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All roads lead to Harrogate: Pro cycling 2019

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    All roads lead to Harrogate: Pro cycling 2019

    Grand Tour routes are out and/or coming out, and we're now officially going into 2019 preseason for the roadies of the northern hemisphere. Time for a new thread.

    But so as not to lose the track calendar in the old one, here are some of the major events to come in the velodromes for 2018-19.

    6 day events, not all of which are six days long:
    Berlin 23-29 Jan
    Copenhagen 31 Jan - 5 Feb
    Melbourne 7-9 Feb
    Manchester 22-24 Mar
    Brisbane 12-14 Apr

    World Cup (series)
    Berlin 30 Nov - 2 Dec
    London 14-16 Dec
    Cambridge, NZ 18-20 Jan
    Hong Kong 25-27 Jan

    British Championships
    Manchester 25-27 Jan

    World Championships
    Pruszkow, Poland 27 Feb - 3 Mar

    #2
    Giro 2019 route
    http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro...oute-revealed/

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      #3
      An alternate thread title might be 'Arx Celebris Autobus' but you'd probably need to come from Harrogate to stand a chance of getting that.

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        #4
        Yeah we're already into the first knockings of the new campaign, the Tour of Hainan that finished today is in UCI terms the opening event of the season. Some teams held their first get-togethers last week, Sky went to St George's Park and Bora went off to the woods to participate in biathlon. Trek are unveiling their new kit later this week, they've now got the big budget women's team as well although this has meant they've withdrawn from the British Trek-Drops team who had a replacement sponsor pull out and are now resorting to crowdfunding to attempt to stay on the road.

        Not looked at that Giro route in any great detail though a bit concerned by the three time trials as it might lead to Dumoulin and / or Roglic might decide to make that their main target for the season rather than the Tour (for which the route increasingly underwhelms me every time I look at it) and the obvious danger is that the Tour podium will end up something like Froome - Pinot - Lopez. Froome went to the presentation today and said that he's "not ruled out" riding the Giro though all the signs from Sky are that he's just being polite and won't go anywhere near it. Seems that Thomas will lead them in Italy - how much of that is his decision and how much he's been bounced into it is unclear, though the serialisation of his book has reinforced the belief that he was very much Sky's second choice to win the Tour this year. Unclear where Bernal fits into all this, he'll probably get the Tour in a support role and doing two Grand Tours would probably be much for him at 22 (although word is that Sky think he could have been born anything up to 18 months prior to his recorded January 1997 birth date.)

        Has Pidcock confirmed his plans for next year by the way?
        Last edited by longeared; 31-10-2018, 20:19.

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          #5
          Nothing on Velo UK, which is usually a good source of Pidock related news. There is a plea there from Drops as you note above, and a link to the crowdfunder here. And apparently Ed Clancy has signed for Vitus.

          Pidcock is going to the European CX championships on Sunday though - he's doing the U23 men. There are no British elite men entered.

          Fotheringham is writing a book about Beryl Burton.
          http://www.williamfotheringham.com/2...-beryl-burton/
          Last edited by Kevin S; 01-11-2018, 11:49.

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            #6
            New Trek-Segafredo kits unveiled.

            Men's



            Women's

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              #7
              Smart, though the men's one does look like a hybrid of BMC and Lotto-Soudal.

              Incidentally, the new title sponsor of Deceuninck - Quickstep is apparently pronounced 'de-kur-nink'.
              Last edited by Kevin S; 02-11-2018, 14:57.

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                #8
                Why do the men's and women's teams have different kits and is it the norm?

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                  #9
                  There aren't that many precedents to go on, but Mitchelton-Scott and Sunweb last year both used the same kit for men and women. I suppose they think it will help sales of replicas in some way?

                  They're also apparently going to do a hi-vis training version as well.
                  Last edited by Kevin S; 02-11-2018, 15:31.

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                    #10
                    Same with Movistar and Lotto Soudal.





                    Exact same kit supplier and sponsors, too. It is a somewhat strange choice.

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                      #11
                      Kicking myself over forgetting Lotto-Soudal, but somehow the Movistar women's team had completely passed me by. As did Astana and FDJ*.

                      Bad on my part of course, but also goes to show how poor the coverage of women's cycling has been in the past few years.


                      * though the sponsors were slightly different to the men (no Groupama) and the kit they used appears to have been the same as the men's 2017 one instead.

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                        #12
                        So to correct that earlier post, there are several teams with both men's and women's squads, and Trek are the first of these to give the two teams different kits.

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                          #13
                          FDJ women have different secondary sponsors than the men, including the Nouvelle Acquitaine region and the Futuroscope theme park, thus the somewhat different kits.

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                            #14
                            Kev may already know this, but the 2019 British Road Racing Championships will be in Norfolk.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Me Old Flower View Post
                              Kev may already know this, but the 2019 British Road Racing Championships will be in Norfolk.
                              Ooh, and a closed-road sportive as well.

