Surprise! Bonus newsletter for your eyeballs

Is it your lucky day, or am I just really good to you? Both, clearly! I’m experimenting with a weekly format this week, simply due to the substantial volume of bicycling that has occurred in only a few short days – the sweet spot as the cyclocross season reaches its crescendo and the road season starts its early rising action – that meant leaving it two weeks would result in another mega behemoth of content – I’m barely recovered from the last one.

CX World Championships in Hoogerheide have come and gone, as have the first European stage races of the calendar, and one in the middle East too, so there’s a bunch of stuff to get our metaphorical teeth into (not our real teeth mind – don’t eat pro cyclists, it’s not big or clever).

Let’s crack on, shall we?

NEWS

- The two men who broke in to Mark Cavendish’s home have been jailed, for 12 and 9 years respectively.

- FDJ-SUEZ manager Stephen Delcourt has spoken out about the ‘disrespect’ shown by the organisers of the Vuelta and Giro Donne, neither of which have yet released details of their routes – both Delcourt and the FDJ riders complained about how difficult it is to prepare for a race when you do not yet know what that race’s parcours consists of. Fair enough, really – keeping an eye out for a response from either organiser.

- Cycling TV shows abound! With the Netflix Tour de France documentary slated for a March release, Jumbo-Visma have confirmed their own 2022 season review series will air on Amazon Prime – although currently only in Benelux countries. Also, in a Guardian article this week, Mark Cavendish confirmed he too is involved in a Netflix show about his career.

- The UCI confirms they are in talks about possible new cyclocross World Cup venues in London, Munich and New York, with Beekse Bergen not on the schedule for 2024.

RAWR, REALLY RACY RESULTS ROUND-UP

Etoiles de Besseges

I’ve had the unfortunate – yet fortunately very rare – issue of a lack of coverage for this one, as it was geoblocked in the UK. Alas, as my little heart really does love this race. I know, VPNs, I know. But I’m technologically stunted and so I didn’t get around to sorting it out in time so this reportage is primarily based on my usual reliable sources – FirstCycling.com, and cycling Twitter.

Stage 2 was completely neutralised following a huge crash, which led to a number of injuries and dramatic scenes featuring, among other things, a rider hanging over the edge of a bridge (as it turned out, it was a very low bridge and he was unharmed in the incident). The race commissaires called off the stage in the interests of rider safety as there were not enough ambulances to serve the riders. Chapeau to them for making a good decision. After winning stage 1, the young prodigy Arnaud de Lie of Lotto-DSTNY took stage 3 in arguably his more usual style, in a true sprint – and he continued to look impressive throughout the week.  Stage 4 was a stage for climbers and was won by Mattias Skjelmose of Trek-Segafredo, who continues to deliver on the promise he showed last season. The final day’s time trial was also won by a Trek rider, with Mads Pedersen in great form against the clock, but neither of the Trek boys could stop EF Education-EasyPost’s Neilson Powless, who came through 5 seconds ahead of Skjelmose in the time trial, having just missed out on the stage win the previous day. It was the first GC win of Powless’ career, and coming off the back of his win at the GP Marseillaise, proves the American is in great shape heading into the rest of the season.

Simone Consonni of Cofidis won the final stage of the Saudi Tour, with Ruben Guerreiro retaining the lead to secure the overall win.

The Volta Comunitat Valenciana provided a rollercoaster of excitement, following Biniam Girmay’s stage 1 victory. Stage 2 went to Giulio Ciccone, continuing Trek’s good run of February form. The Italian took the lead in the GC for the next three stages, which were won by Simone Velasco of Astana, Tao Geoghegan-Hart of INEOS and Rui Costa of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, who stole the shirt from Ciccone’s back at the last, as the Italian was left isolated  heading into Valencia. It marks wins number 2 and 3 for Costa, and continues Intermarché’s storming run of good results.

One of the most remarkable things about the race though, was the performance of one Thomas Gloag. Formerly a rider for Trinity Racing, Gloag performed well in last year’s Tour de l’Avenir, and signed for Jumbo-Visma, something of a surprise given the British U23 team’s considerable talents more often than not end up at INEOS. Gloag rode exceptionally well against top level competition, challenging in the mountains with his Froome-like high cadence, and finishing 6^th in the overall GC – a truly special effort for his first year pro.

Tao Geoghegan-Hart’s emotional victory, his first since the 2020 Giro d’Italia, was another talking point. Tao is back in good form and held off the rest to secure his victory on stage 4, a summit finish up to Altura. It bodes well for the Giro d’Italia this year.

CX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Did you watch the races, though? They were so good, right?

