Still in professional ranks, Ben Kersten is apparently lining up against Mark French to finalise spots for Beijing at the local track here in Melbourne, DISC.

To keep things even French took a tumble in training recently, nearly breaking his clavicle.

BK had this retort to the fairytale the driver concocted after attempting to kill the Coluzzi ride in one swift move.

"I'm not a cyclists hater, I'm not nothing," Jason told Macquarie Radio this morning.

"I was just driving along and I had a car failure and now I'm in trouble - I dunno."

Jason said his car was both petrol and gas powered and an engine problem occurred as he was overtaking the pack of cyclists, who were in the roadway's left-hand lane.

"I've got in front of, overtaken all of the cyclists, and while I'm sorta in the middle lane ... another car in front of me has slowed down.

"I've accelerated to get into the left lane - and I just got a car two days that is a gas and petrol thing - and it backfired, the airbox popped."

Jason said his car "stalled", forcing him to pull up partly in the emergency lane and partly in the left-hand lane.

"I've pulled over, I had time to put my hazard lights on, put it into park, go to start it in petrol, half a dozen maybe 15 cyclists rode past me, and then all of a sudden one or two went bang bang into the back of my car," he said.

Jason said he switched the car from gas to petrol and it started. His girlfriend was also in the car and they drove off as dozens of cyclists surrounded his car.

"[They were] all looking at me like I'm an idiot and calling me names," he said.

"I thought, 'I'm not getting out of the car with 50 blokes wanting to hit me.' I just drove off."

Jason said he had spoken to police at 9pm yesterday and they had photographed some marks on his car.

Injured rider Ben Kersten rang the station immediately afterwards and said Jason was a liar.

"Mate, you're a lying dog. You are a liar and you are going to get caught for it," he said, while Jason remained on the line.

"You were doing 60 kilometres an hour and then stopped to zero ... what you did was ridiculous.

"Who takes off after they accidentally cause such damage - who isn't remorseful?"

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Last bit of pro pularva.



La Paz's velodrome is one I haven't ridden.

I did ride at high altitude in the Andes on a 50lb MTB and the combination of thin air and thick tubing nearly killed me on the climbs.

Read about another mad Scot who gives as much as he gets.

Scottish track racer Chris Hoy had flown to La Paz, Bolivia to attempt to break world kilometre record, held by Arnaud Tournant of France, on 13 May 2007. Unfortunately conditions didn't play in the big Scot's favour and he missed out on the record by five thousands of a second. However, Hoy smashed the 500m world record by over a second.

The organising team had spent six days in Bolivia setting up the attempt and during this time was acutely aware of the differences between the opportunities available to young cyclists in Great Britain and those open to cyclists in one of the poorest countries in South America.

On his return from breaking the record, Hoy set about contacting some of the companies who helped support his record attempt to see if there was anything that could be done to help.

DHL, who shipped 1,000 kilograms of equipment to La Paz for the attempt agreed that they would make available a container – and if Hoy could fill it, they would ship it. This was all the incentive Hoy needed to set about kitting up the young cyclists he had met on his trip.

A few phone calls and favours later and Hoy had managed to secure 22 track bikes from Dolan Cycles, the company who builds his own track bikes. Helmets, tools, shoes and spares all came courtesy of Halfords, who in March announced their sponsorship of the Great Britain Cycling Team.

Cane Creek supplied a set of carbon fibre race wheels and on May 12, a day before the anniversary of his record attempts, Hoy was packing up the kit to send courtesy of DHL to Bolivia. He was helped to pack the truck by young cyclists from the Manchester Velodrome, all of whom have attended the DHL Sprint School.

Hoy has successfully managed to secure bikes, kit, equipment and spares that will enable young people from all over La Paz to go along to the velodrome. The supplies mean that children can just turn up in nothing more than the clothes they are wearing and experience what it's like to ride the track. Hoy now hopes this opportunity will give the youngsters the experience he enjoyed growing up in Scotland.

"I remember my first time on Meadowbank track and how much fun it was," Hoy said. "I just felt that it was unfair that so many of these kids lived near this amazing track but would never get the chance to ride it on a proper bike or with proper safety equipment.

"It's something I take for granted that I had a bike as a kid and look what it's done for me," he added. "After my experience at the velodrome in La Paz I really wanted to give something back to this amazing place, and with the help of DHL, Dolan, Halfords and Cane Creek, that's exactly what I've been able to do."

Evidence that not ALL pro's are like Lance

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Who does your hair?

It was hard to gather from the mash of words and images from MP what exactly happened but I think they are also pushing the good word of the helmet.




MASI GUY had this to add


'This overgrown disposable coffee cup is THE reason I am alive and not paralyzed as well'


Suffice to say you've gotta be puffin muffin's NOT to wear a helmet.

Right?









I look at this and rotate my neck in every direction and breathe a HEAVY sigh of relief. You should do the same.

WEAR A HELMET

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Commuter Wars.

Stolen from Blakey.

I had an amusing encounter with a cyclist this morning. Cruising along into work I'm passed by a chick on a Bianchi road bike. Shortly afterward a pedestrian is crossing the road, there's no car traffic alongside us and the chick screams at the ped "OIII GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!".

I, on the other hand, had just swung into the car lane and continued past commenting "You don't have to be so rude", as it wasn't as if the ped had jumped out in front of her. She then let fly with a torrent of abuse that went something like; "F**K YOU! On your pink bike! Get a real colour! F**K OFF!".

I continued riding, she eventually passed me just before we ended up stopped at some lights when she treated me to "Couldn't keep up, on your PINK BIKE!". I asked her if she'd gotten up on the wrong side of bed and told her it's only commuting, nothing to get worked up over to which she replied she was "glad she had her headphones on", possibly because my chattering was giving her a migraine.

By this time I was laughing at her and was sad to see her turn down another street as she was providing me with such entertainment. Hopefully she'll have her sexchange op soon, as the testosterone treatment is clearly working overtime.





Don't want to ride?

Melburn is officially the new CYCLING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD!

Every last Friday of the month we have the ROLLER DERBY

In June we have Revolution III, the last chance you will get to see Australia's best track cyclists before the Olympics.

In November we have the UCI World Track Championships

In 2010 we host the World Road Championships


And every sunday it's the Sunday Roast on Wheels.

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One of our customised rides to about to get finishing touch thanks to Cyclomondo.




Is there a Daisy in the house?







Last but not least, pictures telling at least a few hundred words.