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Well, there is nothing like starting at the bottom. Press lunches on the Tour de France can be very hit or miss, and this meal tray merits first prize in the worst press lunch in recent history. From my best guess this was supposed to be roast beef with rice and vegetable salad, with mille-feuille for dessert—all of which proved inedible. I remember it well as it was in Carcassonne, one of my favorite food towns, famous for its cassoulet. But there was none of that southern French dish. Only this! And while the plate went uneaten, I found it visually remarkable in a pulpy Pop Art kind of way. What would Roy Lichtenstein or Andy Warhol make of this?

Oh, Andorra! Where else would one find baked beans and rice with bacon? Cyclists may come here for the climbs but in my humble opinion the mountains represent the highpoint of Andorra. A fan of geography growing up, I always thought this little principality tucked away in the PyrĂ©nĂ©es sounded so exotic. And then I came here and discovered that there was no quaint little castle on a hill, just an endless stream of tax-free shopping. Making matters worse, I have always found the food here to be underwhelming—and this breakfast was a case in point!

Sometimes the Tour press buffets can be a real potpourri. This one got relatively high marks, even though a chicken brochette and a fondant-au-chocolat may not go so well together. But often our time is limited for lunch and lines are long, so you simply grab what you can and run with it.

To be honest I do not remember when or where I had this dish, and I am not sure what is actually under the sauce. But this plate of meat and potatoes is so lonely that it makes me think of the Tom Waits’ song “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis,” one of the loneliest songs I have ever heard.

Looking at this image I am reminded once again of what was a very difficult start to the 2021 season. Room service was the order of the day in the early-season races. To be honest, I am not sure what this was—maybe some sort of boeuf bourguignon, And the patĂ© on toast, I can assure you, remained in its plastic wrap. But it sure reacted well to my flash!

This was one of the truly worst meals on the road this year. I really cannot remember if this shriveled-up dish was some sort of lasagna or hachis parmentier (shepherd’s pie). The salad and crumble were the high points of the meal. For some inexplicable reason, it makes me think of one of my absolutely favorite albums: “More Songs About Buildings and Food,” by Talking Heads.

Ah, the unforgettable Belgian sloppy joe with coleslaw remains forever etched in my brain as a central part of my Tour of Flanders weekend. Fortunately, the meal also included potato fritters and mayonnaise!

Another winner from my Tour of Flanders weekend: meatballs in sauce and Belgian fries. I thought the hotel room carpet provided the perfect contrast. Ironically, the food was actually pretty good if memory serves me, with the fries once again being a highlight. It’s funny how each European country has its carb of choice. It is hard to find bad pasta in Italy or a bad baguette in France. And Belgium, well, it is hard to have bad fries.

From issue 105, get your copy at theÌę

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Seven cyclists have attempted to break the hour record since September 2014, but each of them is just a hors d’oeuvres before the main course: Great Britain’s Bradley Wiggins.Ìę

Of the trio of modern time-trial kings (which also includes Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin), Wiggins is the first to commit to the hour record, which measures how far a cyclist can ride in 60 minutes. He’s slated to try and break the record next month, at the in London, England, and his time will likely place the bar high for Martin and Cancellara.Ìę

Last year, cycling’s international governing body, the , revived interest in the hour record by passing new rules allowing for aero gear. In June 2014, the distance to beat was Eddy Merckx’s 1972 record of 49.431 kilometers. Now it’s 52.937 kilometers, a record .ÌęÌęÌę

Chances are good it will fall again June 7. Wiggins, who’s won four Olympic and six World Championships gold medals, is no stranger to track racing or time trialing—the two key ingredients to a successful hour record.Ìę

But since 2008, he’s been focused on road racing, . And that sort of riding requires an entirely different skill set than the hour record.

A rider transitioning from road racing to riding 60 perfect minutes on the track is a bit like a tennis player moving from the clay courts in the French open to the lightning-fast grass courts at Wimbledon. It’s possible to excel at both, but only for the greats. And it’s not a given.Ìę

“You have to understand that getting ready for the hour record is nothing like getting ready for the Tour de France,” says Voigt. “The workouts are much shorter, more intense. What I was doing for the hour record was closer to what a prologue specialist might do when they are preparing for the short time trial. In the morning we did an hour and a half maximum on the track, but it was very, very intense.”

