We're into a new season now, teams are holding training camps and rider programmes being announced, so time for a new thread.
The Tour of California has gone "on hiatus" for 2020. Not great for the globalisation of the sport as that's the loss of the only World Tour race in the USA.
The Tour of Britain and Women's Tour have lost their main sponsor. They operate a business model that doesn't solely rely on this source of income and have announced that neither race is under threat. They've already announced three of the stages for the men's race, stage 1 is in Cornwall, stage 2 in Devon finishing in Exeter and the final stage is in Aberdeen.
The beleaguered Tour de Yorkshire is announcing its stage towns later this week. It's already known that neither Scarborough nor Harrogate will be hosting this edition of the race - Scarborough is putting the funds into holding the main national event for Armed Forces Day, Harrogate seems to be still having fall out from the Worlds and the mild damage to some grass.
Several British riders have confirmed new teams in recent days. Steve Cummings has retired which is not a great surprise. Harry Tanfield has switched to Ag2r. Matt Holmes has signed for Lotto-Soudal. Fred Wright has joined Cavendish at Bahrain-Merida. Abby-Mae Parkinson has gone to Lotto. Anna Henderson is now at Sunweb. That's a good move for her, especially as Lizzie Deignan is expected to retire at the end of the season and other than Deignan Britain doesn't really have a world class female road racer. Henderson is young and talented and could develop to occupy that role.
There's a light reshuffling of the calendar because of the Olympics, the Tour has its earliest start since about 1980 and the Vuelta has also been brought forward. The Tokyo road race quotas were announced yesterday and there's twice as many men in the field as there are women, so that's the sort of equality we've come to expect from the UCI. Oh and the women don't race over the big hill that's included in the men's race.
The road Worlds are in Aigle in Switzerland, it's apparently a mountainous course. Track worlds are in Berlin at the end of February.
The Tour of California has gone "on hiatus" for 2020. Not great for the globalisation of the sport as that's the loss of the only World Tour race in the USA.
The Tour of Britain and Women's Tour have lost their main sponsor. They operate a business model that doesn't solely rely on this source of income and have announced that neither race is under threat. They've already announced three of the stages for the men's race, stage 1 is in Cornwall, stage 2 in Devon finishing in Exeter and the final stage is in Aberdeen.
The beleaguered Tour de Yorkshire is announcing its stage towns later this week. It's already known that neither Scarborough nor Harrogate will be hosting this edition of the race - Scarborough is putting the funds into holding the main national event for Armed Forces Day, Harrogate seems to be still having fall out from the Worlds and the mild damage to some grass.
Several British riders have confirmed new teams in recent days. Steve Cummings has retired which is not a great surprise. Harry Tanfield has switched to Ag2r. Matt Holmes has signed for Lotto-Soudal. Fred Wright has joined Cavendish at Bahrain-Merida. Abby-Mae Parkinson has gone to Lotto. Anna Henderson is now at Sunweb. That's a good move for her, especially as Lizzie Deignan is expected to retire at the end of the season and other than Deignan Britain doesn't really have a world class female road racer. Henderson is young and talented and could develop to occupy that role.
There's a light reshuffling of the calendar because of the Olympics, the Tour has its earliest start since about 1980 and the Vuelta has also been brought forward. The Tokyo road race quotas were announced yesterday and there's twice as many men in the field as there are women, so that's the sort of equality we've come to expect from the UCI. Oh and the women don't race over the big hill that's included in the men's race.
The road Worlds are in Aigle in Switzerland, it's apparently a mountainous course. Track worlds are in Berlin at the end of February.
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