all words by Mike Franchetti
The 2021 Tour de France was so good that it was actually pretty dull. Some moments were so perfect that they were actually almost boring. There were so many heroes that we began hoping to unearth a villain. The best four riders in the world all won at least one stage. All four of them
Only romantics imagined that the mess uncovered at the 1998 Tour de France would have disappeared by the turn of the century, and the crooked doping programs which defined the era have impacted the image of pro cycling forever. Yes, the Tour de France in the early 2000s was a mess; but we can’t forget
Welcome to this “How To” guide, designed to help you gain a greater understanding of the principles of overreacting in Grand Tour racing. Please share with your friends if they are stuck in a grounded reality. Step 1: Completely disregard your pre-race research Before the race, you may have foolishly spent countless hours researching every
The 2010s are over and we’ve been made well aware of the hungry twenty-somethings ready to devour every race for the next ten years. The end of the decade felt timely with a number of big-name riders misfiring over the last few years or, in some cases, coming up short in fascinating cross-generational duals. 2019
It’s time for the fifth annual Just Pro Cycling Pub Quiz, which I do purely for the love of pro cycling and not at all for the wonderful spike in website views. How well do you know the 2019 season? It’s tough this year… There aren’t enough pro cycling quizzes, trivia and games on the
Following the sudden rise of Tadej Pogacar and Egan Bernal, it feels like Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez was “the next big thing” for all of five minutes. The buzz around Lopez did, in fact, last well over eighteen months; roughly starting mid-way through his breakout Vuelta Espana in 2017 and following him round during a
Vuelta O’Clock. It’s always difficult to know exactly what to expect in Spain, but this year we don’t even have Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali or Simon Yates to throw our money at. The Giro Champion – Richard Carapaz – is also absent after an eleventh hour crash and subsequent withdrawal. Moreover, we’ve all been wrestling
Shortly after this photo was captured, Marianne Vos admitted that she had forgotten what it felt like to be the World Champion. The Dutch superstar had previously snatched a road World Title in 2006 at the age of 19, despite eligibility for the junior race. A young Vos had chased down first Nicola Cooke and
