In the thick of it

Hey sports fans, how are we all doing in this the month of JUNE. Yes it’s June, another two weeks has slipped by and I’m back with you all under sunny skies enjoying this thing we call summer and rinsing it for all it’s worth while it graces us with its presence.

June is a fun month in cycling. We’re elbow deep in the good stuff: midway between the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, we wouldn’t have long to wait for our next fix even if we only watched Grand Tours, but there’s plenty more besides, with the back-to-back warm-up races of the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse, and two WWT races with the women’s Tour de Suisse and the Giro Donne on the way.

As I plot and plan for extensive, fun, and somewhat different Tour de France coverage over at the site, plenty has been going on in the world of cycling, so let’s kick off with the main news stories from the past two weeks

NEWS, GET YOUR NEWS!

Giro Donne route revealed (finally)

Yes, it’s the route reveal we’ve all been waiting for, including the teams, riders and presumably organisers on the ground, the route for the Giro Donne finally dropped a whole 5 weeks before the race is actually due to take place. It’s a pretty poor show from the organisers who thankfully hand over the reins of race organisation to RCS as of next year, who hopefully will be able to do a better job of giving the people what they want (useful information about the race, with a decent amount of notice – not too much to ask, is it?)

The route features a short opening time trial, following by a series of varied stages over the next 9 days, with the cima coppi the Passo del Lupo on stage 5. Stage profiles still don’t exist though. Let’s hope RCS do a better job when they take over the race organisation next year.

Lidl-Trek begin partnership

One of the main title sponsor changes will come into effect as of the end of this month, with the Tour de France the first outing for the team’s new kit, which is yet to be revealed but a competition launched on Twitter by the team’s press officer produced some excellent ideas should the designer be struggling for inspiration, including a few beauties by the riders themselves. Here’s Mads Pedersen’s striking effort:

Arkea and B&B Hotels join forces

An announcement which took the cycling world by surprise was that of Arkea’s break with Samsic for the 2024 season, to join up with former team sponsor B&B Hotels. After the team disbanded at the end of last season following a failure to secure sponsorship, it looked as though the hotel brand’s association with the sport would be over, but it will now form a new French super-team, with an expanded budget, women’s team and development team.

Shari Bossuyt suspended

Belgian track and road star Shari Bossuyt on Canyon//SRAM was suspended from racing after a positive sample confirmed the presence of the banned substance letrozole in her blood. She has vowed to clear her name and will not race again until further notice.

She joins cyclocross rider Toon Aerts as the second rider to be suspended for the alleged us of this particular substance within the past couple of seasons. Bossuyt claims she has no knowledge of the drug, and that its presence in her sample could be explained by contaminated beef or dairy products.

World Championships threatened by strikes

The smooth running of this summer’s super World Championships in Glasgow is under threat following a series of planned strikes by local council members. The race organisers are currently negotiating to overcome the issues and ensure the event can go ahead as planned.

Five more years of Gee

Giro d’Italia’s breakout star Derek Gee has this week committed himself to five more years at Israel-Premier Tech, extending his contract through 2028. He’s already accrued more UCI points for the team than many of the World Tour’s top riders, as GCN’s Will Newton summarises:

RACE RECAP 25 MAY – 8 JUNE

So much racing for your faces! Let’s dive in.

We begin by returning to a four-day stage race in Normandy, the Boucles de Mayenne (25-28 May). A short prologue kicked off proceedings, and when I say short I mean short – just 4.1km, the ride represented just over a 5 minute effort, and the day was won by UAE’s Ivo Oliveira with Benoit Cosnefroy and Axel Zingle completing the podium.

All three were on the attack on stage 1 from stupidly early in the stage, AG2R shredding the peloton on the early climb and sling-shotting Cosnefroy along with the other two jersey holders in pursuit of the breakaway. They were reeled back in but attacks kept coming, Cosnefroy again, then all settled down. After all the action there was a manic breakaway chase – Movistar’s Oier Lazkano set off solo from the break, and was never seen again - he won solo with enough of a gap that all he would have to do was remain with the front group on the following two sprint stages to retain the leader’s jersey.

Groupama-FDJ’s Arnaud Démare won the bunch sprint behind. Stage 2 Démare was able to go one better, winning the bunch sprint, his first victory since October 2022. He wasn’t quite as successful on stage 3, as Tudor Pro Cycling’s Arvid de Kleijn got the better of him and the rest of the sprinters, but Démare took the green jersey in the end, as Oier Lazkano took home the GC having sealed the deal on stage 1.

Running concurrently, the Tour of Norway (26-29 May) also opened with a Prologue, although a slightly longer one at a whole 7.1km. Ben Tulett of the INEOS Grenadiers took victory and the first leader’s jersey in that. In an occurrence that surprised literally no-one in the Spring of mad weather, Stage 1 was shortened due to extreme weather conditions, Intermarche’s Mike Teunissen winning the sprint to score his first individual victory on the road since 2019.

