Grassmarket

World record (women’s only race) pace at halfway in London. Cold & wet though. Brigid Kosgei & Ruth Chepngetich contending. Falling off the pace now, more of a tactical race. Getting a bit confusing because there are now lapped runners cluttering the place up. Incidentally, the comms are talking about Olympic Qual times, so it must be valid. Kosgei now running solo for the win.

It’s Sicily: not quite Singapore when it comes to high & incorruptible standards of public works maintenance.

Mathieu van der Poel off on a solo attack in the BinckBank, using the Kapelmuur at Gerardsbergen to break up the race. 40k to go. 20k to go, van der Poel still has a minute, peloton has broken up. Now got an an exciting three-way chase for the overall between vdP, Kragh Andersen in Chase Group 2 & Pedersen in Chase Group 3. van der Poel gets the stage by seconds, Kragh Andersen screams with rage because he misses out on the bonuses. Great race!

Sadly Red Number 3 failing to adapt himself to this new hill in Bregtdorp, well behind in 18th place again. Unfortunately I think there’s a bit of ego involved - if he’s not at the front contending with the leaders he just loses interest & fades away.

Bekele’s out! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/54386018

Yeah, cause the Walking Quals opened a couple of weeks back & I thought marathons were the same. Would be a bit crazy to miss one of the peak periods.

Entry lists are here. https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/event-info/spectator-info/elite-fields/index.html Women’s race 07:00 UK time, men’s 10:00.

Last regular live track meet of the season from Nairobi tomorrow.* Hope there’s some kind of crowd, Kenyan home fans are always mad keen. https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/how-follow-2020-continental-tour-gold There’s also the London Marathon on Sunday, don’t know what coverage is like internationally, but it’s all on the BBC. * There’s a special all-distance meet from Valencia on Wednesday, also.

Good day for - Soren Kragh Andersen takes the stage, Mads Pedersen retains the overall lead. Final stage tomorrow over some of the classic Flemish bergen,

Binck Bank today is a short, hilly, twisty ITT around Riemst. Ought to see some changes in the GC. Kind of improvised at the last minute, but in Belgium there’s always plenty muddy fields of root vegetables willing to welcome a hastily-organised cycle race. Bit hard to tell if those are spectators or scarecrows, though.

Joe Biden begins October as he spent most of September, by taking the day off.

Twisty, narrow finish on wet roads in Aalter today for the BlinckBank, high likelihood of crashes if there’s a sprint. 20k to go. Phew, got through it thanks to many outrageous diversions through front gardens & pedestrian precincts. Did Mads Pedersen get any wins in the WC jersey? Got one today. In the TdF we see beautiful monasteries & stately homes. In Belgian we get helicopter views of remarkable transport intersections.

An artificial intelligence-equipped robot named 'Curly' beat one of the world's best curling teams by quickly adapting to changes in the ice, its developers claim. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8788915/Robot-named-Curly-uses-AI-beat-one-worlds-best-curling-teams-game.html Also, more curling on YouTube this weekend, a mixed doubles tournament from St Gallen, Switzerland.

Plenty stadiums free in the Netherlands.

Errm....what traditionally happens on 1 January?

Wow, Flèche was being led by yet another Belgian Boy Band member, Mauri Vansevenant, when he crashed with 3k to go. Hirschi gets it!

Flèche Wallonne survives today. This is the one that finishes at the Church on the Mur at Huy, not in the citadel at Namur, as I mistakenly thought until I watched the women’s half an hour ago. It’s on ES, filling in the hole in the schedule left by the Dutch big girls’ blouses. Anna van der Breggen took the women’s version this morning, 6th year in a row.

Lucky it’s not being held in Holland eh? Organisers dodged a bullet there.

Part of the millions-strong Burgundian diaspora.

Yeah, 3 sprint bonuses in 1km. Jasper Philipsen of UAE gets it by half a wheel. Lots of GC guys distanced by the crash, looks like a few season-enders as well.

Wow, pileup for the ages there! Going to take ages to sort out. About 30 clear.

Stage one of the Binck Bank today! 20k to go. Unique feature: a blizzard of quick sprints just before the stage end to break things up.

Morning qualification, empty stadium, all the Dutch team have to do for the 800m quals is have a guy in an orange shirt sitting on the crown of bend hold up a sign saying 5, 6 or whatever and they’d know that qual time is 1:45....

Well, that’s just the thing. At pro level it’s a sport of commercial teams. At development level it’s a sport of national teams. A Slovenian Tour/World Championship double in one week would have incalculable value for Slovenian cycling at all levels so it’s pretty damn unreasonable to expect all the Slovenian national team support crew to just give up all their hopes & career plans just to help some Belgian add to his palmarès. (Granted you do sometimes see riders from minor nations help out their pro team-mates, but only if no-one has a chance of winning - it makes a mockery of the event if they sell-out a serious contender from their own nation).

Because his team worked to his instructions & he let them down.