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Reposted by Feargal McKay

Ineos - Tour Racing Ltd - accounts are in. Revenue of €54 million in 2025, down from €65 million in 2024.

In Europe, but not part of Europe. Andy Burnham's going to have to fix this and promise a Brit in the Euros jersey before the next election.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 15h

Three days later and people are still asking who the fuck is this guy who just became World Champion. Always a good sign...

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 15h

AI is all in on Team McNulty...

An AI search response declaring McNulty is a completely worthy World Champion

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 15h

Ineos - Tour Racing Ltd - accounts are in. Revenue of €54 million in 2025, down from €65 million in 2024.

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Reposted by Feargal McKay

Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

The 1990s was such a run of carthorses winning the Worlds - Brochard, Leblanc, Dhaenens - we actually had a pretty good run of thoroughbreds winning this century, with just Vainšteins and Astarloa blotting the copybook across a quarter of a century.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

Only the best of the best get to wear the Rainbow Stripes. Plus, every few years, guys like Romāns Vainšteins 🇱🇻 and others we've long since forgotten or prefer not to remember. Someone should actually produce a listicle of the least worthy wearers of the rainbow jumper.

Romāns Vainšteins in his rainbow jersey and a bandana and his Vini Caldirola kit, riding the Giro di Lombardia in 2000.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

Re the Man City case and potential punishment. I really do hope that football learns from cycling that taking away victories is, ultimately, pretty pointless. Yes, it may have been the only way for cycling to punish a rider. But punishing a team? It's not the only way.

Now that the charges have been proved, the issue of sanction will be addressed separately in a further hearing with the independent Commission. In accordance with Premier League rules, that hearing will remain private and confidential until such a time as publication of the outcome is permitted.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

The recent case of Steve Ballmer in the NBA and the current Man City case with the EPL should be a lesson to all in cycling who think salary caps or any other kind of spending rules are going to be a panacea. Both cases demonstrate how easy it is to circumvent spending rules using third parties.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

Ok FWW peeps. Not a war buff in general, but this is going for a fiver. Should I? Described as a "walking, cycling and driving guide to the principal British battles of 1915 on the Western Front".

The Battles of French Flanders, by Jon Cooksey and Jerry Murland

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

On June 30, 1937, Charlie Holland - Tom Holland's great uncle but I'm not telling you which Tom Holland - took the line at the Tour de France thinking he and Bill Burl were the first Brits to do so.

Josephine Baker offers her flowers to the Tour’s first British entrants, Bill Burl and Charles Holland (with the 65 bike number)

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/09/2026

Yeats and the occult @juliansimpson.bsky.social ... do you know any podcasters who'd get a kick out of that? I can't begin to imagine what Dr Peck would call it.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 28/09/2026

I know that what's happening in Drumcree is no laughing matter but you have to admire the ability to turn everything into a seisiún #SpeirGorm

Protesters on the Gervaghy Road sitting in camp chairs.

Protesters on the Gervaghy Road with a guitar, fiddle and bodhrán

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 19/09/2026

Not sure if you've seen this @oispooky.bsky.social but might be worth bookmarking. Hoped I might fight even one cyclist on it, got zip, but you might have better luck with boxers. Tom 'The Kangaroo Fighter' Tully and Peter Jackson are both on it.

africansinireland.com

Database – Africans in Ireland, 1578-1921

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 16/09/2026

"It's chocolate Santas, sir! Hundreds of them!" Kinder? This is cruel!

Kinder cholotate Christmas Santas in Tesco. Stacked four shelves high.

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Reposted by Feargal McKay

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

How did I not know about this??? It’s got my name written all over it. International bestseller, blockbuster movie (think Escape to Victory, but in bikes), merch, you name it. It might even be true, who knows?

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 20/08/2026

Como bans Il Lombardia? Gosh! "Alessandro Rapinese’s ban, which comes into force in September, targets about 30 streets and means cyclists, whether it be those on e-bikes or push bikes, will have to dismount or walk their vehicles through those areas."

theguardian.com

Como mayor bans bikes in city centre after being hit ‘by one of these beasts’

Alessandro Rapinese denies accusation he is waging personal vendetta against cyclists amid a public backlash

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 19/08/2026

Not all misery memoirs are awful. In some the author has something to say, apart from 'pity me'. Bradley Wiggins' misery memoir? All it asks is who can he blame for the way his life has worked out.

cycologies.com

The Bookshelf: Bradley Wiggins - The Chain

A misery memoir from the prolific chamois memoirist

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 24/07/2026

All eyes today are on l'Alpe d'Huez, the Shawshank Redemption of #TdF2026 climbs: everyone's heard of it, loads of people love it, but actually it's really a bit shit. I want to talk abut another climb on the menu today: the Ghost Road that is the Col Télégraphe.

Scene from the Shawshank Redemption. Andy looking at a poster not of Rita Hayworth but of Alpe d'Huez

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 20/07/2026

Kill me now, I think I'm turning into a numinist. I actually got excited* when I discovered I had one of the new €2 coins just issued for the Irish turn on the EU presidency merry-go-round. *So excited I actually smiled a full smile.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 19/07/2026

The maillot jaune is 107 years young today and you can hardly see where the moths have got at it. You'll hear a lot of stuff about the yellow jersey that's of dubious truth, but let me offer you some complete nonsense, in the form of the all true story of the the Curse of the Yellow Jersey. #TdF2026

Illustration from La Vie au Grand Air in 1919 showing Christophe in the new yellow jersey.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 06/07/2026

Thanks to @womenridersofyore.bsky.social I now have an archive of three years of Austrian women's cycling magazine I was previously unaware of to work my way through. You'd be surprised at the things that keep me happy.

