UCI to host inaugural Women’s Teams Seminar.

The UCI announced Wednesday that it will host a Women’s Teams Seminar in conjunction with the Strade Bianche race to be held March 7.

UCI Women’s Commission president Tracey Gaudry said it was fitting that the UCI organize its first UCI Women’s Teams Seminar to coincide with the inaugural women’s Strade Bianche. The seminar, to which all 38 UCI women’s teams will be invited, will be held March 8 in Siena, Italy.

“After the launch of La Course by Le Tour last year, this is another welcome step forward for women’s cycling,” said Gaudry. “The UCI is currently working on a project to further develop women’s road cycling over the coming years, and we are very pleased to have the support of different major organizers. As president of the Women’s Commission and also as a former athlete, I appreciate how important this is.”

An American Junior Goes to Tabor Ranked Second in the World: Gage Hecht Pre-Worlds Interview.

American cyclocross viewers who have only kept up with the Elite races this season might think that the big focus of the year is the 11-nationals-winning Katie Compton who stood on the overall podium for the World Cup, or Jeremy Powers’ dramatic season to get front row call-ups at the big races and finish with a top ten in the overall World Cup standings. With both athletes performing at a big level, there will certainly be high expectations for the United States.

However, as Saturday morning rolls around, another American will take the stage, and ever since he started competing in Europe this season, he’s been taking the cyclocross community by storm.

That rider’s name is Gage Hecht: the current 17-18 Junior National Champion and an international sensation.

Evelyn Stevens Embarks on the Road to Richmond.

With a gold medal in the team time trial and a bronze in the individual time trial at World Championships last year, Evelyn Stevens looks poised to snag some hardware, if not a rainbow jersey, on home turf in 2015.

After spending five years with Velocio Sports, as the team transitioned from HTC-Highroad to Specialized-lululemon, Stevens has made the jump to the Netherlands-based Boels-Dolmans team.

We sat down with Stevens at her team presentation in Efteling, the Netherlands, about her season, her new team, and her tricks of the trade.

Teams lining up to sign Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria.

The strength to beat Mark Cavendish, the ability to bring points, and the advantage of youth has teams lining up outside Fernando Gaviria’s door. Ag2r-La Mondiale and Etixx-Quick-Step, the latter being Cavendish’s team, reportedly have already spoken with the 20-year-old Colombian about his 2015 plans.

“I’m dreaming of racing the Tour de France and racing more on the road,” Gaviria told Ciclismo Internacional.

“I’m going to have to wait until next year because I want to fulfill my commitment with team Coldeportes.”

Froome: The Tour is my only goal.

Chris Froome has told Cycling Weekly that he doesn’t expect to come out all guns blazing in the 2015 season in the early months and that he is fully focussed on winning the Tour de France.

“I’m not necessarily looking to go out there in February winning anything but if I’m going well enough, and I’m able to pick up one or two results along the way, then great,” he says. “But obviously keeping in mind that the main goal is going really well at the end of June.”

2014-15 Races & Results.

UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships - Jan 31 (Races),

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Feb 1 (Race),

Dubai Tour 2015 - Feb 4-7 (Stages),

Giro d'Italia 2015 - May 9-31 (Stages),

Tour de France 2015 - July 4-26 (Stages),

Santos Tour Down Under 2015 - Jan 18-25 (Results),

Tour de San Luis 2015 - Jan 19-25 (Results),

Santos Women's Tour 2015 - Jan 17-20 (Results),

UCI Road World Championship 2014 - Sept 20-27 (Results),

Vuelta a España 2014 - Aug 23-Sept 14 (Results),

Tour de France 2014  - July 5-27 (Results),

Giro d'Italia 2014 - May 9 - June 1 (Results),

More ...

Stybar previews cyclo-cross Worlds.

Zdenek Stybar won’t be present at the the cyclocross world championships in Tabor on Sunday. After he was forced to cancel his participation as a rider, Stybar will now also skip his job as a commentator for Czech Television. "If I go to Tabor, I will lose four or five days in my preparation and the spring classics are rapidly approaching.”

Five years ago, Stybar took his first Worlds title in Tabor. This year the Worlds will again take place in his home country.

"It will be a very exciting race," Stybar told Sporza. "It's snowing at the moment and that always provides special races. Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Meeusen ride well on show and Kevin Pauwels always has a good plan.
 ..

Valverde kicks off 2015 race season in Mallorca.

Alejandro Valverde, who finished 2014 at the top of the UCI WorldTour rankings, will start his season Thursday in Mallorca, Spain at the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca. The 34-year-old will be joined by other notables, such as Lotto-Soudal’s André Greipel.

“It would be nice to get our first victory of the season in Mallorca,” said Lotto-Soudal sports director Bart Leysen. “The riders know the Spanish roads well because of their training camps. The first and last day are suited for our sprinters André Greipel and Jens Debusschere.

Greipel didn’t start his season, for the first time in seven years, in the Tour Down Under. So he is extremely motivated to get his first victory of the season in Mallorca.”

New lightweight solid tires hit UK.

