2013-05-24T07:03:28-04:00 Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=cycling-news-hd Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Cycling News HD Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2588693 2013-01-31T06:13:34-05:00 2013-04-02T05:12:01-04:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/ Cyclingnews.com. The former seven-time Tour de France winner calls UCI president Pat McQuaid "pathetic", and confirms that he believes he has been made a fall guy for cycling's doping culture.

The interview has rightly been making headlines across the media, but do those who argue that Armstrong has given up his right to a voice, that the sport should no longer be interested in what he has to say, have a point? The man he attacked, Pat McQuaid, said on rescinding Armstrong's titles and confirming his lifetime ban that "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling". But is that at all realistic?

After all, Armstrong is right to say that, though he may be "the eye of the storm" - one might better describe him as king of a mountain of rubble - the story of doping in cycling is not at all about "one man, one team". Indeed, as Armstrong again points out - and as the trial of Eufamiano Fuentes in Madrid, where he has admitted working with athletes, tennis players, footballers and boxers, makes clear - this is an issue that goes wider than just cycling and into "ALL endurance sports".

And if the World Anti Doping Agency and the UCI can get beyond what Armstrong describes as "this current state of chaos and petty bulls**t, tit for tat, etc" and find common ground to launch an all-encompassing 'truth and reconciliation' process, then Armstrong's offer to be the first man through the door should be snapped up.

Let's face it, what incentive is there really for someone who has got away with doping throughout their sporting career to come forward to such a commission? Even with the threat of sporting sanction removed, they still stand to lose their reputation and place in the hearts of their public.

No, the community with nothing left to lose and perhaps something to gain from such a process is those who have been caught. Until now, they have often been better served by telling a limited version of the truth, waiting out their ban and then getting back to work with the same people they refused to rat out. Given complete amnesty, and with that amnesty extended to anyone they may name, more and more people can be brought into the process and we can begin to get to the bottom of just how wide-ranging the business of cheating has been and still is.

Sure, Armstrong has his own agenda, but so does everybody in this story. There is much truth in Armstrong's assertion to Oprah that had he not made his 2009 comeback he would have got away with everything. Anyone who wants to know how cycling - and sport - got to the point where such mass-scale cheating went ignored for so long needs to listen to Lance Armstrong. You don't need to like him, but you do need to listen.

• Issue 40 of Cycling News HD is out now. In addition to carrying the exclusive Lance Armstrong interview, we also talk to NetApp-Endura's Russell Downing, wrap up all the action from the Tour Down Under and the Tour de San Luis and look forward to the sprinters' desert battle at the Tour of Qatar.

From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, and brings you the best all-new cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.2494317 2013-01-17T07:25:09-05:00 2013-03-19T05:12:01-04:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
Snippets of information so far released confirm that the Texan will confess to doping throughout his cycling career, and suggest that he may point the finger at those around him, and above him among the sport's governing body, who had knowledge of or helped facilitate his deception. How far the former seven times Tour de France winner goes in this direction may well decide how useful this whole process will prove to be for anyone who isn't Lance Armstrong.

As an initial response to the news that this interview would be happening, a hearty sigh seemed entirely justified. After all, what could come of it? Armstrong would admit, either belligerently or with faux regret, to something that only the most wilfully ignorant of cycling fans still believed he was innocent.

The confession in the high church of US celebrity - Oprah - would go a long way to absolving him in the eyes of a wider public to whom he would just be one of many cycling cheats, "but just look at all the good he's done". But it would do nothing for the future of cycling.

Now Lance Armstrong may well feel that he owes the sport nothing. Although he used it to achieve fame and fortune, it treated him shabbily when he was diagnosed with cancer - his French team sacked him. Certainly the type to bear a grudge, the Texan used that mistreatment as part of his motivation to so completely dominate the sport on his return.

But since then cycling has given him a lot - especially if the stories suggesting the authorities aided him in covering up his cheating throughout his career are true - and it is now Armstrong must decide whether he thinks any debt he owes is to the individuals involved or to the sport as a whole.

