The Theory of Relativity

Many athletic sports have their references, benchmarks and records. Running a mile under four minutes, breaking 10 seconds for the 100m sprint, sailing around the world in under 80 days and maybe one day doing a marathon under two hours. But road cycling has none of these, we barely notice the time taken to complete a race and usually the average speed is immaterial. Absolute speed counts for little. Everything is relative.

Sometimes it can be hard to review. When a rider wins a race were they the strongest on the day, are they the fastest in history? When Fabian Cancellara took Simon Gerrans to the finish in Milan-Sanremo who was the better rider? This caused debate at the time but history records only one name. But what if we could take more measurements during a race. Are there new measures we can use to compare performances or do these not matter?

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Highlights of 2012 – Part I

Thibaut Pinot Tour de France

I’m going to pick five moments from 2012. They are a personal choice. With any list you often omit more than you include but I’ll explain each moment. They’re presented in no particular order.

First up the scenes of joy as Thibaut Pinot won a stage of the Tour de France and behind team manager Marc Madiot goes beserk with joy and pride. But all is not quite as it seemed or was reported at the time…

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No Ordinary Road: Le Tour Comes to Town

Fans crowd the barriers, dressed in yellow hats distributed by sponsors they look like sunflowers as they turn towards the stars of sport. Arms are outstretched, often to take a photo and mouths are open as people cheer. Despite a veil of cloud, everything is bright. Flags from Africa and Europe are visible and TV cameras beam the scene around the world. You can imagine the noise from the crowd, the TV commentators, the helicopters. This is the Tour de France.

Yesterday’s post showed a boring road with leaden skies. It’s from a town called Davézieux whose only claim to fame is that the Montgolfier brothers come from here. The brothers invented the hot air balloon, perhaps motivated by a need to escape from this drab place.

Only the photo in yesterday’s piece and the one above show the same piece of road. Check the crack in the middle of the road, note the arcing lamp posts and scope the roof tiles on the building on the right.

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No Ordinary Road

What do you think of the place above? The grey skies and the truck are obvious, a dull place on a dull day. Look again and you can see the road is drying out, the dark parts bear witness to damp weather and suggest a rough surface where the water can briefly shelter from the … Read more

Housekeeping – Time For a Break

Tour de France drinks

A quick note to say I am away for the next two weeks on a break where where there will be zero internet access but hopefully a cold drink.

But the blog continues with a range of articles cued up for automatic publication every day.

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Thursday Shorts

Here’s a film about another sport. Only the clip seems all too familiar given the subject matter. There’s no doubt other sports have big problems when it comes to doping but I’ve got mixed views when cyclists start saying “look at other sports!” as it can look like deflection when we need to focus on the problems at home.

Cross-country skiing is similar to cycling in that it is one of the most aerobic sports going and therefore blood doping turns the results upside down as the advantages are so big. As well as the theme of doping, the idea of national heroes being taken down seems familiar too, no?

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Riders To Watch for 2012 – What Happened?

Amstel Gold Race Jelle Vanendert

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.

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Urs Freuler, Moustache World Champion

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.

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2012 in Statistics

André Greipel Cavendish sprint

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.

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Sunday Shorts

Gianni Meersman

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.

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