Everything everywhere all at once

Hello out there cycling pals, and welcome back to the newsletter for what promises to be another over-ambitious collection of news, results and other assorted thoughts on two wheels. Yes, once again I will attempt to do more than any sane person should try to accomplish in one single email, and summarise about a month’s worth of road racing that was quite inconveniently packed into a two-week window of time, along with the cyclocross world championships, which already feel as if they happened about three months ago, and there’s probably some news and things to cover as well.

I’d better get on with it then, hadn’t I?

Disclaimer: this one got long, sorry in advance for any errors, it’s because I cannot see anymore as I’ve been staring at a screen for two days straight!

ON THE WEBSITE

One main piece from me this week - through the medium of an extended food metaphor, I round up some of the key talking points from the past couple of weeks of racing. Who’s cooking, who’s gone cold, and who needs to be fed more (but not after midnight)? It’s fun, and hopefully also thought-provoking - do check it out!

Outside of this piece, the website has served solely as a team preview machine for the past couple of weeks, with Remi Massart concluding his series – here are the teams we’ve covered since I last emailed, concluding with the giants of the men’s peloton, Visma-Lease A Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG (has anyone ever thought it was a bit weird that they’re the two last teams, alphabetically?) (OK, just me then).

Red Bull BORA hansgrohe; Soudal-QuickStep; Team Jayco AlUla; Team Picnic PostNL

ON THE POD

The podcast had a full month’s worth of racing to catch up on, so if you’d like to consume this newsletter in an audio format it’s about as close as you’re going to get short of using a screen reader, and Sanny’s there too which is fun, fresh from standing in a car park at Manchester United on transfer deadline day. About as thankless a task as ???

We cover all the headlines, and discuss race safety, I wax lyrical about the romance and unpredictability of French cycling, some key Arabic phrases, and why my morning trying to keep up with the final stage of the Tour of Oman serves as a representation of the obsessed sports fan in miniature, complete with dogs, police and hopefully no actual murders.

NEWS! NEWS! HERE IS SOME NEWS!

Top story: Paris-Roubaix –The chicane is so 2024! Four corners are where it’s at in 2025!

Yes, with the Hell of the North just a couple of months away, there have been a number of cobble-shaped news stories over the past week. The race organisers ASO announced this year’s team list and a slightly altered parcours, which sees the addition of two more short cobbled sectors for the men. And following the removal of the controversial new entry to the Trouee d’Arenberg that met with mixed reviews from the riders last season, this year the riders will enter the infamous forest via a detour along a cobbled miner’s track that should significantly slow their progress. The women’s route remains unchanged.

Speaking of Paris-Roubaix, Tadej Pogačar put the frighteners on all his rivals this week by posting a video of himself riding on the legendary cobbles, though the race doesn’t feature on his programme – the Slovenian clearly just likes living rent-free inside the heads of the rest of the peloton. It was later confirmed he was on a recon ride with teammate Tim Wellens, who IS riding the race, before heading on to Flanders, and he definitely isn’t riding it, honest…

Top Story: Fastest women’s stage ever

The women’s UAE Tour may be lacking in drama when it comes to uphill GC battles, but what it lacks in hills it makes up for in speed, with the fastest recorded speed for a women’s race clocked at 48.4km/h on stage 2, as Lorena Wiebes proved once again she was the fastest woman in the world, taking that stage, and 3 others.

Top story: Race safety drama in France

I won’t go into detail here as you can read an excellent, in-depth summary of the situation here, and I’ll discuss it a bit more in the results round-up, but to summarise - a shambolic situation arose in France during the Étoile de Bessèges stage race last week. The race runs rolling road closures but was unable to keep the course clear of moving vehicles, leading to a situation in which a car had to hurriedly reverse off the course, resulting in a ripple effect through the peloton that saw Maxim van Gils crash and be sent to hospital to be checked over (he was thankfully OK, but had the leave the race).

The peloton had apparently unaminously agreed to withdraw from the race should the situation occur again, but when the next day traffic once again appeared on course, they were far from united, with some teams pulling out and others choosing to continue. The article above goes into much more detail, and there’s plenty more info and colour around the situation at the excellent Substacks of both Daniel Benson and Ned Boulting, and we also discuss the safety issue in depth on the podcast, so I encourage you to check out one or all of those to learn more.

