The beauty of the breakaway

Hello fair readers, and welcome to what I will tell you now, is going to be another BUMPER edition of the newsletter. Strap in and prepare for a marathon, not a sprint.

Hopefully you received the bulletin I sent out last week introducing you to this year’s newsletter title sponsor, Ciclos Major – offering bespoke cycling holidays on the island of Mallorca, they are open for the season and ready to receive your enquiries and bookings. Click through to their website using the above image, and if you’re ready to book, I’m delighted to announce that writebikerepeat.com subscribers can access a 5% discount using the below booking form. Happy holidays!

ON THE WEBSITE

One new piece for you this week - it’s the next instalment of my 2024 Team Previews, this time taking on some of the biggest teams in the men’s peloton. Featuring Ineos Grenadiers, Movistar and Lidl-Trek among others, this piece looks back at their 2023 season and ahead to 2024, considering their prospects and making some predictions. Check it out:

And in case you missed it - here’s the link again to my piece on Mark Cavendish’s lead-out men Michael Morkov and Davide Ballerini, as they talk about how it feels to be part of the Manx Missile’s attempt to win his 35th stage at the Tour de France this summer.

NEWS! THE NEWS IS HERE!

It’s been a pretty quiet fortnight on the news front - maybe because everyone’s been far too busy racing to do anything news-worthy - and quite honestly with the amount of races to report on, I’m very pleased about this.

Suspension news

Sadly, two of the main news stories in the past week have both related to riders being suspended for anomalies in their test samples. Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale’s Franck Bonnamour for ‘anomalies in his biological passport’ and Antwan Tolhoek, formerly of Lidl-Trek, now of Portuguese Continental side Sabgal-Anicolor, for the presence of anabolic steroids in a sample.

There is no further information available at this time on either case.

Pidcock takes Coll de Rates KOM

Tom Pidcock set the fastest time up popular Spanish ascent of Coll de Rates, near Valencia last week. Strava showed him taking the KOM for a short while, before he deleted the data relating to his training ride. The KOM had been broken just a week earlier by UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Ayuso. It hints that the INEOS rider is in strong climbing form ahead of a season in which he will target Tour de France GC.

Tour of Britain hope

British Cycling announced their ambition to ensure that both a men's and a women's Tour of Britain run in 2024. The future of the race was in doubt following the split with race organiser SweetSpot and the company's subsequent liquidation; a report suggests they are hopeful of being able to secure the necessary sponsorship and broadcast partnerships to be able to run the races in their usual calendar spots.

Injury and illness update

Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), and Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ) have all been forced to postpone the start of their season through injury and illness. Read all about it on the website, where you can keep up with the biggest breaking news stories from around the cycling world in between newsletters.

THE LIGHTER SIDE

It’s been all business this past couple of weeks and while I've had my eye out for cheerful content, it’s been a bit thin on the ground to be honest. Cyclists and their dogs are always good content, and I recommend the likes of Thibaut Pinot (obviously), Demi Vollering, Adam Yates, Hugo Hofstetter, Tom Pidcock and David Gaudu, pictured here with the lovely Houna, just some of the riders who regularly post pet content - I’ll try and collate a few more for next time.

RIGHTEOUS ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP (30 Jan-12 Feb)

You’d never know it was only mid-February the amount of stage racing we’ve already had so far, there are HEAPS of results to bring you up to date with, and the balance is heavily in favour of the men in terms of quantity, so let’s begin with the women’s results.

Ceratizit-WNT’s Cédrine Kerbaol won the Vuelta CV Feminas (4 Feb).

The UAE Tour (8-11 Feb) was a chance to see the many of the biggest names in the women’s peloton for the first time in 2024. With three sprint stages to kick things off, it was billed as the first of the Charlotte Kool v Lorena Wiebes match-ups, but Kool sadly fell ill before the race, leaving Wiebes to take the first stage, with a powerful lead-out from her teammate, World Champion Lotte Kopecky.

Stage 2 was a carbon copy, leading us to Stage 3, the Queen stage of the race, that would decide the overall winner. Finishing with an ascent of Jebel Hafeet, Kopecky stuck with an elite selection that broke away early in the climb, instigated by last year’s runner-up and this year’s GC favourite, Gaia Realini of Lidl-Trek. Realini couldn’t hang on however, and when Canyon//SRAM’s Neve Bradbury attacked only Kopecky and Liv-Alula-Jayco’s Mavi Garcia were left – Kopecky kicked on and closed the gap to Bradbury, passing her with around 500m remaining to the line to prove that like her compatriot Wout van Aert, she really can do it all. The season will unfold with ‘GC Lotte’ as a part of it, and it’s a gauntlet thrown down to all other teams that SD Worx now have TWO top GC contenders. Scary.