Draisena, an Austrian women's cycling magazine from 1899

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Reposted by Feargal McKay

Tom Isitt @tomisitt.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

There are many books about travelling the length of the Western Front, some good (mine), some not so good (no names, no pack drill). But this, by Nigel Bruce, is very different, in a good way. It’s filled with wonderful photos and excellent maps, there’s a wealth of info, and visually it looks 👌

The front cover of The Road of Hope and Sorrow, by Nigel Bruce

The accompanying website www.nigelbruce.co.uk

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 21/06/2026

So I'm noodling around a bit of research, unsure of whether it can go anywhere, and I've got a horrible feeling that the guy I'm looking at nicked his brother's cycling career and passed it off as his own. And got away with it.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 14/06/2026

Fancy some cycling fiction? Try @garethcartman.bsky.social's fourth cycling novel, We Rode All Night, which takes on the story of the 1926 Tour de France.

cycologies.com

We Rode All Night, by Gareth Cartman

A cycling novel, set in and around the 1926 Tour de France

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 09/06/2026

So Seixas is going to be giving Pogačar and Vingegaard a head start of, what ... 30 seconds three weeks from now? Such a gentleman. And he's only 19, don't you know. #Tara2026

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 07/06/2026

Augusta Fornasari, who won the second edition of the Corsa al Mare, was a member of the Italian resistance - a partigiano, a partisan - during the war. Take that, Gino Bartali. A long shot, @footymac.bsky.social but has she crossed your radar?

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 31/05/2026

And a question: would you read a piece about calls for a women's Tour de France before 1955, failed attempts to organise a women's Tour de France before 1955, and loads and loads and loads of men before 1955 saying women riding a Tour de France would be a stupid and dangerous idea?

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 30/05/2026

Fancy the vicarious thrill of some armchair cycle touring? Or looking for some ideas on where to ride your bike this summer? @jackthurston.bsky.social's much loved Lost Lanes series of guidebooks will inspire you. If you haven't tried one yet then take the new Lost Lanes Scotland out for a spin.

cycologies.com

Lost Lanes Scotland, by Jack Thurston

The sixth book in the Lost Lanes series

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 29/01/2026

Midsomer Murders in danger of being cancelled?

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 28/01/2026

One aspect of early cycling history I haven't quite got my head around is betting. This is a race at Herne Hill in 1905

$Magazine clipping As is usual at Herne Hill, bookmakers were strongly in evidence. One was cautioned by en official, and an extra noisy member of the gang had to be ejected by the police. The language, which at times was wafted up to the grand stand from the betting ring was simply appalling. Billingsgate is choice compared to some of the expressions which assailed our ears. When will the Herne Hill authorities do something to stop this open infraction of the rule which is placarded on their fences, "No betting allowed"? Not only is it allowed, but it is very much "aloud" too.$

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 28/01/2026

Back to Bill Mills and his role in trying to get Brits into the Tour. After his own failed attempt to ride the Tour in 1932, Mills worked toward getting others into the race and was instrumental in Holland & Burl riding the 1937 Tour. This is from Route et Piste in 1950 (see alt txt)

French text.

Summary: Only BLRC riders are capable of putting up a respectable fight in the Tour, but they can't do that as only NCU riders can represent the UK in the Tour.

Continued:

"Bill Mills is ready to move to France or the Italian Riviera with four British riders, who would train at the Continental level for three months. But then what? They won't be able to prove their worth in French classics since they won't be able to participate as long as they are registered with the BLRC. And if they apply for affiliation with the NCU, they would then have to race professionally in England."

Making peace between the BLRC and the NCU would be like reconciling the Montagues and the Capulets.

"If things work out, the British team in the Tour would consist of four Englishmen, including George Lander and Dave Bedwell, and four Australians, led by Jack Hoobin, this year's amateur world champion, and H. Sutherland, British Empire champion. Other possible candidates: J. Fowler and P. J. Pryor."

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 20/01/2026

It's a year since an email from Italy brought Bill Mills into my life. Since writing a short piece about him for the Comic last year I've been continuing to dig into his role in trying to get Brits into the Tour in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, a role generally overlooked by British cycling historians.

B+W photo of Bill Mills, dressed in cycling gear - an Oscar Egg team jersey, shorts, cap and goggles - standing with his bike on a cobbled road near a section of pavement in Versailles ahead of the start of the Circuit de Paris in May 1932.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 28/12/2025

The Tour de France is all about a yellow jersey. But the winner also receives a trophy. The current trophy awarded at the big buckle - the Coupe Omnisports - looks like something you'd find in John Lewis, to keep the potpourri in.

A blue bowl with gold trimmings - the Coupe Omnisports

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 12/12/2025

This is the light bit - the light bit! - of an afternoon spent pulling together an update to my 2013 articles on the history of blood transfusions in cycling: Did you ever wonder what happened to the cycling jersey Tom Simpson died in? Eight years ago it was on a wall of a house in Thailand.

Interior of a house/apartment, shot from one end of a table, a framed white cycling jersey, with Union Jack flags in his shoulders, stands at the other end of the table, leaning against the wall.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 11/12/2025

Something to look forward to next month: Graham Robb is back.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 10/12/2025

The year is 1976 and Finland's Lasse Virén is denying the use of blood transfusions and instead crediting his Olympic successes to ... reindeer milk.

1976 Newspaper clipping.

Headline: "Blood doping Row Rekindles"

The articles goes on to speculate about Lasse Virén's use of blood dopiong at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 10/12/2025

Peter Stuart is not the only cycling hack leaping into the arms of generative AI + outsourcing all his research to LLMs. The Escape Collective bros - henceforth the E-Scrape Collective bros? - are also looking to feed you AI slop, based on BTL comments, the eighth circle of Hell.

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Feargal McKay @cycologies.com · 10/12/2025

Lily Allen and David Harbour?

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