BITESIZE CHUNKS OF NEWS - YUM!

• Return of the King! Egan Bernal made another significant step forward in his return to the form that saw him win the GC at the 2019 Tour de France, by taking two national titles at home in Colombia. The INEOS Grenadiers rider won the ITT then the road race, and looks in good shape ahead of his 2025 goals.

• Former road world champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak confirmed on her Instagram this week that she was pregnant with her second child, and as a result, would be calling time on her racing career. The Dutchwoman has been instrumental for her team SD Worx over the years, taking several big victories.

• It’s just been announced that Netflix do not plan to renew their Tour de France series Unchained, which will be axed after three seasons. It’s another blow for cycling broadcasting, as the notoriously fickle streaming service drops another show, and the series which has brought a host of new fans to the sport over the past couple of years will be a big miss.

OH HAPPY DAY!

Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…

Thibaut Pinot’s instagram has this week been a continued source of joy. It’s baby animal season on his farm, and there have been baby goat pics aplenty, but the absolute best picture was this one of Pinot cuddling the biggest, fluffiest baby you’ve ever seen.

Another animal encounter as a cute doggo comes to visit Lidl-Trek after their stage-winning team time trial in Valenciana.

And finally, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to wish you all a very…

ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

Here we go. Strap yourselves in folks as this is going to be a fast and furious rollercoaster re-visit of the past two weeks of action on the roads of three separate continents.

Hope you’ve packed your sun screen, as we start out in Australia, where a couple of one-day races concluded the Antipodean portion of the early season. The Cadel Evans Road Race (1 Feb) ended with a solo victory for home team Jayco AlUla’s Mauro Schmid, who had been knocking at the door throughout the Tour Down Under, and finally raised his arms in Geelong. The women’s race was won by Ally Wollaston – the FDJ SUEZ rider recording her second victory in as many race days, and looking set to challenge at the front of the bunch in 2025.

On the same day back in Mallorca, after horrible weather plagued the previous day’s racing the Trofeo Pollença-Port d'Andratx (1 Feb) was cancelled. The peloton unaninmously agreed to stop racing due to a particularly dangerous descent. The following day the Trofeo Palma (2 Feb) did go ahead, and though it was expected to end in a bunch sprint, it was won from a very late attack – a so-called coup de kilometre by Caja Rural’s track specialist Iuri Leitao.

Meanwhile in France, the always-entertaining GP de la Marseillaise (2 Feb) gave us a thrilling finale full of unpredictability and plenty of attacking. The attacking was instigated by the young Frenchman Paul Seixas, riding his first race for Decathlon-AG2R, and he drew out a small lead group which initially included Josh Tarling of INEOS Grenadiers with his new teammate, Axel Laurance. They were joined by Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Kévin Vauquelin and Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Timo Kielich and as the course undulated the group looked as though they would contest the victory. Tarling was eventually dropped under the pressure of the three French and one Belgian but the peloton were not to be underestimated. They closed down the leaders and though Vauquelin launched as the peloton bore down it was too little too late, and a sprint was the eventual outcome, with Cofidis’ Valentin Ferron the surprise winner, and Paul Seixas amazingly finishing fifth. 

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (5-9 Feb) saw one of only three high-level team time trials on the calendar open the race on stage 1. Team Lidl-Trek took an early lead and it turned out that their time would set the high benchmark which would not be bettered.

The rest of the week saw plenty of climbing and the GC battle was on like donkey kong, beginning on stage 2, which featured a summit finish, and Lidl-Trek led the race, the yellow jersey on the shoulders of Mathias Vacek.

Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) led the race heading over the penultimate climb, with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) in pursuit, and they were joined by Movistar’s young star Ivan Romeo, the trio forging clear heading into the 4.2km Port de Pertegat climb, though it quickly became a duo as Foss was dropped.

In the chasing group, UAE Team Emirates tried to find a way to be involved in the race, while Vacek dug deep, putting in a strong ride in defence of his yellow jersey.

With 1.5km remaining, Joao Almeida struck out, with Santiago Buitrago and Movistar’s new signing Jefferson Cepeda on his wheel, while at the head of the race, Bilbao moved into the solo lead. The final climb was stunning to look at, but painful for the riders to take on, and with Almeida unable to close the gap, Buitrago was able to close the gap to his teammate, putting Bahrain Victorious in a unique position. He caught and passed Bilbao to take the stage and the race lead in the process.

