Lance Armstrong captured headlines for all the wrong reasons after his years of lies, cheating, and bullying were exposed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in its 1,000-page document, the oft-quoted, Reasoned Decision.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France ‘victories’ and dropped like a hot potato by the sponsors who bankrolled his career and reaped the commercial benefits of his success – Giro, Nike, Oakley, Trek and others – each claiming ignorance of his methods.

Lance Armstrong must be consigned to the past if cycling is to recover from the damage he has wreaked upon the sport

In the latest of our series, ‘Follow that! How 2013 can top 2012’, we’ll examine the issue of doping, how it might be tackled, and what hope the sport has of ridding itself of those who have done so much to harm it.

1) Deny accreditation to managers who doped as riders

The argument that cycling benefits from the continued involvement of those who harmed it is fatuous. A similar logic was peddled at the time of the banking collapse: the so-called ‘talent’ whose greed brought about the credit crunch and subsequent recession had to be retained, the argument ran, for how else could the banks generate the profits necessary to repay the taxpayer-funded bail out? It is to no one’s credit that those responsible for the worst recession since the 1930s continue to earn inflated salaries while the economy suffers as a result of their recklessness.

Equally, it is cycling’s shame that those who have disgraced it continue to hold positions of power and influence, gained from their fraudulent success as riders. Hundreds of ex-dopers continue to make a living from professional cycling, many in its top tier. Having cheated clean cyclists from their rewards as riders, they now deprive the same generation of careers in management.

Bjarne Riis, owner of Riis Cycling (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) holds a position of power and influence in cycling, gained from fraudulent results obtained as a rider

More alarmingly, the example set by successful ex-dopers to new professionals is that crime pays. A young cyclist could be forgiven for watching men like Jonathan Vaughters, Alexandre Vinokurov, and Bjarne Riis, general managers and team owner respectively of Garmin-Sharp, Astana, and Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, striding from gleaming tour bus to VIP reception and concluding that the rewards for men who doped as riders extend far into retirement. This must end.

2) Two strikes and you’re out

A first doping offence should be punished by a 12-month suspension, to begin on the day on which the suspension is passed. Managers should be obliged to withdraw a rider from the team as soon they fail a doping control and not allow them to race during often protracted defence proceedings.

Alberto Contador’s ban for a positive test for clenbuterol while leading the 2010 Tour de France was finally imposed in February 2012, during which time he had completed victory in the race in which he had tested positive, as well as the 2011 Giro d’Italia – results of which he was subsequently stripped, in a further embarrassment to cycling. Contador returned to competition six months after receiving a backdated two-year ban.

Those found guilty of a second doping offence should be banned for life. The implicit lack of contrition from a repeat offender should cost them their place in the sport.

3) Change the leadership at the UCI

UCI president, Pat McQuaid, and honorary president, Hein Verbruggen, were at the helm during the dirtiest era in cycling’s history. The most charitable analysis of their stewardship of the sport is that is has been grossly incompetent. This charge alone should be enough to see from their posts.

The most charitable analysis of Pat McQuaid’s stewardship of cycling is that it has been grossly incompetent

The UCI’s decision earlier this week to disband its Independent Commission, unilaterally, according to the commissioners, provided further evidence of an organisation in turmoil. After months spent rejecting the idea, McQuaid now favours ‘truth and reconciliation’ as the process to lead cycling to happier pastures, allegedly at the behest of WADA.

Cycling will remain a laughing stock as long as McQuaid remains the president of its governing body; likewise Verbruggen, who, according to USADA, insisted that Armstrong had “never, never, never” doped, a statement contradicted by the Texan in his confession to Oprah Winfrey.

4) Forget Lance Armstrong

Despite the irony of its authorship, McQuaid’s statement that Lance Armstrong “has no place in cycling,” is incontrovertible. As long as he commands an audience for his pronouncements, however, the disgraced Texan will remain at the heart of the sport – the only cycling story for a mainstream media not interested in cycling. Golf has finally moved on from the Tiger Woods infidelity scandal by celebrating the achievements of young champions like Rory McIlroy. Cycling must do the same.

If Armstrong sincerely regrets his years of lying, cheating, and bullying, and, as he maintains, the hurt he caused his family, friends, and supporters, and the damage he caused to the sport by doing so, he will seek a quiet existence, far from the public eye, and far from cycling.

5) Celebrate clean riders

2013 could be the year of the clean. If the season ends with a second Grand Tour victory for Wiggins, a first for Chris Froome, a second Tour de France green jersey for Mark Cavendish, Classics success for a resurgent Fabian Cancellara, victories for Team Sky with new coaches recruited from outside professional road racing, the sport will have much to celebrate.

Overall victory in the Tour Down Under for Tom Jelte Slagter is one of several reasons for optimisim

The WorldTour season has begun with victory in the Tour Down Under for 23-year-old Tom Jelte Slagter, racing in the white jersey of Blanco Pro Cycling. He took the ochre leader’s jersey from Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas, another clean, young rider with a future as bright as the jersey he bequeathed to Slagter.  Better times lay ahead, surely.

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For the second consecutive Games, the nation’s cyclists not only outstripped their opposition, but also their team-mates from other sports.

Have we witnessed the last of the glory days, or is there a new generation waiting in the wings to take over from established riders like Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton?

In short, can we expect a third helping of Olympic cycling success at Rio 2016? And more pertinently for a series titled, ‘Follow That: how 2013 can top 2012’, can Team GB deliver at the world track championships in Minsk, next month?

We’ll consider Great Britain’s chances in some of the events on the world championship programme.

Men’s team sprint

Philip Hindes will be a shoe-in for the men’s team sprint at the world championships this April. But who will ride at man three?

The men’s team sprint will suffer the greatest loss with the absence of Sir Chris Hoy, who has publicly stated on many occasions that he believes his career will end at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Who then will replace him at man three in Rio, for surely only this position will be up for grabs (British Cycling’s coaches will be in no hurry to replace 20-year-old Philip Hindes or 24-year-old Jason Kenny)?

