boltonbonce wrote:Anything interesting happening in the world of cycling?
Lots really if you like that sort of thing!
I try not to bore the pants off you and keep it as short as I can.
The big news is that the doctor (who incidently was Allardyce's team doctor during his Wanderers stint) and was the team doctor to both British cycling (and all those Olympic golds) and Team Sky (all those TdF wins) has been found guilty of sourcing illegal performance enhancing drugs for as yet an unknown rider or riders!
The bloke is an absolute nutcase and his credabilty has long since been in tatters but the cycling world is waiting to see what (if anything) he says next as he promised to tell the full story after he's been 'sentenced'!
Should be fun if he does!
Cyclist-wise, there's been a few big name transfers - Froome going to the 'Israel Team', Herschi who had a massive break through year jumped ship mid contract to another team who reportedly upped his wages ten-fold! and poor Tom Dumoulin who was literally on the cusp of taking over from Froome about three seasons ago as being the best cyclist in the world, seems to have had some sort of breakdown and has retired from cycling.
Strangely this seems to happen more than you would think, Marcel Kittel was on the cusp of taking over from Cavendish as the best sprinter in the world about four seasons ago and he suddently retired too. The two big French hopes over the last half dozen years, Bardet and Pinot have both hinted that the presure of the nations hopes on their shoulders have been too much for them.
I can name others from years gone by too.
I often wondered if there was more to it than what is said 'officially'?
Anyway - race-wise - some of the one day races have been run and some have fallen to Covid. The best one day cyclists at the moment are the new brooms, Van der Poel, and Van Aert and the older Alaphilippe, who seem to be winning most things between them, and as for the 'shorter' stage races, Roglic and Pogacar again seem to be taking everything for themselves.
Still early days yet, the Giro is the first 'big' race as far as we are concerned and that is at the end of May. Last year due to Covid is was ran in October but it is now back to it's usual place in the cycling calendar.
Interestingly Sky has put Bernal to race this rather than the TdF, I guess they think he can't match Roglic and Pogacar - instead they have names Geraint Thomas to lead - which is the opposite of what they did last year.
Young Geoghegan Hart who won the Giro last year is not defending and instead is named 'second' leader to Thomas for this years TdF.
I think I'll stop there before I send you to sleep but if you do ever find yourself getting interested in cycling it is a sport that does seem to give you good value in that there's always something or other happening both on and off the cycle to keep you amused!