UCI responds to riders' Vuelta concerns

The UCI says it will investigate claims by riders that some parts of this year's Vuelta a Espana are too steep.

Riders have raised concerns that one or two sections are excessively difficult with the notorious vertical Alto de l'Angliru climb coming in for particular criticism. One rider said he doubted it'd be possible to ride up it "on a goat."

Vuelta organisers claim it's a perfectly acceptable ascent, pointing out that it was climbed several times pre-WW2 by riders on wrought iron bikes weighing several tons, even though they also had to cope with the added weight of spare parts and huge moustaches which international cycling rules demanded all riders carried in those days (but didn't have to cope with anything like modern anti-doping regulations, even the kind they have in Spain).

Meanwhile, LeopardTrek's Jens Voigt says that if the section is deemed too difficult, he'll be happy to stamp it flat to save the trouble of having to re-route the stage so near to the start date.

End of the Highroad?

While winning time and time again,
Highroad has always worked hard to
improve professional cycling in any
way possible. They will be much missed
and their absence sorely felt.

Highroad's ongoing sponsorship problems have been no secret, with team boss Bob Stapleton uncharacteristically openly admitting some time ago that he was having difficulty securing a financial backer for next season. The team - partly because of the popularity of Stapleton himself, partly because of the popularity of the riders and partly because of the most impressive team palmares in professional cycling - has been one of the most admired by fans throughout its history, and so the cycling world as a whole breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that negotiations with a potential new sponsor were positive.

Sadly, that deal fell through and HTC have confirmed that they will no longer work with the team - precisely why this should be is not yet known, but it has been suggested that "ongoing drugs scandals" are the cause. Stapleton made an official announcement yesterday, saying: "After an exhaustive search to secure long term sponsorship we have concluded that it's time to release our team members to pursue other options." He added, "an agreement with a new partner looked to be in place, but the deal collapsed Sunday night when they called me during my wife's 50th birthday party."

The team's highest profile rider, British sprinter Mark Cavendish who won the final stage of the Tour de France a few weeks ago, is said to be heart-broken by the news. Cavendish has raced for the team, which has earned a reputation for discovering and developing new talents, ever since it grew out of the T-Mobile team in 2008 and has become recognised as the best sprinter in the world whilst with them, personally responsible for a large share of the men's team's many victories.

"I am hugely indebted and incredibly grateful to my teammates and all the staff for their support over the last five years and I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together," he told reporters.

Stapleton hopes the Highroad
women's team will continue.

Highroad is one of the very few teams to place as much emphasis on its female riders as its male stars, ploughing serious resources into their development and reaping the rewards in the form of numerous triumphs.  Stapleton, who personally financed the embryonic Highroad between November 2007 and June 2008, is hopeful that he'll be able to keep the women's team on the road. Women's cycling has long suffered from sponsorship problems, so it is to be hoped that Stapleton and Highroad will continue opening doors for young talent that might never get the opportunity to progress. The continuation of the women's team also leaves the possibility that, should they continue bringing in the trophies - and with riders such as Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Judith Arndt and Katie Colclaugh on the roster there's no reason to suggest they won't - we might one day see a new sponsor put up funds, allowing a new men's team to rise from the ashes. It wouldn't be the first time Stapleton had turned disaster into success.

It is depressing that would-be backers are still claiming doping as the reason when they pull out of sponsoring teams. Following the dark days of EPO, the Festina Affair and Operation Puerto, cycling has done more than any other sport to stamp out the problem - with Highroad doing more than most, striving to be drug-free and sacking riders who tested positive as long ago as 2007 before it became the norm. Unfortunately, it seems that the druggy image that somehow became attached to cycling remains in place, despite evidence that fewer cyclists use performance-enhancing drugs than do athletes in many other sports.

Ghost Bikes

Ghost bikes is a public project begun in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2003 when local cyclists began to commemorate the deaths of fellow riders in a simple, poignant and impossible-to-ignore way - when a friend or stranger was killed on the roads, they placed a white-painted bike at the scene of the accident with a plaque listing the victim's name, date of birth and date of death.

One ghost bike would have gone largely unnoticed by the car-driving public, but with so many cyclists killed each year there were soon many similar memorials around St. Louis. People noticed, and began to stop to find out what the bikes were all about. When someone is confronted with death like that, it makes them think.

"Last night I took a cab, and the driver was talking about the challenges of life as a cabbie. He was complaining about bike messengers and then suddenly shifted gears, lowered his tone, and said, "Do you ever see those bikes painted white, hanging up? That means someone died there. When I see them it reminds me to be careful for the bikers." In other words, people notice." (Anonymous, ghostbikes.org)

Creating a ghost bike is simple. All it takes is an old bike with the chain and brakes removed so that it can't be ridden. Degrease it and give it a coat of white paint, then print or hand-write a plaque that can be attached using zip ties. Place the bike at the point where the cyclist whose death you are marking was killed, or as safe as is possible to do so.

