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Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

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    #51
    Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

    I've only seen snippets of the hearing on the news. The debate over the contents of the package and subsequent 'is that it?', feels like a distraction, and a fairly cynical ploy to fillibuster around the elephant in the room, which was Team Sky and Wiggins' use of TUEs.

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      #52
      Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

      Well, yes, but that was the fault of the committee for asking the wrong questions. Apart from Damian Collins and the SNP bloke it was clear none of them really understood what they were talking about.

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        #53
        Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

        longeared wrote: World Tour team reduction for 2019 would probably happen through natural wastage anyway. There's three big teams who might go at the end of next season as it is. Orica are pulling out as sponsors, they'd have gone now if anyone had been found to cover their funding. BMC are also going, there's some form of agreement in place with TAG-Heuer next year who it's rumoured are looking at the benefits of lower level commitment with view to becoming title sponsors in 2018. Finally Etixx are renaming back to QuickStep Floors and there's no guaranteed funding beyond the year.
        TAG-Heuer make their appearance on the BMC kit. It's the biggest change its had in years.



        So presumably this is step one towards a TAG-Heuer team on Pinarello bikes, then?

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          #54
          Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

          Red Bull have always been a big name in sponsorship of MTB and BMX, haven't they? Seems a bit weird that they haven't got involved in road or track.

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            #55
            Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

            Another one for the 2016 deaths, Ferdi Kubler has passed away aged 97. He was the oldest living Tour de France winner, his victory coming all the way back in 1950. That's him on the right.



            Very different era then, still the days when riders carried spare tubes in the event of a puncture, unpaved climbs, water bottles on the front of the bike (not that they were used much, at the time it was thought that drinking less was beneficial).

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              #56
              Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

              Some of the champions who have moved teams are getting new kits. Bora-hansgrohe have done a nice job on theirs, even going for a complementary helmet trim.



              With only two weeks to go until the new-look World Tour starts up again, Cycling Quotes have written an analysis of Team Sky's roster:
              http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/2017_team_analysis_team_sky/

              I would hope that the other teams will follow.

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                #57
                Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                Pretty ghastly new GB kit by Kalas :

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                  #58
                  Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                  *chortle* I scrolled up from the bottom of the page. The image displays stretched out on my monitor so the first thing I saw was a pair of ridiculous big legs and thought "Oh, has Hoy come out of retirement?"

                  It's obviously GB, which is something, but it's a hot mess.

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                    #59
                    Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                    I get the impression they couldn't decide whether to make the kit white or blue so went for both.

                    Who are Kalas by the way? I've never heard of them.

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                      #60
                      Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                      I'm no expert in cycling gear but I'd never heard of them until they popped up as the official kit provider for the London Six Day.

                      They did national flag related jerseys for most riders (apart from those like Wiggins and Cavendish whose existing deals precluded it) with varying degrees of success.

                      Their ones for the second tier GB riders were a taste of things to come :

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                        #61
                        Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                        Kalas are Czech.

                        I don't think that they have ever outfitted a Pro Tour team

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                          #62
                          Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                          And we're underway with Australia's road national championships. Caleb Ewan wins the crit championship. Talented 20 year old Callum Scotson - a name I expect Ray knows well - has won the U23 men's ITT for the second year in a row. He clocked a similar time to Dunbar in the U23 worlds in October so is one to watch. Katrin Garfoot won the U23 women's ITT for the second year in a row as well.

                          The elite men's ITT is done, and it's Rohan Dennis in the green and gold hoops for time trials in 2017. On the year ahead he said:

                          This year is all about learning so that might mean I actually don't get any results this year. I might look like I am complete crap to be honest. It is what I am going to learn and I might fail, really fail when it comes to the Giro but it is all about learning to look after myself for three weeks and then make those small steps over the next three years and hopefully I see the light at the end of the tunnel come 2020.

                          I have Provence which is sort of a warm up race when I get to Europe to get used to the weather and type of racing again to get into mode. Tirreno, Catalunta, Trentino, and the Giro so it is still quite heavy but it is not stupid at that same time. There is no pressure on me this year to be the GC guy on the team. We still have Richie and Tejay and we have Nico Roche as well who is super strong when it comes to GC so its about that progression over the next four years to move into a full time GC and try and learn off those guys and hopefully be on the podium.


                          Should be interesting, and good luck to him. The fact that the guy with whom he has contested a lot of ITTs in the past couple of years, Tom Dumoulin, already has a GT podium to his name and is targeting a placing at the Giro this year won't have gone unnoticed.

                          Dumoulin's schedule: I’ll be focusing first on Abu Dhabi first, as it has a nice uphill finish. Then I’ll do the Italian programme with Strade Bianche, Tirreno and Milan-San Remo. For me Tirreno is an objective. Then I’ll do altitude camps, the Giro and after that it’s a bit uncertain still. It’s not all about the Giro so I want to do well in a number of races. Then in the late season it’s the Worlds in Norway with the uphill finish in the time trial.

                          (cyclingnews.com)

                          Comment


                            #63
                            Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                            Also, formidable Frenchman sets unique and perhaps unbeatable Hour Record in the over-105 category.

                            And Happy New Year from our eponymous hero.

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                              #64
                              Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                              longeared wrote: Reports doing the rounds that the TJ Sport team has been saved thanks to some investment from Abu Dhabi, further details to follow later in the week.
                              http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saronni-reveals-how-he-secured-uae-abu-dhabis-worldtour-licence/
                              Those reports turned out to be true, and the name TJ Sport will not be appearing in the World Tour. Instead Swift, Meintjes and co will be riding for UAE Abu Dhabi.

