Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
Statistics are human beings with the tears dried off. – Paul Brodeur
Upcoming Racing:
- December 23: Namur Cyclocross
- Decemebr 26: Heusden-Zolder cyclocross
Latest completed racing:
- December 15: Scheldecross
- December 1: GP Hasselt
- November 18: Flandriencross
- November 11: Telenet Super Prestige Gavere Cyclocross
- November 4: European Cyclocross Championships
- November 1: Cyclocross Koppenberg
- October 28: Cyclocross Ruddervorde
- October 23 - 31: Tour of Hainan
- October 21: Japan Cup
Wout Van Aert to join Team Jumbo-Visma (currently LottoNL-Jumbo) in March 2019
LottoNL-Jumbo sent me this:
From the 1st of March Wout van Aert strengthens the ranks of Team Jumbo-Visma. The cyclecross world champion took a plane to Spain yesterday to join the training with his teammates today. Manager Richard Plugge of Team Jumbo-Visma and Van Aert agreed a contract for three years.
Wout van Aert wins the Namur cross in 2017.
“I think I achieved great results last year and that’s why I had the opportunity to talk with different teams”, Van Aert said. “At one point, Team Jumbo-Visma knocked on my door, a team that really appealed to me. Due to circumstances I will be able to move up the ranks in 2019 already. It feels good that I can step up to the WorldTour, because I think I can develop myself a lot at that level.”
Plugge is keen to develop Van Aert into a top classic rider. “We were interested in Wout for 2020”, he said. “Things have all gone faster than planned and we can welcome him to our team earlier. That’s very good news for the team, because we’re getting stronger. He’s a very big talent and we hope to be able to develop him into the classic rider we all see in him.”
On Friday, the new addition and the rest of the team will be presented to the press and the public at the headquarters of Jumbo in Veghel, Netherlands.
Movistar presents 2019 teams
Here's the team's release:
The auditorium of Telefónica’s global headquarters in Madrid was again the venue for Tuesday’s 2019 launch of the Movistar Team, an outfit which will start their 40th consecutive season of professional activity in just under a month’s time. The Abarca Sports organisation has been present in cycling uninterruptedly since 1980.
The 37 riders of the men’s and women’s squads, under coordination from general manager Eusebio Unzué, have been presented in front of media, VIPs and Telefónica employees at a packed Auditorium, with live footage available across Spain through #Vamos, the sports channel exclusive to customers of the Movistar+ platform. The reigning World road race Champion, Alejandro Valverde, received a very warm welcome on stage of an event also attended by all of the Blue squad’s biggest names, such as Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa, Marc Soler, Mavi García, Eider Merino, Sheyla Gutiérrez and Richard Carapaz.
World champion Alejandro Valverde and his teammates at the 2019 Movistar team presentation.
Eusebio Unzué took advantage from his time on stage to again thank Telefónica’s support to the team, as well as outlining their plans for next years, which include aiming again at a Grand Tour success in 2019. Having got all of his leaders together for the 2018 Tour de France, the Blues have chosen to distribute its forces next season into all three GTs. This way. Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde will be racing the Giro; Quintana and Landa will be the main names for the Tour; and two Vuelta a España winners (Valverde and Quintana) will try to repeat their success in Spain. It will be a very special season for Valverde, who will honour the rainbow jersey at the biggest classics of the calendar.
Expectations are high for both the men’s team and the 12-rider Movistar women’s team. Last year’s resounding success for the group managed by Sebastián Unzué and Jorge Sanz -up to 15 victories, including five National Championships and international overall podiums in France and Belgium- have helped them reach a spot within the fifteen teams with the right to race at all events of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, a provision that will be officially sealed in early January 2019.
Telefónica’s global partnership manager Rafael Fernández de Alarcón explained on the reasons of the very recent extension of their sponsorship agreement through the end of 2021: “We share values such as a teamwork, respect, fair play and generosity to all fans”, he said, as he also thanked the riders for all their displays of affection to the public, especially in moments of real stress and physical wear.
