Mark Cavendish will not race for SKY next season
Was on the phone with Valerio Piva (Mark’s DS) few hours ago, talking about a project of mine to develop more road riders from the British Cycling scene onto the International stage and not just for the few chosen by the development programme at BCF…
Mark will stay at Columbia, he said, and High Road will be replaced by a new sponsor called HTC who is a telephone business and the color of the jersey is going to change from yellow to green. Mark’s contract will end after 2010 season and they are going to try to keep him.
Summer Training for competitive cycling
Hot weather is very unusual in England but when is there you to deal with.
Assuming that you are a trained fit rider with few month of competition under your belt, you should not need much endurance training. I would concentrate on speed work and power training and appropriate supplement and diet to help your fluid loss. Ideally training during the fresh hours of the day…..
Power training with short boost above your threshold for from a short 45 sec to max 5 minutes (no more than 12) , ideally using climbs and various of them during your training with complete rest between them.
Speed work few option:
a) Very short sprints on flat again complete recharge between them no more than 10
b) Motor pacing no more than 50k
c) Criterium racing
Diet and supplement try to eat more fruits and fresh salads than usual, plenty of carbs and less fats again for fast fuel, mineral salts are very popular and easy to buy, but try not to exceed as is always better for our body to source naturally from food.
Nude and bike, spot the difference…
Just a little game to spend a bit of time…….spot the difference
1)Ms Romero no breaks thanks to Bob
2)No bar tape on Miss Wlaanderen thanks to Will B
3)Pic 1 step up tube (no top tube) thanks to Bob (again!)
Game over.
Tour De France commentator at Eurosport
Magrini Riccardo on the right with wordl champion Bettini.
I remember Riccardo as been one the most friendly and entertaining rider during my pro career, we raced in the same team Metauro mobili/Pinarello during the 1983/1984 season riding also 2 Giro d’Italia together.
He was a great rouler for the team but also a great finisseur and when he had a chance he did win, his quality was last kilometer attack and if the peloton was “sleeping” for few seconds, that was enough for him the get the victory
After a very honorable career as pro Riccardo moved in to coaching and in fact he was Marco Pantani’s last direttore sportivo
He now work as commentator for the Eurosport (italian) and he will comment the next Tour de France. He’s comments are very appreciated by the public in Italy because he can mix his great expertise with a fantastic humor to combine a very interesting and entertaining experience watching a cycling event
Blogging away from Cornwall
Sorry guys no easy internet but a lot of sunshine and climbs.
Cornish pasties are very difficult to digest for me, a still prefer my pasta, basil and parmigiano.
Ciao
Giro d’Italia Bio under27 report
Stage 9 and last stage
No luck for Peter Kennaugh again!
Last stage of GiroBio on the “strade bianche” of Tuscany and Peter punched again he came back but by then a group of 6/7 people was in a break away with Colombian Cayetano Sarmiento and finish the race as overall leader and winner.
Peter Kennaugh finished third overall and showed great potential as pro rider, I was told that many teams are looking to get him….rider of the future!
Giro d’Italia Bio under27 report
Stage 8
Just spoke with Antonio U.C. Bergamasca direttore tecnico, nothing today major to general classification, big bunch sprint. But tomorrow……
last stage of Girobio will be a kind of “Eroica” or like in England “Rutland”, therefore in Antonio (and mine) point of view great chances for Peter Kennaugh of taking the overall leadership.
Race will be in Tuscany set up with 156km of small climbs but with 8 sectors of what they called “strade bianche” gravel for total amount of 38km.
Keep you posted.
Climbing training for Alfredo Binda
Training back in the 80s was pretty simple, we use to meet in Gallarate near Malpensa airport at 9am all the pro in Varese area and strong amateur (dilettanti) normally about 15/20people and off on the road on row of 2 at very good pace…..
View from Passo del Cuvignone
One of our favourite ride was to go around the lake Maggiore climb up from Cittiglio (Alfredo Binda’s born village) up to Cuvignone 12km between 8/12% radiant and then down to the valley to climb again 2 more passes and back home by 2/3ish.
Passo del Cuvignone
But the interesting story is about Binda’s style of climbing training and obviously the Cuvignone. He use to tied behind his bike a big bunch of thin branches for burning on fireplace and pull it all the way to up the top of the mountain which was at the time small passage with gravel and stones.
Alfredo Binda
I guess the training suits him as he become probably the the strongest rider of his time and for a long period of time.
Giro d’Italia Bio under27 report
Stage 7
Great performance of British young rider Peter Kennaugh today at stage 7 168km with final climb on the Carpegna (Pantani’s training territory).
Race leader Benedetti lost almost 3minutes of Peter who came 6th today.
Is now sitting at only 11seconds to the new race leader Caddeo Manuele and been born on the 15 /6 /1989 is the youngest rider on the top 15 of general classification. Without the unlucky double puncture few days ago he will be race leader with 1 or 2 minute of advantage.
Tomorrow stage is quiet hard but not major climbs, but because of the mixed terrain in the Tuscany hills could give some more surprises and opportunities for attacks. So good luck Peter!
Cavendish’s Direttore Sportivo….. Signor Valerio Piva
An old friend of mine, Varerio Piva, who has now moved from Italy and is living in Belgium after marrying Danielle, a successful hoteliere (Hotel Malpertuu in Riemst)
I was an amateur with Valerio in 1980 with team Lema/Mobili. Of the 15 riders in the team, 14 turn professional before 1984 winning more than 60 races in one season, including international races and stage races like, Settimana Bergamasca, Giro Val d’Aosta, etc. 4 riders racing for national team either on road or track. All this under the guidance of mythical and possibly the most famous and successful direttore sportivo in history DOMENICO GARBELLI.
Valerio had a long serving career where he raced and worked as “gregario” for many captains in the strongest teams. He become very popular for his quality of team player and of course team “rouler”. He now enjoys cycling from the team car…
About
Hi!
My name is Flavio Zappi, an ex-professional cyclist from Italy, currently living and racing in the U.K with the Zappi’s Cafe’ Cycling team.
Why this blog? Well, different reasons..
I suppose the main purpose is to share with other sports lovers such as myself, my experiences (both past and present), my attempts at improving training approaches, and valuable conversations with professionals or just cycling lovers from the cycling world.
I hope you can find something of value in my blog, and any feedback will be really appreciated!
Thanks!
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