Ed Clancy raced for the first time at man three in Glasgow and while comfortably beaten by Germany, the trio has four years to improve. Can Clancy? At this stage in the Olympic cycle, the double gold medalist is Team GB’s best bet, and likely to be selected for the world championships, barring the return of Hoy. Clancy will face an increasing challenge in the run up to Rio from young riders like Kian Amadi and Callum Skinner.

Men’s sprint

Jason Kenny’s rivarly with the French rider, Gregory Bauge, swung dramatically in the Englishman’s favour at London 2012

Triple gold medalist, Jason Kenny, will still only be 28-years-old when events at the Rio Games begin, and entering his prime. The Bolton Terrier will have a wealth of experience to call on at what looks certain to be his third Games. He briefly held the world championship in 2012 when Gregory Bauge was stripped of the title for missing an out of competition drugs test, but lost out to the Frenchman in the semi-final at Melbourne last year (Bauge went on to reclaim his title).

Kenny’s success in London, however, will have changed that rivalry irrevocably. Bauge was reduced to sly comments and insinuations at the post-Olympic final press conference; something the good-natured Kenny, still basking in the glory of his Olympic triumph, recorded at Bauge’s expense, barely seemed to register. He clearly has Bauge rattled. Expect Kenny to retain the upper hand in Minsk.

Men’s keirin

Jason Kenny endured a difficult outing in the keirin in Glasgow

Great Britain’s post-London era in the men’s keirin has got off to a stuttering start and the task of replacing Sir Chris Hoy looks at its most daunting in this event. Braveheart’s astonishing victory in London, a mix of talent and tenacity, balanced heavily in favour of the latter on the last lap of an unforgettable Olympic final, looks hard to replicate.

But we are four years from Rio, and much can change. Kenny clearly has the speed to win Olympic keirin gold, but will need a change in the rules to allow him to attempt the sprint, team sprint, keirin triple achieved by Hoy in Beijing.

Should the one competitor per nation, per event regulation remain in place (one imposed solely to limit Great Britain’s medal prospects), Kenny is unlikely to sacrifice the chance of defending his Olympic sprint title for a shot at the infinitely less controllable environment of the keirin, and British Cycling’s coaches are equally unlikely to sacrifice his berth in the team sprint.

This isn’t to say they aren’t prepared to consider it. Kenny competed in the keirin in Glasgow, but came to grief in the final when attempting to pass Germany’s Stefan Boetticher from the outside. Kenny remains Great Britain’s best bet in the event at the forthcoming world championships, but again, only if Hoy is absent.

Young rider, Kian Amadi, rolled out for the event in Cali, but finished eleventh. His second place in the kilo (not an event at London 2012, but one purists would like to see reinstated in the Olympic programme) proved his speed, and with four years ahead of him, the teenager has plenty of time to develop the race craft required for the keirin, but selection for Minsk could be a case of too much, too young.

Men’s team pursuit

A young Great Britain men’s team pursuit squad endured a disastrous outing in Glasgow. Team GB are likely to field a more experienced line-up in Minsk

Young riders may not get a look-in at the men’s team pursuit in Rio, which, in recent years, has become track cycling’s blue riband event. The line-ups from Beijing and London, gold medalists all, read like a veritable who’s who of British cycling’s recent greats. And with Bradley Wiggins, a member of the gold medal winning team in Beijing, and Mark Cavendish, whose failure to win an Olympic medal remains the only gap on a glittering palmares, both expressing a desire to join the team pursuit squad in Rio, there will be few events for which places will be harder to attain.

Great Britain sent out a young squad in Glasgow, to disastrous effect. Owain Doull, Sam Harrison, and Joe Kelly, ended their challenge on the boards. Only Andy Tennant, a member of the reigning world championship winning squad, remained upright.

British Cycling’s coaches are unlikely to repeat the experiment at the world championships. The likely opportunity created should Geraint Thomas makes good on his promise to focus on the road this season must go to Tennant, a rider selected for the Olympic Games as part of a five-man line up, but who did not ride, owing to the prowess of Clancy, Thomas, Pete Kennaugh, and Steven Burke. Substituting Thomas for Tennant would still create a formidable quartet, one with the pedigree to start as favourites to defend their title in Minsk.

Men’s omnium

Ed Clancy took bronze in the men’s omnium at London 2012, but is unlikely to contest the event at the world championships if selected for the men’s team sprint and men’s team pursuit

Clancy produced a fine performance in London to claim an Olympic bronze medal, but would be unfancied to tackle the men’s team pursuit, the men’s team sprint, and the omnium. The latter would be the event Clancy would most readily sacrifice. He told RCUK last year that the satisfaction of winning medals by his own efforts did not compare to that gained from winning as part of a team.

Jon Dibben, 19, made a gallant attempt at omnium glory at the second round of the 2012-13 World Cup in Glasgow last November, finishing fifth overall despite being called up to represent his country shortly after enrolling in British Cycling’s vaunted Academy. With four years to hone his assault on the track’s multi-discipline event, one Laura Trott clearly relishes alongside her women’s team pursuit duties, Dibben could carve himself a niche in the public conscious come 2016. Should Clancy find himself occupied with the team sprint and team pursuit in Minsk, Dibben could find himself carrying the nation’s hopes sooner than expected.

Women’s sprint

The tumultuous rivalry of Victoria Pendleton and Anna Meares ended at London 2012. Who will take the fight to the Australian in Minsk?

How do you replace Victoria Pendleton? There can be few more challenging tasks in cycling. Other nations might choose not to try, regarding Pendleton as an irreplaceable, once-in-a-lifetime talent. This is not the way at British Cycling, however, and few would bet against Ian Dyer and Jan Van Eiden moulding a future champion from even the basest clay. In Becky James and Jess Varnish, however, they already have two world class talents to hone. There is nothing to choose between them, as those who witnessed their duel in Glasgow will attest.

