A side note for email subscribers.If youve subscribed to this blogs email service youve had messages pushed out via a third party called follow.it. Loyal subscribers might recall the blog switched to this after Google closed down the Feedburner service.Follow.it has worked great except that when you sign up they record the time of day and use this as the reference time to send you any new blog posts, the thinking being this when you are most likely to be online. So if you signed up one evening for the email you will be sent every new post in evening. This is useless if you want a race preview as it can arrive in your inbox after the race is done.Followit > Convertkit > KitThe fix is that the service has been switched to provider called Convertkit (about to rebrand as Kit). They say subscribers will get emails in about 30 minutes of a post going online.If youre not a subscriber and reading this you can sign up with the box on the screen.Email can be handy if you are on the move and want blog posts sent to you but the format is adapted by the email service and so the suggestion is that if you can, visit every morning for the stage preview and each afternoon for other pieces.The post Housekeeping Admin For Email Subscribers first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Egan Bernal was selected by Colombia to ride the Olympic Games in Paris in August but he cannot take up the place on the team because his participation was not sanctioned by his Ineos Grenadiers team, the Colombian cycling federation has said. Now Bernal, who goes into the Tour de France in a co-leadership arrangement, []The post Egan Bernal out of Olympics after blocked by Ineos, says Colombian federation appeared first on Sticky Bottle.

If we need to catch one of the top riders in the world, I am not afraid of that, says UCI president David Lappartient, as governing body vows to take suspicions about mechanical fraud and superhuman performances seriously

In the new colours of Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe; Primoz Roglic rolled up the team presentation yesterday with a smile on his face, good form and a lot of motivation to win the Tour de France. He admits that he's got rivals who are currently superior, but he has focused on preparing as best as poss...

The market is 30% down on pre-Covid and the retailer predicts more of the same in 2025

CyclistI dont know what kind of rider I am: Derek Gee interviewDerek Gee has become something of a cult icon in cycling. Following a breakthrough Giro dItalia last year, the 26-year-old Canadian rose through the ranks from a roster-filler to a star-biller.Four close calls at the Giro saw Gee spring into our collective consciousness. An impressive ride recently at the Critrium du Dauphin saw Gee climb onto the final podium at the most illustrious pre-Tour de France race.Now fielded as one of Israel-Premier Techs top guns, Gee makes his hotly anticipated Tour debut this summer. We caught up with him a couple of days before the Grande Boucle kicks off in Florence this weekend. Related Posts Cyclists Tour de France predictions 2024 The 6 American and Canadian riders at the Tour de France 2024 How to watch the Tour de France 2024 Who are the favourites for the mens Tour de France 2024? Mens Tour de France 2024: Route, how to watch and all you need to know The origins of a cult symbolSweet and polite in his demeanour, Derek Gee has come a long way from Osgoode, Ontario.He began his competition-level career on the track. His breakthrough came at the 2017 Pan American Championships where he won gold in the individual and team pursuit disciplines. This transcontinental prowess continued into 2019 when he won gold in the team pursuit and the omnium. He was also an integral part of the team pursuit squad that achieved Canadas best team result at an Olympic Games in just under a century.On Man Kevin Lee/Getty ImagesCyclist: Canada isnt a cycling-rich nation like Belgium or The Netherlands. How did you get into the sport?Derek Gee: There was a good community for cycling in Ottawa where I grew up it was a good place to start riding a bike. My dad did masters racing in the 40/50+ age categories, so I went to races with him and started racing in the under-12 categories. We had weekly time-trials and then weekly cyclocross races in the fall.The road was my passion. Thats how I fell in love with the sport. I was competing on the track as a junior but I stopped when I went to university. I said to myself Okay, Im gonna go to school, Im gonna get a normal job. I soon realised I didnt want to do that and I missed racing my bike. Naturally, the track was kind of my pathway back into it, with the 2020 Olympics in mind.You mentioned university there, did you sacrifice your studies for cycling?I spent one year on campus full-time studying for a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences. The plan was to go into med school after. I remember this time during my first year I was in a chemistry lecture surrounded by 800 people who all wanted to go to med school. To be honest, I just missed riding my bike. Then I studied online for a few years and stopped before the Olympics. I can go back anytime and finish my degree, but I dont think Ill be going back anytime soon.Lets look at the Olympics then. You competed for Canada at Tokyo in 2021, what was that experience like?It was interesting, Ill say that. For all those years, the Olympics were the goal. I wanted to become an Olympian and be competitive there. Covid pushed it back and made it feel like it wasnt a real Olympic experience. We stayed on top of a mountain somewhere instead of being in the Olympic Village, so it felt like a World Championships or a World Cup. There werent huge crowds because of the