Jean-François Pescheux has stepped down as the race director of the Tour de France and this week’s presentation of the 2014 route will be a parting gift.
A dominant presence in many French races, his retirement had been announced for some time giving him chance to enjoy his last Paris-Nice, a final Paris-Roubaix and turning the Tour de France into a farewell lap of France. It’s the end of an era.
As part of a series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Planche des Belles Filles in France. The idea with this series is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether in cycling’s folklore or to explore what it is like on a normal day without a race.
The Planche des Belles Filles is a novelty that first appeared in the Tour de France in 2012. According to several sources it will be back in 2014 and it could well reveal the podium contenders once more. But for now it’s an unusually steep road that leads to a small ski station with a controversial past.
Tax is a big topic in France right now. With a promise to cut its budget deficit, the French government has been looking for ways to raise extra revenue. Meanwhile unemployment is high and many agonize over the long-standing high payroll taxes that make hiring expensive.
Beyond the newspaper front page or the business section, the saga of football club AS Monaco’s promotion to the top league of French football has put the spotlight on zero-tax Monaco vs high-tax France. It’s also a big issue behind the scenes in cycling. If it’s not a talking topic, high payroll taxes in France are fundamental to understanding why French teams face an uphill task compared to their rivals.
The 2013 season is drawing to a close and many riders are looking forward to a break from work with no bike to ride or diet to watch. But like all time off work, it’s never long enough and the new season is not far away. Several teams are already making plans for next year.
Here’s a look at some options for the winter and why the Tour Down Under is the equal of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Switzerland.
You can download the 2014 calendar as a series of individual events and dates. But what’s the big picture? Where are all these races, which are the busiest months of the year and what’s the split of races between their different categories?
John Degenkolb won Paris-Tours today. The German won the bunch sprint ahead of Michael Mørkøv and Arnaud Démare but only after he, Mørkøv and Démare had been on the attack with 10km to go in a break with the likes of Sylvain Chavanel, Sep Vanmarcke and Jetse Bol.
Labelled “the sprinters’ classic”, this Sunday’s race might have a flat route but most of the winners since in recent years have come from breakaways, usually thanks to attacks launched late in the race.
Once a prestigious race, Paris-Tours has slipped a little in status but the addition of extra climbs in recent years has spiced up the finish to provide a thrill worth watching more so because it’s the last big race in Europe until the 2014 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. That’s 147 days away.
Saxo-Bank boss Lars Seier was next to Bjarne Riis and Alberto Contador to announce his team would be increasing its funding for the team in 2014 which will be Team Saxo Bank althogh he’s welcome to a co-sponsor.
Bjarne Riis seems to have unique survival powers, like some computer game character with infinite lives. Every time he’s faced with trouble he seems to pull through when others would have been banned, suspended, bankrupted, hounded or more. It’s also a good marketing opportunity for Saxo Bank who show they stand by Riis in tough times, the opposite of Oleg Tinkov who’s supposed to be taking his (t)roubles to Cannondale.
With autumn closing in and the days getting shorter many in the northern hemisphere will using an indoor trainer.
With this in mind I thought about reviewing every model on the market.
Remember 2012? Tom Boonen was imperial in the cobbled classics, Bradley Wiggins wore yellow and then went to the Olympic games? It all seems a long time ago but the UCI’s published its 2012 annual report today. Here’s a look at the income and expenditure of cycling’s governing body for the year.