BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news

At this weekend's UCI World Cup track cycling, the Scottish trio of Chris Hoy, Craig McLean and Ross Edgar won the team sprint gold medal. The super-fit threesome are unusual: unlike an increasing number of their countryfolk, they are not obese. An NHS study released today shows that almost a quarter of youngsters aged between four and five have a serious weight problem.

Hatch, distinctively dapper, was dismissed on Friday, just an hour before the start of a meeting to discuss the 2007 cycle planning conference in Munich. Hatch has worked on the pan-European Velo-City conference for 22 years and latterly was the series director. In March, Hatch was "thrown off" the UK's National Cycling Strategy Board.

Two weeks ago BikeBiz.com revealed that Halfords had written to suppliers demanding deeper discounts and requesting extra payments for company advertising schemes. 'The Business' newspaper yesterday quoted BikeBiz in its story about Halfords' tactics and this was swiftly followed by a front cover piece in the Financial Mail, included with the Mail on Sunday. The Forum of Private Business has written to the Trade and Industry Secretary, calling on him to protect small businesses supplying Halfords.

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal's recommendation that the Canadian government impose punitive taxes on imported bicycles is being opposed by Saskatoon city council. Saskatoon is home to ten prominent Canadian independent bicycle dealers.

And so does the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. The absence of the three 'Grand Tours' means any running of the UCI's ProTour would be pointless, although the UCI will no doubt try to tough it out as usual. The tours want to run a Grand Tour Trophy in competition with any running of the ProTour. The three organisers of the Grand Tours have also withdrawn Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, la Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Tours and Giro di Lombardia.