Tour de France organisers ASO have announced that Cofidis, Europcar, FDJ and Saur-Sojasun will get the four wildcard places for July. This leaves Geox-TMC out, the Italo-Spanish team had sought to improve itself following a lacklustre appearance last year as Footon-Servetto by hiring Denis Menchov (third overall) and 2008 winner Carlos Sastre but surprisingly this … Read more
A quick comment on Bjarne Riis. There’s no point commenting on every silly comment that appears but still, sometimes people say strange things and it’s worth a quick look… Is that red wine? I almost feel sorry for Riis. Almost. 2010 was a stinker of a year for him. He might have been delighted with … Read more
Lance Armstrong has long been a figure of suspicion but today’s revelations in Sports Illustrated include new allegations and more detail on stories that you might have seen before. Down and out? Rather than comments on the specifics, although I’d urge to read the article, I wanted to take a longer look at things. Federal … Read more
I’d like to discuss the issue of rider recruitment with the people involved in the Green Edge Cycling team before revealing anything more. But I am having trouble reaching people, my emails to Andrew Ryan’s Jayco address have gone unreplied, except for an out-of-office autoreply stating he’d be back at work this week. So this … Read more
Not over, nor out There’s an argument between the teams and the UCI over the use of race radios, with the UCI wanting to ban their use in every race bar the World Tour calendar during 2011 and in all races from 2012. It’s now coming to a confrontation with the team association the AIGCP. … Read more
There’s an argument between the teams and the UCI over the use of race radios, with the UCI wanting to ban their use in every race bar the World Tour calendar. For me, there are advantages and disadvantages to race radios. Some say the radios allow teams to control a race. Writing for cyclingnews.com, Jonathan … Read more
More please The Tour Down Under is now the race that opens the season. For a brief moment Australia becomes the focus of the road cycling world. Many Europeans aren’t aware just how keen the Aussies are on cycling, at times the roads of the major cities early on a Sunday morning have just as … Read more
Sorry for the low resolution. For reasons to be explained in due course I’ve blanked out the sums of money involved. But maybe you get the picture? There’s more to come.
Melbourne might be 10 hours ahead of European time but a new Australian cycling team is already a year ahead when it comes to planning for 2012. The team is going under the label of Green Edge Cycling, something The Inner Ring was first to reveal. As a reminder Green Edge Cycling is being led … Read more
Today saw the Europcar team presentation. The green livery is certain to stand out given many other teams seem to have gone for a mixture of blue and black. But look closely at the photo above and you’ll see a trend in pro clothing that hasn’t been remarked upon as much: it’s tight fitting. Increasingly … Read more