The Route De France Féminine is the stage race that acts as a descendant to the Tour de France Féminin, has been cancelled for the second year as well. This is the second time the race has been cancelled in a row after the removal of a department, which was about to host two staged of the race among the six stages.
The fourth and final tour of Beijing which possessed the world tour status came to an end on Tuesday, 14th October. Philippe Gilbert came first in the five day long race. Dan Martin got the second place and Esteban Chaves finished 9 seconds after him.
The UCI, to the surprise of many decided to end the Tour of Beijing after its four year license expired last month.
Tony Martin of Omega Pharma won the first two Tour of Beijing in 2011 and 2012 and in 2013 Benat Intxausti from Spain won the race. Philippe Gilbert from Belgium won the final Tour of Beijing that took place this year. Gilbert said that it was a great experience for him and he is happy because his name will be among the list of the winners of the race. To him, the entire experience was a very special one.
According to the organizers, they had to face difficulties after Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde decided not to participate in the race. But according to the director of Global Cycling Promotion, Alain Rumpf, their journey from 2011 has been an incredible one and due to the concerted effort of everyone involved they have been able to contribute a lot to global cycling as well as cycling in China.
He further added that the only World Tour ever held in Asia has been able to make a connection with the cycling enthusiasts and experts there. He also said that social media helped greatly in the matter of popularizing the event throughout the world and the event was televised in every continent. He also expressed hope that this event would help cycling grow to a much bigger level in China.
The UCI previously confirmed that excepting the removal of Tour of Beijing, there are no major changes in the schedule of 2015 World Tour. The next year’s world tour starts with Santos Tour Down Under in Australia scheduled to be held in January and end with Giro di Lombardia in October.
The Natchez trace has been one of the biggest concerns for the cycling authorities. It is a trace that follows throughout the National Park and later it came in picture that it was a National park trace and not an interstate road which can allow many on goers by. The cyclers have been under the scanner from quite a long period of time and this year the forum of the Natchez will be discussing all the security concern related to security concerns of the trace. The forum will be an open forum where one can discuss the points which can be done in order to increase the security of the trace. There are complains that while driving a cyclist can distract the road and hence can lead to accidents. There are other security concerns for the cyclists as they claimed that cycling in the trace is surely loved by them but it is not concerned to be a safer place to ride because of the constant traffic present over there. The drivers make it more dangerous and thus it results into a risky path to ride freely.
The trace officials will be setting up a new public forum in order to discuss the ways which can be used in setting up the rules of making this trace safer for the cyclers who want to ride in the trace. This way the people can come up with a common idea in making the trace safe. This forum will be having two sessions that is a morning session and an evening session so that more people can come to the forum and share some great ideas for making the beautiful trail safer for all kinds of driver. It will be an interesting to see what the outcome of this public forum is.
A new and prosperous venue for the bike trails in mountains of Northern Ireland is considered potential by the District Council of Fermanagh who is the Chairman. The strategy is of 10 years in the Province of the biking in mountains.
The site has been opened just 18 months with centres across Davagh Forest, Castlewellan, Blessingbourne and Rostrevor. In Belfast, Demesne has been seen and visited over 120,000 number of times. Ferris, the outdoor recreation director at the launch of 10 years strategy has the power of harnessing and the phase of combination. The ride to Fermanagh is also considered to be long. The reputation of the Northern Ireland is considered as superb for bike destination in the mountains.
In other places of the Northern Ireland the bike trails in the mountains is considered very successful. In terms of the map of biking, Northern Ireland is placed in it. But the strategy does not rest on the laurels rather it focuses on the growth of future and harnessing the potential of the UK which is hailed as activity centre and adventurous place.
The localities do enjoy the class trails and this has been the strategy of with such an aim. The economy will also be boosted up with the strategy. Reward of 25 million euro on yearly basis will be achieved by direct biking in the mountains which will also boost up the hospitality and sector of tourism in the Lakelands throughout Fermanagh. The forest will breathe a new life with facilities of recreation for both the visitors as well as the population locally.
The objectives are made to be fulfilled by the strategy made by the organisers with sincerity and utmost respect. The list has been outlined with numerous plans.
The spectator selfie trend seems to be quite a menace for the participant riders of Tour de France 2014 and Geraint Thomas is clearly disgusted with it. The Sky rider, even though highly thrilled by his experiences since the start of the prestigious tour at Yorkshire yet could not help expressing his irritation with selfie maniacs along the track.
In fact, Thomas feels “selfies” constitute quite a worrying fashion for the professional riders while they are competing along the trails.
The 28-year-old Cardiff rider was one among the 3 Britons who got to the 2nd stage of the world’s most championed cycling tournament, post Mark Cavendish’s withdrawal from the race. While approached on his feelings to take part in the Tour he stressed on a goosebump-like experience. “It was kind of unbelievable sometimes”, remarked Thomas. I had goosebumps while riding towards Holme Moss & it was fantastic.”
