Team Kit 2016- Katusha

So Katusha have unveiled their new kit this afternoon. It is quite a departure from the past few years with a simpler design, with the red becoming more dominant. Gone are the silhouette of the Moscow skyline, to be replaced with a new logo. It seems to follow the Lotto-Soudal approach of looking back to the more traditional kits, but with some modern twists.  It seems to fit into the whole rebranding of the team touched on by INRNG here. It should stand out well in the peloton although we will have to wait until we see everyone else's offerings before being sure.

Gran Fondo Giro d'Italia Northern Ireland 2016

The next Gran Fondo Giro d'Italia Northern Ireland will take place on Sunday June 5th 2016. It follows this year's event, a legacy of the 2014 Giro Grande Partenza and first three stages being held on the island of Ireland. Those who took part last year have been given the opportunity to register from tonight 11th Dec, 10 days ahead of general registration being open to the full public.

Obviously it is early in relation to the nitty-gritty, but having just signed up myself, it is clear it will still be two parcours- the 58km Strangford Route and the 173km Mournes Route and roads will be totally closed again. Also included this time in the price (early bird £55 for the 58km, £65 for the pleasure of the more painfully vertical option) is a Castelli event jersey. However if you want to dress up as the ultimate fanboy/girl then bibs, gillet, gloves and caps are also available to add to your basket on top of the initial entry fee. These pieces can be bought individually or all together for £180. There really seems to be a major push on getting wallets open further this year but then again, no one is forcing anyone to fork out on the extras.

I am slightly disappointed that they didn't extend the length of the short route which was one of the complaints many people had about last year. 173km is doable on the flat by most people- however these kms  go up a bit more vertically than a man of my stature could manage before the roads open again so that only leaves the 58km route which is fine for those less experienced, but for club run "B" and "C" riders like me it is a bit short to leave any real feeling of satisfaction. If it wasn't for the attraction of closed roads and the other paraphrenilia then I would probably have passed this time. However managing the traffic over two routes is a big enough job without complicating it further with course extensions.

Me with the Trofeo Senza Fine at last years Gran Fondo

There is also the added attraction of bumping into legends of the sport with Stephen Roche and Richie Porte making appearances last year and a whole weekend dedicated to cycling taking place, and it is more or less definite that some high profile people from past or present will be there. It does seem weird writing about next June as I sit here, balancing my laptop on the sofa arm while trying not to dislodge the ornaments on my Christmas tree but this year demonstrated just how quickly that time goes in, and I have my motivation to up the winter miles again already.

Just before the off in the 2015 Gran Fondo NI.

Erik De Vlaeminck 23/03/1945 − 04/12/ 2015)

Last week saw the sad passing of a legend of the sport who, though not as well-known outside cycling circles as his brother Roger, was still a superstar in his own right. Despite Erik De Vlaeminck winning the 1969 Tour of Belgium and a stage in the 1968 Tour de France, a second and a third in Fleche Wallonne, a fourth in Liege-Bastogne and a ninth in Paris-Roubaix, (riding for various incarnations of the Flandria team with his younger brother) he was still more associated with cyclocross-and for good reason. He was World Cyclocross champion on seven occasions (six of these consecutive from 1968-73) and Belgian National Champion four times.

A reputation for hard partying followed him for a period though he was still held in high esteem, being appointed coach of the Belgian National CX squad. De Vlaeminck spent his final years dealing with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and will be firmly remembered as a true Flanderian.

Team Kit 2016- Sky

Click here for the Road.cc story and more images


For the past couple of years, Sky fans have been able to get away with wearing the same jersey such has been the similarities in the kit over that time. Rapha have obviously cottoned (or lycra'd? ) on to this so that the 2016 maillot will be the same but different, particularly with those bands. The blue stripe may be a rollback back to the 2011 Adidas kit which had a bigger block of blue across the chest, and the new white stripe (avoiding the obvious "Seven Nation Army" pun) adding a new layer of visibility which will hopefully help fans and commentators pick out particular riders in case the trend of the ever-increasing number of black-dominated kits continues- (though Sherwin and Liggett will probably still call them by the wrong name).

Nothing to do with the new White Stripe...

Now I know no team kit seems to attract such extremes of opinions- from those who categorise all wearers as overweight, hedge fund managers who have no idea with all the gear, whereas many other British fans tend to equate it with supporting "their boys". Personally I feel Sky are like the Man Utd of cycling (nb this is probably the only soccer reference you will find on this blog). I am not of that school of people who end up quoting Rule 17 in an attempt to appear superior to anyone else on two wheels but I must admit seeing people in Sky kit does bring up a well of assumptions which are more to do with my prejudices than the person wearing it. I will do a wee blog post later in relation to non-pros wearing team kit, but don't want to get sidetracked here.

