It's the final countdown

What’s up, cycling friends and fans! Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2025, as we hurtle headlong into a new year and ever closer to a brand new sparkly cycling season! I hope you’ve all had wonderful festive times, whatever that looks like for you and yours, wherever you are in the world.

Today’s edition of the newsletter will be a little different, mostly because it’s still the holidays here, sort of, so I’m celebrating the lighter side of life, bringing some fun to proceedings, and also patting myself on the head a bit because I’ve already done all the cyclocross race round-ups – so this is just a nice little bundle of presents for you to enjoy, in a slightly more concise format than normal.

This next bit is for my new subscribers – thank you for joining me! The response to my call-out has been phenomenal! I’ll be popping into your inboxes twice monthly throughout the season, usually on a Friday, to bring you the latest news, race reports and thoughts on the pro cycling scene, mainly focused on men’s and women’s road racing, and cyclocross in the winter.

I’m supported by the wonderful Ciclos Major as a sponsor – if you’re interested in a cycling holiday on the gorgeous island of Majorca, look no further than their bespoke tours – click on the link or image above to find out more.

Now without further ado - ONWARD!

ON THE WEBSITE

The main focus on the site over the past couple of weeks has been ‘cross racing - more on that later in the newsletter.

Other than that, one piece for you to catch up on, as Rémi Massart continues his in-depth preview series, looking ahead to the 2025 seasons: this time it’s the turn of Ceratizit-WNT. Keep an eye on the site for plenty more where that came from over the next few weeks, and of course, you can catch up on any that you’ve missed, in the meantime.

NEWS! NEWS! (A LITTLE BIT OF) NEWS!

Thankfully, though it’s been the usual two weeks since I last wrote to you, it’s also mostly been downtime for the cycling world, well, for the road riders at least, and also for the cycling media, who have to wedge their time off in somewhere. So there isn’t much to bring you in the way of news. Here are a few stories that caught my eye, when I could see through the dreamy haze of cheese and biscuits and turkey sandwiches, at least.

TOP STORY: ALBANIAN GRANDE PARTENZA GOES AHEAD!

We may still be a couple of weeks out from the official route presentation, but the Giro d’Italia organisers confirmed last week that the contentious Grande Partenza, originally due to be taking place in Albania, but in doubt for a time due to ongoing political tension, would be going ahead as scheduled.

Information on the first three stages of the race was released on the race’s social media sites. All three are rated three stars out of five in terms of difficulty, which should lead to an interesting opening to the race. Stage 1 features three climbs and looks harder on paper than stage 2, which is undulating with one main central climb. Stage 3 heads gradually uphill for almost the first half of the day, and has a tough climb late on.

TOP STORY: MVDP INJURED, MISSES TWO RACES

After an incredibly dominant winter so far, in which he’s racked up five wins from as many starts, Alpecin-Deceuninck confirmed earlier this week that Mathieu van der Poel would miss the race in Baal due a rib injury.

The team’s social media stated: ‘Mathieu is experiencing significant rib pain, a lingering effect of his crash in Loenhout where he struck a pole.’

Since then, the injury has forced him to miss the legendary sand race in Koksijde too. He hopes to be fit in time to return to the field on Sunday, for the UCI World Cup in Dendermonde, where he would face just his second showdown with Wout van Aert of the season so far.

TOP STORY: Tour Down Under Startlists revealed 

It’s the first road race of the 2025 season, aside from the Aussie national championships, and this week, the organisers of the Santos Tour Down Under have revealed the provisional start lists for the race. The women’s edition of the race takes place from 17-19 January, and sees Neve Bradbury and Chloe Dygert ride for Canyon//SRAM and Elise Chabbey make her debut for FDJ-SUEZ.

The men’s race is the following week from 21-26 January. INEOS Grenadiers take a stacked squad including Geraint Thomas and Magnus Sheffield, UAE Team Emirates XRG will be led by home boy Jay Vine, and Lidl-Trek bring a young team that includes Tim Torn Teutenberg and will see Albert Within Philipsen make his elite debut.

