Month: September 2014

Monday Shorts

Leopold Konig Tour de France 2014

Team Sky announced five signings and the unanimous opinion seems to be there’ll all strong riders, to the point where picking nine for the Tour de France will keep some list-makers busy over the winter. Injuries and other incidents will hit the best laid plans, just ask Richie Porte who’s Giro bid went bad before the race started. With Nicolas Roche and Leopold König the team is buying in riders to work as helpers who could be leaders on other World Tour squads… and this is exactly what big teams do.

König’s case is perhaps the most interesting. Seen as a climber he finished seventh overall in the Tour de France via fifth place in the final time trial, his second highest placing in the race so he’s much more complete than a pure climber.

Who’s Leaving Sky / Alonso Update / Bardet’s 4 year deal / All change at FDJ? / Ferrand-Prévot’s ambitions / Contract Deadline Day / Milan-Turin / Jean-Paul Gaulthier inspured by Del Tongo team

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2015 Pro Cycling iCal Calendar

Pro cycling’s off season fast approaching arriving but if the racing stops the planning doesn’t. Whether you’re plotting a victorious classics campaign or a trip to Europe you need to know when the pro races are.

Here’s the 2015 pro cycling calendar with the final races of 2014 added so you can use it straight away. You’ll soon find the races appear. In addition you can subscribe or download an iCal file to import the same calendar into your organiser, phone and computer diary.

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Kwiatkowski Makes a Name for Himself

Who is Michał Kwiatkowski? Ask Google and the answer might confuse. There’s a Canadian ice hockey player and for many in France “Michal” is a singer who featured in Star Academy, a popular TV series.

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The Moment The Race Was Won: World Championships

Kwiatkowski attack Ponferrada world championships Spain 2014

Michał Kwiatkowski drops the last of a four man group on the final climb of the Mirador above Ponferrada. He’d slipped the bunch on the descent with risky move, both for his safety on wet roads but tactically as there were four riders to get in his way up ahead. He seemed to take a breather before accelerating again and now solo he was never caught again. This was the moment the race was won.

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World Championships Road Race Preview

The most open contest in years? With a course that’s hard to define it’s up to the riders to determine their approach to the race and we should get a tense finale with sprinters and grand tour riders clashing.

Here’s the preview for Sunday’s race with the contenders and pretenders plus the TV schedule, weather and more.

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The UCI Presidency After One Year

A year ago this week Brian Cookson was elected president in a contest that was close and at times bitter. Today the role of the UCI President is barely a talking point. Still as the sport’s top official Cookson’s role matters.

Feargal McKay has done a good job for cyclingnews.com reviewing Brian Cookson’s manifesto pledges to see what’s happened since. Bear in mind these pledges are ongoing, there was no commitment to achieve everything by now but it allows us to see the direction of travel. With this in mind, let’s take a wider look at the cultural and managerial changes.

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“UCI Ends the Tour of Beijing”

A misleading headline but reports seem to be running with a similar title. What’s misleading? The Beijing authorities pulled the plug as opposed to the UCI deciding to call time. Does the causality matter? Yes, substantially so because the sport loses a top race in a key market and the World Tour calendar shrinks, something the UCI probably wouldn’t want if it had the choice. So much for globalisation.

But if it’s a setback for the UCI it could be better for everyone in the long term. No more conflict of interests between promoting events and designing a calendar and if China is going to have a big race, there are some case studies on how to build a sustainable event.

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World Championships Time Trial Preview

Tony Martin versus the World? Last year he was so fast his average speed was superior to many of the teams in the team time trial event. His win seems certain, cycling’s answer to cosmological constant.

But if time trials rarely make for good TV new production techniques are helping and even with old school broadcasting there’s a race on for the other podium places.

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Monday Shorts

Roman Kreuziger’s been cleared by the Czech Olympic Committee’s arbitration panel. Fair verdict or whitewash? For now it’s hard to tell as the reasoned decision is online as a PDF but in Czech and so a hard read.

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World Team Time Trial Preview

This Sunday sees the UCI World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain start with the team time trial. If a team time trial isn’t new, the format is still a novelty at the worlds after it was introduced two years ago and more so since it features pro teams when the rest of the week is about national squads.

OPQS have won twice in a row but this year’s edition looks more open with several teams able to challenge. Here’s an explainer of what is involved, why there’s no rainbow jersey for the winners and how it’s very different from the team time trials we might see in a stage race.

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