Here’s a clip of how the final stages of the Jebel Hafeet climb unfolded.

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Stage 4 was a short, flat stage with ‘bunch sprint’ written all over it. When Amber Kraak attacked from the remains of the day’s early break with 7km to the finish line, you’d have pegged the effort as doomed. However, despite the best efforts of the bunch, the FDJ-SUEZ rider maintained her gap all the way to the line, and despite the might of Lorena Wiebes bearing down on her at a terrifying speed, she crossed the line first, taking her first pro win and a spectacular breakaway, and proving that despite appearances, SD Worx-Protime are on occasion, beatable. Having said that, Lotte Kopecky won the overall race, and Lorena Wiebes the green jersey, so they almost took all the honours at the race.

MEN

AlUla Tour (30 Jan-3 Feb)

The race formerly known as the Saudi Tour unfolded across the middle eastern desert across five stages. The first resulted in a bunch sprint which was won by arguably an underdog, Team dsm-firmenich Post NL’s Casper van Uden, ahead of pre-race favourites Dylan Groenewegen and Tim Merlier. Day 2 also ended in a sprint of sorts, though with an uphill drag to the line it was one for the less pure sprinters, and the diesel engine of Uno-X’s Søren Wærenskjold was exactly what was needed for victory. Cue an excellent ‘teammates celebrating’ image –

Stage 3 resulted in another sprint, though it was far from straightforward with the exposed desert roads inviting brisk crosswinds, resulting in the cycling fan’s dream of echelons which persisted throughout the final portion of the stage. They made the final run-in a ragged affair, but the pure sprinters who remained were able to battle for the win, with Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) picking up his first victory of the year. He took his second on stage 4, after a crash took out a number of his main rivals, and he pulled off a very long sprint in which he only just managed to hold off Cofidis’ Bryan Coquard. The final stage of the race would decide the GC, on the fearsome gradients of Mount Harrat Uwayrid. Jayco Alula had suffered during the week with the loss of Dylan Groenewegen to gastroenteritis, but they had cause to celebrate as Simon Yates was able to conquer the leg-breaking climb to take the stage win and wrap up the overall victory in the process.

The Volta Comunitat Valencia (31 Jan-4 Feb) kicked off in Spain and stage 1 went to the breakaway, as the peloton allowed them too much space and couldn’t reel them back in in time. The victor was Alessandro Tonelli of VF Group-Bardiani CSF- Faizanè, and it was a joyous day for the team who also secured second place with Manuele Tarozzi. Despite the breakaway pair taking a wrong turn as they headed for the finish, they still came in 1.09 ahead of the bunch. Stage 2 finished with another masterclass in descending from Bahrain-Victorious’ Matej Mohorič, who continued to show strong early season form to take the win. Stage 3 was one for the fast men, and Jonathan Milan was able to take the first win in his new colours of Lidl-Trek.

The Queen stage took the riders up the gruelling slopes of the Alto de Miserat, and following the tragic death of an amateur cyclist earlier in the day, the summit of the climb became the new finish line, as the stage was shortened by 15km. Brandon McNulty attacked first drawing Aleksandr Vlasov and Santiago Buitrago with him, but neither of them could hang onto his wheel as he attacked on the flatter section part way up the climb and gapped his two closest rivals to take the stage win, and the GC lead.

HIGHLIGHT: If you watch one race, make it this one…

The final stage of the race was a short, sharp 93km jaunt into the city of Valencia, punctuated by a category 1 climb. When Movistar’s Will Barta attacked from the remainder of the day’s early break, there were very few people thinking he’d maintain that lead all the way to the finish. He attacked on the final climb of the day with 50km remaining, all by himself. With the GC teams looking at the each other, and the sprint teams working their way back to the main bunch in the hopes of contesting a fast finish, Barta slogged away alone, all the way into the streets of Valencia, where he was almost closed down by the peloton. But his dogged determination combined with the expert disruption tactics of his teammate Oier Lazkano prevented the bunch from catching him and he was able to solo to his first pro victory, and EVERYBODY liked that.

The first French stage race of the year, Étoile de Bessèges (1-4 Feb), is always good fun with a variety of stages and usually a pretty strong line-up. Stage 1 was cancelled due to the French farmers protests, meaning that it was all to play for on stage 2. With Lidl-Trek controlling for a lot of the day for Mads Pedersen, it wasn’t a surprise to see the Dane at the front as the peloton attacked up the final steep drag to the line, but leading the charge was Alpecin-Deceuninck’s U23 World Champion Axel Laurance, who was able to maintain his power all the way the line to hold off Pedersen and the rest. Pedersen made up for it on stage 3, a flatter sprint giving him the chance to prove his dominance.