Stage 3 saw another category 1 climb define the race, though it wasn’t at the finish – with the summit of the climb approaching, Buitrago struck out to follow Almeida, taking the initiative and attacking himself – however it backfired as Almeida pipped him to the KOM point, snatching the three bonus seconds and taking the virtual lead in the race. The pair rode together down the descent as Ben O’Connor followed, in his first race for Team Jayco AlUla.

With the main climb of the day out of the way, Ivan Romeo attacked on a flat section around 15km from the finish line, as the key players from INEOS, UAE and Bahrain chased in a reduced peloton. Romeo built his gap to around 30 seconds as he descended to certain victory. The young Spaniard sealed the deal, taking his first pro victory and proving that Movistar are ones to watch in future. Buitrago snatched back a couple of bonus seconds, winning from the bunch, but Almeida took control of the overall lead.

It was Movistar’s Pablo Castrillo who took over the lead, virtually at least, on stage 4, as he went away in the day’s break. With all the categorised climbing concluded two-thirds of the way through the profile, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) was still a part of the peloton, proving that for a big man, he can climb – and putting himself in pole position for the stage win, should they be able to reel the breakaway back in.

Castrillo gave it his best but was eventually closed down by a peloton led by the GC teams with just over 9km remaining. Despite the high pace, Milan was able to hang on in what was a truly impressive ride. Meanwhile, Movistar were on the attack once again with Jefferson Cepeda, Heading uphill to the finish, it was not Milan but Jakob Soderquist who attacked, but with Joao Almeida absent from the front group, Buitrago chased and passed the Swede and rode solo to the line, taking the stage win and the overall lead.

The final stage saw the patience of Jonathan Milan and the hard work of his team pay off, as he took the only bunch sprint of the race to conclude an exciting week of racing.

Meanwhile in France, as mentioned in the news section there was drama at Étoile de Bessèges (5-9 Feb), though the race began with a good honest sprint, or rather a leg-snapping uphill last-man-standing battle for victory such is characteristic of the race, which ended in a big win for Soudal-QuickStep’s Paul Magnier. Favourite for the day and defending champion Mads Pedersen was absent from the action suffering from stomach trouble, which forced him to retire prior to stage 3.

Stage 2 was another gritty sprint which Uno-X Mobility’s Søren Wærenskjold made his own, with Arnaud Démare, on the hunt for 100 career victories, just missing out in second place. It was second again for Démare the following day as the shambolic outcome of stage 3 was a battle of the Arnauds, as one of only two riders remaining for Lotto, Arnaud de Lie stormed to victory - bet he’s glad he did stay.

The GC battle was on after that, with it all to play for, for those teams in danger of relegation at the end of this UCI points cycle, and for the Pro Teams too. But it ended up being advantage Arkéa, as Kévin Vauquelin won stages 4 and 5 and secured the overall victory in the process.

In the middle east, the Tour of Oman unfolded and we talk about it in some depth on the podcast, and also I’m aware that I’ve written more words than is actually healthy this week so I’ll just note the results: - though actually the whole race was pretty exciting.

Olav Kooij kicked off the year in style for Visma-Lease A Bike, winning sprints on stages 1 and 4, while Soudal-QuickStep’s Louis Vervaecke conquered boredom (apparently) by soloing his way to an impressive victory, and the race lead, on stage 2.

The first of two big mountain stages, stage 3 went to David Gaudu after a stunning team effort launched him up to the summit finish ahead of Adam Yates, following a valiant climb. But on the final stage on Green Mountain, Gaudu blew up, leaving Valentin-Paret-Peintre and Yates to battle for the win. The Frenchman triumphed, the first win for his new team Soudal-QuickStep, leaving Yates in pole position on GC, despite not having won a stage.

CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH 1-9 FEBRUARY

It’s the penultimate edition of the Cyclocross Dispatch as we approach the season end… in fact, with just two races left this coming weekend, it’s the last full edition full stop!

CX WORLDS – LIEVEN, 2-4 FEB

It’s two weeks since Worlds, which seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye, so I’m not going to labour over long-winded race descriptions, as of course you can always watch back if you are so inclined.

