Evans

Five of the best

Vélo d'OrPast Vélo d’Or winner Alberto Contador

With the pro road race season finished, now is the time to look back and reflect on the past season. I don’t want to spend winter doing endless retrospectives and lists of the best this and that. But hindsight does allow us the chance to review things.

Soon Vélo Magazine will publish the winner of the Vélo d’Or award (“golden bike). In football the Ballon d’Or prize is one of the most prestigious awards and this sister prize too must be one of the best awards in cycling. They ask cycling journalists around the world for their best five riders of the season and add up all the contributions to see who has come out on top. It is hard to pick five riders from a cast of thousands but for the fun of it I thought I’d see who I’d rate right now.

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BMC get Gilbert… but what next?

Gilbert BMC
Phil prepares to tow a BMC car up to the bunch

If the headlines are about Gilbert, I just wanted to ask some questions about the move and the future of the BMC Racing team. Because if the answers are hard to come by, thinking aloud does allow some reflection on the matters ahead.

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News bulletin and weather report

I can’t pick a single topic for the blog today so here are a few smaller points which are worth a mention. Nice images French company Mavic has a clunky website but the content is super-imposed on some nice background images. If you’d like the image above, click on it to open a full size … Read more

Highlights of 2010

I’m not a fan of all those end of year reviews, the countless lists and retrospectives. So it’s with a bit of contradiction that I want to revisit what was my best day’s racing of 2010 and during the week, a few look backs at other events. My only justification is that what’s below isn’t … Read more

Goodbye Aldo Sassi

Sassi busy rebuilding fitness and recovering reputations It’s a stinker of a morning, first the news of Pegasus and now the departure of Aldo Sassi. Sassi was an Italian coach and sports scientist who ran the Mapei Training Centre near Milan in Italy. For too long in Italian cycling the idea of a sports doctor … Read more

Rainbow warrior

It’s been an incredible year for Cadel Evans. His success a year ago in Mendrisio, Switzerland was a home win with his European home is minutes away from the circuit. Coincidently his Australian home is also minutes from the circuit in Geelong. The world title in 2009 transformed him, something that’s been pointed out by … Read more

Evans’ Rainbow Jersey to Ghisallo

Cadel Evans has gifted one of his World Champion “rainbow” jerseys to the Madonna del Ghisallo chapel near Bellagio in Italy. In an interview with La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Evans says he’s honoured to hand over the jersey but admits he’s an atheist. The chapel’s priest, Don Luigi, is apparently praying that Evans stays upright … Read more

Evans: born under a bad sign?

I really feel for Cadel Evans. Six kilometres into the first mountain stage and an innocuous crash fractures his elbow. He struggles on, collects the yellow jersey in Avoriaz but the following day on the Col de la Madeleine the injury’s too much and he has to surrender the race lead. If it wasn’t for … Read more

The Tour: four questions

Oh the irony! For years the first mountain stage was the stage where Lance Armstrong killed the Tour de France. A summit finish would often see him gain control of the race. First his team would shrink the bunch, then one or two lieutenants would select the pace for a select group and then we’d … Read more

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