Last year I nominated a dozen riders to watch in 2012, from promising neo-pros to Chris Froome and Thomas Voeckler to see how these two would fare after their Vuelta and Tour de France performances in 2011. It’s been a mixed year and now it’s time to check in on their performances this year.
Several pro riders are taking part in “Movember” the sponsored charity attempt at growing a mustache. It’s hit many of the Aussie bunch including honorary members like Koen de Kort and more. For a good view of their progress, head over to Cycling Tips.
But these pros have a long way to go if they want to rival Urs Freuler, a man who made the ‘stache his trademark. In fact he’s still got it today.
I enjoy cycling for the suspense, drama and action. But analysis sometimes means using cold numbers and hard data and often these confound what we think. Here’s a look back at 2012 via some numbers, from the most victorious rider of the year to the nation with the most pro wins as well as other stats from the season.
Gianni Meersman had a great start to the season, proving a useful finisher with a stage win in Paris-Nice for example. Now he’s leaving Lotto-Belisol, exploiting a break clause in his contract if the squad does not make it into the World Tour for 2013. The team seem to think they will and as set out during the week on here, his ranking points count for the squad on the 20 October deadline. Now he’s gone the team get to keep his points whilst the licence is decided but are liable for a giant fine, from 10,000 to 500,000 Swiss Francs (about the same sum in US dollars) under UCI rules. Ouch.
This blog covers road cycling but given a trial subscription of Cyclocross Magazine for review I thought it was worth a look. The sport is growing fast in the US and this magazine covers plenty of the scene there as well as covering the international races in Belgium and beyond.
Having covered how points are calculated using the UCI’s secret rankings the other day, now it is time to see how these points are used in conjunction with other criteria to award a licence to a team. Because once the teams are ranked in order of their sporting value there are more steps to follow before the squad qualifies for the World Tour and its prestigious calendar of races.
The Last Kilometer is a documentary film featuring Davide Rebellin and Ignazio Moser, two riders with over 20 years of age in between. It also includes press room legend Gianni Mura, sometimes known as one of the few journalists to still use a typewriter but hopefully better know for his great prose and knowledge.
With news this week that Andy Schleck will ride the Tour Down Under there’s no word on his older brother. The update on the Frank Schleck case is that there is no update. He tested positive in the Tour de France 120 days ago now and he’s yet to be cleared or convicted of an anti-doping violation. The case should be a black and white case because the rules say any rider who tests positive for the banned substance in question gets punished unless they can prove to comfortable satisfaction where it came from and that ingestion was wholly accidental. But when the news broke Schleck said he didn’t know where it came from, throwing this defence out of the window. Therefore a two year ban awaits.
The website’s been well supported by Selle Italia in recent times but all good things come to an end and there will soon be space for someone else to follow in the slipstream of Strada Wheels, Competitive Cyclist, Seven Cycles, Ride Cycle Review and Selle Italia.
Winning a race is joyous and often a moment of great personal and team satisfaction. But the lesser placings matter, and not just for pride but for points.
Lately the UCI points system has taken a lot of blame for problems in the sport. Out of work riders lament the dash for points by insecure teams, unsure of their place in pro cycling’s top tier, some say the points system is an incentive for doping, all whilst some outside of road cycling rate the points so highly that they want them too.
But what if all this was wrong?
Let’s take a look at how the points of a team are calculated in order to qualify for the World Tour licence. This might sound like a dry and technical subject but it’s fundamental to the sport today. And totally misunderstood.