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.
Predicting the future is hard. We can’t pick next week’s lottery numbers but we can predict there will be a draw. You can take trends and measurements to make weather forecasts. What about the bike industry? We can spot the trends and extrapolate to imagine the bike of the future.
The Tour de France likes its themes with anniversaries, war memorials and more in recent years. 2011 was the year of the Col du Galibier with the race visiting the mountain pass twice and each time with thrilling consequences. Even the Giro d’Italia has paid a visit.
A crucible for the sport but a vast open space and a climb that has everything, from ski resorts to wildlife.
A note to say I am away for the next two weeks with zero internet access.
But the blog continues with a range of articles cued up for automatic publication every day.
A short review of the latest version of the Cycling Anthology and then a question: why are there so many books about cycling from Britain?