all words by Mike Franchetti
The keen ones among us – or perhaps the stubbornly logical – will state that each new cycling season starts with Australia in January. The purists boast Omloop as the rightful curtain raiser, and some casuals might not feel at home until flicking through Cycling Weekly to see who won Paris-Nice. However, a small diehard
What should we call riders like Tony Gallopin? ‘All-rounders’ seems a fair suggestion but such a tag would cover the likes of Fabio Felline, Michal Kwiatkowski and Edvald Boasson Hagen; three very different riders. Gallopin certainly fits under the ‘Puncheur’ umbrella but that group is expansive and includes plenty of one-day specialists. He’s not explosive
Michael Matthews is ready for San Remo We hadn’t seen anything from Michael Matthews this season – then he won two stages in three days. His prologue win was the more eye-opening of the two, so obviously strong and in form. Milan-San Remo is his first aim for the season but Matthews was yet to
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
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?
With March comes two of the first big UCI Stage Races of the Year; Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Though the former has history and prestige, Tirreno-Adriatico’s route across Italy attracted a host of the best climbers. The ‘Race of the Two Seas’ started and ended with a time trial and contained a Queen Stage that ended
Tirreno-Adriatico had the names, the climbs, the crazy weather and quite possibly the bigger following but Paris-Nice remains my pick of the March stage races. Though I’ve frequently championed the Giro over the Tour, the Paris-Nice format usually delivers some cracking French racing and had returned this year to its better format. The race takes
Just Pro Cycling 