Going to watch a bike race is not as simple as you might think. Get it wrong and all you’ll catch is a cold, not the action. There are some hints, tips and skills that can substantially improve the experience. Given the classics season is now upon us, it’s time to share some of these. … Read more
In this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others Pour encourager les autres is French for “to encourage the others”. It’s a line from Voltaire’s Candide. After the naval battle of Minorca between France and Britain in 1756, Voltaire describes the British practice of shooting naval … Read more
French broadcaster France Télévisions will show 132 hours of cycling this year. It might sound like plenty but when you subtract the Tour de France, there’s not much left. For example last weekend’s Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne weren’t on French TV, not even subscription TV channels Canal+ and Eurosport. Such a scenario is common for … Read more
The sketch is by Marec, resident cartoonist of Het Nieuwsblad who normally does politics. But the weekend racing is front page news in Belgium. The scene depicts Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert as Belgian dunces who lost out and both are thinking “we’ve got ears after all”. Like most jokes, when you have to explain … Read more
A table of the wins per team this year, via Spanish website Biciclismo, including all the World Tour and Pro Continental squads. Rabobank lead with a good mix of quality and quantity thanks to Sebastian Langeveld, Robert Gesink, Oscar Freire, Theo Bos and others. Whereas Farnese Vini landed plenty of wins in the less prestigious … Read more
The weekend saw two races held without race radios. Here’s a quick review of the issues. Tactics It matters more than ever in Belgium as positioning and tactics are vital, riders dropping back to the team car to pick up food or fix a mechanical can’t alert their team. As a result, team riders use … Read more
Having seen the piece by Joe Lindsey about the less than impressive coverage of cycle sport in the US, I responded saying it wasn’t all that great in France, that whilst it might be the land of the Tour de France and Paris-Roubaix, the sports reporting isn’t always that good. In response I had a … Read more
I could write a long piece saying how great today’s race was, examining the form of the riders, the relative strength of each team and the impact of racing without radios. But that’s not the point. Instead it was simply a fantastic race to watch. The 2011 Het Nieuwsblad was a 203km held in foul … Read more
How objective are bike reviews? Someone writing a review would say they know their stuff, that they can tell the difference between a good frame and a bad one, more they can get the measure of wheels, handlebars and tyres too. Only there’s plenty of evidence from outside the cycling world that reviewing, testing and … Read more
The lastest is that the racing will go ahead this weekend… but there’s still confusion as to whether riders will start with radios or not. Either way, I put a message on twitter earlier saying the campaign to keep race radios was proving to be a PR disaster as it amounts to little more than … Read more