So overall conclusions- it is Sky and it is Rapha so people will come with preordained opinions. Personally I actually like the alternative Sky kit that is almost totally blue and would have loved to see them switch to it but like it or not, they have managed to create an iconic and easily identifiable image in a relatively short period of time. So get used to the black and blue stripes at a sportive near you for quite some time to come.

Cyclists prayer…

Our Merckx,
Who art in Belgium,
The Cannibal be thy name,
The Alpe D'Huez come
Thy will be done,
In the peloton and among the poursuivants.
Give us this day our EMX-7
and forgive us our sticky bidons,
as we forgive those who draft behind us,
And lead us not into the bonk,
But deliver us up the Galibier,
For thine is the Giro, the Vuelta and the Tour,
For ever and ever,
Amen.

Team Kit 2016- Etixx-Quickstep

Click for images and more on the Etixx-Quickstep website

Etixx-Quickstep's most high profile recruit for 2016 Marcel Kittel took on the Derek Zoolander role (without going all "Blue Steel") by modelling the kit for next season. Inevitably in a sport where change often brings about cries of anguish, the predictable complaints of "It isn't as good as the last one" soon filled the Facebook posts announcing the new arrivals. Since this has been the general response to new kit since time immemorial, it wasn't a surprise. Personally I think the new jersey looks great especially with that darker blue.  While not totally going against the continunal creep of more and more black jerseys into the peloton, it should still stand out.

Now for the shorts-at the risk of sounding like those old farts who don't realise that The Rules are supposed to be tounge in cheek, and instead have them as tatoos, those shorts really would have worked better staying black. Saying that, I have often made statements like that over the previous years, based solely on the photos that accompany each kit release, only for them to work much better than expected when viewed on the road. Also I am aware I really didn't like MTN-Qhubeka's striped efforts at the start of the 2015 season but they did grow on me-although how much of that had to do with the African team's performances is hard to tell. But as for my definitive views on the new kits that will be unveilled between now and January-ask me after the  Spring Classics...

PS While I am aware that Movistar launched their kit earlier than EQS, it is so similar to last year's it didn't really merit a post.

Book review-

The World of Cycling According to G
Geraint Thomas (alongside Tom Fordyce); Published by Quercus (2015)

Do you know those really annoying "lads"? I refer to those youngish fellas who like to talk about how drunk they had been the previous night, making sure they are loud enough to "impress" everyone else, not realising that it comes off as boorish, while the actual thoughts of their involuntary listeners aren't really suitable for a pre-watershed blog. Well, unfortuately that was the tone I picked up from what would have otherwise been an excellent read. Thomas' constant references to getting drunk in the off season and the details of how he and his team mates celebrated do get quite wearing and predictable. When he begins talking about another one of his victories, the immediate reaction of the reader is to brace themselves for yet another "entertaining" story about missing interviews with BBC Breakfast or something due to gettting hammered the night before. Once or twice would probably be OK but the constant repetition tends to reek of self-justification and a need to live up to some label. As someone who works in the alcohol and drug field I can honestly say that there is nothing more boring than other people's stories about how pissed they had been and what "hilarity" ensues.

OK, so I just had to get that off my chest. Am I being too harsh? When I look at all the other cycling (auto)biographies I think not. Cycling is one of the few sports that really lends itself to great and classy writing, and no other book by, or ghostwritten for,  a pro goes this route. Now I am all too aware that many of the heroes of the road were partial to the falling down water even mid-Tour, but they didn't feel the need to make that a central theme of their books. It seems that, despite being well travelled, Thomas falls into the trap of many Brits abroad in that they don't realise their attitude to drinking is viewed by most of the rest of the world as abnormal. Again maybe I'm just reading too much into it...

Otherwise this is a well crafted book with some interesting insights into life both on and off the bike. It is geniunely amusing in places, and Thomas (or Fordyce) has a great eye for the humourous or ironic detail that really highlights what a fantastic but also bloody weird way to make a living cycling is. The descriptions about preparations before some very high profile events both on the track and on the road go some way towards allowing the reader to enter the mind of the pro-rider as he experiences the extremes of emotions. Foe example the story of how he had to rely on a cycling journalist to help him get home after arriving back from Beijing with an Olympic gold medal in his luggage does show what can happen when two worlds- that of cycling's bubble and what we normal mortals could term the real world- bisect.

So, despite my rant at the start, this is still a worthy read. However how much better would it have been if Thomas had been a few years older when he wrote it, away from both the pissed-up lad and Sky influence. There is an underlying feeling that a lot more could have been included but I am sure the lawyers at his employers got a good read through before this hit the presses. So a good book, but I would like to see it revised, rewritten and added to after Thomas retires, probably a decade or so from now.