Cycling Impressionists, here is the symbol of our brotherhood!
You can order the Hat writing an e-mail to cycligimpressions@gmail.com
(Fast delivery and shipping worldwide)
See ya on the roads of a great new year of cycling (impressions)!
Monday, 31 December 2018
The Hat of the Impressionist
Cycling Impressionists, here is the symbol of our brotherhood!
You can order the Hat writing an e-mail to cycligimpressions@gmail.com
(Fast delivery and shipping worldwide)
See ya on the roads of a great new year of cycling (impressions)!
Wednesday, 26 December 2018
Cycling Impressions Interviews: Stefano Oldani
We had the pleasure to interview one of the most interesting road cycling prospects: Stefano Oldani.
The Italian young talent, after some brilliant results with team Colpack, just signed a two years contract with Contador's Team Polartec - Kometa.
Here is what he told us.
Hi Stefano and thank you! It is a pleasure to interview you. Where does your love for cycling come from?
Hi! It is a pleasure for me too!
My love for cycling is born when I was a kid and I watched my elder brother racing. That's where it all started.
When did you jump on a bike for the first time and who put you on it?
The first time I jumped on a bike I was 5 years old. I started riding with my dad.
Let's talk now about your racing career. Did you start with road cycling, track cycling or cyclocross? Which is your favorite?
I started with track cycling in the velodrome of Busto Garolfo, near Milan, Italy.
Talking about my favorite discipline, I can say that I really love mountainbiking in winter.
What is you favorite race?
I don't have a specific favorite race, let's say that I love Grand Tours.
We hope to see you wearing the Pink Jersey in the near future! Who is you sport hero?
To be honest I think my sport hero is Pantani, for the incredible feats he did.
What do you want to say to boys and girls that would like to try to be pro riders?
I tell them to have fun and enjoy what they are doing without being obsessed with growing fast.
Last question. Hobbies when you don't cycle?
I don't have a hobby in particular because cycling takes most of my day time. Nevertheless, I love spending my free time with my family. It is very relaxing.
Thank you very much Stefano and good luck! Cycling Impressions will always be a fan of you!
Thank you!
Monday, 24 December 2018
Saturday, 15 December 2018
Friday, 14 December 2018
Rider of the Year 2018
Congrats Peter! You have been elected Cycling Impression's rider of the year!
Someone says that winning a Paris - Roubaix is worth a Word title, but in this case it seems more than just a hyperbole.
Despite Valverde's great victory in Innsbruck, Sagan impressed everybody with his solo attack 50 kilometers away from Roubaix and gained the last encomium of the year.
I think this happened also due to the fact that Paris - Roubaix is the last legendary race. It brings us back to the legendary old cycling, made of gravel roads, punctures and hazard.
Nevertheless, Sagan would be remembered as the last winner of THE Paris - Roubaix because I don't know if we will call the race with its legendary name in the future.
I am talking about the shameful request, made by the Amis de Paris Roubaix, to fill the gaps between the cobbles of the Arenberg Forest with mortar.
They say that, otherwise, the sector is too hard to clean.
I hope they are kidding! We are talking about one of the last legendary cycling places in a cycling world that is moving to new nice places like Oman or Dubai but where history still has to be written.
My final question is: these people, asking to add mortar between the cobbles in the Arenberg Forest, are Friends of Paris Roubaix or Friends of the Sofa?
Friday, 7 December 2018
Monday, 26 November 2018
Winter Cycling Season
We can talk about having a nice ride during winter season, putting on our most expensive and fashioned outfit and go, but the essence of winter is Cyclocross.
I really appreciate Van Der Poel and Van Aert that still fight during winter, choosing to postpone their road careers to honor a discipline that is not so famous around the world nowadays.
They decided to build solid basis on their natural field instead of following the popular way of road cycling.
They are sons of a full season cycling, the pure one, made with strength, balance and bike handling.
The choice to wait is a form of respect to the old concept of cycling. That will help them deeply understand everything they will do among the pro.
It will help them dealing with difficult situation, because it is when you have eaten and breath mud during the winter that you are ready to welcome the summer.
This will make the difference.
Monday, 1 October 2018
Innsbruck 2018 Men Elite Road Race
El Imbatido
I think it is hard to spend few words on what Velverde did in Innsbruck, it has been something cathartic.
He sprinted from the worst position, bringing on his shoulders the responsibility of the strongest, and in the end he won. Pure emotion.
Here you can find my grades to the teams and their tactics from 1 (very bad) to 10 (very good):
SPAIN: 10
Finally they raced as a true team moving together in the same direction.
They ended up with an historical victory with their most representative rider.
Denmark: 9.5
They were not the favorite, they used the perfect strategies with their riders.
They attacked since the beginning and almost won the race with Valgren's perfect attack.