For the last two months after retiring from road racing, Wiggins has had to totally revamp his training. Gone are the long rides so important to riding a 260-kilometer classic like . Intensity is the new premium.

He’ll focus his workouts on maintaining the predetermined average speed needed to break the record. In this case, that’ll be around 53.5 kilometers per hour, which would give him a reasonable margin of error over Dowsett’s current record. The tricky part: Wiggins will effectively race the course blind, as the UCI forbids the use of a computer to track speed.Ìę

So how does he hit that benchmark with no data? By focusing on the details.Ìę

First, Wiggins will have to define the best gearing and pedal cadence. He’ll need to choose the biggest gear possible that won’t wear him down after 60 minutes.Ìę

Second, he’ll run test runs in various temperatures to see how they affect aerodynamics. “The heat is something we worked on a lot during the Tour de France preparation,” says , Wiggins’ long-time trainer at team Sky.Ìę“Optimum aerodynamics inside a velodrome is actually quite hot, where there is the least amount of drag, the least amount of air resistance.Ìę[But] you have to find a balance between what’s optimal from an aerodynamic point of view and what’s tolerable for the athlete.”

Then there’s altitude. While some world hour record attempts and training runs have been done at altitude because of the lower pressures and thus better aerodynamics, the Wiggins team opted not to pursue that option. “When you go to altitude there is definitely lower air pressure, but in our experience, you lose about 10% of your power when racing at altitude,” says Kerrigan. “The aerodynamic gain is not worth the physiological cost.”ÌęÌęÌę

Ultimately, it’ll all come down to pacing, Sky team manager says. “Be it in swimming, in marathon running or in time trialing, the art of pacing takes years and years and years to master and I think that is one of the things that Bradley has mastered over the years.”Ìę

Riders typically break the 60 minutes into segments that allow them to maintain focus, and within each segment they can vary their intensity to some degree, although they are limited by the choice of gearing. Dowsett, for example, chose to start out slow and actually posted a negative split.Ìę

Voigt broke into three 20-minute segments. Understanding that he was ahead of pace in the first 20 minutes, he backed off in the middle segment before making a all-out push in the end.

His advice to Wiggins? “Be brave,” says Voigt. “Know your limits, but don’t be afraid to go there. I played it too safe. I backed off in the middle a bit, because I was concerned that I might fade in the end. But I had too much energy in the last 15 minutes. Don’t be afraid to pedal hard!”

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GoPro, Garmin, and Shimano are locked in a potentially multi-million dollarÌębattle that will determine whose camera will document the pro peloton. No matter which company wins, one thing is clear: it's the sport of cycling that will be the biggest benefactor. Ìę

This war started shortly after the Lance Armstrong doping fallout. Bike racing—once seen as a quaint, even artisanal sport—needed to repair its image and broaden its fan base. To do that, the sport’s officials needed to convey the events’ inherent excitement to the largest audience possible.Ìę

Enter the action cam.

The very first action cam to appear in a UCI Pro Tour event was a GoPro that captured HTC Highroad’s Matt Goss sprinting to the finish on stage five at the 2011 Tour of California. But video cameras didn’t get real traction in the pro peloton until last spring whenÌę jockeying for position in races like the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of California attracted millions of viewers. Then in July 2014, for the first time in history, Tour de France organizer ASO permitted cameras to be mounted on bikes. Last month, 20 bikes carried cameras during the Tour of Flanders.Ìę

“As far as the viewing experience, it has been huge,” says Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of the Cannondale-Garmin team. “The action camera gives us the first glimpse of how rough and tumble, how gritty, the sport really is.”

