News isn’t exactly coming thick and fast at the moment but there are some issues to explore. The fate of the B&B team hangs in the balance this week and with it, the team Mark Cavendish will ride for in 2023. Today is one of the deadlines cited by team manager Jérôme Pineau for a sponsor to say yes or no.
Having looked at the WorldTeam victory rankings last week, now to look at pro cycling’s confusingly labelled second tier of teams, the ProTeams*.
Henri Anglade has died aged 89. A champion with a quick turn of phrase, Anglade wore the yellow jersey but never won the Tour de France. Many said he should have won in 1959, except for Anglade who, often too honest for his own good, replied Federico Bahamontes was simply better. The next year Anglade had another good chance only for more rivalries to get in his way.
Having spent the past season staring at a spreadsheet once a week for the weekly promotion-relegation updates, the occasional team victory rankings were overlooked. So about time to catch-up on the teams and how they fared this year when it comes to throwing their hands up in the air, starting with the World Tour teams.
Nairo Quintana’s lost his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport regarding his two tests for Tramadol and the Tour de France disqualification. The transfer market’s been busy of late but his agent’s not finding it easy to place him with a new team.
The Tour de France Femmes route is out and it’s a scenic one that heads for chocolatine country. Expect red bricks, sunflowers, holiday makers and a savage summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet.
The route of the 2023 Tour de France has been announced. Like a gift that’s been wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree, we can see the outline today but it’s only later that everyone gets to play with it. In the meantime let’s give it a shake to try and get a better feel of what lies inside for July.
With the 2022 season done, time to look ahead. So here’s the pro cycling calendar for 2023, free to download for your diary or phone.
It’s packed with all the men’s and women’s pro races. So whether you’re making plans for next season, want to visit a race, or just need book sofa time or plan a work “meeting”, here it is…
With the Tour of Langkawi done, for the sake of completion here’s the last of the weekly updates. We can now process all the rankings and now comes the admin part for the UCI. There are several parts here.
