05/16/12

Tour of Cali on Sky

Sky Sports are showing highlights from this week’s Tour of California. The Giro it ain’t but it’s better than nothing.

Peter Sagan (Liquigas) is dominating the race so far, having won the first three stages. It never looks good for a race when one guy appears to be able to win at will, but then there are plenty of well-documented niggles about this Tour that just don’t sit right.

It’s sponsored by Amgen, who make EPO. There will be no testing for the UCI biological passport, again. And only aging, balding Americans seem to win it.

I’m not a fan, but at least it’s on TV.

05/6/12

Naff joke

Two things before I get into this.

1. I accept cyclists are a little oversensitive  when criticized, taking to social media to rage en masse at perceived insult and insulter. Often we have a reason to be pissed off, but a sense of humour wouldn’t go amiss now and again.

2. Roadcycling.co.nz is a good website, both informative and comprehensive. Long may it continue, especially because it has printed my press releases from time to time.

But this recent Facebook post from Roadcycling.co.nz is just a smidge too annoying to ignore.

Firstly, there’s an apostrophe missing in “it’s”.

Secondly as if cyclists haven’t got enough detractors, we’re bagging ourselves. Yes, it’s a joke, but why perpetuate the idea that road, track, mtb, bike poloists, commuters are separate cliques? There are other targets we should take the mickey out of: triathletes for example.

Incidentally, I ride road and track, I ride for both teams as it were. I guess that makes me a bi-cyclist.

05/2/12

Centre Champs

A magnificently confusing result sheet from the road racing at Wellington Centre Road Championships is on the PNP website, along with a marginally less confusing time trial one.

The Club Road National champs are this weekend in the Hawkes Bay. BikeNZ have a pretty neat round up on their site and the start list is packed with class. The road circuit has a fair amount of climbing, 312m per lap to be precise. That’s gonna hurt a few laps in.

04/28/12

Get out of the damn car!

For years Canvas Magazine, the colour pullout that comes with the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, has reviewed brunch at a cafe of choice. In it, a dahhhling author opines about the consistency of the hollandaise sauce or speed in which their double-trim latte was delivered. One of the points they rate the joint on is how easy it was to get parking – if it was hard for the reviewer to find a spot big enough for their SUV, it counts as a minus.

OK, seriously, is driving the only acceptable mode of transport for getting to a cafe? How about walking for a change, or using a bike? Maybe there is a bus stop outside the door or perhaps a train station down the road?

Stop being so lazy and get out of the damn car!

04/24/12

Dromes to come

There are currently three new velodromes being built or in the planning phase in the North Island, which is fantastic for track cycling in New Zealand. The idea of a cycle safety area in the middle of the Nelson one is great, and New Plymouth’s track will have a circuit round the outside. Not only that, the view from the New Plymouth velodrome looks awesome, although being right next to the sea I can imagine it may catch the wind a bit.

 

04/23/12

Tour of New Zealand

Totally missed this but the Tour of New Zealand finished yesterday with a criterium around Parliament in Wellington. Still not sure if this is intended as a race, sportive or tourism advert but the concept is unique. Simultaneous races in the South and North Islands which meet in the middle in Wellington. It must have been a nightmare but the organisers pulled it off, generating a bunch of media coverage too.

04/23/12

With whom should the sympathy lie in “Trail Rage” case?

Aaron Dalton appeared in front of Christchurch’s District Court today, Monday April 23, and pled guilty to assaulting fellow mountain biker Jordan Brizzell. Brizzell’s GoPro video of Dalton smacking him around after he asked Dalton to move out of the way on the Flying Nun trail ‘went viral’ as the papers say.

It led to Dalton being identified and charged, and according to his lawyer, Jonathan Eaton, humiliated. The court appearance was top story on both nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz and both carried quotes from Eaton wondering if the case really was newsworthy.

Does Dalton deserve some sympathy? He surely didn’t realize it would become national news, despite the fact that he must have noticed Brizzell’s GoPro mounted on his helmet (every chump seems to ride around with one these days). However, he didn’t need to lash out – he was obviously creeping along slower than Brizzell.

As for Brizzell, well he has got justice. But at the same time he hasn’t helped cycling’s image in the media, and I’m sure even he didn’t want this much publicity. So who wins? GoPro probably. Since the camera captured the evidence so neatly it could be used in other scenarios too, for example getting shite driving on film and catching road rage drivers.

04/22/12

Liege notes

There’s something so unsatisfying about an Astana rider winning something? Not sure entirely why that is but perhaps it’s because over the years they’ve had more than their fair share of unsavoury characters on their roster. So while Astana pro Maxim Iglinsky’s win in yesterday’s Liege Bastogne Liege was impressive and gripping, it left me wishing that Vincenzo Nibali had held on or that, well, a non-turquoise-clad rider had crossed the line first. It should be mentioned that Iglinsky has never received any kind of sanction during his career as far as I can find.

As for Philippe Gilbert, the knocking he’s received for not winning everything like he did last year are just ridiculous. His 2011 season was a once in a lifetime achievement and it’s unfair to expect a repetition. He’ll win races in 2012 and for the next few years, just not everything in one go.

04/22/12

Out with the old

So the old Cycle-Wire page is gone. Along with a pal, I sent out a weekly digested cycling news email to subscribers for a few years back in 2005-06. Unfortunately we made crap all money out of it and weren’t able to put the time in to build up our readership.

The page has been dormant ever since but now I’m back living in Wellington, NZ and even though I’ve got less time for mucking around on the internet than before, I’m going to try and maintain this website as a blog.

Opinion, results and other cycling related stuff will go up, with a focus on the Wellington scene.

Got something people should know about? Drop me a line at news@cycle-wire.com.

Chur!