Author: Henri Giroud

Specialized has laid off 7% of its workforce as the company reassess its economic position in the wake of COVID-19’s impact on the world cycling market. Mike Sinyard, the company’s founder, said Thursday that 46 people were let go with the majority coming from its European operations. France, Spain and Italy have shut down almost all outdoor activity including cycling, while Germany, just this week, began slowly reopening some businesses, Sinyard said in an interview. Specialized receives a significant amount of its revenue from European sales. The layoffs were primarily in customer service, purchasing, logistics, marketing and several in product…

Chimera Investments LLC, an Abu Dhabi investment fund, announced today that it had acquired a majority of the shares in Colnago, the prestigious Italian racing bicycle manufacturer. Founded in 1954 by Mr. Ernesto Colnago, the company is famous for the high quality of its products, its innovations in design technologies, and its many victories, including World Championships, Olympic Games, Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Paris-Roubaix, etc. Ernesto Colnago declared: «Chimera Investments will give Colnago the ability to grow and increase its presence in all markets, whilst maintaining and improving the quality of Colnago products. We have a unique opportunity with…

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today announces the revised 2020 calendars for the UCI WorldTour and UCI Women’s WorldTour, with a view to the resumption of the cycling season, halted due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which has struck most of the world. Since the interruption of the cycling season in March, an intensive consultation process involving the principal representatives of the families of men’s and women’s professional road cycling – organisers, teams and riders – has been carried out at the initiative of the UCI in order to draw up new calendars. These have been approved by the UCI…

Together with EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg – previously known as Vattenfall Cyclassics then Cyclassics Hamburg – and the Deutschland Tour, the Eschborn-Frankfurt is one of the most important cycling races in Germany. The first edition in 1962 under the name of Rund um den Henninger Turm Frankfurt, saw the Belgian Armand Desmet celebrate victory. From then, for more than half a century, several important riders have followed him, representing an interestingly diverse range of cyclists, from sprinters to climbers. Often also formerly referred to as the Frankfurt Grand Prix, the race is usually held on Germany’s Labour Day, which, like many…

UAE Team Emirates will continue their commitment to developing young talent by signing 17-year old Spanish rider Juan Ayuso on a five year deal with the team. The promising youngster is the current Spanish Junior National Champion and holds 6 victories to his name so far in 2020. As part of his development, Ayuso will spend his first contract year with a development team with the objective of gaining experience and making a gradual transition to the professional ranks. Ayuso, who hails from the Spanish province of Alicante, has taken the domestic junior ranks by storm and was quickly picked up on…

Tomorrow at 10 o’clock the first test of the mutual Team Jumbo-Visma eCompetition will start. Riders from the World Tour team and the development team of Team Jumbo-Visma will take part in the four stage series. Tomorrow, Sunday 3rd May, a relatively flat ride will be staged over more than forty kilometres. The next three Sundays will see a classic stage, a sprint stage and a mountain stage. Different classifications will be drawn up. All stages will be broadcasted live on different DPG platforms (such as ad.nl) and on the Team Jumbo-Visma website. The races always start with a neutralised first…

Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN – News) today announced results for the first quarter ended March 28, 2020. “The first quarter of 2020 was remarkably strong continuing the momentum from last year” Highlights for first quarter 2020 include: Total revenue of $856 million, a 12% increase, with fitness, marine, outdoor and aviation collectively increasing 17% over the prior year quarterGross margin of 59.2% compared to 59.0% in the prior year quarterOperating margin improved to 20.7% compared to 19.8% in the prior year quarterOperating income of $177 million, increasing 17% over the prior year quarterGAAP EPS was $0.84 and pro forma EPS(1) was…

The La Vuelta organisation, in accordance with the UCI (International Cycling Union), agreed to delay the race’s 75th edition. La Vuelta 20 was originally going to take place from the 14th of August to the 6th of September, departing from the Netherlands. However, the necessary reorganisation of the annual cycling calendar, due to the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, has forced these plans to change. In the end, La Vuelta 20 – whose new dates haven’t been determinate by the UCI yet – will consist of 18 stages and will take off from the Basque Country. Following the official cancelation of La…