Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, December 22, 2022
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2022 Tour de France | 2022 Giro d'Italia
Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price. - St. Jerome
Les Woodland's book Sticky Buns Across America: Back-roads biking from sea to shining sea is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing
- Dec 26: Gavere Cyclocross
- Dec 27: Heusden-Zolder Cyclocross
- Dec 29: Diegem Cyclocross
- Dec 30: Azencross-Loenhout
- Jan 1: GP Sven Nys Cyclocross
- Jan 14 - 22: Schwalbe Classic & Tour Down Under
- Jan 22 - 29: Vuelta a San Juan
- Jan 25 - 29: Challenge Illes Balears-Volta Ciclista a Mallorca
- Jan 28 & 29: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Latest completed racing:
- Dec 10: Exact Cross Essen
- Dec 4: Scheldecross Antwerp
- Nov 20: Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse Cross
- Nov 5 & 6: European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 1: Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
- Oct 29: Superprestige Ruddervoorde Cyclocross
- Oct 11 - 18: Tour de Langkawi
EF Pro cycling sent me this news release:
Professional cycling will take a step into the future with the launch of a new platform called Road Code, which is built on Web3 technology and will give fans, teams and riders a place to come together in a single community.
Road Code is being developed in a partnership between Velon, the company owned by the world’s top cycling teams, and The HBAR Foundation. Together, they are delivering the first fan universe in pro cycling built on the Hedera public network.
Unlike today’s centralised social media channels, Road Code is the next generation of platform, offering fans ownership via the representation of in-game assets, digital collectibles and team access tokens, all stored securely in a personal digital vault.
Content is at the heart of the Road Code platform, which is set for a first phase launch for the start of the 2023 season. Teams and riders will be delivering all access content to take fans behind the scenes and through the ups and downs of their lives at races and beyond.
Velon’s proprietary live data system will be integrated with Road Code, delivering new insights into how fast and how hard teams and riders are performing in races. The platform will be the new home for the ever-popular on-bike footage which Velon has pioneered over the past seven years.
Road Code will also contain a new and unique rider ranking system based not on what the riders won but on who they beat. The new system will open the sport to fans in new ways - showing them the team and riders’ rankings for sprints, climbs, one day and Grand Tour racing. In time, amateur riders will be able to make direct comparisons between their performances and the elite.
Gaming will be a part of Road Code, starting with a Fantasy Game complete with assets which fans can own and trade.
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Jonathan Vaughters, EF Education-EasyPost CEO, said: “It’s good to see Velon continuing to make strides in reinventing how our fans can consume the entertainment we seek to provide. The media landscape is quickly changing, so staying one step ahead in providing exciting content is crucial.”
Graham Bartlett, CEO, Velon, said: “Our mission is to create a first-of-its-kind platform that grants access to the most relevant and exciting cycling content for fans and sports lovers around the world. Road Code’s mission is to bring the best from the teams to the fans by creating a new community the fans can truly be part of. We want to invite everyone to participate in building the digital cycling universe of the future.”
The Hedera network is dedicated to having a limited carbon footprint and has adopted environmental sustainability as a core value - officially committing to carbon-negative network operations.
Road Code is being built by Reality+ gaming studio, the Web3 developer partner, & Immortal Projects, a Danish venture studio who are building on the Hedera ecosystem and supported by The HBAR Foundation.
Road Code is at: www.roadcode.cc
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Here’s the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl (Soudal-Quick Step in 2023) team update
Remco Evenepoel, the current World Champion has announced that he will begin his 2023 campaign in January, at the Vuelta a San Juan, a race where he has a long-standing history.
A neo-pro in 2019, Remco kicked off his first year with the Wolfpack at the Vuelta a San Juan, where he enjoyed a solid start to his career, taking third in the individual time trial and the best young rider jersey, as well as helping teammate Julian Alaphilippe finish on the race’s overall podium.
One year later, he returned at the start, and after an impressive demonstration, he was crowned winner of the event, becoming the first Belgian to triumph there in 38 editions.
Remco Evenepoel time-trialing at the 2020 Vuelta a San Juan.
In 2023, Remco will be present again in Argentina, this time as World Champion, ready to start his fifth season with Soudal Quick-Step. It will be Evenepoel’s – who’ll celebrate his 23rd birthday during the race – first stage race since coming out on top at the Vuelta a España.
“I’m happy to race again in San Juan. It was my first race as a pro in 2019, I have a lot of great memories from my previous outings in Argentina, and I’m delighted to start my year in the rainbow jersey there. I hope to see many of those amazing fans on the road and I can’t wait to debut my Soudal Quick-Step World Champion jersey in a couple of weeks”, said Remco about the race which will take place between 22-29 January.
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Bicycle Retailer & Industry News posted this:
A bankruptcy court is auctioning the remaining assets of CleverTraining, an e-commerce site that once offered cycling, triathlon and other endurance sports gear. Also being auctioned are the assets of Olympia Sports, the former Northeast sporting goods retailer.
Olympia, which once had 230 stores, filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 11, listing debts of $28.7 million. It planned to close its remaining 35 stores in the fall.
Florida-based CleverTraining was founded in 2002. In 2018 it was acquired by Jackrabbit, a running retailer backed by the private equity firm CriticalPoint Capital. Jackrabbit acquired Olympia in 2019; all of CriticalPoint Capital’s sports businesses were consolidated as Running Speciality Group.
Running Specialty Group sold Jackrabbit to Fleet Feet in 2021 for nearly $50 million, and later sold ShoeBuy.com, as well. But it retained Olympia, CleverTraining, SurfOutfitter and several other e-commerce businesses whose assets are being auctioned.
You can read the entire story here.
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