I’ve been reading Laurent Fignon’s autobiography, of which an English translation is due out this summer and will write a review soon. One brief anecdote from the book. In the 1987 Vuelta, Fignon finished third to Colombia’s Luis Herrera. The first Colombian winner of a Grand Tour, it was a massive victory for South American … Read more
After a few days riding around Liege and it’s outskirts and my good mate nearly being mugged, it’s official Liege is a DUMP! Bradley Wiggins, Twitter. He’s right, Liège is an ugly place. The unofficial capital of Wallonnia, it’s a place that has seen better days. Its position on the Meuse river gave it a … Read more
BMC Racing’s Andy Rihs is probably the wealthiest man in pro cycling, so much so that he can pay for a cycling team in the way you or I might subscribe to a magazine. But for all his billions and business sense, he must be finding his expenditure in cycling isn’t bringing the dividends he’d … Read more
I’ve written before that tensions between French and Dutch speaking political parties has been on the rise. Now this has reached the point where the coalition government has collapsed, following mutual suspicion amongst several parties. Nothing to do with cycling, this is just following up previous “out of competition” reports. For more on this, see … Read more
Mention the word “Cipollini” and a warm smile appears on my face. No other rider I’ve known has combined excitement, style and charisma like Mario Cipollini. I’ve been following pro cycling since 1988 so that’s practically a quarter century of riders. If some dress for dinner, here was a man who would don a cream … Read more
It’s hard to keep up. According to cyclingnews.com, BMC’s Thomas Frei has been busted for EPO, or at least he’s returned a positive A-sample. So an update to yesterday’s Trentino stage result is needed, since the Swiss rider was ninth yesterday. Is it me or is this race looking like a farce? Or is the … Read more
Slovakia’s finest: Peter Velits and Juraj Sagan I’d written that Peter Sagan might start calling the shots around Team Liquigas and it’s happening already. According to cyclismag.com, the Slovak Wunderkind has asked them to sign his kid brother, Juraj and the Italian squad is expected to recruit Sagan Junior this summer. Juraj Sagan is currently … Read more
Some people have labelled this week as “drugs week” because so many previous winners of the Amstel, Flèche Walloone and Liège Bastogne-Liège have been busted for doping. But in the same week we have the Giro di Trentino and yesterday’s opening stage was a festival for riders on the comeback and today’s proved the same … Read more
White socks are the default choice for road riders, although a few riders have used black and other colours. Why? Well in the late 1920s Charles Pélissier decided his legs were so tanned and impressive that he felt a pair of white socks would help him show off. Until then black and brown, yes, were … Read more
As part of the series on the 1980s, here are five items related to technology during this decade. 1. Clipless pedalsAn OEM ski binding company, French company Look realised that the mechanism used to fix a skier’s boot onto a ski could be copied to hold a cyclist’s shoe onto a pedal. Until clipless pedals, … Read more