Basque telecoms company Euskaltel has announced it will return to team sponsorship as a title sponsor of the Fundación-Orbea team. Is this a return to the glory days? Sorry to splash a bucket of cold water straight out of the Atlantic in your face… but probably not.
The route for the 2020 Critérium du Dauphiné race (31 May- 7 June) has been unveiled today and for only the second time in the race’s history there’s no time trial. Instead it’s a race of two halves with a flatter first part before four consecutive stages in the Alps with beaucoup climbing. Often a highlight of the year, the route borrows from this summer Tour de France but there are also some “new” climbs.
There are so many races all of a sudden and many on TV. With a VPN your browser can hop around the world allowing you to watch races in Colombia, France and Italy in the space of a few hours. Whether you need to is another matter but there’s now a huge choice and so far the quality has been good, the Tour Colombia’s TV coverage was an improvement on last year.
With the 2020 season underway, 10 neo-pros to watch out for in the coming season. The bar has shifted with the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar who struck gold in their first year but for most newcomers the story is more likely one of steady progression.
With the new season underway do you know your Cofidis from your CCC, Michelton from Movistar? Do you know what the EF in EF Education First stands for? No, it’s not Education First and the answer’s below and you can also learn what all the World Tour team title sponsors do.
Case closed. A year ago it was all comedy rap videos from Astana, now they’ve been on the receiving end with the leaked report. But the CADF has cleared this up now and on the basis of the evidence they’ve got they won’t be taking the matter any further.
Yesterday Danish and Norwegian media made allegations that Jakob Fuglsang of the Astana team was in contact with banned doctor Michele Ferrari. It’s all been denied and makes for a strange story with a political tone.
Richie Porte has just won the Tour Down Under and collects 500 UCI points, as many if he’d won Paris-Nice or the Tour de Suisse. A rankings system in pro cycling often seems pointless, it’s a synthetic means to compare stage racers, sprinters and others who often only compete indirectly with each other. But UCI points can be a currency and the quest for points is a tactical fact. So here’s a look at the points per race and more.
The Tour Down Under is done and feels like watching a repeat with the identical venues, the same cast and a familiar story. View it as prologue to the season ahead and it’s a successful format.
How do you like the new team kits for 2020? The likes of cyclingtips and Eurosport have reviewed, rated and ranked them.
Would you buy a team jersey and ride in it? Probably not, and that’s a problem. For all the success of the likes of Deceuninck-Quickstep, Jumbo-Visma and Bora-Hansgrohe might enjoy, their team kit doesn’t fly off the shelves and if the teams want to look exciting, their kit is traditional to put it kindly.