Video round-up: Legends past and present, and some on-bike footage

Here’s our latest road.cc video round-up, with a crop of videos to help you while away your afternoon if it’s quiet at work.

We have heroes old and new, some on-board track action, but we’ll start off with something that may hopefully tempt a few of you over the Festive Season …

Shake off Christmas cobwebs with Ultracross

If you want to shake off the Christmas excess and live on or near the South Coast, here’s one way to do it – the White Chalk Hills Ultracross, which starts at 9am on 27 December from the Tri Store in Eastbourne, followed by an afterparty at The Belgian Café on 11-23 Grand Parade.

It’s not a sportive because there’s no entry fee, no support, no medals and no feed station (well, apart from a pub), it's more of an organised social ride over 47 miles of the South Downs. More details here.

White Chalk Hills Ultracross from gavin peacock on Vimeo.

François Pervis  - The French Samurai

Here’s a great, half-hour long documentary about the best track sprinter on the planet at the moment – François Pervis, who currently holds three rainbow jerseys in the individual sprint, the Kilo and the Keirin.

It’s the latter discipline that gives rise to the documentary’s title, with Pervis spending four or five months each year to take part in the country’s Keirin racing season. Directed by Vincent Renault, it’s well worth watching.

Eddy Merckx takes on Jacky Ickx

Remember the old joke, “Name five famous Belgians”? Well, here’s two of the most famous, in sporting terms at least, going head to head – Eddy Merckx and Jacky Ickx.

Merckx needs no introduction to cycling fans, while Ickx in a long career as a racing driver won eight Grands Prix but is better known for his six Le Mans victories between 1969 and 1982.

Both turn 70 next year, so what better excuse to have them race each other?

Well, in fact it’s to publicise an exhibition about the careers of the two sporting legends taking place at the The Exhibition.

Cannondale says goodbye to Sagan

From legends of the past to one who is acquiring mythical status in the present – Peter Sagan, who is off to Tinkoff-Saxo for 2015, while his former team Cannondale Pro Cycling has effectively been taken over by what was Garmin-Sharp.

Here’s a tribute to the Slovak rider from Cannondale in its Chronicles of the Green Machine series which has been running this season.

Gaby Leveridge takes on the Alps

Gaby Leveridge from Berkshire was the second woman to finish this year’s second edition of the Transcontinental Race from London to Istanbul, beaten by Edinburgh’s Pippa Handley.

Here’s a film from Charge Bikes, which supplied the Skewer Ti she rode on the 3,600km race from London to Istanbul, the cameras following her as she trains for the ultracycling event at her base in the Alps.

Gaby in the French Alps, 2014 from Charge Bikes on Vimeo.

Ride with Luke Rowe at Revolution Series

Finally, 2014 has been the year of the on-bike video, and here’s one showing Team Sky’s Luke Rowe riding the boards of the Velodrome in Manchester in the scratch race at the Revolution Series last week.

Find out whether he managed to stay true to his pre-race promise of attacking with 20 laps to go …