THE past week in sport saw a record that will surely take some time, if ever, to be broken.

American cyclist Lance Armstrong took out the Tour de France for a record-breaking sixth time. Armstrong, for anyone who isn't aware, is an inspirational figure.

In the gruelling, lonely, super fit world of the cyclist, his achievement will rank him up with the greatest-ever sportsmen and women. But Armstrong's personal triumphs on the sporting stage are matched by his triumphs away from the sport.

Before any of his major victories, Armstrong conquered testicular cancer, not only beating the disease once but overcoming secondary cancers after it spread to his lungs and brain.

His autobiography "It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life" tells his truly inspirational story of courage and determination beyond all odds, and another moving chapter has been added to it this week with his latest Le Tour triumph.

Meanwhile, last Thursday at our club saw myself, chief executive Steve Ferres, development officer Jason Ramshaw and club captain Lee Jackson face the fans in an organised forum.

I would like to thank the attending fans, not only for their presence but also for taking it easy on us during what is proving to be a tough run.

Question of the night had to be from a supporter who we shall call Maverick. He wanted to know how Jason managed to play his career in a scrum cap considering his bouffant hairdo!

But it was a good night and I'm sure enjoyed by all - hopefully next time round we will have more to shout about.

A lot of questions centred on the subject of referees, many of which I couldn't answer.

If referees' chief Stuart Cummings, or anyone for that matter, could answer them I feel they would probably be writing their own pay cheques.

On a different note, sad sight of the week had to be Yusuf Sozi being evicted from the Big Brother house. Surely the Scottish bloke has to go next.

At last we have a home game coming up after our month on the road. It's against Barrow - and at the moment they don't come much tougher.

Our confidence has taken a dent in recent weeks and we are very much in need of the win, but the lads are still working very hard and being very honest with each other.

Meanwhile, the club's application to form a scholarship scheme has gone into the RSL and hopefully by September the Knights will be able to introduce up and coming talent to our club and keep local players within York.

It is the way forward for our club to produce homegrown talent and I'm sure under the right tuition, which I know the club will provide, it won't be long before the first group will be starring in the first team.

Updated: 08:45 Wednesday, July 28, 2004