Foldable Bikes Party

Wednesday, 30 December 2015

2016 Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic start list

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Bradley Wiggins: The end of the road

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This feature first appeared in Procycling magazine. To subscribe, click here.

Before he left Team Sky last spring and turned his focus back to the track, Bradley Wiggins tried to resolve one last piece of unfinished business on the road by having a crack at Paris-Roubaix, where he’d finished in the top 10 one year before. Procycling sent Barry Ryan along to observe Wiggins’ final few weeks as a WorldTour professional for the June edition of the magazine and as always with the former Tour winner the journey turned out to be far more interesting than the destination.

Bradley Wiggins may not have bowed out in the Team Sky jersey with a dream win in Roubaix, which he said at one point would be “bigger than the Tour”, but his six-week swansong between Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Hell of the North gave ample opportunity to see the many sides of his persona and why he has become such a fan favourite.

You never quite know which Bradley Wiggins you’re going to get, partly because Bradley Wiggins is so many different things to so many different people. In France, he is ‘La Rock Star’, collector of guitars and devotee of Paul Weller. In Italy, he is ‘Il Baronetto’, knight of the realm and emblem of England and all things English. In his home country, he is simply ‘Wiggo’, an almost caricatured amalgam of sideburns and pithy humour.

One constant, however, is capriciousness. When Wiggins was running over half an hour late for a roundtable interview on the eve of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in February, the formal beginning of his build-up to Paris-Roubaix, some of the reporters waiting in the cramped drawing room of Kortrijk’s Hotel Messeyne began to suspect that they might have to find different ways to fill column inches in the next morning’s newspapers. Others debated cutting their losses and making for the BMC press conference being held around the corner.

Wiggins sidled into the room moments later, bringing the hushed small talk to an end, and the reporters huddled around. Dressed in a Team Sky tracksuit, he betrayed a certain discomfort as he answered the first questions sitting upright, wringing his hands as he spoke, before gradually slumping into his chair and relaxing into his role as raconteur.

In Belgium, fortunately, Wiggins is his 14-year-old self, a cycling obsessive, and he obliged by jumping through the usual hoops, showing off his encyclopaedic knowledge of Paris-Roubaix finales past and sharing anecdotes from his early brushes with the cobbles as a young professional. The short conference ended with Wiggins breaking into a soliloquy on different sprint tactics in the Roubaix velodrome, comparing and contrasting Steve Bauer’s 1990 defeat to Eddy Planckaert with Magnus Backstedt’s 2004 victory in minute detail. “I’ve got a photographic memory for sh*t, so I do remember odd stuff like that,” Wiggins told a charmed local reporter.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Cavendish has to deliver at Hong Kong World Cup, says Salzwedel

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British track coach Heiko Salzwedel has said that Mark Cavendish must perform strongly at the next round of the Track World Cup in Hong Kong on January 16 and 17 in order to maintain his challenge for a place in the team at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Cavendish has spent much of the winter training on the track in Manchester in a bid to earn selection for Great Britain in the omnium ahead of London 2012 bronze medallist Ed Clancy and youngster Jon Dibben.

“Cavendish has to deliver in Hong Kong, full stop. I can’t think of sentiment,” Salzwedel told The Times newspaper. “We have a luxury problem. Three world-class omnium riders fighting for one spot. It’s probably easier to win the Olympics than win selection.”

The Manxman could ride the team pursuit as well as the omnium at the Hong Kong World Cup, and his selection for Rio could hinge in part on his ability to serve as fifth man in the team pursuit effort. Before travelling to Hong Kong, Cavendish will participate in a team pursuit event at the Revolution Series in Manchester at the weekend.

Cavendish was the sole British track rider not to win a medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the Madison alongside Bradley Wiggins, and he endured disappointment in the road race in London four years later.

One of the motivating factors behind Cavendish’s decision to join Dimension Data for the coming season was that the South African squad has given its blessing to his efforts to combine his Olympic aspirations on the track with team duties on the road in 2016.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic - top 5 riders to watch

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Once again the new cycling season starts with the four-day Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic criterium series in Victoria with race organisers attracting a top quality field of Australian and international riders. While the January 1 start may be off putting to some riders wishing to welcome in the new year, the high intensity racing in Geelong, Portarlington and Williamstown offers the perfect warm up before the Australian National Championships from January 6-10.

Previous winners of the race includes the likes of Tour de France green jersey winners Robbie McEwen and Baden Cooke, Mark Renshaw, and Matt Goss while in 2013 Caleb Ewan announced himself to the cycling world with overall victory. Chloe Hosking, Georgia Bronzini and Melissa Hoskins have won the last three women's edition which provides equally fast and spectator friendly viewing.