The world championships, however, will bring them up against Olympic champion, Anna Meares (Australia) and Shuang Guo, one half of the Chinese duo who won women’s team sprint gold in London. Meares’ team sprint partner, Kaarle McCulloch, is also vastly experienced. All three would start as favourites to beat James or Varnish, but with James’ confidence boosted by a fine showing in Glasgow, a medal remains a realistic prospect.

Women’s team sprint

Jess Varnish, pictured here with Vicky Pendleton, has formed a new team sprint partnership with Becky James

James and Varnish already look like British Cycling’s women’s team sprint line-up for years to come. Varnish was the only member of Great Britain’s track cycling team not to win a medal at London 2012, having been disqualified with Pendleton from the women’s team sprint after setting a world record in the previous round. Varnish’s response in Glasgow was enough to show she has moved on from the disappointment.

James and Varnish won in Glasgow, recording a time of 33.428, some nine-tenths of a second slower than the world record set with Pendleton at London 2012 (one lowered to 32.447 in the final by China). A slower track at Glasgow would have had an effect, along with the relative inexperience of the partnership. But the mix is right, and securing Pendleton’s legacy in the team sprint (Queen Vicky won three world team sprint titles, two with Shanaze Reade and one with Varnish) looks like the least of British Cycling’s problems. Dyer and Van Eiden know how to beat the Australian duo of Meares and McCulloch and the Chinese pairing of Gong and Guo, having done so previously. Minsk may be too soon, but the partnership of James and Varnish has future world and Olympic champions written all over it.

Women’s keirin

Becky James finished fifth in the women’s keirin in Glasgow, but cannot be discounted as a medal prospect at the world championships, given the unpredictable nature of the event

The shadow of Pendleton is cast across the women’s keirin, too. The event was her last hurrah at London 2012, one in which she won gold against the odds.  Both James and Varnish contested the event in the immediate aftermath of the Games, at the first round of the 2012-13 World Cup in Columbia. James recorded a narrow victory over her team-mate, finishing fourth to Varnish’s fifth. The Welsh rider was the sole Team GB entrant in Glasgow, where she finished fifth. James looks more suited to the event than Varnish, whose power and ferocity from a standing start gives her an edge in the one lap time trial.

The harum-scarum nature of a mass start race leaves far more to chance and form on the day than the two-wheeled chess match that is the sprint. Neither James or Varnish can be discounted as medal prospects in Minsk.

Women’s team pursuit

Rowsell, Trott, and King were arguably the best of any team at the Olympic Games and will be hot favourites to defend their world title in the women’s team pursuit

If breaking into Team GB’s men’s team pursuit squad looks like a daunting task, spare a thought for the riders aiming to displace Dani King, Laura Trott, or Jo Rowsell. The trio was arguably the best of any team in London, simply getting faster every time they raced, setting new world records and then smashing them as if for fun. All three are under 25; Rowsell is the eldest at 24, with Trott just 20. They could dominate the event for the next three Games. The trio will start as massive favourites to defend their world title in Minsk.

World junior time trial champion, Eleanor Barker, younger still at 16, could be the fourth spoke in the wheel should the women’s team pursuit gain parity in distance and personnel with the men’s event. The Welsh girl raced to victory with Trott and King at Glasgow, albeit in a much slower time than the two Olympic champions had recorded with Rowsell in London.

Women’s omnium

Laura Trott could have ridden for fun in the women’s omnium in Glasgow, but her relentless pursuit of victory showed her competitive spirit

Olympic women’s omnium champion, Laura Trott, is, it bears repetition, just 20 years old. Her victory at the Olympic Games was emphatic, and her follow-up victory three months later in Glasgow, at the end of a long season when others with her achievements would have raced for fun, spoke volumes for her competitive spirit. Trott will start as a huge favourite in Minsk to defend her world title.

Table toppers?

If 2013 can top 2012 as we contend, then Great Britain must top the medal table in Minsk. Team GB failed to do so in Melbourne last April, losing out to the home nation by just two silver medals.

A table-topping performance is a huge ask from a team likely to be in some state of transition and blooding new riders at the highest level. But British Cycling’s track teams, steered by Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton, operate to a higher standard than others.

With the Giro d’Italia and Bradley Wiggins’ first big goal of the season not until May, February’s world track championships will do much to determine if 2013 becomes another landmark year for British cycle sport.

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Bradley Wiggins’ historic victory in the Tour de France and Great Britain’s dominance at the Olympic Games are frequently cited in discussions concerning cycling’s exploding popularity on these shores.

Victories for Wiggins, his Team Sky cohorts, and the national team, however, represent only one piece of a jigsaw that increasingly depicts the UK as a nation of cyclists.

The “Olympics effect” has been a boon to the UK cycle industry. Pic: Richard Saxelby

The British cycle industry – manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, among many others – have all played their part in getting a million more people riding bikes regularly since 2008, according to a report from British Cycling and its commercial partner, Sky.

We’ve considered already in this series how our elite riders might continue their success in 2013. In this article, we’ll examine how the industry views the year ahead, and the potential for the sport to continue its seemingly relentless march from the margins to the mainstream.

The London Bike Show is the first major event on the domestic cycle market’s commercial calendar. Its relentless expansion in the last three years can be measured by the space it now occupies. This year’s show, which closed last Sunday after four days, took up 14,000 square metres of London’s cavernous ExCel Centre – nearly five times the space it required in 2011.

Geraldine Reeve is VOS Media’s group show director, one of a team responsible for the London Bike Show’s ever-increasing popularity. She believes the show’s position on the calendar, as well as its scale, affords it a positive influence on the coming 12 months.

“I think it does set the tone for the whole year,” she says. “We kicked off 2012 with a really successful show and in the last year we’ve grown hugely.

“It’s a chance for the trade to get together in January. There’s lots of networking that goes on, people generally having a good time. From what I’ve seen, everyone seems really upbeat and I think it gets the year off on the right foot.”

