Roads to Ride: Plateau de Beille

A new edition to the Tour de France in recent years, this Pyrenean this climb features again in July. It’s a tough challenge but a dead end and outside of the Tour de France, a peaceful road that seems be used by cyclists and few others.

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The Power of Music

Mike Teunissen

Jack Bobridge’s UCI Hour Record attempt had him riding to a chosen soundtrack with a series of selected songs. Twitter found some of the songs amusing but there’s a performance aspect as music can make you go faster. Many riders, like Mike Teunissen above, use it during a warm-up.

The velodrome is unique because a rider can have music played to them during competition. Should Rohan Dennis compile a playlist?

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In Praise of the MPCC

The Mouvement Pour Un Cyclisme Crédible or MPCC is sometimes the butt of jokes but what if we celebrated its achievements and laughed at those who try to mock the sport?

This group of teams has grown and led the way on anti-doping policies, often seeing the UCI copy the rules later on and taking a stance to safeguard rider health too.

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A Tale of Two Races

The Dubai Tour starts today and so does the Etoile de Bessèges. Both offer several days of racing in the early season but the comparisons stop there as the Emirati race outbids its rivals on almost every scale. The Etoile long been an essential part of the early season in France but will it survive much longer?

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Paris-Nice Route

Paris-Nice Route 2015

ASO have announced the route for the Paris-Nice. After last year’s hilly route without time trials the 2015 race looks traditional with an opening prologue, a “summit finish” and the conclusive Col d’Eze time trial.

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Monday Shorts

Mathieu van der Poel

Mathieu van der Poel looks built for the road. When you look at riders like Lars Boom or Zdeněk Štybar you can see a crunched ball of muscle suited to shorter, explosive efforts but “VDP” is a different shape with limbs like spatulas and maybe he will cross to the road in time with great success?

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The On-board Camera Guide

Jérémy Roy FDJ Tour Down Under camera

Many saw my videos from the on-board cameras during the Tour Down Under and I’m grateful for it. Now I’ll explain how it was done, writes Jérémy Roy of FDJ.

This is the translation of a piece on Roy’s informative website jeremyroy.fr and he has approved its use here.

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