If the UCI can’t mediate, someone else has to

UCI President Pat McQuaid opened the meeting… …He then informed the CCP members of the reason for the absence of Messrs Jonathan Vaughters and Gianni Bugno, who had been formally invited to choose between participating in the meeting and standing by the AIGCP and CPA in their threat to launch boycotts and strikes against the proposed ban on the use of earpieces during races.

You might think this is from George Orwell’s 1984, a confusing text from Franz Kafka or maybe the notes from of a Soviet Praesidium, as presented by spy novelist John Le Carré. Alas the text above is no fiction but a real statement issued today by the UCI.

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The Beijing boycott

UCI sign contract
Anyone know a good Sino-Swiss contract lawyer?

With the dispute over race radios rumbling on, there’s talk of a boycott of the Tour of Beijng. a five-day stage race scheduled for October. If you haven’t heard of this race, don’t worry since it’s a new one but nevertheless it’s on the UCI’s World Tour calendar. A surprising addition given it’s never been held before.

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Milan-Sanremo: worth the hype

On paper if I described a seven hour race where nothing happens until the last 10 minutes, you might not get excited. If I described a race that his very flat and often won by the sprinters, then again you might not be excited. But there’s something special about Milan-Sanremo.

Alimetria

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What Mosquera didn’t say

Ezequiel Mosquera was supposed to be Vacansoleil’s second star signing but the only reason for the Dutch team to be happy is that he hasn’t brought as much bad publicity as Riccardo Riccò. He was suspended after tests showed both he and then team mate David Garcia Da Peña had tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch … Read more

Cleaning up cycling (not doping, litter)

Cycling as an elite sport has often has little to do with ecology. Convoys of team cars, the consumerist message and the way riders dump used bottles and food wrappers don’t make things look very green at all. But the sport is being used to promote cycling as transport, to tie bike racing with a … Read more

News bulletin and weather report

I can’t pick a single topic for the blog today so here are a few smaller points which are worth a mention. Nice images French company Mavic has a clunky website but the content is super-imposed on some nice background images. If you’d like the image above, click on it to open a full size … Read more

What to do with Di Luca?

Many are keeping an eye on Danilo Di Luca. The Italian rider is on the comeback trail with Katusha after a lengthy ban and came close to a stage win in Tirreno-Adriatico over the weekend. Several times during his career Di Luca has been linked to doping scandals and investigations. In 2009 suspicious bio passport … Read more

Ranking points, incentives and race results

I want to pick up a point touched on in this morning’s L’Equipe: are the UCI ranking points influencing the outcomes of races? With several riders in the top-10 overall, Team Radioshack went into the final stage of Paris-Nice in a strong position. Although short, the route had five climbs, some tricky descents and the … Read more

On carbon and carbon fibre

Carbon is everywhere. Can you name another atom that has so many branches of science, knowledge and uses, from carbon chemistry to carbon trading, carbon dating to carbon copies? This atom of six neutrons, six protons and six electrons can be found in the air, in the ground, in the seas and in your body. … Read more

Grid girls

Is this a first for cycling? We have “grid girls” on the start line of Tirreno-Adriatico. Note this is in Italy. Often it feels like no presentation on the Giro is complete without a blond model and the Giro picks a woman every year as its madrina, a woman tasked with blessing the race in … Read more

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