Deignan: Froome still has the hunger.

Team Sky rider Philip Deignan has said that Chris Froome is determined to get back to the top of the sport, with the Irishman confirming that the 2013 Tour de France winner has used the disappointments of 2014 to fuel his drive for this year’s campaign.

The Briton crashed out of last year’s Tour, losing the chance to defend his title, and then went on to be beaten by arch-rival Alberto Contador in the Vuelta a España.

Although he was second overall there, Froome was disappointed not to finish up in the red jersey of race leader and is intent on getting back to the GC summit in this July’s Tour.

Deignan backed Froome in the Vuelta and will potentially be part of the Sky team for this year’s Tour. He seems impressed by what he has seen thus far.

Cancellara ready to turn back the clock at Milan-San Remo.

The sprinters traditionally dominate Milan-San Remo but Fabian Cancellara is again determined to have his say, despite turning 34 on Wednesday.

Cancellara has been targeting the spring Classics since 2004 but it would be wrong to think he is past his best. Indeed he had his best winter in many years and is confident he will have yet another strong spring Classics campaign, starting on Sunday.

10 ways to win Milan-San Remo.

Like grunge music and beat poetry, Milan-San Remo is seemingly easy to ride but exceedingly difficult to master. The opening Monument of the year offers a challenge quite unlike any other in cycling: the obvious obstacles are hardly insurmountable yet the pitfalls are constant.

The white knuckle drama of the final 20 kilometers lends to the perception that La Primavera is a straightforward shoot-out between attackers and sprinters, but such a description does scant justice to the subtlety of the race. Ahead of this weekend’s latest installment, Cyclingnews looks back at ten different ways in which the race has been won over the years.

How Milan-San Remo was won.

Although it is known as the ‘sprinters’ classic’, the fastmen don’t always have it their own way – five editions in the past decade have produced a winner from a late escape or attack on the flashpoint of the Poggio climb, which this year peaks at just 5.5km from the finish.

Cycling Weekly takes a look back at past 14 editions of Milan-San Remo see how the final outcome was achieved.

Katusha set to defend Kristoff's Milan-San Remo title.

The Katusha team announced the seven riders who will support Norwegian Alexander Kristoff in his bid to be the first back-to-back champion of Milan-San Remo since Eric Zabel.

Kristoff had but one stage win in the Tour of Oman under his belt when he powered to the sprint victory last year in Sanremo, but so far this year he's racked up five victories: three in Tour of Qatar, one in Oman and a commanding sprint win in the first road stage of Paris-Nice.

2014-15 Races & Results.

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

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

Vuelta a España 2015 - Aug 22-Sept 13 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2015 - Sept 20-27 (Stages),

Nokere Koerse - Mar 18 (Results),

Tirreno-Adriatico - Mar 11-17 (Results),

Paris Nice - Mar 8-15 (Results),

Le Tour de Langkawi - Mar 8-15 (Results),

Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - Mar 6-8 (Results),

Strade Bianche - Mar 7 (Results),

Strade Bianche Women - Mar 7 (Results),

UCI Track World Championships - Feb 18-22 (Results),

UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships - Jan 31-Feb 1 (Results).

More ...

2015 Milan-San Remo LIVE.

2015 Milan-San Remo LIVE Sunday, March 22, Italy.

Race starts at 10:10am CET (5:10am U.S. Eastern)

Finish at around 5:09pm CET (12:09pm U.S. Eastern)

Live video from *1:40pm CET (*8:40am U.S. Eastern).

Nizzolo wins GP Nobili.

Giacomo Nizzolo claimed his first victory of the 2015 season at the GP Nobili. The Italian beat last year’s winner Simone Ponzi, by more than a bike’s length with Marco Haller taking third.

Following a late attack from Alejandro Valverde and Davide Rebellin, the peloton came back together with eight kilometers to the finish. Without a victory for 2015, Cannondale-Garmin took to the front along with Katusha, but once Nizzolo launched his sprint no one could catch him..

Volta a Catalunya 2015 Live Dashboard.

Live Video Streaming and TV Coverage starting Monday, March 23rd.

This race is broadcast live. Check back for 2015 live coverage options.

