Super Mario

I was at the Road Cycling Show at Sandown Park today. I've never been star struck by anyone, even when I met Seve Ballesteros, Lionel Blair or indeed Jimmy Saville. I've even had lunch with Kevin Keegan without being too excited. I've met quite a few of my heroes in cycling and been quite happy chatting away. Today was different......I met Mario Cipollini and was star struck.....and didn't really chat!

Although I think Mark Cavendish will achieve his ambition as being the best sprinter ever, he'll still struggle to match Il Re Leone as the greatest! Cipollini at his peak was a truly amazing sprinter winning 191 professional races; he said he was the world's best lover.....how could women resist, he was the best dressed, rode the best bike (original Cannondale CAAD's) and was just a total mega-star. He was incredibly exciting to watch and was arguably as important to the sport as Greg Lemond.

The rest of the day was fun, chatting to people at our stand. I was a wee bit nervous as I was on a panel of experts to talk about training stuff. That went well and I was particularly impressed with how eloquent and knowledgeable fellow panellist Alex Dowsett of Team Sky was. Other highlights of the day were the coconut water drink, a very nice handmade titanium frame, and seeing a 1990 Team Motorola Eddy Merckx bike. I even suggested to Rob Hayles that he should give me £30k so that we could jointly open a cafe......he thought I was joking! Hee hee!