The Clouds Factory

I went to the shed yesterday morning to pick up my bike, ready for my commute to work. And there it was in all its glory...the unexpected, sneaky and cynical morning puncture. I am a cyclist therefore I am a puncture repair expert. I have to be. I have been riding now for nearly seven years in the streets of London, the Surrey hills, Italian and French Alps. When I started I knew nothing about bike repairs, puncture fixing. I was given a 70s Bianchi by my uncle and it had tubs. The first time I puctured luckily it was near home, so I pushed it along the pavement all the way to my local shop. I was charged £20 and it had to be done overnight as the glue needed to set. At the second puncture I decided not to risk it anymore so I changed the wheels with clinchers I had in the shed and off I went. Inevitably I did puncture and like for anything else, took it to the shop but they asked for £10 to repair, and could I go the next day as they were busy!

Picking the best overall rider for 2011 for me is extremely hard as it has been another year of amazing performances. Mark Cavendish with the Green Jersey and World Championship, Cadel Evans with a stunning a perfectly timed Tour de France victory, Alberto Contador total control of the Giro d'Italia, Cobo's gutsy ride at the Vuelta (with Froome a deserving runner up), Voeckler with hard man of the year award (and yes Hoogerland too), Hushovd at the Tour....and so on.

Geraint Thomas Team Sky All rounder domestique who, I hope, will soon be a team captain as his skills demonstrated in the spring classics bode well for the future. Strong and fast and with an increasingly good tactical sense. Pierre Rolland Europcar An impressive Tour de France campaign has launched this rider to new heights, very strong in the inclines and vital to Voeckler's titanic performance.

Watching Cavendish at the Revolutions' meeting at the weekend was confirmation of my theory on his sprinting. He doesn't need a train to win a sprint. He shouldn't use a train to win a sprint. Cavendish took the win on the last race by going from the front and even though he wasn't in his best form he managed to keep the other riders behind him...and on track. Sure enough he would have loved a few gears to shift up but he still rotated those legs at just the right cadence to cross the line first.  At the Worlds he took the win despite, yes despite, Team GB's tactics. Yes I'm the only person in the world to think that but not ashamed to admit it and if Cav hadn't had that last kick, most would have to admit Team GB's tactics had been foolish.

There seems to be a type of person who'll always make it in high positions, be it in politics, business, religion, who have the tendency of not knowing much, being prone to gaffes and being generally clueless and obnoxious. To name a few:  Silvio Berlusconi;  George W Bush;  David Cameron;  Pat McQuaid;  Max Mosley;  Nicolas Sarkozy;  Sepp Blatter;  Vladimir Putin;  Sarah Palin They get elected and climb up the ladder of power, and more to the point they stay there for years. They behave like buffoons, constantly make gaffes and continuously display a lack of general knowledge. And they're still coming, look at the American election campaign, where the Republican candidates where having a debate and one of them (allegedly the top candidate) was unable to answer the most basic questions. Has he withdrawn? No. Why? Because people don't take notice of gaffes as a negative but find it amusing as they circle the various social networks and...

A lifetime Olympic ban for dopers is a duty. Unlike in various sports' federations, the Olympics has a specific message to deliver and allowing dopers back into the fold goes against those values. The Olympics was created with the ethos of peace and inclusion. In Ancient Greece, wars stopped for the duration of the games, enemies faced each other in healthy competitions instead of throwing weapons at each other. The purpose, to get a glimpse of equality in the eyes of the Gods, recharging and motivating patriotism by the inclusion of all. The Games have values, of freedom, peace and above all respect. It was not meant to be for professionals to take part, but money talks and professionals are invited to take part. Money has ruined the Olympics as it has created a commercial monster, aimed at companies' wealth and trade. That has brought fierce competition which has pushed doping to stellar heights to gain results. The only way to try retain the original spirit is to stop...

Arthur C. Clarke   2001 A Space Odyssey Science fiction's best novel. Complex, edgy and visionary. He wrote it before man landed on the Moon and he was so spot on on many of the dynamics of space travel. Spawned from a short novel, The Sentinel, it describes the finding of a beacon of sorts on the Moon. From there it's man against Machine against understanding... an endless quest. Ronan Bennett    The Catastrophist Love, adventure, politics, philosophy. An Irishman goes to the Congo to be with his Italian lover. He has no interest though in the deepening independence crisis of that country led by Patrice Lumumba. His business is love.