Nibali looking to ‘drop dead weight’ after Tirreno-Adriatico.

Italian Vincenzo Nibali admitted he is still not in his best form following Tirreno-Adriatico, but as soon as he sheds his “dead weight,” he will be able to win. That could come as soon as Sunday when he leads team Astana in Milano-Sanremo.

“I wasn’t super in Tirreno-Adriatico, but I’m happy nonetheless,” Nibali added. “I had a good block of work in the race, which I’m sure is going to be useful.”

Nibali can be confident because last year he was in the same no-win situation through the end of June when he took home the Italian championship title. A week later, he won the Sheffield stage at the Tour de France and put on the leader’s yellow jersey.

Zipp 202 Firecrest CCL Disc wheels.

BikeRadar verdict: 4.5 out of 5 stars. "You get what you pay for, and these are fast, stable and bombproof."

Boeckmans sprints with ease to victory in Nokere Curonian.

Riders sense a cultural shift on doping.

It declared that the whole Ag2r-La Mondiale team were "determined to advance, true to their values".

"We will not give up," the Frenchman said, surrounded by his team-mates.

The scene was a sharp contrast to the peloton's strike at stage 17 of the 1998 Tour de France in the wake of the Festina affair -- suggesting a cultural shift is finally happening in scandal-ridden cycling.

"The solution is not to keep silent," 34-year-old Dumoulin, who takes pride in "doing his job clean", he told Reuters.

After a UCI-ordered Independent Commission's (CIRC) report into the sport's doping practices suggested cheating was less prevalent but still endemic, several riders offered a different viewpoint.

Vaughters praises meeting between Armstrong and Tygart.

Cannondale-Garmn boss Jonathan Vaughters has praised reports of a meeting between Lance Armstrong and US Anti-doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart, according to a report in the Guardian on Wednesday.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that Armstrong met with Tygart last week near the Denver Airport. Neither Armstrong nor Tygart would confirm the meeting.

While addressing the Tackling Doping in Sport conference in London, Vaughters told the assembled crowd that he doesn't know what the motivations for the meeting were, but he believes it's good news.

Chad Haga: Welcome to the WorldTour.

"Ask a pro about their race schedule and they’ll usually preface the answer with a phrase like, “at the moment I’m scheduled for …” or, “I’m penciled in to race …” because things can change on a dime in this sport.

It’s been a particularly rough spring with injuries and illnesses. Throughout the peloton it seems that guys are falling ill or just falling off their bikes. That’s why teams have deep rosters, though, as sometimes a race like Tirreno-Adriatico must go on without the likes of Marcel Kittel and Chris Froome.

I personally have suffered from the flu and two bouts of stomach bugs this year, and was recently sent flipping over a hedge after a crazy wind gust drove me into the ditch on a training ride. The unpredictability of the sport is why, of the 21 race days I’ve already accumulated, only 13 of them were on my schedule at the start of the year.

Tobias Ludvigsson’s broken wrist resulted in my start at Tirreno instead of Pais Vasco."

Last Chance for The Sprinters.

Sunday’s Milan-Sanremo will use the Cipressa and Poggio climbs. Once a novelty and now a tradition they help spice up the finish, scalable for some sprinters but hard enough to ensure suspense until the very end of the longest one day on the pro calendar.

Over the years the race has added extra climbs to thwart the sprinters and the prospect of the Pompeiana climb looms for 2016. It means this year’s Milan-Sanremo is the last chance for the sprinters to win.

Peter Sagan dismisses Milan-San Remo favorite tag.

Peter Sagan has played down reports that he’s the favorite for Milan-San Remo on Sunday, but will head to the Italian Classic with a strong Tinkoff-Saxo team behind him.

The Slovak, who won the penultimate stage at Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday, is a perennial contender at La Primavera, finishing in the top ten on the last three occasions, but is yet to win one of cycling’s five Monuments.

Such is Sagan’s power on the bike he is one of the few riders in the peloton who could contend in a bunch sprint, such as with his tenth place last year, or if a smaller group breaks away towards the end, like his second-place finish in 2013.

Tinkov puts pressure on Riis for better results.