There is a whole new generation of cyclists now, many of the youngest inspired in some way by Armstrong's early 2000s exploits in the way previous generations were inspired by Coppi, Merkcx, Fignon, Lemond and the rest. Thanks to the efforts of many within the sport, most of these young riders can now believe in the possibility of achieving their goals without treading the path Armstrong so gleefully ran down. But a spectre hangs over them still, and while those who were so ingrained in cycling's turn of the century doping culture remain active in the sport, it probably always will.

And this is where the man who ran "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" can help. To truly face its future, cycling must once and for all tackle its past.

If Armstrong names names, at the UCI or elsewhere, then those who at best turned a blind eye - and at worst colluded - during the sport's darkest days will find themselves held to account. If the World Anti Doping Agency allows for a 'truth and reconciliation' process to emerge from the fallout, then those who always avoid the bullet may finally be caught in the sights: the doctors, managers, owners and administrators - and as in Armstrong's case riders - who actively pursued doping advances and pushed them on others in the pursuit of results at all costs.

And if such a process were opened out to the wider sporting world, particularly into some sports where the doping scourge is still buried as it was in cycling 15 years ago, who knows how much could be achieved in the battle against drugs in sport?

Not that Lance Armstrong cares about any of that. If he did he would have owned up earlier, cooperated with the USADA investigation, and still be able to call himself a five-time Tour champion.

But if his attempt to regain his place at US celebrity's top table - or if he fails then to take down a few of those who helped keep his secret for so long with him - can spin off in such a positive way then we may yet, in some bizarre way, have something to thank him for.

• Issue 38 of Cycling News HD is out now. In our final close season issue we preview the squads of BMC, Cannondale, Garmin-Sharp and Europcar, featuring exclusive interviews with BMC's Tour de France white jersey winner Tejay Van Garderen, Cannondale's Ted King, and Garmin DS Charly Wegelius.

From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, and brings you the best all-new cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2286104 2012-12-12T12:20:42-05:00 2013-02-11T05:12:01-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
"We're working with the UCI and Zdenek [Bakala] to build a competitive product that we think cycling fans worldwide want and which is good for the sport," argued Price in an interview with Cyclingnews.com.

But as Daniel Friebe argues in this week's issue of Cycling News HD, we've not heard one single cycling fan call for a series of 10 identikit races around the world to the detriment of races with some of the longest histories in the sport, nor one who has even responded positively to the notion now it is out there. And make no bones about it, that's what Gifted Group is offering.

Much has been said about a cycling 'breakaway league' following the Formula 1 motor racing model, and it is easy to see why given the money that Bernie Eccleston manages to keep rolling in, but how can this be a realistic plan for a sport that has nothing like the budget of top level motor racing? And anyway, isn't Formula 1 a sport under attack from its own fans for selling out its heritage in pursuit of mammon? Heritage is cycling's biggest selling point.

The other touted model is that of tennis, and in many ways this does translate better. The Grand Tours are your Grand Slams, the Monuments are the most historically significant of the Masters 1000 events - to which Gifted would hope to shackle its inventions - and everything else is a Masters 500 or lower, attracting a lesser quality field devoid of the biggest names. But who wants that for Paris-Nice or Gent-Wevelgem?

The Tour of the Med has already been placed under unbearable pressure by the Tours of Qatar and Oman, but just wait until Het Nieuwsblad, Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Critérium du Dauphiné and Paris-Tours are erased from the calendar - or reduced to feeder races - to make way for 'Grand Prix' in China, Qatar, the US, Australia and Argentina. There is a lot of talk about "growing" or "globalising" the sport, but all these countries already have UCI races, and they are all distinct from each other and are all showing signs of growing naturally over time.

It is true that cycling's current calendar is very Eurocentric, but it is not Europe's fault that it is where the sport was nurtured and grew throughout the last century. And it is cycling's links with its past, and it's sense of place, that sets it apart from many other sports.
If Gifted and the UCI truly care about cycling; care about it as the romantic sport the fans know and love, a sport with a living breathing soul that makes legends of its hallowed venues - think Ventoux, Alpe d'Huez, the Arenberg Forest, the Poggio, the lost Kapelmuur, the Col d'Eze - as much as of its riders, then how about investing in the races we already have.
The fear, of course, is that these people only care about cycling as a means to make money at any cost. But if they think an audience of millions is waiting to tune into a series of 10 identical four-day stage races they might find that it is not just cycling that takes an irreparable hit but also their wallets. Perhaps someone should tell them to put World Series Cricket into Google...