France: 8.5
They controlled the race and prepared brought their two best riders in the best position on the final climb. There could have just been a bit more communication in the team about Alaphilippe feelings.
Canada: 8
They took a great bronze medal with a fantastic race of their captain Woods.
Holland: 6.5
This is the best season of Dumoulin but unfortunately he missed all its goals. Nevertheless, we can't blame him.
He saved the performance of its team that could have started attacking earlier in the race.
Belgium: 5
I expected more from the nation of cycling by definition. Wellens disappeared and Van Avermaet saved the race with an attack made more with pride than with legs.
Italy: 4
They raced in a decent way, trying to move the race and being reactive on the attacks during the first part of the race.
They committed a terrible suicide when they decide to push before the final climb, helping France and Spain and demolishing their entire team but Moscon.
Great Britain: 3.5
They controlled the race all day and disappeared in the final.
Colombia: 3
I'm still wondering if they were in the Peloton.
Monday, 10 September 2018
Innsbruck Preview
The circuit of the 2018 Cycling World Championships is one of the most interesting among the recent editions.
It seems to be a circuit for climbers and we could have a GC contender wearing the rainbow jersey since Cadel Evans.
Nevertheless, with the approach of the race, the reaction of the riders is hard to believe.
Italy, with its captain Nibali, was in the short list of the possible winners but after the Tour the France crash of its captain and the horrible year of its lieutenant Aru, It has been relegated to a secondary role.
Great Britain, presenting the winner of the two grand tours so far, was in the short list as well. Nevertheless, Team Sky announced that their two champions are too tired to race the World Championships. Are you kidding me?!
The team still have two great contenders with the Yates brothers but I found hard to believe that the two strongest riders won't compete for the rainbow Jersey.
Colombia seems to be the favorite, with so many great climbers they are definitely the strongest team in Austria.
The problem will be to ride as a team; the rivalry among the Colombian champions is really hard and La Vuelta 2018 is enhancing it.
France and Holland are just below Colombia, in my opinion, they are two solid teams with a lot of tradition and can count on strong climbers.
They have less strong climbers than Columbia but their teams seem to be more organized.
Talking about Belgium, I don't think this will be the year of Belgium or of the Classics kids because the circuit looks really strong but the fact that Italy will race without a captain will not make the race as hard as planned.
In conclusion, I really wonder if this will finally be the deserved World Championships of Valverde. Spain has always had the problem of never being a team but, without Rodriguez, this time, Don Aleandro could have the chance of his life.
The team of Cycling Impressions will be in Austria providing you a lot of great contents, stay tuned!!
Thursday, 9 August 2018
Cycling Songs: Adesso Pedala - Marco Pantani
In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the legendary double of Il Pirata, I want to share this song to remember him as the polyhedric champion he was!
Enjoy your holidays with the soundtrack of your summer:
Enjoy your holidays with the soundtrack of your summer:
Friday, 20 July 2018
Le Tour de Merde
"Ce ci n'est pas une pipe", said Magritte.
I say: "This is not a cycling race".
I don't think this grotesque parade with such a shitty organization deserves any further comment.
Monday, 2 July 2018
The Worst Race in the World
It is hard to understand the decision of the organizers to exclude Froom from le Tour de France.
I know that Froome was born in Africa and French people don't want immigrants but this it too much.
I don't even want to believe that this is due to his Salbutamol case.
It is important to clarify that Froome did not use doping, He was just found an excess of a permitted medicine in his blood and everything has still to be proved.
Froome made history at the Giro d'Italia and he was never found doped during the race, what are we talking about?
Loads of French riders have taken part to the Tour the France with worse doping cases pending on them.
The truth is that French organizers are scared of Froome. Nevertheless, for the love of cycling I've found a solution that will satisfy everybody!
The Tour de France should become the new French National Championship.
In this way, there will be just French riders with 21 French stage winners and the final classification will be won by a French too. The end of the Tour de France will be the new French national day and everybody will be happy.
Who cares about the rest of the world? We are French after all!
Wednesday, 9 May 2018
Cycling Songs: Il Bandito e Il Campione - Francesco De Gregori
This song is about Costante Girardengo and Sante Pollastri (an Italian anarchist).
Both of them were born and raised in Novi Ligure, a little Italian town, with the same love for cycling.
August 10, 1927, Sante Pollastri was arrested in Paris. He was there just to watch his friend Girardengo riding a Six-day.
Friday, 4 May 2018
The First Pink Jersey
It is something hard to describe.
Wearing the first Pink Jersey can save a career, can save a season, can save a Giro.
Today, in Jerusalem, Duomoulin was simply amazing.
He is stronger than last year and came to Giro 101 for a memorable double.
He introduced himself to his contenders with today's incredible back to back.
I am not a stats maniac but I don't think we can count so many riders that have won the Giro the previous year and have been the first pink jersey a year later.