The UK launch of the Tannus solid tires last year caused quite a stir on the Cycling Weekly website, much more than expected giving that this is a technology which has been knocking about for the best part of 130 years. Now the Korean company is bringing its lightweight solid tire to the UK, with the Aither 1.1 set to launch next month at the London Bike Show.

Tannus claim that its new model is just as robust as the original Aither 1.0, meaning it should be good for 9,000 kilometers without losing more than 1.5mm of tread. It’s this incredible longevity as well as the incredible convenience of never puncturing that should go some way to justify the big price-tag.

Look 795 Aerolight claims to be “most aerodynamic bike ever.”

There were quite a few bikes turning heads when we visited the Bike Place show this week, none more so than the striking design of the new Look 795 Aerolight, a new frame for 2015 that takes integrated components to a whole new level.

In fact Look is saying that the 795 Aerolight, the heir apparent to the Look 675 and the subject of ten years of research and development, is the most aerodynamic road bike ever made.

A big claim indeed, but on looks alone its easy to see why the high-end French brand is so confident.

Changing the Business Model: Rethinking pro cycling’s governance.

Professional road cycling has evolved slowly over the past hundred years. The current structure of major racing events and top team competition fell into place rather haphazardly over many decades, and as a result of changing economic and nationalistic factors in Western Europe. Accordingly, evolution of the sport’s governance has also been somewhat bumpy and arbitrary.

Reforms and decisions that took place in the 1980s and 1990s largely shaped today’s playing field. The calendar has expanded. The traditional cycling nations of Western Europe have seen their dominance diminished with the globalization of the peloton. Sponsors have rewritten the rules by which the sport is financed.

A frequent criticism of pro cycling is that there is insufficient strategic thinking by the leadership of the sport, and a lack of a vision of what the sport should look like in five, 10, or 20 years’ time.

Challenge Mallorca preview.

The waiting time is finally over! Tomorrow the European cycling season kicks off when the riders head out for the first race in the four-day Challenge Mallorca race series. The four races may be mostly about preparation but their mix of climbing and sprints offer everybody a chance to take the pressure off early in the season by opening the account right from the beginning.

One of the most popular preparation events, the four-day race series Challenge Mallorca will be held one week earlier than usual and so marks the start of the European season which has traditionally been opened at the GP d’Ouverture la Marseillaise in France.

At this time of the year, Europe is really not suited to bike racing but the island of Mallorca usually offers reasonable conditions for riders to get their season underway with a challenging mix of four one-day races that offers a bit for everyone.

Capital Absence.

Roma Maxima has fallen off the calendar for 2015. It was one of the few races left in a capital city. France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands are all seen as cycling’s heartlands but all suffer from a dwindling if not total absence of pro racing in their capital cities. Of the three grand tours last year only the Tour de France visited its capital city.

Various national capitals do have a bike race but that’s it, often just one pro race a year if they’re lucky. Yet these are the biggest cities with ready audiences only the sport stays away for the rest of the year. This is a problem as the sport needs sponsors and its absence from major cities implies a lack of visibility in the very places where decisions are taken, views are formed and deals are signed.

van Garderen confident he can improve on Tour result.

Despite lamenting the lack of time trial kilometers at the Tour de France this season, Tejay van Garderen has told PEZ Cycling that he still has a good chance of bettering his fifth place from the 2012 and 2014 seasons.

“I’ve taken a look at the parcours, it’s a good one and I do like it. I do think it’s a pity that there is no proper time trial. Christian Prudhomme was quoted saying that “the winner of the Tour should be the most complete rider” which is why he put in the stages in the Ardennes and the stage on the cobbles and the big mountains, which I agree with.

The Tour de France winner should be a complete rider, but I think he’s missing one key element, to make it a truly complete rider who wins. But that being said I think there are plenty of chances that we can take time on some of those pure climbers. Some of those crosswind days, the cobble stones and having the team around me to help shepherd me through some of those hectic days, that can be an advantage to me.”

Wants to win Tour of Oman on way to Tour de France title defense ...

Nibali headlines formidable line-up for Tour of Oman.

The winner of the 2014 Tour de France Vincenzo Nibali tops the list of the favorites ahead of the coming Tour of Oman (February 17-22). He'll take part in the event for the fourth time in a row and doesn't hide his ambition to leave Muscat with another win under his belt.

To be held for the sixth time, the Tour of Oman has the incredible record of being the only event out of Europe to have welcomed the past six winners of the Tour de France.

Following the path of Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali will make his way to the sultanate after being awarded the yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysées in Paris last July but it won't be anything new to him. He hasn't missed any Tour of Oman since he first took part in it in 2012 and won stage 5 atop Jabal Al Akhdar (Green Mountain).

That's where he kind of re-launched his career after one year and half year without any victory.

Sean Kelly: “I’m concerned about the Irish scene; it’s not healthy at all.”

Sean Kelly has voiced his concern about the state of racing in the country, saying the situation is “not healthy”.

The Irish cycling legend says the numbers competing at junior level are not conducive to producing more quality riders, while he also believes the racing calendar needs a revamp.

“I’d be concerned looking at the scene in Ireland,” he said.