• Issue 33 of Cycling News HD is out now. In addition to our analysis of the proposed World Series Cycling project, we also report on the shock omission of Team Katusha from the top division of the sport and conclude our review of the 2012 season by looking back on the Lombardia and Paris-Tours autumn classics, including an exclusive interview with Paris-Tours winner Marco Marcato.
From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, and brings you the best all-new cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion.
With over 50 pages packed with new and original content every Wednesday, alongside all the latest reports and results, Cycling News HD is the best way to enjoy a roadside seat at all the season's biggest and best races.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2244748 2012-12-05T11:00:46-05:00 2013-02-04T05:12:01-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
Add in Sarah Storey's nomination for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the nationwide embracing of Laura Trott and outgoing queen of the track Victoria Pendleton's prime-time cameo on Strictly Come Dancing, and individual athletes are certainly getting their share of the spotlight.

But what about the state of their sport? The biggest stage race in women's cycling - the Giro d'Italia Femminile - has this week found itself without an organiser and so under very real threat for 2013. There is already no female equivalent of the Tour de France, a subject on which Vos has been particularly vocal of late. Throw in the recent demise of one of the sport's most successful teams following the withdrawal of their sponsor, AA Drinks, and things appear to be going backwards. And going backwards from a position of minimal visibility to begin with.

As the retiring world time trial champion Judith Arndt tells Cycling News HD in our latest issue: "The last 20 years, it has always felt like we're not worth as much. We get treated like we're two steps under. I've had that feeling my whole career and I don't want to have that any longer."

So what can be done to raise the profile of the women's sport? Crowds and enthralled TV audiences in London this summer saw how gripping the action can be, but outside of the Olympics and World Championships access to the women's sport is minimal. The governing body, the UCI, should certainly be doing more to get the sport the television coverage it needs to attract sponsors, but at the moment it is an institution beset with its own problems following the USADA evidence against Lance Armstrong and seems unable to take the lead on any issue.

So perhaps it is down to the race organisers, then. Peter Cossins argues in his column in the week's issue of Cycling News HD that one of the rival British bids to host the start of the Tour de France could do worse than turn their attention towards organising a high-profile women's event should they fail in their efforts. It is a tempting thought.

After all, Britain is a country in whose interests it would be to promote female cycling. We have a host of strong riders, are not hamstrung by the traditionalism entrenched in some of cycling's mainland European heartlands, and have an audience that has fallen for women's racing this year. If we don't capitalise now, that initiative could be lost.

Bradley Wiggins knows it, that's why the Tour de France champion has used his Wiggo Foundation to help fund the formation of the DTPC-Honda team that will be home to many of Britain's best racers and Italian former world champion Giorgia Bronzini next season. Who will step forward to join him in giving women's cycling the support it needs to emerge from the shadows?

• Exclusive interviews with women's world champions Marianne Vos and Judith Arndt appear in issue 32 of Cycling News HD, out now. Elsewhere in the issue we continue our review of the year looking back at the Limburg 2012 World Championships, with in-depth analysis and stunning photography of the key moments. Two-time silver medallist Taylor Phinney also speaks exclusively about his Worlds campaign.
From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, and brings you the best all-new cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion.
With over 50 pages packed with new and original content every Wednesday, alongside all the latest reports and results, Cycling News HD is the best way to enjoy a roadside seat at all the season's biggest and best races.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2136795 2012-11-16T19:00:00-05:00 2013-01-16T05:12:01-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
It is at this time of year that new signings hook up with their new teams for the first time as riders return from their holidays to the first of the off-season get-togethers. These are less training camps and more an opportunity for riders to be measured for kit and bikes and to meet up with old and new colleagues. Plus, in the case of Astana, to hold a fancy dress party in honour of new leader Vincenzo Nibali's birthday.

Nonetheless, these are the meetings where plans for the coming season are put into place, and training plans drawn up to deliver those goals over the next 12 months. So it is now that Sky supremo Dave Brailsford will be deciding just which of his riders are likely to be targeting which races. All indications so far suggest that the team will send defending Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins to the Giro d'Italia, and hand leadership of the Tour team to this season's runner-up, Chris Froome.

