What’s the biggest race this week? Surely the Vuelta but the revived Tour of Germany is an important moment as it marks the return of men’s stage racing to Europe’s largest country after decade’s absence.
Month: August 2018
UCI Financial Report and Accounts
The annual look at the UCI’s finances, a chance to follow the money behind the governing body. You can download the full report from the UCI website or scan the summary below.
The TV Boom
Surely there’s never been so much racing on TV as this year. As well as the entirety of the Tour de France, there seem to be more small races on TV and this week the Tour du Limousin, the archetypal rural French race, now has live TV. A boom? Perhaps but nobody is getting rich on this, there are more hours than ever but this isn’t necessarily worth more to the sport as a whole.
Team Victory Rankings
August is a very busy month for the World Tour with the Tour of Poland, the BinckBank Tour and the Vuelta and that’s just the racing. Teams are changing shape with plenty of rider transfers being announced already.
Friday Shorts
The Tokyo Olympics courses are out and if it’s for 2020 it’s hardly 50/50 with the men’s course taking in more climbs, including skirting around Mount Fuji which could provide the image of the games… if the weather is clear. But for now the look isn’t good with the women’s course skipping these climbs and the peloton will be half the size of the men’s race too.
On Banning Powermeters
Tour de France founder Henri Desgrange toyed with format, teams, bikes and more all the time and his spirit lives on the annual suggestions after the Tour de France to make changes to the race and the sport as a whole. His successor Christian Prudhomme says power meters should be banned in racing.
But there’s a risk with the logical fallacy that “something must be done, here’s something, we must do it”. Banning the use of power meters sounds useful but probably isn’t and above all we should be wary of quick solutions.
Direct Energie’s Ambitious World Tour Goal
Direct Energie have applied to the UCI for a World Tour licence for next year. The team has been in the World Tour before when it was sponsored by Europcar and its current sponsor has just been bought by French oil major Total meaning it’s theoretically got a line of funding that could make Team Sky feel jealous. Just one problem though: there’s no World Tour licence to spare.
The Double In Trouble
Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin both tried the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double. Did it work out for them? Probably but this won’t make the Giro-Tour double any easier, in fact new calendar changes for 2019 and beyond make it even harder and this is potentially a problem for the sport.