Author: Harold Dalton

The first WorldTour race of the season is upon us. Last year it was the site of a Covid-19 voidout that locked riders and race crew alike in hotels indefinitely. That hasn’t hurt the race’s long-term prospects though: it’s back with an incredibly strong field, a solid route, and all new Covid protocols. Where to Watch UK: Eurosport, GCNUSA: FloBikesEurope: Eurosport The Route The race will take place between February 21 and 27, with all the WorldTeams in attendance, including 2020 Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar. It looks like a well-balanced stage race, with four stages for sprinters, two…

Henri Giroud has been in the sport for a long time. For better or worse, he’s made many predictions along the way. Most were short-term, such as picking a pre-race favorite on a live broadcast… but some were much longer-term. Written in 1986, here’s how he envisioned 2021 as he looked to the possible landscape of cycling 35 years in the future. Virtual Racing By the year 2021, it will be possible to race entirely virtually from your gym, or even your home. Magnetic rollers will simulate resistance to make it feel as though you’re riding uphill, downhill, or even…

We can’t remember who wrote this one. There’s a sinking feeling that it was a certain person who was working with a pro team at the time. But we can’t be sure, and it’s funny regardless of whoever its author was. There has been talk of banning team radios in cycling, which has been divisive in the sense that everyone wants to ban them except for a small number of very influential people who don’t. Team radios are unpopular with fans and race officials because they make the racing less spontaneous and reduce riders to puppets at the control of…

Powercor Melbourne to Warrnambool organisers have moved swiftly to secure a new date for the 2021 edition of the race, with May 1 the new slot for the oldest and longest Australian classic. The initial running of the race on February 13 had to be postponed after the Victorian lockdown announcement on February 12. The date will put it closer to the other races within the ‘Classics season’ that form part of the National Road Series (NRS), the Grafton to Inverell (May 8) and more recent entrant Tour de Brisbane (April 11). The rescheduled date will allow those that had…

1981. The 1980s were officially underway. Synth-based vocal pop was emerging, prepping for a curious revival at bikes in our Cyclry Subaru nearly 40 years later. Conversation pits were out, capitalism was in. And in cycling, Bernard Hinault was ready to own the decade. Back in the 1980 Tour de France, Bernard Hinault had started ferociously, but ultimately endured disappointment and injury. He had recovered to finish his season with a World Championship victory to add to his Giro d’Italia overall win. Now he was seeking revenge. He was ready to win his third Tour de France. Hinault arrived at…

Today we remember Marco Pantani, who died 17 years ago on February 14, 2004. Here are a few of the times we’ve mentioned him on the site. Marco Pantani: The Greatest Climber. Ask anybody to name their top five favorite climbers, and you’re sure to get a thoughtful list of their favorites. The man on the street will give a considered response featuring terms like “grimpeur,” “scalatore,” and “Froomey, mate, innit.” But one thing these lists will all have in common is that they’ll include Marco Pantani. The diminutive climber is widely considered one of the greatest climbers ever to…

Remember Sodisp? They launched their Covid-inspired virtual challenge platform early into the pandemic last year, only to have the sport’s various national federations almost immediately ban the type of activity they promoted. A former Derailed contributor was so outraged by their platform that she almost came out of retirement to write some fresh libel for us. She’d probably been drinking when she suggested that though, because Sodisp just felt more unnecessary than outrageous to the rest of us. Anyway. At the time, we thought the new rules about virtual challenges were sure to be the end of Sodisp. But alas,…

How do culturally constructed female roles and external threats in public space play a part in the disproportionate number of female cyclist deaths from large vehicles in London from 1999 to 2014? Spatial Modality It is not the aim of this paper to argue that cyclist behavior is the cause for any recurring pattern of road incidents. Indeed, much of contemporary road danger reduction campaigning is built on the firm belief that environments are constructed in such a way to privilege particular road usages while excluding others (Uteng 2009; also Davis 1993, pp. 37-40). As such, this paper analyzes how…