The End of an Era...

Hello hello, hope you are all safe and well out there in the wide world beyond my laptop screen. Thanks to those of you who've commented or messaged, it's heartening to know you're out there and I'm not just typing into the void.  

It’s been a weird old week in the world of cycling, a kind of crescendo of frenzied activity as the season reaches its zenith, not going gently into the good night but raging until the dying of the er, calendar, and finishing with a roar. This is in no small part down to the convergence of disciplines that functions as a kind of metaphorical baton-passing, as the road season fades to black and the cyclocross and track racing seasons gear up for the winter.

The multi-disciplinary nature of the sport of cycling holds a great deal of fascination for me, and although road racing inevitably comprises the lion’s share of my written musings, the remit of this newsletter is to bring you all the flavours of racing, even if some of them aren’t to your taste – feel free to scroll past if they aren’t of interest or if you're new to other disciplines, dive in and join me – think of them as broccoli when you were 5 years old – if you've never tried it, how do you know you won't like it?

Of course many of you will already be aficionados of many disciplines, which seems a suitable segue into the first segment of this week’s newsletter…

UCI Gravel World Championships

I have given it its official title as it’s key in this case to distinguish between the UCI-sanctioned rainbow bands which were awarded in Veneto this past weekend, and other non-affiliated gravel races, predominantly taking place in the USA.

As the interest in gravel racing has boomed the past few years, the UCI have stepped in to claim their slice of the pie, with the result being the inaugural World Championship event in Veneto, which saw riders from many disciplines crossing boundaries to take part.

There were some negative reactions from members of the gravel racing community, some of which seemed justified – for example the decision to allow UCI-ranked riders to have precedence on the starting grid due to superior UCI points totals – when gravel riders have not previously been able to accrue UCI points, or at least, not enough to put them at the front of the grid, which can be advantageous in gravel racing. There were rumblings over the surfaces (not enough actual gravel) and the fact that some participants opted to compete on road bikes, perhaps proving the gripes over surface may have been justified, too. 

The upshot was two exciting races, but ones in which pure gravel riders were not able to make their presence felt. In the women’s elite race, the battle for victory came down to two mountain bikers, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Sina Frei, and in the men’s, the top ten was almost entirely composed of road racers, or riders who mixed disciplines, not necessarily including gravel (winner Gianni Vermeersch and third placed Mathieu van der Poel both ride road and cyclocross, for example, with the latter also taking part in mountain biking).

The gravel community will hopefully embrace the positives, including increased exposure for the sport and with it, perhaps, a higher level of competition. In turn, the UCI will hopefully listen to the experts in this case and ensure the event reflects the spirit of the discipline. 

REALLY RATHER RESPLENDENT RESULTS ROUND-UP

Let’s begin with the news of those UCI Gravel World Championships.

In the men’s race, Alpecin-Deceuninck proved their multi-disciplinary mettle, taking two of the three podium spots, with Gianni Vermeersch winning from the breakaway and Mathieu van der Poel beating Greg van Avermaet from the chasing group to take third, with Daniel Oss second.

The women’s race was won by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, proving that she is without question the most accomplished all-around bike racer in the world as she nabbed her fourth World Championship title of 2022 to add to three she won for mountain biking. It’s also the fourth discipline in which she has won a rainbow jersey over the course of her career – she has also worn rainbows in cyclocross and road as well as mountain biking (winning three different disciplines in less than 12 months in 2014-15).

Some one day racing news from last week… Iván García Cortina raced to victory at Gran Piemonte, Jasper Philipsen continued his winning streak at Paris-Bourges, and Tim Merlier was the fastest of the bunch at the Memorial van Steenbergen, ahead of Mark Cavendish, riding his final race for QuickStep-AlphaVinyl. It remains to be seen if the Manx Missile will continue his career in 2023, although he’s been strongly linked with the B&B Hotels team who are going up in the world with new investment from Carrefour and a greatly increased budget.

Il Lombardia – in the final Monument of 2022, Tadej Pogacar made it two wins from two at the race of the falling leaves, going head-to-head with a reinvigorated Enric Mas who is in the form of his life. Sadly for Movistar, who are having a great tail end to the season, Mas simply couldn’t match the superior power of the Slovenian on the flat run-in to the finish line.

Tour de Romandie Féminin – the final race of the Women’s World Tour was a three-day stage race in the west of Switzerland. Two hilly stages bookended a significant mountain stage, with Movistar’s Arlenis Sierra taking the first in a reduced bunch sprint, before she switched roles with her team mate Annemiek van Vleuten on stage two. The climb of Thyon 2000 resulted in some incredible racing, and it came down to an epic slog-fest between Van Vleuten and climbing powerhouse Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who was too strong for the World Champion on the day, and took the stage victory and the GC win in her final race for SD Worx. The final stage was a busy sprint that ended in a win for Marta Lach of Ceratizit-WNT.

