Key UCI Mens WorldTour dates

So another year has nearly ended, and the next is quickly approaching - which means that it's time to have a look at the UCI WorldTour calendar for the men for 2016, and the key dates. If you read the other blog posts then you'll have already seen the posts for Tour de France and the Giro, and there will be a post for the Vuelta as soon as the route is announced.

There are 27 races in the men's WorldTour (UWT) next season, stretching from the 19th January to the 1st October and only three months of the whole year (February, November and December) where there isn't a UWT event (though fear not, if you feel that's just too many months without any cycling going on - there are other events on in February so you'll only have the withdrawal symptoms for a couple of months at the end of the year!!!

January

As always the Santos Tour Down Under kicks off the year between the 19th and 24th January, just in time for the post Christmas and New Year blues to be kicking in, and the resolutions wearing off - so additional motivation to get out of the bike or cross training for the winter months, because if the pros can manage to look like that less than a month after stuffing themselves on the 25th December then there should be hope for the rest of us to manage to fit in the new pair of trousers we picked up in the January sales!

March

It's classics season! Paris - Nice, Tirreno - Adriatico, Milan - San Remo to name a few. This is the time of year when the tough men who love the one day races come out and play, usually those who don't have an eye on any of the Grand Tours later in the year but each time there is usually a couple who want to broaden the CVs. Expect the unexpected, assume it will be cold and wet, and hope for some superb racing!

April

The second month of classics, and the month of The Hell of the North (aka Paris - Roubaix). On a good day the cobbles create a dust cloud and crashes, on a bad day the cobbles create a mudbath and crashes. Other choice races in the month are the Amstel Gold, and Liege - Bastogne - Liege.

May

Giro!! 6 - 29th May. Check out more details on the first Grand Tour of the year here.

June

Only a couple of races on the UWT this month, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse. Both of these are the final preparation for the main contenders of the Tour de France, although if previous years are anything to go by expect to see the winner come from the Dauphiné. Speaking from personal experience the Swiss put on a show, and it's really easy to get to all the start/finishes by public transport so if you've never seen an event on the continent then this is a good one to start with.

July

Tour de France.

Need I say more? The Tour of Poland also takes part in July, but unfortunately always plays second fiddle to the French version. The San Sebastian Classic rounds of the month, and is a good place for those who have had a poor Tour, or were never targeting the overall win to get a mid-season win under their belt.

August

Currently the dates for the Vuelta are the 20th August - 11th September, so this could be put into either or both month, but for ease of this we'll stick it in the month it starts... The final Grand Tour of the season, more details to follow when they are announced.

September

Canada month on the UWT, or at least the beginning of the month is - one day eventing in Quebec and Montreal. The month closes off with a return to Europe for the Eneco Tour between the 19th and 25th.

October

The final event to close off the season, Il Lombardia on the 1st of the month, so that technically pretty much makes it over three months until the start of the 2017 UCI WorldTour. Fear not though, we will be here throughout the pre-season, the whole of the season, and will do our best of bridge the gap into the following year and make sure you get your cycling fix!

All the details of the dates for the UWT season can be found here, on the UCI official website. Along with the details of the other categories that'll be on during the year.

Keep your eyes peeled on here for more details on the Women's WorldTour, and further info on many of the races this year - especially the Grand Tours.

Remember, Keep 'em Spinning!

One Life - Live It, Love It.

One Life - Live It, Love It

Our new tag line....

Not just keep 'em spinning, but the whole P4YTS group!

We love what we do, and love telling you all about it and anything to do with it!

It's all about living life to the full!

Join in the fun and conversations by using the new hashtag

#OneLifeLiveItLoveIt

National Cycling Lottery

Something exciting is on its way...

And it's all for charity!

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED

#NATIONALCYCLINGLOTTERY

www.nationalcyclinglottery.co.uk

One Life - Live It, Love It

Tour de France 2016

Pop it in your diary now folks.. 2nd - 24th July 2016 - Its the 103rd edition of the Tour de France, and as always it's likely to be a banger!!

