Author: Harold Dalton

It’s one of the least predictable Tours de France in years. Chris Froome is out, as is 2018 winner Geraint Thomas. Last year’s winner Egan Bernal leads the new guard of riders vying for the yellow jersey, but his victory is by no means assured. Add an unconventional route that’s filled with climbing from the second stage onwards, and you’ve got a recipe for a chaotic Tour that encourages mountain attacks. It’s shaping up to be the outstanding highlight of a cycling season that’s been muted by Covid-19. When is it? The Tour begins on August 29th in Nice, rescheduled…

Israel Start-Up Nation is a team on the rise. They’ve signed Chris Froome and now they’re about to make their Tour de France debut. Which will be within the UCI’s “bubble protocol” because, you know, pandemic that’s going to kill us all. In order to not die or kill anyone, Israel Start-Up Nation turned to Israeli innovation for help. Hey, it’s in their team name, right? The team will wear the the SonoMask by Sonovia at the Tour de France, which they’re saying is “the best high-tech anti-COVID-19 mask available.” What makes SonoMask the most advanced mask around? Apparently it’s…

The Alpes-Maritimes region of France has moved into the RED ZONE. That means the Coronavirus that’s ruining all our lives is actively circulating there. Hanging out atop mountains, chugging beers and looking for lungs to live inside of. So, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, in view of the health situation, has limited fans’ access to the climbs on the first two stages of the Tour de France, taking place on Saturday and Sunday. “Access to the passes for public vehicles will be prohibited. The gendarmerie and police will disperse spectators at the foot of the passes.” Only people on bicycles…

Virtual cycling isn’t going away any time soon. And while it hasn’t quite been as dialed-in as it needed to be to really take advantage of the total collapse of the cycling season, Covid-19 did demonstrate its value for scratching cycling fans’ itch for racing and providing benefits for sponsors during the downtime. Now there’s a world championship. Sorry, a UCI World Championship. It’s official, and it might be the only Worlds we get this year. The location is… Zwift. Well, duh. And it appears to be Wattopia. Interestingly, invitations will be sent to the National Federations represented by the…

Sneaking in a free trip is all part of the journalism experience. Admittedly it’s usually a week in Majorca or Girona in February, but a windy race course in Liverpool can be fun too. It started with Ice Bike, where the UK’s biggest distributor, Madison, launched its offering for 2008. Overcast Bike might’ve been a better name for the event. It was about as lavish as mid-2000s UK cycling got, with a free Travelodge room, free dinner and schmoozing at the UK’s biggest curry house, and a shuttle to the event. An earthquake hit overnight and shook the door to…

For all his success on the bike, Chris Froome isn’t the most popular rider with European cycling fans. Or his own team, for that matter, but that’s a different story. When fans booed him on today’s Route d’Occitanie stage, he reacted as most of us would: by making a rude gesture and yelling something obscene in French. Fun enough for all involved. He yelled “vas chier connard,” for what it’s worth. That means “fuck you, asshole.” Cycling’s the most magnificent sport in the world partly because of the incredible access you get to it. You can ride the same roads…

It’s time for the second monthly Cyclry wrap up. And it’s only been four months since the last one. Look, there hasn’t been much going on, ok? Cycling has been booming though. Your dad’s gone and bought a Specialized. Hey… that would’ve been a good name for this podcast if we hadn’t already called it Cycling Was Only Good in the 1980s. Let’s talk racing. Racing There’s a travel ban preventing Americans from leaving their country. That’s good news for the rest of the world, but it means the Yankee Doodle Dandies in the peloton are having trouble rejoining their…

Ah, the 2006 Tour of Britain. We don’t remember much about it apart from meeting a friend in a place called Penistone. He’s still a friend! And, if it really exists, Penistone is still a place. SweetSpot gave us a press pass for the Tour of Britain that year. It was our first year with as official press at the event (though we’ve been press ever since, even upsetting Mark Cavendish in 2011), and we mostly just drove around the country racing the peloton in a Fiat. This was pre-GPS, so we had to remember which motorway exits we were…