However, he also emphasized about the selfie nuisance that disturbed him & other riders along the way.
“ It was sort of dodgy sometimes for sure. The worst bit is when spectators start posing with their back facing peloton for the selfies. There were some of them. They did not see us rushing & they kept on standing right on the track & its dodgy”, the Team Sky rider continued.
“It’s like a new pain. The selfie people just kept on standing on the gutter. They did not realize that the riders need to utilize every aspect of the cycling track. We are many in number & we use each inches of the road. If you are standing before peloton you would be able to view them but then if you one is riding two back, he can almost hit them”.
“If you are looking to do that, sit on a tree. People do not fathom that how fast we need to move & how close we could get.”
Australian cyclist Cadel Evans quit the Tirreno-Adriatico even though there was one whole stage remaining to be completed in order to focus on bigger goals in the near future. The Australian star was frustrated by hus poor run of form and it was a sensible decision to quit so that he can concentrate on his upcoming endeavour.
Cadel Evans was on the 70th spot and almost half an hour down from the ultimate winner Alberto Contador when they headed into the final stage time trial in the San Benedetto del Tronto on Tuesday. BMC Racing Team did not give any official reason for the withdrawal of the cyclist, but later he revealed that he will be returning to his home in Switzerland where he will resume his practice and will work hard towards his ultimate goal – the Giro d’Italia which will be starting in May.
The start of the year was quite fruitful for Cadel Evans as he finished second in the Tour Down Under, but after that a serious dip has occurred in his form and it is being considered to be a major reason behind his untimely withdrawal. Evans has been struggling in the rocky tracks of the Tirreno-Adriatico, and he ended up losing by more than almost 25 minutes to Contador over this weekend.
Compatriot Richie Porte also pulled out of this race just ahead of the fifth stage citing health issues, which further boasted Contador’s victory and the race became quite one sided after that.
Cadel Evans has apologized to his fans and has said that he will be concentrating on the Giro d’Italia to be held in Italy late this year rather than the Tour de France and he has vowed to come back strongly in the tournament with a far better performance than this.
A pedestrian and cycling route will be extended and the road crossings will be improved. This is all a part of the planning that is being done to revamp the city centre junctions. The work will be done by the Leicester City Council and it will be carried out ay certain junctions such as Welford Place, Newarke Street and Pocklingtons Walk.
The main reason why this is being done is because when the tournament starts it becomes difficult for people to use the roads for their daily life and this has been a complaint for years. So this year they have finally decided to manage the cycling route along with the pedestrian route so that no one faces any kind of difficulty while travelling. With this revamping work it is expected that the area will be more accessible for both the pedestrians and also for the cyclists.
This is a huge project that has been started this year and the approximate cost to complete this project will be £550,000. The fund for such a huge amount of money will come from the Department of Transport and the work has already started for this huge project. One of the first things that will be done is the pavements and railings will be removed so that the area is more open to people and the riders.
Along with this there will be a new toucan crossing which will be installed. Apart from this one of the zebra crossings that is already there at Welford Road and Welford Place will be removed and a bus stop at Welford Place will also not be there after the renovation. The junctions of all these roads will be resurfaced so that the riders do not have any problem and there are no accidents. Traffics on these roads will be closed when the work is being done.
CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) has reportedly overturned UCI’s controversial rules that blocked points consideration for comeback riders post dope suspensions.
The highly debated case was initiated by Benjamin Riis, the owner of Saxo Tinkoff. Riss was in serious protest against UCI’s non approval to Contador’s points for 2 years post the termination of his suspension. The team owner argued that this very decision from UCI is akin to an extra penalty imposed on the cyclists, which is completely unreasonable. As a result of the point-block, Alberto’s team was kept outside the 15 top ranking squads the previous year & had to undergo a nerve-wracking battle to come up with a stand in WorldTour 2013.
In the recent years, UCI determined teams’ WorldTour status on the basis of team points ranks. The points ruling was viewed to work as the curb on high p[profile teams that would prevent them from signing up the banned cyclists after their return.
Riis was long contemplating about initiating the case and Aberto’s situation acted as the catalyst that finally prompted him to press the case formally. “Contador is an extremely pricey rider for a team & thus inability to earn points despite his presence gets burdensome for the team to maintain its status in WorldTour”, stated Riis. “I do understand UCI’s stand yet I feel that we need to show that the ruling has to be altered.”
Riis has been open about UCI’s decision since last year. In 2012 July, the star team owner stressed that UCI was simply wasting time. “UCI follows their own vested interest while making the decisions. It would have been better had they brought more good works for cycling, instead of fighting the teams over different issues”, claimed Riis while elaborating on his opinion about UCI & its ruling.
