As a young lad I loved cycling. Not just your standard riding to the park to feed the ducks type of deal, but a true bona fide enthusiasm for slinging a leg over my bike (a Raleigh Grifter in this case) and making the damn thing dance.
For this I blame Jean Francois Bernard, a cyclist who in the late 1980s - along with Laurent Fignon - had a fair go at replacing Bernard Hinault as the darling of French cycling. I can still recall his Mont Ventoux time trial at the Tour de France in 1987 – a race against the clock he won in searing heat with spectators half a dozen deep urging him to the summit.