I am still processing my reactions to the weekend’s breath-taking action in Hoogerheide, to the point that I’m undecided about whether or not to write about them in a longer post, but I will summarise the action here, giving space to the races that don’t usually get much of a look-in

Sadly not televised, for reasons unknown as it would be BANGING to watch, the mixed relay event was won by a stacked Netherlands team which included Fem van Empel. Great Britain pipped Belgium into silver medal position in a surprising and brilliant result for them.

The women’s junior event was shaped by an early mechanical for hot favourite Lauren Molengraaf of the Netherlands, in conditions that were a lot wetter than forecast. It allowed Canadian twins Ava and Isabella Holmgren to go clear, Isabella leading for most of the race and taking the overall victory, and Canada’s first rainbow stripes in cyclocross. The men’s juniors was a little more open, with less obvious stand-out favourites. French rider Leo Bisiaux went clear early in the race and the rest of the field were unable to peg him back as he soloed to victory.

In the women’s U23 category, there was a stand-out competitor – Shirin Van Anrooij has been taking on, and sometimes beating, Van Empel and Pieterse at elite level all season, but opted to stay at U23 for one more year. She was the obvious favourite as a result, but this piled the pressure onto her shoulders – she had to perform. And perform she did. Only GB’s Zoe Backstedt could stay with the Dutch rider as she pulled clear, and only for a few laps before Van Anrooij used her characteristic power to drive away from the young Welsh rider. She didn’t put a foot wrong, and to be fair, neither did Zoe, who carved out a big gap between herself and the next best rider, Kristina Zemenova of the Czech Republic. The three stayed in those positions for the whole race, and that was that.

The men’s U23 race was dominated once again by Belgium, and it was Thibau Nys who finally found his way back to victory, after a couple of seasons of inconsistent runs due to various injuries. Nys won solo, leaving behind the Dutch rider Tibor Del Grosso and his team mate Witse Meussen who sprinted it out for second, with last year’s winner Joran Wyseure just missing out in fourth.

The elite races were exactly as predicted, and yet entirely unpredictable (also as predicted). They both came down to head-to-heads, with Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse doing battle in the elite women’s race and Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert doing what they do in the elite men’s. The women’s was a little more clear cut, with Pieterse having a shocker of a start and having to fight her way back to the front, where she gave as good as Van Empel for a few laps, before sliding out on a descent and coming down. With Lucinda Brand’s wheel to follow she worked her way back but it was not enough, with Van Empel steady and assured throughout, powering clear to become elite World Champion.

The men’s race really did go down to the wire. It was a fitting end to a season that has seen the two Vans back to their best, and their rivalry hitting the heights of a few years ago once more. It was breath-taking, edge of the seat stuff, and to tell you the truth I’ve still not full recovered from it, but safe to say there was nothing in it until the final stretch, when Van Der Poel surprised Van Aert by not going full gas over the barriers, then dropped his trademark wattbomb to power to victory, Van Aert not launching his sprint in time and being left once again to take silver. Eli Iserbyt came through in third and Great Britain’s Cameron Mason made the top ten in his first outing in the elites, coming in a creditable 9^th .

Will I write more about this season, and this thrilling finale? Quite possibly. Watch this space. In the meantime, here are a few fantastic photos of an unforgettable weekend in Hoogerheide:

FINAL THOUGHT

With European stage races full swing and the classics just a couple of weeks away, we really are allowed to let ourselves get carried away with the excitement of the new season, now. There are already hints that it’s going to be one of the best ones yet, with FDJ SUEZ ready to bring their best to challenge Annemiek van Vleuten in her final season, the sprint battles between Lorena Wiebes, Charlotte Kool and Elisa Balsamo shaping up to be incendiary, Van Aert and Van der Poel basically doing all the same races and promising more of their usual antics, Pogacar coming back fresh and ready to avenge the entire cycling world for all the races he didn’t win last year, Evenepoel and plenty more promising the best Giro d’Italia GC in recent years, not to mention young riders all over the place disrupting the natural order and making their presence felt because they are not scared of ANYONE. I am simply salivating over the prospect of another cracking cycling season. Let’s go!

THE LAST WORD

So, this is my idea of a ‘short’ newsletter – just one week’s worth of action packed into less than 2000 words, I hope you admire my restraint. I’ll be back in a couple of week’s time with plenty more to report on ahead of opening weekend – until then, take care and as always, feel free to support me on Ko-Fi if you like what I do and have a couple of monies lying around to spare - I am always incredibly grateful for any and all support I receive in this lone venture of mine.

Cheers,
Katy