January’s London Bike Show is the first major event on the domestic cycling calendar

Last year’s expo, which also included the London Boat Show, the Outdoor Show, and the Active Travel Show, attracted some 88,000 visitors over four days. Reeve is expecting the final total for this year’s event to break the 90,000 barrier; a marginal gain, perhaps, but one she believes owes more to the bike show than to its other components.

As evidence, she offers a doubling in advance ticket sales for the bike show; proof perhaps of cycling’s increased popularity among the public at large. The industry responded earlier still, Reeve continues: the period immediately following the Tour and the Olympics prompted “a flurry of activity with the exhibitors”, with smaller companies following the lead of heavyweights whose presence at the London Bike Show is established, such as Madison, Xtra, and Yellow.

Some 165 exhibitors gathered at this year’s show, among them East Sussex-based ATB Sales, UK importers for Wilier and Marin, among other brands. Sales manager, Niki Elliott, shares Reeve’s view about the London Bike Show’s ability to set the tone for the year ahead, ascribing its influence to a date a few months after the launch of new products, typically in early September, and a month ahead of the first tranche of consumer activity in February.

ATB Sales was one of many UK cycling businesses to enjoy a record trading period in 2012: the company recorded its busiest two weeks during its 25^th anniversary last September. Elliott believes the continued success of Britain’s elite cyclists is integral to the cycle market’s continued expansion. “I would like to see it continue,” she says of the success of athletes like Wiggins and Cavendish and Wiggins. “Quite often people have short memories. They jump on the band wagon and in six months if they don’t hear it continually in the press, it’s gone,” she says.

Last year’s seemingly endless downpour, lost to many among memories of a “golden summer” (a period almost as miraculous for a fortnight of sustained good weather as for the nation’s sporting success) is flagged by Elliott as evidence that 2012 had been a tough year for many in the industry until July.

A wet summer blunted sales, but many in the UK cycle industry enjoyed a record year thanks to British success in the Tour and the Olympic Games. Pic: Adam Smith

She is optimistic about the industry’s prospects for 2013, however, and believes road cycling in particular will continue to grow, citing continuing sales in through the winter months in the road market as a new development.

Rory Hitchens of Upgrade Bikes, UK distributor for Lezyne and Kinesis among other brands, reports a similar phenomenon, one immediately obvious in the sale of the Kinesis TK3, a ‘four-seasons’ model that provides the chassis for the RCUK winter bike.

Hitchens also shares Elliott’s memories of a wet summer, and says event organisers might be a group with less rosy memories of 2012. Like ATB Sales, Upgrade Bikes enjoyed growth in 2012, he says, and, like Elliott, he predicts another successful year for the UK cycle industry in 2013.

But he warns that continued growth will not come without continued effort from all parties, and believes that independent bike shops, while still having a role to play, will need to become more specialist and to place a greater emphasis on service if they are to compete in a rapidly changing market place where on-line retailers are increasingly dominant.

Retailers will not be alone in facing competition, he continues. Hitchens predicts that competition among distributors, suppliers, and creators of brands will intensify, adding that the consumer will be the ultimate beneficiary of a process that he believes produces “better information, better products, and better price offers”.

Bradley Wiggins’ historic victory in the Tour de France was, along with Team GB’s domination of cycling events in the Olympic Games, the peak of Britain’s so-called “golden summer”.

In our feature series this month, ‘Follow that! How 2013 can top 2012’, Team Sky clearly plays an important role. Having achieved so much last year, the only way to top its achievements of 2012 is to produce more and greater victories in 2013.

Bradley Wiggins’ historic victory in the 2012 Tour de France opened Britain’s ‘golden summer’

Such ambitions are more than wishful thinking from the British team’s core of home nation supporters. In the publicly stated ambitions of both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, who will be targeting victory at the Tour de France, and, in Wiggins’ case, the Giro d’Italia as well, they occupy a position at the top of Team Sky’s ‘to do’ list for the season ahead.

Immediately after securing first and second place with Wiggins and Froome at last year’s Tour, as well as six stage wins courtesy of the aforesaid pair and Mark Cavendish, team principal, Dave Brailsford, spoke of making Team Sky “the best professional team this sport has ever seen.” One certain way to achieve that would be to win two Grand Tours in a single season.

But is this possible, even for Team Sky? The first hurdle to be cleared would be victory at the Giro d’Italia, a race of no lesser physical challenge than the Tour, but perhaps more suited to Wiggins’ abilities than this year’s Grande Boucle.

The 2013 Corsa Rosa will include three tests against the clock, beginning on stage two with a 17.4km team time trial. A rolling, 55km individual time trial from Gabicce Mare to Saltara on stage eight looks tailor-made for Wiggins.

The final time trial, on stage 18, couldn’t be more different: a course that climbs relentlessly, at an average gradient of 5.2 per cent, from 197 metres at Mori to 1,205 metres some 19.45km later at the finish in Polsa.With victory against the clock on the Col d’Eze already on his CV, however, this will not unduly concern the Londoner.

Wiggins will be one of the few contenders to ride both the Giro and the Tour. Alberto Contador (Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), the pre-Tour favourite even before he has declared his schedule for 2013, is highly unlikely to roll out in Napoli on Saturday May 4 for the Giro’s Grand Partenza.

He need only cast his mind back as far as 2011 to recall the debilitating effects of a Giro victory on ambitions for the same at the Tour. Despite his trademark aggression and relentless attacks in the mountains, El Pistolero was unable to make a significant impact on the Tour after dominating the Giro to win by more than six minutes (Contador was stripped of his Giro crown after testing positive for Clenbuterol in a sample given on the second rest day of the 2010 Tour: another race in which he which he was subsequently stripped of victory).

Contador’s experience places two elements in Wiggins’ favour: the first is that he is unlikely to face the Spaniard in Italy; the second is that the 2013 Giro is not as hard as the 2011 edition, the last in which Angelo Zomegnan served as race director. His successor, Michele Acquarone, an intelligent man with ambitions to turn the Giro into a global brand, delivered a route last year described by no less an authority than Contador himself as “more humane”. The 2013 edition continues the trend for a mix of signature climbs and efforts against the clock and is described by Acquarone as “balanced”.

