It's not all doom and gloom

Ah, fair bicycle enthusiasts, it’s THAT part of the off-season. You know the one I mean. Riders are posting stunning holiday snaps all over Instagram, the bulk of the signing news is over and done with, and we’re still at least a month away from being able to rate any new kits.* It’s the DARK TIME. The nights are drawing in (in the northern hemisphere, at least), we’re bedding in for winter, getting back into cyclocross (or perhaps into it for the first time – it does sooth many a withdrawal symptom) and daydreaming of the sunshine and white roads of Strade Bianche, way off in the future.

It's OK though because I’m here to bring you all the latest news (what little there is), some cyclocross updates, and some suitably off-season content like cyclists scrubbing up well at awards ceremonies, climbing mountains, and er, having it large. Let’s gooooo.

*STOP PRESS! Actually we’re not, there’s already a new one. Thanks, DSM, for messing up my tragic opening.

On the website – Peter Barnes has been covering the growing discipline of Mountain Bike Eliminator – check out his explainer piece here, and though the World Championships have been and gone, you can hear from some of the stars and find a link to catch up in his second piece.

I also wrote about the early season in cyclocross – usually a time of thumb-twiddling for the casual viewer, as we await the arrival of the big guns, this season has been breath-takingly good at times already, on the men’s side – and it’s in no small part down to one Thibau Nys…

NEWS? WHAT NEWS?

I’m joking of course there’s news. It’s quiet but it’s not THAT quiet. Here are your headlines - spoiler alert - there’s not a lot of good news going on.

Nairo goes home!

In what’s arguably the headline news of the whole transfer season, Nairo Quintana will next season return to his former team Movistar. The news was revealed by Quintana himself in a video on Movistar's social media. The Colombian rider, who spent 8 seasons with the Spanish side, winning two Grand Tours and placing second twice in the Tour de France, returns to them after a year without a team following a doping case in which he was found to have taken tramadol twice during the 2022 Tour de France. He was suspended by his team Arkéa Samsic and did not secure a contract for 2023, though he continued to train. It’s initially a one-year deal.

UCI announce Worlds courses!

The UCI has announced the details of the routes for the 2024 World Championships which will take place in Zurich, Switzerland next September. The road routes feature significantly more altitude metres than has been seen in recent years, with repeated short punchy climbs that looks to favour the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel for the men, with Demi Vollering the favourite over most parcours for the women. The individual time trial routes have also been announced.

Here are all the route profiles at a glance –

Transfer latest

Gianni Moscon the 27th rider on the Soudal-QuickStep roster for 2024. 20-year-old Colombian Santiago Umba will join the World Tour with Astana-Qazaqstan Team. Lucas Plapp broke his contract with Ineos early to seal a 4-year deal at Team Jayco-Alula. And a double signing for Cofidis - the French side complete the transfers of Kenny Ellissonde from Lidl-Trek and Ben Hermans from Israel-Premier Tech.

And in extension news, Soraya Paladin extended with Canyon//SRAM, while Justyna Czapla steps up from the Generation development team to World Tour level.

More Ineos extensions!

Still little in the way of new signings, apart from Movistar’s Oscar Rodriguez, but Ineos have continued to shore up ahead of the 2024 season. Since I last wrote to you, the following riders have all extended their contracts: Laurens de Plus, Luke Rowe, Ben Swift, Kim Heiduk, Salvatore Puccio, Brandon Rivera and Omar Fraile

Van der Poel announces cross schedule!

The first piece of the three-part jigsaw known as the ‘Big Three’ to reveal his plans for the winter, Van der Poel’s schedule was revealed by Alpecin-Deceuninck. He starts late and will conclude with a defence of his World title in Tabor.

So does Wout!

Van der Poel’s long-time rival Wout van Aert also announced his schedule just this week. With ten races planned, his calendar is slimmer than last year’s, and he hopes this will ensure a smoother run up to the Spring Classics. Most notably, his calendar does not contain the World Championships, a bitter disappointment to all ‘cross fans hoping for a rematch of last year’s nail-biting clash at Hoogerheide. Having said that, it offers up to seven opportunities to see him clash with MVDP.

Off-season shenanigans!

If we’ve learned nothing else this off-season so far, it’s that professional sportspeople have very different ideas of how to relax in their down time. Case in point – while Geraint Thomas revealed he’d been drunk 12 days out of 14 (a similar strategy to that described by George Bennett in the Social Distance Podcast), French Champion Valentin Madouas climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Each to their own, no judgement from me, but personally all the shots of riders relaxing on stunning tropical beaches with a cocktail looked like the perfect happy medium to me.

Tour of Britain future in doubt!

As reported by Jeremy Whittle in the Guardian, Tour of Britain organisers Sweetspot have withdrawn their support from the race due to a dispute over money with British Cycling, leaving its future in doubt. Dark times for the home scene indeed.

Bolton Equities Black Spoke fold!

