Speed Metal Cycling: AG2R

Showing posts with label AG2R. Show all posts

Friday, January 3, 2014

2014 vs. 2013 Kits

A work in progress, of course. As the new ones get released I will update.

Enjoy and share your opinions in the comments.

Jan. 14 - added Tinkoff, Giant and IAM.

Pro Teams

AG2R LA MONDIALE (ALM) - FRA

Overall: 8 / Improvement: Yes / More brown!

BELKIN-PRO CYCLING TEAM (BEL) - NED

Overall: 7.5 / Improvement: Yes? / Is that a new tone of green?

BMC RACING TEAM (BMC) - USA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Same / "Just use whatever you have left from last year, boys!"

CANNONDALE (CAN) - ITA
Waiting for better images.

FDJ.fr (FDJ) - FRA

Overall: 6.5 / Improvement: Yes (if blue will be their main color) / Very similar to last year's blue kit, which was nicer than the white.

GARMIN SHARP (GRS) - USA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Yes / More white and a panda.

LAMPRE-MERIDA (LAM) - ITA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Yes! / Love the darker blue.

LOTTO BELISOL (LTB) - BEL

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Not sure / Radical change, but is it better?

MOVISTAR TEAM (MOV) - ESP

Overall: 7.5 / Improvement: Meh. / I do like the addition of the green bands on collar and sleeves.

OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP CYCLING TEAM (OPQ) - BEL

Overall: 6 / Improvement: Slight / Got rid of the hideous half-tone gradient.

ORICA GreenEDGE (OGE) - AUS

Overall: 5.5 / Improvement: Same shit, different year

TEAM GIANT SHIMANO - NED

Overall: 4 / Improvement: YES! Hideous, generic jersey, but NO more white shorts!

TEAM EUROPCAR (EUC) - FRA

Overall: 5 / Improvement: Whatever / No comment. WTF.

TEAM KATUSHA (KAT) - RUS

Overall: 5 / Improvement: Nope / Still looks like a shitty club jersey.

TEAM TINKOFF-SAXO - DEN

Overall: 6.5 / Improvement: Sure / Looking more like the Swedish National Team, but it's nice.

TEAM SKY (SKY) - GBR

Overall: 8 / Improvement: Nope / Adding more logos, ugh.

TREK FACTORY RACING (TFR) - USA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Yes? / I go back and forth on this one. The simplicity is nice. Love the pintripes.

Pro Continental Teams

IAM CYCLING - SWI

Overall: 8 / Improvement: Yes / Easily my favorite new kit. The Swiss flag detail on the chest is very elegant. Love it.

YELLOW FLUO (YEL) - ITA

Overall: 1 / Improvement: NO!! / Fuck this.

TEAM NETAPP - ENDURA (TNE) - GER

Overall: 6.5 / Improvement: Obviously not / No, it's not a joke.

ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI (AND) - ITA

Overall: 3.5 / Improvement: Nope / Why do they even bother? Might as well just wear Affliction T-shirts.

BARDIANI CSF (BAR) - ITA

Overall: 4 / Improvement: Nope / Barforama.

BRETAGNE - SECHE ENVIRONNEMENT (BSE) - FRA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Yes / I liked the grey, but the white looks nice. If they had black shorts, it's be a solid 9.

MTN - QHUBEKA (MTN) - RSA

Overall: 6.5 / Improvement: Yes / Not much you can do with that shitty MTN, logo, huh?

RUSVELO (RVL) - RUS

Overall: 3.5 / Improvement: Nope / God awful!

UNITEDHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM (UHC) - USA

Overall: 7 / Improvement: Yes! / Proof that you CAN do something decent with 29 logos.

WANTY - GROUPE GOBERT (WGG) - BEL

Overall: 2 / Improvement: NO! / The worst kit of the year, so far! HORRIBLE. TERRIBLE.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Episode 64: Little Queen of Love Armchair

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Pink Camel Toe-mania

WTF WERE WE TALKING ABOUT?

- Intro and outro music by Dimmu Borgir
- The Gong Show
- Cycling Inquisition post about Betancur
- Speed Metal Cycling post about Betancur
- Write-up about Adam Hansen's shoes
- RAI Sport video of the Giro podium ceremony
- Little Queen of Love Armchair in Candy Pink?

We thank Mike for his keen eye. Apparently Hansen has diversified into the automotive industry.

GET IN TOUCH
Email:
SpeedMetalCycling [at] gmail [dot] com

Links:
Gage+Desoto
Cycling Inquisition

Twitter:
Speed Metal Cycling (@SpeedMetalCycl)
The SkullKrusher (@TheSkullKrusher)
Gage+Desoto (Mike Spriggs) (@GageDesoto)

Other:
Speed Metal Cycling on Facebook
SkullKrusher on Instagram
Speed Metal Cycling YouTube Channel

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Krushing the Giro: Stage 15

Betancur takes over the White Jersey

I'm feeling pretty lazy this morning. I went to see Ghost live last night, so I'm tired and a little hung over. Therefore, I don't feel like searching through stats to see if Betancur finishing second AGAIN is some sort of record. It must be. This kid was second on stage 9, stage 10, third on stage 14 and again second today. He took over the White Jersey, too. Bananito is making moves. Also of note, Fabio Duarte finally showing his face coming in fifth.

