Why Alun "Chucky" Cairns Will Probably Wish Geraint Thomas Hadn't Won the Tour De France

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I'm not going to lie. I don't really follow cycling. And if I do I'd only watch it on TV. Definitely wouldn't go and physically watch it unless I was at the end of the race. I mean what's the point? People on cycles whoosh in front of you and they're gone.

But having said all of the above everybody whatever their cycling knowledge has heard of the Tour De France and everybody in Wales yesterday probably watched Welshman Geraint Thomas win it. And people here are happy. A seemingly nice man has won a race in the pinnacle of his sport and in physically wrapping himself in the Welsh flag on the podium did not hide where he comes from.

And yet, there are possibly at least two people in Wales who when they think about it will regret Mr Thomas' victory. Soon to be ex First Minister and soon to be latest yesterday's man from Welsh Labour who failed Wales Carwyn Jones and Secretary of State for Wales and full stop to any sense of decency in Welsh politics Alun Chucky Cairns.

Why? You might ask. Well it's all to do with that bridge. The Second Severn crossing which at Chucky's prompting but with the First Minister's agreement (a fact that Cairns never let's anybody forget - you were played Carwyn you were well and truly played) was renamed The Prince of Wales Bridge thus enabling them to kiss royal backside. This despite the fact that polls in Wales showed an overwhelming majority did not approve of the name change and the way it was imposed on high (or in this case from low) by Chucky.

(And, as I mentioned previously, Cairns' response was that these polls were conducted only in Wales. Thus subconsciously possibly showing his true opinion for the office of Secretary of State.....for Wales)

The thing about renaming the bridge is this. For the most part Cairns has been Westminster's mouthpiece in Wales. This however was the only policy which you could believe was instigated by Chucky. So he's very protective of it.

Despite the opposition the change of name went through. One of the problems for it's opponents was that there was not a clear alternative that people could rally round.

Well I don't know who exactly started this on Twitter (not me) but now on my timeline I've seen people suggest that it should be renamed the Geraint Thomas bridge. This idea has legs (two of them) as well as a pair of wheels. After all Mr Thomas is Welsh, popular and the bridge has a cycle lane on it. So that with his achievement means that really no one should object.

Cairns of course will object. But he has a few problems. Firstly there is now a popular alternative name and secondly, as he himself showed in the change of name to the Prince Of Wales bridge, this can be done relatively quickly.

In fact when I was thinking this through there actually seemed one decent objection to this. Her name is Nicole Cooke. She is Welsh, a road cycle racer before her retirement at twenty nine but in her career was Commonwealth, Olympic and World road race champion. So in other words like Geraint Thomas she is a cyclist, reached the pinnacle of her sport and is Welsh and therefore just as entitled as him that the second Severn Crossing is named after her.

Then it occurred to me. The second Severn Crossing bridge is the second Severn Crossing Bridge. In other words there is the first one.

So why not start a campaign that the second Severn Severn Crossing bridge is named the Geraint Thomas bridge and the first one is named the Nicole Cooke bridge? Seems fair enough to me.

Now all we need is to find something to name Tanni Grey-Thompson and it will all seem complete for now.

If a bridge could bite a person in the backside then Cairns might just experience it.

Until the next time.