Ahead of the 2016 edition of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, Cyclingnews has cast its eyes over the men's and women's start list for five riders to watch.

Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge)

21-year-old Caleb Ewan has already won the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic on two occasions with his 2015 appearance at the event a masterclass as he won the first three races with fifth place on the final day an offer to his battered rivals. Ewan leads the Orica-GreenEdge team again in 2016 with leadout man Mitch Docker by his side and Alexander Edmondson a second ace in the deck for the Australian team who are sure to be closely marked across the four days.

Ewan has stated he is unsure of his current form following a prolonged break from racing since his withdrawal from the Vuelta a Espana.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Von Hoff targeting Australian national road title

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Steele von Hoff has taken home the last two Australian national criterium titles but come 2016, it's the road race the ONE Pro Cycling rider is targeting on January 10. While von Hoff has hit his straps in January over the last few seasons with national titles and a Tour Down Under stage win, he is focused on succeeding Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) as the Australian national champion in just over a week's time.

Known for his characteristics as a sprinter, von Hoff's ambition for the green and gold jersey on the challenging Bunninyong course is far from unsound having finished third, eighth and ninth in his last three starts. However, he will need to the race to play to his strengths as he explained to Cyclingnews.

"I'll approach it like every other year as I've felt that if the race was raced slightly differently, I would have been in with a chance for the win. So hopefully I just have to wait until the race is raced the way I need it to be and I'll be in with a good shot at the jersey," said von Hoff who won't be able to call upon teammates Matt Goss and Glen O'Shea who are both skipping the race.

"I’ve won the bunch kick from the bunch that I've been in the last few years. Last year when there was a breakaway, Adam Hansen was in-between, and I was the best of the rest so all I need it to be is a 'bunchie' and my odds are a lot better. A few years ago there was a bunchie [behind solo winner Luke Durbridge, ed] and I was second after Michael Matthews so that's all the really needs to happen. Of course, it's very difficult on that course and when I say a bunchie, it will be about ten guys."

Von Hoff will start his season at the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic from January 1-4, leaving him little chance to enjoy his 28th birthday on December 31, but will approach the four-day criterium series as a "warm up" and hit out in preparation for the 183.6km national road race.

"I am racing with the Avanti IsoWhey team so I am going to play it by ear and see what the director has to say. I am not really going to have any goals or ambitions right now as I am not sure what the plans are," he said of the races, adding that enjoys reuniting with the team that launched his professional cycling career. "It's great, I love to try and help out the team and try and support them whenever I can because they are the reason I am cycling. I wouldn't be where I am without them."

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Team Illuminate signs Australian U23 road race and time trial champion Miles Scotson

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Team Illuminate, formerly Airgas-Safeway, announced this week that it has signed Australian U23 time trial and road race champion Miles Scotson and his younger brother Callum.

The US Continental team also signed former Silber Pro Cycling rider Alexander Ray of New Zealand, along with US riders Griffin Easter, Connor McCutcheon, Matt Rodrigues and Jason Saltzman. The team previously announced signing Colombian Edwin Avila and Flavio De Luna of Mexico.

Aside from his Australian titles, Miles Scotson, 21, finished seventh at the UCI World Championship U23 time trial in Richmond last September, while Callum Scotson, 19, recently won the Australian Madison title on the track.

“The Scotson brothers are world-class athletes, riders that have the potential to reach the top-level of the sport and we're really proud to have them as part of the team,” said Team Illuminate General Manager Chris Johnson.

“I had a couple good Skype conversations with Miles and we connected over our shared passion for the sport,” Johnson said. “He has a great attitude and I believe he will be a real contender in many of the races we're targeting. Callum is younger, but no less talented. It is just going to be fun to have them both on the team.”

Miles Scotson said he will be targeting results in some of the biggest US races next year.

“I have visited America twice now, in 2014 for a training camp with the Australian national track team and then again this year for the world championships in Richmond,” he said. "It’s going to be a new atmosphere joining an American team, but I think I have put myself in a team and group where I can have fun and grow as an athlete and person.”

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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Van Garderen, Dennis and Phinney test TT machines in wind tunnel - Gallery

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BMC Racing's Tejay van Garderen, Taylor Phinney and Rohan Dennis visited the San Diego Low Speed Wind Tunnel last month to fine tune their time trial positions while testing their bikes and the benefits of different clothing options.

Working in collaboration with title sponsor, bike manufacturer BMC and Pearl Izumi, the trio of riders, staff and technicians worked on position analysis, tested prototype skinsuits and looked at the differences between traditional jersey and shorts combinations compared with speed jersey and shorts as well as race kits and traditional TT skinsuits.

The idea behind the collaboration was to increase rider comfort while gaining a few watts heading into the 2016 season.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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