Pro-cycling thread

... Stage 1?

Matt Holmes has got a ride with Lotto Soudal next year.

Knew he’d get a decent contract but thats a huuuge step up - good luck to him.

Two year deal too, which is more surprising. I guess with the success of Carl Fredrik Hagen this year, Lotto-Soudal are more inclined to take a punt on a solid rider from the lower levels.

Interested to see where Rory Townsend ends up now. Reckon he’s capable of making the same step up.

Doesn't your first ever wt contract have to be 2 years?

When you are neo-pro, you must get 2-year contract, that counts for both WT and Pro Continental teams. If you previously have ridden in Pro Conti, you can get 1-year WT contract, but this doesn't apply here.

Follow the money
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/aso-confirms-inaugural-saudi-tour-for-2020/

the only saving grace is that it is 2.1

Anna Henderson to Sunweb. Great team to join to develop!
https://twitter.com/TeamSunweb/status/1189134860125982720?s=20

Anyone been to the Rouleur Classic before? Are they going to feed me?

Reminds me to cancel my subscription. The magazine is pretty much one big advertisement now. The quality of it has really diluted in the past year. And this 'Desire' thing was the icing.

“We are involved in the emergence of a new racing scene in the Middle East, which corresponds to the riders’ demand at the beginning of the year,” said ASO CEO Yann Le Moenner in a statement released on Tuesday.

Not sure the riders demanded more races in the middle-east given their complaints about the existing ones

Desire

Wassat? I'm not a big fan of the magazine, but thought the event looked like it might be quite good.

Yeah no idea on the event. Never been, but looks like it would be good, and I heard such.

And desire was essentially a magazine where all the space was sold as advertising. They must have been scraping the barrel for revenue ideas.

To be fair to Rouleur, they are an independent publisher in a tough market, so I imagine a lot of their decisions are driven by revenue.

I still read it and as much as I like and respect Ian Cleverley, when Guy Andrews was editor it was a class apart from the rest of the cycling media.

No Tour of California next season.

Sagan had the heads up then

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1zJA3KW5k8

Why on earth did they mix the music in so loud. And why was it so awful. Is the sound of nature with Marianne Vos talking not enough?

I'm no sound engineer. I could hear her. Um, speak to your lawyers...

I could hear her, I just found the music intensely irritating.

I didn't actually notice. Interesting gears.

I wonder if that colourful coating helps or hinders performance or is so marginal as to be irrelevant. Also how durable is it? Is it more than a coating?

https://www.hopetech.com/news/hbt-launches/

New British track team bike a collab between Hope and Lotus. Mental looking, not sure if anti-porn tho just bonkers.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14965130/

Is it a coating or a heat treatment for hardening or something? Looks a lot like when you really hammer brake rotors going downhill and get them good and hot.