“If you look at the juniors at the moment; who have we got? O’Loughlin? Dunbar is now gone. Outside of that? Who is there?

“Back in the mid-1980s you had bunches of 200 in the Junior Tour.

Sports nutrition supplements : untangling the science and the hype.

For as long as competitive cycling has been around, riders have been looking for ways to improve their performance, to gain an edge over their competitors.

One popular method is the use of sports nutrition supplements. In this first part of a two-part series, sports nutritionist Alan McCubbin takes us through the life-cycle of sports nutrition supplements, from initial research to marketing and explains the role that science does and doesn't play in the process.

Pat McQuaid on losing his Olympic job, Astana, his future, Irish cycling.

Former UCI president Pat McQuaid says he did not get the credit he deserved for his role in fighting doping and helping grow the sport.

He added that he misses not being involved, and by not being the governing body’s top man he believes Ireland is at a major disadvantage.

In an extensive sit-down with stickybottle in Spain last week where the Irishman was a guest at the An Post Chainreaction team’s training camp, McQuaid opened up firstly about what it’s like being outside the corridors of power, having served eight years as President, from 2005 to 2013.

“I do miss it certainly,” he confessed.

“I did love being involved at the level I was at, but whatever level I was at I loved it.

Pat McQuaid: Lance Armstrong 'a scapegoat'.

Daily Distractions.

Lee’s Lowdown: Cycling In The Smog.

Three-time Irish Olympian brands Lance Armstrong "self-serving" over latest doping comments.

Three-time Irish National Road Race champion David McCann has described comments from Lance Armstrong that he would "probably" dope again if he went back to the start of his career as self-serving.

Speaking at the launch of the An Post Rás, McCann told Independent.ie that Armstrong was wrong in saying that 'everyone' was doping at the time to justify his comments.

"I think it’s in his interest to believe that everyone else was doing it. I can agree that a lot of them were doing it but I wasn’t doing it," said McCann, who finished 11th at  the World Championships Elite Time Trial in 2009.

Italian police to carry out anti-doping controls in Italy.

The Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has announced that it will work with police from the Nuclei Antisofisticazione e Sanità (NAS) to carry out its anti-doping testing, especially out of competition surprise testing.

The NAS is responsible for public health and have often played a key role in doping investigations in sport and especially cycling, however it appears to be the first time a police force, and in this case part of the Italian military, has been directly responsible and operational in carrying out anti-doping controls.

Forget Lance Armstrong, the next big cycling doper could be your dad.

The Gran Fondo New York bicycle race is the biggest mass-participation event of its kind in the state, a 160km run between Manhattan and Bear Mountain. In May 2012 the organizers introduced drug testing.

With thousands of entrants, this expensive process was limited to a handful of riders. Of those, two came back positive for EPO (erythropoietin), a blood-boosting hormone largely associated with the most elite professional end of the sport. Both riders were banned for two years.

That two amateurs were mimicking the habits of professional competitors such as Lance Armstrong, who recently said he would dope again in the same circumstances, could be understandable if they were on the path to potential career rewards.

Letter from the Editor: Welcome to Ella.

’m incredibly grateful to share the labor of love that is Ella with all you today. It’s both a beginning and an end – as the behind-the-scenes work that we’ve been tirelessly plugging away at to prepare for launch begins to die down and the demands of running a live website with a real audience become a reality.

When I published my first Letter from the Editor two months ago, many of you piped up with questions in the comments section. I want to use this letter as an opportunity to answer some of the queries raised.

Many of you expressed concerns about the need for a women’s specific site, wondering why this content wouldn’t simply be housed on the main site.

All the women’s cycling content will live on the CyclingTips website under women’s cycling, and any content created for Ella that we imagine will have a broader appeal beyond our female audience will also be included in the news or feature sections.

A ride with Shimano neutral service at the 2015 Tour Down Under.

Unless you're paying close attention, you're unlikely to spot neutral service vehicles while watching bike races on TV. Their job is to stay out of the way until needed, and when they are needed their job is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. It's a largely thankless task, but one that the people working in neutral service thoroughly enjoy.

CyclingTips editor Matt de Neef went behind the scenes with Shimano neutral service on stage 3 of this year's Santos Tour Down Under and put together a video and report.

Find your approach: Eight ways to get in solid winter training.

Weather, daylight, family, or work — each of us have different constraints on our winter riding schedule. But according to Elle Anderson, a rising cyclocross star with the Kalas-NNOF team, who also works for Strava, all of these factors shouldn’t be seen as limitations.

“[They] are just a part of my life, and there are plenty of ways to approach it,” she said. Here are some suggestions on how to apply the principles of sufficient stress, doing the right stress, and timing, to find your best approach to winter training.

Kask launches limited edition Dubai Tour Protone helmet.

A limited run of 333 have been created. Why 333? Apparently, the Crown Prince of Dubai’s favorite number is 3. It is understood he will been awarded helmet 003 at the opening ceremony at the start of the race.

We first saw the Protone worn by Team Sky riders at the 2014 Tour de France and it will be available to buy from February.

Technical FAQ: Cracked carbon seatposts and more.