I can assure you there was no vodka luge at the Team SKY launch back in January. The same can't be said for the launch party for the Dallaglio Cycle Slam which took place last week. Featured in the photo is 'French Fred', who has plotted our route across Italy and France. I think to be fair it is an optical illusion, but MC Damian Hopley (Wasps, and England - very briefly) said it reminded him of his days at Harrow.
So we met at Pizza Express in Olympia. If you go to one in the next two months order the Diavolo - now Dallaglio - and 25p goes to Sport Relief. The Rollapaluza guys were there which is great fun - Les Ferdinad went head to head with Lawrence and squeaked past him in a very credible 22.1 seconds. Over 250 came along, and we raised over £50,000 on the night towards our target of £1m. The party was my third 'last night of drinking before we go' night. In a row. But that really has to be it.
The latest plot is that we will ride on to the train in Calais, and then up and down the aisle through the tunnel. I am not making this up. All I want is The Times and a full English, and I still can't believe Jason Leonard is going to be at Folkestone to meet us and ride to Twickenham. Let's see. Diego Dominguez in Rome I do believe.
The postscript to the last blog - Dancing on ice - was that Lawrence admitted all five of them came off in one incident on the ice, so they were very lucky to end up in one piece. Anyway, that's the end of my pre Slam blogging. From Friday it'll be a daily report from the road....
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