New Kits! CX Nationals! Tour de France teams?!

Hi everyone, and may I be probably around the 326^th person to wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hope 2024 is going smoothly for you so far, and that like me, you are eagerly anticipating another season of scintillating action on the roads. Official road racing is actually already underway, with the women’s Tour Down Under concluding over the weekend, while the men’s race begins tonight. Exciting!

Of course, the traditionalists among you will be patiently waiting for the arrival of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on 24 February and to you I say, fair play, but I will be among the rabid fans gulping every available second of cycling into my eyes from as early as possible, partly because I’m a total nerd, and partly because it’s sort of, kind of, well, my job, I guess?

ON THE WEBSITE

Two pieces to bring you this week and I’m incredibly excited about these.

First up, it’s the first in a series following the fortunes of two British riders, Harry Birchill and Will Tidball. The pair are friends, housemates and team mates with Saint Piran, and both are pursuing have goals on and off the road. Their team manager calls them ‘cycling’s odd couple’ and I will be narrating their story throughout this year – it’s really worth a read.

Another blog ‘Neo-Pro Diaries’ sees its first episode hit the site this week too. Bingoal WB’s Tom Portsmouth rides his first professional year for the team and will chart his progress throughout the year in his own words – read the first entry here.

There will be a flurry of posts coming over the next couple of weeks, including a series of team previews looking ahead to the 2024 season for each of the men’s and women’s World Tour teams, and plenty more besides – so keep an eye on the site.

NEWS! GET YOUR NEWS!

HEADLINE STORY: Tour de France protagonists announced

Part 2 of team presentation season has come and gone, with the teams who didn’t unveil their plans for 2024 before Christmas gathering in various glamorous locations to meet with the press and give them the lowdown.

While it would take far too long for me to list all the provisional rider programmes that have been confirmed, I can give you a few of the highlights. The main story comes from the Soudal-QuickStep camp, as Remco Evenepoel confirmed that 2024 will see him make his Tour de France debut. He has ridden both the Giro and the Vuelta twice, winning the Vuelta once and picking up 7 Grand Tour stage wins along the way.

The confirmation put paid to the Tour de France hopes of a number of other riders, most significantly Julian Alaphilippe, who will ride the Giro d’Italia instead, and Tim Merlier, as the team opt out of a green jersey hunt, pouring full resources behind Evenepoel. Merlier spoke out about his disappointment, though he too will target stages at the Giro. Alaphilippe has missed just one Tour in the past six editions, in 2022.

The BORA hansgrohe team presentation followed a day later with confirmation of Primoz Roglič’s participation. This was less of a surprise, given the Slovenian moved to the team with sole Tour leadership in mind, and the team management went on to announce 6 of the 7 riders who would accompany Roglič, including GC candidates in their own right Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov. They also confirmed however that Roglič would be the sole leader, their trident strategy over for this year at least, as they make good on their promise to the three-time Vuelta winner.

Groupama-FDJ also announced Tour leadership, with half of their team confirmed, nicknamed the ‘4 fantastiques’, Stefan Kung, Valentin Madouas, David Gaudu and debutante Romain Gregoire will headline a multi-tool kit for the French side at the 2024 Tour.

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale played their cards somewhat closer to their chest with their first set of announcements, confirming that Ben O’Connor would join a star-studded GC line-up at the Giro, but they focused their scheduling announcements on the early season and did not make any statements about their Tour de France team (seems fair enough, it’s only January after all).

IN OTHER NEWS…

Red Bull launch 51% takeover of BORA hansgrohe 

One of the other major news stories of the past couple of weeks is the story of Red Bull putting in a 51% takeover bid for BORA hansgrohe, which, given the fact that there were cans of Red Bull lined up along the tables at the team presentation day last week, along with the positive statements from team manager Ralph Denk, looks set to go through. It will bring a major player into the sport, and give BORA an inflated budget which could see them compete with the likes of UAE Team Emirates, INEOS and Visma-Lease A Bike in monetary terms.

Shari Bossuyt gives up case

Belgian track and road cycling Shari Bossuyt has confirmed that she will not appeal the decision of the AFLD’s proposal to suspend her for two years following a doping allegation. Bossuyt denies the allegation but will not appeal as she does not have the ‘strength or money’ to fight what she describes as a ‘losing battle.’ She will subsequently be unable to pursue her goal to ride in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Bossuyt rode the madison with Lotte Kopecky up until the point of her suspension.

Final new kits revealed

The stragglers among the bunch brought up the metaphorical rear, with the last few new kits revealed in the past week including the new look for Team DSM-firmenich-post NL, which divided opinion, and the Canyon//SRAM kit, which did not – everyone agreed that it is an absolute banger. See evidence below, as modelled by Zoe Backstedt. It’s truly stunning.

