World Championships

The first cycle race I saw was the World Championships when they were at Goodwood in 1982. I was there with Mark, and fell in love with the sport. That day I heard the clunk of Sean Kelly's missed gear change on the last corner, and watched Saronni power away for the victory.
The next year I was in Switzerland to see Greg Lemond win for the USA on a great, packed, hilly lakeside course at Rorscharch.
1984 was the year of The Walk and we were in the Pyrenees when the World Championships were on in Barcelona. I thought of hitching over to see them, but in the end we watched the race in a hotel in Luchon as Criquilon won for Belgium.
1988 I got the train to Ronse in Belgium and watched Fondriest win for Italy.

Fast forward to 1991 and I am in the grandstand at Stuggart to see a great race, and Gianni Bugno win, that is where I took this picture of Gianni and his gold medal as he walked past me.
1993 and in the rain in Oslo I watch a young American, Lance Armstrong, win his first big race.
2001 and we are all in Lisbon where I see Oscar Friere win his second title for Spain.
So, you can see that I like this race.
Today I watched the most incredible performance from the British team as Cavendish won the World Title. It was the best race I have seen for a long time and incredibly tense; for him to win from such a pressurised situation was amazing. Back in 1982 the British team was, basically, a bit of a joke. Home-based riders who  all dropped out before the finale. I looked in awe at the Italian team who were well drilled and awesomely powerful. This year it was the British team of 8 that were the awesome ones. What a turn around, what a performance by, as the French call him, Le Cav. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/15052681.stm