OK, this is straying away from the usual cycling territory but I’m fascinated by the ejection of the English team from the soccer World Cup. I also wrote about France’s elimination too. Some of the team said they were “tired” and commentators said that the players looked languid. Apparently some blame a lack of a … Read more
It’s now time for the national cycling championships across Europe. The right to wear a distinctive jersey for a year is something worth fighting for, it brings increased recognition but also extra earnings power as the rider becomes a default invitation for many criteriums. The Italian championship in particular looks hard and anyone other than … Read more
Ag2r-La Mondiale’s kit gets plenty of criticism, the brown shorts are not exactly a favourite. But I’ve seen a few riders for real, as opposed to photos, and the jersey looks fine. One thing that will be different for July is that the clothing will feature a special carbon fibre “spine” for the jersey. The … Read more
Twitter is an interesting way to keep up with riders. You can get first hand insights in their racing, plus things outside their life. One thing many riders tweet about is the out of competition antidoping controls. Last night HTC-Columbia’s promising Aussie sprinter Leigh Howard wrote: 9PM at night, just sitting down to eat dinner … Read more
Team Sky gives it riders a lot of choice over kit, for example riders can pick the length of their shorts or the style of their mitts. I’m not sure these tiny details offer many marginal gains but we all have our preferences and it’s nice to be able to choose. For example maybe you … Read more
In case you haven’t seen it, take a look at the Cycling Quotient website as it’s got a good ranking system and the subrankings are fun. Here’s a screenshot of the “most kilometres raced” rankings where you can see who has been racing the most this season, at least in UCI category .1 races and … Read more
Here are the results from the Elite XC race of the MTB World Cup at Offenback. More details of the racing can be found here. But look closely at the results. First in 10th place is a familiar name to me, that of Lejarreta. Iñaki Lejarreta is a MTB rider but he is the son … Read more
Many riders have surnames that are also nouns. I apologise if this ruins your TV viewing, those once exotic Euro names can actually prove a bit dull but here are some more of the peloton’s names translated from their home language into English: Serpa, mountain sherpa Valerio Agnoli – Valerio Angels Manuel Belletti – Manuel … Read more
The DVD of race highlights is going to be a best seller. I rarely watch these things but am already interested getting a copy, the Giro is just past half way but the race has been turned upside down. The obvious highlight was the Stage 7 from Carrara to Montalcino, a 222km slog across and … Read more
I can’t say much more on yesterday’s stupendous Giro stage – a “hold up” said La Gazzetta Dello Sport – and the leaked emails from Landis are circling in my head like crazy. So let’s go elsewhere for a moment. The Tour de L’AudeFine scenery, fine roads and if not fine wines, very decent ones … Read more