Never one to hold back when he believes that his team’s performances are not up to scratch, Oleg Tinkov has responded to Tinkoff-Saxo’s lack of early season success by insisting on a significant change within the team’s management structure.

According to L’Équipe, the Russian entrepreneur had a public row with team manager Bjarne Riis during Tirreno-Adriatico. Angered by a haul of just one win since the start of the year, by Alberto Contador’s loss to Nairo Quintana in the mountains at Tirreno and Rafal Majka’s poor showing as team leader at Paris-Nice, Tinkov demanded that the Dane take over the duties as lead directeur sportif and relegate Steven de Jongh to a seat in the second car.

Gesink out of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.

Robert Gesink's interrupted start to 2015 continues with the Dutchman forced to miss the upcoming Ronde Van Zeeland Seaports one-day race and Volta Ciclista a Catalunya due to a knee injury sustained while training.

The LottoNL-Jumbo rider withdrew from Volta ao Algarve last month to to stay at home with his sick son, Bram.

Gesink also missed Tirreno-Adriatico which was one of his goals for the season.

"Gesink will not start the Ronde Van Zeeland Seaports this weekend," read a statement from the team. "The Dutch Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider will miss the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya as well. Gesink has obtained a minor knee injury while training in the build-up to his season, which starts later after a turbulent winter."

Faster than Lance: Richie Porte smashes Madone record again.

Richie Porte has revealed that he smashed the record for the fastest time up the Col de la Madone near Monaco.

The Tasmanian on Team Sky confirmed that he clocked a 29-40 time up the famous col just before the 2014 Tour de France, knocking approximately 30 seconds off his teammate Chris Froome’s time of 30-09.

Froome recently admitted that his time had been beaten, but kept the identity of the new record holder a secret.

Are these headphones safe to wear while cycling?

With many road users suggesting that wearing headphones while riding a bike should be outlawed, the suggestion of listening to music while riding is a controversial one. While at the recent Wearable Technology show in London we came across some new headphones from Damson, which may make riding whilst listening to music safer.

The concern is that when wearing in-ear headphones, you are severely diminishing your sense of hearing, subsequently endangering yourself and others through not being able to hear vehicles or other hazards.

Damson headphones, or ‘Headbones’ to give them their proper name work in an ingenious way to solve this problem.

The blisteringly fast new wave of Hour Record bikes.

Since the Hour Record bike regulations were simplified by the UCI in May 2014, there has been a rash of attempts on the title – and among those leg-burning, all-out efforts, we’ve had some gorgeous bikes to drool over.

So far we’ve covered the machines of Jens Voigt, Matthias Brandle, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Sarah Storey and even Alex Dowsett, whose injury has put his attempt on the back burner.

This year, we’re looking forward to seeing Bradley Wiggins take on the Hour, while Tony Martin has also expressed interest. There’s always the hope that we’ll finally see Fabian Cancellara have a go too.

IOC planning to retest Olympic samples from Beijing and London.

Seven years after the Beijing Olympics were held, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it intends to retest samples from the Games in order to try to catch users of banned substances.

IOC medical director Richard Budgett stated on Wednesday that some retests have already been done from Beijing, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver plus the 2012 London Olympics.

In total hundreds of samples will be re-examined, using the latest testing methods and techniques.

Daily Distractions.

PEZ: EuroTrash Nairo Thursday!

Denise Mueller: Team Effort & Appreciation.

"Behind every successful athlete is a team of people who help make that athlete a success.

Sisterhood of Cycling, the team I race with, won the Best Overall Team for the Women’s Pro/1/2/3 category at the stage race.  The beauty is that we did this through harnessing the variety of talents of many teammates to win as a team.  It was not about the one individual athlete that won a stage, it is the whole team and all the unseen sacrifices by them that made it possible.

Recognizing the hard work of everyone that made this possible is key to a harmonious and strong team.  Thank you team Sisterhood of Cycling!"

Cycling boss to tackle gender inequality.

UCI president Brian Cookson is aiming to address gender equalities in cycling, but knows it will take time and a joined-up approach after the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) report highlighted alarming issues of financial and alleged sexual exploitation of women.

