It’s official: 17 Teams are chasing 18 World Tour Places as the likes of IAM Cycling and MTN-Qhubeka prefer, for now, to stay in cycling’s second division knowing they’ll collect plenty of wildcard invitations. No surprises but several reader questions by email and Twitter following today’s announcement. Here’s a Q&A on the teams, timing and more.
UCI
Astana’s Tale of Two Brothers
If you fell into a coma six years ago and came around yesterday it would seem as if nothing had changed. Manolo Saiz was appointed as a team preparador and hours later one of his old riders, whom the Italian federation tried but failed to ban, won Milano-Torino. Amid the wreckage left by Saiz, Alexandr Vinokourov created the Astana team and yesterday the UCI slipped out another PDF with Kazakh rider Maxim Iglinskiy named for a positive A-test for EPO.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
The UCI vs Roman Kreuziger, Round II
The ongoing battle between the UCI and Roman Kreuziger continues. Yesterday saw a fresh round with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) holding an expedited hearing from Kreuziger over the provisional suspension issued by the UCI. The result is that he’s banned from racing and won’t do the Vuelta a Espana.
The World Tour’s Shortage of Teams
Each passing day brings a Cannondale rider signing for new team. Yesterday saw Fabio Sabatini heading off to OPQS for 2015. If the riders are hopefully finding work, the staff might not have it so easy. It marks the end of the team which began as Liquigas in 1999, starting out with black kit but in time adopting bright lime green tones which persist today.
But the end of one team is problem for the sport as a whole because it suggests a shortage of teams for 2015, notably 17 teams chasing 18 spots in the World Tour.
The UCI vs Roman Kreuziger
The UCI issued a statement on Saturday announcing the provisional suspension of Roman Kreuziger.
It’s a big test for the athlete passport system. So far the UCI has won every case it’s launched or asked others to prosecute, including winning appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). We might want the instant verdict of a toxicological test with a positive A and B test in the lab but the passport just doesn’t work like this. It works on statistics and takes time to build up patterns and then riders are given plenty of time to respond. But so far it’s won against small fry riders or those, like Dennis Menchov, who have simply retired with a shrug rather than a legal fight. Kreuziger’s case is different, he’s an active rider, a millionaire and already employing high-profile lawyers to defend him.
UCI Annual Report and Financial Accounts
Money makes the wheels go round in pro cycling and the governing body has just quietly published its annual report on UCI.ch. Here’s a look at the financial report for the calendar year ending 2013 and the summary take is a steady year.