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                                #16
                                No, that's news for me too! Great stuff, thanks MOF.

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                                  #17
                                  More shitty behaviour from Aqua Blue. You kind of expect that Delaney will wash his hands of the whole thing next and the riders will be left dealing with just the UCI.

                                  In fact it looks like the business as a whole is in some trouble. They haven't sent any of their previously prolific emails selling overpriced cycling equipment for a while. Indeed the website itself has currently disappeared, as has all their social media. Hmm.

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                                    #18
                                    An update from the UK Racing Scene via @BritishConti on Twitter re: UCI Continental licences:

                                    Madison Genesis
                                    Canyon Eisberg
                                    Vitus Pro
                                    Ribble Pro
                                    Team Wiggins
                                    Swift Carbon Pro Racing (new Yorkshire-based team. Was rumoured that Cornish team Saint Piran might make the step up, but this wasn't the case)

                                    Holdsworth will no longer have a UCI Conti team, but team Zappi will be riding Holdsworth bikes in 2019. As we already know, JLT-Condor and OnePro have disbanded.

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                                      #19
                                      Philip Deignan retires. He and Lizzie had their first child a couple of months ago so presumably full-time dadding awaits. Lizzie is coming back for 2019 with Trek*.

                                      He joins David López, who also retired recently - a fair bit of Sky's road experience going out of the door there. But I'm sure they'll be fine and dandy.

                                      * edit, of course, as she is wearing the kit up the page!
                                      Last edited by Kevin S; 27-11-2018, 10:36.

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                                        #20
                                        Just looking at the team name changes on PCS now to see what we can expect.

                                        World Tour:
                                        - The big change is the ending of the BMC franchise and the sort-of-merger-sort-of-promotion of Team CCC from Poland. A shame the name no longer includes "Sprandi–Polkowice" because that was one of the most fun bits of a team name to say.
                                        - But that's slightly offset by the new Quick-Step lead sponsor "Deceuninck", which is fun as well.
                                        - Team NL Lotto Jumbo seem to be going by the simpler name of "Team Jumbo" in 2019. Wonderfully silly - let's hope they have a cartoon elephant on their jerseys.

                                        Pro Continental:
                                        - Aqua Blue are gone, as we knew. Feel bad for the riders and staff, but good riddance to the management.
                                        - Fortuneo-Samsic (Barguil's team) are now Arkéa Samsic
                                        - CCC are not there anymore (see above)
                                        - Corendon-Circus (Belgian team) have stepped up from the Continental Tour. They had some good results when invited to second tier races last year, with the two Van Der Poels doing rather well. They've signed the veteran Stijn Devolder as well as Lasse Hansen from Aqua Blue. Best of luck to them!
                                        - The American team Holowesko - Citadel have stepped back down to the CT after one season in the second tier
                                        - Slight change of sponsor - "Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanč" for that team this year.
                                        - Another team coming up to this level is Riwal Readynez from Denmark
                                        - Roompot will be called "Roompot Charles"
                                        - UnitedHealthcare have gone completely
                                        - Vérandas Willems-Crelan are also absent. Not sure what's going on with that team, and Wout Van Aert terminated his contract with them
                                        - And one more slight name change: "Vital Concept - B&B Hotels" (the Coquard team)

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                                          #21
                                          UCI Women

                                          Quite a large reduction in the number of teams. The theme appears to be fewer, but bigger, names. The arrrival of Trek looks like a potential game-changer. They've come in and signed several champion riders including Deignan and Van Dijk. The big talent is quite well spread around, with Niewadoma and PFP at Canyon-SRAM, AvdB at Boels-Dolmans, AvV at Mitchelton-Scott, Rivera at Sunweb, while we think that Vos might be going to a mooted women's CCC team.
                                          Last edited by Kevin S; 27-11-2018, 11:11.

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                                            #22
                                            Vérandas Willems-Crelan are also absent. Not sure what's going on with that team, and Wout Van Aert terminated his contract with them

                                            Weren't they supposed to be merging with Roompot or something?

                                            Canyon Eisberg is the mutated Team Raleigh, isn't it?

                                            I hope the new CCC retains its glorious kit.

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                                              #23
                                              Yes.

                                              They were supposed to be riding as Roompot Crelan, but it may be that all of the Van Aert drama has changed that.

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                                                #24
                                                Cheers both, that is a pickle isn't it?

                                                DM, Vitus is the continuation team from Raleigh. Cherie Pridham is the owner/director. Canyon Eisberg used to be "Bike Channel" I think.

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                                                  #25
                                                  From the Sniper Cycling website, it looks as if Crelan is still involved (along with a number of former Willems Crelan riders), but they are not part of the team name. Charles is a Belgian prepared foods company.

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