Congratulations to Eric Boyer and Francis Van Vanlondersele following the announcement that their team has secured an additional two year’s backing from Cofidis, the consumer finance company based in Northern France. “We remain in cycling because we haven’t found anything better in sport to promote our brand” said a spokesman. That’s because cycling reaches parts … Read more
Congratulations to all the riders winning and even just taking part in the track cycling world championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. But whilst I think the sprint events showcase the best in their field, the endurance events on the track like the pursuit race, points race and omnium have a different feel to them. It’s almost … Read more
As part of the series on the 1980s, here are five items related to Italian cycling. 1. Insularity Italy enjoyed a vibrant cycling scene in the 1980s but it was often confined to the Italian peninsula, teams did not venture abroad as much as they do today. A lot of strong Italian riders therefore didn’t … Read more
People have differing views of Twitter. For some it’s just a stream of inane banalities. For others it’s a new form of communication that gives a personal insight into lives of others. I’m in both camps. Some people can tweet the most boring things but when it comes to pro cycling, you can get instant … Read more
Here are two jerseys from Rapha’s latest collection, the “Country Jersey”. The Rapha Country Jersey celebrates some of Europe’s leading cycling countries; Italy, France, Belgium and Britain. The jersey sports Rapha’s trademark pared down styling and the colours of each nation have been incorporated on the right sleeve. The colours of each nation: only look … Read more
A broken duck Apparently kwak kwak and cuá cuá are the sounds a Flemish and Spanish duck makes. The cycling season is well underway but several teams have yet to break their duck and win a UCI-registered race this year. They are: Pro TourEuskatel – EuskadiOmega Pharma – Lotto UCI Europe TourAndalucia – CajasurCeramica FlaminiaColnago … Read more
Forget Sky, Radioshack or Quick Step, arguably Liquigas is the strongest team around. They’ve got Basso, Nibali, Pellizotti and Kreuziger for the overall honours in any stage race, they’ve got Bennati and Chicchi for the sprints, there’s Willems and Kuschynski for the classics and the likes of Quinziato and Szmyd to help make things happen. … Read more
This is part of a series of podcast reviews. I was going to review the Beyond the Peloton films later but Cervélo have just announced a new series of films for 2010, so here are my thoughts on their 2009 output. Beyond The Peloton Rather than an audio podcast, this is a collection of videos. … Read more
Having earlier picked Omega’s Jean-Christophe Perraud as one to watch this season, another ride to track is FDJ’s Yoann Offredo. Peraud’s early season success continued since I tipped him and it now looks like he could be riding the Tour de France. But Offredo’s season is more dependent on the coming weeks. You might have … Read more
Having blogged about riders’ names, where Boonen means beans and Cipollini is Italian for small onions, here’s another name: Campagnolo. What does campagnolo mean? It’s an Italian term that translates as someone from the campi or fields or more precisely… a country bumpkin. I’m not sure that’s the sort of image you had in mind? … Read more