HELP US BEAT BLOOD CANCER Waiting at Southampton Airport very early on a July morning, my biggest stress was trying to remember whether or not I'd packed a copy of the Radio Times . Why I needed a TV listings magazine to film a group of cyclists ascending the 'giant of Provence' would become apparent later, once we'd reached the summit at just over 1900 metres. As soon as my colleague Nigel had arrived with his camera and (not so) portable editing kit, we realised that we would be hit with a hefty excess baggage charge if we were to load all of his broadcast gear onto Flybe's flimsy-looking, twin prop, De Havilland. Sure enough, after dancing between the check-in and excess baggage desks (at opppsite sides of the departure hall), it transpired that we'd have to pay an extra thousand pounds. After a quick call to Tara - our still-slumbering planning editor - the kit was soon stowed back in the boot of Nigel's car in the airport car park, whe...

What wouldn't I have given to have been in Paisley a couple of days ago, when 'Mellow Johnny' himself turned up and invited the great unwashed out for a bike ride? Piecing together the story from Lance Armstrong's Twitter feed, it appears that back home in Texas, the seven times Tour winner was contemplating his imminent trip to the 'Emerald Isle' for the Tour of Ireland , when he realised that his mate Bono was doing a gig in Glasgow. U2, Croke Park, 25th July 2009 On the spur of the moment it seems, he decided to fly across for the Hampden concert and duly tweeted, "Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way tomorrow. Who wants to go for a bike ride?" A couple of hundred fans at least - including 'Flying Scotsman' Graeme Obree himself - did. And they duly turned up in the rain, in Paisley, to go for a spin with the world's most famous cyclist. The small Scottish town can't have experienced many other days quite as surreal as t...