Italy calling...

Dear Cycling Fan,

How are you this week? Have you been keeping well? How’s the weather where you are? In the hope that you’ve provided positive responses all round, I’ll move on from the polite small talk and push on as we’ve a lot to get through (when DON’T we?)

I’m positively FIZZING with excitement as we await the first of the Grand Tours, and lest we forget that the women’s World Tour calendar is all jumbled up this year, it’s the turn of the ladies first as they take on the new and revamped La Vuelta Femenina, before the Giro d’Italia gets underway a few days later. It’s all TOO EXCITING. Oh – and that’s not the only exciting thing pending… let’s do some news, shall we?

NEWS ROUND-UP

There’s been far too much actual racing for there to have been any news at all for what feels like weeks but with the classics coming to a close, and in anticipation of Grand Tour season, there’s been a small flurry of news-flakes this week, so let’s dig down into the drift and make some news angels.

The WWT does Spain!

The aforementioned La Vuelta Femenina kicks off on Monday which is a pretty cool way to get ahead of the boys with a bit of grand tour-type action. And while in previous years, calling the women’s version of the Vuelta a ‘Grand Tour’ was a bit rich, this year they’ve overhauled the race, to include a greater variety of stages and ensure it’s more a tour of Spain than ever before – possibly pushing the envelope a little too far as the transfer distances exceed the actual racing distance by quite some way.

The start list reads like a who’s who of women’s cycling – well, at least we anticipate it will, when it’s finally confirmed. As has become very much characteristic of women’s racing this year, despite being just days away, only a few teams have actually confirmed which riders they will be bringing to the race. I’ve taken my best guess as to who will be the favourites for GC, alongside examining the route in more detail, in this preview that I wrote for the excellent VoxWomen site – check it out to learn more about the race.

Popcorn at the ready!

The other piece of SUPER AWESOME EXCITING news is the announcement of the release of the Netflix Tour de France documentary ‘Unchained’. We really have been waiting for this one a LONG time, 11 months to be precise – it’s a canny decision they’ve made to air the series just a month before this year’s race kicks off, hopefully ensuring an uptick in audience numbers as the new fans drawn in by the series can continue on to watch the real thing in action right afterwards. At least, that’s the plan, I imagine. Beats waiting a year for the next one like I had to when I first got into cycling. Watch party on 8^th June, anyone?

Pointless additional apparel news!

It wouldn’t be Grand Tour season without the announcement of limited edition jerseys! Quite why it’s become tradition for every other team in the peloton to change strip for every other Grand Tour is a bit beyond me, aside from the obvious clashes (EF too pink for the Giro, Jumbo too yellow for the Tour), but we live in a capitalist hegemony, so BUY MORE THINGS, PEOPLE!

So far there’s not much to report on the new jersey front, apart from Israel-Premier Tech, who have replaced their thoroughly nice jersey with another thoroughly nice jersey. But there will be more, mark my words, and just as we spent the first weeks of the season trying to work out who was who, we will all spend the first week of the Giro doing exactly that, all over again.

The dreaded covid returns!

The spate of spring illness has finally bitten in the men’s peloton, a little later than last year when it was the Tour of Catalunya that had the greatest attrition rate. The latest strain of covid has been merrily ripping its way through the bunch, with two Jumbo-Visma riders and Giulio Ciccone struck down by it last week, and riders at the Tour de Romandie dropping like flies this week through various ailments, covid included. It’s hard to tell whether the later onset of illness means the bunch are a bit more resilient this year or just simply coincidental; either way, there will be many anxious moments as we await the final confirmation of the startlist for the Giro, as spring preparations may go up in smoke – a reminder of how fragile even the best laid plans can be.

Developing nations represent!

This week the Tour de Lunsar takes place in Sierra Leone. It’s an opportunity for all the top riders in the nation to gather and race and represents a positive focus for the community in which it takes place. Dan Challis wrote about the event, its organiser, and the riders taking part, for my site. It’s a fascinating insight into cycling in developing nations and has some fabulous images courtesy of Matt Grayson, I urge you to have a read.

RACING RECAP

The transition from Spring Classics to the rest of the season has finally been bridged this week, and although there’s been a fair amount of racing to report on, it’s quite neatly divided into ‘some classics’ and ‘two stage races’ which will hopefully make it quite palatable despite the chaotic nature of this time of year when we don’t know if we’re coming or going, cobbling or climbing, relishing the final one-day races or chomping at the bit for the Grand Tours. Here is the nitty-gritty then, of all the racing that’s taken place since we last caught up – the period from 15^th -27^th April to be precise.

