CYCLING IMPRESSIONS: WordTour

Showing posts with label WordTour. Show all posts

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, 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!!

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!

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.

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...

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, 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".

Thursday, 30 November 2017

Giro d'Italia 2018

The route of the 101 Giro d'Italia has been revealed and it's really interesting.
The exotic start is a fantastic idea to expand the cycling culture outside Europe. Nevertheless Israel and its silly controversy about "west Jerusalem" prove that maybe the organizers have chosen the wrong country. They are not ready to be part of a melting pot event.
Despite Israeli officials, I think that the TT in Jersualem will be a fantastic scenario for the start of the Giro.
The route continues with interesting stages, that will amuse the spectators and the fans since the first week.
The diamond of the race is the terrible Zoncolan that is something unique in the World Tour.
That stage will worth a Classic and the winner will remain in the history of cycling.
The Colle delle Finestre will be another great climb but it has been positioned too far from the end of the stage.
I have just two critics to move to this great Giro:
1) the arrival in Rome. The capital is a wonderful city but it is not a cycling one.
Milano is the Italian capital of cycling and the final TT in the city should become like the Champs Elysées for the Tour de France. Last year it has been something memorable with the leader jersey changing in the last stage, after a battle lasted 21 days.
2) The Dolomites and the Tuscany have been a bit sacrificed.
Nevertheless I really look forward this Giro, enriched by the participation of the best riders in the world and by Froome too, attempting a historic triple.

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Il Lombardia

What a race! Nibali won again Il Lombardia and brought Bahrain Merida its first Monument.
The race was incredibly hard and nothing more that the words of Pinot can summarize how it went: "I think Nibali is the most complete rider of the Peloton".
Despite all the critics received during the season, the Squalo came out with an incredible victory.
In the interview after the race he has already set his new objective: Innsbruck world championships.
Seeing how these last Italian classics or para-classics went, with the victory of Uran Uran, Nibali, Visconti, Geniez and with first class riders as Pinot, Quintana and Alaphilippe fighting in the up front, next year's World Champs are going to be memorable.
Nevertheless we have a season to watch and comment in which we will still enjoy Sagan wearing its natural outfit.
Stay tuned.

Sunday, 18 June 2017

Pre - Tour De France Races

What a nice final for the Route du Sud 2017! Scully won the last stage after a thrilling sprint on the racetrack of Novaro.
The Route du Sud gave us great signals about the team Cannondale-Drapac, can we finally expect to see something good at le Tour de France from this World Tour team? I really hope so.
Tour of Slovenia and Tour de Suisse proved that the Team Bora-Hansgrohe is ready to lead their first Tour de France.
Nevertheless, I'am worried because I see so many pretenders for a stage to win in good shape, but I don't see a proper parterre of contenders for the victory of the Tour de France general classification.
I really hope it was all tactics so far but with such a great Giro d'Italia, this year, many Grand Tours riders choose the Giro instead of the Tour.
It is going to be a strange Tour de France this year, but we'll be ready to comment everything is going to happen.

Sunday, 11 June 2017

Critérium du Dauphiné

One of the most famous pre-Tour races is over, but I don't think we could collect real info about the riders that will battle for the yellow jersey.
Porte fought hard during the last stage to win the race but he did it just due to his position in the General Classification and because a champion in such a position can't do in a different way.
Nevertheless I don't think this is enough to make statements and predictions about the upcoming Tour de France.
In my opinion, at the end of this Critérium du Dauphiné there are three notable events:

1) The great victory of Fuglsang and Team Astana that after really hard days are trying to rebuilt a dramatic (not in terms of results) season. The team fought harder than ever and, in the end, won.
It is really hard to comment a victory like this, so we can just enjoy it and think about it.

2) The birth of two young talent: a sprinter and a climber. Bauhaus and Bouwman took both their first World Tour win and seems to have promised us great shows in the future.
The victory of Bauhaus is the top of a maturation process that passed through a great Giro d'Italia. Will Bauhaus be the next German great sprinter?

3) Valverde is immortal and is one of the best riders of all times. He is one of the few rider (Sagan is another for example) than when takes part to a race you can be sure it will be an exciting one and you won't forget he is in the race. He is 37 and he is never complaining, this is a great example for so many riders that claim to be the best. and pretend so much.

See you soon to see what happened in the Swiss corner of the pre-Tour preparation.

Thursday, 11 May 2017

Global Bike To Work Day 2017

Bike to work, bike to the future.

Monday, 24 April 2017

Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2017

This article is the natural continuation of the previous one and we have to thank Valverde for this.
Valverde and Scarponi, two riders representing the good old cycling but still victorious in the modern one.
Just a great Champion could have done this: He won the oldest of the Classics and dedicated the victory to his friend dramatically passed away the day before.
What can I add to this fantastic and emotional victory? Nothing.
Valverde is dominating the season, he has won almost every race he took part.
He is definitely the most all-round rider of the Peloton, a genius of tactics, a rider that honors the cycling season from February to October.
Such a great rider, a true friend of Michele, could not have honored his friend in a better way.

CYCLING IMPRESSIONS

Wednesday, 3 July 2019

Who's Gonna Win 2019 Tour de France?