Time to look back at some of the highlights of the year with five picks. It’s a chance to celebrate some great sport and also to apply some precious hindsight.
Here it’s not one race but a day, Sunday 14 March.
Highlights of 2021 – Part I
Time to look back at some of the highlights of the year with five picks. It’s a chance to celebrate some great racing and to apply some precious hindsight.
The first pick is a recent one, the men’s world championships in Flanders.
What Makes A Great Grand Tour?
Watching the Giro this year you wanted to see Bernal go up against Pogačar in the Tour. Watching the Tour you wanted Primož Roglič healthy. In the Vuelta Roglič was healthy but had no rivals. 2022 is promising with these three riders and more likely to contest the Tour de France.
This year’s grand tours were enjoyable but not vintage editions and if they still made DVDs you probably wouldn’t buy the highlights discs. What makes a great grand tour?
Team Victory Rankings
A look back at the victory stats for the year with a deeper dive the data and a look at how each team fared.
Monday Shorts
Sponsor merry-go-round edition, a few loose ends on the smaller teams struggling to stay on the road with UCI deadlines and shrinking sponsorship.
2022 Pro Cycling Calendar
With the 2021 season done, here’s the pro cycling calendar for 2022, free to download for your diary or phone. It’s packed with racing and probably a lot more user-friendly than the revamped UCI website so if you plan on visiting a race or just need plot TV time for the sofa, here it is…
Traces of Tizanidine
One of the unwelcome side effects of following pro cycling for a while is all the side lessons. Come for the roads, races, landscapes, stories and personalities, then spend lunch breaks informing yourself about things you hadn’t envisaged, like haematocrit, off-scores, and even unapproved experimental substances.
Today’s novelty is tizanidine, a muscle-relaxing medicine. According to a scientific paper traces of it have been discovered in samples from three cyclists competing in “international three week cyclist race in France”.
2022 Tour de France Route
The route of the 2022 Tour de France has been unveiled, here’s a closer look at what promises to be an intense course with cobbles, Alpe d’Huez, the return of old climbs and a new one too.