The final invitations have gone out and B&B Hotels – Vital Concept and Arkéa-Samsic get the last two places for the Tour de France. They’re obvious picks but there’s a little bit of detail to explore.
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Christmas Quiz
A Christmas quiz with 40 questions. Some are obvious, some odd, most can’t be Googled and a few are fiendish. By all means have a go and there’s a token prize for the winner but most will probably find fun in the answers that will appear here next week.
Higlights of 2019 – Part V
It’s hard picking the fifth and final highlight, the trouble with lists is the story is often all the things left off. How to pick between two stages of Paris-Nice ravaged by crosswinds, then rate the winner against other stand-out races in the year? So here are a few more highlights…
Thursday Shorts
A new UCI rule (2.3.025) says soigneurs must stand no more than one metre from the kerb when handing up musettes to riders in the feedzone. The problem is self-fulfilling where once a soigneur stands in the road, the next must stand a little further out in order to be see and be seen and with, say, 20 teams in race the feedzone becomes an obstacle course.
See You In Court
Velon, the group of 11 World Tour teams, has announced it will file a complaint with the European Commission against the UCI. Here’s a closer look at the issues concerned.
In A Roundabout Way
Nobody knows how many roundabouts there are in France, only that their number has soared. The image of the peloton parting like a school of fish to navigate a roundabout has become a televisual staple and they sometimes form tactical features of the course, ask Jacob Fuglsang and Thibaut Pinot or see Edvald Boasson Hagen exploit one to get away for a stage win in 2017. They’ve become an unloved feature of France and even political. Let’s take a tour…
The Commercial Break
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.
Team Victory Rankings
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.
Saturday Shorts
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.