One Day One Photo - 23

Sunday 23rd September

Being a wuss and not wanting to get too muddy on my first cross race of the season I decided to do an early ride on my cyclo cross bike in the countryside in the morning before the rain arrived later. I did not feel ready to go through the wind, rain and thick mud at Hog Hill during the London League race in the afternoon. Since I'd gotten my cycling out of the way early on in the day that left me free to relax in front of the telly crocheting while watching the men's road race championships.

I must admit I had rather forgotten about this event. With all the talk of getting a British man to win the Tour de France and the performance of the GB cyclists in the Olympics, the World Road Cycling Championships had fallen completely beneath my cycling radar. I was therefore glad to catch this race before the curtain went down on events.

Although it was very long - 272km, it was quite exciting viewing as reigning World Champion Mark Cavendish had already made it clear that he had no chance of winning, so this left the field wide open. Right up to the last kilometre it had been too close to call who would win. Then out of the blue, Philippe Gilbert put in a brazen attack on the last steep climb and made a dash for the line while the other contenders struggled to get themselves organised to pull him back. In the end the riders in the peloton had to battle for second, with Edvard Boassen Hagen winning that one, and Alejandro Valverde just making it onto the podium.

Congrats to Philippe Gilbert on the win. I saw him at the Tour de France last year. He was a likeable guy and a good sportsman - definitely someone who deserves to be in the rainbow jersey.