General News Thread

[lemon cheese cake]

He lives in Andorra I thought.

From what I remember listening to the matt stephens podcast when Sivakov was on, he was born in italy and moved to france as his father Alexei moved to a french team. Now he's a pro himself he recently moved to Andorra, but is still within cycling distance of his family home.

Now he's changed licences, will he immediately be able to race at worlds and euros for the french team ? I know some riders have not been able to in the first 1 or 2 years. (e.g. Marion Norbert Riberolle and possibly Enrico Gasparotto).

 

[RedheadDane]

I know some riders have not been able to in the first 1 or 2 years. (e.g. Marion Norbert Riberolle and possibly Enrico Gasparotto).

Didn't he change racing nationality so he'd be able to ride as a Swiss in the 2020 World's in Switzerland, which of course never happened...?


Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news; TotalEnergies have issued a statement. Of course, they don't actually mention Geniez, but it's obvious why they're issuing said statement.

Déclaration de l'équipe - Team Statement | Team TotalEnergies Pro Cycling

(FR) Le Team TotalEnergies condamne toutes les formes de violences conjugales et familiales et apporte tout son soutien aux actions de prévention et de lutte contre ces violences. Le respect des personnes et l’éducation à la responsabilité sont des valeurs cardinales soutenues et partagées au...

teamtotalenergies.com

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Didn't he change racing nationality so he'd be able to ride as a Swiss in the 2020 World's in Switzerland, which of course never happened...?


Meanwhile, in completely unrelated news; TotalEnergies have issued a statement. Of course, they don't actually mention Geniez, but it's obvious why they're issuing said statement.

Déclaration de l'équipe - Team Statement | Team TotalEnergies Pro Cycling

(FR) Le Team TotalEnergies condamne toutes les formes de violences conjugales et familiales et apporte tout son soutien aux actions de prévention et de lutte contre ces violences. Le respect des personnes et l’éducation à la responsabilité sont des valeurs cardinales soutenues et partagées au...

teamtotalenergies.com

That does sound familiar.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Hey guys, I can‘t believe Sergio Henao has not yet found a team for 2022…

Sergio Henao

Sergio Henao (born 1987-12-10 in Rionegro) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Colombia, currently riding for Nu Colombia. His best results are winning GC Paris-Nice and 2nd place in GC Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco.

www.procyclingstats.com

Finished 21st in last year‘s TdF, and 8th in Coppi-Bartali…

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Hey guys, I can‘t believe Sergio Henao has not yet found a team for 2022…

Sergio Henao

Sergio Henao (born 1987-12-10 in Rionegro) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Colombia, currently riding for Nu Colombia. His best results are winning GC Paris-Nice and 2nd place in GC Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco.

www.procyclingstats.com

Finished 21st in last year‘s TdF, and 8th in Coppi-Bartali…

Certainly teams can use him, maybe DSM to help Bardet.

 

[RedheadDane]

This is cool!

Polish team sacrifices calendar to transport Ukrainian refugees

HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski Team is choosing humanity over sport, passing on race starts so it can send its vehicles to the border.

cyclingtips.com

I know, slightly political, but...

 

[Black Betsy]

Certainly teams can use him, maybe DSM to help Bardet.

So long, Sergio. I guess now you made yourself unavailable as a subject for Sky's research. I vaguely remember the days I used to participate in various researches to increase my income as a student.

 

[SafeBet]

Italian ES commentators just said that Gazprom managers talked to UCI and asked permission to ride as a neutral team with no sponsor for the time being. That might help them attract a different sponsor for the future. Apparently UCI refused the proposal.

 

[42x16ss]

Nice preview of parts of this year's WCRR course:

View: https://youtu.be/WUfF8WmimgM

 

[Mayomaniac]

Italian ES commentators just said that Gazprom managers talked to UCI and asked permission to ride as a neutral team with no sponsor for the time being. That might help them attract a different sponsor for the future. Apparently UCI refused the proposal.

So no team Blanco 2.0?

 

[SafeBet]

So no team Blanco 2.0?

At the moment it doesn't seem likely. I hope UCI reconsiders, because those riders and staff members risk being without pay for a long time otherwise.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Italian ES commentators just said that Gazprom managers talked to UCI and asked permission to ride as a neutral team with no sponsor for the time being. That might help them attract a different sponsor for the future. Apparently UCI refused the proposal.

They'd still be riding on Russian money and everyone would know they'd still be riding on Russian money. The source of the money is the issue not the name on the jersey.

 

[Mayomaniac]

So Fabio Aru just became and ambassador for Specialized.
https://www.tuttobiciweb.it/article/2022/03/08/1646687571/fabio-aru-ambassador-specialized
Interesting that they signed a contract with him, but on the other hand he had his greatest wins while riding on their bike. Ernesto Colnago wouldn't have signed him after that Vuelta outburst.

 

[Mayomaniac]

The penultimate stage of the u23 Giro will be a Fauniera MTF from the Valgrana side.
https://www.laguida.it/2022/02/22/una-tappa-del-giro-ditalia-under-23-sul-colle-fauniera/
The road on the ascent has been fixed, the descent still hasn't, but they want to fix it in the future to get the actual Giro to use it again (there isn't enough space for a Giro MTF on top).