The junior races were the full gas free-for-alls that they usually are, with crashes and spills defining both races. The women’s junior race came down to a head-to-head, and though French rider Lise Revol led for much of the race, she succumbed to pressure from Barbora Bukovská later on in the race and the title looked set to go to Czechia for the first time in history. But Revol was not to be deterred – she remained level-headed and began to grind her way back to Bukovská, and when the Czech rider slid out on the final lap it gave the French woman a golden opportunity to catch and pass her, and take the honours for the home nation.

There’s an old Japanese saying “Nana korobu, ya oki” which translates as “Fall down seven times, stand up eight,” and it’s as accurate a description of what it took to win the men’s junior race as any race report. Valentin Hofer led the race early, until a hard crash saw him drop back, and Italian Mattia Agostinacchio took control with Great Britain’s Oscar Amey chasing him down. But when the two leaders both slipped on the stairs on the second lap it allowed the French pursuer, Soren Bruyère Joumard, to close the gap. Joumard and Amey collided the following lap to allow the Italian space, with more riders coming into contention, and the Italian himself came down after that, with Benjamin Noval Suarez of Spain taking advantage. And then he fell over. It was total carnage, let’s not put too fine a point on it, and in a kind of ‘last man standing’ finale, Agostinacchio came back to the front of the race following Joumard’s choice to go through the pit lane, and with confidence on his side, the Italian stormed to victory, wheelie-ing over the line with the kind of exuberance we’ve come to expect from our young off-roaders.

In the U23s it was a case of as you were, as Tibor Del Grosso and Zoe Bäckstedt retained their titles for the Netherlands and Great Britain respectively, with little in the way of a challenge. Kay de Bruyckere upset Jente Michels to take second place for the men, while Marie Schreiber was comfortable in second place for the women, ahead of Leonie Bentveld in third.

The elite women’s race was arguably the battle of the weekend, with former world champion Lucinda Brand taking on the reigning champ Fem van Empel. After van Empel led with Puck Pieterse for the first part of the race, with Brand and Blanka Vas chasing behind, the two came to the fore and the lead changed hands a couple of times, until a late mistake from Brand allowed van Empel to pounce and storm clear, to her third consecutive world title. Pieterse took the bronze, to lock out the podium for the dominant Dutch.

The elite men were the last to take to the course, and it was just minutes before the expected outcome began to transpire, as Mathieu van der Poel made a strong start and pulled away as soon as he could. Following the late announcement of his participation, Wout van Aert proved that he was still absolutely one of the best two riders in the field, while Thibau Nys finished the race in third, his first elite level podium at Worlds.

The weekend after the one before…

With the attention of the cycling world at large drifting away, snatched by a glut of early season road races, it’s easy to write off the end of the cyclocross season – everything post-Worlds – as anti-climax. While the biggest stars may depart to set their sights on other targets, there’s still plenty to play for and often, the late-season races are all-out scraps for the last few opportunities of the season to claim a precious win.

So it was this past weekend. Well, first up there was technically a mid-week race, in Maldegem (5 Feb) – the races there were won by Laurens Sweeck and Marie Schreiber, though the headlines were hogged by a physical spat between Jinse Peeters and Manon Bakker.

Final round of the Superprestige, in Middelkerke (8 Feb) began with the news that Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado could not take to the start, finishing her season early due to fatigue and illness. It would deprive the women’s race of some of its spice, given the one-point difference between Alvarado and her compatriot Lucinda Brand in the overall contest. It was a very small field but it didn’t prevent issues early in the race for Brand, crashing with Aniek van Alphen, and it allowed a group of other riders to try and take advantage, on a dry, sandy course that struck quite the contrast with the mudfests of recent weekends.

Teammates Sara Casasola and Inge van der Heijden worked together at the head of the race with Brand fighting to chase them down in third, and van der Heijden took the initiative heading into the final lap and struck out solo with Brand 19 seconds in arrears and closing, and the final lap was a cat-and-mouse chase, with van der Heijden capable of hanging on to take her first elite level victory, showing true grit to stave off the pressure from the former World Champion. Brand sealed the series victory.