So will the POV camera help cycling attract a bigger audience? Maybe.ÌęBoth U.C.I. president Brian Cookson and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme seem to think so.ÌęPrudhomme, who was a television commentator prior to taking over the reigns of the Tour, clearly understands the potential of the on-bike camera, while Cookson has said,Ìę“It’s the way to go”Ìęfor cyclingÌę. But for it to achieve its true potential in the peloton, a few things need to happen first: live-video streaming;Ìęclarity on distribution rights;ÌęandÌęa victor in the camera war. Ìę

The ultimate goal at the professional level must be for the footage to go live into race broadcasts and for teams to receive a portion of the proceeds, just like the system Formula One has had in place for years.Ìę“The ability to use the video on live stream, be it with network television or Internet, is really going to help cycling become a world-wide spectator sport,” says Maddie Estrada, media relations associate at Garmin.Ìę

But first there are technical and licensing issues to be worked out. The ASO, the Tour de France organizer, recently tested an on-bike video camera that could live-steam video on a Mavic support moto in the Paris-Roubaix classic, but at over 700 grams, it’s too heavy to mount on a bike. The technology isn’t there yet, but it’s coming. In fact, GoPro announced its new HeroCast—the world’s smallest and lightest HD micro transmitterÌęthat integrates with existing lightweightÌęGoPros to provide live POV footage—on April 13.Ìę

Meanwhile,Ìęcameras are only allowedÌęat certain races and the teams must sign an agreement to share the content with the race and its television rights owners. And unlike for Formula One, cycling teams don’t currently get a bite of the television-rights pie from theÌęevent organizer. A portion of the income from POV footage could help teams diversify and rely less on fickle sponsorship deals.ÌęBut first, teams will need to win concessions from the organizers—something they've historically had little luckÌędoing.

All this leads to the inevitable question: which camera will come out on top?Ìę

That remains unclear, but we do know whoÌęwill likelyÌędetermine the victor: Velon—a groupÌęof 11 top cycling teams that’s actively pursuing different ways to make the sport more marketable and more sustainable. The organization is currently working on a deal that would make one of the action-cam makers its exclusive supplier. The winner’s cameras would be used by all of Velon's partners, or 11 of the current 17 World Tour teams.

“Velon has spoken to several manufacturers and we hope to reach a deal very soon,” say Graham Bartlett, CEO of Velon. “There is one [manufacturer] in particular we would like to work with. Hopefully we can finalize a deal in the next couple of weeks rather than couple of months. Definitely before the Tour de France.”

Bartlett wouldn’t give us any hints as to which company he was referring to. But we have a few guesses.

Currently, Velon works with a variety of camera makers, including Sony, Nilox, Garmin, Shimano, and GoPro. But while GoPro is the overall industry pioneer, it’s not necessarily the front-runner in this race, primarily because it’s not a brand immersed in the bike world like Shimano and Garmin are. Only a handful of pros used GoPros last season, and then mostly for their personal social media accounts. And while GoPro announced a sponsorship of a pro mountain bike team back in 2010, it has never backed a World Tour road team. According to industry insiders, GoPro needs to forge more partnerships in the bike computer industry, or with power-output manufactures like SRM, before it can out-shootÌęits two main rivals: Shimano and Garmin.ÌęGoPro is facing an uphill battle, but the company isn't out of the race.Ìę

Within the peloton,Ìęthe Shimano CM-1000 is the most ubiquitous, in part because of preexisting agreements. (ThirteenÌęof the 17 World Tour teams use Shimano drivetrains, and eight of those teams used the Shimano cameraÌęin last year’s Tour de France.)Ìę

“[The Shimano CM-1000s] are easy to mount. We can control them remotely with our telephones via a Shimano smart phone application,” says Berteld Dekker, mechanic at Degenkolb’s Giant-Alpecin team (formerly Giant-Shimano). “That’s a real plus for us because we can change the position of the lens mid-race and we can change the resolution and monitor remaining battery power. We’ve been using them for two years now and are really happy.” (The GoPros and Garmins have this same capability.)

