Podcast 13 Mar 2014: Strade, Kwiatkowski, Valverde, Paris-Nice and Tirreno - a podcast by SBS

A new world order is forming in professional road cycling. Unless your name is Alejandro Valverde, who defiantly refuses to go away, and keeps on winning.

From the white gravel roads of the Strade Bianche, to Bright’s dirt-lined singletrack in Victoria’s High Country, to the Beaujolais Route du Vin at Paris-Nice, to the chestnut groves of Castagneto Carducci adjacent to the Tyrrhenian Sea, we’ve got it all covered in this week’s Cycling Central podcast.

In Strade Bianche it was a mano-a-mano battle between Michal Kwiatkowski (and yes, we workshop how to pronounce his name) and Peter Sagan; at the Australian MTB nationals it was the all-conquering cross-country couple Daniel McConnell and Rebecca Henderson who again dominated the headlines.

Over at Paris-Nice, despite being halfway in, the GC battle’s only just unfolding since the controversial eleventh hour departure of defending champion Richie Porte, who, like his probable Giro d’Italia rivals, has opted for ‘la corsa dei due mari’, The Race of the Two Seas, otherwise known as Tirreno-Adriatico. The opening team time trial, although just 18.5 kilometres short, has already created significant splits – will this race be a portent of things to come in May?

And, not to forget the fairer sex, the UCI has confirmed all nine rounds of the women’s World Cup will be televised. It seems our new prez Brian Cookson isn’t just talking the talk, he’s walking the talk. Or walking the walk. Or talking the walk.

Anyway, he’s doing a lot of talking and walking.

As for Al Hinds, Phil Gomes, Anthony Tan and special ‘novelty’ (as in new and unique, not cheap) guest Rob Arnold, publishing editor of RIDE Cycling Review, as per usual, they’re just talking. And talking. And talking.

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