Carlton Kirby, Eurosport’s go-to man for cycling commentary, has legions of fans who tune in for his witty repartee with cycling great, Sean Kelly. Known by some as the ‘language mangler’ and for his ‘Kirbyisms’ (occasional strange musings about, not just cycling, but the very fabric of life) loyal listeners have set up a Twitter account of his humorous comments: Things Carlton Says @saidcarlton. Ride Velo went to the Eurosport headquarters in West London or as Carlton refers to it, “The Feltham Institute for Young Offenders,” to meet the man, learn what it takes to call a bunch sprint on a stage of the Tour de France and find out how to make Sean Kelly corpse on live TV.
Read MoreCycle Show NEC 2016 Top Ten
We preview the Cycle Show 2016 at Birmingham's NEC. Find out about the best road bikes being exhibited this year along with what else you must see. What are the best titanium, bamboo and e-bikes? Read about the 100% natural energy bar from Colombia, the best apparel, which speakers to catch and what books to buy...
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Tour de Yorkshire 2016
We’ve had the dramatic mountains of the Tour of the Basque Country. Last Sunday saw the Tour of Turkey pedal through that extraordinary meeting point of East and West in Istanbul. I even managed to catch a few km of the Tour of Croatia which looked beautiful and the exotic Tour of Kazakhstan is around the corner. Who else is going to get into the act? Well, today sees the 2nd edition of our very own Tour in God’s own country, the Tour de Yorkshire, from Friday 29th April to Sunday 1st May.
Get Set for the Spring Classics!
The European racing season is up and running! This weekend the curtain was raised when 199 riders set off from Ghent, the heartland of Belgian cycling, for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Crowds and a hint of warm spring sunshine along with the whiff of yeasty beer greeted the peloton packed with stars, including Peter Sagan. The reigning World Champion was part of a breakaway that the peloton was unable to reel in but he was beaten to the finish by Belgium’s own Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing.
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