There may already be other ghost bikes in your area or yours may be the first - consider having a look at ghostbikes.org and adding yours to the lists already there.

We're feeling a bit inspired by this and have decided we'd like to get some sort of loosely-organised group together here in Cambridge to set up ghost bikes around the city and on nearby roads in the hope of increasing safety awareness among both drivers and cyclists. Find us on Facebook by clicking this link.

Every town should have one

From FailBlog

The Hövding: innovation or idiocy?

The Hovding uninflated, permitting this fashion-
conscious young lady to maintain her oh-so-stylish
topknot ponytail...

"What the world was waiting for. An invisible bicycle helmet. That wouldn't ruin your hair." (Haupt and Alstin)

With the BBC and Daily Nazi - er, Daily Mail, rather - both carrying reports on crop circles this week, it seems that Silly Season is officially under way (the Mail has a peculiar love of crop circles, much as the Nazis were into all sorts of stuff nowadays more commonly associated with hippies; yesterday's report being a prime example of pseudo-scientific woo-woo rubbish).

Searching the news this morning (because Google Alerts always miss the best stories), it looked as though the good ol' Grauniad had been getting in on the act early, displaying Silly Season symptoms right back in October last year when it reported on something called the Hövding - which means chieftain in Swedish, as you all know.

The Hövding is intended by its designers, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, to be an alternative to the conventional cycling helmet for fashion-conscious riders, allowing them to avoid that awful plague of modern life, helmet hair. As such, it surely deserves to be up there with the continuing battle against cancer, the defeat of smallpox and the invention of the artificial heart; glorified among the most panegyrized* of human accomplishments thus far.

"We want to encourage others to follow in our footsteps and dare to demand something better, to stand out from the crowd, and believe in themselves and their own capabilities." (Haupt and Alstin)

...and inflated, permitting her to preserve her
brain. Perhaps.

Consisting of a specially-designed helmet-shaped airbag, a canister of compressed helium and a sensor, the device utilises gyroscopes and accelerometers in the same way as do airbags in a car; sensing a crash in progress and inflating the airbag in a fraction of a second, and thus - in theory - negating a knock on the noggin. The whole shebang is stowed away in a sort of scarf to be worn, as is the way with scarves, about the neck.

Unfortunately, it seems that Haupt and Alstin are probably not cyclists themselves. This is clear from the fact that the Hövding is a big, bulky unit which would seem to be of little use when unzipped, as would be necessary when the wearer became overheated or on a hot summer's day - which is, of course, probably the only time that anyone so concerned about their hair will ever ride a bike. Funny that they'd overlook that really, since their research discovered that one reason people don't wear helmets - other than vanity - is that they can't fit a warm hat underneath.

Anyway, you can have one for just £300 - about ten times what a decent conventional helmet will cost you. They work once and will soon be available from the Swedish retailers listed on the Hövding website which has lots of pictures of models in terrifyingly expensive haute couture and no pictures of cyclists. Whether or not you do buy one is dependent on your own choice and whether or not you can recognise utter pointlessness when you see it.

Tour of Poland - Stage 3 Results: Kittel kills 'em again

Skil-Shimano's Marcel Kittel won Stage 3, making him the winner of all the stages so far this year. Yesterday, we were discussing whether the 23-year-old German might one day be as good as Mark Cavendish - however, now that he's won more races this season than the Manx Missile, we have to ask ourselves if he might not in fact be even better.

Adam Blythe. It might be a good idea to keep an
eye on this rider's progress.

Meanwhile, British 21-year-old Adam Blythe continues to climb up the General Classification. Having come 10th in Stage 1 and 9th yesterday, he achieved 5th place today and now stands in 13th place overall.

Stage 3 Results:

1 Kittel Marcel 03h 09' 29''  
2 Feillu Romain  
3 Jörgensen Jonas Aaen  
4 Nizzolo Giacomo  
5 Blythe Adam  
6 Kristoff Alexander  
7 Boonen Tom  
8 Marcato Marco  
9 Degenkolb John  
10 Matthews Michael (all same time)


General Classification results following Stage 3:

1 Kittel Marcel 08h 55' 00''  
2 Kurek Adrian + 00' 17''
3 Maggiore Gianluca + 00' 22''
4 Feillu Romain + 00' 24''
5 Haussler Heinrich + 00' 24''
6 Kristoff Alexander + 00' 24''
7 Matysiak Bartłomiej + 00' 25''
8 Chicchi Francesco + 00' 26''
9 Jörgensen Jonas Aaen + 00' 26''
10 Piscopiello Fabio + 00' 26''


Climber: Matysiak Bartłomiej (6pts); Sprints: Kurek Adrian (13pts); Points: Kittel Marcel (60pts).

Tour of Poland - Stage 2 Results: Kittel kills 'em

Skil-Shimano

Marcel Kittel has won Stage 2 of the Tour of Poland - the second success for the German rider in the race since he also won yesterday and the second UCI Pro Tour victory for his Skil-Shimano team.

