Banned: A list of what the UCI loves to hate

Are there any governing bodies in world sport that get a good rep? FIFA's corruption is the subject of films and documentaries, the FIA run accused of fiddling their competitions for better Netflix drama, the RFU are suggested to be fiddling whilst the sport burns around them, with World Rugby ignoring massive concussion problems, and...

Pogacar’s One Week Stage Race Chase

Having already signalled his intent to, as borrowed from Philippe Gilbert, "Strive for Five" and win all five monuments across his career, Tadej Pogacar has signalled a new goal - triumphing in all seven of the top level week long stage races. He hasn't signalled his desire to win all three Grand Tours yet, but...

A brief history of Time Trial helmets

A giant yellow M&M, a shark's head, Darth Vader's visor - just some of the interpretations of the new Jumbo-Vis-sorry, Visma-Lease a Bike (that's going to take a while) helmet from Giro, the 39 year old American company who produced what is officially known as the Aerohead II. Within a week, they'd redefined what people...

Who has spent the least time in the Tour de France malliot jaune?

We all know the big stats - that Eddy Merckx leads the way with having recorded 111 stages in the Tour de France leader's jersey, the malliot jaune. We know that Lance Armstrong would be second on 83 stages if he hadn't been expunged from the official records, and that his place is instead inhabited...

Loops and Transfers: The Increasing Fragmentation of the Grand Tours

Comparing the maps of the modern and early Tours de France show an impressive disparity. Those early 20th century routes are essentially full laps of France, taking in the edges of the hexagon and starting and finishing each of the mammoth stages in the same host cities. The Tour Started and finished in the capital Paris...

The Scrabble Test – are team names getting longer and more complex?

If you're a cycling commentator, things are about to get more complex in 2024. It's going to tricky enough remembering to call Jumbo-Visma Visma-Lease-a-bike, and then you've got to remember that the long time Arkea-Samsic are now Arkea-B&B Hotels. Then, when you've strained your gray matter not to mess those up, you've got to wrap...

2024 Cycling Jerseys

After a season where we thought we might have to combine the colours of Soudal and Jumbo with all the accompanying wishful concepts, and wondered how Arkea red would go with B&B Hotels green, we finally have the first official team kits starting to come out for the 2024 season. As usual, we'll update this...

Goodbye, the ProTour ever-presents – and who are the longest-serving riders?

2024 will mark the first season where no rider from the original 2005 intake of the ProTour will be still be riding in its successor competition, the WorldTour. Similarly, the last couple of weeks have seen Geraint Thomas extend his Ineos contract till 2025, meaning he'll have served 16 seasons on the British team by...

Height and Weight – Changing Trends in the Pro/WorldTour

Rugby famously advertises itself as a "game for all sizes", which is fast becoming a desire rather than a reality. A few years ago, the RugbyPass website put together a "World under-85kg XV", which was notable for two reasons. Firstly, the subtitle indicating that this was the "lightest" team, and thus that 85kg was somewhat...

2023 – Which Records have been Achieved?

2023 has been quite an impressive year in terms of cycling history, so to confirm it, here's (probably not exhaustive) list of achievements that have been made this year, and whether they "stand-alone" as new, unprecedented feats, or are mere replicas of what has come before. Hopefully Cillian Kelly doesn't prove me wrong. One team...