Category: News

The Giro is Here!

We endured the new money-making tours (Dubai, Oman, etc.), watched with anticipation and excitement the Spring Classics, but what we really like are the Grand Tours. The Giro d’Italia is upon us with a 9.8km ITT prologue in Apeldoorn, Holland. TV coverage in the UK (Eurosport) starts on 13:30 (BST) and we will eagerly await…




So… Froome will win the Tour, then. Right?

Yesterday, Chris Froome (SKY) won the Dauphiné. This 8 stage race is considered by many as the mini-Tour. Most punters believe that lately it has been showing the year’s Tour de France winner. Looking at the results, you can’t really argue. I know that in this year’s race there were some absentees (notably Alberto Contador),…




Astana-gate Part 3

The details are still a bit sketchy but the information is that the UCI after looking into some evidence submitted by the Italian authorities, decided to revoke Astana Pro Team’s licence. From what I understand, Astana have been co-operating by giving all information required about procedures etc. The Italian investigation, though, seems to show that, in…




Astana 1 – 0 Europcar

Breaking News: Astana is given a “probationary” licence, Europcar not. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the time for a full article but it turns out that if you have 5 doped riders you are getting your “probationary” WorldTour licence. Funnily enough I don’t think there is such a think as a probationary licence. It seems that…




Astana-gate: part 2

Last week I posted an article on this blog about the problems that Astana Team was facing. In case you have just arrived from a 3-month long trip to Mars, Astana had 5 riders returning positive tests. Valentin and Maxim Iglinsky, Ilya Davidenok, Victor Okishev and Artur Fedosseyev. Alexandr Vinokourov suspended the Astana Continetnal Team…