What could count against Wiggins, however, and Froome, and Team Sky, is the need to provide the Londoner with a team as strong as that which rode in his support at the Tour last year. This is, of itself, no great concern. Mick Rogers, now, ironically, a member of  Contador’s Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank squad, will certainly be missed, but Team Sky has sufficient strength in depth to replace the Australian. The concern must be, does it have sufficient strength in depth to provide two squads of sufficient talent? Or one squad with sufficient resilience to ride for victory at two Grand Tours just five weeks apart?

This concern lies at the heart of any analysis of Team Sky’s second goal for 2013: a second consecutive victory at the Tour de France.

Team Sky will seek a second Tour de France victory in 2013

The first issue the team must resolve is the question of leadership. Publicly, they have supported the ambitions of both riders, much as they did last year with the twin goals of green jerseys for Cavendish and yellow for Wiggins. Having given both riders equal opportunity to stake their claim to leadership in the build up to the Tour, Brailsford and the team’s senior management assessed Wiggins’ superb season and rightly judged that the greater prize was within their grasp.

Should Wiggins win the Giro, they are likely to do so again. Even if Froome were to repeat Wiggins’ early-season successes of 2012, given the choice of backing a rider with victories in a series of week-long stage races or a newly-crowned Giro champion, they are likely to back the Londoner. Should Wiggins line up in Corsica as the winner of two Grand Tours, as well as defending champion, few will question his right to lead the team.

The reverse is true. A Wiggins defeated at the Giro, and likely to have been exhausted by the attempt, will appear a worse bet than Froome, particularly if Froome has, like Wiggins did last year, achieved some of the best results of his career in the meantime. Additionally, the consensus of opinion is that the 2013 Tour, the centenary edition, is better suited to Froome’s superior climbing abilities.

And then there is Contador. The Spaniard will haunt Team Sky’s plans for this season like Banquo’s ghost. Contador trounced Froome at the 2012 Vuelta, a race he went on to win, but, unlike the Spaniard, Froome had a Tour and two Olympic events in his legs, and made no specific preparation for Spain’s national tour.

Chris Froome was able to match Alberto Contador’s attacks in the first week of the 2012 Vuelta a Espana, but with the Tour de France already in his legs, faded badly in the final fortnight

Will things be different given equal preparation? Contador’s achievements far outstrip those of Froome, and he is at least as good against the clock. Froome, however, proved himself able to match the Spaniard in the first week of the Vuelta. Given the form that saw him devour the closing kilometres of the Peyragudes in pursuit of Alejandro Valverde on stage 17 of the 2012 Tour, only to be called back to pace Wiggins, it’s possible Froome can match Contador for three weeks.

There is a sense that Froome has waited his turn: that having seen his victory in the 2011 Vuelta squandered by Team Sky’s insistence on backing Wiggins, and being arguably the stronger of the pair in the mountains of last year’s Tour, that he has earned the right to lead the team this July. Sentiment, however, must not cloud Team Sky’s judgment. The reality is that the nature of this year’s parcourse, and the threat of Contador, makes his role as super domestique more vital than ever.

Reversing their roles would be entirely self defeating. Wiggins is incapable of responding to Contador’s sudden accelerations in the mountains, and Froome cannot take significant time from the Spaniard in time trials. Froome as attack dog, relentlessly chasing down Contador in the mountains as Team Sky work to keep Wiggins at a consistently high tempo and in contention, before allowing the Londoner to inflict damage on Contador by showing himself – again – the world’s best time trialist, must be the British team’s best hope of a second consecutive Tour de France victory.

Will it follow triumph in the Giro? Everything will depend on Wiggins’ ability to replicate the determination of 2012. Having achieved so much, and been to the well so often in 2012, will he have the motivation or physical resources for an even bigger challenge in 2013?

My feeling is yes. Wiggins’ maturity is a driving force greater than unrealised ambition. Clearly aware that he is in the closing stages of his career, determined not to squander his last remaining years at the top, and able to call on all the experience of a glittering career, he holds a unique combination of desire and experience. With the backing of the team, and the correct deployment of Froome, two Grand Tour victories are within Team Sky’s grasp in 2013.

Follow that? The Tour comes to Britain in 2014.

Throughout January, we’ll be considering a number of areas in which cycling can continue to grow in the year ahead, in our series: ‘Follow that! How 2013 can top 2012.’

Legacy was a word bandied with astonishing frequency in Britain’s Olympic year: the concept that the benefits of hosting the world’s greatest sporting tournament should not end with the closing ceremony. For a sport so comprehensively thrust into the spotlight in 2012, the importance to cycling of maintaining its momentum cannot be overstated.

The Olympic road race drew thousands of spectators to the streets of London of Surrey. The RideLondon event has potential to do the same. Pic: Neil Sloss

Cycling will return to the site of its Olympic zenith next August when the RideLondon festival brings cyclists back to The Mall and its immediate environs for many of the events that Britain does best: a sportive, an elite criterium, and a professional road race, as well as a fun ride for families.

The Ride London 100, a century ride for amateurs that will broadly follow the route of the Olympic road race from central London to the Surrey Hills and back to The Mall, had attracted more than 55,500 entries when registration closed on Friday January 4. ‘Only’ 20,000 places are available and a ballot will be held to decide who will ride. Lucky winners will be told on Thursday, February 7.

While sportive events attract thousands of participants every weekend, and the biggest, like the Dragon Ride and Etape Cymru, have become staples of the amateur cyclist’s calendar, the discipline lacks a signature event instantly recognizable to the non-cycling public as something they could aspire to; something, have seen on television, they could plan to participate in next year; something, in a nutshell, like the London Marathon.

“The comparison to the London Marathon is a good one,” says Hugh Brasher, race director of the London Marathon, and the man charged with organising all but the RideLondon Classic professional road race.

