Month: December 2011

Mods and rockers

Two video clips that are very different but both contain behind the scenes footage, one with a heavy metal loving soigneur and the other with Bradley Wiggins, a self-styled mod.

First is a video from the soon to vanish HTC-Highroad team and shows the work of a soigneur. “We need 30 hours in a day” is the opening claim from the team’s head soigneur Frits Van Der Heide. The film explains the role of the soigneur, French for “carer”. As you can see the day is long and it goes from supporting the riders to washing the team car. Just as the mechanics wash every bike, the team cars must have the showroom look too. There’s all the usual footage of soigneurs filling up musettes and the slow-mo footage shows text-book examples of how to grab them in the feedzone (arm forward, grab where the straps meet the bag).

I follow Frits Van Der Heide on Twitter and as well as cycling-related messages, it seems he’s into Black Sabbath and a keen Saab driver. He’s joined Saxo Bank for 2012.

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How did they do in 2011?

Thibaut Pinot

Last winter I picked seven young riders to watch in 2011. Forecasting is a mug’s game. Even the best computers and science struggles to get next weekend’s weather right so trying to judge who will win a bike race in six months’ time is more an exercise in projective storytelling than prediction.

Still, with the season over, time to revisit the picks of 2011 and see how they got on.

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Tuesday shorts

I’ve been away for the last two weeks and catching up with news from cycling. Here are a few things that have caught my attention so far.

Willunga Hill

Four weeks to go
The 2012 season is now less than four weeks away as the Tour Down Under starts on 15 January 2012. The race has grown on me over the years. Some label it a training race in the sunshine but if was only that it would be great as it marks the end of the winter off-season, we get to see the new kit and bikes abd with internet streams, the racing too.

But the rising importance of UCI Pro Tour points and the haul on offer mean the race is no holiday, there is now too much at stake for riders and teams. The overall winner takes 100 points. That’s the same as winning Paris-Roubaix or the Tour de Suisse and it is substantial enough to alter the team rankings. The top-3 teams in 2011 were separated by fewer than 100 points.

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Pro cycling column

Pro Cycling Magazine kindly asked if I’d write a piece for them about the use of Twitter in the sport and you can read my thoughts in the latest version of the magazine (edition 159). You’ll have to buy the magazine to read it, especially since the column is more than 140 characters long.  

Caption competition winner

I’ve been away for the last two weeks and in my absence cued up series of posts including a caption competition for the above photo from cyclingnews.com.

I had to reach back in time to find this photo as normally not much happens at this time of year. Little did I know Alberto Contador would jump out of a plane during this time providing many caption-worthy photos.

For me the winning comment was OJT:

McQuaid: Where should I aim?
Di Luca: I don’t care, just try to avoid your foot this time

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Lowlights of 2011

Having covered some of the highlights of 2011, a quick look at the other moments from the year where there was less pleasure or enjoyment. The most sorry moment was obviously the loss of Wouter Weylandt during the Giro d’Italia. Any words about tragedy and loss just aren’t enough, there is little I can add. … Read more

Highlights of 2011 – Part V

In the fifth and final part of the highlights of the year I’ve realised one thing. 2011 has been such a good year that you cannot take five highlights of the year because there have been so many more. So I’m going to cheat in this final look at the best moments of the year with five more moments from the year.

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Highlights of 2011 – Part IV

Five moments from 2011. They are a personal choice like any list sometimes you omit more than you include but I’ll explain each moment. They’re presented in no particular order.

This time Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse. Arguably the fourth biggest stage race in the world, Switzerland is Europe’s mountain nation and full of stunning roads. In this highlight of 2011 you get clever tactics, a master class descending and Peter Sagan showing that a vicious mountain pass like the Grosse Scheidegg (16km, 7.7% average, several sections at 12%) doesn’t worry him.

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Highlights of 2011 – Part III

Five moments from 2011. They are a personal choice like any list sometimes you omit more than you include but I’ll explain each moment. They’re presented in no particular order.

Here, a double header: Stage 18 and Stage 19 of the Tour de France. I could cover each stage as a separate highlight but that means I’d have to drop something else from the year so a tandem highlight…

Stage 18 of the Tour de France saw something special: a contender for the yellow jersey launching a long range attack.

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A picture says a 1000 words

They say a picture says a thousand words and I think this one from cyclingnews.com says plenty.

We have Alberto Contador in a yellow jersey branded with the Discovery channel, UCI President Pat McQuaid holding a gun, Danilo Di Luca winner and the man in the grey suit is Jan Jannsen, the first Dutchman to win the Tour de France.

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