Eddie Boss is back!

One of the out-of-contract riders with the most distinguished palmares was Norwegian stalwart Edvald Boassen Hagen, so it seemed all the more surprising that it took until mid-January for him to find somewhere to ride in 2024. But find somewhere he did, heading to France and to AG2R, for another season in his long career.

RESULTS ROUND-UP!

It’s small but perfectly formed right now, but just you watch as it grows up and blossoms over the next few newsletters! Yes, it’s the return of the results round-up which if you’re new to the newsletter, covers results from UCI road races at .1 level or above throughout the year, sometimes with extended reviews of the action, sometimes not (depending on how many races are going on at once, I am but a mere human).

And so to the first results trickling in from across the pond. The Australian National Championships (4-6 Jan) concluded with Lucas Plapp (Team Jayco Alula) taking the honours in both the individual time trial and the road race for the men, with Grace Brown (FDJ-SUEZ) the women’s ITT champion while Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-Alula-Jayco) took the stripes in the road race.

Thewomen’s Santos Tour Down Under (12-14 Jan) kicked off in Adelaide last Friday with a strong line-up taking on three varied stages. Stage 1 was set to be one for the sprinters, and so it proved, with a sizeable bunch coming to the line together despite a few bumps towards the finish taking it out of the legs of a few riders yet to get into their racing groove. The new Australian champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon was in a strong position but ultimately it was the reigning New Zealand champion Ally Wollaston who was able to time her sprint to perfection and pick up the first WWT win of the season for her team, AG Insurance-Soudal, in their first season as a WWT team. Poetic.

Stage 2 was won in dominant fashion by FDJ-SUEZ’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who took over from teammate Grace Brown, a ‘plan b’ approach as Brown wasn’t feeling well on the day. Her calculated and composed riding throughout the building tension of the final section of the race all pointed to one outcome – the Dane dropping the big hammer and storming to victory.

The final stage, and the GC, was won on Willunga Hill by AG Insurance-Soudal’s newest signing, Aussie Sarah Gigante. Long a fan favourite, Gigante went solo to storm to victory, an emotional and significant one for a rider who has struggled to reach her potential following two years and illness and recovery. Expect big things from her this year.

The men’s race gets underway literally right about NOW!

CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH

With the Christmas period done and dusted, a weekend of national championships has just concluded, with compatriots challenging one another for the right to wear their nation’s colours for the following season. World Cup racing resumes on 21  January in Benidorm, and what was one of the most exciting race days of last season. Here’s what happened since I last wrote to you…

X2O Badkamers Trofee Baal (1 Jan) (also known as the GP Sven Nys) was the first race of 2024. In slick conditions, the women’s race was a head-to-head between Lucinda Brand and Fem van Empel. The two were locked together for three out of four laps, when Van Empel managed to gap Brand to head off for the win. Ava Holmgren took her first European podium in her first day as a Lidl-Trek rider.

The men’s race looked for a tantalising lap as though it might be a proper old school head-to-head between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, but the Dutchman is on too strong a streak of form and a small error from the Belgian saw MVDP capitalise and head off in usual dominant fashion. He won by almost 2 minutes in the end, and it looks set to be a clean sweep of wins for him this winter.

X2O Badkamers Trofee Koksijde (4 Jan)

The field strung out almost immediately in the women’s race, with Fem Van Empel in no mood to waste time, opening up a 20 second gap on chasing rider Lucinda Brand after just one lap. The trend continued, despite a bizarre incident in which Van Empel failed to remount her bike in the pit lane, but though she was assured victory, a gradually closing gap between Brand and Alvarado behind her limited her gap to 39 seconds, as the two senior Dutch women fought tooth and nail for the line in a thrilling final sprint, with Brand holding on by half a wheel. Both women were exhausted afterwards, Brand collapsing from her bike and Alvarado hanging over her handlebars – a brilliant contest.

It the men’s race it was another day, another MVDP masterclass, with Wout van Aert not on the best of days and unable to make any impression on the lead of his long-time rival who tore off ahead leaving the rest in his wake. Having kept up with Van der Poel and Van Aert for a while in Baal, Pim Ronhaar was able to go one better and finish in second place, beating Van Aert and cementing his position as well and truly on a par with the big guns of CX.

Hexia Cross Gullegem (6 Jan)

With top names sitting out the one-off race in both the men’s and the women’s field, it was an opportunity for some less-often-featured riders to shine. It was a tale of three riders in the women’s race, as a pair of Crelan-Corendons, Manon Bakker and Inge van der Heijden, went up against Canyon//SRAM’s Zoe Backstedt. The British champion looked strong throughout though, taking her opportunities to attack on a day when she clearly had good legs, and she went on to take her first elite win of the season in mainland Europe.

