Features

There’s not many sports where you can play out with the best in the world. You can’t just have a kickabout by the garages with Lionel Messi, a quick nine with Rory McIlroy is unlikely, and you most probably can’t burn it up the by-pass with Fernando Alonso. Want to go for a bike ride with a Tour De France winner and Olympic medalist? No problem, come for a Ride With Brad.

I'm watching a machine print some dropouts. It's an expensive machine; if you want one for your shed you'll need to front about half a million pounds. It's printing them in super-hard 6Al/4V titanium alloy, and the design is such that they couldn't be produced any other way. They're optimised for the process, hollow, finite-element-analysed on the computer to be stronger and lighter than anything you could produce on a CNC machine.

Pat McQuaid, President of the UCI and the head of world cycle sport is a man of strong opinions and an often controversial figure, whether you agree with him or not he always has something to say, and what he has to say usually shapes UCI policy. We caught up with him in London this week for an in-depth interview about the Olympics, the state of professional cycle sport and much more.

Ever wanted to feel like a God, and have grown wo/men (delete as appropriate) prostrate themselves before you? Then jump on a float in the Tour de France publicity caravan, the gaudy commercial parade that hypes the crowd along the route in the hours before the riders zip past.