STOREY RECORD ATTEMPT ...
Cycling’s Revolution Series’ fifth round takes place at the London Olympic VeloPark on Friday and Saturday, and the competition – created to build on the interest the Games brought to the sport – is certainly offering some big-name entrants, including gold-medallists Laura Trott, Ed Clancy, and Peter Kennaugh. But perhaps the highlight of the weekend is Sarah Storey’s bid to break the UCI Hour Record. Storey , a winner of 11 gold Paralympic medals (including four at the London Games) will attempt to beat Leontien van Moorsel’s 46.065km, set in 2003. The UCI standardised the equipment regulations governing the record in May last year, reinvigorating interest in the discipline, which was first officially recognised in 1893. The men’s record has already been broken three times since the rules change, most recently by Australian Rohan Dennis, earlier this month, but Storey’s is the first bid to set a new women’s record. Tickets are still available at cyclingrevolution.com and her ride will be live on the UCI YouTube channel.
WORLD CUP DECISION ...
Fifa’s inevitably rather grandly titled Task Force for the International Match Calendar 2018-2024 meets in – equally inevitably – Doha , to debate the business of international match calendars. Pretty dry stuff, except that the real business of the day is the huge, stinking elephant in the room within those six years that is the 2022 Qatar World Cup – the calendar for which is anything but straightforward. Yet it appears the debate is largely over, and the Task Force is expected to recommend a winter World Cup, to take place in November and December. If, as seems almost certain, it confirms this and its inevitable ramifications for domestic European football, it will go to the Fifa executive committee to ratify in March.
McILROY TARGET ...
Having revealed in January that he writes a list of seven targets for the forthcoming year on a boarding pass that he then keeps in his wallet, Rory McIlroy will no doubt be looking to start making ticks as soon as possible. The list remains private, but he has revealed that one of the goals for 2014 was to be victorious in six tournaments across the world. He won four and, in current form, this year’s target is likely to be higher. He may even have been specific about winning this week’s Honda Classic, at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida (Sky Sports 4, from Thursday), after last year, when McIlroy went into the final day with a two-stroke lead and looking strong, only to have a dreadful back nine – including a double bogey on the 16th – and to lose in a play-off, with American Russell Henley taking the win.
F1 FINAL SHAKEDOWN ...
Formula One’s final pre-season test begins on Thursday, at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Barcelona, and is the last chance for teams to test their upgrades before the opening race in Australia, on 15 March. While potential rule and engine changes for 2016 and 2017 dominated the headlines during last week’s test, all minds will now be focussed on this season’s hardware. McLaren and their new engine partners, Honda, will be eager to make the most of track time, having struggled with various issues in the previous tests, but it will also be time for some of 2015’s key technical areas – running a short or long nose, and the aero effects of blown axles and different fins and vanes through this years’s diffuser – to be finally decided.
