start, this is a point with an obvious likelihood of accidents. A road called Schlocterdiep leads to a village, Denemarken, and over a canal into a short twisty section before arriving at Eemskanaal. From this point, the route is almost entirely arrow-straight and pancake flat (well, near enough - according to Aerodata International Surveys there are a number of "hills" as high as 80cm along the way!) - this is the sort of road where clever tactics make little difference and everything comes down to which rider, or more likely which team since this is ideal territory for drafting, can ride the fastest. With the left turn at the end out of the way, the remainder of the circuit is formed of a pair of long, fast U shaped roads leading through Harkstede and to the finish line, which is 16.6km away where the stage began.

Predictions

2011 winner Adrie Visser, now riding for Skil-1t4i
(image credit: Highroad Sports)

At this end of the race, it seems hard to see past Rabobank, probably the most well-drilled team in women's cycling right now - especially since the team reported on Tuesday afternoon that Marianne Vos has recovered from the illness that kept her away from the Ronde van Vlaanderen and will be back for this race. We've seen that this is a parcours that favours attacks and sprints, and when it comes down to transmitting sheer power through the chain and back wheel into the road, Vos is without equal. Rabo hasn't put all its eggs in one musette, either - should Vos be forced to abandon, Iris Slappendel and Annemiek van Vleuten are more than capable of taking the race. AA Drink-Leontien.nl are a squad worth watching too, as would be any team that was sending both lightning fast Lizzie Armitstead and Kirsten Wilde. Specialized-Lululemon have Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, another experienced rider who specialises in power, and Clara Hughes - anyone who rememebers Hughes' spectacular solo break at the Copenhagen World Championships will not be surprised if she picks up points and perhaps even a stage win. GreenEDGE have been on a winning streak since the start of the season and with Loes Gunnewijk (second place last year) and Judith Arndt onboard, that state of affairs may continue. Nicole Cooke of Faren-Honda is another rider who is very good at riding bikes very fast - she too is likely to do well. Finally, Skil-1t4i, the team led by last year's winner Adrie Visser.

To sum up, Vos is top choice (just as she is in any race, regardless of the terrain); but there are numerous riders who will chase her all the way - and when conditions are right, each of them is capable of performing exceptionally well.

RTL7 coverage

Note times are CET - minus 1 hour for BST
(image credit: Energiwacht Tour)

Stage 1 / 2 / 3 / 4a-4b / 5 / Guide / Video Vault

Women's Cycling on the BBC

Very little cycling is shown on television - ITV4 shows the Grand Tours and, sometimes, highlights of other events while Eurosport and Sky 4 show a few bits and pieces throughout the year. Women's cycling, as might be expected, is virtually ignored.

That's why all of us with any interest in it whatsoever need to press the red button on our remote controls at 19:00 on Saturday the 18th of February, as the BBC are broadcasting the Women's Sprint live from the World Track Championships in London. Not only will there be some top-notch racing (and track sprints are very fast indeed), it's also a rare opportunity for fans to deliver an unmissable message to the broadcasters that there are far more of us out here who want to see this sort of thing on our screens than they realise.

Like any organisation, commercial or otherwise, the BBC exists because there is a demand for it. For that reason, they try to show programmes that people will watch - let's show them that there's an untapped source of healthy viewing figures out here, ready for them to exploit.

Who's who at the Track World Cup

Bikes on the Box: all the cycling on British TV this week