I sadly missed stage 4 what with the difficulties trying to find a feed and ALL the other racing going on, but it was won by Samuel Leroux of the Van Rysel-Roubaix team from the breakaway so I imagine it was a lot of fun to watch. The final stage was a time trial and it came down to the wire, with young GC talent Kevin Vauquelin of Arkea-B&B Hotels winning the stage, but Mads Pedersen doing just enough to hang onto the overall win – just 2 seconds stood between the Lidl-Trek man and Vauquelin in the end, leaving the Frenchman heartbroken.

OTHER STAGE RACES

Last week was also a busy one with races all over the world, most of them not televised, so let’s whip through the results quickly. The Tour of Colombia (6-11 Feb), saw Mark Cavendish get his season off to a start with a third place on stage 1’s bunch sprint finish behind winner Fernando Gaviria (Movistar). Stage 2 did see a win for Astana, though it was through Harold Tejada, a first pro win for the Colombian. Stage 3 went to Colombian road race champion Alejandro Osorio and stage 4 was another sprint which saw Mark Cavendish take his first win of the season, and stage 5 was a stage for the climbers, with Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) shining to take the win. The final stage went to Jhonatan Restrepo of the Colombia National team, and Rodrigo Contreras (Nu Colombia) proved most consistent across the week so was able to claim the GC title.

The Tour de la Provence (8-11 Feb) kicked off with a short Prologue, where unsurprisingly race favourite Mads Pedersen set the fastest time, just four days after he won in Besseges. Pedersen won again on stage 2 and 3, with both stages finishing in bunch sprints, and with the final stage also coming down to a sprint it was a surprise winner, Tom van Asbroeck of Israel-Premier Tech, who closed out the race with victory. Unsurprisingly, Pedersen took the overall victory, and proved that he is currently in devastating form.

The Tour of Antalya (8-11 Feb): stage 1 – Timothy Dupont (Tartoletto-Isorex); stage 2 – Matevs Govekar (Bahrain Victorious); stage 3 – Davide Piganzoli (Team Polti Kometa); stage 4 – Hartthijs de Vries (TDT-Unibet). Overall – Davide Piganzoli.

Caleb Ewan (Team Jayco-Alula) broke his duck, taking the win the stage 1 bunch sprint at the Tour of Oman (10-14 Feb). Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) continued his strong run with victory on stage 2, and Paul Magnier won again for Soudal-QuickStep on stage 3 – Luke Lamperti scored second place finishes in both stages 2 and 3 proving that he is knocking on the door of victory. The final stage was won by Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Amaury Capiot.

ONE-DAY RACES

Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) won the Muscat Classic (9 Feb). The Kiwi rider rode solo to the finish following an attack on the final climb, 2km from the finish.

Remco Evenepoel did Remco Evenepoel things at the Figueira Champions Classic (10 Feb), soloing to victory from a long way out, and Ben O’Connor got Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale off the mark with their first victory of the season after a long-range solo effort at the Vuelta a Murcia (10 Feb), while on Sunday the Clasica de Almeria (11 Feb) saw a meeting of sprint heavyweights go head-to-head, with Olav Kooij taking his, and Visma-Lease A Bike’s, first win of the season after a monster lead-out effort from Wout van Aert.

Earlier today, the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior (12 Feb) was won by Movistar’s Spanish national champion, Oier Lazkano. He was part of the day’s early break and powered on solo ahead of a chasing group that included Sepp Kuss and Tim Wellens, to record Movistar’s second breakaway win of the season, in a shortened version of the ‘Spanish Strade Bianche.’

CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH

The penultimate Cyclocross Dispatch of the season, we’ll begin in Czechia, with a look back at all the action from the World Championship weekend in Tabor.

UCI World Championships (2-4 February)

FRIDAY

The mixed team relay was a great way to start the weekend, with six riders per team across age categories, all heading out in different orders, and resulting in a delightfully chaotic maelstrom of entirely unpredictable action. It was genuinely the best race of the weekend (spoiler alert) with Great Britain clawing their way back to France who made a strong start, and resulting in a sprint finish between Cameron Mason and France’s Aubin Sparfel. The junior took the win in the end in dramatic fashion – made all the more impressive by France’s decision not to include any elite male riders in their squad. Watch the final below -

SATURDAY

The women’s junior race was a straight fight between three riders – GB’s Cat Ferguson, France’s Célia Gery and Slovakia’s Viktoria Chaldonova. There was barely anything to separate them, but Gery took advantage of a small error from Ferguson heading into the finish, and made it a perfect start for France.

