2013 Pro-cycling season thread

^^^^ Oh dear. None of that makes any sense at all.

I'd simply award each rider who participated, not the whole team automatically, a rainbow jersey to wear only in TTTs. I imagine they wouldn't want such jerseys to be scattered throughout the teams if some riders left the team, so they could always say that they'd get to wear it only if they stay with the winning team. That would seem simplest to me.

Surley the logic fail starts at the fact the trade teams race for the Worlds TTT championship. Wouldn't be too difficult to have national squads competing?

Anyway a big meh to the 'distinctive' logo.

In more depressing news:

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng 6m Euskaltel-Euskadi team confirm end of negotiations with Alonso, management now planning for an "orderly shutdown" of the team

oh tits. So what, he's not getting involved then?

Or are they starting over with a new team/license etc?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/alonso-and-euskaltel-agreement-falls-apart

After weeks during which the lifeline thrown to the Euskaltel-Euskadi team by Formula One star Alonso seemed to be the last-minute deal that would save one of Spain’s two ProTour teams, one major hurdle - the purchase, or not, of the team’s current infrastructure and longstanding staff contracts appears to have sunk the whole agreement.

Alonso may set up a pro-conti team instead

So he wanted to buy the World Tour license, but not the team as a going concern? Fair enough - I am not sure I would want that bunch of riders and team management either. Probably just as well to start afresh with Team Alonso/Santander and gain promotion to World Tour.

In better news:

the Inner Ring ‏@inrng 12m According to @cyclingpro, Mauro Santambrogio's B-sample from Giro also positive. If so then he loses Giro stage and faces a long ban

In my day road TTT at the world's would be 100 km (+/-) for national teams of four riders... I miss that.

Surley the logic fail starts at the fact the trade teams race for the Worlds TTT championship. Wouldn't be too difficult to have national squads competing?

Anyway a big meh to the 'distinctive' logo.

I think it makes a moderate amount of sense to give exposure there to the sponsors and also because the TTTs throughout the year are raced by trade teams, anyway. Obviously, you're unlikely to get the best bunch of riders together except occasionally, but still.

But trade teams ride for wins throughout the year, the Worlds should be for National teams. Silly imo.

Well, yes, you can argue that way, too. I don't really mind either way, as long as it's reasonably consistent and not constantly subject to change.

I've got a friend who's going to be in Florence for the World Champs from Thursday onwards. Can anyone recommend a decent live ticker so he can get a decent idea of what's going on in the races? Preferably something that works well on a mobile. Ta muchly.

bbc website is normally great.

Hein Verbruggen does his best gangster impression

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/opinion-why-i-would-vote-for-brian-cookson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGkWO5woEtE

Surely McQuaid won't get reelected... then again it is the UCI we're talking about.

Holy crap the JV article is amazing

In Salzburg, in June 2012, during what would be my penultimate CCP meeting, I had breakfast with Pat, once again telling him that the USPS investigation would be one he would have to deal with and that it would be best if he started a line of communication with USADA. I got a knowing stare and then he simply said: “I hope you haven’t gone and done something stupid?”

Hein Verbruggen does his best gangster impression

That really is the voice of someone who believes himself to be untouchable. I hope it hurts when the rug is pulled from beneath him.

Where can I watch / tape the world champs, folks?

BBC website says some shit about the red button. Ain't nobody got time for that.

bbc website

I think that JV article is hilarious, basically saying now I don't like getting involved in politics, I did it on e it didn't go so good, although I got the teams their radios back, but... ok I'm going to get involved in politics.

The stuff on Cookson is just cringe. I hope Cookson is everything he claims to be but people in his position rarely are. He's a power broker and you don't manage that without being a badass. But he is a means to an end, that end being the end of Pat aka Jim Burns. In it's place should be a better organised, less corrupt institution we can believe in...a bit

Think UCI needs a complete overhaul... A change faces predominantly based on NOS simply doesn't cut it in terms of rebuilding credibility.

Where can I watch / tape the world champs, folks?

BBC website says some shit about the red button. Ain't nobody got time for that.

That's your only choice on TV, as Eurosport chose not to buy the rights for the Worlds from the UCI this year.

The usual cycling stream sites, like www.cyclingfans.com and www.steephill.tv will have links to streams and highlights.

Andy, did you take the day off to watch the time trial? If so, that is impressive dedication.

The best stream is UCI youtube. You'll need a proxy to watch it. I use hola chrome app.