Spanish sun for the Women's peloton

Hey folks, hope you’re all doing well and enjoying a bumper bonanza cycling extravaganza, as since I last wrote a full newsletter to you all we’ve seen a complete Grand Tour (La Vuelta Femenina) and are currently halfway through another one (the Giro d’Italia) alongside plenty of other races dotted around and about which we’ll get up to speed with ASAP.

Having said that, it’s still going to be a somewhat shorter affair than usual, even though it’s almost a week late, to account for all the additional content on the site for the Giro – hopefully you had a chance to check out our jam-packed Giro magazines covering the first two blocks of racing (Issue 1 and Issue 2), and here for your reading pleasure is the latest edition, covering all the action from stages 7 to 9, and looking ahead to stages 10 to 12. There’s flashbacks to iconic Giro stage wins through history, songs to represent all the key moments from the race on our evolving playlist, a chance to get to know some of the riders who are less often in the limelight, a look at some of the places passed along the way, and the answer to the question on everyone’s lips: what happened at kilometre 107?!

Also on the website, the latest instalment in Adam Harridence’s blog, as he seeks to rediscover his fitness on the road back to competitive cycling, Adam talks about the need to embrace inspiration to get out on the bike, regardless of how unlikely the source. A good read, check it out!

Now onto the news!

NEWS!! HERE’S THE NEWS!

It’s a very quick round-up of the main headlines for you today, and quite conveniently, there hasn’t been a huge amount of stories - these are the highlights.

Road to Recovery

Much of the news from the past couple of weeks has centred around the recovery efforts of big name riders injured in the spate of early season crashes that afflicted the men’s peloton. Lennard Kamna was able to leave hospital following his training crash, while Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard all returned to training on the road, with talk of the possibility of Tour de France appearances for all three, depending on their progress. Positive steps.

Transfer Latest

Lenny Martinez’ signature is still being coveted by a number of teams, despite rumours of him having already signed a contract with Bahrain-Victorious. INEOS Grenadiers and Visma-Lease A Bike are also interested in the young Frenchman, amid hope that he may still remain at Groupama-FDJ, though this looks increasingly unlikely.

In other news, Oier Lazkano will decide between securing his future at Movistar or moving to BORA Hansgrohe. Demi Vollering is strongly rumoured to be joining FDJ-SUEZ next season. And Antonio Tiberi has signed a contract extension at Bahrain-Victorious.

Retirements Announced

A couple of riders have confirmed that this season will be their last in the pro peloton: INEOS Grenadiers’ Luke Rowe announced that he would call time on his 12-year career, a year earlier than originally planned. He intends to bow out at the Tour of Britain in September. Meanwhile Rick Zabel, currently riding with Israel-Premier Tech, will also conclude his road racing career at the end of 2024.

Bitesize news:

• Demi Vollering signs a personal sponsorship contract with Nike

• Red Bull BORA Hansgrohe officially announced their full new team name and confirmed they would make the shift from the Tour de France onwards, with the possible new kit leaked online –

ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

With the Giro d’Italia soaking up the lion’s share of the media plenty of other great races have unfolded, as always we will celebrate all the winners here.

STAGE RACES: Spanish trip for the women’s peloton

It’s been two weeks in Spain for the women’s peloton, as they took on the first Grand Tour of the year, La Vuelta Feminina (28 Apr-5 May), and more recently, the three-stage Itzulia Women (10-12 May).

Here are the results in short – a longer analysis of La Vuelta features in this week’s ‘Final Thought’.

At La Vuelta Femenina, Lidl-Trek won the opening day team time trial despite a late crash which later saw Ellen van Dijk forced to retire from the race. It would not be the first retirement from a race marred with crashes and illness, which saw several GC contenders fail to finish. Canadian champion Alison Jackson was victorious on stage 2 and once again the celebrations were something to behold. Her team, EF Education-Cannondale, scored again with a solo win for Kristen Faulkner on stage 4, while Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease A Bike) continued to impress with two stage wins, and victory in the points classification. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx-ProTime) was the only other rider to take two stages, exerting her authority to prove she is right back to her best on stage 5 and the Queen stage on the final day. FDJ-SUEZ’ Evita Muzic was able to get the better of Vollering to take a win on stage 6, but Vollering wrapped up the overall GC win, going one better than last year.

Vollering continued to steamroll the competition as the peloton headed to the Basque Country, though it was her teammate, European champion Mischa Bredewold, who won stages 1 and 2. Demi Vollering soloed to victory on the final stage in Donostia to take the overall win, her second consecutive stage race victory, and sealed an incredible 100% record at the race for Team SD Worx-ProTime. I wrote in more depth about that record, the team, and Vollering’s form, in this piece for GCN Racing:

The only men’s stage race that has taken place outside of the Giro d’Italia is the Tour de Hongrie (8-12 May). The race was significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it marked a return to road racing for Peter Sagan, riding for the improbably named Pierre Baguette continental team from Slovakia. It also saw a second win of the season for Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), an important step in his preparation for the Tour de France where he will aim to win a record-breaking 35^th stage. It represented another step along the path of Thibau Nys’ (Lidl-Trek) road career, as the young cyclocross star won two stages and the overall victory, underscoring his potential. Sam Welford (BORA Hansgrohe) and Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) were the victors on the remaining two stages (1 and 5 respectively).