“However, the Marathon has an advantage, in that we have held the event for 32 years, and so London residents and visitors have a very good idea of what to expect.”

The need for support cars is the most obvious logistical challenge presented to organisers of the RideLondon Classic not faced by those for the London Marathon

He identified road closures and “community engagement” as the biggest challenges faced by RideLondon. “We have to ensure that as many residents, businesses and visitors to London and Surrey understand the event.” Highlighting the opportunity to participate, to spectate, and to change travel plans to avoid meeting closed roads on the day, are among his priorities. The last of those was partly addressed in the early planning stages, when RideLondon’s dates – Saturday August 3 and Sunday August 4 – were set. Traffic levels are at their lowest in London and Surrey in early August.

Another obvious similarity between the London Marathon and the Ride London 100 is the opportunity for amateurs to compete on broadly the same course as elite athletes. Staging a cycle race involves greater logistical challenges, of course – the necessity for support vehicles to follow the riders being the most obvious – and to counter this and other difficulties, the professional road race, the RideLondon Classic, will depart from central London at 4pm, as the last of the RideLondon 100 participants return. Those unable to meet this deadline, and still on the road by 4pm, will be asked to leave the course.

Sweetspot, the organisation that for the last 10 years has staged the Tour of Britain, will organise the road race. Mick Bennett, Sweetspot’s technical director, told RoadCyclingUK he was “very confident” that teams from cycling’s elite WorldTour would race in London.

“In fact, we’ve had lots of positive stuff back telling me, ‘Yes, we want to ride both Ride London and the Tour of Britain,’ so I’m very confident that we’ll have a very able and willing event in the Classic: 25 six-man teams from all over the world, and one or two unique things that we’re going to be announcing shortly.”

Bennett wouldn’t be drawn on the “unique things”, but expressed his belief that the route faced by the pros in the RideLondon Classic will be harder than that faced by national teams in the Olympic road race. “We are talking about more climbs,” he revealed.

Team GB were unable to haul back a breakaway in the Olympic road race. Mick Bennett says the course of the RideLondon Classic will be harder. Pic: Stewart Newman

Bennett’s ultimate ambition for the RideLondon Classic is a place on cycling’s elite calendar, whether that be the UCI WorldTour or its replacement, should the World Series of Cycling, promoted by the Gifted Group, be adopted.

Bennett was the driving force behind the Leeds Classic, which occupied a position on the UCI ProTour, the WorldTour’s predecessor. He agrees that Britain is now a cycling superpower, but argued that its racing programme didn’t reflect the stature of its elite riders; a situation he hopes to change, at least in part, with the RideLondon Classic.

“In year three of RideLondon, we want to make that a Classic on the WorldTour calendar,” he said. “To have 55,000 people register [for the RideLondon 100] just shows the thirst. To have a reaction at that level is a complete surprise to all of us.”

The London Marathon has undoubtedly drawn popularity from its position as the nation’s leading fundraising event. Many positions on the start line have been guaranteed to charities including Clic Sargent, Diabetes UK, Kidney Research and Scope .

Shelter has been allocated 125 places, and hopes to raise £115,000 from the RideLondon 100 for its work with homeless people and those in bad housing. Lizzi Wagner, Shelter’s Community and Events Manager, said fundraising from cycling events “just makes sense” for her charity.

“With the popularity of cycling going from strength to strength, and the increasing demand for cycling challenge events – participation is up 52 per cent over the last four years – this was a very straight-forward decision for us,” she said.

Cycling is a sport ‘close to home’ for Shelter’s events team, whose running and ‘active’ events have won awards. Many of those organising fundraising events for the charity are keen cyclists or have backgrounds in the cycling industry.

The Manchester 100 sportive has a fundraising aspect. The RideLondon 100 will do the same. Pic: David Dunnico

While places in the RideLondon 100 for riders registering as individuals are massively over-subscribed, charities are still able to offer places, albeit to those prepared to accept a fundraising commitment. Riding for Team Shelter costs £50 for registration, and a commitment to raise £750.

Many will see the opportunity to benefit a good cause as its own reward, but charities are able to provide support for their riders that individuals might not enjoy. Shelter hopes to offer advice on training, injury prevention, and maintenance, and its riders will have support “before, during, and after the ride,” says Wagner.

The Team GB and Paralympics GB cycling teams were the most successful of any last summer. RideLondon will provide the opportunity for cycling to set the standard for the legacy of the Games.

“We’re confident that RideLondon will become one of the world’s best cycling events,” says Brasher, “and that’s an Olympic legacy we can all be proud of.”

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RideLondon

Shelter

Riders, organisers, followers, retailers, and even journalists bathed in the satisfaction of seeing the sport they loved go from strength to strength.

Perhaps one man, however, was left with a lingering sense of what might have been, and a burning desire to return to centre stage in 2013: Mark Cavendish.

Mark Cavendish recorded arguably his greatest victory on stage 18 of last year’s Tour de France, but missed out on the green jersey he had targeted in pre-season

In the second in our series “Follow that!”, we’ll consider the Manxman’s chances to achieve the biggest prize on offer to him in 2013: a second Tour de France green jersey.

It’s a measure of the former world road race champion’s standards that a season with 12 victories, six in Grand Tours, including a record-equaling fourth triumph on the Champs Elysees, could be greeted with disappointment.

Yet when Cavendish looks back on 2012, he will note three prominent entries in the minus column: failure to achieve his stated goals of a second victory at Milan-San Remo, a second Tour de France green jersey, and a gold medal in the Olympic road race.

Close observers of the sport will perhaps consider only one of those three missed targets a failure. Cavendish was dropped on the climb of La Manie at Milan-San Remo, but his tenacity in the Tour and during the Olympic road race was admirable. A rider so closely focussed on victory is unlikely to allow himself such a positive assessment.

How then does Cavendish seize the biggest opportunity of his 2013 season: another maillot vert?

