Down Under, and back again

Greetings fair bicycling enthusiasts, and a very merry ‘thank goodness January is nearly over’ to each and every one of you. Firstly, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to my new subscribers – if this is the first time you’re receiving this newsletter I am so glad to have you on board! Pull up a saddle, I’ll pour you an energy drink and we can get down to business. The business of bike racing! Of which there has been A GREAT DEAL, fair readers – like, really a lot actually.

Not only have we had a packed cyclocross schedule, road season has actually fully, properly arrived, and the upshot of this cycling smorgasbord is that the two sections talking about the actual racing in this newsletter are STUFFED this week - don’t say you haven’t been warned!

For the new arrivals, settle in and have a look around. The format is always pretty much the same – updates on longer written pieces over on the website, the latest news from the world of cycling, road racing results and a few short race reviews, the Cyclocross Dispatch (winter only) where we catch up with all things off-road, and my Final Thought in which I talk in more depth about an issue that’s been in the news that week, or sometimes just muse more generally on the sport.

There’s also a new section this week celebrating the Lighter Side of cycling life – I hope you enjoy it. RIGHT without further ado we’d better crack on because honestly, it’s been MAD BUSY.

(New subscribers, please don’t let the length of the thing put you off, just look upon it as a bitesize almanack of two weeks in the world of cycling. Digest at your leisure and I promise it won’t always be this long. Probably).

ON THE WEBSITE

I promised you lots of content, and I told you no lies! The first two parts of my four-part Team Preview series are ready for your perusal. In this series I consider each men’s and women’s World Tour team in turn, looking back at their 2023 season, taking stock of their activity on the transfer market, and looking ahead to their prospects for 2024. With my own personal highlights, wishes and predictions, and some GIFs for good measure, it’s intended to serve as a guide for all road cycling fans heading into the new season, to bring you up to speed and perhaps see if your predictions match mine, or even make some bold guesses of your own.

Here's the first half of the men’s peloton:

And the women’s:

Second halves will be with you next time.

In addition, there’s the second episode of ‘At Home with the Devonshire Duo’, checking in with Saint Piran riders, friends and housemates Will Tidball and Harry Birchill. In this edition, they reflect on a busy weekend of action, including the cyclocross national championships and European track championships, and talk about what’s coming up next. Featuring horses, snowballs and murderous kangaroos.

Finally, I’m pleased to introduce a new guest writer to the site. Bence Szabó works as a journalist and commentator for Eurosport Hungary, and he presents a piece on the cyclocross scene in the Czechia, ahead of this weekend’s World Championships in Tabor. It’s a fascinating insight into the cyclocross culture further afield from the traditional stomping ground of the low countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, do go and have a read.

NEWS! THE NEWS IS HERE!

It’s been a relatively quiet couple of weeks in terms of news, so I hope you’ll forgive me for taking the liberty of simply directing you to the news page at the website this time around, given the vast swathes of racing news we have to catch up on.

The headlines include:

BORA hansgrohe agree Red Bull takeover!

Geraint Thomas confirms he’ll do the Giro-Tour double!

Lotte Kopecky targets Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Astana launch women’s team!

Thor Hushovd joins Uno-X!

Read all about it on the website (and I promise a more fulsome news segment will return once the doubling up of road and cyclocross gets a bit less intense).

THE LIGHTER SIDE

A new segment celebrating the fun stuff because life is just better when you don’t take things too seriously. First up, the Soudal-QuickStep boys getting creative with their exercise regime:

If you’re not following the team it’s definitely worth doing so – this isn’t the first example of funny, off-the-wall content and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Next, a compilation from inside the DS car at the Tour Down Under, where last season’s new boy Sam Bewley pairs up with this season’s fresh DS meat, Darryl Impey. The two are a brilliant pairing and look set to bring us some excellent entertainment during the season – watch to the end for their celebrations when Stevie Williams takes the win (warning: strong language throughout).

And finally, Australian pro rider and musician Cyrus Monk put to music the way many cycling fans around the world are feeling, following the demise of GCN. This is a really clever video, watch it all the way through, be warned though, it might get a little dusty where you are…

REALLY REMARKABLE ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

(So, I like alliteration).

As previously mentioned, road racing is well and truly BACK and there have been plenty of interesting takeaways from the first couple of weeks of action. Here’s the lowdown on all of the results, with some extended notes on the Tour Down Under.