Then there’s the , which can seamlessy overlay a cyclist’s data such as power output, heart rate, and pedal cadence over the video, and comes from a company steeped in the bike world. “People are raving about the camera that is integrating a cyclist power output and cadence into the video. That’s just great,” says Dan Jones, video producer for the Orica-GreenEdge team. Ìę

But the smart bet remains GoPro. The company's newÌęmini-transmitter that allows for live-streaming is a big step forward. So far, no other action-cam company has that the capability. And GoPro is already in discussionÌęwith several teams to partner forÌę.Ìę“I know it'sÌęonly a matter of time before GoPro responds,” says Jones. “They have the means and ability to do it.”

The bottom line: all three cameras (from Garmin, Shimano, and GoPro) are pretty damn good from a tech standpoint. The metamorphosis of the action camera to an integrated part of live television coverage may not happenÌętomorrow. But it's coming.

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On Sunday, after a 14-month wait, the UCI—cycling’s governing body—published the results of the Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC). The commission was formed in January 2014 to investigate the UCI’s complicity in the doping scandals of the ‘90s and 2000s. The report offers few new revelations for diehard fans of the sport, but it reinforces two notable facts: the body responsible for safeguarding cycling failed spectacularly at that task in the 1990s and 2000s, and the fight against doping is far from over.

Undoubtedly the most dubious star of the CIRC report is , the former Mars Candy executive-turned-cycling chieftain. Under Verbruggen’s 15-year reign as UCI president—where the international federation grew tenfold—he continually downplayed the menace of doping in the sport and often circumvented protocol to protect the image, and hence money-making power, of cycling. At the end of the he is shown to be on par with Lance Armstrong as one of the most influential agents in the doping era.

Co-starring roles also go to Verbruggen’s successor as well as the one-time, seven-time Tour winner Armstrong. Verbruggen and later McQuaid continually gave Armstrong preferential treatment. The CIRC report comes short of accusing the trio of overt corruption, but it thoroughly illustrates what can only be described as complicity. In 2009, for example, the CIRC report confirms how McQuiad reversed his decision to prevent Armstrong from racing the 2009 Tour Down Under—since Armstrong had yet to participate sufficiently in the Biological Passport program required of all professionals—and only hours later, Armstrong promised to race the 2009 Tour of Ireland, a race run by McQuaid’s brother.

One of the most fascinating portions of the report focuses on Lon Schattenberg, the long-time anti-doping chief at the UCI, who ironically saw the active pursuit of dopers as nothing more than a “witch hunt” and was instead more interested in simply protecting the health of riders. According to the report, Schattenberg advised teams about anti-doping tests and detection methods, helping riders to escape penalties. As history continues to show, his approach was devastatingly insufficient.

The report also outlines the transformation of the UCI into an organization that has taken a harsher stance against doping. The that unveiled Armstrong’s doping practices also highlighted the UCI’s failure to protect the sport. In response to the report, then-UCI president McQuaid promised to create an independent commission to investigate the claims, but the UCI disbanded the group in January 2013 to instead move forward with an amnesty program. When Brian Cookson, the president of British Cycling, won a contested UCI election in September 2013, he made transparency a central part of his vision and launched the CIRC initiative.

The report, based on interviews with 174 players and partners in the sport, was compiled by Dick Marty, Peter Nicholson, and Ulrich Haas. All three were selected by current UCI president Cookson. Marty investigated illegal trafficking of human organs in Kosovo while Nicholson conducted war crime investigations for the United Nations. Ulrich Haas is an anti-doping legal specialist.

This backstory helps to explain the ample time spent on the relationship between Verbruggen, McQuaid, and Armstrong, one in which the American cyclist repeatedly received preferential treatment from the heads of the sport’s governing body.

“The UCI leadership did not know how to differentiate between Armstrong the hero, seven-time winner of the Tour, cancer survivor, huge financial and media success and a role model for thousands of fans, from Lance Armstrong the cyclist, a member of the peloton with the same rights and obligations as any other professional cyclist.”

According to the report, several sources—notably UCI staff and former UCI staff—reported that the UCI leadership had on several occasions “defended” or “protected” Armstrong or taken favorable positions towards Armstrong indicating that he had received preferential treatment.