With a more mountainous route in France next year, and Alberto Contador set to return to the race, this makes sense on the face of things - particularly as the addition of more time trialling kilometres to the Giro route opens up the possibility of Wiggins becoming the first British winner of that Grand Tour too. The potential problem for Sky, however, is how to successfully support two tilts at Grand Tour victory in such quick succession.

The last team to win two Grand Tours in a season were Italian giants Liquigas, who took the Giro d'Italia with Ivan Basso and the Vuelta a Espana with Vincenzo Nibali in 2010, while Astana achieved the same double with Alberto Contador back in 2008. But the Italian and Spanish races are at opposite ends of the season, and a Giro/Tour double (races separated by just a month) will be tougher.

Froome, however, is confident, as he tells us in an exclusive interview in this week's edition of Cycling News HD: ""We do have a lot of strength in numbers," he says, "so we'll definitely be able to do a good job at it. Maybe one team would have to be stronger than the other as to have two complete line-ups would mean having 18 riders, if they had different riders on each team. It's a lot to ask, but I wouldn't say it's impossible."

For the sport's biggest race, Froome will want Sky's strongest team to support him, especially if he is to hold off riders such as Contador and Andy Schleck in the mountains piled into the final Alpine week of next season's Tour. He will need the men who drilled the peloton up the French mountains this season in support of Wiggins, and perhaps the likes of Colombian climbers Sergio Henao and Rigoberto Uran. With no Mark Cavendish to support, Froome could be sent to Corsica for the grand depart with a team packed with climbers.

Should he get that support, though, where would that leave Wiggins? The Tour champion is the darling of British cycling, and to leave him to attempt to write further history for the sport in this country effectively alone on the roads of Italy is unthinkable. Indeed, Wiggins is more likely to need team support in the Giro mountains than Froome in the Tour. The Kenyan-born Brit is a more explosive rider, who might have less need of a team to set a high tempo due to his better ability to match the explosive attacks of Contador and Schleck.

These issues are all for Brailsford to address, but what is certain is that no stone will be left unturned. Sky's promise to deliver a clean British Tour de France winner within five years was delivered in three, with a British road world champion thrown in for good measure. A Giro/Tour double for the squad next year would be a huge undertaking, but given all they have achieved so far it would take a brave person to rule it out.

• The full interview with Chris Froome appears in issue 29 of Cycling News HD, out now, and is just one example of what you can find inside. Elsewhere in the issue we continue our review of the year with the season's biggest race, the Tour de France, with in-depth analysis and stunning photography of the key moments over the three weeks. Peter Sagan, who dominated the green jersey competition, talks exclusively about his best season to date and gives us an insight into his famous celebrations.
We also have the second of our guest columns with Sean Kelly. The seven-time Paris-Nice winner thinks the 2012 route may have been a little one-sided: "For Bradley Wiggins this year's Tour route had a good balance, but for the race itself I don't think it was the best choice." Kelly's first column on the Giro d'Italia was featured in Issue 28.
From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, and brings you the best all-new cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion.
With over 50 pages packed with new and original content every Wednesday, alongside all the latest reports and results, Cycling News HD is the best way to enjoy a roadside seat at all the season's biggest and best races.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.2050727 2012-10-31T14:45:02-04:00 2012-12-31T05:12:01-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/ Cycling News HD, and it is starting to look like it might be. Admirable though the team's sentiments undoubtedly are, they are losing experienced staff such as Bobby Julich and Steven De Jong - who have brought nothing but hard work and good knowledge to the British set-up - over misdemeanours that lie well in the past. Add in the timing of Sean Yates' retirement, and they are attracting to themselves a whole host of bad publicity at the end of an otherwise triumphant season - publicity other teams are avoiding by simply keeping quiet. As Daniel argues, it looks like a spectacular own goal for a team sponsored by one of the country's biggest media outlets.