restrictions either. It was still a good experience to race there, but I was happy to move on and focus on other things.Tim De Waele/Getty ImagesAfter the Olympics, you slowly moved onto the road with the Israel-Premier Tech team. How did that come about?I was really hoping to go to the road. I was reaching out to teams myself.However, when youre doing track in Canada, its not like doing track in a European country. For them, its so easy to jump into racing. They can supplement the track racing by venturing onto the road. For Canadians, its a lot harder. Youd have to take time away from track camps and fly across the ocean for road races. This meant that I didnt have a ton of a ton of road racing results to show teams.There were no bites from teams and I didnt have a contract coming out of the Tokyo Olympics.I spoke with Israel Start Up Nation at the time and they said, Youve got great numbers. After years of training on the track, they knew that I was a big boy and could push watts. I had no road racing experience though. At the time, the team told me, Try and find a team, get some results and then maybe we can we can sign you to the WorldTour team.Then they called me up in October or November of 2021 and asked if I found a team. They came back and said, Youre 24, but we can put you on our under-23 team for a year. I was hesitant because I was 24 and about to go to a Continental team with a bunch of 18-year-olds. Id have to move to Europe full-time. Nowadays, riders are transitioning younger and younger, so I almost felt too old to be making that kind of transition into the sport. I wasnt sure if I even wanted to take that gamble, but Im glad I did it.Was Israel-Premier Tech a natural choice for you?Theres a massive Canadian influence at Israel-Premier Tech. Paulo, the head of performance, is Canadian. The merger with the Canadian company Premier Tech happened within the same year I joined the development team, and that brought Hugo Houle and Mike Woods onto the team. The teams got a part-Canadian owner, and then Steve Bauer came along. It was a very good fit it felt like home.Dario Belingheri/Getty ImagesChris Froome is one of your teammates. Has he offloaded some wisdom to you?I have actually raced very little with Chris.I raced with him at the Dauphin where I was in a position racing for GC. Then I started to see the wealth of knowledge that a guy like him has hes got seven Grand Tour wins.He was walking me through how to podium the Dauphin. Its a big race, hes won it three times, hes been in those positions, he knows how to deal with leading a team there. So it was cool getting advice from him there. Once you get to know him, you just want to hear his racing stories about all the amazing things hes done.The breakthrough Giro dItaliaGee made his Grand Tour debut at the 2023 Giro dItalia. With ambitions of stage hunting, his Israel-Premier Tech team punched above their weight in the breakaway, mostly courtesy of the Canadian.He finished in second place on four stages covering all terrain, from a hilly stage in Fossombrone to a flat stage in Viareggio and a mountain-top finish at Tre Cime Lavaredo.Remaining humble, Gee impressed many including himself it seems. The plucky Ottawan finished the race in 22nd place in GC, second in both the mountains and points classifications, winning the super-combativity prize, but importantly, he became a totem of the cycling fandom.Stuart Franklin/Getty ImagesCyclist: Lets go back to the beginning of May 2023. What were you expecting from the Giro when you started that race?Gee: I was really hoping to finish the race. I knew I had the legs to finish it, but I was also aware that it was my first Grand Tour and I wanted to get through it without any major crashes or illness. I was hoping to get in some breaks and experience what its like to be at the front of one of those stages and help the more experienced teammates.Then I got in a bunch of breaks and got that experience. However, it wasnt the expectation going in or the assumption going in that I could fight for any of the stages. It was just, Hey, your first year we got a spot thats opened up on the Giro roster. Lets put you in the lineup and see how it goes.Your progression through the Giro was mightily impressive. How did your confidence build?It was an interesting mix of growing confidence while still being in the unknown. On Stage 8 where Ben Healy won, it felt like we were in a different bike race. He took off with around50km to go and we never saw him again. He was unbelievable that day. So I was racing the guys in my group for second place. I came away from that stage and felt like the gap between myself and a rider like Healy was still so big.On Stage 10, I lost to Magnus Cort. Again, he smoked me in the sprint, but at least I was closer I could see the win right in front of me. Then I grew in confidence when he said in his post-race interview that the stage was one of the hardest days hed ridden on the bike. That felt pretty cool because hes had some major wins.Then I started to believe that I might be able to win one. So that made the sprint against Nico Denz on Stage 14 hurt more because I was so close.The last second place on Stage 20 at Tre Cime di Lavaredo felt fine because I was in the break with Santiago Buitrago. I had no delusions about that one, hes a great climber.Was it frustrating to be so close to a stage win, knowing what that could have done to your career in hindsight?100 per cent. I think the one that really hurt was the Nico Denz stage because it was so close. And to be honest, he led out the sprint from miles out. That was the opportunity to win a stage.Last year, I think I looked back on it with frustration because I didnt get many results following the Giro. That