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Greg Minaar used his prototype Honda bike to take the top spot in today's downhill final at the UCI World Cup, held in Scotland. Attendance was 10 percent up on last year and Fort William is hoping to be chosen to run the event in 2007.

Results and the craic from the UCI World Cup... Live in Scotland or got Sky? You can watch two 50 minute programmes from BBC Scotland...

Since the end of the Tour de France last year, Lance Armstrong's equipment suppliers have been working in harmony to produce winning technologies. The F-One companies - including Trek and Nike - have produced new kit but extensive testing has shown that Armstrong is happy to go retro. Armstrong's coach Chris Carmichael confirmed the switch in equipment on OLN's Road to the Tour show in the US on Thursday night.

Many outside-of-the-industry commentators seem to think so. In the business section of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper, economics journalist Rob Carrick suggests investors in oil stocks move into two wheel retailing....

Train operator GNER has today distributed a press release demonstrating how it is spending money on cycle parking facilities. Perhaps the most interesting bit of the release is the part where the numbers of bike parking spaces are listed: a big conurbation like Newcastle has just 60 spaces, yet diddy York has 420 spaces. This tells you a lot about the respective cycle friendliness of these two cities...