iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

there is that. At least Degenkolb and Barguil sound too grounded to be the kind of riders on the team bus going "when I won Roubaix/Tour queen stage..." to the younger riders over and over again

yes, with a lot of young riders on the team they're tasked with being mentors and road captains. Can debate the value of this etc but that's been part of their ongoing role

agree, he's got 2153 points, and 1780 of that from the Vuelta. Hypothetical but if he'd hit the rock in the rock that felled Pogačar instead then they'd be in trouble alongside GFDJ

yes. In effect every team has an annual review so the three year one is conditional on meeting all the admin, financial criteria each year. Selling Onley and unloading Jakobsen should mean the team's finances are better now (as long as sponsors stick around)

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Tuesday is when UCI updates its rankings. Chart attached shows Top-30 men's teams. 🟦 = WorldTeam, 🟥=ProTeam. Below line is 19th place and theoretical relegation at the end of 2026-2028 cycle, long way to go but you can see Picnic-PostNL's troubles. Several teams clustered around 9-10k points.

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aussi, dans le podcast "On Connait nos Classiques", Rodrigo Beenkens disait qu'un virus circulait dans le camp belge, selon ses infos des staff et coureurs (juniors, pas elite hommes) en quarantaine etc

the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 27/09/2026

live text updates at 4am, now keen to get video soon as it sounds good

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 24/09/2026

Trentino could be for puncheurs too but could equally be for mountain goats. Drenthe likely to feature the landfill site which can make it more selective if used a lot.

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Cycling Road World Championships: 2027 Haute Savoie 🇫🇷 2028 Abu Dhabi 🇦🇪 2029 Aarhus-Copenhagen 🇩🇰 2030 Brussels 🇧🇪 2031 Trentino 🇮🇹 2032 Pune 🇮🇳 2033 (open for bids) 2034 Drenthe-Groeningen 🇳🇱

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Know what you mean. Remember speaking to white jersey sponsors to ask if they were frustrated by Pogacar not wearing their jersey, clear “no”, they got daily VIP photos with the champ on podium rather than some rider who is promising but not a star. We’ll see for the politics but that’s other story

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Interesting. It’s been something the race and riders tried to avoid emphasising but maybe because of the years when the best rider was 11th at 22 minutes etc. The conspiracy theory would be ASO meeting French politics/polling but that’s for another day

the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 22/09/2026

The Giro seems to be getting close to the current government, has a Made in Italy sponsor and maglia rosa backed by Lega politicians now so we’ll see

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Just a hunch, but can’t see the Tour going for this. Some other races have been keen on it, eg Suisse. Wonder if the Giro will be? Interesting against the backdrop of rising nationalism, ie local politicians and parties could get involved

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Actually a database of race results was the computing club’s next project but they needed funding. Not sure whether it happened

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…blurry screengrabs are from a 1989 local news report saved on VHS in case anyone recognises hardware too new for 1985. And it wasn’t via Minitel, but used “microcomputers” connecting to a “central server” to upload time checks and allow people, including a computer in Tour press room, to follow.

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Polite. Prone to overtaking close sometimes but steady with it. Speed limits are slow, eg 50kmh when it’d be 80 or 90 in Europe, which helps

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No, actually not Minitel. There’s not the vocabulary we use today of course but it uses “microcomputers” which connect to a “central server” via phone lines and third party users can connect etc, including the Tour press room, other computer clubs etc

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Answer: the Tour de France. Sounds obvious as the big bike race, but it wasn’t by the organisers. Instead a rural computer club decided to do it for the TT stages by uploading the times at the checkpoints and finish line and French TV decided to support it, using data for the broadcast… in 1985

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Bike or ice skating race, or both? I know both live on but the bike race is easier to make happen

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The site is still going today of course. Was surprised he sold it so cheap, from memory it was something like US$450k when it led the market at the time

The year is the hard bit… and it’s not 98

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The opposite, outdoors and reconning next month’s races

the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 12/09/2026

Trivia question: what was the first race to upload live or as-live results on the internet? Jedi-level question: what year was it?

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Yes, but from far and with low internet connections. Sounds like Mas is going to make it

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 11/09/2026

…wrote this could happen back in March (inrng.com/2026/03/paul...). Team can still elect to have French identity with the UCI etc, just as Quick-Step has long appeared quintessentially Belgian while it’s legally a team run out of/through Luxembourg.

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 11/09/2026

Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève reports Decathlon-CMA CGM team moving its legal address from France to to Switzerland, move will see savings on payroll taxes and helps fund new contact for Paul Seixas www.tdg.ch/decathlon-cm... (🇫🇷, paywall) …

tdg.ch

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 10/09/2026

No. The UCI offices are here and the main building you can see is not the seat of power… but a velodrome

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EXCLUSIVE: UAE to unlock billions of dollars for Iran, sources say

Was interesting to read one of the UAE team’s big backers hosting senior Iranian figures and reportedly paying them not to target UAE, but seems this has stopped. All sorts of unintended consequences www.reuters.com/world/middle...

reuters.com

The United Arab Emirates has agreed to unlock billions of dollars for Iran, four sources said, in a tactical shift after weeks of Iranian attacks on the wealthy Gulf Arab state during the U.S.-Israel...

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The UCI might disagree with you 😉 but either way it might not be as powerful as you imagine. It’s got small offices behind a retail park in rural Switzerland

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Bahrain had short term issues with wage payments. For UAE I think the state is so rich and so keen to project a "business as usual" image, and the team is valuable for them, so less worried for the viability but that’s just an outside impression

Know it would not have been a mirror-image deal etc, but pro cycling might have dodged trouble by avoiding the One Cycling project in the wake of the Liv Golf implosion, both shared the same funding source

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 07/09/2026

Have you seen they’ve hired an executive from motorsports to run it?

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Update: Vingegaard sent this boy some Visma team kit and has invited him to visit the team at the Tour one day next summer 👍

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the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 02/09/2026

It’s ambiguous as under the rules normally the World Tour just works with the 17 left for next two years. But in the past the UCI has hinted it could invite a promotion. Not sure even Tudor and Cofidis management know either

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Reposted by the Inner Ring blog

La Vuelta @lavuelta.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

ℹ️ After a heavy crash, race leader Tadej Pogacar is forced to abandon La Vuelta on stage 8. Speedy recovery, Tadej! ℹ️ Debido a una dura caída, el líder de la carrera abandona #LaVuelta26. ¡Recupérate pronto, Tadej!

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Yes, you can make your own luck etc but he saved it yesterday, won the opening stage by 9 hundredths of a second etc

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Mas was good yesterday and interesting to see if he can keep it up, ie behind Pogačar but can he keep clear of Gall and the others? One thing good for the Vuelta is that it works for daily highlights, ie no need to watch live for 5 hours but the final half hour is often spicy

…the attention from teams media would have been higher, articles about details like tire pressure etc. The same for many climbs in the race. But it’s not laid back for all, a significant share of the peloton don’t have a contract for next year and one good day in the Vuelta can change everything.

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Not new but always notable how relaxed the Vuelta can be for some teams and others. Few reconned yesterday’s gravel climb, UAE’s Matxin said it wasn’t even worth filming, let alone riding before, as they could only video it before it was cleaned up for the race. If this was the Giro or Tour…

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