Roads to Ride: Genting Highlands

If there was ever a bike race with the wrong name it’s the Tour de Langkawi. Langkawi is an archipelago off the coast of Malaysia and the bike race normally visits its largest island for one stage before touring the Malaysian mainland for the next 10 days. Think of a Tour of Corsica that spends most of its timing riding around mainland France.

The race is usually decided by finish to the Genting Highlands, a name that’s famous with cyclists as a summit finish, but for everyone else its an Asian mix of Disneyland, Alpe d’Huez and tropical humidity.

Read more

2014 Critérium du Dauphiné Route

Dauphine 2014 map

ASO have announced the route for the Critérium du Dauphiné in June. The race is a concentrated version of the Tour de France and this year’s edition is no exception. If the upcoming Paris-Nice has an experimental route, this is a more traditional course that will offer selective racing ahead of the Tour de France.

Read more

Stick to the Road?

Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne race had a decisive moment when the Belkin and Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams drove the pace on an exposed section. The bunch split in the crosswinds and as the two teams, plus Yves Lampaert (Topsport Vlaanderen), Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Sharp) and briefly Michael Vingerling (Team 3M) rode away.

Then came a moment when the leaders entered a cobbled road and hopped across to the dirt path beside the road. Some seemed to hesitate, others didn’t – perhaps it was hard to find a suitable point to cross from the road to the path? But this switch was in breach of a new UCI rule and the whole group should have been disqualified from the race.

Read more

The Moment The Race Was Won: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

Ian Stannard (Team Sky) launches his sprint with 300 metres to go. It’s a long range effort but just enough to distance Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) by a few metres and take an advantage which he can keep to the line. This was the moment the race was won.

It was a thrilling race that was worth a winter’s hibernation with outcome that wasn’t certain until Stannard’s cheeks puffed in relief as he beat Van Avermaet by a wheel.

Read more

Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Preview

Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne is a fine race in its own right but tends to be seen as a revenge race where riders can make amends for mistakes and misfortune from Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. If revenge is a dish best served cold things got too literal last year as the race was snowed off. Now it’s back and offers the sprinters a chance to stand on the podium.

Read more

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Preview


The spring classics start this weekend with the double-header of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday followed by Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday. No more Arabian nights in five star hotels and applying sun lotion, now it’s time to charge down farm tracks and apply a coating of mud.

Here’s a preview of the race with route info, the contenders, as well as the weather and TV timings.

Read more

The Signs of Spring

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2014In Belgium there’s no need to look for flowers and buds on the trees or listen out for birdsong to tell spring is coming. Instead there are flashes of green sidewalls and the sound of Rodania. As the spring classics approach, so the annual rituals repeat themselves.

This week teams are out riding the route of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. It’s a media event itself with photographers out to snap the scene and reports of who rode where make the TV news and newspapers. Spring is here.

Read more

Team Victory Rankings


It’s a quiet week before the weekend storm of cobbles starting with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday. This micro break gives a moment to look at the team victory rankings and see who’s had a good start to the season.

If you think it’s too early to count, think again. We’ve had 70 days of racing this year and that’s one eighth of the way through the season.

Read more

Managing the Talent at OPQS

A Problem Many Teams Would Like to Have
With the classics season coming up Omega Pharma-Quick Step look like the team with all the right cards to play with aces like Tom Boonen, Niki Terpstra, Mark Cavendish and Zdeněk Štybar and pack of able support riders.

But there’s a problem here as the team has so many top riders it can be hard to manage them all. Do you race the big names regularly or rest them from time to time? Who gets to be team leader? With all this in mind guest writer Whit Yost, a former directeur sportif, takes a look at the options for OPQS.

Read more

Thanks to the SCP Gran Fondo

All sponsors get a message of thanks, a way to express gratitude for their support and a means to explain what their ad is about. Coinciding with the start of the Chinese New Year, February’s sponsor is the SCP Grand Fondo in China, an event that’s open to all and wants to welcome foreign entrants.

Read more

+ More