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A new ranking system

Giro podium 2010

Team Sky’s co-sponsor IG Markets are going to launch a new rider ranking, the “IG Markets Pro Cycling Index” and it will attempt to reward panache ahead of anonymous consistency.

One of my pet hates is lists and rankings. Things like “Best film ever” or “top-10 dog breeds” can be pointless exercises and often used by newspaper editors to fill pages and generate debate, you can be sure people have opinions and, online, readers will leap to the comments section, thus generating more valuable clicks.

In cycling I find it hard to define the “best cyclist”. Is Alberto Contador better than Fabian Cancellara? Is Philippe Gilbert better than Ivan Basso? These questions are subjective and in trying to answer them we often reveal more about our preferences and biases than the riders’ abilities.

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Milan-Sanremo: worth the hype

On paper if I described a seven hour race where nothing happens until the last 10 minutes, you might not get excited. If I described a race that his very flat and often won by the sprinters, then again you might not be excited. But there’s something special about Milan-Sanremo.

Alimetria

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What Mosquera didn’t say

Ezequiel Mosquera was supposed to be Vacansoleil’s second star signing but the only reason for the Dutch team to be happy is that he hasn’t brought as much bad publicity as Riccardo Riccò. He was suspended after tests showed both he and then team mate David Garcia Da Peña had tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch … Read more

On carbon and carbon fibre

Carbon is everywhere. Can you name another atom that has so many branches of science, knowledge and uses, from carbon chemistry to carbon trading, carbon dating to carbon copies? This atom of six neutrons, six protons and six electrons can be found in the air, in the ground, in the seas and in your body. … Read more

Three cheers for Voeckler

Hip It was great to see an attacking rider win from a breakaway. The move looked doomed but the chase behind didn’t appear too organised. At one point Rabobank were chasing, a sign that they wanted to keep a lid on De Gendt’s advantage but not to bring the race back, since they don’t have … Read more

Rider websites

Many riders are marketable sports stars and like many a celebrity they have their dedicated websites. Some of these aren’t very exciting, often just a repository for images and results. Not to single him out, but Fabian Cancellara’s website isn’t a must read corner of the web. For me it’s the personal tone that interests … Read more

Shift gears

A little reminder to update your bookmarks. Many people are still visiting from http://theinnerring.blogspot.com/ and whilst you get automatically forwarded, you can gain precious seconds by updating your bookmark to https://inrng.com.

Giro teams announced

The Giro will invite Acqua et Sapone, Androni Giocatelli, Farnese Vini, Colnago-CSF Inox and Geox. It was hard to leave any of these teams out, given the presence of Garzelli, Serpa, Visconti, Modolo and Belleti, Menchov and Sastre respectively. Indeed normally only four wildcards would be announced as the race is capped at 200 riders … Read more

The UCI shoots itself in the foot (again)

The Swiss voted recently on a referendum for tighter gun controls. They rejected the proposal. The small Alpine state has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world, a figure especially high for Europe. I can’t help wonder if a ready supply of firearms explains why the UCI is limping. The Swiss-based governing … Read more

Ever wanted to be a professional cyclist?

I got an email from the guys at Bicycling asking if I’d consider submitting some words for a guest blog. As Bicycling Magazine puts it, “editor Bill Strickland is taking a short break from his blog The Selection to do a little extra work on the print magazine for Bicycling”  and they’ve got some other … Read more

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