Full Throttle into 2023

Good morrow fair bike enthusiasts, I am delighted to say that the 3925 days of January are finally behind us, and although February isn’t all that much better, we have several reasons to rejoice: (1) we are finally in the SAME MONTH as Omloop, which officially heralds the ‘old school’ start of the season and (2) there’s already an absolute SHEDLOAD of racing to report on, and look forward to, before we even make it to a cobble.

It hardly seems as though two weeks have passed since I last sent out a newsletter, yet, in that time, so many races have occurred it feels as if I have about a month’s worth of stuff to talk about – how is that even possible? It’s ONLY 2nd FEBRUARY!

Anyway, grab a beverage, maybe even a snack, there’s a whole heap of juicy bike news-shaped goodness to dive into. Let’s start with the retirement news…

NAIRO RETIRES – OH NO HE DOESN’T

It should come as no surprise to us that a man who dressed as a chameleon for the Colombian version of the Masked Singer would be fond of the pantomime of being rumoured to retire, then running a live press conference on his Instagram to confirm that, in fact, he would not.

In all fairness, the rumour of his retirement was media-generated and never confirmed. The veteran climber, who was disqualified from last year’s Tour de France following the use of tramadol, has confirmed he has not found a team for 2023 but will continue to train in the hope that he can pick up where he left off in 2024. He will be 34.

PETER SAGAN RETIRES – WELL, SORT OF

After Pinot last week, it was the turn of the 3-time World Champion to this week announce that 2023 would be his final season of racing on the road. Or at least, racing World Tour races. He plans to target the 2024 Olympic mountain biking event, and there’s every chance we will see him in other non-WT road races, but it’s fair to say the enigmatic Slovakian hasn’t been himself since repeatedly contracting covid-19. It’s not the last we’ll see of him though.

FDJ BEEF

Or should it be ‘boeuf’. David Gaudu made some rather public comments about his team mate Arnaud Démare, suggesting the two do not get along to the point where Gaudu suggested he could not be in the same team. This leaves an interesting yet perennial dilemma for the French side when it comes to Tour de France selection – to go with a GC threat, or a sprinter? It’s a decision all teams must make but it’s easier for some than others, and with Gaudu and Démare at loggerheads, it looks set to be a really tough choice for Marc Madiot this year.

BITESIZE NIBBLES OF NEWS

- British team WiVSungod undergo another name change following another new sponsor – they are now called AT5ProCycling (hoping there won’t be too many races featuring them and Qhubeka, who are now called Q36.5 Pro Cycling, because, well, you can see my point right?)

- Trek Baloise Lions hotshot Shirin Van Anrooij confirms she will remain at U23 level for the cyclocross World Championships in Hoogerheide

- Ineos Grenadiers’ Fillippo Ganna received a UCI sanction for an illegal position in the Vuelta a San Juan – he was not disqualified however, receiving a fine for the ‘puppy paws’ style infraction

- UAE Team ADQ takes over Valcar Travel & Service as a new development team

- UAE Team Emirates’ George Bennett is currently embroiled in a lost bike sag following a flight to Australia which may see his participation in the New Zealand national championships in jeopardy

RESULTS ROUND-UP

It’s no exaggeration to say we’ve gone from 0-60 in like 3 seconds in terms of the amount of racing to report on. Even last year, certain races still hadn’t found their way back to the early season calendar, but this year the racing was in full swing before February had even rolled out of bed. Let’s catch up on what we’ve missed, before we look at the racing that’s currently in progress.

JANUARY RACING? COMPLETED IT, MATE

Tour Down Under

The stage race rose like a phoenix from its two-year sabbatical to provide some cracking entertainment, and at World Tour level to boot. The week began with Alberto Bettiol taking an unlikely time trial win, and featured other select highlights such as Cofidis’ Bryan Coquard taking his first WT victory, and a young team from INEOS Grenadiers mixing things up, with Magnus Sheffield riding well to take the young rider’s jersey.

There were a number of standout performances, but the week belonged to the ascendant Jay Vine, who dominated the climbing stages and finished top of the general classification despite missing out on a stage win on the final day to Simon Yates, atop the aptly named Mount Lofty. It marked the first GC win of Vine’s career, following his surprise win at the Aussie national TT championships, and will give his UAE team bosses a real selection headache over the coming seasons.

