Saddled with a history of deceit

To gauge where cycling is at now, to establish how deep it is in the mire, it may be necessary to hold a stage of the Tour de France in front of a Late Late Show studio audience.

When you look back at David Walsh’s famous 2002 appearance on the Late Late, the most notable thing is the tittering and scorn from the audience for Walsh’s scepticism of Stephen Roche and the bona fides of cycling’s iron men.

It was a bit like the time Fintan O’Toole tried to take on the Wolfe Tones on the show.