And other stories…

• Belgian king of the Classics Rik van Looy, also known as the Emperor of Herentals, has died at the age of 90 after a long illness.

• Legendary Italian cycling team manager and talent scout Gianni Savio sadly died at the age of 76, following a long illness.

• Tom Pidcock confirms he will not race cyclocross this winter, in order to focus on his road goals in light of his recent team change to Q36.5 Pro Cycling.

• XDS Astana send Gleb Syritsa down to the team’s development squad to open up another slot for 2025

OH HAPPY DAY

Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…

Three fun posts for you this week! First up, how many cyclocrossers does it take to power a tractor?

Soudal-QuickStep set the bar high for new jersey releases last year with Julian Alaphilippe miming along to Celine Dion, and while it was going to be tricky to top that, they’ve done a nice job with Mikel Landa and his accordion.

soudalquickstepteam

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EF Education-EasyPost have rightly celebrated and commiserated the conclusion of Rigoberto Uran’s career with a number of social media posts. Team boss Jonathan Vaughters shared his thoughts recently, and if you’ve ever wondered why the phrase ‘No Rigo No Party’ became a thing, wonder no more…

jvaughters

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CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH DISPATCH 21 December 2024 – 1 January 2025

How good has the Christmas ‘Cross season been? We’ve been treated to some great racing, and as luck would have it (thank you to my former self for being organised) I have already written about most of the races over at the website – check out the race reports and catch up on a festive season’s worth of excitement by clicking on the following posts.

The first piece covers two UCI World Cups in Hulst (21 Dec) and Zonhoven (22 Dec), and the Superprestige in Mol (23 Dec).

Episode 2 features two lots of World Cup action, from Gavere (26 Dec) and Besançon (29 Dec), with the chaotic Exact Cross in Loenhout (27 Dec) forming the meat in the sandwich.

The most recent piece focuses on just one race – but my goodness, it was a belter. With all the action from the races in Diegem (30 Dec), I consider how the absence of the so-called ‘big three’ could actually be an advantage in the future, as we were treated to arguably the most exciting clash of the season (on the men’s side at least).

The races have continued to come thick and fast since then, so keep an eye on the website for the final round-up of the winter racing block next week – but to bring you bang up to date, here are a few notes from the last couple of races.

The Superprestige Baal (1 Jan) also known as the GP Sven Nys traditionally takes place on New Year’s Day – maybe it’s because Sven likes to be the first to check out the new kits? Yes, it was new kit day – and new team name day – for many riders and teams, with Nys’ team being the most noticeable in this regard, becoming the ‘Baloise Glowi Lions’ which is possibly too cute a name for a sport that requires its participants to repeatedly drag themselves through mud while carrying their bikes, but the accompanying kit stood out as one of the best ‘cross kits we’ve seen in a while.

In the women’s race, we witnessed a truly stunning comeback from world champion Fem van Empel, as she recovered from a crash early on the first lap to work her way back through the field and force a head-to-head sprint finish with long-time race leader Lucinda Brand – it was not only a thrilling battle but one of the most stone cold displays of composure you’re ever likely to witness, so why not check out that one in full if you are able to, while you’re waiting for the full write-up!

There were a number of absentees from the men’s race that allowed a trio of young riders to clash at the head of the race – Pim Ronhaar, Emil Verstrynge and Thibau Nys. In the end though, it was the experienced head of Eli Iserbyt whose patience paid off, as he came through to record his first win since 24^th November.

The X2O Badkamers Trofee Koksijde (3 Jan) saw a dominant display in the sand from Puck Pieterse, who notched up her first victory of the season, and the sandman himself Laurens Sweeck, who made it two victories in two appearances.

FINAL THOUGHT – Identity crisis – who’s who in the 2025 peloton?