Vuelta a San Juan

By contrast, the Argentinian race was conspicuously dull. The first four stages were all flat, three of the four being won, unsurprisingly, by sprinters (Trek-Segafredo’s controversial American Quinn Simmons the exception following a long-range attack on stage 3). There was a rest day on the fifth day, and then a climby finish, which was won by Miguel Angel Lopez, followed rather improbably in second by Fillippo Ganna. The final two stages were both won by a dominant Sam Welsford of Team DSM. The top 3 on GC mirrored the top 3 on the mountain stage, meaning Ganna took to the podium as the meat in a sandwich of two small climbers, with Lopez taking the win and Sergio Higuita in third – see the pictoral evidence and be amused.

Probably the most important thing about the race was it marked the return to racing of Egan Bernal, a year on from his horror crash, and he looked in good shape until he was sadly forced to retire with a stomach virus following stage 5.

Challenge Mallorca

Notable for being the first races of the year on European soil, the peculiar Challenge Mallorca features five consecutive one-day races, with varying parcours, and provides a good early testing ground for the legs going into the early season stage races and the classics.

Trofeo Calvia featured a rolling parcours designed for the puncheurs, and featured a lot of crashes as the nerves that have characterised early season racing for the past couple of years saw multiple mistakes. The winner was Rui Costa, now of Intermarche, and it began a brilliant week for the team, who also topped the podium on the Trofeo Andratx and Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana with breakaway specialist Kobe Goossens. The Trofeo Alcudia-Port d’Alcudia and Trofeo Palma were both contested by the sprinters, the former won by clever positioning on a difficult run-in by EF Education EasyPost’s Marijn van den Berg and the latter taken by Deceuninck-QuickStep’s Ethan Vernon.

OTHER SELECTED RESULTS:

Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) and Loes Adegeest (FDJ-SUEZ) respectively won the Cadel Evans Road Race.

Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-DSTNY) triumphed in the Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) rode to a brilliant solo victory in the GP la Marseillaise.

IN PROGRESS…

Which brings us bang up to date, to the races currently underway. No less than three stage races are taking place this week – here’s the latest.

The Saudi Tour is the first of the desert tours and arguably the best, if you’re rating them solely on landscape and variety of parcours. Dylan Groenewegen dominated a scrappy sprint on stage1, with Bahrain-Victorious’ Jonathan Milan taking the lead in GC after winning stage 2, and he held onto that through stage 3, with Uno-X’s young viking Søren Wærenskjold triumphing. Stage 4 has just finished, with an exciting battle up the ridiculous Harrat Uwayrid climb being won by Movistar’s Ruben Guerreiro, who takes the leader’s jersey in the process.

One of my favourite early season races Étoile de Bessèges got underway yesterday, with a punchy finish being won by the kid superstar Arnaud de Lie for Lotto-DSTNY over Mads Pedersen and Benoit Cosnefroy.

And finally, the Vuelta Comunitat Valenciana also began yesterday with a first win of the season for Biniam Girmay.

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT! LOADS OF WORDS ABOUT CYCLOCROSS!

I promised myself after last week’s magnum opus I wouldn’t write such an in-depth report on the cyclocross shenanigans but having hovered perilously close to the edge of my seat for two full hours of high octane racing I feel that NOT to write about it would be to do it a disservice.

HOW GOOD WAS BENIDORM THOUGH? (UCI World Cup, 22 Jan)

It was really, really good.

Will that do? No? FINE. You can have 200 words max. I’ve got a life, you know (I really don’t).

A dirty, dusty crit race of a parcours, Benidorm wasn’t quite the beach-front sand-fest I was innocently expecting, but the course was well planned with intricate turns and a surface that led to breakneck speeds. The races were both characterised by the breaking of the ‘big three’ mould which has stuck to both the women’s and the men’s elite fields this season - in favour of a ‘big 4’. And it was truly epic.

In the women’s race, Sylvia Persico joined the three Dutch hitters to form a quartet that were inseparable until lap 6 of 7, when they dispatched her, with Van Anrooij fighting back on as they reformed the usual trio. It didn’t last long though, with Persico digging in her heels to make it back to the front group, until the final lap when Fem Van Empel kicked away, and only Puck Pieterse was able to stay with her. The two of them were locked together for most of the lap, almost literally at times as they fought elbow to elbow for position, but Van Empel came off on top as she was able to kick again to gap Pieterse just before the line, in probably the best race of the women’s season so far.