Undoubtedly, Team Principal Dave Brailsford sees a bigger picture and will hope that taking a few hits now will see Sky rewarded for their honesty and allow the team to cement their position at the head of a new, clean sport. But other teams have taken different routes towards the same aim - most notably Garmin, who employ ex-dopers provided they can convince that their experiences have strengthened their resolve to help the next generation of riders avoid being forced into making the same mistakes. The American team's policy certainly looks the more coherent right now, but there is obviously an inherent risk of an outwardly repentant cheat slipping through their net. Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters - himself one of the riders who confessed to cheating in the investigation that brought down Lance Armstrong - is no doubt constantly vigilant.

But the biggest danger for Sky, of course, is that they will go through this purging process and still not know for certain whether anyone left behind has not just buried their skeletons even further back in the closet. It takes an impressive kind of courage to admit to something - as Julich and De Jong have done - in the sure knowledge that it will cost you your job. How can Dave Brailsford and his team know that everyone will be so honest? At Garmin they could be, and they would get the chance to redeem themselves.

Having a zero tolerance stance on doping makes great headlines when it is announced, but the reality of managing such a system has seen Sky fighting fires when they should be basking in the glory of the greatest year British cycling has ever seen. Let's just hope that by sticking to their guns they will emerge from this mess with their integrity intact, and maybe then we might be able to look back on all this as another positive development in a year of unprecedented success.

• Delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, Cycling News HD brings you the best cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion. From the makers of Cyclingnews.com, the world centre of cycling, Cycling News HD is the best way to enjoy a roadside seat at all the season's biggest and best races.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1973905 2012-10-17T11:44:16-04:00 2012-12-17T05:12:02-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
It is clear that for both these organisations, the name of Lance Armstrong has now been deemed to do more harm than good... one can't help wondering how long Trek and Oakley will continue to believe the opposite.

So is there anything Armstrong can do to recover his reputation? Even confessing now would be far too little, far too late. The evidence contained in USADA's report and the supporting affidavits is not of a cyclist coerced into doping in order to keep up in a then-rotten sport. Instead, we have been given clear evidence that this was a man who was actively making the sport more rotten. Always chasing the latest illegal advantage, paranoid, as former team-mate Tyler Hamilton explains in The Secret Race, that all his rivals were pushing the same boundaries.

We are presented with a man who - along with team manager Johan Bruyneel - bullied new, young team-mates into getting on to the program or kissing goodbye to their childhood dreams. EPO, testosterone, growth hormones, corticoids, blood transfusions... no step was a step too far for what USADA called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

For the other riders who took part, there might still be hope. Daniel Friebe argues the case in our latest issue for some form of community service for the likes of George Hincapie and Michael Barry, whose retirements will otherwise see them avoid any kind of penalty for their cheating. Levi Leipheimer is at least facing up to the consequences of his actions, having got the sack from his current Omega Pharma-QuickStep team.

We are at a potential watershed moment for professional cycling, and if the sport does not seize this latest chance to confront the demons of its past and attempt to prevent their emergence in its future then it may not have much of a future. An education program in which the sinners of the past explain their experiences to the riders of today and tomorrow, in the hope of steering them down a different path, would be a good start. And as Daniel argues in his piece, these riders should not sit around waiting for someone to ask them, they should actively seek to take part.

It is the least they can do to repay a sport that rewarded them handsomely while they were tearing away at the very principles of fair competition.

• Delivered to your iPad every Wednesday, Cycling News HD brings you the best cycling photography in the world via the best medium for viewing it, as well as reports, results and exclusive analysis of all the week's biggest races, in-depth previews of the races and stages to watch in the week ahead, interviews, news and opinion. Cycling News HD is the best way to enjoy a roadside seat at all the season's biggest and best races.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1916128 2012-09-26T10:56:09-04:00 2012-11-26T05:12:02-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
Gilbert is a man who always rides to win. There was not a single rider on the start line in Valkenburg who didn't know that he would attack on the final ascent of the Cauberg at the weekend, but there was not a single rider there when he did who could do anything about it. Bronze medallist Alejandro Valverde wondered what might have been had he gone after Gilbert immediately, but silver medallist Boasson Hagen was perhaps being more realistic when he acknowledged that when Gilbert is in such imperious form, there really isn't much anyone else can do.

