Believe it or not, January has been and gone and 2014 is rapidly gathering pace, offering plenty to look forward to.
How about this weekend’s cyclo-cross World Championships for starters? A week later, and our attention will shift to the velodrome and the track world championships, which will feature rising star Elinor Barker.
We also have the Tour de France Grand Départ to look forward to in July – and we visited finish town Harrogate to see how it was shaping up.
If you’re still not convinced about how special the Tour’s arrival on these shores will be, former champion Oscar Pereiro told us it was a victory for Yorkshire and England.
We’re not the only ones looking forward to it either – Team NetApp-Endura, part-founded in Scotland, are among the teams to have been awarded a wildcard, meaning up to three more Brits could be on the start line in Leeds.
If you can’t wait until July for your next fix of top-tier racing, pro cycling’s elite will head to the deserts of the Middle East next week, and there is plenty to look forward to with some high-octane racing in the offing at the Tours of Dubai, Qatar, and Oman, with Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome set to defend their crowns in the last two.
Joaquim Roadriguez, Katusha’s world number one, will be competing in Asia on his custom Canyon Aeroad CF, while Tour de France champion Froome will compete for the first time this season.
It’s not just the professionals who are busy, either – with plenty of sportives on offer in the UK, which event are you preparing to tackle?
We picked out six of the UK’s best to give you some ideas.
New year, new bike? We’ve had plenty to feast our eyes upon already this year – from the 66cm Rose Bikes Xeon RS 3000, to the limited signature edition Storck Aernario, weighing just 5.38kg, which we spotted at the 2014 Core Bike Show.
All this and more has been going on at RCUK as we bid a cheery farewell to January. If you have missed anything this week, catch up on the best of the last seven days over the following pages.
