Does Britain actually like cycling? Forget the medals we keep winning, the warm glow of going "green" and the transport implications: do we, as a society, value cycling?
It's a question I often debate on my daily commute: if I'm using up fewer of the earth's finite resources, occupying less space on the road and keeping myself fit and healthy in the process, why is everybody trying to kill me?
It's a question participants in the in Perthshire will have been asking too last weekend as they found themselves the victims of a crude protest against the event: .
And it's a question organisers of this year's will be contemplating as they attempt to lift the profile of the race, and road cycling in general, with their first mass-participation event, the on 6 September.
Read the rest of this entry
If is to be believed, it wasn't so long ago that Britain's finest amateur boxers went into battle barefoot and bedraggled compared to their counterparts from money-bags Albania.
British boxers, , didn't even have tracksuits until , the agency that dishes out public money to elite sport, issued them with £25 outfits last year.
This revelation came a month before the most promising Olympic boxing team for half a century left these shores for Beijing. And Gavin, Britain's first ever world champion, was the star.
I remembered this on Sunday while driving back from because it is very unlikely a GB boxer will ever again have cause to moan about his (or her) clobber.
Read the rest of this entry
I'm going to say this loud and proud: is completely right.
Unaccustomed as I am to being on the same side of an argument as world football's grand poobah - a man who has likened multi-millionaire Cristiano Ronaldo's life to "slavery" and believes female footballers should wear tighter shorts - I think he is spot on when .
The difference between us, however, is that I think this is a good thing.
So when I heard say football will not be exempted from key parts of the anti-doping rulebook I was as pleased as Blatter will be peeved.
Read the rest of this entry
Hi, I'm Matt Slater and I try to shed light on what's happening behind the scenes in sport - so everything from football finance to Olympic squabbles. You can also follow me on . 