Already back in 1999 the report describes how Armstrong tested positive for corticosteroids, a story that the French daily Le Monde first broke during the 1999 Tour itself. Only a year after the Festina Affair—until then the worst doping scandal to hit the sport—crippled the Tour de France, the potential victory by a cancer survivor was nothing less than a godsend. But a new scandal could bury the sport forever.

The response by the UCI, according to the commission, was to allow Armstrong to provide a back-dated prescription that justified using the corticosteroids, a move in direct conflict with anti-doping protocol at the time.

Another case of complicity came in 2005, when, on the heels of Armstrong’s seventh Tour title, the French sports daily łąâ€ÍÖ±çłÜŸ±±è±đ entitled “The Armstrong Lie” that revealed traces of EPO in Armstrong’s blood dating back to the 1999 Tour. An independent commission was set up by a pressured UCI to examine wrongdoing, but McQuaid, then president of the UCI, gave strict guidelines to Emile Vrijman, who was appointed to conduct the investigation, stating that “this investigation must clearly be restricted to the formal irregularities which have led to the revelations in łąâ€™ĂÇ”łÜŸ±±è±đ.”

The Armstrong entourage, led by his lawyer, Mark Levinstein, was allowed to revise Vrijman’s preliminary report and to have continued input throughout the progress of the report. The result, when the was published on June 1, 2006, was more of an attack against WADA and the French Laboratory that revealed the findings than it was an objective examination of potential doping practices by Armstrong.

While these findings were already outlined in the USADA reasoned decision report, the UCI’s findings again remind us of the gravity of this accusation.

The UCI purposely limited the scope of the independent investigator’s mandate to procedural issues contrary to what they told stakeholders and the public, and in contradiction to Emile Vrijman’s own suggestion. The CIRC agrees with the consensus that the research results of the LNDD (i.e. Laboratoire national de dĂ©tection du dopage) could not have been used for disciplinary purposes; it is true that this was not a positive test, but it raised strong indications of doping and should have been followed up (e.g., re-test other samples, target test, launch investigations). However, the UCI specifically excluded from Emile Vrijman’s mandate an examination of the EPO test, meaning that the allegation that Lance Armstrong used EPO during the 1999 Tour could not be directly considered.

The report continues:

(The) UCI, together with the Armstrong team, became directly and heavily involved in the drafting of the Vrijman report, the purpose of which was only partly to expedite the publication of the report. The main goal was to ensure that the report reflected UCI’s and Lance Armstrong’s personal conclusions. The significant participation of UCI and Armstrong’s team was never publicly acknowledged, and was consistently denied by Hein Verbruggen (ed. Verbruggen was no longer UCI president, but he still had an office at the UCI and played an active role.) »

The report also outlines how, on repeated occasions, Verbruggen solicited and received donations to the UCI directly from Armstrong. While the donations were earmarked for anti-doping initiatives, any financial contribution from an athlete is immediately suspect.

While the report spends ample time on the relationship between Armstrong and past UCI presidents, it also cites cases of favoritism with other riders. In 1997, after Frenchman Laurent Brochard won the world championship road race, he too was allowed to provide a post-dated prescription. The report also glosses over from the 2010 Tour de France. The report does not find that the UCI attempted to conceal the results, but the organization did not follow the established protocol in notifying Contador of his positive test.

Moving into the present era, the report states bluntly that doping remains an issue in cycling: “The Commission did not hear from anyone credible in the sport who would give cycling a clean bill of health in the context of doping today.” But there is some positive news. The Biological Passport, a testing protocol that identifies the biological signs of doping rather than the presence of banned substances, has reduced the prevalence of high-impact doping methods since it was introduced in 2006 and 2007. Riders can still seek marginal gains by micro-dosing a wide range of substances, including EPO. But those interviewed generally believe there is no longer systematic doping within teams and that the potential gains from doping have been significantly reduced as a result of the improved controls.

