Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Monday, December 5, 2016

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
2017 Tour de France | 2017 Giro d'Italia

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they look sexy. - Anonymous

Latest completed racing:

• October 9 - 16: World Road Cycling Championships
• October 20-23: Abu Dhabi Tour
• October 23: Chrono des Nations
• October 23: Japan Cup
• October 22-30: Tour of Hainan

Katusha now Katusha-Alpecin

Here's the news from Katusha-Alpecin with the 2017 roster:

With a large crowd of sponsors, journalists, friends and family on hand in Benidorm, Spain to welcome Team KATUSHA ALPECIN, the full roster of riders and sports directors were presented sporting the newly branded cycling kit and riding the 2017 Canyon bicycle.

Taking a brief break from the two-week training camp in nearby Calpe, the team presentation was a time to reflect on last year’s successes with outgoing general manager Viacheslav Ekimov, as he noted the 25 victories and 40 podium places for the season.  Also welcomed to the stage were new GM José Azevedo and new title sponsor Alpecin with managing partner Eduard R. Dörrenberg on hand to represent the family-owned shampoo company. In addition a hearty welcome and huge thank you was given to Mr. Igor Makarov for his continuing support and sponsorship of the team. As the founder of the KATUSHA brand 8 years ago, his continued dedication and commitment are invaluable to the team and appreciated by all. Team captains Alexander Kristoff, Ilnur Zakarin and Tony Martin revealed the newly branded jersey and Canyon bike for KATUSHA ALPECIN, and offered them as gifts for Misters Makarov and Dörrenberg, the latter happy being title sponsor of the team, facing another step with a clear international orientation in 2017.

The roster of riders was introduced in groups of time trialists, sprinters, climbers and all-arounders, with special goals outlined for the team captains.  Current world time trial champion Tony Martin will work to take the yellow jersey on the opening day of the 2017 Le Tour. With the prologue taking place in his native Germany, Martin will focus on earning the first maillot jaune. He will also concentrate on Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix as well as a fifth world title. Ilnur Zakarin will skip the Tour in 2017 and instead fight for general classification results in both the Giro d’Italia and la Vuelta a España. Top sprinter Alexander Kristoff resumes his determination to bolster his wins in the big spring classics, racing all of them up to Paris-Roubaix. Kristoff will look for a repeat victory in Milano-Sanremo (2014) and Ronde van Vlaanderen (2015) as well as wins in E3 Harelbeke and Gent Wevelgem to round out his palmares.

The 2017 team kits and bikes were presented

New general manager Azevedo is pleased with what he’s seen this week in camp: “Things have come together faster than I expected especially with all of the new people.  We have 40% new people in the team for the riders and we also have changes on the staffing side. It can take time for the new people to integrate into the system and understand how things work. But right away after our first small camp in Italy last October, I went home and felt very positive about what I had seen. In only four days I saw people developing a good connection.  Now in Calpe we have had another week to work together and I’d say everyone feels part of the group now.  This is very important to me. The atmosphere and mentality in the group is good.”

Several riders returned to the stage sporting the new KATUSHA Sports collection of clothing.  Last year brought the introduction of the new line featuring both cycling and lifestyle clothing, with input and feedback from various team riders proving invaluable to the development of the performance line. The latest collection was revealed and offered on display for the appreciative audience.

Concluding the night was the presentation of the full roster of riders and directors. Declaring the season officially open, Azevedo shared his vision for the team, saying, “I want us to work together to bring one identity of KATUSHA ALPECIN. The message we share with the world is that we work with passion, that everyone here loves cycling and we will be fighting to win races.”

Riding for Team KATHUSA ALPECIN in 2017 are 26 riders from the 14 countries of Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.

Roster: Maxim Belkov, Jenthe Biermans, Sven Erik Bystrøm, José Gonçalves, Marco Haller, Reto Hollenstein, Robert Kišerlovski, Pavel Kochetkov, Alexander Kristoff,  Viacheslav Kuznetsov, Maurits Lammertink, Alberto Losada, Tiago Machado, Matvey Mamykin, Tony Martin, Marco Mathis, Michael Mørkøv, Baptiste Planckaert, Nils Politt, Jhonatan Restrepo, Simon Špilak, Rein Taaramäe, Angel Vicioso, Mads Würtz Schmidt, Rick Zabel and Ilnur Zakarin.

Guiding them are General Manager José Azevedo and the returning sports directors Claudio Cozzi, Xavier Florencio, Dmitry Konyshev, Gennady Mikhaylov and Torsten Schmidt.

Rapha & Pinarello in takeover discussions with Louis Vuitton

Bicycle Retailer & Industry News posted this interesting piece of news:

LONDON (BRAIN) — The Mail on Sunday is reporting that the British cyclewear brand Rapha is in discussions about a possible purchase by the luxury goods company LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton and other brands. LVMH also has been in discussions with the Italian bike brand Pinarello. Pinarello and Rapha are each sponsors of Team Sky.

Chris Froome (yellow) and Team Sky wear Rapha clothing and ride Pinarello bikes.

You can read the entire Bicycle Retailer's story with links to its sources here.

Cambodia requests continued quota for duty-free bike export

This insight into the complexities of international trade came from Bike-eu.com:

BRUSSELS, Belgium – In a letter dated October 13, 2016 the Kingdom of Cambodia has officially requested for an extension of the quota regulations for bicycles imported from Cambodia into the EU that are in place since 2014. These ‘Derogation’ rules made it easier to comply with local content regulations in place for the duty free import of bicycles made in Cambodia under the EU General System of Preferences (GSP).

The current derogation to the GSP rules of origin were granted in 2014 and end on 31st December 2016. The fact that the official letter from Cambodia was delivered only last October to the European Commission’s Directorate-General Taxations and Customs Union will certainly mean that no action will be taken before the end of 2016. But there’s more that comes into play with regard to the fact that it will get more difficult to import Cambodia made bicycles into the EU under the GSP+ duty free scheme.

That the derogation on the GSP rules for Camboda made bikes is to end has to do with the position in this matter of the association of the European bicycle industry. The European Bicycle Manufacturers’ Association (EBMA) says on the request by the Cambodian government, “As they already had 3 years with the previous agreement to which also EBMA contributed, we will oppose such derogation request. In particular as it doesn’t take more than six months to one year to increase the local production of bicycle components.”

You can read the entire story here.

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary