The Pedaler

I gather that Diedenbergen have joined to make the Bundesliga a 5-team league. Are there any links to any Bundesliga official web sites, and when are the fixtures normally announced?

Good luck to the Brummies revival

Let's hope that in 2015 the BSPA's master plan of developing fast track riders in the EL will mean that "Junior GB" can take part and show the rest of the world how great Britain IS in world speedway.... ...and then I woke up.

Poole's line-up will reflect what a joke British Speedway has become. ha ha, "Young up and coming talent" Benji Compton in an official FIM "Champions League" event. What a laughing stock. Should be well worth watching Matt Ford and Neil Middleditch being put in their place for once. Seriously though, how cast iron is Poole's contract for this event? I can see them withdrawing if there are no serious consequences from them doing so. The BSPA may even be persuaded to fund any compensation.

Basically what it boils down to is whether he was using Steroids in order to help with physical side of the fitness regime that riders have...and let's face it, he's not naturally muscular so to handle the bike he needs to build his muscles up...OR was he smoking cannabis or snorting cocaine, or was he using amphetamines in order to "sharpen his mind" (and gating)? All prohibited substances. All questions in need of answers. OR, to use most caught-out athletes excuse, was he just "using the wrong cough medicine"? lol

Does Britain have a drug testing regime like they do in Poland? Be interesting to find out more about this. Can't trust either Google or Bing to make proper translations of subject matter like this, so we don't know if they were testing for "performance enhancing" or "recreational" drugs. If he is found guilty and gets a ban, it will make Falubaz's chances in the play-offs look less certain, ironically against Gorzow, where he was tested for drugs.

1. How do you fit 300 speedway fans onto a jet with a capacity of 189 (or 187 with someone the size of BoJo on board)? Apart from that little tittle tattle, how about now.. 2. Why not now marry up the wind fall of BoJo's "discovery" of speedway with the need to have someone to champion the cause for change in the sport in the UK. The BSPA won't do it from within, but with a "champion of the cause" like BoJo to knock some heads together, working on behalf of the fans of the sport, maybe some change can be made. This is a guy who governs attention. Love him or hate him, you can't ignore him, and with him on side, you have a powerful ally. It would need of course for it to be politically worthwhile to BoJo and it will need the effort of fans all over the country to make a start by writing / tweeting / e-mailing / facebooking their appreciation for BoJo, the promise of a few rounds of drinks, and maybe someone offering him a night out at a local track to him (god help us, Lakeside?) Get the guy on board, sell to him what's left that's good about the sport, get him to champion the cause in changing what's bad. It's an opportunity. Grasp it.

Let's congratulate him when we see the colour of the money and it is handed over...until then it is is nothing but forum flannel.

There are a lot of Birmingham supporters prepared to believe in anything that will offer them hope. I hope you are not preying on them. Bear in mind your previous promise, and I quote from you... If you raised £4000 in one day, where is it? It certainly didn't jump-start the fighting fund which grew gradually from zero and took a while to get beyond your first day's efforts. Basically, don't promise what you can't deliver. The fans don't deserve to be taken for a ride in this fashion.

He's a world class rider OK, and as long as he keeps his helmet on he's fine. But with all those tattoos and facial / body mutilations, and more of those planned in the future, you really think that he's a great advertisement for the sport? You'd send him to open a school fete would you?

I'm not a fan of the idiots who are in the BSPA who run (ruin) this sport but I do recognise the problem with this fanciful notion of having an independent body running the sport. Can someone who likes the idea of an independent body please answer the following questions please: Which are the people who would you think would like to serve in this independent body? (it's all well and good dreaming about Bernie Ecclestone or Barry Hearne, but if they don't want to play, you ain't got a game) What's in it for them - i.e. these people who are independent from speedway and will be running the sport? (Money? Kudos? Self-satisfaction? Altruistic feel-good-factor?) Who will appoint these independent people on an ongoing basis? - will they be elected or seconded, and by who? Who will pay the independent people? (or do you think they will just be doing this out of the kindness of their own hearts?) What sanction will there be on a promoter who doesn't like what an independent person/body tells him and says "sod you, it's my money, I'm doing it my way"? Finally, to those who like the idea of an independent body running the sport, would you allow an independent person to take your wages off you and run your household budget for you, making all the financial decisions, and you having to do as you are told? Because that's what you are, in effect, suggesting is the what should be happening to the BSPA.

Even more pedantic now...It wasn't the Great Britain or the Union Flag race jacket that was good enough for British Speedway, it was the other way around. British Speedway had riders good enough to wear the Union Flag, back in the days of Collins, Simmons, Carter, Lee, Loram, Wigg etc. Now the crop of riders we have are a disgrace to the flag. The simple answer to their team identity should be "Team BSPA". They are not worthy of carrying or wearing this nations's flag, whether this be England, Great Britain, United Kingdom or whatever. Let the name of the BSPA be dragged through the gutter like they deserve it to be.

Kind of backs up the mismanagement point. The BSPA see international competition as a pain in the backside, and their apathy towards success on the international scene is based on the individual promoters not getting any financial benefit from it, and as they see it, "their" assets being put at risk of injury in someone else's competition. That's why there is minimal support for British riders to compete abroad. What did Latvia have at this time last year?

It's a BSI / FIM event, so I don't thing that the BSPA are financially responsible. What the BSPA are at fault for though is their total mismanagement of the sport that has led to this parlous lack of talent in Britain at a world level. For that, they can't compensate anyone highly enough.

Why not blood FOUR youngsters and have Tai as reserve? Tai is not riding any better than anyone else in the Tame GB camp at the moment, why should he get an automatic pick? No point having the World Champion in the team if he's not going to score for you. A matter done to death in the International section. Suffice to say that it's not something that the BSPA think that they would get any money from, it's done by an independent promotions company, which is Polish, and the BSPA are far too ignorant and xenophobic to want to pander to any "foreign muck"! As for the poor British riders who won't stand a chance of earning any of that substantial prize money, I'm sure that they are thanking the BSPA from the bottom of their hearts for that aren't they? What's the point of becoming World Champion if you can't take advantage of your "added value" in your title year. Maybe Tai's poor form is a reflection of being hacked off with the situation as much as anything else?