Roads to Ride: Passo delle Erbe

Passo delle ErbeThe Dolomites are part of the Italian Alps and offer plenty of great cycling routes that are rich in race history. This month the site is sponsored by travel company Holimites and speaking to them about the best places to ride in the region I mentioned the usual suspects like the Passo Pordoi, Passo Giau and Selle Ronda but they came back with… the Passo delle Erbe.

This might not have the celebrity status of other mountain passes but it is probably the most scenic and with several routes to the top, there’s variety.

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Milan-Sanremo Preview

So much talk about the route and now it’s time to focus on the race. This is the longest event on the calendar and loaded with prestige, history and action. Fate means this Sunday’s edition reverting to a pre-2008 course with neither the new climb of Pompeiana nor Le Mànie. It would be a gift to the sprinters only paradoxically these late changes mean many of them might not be ready for it.

Here’s the race preview for Sunday with the route, scenarios, contenders separated from pretenders as well as TV times, the weather and more.

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Thursday Shorts

Stick to the road – New UCI TV show – Coaches – No Bruyneel verdict – Classics Countdown
The UCI’s quietly issued an update to its “stick to the road rule” but the new wording is even more confusing than the original.

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New Riders and Tomorrow’s Audience

Intro: this is a guest piece by Vincent Luyendijk. The blog has often looked at changes in pro cycling and related commercial issues like TV coverage and but what of the audience and the newcomers to the sport? Vincent Luyendijk takes a look at those who are riding but not racing, the newcomers to the sport who will be tomorrow’s competitors, cycle store consumers or Tour de France audience.

At the start of the new season it is always exciting to see what’s new. Is it easy to recognize the new outfits? Which rider is the new talent to watch? How do new training methods and technology work out for the different teams? At Paris-Nice the oldest rider winning a stage was 25 in Arthur Vichot, it shows that a new generation of cyclists is taking over.

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Questions over Sergio Henao’s Case

Team Sky have announced that Sergio Henao has been “taken off Team Sky’s race schedule” following “out-of-competition control tests”. The story first appeared in La Gazzetta Dello Sport where British journalist Daniel Friebe picked up on it. Within minutes Team Sky put out a press release.

Little is known and it leaves many scratching their heads while others are happier to fill the vacuum with speculation and more. But at the risk of thinking out aloud, let’s try to review some of this.

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Milan-Sanremo’s Ever-Changing Route

Much is being made of Milan-Sanremo’s route changes. The addition of the climb to Pompeiana this year was subtracted thanks to a landslide and it has meant plenty of uncertainty. This was the perfect event, a one day race that seemed to allow grand tour winners, sprinters and classics specialists alike to contest the win.

But nothing is eternal and the course changes are all part of the race’s history. In fact Milan-Sanremo’s history is one of change, that small hyphen between the start and finish has seen all kinds of variations and alterations.

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Wash Your Hands

“What the pros do” is always a source of interest to cycling fans so here’s a glimpse into an unreported but widely-used technique that is an essential part of the job of a pro cyclist: hand washing. Sorry if you were expecting the latest on recovery products or power-training because, yes this is banal but it’s essential and as you’ll see below, some go to extremes to avoid those germs. Hygiene is more than marginal gain. Catch a cold and you can ruin your season.

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The Moment The Race Was Won: Paris-Nice

Carlos Betancur surges past Rui Costa to win Stage 6 in Fayence. The margin of victory created time gaps and first place brought a ten second bonus too. If he’d won the previous stage too, that was via a late attack on the descent to Rive-de-Gier that was a clever but not dominant move. Instead it was on the Mur de Fayence that Betancur took the yellow jersey and demonstrated he was the best in the race. This was the moment the race was won.

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Paris-Nice Stage 7 Preview

In the Tour de France the cliché goes that “you can see Paris” from the top of the last mountain. Riders might not be able to see Nice but they can smell the sea among the perfumed roads around Mougins. A hilly day awaits but beware the flat looking section on the profile as it’s a heavy circuit that could prove selective.

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