Tour of Oman Preview

Tour of Oman

This is one the early season highlights. What first started as a tourist promotion is now a full race in its own right.

Arid landscapes and deserted roads make this an attractive race to watch but the real draw is the startlist. We have last year’s Tour de France podium present with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali plus Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans and many more including last year’s winner Peter Velits.

The only thing missing is live TV but there are daily highlights on Eurosport. Here’s a quick preview with stage profiles, TV listings and more.

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Sunday Shorts

thomas lovkvist iam

Thomas Lövkvist wins – Faron agony – “Professor” Péraud’s first win – No TV – Ruta Del Sol fundraiser flop – Wounded Lion King – Scarponi still missing – Oman test

Thomas Lövkvist has won the Tour Méditerranéen on the last stage. Overnight race leader Maxime Montfort of Radioshack lost out as the bunch split on the way to the finish line in Grasse, a town famous for its perfumes and spread on the flanks of hill. It’ll hurt Monfort more as he lives in the area and knows the roads well. Jurgen Roelandts won the stage and he too is a prospect, more than a just wagon in the Greipel sprint train.

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Roads to Ride: Mont Aigoual

Mont Aigoual

As the seventh part of a series to explore the famous roads of cycling, here is the Mont Aigoual in the French Cevennes. The idea is to discover the road and its place in the world, whether as part of cycling’s history or to look at the route on a day without racing and it is open to all.

Some climbs find notoriety because of famous races but Mont Aigoual is quite different. This is a climb that has been ridden in the imagination and literature more than competition because it’s the scene for The Rider, Tim Krabbé cycle-race novel.

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Mont Faron Preview and Giveaway Competition

Mont Faron overlooking the city

Saturday’s Stage 4 of the Tour Méditerranéen features the classic summit finish on Mont Faron. A short and steep climb above the naval city of Toulon, this is a tough and selective point in the race that reveals the early season form.

It’s the first summit finish of the year in Europe and to celebrate this moment in the season here’s a look at the climb plus a chance to try your forecasting skills to win some goodies.

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The MPCC Explained

MPCC cycling

The Mouvement Pour Un Cyclisme Crédible translates as the Movement for Credible Cycling and is a grouping of teams created in 2007. It’s getting headlines these days so here’s a look at what it’s about, who is behind it and more.

It’s a good idea that has quietly helped set the agenda for cleaning up cycling but as it grows I can’t help thinking of Groucho Marx and his joke about not wanting to belong to a club that would accept him. My concern is that any team can sign up but the real test comes when a team has to decide between its self-interest or the collective MPCC rules. As I’ll show below voluntary deals between teams typically fall apart faster than a prototype carbon rim on a cobbled road.

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2013 Paris Nice Route

Paris Nice 2013 route

The route of the 2013 Paris-Nice race has been unveiled and it’s a classic affair with the now regular start in the Yveslines area to the west of Paris and the traditional final Col d’Eze time trial. Along the way the Montagne de Lure summit finish stands out, this the sister mountain of Mont Ventoux.

But as exciting as the course can be, this year’s edition risks being light on star riders with rival Italian race Tirreno-Adriatico attracting all the best riders. Plus since we’re looking at French cycling there’s a nod to a new spat between the French and the UCI plus a look at yesterday’s wild ideas for national teams in the Tour de France.

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Pro Team Sponsors: What Do They Do?

There are 18 World Tour teams and 21 Pro Continental teams. One difference from other sports is that cycling teams come with naming rights and usually they are named after the sponsor. But who are these sponsors and what do they do?

You might know about Garmin or Cannondale but do you know what Qhubeka, Orica or Vacansoleil are about? What’s the link between Frano Pellizotti and Hello Kitty? Why do Ag2r ride in brown shorts? All this and more…

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Doping in Sport, Lessons from Pro Cycling

Going by Twitter, yesterday’s story in AS, the Spanish newspaper, that Dr Fuentes was working for a Spanish soccer club seems to have delighted some cycling fans keen to see the scandal shared beyond our sport.

Twitter’s an imperfect judge of opinion at the best of times. Even if it’s a minority activity there’s something unnerving when cyclists point out other sports have doping problems: they might be right but there’s the sound of glasshouses shattering when calling for footballers and tennis players to be outed.

Still, with football being forced to confront some problems are there lessons other sports can learn from cycling’s dodgy past?

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An Interview with Eurosport’s David Harmon

TV commentary is one of those jobs that everyone thinks is easy… until they try it. The next you watch a race try pressing mute and replacing the audio with your own commentary and see how you get on.

David Harmon is one of Eurosport’s commentators. If you watch cycling this year you’re bound to hear him at work, hopefully via full HD and clear audio but maybe via a pirate audio feed.

Here he talks about the job, how it’s changed, what it’s like to talk for six hours non-stop and more.

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Sunday Shorts

Louisville world championships

Well done to the Louisville race crew who put on a great event. Cyclocross is booming in the US as a participatory sport and the crowds partied like Belgians on the day only, as the photo by cyclocosm shows, with added fancy dress. There was even a copycat Dirk Hofman sign spotted.

With all the talk of pro cycling going global cyclo-cross remains a specialist affair within Europe alone but you’d struggle to get the Louisville atmosphere if the worlds were awarded to France, Germany or even the brewery-rich Czech republic. It was made even better thanks to the UCI’s video stream on Youtube meaning it was available around the world for free without resorting to pirate feeds of dubious quality.

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