The New Zealand-based team, fresh from their first year at Pro Team level, have been unable to find a sponsor to replace Bolton Equities. Sad news indeed, as another collection of riders and staff are left with uncertain futures ahead of next season.

Rigoberto Uran to retire after 2024 Olympics!

The 36-year-old Colombian has been the life and soul of the peloton party for 17 amazing years, but will hang up his boots next season. His impact on cycling in his home country cannot be underestimated, and he’s been bringing joy to the social media feeds this past week as he shows Wout van Aert around Colombia, and it looks like the Belgian had an absolute blast on his visit.

OMG NEW KIT SEASON?! Already?

Yes it’s hot off the press but Team-DSM firmenich PostNL have announced their new title sponsor with a KIT REVEAL! Can you believe it? It’s like the antithesis of EF, who always leave everything until the eleventh hour, to have a it reveal this early and it’s well… it’s not one of my personal favourites, to be honest, but you can make your own minds up…

CYCLOCROSS DISPATCH

We have three weekends’ worth of cross action to catch up with so let’s crack on shall we?

Let’s start where we left off. At the Superprestige Ruddervoorde (28 Oct), Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado proved herself the current top of the pecking order in the absence of Fem van Empel, picking up her 1st win of the season. Eli Iserbyt scored a narrow victory over Lars van der Haar in the men’s race which was a spicy affair.

The following day saw a thrilling encounter at the UCI World Cup in Maasmechelen (29 Oct). Iserbyt was once again at the pointy end of proceedings, and it was the combined forces of Baloise Trek who once again proved a thorn in the Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal rider’s side, working well as a team to push him to his limits and a number of errors from Iserbyt allowed Lars van der Haar to storm to victory, in a reversal of the previous day’s result. In the women’s race, Fem van Empel was head and shoulders clear of the pack once again, finishing 1.28 ahead of Alvarado.

X2O Badkamers Trofee Oudenaarde (31 Oct) more commonly known as Koppenbergcross, was not as well attended as its status surely deserved, coming just three days before the European championships. A notoriously arduous course, long and technical with the gruelling cobbled climb forming the run up to the finish line, the race provides outstanding entertainment year on year and this edition was no different in the men’s field, with Thibau Nys pulling off arguably the performance of his career so far to storm to victory, and the battle-hardened trio of Iserbyt, Vantourenhout and Van der Haar vying for the rest of the podium spots. They were thwarted however by the rise of one Cameron Mason. The British champion, riding for the Cyclocross Reds, put in a heck of a shift and pushed the top three, to finish in an impressive 4th spot. The women’s field was sadly a bit lacking and the win was taken by Fem van Empel, almost two minutes ahead of Denise Betsema in second - and another impressive performance from a British rider with Anna Kay rounding out the podium in third place.

FOCUS ON: European Championships (5 Nov)

In a sport that sadly lacks continental diversity for the most part, the European Championships have been hotly contested since their inception in 2003 (the men’s elite event was not introduced until 2015), with all of the top names in attendance. Given the early placement on the calendar the full complement of riders isn’t always in contention however, and there were notable absences from both the women’s and men’s elite start lists.

The unwelcome visit of storm Ciarán meant that north-western France was besieged by high winds and rain and the upshot of this was that all the races at Pontchâteau, (aside from the mixed team relay which was won by the home nation – allez!) were shifted to the Sunday, instead of being spread over the weekend. Cue a mad day of action, with the juniors up first, and it was unbroken run of victories for the French with Célia Gery and Aubin Sparfel taking the honours for the home nation.

The U23 category was up next, and Britain’s Zoe Backstedt began a day of firsts for the nation, as she became the first ever British winner at the European Championships, taking victory at the first time of asking in the women’s race. Belgium’s Jente Michels was triumphant in the men’s category, one of a clutch of Belgian riders who were vying for precedence early on in the race, all looking to follow in the footsteps of Thibau Nys.

The elite category races followed the pattern of the season so far: entirely predictable in the women’s, with Fem van Empel winning by over a minute and a half, and Alvarado second; and a battle between Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal and Baloise Trek Lions in the men’s, except this time disguised as a face-off between nations. In an exciting tactical race, defending champion Michael Vantourenhout went clear on lap two and stayed away for the whole race to win for a second year in a row. The race for the podium places was intriguing, with Nys and Iserbyt both seemingly suffering from their exertions earlier in the week, and Great Britain’s Cameron Mason riding a steady and strong race, displaying immense endurance to work his way in silver medal position and hold onto that position to the bitter end despite pressure from the Netherlands/Baloise duo of Lars van der Haar and Pim Ronhaar. Van der Haar finished ahead of his younger teammate to complete the podium. Mason becomes the first British man to podium at a European championships and continues to prove he’s taken a major step up this season.

The following weekend began on the frankly bonkers course at Niel (11 Nov) with another round of the Superprestige competition. The women’s race kicked off proceedings on a parcours that looked as though it was designed by a psychotic landscape gardener. Marie Schreiber made a characteristically strong start and though Alvarado faltered slightly on the moguls she quickly closed down the Luxembourger and moved clear, taking another assured win by over a minute from a Cyclocross Reds duo of Aniek van Alphen and Annemarie Worst.