The long road

It has not been an easy ride to this title for Gilbert, in either the short or long term. In the short term he has faced a barrage of questions over his form since swapping Lotto for BMC. After a slow start to his spring campaign he actually managed to find the legs to make the podium at Flèche Wallone, but it was scant return for a man who had completed an Ardennes hat-trick among his 18 wins the year before. The Tour and Olympics also yielded little reward, but two stage wins at the Vuelta confirmed the suspicions of a few that the Walloon was on course for an end of season Indian summer that would see him crowned in Holland. As a two-time winner, if he can bring his Worlds form into this weekend's Il Lombardia then he could well end the campaign with a monument to his name too.

In the longer term, Gilbert's rise has been a steady one built on a diet of hard work and an attacking instinct. Having turned his back on early fame to escape to France and learn his trade under Marc Madiot away from the glare of the Belgian media, Gilbert returned to his home country a more complete cyclist and was able to deliver for Lotto the Belgian wins they craved. And now he is his country's first world champion since Tom Boonen in 2005.

It has often been said in the past that cycling has had the champions it deserves. If that adage was true then, so must we hope it is true now. A humble man, a staunch anti-doping voice in the peloton, and a rider who never leaves a race without discovering first whether he could have won it. Keep these kind of champions coming, please.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1899500 2012-09-20T19:00:00-04:00 2012-11-20T05:12:01-05:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
How times have changed. Not so much for Belgium; they're alright Jack... or Tom, or Sep, or most likely Phil. Okay, the last gold at the end of their rainbow came in Madrid in 2005, but no one's talking about that stat betokening a great cycling nation's demise. Not until Gilbert gets Sagan-ed on the Cauberg they won't be, anyway.

For those old transalpine enemies the French and Italians, alas, it's a different story. France's last triumph came courtesy of Laurent Brochard at San Sebastian in 1997. Italy's was just four years ago and completed a hat-trick of consecutive wins - but the combined curses of those rainbows have been lashing the Bel Paese ever since. Their collective fortunes have mirrored those of the 2008 winner, Alessandro Ballan, who has never reproduced anything remotely similar in the past four seasons or outrun the spectre of doping controversy.

So what of their respective prospects in Valkenburg? How will their coaches Laurent Jalabert, who never won the Worlds, and Paolo Bettini, who did it twice, feel about their chances on a course which would have had both men gurgling with delight as riders?

In Thomas Voeckler, Jalabert probably has a captain that Bettini would nationalise with both hands given the chance. He also has newly crowned world TTT champion Sylvain Chavanel... but has told the press that Chavanel, like the rest of the team, will be working for Voeckler. Do we spy a bluff? And by 'helping' does he mean attacking with 50 kilometres to go, when Chavanel is at his most dangerous, to soften up the opposition for Voeckler's sucker punch, and maybe, just maybe, forging on to win himself?

As for Bettini, well, his best hope could be a neo-pro. Remember Lance Armstrong and Oslo anyone? Yes, well, in Bettini's head that tape has been playing on loop all summer. His Armstrong could be the 21 year-old nephew of Francesco Moser, Moreno. Riders that young can't cope with more than 250 kilometres, you say. To that Moser replies that he was third in the (extremely difficult) Italian road race championships over 254km, having already ridden respectably at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Nibali will lead the azzurri, but Moser is one of the three viable Plan Bs, along with Diego Ulissi and Oscar Gatto.

At stake is much more than just one rainbow jersey; France and Italy used to rule the world at this sport. Jalabert and Bettini each contributed to that heritage as riders - but never before has their country needed them like it will this weekend.

• The full version of this article appears in issue 21 of digital magazine Cycling News HD, and is just one example of what you can find inside. The issue also offers extensive coverage of the opening days of the World Championships, as well as detailed previews of the upcoming men's and women's road races, with interactive route maps and riders to watch.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1788160 2012-08-16T19:00:00-04:00 2012-10-16T05:12:28-04:00

Cycling News HD http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cycling-news-hd/
As two-year suspensions go, Alberto Contador's was a pretty short one. After failing a doping test for minute traces of Clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, the then three-time Tour winner was finally handed the sanction back in February of this year, shortly after his two stage wins at the Tour de San Luis. Back-dating of the first 18 months of the ban ensured that the Spaniard would be able to return to racing this month, and last week in Holland and Belgium the Eneco Tour hosted his comeback.

