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All roads lead to Aigle: Pro Cycling 2020

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    All roads lead to Aigle: Pro Cycling 2020

    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.

    #2
    At least Aigle will save the UCI some money on travel

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      #3
      Baltimore gets a 1 day Pro series race for the next three years starting next year on Labor Day weekend.

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        #4
        Away from the road, a hearty 'chapeau' to Charlotte Worthington, whose recent 3rd place in the BMX Park World Championships has guaranteed Team GB (but not her personally) one place at the Olympics.

        It is unthinkable that anyone but her, as current British and European champion in that discipline, will take up that place (injury notwithstanding - she missed a recent World Cup event due to a concussion), and she has a very real medal chance.

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          #5
          Tour de Yorkshire stage towns have been announced - Barnsley, Beverley, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Leyburn, Redcar, Skipton. I'd hazard a guess that Barnsley and Halifax will be starts (because they always are) and Leeds will be the race finish (ditto). Full route details to be released in January.

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            #6
            As the home of broadly on topic - I just stumbled on a surprise. Apparently Laurent Jalabert was 2nd in his age group at the Kona World Ironman Championships. It was such a pleasant surprise to see his name and that he is basically destroying everyone on the bike still.

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              #7
              Maybe there's a route into cycling for Alonso after all. McLaren are getting involved and replace Merida as a title sponsor. The Bahrain-McLaren team is going to have quite a lot of British technical staff behind the scenes too. They'll still ride Meridas, incidentally, though I wonder if they'll wear orange?

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                #8
                The new relationship between PC and WT has led to some interesting politics already. Looks like the Giro might have to pay an incentive to the top PC team (Direct Energie) to reject their invitation.
                ​​​​​​
                ​​​​​

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                  #9
                  Oh yes, and exciting transfer news - Sam Bennett and his lead out man have signed for Deceuninck Quick-Step. Should be an interesting year for sprinters.

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                    #10
                    Bahrain - McLaren have released their new kit, in McLaren papaya.



                    In an announcement where the timing may or may not be coincidental to the above, Rohan Dennis has signed for INEOS. That looks very much like one of those signings that will manage to unlock his potential or fall apart with him leaving after a year and ending up somewhere like NTT.

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                      #11
                      Does the CNBC sponsorship reflect some potential increased coverage in the US on NBC Sports?

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                        #12
                        Sticky Bottle have noticed that the Bahrain McLaren kit has a certain similarity to that of the Spanish team VB Natural Greatness, who are a women's team at Continental level.

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                          #13
                          Yuk. (For both)

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                            #14
                            "Israel Start Up Nation" sounds like an Ianucci bit



                            Interesting (to me) rumblings in the Netherlands that Jumbo Visma will take over the orphaned Boels Doelmans squad.

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                              #15
                              INEOS to wear the same kit in 2020. I suppose it's not been around 12 months yet.

                              Dimension Data are now called NTT Pro Cycling and this is their kit.

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                                #16
                                Trek-Segafredo

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                                  #17
                                  Sunweb

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                                    #18
                                    EF

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                                      #19

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                                        #20
                                        Nice Castorama tribute there from the Wolfpack.

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                                          #21
                                          So not just me, then

                                          I was wondering if I was being influenced by the nationality of the rider.

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                                            #22
                                            Heh, the kit entered my twitter feed when someone retweeted this:

                                            https://twitter.com/jenscer/status/1205441286100180992

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                                              #23
                                              Bloke in that tweet could have chosen an even better image as in 1994 they had a plain white base to the jersey. Here's the new Lotto Soudal kit.

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                                                #24
                                                Vuelta a Espana route out. Very international, starting in the Netherlands and also visiting France and Portugal. Seven summit finishes plus another uphill on a time trial, the lightweights. Final week doesn't look massively riveting, mind.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Can't recall a Grand Tour that covered less of its home country (even though I find those parts extremely interesting).
                                                  Last edited by ursus arctos; 18-12-2019, 02:34.

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