I've made it perfectly clear before that I hate it when riders neutralize a race. I understand if it's done out of respect, like the stage after Wouter Weylandt's death in 2011, but when it's done in the name of "safety," that's just silly. A race is a race and if you feel that the conditions are unsafe, then YOU slow down and let the guys with bigger balls than you beat you. These guys are professionals and are being paid to RACE. If some sort of deal is struck between some of the teams and they decide not to race, fine, BUT insulting a rider who decides to do what all of them are there to do, is unacceptable and it hurts our sport.

Ballsy performance by the three-time Italian champion

What can I say about Visconti's ride today? Snow, cold, Galibier, tears... Dare I say "epic"?

I sent a special thanks to Rapha for supplying Sky with real cycling caps, today I wanna thank the organizers of the race for making the stage happen.

Randomness:

- Mario Cipollini mention counter: 5
- Helmet talk counter: 14
- Euskaltel guys on the deck counter: 3
- Stage winner wearing
     Cycling cap: 1 (Uran)
     Baseball hat: 10
     No hat: 1
     Visor: 1

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Krushing the Giro: Stage 14

Tomorrow's stage will finish at the Marco Pantani memorial that marks the spot where he attacked in the '98 Tour

I delayed today's post in hopes that we'd get some sort of official word on tomorrow's stage. Well, RCS has now announced that tomorrow's stage will in fact take place and that it will climb the Col du Mont Cenis, but that it will not go all the way to the summit of the Col du Galibier. Instead the stage will finish at the Marco Pantani memorial about 4 kilometers from the original finish line. There were rumors that the stage might be scrapped altogether, so this is better than nothing.

It's really too bad that we had such limited live pictures of today's stage. Sounds like the last 5k were pretty exciting. Henao attacked at some point as did Pellizotti, and Rosa, but all attacks were neutralized by Nibali. The Italian, along with Santambrogio and Betancur, dropped Evans and Uran. Santambrogio took the stage and the bonus seconds, while Nibali took second. He continues to show great form and at this point it's hard to bet against him. The battle for the other two podium positions, however is still very much alive. Santambrogio had a great day, and is now a real contender. Uran, Evans, Santambrogio: Three riders, two places on either side of Nibali.

Absolute shit weather didn't stop Betancur from finishing an impressive third

Yesterday I had predicted that Carlos Betancur would win the stage, and I wasn't far off. He continues to have an amazing Giro. The Colombian came in third and moved to 9th in the GC. He is now only three seconds behind Majka in the race for the Maglia Bianca. The potentially bad news for him, and Pozzovivo, is that AG2R may be pulling out of the Dauphine because of all this doping nonsense. The Dauphine was race that Betancur was targeting.

Oh, something else... Vini Fantini has all their guys wearing visors. People: NOT BASEBALL, NOT TENNIS, NOT GOLF! IT'S CYCLING!

Phew... Anyway, I'm relieved that we will have a stage tomorrow, now I just hope we'll get some sort of live pictures of it.

Randomness:

- Mario Cipollini mention counter: 5
- Helmet talk counter: 13
- Euskaltel guys on the deck counter: 3
- Stage winner wearing cycling cap / baseball hat / no hat counter: 1 / 10 / 1 - Santambrogio had a visor! WTF?

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Krushing the Giro: Stage 10

Uran proudly wearing the Colombian flag and a cycling cap

Wow. I don't know where to start. Another great day for Colombian cycling. Uran and Betancur had amazing performances. Team Colombia and the other Colombians didn't do too well, but I'll happily take the one-two.

Final results of stage 10. The Colombian tricolor way up there, twice

Sky took over the pace-setting pretty early in the stage on the climb to the Passo Cason di Lanza. Was that a good idea? I guess depends on who you ask. Henao and Wiggo were in trouble, but Uran went on to win the stage. Is Uran the leader for Sky? Well, he told RAI (in excellent Italian, to my surprise) that Wiggins and Henao are still strong and that now Sky will have two leaders. He added that he recuperated better during the rest day than Wiggins. I don't know, the Englishman did not look good to me, but we will have to wait and see. I would not be the SkullKrusher if I didn't point out, once again, that if Uran wouldn't have been asked to wait for Wiggins on Friday, he'd be 2nd in the GC 26" behind Nibali.

AG2R are also having a great Giro. Pozzovivo and Betancur played the one-two punch perfectly up the last climb. That's two second places for Betancur in this Giro and he continues to crawl his way up the Maglia Bianca classification. AG2R has to be very happy with their two new signings. Maybe Mike Spriggs has the right idea with buying their jersey and putting it in the freezer for future enjoyment.

Mike's real refrigerator with a real AG2R jersey in it

On the other side of the spectrum, Hesjedal lost contact with 54k to go and finished over 20 minutes down. Needless to say his Giro is over. What a shame. He looked very racey at the beginning of the race last week.

How many times have I said "keep an eye on Evans"? This is the last time I say it, because everyone now realizes I was right all along.

Finally, a special and heartfelt THANK YOU to Rapha for remembering that the Giro is a cycling race and not a baseball game. Rapha (yes, I'm kissing their ass) provides Team Sky with cycling caps and it was very nice to see Uran not only wearing a cycling cap on the podium, but a winter cycling cap. Thank you Rapha!

Uran answering question in Italian wearing a proper Rapha cycling cap

Randomness:

- Mario Cipollini mention counter: 3
- Helmet talk counter: 10
- Euskaltel guys on the deck counter: 3
- Stage winner wearing cycling cap / baseball hat / no hat counter: 1 / 8 / 1 (Finally!)