Not a frequent visitor to the low countries outside of Ardennes week, Contador nevertheless acquitted himself well in finishing in the top five and showed decent attacking form during the final stage's ascents of the legendary cobbled climb of the Muur van Geraardsbergen.
So that's it: he's back. Some will no doubt be gnashing their teeth at such a quick return, but it would be wrong to suggest Contador has gone unpunished. He has been stripped of two Grand Tour titles in the shapes of the 2010 Tour and 2011 Giro, and whatever the ins and outs of his specific case (the Court of Arbitration for Sport judged that the most likely source of the Clenbuterol in his system was from a contaminated supplement), question marks will forever accompany his career.

So now that Contador is back, what can we as cycling fans look forward to? Well, to start with, we have a Vuelta on the horizon that has the potential to be the most exciting Grand Tour of the season, and the Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank leader is largely responsible for that. Can he return so quickly to top form?

His track record of winning (at least on the road) all but one of the Grand Tours he has entered aiming for victory suggests he very well might. That one missed Tour de France in 2011, though, adds intrigue. Contador was not in peak condition, having not recovered from demolishing the field in that year's Giro, and was also caught up in a series of crashes early in the race that damaged his knee. If his form is a bit off in Spain, and after six months without competition that is a real possibility, then as there were in France last year there are a host of riders lining up in Spain who could take advantage.

Principal among them is Sky's Chris Froome, who came second in last year's Vuelta and also at this year's Tour de France. The Kenyan-born British rider appears to now have the all-round climbing and time trialling skills to go head-to-head with Contador, and it will be interesting to see if he has recovered sufficiently from the Tour to take the fight to the Spaniard.
Contador has identified Froome as his chief rival, but correctly also points out that he is not the only one: "It's not just Froome, there are others who know how to win a Vuelta, but the truth is his performance at the Tour was spectacular. Last year, had he had more freedom, he could have won the Vuelta."

Last year's winner Juan Jose Cobo, along with Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim Rodriguez and Igor Anton, will all be looking to ensure this is no two-horse race in their home tour, but now that Contador is back all of cycling will be waiting to see what he can deliver. It should make for some spectacular racing; it often does.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1732709 2012-08-02T09:59:54-04:00 2012-10-02T05:12:06-04:00

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Wiggins first came to prominence beyond the then small world of UK cycling back at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, when as a fresh-faced 20-year-old he was part of the team that delivered a bronze medal in the Team Pursuit discipline.

Despite turning professional with the French team Française des Jeux in 2002, he continued to race on the track and became the first British athlete in over 40 years to win three medals at one Games in 2004 when he collected gold in the Individual Pursuit, silver in the Team Pursuit, and bronze in the Madison. For that feat he was awarded an OBE, but he has gone so far beyond that now that a knighthood seems the only logical conclusion.

At Beijing 2008 he added two more Olympic golds to his collection, in the Individual and Team Pursuit disciplines, as Team GB cleaned up. And then he started turning his attentions increasingly to the road. In 2009 he finished fourth in the Tour de France, and a new plan was hatched to deliver cycling's ultimate prize to UK shores for the first time.

As the man behind the unstoppable rise of British Cycling, Dave Brailsford - shall we make him, what, a Lord while we're at it? - saw the worth in setting up a professional road team to pursue the goal of producing a British Tour winner. With sponsorship in place, Team Sky was launched in 2010 with the stated goal of delivering a British Tour de France champion within five years. Thanks to the dedication and talent of all involved, not least Mr Wiggins himself, it was delivered in their third season.

From the moment his success in France began to take shape to the moment he waved his Olympic gold to the crowds at Hampton Court Palace, Wiggins has been in the spotlight like never before. Throughout he has conducted himself with humour, humility and, yes, a little bit of swearing. He has used his platform to vocally denounce doping in cycling, and won over a legion of fans who haven't ridden a bicycle since they were 12. And we dare say that amongst the nation's current 12-year-olds he is inspiring thousands of little Wiggos up and down the land. After all, he's not just a champion, he's also pretty cool.

Wiggins himself admitted after his London 2012 win that his career can't possibly deliver anything better than Tour success and a home Olympic gold back-to-back. Which is why now is the right time to elevate the lad from Kilburn to the status of sporting knight. Go Wiggo.]]>