Sports Poets Society

https://journal.rouleur.cc/martin-earley/ Heritage Posted on  08.02.17 The third man in the holy trinity of late 1980s Irish cycling and the owner of the most famous chrome-rimmed glasses in sport , whatever happened to Tour de France and Giro d’Italia stage winner Martin Earley? Words: Luke Edwardes-Evans Photographs: Offside/l'Equipe He looks like any other fit MAMIL (middle-aged man in Lycra), pedalling out of Hilderstone village and into the Staffordshire lanes. Still trim at 54-years-old, there’s precious little to hint at Martin Earley’s prowess on a bike, albeit over 20 years ago. But followers of the 1980s pro scene will recognise the chrome-rimmed prescription glasses and, on the odd sunny day, the steel Concorde team issue PDM team bike that remains one of the few ways that Earley enjoys rekindling a memory or two from his 11 year pro career. That’s not to say he isn’t proud of the Tour de France (1989) and Giro d’Italia (1986) stage...

https://www.veloveritas.co.uk/2015/01/11/laurence-roche-jan15/ by Ed Hood  - January 11, 2015 Alençon, Basse Normandie, France on the morning of July 14th 1991 – we really shouldn’t have been there. The day before we’d witnessed the start of Miguel Indurain’s reign as King of the Tour in the Stage Eight Alençon time trial; but Ed The Pole had forgotten to set his Psion Organiser (remember those?) to CET and we’d missed the morning ferry home by 30 seconds. There was but one thing to do – once we’d changed our P&O tickets to early evening – go and see the start of Stage Nine in Alençon. It was different back then, as we drove to the start we passed the stars en route the sign-on; Soren Lilholt on his radical monocoque and glum-looking super-climber, ‘Lucho’ Herrera. ‘Ça va, Lucho?’ we enquired, hanging out of the car window – ‘ça va, ça va’ shrugged the tiny Colombian but he gave us a smile and a wave. Infiltrating the start area nowadays without the ri...

http://cyclingtime.it/romandia-giro-accoppiata-vincente/?fbclid=IwAR2iH5LDLV2Z-jI-HqFzCoS1_snjULZsNb_6v6bkYIWtxA8AWJaHsgZ9UyQ di Ettore Ferrari Ci sono gare che sono legate strettamente ad altre, una di queste è il Giro di Romandia ( Giro della Svizzera Romanda , vecchia denominazione). Istituito nel 1947 , rappresenta molto spesso la prova generale per quanti vogliono puntare all’imminente corsa Rosa. Nelle prime diciotto edizioni (quindi sino al 1964 ) nessun vincitore del Romandia riuscì a ripetersi sulle strade del Giro . Ci andò vicino Gino Bartali a 35 anni nel 1949 : 1° al Romandia e 2° al Giro, alle spalle di un insuperabile Fausto Coppi; poi nel ’53 l’elegante Hugo Koblet, anch’egli battuto in Italia dal Campionissimo. Lo svizzero vanta due primati al Romandia: è riuscito a salire per ben sei volte sul podio, di cui ben quattro consecutivamente (2° nel 1950-51-52, 1° nel ’53, 2° nel ’55 e 3° nel ’57). Adorni primo a firmare la “doppietta” – Bisogna attende...