ASO have announced the wildcard invitations for Paris-Nice, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de France. No surprises: as predicted it’s Bora-Argon 18, Bretagne-Séché, Cofidis, Europcar and MTN-Qhubeka with Bora’s case strengthened by confirmation of the recent ARD broadcast deal.
In times past wildcards had an exclusive element, to invite one team was to shun another but this time there are no obvious missing names from the Tour de France.
Cycling’s never a predictable sport, it can’t be in a contest where 200 riders can start together as opposed to the binary contests in other sports between two teams or just two players. Add to this the varied of geography, extreme weather and other variables and picking winners is difficult. Plus there’s all the activity outside the races, from tech to politics, business to doping scandals. With these excuses in mind, here are 10 predictions for 2015.
For decades the Giro visited its classic climbs. For good reason as the Stelvio, Pordoi and Gavia are as difficult as they are beautiful. But it wasn’t enough for some and the hunt was on for new challenges and in 2003 the Giro tackled Monte Zoncolan.
Viewed from afar it’s just 10km long and only reaches 1,730m above sea level but it is one of the steepest roads in the sport and has quickly become one of the most feared climbs.
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Here is the list of who is riding what in 2015. You’ll find all the pro team bikes for the 17 World Tour teams and the 19 Pro Continental teams.
The UCI have brought out a new system of points and rankings for 2015. The main ranking is the “UCI World Classification”, a rolling ranking of riders of all categories based on performances over the previous 52 weeks as opposed to each season or calendar year. Within this there are big changes to the allocation of points across races, for example all three grand tours are now treated equally.
All this is buried in a PDF listing modifications to the rulebook but below is a summary of the changes along with the new points scales.
Update Sunday 25 January: the UCI has scrapped the introduction of this scheme for 2015 following protests by teams upset at the sudden introduction. It should be back for 2016 but until then the old system applies: calendar year, more points for the Tour de France etc.
Giant-Alpecin launched the team for 2015 today. We know the sponsors, we know the riders, so what’s new? Well the location was telling, they used the French embassy in Berlin. While most teams book a hotel or a theatre this one went for the grandiose symbolism of diplomacy and Franco-German unity. This is about much more than bikes and shampoo.
There are 474 riders from 41 nations registered with the 17 UCI World Tour teams for 2015.
The average age of a rider is 28 years and 3 months. The oldest rider is the 40 year-old Matteo Tosatto (Tinkoff-Saxo) who is pictured above and just seven years younger than his boss Oleg Tinkov. Lampre-Merida’s Colombian neo-pro Eduardo Estrada is the youngest pro, aged 19.
Here’s a look at the 2015 World Tour peloton in numbers. There’s a look at rider age, the “oldest team” and also analysis of how many pros come from each country and more.
A new year and it’s straight into the heavy stuff with the revised WADA Code for 2015. It brings stronger anti-doping rules, like a four year ban, and is now in effect. Here’s a summary of the changes.
“The loser” is a regular in comedy films yet celebrated in cycling where the lanterne rouge can be a hero. Add on scenes from retro Belgium circa 1970, insert a comic actor with good timing and an elastic face and things get better.
This Belgium film dates from 2001 and is widely available, complete with English subtitles. If cycling films are rare, this is a gem.