Cycling BC sent a request to over 1500 candidates for the forthcoming local elections across the province regarding their support for any/all forms of cycling. Here are their replies. Please note that MIVA does not specifically support any of the candidates named in the list but wants to make our BC readers aware of  their cycling interests.

Following the first tour of our season, Alberto Pena will set off to establish a record as the fastest man across the island, “Trans Cuba”. A one man race against time, he is on a mission to set a record from one end of the island to the other. Something along the lines of the Land’s End to John O’Groats in the UK or RAM in the States. We are novice at this type of ride but our man Alberto is a very good rider and with our little band of volunteers we plan to depart Baracoa at 9am on December 16th with hopes of a nice trade wind in his favour. The route to Cabo San Antonio is shorter than our 12 day sportif ride (Held in November) of the same name, this because we do not need hotels and are using the autopista from Santa Clara to just south of Havana. We hope to set a high benchmark and then look for challengers. This all started over a few beers but Alberto got the bit in his mouth and then it was for real. Even our bus driver has taken holidays to drive the support car. With help from many cycling friends up in Canada, Mike Cervone, Steve Bauer, Liberty Cycles and BikeFit, Dan Miron to name a few and the Cuban clubs along the route, we are good to go. Cyclists are a crazy bunch!

British newspaper columnist and cycling aficionado David Walsh and french reporter Pierre Ballester,  co-authored "L. A. Confidential" a damning indictment of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. The original was in French and, due to threats of litigation, an English version was never published. However, There does exist as a typewritten and photocopied document, an  English translation   of the book. Whether or not you believe Lance to be squeaky-clean or a despicable cheat, this makes for fascinating reading. The four parts of the manuscript can be found here . We know you will agree it deserves a place in the "Top 50".

There is a multitude of books written about our sport.Many are penned by journalists or other interested onlookers, Others are composed or edited by active or retired cyclists, a few even from the pro peleton. As with any top fifty list, there will be loads of arguments for and against the inclusion of specific titles. Here is one list -compiled by Cycle Sport On-line. If any of our readers have come across good cycling books that are not on this list. let us know and we will review them or print your review. The covers of numbers fifty and forty-nine are shown. Life Inside the Postal Bus is a graphic description by Canadian author and super domestic, Michael Barry, of a season travelling as a member of the US Postal Squad. Forty-nine is Paul Howard's biography of five time tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil. Both are excellent reads. Here is the complete list, with a description of each book.

Alberto Contador reportedly plans to use lie-detector evidence to support his case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne next week, when the tribunal convenes to hear the appeals of the UCI and World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) into the Spaniard’s acquital earlier this year by the Spanish national cycling federation, the RFEC, on charges relating to his positive test for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France. Full story here