2014 Pro-cycling season thread

I sure Jacques Anquetil made that point when they outlawed amphetamine, saying something like if you want us to race fast then let us take it, else we'll just cruise along at 10kph.

Or something like that

First time 8 classics had been won by 8 diff riders on 8 diff teams with 8 diff nationalities?

http://pelotonmagazine.com/wilcockson/after-seven-guys-win-seven-classics-will-there-be-a-no-8/

<3 Luca

Also

End of 2nd stage of Turkey was a bit mad. Viviani especially, not sure what he was doing.

Quick thinking with his head from Cav at about 2km to go!

Some argue that the decline of doping is being reflected in the cautiousness of racing in most of the one day classics, I certainly think yesterday's dull race was in part due to a cleaner peloton in what was, not so long ago, the race where doping was essential if you wanted to win.

Good article, gives me hope, although OPQS looked very strong throughout, just couldn't convert that strength in depth into many wins, mainly in part to an off-colour Boonen. Not that I'm inferring too much.

And although L-B-L was cagey, the finish was sparkling, it's just there was no drama until then. The rest of the classics was scintillating, some absolutely superb races. Personally although massive 50k solo break a la Boonen are mightily impressive, I prefer a bigger group getting with 10k plus. And I'm not sure riders would appreciate the inference that long range wins are down to drugs. I watched Boonen go at 50k in 2012 Paris-Roubaix and it remains one if the single most impressive shows of power on a bike I have ever seen. But it did raise question marks at the same time, something that article reinforces. That was only two years ago too.

But we have seen some great racing whatever, shame we say goodbye to the spring classics, surely the best few weeks of the season.

I can see myself rewatching this years P-R and Ronde a few times this year.

PR made a turbo session of mine far less tedious. It didn't do anything for the pain though.

An eventful day for the Yates' twins at the Tour of Turkey - Simon crashed and was carted off to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone, Adam came a close second to Rein Taaramae on the first mountain top finish.

It's a small (British Cycling) world.

The guy with the beard is Oli Cookson, who works for Team Sky as performance assistant and is working with Sergio Henao in Colombia on that testing Sky have been doing with him. Guess who Oli's dad is?

it might help, having dads in high places

While we wait, Oli Cookson gets chatting. Apropos of nothing in particular, he says: “I just wanted to say I didn’t get this job because of my dad.” His father is Brian Cookson, president of British Cycling and a board member of Tour Racing Limited, the company that owns Team Sky. “In fact, I nearly didn’t get the job because of who my dad is and how it might look.”
It’s a fair point. Last year, UK Sport and British Cycling commissioned the auditor, Deloitte, to examine the relationship between Team Sky and the national federation. Cookson previously worked as a landscape architect and urban designer in Madrid but spent some time on last year’s Tour with Sky. He fitted in well and then worked on the Vuelta a Espana, partly because he is fluent in Spanish.

From here

So that's all OK.

lol

So fucking what? Someone gets a job partly through their connections. It happens every day and there are a lot more insidious examples to get outraged by.

it's not how he got it, it's how team Sky and the UCI chief might look now he's got it.

is Cookson still on the board of Tour Racing Limited? that would be an insidious example to get outraged by

Did you get outraged when McQuaid was running the UCI, whilst his brother worked on a successful bid for Richmond to host the Worlds in 2015? Or whilst his son became a successful agent?

Picking on Oli Cookson who, by all accounts, is very good at his job, seems like a cheap shot to me.

For me it's how defensive he's getting.

Of course you got the job because of your dad! Or do they just randomly invite urban designers based in Madrid to come along on the Vuelta these days?

The article you linked to was published nearly 3 years ago. Don't you think he'd have been found out by now, if he wasn't up to it?

I'm sure he is. But then again lots of people would be up to lots of jobs that they never have the connections to break into.

I'm not bothered to be honest. Obviously it happens. Always has, always will. He's the one pretending otherwise.

I'm not picking at Oli. I'm just being naieve probably, thinking that UCI presidents should not be that close to team employees or boards that own cycling teams.

And if I would have known about McQuaid's family making money on decisions he might take as UCI prez, yes, I would have been even more outraged at the shithead.

I say, Brian and Sian Cookson clearly have fantastic taste in names.

As I understand it, the board seat that Brian Cookson filled was specifically for the President of British Cycling, which he was at the time of that article, and is now filled by Bob Howden.

Kittel 3rd at the time trial? That's very unusual.

oh, it's 5.57km long.

We had the Kittel is a former double world junior TT champion discussion didn't we?

I must have missed it.

Do keep up

Oli Cookson who, by all accounts, is very good at his job

This is all that matters IMO.