A year ago Aqua Blue Sport won a stage at the Vuelta, now they’ve pulled out of the Tour of Britain and won’t race again. Teams come and go but rarely do they stop before the season is out.
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Tour de France Stage 11 Preview
Hardly a metre of flat, if some riders tried to save energy yesterday then today was a reason. It’s only 108km and packs in four good climbs.
Tour de France Stage 6 Preview
Two climbs at Mûr-de-Bretagne await, a lively stage finish and a test for the GC contenders.
Wednesday Shorts
The Adriatica Ionica stage race starts today, a 2.1 race in Italy. Normally with Halle-Ingooigem yesterday that’s it for pro racing beside the national championships until the Tour de France. Now there’s a new race to supply some more more race days and it takes place in north-eastern Italy with a finish in Trieste on Sunday after a team time trial today and a summit finish on the Passo Giau this Friday.
Thursday Shorts
The Tour de France will use a starting grid to place riders ahead of Stage 17, the ultra short stage of 65km from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan. It’s been in the rulebook of the race for some time but seems to have caught attention recently.
Tour of the Alps Website
The Tour of the Alps started today, a tune-up race ahead of the Giro d’Italia and a start list to match. It’s worth it alone for the stunning scenery but has something that many other races do not: a good website. It’s actually remarkable enough to dwell on for a moment.
Embed from Getty Images Plenty happened in Paris-Roubaix but after the news of the death of Michael Goolaerts last night, writing about Peter Sagan, the tactics of Quick Step or sharing anecdotes about Silvan Dillier all seems a bit flat, mere side stories. Condoleances to his family, friends and colleagues.
Pro Race Calendar Reminder
Loyal readers might be familiar with the calendar but with the season in full swing there are many more readers so if you missed the posts about it during the off-season, here’s a reminder you can get a pro cycling calendar for your organiser, phone or computer diary with all the major UCI men’s and women’s pro races around the world included. Below there’s a quick explainer on how to subscribe, the meaning of the UCI labels and more.
Pro Conti Explained
Having covered the Pro Continental team sponsors yesterday a reader emailed in to ask what makes a team “Pro Conti”. Good point, the label gets used a lot but what does it really mean? How does a team get this status, which races can take part in and what is a typical budget? All this and more explained below.
Thursday Shorts
Many are wondering whether Froome will take to the start of the Giro d’Italia. Will there be umbrella girls on the startline too? The race employs women on the start line to hold umbrellas over the leaders of each jersey competition. Formula 1 has just announced it will stop using “grid girls”.