Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
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2019 Tour de France | 2019 Giro d'Italia
Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. - Ray Bradbury
Upcoming racing:
- Dec 7: IKO Cyclocross-Essen
- Dec 15: Vlaamse Druivencross
- Dec 22: World Cup, Namur
- Dec 26: World Cup Heusden-Zolder
- Dec 27: Azencross
- Dec 29: Superprestige Diegen
- Jan 1: GP Sven Nys
- Feb 22: GP Leuven
Latest completed racing:
- Nov 17: Flandriencross
- Nov 10: European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 3: Telenet Superprestige Ruddervoorde
- Oct 27: Superprestige Gavere Cyclocross
- Oct 26: Cincinnati Cyclocross
- Oct 17-22: Tour of Guangxi
- Oct 20: Japan Cup
- Oct 20: Chrono des Nations
Mathias Norsgaard signs with Movistar Team, Eduard Prades extends
Here's the team's post:
The Movistar Team announced Tuesday that Mathias Norsgaard (Silkeborg, DEN; 1997), a current member of the Danish ProConti squad Riwal Readynez, will be riding in 2020 for the men’s outfit managed by Eusebio Unzué, which will also feature Edu Prades (Alcanar, Tarragona, ESP; 1987), who has signed an extension with the Blues.
Eduard Prades having a good day at the 2018 Tour of Norway.
Norsgaard (over 2,00m) will be the tallest ever rider to be part of the Abarca Sports organisation, a powerful asset for flat courses and most importantly time trials. Bronze medalist in the 2018 U23 ITT Worlds in Innsbruck -he finished 4th last September at the Yorkshire time trial-, as well as national champ in 2018, Norsgaard also claimed the win at last August’s stage one of the Tour de l’Avenir, with a 120km breakaway he capped off with an excellent, final 30km solo.
Norsgaard, the Movistar Team’s 12th signing for next year, will be no less than the eighth member of the 2020 Movistar Team roster aged 23 years or under, joining Gabriel Cullaigh, Iñigo Elosegui, Juan Diego Alba, Einer Rubio, Johan Jacobs, Juri Hollmann and Matteo Jorgenson.
In turn, Prades has been one of the most remarkable performers for the Telefónica-backed squad in 2019, his maiden season in the WorldTour, with two victories: the overall classification of the Vuelta a Aragón, conquered in the last day of racing after regular results over all three stages, and a stage of the Tour de la Provence. The Catalan also finished 2nd at a stage of the Tour de Pologne and 3rd in the Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta.
A short video history of the Tour de France
Though this video takes the Tour from 1903 to 1964, our revised Tour de France history goes to 1975.
Artyom Zakharov re-ups with Astana
Here's the team's post:
The Kazakh rider Artyom Zakharov will continue representing the Astana colors in the upcoming season of 2020. The appropriate agreement between the team and the rider has been signed recently.
- First of all, I’d like to thank our general manager Alexandr Vinokurov for support and trust in me as professional rider. During all these years I was happy to give my all helping my teammates to win races and it is a big pleasure that in many races I was taking part our leaders won or reached the podium. And I can say that I am ready to continue helping the team in reaching important goals. Of course, I’d like to get my personal results too and I hope in the upcoming season I will have a few chances to show myself. The Olympic Games is the biggest goal and dream for any athlete, and I am doing my best to qualify for Tokyo. It is very important for me to stay in Astana Pro Team during the Olympic year because the team provides me with all the best conditions to train and to prepare for the Games. I would like to thank Samruk-Kazyna for a great support during these years, - said Artyom Zakharov.
Artyom Zakharov (28 years old) is a track specialist and the Olympic hope of Kazakhstan. These weeks Zakharov is fighting on for the ranking points in omnium, trying to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Ahead of the decisive World Cup stages in Hong Kong, Cambridge (New Zeeland) and Brisbane (Australia) Artyom Zakharov is sitting on the 7th place in the UCI Men Elite Omnium ranking.
Zakharov has joined Astana Pro Team in 2016 as a trainee and later, in January 2017 as a full-contract rider. Alongside the multiple successes in track competitions, he had some good results on the road. Thus, in 2017 Zakharov won the road race of the Kazakhstan National Championships, while in 2019 together with the national team he won the gold medal in the team time trial at the Asian Cycling Championships. Besides, this year Artyom did some good job for team’s leaders: at the Tour of Oman he helped Alexey Lutsenko to win the general classification, at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey Zakharov supported Merhawi Kudus to reach the final podium, while at the Tour of Almaty he was next to Yuriy Natarov, who became the overall winner.
- Artyom is a good and loyal rider, who is always ready to support team’s leader. Of course, in this moment of the year his main goal is to win the Olympic license in omnium and this is very important and for our team and for Kazakhstan. Zakharov will have a busy December with three World Cup stages and we hope he can do well in these competitions. He is 7th in the omnium ranking and this is a good point. For sure, he will be very useful for our team during the next season in the road races as well, so I am happy he is staying in Astana, - said Alexandr Vinokurov, general manager of Astana Pro Team.
Trail group sues Forest Service for allowing e-bikes on trails
Bicyle Retailer & Industry News sent me this:
SACRAMENTO (BRAIN) — A group of trail and forest advocates filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for allowing Class 1 e-bikes on non-motorized trails in the Tahoe National Forest without first conducting a public study.
The lawsuit filed Oct. 23 cites a violation of the Travel Management rule, which limits motorized access to certain U.S. Forest Service trails. Before opening non-motorized trails to e-bike use, the Tahoe National Forest should have had a public study that includes analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act to assess the impact of the decision, according to the suit filed in federal court.
Class 1 e-bikes are pedal assist only with no throttle and have a maximum powered speed of 20 mph.
A U.S. Forest Service spokesperson said it will not comment on impending litigation. The Tahoe National Forest is located northwest of Lake Tahoe.
The plaintiffs in the suit include The Wilderness Society, the Gold Country Trails Council, Backcountry Horsemen of California, Back Country Horsemen of America, and the Forest Issues Group. The groups are represented by the Western Environmental Law Center.
"We're not opposed to e-bikes on federal land," said Michael Carroll, senior director of The Wilderness Society's People Outdoors Program. "We want to make sure people are going through the process and not just willy-nilly opening up forests of non-motorized trails to motorized bicycles without going through the travel management process. And that's what our lawsuit is basically about. You can't do it arbitrarily. You have to go through the entire process. We think that the Tahoe National Forest has violated the law, and we're pretty sure and confident that the courts will agree with us."
Morgan Lommele, director of state and local policy for PeopleForBikes, said the nonprofit bicycle advocacy group will not comment on the lawsuit's specific claims.
"We interpret the lawsuit to primarily concern the process that the Forest Service took to authorize the use of e-bikes in the Tahoe National Forest, as opposed to whether e-bikes have a material effect on trail conditions," Lommele said.
She said the Forest Service needs more data about e-bike demographics and social and natural resource impacts. "Sometimes, it's best to perform this data collection through real time trail allowance rather than speculation," Lommele said. "We support the use of Class 1 e-bikes on non-motorized trails in the Tahoe National Forest and believe their use is reinforced by the data the Forest Service collected."
You can read the whole story here.
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