Danny Rose has been open in tackling his demons and that can only be a good thing in the wider worldDanny Rose remembered getting angry. He’d suffered his first really serious injury and the team were doing well without him. “I didn’t socialise, I wasn’t sleeping, I was looking to fall out with anybody.” Gareth Southgate and the Duke of Cambridge were among the small audience listening intently as the Tottenham left-back described the signs of his depression. Related: Elite sport is gradually waking up to widespread mental health issues | Sean Ingle Related: ‘They’ve just scratched the surface’ – football tackling mental health but more can be done Continue reading...
From Semenya’s 30th win in a row, to powerful displays at Wembley, on bikes and in cars, women cast a blow against outdated attitudesThey may have failed to knock the Premier League title race completely out of the headlines, but whether they were pedalling into a 40mph block headwind on the Yorkshire coast, racing around the Hockenheimring, commanding primetime live coverage of their FA Cup final, or – in the shape of Caster Semenya and a woman who broke a marathon record dressed as a nurse – asking questions about gender distinctions, sportswomen had an extraordinary weekend. Related: Desiré Wilson believes the new W Series could propel a woman into Formula One Related: Caster Semenya is a victim of rules...
From peak Merckx and Hinault’s recovery from canine calamity to Cooke’s Ronde romp, six of the most memorable ClassicsIt’s probably fair to say Bernard Hinault was not in the best of moods as he approached the final few kilometres of the 1981 Paris-Roubaix. “The Badger” was not exactly known for his cheery disposition and not exactly a fan of the infamous pavé of northern France. And in the preceding bone-rattling 250km he had been off his bike six times after a series of crashes and punctures. Related: Team Sky’s Ineos deal will prompt mixed emotions in the peloton | William Fotheringham Related: There's unlucky ... and then there's Christophe Related: Remembering how Eddy Merckx won at home in the 1969...
Patrick Lefevere’s riders show that racing in the spring classics requires not just speed and power, but mental enduranceAs he watched his rider Bob Jungels cross the line at the end of Kuurne‑Brussels‑Kuurne on Sunday, becoming the first man from Luxembourg to win one of bike racing’s cobbled classics in more than a century, Patrick Lefevere could look back to the day, 41 years ago, when he won the race himself. Lefevere’s own racing career was relatively short. But now he is the guiding spirit of the greatest team in his sport. Perhaps, pound for pound, the greatest team in any sport today.Lefevere would have felt particularly at home on Sunday. He was born 64 years ago in Flanders, the...
The former Olympic champion hopes to win a different race, all for the public good and improving transport options for allIt is a Sherlock Holmes evening in south Manchester. There is a deep fog on an already black night, perfect for tail-coated villains to dart between the wheelie bins. But in a primary school hall the lights are on and a public meeting is taking place about a proposed local cycle route. There are a couple of councillors, engineers, 180 or so members of the public – the irate and the enthusiastic – and a world-record breaking and Olympic winning cyclist: Chris Boardman.The microphone does not work, there are tetchy complaints about a phone vote and low-level tension plonks down...