FOCUS ON: Santos Tour Down Under (16-21 Jan)

The first World Tour race of the year took place in Adelaide, with six stages of racing, and a strong field of riders ready to take it on. Prior to the start of the race, the focus was on the home side Team Jayco Alula, their newly crowned national champion Luke Plapp, returning sprinter Caleb Ewan, and GC leader Simon Yates. Plapp stated their intention to win ALL the stages. It was an ambition that proved to be trickier in practice.

The first stage was a flat one, and with a few sprinters ready to test their legs it was a close contest, with BORA hansgrohe’s new signing Sam Welsford taking the win. It was to be a dream week for the Aussie fast man, as with a well-drilled lead-out in place all he had to do was finish the job, and he did so twice more, on stages 3 and 4, proving beyond doubt he was the fastest man at the race.

Stage 2 looked set to be a sprint too, that was until UAE Team Emirates newest young super-talent dropped the hammer with around a kilometre remaining. Isaac Del Toro put in a huge injection of pace and stormed to his first World Tour win - and given this early showing, there’s undoubtedly plenty more where that came from.

Stage 5 featured repeated ascents of the iconic climb of Old Willunga Hill, and while the first saw nothing in the way of attacks, it all kicked off the second time up. With Del Toro defending the leader’s jersey, an elite group broke away from the bunch, including the likes of Simon Yates (Jayco-Alula) and Julian Alaphillippe (Soudal-QuickStep). While Jhonatan Narvaez of INEOS looked like the favourite heading to the line, Team DSM firmenich-Post NL’s Oscar Onley was able to ride strongly to the finish and take his first individual World Tour victory – well deserved and proof that the young Scot’s star is ascending – watch out for him in 2024. Another Brit, Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), crossed the line in second place to take the leader’s jersey.

The final stage saw the peloton tackle the brilliantly named Mount Lofty, the biggest climbing challenge thus far, and though a strong breakaway made things difficult for the bunch, the final time up the climb drew out a group of favourites ready to contest the final stage and the GC. An attack instigated by former race leader Del Toro brought Williams, Narvaez, and Groupama-FDJ’s Laurence Pithie who may have been the biggest surprise of them all, attacking on the climb to prove there was more to his racing arsenal than simply a fast finish. Ultimately, Williams, Narvaez and Del Toro fought it out for the win, with Williams holding strong to take both the stage and the overall GC victory.

OTHER ROAD RACES

With an early shout for the title of ‘longest name on the road cycling calendar’ Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969 - GP Valencia (20 Jan) saw a mixed bag of riders, such is the nature of early season racing. With an A-list side fielded by Team Jayco-Alula, it wasn’t surprising to see them take the honours, with Dylan Groenewegen crossing the line first, staking an early claim on the ‘best sprinter’ label within the team. The next day basically the same set of riders took on the Ruta de la Cerámica (21 Jan). Jayco were victorious once again, this time Michael Matthews taking the win. The team had a lot more luck in their away fixtures than the home ones this week.

The Challenge Mallorca began on Saturday 20^th – a series of one-day races on the island, featuring varied terrain offering chances to different rider types. The women’s series began first, and first blood – AND second blood – went to EF Education-Cannondale, with Noemi Rüegg winning the Trofeo Felanitx-Colònia de Sant Jordi (20 Jan) and Magdalena Vallieres Mill soloing to victory on the Trofeo Palma Femina (21 Jan), ahead of an elite chase pair of Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Mavi Garcia. The final race of the women’s trio, the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx (22 Jan), was won in a sprint by Eleonora Gasparrini of UAE Team ADQ; Rüegg was second, just one place away from making it a hat-trick for EF.

The men’s series got underway with the Trofeo Calvia (24 Jan), and the men’s EF side picked up right where their women had left off, with Simon Carr victorious. Carr was part of the day’s early break and was able to neutralise a late attack from Aleksandr Vlasov (BORA Hansgrohe) to take the win. The third of the leading trio, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) suffered from cramp late in the race so was unable to contest the final. Day 2 was a sprinty one, the Trofeo Ses Salines-Felanitx (25 Jan), and though there were some strong and experienced fast men in the bunch, the two young guns from Soudal-QuickStep, Paul Magnier and Luke Lamperti, stormed ahead to prove their Trinity Racing pedigree would stand them in good stead in the World Tour. Magnier took the win, Lamperti in third, and they will be ones to watch this season.

