The Inner Ring - Part 130

Route Mapping The Cols

Friday, 23 March 2018Tuesday, 20 March 2018

See the map above, is the white road running north-south familiar? Well done if you named the Col du Galibier in the French Alps, better still if you mention the Télégraphe and Lautaret passes too. Only many common mapping services don’t label these mountain passes so if you’re looking online these famous places they can be hard to find.

The Roads to Ride series here get used by some as help to pick a destination but once you’ve picked one road, what about all the other nearby ones? A quick departure from pro cycling to some tips for mapping your rides in the Alps and beyond.

The Moment Milan-Sanremo Was Won

Sunday, 18 March 2018Saturday, 17 March 2018

They’ve no government following indecisive elections, they’ve no team left in the World Tour but Italy can still count on Vincenzo Nibali. His attack on the Poggio won him the race and brought the first home victory in Sanremo since 2006.

Milan-Sanremo Preview

Friday, 16 March 2018Friday, 16 March 2018

The first Monument of the year, this Saturday’s Milan-Sanremo is all about the tense finish, the paradox of the longest race of the year that’s often decided in the final metres, a race where every pedal stroke counts and the list of contenders and pretenders is longer than any other. Who will keep their nerve?

2018 Critérium du Dauphiné Route

Thursday, 15 March 2018

The route for the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné has been presented today, a chance to project beyond the spring classics into summer. The Dauphiné is a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France and the 2018 route supplies practice for a team time trial and a copycat mountain stage. It runs from Sunday 3 June to Sunday 10 June. Here’s a closer look at the route ahead…

The Sanremo Paradox

Saturday, 21 March 2020Thursday, 15 March 2018

Peter Sagan leads on the Poggio having blown the field off his back wheel. Michał Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe are chasing and there’s just 6km to go. If you’ve been watching on TV this is a moment of almost unbearable tension.

Milan-Sanremo is the longest race on the pro calendar yet it’s often dependent on events in the last five minutes. Why all the hours of airtime when surely you could just tune in for the final 10 minutes? All the details make the Poggio’s ascent and descent so thrilling.

Improving TUEs and Installing Health Tests

Thursday, 15 March 2018Wednesday, 14 March 2018

In the wake of last week’s report from the UK parliament plenty readers have emailed in to ask for a reaction. Only it’s hard to have much of a response there’s not much new apart from seeing it printed on parliamentary headed paper and getting front page coverage in the UK media rather than back page or cycling-specific coverage. Whatever the British parliament does, the story is set to rumble on and on and it’s been hard to add to past pieces (here and here). Instead a quick look at TUEs where things have already changed but there’s room for improvement.

The Moment Paris-Nice Was Won

Monday, 12 March 2018Monday, 12 March 2018

Are you sitting comfortably? On Sunday morning Marc Soler was sat comfortably in sixth place overall, wearing the white jersey of the best young rider under his rain jacket and had taken a strong second place in the Saint Etienne time trial earlier in the week. He’s a promising rider and was already in a very satisfactory position. Only it wasn’t enough for him and he took off on the steep climb to Peille with 47km to go and won the race overall.