The usual pairing of Van Aert and Van der Poel were joined by Eli Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck in the men’s race, and it was a great race from the non-Vans, who were able to stay with the two titans of the sport all the way to the final lap. It was a breathless, adrenaline pumping thrill ride of a race, and my heart was in my mouth on the final lap, in which MVDP picked Van Aert’s pocket to come past him prompting a furious last two minutes as they chased toward the final. Van Der Poel held off his rival on a ludicrously short - and, frankly, quite dangerous - final stretch to the line.

X2O Badkamers Trofee, Hamme (28^th Jan)

It was a academic for Team Jumbo-Visma, as Van Aert and Van Empel convincingly crushed the opposition at the Flandriencross.

UCI WORLD CUP – Besancon (29^th Jan)

The final World Cup of the season saw a return to the fun French parcours, where Puck Pieterse and Mathieu van der Poel formed the other half of a four-piece puzzle entitled ‘World Championship favourites.’ It was easy for Pieterse, who sat in the wheels with the likes of Inge van der Heijden, Blanka Vas and Annemarie Worst for the first couple of laps, before taking her leave on lap 3 and enjoying a solo victory, winning by 37 seconds.

A spirited opening few laps on home soil for Clement Venturini saw the Frenchman steal an early lead, before MVDP dropped a trademark wattbomb after 25 minutes to stamp away from the competition. He had time to get some air on the pump track and still win by a minute, leaving a really good race for second, with a chasing pack of 8 riders all giving it the beans. World Cup leader Laurens Sweeck enjoyed his final run out in the leader’s jersey, keeping his powder dry enough that he was able to power into second position, with Eli Iserbyt suffering an unfortunate mechanical on the final lap to lose out on a podium spot.

HOOGERHEIDE INCOMING…

Yes folks it’s the pinnacle of cyclocross excellence, the World Championship weekend, this weekend in the Netherlands. It promises to be a classic edition of the fight for the rainbow stripes, and I couldn’t help but write about the two key rivalries that will be the main focus of the elite races, across at writebikerepeat.com – have a read of my in-depth, extremely scientific* preview, which also looks briefly at the other races taking place across the three day weekend in the Netherlands - click on the link, below.

*really not very

FINAL THOUGHT

It’s quite normal for cycling fans to over-analyse early season racing, with far too much emphasis being placed on January form when the season’s major races are all still some way off. That being said, facts are facts, and what can’t be disputed is that with four wins already on the scoreboard, Intermarché–Circus–Wanty currently top the World Tour rankings – see the actual, visual proof, thanks to the useful @UTRCycling Twitter account.

Of course it’s early days, not only in the season, but in the cycle, which sees teams ranked over three years and determines World Tour licenses for the following three year cycle – only the top 18 being guaranteed a license (assuming other conditions are fulfilled). So, yes, to read too much into this would be foolish, particularly given the likes of Jumbo-Visma haven’t fielded teams at many of the races yet.

But it’s food for thought. There will always be someone at the bottom of the pile; last season it caught out the likes of Lotto-DSTNY and Israel-PremierTech, and perhaps getting a jump start on results will lead to security way down the line. Either way, the Belgian team are quietly getting it done, and with what looks to be a brilliant team ethic, and without the massive budget. It’s pretty darn cool.

THE LAST WORD

These newsletters are a labour of love and with racing set to ramp up even more in the coming weeks, I’m left debating whether to lighten the load by posting a shorter newsletter every week, or leaving it all for the fortnightly one – any thoughts? Do let me know if you have a preference. Once the rather labour-intensive cyclocross/road crossover period is at an end, it should make life a bit easier – and my lengthy tomes a bit less lengthy!

As always your support is appreciated and I hope I continue to bring some enlightenment your way, whether it’s a piece of news you missed, or an insight that sheds new light on the sport – I do this for the love of it, and if a few other people like it too then I’m happy!

Until next time, enjoy the racing – and if you’d like to support me, you know what to do – drop a donation at my Ko-Fi.

Bye for now,

Katy