 

[Red Rick]

The penultimate stage of the u23 Giro will be a Fauniera MTF from the Valgrana side.
https://www.laguida.it/2022/02/22/una-tappa-del-giro-ditalia-under-23-sul-colle-fauniera/
The road on the ascent has been fixed, the descent still hasn't, but they want to fix it in the future to get the actual Giro to use it again (there isn't enough space for a Giro MTF on top).

Ridiculously imbalanced route smh

 

[Escarabajo]

I just saw the parcours for la Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 and it looks really bad. I really don't get it. This used to be one of the hardest races in the schedule.

Here are the stages:

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor.

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

The only hard stages are stage 3 and stage 4:

La Flamme Rouge - Information

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 - Stage 4

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor. La Seu d'Urgell > Boí Taüll: 168.55 Km - High mountain

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

Comments?

 

[Red Rick]

I just saw the parcours for la Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 and it looks really bad. I really don't get it. This used to be one of the hardest races in the schedule.

Here are the stages:

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor.

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

The only hard stages are stage 3 and stage 4:

La Flamme Rouge - Information

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 - Stage 4

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor. La Seu d'Urgell > Boí Taüll: 168.55 Km - High mountain

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

Comments?

Might be the single worst WT stage race route I have seen in my cycling fandom

 

[search]

Now he's changed licences, will he immediately be able to race at worlds and euros for the french team ? I know some riders have not been able to in the first 1 or 2 years. (e.g. Marion Norbert Riberolle and possibly Enrico Gasparotto).

UCI rules say "if a rider has previously represented his national team [...] the rider shall not be eligible for selection with another national team in the subsequent edition of each of the World Championships and/or Continental Championships (in all disciplines and categories), starting as from the confirmation of the change of nationality by the UCI." So normally not, unless they plan to change it for Russian riders.

Benedetti (for Poland) and Gasparotto (for Switzerland) did the World Championships in the same year they changed nationality, but as far as I can see, they have never represented Italy - not even on Junior or U23 level - while Sivakov did participate in the World Championships for Russia a couple of times

 

[RedheadDane]

UCI rules say "if a rider has previously represented his national team [...] the rider shall not be eligible for selection with another national team in the subsequent edition of each of the World Championships and/or Continental Championships (in all disciplines and categories), starting as from the confirmation of the change of nationality by the UCI." So normally not, unless they plan to change it for Russian riders.

They already did.

 

[Netserk]

I just saw the parcours for la Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 and it looks really bad. I really don't get it. This used to be one of the hardest races in the schedule.

Here are the stages:

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor.

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

The only hard stages are stage 3 and stage 4:

La Flamme Rouge - Information

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022 - Stage 4

Route of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya tracked with La Flamme Rouge editor. La Seu d'Urgell > Boí Taüll: 168.55 Km - High mountain

www.la-flamme-rouge.eu

Comments?

From November last year in this thread:

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2022

21/3 Sant Feliu de Guíxols › Sant Feliu de Guíxols
22/3 L'Escala › Perpignan
23/3 Perpignan › La Molina
24/3 La Seu d'Urgell › Boí Taüll
25/3 La Pobla de Segur › Vilanova i la Geltrú
26/3 Costa Daurada (Salou › Cambrils)
27/3 Barcelona › Barcelona

First time to Perpignan since 1955.

La Molina and Boí Taüll are the MTF. Boí Taüll was last used 2002.

From July last year in this thread:

Two MTFs for next year's Catalunya have been announced.

Official source
Secondary source of profiles

 

[Berflamand]

Alaphilippe is out with bronchitis for Milano-Sanremo, Jakobsen is in.

QST team: Bagioli, Ballerini, Cattaneo, Honoré, Jakobsen, Sénéchal and Stybar.

 

[Netserk]

No Asgreen? Hmm.

 

[SafeBet]

Colbrelli is also out.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Ok, I just took a closer look at the profile's of the Tour of the Alpes and oh boy, they are horrible.
Stage 1: That one fine with with the final circuit that features a short uphill ramp before the finish line.
Stage 2 features a pointless 10km flat circuit around Lana at the end so that no gc action can happen, that is just Lana spelled backwards.
Stage 3: They actually take the road through Oberolang after the Furcia descent to have a shot uphill section, but then they go out of their way and turn left instead of going straight ahead over the Sallerstraße climb. That would be another short climb and you'd cut the 12.5km of flat a the ed down to 5kms of flat.
Stage 4: The final climb is this one until 7.5kms to go, doesn's scream gc action to me, buut I could be wrong:

The start of the stage is actually interesting, the long descent of the Kartitscher Sattel is always up and down and features lots of twists and turns. If the stage would finish in Kötschach-Mauthen or even in Oberdrauburg after the Gailbergsattel it would be a great place for an ambush.

Stage 5: This one is actually pretty great and features multiple awesome shorter climbs and a punchy uphill finish at the end, cero,cero,cero complains.
I mean they use the Pustertaler Höhenstraße, you can't go wrong with that one.
From right to left:

 

[Netserk]

The toughest Tour de Suisse of recent years - Tour de Suisse

This year’s Tour de Suisse will be demanding for both the men and the women. The topography and diversity of Switzerland will be at the fore. It is up and down and the route leads through all four linguistic regions. An additional highlight – the visit to the neighbouring country of...

www.tourdesuisse.ch