weighed on me. I had reached this new level after the Giro, but then I went straight back to track all summer and felt as though I threw away those gains I had in the legs from my first Grand Tour.You never know how a career is going to go. Its really hard to win a bike race so it was definitely frustrating to miss out on that when it was so close.Stuart Franklin/Getty ImagesWhich performance are you most proud of?Honestly, the one Im most proud of wasnt a win or a second place. It was the fourth place on the shortened stage to Crans Montana. It was hard from the get-go and I ended up in a break with Einer Rubio, Thibaut Pinot, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Jefferson Cepeda. I was looking around at the top of the penultimate climb, and there were five of us. They were tiny guys. I thought, This is awesome, this is for sure my best climbing performance. I was like a ticking time bomb that day. Im 75kg, I knew I would blow up at some point trying to follow these guys. In the end, that fourth place is the one I look back on with the most pride.After these Giro successes, you became quite the overnight star. Your team flew your family out to the race, you captured the imagination of fans and you were in high demand for interviews. How did you handle this post-Giro fame?It was overwhelming for sure. I didnt have a big presence online, I didnt post much on the internet or anything like that. Then all of a sudden at the Giro, my phone started blowing up. I didnt sleep much at all for the last few days of the Giro maybe around five hours a night because I couldnt turn my brain off. It was a lot to deal with I think afterwards. I went back to Canada and disappeared for a short while to do some track racing and didnt race again until the World Championships.Gee-C: A landmark Criterium du DauphinAt the start of June, Derek Gee hadnt claimed a race win on the road outside of North America. Neither had he ever finished inside the top ten of a WorldTour stage race. This was rectified earlier this month on the roads of eastern France.He took his first European pro win in Les Estables with a late attack on the third stage of the Dauphin. He then took the yellow jersey for a day.Riding on this wave of form, Gee continued his GC tirade in the final mountain stages of the race. After competing at the front of the final run-in at Samons and Plateau des Glires, Gee moved into third in the overall classification. He would remain in the bronze medal position until the races conclusion.A.S.O./Billy CeustersCyclist: The Dauphin last month must have come as a bit of a shock to you. How did you prepare for the race? Gee: Going into 2024, the team had no idea what type of rider I was. I dont know what kind of rider I am either. The big plan for the year was to tackle the Classics, then go to altitude. I really wanted to hit the ground running this year because of what the back half of 2023 looked like after the Giro.I wanted to be flying in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but then I crashed, suffered a concussion, broke my hand, broke my collarbone and messed up my ribs. It was a tough start to the Classics. I rebuilt after that, raced the Giro dAbruzzo and slowly found my race legs again.We got back to the original plan and went up to Isola for an altitude camp with the team. At the altitude camp, guys on the team were saying, Wow man, youre flying. I was pushing all the same numbers I had always pushed, I was just lighter than before and had adapted to altitude.The team wanted to give me free rein to do GC at the Dauphin. They told me, Youre allowed to race to the line every day and see how you do. If you can come away with a top 15 that will be good. I was stressed because top 15 thats really hard to do.The team didnt put me under much pressure though, which was great.Once I got to the race and took the stage win, I thought to myself, Wow, this is this is awesome. Now I have to try and fight for a top 15. Every day after that, I was pushing myself a little more into the unknown. It was only really the last day when I realised that I had the legs to hopefully hold on to the podium.Dario Belingheri/Getty ImagesThat first big pro win came on Stage 3 to Les Estables, talk us through that.When Romain Grgoire (Groupama-FDJ) came around me I thought, You tried, but here comes the peloton. I got on his wheel and no one else came around me. I saw the line and I started sprinting. I had no idea that we had a gap. I thought I was sprinting against a whole group of guys. I was a bit shocked, honestly.With the stage win came the coveted maillot jaune on Stage 4. What was it like to wear that jersey? They say it gives you wings.Wearing the yellow jersey was pretty special. On that stage, I missed a corner a kilometre into the time-trial. Luckily, the TV camera didnt catch it. I was just panicked from there.During the TT I didnt believe the timings they were telling me. Ive never gone top 30 in a WorldTour time-trial, so that was a huge shock.You finished in third place overall. That exceeded the teams expectations. What was it like to lead the squad to a GC podium?The whole team rallied around me, especially on the last day. It was daunting to protect the podium and have riders of that calibre ride for you. I had Jakob Fuglsang two-time winner of the race asking if I was ok, if I had my jacket, bottles and all that. It felt as though it was supposed to be the other way around. That experience makes the job a lot easier.To their credit, no one ever put pressure on me. The best part is that they havent put pressure on me to go for a top ten at the Tour de France. Were sticking to our plan, and thats to go out there and try and win a stage.On the brink of a Tour de France debutAfter