A multi-bike pile-up 2km from the finish line took down several riders and forced BMC's Alessandro Ballan to abandon.

Stage 2 results:

1  Marcel Kittel, Skil - Shimano, 3h 38' 35"
2  Heinrich Haussler, Garmin-Cervelo      
3  Graeme Brown, Rabobank 
4  Caleb Fairly, HTC-Highroad      
5  John Degenkolb, HTC-Highroad      
6  Peter Sagan, Liquigas-Cannondale      
7  Juan José Haedo, Saxo Bank Sungard      
8  Leigh Howard, HTC-Highroad      
9  Adam Blythe, Omega Pharma-Lotto      
10 Francesco Chicchi,QuickStep (all same time)

Britain's Adam Blythe was 10th
in Stage 1, 9th in Stage 2.

Overall General Classification results following Stage 2:

1 KITTEL Marcel, 05h 45' 41''  
2 KUREK Adrian, + 00' 07''
3 HAUSSLER Heinrich, + 00' 14''
4 KRISTOFF Alexander, + 00' 14''
5 MATYSIAK Bartłomiej, + 00' 15''
6 CAZAUX Pierre, + 00' 15''
7 CHICCHI Francesco, + 00' 16''
8 BROWN Graeme, + 00' 16''
9 PISCOPIELLO Fabio, + 00' 16''
10 BAILETTI Paolo, + 00' 18''


Climber: MATYSIAK Bartłomiej (6pts); Sprinter: KUREK Adrian (13pts); Points: KITTEL Marcel (40pts).

We Like... The Red Bull MiniDrome

You know what? This could just turn out to be the best thing that's happened to track cycling since the invention of the bike (and believe me, it was really boring before that).

The thing is, only BMX and mountain biking are considered cool - or hot, or bear, or wicked or whatever it is The Kids say when they approve of something these days - by the vast majority of young people. Skinny tyres and lycra most definitely are not.

But imagine this scene: some town somewhere, a couple of massive trucks with "Red Bull Tour" pitch up. The local yoof get excited - Red Bull means skateboarding, trials bikes, BMX and other good things. Since life as a teenager in Urban Britain is so dreadful it's almost beyond words, this immediately looks set to be the best thing any of them can remember ever happening; so before you know it you've got about fifty million kids milling around. They watch the heroes getting big air on the ramps and wish they could do the same. Some of them will give it a go and be the heroes next year. Others will think, "Blimey! That's a bit high for me!" Then, those kids will see the MiniDrome and think, "Ah! Now that looks my sort of thing, by golly! All you do is ride around as fast as billy-o!"

So, they roll up on their half-ton supermarket specials and have a few laps of the track, probably enjoying the thrill and applause and discover that they really like track cycling. Later that day, it occurs to them that they could go even faster with a proper track bike so the next day they fire up the iPad and have a look at what their paper-round wages can get them - and discover the wonderful world of track cycling in all its glory.

Red Bull - gives you wings. And genius ideas.
(That logo is, obviously, totally copyrighted up to the eyeballs by real lawyers and stuff. We're using it without permission and are hoping that, since Red Bull are obviously a very cool sort of company and interested - as are we - in promoting cycling, they'll keep those lawyers chained up won't sue us or anything. Be aware of this should you decide to copy it and use it for something else - and if you do so, that's entirely your own responsibility and nothing to with us whatsoever, at all, full stop. Cyclopunk does not encourage you to do anything that could get you in trouble with your mum.)

By the end of the week they're getting together with other kids who had a go and were similarly impressed. Then, they start badgering the council, just like the BMX and skate kids did a few years back, and because the council want to be seen to be doing their bit to improve public fitness - and the next thing you know, there's half-scale velodromes springing up all over the place just like half-pipes have been, perhaps even a full-scale one for every county. Within two years, track cycling is massively popular and the country finds itself with some of the best young riders in the world, most of whom would never even have heard of the sport had it not been for that funny little Red Bull MiniDrome.

Four years later, British cyclists thrash the entire world at the Olympics. Sorted.

They say Red Bull gives you wings. Apparently, it gives you genius ideas, too.

Tour of Poland - Stage 1 Results

Marcel Kittel

23-year-old Marcel Kittel achieved more than a stage victory in the opening day of the Tour of Poland - it's also the first UCI World Tour triumph for his Skil-Shimano team. Manager Iwan Spekenbrink was the first to laud the German rider's achievement, saying that if Kittel continues developing in the way he has been, "he will be able one day to challenge the best sprinters in the world like Mark Cavendish."

1. Marcel Kittel (Skil-Shimano) 2:07:26"
2. Alexander Kristoff (BMC)
3. Francesco Chicchi (QuickStep)
4. Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervelo)
5. Michele Merlo (De Rosa)
6. Giacomo Nizzolo (LeopardTrek)
7. Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM)
8. Luca Paolini (Katusha)
9. Juan Jose Haedo (SaxoBank-Sungard)
10. Adam Blythe (Omega Pharma-Lotto) all same time