"Hey guys, allow me to introduce myself: I am the Pink Jersey". This is what Dumoulin said today with his Time Trial.
After the press conference and the time trial,Tom Dumoulin seems to have scored the very first rounds, demolishing Froome with words and facts.
Nevertheless, the Giro is too long to say it's over.
What matters is that Dumoulin may not win the Giro 101, but he is the first pink jersey and that is enough to be remembered in a positive way in the Giro 101.
Monday, 9 April 2018
Paris - Roubaix 2018
How hard is it to be Sagan?
"You are a champion","you are the strongest one","you have to win", "Of course you have won, you were the strongest".
These are the main sentences we hear about Sagan. In addition to this, you have to deal with the fact that what you do will never be enough.
In Sagan's position, once you have won a race, you have just done your job.
In my opinion ,every Sagan's success is fully deserved and is praiseworthy like every other cycling victory.
We often forget that cycling is a sport for losers.
When 200 riders start a race with just one winner, it is easy to understand that 199 will loose and just one will win.
This consideration seems obvious but I invite my 25 readers to think about this sentence and repeat it as a sort of Mantra.
Sagan is accused to be more talkative than active but this is just his way to deal with the enormous pressure that he endures every race.
Imagine being in Sagan's position without laughing about it; it would be a nightmare.
It is already hard to be a cyclist, it is impossible to be a rider that must win every race he starts.
On Sunday, Sagan rode a fantastic race and deserved this incredible victory.
Celebrating his success, he said an incredible truth: you can attack and ride the perfect race but you have to be lucky.
Paris-Roubaix is such an extreme race that sometimes is the best way to normalize situations pumped too much up.
Sagan used the Paris-Roubaix to do this and he did it in the best way.
He didn't tried to arrive alone in the velodrome, starting a battle with his breakaway mate in the last kilometers, he just wanted to win.
Paris-Roubaix is a race that brings everybody back on earth, you can't theorize or preach too much, you have just to ride the most concrete thing on earth: the cobbles.
The riders know this but for people who never tried the cobbles is easy to forget.
***
I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Michael Goolaerts.
Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Quick-Step Floors' Domination
Quick-Step Floors is dominating the 2018 seasons but who is really happy with this?
I think that the only people happy with Quick-Step Floors' domination are Lefevere and his staff.
In particular, in Belgium, this is a huge problem to deal with.
Their most representative team is dominating but the Belgian riders in the team are not winning any significant race, with the little exception of Lampaert's Dwars Door Vlaanderen.
Is this enough for a nation in which cycling is like a religion? I don't think so.
Also Gilbert said, with a bit of regret, that when you ride for Quick-Step Floors you can never consider yourself as The captain and you have to accept it.
My question is: if you are a champion, can you accept to have, potentially forever, a secondary role?
What would do Terpstra as the only captain of a team? He would be controlled as all the others I think.
Terpstra is a solid cobbles rider and deserved his victory but would have been the same if Van Avermaet or Sagan would have attacked?
Quick-Step Floors' strategies are the best in the world and we are witnessing an incredible phenomenon in cycling, that we have never faced before.
For the first time in cycling history, the team is the hero to admire more than its riders.
We will remember Quick-Step Floors more than its riders I think.
This phenomenon is more common in other sports such as Football or Basketball but I've never seen this happening in cycling.
Enjoy Quick-Step Floors' last miracle.
Sunday, 18 March 2018
A Poet In Sanremo
Giovanni Pascoli (1855 - 1912), an Italian poet, talked about the Poetica del fanciullino (Poetics of the child) which he described as the unceasing capability to get stunned by the world, typical of childhood.
Pascoli opposed both the renunciation of self-analysis and the abandonment of the self-centered point of view, in favor of a semi-irrational comfort which the poet gives himself through poetry.
What Nibali did yesterday on the Poggio was exactly the same, he applied the Poetics of the child to cycling.
In these days, dominated by Watts, computers, data analysis and science, Nibali abandoned both a strict data analysis and a self-centered point of view, attacking with an irrational comfort, just based on his own sensation powered by the magic climb on which he was, the Poggio.
The moment Nibali crossed the finish line, every single witness of this incredible feat started crying, the child inside us had been woken up by this incredible champion that showed the world that, sometimes, a poet can still beat science.
Chapeau Nibali and thank you for waking up our inner fanciullino.
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Sunday, 4 March 2018
Strade Bianche 2018
The title does not need any addition.
The 2018 edition of this race is already a piece of Cycling History.
First of all, I have to admit that Belgian riders promptly answered to my last post, Proficiat!!
Secondly, I choose this picture because I think that each of this riders deserves a special mention.
Benoot took the first victory of his career. The fact is that winning the 2018 edition of Strade Bianche is worth a career.
Nevertheless, what impressed me has been the way he won the race. He just never stop attacking, choosing a spectacular sector to launch his final attack.
