In the last few weeks we’ve seen several virtual races held online. Necessity is the mother of invention and it’s been a way for the sport to continue with all the cancelled races. It’s a poor substitute for real racing that serves only to remind us just how sophisticated a real race can be with tactics, weather and landscapes combining to create something special. Virtual racing seems designed for a limited audience but this is the start and there’s space to trial a variety of formats.
It’s become an annual tradition here to look at the finances of Team Sky/Ineos and Ag2r La Mondiale. Why? Because they’ve been the only teams to file accounts.
Team budgets matter but data are hard to come by. Some of the estimates doing the rounds in recent years are so dubious they’ve managed to get the numbers that have been audited and published wrong. Here’s a closer look at the published accounts and money behind the brown short brigade…
Gianni Mura has died aged 74. He was a legendary sports journalist in Italy and began covering the Tour de France at the age of 21 and was on the race last July too. Mura was sometimes portrayed as a curiosity in recent years for his use of a typewriter which made him look old-fashioned but there was a modern side too. He was one of the first in the pressroom to use a typewriter back in the days when journalists would write their piece in ink and then phone it through to the newspaper. He wrote his columns from the Tour de France last summer on a laptop.
Races are being cancelled, riders are under lockdown. There are bigger things to worry about than bicycle races but they’re both a welcome distraction and a precursor of economic woes ahead.
The longest stage of the race and the last chance for the sprinters before the mountains appear.
Nicolas Portal, the easygoing hardworker who was behind the wheel of the team car for all of Chris Froome’s grand tour wins died aged 40 at home in Andorra.
It was a good openingsweekend. The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad was a lively race with a satisfying finish. We saw a big breakaway with 100km to go, then the winning move of seven riders form with over 70km to go and then this was whittled down on the Kapelmuur and Bosberg to a trio. Jasper Stuyven and Yves Lampaert cracked Søren Kragh Andersen on the run to the finish before Stuyven took an important win. He’s had a lot of pressure on his shoulders since turning pro, more when Fabian Cancellara retired. But among the spring classics there’s been only Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne to show for it so far on his palmarès. The Omloop isn’t everything but it puts him in a decent position now.
Basque telecoms company Euskaltel has announced it will return to team sponsorship as a title sponsor of the Fundación-Orbea team. Is this a return to the glory days? Sorry to splash a bucket of cold water straight out of the Atlantic in your face… but probably not.
With the 2020 season underway, 10 neo-pros to watch out for in the coming season. The bar has shifted with the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar who struck gold in their first year but for most newcomers the story is more likely one of steady progression.
Case closed. A year ago it was all comedy rap videos from Astana, now they’ve been on the receiving end with the leaked report. But the CADF has cleared this up now and on the basis of the evidence they’ve got they won’t be taking the matter any further.
