The August Cycling Wrap
It’s September, so it’s time for us to talk about August. Always look backwards. That’s our motto. That’s because if you look forward in 2020 you’ll see scary stuff.
Racing News
You know who won the Strade Bianche. No, not Remco Evenepoele. The other you know who. Wout van Aert.
Remco did win the Vuelta a Burgos though. We congratulated him for it in the last monthly wrap, even though the race hadn’t started when we recorded. That was supposed to be a joke, but he’s really just that good. And to prove it, he drank his podium champagne, put his feet up for ten minutes, then drove over to win the Tour of Poland about a day after.
Il Lombardia didn’t work out for him though. He disappeared off a cliff edge and ended his season. Then his soigneur was filmed removing an illicit object from his back pocket. So it might have ended his career too. But probably not, since the UCI investigation isn’t going to go anywhere. Jakob Fuglsang ultimately won with a solo victory from a breakaway.
In the Milan San Remo, Wout van Aert won again, outsprinting Julian Alaphillipe. There was so much racing going on that we missed this one and had to watch the highlights. So don’t expect any insight here.
The racing highlight of the month was the monstrously hilly Dauphine. Primoz Roglic won with… wait, he didn’t win? Oh yeah. Roglic and his Jumbo Visma team schooled everyone for four stages. Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas looked so amateur in Roglic’s wake that they were not so quietly dropped from the INEOS Tour de France squad. And Egan Bernal spent so much time looking up the road at Roglic in the distance that he developed a mysterious back injury and had to drop out of the race. But a day of a hundred of crashes took Roglic with it, and he retired while in the race lead the morning before the final stage. His team mate Sepp Kuss took the final stage win, while Dani Fuckin Martinez won the overall. Despite losing their leader and the overall victory, Jumbo Visma were the clear winners and headed into the Tour de France looking like the team to beat.
Tech News
In the tech world, we drowned under the weight of about a million press releases from brands launching products before the Tour. We covered some of the ones from the PR people we like.
Chinese bike computer company Meilan launched a cycling app compatible with their entire line of GPS units, and it’s also standalone. I haven’t installed it. They also announced a smart light that automatically indicates your direction of travel as you approach a turn, which is pretty cool. If you’re a Fred.
Liv Cycling launched a new mountain bike range with forgiving geometry that’s apparently designed to inspire confidence. Whatever that means.
CamelBak announced a pro-series of their backpack water bottle thing that’s popular with 1990s mountain bikers and the US military. It’ll be available in the spring.
Hammerhead opened Karoo 2 pre-orders.
Roval launched their super light Alpinist CL wheels. They promise to let you “Conquer mountains, flatten hills, and feel your bike come alive,” which sounds a bit Lovecraftian.
And 100% launched a limited edition gold range of Peter Sagan sunglasses for the Tour de France, which is about as subtle as you’d expect.
And in Cyclry news, our sticker giveaway was featured on a ton of freebie websites and forums early on a Sunday, and we got inundated with more than a thousand orders before we could shut down the page in our hungover stupor. (Annoying free sticker hunters don’t read this: You can still have a free sticker if you listen to this though, just use the contact form on the site. Mention that you heard about it here so we know you’re not a coupon mom from Ohio.)
OK, that’s it. It’s a short update this month despite all the racing, because the Tour de France is happening right now. BYE.