Stephen Roche and Ned Boulting, King’s Hall, Sunday

Stephen Roche is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his triple victory (the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and the World Championships) with an autobiography, Born to Ride. He gave a cyclist-packed King’s Hall a treat on Sunday afternoon as he spoke frankly about his racing years. He enlightened the audience with his refreshing admission of some early arrogance, giving way to a reality check and a more measured approach to the cycle racing world.

He pulled no punches concerning Bradley Wiggins and his initial refusal to engage in interviews with French Tour de France officials during this year’s event, a situation later remedied by the intervention of the Sky PR team. Roche nonetheless hailed Wiggins for the great champion cyclist and ambassador for GB that he is, but forecast he is likely to be out to conquer Italy and/or Spain in 2013. Ned Boulting provided journalistic insight into the cycle racing world with amusing anecdotes and his views on how the 2013 Tour might unfold. Questions from the audience included the inevitable views on doping, and the speakers were unanimous in their view the worst is over and a new ‘clean’ peloton was emerging.

Greg Jessop