Thirty years ago this weekend, a mere 44,000 fans turned up to watch the finale of a world championship that was ultimately won by half a point. You couldn’t have wished for a closer contest between McLaren’s Niki Lauda and Alain Prost but it was not enough to draw the locals 20 miles down the

Emma Pooley can win the world’s biggest bike races, but she cannot make the numbers add up. As a road cyclist, the 31-year-old has a world title and Olympic silver medalto her name. She is one of the world’s pre-eminent time-trial specialists. Has that earned enough to put food on the table? Yes. After almost a decade in