California snowing

California snow

For Europeans, California brings up all sorts of images. From Hollywood to the goldrush, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, not to mention eccentric people and many creative industries.  Even the countryside, from the parks to the coastlines, are known. But snow isn’t one of the more obvious associations.

Yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour of California was cancelled, the weather had been bad all week and the day saw new flurries of snow. During the day the stage was on… then it was off… then it was back off. Plus the stage had been shortened to 80km. In the end the riders collectively said “no”.

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On your marks, jetset, go

Szymdcopter

If you polled riders on the worst thing in the Giro d’Italia, chances are they’d ignore the mountains, roads that suddenly narrow and the offroad sections. It’s the long transfers before and after every stage that get annoying.

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On the Tour of California

I feel for any race organiser trying to put an event on at the same time as the Giro d’Italia. How you you compete? The answer is you don’t. Instead of wild climbs and off-road riding the Tour of California is a more classic kind of race. Many riders are wary of doing the Giro … Read more

The future of cycling?

This is tongue-in-cheek posting but several riders have been wondering aloud what’s next for them in the Giro. Some didn’t appreciate the offroad sections in the stage to Orvieto and we’re still waiting to see whether the roads are safe for Sunday’s stage up Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe. Above all riders … Read more

Keep on riding

It’s been a heavy week. The death of Wouter Weylandt will overshadow the Giro and leave an indelible mark on the whole season. He won’t be forgotten, more so since the Giro has taken the number 108 out of the race for good. A nice touch but I’d like to see a more lasting and … Read more

L’Equipe publishes UCI “suspicion index”

Equipe suspicion index

That’s the list from this morning’s L’Equipe. It shows an internal UCI ranking of riders according to levels of “suspicion” relating to strange values gathered under the bio passport scheme. The higher the score, the greater the suspicion. The list was formulated by the UCI on the eve of the 2010 Tour de France.

Handle with care
Suspicion’s a particularly nasty sentiment. Finger pointing, accusations, denunciations, whispers and more are all ugly because often they’re quite wrong. So take the list above with more than a pinch of salt. There’s no direct link with doping, this is just an internal score used by the UCI to help testing. But both the list and the leak raise serious questions.

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The Giro resumes

Normally I’d be very excited about today’s stage of the Giro. Stage 5 from Piombino to Orvieto is a moderate 191km long but includes the sterrato or unpaved sections. The race leaves the Mediterranean, heading inland to use the strade bianche, white roads, of Tuscany as well as some climbs. But it’s impossible to forget Wouter Weylandt, any battles on dusty roads today just won’t have the same urgency or importance as they might normally get.

With Wouter Weylandt in mind, note the Leopard-Trek team have left the race. Yesterday’s stage must have been impossibly hard to ride for them. They’ll be back. The same for Tyler Farrar, he was very close to Weylandt and has returned home. If you’ve ever watched a Sporza internet stream and discovered Farrar speaking excellent Flemish in a post-race interview then a lot of this is because of time spent hanging out with Weylandt and others in the Ghent area.

The Leopard team have set up a way to donate money to Weylandt’s family. You’ll find full details for donations here and they’re working on adding a PayPal facility soon.

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Who makes what

Vittoria Factory

Like any industry, the bicycle sector is a broad one and international, with sophisticated supply chains going around the world. There are so many companies from garage artisan frame builders to corporate giants quoted on several stock exchanges at once.

I’ve put together a list of some of the main companies involved and the brands they operate. You might find some surprises, for example that Lapierre is Dutch-owned and part of the same corporate empire as Tunturi gym bikes. Or that helmets from Giro and Bell are from the same company.

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RIP Wouter Weylandt

At times like this I struggle for words. I never knew Wouter Weylandt and it’s hard to say much that’s not been said more eloquently by others. Like you, I can only wish his family, friends and team mates lots of strength. If it’s conventional to heap praise on the deceased, Weylandt was a genuine … Read more

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