his performance at the Giro last year and the recent Dauphin, Gee got a place on the Tour de France roster with ease.He will lineup in Florence alongside Welsh rider Stevie Williams, German sprinter Pascal Ackermann and experienced Dane Jakob Fuglsang.After his big Grand Tour splash, many people are expecting the Canadian to be among the standout riders at the Tour. In the past two years, Canada has scored two stages courtesy of Michael Woods and Hugo Houle both of whom are on Israel-Premier Tech.A.S.O./Billy CeustersCyclist: How have you been preparing for the Tour?Gee: We did an altitude camp before the Dauphin in Isola. However, Ive been at home building up to the Tour. Its quite high altitude at home in Andorra around 1800m above sea level. Its a nice break to come back home and from what I hear about how big of a show and stressful the Tour is, its nice to be in my own environment. Im putting in the work, but I am also spending some time with my loved ones.You mentioned that the teams goal is to win stages. How will Israel-Premier Tech approach that?Before the Dauphin, I would have said breakaway every time. I still think thats thats our best shot by far.Im sure therell be certain stages where we could try to win within the main peloton. We have a guy like Stevie Williams, who has the kick to win from a bunch. There are certain finishes where he could rival Pogacar we saw that on the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya. He was flying then.Lets get introspective. What are your strengths as a rider?Ive only done one Grand Tour, and in that one I had pretty good fatigue resistance. I was able to go out there and race every day and fight for the break. One Grand Tour is a pretty small sample size, but Im really hoping that thats the case at the Tour de France again.That being said, its the Tour and there could be a day in 35-degree heat, get myself heatstroke and take myself out for a week. You never know I just hope its similar to the Giro.A.S.O./Billy CeustersHow do you think the Tour de France is going to be? Do you think its going to be one thats suited for the breakaways or one thats going to be hard-fought from the start?The first couple of days will be really telling.If Jonas Vingegaard is absolutely flying, and Pogaar is flying, then I think that helps the break.If Pogaar is in a league of his own, then he might want a ton of stages. Hes got a ridiculous team around him. He could put them to work and breaks may not get to the line.If Jonas is flying, Pogaar needs to be more conservative and keep more guys around him. Im very curious to see how itll all turn out.If Remco or Rogli also come into the race on form, then zero breaks are going to the line because every day one of them is going to want it. It obviously makes it tough to predict how the breakaways will go. There are still some stages that look like theyre nailed on break stages.How does it feel to be in such company at the Tour de France, starting alongside the likes of Pogaar and Vingegaard?Im lucky to have only done very few races against them. Obviously, to have guys at that level makes any race more prestigious. Ill also be interested to see the dynamic of all of them racing together.At the Dauphin, I got to actually race against them as opposed to them being up the road with minutes of a lead. It was cool to look around and see Primoz Rogli there and think I know this guys palmars. Its special to be racing to the line with him. Just getting a glimpse of being competitive with those guys instils so much confidence.Dario Belingheri/Getty ImagesWell then, its time to tell all. Whos your pick to win the Tour de France?I think its going to be Tadej Pogaar.I feel like weve almost grown accustomed to Pogaar winning. So were a little bit dolt to how dominant hes been this year. Even at Strade Bianche, that was ridiculous. Looking back at how dominant he was in the Giro, I think that preparation gives him the edge over Jonas.I mean, if Jonas Vingegaard builds form, there are a couple of stages in the third week like that stage with the Bonette and Isola he might put in one of those huge performances. That stage is suited to him so well.Youre a well-documented bird watcher, a twitcher you could say. Are there any birds youll be looking out for at the 2024 Tour de France?I dont have anything on my list. Last year I was a much more avid birdwatcher. I documented every bird I saw from the Tour Down Under until December, and wrote them all down in a book. I have kind of put that chapter aside. I still casually birdwatch for fun, but Im not as hardcore as a lot of the ornithology world.That begs the question. What else are you doing outside of cycling?The biggest thing in the last couple of months has been the NBA. I watch tons of basketball.However, in all honesty, I ride my bike, I lay around and I sleep. Sometimes there arent quite enough hours in the day.We are on the ground in Florence for the Grand Dpart. Keep up with our content on Cyclists X/Twitter and Instagram for the latest tech news and videos from the Tour de France 2024. Related Posts Cyclists Tour de France predictions 2024 The 6 American and Canadian riders at the Tour de France 2024 How to watch the Tour de France 2024 Who are the favourites for the mens Tour de France 2024? Mens Tour de France 2024: Route, how to watch and all you need to know The post I dont know what kind of rider I am: Derek Gee interview appeared first on Cyclist.

Enric Mas arrives at the Tour de France 2024 very excited after a season in which the results have not quite come to him. That's no surprise. In the Mallorcan's best years, in which he has finished on the podium in the Vuelta a Espaa or finished among the top six in the Grande Boucle, he didn't hav...