Transfer Games: what next for Riis and Astana?

For a long time the transfer season revolved around Alberto Contador. The saga of his team for 2011 meant many other big names could not move until the Spaniard made up his mind. For example Astana recruited Kreuziger and Menchov went to Geox but only after Contador had announced he was going and in turn … Read more

Three to go

The European road racing season is about to draw to a close and there are three main events left on the calendar, all in Italy. First is the Milan-Turin, then comes the Giro del Piemonte and finally the Tour of Lombardy next Saturday. All three races take place in north-western Italy and are conveniently timed … Read more

Cervélo’s new concept

Canadian bike company Cervélo likes to think of itself as an innovative company, and it can make strong claims given some of its frames. But it’s now trying a new idea that’s not related to carbon fibre or aerodynamics: centralised ordering and distribution via recognised dealers. In a press release, Cervélo outline a new distribution … Read more

Get in touch

It’s good to see more and more readers and it would be even better to hear from you. This isn’t a commercial website aiming to maximise traffic nor to target a particular readership niche so I can be free to shine a light on some often-overlooked issues. There might be common themes on here, for … Read more

Sassi’s Gold Dust

  I’ve sometimes wondered about Aldo Sassi. He’s an Italian sports scientist who today runs the Mapei Sport centre, a training service offered to pros and amateurs alike. He’s hung around with some suspicious types in the past but today he’s seen at the forefront of clean sport. He makes a virtue of coaching riders … Read more

A Family Business: David McQuaid

Pat McQuaid might be a familiar name to you. The Irishman is President of cycling’s governing body the UCI and by definition one of the most powerful men in the sport. But he’s not the only McQuaid in the sport. Allow me to introduce the other McQuaids. Next in the series is David McQuaid, the … Read more

Ettore Torri is being used as a scapegoat

Towers of strength Etorre Torre is the chief prosectutor for the Italian national Olympic commission. The fact that the Olympics organisation has its own chief prosecutor should tell us enough. Torri is their anti-doping terrier. Here’s American writer Sam Abt on the man: Italy, for the past two decades the hub of doping scandals and … Read more

And what do you know about cycling?

Don’t know much about history,Don’t know much biology,Don’t know much about a science book,Don’t know much about the French I took Sam Cooke clearly wasn’t a follower of pro cycling. One of the weirder aspects of following pro cycling is that as well as learning about 11 speed gearing, European geography and foreign languages, you … Read more

Random thoughts

Two quick points I’ve been thinking about. Too long to put on Twitter, too short for a separate blog post. Here goes…Electric BikesThe Cancellara electric bike story was one of the most read items on here in the Spring, especially since I think the Inner Ring was first to break the story in English. The … Read more

UCI World Tour – another fail?

Only a few days ago I was singing the praises of the UCI World Tour as an idea that had its merits given the way the ProTour flopped. For me the biggest attraction of the new World Tour is a calendar finally including all the big races like the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Paris-Roubaix … Read more