“The Commission was told that women’s cycling had been poorly supported in past years, and was given examples where riders in the sport had been exploited financially and even allegedly sexually,” the CIRC report said.

Gent-Wevelgem unveils 'Podium Misters' for this year's women's race.

With the issue of whether podium hostesses should still be used in cycling in the news recently as a result of what some saw as a sexist publicity poster for this year’s E3 Harelbeke, organizers of Gent Wevelgem have unveiled their ‘Podium Misters’ for the women’s edition of the race.

Greeting the winner with a peck on each cheek a week on Sunday will be Mr Belgium Personality, Fabio Ronti, and Mister Universe Model Belgium, Philip Moers, says the Flanders Classics organization, which added the women’s edition in 2012.

Loren Rowney Is Ready to Move On.

At the end of the Molecaten Drentse 8, Australian rider Loren Rowney of Velocio-SRAM seemed to be sprinting her way into a win, until she suddenly went crashing to the ground.

Further examination of the footage revealed that a spectator had interfered with her sprint. The incident is under investigation, and race organizers say that the spectator involved, who claims the interference was unintentional, is cooperating.

Her crash resulted in a fractured collarbone that required surgery. However, she managed to crawl across the line for seventh.

Giro Rosa 2015 Route Unveiled.

Snippets of details about the route for the Giro Rosa 2015 have been released in recent months but now the details of all ten days of racing have been revealed.

After making completing a prologue and first stage in Slovenia the race returns to Italy, passing east to west across northern Italy over the following eight days to finish with the mountain-top finish of San Domenico di Varzo near the Swiss border. The same climb which has featured on the queen stage of the last two editions of the race.

Cholet Pays de Loire Dames 2015.

It’s been non-stop racing since Omloop het Nieuwsblad at the end of February. The slight lull in the calendar after the Drenthe races comes as a welcome respite for the peloton as the likes of the Trofeo Binda World Cup and Ronde van Vlaanderen loom on the horizon.

The only UCI women’s race this weekend is the Cholet pays de Loire Dames. A rolling circuit course to the south-east of Nantes in France.

Hitec Products will no doubt be buoyed by their first win of the year at last Sunday’s Novilon Eurocup. Lauren Kitchen showed some great early season form and if she can escape stands a great chance leading to the line.

Multi-million euro losses reported for Ponferrada World Championships.

The 2014 World Championships in Ponferrada have left the small Spanish city facing a hefty debt after the event resoundingly failed to return a profit, local media reported this week.

The most conservative estimates now put losses at 2.7 million euros with a worst-case scenario of up to nine million euros.

Prior to the 2014 World’s the city, situated in a remote corner of north-west Spain, had had its fair share of financial headaches getting the World’s off the ground. The total estimated cost for the eight-day event was 11 million euros, nearly half of which - five million euros - was due to be paid to the UCI.

POC Octal with MIPS.

MIPS is in POC but not owned by the helmet maker. Like POC, MIPS is a Swedish company. MIPS is also used by Scott, Lazer and Fox. Recently, BRG Sports, owners of Giro and Bell, made a minority investment in MIPS. BRG says MIPS will continue to hold licensing rights and supply other brands with their impact protection system.

The thin plastic liner, the heart of the Multi-directional Impact Protection System, is held in place by four small bands that are hooked onto anchor points on the vents. The idea is that on impact the main body of the helmet can move independent of the liner. POC and MIPS claim this is especially helpful on side blows as it can reduce some of the twisting action. POC calls that an oblique impact and that it’s the kind of trauma the brain is more sensitive to.

Could roadside concussion tests soon be commonplace in cycling?

Broken bones, pulled muscles and strained tendons. All injuries that you would associate with professional cyclists, but head injuries are often somewhat under the radar.

Collision sports such as rugby union and American football have made strides in recent years in identifying concussions and removing players from the field of play once head injuries have occurred.

Such time consuming tests as carried out in these sports would not be practical to carry out in the hustle and bustle of a professional bike race, but now second tier American cycling team UnitedHealthcare are leading the way in streamlining brain injury tests.

Video: Phil Cavell on the evolution of biomechanics.