Author: Harold Dalton

It’s a part of my career that’s almost completely forgotten even by myself, but I was an in-studio TV pundit for the 2007 Vuelta. I was offering color on the pre-race show, on a broadcast that was going out to both the UK and US through actual TV syndication. I knew a huge amount about the sport, I had all the insider gossip from working so many races, and I ran an extremely popular cycling comedy site. In that context you can see why it seemed like I’d be an entertaining and informative co-host. That assumption was terribly wrong. I…

Working in cycling broadcasting meant we watched a lot of cycling. Those guys who sit on Twitter all day banging on about live races? They’re not even 10%. We usually had two races coming in at once, with the satellite receivers programmed hours in advance so we could capture every second from the moment the cameras went live. Which was often long before the live coverage started, and continued several hours after the race had ended. Then we’d have to watch the five minute and thirty minute highlights to ensure they told the right story and didn’t have any issues…

Jarlinson Pantano has been banned from professional cycling for four years for testing positive for EPO during an out-of-competiton test in February 2019, as well as for having a name that sounds too similar to Pantani. You already knew this because it’s old news. Hey, we’ve been busy writing about other things. Pantano retired from the sport in June 2019. So. Good work banning someone who wasn’t going to race anyway. Still, might as well get that ban out there just for completion’s sake. Speaking of “just for completion’s sake,” here’s what the UCI have to say out it: The…

Blacking out our internet presence is the very least we can do today. Literally. But as an act of solidarity, it allows us to show support without inserting our voices into a discussion that isn’t about us.Cycling has its own issues with race. So does sport as a concept. And these issues are not always clear or communicated in a way that makes it apparent that we’re actively participating in narratives that are reproducing oppressive discourses.Contemporary race theory separates racism as systemic and prejudice as individual, and forces us to confront a harsh truth: we are all complicit in racism,…

There’s a moment in Between the World and Me in which Ta-Nehisi Coates travels to Paris. Walking around the 6th arrondissement, he describes himself in another world, free from racism. And in that moment, to me, Ta-Nehisi Coates was no longer a man writing a letter about a lifetime’s experience living within the racial structure of the United States, and instead he became something else: another American tourist overwhelmed by the differences he’s noticed on his first trip to Europe, championing idealized statements about a fragment of a city he’s visited but doesn’t truly know. Paris has its ghettoes, cruel places disconnected both…

Here’s some exciting CEO news that we’re definitely not just sharing because Movistar always send us press passes! No, we’re also sharing it because we want to get hired by BRAIN to publish infrequent press releases about cycling business news that nobody really cares about. Grávalos leads the team’s business development, while also managing the Movistar Team’s roster. As the only Spanish WorldTour team, with both women’s and men’s teams, there’s a huge opportunity for bigger sponsorships and partnerships. Look out for Alejandro Valverde’s face on Spanish crisp packets soon. The Spaniard comes from one of the world’s most prestigious…

Cyanide have released more details about their upcoming Tour de France game, which is still the only Tour de France you’re going to get in June and July. This time it’s how the FUT-style multiplayer mode works. The Tour de France games have always had online racing, and it’s always been moderately good, while also demonstrating that all the fun ideas we daydreamed about back in the mid-2000s are less workable in practice. Last year, bowing to pressure from 14 year olds on their forums and presumably their publisher too, Cyanide released a patch with the addition of a FUT-style…

Osmo have sent us a tub of their Active Hydration for assessment. We say “assessment” rather than “review” because this is a pioneering scientific product and… and we used to skip science class to watch the Giro d’Italia. Osmo Active Hydration comes in a neat tub that looks great in your bike room. Osmo sent us the Orange flavor, but it also comes in Blackberry and Lemon Lime flavors. In terms of flavor, it’s not exactly Kia Ora, but there’s a subtle hint of orange that makes your bottle taste more interesting than plain water, and that presumably masks all…