I broke my toe (slightly) last week, enough to take riding and running off the schedule for a bit. I still have to go to my day job, so don’t expect the return of HTRWW anytime soon, but I did have a enough time to play around with some data viz packages.

Want a bigger view? Of course you do.

This is just a quick-and-dirty implementation of d3 using the sankey chart plugin to show transfers for WorldTour teams between the 2015 and 2016 seasons. A data visualization is only as good as its data set, and I pulled my info from ProCyclingStats' transfers page.

Additionally, I assembled the JSON that powers the chart with some ad hoc scripts and regex, so there's probably a transcription error or two. Finally, I'm assuming Dimension Data eventually joins the WorldTour, and I've counted stagiares and riders who may have retired earlier in the season as making their debut/departure in 2016. Each line represents a single rider, holding the cursor over a line will reveal the name of the rider.

There's probably something wrong here, but the chart is also easy enough to update. The UCI should, in theory, have an accurate and definitive record of all team changes over the past few seasons, but guessing Brian Cookson's got a bit too much on his plate to start setting up an API.

With Il Lombardia, Paris-Tours, and the Abu Dhabi Tour in the books, most of the riders in the pro peloton are now enjoying some well-deserved time off, so the Recon Ride p/b VeloNews is getting into offseason mode too. Dane Cash and Cosmo Catalano team up for one last podcast episode of 2015, with VeloNews.com editor Spencer Powlison providing some added insight.

Listen at VeloNews.com >>>

Episode 29: Il Lombardia 2015
The Recon Ride Powered by VeloNews rolls into the end of the season for the fifth and final “monument” of the year—a mere six months since the last one. With an ever-evolving course that seems to have no middle ground between horrifically rainy and story-tale picturesque, Dane Cash (@velohuman / VeloHuman.com) and I pontificate on the favorites and likely tactics, while Como-based reporter and Velonews’ regular Gregor Brown brings press-box insights and local knowledge.

Listen at VeloNews.com >>>