Liège-Bastogne-Liège Preview

The ultimate one day race? This certainly one of the toughest athletic contests of the year where form and fitness trump brute force and a touch of luck. The 100th edition includes a nod to the past with some classic climbs back on the route.

But there’s plenty to look forward to. Philippe Gilbert and Alejandro Valverde are the prime picks to win but there’s a big field that includes grand tour winners and classics specialists alike. Here’s a preview with the route, climbs, contenders, TV info, weather and more.

Read more

Friday Shorts


I didn’t bother with a “The Moment The Race Was Won” piece for the Flèche Wallonne because the race is so predictable. It’s got a tough course and a hard fight just to get to the foot of the final climb. But it always comes down to the final kilometre and the Mur de Huy. North of the Pyrenees Twitter wasn’t full of joy at Valverde’s win. Indeed there were insinuations of doping and overnight I got a couple of emails asking if Valverde is doping, after all he’d set the fastest every time up the Mur.

Read more

Allan Peiper’s Managerial Debut


Have BMC discovered the magic touch? Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert are back to winning ways and apart from Jim Ochowitz’s media gaffs the team has enjoyed a great to the season.

One factor might be Allan Peiper. The Aussie is credited with helping Ryder Hesjedal in the 2012 Giro and was recruited by BMC last year. But skip back almost 30 years to see him as a rider on the Peugeot team and the video clip above shows him as a fledgling road captain with ideas on team management.

Read more

Germany: Europe’s Pro Cycling Black Hole


What have Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland all got in common? One thing is a border with Germany. Another is that they all have a national tour, a bike race that lasts several days and aims to cover the whole country.

In fact if it doesn’t have a national tour, Germany doesn’t have a big team either, the number of race days is dwindling and the sport is hardly shown at all on mainstream TV. A headwind for German cycling fans but also a real problem for professional cycling as a whole too.

Read more

Flèche Wallonne Preview


199km but this is a race dominated by the final climb of the Mur de Huy. Even if it’s actually climbed three times it’s still the third time that usually determines the winner. But it takes plenty to get to the final climb and more to arrive at the foot of the “wall” in the perfect place. This mid-week classic is always a drama and a great pointer for Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège showdown.

Read more

USADA Ban Bruyneel and Expose Contador

550 days have passed since the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) issued Lance Armstrong with a lifetime ban. But the case was never just about Armstrong, it was the “US Postal Conspiracy” and involved a range of characters.

Johan Bruyneel’s name appeared 129 times in the USADA reasoned decision and a ban always looked inevitable but the case went to arbitration and was delayed until a hearing last December and today the verdict is out. Bruyneel gets a 10 year ban while former US Postal/Discovery team staff Pedro Celaya and Jose “Pepe” Martí each get an eight year ban.

In a sense this marks the end of the road for the US Postal case although not the end of the story. Plus the USADA report reveals Martí was working for Team Saxo-Tinkoff which could prove awkward for the Danish team and Alberto Contador.

Read more

Giro iCal


RCS have put out updated stage info and more on the Giro website. Just as there’s a season-long calendar of all the major men’s and women’s races to download, here’s the stage by stage Giro ical for your phone or electronic diary.

Read more

The Moment The Race Was Won: Amstel Gold Race

The Amstel Gold Race is a race of repetition. Repeat enough small climbs and you get a total vertical gain close to an Alpine stage of the Tour de France. The Cauberg is climbed repeatedly. And today Philippe Gilbert repeated exactly the same move that won him the world championship road race in 2012. On the last time up the Cauberg he attacked hard on the inside of the bend, the steepest part of the climb and immediately distanced everyone else and over the top he had a tailwind to help speed him to the finish line.

Read more

Cycling and Beer


With the Amstel Gold Race this weekend, proof that cycling is linked to beer. It’s not just a one-off, recent races in Belgium have been sponsored by Kwaremont, a brand of beer that’s exploited the sport and it’s not that long ago that a major team was sponsored by a large brewery.

Read more

Amstel Gold Race Preview


Giant crowds, 34 climbs and a brewery as race sponsor, what’s not to like about the Amstel Gold Race?

This is a very different race to the ones we’ve seen in recent weeks. Born in 1966 it is the newest of the spring classics and defined by suburban roads instead of medieval farm tracks. It marks a change in the season where stage race specialists compete alongside one day specialists.

Here’s the preview with the riders, the route, the TV timings, beer, weather and more.

Read more

+ More