His 2013 season must necessarily be considered, at least partly, in light of the biggest change since 2012: his transfer to Omega Pharma-QuickStep. The Belgian squad, flushed with funds, success, and a roster of superstars and experienced domestiques will prove either to be the perfect home for Cavendish, or a wrong turn. It is unlikely that a rider of such strong character, and who has joined the squad for the greater support it can offer in the intensely team-oriented environment of a sprint lead out, will merely blend in.

Another consequence of the Manxman’s move to OPQS will be a diminished likelihood of a tilt at Milan-San Remo. The Belgian squad is, unsurprisingly, laden with one-day specialists, and while the Northern Classics proved to be its happiest hunting ground in 2012, it is unlikely OPQS will ride for Cavendish at La Primavera in 2013.

Mark Cavendish’s move to Omega Pharma-QuickStep has been made in the expectation of greater support in the Tour de France

The team is more likely to focus its efforts for Cavendish in stage races, developing the sprint train on which he will rely in July, when it goes head-to-head with those of Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale). He will start the season at the Tour de San Luis, won last year for Omega Pharma-QuickStep by the disgraced and subsequently dismissed Levi Leipheimer.

Last year, Cavendish enjoyed early-season success at Tirenno-Adriatico, winning stage two and wearing the red jersey of points leader for two days. His next stage race triumph arrived at the Giro d’Italia, where he notched a hat-trick and came within an ace of another points victory (he lost out narrowly to Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez). Cavendish is likely to ride this year’s Giro too, having proved himself eminently capable of performing at the Tour after a testing corsa rosa.

Presuming that the OPQS sprint train has coalesced around Cavendish with sufficient aplomb by July, the Manxman will strike team support from the list of issues to overcome (something he was unable to do last year) and focus instead on the twin challenges of the parcourse and his rivals.

In the case of the former, Cavendish has proved equal to any Tour route previously encountered, and began last July arguably in the best shape of his entire career. The centenary edition is likely to be the toughest he has faced, with the Tour having moved in an opposite direction from the Giro and, more recently, the Vuelta a Espana, in recent years (the Giro was perhaps the happy medium last year between the time-trial heavy Tour and a vertiginous Vuelta).

Cavendish groveled his way from Bagneres de Luchon to Peyragudes on stage 17 of last year’s Tour. This year’s will be harder, and he’ll be without Bernie Eisel

Cavendish and his fellow sprinters will be forced to grovel over 28 categorised climbs next July, laid out over six mountain stages; four of them contain summit finishes. The final week in the Alps most closely replicates the brutalities of recent Vueltas, but the good news for Cavendish is that six of the flat stages will have been completed by the time the Mont Ventoux looms over him on stage 15. If his mission is to be accomplished, the lion’s share of the work should be done by then, with only Paris remaining of the stages on which he will be expected to battle for victory.

Can he survive the final week and make it to the Champs Elysees? He has never failed to do so before, but he’s never faced a denouement as brutal as the one that awaits him in July: a crippling time trial on a course from Embrun to Chorges on stage 17; a double ascent of Alpe d’Huez on stage 18; a quintet of categorised climbs on stage 19; and a punishing farewell to the Alps on the slopes of Le Semnoz on stage 20.

If the climbs dominated early reports of the 2013 route, the opening stage could be the most significant of all for Cavendish’s legion of followers. Tour organisers have eschewed the prologue time trial format of recent years in favour of a pan flat 212km stage on Corsica which will offer the winner – likely to be a sprinter – a day in the yellow jersey. The maillot jaune would be a significant addition to any wardrobe, even one in which a maillot vert and a rainbow jersey already hang.

Surviving the challenge of the course, while significant, will not be sufficient for Cavendish to claim the cherished prize of a second green jersey. He must also overcome the challenge of his rivals. Two-time winner of the Tour’s points competition, Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing), is likely to return in 2013. Cavendish will also face the formidable challenge of Peter Sagan, winner of the green jersey last year. Among the other sprinters, few are capable of mounting a sustained challenge. Andre Greipel equalled Cavendish for Tour stage victories last year, but an assessment of his results amounts to win-or-bust. Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) was a consistent top five finisher, but never looked like winning a stage, and claiming the maximum points for a serious tilt at the green jersey.

It’s our belief that 2013 has every chance of being at least as significant for British cycling as 2012, despite the sizable absence of a home Olympic Games. The likely battle of Froome and Wiggins for Tour honours, the UCI World Track Championships, and the Ride London Classic each offer headline-grabbing opportunities for British success. A second green jersey for Mark Cavendish, ideally cemented with victory on the Champs Elysees, would be welcome indeed.

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]]> http://roadcyclinguk.com/news/racing-news/follow-that-2013-can-top-2012-cavendish-second-green-jersey-2912.html/feed 2 http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/follow-that-tour-of-britain-2013.html http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/follow-that-tour-of-britain-2013.html#comments Mon, 07 Jan 2013 23:47:05 +0000 Timothy John http://roadcyclinguk.com/?p=53329 If 2012 was the “year of the bike”, cycling in 2013 has a tough act to follow.

We’re confident the sport can meet the challenge, and we’ll be exploring its opportunities to do so in a host of articles this month in our series, ‘Follow that…how 2013 can top 2012.’

A glorious three months of athletic achievement, begun in July with Bradley Wiggins’ historic victory in the Tour de France, came to be known as “Britain’s golden summer”, and received an unexpected extension with a home victory in the Tour of Britain.

Jon Tiernan-Locke’s victory in the Tour of Britain brought “Britain’s golden summer” to a satisfying conclusion

If cynics had considered the race a victory lap for Team Sky’s returning heroes, Wiggins and world road race champion, Mark Cavendish, among them, they didn’t tell Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, then leader of Endura Racing.

Mick Bennett, race director of the 2012 Tour of Britain, told RoadCyclingUK that the Devonian’s accession to the leader’s jersey the day before the race entered his home county had been considered a “double whammy success” by the race organisers.

