All roads lead to Aigle: Pro Cycling 2020

[longeared]

Away from the Vuelta today is November 1st so the start of next season. ("Everything feels possible on November 1" - David Millar) Things got off to an inauspicous start with the predictable announcement of the cancellation of the Town Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, so that's the entire Australian swing gone given that the Herald Sun Tour was binned weeks ago. That'll now put the World Tour starting at the UAE Tour, be interesting to see what happens there after the race's Covid incident this year.

The Tour de France route has been announced. They've made sensible Covid precautions on that, the entire thing is in France apart from a visit to Andorra and there's only one transfer of significance, the final day to Paris. The Copenhagen start has been postponed until 2022 and they're starting in Brittany, with a lumpy finish to stage 1 and a double ascent of Mur de Bretagne the following day. There's a whopping 248k stage in the first week. Alps include another attempt to reach Tignes after weather intervened in 2019, and stage 11 includes tackling the Ventoux twice via different routes for a finish in the valley. Lots of Pyrenees, including Luz Ardiden for the first time in a good while. Probably about seven sprint days.

[Ray de Galles]

Poor Will Barta! Not as if Roglic needed the stage win either.

[ursus arctos]

Two Slovene winners out of three grands tours. Three of the last four. Not bad for a country of 2 million.

[Ray de Galles]

Thought Roglic was going to lose two Grand Tours on their penultimate day within weeks there, he looked spent when Carapaz made the attack and benefited from those who were around him or came back down the road.

[longeared]

I don't think I'll ever go down as Roglic's biggest fan, but you have to admire the way he's shown real character to bounce back after the Tour in winning Liege and now this. Would have been very easy for him to go and sulk and wait for next season instead.

[Ray de Galles]

Oh yeah, his tenacity has been remarkable - both today to limit the losses near the end and overall since the Tour. I'm very pleased for him

[ursus arctos]

Sepp Kuss is going to be next US winner of a Grand Tour

[Billy Casper]

Great to see Hugh Carthy make the podium too.

[Ray de Galles]

Yes, absolutely. He had a good go at getting second place today too and seemed genuinely pissed off in his post-race interview that he didn't.

[Ray de Galles]

The European Track Cycling Championships start tomorrow in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. There has been little to no build up that I've seen and I imagine it will be a low key version this year (behind closed doors, obviously) but Eurosport are covering it live from 4pm UK time.

I'm not sure what other track events of a decent level will happen this winter. The World Cup series (now rebranded the Nations Cup) is in April to June as an Olympic warm-up (hopefully!) and the Worlds are scheduled for next October in Turkmenistan. The chances of any Six Day events happening must be slim as they rely on ticket sales rather than broadcast and sponsorship income.

[longeared]

The only thing I've seen about it was Ganna having to withdraw after testing positive for Covid. Think some of the other Italian pursuiters have been replaced as a precaution.

Alex Dowsett is going to have a crack at the hour record in Manchester on December 12th. Apparently he's got a contract for next year, hasn't been announced where yet.

[Ray de Galles]

Dylan Groenewegen banned for nine months for causing Tour of Poland crash

[longeared]

Ridiculous decision, blaming him for a whole sweep of failings in the incident and setting a bad precedent. His team stood him down for the remainder of the season which was a suitable response. Surprised both the team and rider have accepted the punishment so readily.

The Tour de Yorkshire has been cancelled for 2021. Not really a surprise that given that even with the best will in the world it seems unlikely things will be in a position to hold the race in full next May. They've said they'll be back in 2022 but given the pressures on local authority budgets and likely economic effects on sponsors I think there's a fair chance we won't see it again.

[ursus arctos]

The apparent immunity of the Tour of Pologne's organisers to any kind of accountability is a superpower of sorts

[Ray de Galles]

Elinor Barker wins gold in the Women's Elimination Race making it a GB clean sweep in that event as Matt Walls won in the Men's yesterday. GB also got a silver in the Women's Team Sprint (newly converted to a three woman event) which is promising as women's sprinting has been a weak point for a while.

It's a very unbalanced GB squad out there, only three men and none of them sprinters, which reflects how much stronger the women have been for a quite a while.

[Ray de Galles]

GB get gold in Women's Team Pursuit, one of sport's most foregone conclusions.

[Ray de Galles]

Two further golds for GB today, Neah Evans in the Individual Pursuit and Matt Walls's second in the Omnium.

The absence of Netherlands (the currently dominant nation on the track), France and Denmark is seriously devaluing the competition though, as does the seeming thinness of the German squad out there. The absence of a crowd is really keenly felt in the velodrome too, given the atmosphere is normally so febrile for these events.

There are some good performances and racing but it's all a bit ersatz.

[Ray de Galles]

A very interesting, and troubling, story :

Callum Skinner: How the Scot's obsessive pursuit of greatness almost broke him

[ursus arctos]

British Cycling is a rather toxic organisation

[matt j]

This (long read) feels like something people here would enjoy. I read it then rewatched the highlights

Kate Wagner (McMansion Hell) on the 2020 UCI Men's Road race:
https://mcmansionhell.medium.com/eve...y-979a34f1768d

[Levin]

Thanks Matt, that was really enjoyable read. I've nearly finished "the Rider" for the umpteenth time.

I regret not paying attention to any cycling this year. I don't think I've seen a second of TV footage and I've not even been reading Inner Ring.

[Sits]

[Levin]

Do we have a kit thread or does it go in here?

https://twitter.com/cyclingweekly/status/1339661768524783616

I both like it and think that it's not a good cycling kit.

[ursus arctos]

I agree on both points

It would work better for a Sankt Pauli alternate

[longeared]

Ag2r La Citroen Mondiale.

I'm glad Bardet has gone to DSM (formerly Sunweb), I'm not sure I could have coped with him wearing that.