The men’s U23 race resulted in a comfortable victory for the Netherlands – the first of many that weekend – with Tibor del Grosso taking the stripes ahead of the Belgian duo of Emiel Verstrynge and Jente Michels.

The women’s elite race was the final race on day one and it went the way we all expected it to – with Fem van Empel taking a commanding lead, and hanging on to it throughout the race. Lucinda Brand held firm in second, 1.20 behind van Empel at the finish, and Puck Pieterse completed the all-Dutch podium.

SUNDAY

Arguably the most exciting individual race of the weekend, the men’s junior race was fraught with incidents, with both the front runners, Italy’s Stefano Viezzi and France’s Aubin Sparfel suffering issues in the final laps. Sparfel’s was far more serious however, causing him to be passed in the final lap by Keije Solen (Netherlands) and Krystof Bazant (Czechia), the pre-race favourite Sparfel finishing in a heart-breaking 4^th position, with Viezzi taking the win for Italy.

The women’s U23 race had a number of strong riders who have been performing well at elite level all season. It was Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt however, last year’s silver medallist in the event, who carved out a commanding lead. The race for second place was hard-fought between home talent Kristyna Zemanova and Dutch rider Leonie Bentveld, but Zemanova was able to dig deep in the late stages of the race to take silver.

The men’s elite race concluded the weekend, and where in recent weeks Mathieu van der Poel has held back from his race winning move until the latter stages, the Dutch reigning champion would take no such chances at the World Championships. He launched early and decisively, and the fight was on after that for the remaining places. Joris Nieuwenhuis was able to back up his strong season with silver, and Michael Vantourenhout spoiled the Dutch party by securing third place, despite a spirited effort from a visibly upset Pim Ronhaar in fourth.

The race was also significant in that it was the final race for Czech legend Zdeněk Štybar, who bid an emotional farewell on home soil following an incredible career in which he became World Champion on three occasions as an elite rider.

AND SOME OTHER THINGS HAPPENED…

A quick round-up of the results since Worlds – the post-Worlds Exact Cross in Maldegem (7 Feb) was won by Laura Verdonschot for the women, and Eli Iserbyt for the men, though Pim Ronhaar was on fire until a crash on the final lap took him out of contention.

Eli Iserbyt and Lucinda Brand won the Superprestige in Middelkerke (10 Feb), and the X2O Trofee in Lille (11 Feb) Fem van Empel concluded her season with a win, while in the men’s race Niels Vandeputte took his first win, proving the strongest among a deep field to take a well-earned victory.

FINAL THOUGHT

I’m keeping this section brief today as the schedule has been so ridiculously packed. I’m writing an article for Rouleur this week on the importance of redemption in sports, and specifically in cycling – link to come next time. It is one of the many ‘narrative’ elements of the sport that draw me in and keep me coming back for more, becoming more deeply involved in the sport each season. It’s not a superficial sport, cycling. It’s a sport with real depth and a rich tapestry of individual stories playing out alongside the broader narrative of a team, a race, a season, all unfolding simultaneously, and offering a multitude of opportunities for connection, fascination and enjoyment.

One of my favourite things to see is when riders cross the line, not in first place, but somewhere back in the pack, and yet raising their arms, celebrating the success of their teammate. Like the example above, featuring the Uno-X boys. On a romantic level, it speaks to the selflessness of the sport, the willingness of a group of riders to put their bodies on the line in service of teammates. In a more pragmatic sense, it tells of a job well done – a mission, accomplished.

For me though, perhaps even more than the notion of teammates celebrating, is the camaraderie of ‘teammates for a day’; the unique narrative of the breakaway. So many times, these forays into the unknown prove fruitless, yet when they do, it’s magic. The tacit agreement to work together knowing it will more than likely be a futile endeavour brings together the most unlikely of comrades in arms. And it’s beautiful. Which is why I love moments like these, at yesterdays’ Clasica de Almeria. The acknowledgement and respect between ‘teammates for a day’ is part of what makes this sport so damn beguiling. Long may it continue.

THE LAST WORD

Thanks as always for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this newsletter as much as I’ve enjoyed collating it – it’s been a mammoth effort this week!

If you’d like to support my mission to deliver free and unique cycling content, please consider buying me a coffee. And if you know someone else who might enjoy these newsletters, please encourage them to sign up.

See you next time.

Cheers,
Katy