Welcome to a new season of racing. The Tour de San Luis is next week too and the Tropicale Amissa Bongo has opened the pro calendar but this is the first race on the UCI WorldTour calendar. All the big teams together and it’s all on TV.
This race has got harder in recent years and the 2014 edition continues the trend with a sharp climb on the first day that could rule out several sprinters. Here’s the pre-race race preview with a look at each stage, the contenders, a TV guide and more.
Anyone for tennis? Players in the Australian Open are getting heatstroke on court and next week sees the Tour Down Under start in Adelaide where it’s even hotter.
Racing in high temperatures brings a new set of challenges and some solutions are set out below. Can it get too hot to race?
Looking for an ad opportunity to reach informed English-speaking cycling fans around the world? There is space for one advert. Read on if you’d like to know more.
Saxo-Tinkoff unveiled their new yellow and blue jerseys today meaning all the 18 World Tour jerseys are out and pictured in various forms above.
Tinkoff’s yellow and blue design prompted sighs of relief on Twitter after complaints about the trend for black clothing in the pro peloton for 2014, even Oleg Tinkov joined in. Yes OPQS and Trek Factory Racing join Team Sky with predominantly black kit but arguably there are as many team in green as there are in black and besides, blue is by far the most widespread choice. Are we mistaking a team jersey for a fashion item?
What’s the difference between a team riding the UCI World Tour and a UCI ProTeam? Why do the three grand tours award wildcard invitations but other races don’t? If the first division World Tour is capped at 18 teams, what is the maximum size of the second tier Pro Continental bracket?
All these are trick questions. Cycling’s prime calendar and its top teams are in system that takes a lot of time to understand and if you want to find the info, it’s hidden inside a dated website. Does it have to be so complicated?
Evans counts points – Mourey counts to eight – Vuelta counts the decimal places – NetApp count on the Tour – Sanchez sans job – Chris Horner’s Dutch auction – Team Sky change powermeters?
It’s already Monday in Australia and Simon Gerrans is the new Australian road race champion. Rider nicknames are uncommon these days but if he did have a moniker then “The Sniper” seems appropriate for the way he’s able to target a race. Gerrans is a clever rider who doesn’t have the physiological firepower of Cadel Evans or Richie Porte but his “one shot” is making him a good trophy hunter, think yellow in the Tour or Milan-Sanremo. You can read his account of how he won at SimonGerrans.com. He’s now an obvious contender for the Tour Down Under.
Having listed the billionaires who fund several pro teams, time to take a look at their impact on the sport.
It’s great to see these people spending their money on the sport. But at the same time a large proportion of their money isn’t investment, merely that goes into the sport and straight out again. Along the way the money can be useful but it can also push others out of the way.
There are enough billionaires and multi-millionaires in the sport to make this in to a two part series. After yesterday’s first instalment, here is Part II which includes the only woman on the list but arguably she’s the most powerful figure in the sport.
Time for the annual update on the wealthiest people in pro cycling. If you thought this meant Alberto Contador, Mark Cavendish or Philippe Gilbert, think again because this is about the people rich enough to hire these star riders.
2013 looks to have been a good year for the millionaires and billionaires around the world and many of those in pro cycling had an especially lucrative year thanks to booming stockmarkets, billion-dollar business deals and rising income.
Cassani: Italy’s gain, TV’s loss – Cyclocross as a winter sport – Fixing the CX contract season – Two weeks to the TDU – Is Cognizant the new sponsor for Argos-Shimano?
Davide Cassani has been named as the new Italian national coach. The appointment is always treated as a big deal in Italy and concludes a saga of public commentary via La Gazzetta Dello Sport on the contenders before incumbent Paolo Bettini had even resigned and concluded with the blessing of dapper legend Alfredo Martini, the coach for over 20 years. You almost expected white smoke to waft from the chimney on Martini’s house. Habemus selector.