Tinkov Takes Over

Do you have some favourite jeans? For Oleg Tinkov it might be the ones he bought in a market stall in Uzbekistan during the 1980s.

The Russian entrepreneur is set to take over the Saxo-Bank team. The squad rose up from modest beginnings to become the sport’s top squad before fading back in recent years, in part because of a lack of sponsorship money. Tinkov came on board in 2012 as a co-sponsor but seemed to change his mind last summer as he watched Alberto Contador ride to fourth place, live-tweeting his frustration with often personal messages. Now he’s going to buy the team.

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Roads to Ride: The Champs Elysées

It’s testimony to cycling’s mythology that a race can turn a boring road into the centre of the world for a day. Or see Paris-Roubaix for a race where cyclists yearn to finish in a place that many ordinary people might try to avoid. All this is different with the Tour de France and its Parisian finish line when the road is closed for the cyclists, a privilege only shared with visiting heads of state.

But at the same time this is an ordinary road. Grand and famous yet accessible too and not every road in this series has to be a high mountain pass. Here’s a look at the road and also where else to ride if you’re in Paris with a bike.

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Cavendish IQ Giveaway Competition

Mark Cavendish’s new book “At Speed” is out and the publishers asked if I was interested in giving away a copy in a competition.In fact the lucky winner will get the book and a signed team jersey and two other podium finishers will get a copy of the book each.

Now online competitions are too easy with Google so I like to pick a question that you can’t you the answer to… but you can guess.

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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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