A short piece to mark a change in the sport. The UCI are clamping down on mechanics leaning out of car windows to service riders in a races. It’s been such a famous image from many races and now it’s going away for good. It’ll have tactical consequences too.
Sprint or breakaway? Today’s stage is a scenic ride and a gourmet’s delight with the finish in Rasteau, famous for its wines. The race has come alive with Michał Kwiatkowski leading Richie Porte by just one second. Today’s likely to see others in action before a nervous weekend spent sprinting for time bonuses and the Col d’Eze decider.
Even if you don’t care for the race, read on because there’s a short tribute to Paul de Vivie, the man who perfected and promoted the derailleur and issued the Seven Commandments for a Cyclist.
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It’s all change with a summit finish to reshape the GC. A series of climbs will soften up the peloton before the long climb up Mont Pilat.
Another sprint stage but with a tricky finish to contend with, a sharp climb just 500m from the line will upset the heavier sprinters. This widens the list of potential winners and offers a more lively finish even if the best is again saved for last.
It had all been looking so good for Tirreno-Adriatico. The “fantastic four” of Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana were supposed to clash for the first time together in a stage race only for Froome to fall ill, while we were promised a sprint royale between Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish but the German’s got a virus. Still even in the absence of Froome and Kittel the Italian stage race has a stellar startlist that trumps Paris-Nice by a variety of metrics, whether sheer anticipation or the cold logic of UCI points. Why?
Another flat stage across unremarkable countryside that’ll end in a bunch sprint? We said this in 2013 when the Tour de France took a similar route to Saint-Amand-Montrond only for teams to shred the race in crosswinds and provide one of the most thrilling flat stages of the Tour in recent memory. Sadly for those hoping a repeat episode the forecast says it won’t be so windy.
The UCI’s Cycling Independent Reform Commission (“CIRC”) has published its report. It’s not a gripping read, this is a report on the corporate policy of institution a decade ago. But buried in the 228 pages are revelations, there is strong criticism of those running the UCI in the past and it puts the spotlight back on contemporary doping practices.
To reduce it to one sentence the report says the UCI was lax for many years but believes doping continues today, albeit on a reduced scale and the UCI needs to implement anti-doping and governance reforms. Let’s take a closer look.
Despite the promised CIRC-us on Monday there’s some sport to be had on the roads and we’re due a stressful sprint finish. Alexander Kristoff and John Degenkolb are the big names but there’s a nervous duo of Arnaud Démare and Nacer Bouhanni each looking for their first win.
A 6.7km prologue that’s not for prologue specialists. It’ll establish an early pecking order and prise apart the riders in a race that’s expected to be close all week