'What Are You Going To Do With A Used Waterbottle?'

You wouldn't believe the number of people that have asked me that since my recent post about the Tour of Britain and my souvenir: a genuine Team Barloworld bidon.

'It's not a waterbottle, it's a bidon' has been my initial response each time, quickly followed by 'you just don't know me at all do you'.

To be fair, I didn't say the second bit to my wife when she asked .. but I thought it.

Anyway, anyone who really knows me knows that I wouldn't look upon the bidon as a single item, rather it's the launch pad for ... a collection.

Therefore, I'm excited to announce that my bidon collection has doubled in size thanks to the aquisition of a genuine, race-used, bidon from the КАТЮША pro cycling team.

КАТЮША ('Katusha'), one of the top pro cycling teams, is organised by the Russian Global Cycling Project foundation, which itself is funded by Russian businesses such as Gazprom, Itera and Rostechnologii. The team was launched in 2008 and first competed at the 2009 Tour Down Under in Australia. Amongst their squad of elite riders is 21-year-old Englishman Ben Swift, winner of stage 7 at this years Tour of Britain. I like to think it was once his bidon.

The bidon itself is in great condition, with the КАТЮША team logo alongside those of Itera, Gazprom and Elite. Whilst the seller advertised it as 'comes clean' I'm pleased to say it still has a lovely orange/glucose smell about it.

There's only really one rule for inclusion in the collection - the item must be race used: let's be honest, it wouldn't be a collection worth having if I could just walk into a sports shop and buy one, would it?

Ben Swift
Professional cyclist
Team КАТЮША