Book Review: Lanterne Rouge

Lanterne Rouge by Max Leonard

Cycling’s a sport of losers. Even the most successful riders lose far more races than they win and the majority of riders in the peloton won’t win a single race all year. But this is all part of what makes cycling such a rich and sophisticated sport to follow. Without winning, many will mark a race and after a grand tour each rider has plenty of stories to tell. So what of the last rider? Last isn’t least, often they have struggled the most just to finish. Plus as Svein Tuft has just shown in the Giro you can go from lanterne rouge to the limelight.

Lanterne Rouge is a book about riders who have finished last in the Tour de France, the efforts it took to achieve this and a reflection on victory, loss and endurance.

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Giro Stage 2 Preview

Belfast to Belfast. Today’s route looks like something you’d find in a brochure, a circuit for tourists with a rental car. The cyclists mind find it less enjoyable with heavy downpours forecast before a sprint finish.

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Giro Stage 1 Preview

A team time trial to immediately create a chronological hierarchy. It’s probably not going to be good TV but it will resonate for weeks to come.

This course is fast and flat with teams expected to exceed 50km/h. It’s one for the powerful squads with heavyset riders and we should see Cadel Evans and Nairo Quintana pull out a lead on their rivals… but the obvious pick for today is Orica-Greenedge.

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The Giro’s Sprinters


Quintana, Rodriguez, Evans, Uran et al are the talk of town in Belfast and rightly so since the Giro has 38,000 vertical metres of climbing. All the mountains are backloaded into the race and the overall contenders and pretenders will merely hope to finish first week feel fresh and without losing any time. In short they’re sleeper agents until Stage 8.

The first week is all about the sprinters with a series of flat finishes and the time bonuses to allow them to take the race lead.

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Who Will Win The Giro?

With 48 hours to go time for a look at the contenders for the 2014 Giro. Nairo Quintana seems to be everyone’s pick but a lot of this is based on his ride in the Tour de France, an event now 40 weeks ago and plenty has changed in his life since. After Quintana comes the in-form Cadel Evans with Joaquim Rodriguez and Rigoberto Urán as the main pretenders for the podium and behind them a longer list.

But predictions are there to be demolished. Last year nobody could predict the weather and the racing was varied and often dramatic.

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Training Time

Want to see Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali in action together? You could wait for the Critérium du Dauphiné in June but, as today’s L’Equipe shows, they will all meet up this month in Tenerife for training camps on Mount Teide. Quite probably they will all stay in the same hotel, setting up an intriguing atmosphere with the three great rivals for the Tour de France sitting down for dinner together, albeit at different tables.

It’s easy to spend hours reviewing the tactics in a race but very little time and coverage is given to what a rider’s job really involves: training.

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Déjà Vu in Romandie


Simon Špilak outsprints Chris Froome to win the Queen Stage of the Tour de Romandie last Friday. The exact same thing happened this time last year in Les Diablerets, just 20km away. With this Froome distanced his rivals and used the final time trial to seal the race overall.

But not everything is the same. Froome’s had different challenges. Here’s a look back at the race with a look ahead to the Giro and beyond.

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Roads to Ride: Sa Calobra


Here’s a road that’s almost never raced yet memorable for thousands of European cyclists, from amateurs to the best on Team Sky or Quick Step. Mallorca’s Sa Calobra is a road to ride in both directions and an experience notable for the roads, challenge and views alike.

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2014 Giro Guide

The post below is old. For the version that gets updated daily visit inrng.com/giro


Here’s a guide to the 2014 Giro d’Italia with stage profiles and accompanying summaries plus all the technical information on race rules, time bonuses, TV schedules and more.

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Thursday Shorts

When is a shoe not a shoe? When it’s an elaborate Sidi trompe l’oeil. Look at the image above and it looks like a Sidi Wire but look again. Those ratchet dials are flat and it’s an elaborate shoe cover made to look like a Sidi. The next photo reveals another version, this time with perforations to help on a hot day.

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