Most climbs are famous for racing but there are few exceptions where a mountain is better known as a training location. You might think of Mont Teide or the Col de la Madone, here is one of Italy’s asphalt gymnasiums, a timed segment decades before Strava arrived.
If it’s famous as testing ground for pro cyclists, the reality on a Sunday morning is that it’s one of the most popular cycling routes in Italy with cyclists of all shapes and sizes tackling its slopes.
Last year reporter, blogger and Twitter pundit Felix Lowe rode from Barcelona to Rome as part of a cycling tour designed to copy Hannibal’s attempted march to Rome and he’s now telling the tale in print.
Famous as one of the fastest men in sports Fernando Alonso is proving to be a pedestrian cycling manager. His team is struggling to get going.
The supporter caps have arrived… and sold out faster than a rider offered a six figure “loan” from Alexander Vinkourov.
Suddenly it all feels more real than tapping away at a keyboard. To get your hands on one visit the prendas.co.uk shop.
2013 was a great year for Team Sky on the road and in the accounts department. A second Tour de France win was obvious but behind the scenes they took on board a substantial new sponsor and signed an agreement to fund the team through to the end of 2016.
The UCI issued a statement on Saturday announcing the provisional suspension of Roman Kreuziger.
It’s a big test for the athlete passport system. So far the UCI has won every case it’s launched or asked others to prosecute, including winning appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). We might want the instant verdict of a toxicological test with a positive A and B test in the lab but the passport just doesn’t work like this. It works on statistics and takes time to build up patterns and then riders are given plenty of time to respond. But so far it’s won against small fry riders or those, like Dennis Menchov, who have simply retired with a shrug rather than a legal fight. Kreuziger’s case is different, he’s an active rider, a millionaire and already employing high-profile lawyers to defend him.
Yesterday’s look at the 1 August date skimmed over the rarely used “mid-season transfer window”. But later in the day we saw the announcement of Rohan Dennis’s immediate move from Garmin-Sharp to BMC Racing.
It’s testimony to sport’s special status that when an employee is allowed to move from one job to another it’s considered headline news. But Dennis’s deal could be something we’ll see more and more.
Want to see the future? Well today is the day because it marks three futuristic events: rider transfers, team registrations and hiring stagiaires for the rest of the season.
The meeting above of Fernando Alonso and Peter Sagan seemed to represent the future but six months later things seem to be turning out quite differently.
The Shark of the Straits. If you followed the Tour de France you’ll have heard or read about Vincenzo Nibali’s nickname, perhaps to the point of exhaustion at the repetition.
Such nicknames have a long tradition, they bring a touch of character and caricature as well as a sense of place.
Money makes the wheels go round in pro cycling and the governing body has just quietly published its annual report on UCI.ch. Here’s a look at the financial report for the calendar year ending 2013 and the summary take is a steady year.