Yesterday the UCI put out a short press release on the apparent financial health of the pro peloton. Two statements stood out
It sounds great, money is pouring into the sport and riders wages are going up. Only the more I think about it, the more these trends are not healthy.
Sep Vanmarcke’s win in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race last Saturday was a breakthrough for the Belgian rider but in hindsight only a matter of time. Here is a quick look at his past performances in order to help us assess where he goes next.
He started in a club famed for its champion riders and now he could join them as a top Flandrien. There’s also a look at his spectacular crash in the Vuelta last year.
A look at the photo above. Photography allows us to catch a millisecond in time and portray the moment as a whole story. Here is a great example. We have Lars Boom taking a tumble at the foot of the Taaienberg. That’s Lars Boom, cyclo-cross champion, a rider who can handle his bike. The fight for position is intense in moments like this and Boonen doesn’t give ground. Boom runs out of road, hits the soft earth. Game over.
A note of appreciation for Seven Cycles who are sponsoring the blog. The US framebuilder is here for a month with their ad on the top right of the page. They offer a range of custom built carbon, titanium and steel frames and to find out more, click on the ad to visit their site and learn more.
The season started in January, collarbones have been snapped already. We’ve had racing in the Middle-East and the shores of the Mediterranean too. But this weekend marks the start of racing in Belgium and the intensity of the racing goes up and the quality of the road surface goes down.
No more six star hotels or posing for photos with a koala, it’s back to winter, narrow lanes, mud and cobbles.
On Saturday there was the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Sunday has Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Here’s a preview with maps, profiles, favourites and info on TV schedules (updated after Saturday’s racing).
FDJ’s Yoann Offredo has been suspended for one year by the French Cycling Federation after three anti-doping “whereabouts” errors. News of the mistakes came out in early January. Now the sanction has arrived.
Is it harsh? This depends on your viewpoint but we have a rider entering the prime of their career suspended thanks to paperwork problems.
Most readers won’t be able to watch French TV and you’re not missing much given the weak output of most of the stations which rely on imported US series, made-for-tv films and parochial news coverage for the bulk of their prime time content. But one bonus is the coverage of cycling from France Télévisions and in 2012 there will be 120 hours of race coverage. Hopefully this time without staff ramming riders off the road.
But if 120 sounds like a lot, it’s significantly less than last year and even if you live on the other side of the world these cutbacks could hamper your TV viewing and reduce team sponsorship too.
For many in northern Europe winter is long. But there are signs of spring in Belgium today. Mother nature can give us clues with early blooming flowers amd cycling has its own annual rituals. Today’s recon rides by teams on the course of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad are very much part of the spring routine. The spring classics are coming.
Did you know the three cyclists on the 2008 Tour de France podium all used bikes produced in the same factory? Yes, the design and decals might have varied but there was only one manufacturer behind all three riders.
Chapeau to Robert Marchand who at the age of 100 set a world hour record of 24.251km. Lapping the UCI’s velodrome in Aigle Switzerland, the Frenchman had tried an attempt on an indoor trainer before but this time made his way to a track and rode under the scrutiny of officials from the UCI.