VeloCast

As ever, thanks guys for the comments. It's great for John and I to hear that people are enjoying listening to the show.

@owen - I'm delighted to pass ANY quality benchmark that Mark Kermode sets. His recent comment about Avatar as being just "Smurf-ahontas" had me laughing out loud.

@bmfw - I think Sky are the first team to be so brazen about going for riders who should be restricted by contracts and I think that, among other things, is adding to the "most hated team" stuff. Trying to look at it from a DS's point of view, I would be jelous seeing the how money is so evidently being poured into that team. But the breaking of rider contracts is the aspect that most concerns me. I remember when this first started happening in football (sorry to raise this again). Managers and pundits were asking 'if a player breaks his leg does he still expect his club to pay his wages? Of course he does, because the club is honoring the contract - players don't seem to want to the same'. Sadly, I think pro-cyclists are starting to think in the similar terms.

@JohnTheMonkey - I hadn't heard the Brailsford quote about not approaching riders under contract - I'll go check that out.

Cheers,

Scott.

I have a vague recollection of Brailsford saying at one point that Sky wouldn't be approaching riders who were under contract (fairly sure Cycling Fans Anonymous mentioned that). That being the case, I'm not surprised some might get the hump with them, tbh.

Thanks for mentioning the Virtual Musette on air too, as said previously, I always asusme everyone knows about it, but evidently many folk don't, and it deserves a larger audience.

Lastly, congrats to Mr. & Mrs. G, and enjoy your trip!

Re Sky being the most hated team. Because they started from scratch as a new team, they had an entire roster to fill and they had to recruit / poach riders from almost every other team in the peloton, with some hit harder than others. So there is unlikely to be any squad that doesn't harbour some sort of grudge against them. Their tactics in recruiting may not have been any more heavy handed than other teams but I think that the perception is that they waded in, flashed the cash & steam-rollered over existing contracts, with Wiggins & Swift seemingly the two most extreme examples of this tactic. I'm not sure that the "most hated" tag results from jealousy but there must be an element of "who the hell do they think they are" from the stalwarts of the peloton.

I suspect they will carry the "most-hated" tag this year & I thought it was interesting to hear your suggestion that they may find it difficult to forge alliances on the road - that's something I hadn't considered.

Thanks, as ever, for the (innuendo-laden) show - like Owen, I found myself giggling as I listened.

(I am restraining myself from chipping in on the "greatest cyclist" discussion and railing against all those who would say Armstrong. However, I suspect if you asked the average Armstrong fan to then say who their number 2 was, their knowledge of the sport would only be sufficient for them to say, "uhhmm........Levi!"). OK, so I didn't actually restrain myself from chipping in there, did I?

Laughed out loud several times at this show - thanks guys. It passed the Mark Kermode 'three laughs test' (is it 3?) that he uses to gauge comedy films. 'you get used the the extra length' - fnarr fnarr!

I'm changing banks at the moment, so all my affairs are in a state of chaotic flux, but I will be resubscribing soon.