Tweets of the Week! The Jump, The Jam and The Jiffy Bag

It’s a new year and I feel invigorated by the thoughts of the new road season starting so I’ve dusted off my screenshot keys for the first of this year’s TWEETS OF THE WEEK! Riders are all over the world, doing all kinds of things, so this’ll be a bit of a jumble. But we have some great tweets! Let’s saddle up!

Etixx no more

…but Quick-Step lives on! And who is in his new kit but Belgian national champion, Philippe Gilbert. Will be very interesting to see what PhilGil can do this year with this move from BMC. He’s even gotten into the spirit of the Quick-Step sponsor shoots …

It’s Tom Boonen’s last year of racing – well, it won’t even be a full year as he has said he will retire right after Paris-Roubaix. He may have been in the pro peloton since Rover was a pup but he still has that joie de vivre when it comes to photo shoots…

One QuickStepper who will not be in the peloton this year is Gianni Meersman. Diagnosed over the Christmas holidays with cardiac arrhythmia, he made the decision to retire immediately. It’s one thing to have a retirement year in mind, plan for it and get used to the idea – it’s quite another to go from posting up pictures of your new kit (he’d signed with Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and then a few days later having to announce the end of your career. We wish him all the best for his future. He did decide to go out on a generous note:

And the winner is:

Cunning and Argyll

Speaking of ex-riders, recent retiree Phil Gaimon has been busy since hanging up his pro wheels. Including a book and helping soap stars in distress!

While we’re in Argyll territory, let’s see what Joe D has been up to! After Joe’s breakout season last year, it’ll be interesting to see how Cannondale deploys him in the big races. Will he join Darwin Atapuma and Jarlinson Pantano as one of the kings of the breakaway? He’s already a dab hand at bidon catching.

And Sep Vanmarcke (or Sep Formica as we call him here at VeloVoices Towers) is now argylled-up, having traded his JumboBee wings for the green machine … I wonder if he’s going to partner with teammate Taylor Phinney for a two-pronged attack in the spring classics. That would be fun!

New champs

Of course, early January is the time for the new Aussie champs. First up, Katrin Garfoot does the double, earning the green and gold jersey for both the ITT and road race. Chapeau, madame, chapeau!

Meanwhile, BMC’s Miles Scotson took the men’s road race nat champ jersey. Just me or does he look like a 12-year-old Mick Rogers? >she shuffles away clinging to her zimmer frame …<

It was hot hot hot in Oz – and there were plenty of roos – and the peloton’s own Little Kangaroo!

There was even a mystery man with a comedy tache … (For some reason, I always think Caleb Ewan is going to look different – more like Simon Gerrans although I have no idea why I think that …)

She might not be Australian but she is a champ – she is one of the greatest cyclist to ever compete and she’s just gone and won another CX national title. Yes, Marianne Vos is as hungry as ever

Taking to the Sky

Well. Team Sky have not had the best of times the last few months with Sir David Brailsford’s appearance before the parliamentary select committee to clear up the Great Jiffy Bag Bungle™. You could only say he did well if you believe the phrase ‘clear up’ means ‘use a lot of words to say not much, making people ask even more questions…’. It was so bad, that even team leader Chris Froome couldn’t really find it in him to sound supportive …

And now a short musical interlude …

An animated version of the musical interlude which appeared on this week's Velocast. pic.twitter.com/r7FP3esYcs

— Scott O'Raw (@velocast) January 9, 2017

While all the bungling and jenga happened over Christmas, Sir Bradley Wiggins finally (finally!) made good on his promise and officially retired by posting up the news on Facebook. He had been toying with riding, well, forever, but the allure of the mince pies must have been too much for him. His future plans? He is going straight into The Jump (or is it The Push?), one of those random reality shows where celebrities (and looking at the line-up, I’m using that term very loosely) learn something new and we all sit around and watch them learn that something new. As opposed to us going out and learning something new for ourselves. But don’t call him a celebrity. He’s doing this purely for the physical challenge.