Thursday Shorts

Where’s Wiggo? A year ago Bradley Wiggins was all over the media. But now he’s almost vanished from sight, understandable if he wants a  quiet family life away from being doorstepped by the paparazzi. But he’s dropped off the radar too in the quieter and normally more reasonable world of cycling world. We know Chris Froome’s aiming to repeat his Tour success and Richie Porte wants the Giro. But the best journalists don’t know what Wiggins has planned. Some talk of Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de France, maybe a return to track cycling and maybe a look at the Hour Record?

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The Hour Record in the 21st Century

What you can do in an hour? If you can ride more than 49.7km then you can take cycling’s Hour Record. It has been the sport’s blue riband but has fallen from grace, although as you’ll see below, it’s often been forgotten only to get revived.

There’s now renewed interest but the rules demand a retro-style bike. Can it find a new life or does it belong to the past?

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Pro Cycling: A Man’s World

With a pink jersey and lean shaven legs pro cycling might not seem the most macho sport. But look again and it venerates suffering and elevates masculinity to religious levels.

Bike races aren’t run in isolation. They cross countries, visiting villages and capital cities alike but somehow the pro peloton doesn’t always resemble the societies it rides through, it excludes women and there’s not one openly gay rider. Men’s pro cycling is a man’s world.

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Book Review: Project Rainbow

Project Rainbow: How British Cycling Reached the Top of the World by Rod Ellingworth

You’ll know Mark Cavendish won the 2011 World Championships road race in Copenhagen. The book’s cover features a graphic of Cavendish in the rainbow jersey and the book opens with an account of being in the team car at the worlds. So why read a book with such an obvious literary spoiler?

Because the book is so much more than the road to Copenhagen, the rainbow jersey and one superstar rider. Instead it’s about the systems in place, the ways of working and an unsung hero behind all the processes and performances.

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The Pre-Season Camp

That’s Trek Factory Racing’s new recruits putting the camp into their team’s pre-season training camp. You might think they’ve stolen Andy Schleck’s pyjamas but, no, this is an initiation ceremony, a scene normally kept secret but inevitably public thanks to smartphones and social media.

It’s back to work for most pro cyclists as the off-season’s over. Several teams are holding training camps with a variety of activities with the emphasis on team building more than fitness.

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Wednesday Shorts

Koppenberg

Congratulations to Flanders Classics for changing the route for the Tour of Flanders. De Ronde had adopted a finishing circuit that included the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg climbs but crucially a large open section in between that seemed to encourage riders to huddle together in a bunch. For me the jury was out on this, it hadn’t worked so far but a change of weather could alter things. But the race hasn’t bothered to wait and see, it’s scrapped it to bring in a more lively finish where the cobbled climbs will come thick and fast in the final hour. Here’s a comparison of the profiles:

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Start the New Year in November

Sometimes you can look at big topics like calendar reform or concepts like “truth and reconciliation”. But here’s a small practical problem that can be easily fixed.

Rider contracts run from 1 January to 31 December and the timing has some absurd consequences.

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Roads to Ride: Col de Palaquit

Massif Chartreuse

The Tour de France is first geography lesson, second a bicycle race. Before a pedal has been turned we check maps and look at elevation profiles to parse the route. Mountains, valleys, plains and coastlines matter.

But just as a teacher gives the same lesson to a different class every year, the Tour tends to repeat the same climbs over the years as the riders come and go. Only 2014 has a new climb, the Col de Palaquit. Almost one thousand metres in vertical gain and with double-digit gradients it looks hard on paper. What is it like to ride?

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The Four Year Ban

WADA’s adopted a new code that will apply from 2015 onwards. It includes a four year ban for serious doping offences. Will this change anything?

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Book Review: Land of Second Chances

Land of Second Chances Tim Lewis

Land of Second Chances by Tim Lewis

Enjoy bike racing? Like coffee? Here’s a story that combines both and much more. It’s a true story rather than a fairy tale which makes it a compelling read as it ranges from development and discovery but also failure and frustration.

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