Different interviewees estimate anywhere from 20 percent to 90 percent of the peloton is still doping. Several of those interviewed note cases of dramatic weight lose by certain riders that could only be explained by PED corticoids. And many interviewed estimate three to four teams were clean, three to four teams were doping, and simply said they “didn’t know” about the rest.

Hence, the report again confirms an age-old truth regarding doping in sport. “Anti-doping is not a static matter. Once a new level is attained, the battle is still far from won. Instead, the history of anti-doping is marked by constant adaptation by those who seek to cheat and those who seek to catch them.”

And so the fight continues. The CIRC report reveals little that we did not already know or strongly suspect, and no new doping investigations will likely result from it. But it is the most exhaustive study of doping practices, not to mention UCI mismanagement, to date. Its frank nature is refreshing in a sport that too often ignored the truth, and the UCI’s ability to admit its own blunders is unprecedented. For the first time in decades, the organization has earned real credibility. It is a document that will undoubtedly be referred to for years to come. And maybe, just maybe, the CIRC report will help prevent the sport of cycling from making the same mistakes again in the future.

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While he was clearly not in peak form during the 2011 Tour de France, it was here where he cemented his reputation as an incessant attacker. Here he drives up the Alpe d’Huez, and although he was eventually caught and passed by Frenchman Pierre Rolland, Contador garnered kudos from the crowd as the day’s principal animator. He finished the Tour in fifth.

Although barely able to fill out his yellow jersey, Alberto Contador was the surprise winner of the 2007 Tour de France after pre-race leader Alexander Vinokourov and race leader Michael Rasmussen were both expelled on doping charges.

On the fog-ridden Tourmalet climb, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador forged their epic rivalry during the 2009 Tour. The riders finished on the legendary Tourmalet Pass not once, but twice.

With teammate and rival Lance Armstrong on his wheel, Alberto controlled the 2009 race up the Mont Ventoux climb. While the two officially raced for the Astana team, bitter infighting plagued the team during the event.

Alberto Contador’s second Tour de France win was also his most tense due to a fierce internal power struggle between himself and Armstrong. He was so isolated from certain aspects of the team that on the morning of the final time trial, all team cars had left for the time trial without him. He nevertheless managed to get to the start and win the final race against the clock.

With a specially decorated Trek, and an all-matching all-yellow kit, Contador cruises past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on his way to winning his second Tour de France in 2009.

Contador stands next to Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck (left) and American Lance Armstrong (right) on the final victory podium in Paris after the 2009 Tour de France. Although he and Armstrong were on the same team, Contador was much friendlier with Schleck.

Contador has long been known for his versatility as a rider. Although the Tour de France is a constant focus, he’s won other great races, like the Tour of Italy and his native Tour of Spain. Here, Contador leads the attack up the Col d’Eze in the springtime Paris-Nice race, an event he’s won twice.

Contador leads Andy Schleck up the climb to the ski resort of Avoriaz during the 2010 Tour de France. Although he was the defending champion, Contador was less dominant during the 2010 race and Schleck’s constant attacking kept him on the defensive the entire time.

Contador rolls to the start of stage 16 in the 2010 Tour de France. It was during this race that he came under criticism for attacking rival Andy Schleck during a mechanical mishap, something Contador denies to this day.

Contador cruises down the Champs Elysées toward what seemed to be his third Tour de France victory in 2010. But weeks later, his win came into question when traces of clenbuterol, a banned substance, were found in his body. He would eventually be stripped of his third Tour title.

Contador relaxes in his home in Pinto, Spain, a quiet town that stands out only because it’s the geographical center of the country. Contador attributes his upbringing in this modest town to his own centered demeanor.

While he was clearly not in peak form during the 2011 Tour de France, it was here where he cemented his reputation as an incessant attacker. Here he drives up the Alpe d’Huez, and although he was eventually caught and passed by Frenchman Pierre Rolland, Contador garnered kudos from the crowd as the day’s principal animator. He finished the Tour in fifth.

Contador signs autographs for fans after arriving for the Montreal Grand Prix in 2013.

After Andy Schleck, a new generation of challengers have posed problems for Contador. Here, 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome forces the pace in the 2014 Dauphine Criterium, a key warm-up to the Tour de France.

