Last night a huge fire in Toronto swept through a historic part of the city burning everything before it.  Whats this got to do with cycling you might ask?  Well, one of the shops that fell victom to the blazing inferno that took out a whole block of the city was Duke’s Cycle Shop - believed by some to be the oldest bike store in North America that is continuously owned and operated by the same family.  MORE »

Who thought they would ever have seen this again?  What was it he called himself?  Ah, ‘The Worlds fastest man’.  Yes, Mario Cipollini, ‘The Lion King’ is back in cycling and back with a bang.  After three years retired the forty-one-year-old great sprinter entered the Tour of California with the Rock Racing team and on the first big sprint stage of the Tour came in third behind Boonen and Haussler.  He beat out the much younger Mark Cavendish into forth spot.

That was the second stage of the tour.  The first being a little tricker, seen Cipollini come in over five minutes down on some of the pre-race favourites.  Still it’s great to see the big man back and still so good at the sprinting.  Wouldn’t it be great to see him put some of the younger and supposidly ‘in their prime’ sprinters to shame with a win.

“Cipollini’s nearly two hundred race wins caught the attention of Rock and Republic owner, Michael Ball, and the pair entered into negotiations at a Las Vegas disco during Interbike in the fall of 2007. Conversation became official with paper work prior to the start of the Tour of California. According to Cipollini, he and Ball agreed that he would compete in the top ranked criteriums that the US is so recognised for. However, one thing led to another and the team asked that he start the Tour of California.”
– Kirsten Robbins, Cycling News, February 20, 2008

May the publicity continue.  What are the odds on this team getting a wild card at the Tour.  Now that I would pay to see.

It’s been kinda quiet in the cycling world so far into 2008 but here is one that’s going to have everyone talking.  It appears the Astana cycling team may not be invited to the 2008 Tour de France according to some breaking news I’ve been reading.  This means that reigning champion Alberto Contador could miss the chance to defend his title.  It also spells bad news for top riders like Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden.

“The damages that this team has done to the Tour de France and to cycling in general. The team Astana has betrayed the organizer’s confidence last year.”
– ASO Press Release, February 13, 2008

It’s nice to see them finally taking this kind of stance.  Some of these top guys shouldn’t have been so nieve when it came to signing on with teams with such tarnished names.  Hopefully this paves the ways for teams like Slipstream to make it into the the big race.

Mountain biking in London . . . Read the Guardian . . . Team High Road, the Giro and the lack of Astana.

Weald Country Park, eah? Anyone else getting this image of the organisers proposing something that looks like Castle Park in Bangor for the mountain bike race? Ho ho! Surely they can muster up something in Hyde Park. This is after all the London Olympics we’re talking about.

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I was really shocked to read in the Guardian yesterday (a great newspaper for cycling coverage by the way) that newly formed ‘Team High Road’ had not been invited to the Giro. The Giro is outside Pro Tour rules that say they must pick Pro Tour teams and so a few have gotten the chop.

I’m not shocked by Astana being cut, even with Contador and Kloden as part of their line-up. That team helped destroy the ‘07 Tour de France, but High Road are a team that basis themselves on their strong anti-doping stance. It might have been good to put them in there. It means Bradley Wiggins will miss out on the Grand Tour. Thankfully though another anti-doping team - Slipstream have made the grade.

Other interesting omissions include, Astana, Crédit Agricole and Bouygues Telecom.

The guy making the decisions Mr. Zomegnan did contradict himself in away. He was aware that Astana were trying to improve their image but he wanted to wait and see first before inviting them this year but went on to invite reigning champ Danilo Di Luco, who was later surrounded in a drugs scandal of his own.

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Sticking with Team High Road, they have launched themselves in California this week and plan on entering the Tour of California coming up soon. They are branding themselves an American team - losing their German background. Word has it they’ll have a new title sponsor. A team with their stance on the sport deserves a shot at the big races.