Where are they going? It seems the announcement that will save the band of brothers over at Bbox-Bouygues Télécom is taking its time to get through. In today’s Equipe the team’s top rider Thomas Voeckler says he’s had his best ever season – he won in Montreal – but that he’s still waiting for news … Read more
Thomas Voeckler’s got over 15,000km of racing in his legs this year. But other riders have more miles… air miles. 2010 has seen the sport start with the Tour Down Under, then go to the middle-east, travelling to California and last weekend saw two races in Canada. That’s before the Worlds in Australia. And don’t … Read more
If Cervélo claimed “subtle changes” in the UCI rules caused their Test Team’s demise then the other UCI rules may also hamper the ambition of Garmin-Transitions to sign several of their riders. Why? Well the UCI imposes a limit on the number of riders a ProTour team can employ. Here’s the relevant rule: 2.15.110 RidersThe … Read more
Certain subtle changes in the rules that govern pro cycling, have established a trend towards bigger budgets to ensure participation in all the big races, and this is not something with which we are comfortable. We were okay with the significant commitment we originally made to the team, but to increase it is not prudent. … Read more
I don’t like lists and rankings, the ordered ranking of riders never expresses the full excitement of a season’s racing. In some sports the rankings matter but in cycling the UCI rankings haven’t taken off as a measure of performance across the season. Yet the rankings matter. As we’ve already seen, nations need riders with … Read more
Hands up if you’re an embarrassment Someone should keep a blog just to monitor the ramblings of UCI President Pat McQuaid and to rebut his misleading public statements. Now he has done the sport a service when it comes to internationalising races. The idea of the ProTour was a good one (although I think it … Read more
2.15.120 A transfer period extends from 1 August to 20 October According to the UCI rules, rider transfers should only be announced during the 80 day window from 1 August onwards. In addition, actual recruitment, such as the signing of contracts is also meant to take place during the same period. A team or rider … Read more
It’s a first: the UCI has published online its financial report and audited accounts for the year ending 31 December 2009. These are available online at uci.ch, go to the publications page. You might come to The Inner Ring for more juicy news and to escape dull numbers so I’ll try to liven up the … Read more
The top 10 countries on the UCI rankings as of 15 August get permission to have up to nine riders in the World Championship road race and a large team can be a real help towards a rider in the race, so long as the team is able to offer support and isn’t made up … Read more
Here’s the relevant UCI rule on safe sprinting: 2.3.036 SprintsRiders shall be strictly forbidden to deviate from the lane they selected when launching into the sprint and, in so doing, endangering others. Also there’s a general rule on conduct: 1.2.079 Conduct of participants in cycling racesAll licence holders… …shall refrain from any acts of violence, … Read more