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Alan Swann: Cycling, Manchester City, Fergie and summer certainties
CYCLING is a mode of transport not a sport. A bike should be used for speeding up your paper round not for hurtling round streets causing traffic chaos in a city which has never needed much of an excuse to shut a few roads.
CYCLING is a mode of transport not a sport. A bike should be used for speeding up your paper round not for hurtling round streets causing traffic chaos in a city which has never needed much of an excuse to shut a few roads.I kept reading that the 'Tour Series' race held in Peterborough last week was 'great' for the city. As it was only broadcast on ITV 4, the home of Pokemon and the Power Rangers, I doubt whether more than 25 people outside of Peterborough knew it had been on.
Even Sky Sports don't show cycling and yet they are desperate enough to promote speedway, wrestling and poker on their channels.
The city's car commuters certainly knew about the race though. They were pretty much jammed up while a bunch of free-wheeling nonentities took over the roads, shooting past bemused roadside fans in a blur a few times before a winner was announced.
Without looking it up I doubt whether more than a dozen people who were at the event could even remember who won the main race. It certainly wasn't Chris Hoy, the ludicrous winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award after he managed to see off the best riders in the other couple of countries to take Olympic cycling events seriously.
Of course the race had to be held on a Thursday, late night shopping day in Peterborough. It couldn't be held on a Sunday morning when disruption would have been minimal.
Peterborough is proud of its cycling routes, but then pedal-pushing pea-brains are taking over the city.
Walking to work can be a hazardous habit as cyclists treat the path as their domain, presumably as they're too scared to ride on the road despite their ludicrously bright clothing, garish helmets and knee-padding thick enough to keep out shrapnel - useful if Al Qaeda ever decide to bomb Longthorpe!
THE football team I'd least like to support right now? Leeds? Not really, although that would be pretty awful. It's not even non-league Luton, the new home of Liam Hatch.
No, I'd really not want to be a Manchester City follower right now. The expectation levels now that they have a bigger bank balance than the entire House of Commons are just going to make the inevitable disappointments so much harder to bear.
Sadly the signing of Gareth Barry for 12 million proves that there is far more money than sense at City. That's an exaggerated fee for a one-footed wonder with a miniscule passing range and tortoise pace.
If that's who Mark Hughes believes he can build a Champions League challenging midfield around then the City boss is a bigger fool than Phil Brown, a man who has compounded the error of signing crock Jimmy Bullard for 5 million by splashing out 6 million on Manchester United third teamer Frazer Cambell.
Barry of course has dressed up his move from Aston Villa in terms of joining a team capable of honours. At the end of next season I expect him to seek a move away from the City of Manchester Stadium after a mid-table finish, unless of course he's really travelled north because City have doubled his wages.
THANK goodness for the Pakistani cricket team's uselessness at Twenty/20. England can now move forward to the second round of the World Cup where humiliation at the hands of India and South Africa awaits.
England really haven't a clue about selection for these one-day tournaments. Defeat against Holland arrived not just because Stuart Broad fielded like a village idiot, but because we picked Robert Key, who is not just a sporting fatty, but a totally out of form sporting fatty.
We also disregarded wicket-keeper Matt Prior even though he's a Test class batsman who carries the attack to bowlers in all forms of cricket and replaced him with James Foster, who looks as though he's nine stone wet through.
Foster may be a better keeper, but show me one that's ever won a major tournament with his glove-work.ENGLAND'S departure at the next stage of the Twenty/20 is inevitable.
Other summer certainties are:
1) Andy Murray to win the US Tennis Open. Rafael Nadal is crocked and Roger Federer, despite his stroll through a friendly draw in the French Open, is way past his best.
2) Andy Murray to cite fatigue after winning the US Open as a reason for missing the next Davis Cup match.
3) Jensen Button to lap Lewis Hamilton more than once in the same Grand Prix. Amazingly there are some petrol-heads out there who believe driver skill is relevant in Formula One.
4) Newcastle United to appoint three new managers before the start of the 2009/10 season.
5) Joey Barton to pledge that he's a changed man and that he wants to stay and help Newcastle to finish ahead of Posh and Scunthorpe.
IT would of course be a nightmare if Posh manager Darren Ferguson was to leave London Road.
He's the brightest boss the club have employed for almost 20 years. He's installed the most attractive style of football seen at the club for over 40 years.
But there is only one man who is truly bigger than the club. If Darragh MacAnthony ever left, that would be the time for city-wide mourning.
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Weather for Peterborough
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
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