Men’s one-day races

Maxim van Gils topped off an excellent spring Classics campaign with his second win of the season and his first at World Tour level at Eschborn-Frankfurt (1 May), ahead of Alex Aranburu of Movistar after an exciting and dynamic day of racing in Germany.

Benoît Cosnefroy continued his excellent season and that of his team Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale at the GP de Plumelec-Morbihan (4 May), proving strongest in the uphill sprint for the line, holding off Axel Zingle and Arnaud de Lie.

At Tro Bro Leon (5 May), it was Arnaud de Lie’s day, as the Lotto-Dstny rider proved his form having returned from a period of time out with Lyme disease. The Belgian took the victory on the day, though Cosnefroy may once again have had a shot at challenging him, had this not occurred when he was putting in a big attack towards the end of the race.

Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) won at the Elfstedenronde (5 May), and Arnaud de Lie raised his arms once again at the Circuit de Wallonie (9 May). There were more celebrations for Benoît Cosnefroy at the Tour du Finistère (11 May) – the Cherbourg native taking his sixth win of the season. And finally, Axel Zingle added another victory for Cofidis at the Boucles de l'Aulne (12 May).

Women’s one-day races

A pair of Italians riding for UAE Team ADQ took the honours on two consecutive days in France, with Eleonora Gasparrini winning La Classique Morbihan (3 May) and Silvia Persico victorious in the GP de Plumelec-Morbihan (4 May). On the same day, another Italian from the same team, Chiara Consonni, won the GP Eco-Struct (4 May) in Belgium, making it a hugely successful two days for the team. Another one day race, the Trofee Maarten Wynants (5 May) was won by Anniina Ahtosalo of Uno-X Mobility. Hannah Ludwig of Cofidis took the team’s first win of the season at the Navarra Elite Classic (8 May), on the very same day as Benjamin Thomas was doing the very same at the Giro d’Italia, on a great day all round for the French side.

FINAL THOUGHT – The first Grand Tour

With the increase in length and status of La Vuelta Femenina, we can officially claim that it’s now the first Grand Tour of the season, and it’s a lovely time to visit Spain, less intense than the late August arid heat faced by the men’s peloton, but with plenty of crosswinds to contend with, the weather still played an active role in this year’s race, causing splits in the bunch on several days and putting paid to the GC hopes of some riders.

Illness and injury sadly accounted for a number of riders heading home from the race too, with a fair few crashes responsible for inflicting damage, and while this diminished the race somewhat, there were still some notable takeaways from the race.

• EF Education Cannondale are punching above their weight. The American team may have lost their World Tour status due to a change in sponsors, but they are still riding like a World Tour team. They have retained a great deal of quality and moreover, they seem to enjoy a vibrant team spirit which spills over when they win and is a pleasure to witness. They’ve done a fair bit of winning this season, and taking a quarter of the stages at La Vuelta Femenina is no mean feat, given the quality of the field. With their participation at the Tour de France Femmes confirmed, look out for the big hearted bunch in pink this summer as I have a feeling they are not done yet

• Vos endures. Marianne Vos was declared the ‘GOAT’ of cycling a good few years back, and yet, at 37 years of age, the imperious Dutch woman shows no signs of slowing down. Quite literally. Despite being hampered with injury over the past season and taking time out for iliac artery surgery, Vos still picked up three big wins during spring Classics season, at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Amstel Gold Race, and she continues on to Grand Tour season full of confidence, which she well and truly proved in Spain with two stage wins and the points jersey.

•  FDJ-SUEZ rally with Muzic. It’s not been an easy couple of seasons for the French team. Marta Cavalli’s long-term recovery from the injuries she sustained at the 2022 Tour de France have not seen the Italian get back to her best form yet, and with the team’s other headline name Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig out for the spring Classics after an early season crash, the side were looking decidedly in need of some success. In the young French rider Evita Muzic, the French team have a home talent that they have been developing since she turned pro in 2018, and on stage 6 of the race she finally took her second World Tour win four years after her first – a stage of the Giro Donne in 2020. Plenty more to come from this team this year – watch out!

• Vollering smoothes over doubts. While she had a consistent spring, Demi Vollering didn’t take the wins she would have hoped to, amid rumours of unrest within the team, and the confirmation of her departure from Team SD Worx at the end of this season. She put paid to any doubts over her condition in Spain, dropping the hammer in the cool, calm and calculated fashion we have come to expect from her, and set up an expectation of a big summer ahead for the Dutch superstar.

THE LAST WORD

Thanks for reading, and apologies again for the slightly confused arrival of this newsletter, normal service will resume… well… probably later on in the summer to be honest as it’s non-stop in the world of cycling from here on out – but don’t worry, I’ll be bothering your inboxes regularly, perhaps in a slightly irregular fashion though.

If you’d like to support this newsletter, or the website, which will always be completely free, please do consider buying me a coffee, or upgrading your site membership to one of the paid options, and I will be immensely grateful – thank you to all those of you who do support me, it means the world. And thanks to every single one of you who’s opened this email today, it’s the reason I do this – feel free to drop me a line with any comments, feedback or just to say hi, my inbox is always open.

All the best,

Katy