In what will be remembered as the showdown that never was, Alberto Contador and Vicenzo Nibali were locked in a fierce mano-a-mano up the final climb to GĂ©rardmer in the 2014 Tour de France. But the promising duel collapsed when Contador crashed two days later and was forced to abandon the stage race.

Although Contador’s career will be remembered for its highs as well as its lows, he will always be remembered as “El Pistolero.”

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It is perhaps only fitting that Team Sky cycling team chose to start its 2015 season off with a training camp at the immaculate in Puerto d’Alcudia, Mallorca. After all, since its inception five years ago, the British team has consistently shown excessive pride in all aspects of their sporting performance.

As part of their raison d’ĂȘtre, the team analyzed and dissected virtually every aspect of cycling. “Marginal gains” became the catchphrase as they searched for minute advantages in aerodynamics, diet, training, and so on. And for several years at least, the ensemble of minimal advantages provided maximal success. For several years at least, Team Sky was synonymous with victory, highlighted by overwhelming wins in the 2012 and 2013 Tours de France by Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome.

But that string of successes came to an abrupt halt in 2014. Suddenly the team that seemingly breathed victory could not even buy one. Geraint Thomas in the springtime Paris-Nice race and eventually abandoned the event. Richie Porte, the Australian sensation in 2013, that kept him from obtaining any significant level of success.

[quote]“I think there was a little complacency. I think there was a little bit of a ‘We-have-discovered-the-Holy-Grail’ mentality.”[/quote]

Then came the collapse of Froome himself. A slowed his progress during the spring. He then , a key warm-up race for the Tour de France, while wearing the yellow jersey. And the downward spiral continued in the first week of the Tour de France when he crashed three times in two days. Fracturing his right hand and left wrist, he had no choice but drop out. It was a dismal season, even considering his in September at the Vuelta a España.

“You know, until then we had rarely had such bad luck with our leaders,” Nicolas Portal, Froome’s principal race director, told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “And in 2014 it just rained down on us.”

Understandably, questions swirled. Had the team become complacent or had other teams finally caught up in the eternal search for marginal gains?

Visiting the first Team Sky training camp this year, it became immediately apparent that the team has spent the offseason asking the same questions themselves. And while “marginal gains” may still be the catch phrase, “hungry” is the now new buzzword. Everyone from team general manager Sir David Brailsford to the riders and staff spoke of their hunger to return to the summit of the sport.

“I think there was a little complacency. I think there was a little bit of a ‘We-have-discovered-the-Holy-Grail’ mentality,” Fran Millar said when looking back on the void that was 2014. The sister of now-retired British cyclist David Millar, Fran’s official title is Head of Winning Behavior. As such, she is responsible for keeping the team focused on winning principles that took them to the top in 2012 and 2013. And while Millar’s title may be a bit grandiloquent, Fran, who has worked with the team since its inception, speaks without pretention. “Sometimes getting a bit of a kicking is the best thing that can happen!”

Team leader Chris Froome says that on a personal level he has added five gym sessions of weekly core training to his schedule, something that has relieved him of the nagging back pains. He maintains that the team needs to work on racing together more at the front. “Obviously every bike rider is going to crash,” Froome says. “But there are things you can do to reduce those chances. Learning to move better in the pack. Having a strong team around you. These are all things to can do to avoid crashing.”

At the moment, Froome is focused on winning the Tour de France in 2015 once again. Meanwhile Brailsford is focused on improving what is a cycling team’s equivalent to world-famous British sports-car maker McLaren’s state-of-the-art P1 super car.

“Perfection doesn’t exist. You always strive for it,” Brailsford says. “But it’s unattainable. There is always room to improve. There are always more marginal gains that you can find. It’s funny—if you ever visit the McLaren factory they have all of their cars lined up from every year. And what you see is a steady progression, an evolution. Each year they made the best car they could make. Each year they made a car they didn’t think they could improve upon. And yet each year they made a better car.”