He rode like a champion in a legendary edition of this race.
In one day and with his first victory, he is already part of the cycling history. The hero of the mud.
Bardet proved the world that he is not just one of the many French riders focused just on the Tour de France and pushed by the French cycling environment just to reach this goal.
He proved the world and most of all his nation that he is a true rider and a tough one.
Van Aert seemed arrived straight outta the good old days of cycling, without radio and without so many team tactics. He attacked all the time during the race and fainted on the finish line. Welcome to road cycling Wout!
Every single rider that finished the race would deserve a special mention but I only write emotional impressions, so, in conclusion, I think that every single rider that finished the 2018 Strade Bianche could add a kind of victory on his personal Palmarès.
Thursday, 1 March 2018
Netherlands on the Cobbles
The season on the cobbles has just started but this year, Belgium seems a Dutch colony.
On Sunday, Groenewegen won the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and on Tuesday, Terpstra won Le Samyn.
This means that Dutch riders have won two-thirds of the races on the cobbles so far, dethronizing the Belgian kings.
I know that Terpstra represents a Belgian team, but is that enough? We all know that the answer is no.
Will the Dutch dominion continue?
It is hard to say, nevertheless Netherlands has already made its move, now it is time for Belgium to react.
Will the Belgian riders repeat the fabulous 2017 cobbles season?
Stay tuned and enjoy the cobbles, the best is yet to come...
Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Tuesday, 20 February 2018
2018 Best Cycling Kit
What a start of the season for Trek-Segafredo!!!
Degenkolb has been elected rider of the month in the previous survey and their kit has just been voted as the best of the Peloton.
Trek-Segafredo riders seem to be in a really good shape and, with the spring classics approaching, the only limit to this great team in 2018 is the sky! Maybe...
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Cycling Kits 2018
It's survey time again!
Have a look at the new kits and vote your favourite one:
Ag2r-La Mondiale
Astana Pro Team
Bahrain-Merida
BMC Racing Team
Bora-Hansgrohe
Dimension Data
EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
Groupama-FDJ
Lotto-Soudal
Mitchelton-Scott
Movistar Team
Quick-Step Floors
Team Katusha-Alpecin
Team LottoNL-Jumbo
Team Sky
Team Sunweb
Trek-Segafredo
UAE-Team Emirates
Have a look at the new kits and vote your favourite one:
Ag2r-La Mondiale
Astana Pro Team
Bahrain-Merida
BMC Racing Team
Bora-Hansgrohe
Dimension Data
EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
Groupama-FDJ
Lotto-Soudal
Mitchelton-Scott
Movistar Team
Quick-Step Floors
Team Katusha-Alpecin
Team LottoNL-Jumbo
Team Sky
Team Sunweb
Trek-Segafredo
UAE-Team Emirates
Tuesday, 6 February 2018
Rider of the Month: January
Congratulations Dege, you made it!!
After a troubled couple of years, the cycling phoenix comes back with a wonderful double at the beginning of the 2018 season.
He has already won two races in a row and he is heading to Dubai Tour with great expectations.
The great winner of Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix 2015 is finally back in full shape and we are more than happy to celebrate this wonderful return crowning him "January Rider of the Month".
Monday, 29 January 2018
Friday, 26 January 2018
Start of the Season
The new season just started and nothing seems to be changed.
Sagan is bossing in and out the competitions, his meeting with the Pope has been fantastic and showed us a grown Champion.
Greipel said again he is still in the game and in pure sprints he is the one to beat.
Degenkolb after a troubled season has already won a race, but will he return to be the champion he was before the horrible accident? I really hope so.
Porte seems to have done this, he won again on Willunga Hill, 6 months after his dramatic crash at le Tour de France.
In conclusion, what can we say about Quick-Step Floors? They have started the season reaffirming their enormous superiority in the UCI World Tour, they have already won 3 races with 3 different riders.
Do we have to prepare ourselves for another spring of Sagan vs. Quick-Step Floors?
This are the first few 2018 impressions because I don't want to say a word about so many teams that, at first sight, appear significantly below expectations.
Sunday, 7 January 2018
Peloton 2018 - Rider Transfers
How will be the 2018 Peloton?
Here is a summary of the most important transfers:
AG2R La Mondiale
In: Benoit Cosnefroy (Neo-Pro), Clément Venturini (Cofidis), Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal),
Silvan Dillier (BMC Racing Team), Aurélien Paret Peintre
Out: Christophe Riblon (Retires), Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida),
Sondre Holst Enger (Israel Cycling Academy), Hugo Houle (Astana)
Extended: Romain Bardet, Oliver Naesen, Pierre Latour, Ben Gastauer, Axel Domont,
François Bidard, Alexis Vuillermoz, Mikaël Chérel, Gediminas Bagdonas, Nico Denz,
Julien Duval
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