The brand’s Chief Data Officer, Chema Alonso, offered two demonstrations on the importance of Big Data and cognitive research in cycling, for both training planning and racing analysis. As a very illustrative example, data was shown on the intensity and speed figures reached by Alejandro Valverde in his World Championship victory in Austria last September. All information on the initiative is gathered at this website.
The Movistar Team’s 2019 season will start at the Tour Down Under in Australia for its men’s team (January 13-20), with the women’s squad set to kick off their calendar at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (February 10). The riders will cover more than 300 racing days across nearly twenty countries in Latin America, Asia, Oceania, North America and Europe, including the whole Spanish pro calendar, which spans 125 days of competition. To fulfil their goals, both teams will share identical resources and technical materials, as well as a partnership program which features 30 top-tier brands again trusting both Movistar Team teams in 2019.
Together with those will be one of the biggest fan bases in the entire peloton. The Movistar Team continues to be the WorldTour’s second most followed team, with 1.7 million fans across their social profiles on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, combined with an official website (www.movistarteam.com) that will remain as the main source of news and updates from cycling’s longest-standing team.
MOVISTAR TEAM – 2019 ROSTERS
Men’s Team: Andrey Amador (CRC), Winner Anacona (COL), Jorge Arcas, Carlos Barbero, Daniele Bennati (ITA), Carlos Betancur (COL), Richard Carapaz (ECU), Héctor Carretero, Jaime Castrillo, Imanol Erviti, Rubén Fernández, Mikel Landa, Lluís Mas, Nelson Oliveira (POR), Antonio Pedrero, Edu Prades, Nairo Quintana (COL), Jürgen Roelandts (BEL), José Joaquín Rojas, Eduardo Sepúlveda (ARG), Marc Soler, Jasha Sütterlin (GER), Rafa Valls, Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Verona. Sports Directors: José Luis Arrieta, Chente García Acosta, José Luis Jaimerena, Pablo Lastras, Maximilian Sciandri (ITA).
Women’s Team: Aude Biannic (FRA), Roxane Fournier (FRA), Mavi García, Alicia González, Sheyla Gutiérrez, Malgorzata Jasinska (POL), Lorena Llamas, Eider Merino, Lourdes Oyarbide, Paula Patiño (COL), Gloria Rodríguez, Alba Teruel. Manager: Sebastián Unzué. Sports Director: Jorge Sanz.
Rapha parent records operating loss in 2017 statement
Bicycle Retailer and Industry News sent me this:
LONDON (BRAIN) — Carpegna LTD, the parent company of Rapha Racing, has filed an audited financial statement with Companies House, the United Kingdom's registrar of companies, showing an operating loss of nearly 20 million pounds ($25 million) last year.
The statement covers the six-month period starting in August 2017, when Carpegna, a group backed by Walmart heirs Steuart and Tom Walton, acquired the majority of Rapha's shares for about 200 million British pounds. The period ended Jan. 28, 2018.
While nearly a year old, the statement nevertheless provides some insight into the company's situation.
For the period, the company recorded sales of 42.2 million pounds. Cost of sales was 24.5 million pounds for a gross profit of 17.7 million pounds.
However, the company registered a loss of nearly 19.6 million pounds due to exceptional administrative expenses, including 1.8 million pounds related to acquisition costs, 13.5 million pounds related to acquisition accounting of the value of inventory, and 5.5 million pounds in amortization.
In June 2018 the company changed its name from Capegna Bidco Ltd. to Carpegna Ltd.
During the six-month period, the company's sales were fairly evenly divided between four markets: the U.K. (23.3 percent), Europe (20.9 percent), North America (25.2 percent) and Asia-Pacific (25.4 percent). The rest of the world accounted for 5.1 percent of sales.
You can read the entire story here.
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