Francesco Moser is due to be inducted into the Giro d’Italia hall of fame in a ceremony in Milan on March 20. Moser won the general classification in 1984, beating Laurent Fignon by 1:03 and taking four stages along the way. In total, Moser won 23 stages of the Giro d’Italia and has taken the points jersey on four separate occasions.
Among Moser’s other accomplishments are his victories in Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, the Giro di Lombardia and the 1977 World Championships. He also set the Hour Record in 1984, although he subsequently admitted to using blood doping to help him beat it – a practice that was not banned at the time.
Démare, Devenyns, and Hofland abandon Paris-Nice
A spate of riders has decided to put an early end to their Paris-Nice, ahead of the final weekend. Arnaud Démare (FDJ), Dries Devenyns (IAM Cycling), Moreno Hofland and Maarten Wynants (both LottoNL-Jumbo), Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) and Michael Schär (BMC) all chose not to start the penultimate stage to Nice.
Illness is the major reason for abandoning with Démare and Hofland blaming a fever for their departure, while Devenyns has gone home on doctor’s orders while suffering from a cold. Wynants has followed his teammate out of the race after developing bronchitis in the last couple of days. “After wise counsel from @ Bradleywiggins3 decided not to start in paris-nice "sick, tis guy is sick,” Wynants wrote on twitter on Saturday morning.
BMC confirmed that Schär would not ride the penultimate stage following a crash during stage 5.
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D’Hoore speaks out about Anorexia
Keeping their weight down is an endless pursuit for professional cyclists, both male and female alike. The less you weigh the less you have to drag up the mountains and the faster you, potentially, go. In the fight to keep themselves trim, some cyclists go further than others and many are on the brink of an eating disorder. In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, Belgian track and road champion, Jolien D’Hoore (Wiggle-Honda)has spoken about the problems she has witnessed inside the women’s peloton.
“I may be a professional cyclist, I'm not on the scale every day. As a sprinter I have to watch my weight, but if I have a kilo or two come to, that is not a disaster,” said D’Hoore, who recently sprinted to victory ahead of Chantal Blaak (Boels Dolmans) at Omloop van het Hegeland. “Unfortunately, I do not think all my colleagues in the peloton see it that way. Indeed, a new evil is looming around the corner. It has the name: anorexia. The name alone makes me shudder.
D’Hoore’s new teammate Mara Abbott is probably one of the best known riders to have publicly suffered from the disorder. The American gave up cycling before returning in 2013 to take her second Giro Rosa title. D’Hoore says in the interview that she has tried to speak with riders she thinks are not eating enough but says that something needs to be done to protect the riders.
“I see some girls, fellow riders, starve to fly up the hills. But after the hill, they are completely exhausted,” she said.
"But what are the limits? Is there a way back? Is not it better to prevent it by keeping the personal data of the riders in addition to traditional doping controls? I’m thinking of weekly or monthly weight checks, measurements of body fat and body water, you name it. It is a small effort of the organizations, but for the girls would sometimes be a salvation. I hope that the bureaucracy of cycling quickly follows because accidents happen."
Women’s World Cup
The women’s World Cup series kicks off this Saturday with Ronde van Drenthe. It is the first of 10 rounds, which concludes with the GP de Plouay-Bretagne on August 29. Lizzie Armitstead is the defending World CUp champion, after leading the competition from the start.
Cyclingnews will have highlights of each round of what is set to be an exciting and hotly contested competition. Whet your appetite with this short preview video from the UCI.
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