“We obviously realised that following the success of the Olympics with Cav, and Bradley, and a lot of the riders that rode the Olympics actually riding the Tour of Britain helped enormously,” he said, “and then Tiernan-Locke, wearing the leader’s jersey going into Devon on the penultimate day, was just fantastic.”

The Scottish squad had been planning victory in their home race since January, when team manager, Brian Smith, unveiled the team at the London Bike Show by announcing his intention to win the Tour of Britain.

Tiernan-Locke duly delivered. If the thousands who lined the streets, from Scotland to Surrey, did so in the expectation of further success to follow the superb achievements of the Olympic Games, they weren’t disappointed. The rider in the gold jersey was not Bradley Wiggins (although it had been, briefly, Mark Cavendish), but that hardly mattered. Tiernan-Locke’s sudden prominence was, if anything, more exciting to the man and woman at the road side. Just how many world class riders did Britain have tucked away?

Thousands of people lined the roads for every stage of the 2012 Tour of Britain

Asked if Team GB’s Olympic success fuelled the public’s appetite for the Tour of Britain, Bennett is emphatic. “Undoubtedly.”

“People were inquisitive. They must have seen the Olympics on television, and thought, ‘What is this thing, professional bike racing? Oh, it’s coming our way in September, let’s go and have a look at it,’ so there’s a curiosity, fuelled by the Olympics, but also the fact that we had these Olympic stars in the event helped enormously,” he said.

So how important is a home winner of the national tour to cycling’s continued popularity in Britain? The Grand Tours are so emphatically established, staples on the international calendar and so linked with national identity that a domestic victory hardly matters. France is a greater player in La Grande Boucle than any rider; Claudio Salomoni, international sales manager at Wilier, told RCUK last year that while football commanded greater column inches in Italy, the Giro was the sporting event most loved by the Italian people.

Bennett said he was unable to judge the importance of a home victory to the Tour of Britain. “That’s a good question,” he laughed, “and how can I answer that because I can’t get inside the minds of the public!”

“The fact we had, in Devon for the first time, the leader of the Tour of Britain being a Devonian – it was rather strange how it all happened. I can tell you it wasn’t planned that way!”

To describe Endura Racing as plucky underdogs would be to miscast them, as well as to afford them considerably less than their due after a season that had already brought international success at the Tour Méditerranéen, Tour du Haut Var, and Tour d’Alsace, but it would be an equal injustice not to applaud the magnitude of their achievement on home soil in overcoming the challenge of the luminaries of cycling’s elite WorldTour.

JTL wasn’t the only one with reason to celebrate a hugely successful Tour of Britain

Beyond the certainty that the race will be staged again this year, from September 15 to 22, the immediate future of the Tour of Britain has been clouded by British Cycling’s unexpected announcement in December that it was putting out to tender the right to stage the 2013 edition. The Sweetspot organisation, of which Bennett is technical director, and which has staged the Tour of Britain since 2004, will be among those bidding to host it again.

Bennett told RCUK that he had “absolutely no idea” about the latest developments in the tender process, adding that while Sweetspot had yet to receive documentation, he expected the organisation would do so in the coming weeks.

“I’m confident that we’ll put in a very detailed tender and a very qualified tender. Whether it’s successful or not, I can’t say. I’m confident in our ability to present the best tender; whether other people see it that way, I can’t comment on,” he said.

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]]> http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/follow-that-tour-of-britain-2013.html/feed 0 http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/riding-news/follow-that-january-on-rcuk.html http://roadcyclinguk.com/riding/riding-news/follow-that-january-on-rcuk.html#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2013 16:00:05 +0000 Timothy John http://roadcyclinguk.com/?p=52907 Follow that!

2013 has plenty in store for the cyclist

2012 set new standards for British cycling, but we’re confident 2013 can be even better.

We’ll be expanding on our thoughts throughout the month in a series of feature length articles.

What technical developments can we expect in the year ahead? Can Team Sky achieve a second Grand Tour victory, or even two in the same season? Would a dedicated Minister for Cycling aid our case on the roads?

We’ll be asking these questions and more of leaders from the sport and industry in a bid to map out cycling’s post-2012 landscape.

The London Bike Show returns to the ExCel Centre in Docklands from January 17 to 20, and RCUK will be there in force, hosting the test track and offering visitors the chance to try some of the latest machines from Cannondale, Fondriest, Giant, Moda, Specialized, and Wilier.

January’s test schedule includes the Cube Agree GTC, the Dutch company’s Tiagra-equipped challenger in the increasingly competitive sub-£1,500 carbon market.

We’ll be getting familiar with Giant’s TCR SL, the machine supplied in its flagship incarnation to the Blanco Pro Cycling WorldTour team (formerly known as Rabobank).

And Bianchi will be sending us their new Sempre Pro: a machine known to company insiders as a ‘Baby Oltre’ and one whose newly racy persona left us impressed during a sneak preview last November.

Clothing tests will involve further winter kit from dhb,  and brand new offerings from Le Col and Solo.

With winter still very much with us, this month’s test schedule will also contain its fair share of lights and indoor trainers, with offerings from Minoura, NiteRider, Light and Motion, Silva, and Tacx among them.

The RCUK Test Track at the London Bike Show will give visitors a chance to ride bikes from Cannondale, Fondriest, Giant, Moda, Specialized, and Wilier

It may be January, but the racing calendar is still packed. The UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup reaches its denouement with penultimate and final rounds in Italy and Holland respectively, and the UCI Track World Cup, last seen in Glasgow, continues in Mexico.

The British cyclo-cross championships will be held in Bradford on the second weekend of January, with Ian Field and Helen Wyman set to defend their titles.

And the UCI WorldTour, road racing’s flagship series, begins a new season at the Tour Down Under on January 22.

We’ll have previews, reports, galleries, and post-race analysis of each of these key events in the 2013 racing calendar.

Far from starting the year slowly, we’ll be going ‘full gas’ to bring you all of the above, plus the usual mix of breaking tech and racing news.