In the men’s race, there was plenty of early tussling as the group sorted itself out and a lead group of six established itself around halfway into the race, including series leader Niels Vandeputte. It was Joris Nieuwenhuis who used his power to forge ahead as the finish line drew closer, with the Pauwels pair of Eli Iserbyt and Michael Vantourenhout in pursuit. Nieuwenhius held on, looking strong in victory and proving that he’ll be a force to be reckoned with once again next season, and Niels Vandeputte finished in fourth, securing the Superprestige series win.

On Sunday it was the conclusion of the X2O Trofee in Lille (9 Feb) – Lucinda Brand sealed a superb season with victory in the race and the series, reversing the result from the previous day with Inge van der Heijden in second place, though the best part was the podium ceremony during which the riders all sported Sanne Cant masks – the veteran Belgian retires at the end of this season, and the tributes have poured in for a woman who was world champion three times, and who is greatly respected throughout the cyclocross community. In fact, her team even made a video, which you should definitely take the time to watch:

In the men’s race Toon Aerts, Eli Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck vied for victory, in an error-strewn race in the sand. It was a physical encounter, with lots of pushing and shoving, argy-bargy, and Niels Vandeputte closed down the lead group, followed by Joris NIewenhuis, with Lars van der Haar and Cameron Mason chasing on behind. But in a dry, sandy race there was always going to be one favourite, and so it was the sand specialist Laurens Sweeck who won the day, though it was Eli Iserbyt’s consistency throughout the season that saw the Pauwels-Sauzen rider seal the overall win.

FINAL THOUGHT – Divison of power: the women’s season heats up

If you didn’t manage to catch yesterday’s first stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, it saw a coming together of some of the women’s peloton’s protagonists in an early-season battle that was something of a surprise. To have Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, the two main characters from last year’s Tour de France Femmes, facing off so early was a treat – but nobody expected the immediate impact of former world champion Anna van der Breggen. Vollering’s former mentor at Team SD Worx, van der Breggen had been coy about her form prior to the race, suggesting it would take her time to find her feet in the peloton X years after her retirement, but the pair went on the offensive on the day’s decisive climb, dropped the rest of the peloton – aside from a third member of the SD Worx stable, Marlen Reusser. Like Vollering, Reusser departed the Dutch team and took some time away from the sport after some physical and mental health issues, but she is clearly rejuvenated having joined Movistar – the former team of van der Breggen’s old arch rival, Annemiek van Vleuten.

Vollering was able to drop van der Breggen, yet it was still a statement of intent from the veteran, to strike out in her very first race back and go head-to-head with Vollering, and it promises an absolutely rip-roaring season ahead. Van der Breggen subsequently joined up with Reusser, the reigning champion of the race, to try and minimise their losses.

For Vollering though, it was the first win in her career at FDJ SUEZ - what’s likely to be the first of many.

It was telling that just a few years on from the three of them being at the forefront of SD Worx’ domination, they were now representing three different teams. The balance of power in the women’s peloton has been noticeably spread out this year, with Lotte Kopecky leading the charge for the Dutch alongside van der Breggen; Pauline Ferrand Prévot returning to Visma-Lease A Bike and linking up with Marianne Vos, and Elisa Longo Borghini joining UAE Team ADQ, while her former team Lidl-Trek will rely on another former SD Worx rider, Niamh Fisher-Black, for their GC future, alongside two recruits from Visma – Riejanne Markus and Anna Henderson. Reusser has the freedom to lead at Movistar with Liane Lippert another strong option for the Spaniards. And that’s before we’ve even mentioned Canyon//SRAM, who now boast not only the reigning TDFF champion Niewiadoma, but also fan favourite Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig among their ranks.

Long story short, IT’S COOKING. And we haven’t even begun the Classics yet.

THE LAST WORD

If you’re new to the newsletter, and you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! If you’re one of my loyal long-term subscribers, thanks for staying with me!

Do I enjoy writing these essay-long missives? Yes, sort of, but it is a labour of love - I never quite mean for them to be this long, but my brain itches if I don’t cover everything. If you happen to enjoy them and appreciate my blood, sweat and tears (well, mainly just mild dehydration and sore eyes but whatever) I would love it if you’d buy me a coffee – though I might just spend the money on rehydration supplements instead.

OK - you are dismissed! Meet back in two weeks for more fun, and you’ll never guess what? It’ll be a day to OMLOOP - yes, Classics season is almost upon us!

Until next time,

Cheers,

Katy