The Lance Armstrong Witch Hunt

The rain is back; well I suppose it is a bank holiday.

Eventually we give up sheltering from it and take the tent down in the rain. The rain turns out to be not as bad as it sounds once you’re out in it but it was a good excuse for a lie in. Then we head off to find breakfast.

Everywhere seems shut; well I suppose it is a bank holiday.

Eventually we have breakfast at around 1pm in a branch of Booths in Garstang. Then home to catch up with the Vuelta and the Lance Armstrong saga.

I don't like Lance Armstrong and I don't think he's innocence. I mean how could anybody defeat all the top cyclists in the world, for seven years in a row, and not only defeat them but also defeat all the top performance enhancing drugs in the world that these top cyclists have pretty much all freely admitted (eventually) that they were on.

Drugs or not, Armstrong was still the best rider in those races because he won on a playing field levelled by those drugs. I suppose it’s possible, but unlikely, that he had better drugs than the others. Maybe he was just the better athlete. Sure it's frustrating for anybody who was clean but reality means they almost certainly finished well outside the top twenty.

Stripping him of his seven titles is just pointless. Who does that leave as winners of those Tours? The confessed dopers Jan Ulrich, Alex Zulle, Joseba Beloki and Ivan Basso, that’s who. Along with the deeply suspicious Andreas Kloden.

It’s time to draw a line under this all this and move on. As Armstrong says, it’s now simply a witch-hunt. This is all ancient history. We have new heroes now.

(Monday 27th August)

A Bit Of Variation

More rain over night. Apparently they considered cancelling Sunday’s events at the dog show and again consider cancelling today’s programme. Which would have made the weekend quite literally a total washout for us.

Quite a few people have quit of their own accord and gone home, their caravans towed off site by the local farmer’s tractor. Most of the stalls seem to have gone too. Lightweights. Yes it’s wet but this is Lancashire, it’s almost Cumbria and they’re well used to rain up there.

The decreasing number of competitors means an increasing opportunity to win something with MD. If only he can keep the poles up. If only. Five runs; one pole down in four of them. In the fifth, for a bit of variation, we come out the weaves instead. Although that may well have been my fault but he’s taking the blame for everything else. It’s a shame because, mostly, we’re blindingly quick as is shown by the fact MD still gets rosettes for 13th and 14th despite having faults.

It’s left to Doggo to save the day. Two runs, two 8th places. One was so good I was tempted to retire him at the end of it. It would have been such a good run to go out on. I was surprised it only got us 8th but sadly we’re not as quick as we once were. In fact we were 0.427 of a second outside the course time of 34 seconds. But I ask you, who sets a course time of 34 seconds! 35 yes, 30 maybe but 34! I think they saw us coming.

After which we head home, via Stoke to collect Son, to a home with no gas boiler. So no hot bath on our return. Instead I catch up with La Vuelta a España, the cycling Tour Of Spain, that a terrestrial TV station has decided to cover for the first time.


Well done ITV4. The coverage is a bit cobbled together and not as slick as their Tour De France coverage but they seem to be learning on their feet and it improves every day. Today was the time trial, where after riding consistently for the first nine days Bradley Wiggins was lurking in 13th with a real chance of taking the race lead today.

He rides well and sets the third fastest time, which isn’t quite enough to take the race lead but places him handily in third. The new race leader is, amazingly, Wiggins’ Sky teammate, fellow Brit, Chris Froome. Who has a superb ride. So Brits in first and third. It’s going to be cracking last ten days or so.

(Monday 29th August)