The Trofeo Serra Tramuntana (26 Jan) was almost a carbon copy of the Trofeo Calvia, at least in terms of personnel. This time though, Lotto-DSTNY’s Lennert van Eetvelt replaced Simon Carr in the final trio, and once again, McNulty and Vlasov were undone by the third wheel, Van Eetvelt once again displaying strong early season form to pick up the win. At the Trofeo Andratx (27 Jan) a lumpy course brought the same set of riders to the fore, and once again Aleksandr Vlasov managed to finish on the podium but not win, the honours going to Movistar’s Pelayo Sanchez. The final day went down to a chaotic bunch sprint, with Intermarché-Wanty’s Gerben Thijssen the victor.

Back in Australia, Biniam Girmay got his season off to a good start with a win at the Surf Cycle Classic (25 Jan), while Groupama-FDJ scored the first of two wins in one day when Laurence Pithie made good on the promise he’d showed all week at the Tour Down Under by powering to victory at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (28 Jan).

Later that day, Kevin Geniets beat Alex Baudin (Decathlon-AG2R) to take the French side’s second win of the day at the GP Marseillaise (28 Jan), the first race in the Coupe de France. It was an emotional victory for the Luxembourger, a loyal domestique for FDJ and a former national champion, this was his first pro win.

For the women, there were just two more race days. The first was the WWT level Deakin University Road Race (Cadel Road Race) (27 Jan), and it produced some brilliant entertainment, with plenty of attacking and in the end, a breakaway of three that included Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ SUEZ), Dominika Wlodarczyk (UAE Team ADQ) and Rosita Reijnhout (Visma Lease-A-Bike), with Sarah Gigante in hot pursuit. The experienced Danish rider had proven her form at the Tour Down Under but she couldn’t hold the wheel of the two younger riders, and when Reijnhout went clear with just under 5km to go, it was to prove a decisive attack. The 19-year-old took a stunning victory, the first in her career, and a promising future lays ahead of her.

And finally, Movistar’s Olivia Baril won the Women Cycling Pro Costa De Almería (28 Jan) one-day race.

CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH

We’re gearing up for the World Championships in Tabor this weekend, and since I last wrote to you, we’ve had some absolute barnstormers.

Marion Norbert Riberolle and Michael Vantourenhout won the Exact Cross in Zonnebeke (20 Jan) but it’s fair to say that neither field was particularly stacked as the vast majority of the ‘crossers were down in Spain for the UCI World Cup in Benidorm the following day.

FOCUS ON: Benidorm World Cup (21 Jan)

The second year of the race following a humdinger of an inaugural year was equally brilliant, with the elite women giving us the race of the season.

It was a story of three riders, and while Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse resumed the head-to-head battle mode that thrilled and delighted fans throughout last season but that has only been in evidence a couple of times this season, they were not alone. World Cup overall leader Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado was a woman on a mission, and although she didn’t make it away with her younger compatriots at first, she managed to make contact to form a trio and from then on suffered a series of mishaps that saw her having to fight her way back to them several times, a task which she took on with a single-minded resilience that was truly breath-taking to witness. She lost out in the end, the repeated efforts proving too much, coming third while Van Empel took the win over Pieterse following a clever bit of physical riding heading into the final section of the race and holding off her rival across the line.

In the men’s race, while the ‘big three’ were united for one final time this season, given the evidence we had available to us there was every indication that this would be yet another walkover for Mathieu van der Poel. So when the Dutchman – resplendent in the all-white kit we’ve come to associate with him ‘meaning business’ – dropped his chain on the first lap, CX fans collectively sat forward. A twist in the tale, and immediately he was on the move, picking his way through the field to try and eradicate the disadvantage. Check out this clip which has to be seen to be believed, as he makes several elite athletes look absolutely average with an insane explosion of pace.

Wout van Aert took the race by the horns after that and exerted his authority, looking a fair bit more spritely than he has over the winter as he shook off the cobwebs ahead of the spring. Alongside him, Tom Pidcock gave it a good go, and Michael Vantourenhout too was in good form, all the more surprising given he’d raced (and won) in Belgium just the day before.

