October 21, 2011

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So the 2011 cycling season is over and inevitably, the countdown has begun to the 2012 Tour Down Under in January.

Well, actually the 2011 season isn’t quite done yet. There’s a race called the Tour of Hainan currently taking place in China, where Ireland’s David McCann finished in 12th place on yesterday’s opening stage riding for the Giant Kenda cycling team. McCann actually finished second overall in this nine-stage race back in 2008.

There’s also the Japan Cup which takes place this coming Sunday. This is a hilly one-day race which has been won in the past by prominent riders such as Claudio Chiappucci, Gilberto Simoni and Damiano Cunego. ~ Continue reading ~

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October 7, 2011

World champion team-mates

By winning the World Championship road race in Denmark, Mark Cavendish became only the second British rider to wear the rainbow jersey after Tom Simpson in 1965. But this coming weekend the world’s best sprinter has a chance to achieve what no rider, Brit or otherwise, has ever achieved – win Paris-Tours as World Champion.

Unlike most other one-day races, the World Championships road race takes place on a different route every year. Often it is won by riders who could be classed as ‘sprinters’. To illustrate, recent winners of the rainbow jersey include Mario Cipollini, Oscar Freire, Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd and now Mark Cavendish. ~ Continue reading ~

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September 25, 2011

Ireland’s best World Championship performances

The cycling road race world championships takes place in Copenhagen today where the winner is awarded the famous rainbow jersey. This year’s race will be 266km and will be over relatively sprinter-friendly terrain. Ireland will have three entrants in the men’s road race, Matt Brammeier, Daniel Martin and Nicolas Roche.

Irish riders have contributed to the long history of cycling’s most prestigious one day event. Here’s five of the most notable Irish performances:

5. Matt Brammeier (2010) – Last year the road race took place in Geelong, Australia. The route consisted of an 85km stretch before entering a 16km circuit which the riders would tackle 11 times. The world championships usually takes place on a circuit and it was unusual to have such a long point to point section before commencing the laps around the start/finish line. This unusual quirk in the route design almost lead to one of the biggest upsets in world championship history. ~ Continue reading ~

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September 15, 2011

An apology to Jonathan Vaughters

A few months ago, the Garmin-Cervelo directeur sportif published a list of ten things he would do to change the sport of cycling. These suggestions ranged from rider rankings to television broadcasts, but the one that really caught my attention was his suggestion that there should be “long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams“.

If this suggestion were realised, while it would be welcome news to the teams already at the elite level, it could potentially have grave consequences for teams starting out at lower levels with ambitions of progressing through to the top of the sport. ~ Continue reading ~

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September 9, 2011

A new world record set in the Vuelta

A world record was set yesterday. Ten stages of a cycling race in a row have been won by riders from ten different countries. This record was set when Francesco Gavazzi of Italy crossed the line to win Stage 18 of the 2011 Vuelta a Espana.

The previous record of nine stages won by nine different nationalities in a row had in fact been achieved on three different occasions. The 2009 Vuelta, 2007 Tour and perhaps surprisingly, it happened as far back as 1989, again in the Tour de France.

It’s even more surprsing that this record has been set in the Vuelta which has traditionally been a major stomping ground for the Spaniards just as the Giro has for the Italians. Whereas allcomers tend to target the Tour de France. ~ Continue reading ~

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September 7, 2011

Merger, alliance, coalition – what a load of…

Leopard-Trek are due to merge with RadioShack to form yet another ‘superteam’ in the world of pro cycling. While it’s exciting times for all the major players in the merger such as Johan Bruyneel and the Schleck brothers, many riders are being left in the lurch.

Consider RadioShack rider Fumiyuki Beppu’s coy tweet on the day that the merger was announced:

They Don’t Care About Us”..Music By Michael Jackson

Beppu was not one of the riders announced in the press release who will be making the move from RadioShack to the new hybrid team. ~ Continue reading ~

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