The trickiest time of year for commentary teams and, to a lesser extent, the cycling media and fans themselves, is undoubtedly the opening few weeks of a new season. New team names to memorise, new kits to recognise, and new faces wearing those kits. Altogether new configurations of people and things and it’s all like one big busy jigsaw to construct.

I’ll give you a prime example: Marta Cavalli, riding for Team Picnic-PostNL, riding a Lapierre bike and wearing a dark blue kit (no it’s not purple). Every single element different to last season, and this is just one of hundreds of riders in two separate pelotons that we must get used to, whether the change is small – a new logo here, an XTG added to a team name there – or significant: an entire rebranding, or a rider who’s been with a team their entire career, taking a step in a different direction (Julian Alaphilippe leaving QuickStep after a decade, anyone?)

It always sparks lively discussion among fans, as some transfers seem to make total sense from the word go, while others take a while to get used to. The notion of team identity and belonging to part of a collective is a broader issue and one which I will explore in a future post on the website, but some teams have that indefinable something; the thing they call ‘ethos,’ and sometimes that translates into an obvious spirit and camaraderie on and off the road that just rolls off a group of riders in waves, so you can almost imagine you feel what it’s like to be a part of that group. Lidl-Trek is a prime example of this – not only are they recognisable and distinctive, despite their recent rebrand, but they always bring a warmth and a sense of togetherness. Imagining a rider new to the fold fitting in there is easy, usually. Anna Henderson, Riejanne Markus and Niamh Fisher-Black are among the new recruits to the women’s team this year (the men’s team underwent a more marked transition the previous season), and every single one of them just looks ‘right’ in their kit already. This team picture shared on social media shows that despite a few fairly significant comings and goings, they are as much of a unit as ever.

Speaking of looking ‘right’, I posted the below on BlueSky yesterday:

What did I mean by looking ‘right’? In the case of Ben O’Connor, it’s not just a guy wearing an excellent kit and looking happy about it - it feels like the perfect fit. An Aussie guy heading to an Aussie team, and completing the jigsaw they are building – the corner piece, if you will. It just makes sense. As for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, it’s a return of sorts – to a team that used to be called Rabobank, and used to house the absolute cream of the crop of a generation of women’s cycling. Thanks to Billy Lezard on BlueSky for sharing this photo, and list of greatness:

PFP fits at Visma-Lease A Bike, though she may take some time to get used to riding a road season again, and she heads up a GC squad at Visma while her fellow legend Marianne Vos takes care of the Classics. It’s a match made in cycling heaven.

There are a few misses for me too. And I get this is a totally personal thing, and others will disagree, or have no feelings either way, depending on their team or rider loyalties (or lack thereof). Lenny Martinez will never look right out of Groupama-FDJ kit to me. Simon Yates wearing the yellow of Visma simply does not compute, I’m afraid. And I will be sore about Elisa Longo Borghini heading to UAE Team ADQ for a fair while.

Plenty more will take a while to get used to, but it’s going to a fun ride. Demi Vollering and Julian Alaphilippe both look cracking in their new kits, as does French champion Juliette Labous and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig. But all four had been with their previous teams a long time, and it will take some time to adjust – luckily, they all look incredibly up for the challenge.

Who looks the most out of place, for you? And who looks as though they have been part of the family forever? Of course, we still await promo shots and new kit images from EF Education EasyPost/Cannondale, as per usual – the pink American team always love to be fashionably late – so I’ll update all of these thoughts in a future post on the site, if the new season hasn’t thrown me into disarray already.

THE LAST WORD

I can’t believe I’m typing these words, but the next time I write to you all, the 2025 road cycling season will officially be underway [insert mindblown emoji here].

Thanks to all of you as always for subscribing, and even more for opening and reading the newsletter, if you have made it this far! If you’d like to support my quest to continue providing unique cycling media into 2025 and beyond, you can buy me a coffee – and huge thanks to all of you who have done so, I am super grateful.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Katy