In the absence of the big names, it was Michael Vantourenhout who took advantage in the men’s race, pulling clear with Cameron Mason coming out on top of a relatively evenly matched chase group to move clear into second position. A great day out for the two reigning British champions.

UCI World Cup Zonhoven (7 Jan)

It looked as though Lucinda Brand would take the victory, as the Baloise Trek rider flew out of the gates and charged into the lead. She was impressive on the sand and quickly established a gap to the rest of the field, with Puck Pieterse chasing her way back into the race following a first lap puncture. But trouble befell Brand as she crashed heavily, landing on her face and retiring from the race clearly suffering serious discomfort (it later transpired that she had broken her nose). Pieterse was able to capitalise, taking the win.

In the men’s race, a leading group of 5 lasted a lot longer than usual with Van der Poel sitting on the wheel of first Joris Nieuwenhuis, then Pim Ronhaar, and with more riders joining the group, there was a sense that he was simply biding his time waiting to strike. When the attack came on lap 4 of 8, MVDP left a gang of three Baloise Trek and three Crelan-Corendon riders behind him battling it out for the rest of the podium spots as he stormed to victory number ten of the season. 10/10, no notes.

NATIONALS (some highlights)

This past weekend the regular programme went on hiatus as national championships took place around Europe. I won’t attempt to bring you up to date with all of the results as that information is freely available elsewhere (my first port of call is usually Cyclocross24) but I will take the opportunity to extend my congratulations to Anna Kay and Cameron Mason who won the British championships, as these races were some of the only ones available for me to watch in my location. Kay won for the first time and Mason did the double, winning back to back championships, this time very close to home for the Scottish rider.

In other championships, Lucinda Brand showed amazing resilience to beat Puck Pieterse and the rest and take the Dutch women’s title, despite the broken nose she sustained in Zonhoven. Joris Nieuwenhuis topped a great season so far by beating his teammates, Lars van der Haar and Pim Ronhaar, to win the men’s race. And in Belgium, Sanne Cant won her 15^th title in a row, despite a fierce battle from Laura Verdonschot, who pushed her all the way to the line, and Eli Iserbyt held firm to win his national colours ahead of a brilliant ride from Joran Wyseure in second.

FINAL THOUGHT

It’s easy to get caught up in early season excitement, and with Tour de France teams being announced earlier every year, it feels a bit like we’re wishing the time away until summer is here and with it all the marquee races and the peak of the cycling season.

But let’s just put the brakes on for a bit and consider what’s to come before we head to France for the Grand Bouclé – it’s a LOT. Of course, that’s not news to the seasoned cycling fans among us, but there is still a major section of the cycling viewership who only watch the Tour, or perhaps just the Grand Tours – I was one of those fans myself, once. Maybe you still are, and maybe you’re quite happy with that, and that’s totally fine.

Having said that, just like a rider learns as they develop whether they’re a climber, or a time trialist, or a sprinter, so too a cycling fan might find that given the opportunity, they might love something else even more than the yearly three-week yellow-clad parade to Paris (well, Nice this year, but the point stands). The first year I paid proper attention to the spring Classics I was completely spellbound: one-day racing is a whole different ballgame in and of itself with its all-or-nothing tactics and go-for-broke attacks, but throw in the grim northern European weather and the treacherous cobbles and you have a completely different flavour of bike racing.

One week stage racing is different again; probably my favourite week of the cycling year is the first week of March, with the concurrent week-long races of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. It’s a week that offers contrasts, hints of what’s to come at the Grand Tours, and wall-to-wall cycling, as we speed headlong into the spring.

Then of course you have racing that isn’t just a different flavour, but a different food altogether – you might be a track aficionado, love your mountain biking, or like me, enjoy the mud and obstacle-based madness of cyclocross.

Or maybe you’re content to wait for the beauty of the Dolomites, the majesty of the Alps, the unforgiving ups and downs of Spain, and the rising tension and interwoven narratives that make up a Grand Tour in all its beauty. The pinnacle of our sport, and a true spectacle year in, year out.

I recognise that with the loss of GCN it’s become more difficult to follow cycling in some nations, but with Eurosport and Discovery+ moving towards solutions for many nations, and the handy VPN, there are hopefully solutions for those of us who want to cram as much two-wheeled mayhem into our eyes as we possibly can. And for those who are just dipping their toe into a different flavour of the sport, I hope you enjoy the ride. For all of you, I’m always here to bring you up to date with anything else you might miss, or might be interested in, so stick around and let’s enjoy another season of cycling excellence together!

THE LAST WORD

Week one and done! See you in a couple of weeks, when there will be a smattering more results, plus I’ll be getting excited about the impending cyclocross World Championships. Thanks as always for reading, knowing you are out there consuming this newsletter is really quite a lovely thing.

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Until next time – cheers!

Katy