New team kits unveiled; eight summits rumored for 2019 Vuelta: Daily News Digest

WELCOME TO YOUR DAILY NEWS DIGEST. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY:

New kits for Boels-Dolmans and Katusha-Alpecin unveiled. New information on the race routes for the 2019 Tour of Yorkshire and Vuelta a España. Lance Armstrong said that an early investment into Uber ‘saved’ his family.

STORY OF THE DAY: Boels-Dolmans unveils jersey, rainbow frameset

Italian apparel brand Santini continues with the Dutch women’s team Boels-Dolmans for a third season; their new kit was unveiled Friday. Black and grey have been added to the colour palette alongside the classic orange that has always been part of the team’s look. In 2018, the Dutch squad topped the team classification in the UCI Women’s WorldTour, while Anna van der Breggen won the world road championship, the Tour of Flanders, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

#newkitday Here it is! Our brand new @SANTINI_SMS kit for 2019. What do you think?!?

(Yes, @ChantalBlaak will be wearing red-white-and-blue in 2019, but we're happy that she modelled the new outfit for us!) pic.twitter.com/ksCiJreRGB

— Team SD Worx (@teamsdworx) December 7, 2018

Van der Breggen also got a first look at her rainbow-jersey themed S-Works Tarmac SL6 Disc frameset. In addition to her personal bike, Specialized is offering 250 of these limited-edition framesets for sale.

RACE RADIO

Katusha-Alpecin unveils 2019 kit design

The Swiss-registered Katusha-Alpecin team unveiled its 2019 kit design Friday during a team presentation at Canyon headquarters in Koblenz, Germany, with a distinctive pivot toward the baby blue color that it used in its 2018 jersey.

Unlike the current red-with-blue design, however, the new jersey is solid baby blue with a red Alpecin logo. The jerseys also feature rider last names on the back, just under the collar, which means names like Kittel, Dowsett, Haas, Politt, Zabel, and Zakarin wil be highly visible in the peloton next year.

The 2019 season will marking the 11th for the WorldTour squad. Joining the team management in 2019 is Erik Zabel, as performance manager, as well as Dirk Demol, who comes in as a new team director.

We‘re excited to reveal the new @katushasports #TeamKatushaAlpecin 2019 kit! From now on available online on https://t.co/XiFEraZCd4 #bluebabyblue 📸 Stefan Rachow pic.twitter.com/EikLmwVspq

— KATUSHA (@katushacycling) December 7, 2018

Tour of Yorkshire announces 2019 route

The full routes for the 2019Tour de Yorkshire and Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race were unveiled Friday. The fifth edition of the men’s race will take place May 2-5 and has been upgraded to HC status by the UCI, the highest category possible for a multi-day race outside of the UCI WorldTour. It encompasses all four corners of the county and takes in 150 villages, towns and cities along the way.

The Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women’s Race will take place May 3-4, meaning that for the first time, it will be held on a Friday and Saturday to allow more people to celebrate the race. Both stages will be the same as the men’s, meaning the 2019 edition will be the longest yet at 264km — and also the hardest with over 3,200m of cumulative climbing.

The Tour de Yorkshire was launched in 2015 as a legacy of the 2014 Grand Départ. It is organised by Welcome to Yorkshire and the Amaury Sport Organisation.

2019 Vuelta a España rumored to have eight summit finishes

According to  Spanish publication AS, the 2019 Vuelta a Espana route will feature eight summit finishes, with four new to the race. Among those climbs is rumored to be the steep 9km ascent of Los Machucos, which made its Vuelta debut in 2017. AS also reported that the race may keep every stage below 200 kilometres. The full route of the 2019 Vuelta a Espana will be revealed on December 19

CCC joins with Etxeondo as apparel partner

The CCC Team has signed Etxeondo as the team’s technical apparel partner f0r 2019. The partnership with Etxeondo marks the start of a new chapter for the former BMC Racing team, with Polish shoe and bag manufacturer CCC becoming title sponsor, and Giant joining as the bike and primary technical partner.

Etxeondo is one of the few brands that design and produce all of their garments in their own facilities, located in the Basque Country, and has a heritage firmly rooted in performance cycling. The CCC Team kit will be unveiled on Friday, December 14, in Denia, Spain at the team’s pre-season training camp.

Armstrong says Uber investment ‘saved’ his family

Lance Armstrong told CNBC that an early investment in Uber “saved” his family after he paid out $111 million in legal fees and settlements.

The American, 47, said he gave $100,000 to a venture capital fund that invested in the ride-hailing app in 2010. He said Uber, which was founded in 2009, was valued at $3.7M when he invested. According to BBC News, the ride-sharing company was valued at $72B this year and is targeting a valuation of $120B in 2019. When asked if he had earned “10, 20, 30, 40 or $50M,” Armstrong replied, “It’s one of those.”

Former cyclist Lance Armstrong: Investing in Uber "saved our family." https://t.co/J2vzpXNtGO pic.twitter.com/0tiOyVx6ak

— CNBC (@CNBC) December 7, 2018

In April, Armstrong agreed to pay $5M to the US government to settle a long-running lawsuit that could have cost him $100M in damages. However, he said he felt he did not “get off scot free” as other settlements and legal fees meant he had to pay $111m in total. Armstrong, who has five children, did not say how much he had earned from his Uber investment but added it was “too good to be true,” adding that it “saved our family.”

Armstrong was also asked about Thom Weisel, the San Francisco financier who funded the U.S. Postal Service team but was not found liable in the recently settled federal whistleblower case.

“Thom’s [Weisel] an interesting guy. And I’m not here to tell on people or throw them under the bus. But yeah, Thom hasn’t been honest,” Armstrong said. “We’ll leave it at that. He just hasn’t been honest with the press. He wasn’t honest in his deposition in the Postal case. He’s just not honest.

Watch clips from the interview here and here.

In memoriam…

The music world mourned the death of Pete Shelly of the Buzzcocks, who died of a suspected heart attack Thursday at the age of 63. Shelly had a direct link to the cycling world as well — he wrote the theme music for Channel Four’s Tour de France coverage in the United Kingdom.

Pete Shelley's Tour de France masterpiece pic.twitter.com/kmkjodX0C0

— James Dart (@James_Dart) December 6, 2018

Happy birthday to…

Rick Zabel, son of Erik Zabel, turns 25 today. Zabel spent three seasons with BMC Racing before switching over to Katusha-Alpecin in 2017 — a contract that runs through 2020.

In case you missed it…

America’s largest cycling trade show, Interbike, has been cancelled for 2019. Event owners Emerald Expositions announced the news today and will seek alternative options for 2020 and beyond.

Tech editor James Huang spent some time with the Wahoo Fitness KICKR Headwind, and while he was ready to dismiss it as an overpriced fan, it wasn’t quite that simple.