Pro-cycling thread

Your best bet is to find a bar or cafe with a decent screen, so you can catch the finish.

And this is why I prefer to be at home to watch. But I am just over the border in germany friday/saturday, so would be rude not to go.

Wielerflits posted a Worlds course recon route of 67km, Komoot link at bottom of this page

https://www.wielerflits.be/fietstoerisme/leuven-en-de-druivenstreek-een-verkenning-van-het-wk-parcours/

I'll be in Duisburg, near Tervuren. There's an 'official Worlds village' there.
Anywhere between Leuven and Tervuren would work. Climbs will be busy, but it's always possible to get an OK spot I reckon if you go early enough and are comfortable being in big masses.

Actually doesn't sound too appealing.

Yes, i'm not going to go near the climbs or the tents in the 'village', it'll be carnage there (in many different ways)

Leo Hayter follows up his u23 L-B-L win with a stage of the Tour de Bretagne.

Sidenote for spectating at the worlds; there is no more mandatory mask wearing outdoors so big, maskless crowds with both vaccinated and unvaccinated people (no covid safe pass checks).

Nice win for Tony Martin.

Lovely way to bow out

bad news suckaz (crossposted from the arkose hype thread):

Still on the subject of innovations, a new discipline, GRAVEL, will join the UCI Cycling for All International Calendar in 2022. From next year, the UCI will organise – in collaboration with events organiser Golazo – a UCI Gravel World Series consisting of events enabling athletes to qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships. This discipline combines elements of road and mountain bike, and takes place mainly on unsealed roads (gravel, forest tracks, shitfromabutt, farm roads, cobbles, #nogravel etc). Races in the UCI World Series will be mass participation events.

Races in the UCI World Series will be mass participation events.

Does that mean they're going to be sportives?

Lefevre doubling down on being a total cunt.

I dont see dave b shouting out the great british talent .

I haven't heard Dave B comparing running a women's team to providing social security or charity. You?

Lefevre's problem is less the holding of opinions, more his moronic way of expressing them.

The idea that all men's world tour teams should have a women's team isn't really a useful one. Some don't have backers with the extra millions they need to sign leading riders, some don't have the management capacity (I imagine DQS have at least 2-3 minders for Lefevre) etc. The standard of women's racing is definitely on the increase but the number of different race winners in the WT events is quite surprising.

If wikipedia is to be believed there have been 77 women's world tour races. 49 of those races have been won by just 5 riders; 40 of those for SDWorx as a team (a further 12 for Bike Exchange). With those odds, the chances of getting a lot of top step exposure for sponsors is pretty limited so you're looking at a big wage bill or waiting out the older riders of the current generation or both.

The argument that teams should be created and then the sport will improve is fine, but Lefevre does have a point in one area, his commercial enterprise isn't going to run a women's team just for the benefit of the wider world, it has to provide sponsor benefit. We can argue about whether just being in the sport is a benefit but I don't know there's evidence to support it. Like it or not, his team seems to lurch from sponsor crisis to sponsor crisis despite the high profile wins so who knows whether they could make it work without those wins. There are already 9 women's WT teams to share the limited number of top riders available and most of those aren't winning top tier events.

In honesty, to improve the standard will take investment from people with deep pockets as well as media and fan interest and it's probably a generation of riders away.

As I said though, there's ways to discuss it that are reasonable and ways to discuss it that make you sound like a particularly bad 1960s misogynist...

On the positive side, the 2025 Worlds will be held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Wow that's great! Always enjoying the immense crowds at the Wall of Kigali and their enthusiasm.

https://youtu.be/dQ4xT8mXupQ

.

That's great news.

What can this possibly mean?

https://twitter.com/astanapremtech/status/1440995933844561922?s=21

It's coming home?

Talking of which, it's not often you see a WT team press officer on the school run like I did this morning.

New Astana rap?

Not the great news many believe it is. Think Mobutu and Rumble in the Jungle levels of sports washing. Then again the Worlds have also been held in Yorkshire so who are we to throw stones.

Anyone wondering what's wrong with Kagame could start with Michela Wrong's recent book Do Not Disturb. I don't think comparing him to Mobuto is quite right, comparing him to the heads of the UAE or Bahrain would be closer. Luckily they're not involved in our beloved sport.