SaxoBank keep their pro licence!

Astonishingly, the UCI have told Bjarne Riis that he can keep his pro-team licence, despite losing two-thirds of his world tour points for last year (when they were taken off of Contador) and despite only winning a pathetic two points so far this year.

I'm pleased for Bjarne and for cycling in general: I don't particularly care for Mr Riis, but I do think that he has had more than his fair share of bad luck in the last two years, and I really don't think that pro cycling needed the shake-up of losing a pro-team and either being one team short for the rest of the year, or of hurriedly promoting a different team, with all the problems that would entail.

Far better to leave things as they are this year, and to sensibly say that as his licence expires at the end of this year anyway, he will have to start again as from 2013.

Hopefully by then he will have decided whether Conti is coming back: if he goes elsewhere, will his lieutenants go also: can Bjarne buy in enough riders to get some points: will Jakob go back to him: will his sponsor stay with him: these, and many other questions, will hopefully be answered.

In the meantime, other cycling news: Cav's girlfriend has had their baby, so congratulations to the proud parents, and welcome to Delilah.

The ever-handsome Jakob has just tweeted that he's back on his normal bike again, and is "happy happy!", but he can't do it without this.

*shudders at slightly bionic looking support item*

Andy has done his bit in the invisible Sarthe race (well, invisible to me at any rate - no tv coverage, can't find a feed either, boo) apparently it was the TT today, and apparently he came in "well behind the leaders" in 8mins 45". Hang on, Dave Zabriskie did in 8mins 39", and he's really, really good at TT!

So it doesn't sound like complete disaster... unfortunately, as I write, the full results aren't out yet. Nor are the photos. But I did find these photos earlier, and I'm happy to share them, in case you hadn't seen them:

Firstly: who said cyclists were weedy little lads who didn't need to shave [their chins, ha ha!] yet?


Here's a familiar profile, getting the job done:


And captions for this one might include "Which RadioShack rider did not use enough deodorant today?" (Only joking!)