Peter Cossins

Will Iniesta be making an appearance?

One the biggest transfers during this off-season

Premier Tech indeed new sponsor for Alpecin!

Who's replaced the financial backer? That's what we all want to know

"You seem happier"

Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.

The Backpedal - I've landed on The Monuments by Peter Cossins

What do we find therein? Come and see..

open.substack.com/pub/cilliank...

doesn't look good does it

Congratulations to both of you. It's always good to see a cycling book win the WH and especially so in this case

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

//INRNG: Some thoughts on the Never Say Never takeover of IPT inrng.com/2025/11/neve...

Interesting to see whether the Spanish backing and especially the Iniesta link will enable the team to bring IPT’s opponents onside and remove it from the controversy in which it’s still mired

Cubillas

This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016. Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey. These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%. These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process. Comparing these with contemporary forecasts – providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning microliterature of social science predictions – shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.

Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)

This skewers the red herring of an argument that charging fans to spectate is an answer to bike racing’s issues

A reminder…

French Basque wins 100km desert race wearing one of his region’s emblematic products - espadrilles. Chapeau! 🧑‍🎨

It's so cool that when the right person lands a direct hit on ol' Elon he can't stop from lighting up and spinning his bowtie like a carnival game clown

Some cracking headlines on the reports. Particularly liked “Vingegaard holds off sprinters to win in Saitama”. Of course he did, that was the scenario they all agreed

Apart from L’Equipe who probably have a duty to do so, I don’t know why anyone reports on the Saitama criterium and other similar events that are the WWE of bike races

Silence over Sudan: why do Manchester City’s owners get away with so much? Two midweek matches in England had a backdrop of war and geopolitics, but only one drew large protests

Everything that @barneyronay.bsky.social says here applies equally to cycling. The Israel team has been the focus of widescale protests that have undermined it while UAE Team Emirates have collected almost every prize worth having with barely a hint of criticism or scrutiny

Pollution from Ineos’s Antwerp plastic plant ‘will cause more deaths than jobs created’ Lawyers challenge €4bn Project One development, saying emissions and health impacts vastly underestimated The deaths from pollution caused by Europe’s biggest plastic plant, which is being built in Antwerp, will outstrip the number of permanent jobs it will create, lawyers will argue in a court challenge issued on Thursday. In documents submitted to the court, research suggests the air pollution from Ineos’s €4bn petrochemical plant would cause 410 deaths once operational, compared with the 300 permanent jobs the company says will be created. Continue reading...

Pollution from Ineos’s Antwerp plastic plant ‘will cause more deaths than jobs created’

The Halland Johannessen twins 🎶

Tobias & Anders 💛

Wish I knew what brand of paint this was near the top of the Col d’Agnes, could do with some of the outside of our house

When we look at this massacre and many more perpetrated by the RSF, let's be clear who funds, equips & sustains them. It's the UAE. Yes, the same UAE that might own your football club, fly you on your holidays, invests in our national infrastructure. If boycotts work, we should be boycotting now.

Sudan’s brutal civil war – what has happened in El Fasher? Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces captured the city from the army after an 18-month siege – but who are they and what do they want?

The UAE has its fingerprints all over this

Private Eye hits it every time @chadbourn.bsky.social

Wiggins' EXPLOSIVE new 'Jiffy' theory lays the groundwork for Team Sky game of Traitors Bradley Wiggins' latest autobiography, The Chain, contains claims about a dark conspiracy at Team Sky. Mutual destruction awaits if someone tells the actual truth

For anyone who enjoyed last year's "Skyfall" investigation, this is one for you. It's a biggie.

Wiggins' EXPLOSIVE new 'Jiffy' theory lays the groundwork for Team Sky game of Traitors

sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/wiggins-ex...

The Road Book 2025 (Signed by Ned Boulting) Discover The Road Book 2025, signed by Ned Boulting. It's the definitive annual for passionate road cycling fans. Packed with stats, essays, and race insights, it’s the perfect gift for cyclists and l...

The 8th edition of The Roadbook is now on sale - complete with a signature from editor @nedboulting.bsky.social if you follow the link below - and with insights from the likes of Isaac Del Toro, Cat Ferguson, Alexei Sayle and me. Be quick, as they're selling fast...
theroadbook.co.uk/products/the...

It is very windy up here today, easing now thankfully