One of the unwelcome side effects of following pro cycling is a passing acquaintance with medicine. In recent years it’s been haematology first with the haematocrit count then EPO and DIY blood doping. Now a quick look at analgesia thanks to Tramadol, a powerful painkiller that’s being used and abused in the peloton. It seems a ban is only a matter of time.
The Paris-Roubaix Rain Dance
The Atacama desert. The Sahara. These are some of the driest spots on the planet. How about Roubaix in the north of France? It hasn’t rained there since 2002.
Vuelta al Pais Vasco Preview
No daily previews but a quick look at this special race in the Basque Country. A big field, a tough course and one of the hotbeds of cycling in Europe make this one of the best spring stage races. It’s live on TV too.
The Moment The Race Was Won: The Tour of Flanders
400 metres, 300… 250… 200 metres to go. Suddenly the four riders launched the sprint and Fabian Cancellara accelerated, took the lead and kept it to celebrate as he crossed the line. This was the moment the race was won.
The finishing straight was a nail-biter but anyone who watched the race live would have felt the tension for much longer, the quartet’s late sprint for the line was only the final act in a race of tension, drama and surprise.
Roads to Ride: The Koppenberg
Never has a climb been so big in myth and so small in reality. The Koppenberg has a vertical gain of just 62 metres, the height of a large tree but its legend runs so tall. It’s a relative newcomer to the sport and there are riders in Sunday’s Tour of Flanders born before this climb was ever used in a race.
Tour of Flanders Preview
The greatest one day race in the world takes place this Sunday. Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen look to make history with Peter Sagan wanting to join them as a winner of De Ronde. But it’s far more than a triangular contest. There’s a revised route that’s harder than and giant crowds help make this race one of the highlights of the year.
Here’s the preview for De Ronde with the route, contenders, pretenders, weather, TV and more.
Team Victory Rankings
We’re one quarter of the way through the cycling season already. 25% of the season’s racing days have been ridden. As we go into the peak classics season Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Giant-Shimano lead.
But as you’ll see below the win rate has almost no correlation to a team’s World Tour ranking, winning often doesn’t mean a team tops the rankings. Plus there’s the Pro Conti chart below.
The CPA Pro Cyclists Union: Ride to 2016
Guest piece by Frank Kwanten
The sport is changing. Teams want a new model and some have united under the “Avignon Accord“. The UCI and the races are changing with calendar reform, a points overhaul and more. ASO buys the Vuelta, even leaving Hein Verbruggen in awe.
But what of the riders? Too often they’re not represented and when they are, it often doesn’t satisfy with concerns about everything from safety to late payment of prize money. “Ride to 2016” is an initiative by Dutch rider Reinier Honig who is a strong advocate of better protection for the riders. He found himself without a team after the Crelan team pulled the plug late in 2013. While still training and racing (he won a race a few days ago) Honig wants to contribute to a bright future for young cyclists. Reinier took the initiative together with Frank Kwanten who, after a career at Vacansoleil-DCM, now works as a Rider Agent and does some consultancy in the world of pro cycling. Frank is the owner of First Echelon and strongly believes that for a clean and bright future the riders need to take a stand and organize themselves.
Tuesday Shorts
De Panne – Criterium International > F1 – How to Pronounce Mezgec – Stannard – Ag2r – Buy your own SRM – New Blood Doping Test
The Three Days of De Panne start today. A final tune-up ahead of Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix, this time last year Alexander Kristoff made a name for himself. It’s also a race infamous for crashes. It’s worth watching for the hectic sprints and to make notes on rider form but if ever a DS wanted to “punish” a rider then making them ride this race would be up there; alternatively it’s a crash course in learning to cope with Belgian racing with shoulder-rubbing, ditch-dodging and more.
No Photos Please
Damien Vandamme got his Warholian 15 minutes of fame although the publicity is far from positive. Lying prone in the road, the Belgian later told Het Nieuwsblad wanted to capture an image of the bunch in the Gent-Wevelgem race as it rode past a British war cemetery saying “I don’t understand the fuss… …I never thought I was in danger.”
Vandamme gets marks for effort but put both his own safety that of riders in danger too, all for a photo. You sense a career as a war reporter could be brief. Safely for everyone, he’s not a pro photographer, instead he’s just a local who got too zealous with his art. There’s an obvious lesson here that spectators should keep out the way when a race is approaching at 50km/h but there’s another too: most people taking photographs from the roadside end up with bad images and miss the moment they came to see in the first place.