Tomorrow sees the greatest one day race of the year, the Tour of Flanders. Organisers say 600,000 to 800,000 people will line the roads, L’Equipe even says one million could turn out, making one tenth of the Belgian population.
This does not mean that the race will have you perched on the rivet of your armchair for hours as like many events, sometimes anticipation can exceed reality. But ahead of tomorrow’s race here are a few things to consider.
During the classics season I’ll be doing some pieces for cyclingnews.com. I’m a regular reader of their site and did something similar last summer for the Tour de France. My first piece this year is about the classics and they way their format changes to suit the times.
Did you know the three cyclists on the 2008 Tour de France podium all used bikes produced in the same factory? Yes, the design and decals might have varied but there was only one manufacturer behind all three riders.
As well as the decision to rule on Saxo Bank’s future in the top level, last Friday’s UCI press release announced a new race, the Tour of Hangzhou. This five day stage race will take place in October after the Tour of Beijing. Just like the Beijing race this new event is being fast-tracked into UCI’s World Tour calendar and immediately I assumed it had to be run by the UCI’s commercial events promotion arm, Global Cycling Promotions, a fact confirmed by Velonation.
I’ve covered the subject of father and son riders before (here and here) but last weekend Italian newspaper La Gazzetta Dello Sport had a feature on Miguel Indurain and his son Miguel. The five times Tour de France winner is enjoying watching his son progress on the bike and after some promising results in the cadetes category he moves up to the juniors (U-18) with CC Villavés , the club that brought his father in to the sport, as well as Team Sky’s Xavier Zandio.
These pairings are common and there are more, listed below. But can a child inherit their father’s champion abilities or not?
Twelve riders for 2012. Some are riders you will be familiar with, some you might have forgotten about and maybe you will read about some for the first time below.
Last winter I picked seven young riders to watch in 2011. Forecasting is a mug’s game. Even the best computers and science struggles to get next weekend’s weather right so trying to judge who will win a bike race in six months’ time is more an exercise in projective storytelling than prediction.
Still, with the season over, time to revisit the picks of 2011 and see how they got on.
Last Friday I put the questions from the IG Markets Pro Cycling pub quiz online and I think everyone found them hard. When IG Markets hosted the quiz Cycle Sport magazine won with 79 points from 112 but that was a very impressive haul. Here are the answers.
HTC-Highroad’s Alex Rasmussen was said to be “wild with delight” after yesterday’s news that he was cleared to resume racing after a hearing by the Danish cycling authorities.
This isn’t a science but I’ve listed the Greenedge recruits for 2012 by what sort of rider they are. If you think the label is wrong, and there’s plenty of overlap, leave a comment and I can change it, part of the fun of the blog is the comment and interaction from readers.
What stands out is the sheer speed of the team. Sprinters, lead out guys with a track pursuit background, you name it this is certainly a squad that should make an impact early in the season. Just look at today, Chris Sutton has won Stage 2 of the Tour de Wallonie-Picardie whilst yesterday’s winner was Robbie McEwen. Both will be wearing green next year. And today Lithuanian sprinter Aidis Kruopis said he’s joining too.