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Dynamite, it is said, comes in small packages. And sometimes it comes in non-descript emails, too. One of those came on January 14 when the Tour de France organizers announced their annual Tour selection—one that included the first-ever African team.

Normally the highly-coveted slots for the Tour’s final “wildcard” teams are disputed between a host of minor French teams as well as a sprinkling of teams from around the world. Normally the “wildcard” choices merit little more than a short-lived buzz. But the selection of the is nothing short of historic. And it instantly made headlines.

The team brings together MTN, a major telephone operator that covers much of Africa, along with Qhubeka, a non-profit organization that offers bicycles to children in Africa so that they can commute to school as well as get involved in this growing African sport.

“It’s a game-changer,” says Brian Smith, manager of MTN-Qhubeka. Smith was hired in 2014 to take the team to the Tour. And by recruiting a mix of established stars as well as some of the best African riders, he achieved his first goal.

“Slowly but surely Africa is waking up to cycling,” Smith said. “Yes they have had , the first African to wear the yellow jersey. Yes, they’ve had , an African-born cyclist, who won the Tour de France. But these were individuals. This is a whole team that is promoting Africa. I think there is a lot of excitement. Hopefully [the Tour selection] will be enough of a catalyst for African cycling to have a bright future.”

According to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, the choice to include MTN-Qhubeka fits with the race’s desire to globalize. “The last couple of years have seen two Japanese riders finish the Tour de France [ and ]Ìęand just last year the first Chinese rider to start and finish the Tour de France (). And next year you will see the first African team start the Tour,” Prudhomme said. “When we talk about the globalization of cycling, we can’t ignore Africa. When you look at the long tradition of exceptional middle and long distance runners in Africa, it is only a question of time before they amaze us in cycling. And why not already this year?”

Come July, the MTN-Qhubeka will be many things. But it will not be a novelty. “Our goals are simple,” says Smith. “We want to get a stage win and compete for one of the special competition jerseys, be it the green points jersey or the polka-dot climbers jersey.” Along with some savvy off-season recruiting of experienced professionals as well as many of the top up-and-coming African riders, MTN-Qhubeka could well achieve those goals.

Already the team made history when team leader won the prestigious Milan-San Remo classic . And this year he will be joined by an impressive list of recruits that include American , Norwegian , and Australian , established winners who all hope to redirect their careers on MTN.

Two Eritrean cyclists with World Tour experience, Natnael Berhane and Daniel Teklehaimanot, will also play an important role. Behrane spent the past two years with the French Europcar team while Teklehaimanot raced with Goss on the Australian Orica-GreenEdge team in 2013.Ìę“I have always dreamed of participating in the Tour de France,” says Behrane. “And to be able to do that now on an African team, wow, my dream comes true! It will accelerate the progress of African cycling.”

Names like Farrar, Goss and Boasson-Hagen add a lot of confidence, says Smith. “These guys know how to win. They are great for brand awareness. But these guys also have the experience to pass onto African guys, who are capable of winning, too. One thing you can say about the African guys is that they are very determined. They come from a different continent and have been up against a lot.”

While the team’s first goal was to get into the Tour de France, according to Farrar, they now have enough horsepower to animate the whole race.ÌęThe team was one of the most active recruiters in the recent off-season, but Smith understands the need for the team to maintain its African identity. “The last thing I would want to do is go to the Tour with few Africans on the team,” he says. “I really want to go to the Tour with four or five Africans on the team.”

Such numbers would be impressive in a sport that is increasingly multi-national and where some Tour de France teams enter the race with a distinct minority of nationals. That said, Smith insists, “Everyone will have to make the Tour team on merit. I truly believe the Africans will step up.”

But while MTN-Qhubeka will make history this summer when they line up in Utrecht, Holland, for the start of the Tour de France, many hope it will be just the start of a new chapter in cycling. Smith hopes that MTN’s entry in the Tour will inspire other sponsors to invest in African teams.

“We are aware that 2015 will be a memorable date in the Tour de France,” says Prudhomme.Ìę“I can only hope that they seize their chance and that this year will only be the first in a long history.”

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