In case you don’t have time to read through it all but fancy catching up on the highlights, here’s a brief run-down of what’s what – all with a heavy dose of ‘in my opinion.’

DON’T MISS – women’s Amstel Gold race, the final 5km of both editions of Fleche Wallonne, and the last 15km or so of most of the Tour of the Alps stages, which were all a lot of fun.

UNDERWHELMING – sigh. I wish I didn’t start this segment because I really don’t like pissing on people’s proverbial chips, but sadly I personally found both men’s Amstel Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege deeply underwhelming. Your mileage may vary, of course.

STARS OF THE FORTNIGHT – BEN HEALY, of course. For his excellent performances in the Ardennes. Gaia Realini and Liane Lippert for well-deserved podium places. Tao Geoghegan Hart for his continued resurgence, candour and relatability. And Egan Bernal, who rode as part of Ethan Hayter’s lead-out yesterday with confidence and belief and also the kind of speed that tells us he’s slowly returning to his best.

STUFF WHAT I WROTE!

And just to bring you up to date with my own writing, I put together two pieces about the best riders of the Spring who DIDN’T win a race. These were really fun to put together, feature incredible levels of statistical analysis (spoiler alert: not really) and celebrate those riders who made the racing what it was.

FINAL THOUGHT – a week to the Giro? NO WAY!

YES WAY! No seriously, I’ve been counting down to the Giro for about 3 weeks now, as it coincided with my waning interest in the classics, but now it’s literally 8 days away and I’m not ready. I have this every Grand Tour, even the ones where I’ve literally written previews for every stage. I don’t feel ready. I don’t know why I feel like this: it’s not like I’m the one riding the thing. Yet it’s such a big deal, and I know that once I’ve entered the bubble of whichever Grand Tour is occurring, I’ll be so completely drenched in the experience of it I’ll forget that time exists as a concept and the peloton of that Grand Tour becomes the only peloton in existence and really, I’m quite obsessive about Grand Tours, if you hadn’t realised.

It's ironic because unlike most cycling fans, the Giro is probably, objectively, my least favourite of the Grand Tours. I prefer the chaotic, never-ending ups and downs and unpredictable madness of the end-of-season GC battles at the Vuelta, and the Tour, well… it’s the Tour, isn’t it? I have often said I feel the Giro gets the most love because of its position on the calendar – flip it with the Vuelta and perhaps allegiances would shift alongside it. 2020 was a prime example, although maybe not for the right reasons.

The Giro is too backloaded, tends towards a quiet first two weeks, and is heavily weighted in favour of time trial specialists this year. But it’s first. So of course, we’re excited. And let’s not forget those landscapes. The incredible scenery of the Dolomites that takes my breath away every year. The stunning sunny days along the Amalfi coast that have you dreaming of summer. And the inevitable talking points, from the chaos of the TV coverage, to the changeable weather conditions, and the stunning villages decked out in pink.

Oh who am I kidding I bloody love the Giro. I love them all. But I’m still not ready. Luckily, I have one more week to prepare.

THE LAST WORD

Speaking of the Giro, there will be daily – yes DAILY – coverage of the race over on my website. Myself and my team will be providing previews, stage reports, cultural insights, songs of the day, images, useful Italian phrases – you name it, we have it covered. It will be a veritable cornucopia of Italo-philia. You don’t need to worry yourselves with finding us every day either, just subscribe! Simple. And you will receive a lovely rosa-tinted package on your virtual doorstep every day – what’s not to love?

If you are a fan of my work and would like to support me on a regular basis, there are options for you to subscribe as a paying member of my community – for which there will be excellent perks including discounts to relevant brands, the chance to have a say in what goes on the site in future, AND MERCH! Yes writebikerepeat merchandise is a thing. Or at least will be very soon.

If you’re wary of commitment – and I’m not one to judge, we live in a transitory, impermanent world – but you’d still like to support my enterprise of providing free cycling content for your faces throughout the whole gosh-darn year – then you can buy me a coffee which I will need copious amounts of to get through the next few weeks’ worth of GIRO HYPE.

Next time you receive this it will be about stage 6 of the Giro, WHAT?!

Until then, cheers.

Katy