Month: June 2012
Saturday Shorts
It’s the weekend of the national championships across Europe. Whilst America, Asia and Australia have different weekends, pretty much everywhere in Europe sees simultaneous national championships. In some European countries these races can take on a strange feel with several teams of 25 riders starting, making the tactics completely different from your usual race.
Thoughts on the Giro
The organiser of the Giro d’Italia Michele Acquarone has a blog on cyclingnews.com and his latest piece opens the floor to thoughts on the 2012 edition, the route and the racing. It’s good PR, opening up to the fans and seeking ideas. We’ll see what the response is and in time whether any thoughts are taken aboard by the “Pink Admiral”*
I don’t know if he’s a reader but Acquarone raises some interesting points about the Giro and the nature of racing. To summarise the last 100 years of cycle sport in a sentence we’ve seen races shorten in distance, the epic tests of 400km a day with dawn starts and gravel roads are gone and today pro cycling remains a gruelling test of endurance but it is increasingly defined by television.
Tour de France Guide
A quick note to say you can now read a Tour de France guide on here: inrng.com/tour.
Each stage is analysed, each jersey is explained and once more information is available there will be full list of riders and other content that’ll be updated every day so you can dip in and out during the next few weeks.
Are They Stupid?
Several riders are being sucked into a sporting and judicial vortex after police investigations claim links them the infamous Doctor Ferrari. In his defence Filippo Pozzato claimed he did work with Ferrari from 2005 to 2009 but it was an innocent deal where he just paid for training plans. La Repubblica says he paid €40,000-€50,000 a year for the service.
If possible, try to stop the laughs and give Pozzato the benefit of the doubt. Let’s actually imagine he and others have been paying €50,000 for training plans because this still involves big risks.
The Altitude Tent
Altitude training has long been a fixture for endurance athletes. It has been common for riders to head for the mountains for some time. As well as familiarising themselves with the local passes and working on the pedal stroke riders are also subject to hypoxia or oxygen deprivation, triggering a set of responses in the body.
But riders need not go to the high mountains for this. It is possible to sit at home yet experience the conditions of altitude thanks to what is commonly known as an altitude tent.
Strava Face Lawsuit After Rider Death
William “Kim” Flint was a 41-year-old electrical engineer who died in a cycling accident in the summer of 2010. It appears he was descending a road in the Oakland Hills in California, braked hard and lost control and the crash proved fatal. It’s a sad story by itself but the difference here is that Flint’s family are now suing Strava for negligence.
Pozzato And Ferrari
Let’s play a word association. If say “Pippo Pozzato” and “Ferrari” then you might associate the flamboyant Italian cyclist with the Ferrari sports cars. It would be a good answer as Pozzato drives a red F430. But Italy’s second newspaper La Repubblica published an article alleging that Pozzato is associated with another type of Ferrari: Michele Ferrari, the infamous sports “doctor”.
The Moment The Race Was Won: Tour de Suisse
The Tour of Switzerland is arguably the fourth biggest stage race on the calendar. Prestigious, historic, challenging and at the height of the season this is an important event on the calendar. The 2012 race was won by Rui Costa (Movistar).
He staked his claim on Stage 2, the first road stage of the race with a summit finish in the upmarket ski resort of Verbier. The race passed over the Simplon Pass, plenty to tire the legs. As they approached the foot of the final climb the pace was fierce and a select group formed on the final climb. From this Frank Schleck attacked with six kilometres to go, a man who can now carry the adjective “aggressive” after several sharp moves during the week. It was a strong move but the group began to close in and Rui Costa jumped out. He passed Schleck in the final moments of the stage, overhauling him by just four seconds and taking the overall lead by eight seconds. This late move to catch and pass Schleck was the moment the race was won.
Saturday Shorts
April and May were cloudy and wet across much of France and one consequence is that a lot of crops are slow to grow. A big problem for farmers and the nation’s giant agribusiness… but also minor headache for photographers in the Tour de France.
On day when nothing much happens in the race if the sun is shining a photographer is sure to sell a photo of the bunch rolling past a field of sunflowers. It’s the sort of image that will make the front page of a newspaper even if most of the readership aren’t following the race. Only the crop in many parts of France is still some way from flowering.