A stage into France’s empty quarter that gradually gets hillier and harder, with just enough climbing to spoil things for some of the sprinters. If Fabio Jakobsen had it easy, of sorts, yesterday, today is a different challenge.
Paris-Nice Stage 2 Preview
The day for the sprinters, today’s stage is flat and almost featureless… but that means the terrain is exposed the weather forecast promises a crosswind, only it’ll be a weak one but just enough to set the peloton on edge.
Paris-Nice Stage 1 Preview
The 80th edition Paris-Nice starts with an opening stage to the west of the capital and a good test for the sprinters with some late climbs to mix things up.
The Moment The Strade Bianche Was Won
Tadej Pogačar goes solo with 50km to go. Nobody could or would follow and this was the moment the race was won.
Paris-Nice Preview
Paris-Nice starts this Sunday and there will be daily stage previews here. Ahead of the race here’s a look at the GC contenders.
UCI World Tour Promotion and Relegation Weekly
The chart shows the latest version of the three year rankings 2020-2022 used to determine which teams qualify for UCI WorldTeam licences for the next three years.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Preview
It’s openingsweekend and Belgium is open too, locked indoors last year, the crowds will be back to enjoy a cobbled classic on their doorstep. Here’s a quick preview.
Promotion and Relegation
In the absence of any big World Tour races and out of competition news like Egan Bernal’s crash and rehab, the promotion and relegation battle among teams has been a big story of the start of the season. Perhaps you haven’t been watching races with a spreadsheet to hand, but watching Cofidis win this and Intermarché-Wanty win that has been to think of all the points they’re racking up.
B&B Team in Big Bother
Ordinarily getting a wildcard invitation for the Tour de France should be something to celebrate for the B&B Hotels team but the news this week points to a real problem for the team. Their invitation to the Tour is debatable today, and their problem is that with time there will be less argument as Uno-X overhaul them.
Critérium du Dauphiné Route
A quick look at the Critérium du Dauphiné’s route for this year, click to read more if you want.. but in writing-up this piece as a means to explore the route in more detail not much stands out for the 2022 edition so you can save the bandwidth for another day.
There’s a big time trial to shape the GC and then some familiar Alpine haunts for final weekend.