What’s the difference between a bike shop and a coffee shop? About five years’ time.
A growing number of bike shops seem to resemble stylish coffee bars with designed interiors that cater for a lifestyle rather than the rude tasks of transport or competition. This trend isn’t everywhere but visit London, Hong Kong or Sydney and you’ll find places selling cappuccinos alongside cogs and cleats.
After the highlights, the lowlights. Sport is meant to have its drama but pro cycling often crosses the line from pantomime villainy to worse. As well as drama there’s
How much time have we got? It’s always hard to compress a season into a handful of highlights so rather than pressing on with daily look back at the best parts of the year, here are some other moments of the year reunited.
An obvious pick, Stage 13 of the Tour de France was the day the OPQS and Belkin teams shredded the bunch in the crosswinds. With hindsight it how a hotel booking can alter a race too.
As the 2014 season approaches here is a selection of riders to watch for. I’ve picked six established riders who face different challenges in the new year and six young riders who could impress but first have to bunnyhop the chasm from amateur and pro.
As part of a series of highlights of the year, here is Stage 3 of Paris-Nice and its exciting finish where the terrain, weather and riders all combined to make a thrilling finish.
There’s also a video of a Sky rider crashing that’s used by the UCI as a classroom case of how not to descend.
What do you see in the painting? A class, some boys and a map of France. Look closer, note the military uniforms. The teacher is pointing to the Alsace Lorraine region to the East of France which was lost to the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. What’s this got to do with Tour de France? Everything.
We celebrated the 100th Tour de France this year and praised Tour founder Henri Desgrange as a visionary entrepreneur, publicist and sports promoter who launched the race to promote sales of his L’Auto newspaper. But we skipped over the parts where Desgrange labelled Prussians “bastards” and called on his countrymen to “slam the butts” of their rifles into German chests until the blood spilled.
The Tour de France was created to sell newspapers but it was also used to promote French nationalism.
I’m going to pick five moments from 2013. They are a personal choice. With any list you often omit more than you include but I’ll explain each moment. They’re presented in no particular order.
Last year I nominated a dozen riders to watch in 2012, from promising neo-pros to Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. Having looked at the six big names, now it’s time to review how the neo-pros got on in 2013.
Last year I nominated a dozen riders to watch in 2012, from promising neo-pros to Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. It’s been a mixed year and now it’s time to check in on their performances this year, starting with the big names today.