Can You Love Katusha?

Alexander Porsev Katusha
Katusha team owner Igor Makarov might be one of the wealthiest men in the world but even he’s said he can’t fund the team forever. He’s helped to bankroll the team with support from Itera, the gas giant he founded in the 1990s, since he bought out Oleg Tinkov in 2008. There’s been open talk for that he’s thinking of stepping back from the team once he’s funded Russian cycling’s journey to Rio. He’s right to question the spending given the team’s best results have come from foreigners and Russian recruits like Denis Galimzyanov and Denis Menchov have been disastrous.

Faced with this the team is setting out to woo fans and improve on the squad’s unloved image.

Read more

Thursday Shorts

Spain’s had a rough time of it recently with only Movistar in the World Tour and Caja Rural in the Pro Conti tier, not much given the rich culture of cycling, the extensive calendar and the sheer number of Iberian pros, almost a national export. So news of a third Spanish team on the up should be greeted with cheers. Only there’s a catch: it’s run by Manolo Saiz.

Read more

Where Are We Going?

The AIOCC, the Association Internationale des Organisateurs des Courses Cyclistes, yesterday issued a press release rejecting the UCI’s proposed reforms to pro cycling following a 77 to 6 vote. Ironically the press release isn’t public but L’Equipe broke the news and German website Radsport has a good synthesis.

Someone somewhere has a working copy of the UCI reforms. In recent years they’ve emerged buried in a PDF located in a dusty corner of the UCI website but these versions have been superseded by other proposals that are not public with only summary details sketched out by the occasional press release instead of a detailed masterplan to which everyone is working.

Read more

Thursday Shorts

The accounts are out for the Critérium du Dauphiné. Breaking down the revenue sources and costs for a World Tour stage race would be a fascinating exercise but it’s commercially confidential for starters and the accounts for the Dauphiné are so economic on detail that there’s no chance of writing much about them. All we know is the race budget is around €2 million and for 2014 the race generated a profit €46,383, down from €64,734 the previous year.

Read more

2015 Team Victory Rankings

A final look at the victory rankings for the teams. With the season finished it’s time to look back at the wins and also look deeper within them. Which months are the best time to win? Does starting off well ensure a team rides well all year? Which teams had the most podium places but the fewest wins? Which teams are the most reliant on one rider?

Read more

Lowlights of the Year


Having looked at the highs, time to descent into the darkened valley of low points to see what went wrong and more.

Read more

We Haven’t Had A Doping Scandal

As athletics stumbles around in the dark, or should that be stumbles because they’re wearing a blindfold, it’s different watching another sport get the treatment normally reserved for cycling. In fact so far this year we haven’t had a major doping scandal, to the point that the sport almost invented one in a reflex action.

Read more

Book Review – Cycling Anthology

Cycling Anthology

Cycling Anthology Volume Six

Strong, light, cheap. Pick two” said Keith Bontrager when it came to parts for your bike. Here’s a book that offers strong writing, that’s light and small enough to fit in a race jersey pocket and all for a keen price.

Read more

Highlights of the Year: Part V

tom dumoulin vuelta

The last of five highlights is a hard call. Like any list half the story is in the omissions and it forces you to cut out plenty of good moments. The Vuelta? Even nominating this stage race is tricky as it had several great moments.

Read more