Eli Iserbyt must feel like he’s playing Baloise Trek whack-a-mole at the moment as if it’s not Thibau Nys or Lars van der Haar tussling with him at the sharp end of the action, there’s Joris Nieuwenhuis to take over.

The course was like I said, insane. Conditions were horrendous and a treacherous descent saw many run into difficulties, not to mention the deep puddles, moguls and stairs so steep it hurt to watch them lugging their bikes and weary bodies up the savage gradient. Riders dropped like flies and Lars van der Haar popped his own dislocated shoulder back in and honestly it all just looked bloody horrible and very much upheld the ‘schadenfreude’ point of my ‘why you should watch cyclocross’ article. Anyway, Iserbyt ground out the win with Nieuwenhuis in second place, agonisingly short of his first elite win in Europe.

On Sunday, the next round of the UCI World Cup took place in Dendermonde (12 Nov) lacked some of the major players, much to the chagrin of the UCI who for some bizarre reason chose to make an example of Thibau Nys’ decision to skip the fixture, and to bring up the possibility of making attendance mandatory at every World Cup fixture in order to qualify for the World Championships. We can only hope that good sense prevails in this case as the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about and would be quite damaging to the sport and its profile.

In the absence of Nys, it fell to Pim Ronhaar to fly the flag for the resurgent Baloise Trek Lions. On a grim, unforgiving surface, on one of the less interesting of the World Cup courses, Ronhaar went clear to score his first elite World Cup win, a rich reward for his hard work so far this season. In the women’s race, Alvarado continued her winning streak with two wins in two days, and it was a first elite World Cup podium for GB’s Zoe Backstedt, after a fantastic ride from the Welsh woman.

CAMERON MASON-WATCH: (it’s not because he’s British, it’s because he’s awesome)

It was a tough weekend for the European silver medallist, who had trouble at the start in Niel and came down at least once, and struggled to maintain his position. He finished in 7^th . At Dendermonde he had another tough start, losing some spokes right out of the gates and having to run his bike all the way to the pits. From there he clawed his way back up to third place which was frankly incredible, before, as he describes it ‘the lights went out’ and he fell back to finish in 11^th , although only a minute down on the winner in a tightly contested race. Onward and upward! This is what the man himself had to say:

 NEXT UP: This weekend brings yet another round of the relentless Superprestige competition in Merksplas, before a new World Cup venue - Troyes - will see the return of the Puck Pieterse / Fem van Empel rivalry - I for one cannot wait.

FINAL THOUGHT: Goodbye old friend

It was with great sadness that we discovered just yesterday that the GCN+ app will be no more, as of the 19^th December. It’s a kick in the teeth to cycling fans across the globe, who have come to rely on the service for dedicated, passionate and broad coverage of many disciplines of cycling. Not only was it astoundingly good value for money, it was a passion project put together by people with a genuine love for the sport, and their rigorous knowledge and adventurous spirit was evident throughout the channel.

They are owned by Warner Bros however and will now be subsumed into the Discovery+ channel – twice the price for us here in the UK; not even available yet for North American and Australian viewers – and it’s a worrying time for cycling fans as just as we were beginning to enjoy increased access and coverage, it now seems to be taking a huge backwards step. There’s still no indication as to whether or not the brilliant documentaries will remain a part of the Discovery+ package.

GCN has been a constant companion to me over the past couple of years, both watching live and using as a reference library for producing all my content – this newsletter, and the website, owes everything to being able to go back to certain races and re-watch, and though the coverage will remain for many, the sense of having something unique, that was just for us, will not. Media is a ruthless business, such is the reality of this capitalist world we live in. But it’s a crying shame that a sport that’s already pretty niche will likely suffer from a loss of audience as a direct result of this decision.

Thanks for the memories, GCN – it’s been one hell of a ride.

THE LAST WORD

Well, it’s taken far longer than I would have liked to get this newsletter out to you! Every day this week I’ve thought ‘today will be the day’ and every day some new story has broken that’s slowed me down and expanded the content and here we are with another behemoth issue under our belts. UM, SORRY! Hope I haven’t exploded your inbox or anything.

As usual, thanks for being a subscriber, I’m continually surprised to find people willing to listen to me rant on about cycling, and if I’m enhancing your enjoyment of the sport in any way then my work here is done. If you’d like to support me in my quest to continue to bring you quality, unique cycling media then please consider buying me a coffee, purchasing an item from my online store, or upgrading your site membership to one of the paid tiers – you will be richly rewarded with discount codes for cycling-adjacent businesses alongside free gifts (for certain tiers). And also I would be forever grateful.

Until next time, let’s all try and collectively manifest some good news, shall we? With that in mind, here’s MVDP doing a wheelie by a beach to Creedence Clearwater Revival. NICE.

Cheers,
Katy