As usual 21 stages make up the route, this time covering 3,519km. A total of 9 flat stages for the sprinters (including the final 'procession' on the Champs-Elysees), 9 mountain top finishes and a welcome return of 2 serious individual time trials (of 37 and 17km in length).

The Grand Departe is from Mont Saint-Michel in north west France, and then the route will visit Switzerland, Andorra and Spain (as well as a bit of France!) before returning the capital for its classic finale.

Time bonuses are back this time as well, with the top three on each stage gaining bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds respectively. This is the first time that this has featured in the Tour for 7 years, and as in other races only counts for 'normal' stages (not mountain-top finishes!).

Check out the official route in 3D below, and over the coming months we will explore the route and where it's visiting in more detail!

Enjoy!

Giro d'Italia 2016

Ok, ok...

Bit behind the times, but better late than never eh?!

For anyone who missed it, the Giro will turn 99 this year - running from the 6th - 29th May 2016, it starts with three days in the Netherlands before going back over to Italy for the remaining eighteen stages from Catanzaro and finishing in Torino.

As always, they've got a flashy promo video that was shown at the route presentation on 5th October 2015 - check it out below! (credit to steephill.tv for the link)

More details of the route, any particularly nice-looking / interesting places to follow over the next couple of months, but with the race covering 3,383km and including three individual time trials, one might be left wondering what happened to the usual brutal first grand tour of the season.

Tour de Yorkshire 2016

So it's back, after the success of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014 and the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire in 2015, Yorkshire's three day cycling race is back again in 2016!

Although the final route isn't going to be announced until later in the year (9th December 2015 to be exact), the six start and finish towns have been revealed by the race organisers Welcome to Yorkshire.

From the 14 towns that showed interest in hosting a start or finish in the 2016 event, those selected are:

Beverley

Doncaster

Middlebrough

Otley

Scarborough

Settle

With the men's elite race running from Friday 29th April - Sunday 1st May 2016, there's still plenty of time to explore the towns, the routes and the spectator vantage points for another exciting race.

The women's elite race will be held on Saturday 30th April, with more details to follow on this as they become available.

Full details and dates of the sportive that complements the Tour are also planned to be released sometime in November, although it suggests that it'll follow last year and be held on the same route and day as the final day's racing (Sunday 1st May 2016)

Never give up - always follow your dreams

It was about this time last year that I started writing this post, and was in great sadness due to the sudden loss of one of my former flat-mates at university who sadly passed away whilst following his passion in Northern Sumatra working with critically endangered orangutans.

At the beginning of October a number of his friends and family took part in the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for the charity set up in his memory, to continue to support the work that he was doing. His memory was the thing that kept us all going, and told us never to give up.

If you'd like to read more about the work that he was doing, and what the charity continues to do, or would like to donate to such a good cause just click on the link below.

BT Donate - Run4Rich

And here's the post, I never published it last year because I didn't think it quite right at the time, but since Rich was the inspiration for us last weekend, I thought it fitting to not give up on the post.

"This post is written in sadness, but also in awe of what you can do when you really set your mind to follow your dream and passion.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the funeral of one of my friends from University, a great young man who always had time for everyone else and yet always seemed to be able to do the things that he really wanted to do. This post isn't meant as a long memorial to Rich as I wouldn't be able to do him justice, those of you who spoke at the funeral put it all into words better than any of us and we're all very proud of what you said and couldn't agree more with everything said about him.

I'm going to make sure that I try and live up to his attitude to everything and never give up on stuff that I really want! Whether that's the really serious things in life (that are too deep for this blog) or whether it's the next hill along the road when on the bike or a run - just have to keep thinking "never give up!"

Thanks for the inspiration Rich, you have been and will continue to an inspiration be to everyone that knew you!"

#Run4Rich