Sir Bradley Wiggins takes the hour record on a bike!

I wholeheartedly agree.

Yes, nice ride.

Yes, "that's pretty cool", as us baby boomers might put it

As a point of reference, the average age of all TdF winners is 28.7 years.

Still, Wiggons has some years to go to match the prowess of truly 'old' athletes competing in young men's sports (e.g., Gordie Howe, George Blanda, and Satchel Paige) .

Here's wishing Wiggo the best for a continued bright future!

With or without "help".....

Without. You are thinking of the world Tandem record. George and Wiggo share that one 

....I was more referring to the kind of chemical help which is quite common in this sport......, but I guess you knew I was referring to this 

Oh, I feared it would come to this .

Please don't anyone mention the "L" word!

Perhaps naive but I believe him to be clean as a whistle.  He has been a fantastic ambassador for the sport and spread himself around the major events.  OK the publicity around him is at times OTT - particularly when it comes to Rapha (and very soon after eBayers) jumping on the bandwagon.  But hats off to him for setting and achieving goals.  Superb.

Peter

For a very long time I was put off competitive cycling by the rumbling scandal of doping.

I do not know if anyone listened to Wiggo's Desert Island Discs a couple of weeks ago on Radio Four, but it seemed very clear where is on doping. His father was called the "Doctor" among cyclists wanting supplies of performance enhancing drugs. Wiggins does not seem to have had a good relationship with his father, which is something I can understand all too well.

Thus I - possibly naively - also believe he is straight. In the case of my father, when I have a moral decision to make, I think what he might have done [from experience] and then do otherwise, in the certain knowledge that he was a downright crook, and so emulating him would put me in the same bracket.

I was so pleased by this news that I bought a paper to read more in-depth, the story.

I once managed thirty miles per hour on the flat with 53 over 13 sprockets 175 mm crank-arms and 700-23C wheels. Cycle weight 10/0 Kg, and rider weight 64 Kg.That was four summers ago, and I kept it up - albeit on rough rural chipping and tar surface - for perhaps almost a mile, before I had to slow for a give way sign. And there is no proof. I was forty-nine then, and was using an accurate electronic speedometer.

A few minutes before getting to thirty mph just the once, here is the Carlton with semi-drop bars that allowed for an aero-position in the Obree-style to some extent.

I cannot but marvelled at doing between 33 and 34 miles per hour ... for an hour!

I miss most of the Wiggo-hype as I do not watch television. Radio Four sports reports are must less sensational!

ATB from George

I went cycling with my neighbour on Sunday, max speed 56kph on a modest descent. We spoke about Wiggo doing that for an hour on the flat. Incredible. We are no slouches on a bike - I'll be doing a 90 mile round trip to work tomorrow and again I'll probably be lucky to get up to that speed..  

You mean "common in every professional sport"....

For a guy named Winky you seem to be quite the glass-half-empty type