The Clouds Factory

The Giro, like any Grand Tour, is a race of attrition, grit, resistance, luck and sheer determination that goes on for three weeks. The mental and physical demands are huge and some riders can deliver under this pressure. Others, albeit talented, crumble under the weight of expectation. So it is that every year it becomes a lottery for the lucky and the healthy and the fit. Results, or lack of, before the race is not always a good indicator. This article is not about Nibali, Roglic or Mollema, who are expected to do a good job as leaders and they have. This is about those athletes who have impressed the most or underperformed according to their skillsets (no comment on those who have left). THE GOOD RICHARD CARAPAZ (Movistar) Although 4th last year, the Ecuadorian tends to be quiet the rest of the season, so his rise in the general classification is never a given. He climbs faster than anyone else and his initial brief might have been to be Landa's right-hand man on the...

As classics go, Milano-Sanremo is the longest of them all (almost 300km) and one of the oldest (1907). Eddy Merckx has won it a record 7 times. It has been marred by late snow at times and its route has been modified here and there, but at its core is the length and flatness, so one for the sprinters traditionally but not so much of late. There are a few lumps, but although short and not very steep, they usually come at the end of a long day on the saddle and have been decisive in the outcome of the race. In recent times, the climbs of Cipressa (added in 1982) and Poggio (added in 1960) have been the theatres of all-out attacks. The breakneck and twisty descent from the Poggio especially, induced some of the most entertaining racing... and some awful crashes too. The finish in the town of Sanremo has moved posts a few times but whether it was in the false flat of Via Roma or on the pan flat promenade by the sea, many a time it has ended in a bunch sprint.

Women cycling has grown in popularity exponentially in the last few years. There is still a long long way to go to reach equality in terms of wages, recognition and exposure in comparison to the men's: wages are way too low, with some riders getting pittance, others paying for equipment, only the very top getting a reasonable (but risible in comparison to the men's) pay packet; most organisers set a huge disparity in terms of podium money between men and women; all the races are kept shorter than the men's for absolutely no reason; even ASO (Tour de France) supremo Prudhomme has stated that a Women Tour is "impossible" to organise; misogyny is still rife and too few men's top teams sponsor a women's team counterpart. The more we follow and the more we support, especially in social media and by tuning in when the rare race is televised, the quicker we can close the gap. My favourite races last year were La Course by Le Tour de France and the World Ch...

This year’s course for the World Championships in Austria is one of the hardest ever. With 260km ( 162mi ) of racing and a whopping 4,670 metres ( 15,320 ft ) of gained altitude, it is designed for the climbers. The finish could be compared to the Giro di Lombardia’s (autumn classic) and the overall climbing to that of Liege-Bastogne-Liege's (spring classic), but it is unique in the relentless pursuit of pain and concentration, with punishing climbs and breakneck descending. The race starts in the town of Kufstein and it winds south-westerly along the River Inn. There are three lumps almost from the off and they will be the springboards for teams and riders who have no hope to win but are eager to showcase their abilities in a breakaway. The first proper test comes after about 65km (40mi), over the Gnadenwald : a short climb of 2.6km ( 1.6mi ) with an average gradient of 13% , which will be used in the individual time trial as well. www.innsbruck-tirol2018.com On ...

My fascination with Physics has grown in parallel with my interest in Philosophy . Debates arise as to the merit of either discipline in the understanding of our world. I see no distinction of importance between the two ( Carlo Rovelli: Why Physics needs Philosophy ) as I maintain that the empirical and the metaphysical are equally crucial for the understanding of the universe. Without the right questions, we would never find the right answers. As things became very small with the study of Quantum Mechanics , a link was needed to the very massive (Einstein's  Theory of   General Relativity ), in what is supposed to become a Theory of Everything , also known as  Quantum Gravity . I've played with the idea and philosophised about it and these are some of my musings, which I call the  Theory of (N)everything . The silly title is to emphasise my total awareness of my shortcomings both in scientific and philosophical terms. In the beginning, there was coffee. Scatt...

When you become someone else's voice, you make choices based on how you want to be heard or read. Authors have their own unique style. A translation has to respect that and make it work in parallel with another language. I say parallel because it cannot be the same but it proceeds along a common direction. That might not be as easy as one would think. The original author's skill is not on trial, sentences can and have to be changed in order to fit the right syntax but the simplicity or the complexity of the writing has to be respected. Whether the narrative is skilled or poor, a translator has to remain true to the original text as much as possible. The best tool for a translator is how words and sentences are interpreted in a different language. The meaning and structure vary greatly because words are loaded with historical and social baggage. This gives room for a broader choice of grammar, vocabulary or conjugation.