Cyclingnews readers have voted in favour of the introduction of disc brakes in the professional peloton. 2,494 people voted in our daily poll, with 58% voting in favour of disc brakes and 42% voting against.
On Monday, the UCI announced that disc brakes can be used by all professional men’s and women’s teams during races in 2016 as part of a final year of testing. With little time for manufacturers and teams to prepare new bikes before the new season begins in January, riders are expected to gradually change to disc brakes during the spring.
Read more about the introduction of disc brakes by clicking here.
Froome, Nibali and Matthews jersey up for grabs in charity auction
An on-line charity auction in Italy is offering a chance for fans and collectors to get their hands on a series of race jersey worn by the likes of Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali and Michael Matthews.
Lampre-Merida mechanic Enrico Pengo has organised the online auction for a local charity, with retailer www.all1sport.com hosting the auction and showing off the numerous jerseys. The online auction began on November 28 and ends on December 24, with the highest bidder securing the jerseys, shoes, sunglasses donated by some of the biggest stars in the peloton. There is even a special Lampre-Merida coffee machine up for grabs.
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The jerseys up for sale include a Giro d’Italia pink jersey with race numbers donated by Alberto Contador, an Orica-GreenEdge jersey with race numbers from Matthews, Nibali’s Italian champion’s jersey with race numbers from the Tour de France and even a pair of shoes autographed by Alexander Kristoff.
Visit the All1 Sport website for more details www.all1sport.com to see all the jerseys up for auction and to make a bid.
Rusvelo becomes Gazprom-Rusvelo
The Rusvelo team has announced it the arrival of Gazprom as a new title sponsor and revealed a new blue jersey, with Colnago supplying bikes to the Russian Professional Continental team.
Makarov attended the official presentation of Gazprom-Rusvelo near Lake Garda at the weekend, as did UEC president and UCI vice-president president David Lappartient, and Italian federation president Renato di Rocco.
The 21-rider road team will be joined by three other groups that will focus on track racing, mountain biking and BMX as it helps develop Russian riders for Olympic disciplines. Gazprom is major gas producer, supplier gas to much of Europe via strategic pipelines.
Thieves clean out Colbrelli’s garage
Bardiani-CSF rider Sonny Colbrelli had a nasty surprise on Sunday morning when he discovered that thieves had broken into his garage and stolen his team issue road bike and new mountain bike.
The Italian rider was woken early for 6:05am anti-doping control. When he later headed out for a training ride, he noticed that his garage door had been forced open and his Cipollini road bike had disappeared. Instead of going out for a ride he spent his morning with Italian police.
Fortunately the Italian had kept another bike he used at the end of the 2015 season at his parents and so was able to go training on Monday.
