The best cycling writers at the Giro

Posted on 19 May 2009 by Alex Murray

If you’re following the Giro D’Italia then in my opinion there really is one writer who you have to read: Juliet Macur of The New York Times. In our house she’s the first report we read when looking for perspective on what’s happening.

You can read her work on The New York Times site or subscribe to her RSS feed. She’s also on twitter where you can follow her at twitter.com/julietmacur.

What I love is that her style is precise, informative and understated. It’s the sort of punchy news style that I struggle to do and which there is not enough of these days.

The other writers I’d recommend are riders.

You can read Freewheeling with Chris Horner on Oregon Live. I’d skip past the bits not written by Chris as they’re not the best bit. Horner’s view from inside the Astana camp, and of riding alongside Lance Armstrong is packed with the little of nuggets of information that could only come from a rider: the routines, the mood on the road, the expectations and the unity of a team.

Ted King of Cervelo Test Team is one of two riders writing Giro diaries for Velonews.com. King’s witty, goofy and suitably informal which makes a nice counterpoint to the more earnest formality of Columbia’s Michael Barry. You can read both in the Velonews.com/diaries section. You can also follow Ted on twitter at iamtedking.

One thing that I’ve just noticed about Ted King’s pieces is that they are filed from a blackberry which just shows how times have moved on. It’s an idea device for this sort of writing from the field and so portable that it’s almost the case that a reporter shouldn’t need much more to file copy and pictures.

I’m not writing about my racing this week as it was dispiriting at best. My legs are going before my lungs which isn’t the way it usually happens.

Quick note that there’s still entries going for the Women’s race at the Smithfield Nocturne. The bigger the field the better the race so if you are a woman who races and are even contemplating it, get your name on the start sheet. Sign up now at http://www.nocturneseries.com/smithfield/elitewomen.php

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Get the same sunglasses as Mark Cavendish

Posted on 10 May 2009 by Alex Murray

Sunglasses are one of those things that go in trend waves in cycling. More often than not it’s Oakley who are responsible for it with their saturation marketing of the pro peloton.

The Oakley Radar, which became widespread in 2007, has become near ubiqitous at every level of the sport so they have to come up with something else to keep the punters coming back. Even I’ve got a pair now and I really like them. Certainly an improvement on what I was wearing before in terms of comfort and coverage.

Which is where the Jawbone comes in. Prototypes were worn by Thor Hushovd and George Hincapie last season and this season Lance Armstrong and Mark Cavendish have become the highest profile wearers of the production models.

Currently Cav is wearing the white ones at the Giro and although they aren’t available in shops yet, you can buy them from Amazon.co.uk

He wore the silver ones to win Milan-San Remo which they don’t seem to have. There’s also a Livestrong version which Lance has been wearing and which are obviously going to get plenty of airtime this year

So if you want to get ahead of the trend curve, now is the time to start purchasing. And if anyone at Oakley UK is reading and would like to send me some to test, then I am easily contacted at alex at alex dot com.

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Centenary Giro off to a historic start

Posted on 9 May 2009 by Alex Murray

For all the Armstrong hype in the preamble, the really interesting battles on the opening day were all about Columbia v Garmin. Not just the team battle but the rivalry between the British riders over who would be able to say “I was the first British rider ever to wear the pink jersey”.

CYCLING-ITA-GIRO-CAVENDISH

DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images

By my reckoning, that makes it 1-0 Cavendish and Columbia. There’s been plenty of needle in the build up about Garmin focusing so heavily on the TTT, some of which is pretty fair comment, and it looks like Cavendish was right.

If you want a stage 1 report then read Cycling Weekly’s Giro Stage 1 report, much easier than me wasting time writing one.

I’ve written two articles for BBC Sport on the Giro which I’m pretty chuffed with, even if I did need to do some patching work after they were published. That’ll teach me to knock things out in a hurry while watching telly.

Read ‘Centennial Giro up for grabs’ on BBC Sport

Read ‘Brits to watch in the Giro’ on BBC Sport

But back to the Garmin question. Now I know we’re all meant to love these guys because they’re clean and because of what they stand for but I can’t be alone in thinking it would help them a heck of a lot if they won a bit more often.

Reading “At the end of the day, we’ve said from the beginning that, in this team, we’re about perfecting the process. The final result is what it is,” Vaughters said.

“No specific parameter defines success. Winning today was definitely a goal. We did specific training for it and we’ll do that before the Tour de France as well and the goal will be to win. We did the process as best we could and went for it.”

Surely the process is all about ensuring victory? Don’t talk about process, tell me about feeling like you’ve been punched in the biscuit barrel because you lost by six seconds to your big rivals as an American ProTour team. It’s a fucking bike race, not a database installation.

For all his sins of being gobby, brash and a bit rough round the edges at least Cavendish talks about bike racing like he means it, not like an accountant trying to reconcile their month end figures. And his team at least have the decency to win with a bit of frequency in the big events, not make noises that sound like excuses.

Garmin: start winning or shush. Cavendish: carry on as you are.

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