                              Saronni confirmed that the team will represent the UAE and Abu Dhabi, further strengthening the sport in the area that also hosts the Dubai Tour, the Abu Dhabi Tour. The Middle East now has two WorldTour teams following the creation of the Bahrain-Merida team, while Italy has none. The UAE Abu Dhabi team's service course and management will be in Italy but the team will be registered in the UAE.

                              "The team is called UAE Abu Dhabi and is the team of the whole United Arab Emirates. We won't have the name of a sponsor on the jersey but that of a nation that we represent," Saronni explained.

                              "We've gone from a family team with Lampre to a country team with UAE Abu Dhabi. The jersey will have the colours of the Emirates: white, green and red. Our investors really believe in the step that we're making and it's not a short-term project."

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                                #65
                                Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                So we now have teams effectively representing the regimes of the UAE, Bahrain and Kazakhstan in the World Tour.

                                I think Vaughters was on to something. I don't know how rich ASO is, but if they had the ambition, they could buy up all the teams, thus taking control of the franchises as well as the main events. Cost of running a team for a year is about €15m on average, so to run 18 would be €120m. That sound coverable if they could get hold of enough races, sponsoring partners, and decent deals on the TV rights. They might even be able to bring that cost down a bit as they would be a monopsonist buyer of pro cyclists and gear, so could perhaps get better deals from the manufacturers and impose a salary cap per team.

                                This would force UCI to retreat to what is probably their proper role - world governing body, and organiser of the world championships, rather than also being in charge of competitions (i.e. the World Tour) and promotion of the sport.

                                One elephant in that room, however, is the RCS races. But once ASO takes control of the teams, they could perhaps threaten to set up rival races at the same time as the Giro (three week tour in the USA, say) and put their teams and riders there, of course.

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                                  #66
                                  Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                  With only two weeks to go until the new-look World Tour starts up again, Cycling Quotes have written an analysis of Team Sky's roster:
                                  www.cyclingquotes.com/news/2017_team_analysis_team_sky/

                                  I would hope that the other teams will follow.


                                  Yeah, they do all the WT teams. I love their previews and it is my fervent hope that the journalists are paid by the word:-

                                  Publisher: What do you mean you need more money? I gave you 10 million a month ago!

                                  Cyclingquotes editor: You did, and we're grateful, but we've spent it. Season preview time, you know.

                                  I'm a bit bothered by the UCI's enthusiastic promotion of dodgy regimes. The promotion of the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey to WT level is particularly bothersome - as the name makes clear, it's not simply a national tour, the race serves to actively normalise Erdogan.

                                  Taking the Worlds to Qatar turns out to be a pretty pointless gesture as the Tour of Qatar has been cancelled.

                                  I think a 3-week tour of the US might be a good cure for insomnia. Not much variety in those roads.

                                  Comment


                                    #67
                                    Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                    Kevchenko wrote: So we now have teams effectively representing the regimes of the UAE, Bahrain and Kazakhstan in the World Tour.
                                    Russia too - Katusha is effectively funded by the Russian state, although this year they've got co-sponsorship from everyone's favourite German shampoo manufacturers.

                                    Cycling's not in a financial position to turn down money from dubious regimes, and it seems several individuals have also spotted that it is a "soft" way to gain acceptance for their country and at a relatively low cost. Return of the Tour de Trump anyone?

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                                      #68
                                      Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                      Katusha have shed 9 Russians and signed none. According to cyclingquotes they are racing under a Swiss license this season. All this suggests the people running Katusha might like to 'derussify'.

                                      Comment


                                        #69
                                        Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                        I'm surprised I've not paid much attention to CQ before - they put a lot of new stuff up each day. Including the news that ASO have taken over another WT race coincidentally enough:

                                        The German company owning the Eschborn-Frankfurt cycling classic (Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Radsports) has become a fully owned subsidiary under the umbrella of Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), which will rely on the existing organisational team for the delivery of the event.

                                        Fair point about the USA. South America might do a better race in those timezones, perhaps including the Olympic route, if they can sort out those kerbs.

                                        Comment


                                          #70
                                          Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                          longeared wrote: Return of the Tour de Trump anyone?
                                          http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/donald-trump-2016-tour-de-trump-bike-race-213801

                                          Wow, there's something I never knew happened. Particularly enjoyed the bit about the Tour de Rump.

                                          Comment


                                            #71
                                            Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                            CQ is a bit of a curious site in that it has a lot of news but it largely reads as if it has been dragged through a translation bot.

                                            Comment


                                              #72
                                              Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                              They are Danish, but write in English, and they also tend to publish a number of very lightly edited press releases, the originals of which illustrate the usual range of fluency.

                                              I'm not sure that I will ever get used to Eschborn-Frankfurt as the "new" name for Rund um den Henninger-Turm, even though the "new" route is rather more interesting than the old one. Even the Henninger Turm itself, a brewery's barley silo that had a revolving restaurant at the top, is no more.

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                                                #73
                                                Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                                Here's the UAE-AD kit.



                                                And Bahrain-Merida's

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                                                  #74
                                                  Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                                  The team we usually just call 'Bardiani' has yet another sponsor, so the sleeves change from luminous green to luminous orange.



                                                  One day they will get a deal from the sponsor they truly want... Stabilo Boss.

                                                  Comment


                                                    #75
                                                    Every day is a Peter Sagan day: Pro Cycling 2017

                                                    LottoNL-Jumbo have reduced the amount their kit visually clashes with the MJ by changing the secondary colour from white to black.

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