There’s a pressing need for a rider union. In fact there is a union, so what’s needed is a strong one that’s visible, in regular contact with riders and demonstrably acting on their behalf. Take the topical tale of disc brakes, they’re coming and the CPA union has decided to poll its members about it… days after the UCI press release saying disc brakes trials will continue for 2016 “with a view to definitively allowing them to be used in professional road cycling from 2017”.
At the start of the year 10 riders were picked for 2015, some promised a breakthrough and others were trying to keep their career on the road. What happened?
Spain’s had a rough time of it recently with only Movistar in the World Tour and Caja Rural in the Pro Conti tier, not much given the rich culture of cycling, the extensive calendar and the sheer number of Iberian pros, almost a national export. So news of a third Spanish team on the up should be greeted with cheers. Only there’s a catch: it’s run by Manolo Saiz.
At the start of the year 10 neo-pros were mentioned as worth following. Time to examine how the predictions fared and more importantly to see how the riders got on this year and what might come next?
The AIOCC, the Association Internationale des Organisateurs des Courses Cyclistes, yesterday issued a press release rejecting the UCI’s proposed reforms to pro cycling following a 77 to 6 vote. Ironically the press release isn’t public but L’Equipe broke the news and German website Radsport has a good synthesis.
Someone somewhere has a working copy of the UCI reforms. In recent years they’ve emerged buried in a PDF located in a dusty corner of the UCI website but these versions have been superseded by other proposals that are not public with only summary details sketched out by the occasional press release instead of a detailed masterplan to which everyone is working.
Having looked at the highs, time to descent into the darkened valley of low points to see what went wrong and more.
The last of five highlights is a hard call. Like any list half the story is in the omissions and it forces you to cut out plenty of good moments. The Vuelta? Even nominating this stage race is tricky as it had several great moments.
Pro cycling’s off season fast approaching arriving but if the racing stops the planning doesn’t. Whether you’re plotting a victorious classics campaign or a trip to Europe you need to know when the pro races are.
Here’s the 2016 pro cycling calendar, subscribe or download an iCal file to import the same calendar into your organiser, phone and computer diary.
The sporting calendar isn’t quite over but almost every pro cyclist has stopped racing for the year.
A professional cyclist’s work is seasonal and if the work never stops from now until early 2016 the rhythm does given that the racing season is over. What happens in the off-season?
The course changes every year but the race remains the same, a long distance test across the plains, valleys and climbs of Italy’s Lombardia region, a scenic race for viewers and a technical challenge for participants with double-digit gradient climbs and numerous twisty descents.