The 2013 season is drawing to a close and many riders are looking forward to a break from work with no bike to ride or diet to watch. But like all time off work, it’s never long enough and the new season is not far away. Several teams are already making plans for next year.
Here’s a look at some options for the winter and why the Tour Down Under is the equal of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Switzerland.
Saxo-Bank boss Lars Seier was next to Bjarne Riis and Alberto Contador to announce his team would be increasing its funding for the team in 2014 which will be Team Saxo Bank althogh he’s welcome to a co-sponsor.
Bjarne Riis seems to have unique survival powers, like some computer game character with infinite lives. Every time he’s faced with trouble he seems to pull through when others would have been banned, suspended, bankrupted, hounded or more. It’s also a good marketing opportunity for Saxo Bank who show they stand by Riis in tough times, the opposite of Oleg Tinkov who’s supposed to be taking his (t)roubles to Cannondale.
This post isn’t about doping. Instead it’s about procedures and probabilities so if you want something more exciting, wait for the preview of this Sunday’s Il Lombardia race due out soon.
Team Sky’s Jonathan Tiernan-Locke was pulled out from the British team going to the worlds at the last moment and there was talk of an injury with some and fatigue from others. But the weekend saw the story that he was being questioned by the UCI about his biological passport data. What has happened to get these questions and what is next?
There are few races when we see sprinters line up alongside classics contenders and stage race specialists all with the ambition of winning. This year’s world championships will see 42 of top-50 riders start and then the 272km course will eliminate many contenders.
Who will win? The bookmakers think Fabian Cancellara, I think Peter Sagan but it’s a very open race with a deep field and even the weather promises surprises with thunderstorms forecast for the finish.
Three teams in one day? Yesterday brought the news that Euskaltel-Euskadi had stopped negotiations with Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso for the sale of the team licence and there was confirmation in Cycling Weekly that Vacansoleil-DCM was stopping and via Twitter it seems Team Sojasun have no replacement sponsor for 2014.
Cycling teams come and go but there’s something wrong with the way the sport works when decisions concerning the elite of the sport get taken only months away from the new season and so late into the end of the current one.
Ahead of the long weekend of the GP Cycliste de Québec and the GP Cycliste de Montréal the event has held a sprint challenge where three riders are set off at a time and do a road version of a track sprint. It’s a novel format and a way to extend interest in the race given the riders are already on site in Québec. It is a stunt and only a step away from those cyclist vs horse shows we see.
But I keep writing Vuelta previews saying “tune in for the sprint finish” which sadly implies we should ignore the previous four hours of racing, I don’t mean to say this but know that viewers don’t have infinite time to watch the race cross landscapes. These sprints do focus the action and create a show.
It’s hard to find a dirtier election contest than the battle to run the UCI. Overnight Velonews brought us enough allegations of shakedowns, cover-ups and bribery to fill a James Ellroy novel. You can see a three-page summary of a 54-page dossier that has existed since June containing potent allegations against Pat McQuaid.
But McQuaid has fired back today with allegations that he’s the victim of extortion and bribery attempts from unnamed “opponents”. These are equally bold allegations too. For all the stories we’ve seen so far regarding the UCI it’s now reached a new level with allegations of criminal conspiracy on both sides.
For all the talk of disc brakes being the future of road cycling, here’s the winning road bike from the Eurobike trade show. It’s by Factor Bikes and comes with integrated brakes. These are built-in brake calipers as opposed to the normal idea of bolting them on to the frame or fork. It’s not new, Lotto-Belisol ride often ride Ridleys with this feature too.
The opening stage of the Vuelta is no introductory prologue. Instead this team time trial is long enough to see significant time gaps open up and shape the overall classification for the first week. This is a fast course for big rouleurs, the antithesis of a race where the winner in three weeks’ time will be climber with a compact chainset.
It’s an evening event with the race concluding as the sun sets off the coast so adjust your TV routine if you plan to catch this on TV.
The Tour de l’Avenir translates as the “Tour of the Future” and this year’s race begins a chapter in the race with new ownership and an extended format. It’s now an eight day race reserved for U-23 riders and has to be the best single guage of new talent.
Past winners include Felice Gimondi, Joop Zoetemelk, Laurent Fignon, Greg LeMond, Miguel Indurain and Nairo Quintana.