Author: Harold Dalton

It’s 2021 and we’re at a bike race. It sounds like a fantasy until you remember that some countries are quite capable of not letting the virus spread through their populations like wildfire. The only thing the Aussie government lets spread like wildfire is… wildfire. Yes, it’s the Australian Road Nationals. With no spectators, of course, but that’s about the best-case scenario right now. Although the weather was drizzly, which is an affront to everything that Australia is supposed to stand for. Ballarat hosted the race this year, slamming in all kinds of disciplines like crit champs and whatnot. We…

It’s one of the more baffling pieces of press outreach we’ve received. It starts “Exclusive! T-Mobile Reveals Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton Origin Story.” And frankly, we’re not sure it’s even an exclusive since it’s apparently something that was in a Super Bowl ad last night. But we’re sharing it because it’s from T-Mobile, and we can only assume that they’re testing the waters for relaunching their legendary cycling team. Actually, they probably just reached out because we mentioned T-Mobile on this site and their keyword scraper picked it up. Either that or they think we’re popular TV celebrity gossip show…

The Amstel Gold Race didn’t happen last year. Its traditional slot in the calendar was swallowed whole by the emerging Covid-19 crisis, and its rescheduled October 11th date coincided with a resurgence of the disease in the Netherlands. The rescheduled date is pertinent, because in order to make it happen, the organizers had to plan for holding the race on a short, closed circuit. Those plans were in vain… or not, as luck would have it: this year’s race will use the same closed circuit in order to ensure the race can take place on its scheduled April 18th date.…

Some real infectious enthusiasm here from Julien Bernard. Incredible stuff. And to think this is after they asked him to smile. He’s holding the Wahoo Elemnt Roam—no, we’re not doing their stupid capitalization—because Trek-Segafredo’s 43 riders are now contractually-obliged to race and train with the Elemnt Roam bike computer and Tickr heart-rate monitor. Trek-Segafredo’s Technical Manager, Matt Shriver, has this to say: “When we began testing the Wahoo cycling computers for racing and training, we quickly realized the advantages. Setting up out of the box is a breeze using the riders’ smartphone and the Wahoo Elemnt app. Within minutes you…

June 2, 2007  Even in a small, friendly community like the British pro peloton, it can be hard being new. There’s a story going around I’ve heard three or four times now, about a rider who was riding a race right up at the front, maybe sixth in line, so in a position to take turns driving the peloton, but at this point kind of enveloped with other riders overlapping his back wheel on either side. He’s riding along and he starts to not feel that great. He’s got gas, his stomach’s making rumbling sounds. So he’s there, and he…

We appreciate that lesser cycling fans might think the names in the headline are pro cyclists. But we also appreciate that our readers know the sport inside out. So thank you for letting us write that headline. Also thanks for the weird French food, ratty magazines, clothing, and unlabeled pills you sent us over the past 15 years. And for that Mercedes one of you parked in our driveway. Alright, the last link’s a hint for readers who haven’t been here for 15 years: the Eikenmolen (that’s Oak Mill in cow language) is a hill along the route of the…

Lawrence, Kansas. Hope it’s nicer than Lawrence, Massachuetts. That’s because there’s a brand new Belgian Waffle Ride there, scheduled to take place on Halloween this year. We’ll be swerving it, but if you like cycling fans in costumes and the lingering threat of the last vestiges of a global pandemic, read on. Monuments of Cycling announced the relaunch of its Tripel Crown of Gravel Series this week, which comprises the three existing Belgian Waffle Rides and the new Halloween one out in Kansas (ignore that last bit, apparently). Because they were kind enough to send us a pretty incoherent press…

It’s the big one! The 2021 Étoile de Bessèges – Tour du Gard. And the latent sarcasm in those opening two sentence is feeling increasingly misplaced, as some of the world’s best riders have converged on the five-day race following a wave of early-season race cancelations. There will be no less than three Tour de France winners at the start line on Wednesday. So, in fact, this is easily the biggest race this year so far. And it might remain so for a while if all the Covid-19 variants have timed their fitness peaks right. But we shouldn’t be glib…