Paris-Tours – Autumn sunshine, chemin blanc, what could be better? Well, despite the picturesque nature of one of the oldest races on the cycling calendar (pictured above in its more innocent guise of 'just a bike race'), the ‘last chance saloon’ vibe to the race ended in scenes that were anything but pretty, as numerous crashes resulted in absolute carnage on the roads of France. In the end, despite a spirited effort from a high-powered breakaway, a strong team performance from Groupama-FDJ ensured Arnaud Démare took the spoils for the second consecutive year.

And in the final one-day race of the season, Matteo Trentin scored a comfortable victory in the Giro del Veneto.

Fin.

IN MUDDIER NEWS…

The cyclocross season is in full swing on the other side of the Atlantic, with Lars van der Haar and Clara Honsinger winning the Trek Cup in Waterloo on Saturday, before the first UCI World Cup of the season took place at the same venue the following day. First blood went to Eli Iserbyt and Fem van Empel, both of whom have made strong starts to the season, although there were notable second places for both Laurens Sweeck and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado. The latter missed out by the narrowest of margins on the line, and looks to be coming into form at the perfect time.

Also in the News…

Ah, the great rivalries of our sport. Boonen v Cancellara, Van Aert v Van der Poel. Ganna v Time.

In case you didn’t hear, Filippo Ganna took on time itself and in an astounding display of power, totally smashed the hour record on the velodrome at Grenchen, beating his team mate Dan Bigham who had set the previous best in a dry run for the event in August.

Riding a state-of-the-art 3D-printed Pinarello bike, Ganna rode a negative split for the first 20 minutes of the attempt, before cruising into his top gears and getting faster and faster, obliterating the previous record by over a kilometre, and setting a surely unassailable new record of 56.792km. 

Bitesize chunks of news, yum!

- Strongly rumoured last week, the aforementioned giant of off-(and sometimes on) road, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, becomes the first woman to sign for INEOS as the British team look to expand its off-road presence – and what a way to do it.

- Primož Roglič undergoes surgery on his shoulder to try and correct a problem that has seen him suffer several dislocations – it will require him to immobilise the shoulder for two months, hopefully seeing him return in time for the 2023 season. It may spell an end to seeing him pop it back in at roadsides which frankly is in all our best interests. Get well soon Primož!

- The Giro d’Italia announces the baffling news that it will move the final stage of the 2023 race to Rome, requiring a major transfer of over 1000km for all personnel involved – a short-sighted and regressive decision, given the drive for bike racing to reduce its carbon footprint and play its part in addressing the climate crisis.

- In a second piece of bad news for cycling’s connection to the climate, British Cycling announced a new 8-year partnership with Shell. SHELL. Yes, you heard that right. It was met with almost unanimous outrage from the cycling community, and marks yet another PR mis-step from the organisation, who are losing support at roughly the same rate as the UK government.

Final Thought: A Changing of the Guard

2021 was a pretty major year for retiring riders in the men’s peloton: the Martin twins, Tony and Dan*, Andre Greipel, Nico Roche and Tejay van Garderen just some of the big names who stepped away from racing last season. In the year following the infamous ‘covid year’, it made sense that so many great riders wanted to hang on, and to wait for a full season before hanging up their bibshorts rather than bow out in a year where they had barely been able to race. 

By comparison, 2022 sees a relatively low rate of attrition, with the smallest number of retiring riders in a decade (17, compared with last year's 37). However, the combined status and palmares of many of the retirees gives this year a momentous sense of finality – it really feels like the end of an era, a changing of the guard, as so many young talents rise rapidly through the ranks, and some of the big names from the past decade step aside.

Take a look at the names on the list: Tom Dumoulin, Philippe Gilbert, Vincenzo Nibali, Richie Porte, Niki Terpstra, Alejandro Valverde, Mikel Nieve.

These are not the only ones but they are a significant bunch and their absence will undoubtedly be felt next year. Good luck to them all on their well-deserved retirement. The peloton will look very different without them in it.

*I am of course well aware that Tony and Dan are not related. Dan’s twin is, of course, Guillaume.

The Last Word

So, aside from the last few stages of the Tour de Langkawi, road season is officially over. It’s been one to remember.

There’s plenty of action on the track and on the mud to follow over the winter, and of course plenty of news to keep up to date with, so look out for newsletters every other week during off season. How else will you keep up to date with all the new kits, and the ever-changing team sponsors?

There will be posts on my site looking back on the season, including the Alternative End of Season Awards, back by popular demand*, and a special long-form piece looking back at this year’s unforgettable Tour de France. So consider signing up there too, if you want to see those posts as soon as they drop.

I’ll be back with you in a fortnight, until then, I guess we’d all better get on with whatever we all do when there’s no bike racing on, eh? (Someone remind me what that is, again?)

*not really, I just fancied doing them again

Cheers,

Katy

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