The riders pass the Kilomètre 0 point, Christian Prudhomme waves his flag and the race gets underway. Instantly a handful of riders from the wildcard teams stand on the pedals and go clear. Only this kind of move doesn’t work so why waste the energy? They say it’s to “show the jersey” but is this a good image? Maybe it’s just great fun.
A quick look back before looking ahead to the Tour de France. Here’s the chart of team wins with a review of how the season is going for each team and some the issues around them. Whathever they’de done so far this yearm is important but July is the team’s biggest month with huge media attention for their sponsors.
La Gazzetta Dello Sport reports that the men’s UCI World Tour could go from 18 teams to 20 with Total Direct Energie and Cofidis the most likely squads for promotion. It wasn’t that long ago that the talk, or rather the press statement, was for a move from 18 to 16 teams.
A stage in the mountains but not the most vertical of days, this is a good day for a breakaway… and an ambush.
Primož Roglič’s quest to be known as the Giro d’Italia winner rather than an ex-ski jumper is on the right course. With a week of racing he’s seen his rivals fall away, either literally in the case of Tom Dumoulin or just down the standings.
Team Sky’s accounts for the year ending 2018 have been published and if they’re Ineos today, the company behind it all remains the same so here’s a closer look at their most recent accounts and budget, another record year.
It looks like another dry Paris-Roubaix. It hasn’t rained in the race since 2002. Northern France is a wet place – riders from the region often move south in search of better training conditions – but as explored in a previous post here, early April is actually the driest period of the year for the area. Even the forecast for wind earlier this week looks to have faded away.
The Col de Turini summit finish, a big climb for March with over 1,000m of vertical gain and more than a 40 minute effort.
Ineos looks like the likely replacement sponsor for Sky. Touted in the British press two weeks ago as a possibility, tipped yesterday in The Cycling Podcast as a probability, things are firming up fast.
La Gazzetta Dello Sport reports that Ecopetrol could be the sponsor to replace Sky, that it could lead a collection of Colombian firms who would take over and turn Team Sky into a Colombian vehicle. It’s an oxymoronic name for a firm but as a Twitter correspondent explains it comes from Empresa COlombiana de PETROLeos or “Colombian Oil Company”.