We’re getting bored of this pandemic purgatory. The Enfer du Nord endless cycle of postponement-cancelation-postponement continues into 2021 with April 11 confirmed to not have a bike race. An official confirmation is scheduled for today–ASO are remaining suspiciously quiet so far–but Le Parisien has already reported on the cancelation at the request of the Hauts-de-France region. It’s now been so long since an edition of Paris-Roubaix took place that we can’t even remember who the most recent winner was. Tom Boonen maybe? Johan Museeuw? Bernard Hinault possibly. Just kidding. It was Philippe Gilbert, way back in 2019. He’s going to…
Author: Harold Dalton
Harold Dalton
Cycling industry professional with two decades of experience in professional journalism, television, and industry writing.
Remember Cisco Webex? It was like Zoom before Zoom, in that you’d occasionally get an invitation to use it when you had a meeting with a cycling brand, and suddenly had to scramble to install it on your PC. Might be nostalgia speaking, but it was better than Zoom. Maybe that was just the people we spoke to using it though. Anyway, Webex still exists and it’s now a strategic partner with Team DSM. Team DSM told us, “As an official partner, the Webex platform and devices will be the collaboration platform of our WorldTour cycling team, allowing the team…
The Prefect of the Hauts-de-France region has spoken: Paris-Roubaix is… well, not exactly postponed, but… Covid-19 has… sapped his optimism for the running of the race. Can someone ship us some Gauloises so we can get into the right mindset to read this quote? Here’s what Michel Lalande, the aforementioned prefect, has actually said on running the race in light of the latest Covid-19 breakout in the region: “I’ll give you an answer when the time is right, but right now you can guess. The sky now looks less blue.” You know the sky will literally look less blue too.…
The Tour de France has a new mascot, and he’s a proper knobhead. Giant baby head on top of your average sedentary late 20s French male body, that time right before nature flips a coin and determines whether the guy ends up fully spherical or painfully gaunt. Any kid screaming Maxoo’s name is either so deprived of digital entertainment that they’d even watch a TV broadcasting terror attacks, or else is just a baby trying one last analogy to signal to their parents the horrific state of what they’ve just dropped in their diaper. Here, do yourself some psychic damage…
The first monument of 2021 is here. La Classicissima signals the start of the Spring Classics proper, and is the most prestigious race so far this season. And for the first time ever, it’ll be broadcast from beginning to end. Let’s be honest though: you don’t need to watch the entire 300km. Go for a ride, then grab a couple of Peronis for the final 75km. It’s a race that favors the sprinters and puncheurs, and to a lesser extent the Classics specialists. Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe have won the two previous editions, and one of them may…
(Content Warning: One of the fake signatures included a word/phrase we wouldn’t have posted in 2021. It was included to illustrate that the poster was an insufferable manchild. We’ve kept it in and posted this warning, but please tell us if there’s another way you’d prefer for us to approach these types of issues.) Ah, forums. A mainstay of the old, good internet, before we all jumped ship to Twitter and Facebook and a million other stupid fucking things that stopped people reading brick and mortar websites like Cyclry. Of course, we also fucking hated cycling forums too. A load…
Some things never change. In 1982, the Amaury Sport Organisation was doing some of its timeless nostalgic handwringing, this time proposing that the Tour should be contested by national teams just as it was in the sport’s early days. After much consideration (aka a ten-minute conversation with their accountants), the ASO reversed course and decided to keep the lucrative sponsors on board. Seventeen teams made the startline, each bringing ten riders for a total of 170 competitors. Sensing an opportunity for global expansion, the organizers reserved a space for the American national team, but sadly the Yankee doodle dandies opted…
Get in loser, we’re going to Warrington. Lovely place, there’s an IKEA and… uh… we went to a wedding reception there once too. It’s hosting a Tour of Britain stage finish for the first time ever this year, way out on September 9. Although it’s the first time the town has been a host venue, the race did pass through on its way to the Knowsley Safari Park in 2012. We’re having 2006 DerailedUK flashbacks typing all these place names out. Since Warrington is on the River Mersey, here’s some music to enjoy while we finish the article: SweetSpot, the…