For the last few years March’s stage racing action has been my favourite outside the Grand Tours. The overlapping races of France and Italy attract everybody who’s anybody (almost) and act as preparation for the classics, the Giro or even the Tour. However, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico are so much more than mere preparation. Tirreno-Adriatico has developed
Author: MikeFranchetti
With Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico marking the return of the World Tour, I’ve been looking into which riders have been racking up stage victories since the turn of the decade. What started as a rummage through http://www.procyclingstats.com ended up as a fixation on answering the question – which races have the greatest number of ‘home’ wins?
It’s the end of February and we can all start looking forward to Cancellara-solo attacks, Ian Stannard defying the odds, punctures, falls, mud, velodromes and lots and lots of Etixx Quick-Step.
The number of cycling races organized seems to grow each year. Alongside the UCI World Tour there are the tours of Europe, Asia, Africa and America and the growth of the sport has gone hand in hand with increased popularity and media attention. The inauguration of new races has been highly successful but some older,
On February 6th Marcel Kittel was crowned the winner of the Dubai Tour, pulling things back his way on the final day when sprinting home to victory. His race had mirrored Mark Cavendish’s 2015 win, owing a lot to a show of strength on the Hatta Dam plus stage wins on the first and last
Young, fast and Italian. Setting that criteria in a pro cycling database a few years back would have returned a sizeable list (reading something like Modolo, Nizzolo, Andrea Guardini, Elia Viviani, Jakub Mareczko, Andrea Palini, Niccolo Bonifazio, Davide Cimolai, Sonny Colbrelli, Nicola Ruffoni, Daniele Ratto…). The current generation are funny sorts, however, mainly popping up
Starting next week, the Dubai Tour is entering its third year as a strangely enjoyable ‘stage race’. Okay, so there’s no chance of seeing any cat-and-mouse attacks, stinging breakaway moves or breath-taking descents, but there’s something simple about the bunch sprint tear-ups in Dubai’s selection of resorts.
It would be fair to say veteran Simon Gerrans has mastered Adelaide’s rolling terrain. After a crash removed him from contention on Stage 2, Gerrans accelerated away for victory the next day before adding another sprint win on the flat finish of Stage 4. He claimed 20 extra seconds courtesy of these wins and made
Just Pro Cycling 