Van Aert was able to distance them in the end though, despite falling over whilst remounting his bike on the final turn over the bunny hops, and he scored his third victory of the season, though more significantly, his first with MVDP in the race.

THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND…

The X2O Badkamers Trofee visited Hamme (27 Jan), and it will surprise precisely no-one that Fem van Empel and Mathieu van der Poel were the respective winners. They both also won the following day at the UCI World Cup in Hoogerheide (28 Jan), but the races were far closer and both the women’s and men’s races featured exciting battles that kept us hoping that there might be a break in the monopoly once again.

Lucinda Brand stuck with Van Empel and made sure her compatriot was not able to rest on her laurels. Later in the race, after a strong showing from a number of the younger riders, Hungary’s Blanka Vas showed her best form of the season to join Brand and Van Empel and even launch an attack of her own. She may be one to watch in Tabor next weekend.

The men’s race featured a lead group of five riders, with the chasers never far behind. A close contest ensued featuring three Baloise Trek Lions all taking turns to push the pace, and Van der Poel leaving his attack to the penultimate lap. When he did inject the watts, Thibau Nys was the only rider able to match him, and though he couldn’t hold on all the way to the line, and crashed on the final lap leaving him in an undeserved fourth position, it was really great to see the young Belgian in the fine form that he had enjoyed earlier in the season.

In the end, though, the two reigning World Champs replayed the victories they achieved in last year’s Worlds, to set themselves up once again as favourites for the rainbow bands.

FINAL THOUGHT – SD Worx’ 2024 Conundrum

In an interview with Sporza late last week, Lotte Kopecky revealed her ambition to take on Liège–Bastogne–Liège this year. She said: '"Impossible doesn't exist. Liège should be within my reach. In the past such races were too hard for me, but that has changed.” 

Twice winner of the same race, quite how this will be received by her teammate Demi Vollering, the current queen of the Ardennes classics, is unknown. We can only assume that Team SD Worx have planned their season with the rapidly improving skillset of their Belgian superstar and World Champion in mind. Kopecky proved in 2023 not only could she work a one-day classic and sprint, but also time trial extremely well and even master a stringent mountain test – her performance on the Tourmalet as she bid farewell to the Tour de France Femmes leader’s jersey was for me, one of the standout performances of the season.

So where does this leave the Dutch super-team, who hoarded their considerable resources to the detriment of all other teams in 2023, scoring swathes of victories across all types of races. They weren’t without controversy though, with Strade Bianche resulting in a two-up sprint between Vollering and Kopecky, an outcome which was later glossed over by the team, but which saw two ultra competitive women effectively racing one another – as they absolutely should – yet from the somewhat awkward position of also being teammates.

When it later emerged that Kopecky and Vollering would co-lead in no less than three one-day classics in 2024 – Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, and Liège–Bastogne–Liège – it inevitably prompted the same questions: can the two best riders in the world happily co-exist on the same team? Should they? For the fans, it promises a season of potential fireworks, as of course, not only will these two riders be battling it out head to head (or perhaps finding a way to work together), but a whole host of other teams who’ve had a season to try to work out ways around Vollering, Kopecky and co, will be chomping at the bit to come together and defeat them.

It may prove contentious or may come to nothing in the end, but either way, the kind of attention it is bringing a team who are already struggling in the public eye due to their dominance and ruthlessness is perhaps not the right kind of attention. Not that they will mind, presumably, if the wins continue to roll in.

In reality, it seems to be an issue that may only exist for one more season. In an earlier interview Kopecky, whose contract at SD Worx expires at the end of the season, was open about her desire to head elsewhere. Vollering too, has indicated that she may move away from SD Worx at the end of her contract. If this transpires and SD Worx lose them both, along with public favour, perhaps the rest of the cycling world will look on and wonder – was it worth it?

THE LAST WORD

It’s been a jam-packed newsletter this week, a huge thank you (and/or congratulations!) to anyone who has made it this far.

I hope you’re enjoying the mix of news, results and my general thoughts on all things cycling, and if you know any other fans of the sport who might enjoy them, please send them this link – I’m nearing a big milestone in terms of subscriber numbers, and would love to pass it by the time the spring Classics kick off.

If you’d like to support my mission to deliver free and unique cycling content, please consider buying me a coffee.

See you next time - for the second and final HUGE edition with CX Worlds, about 5 stage races, and who knows what else besides.

Cheers,
Katy