thanks, Jocko

you guys have probably already read all this somewhere else, but......

...grouse interview with Cooke last night on SEN (radio). He said he was definitely gunna hit Bettini after that crash, but as he was approaching him, he saw all the Italian media swarming around them and thought he might spend the night in jail if he snotted the Olympic champion in Italy in front of 1000 cameras.


Cooke also said that his crash before the Tour was a result of his bike and chainrings being too flexy, causing the chain to occasionally come off. He continually complained to his mechanics to get stiffer chainrings, but they didn't really believe him. His chain came off at 65kmh during training, causing his crash. He had to scramble off the road with a truck coming the other way with its brakes locked up!
He quickly called the mechanic to abuse them, then, eventually ended up with track chainrings.

also a good interview with Josh Collingwood. He was in a lab at his uni one day during his retirement, and, with virtually no training, wearing runners with no toe-straps, got a VO2 max of 84 on a bike, so he thought he should start thinking about a comeback