Sir Paul McCartney's brilliant new interpretation of a Penny Lane lyric, Clean Machine is his musical statement on the team formed by his much missed wife.
When Linda McCartney decided to back a cycling team for the first time in 1998, it was very much a "toe-in-the-water" operation. However, before her long battle with cancer finally came to an end, she made it clear that she wanted her team to go all the way. A great advert for the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle, The Clean Machine tasted life in cycling's big-time in 1999.
In 2000, The Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team take another huge step towards their ultimate goal of the Tour de France. By bringing in two Olympic medallists, a triathlon world champion, and a rigid backbone of support, the organisation are committed to building on 1999's fine record.
This year will see the team taking on cycling's great "monuments" for the first time. With winners of races like the first ever professional Olympic Road Race, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, The Tour of Lombardy, stages in the Tours of France, Italy and Switzerland, plus multiple national champions in the squad, it is no idle boast to say that we will see the yellow and black jersey at the front of the bunch all over the world this year.
Despite the international line-up, the team remains a staunchly British operation. With the introduction of an exclusively British Under-23 development squad in addition to the ten elite riders, Linda McCartney's investment in the future of UK cycling has been cemented. Perhaps these will be the riders we see wearing the Linda McCartney colours in the Tour de France in years to come.
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