Stage 3 was a cracker, with a motivated breakaway almost managing to stay away, and when they were finally caught Uno-X’s Rasmus Tiller took off solo leading to a thrilling finale, with Trek-Segafredo driving the bunch, Jasper Stuyven piloting Thibau Nys to the narrow uphill drag to line. Nys powered to the line to take his first pro victory in emphatic fashion. Stage 4 was won by Alexander Kristoff, with Ben Tullett hanging on to take the overall win, ahead of his team mate Magnus Sheffield and Nys in third.

In one-day racing, Caleb Ewan took his first victory since January at the Van Merksteijn Fences Classic (27 May), beating Tim Merlier and Gerben Thijssen, but was beaten into second – a position that’s been more familiar for him this season – two days later at the Ronde van Limburg (29 May) – by Gerben Thijssen.

The final race in May was the Mercan Tour Classic Alpes Maritimes (30 May) and despite a stern challenge from all of the French teams and Lotto-DSTNY’s young Lennert van Eetvelt, returning to racing after a short break while he overturned a doping allegation, EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz took the victory there, his first of the season outside of the Ecuador national championship road race.

Moving into June, Marc Hirschi continued his return to winning ways at the Giro dell’Appennino (2 Jun) and the following day Olav Kooij notched up his fifth win of the season, storming to victory at the Heistse Pijl (3 Jun).

The Brussels Classic (4 Jun) boasted an array of top sprinters and was raced hard from the off, and by the time the broadcast kicked in a strong group of 20 riders had detached itself from the main peloton and was pursuing the day’s early break. Once caught, the group only extended their lead over the peloton, and with the likes of Biniam Girmay, Arnaud Démare, Jordi Meeus and more among its number, it proved too strong for Tim Merlier and the rest of the stranded sprinters to catch.

Despite the efforts of Team Jayco-Alula’s Kelland O’Brien to take a flyer around 1km from the finish, sterling work from Groupama-FDJ’s Lewis Askey ensured he was reeled back in and Askey’s leader Arnaud Démare was able to sprint to victory, proving that he is back to his best ahead of this year’s Tour de France.

The ZLM Tour (7-11 June) is currently underway – Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM) won the opening day’s Prologue, and stage 1 featured a thrilling breakaway versus bunch finish, in which Tour de Tietema-Unibet’s Yentl Vandevelde took his first pro win and the first win for the team that began as a YouTube cycling content channel and is now a team in its own right - a pretty incredible story.

FOCUS ON: Critérium du Dauphiné (4-11 Jun)

You know you’re in Tour de France territory when the Dauphiné begins. Annually used as a warm-up race and a chance for rivals to test their mettle against one another and perhaps strike psychological blows ahead of the main event in July, the Dauphiné has long been seen as a good indicator for form going into the Tour, with the winner going on to take victory at Le Tour 4 times in the past 10 years (though it’s worth noting for the record that 3 of these were Chris Froome and the other, his team mate Geraint Thomas).

This year’s race saw a typically stacked start list, with many of the main GC contenders for the Tour in attendance, though with the notable exception, once again, of Tadej Pogačar, who was still recovering from a broken wrist – he does not plan to race before the Tour, aside from at his national championships at the end of the month.

Stage 1 was a rolling affair, suitable for punchy riders and versatile sprinters, but like the Giro had before it, the day looked set to go for the breakaway, with a powerful group of five riders slimming down to three – Dorian Godon, Brent van Moer and Rune Herregodts – who dug in their heels, and maintained a decent gap. With a small categorised climb repeated three times, it shelled the likes of Dylan Groenewegen and Sam Bennett, ensuring there would be no big sprint at the end of the day.

Also like the Giro, the riders were subjected to the worst of the continental weather conditions, with rain and even hail hampering their progress, and when the peloton bore down on the lead group with 13km to go their day looked to be done, with just Godon and Herregodts remaining. One man stubbornly resisted the chase though – Rune Herregodts of Intermarche-Circus-Wanty dangled off the front as the distance diminished, and with the finish in sight, they finally caught him just metres from the line, so close it was agonising, Jumbo-Visma’s GC favourite Jonas Vingegaard leading out Christophe Laporte to the win and the yellow jersey.

Stage 2 was almost a carbon copy of stage 1 in terms of the profile, with repeated loops of a category 4 climb taken on in the later part of the day. After the breakaway almost took the win on stage 1, the peloton weren’t about to make the same mistake, particularly as it contained Trek-Segafredo’s Kenny Ellissonde who was less than a minute in arrears on the GC. It wasn’t a good day for some riders as the cramp fairy visited not once, not twice, but three times, there must have been something in the air. In the end it came down to the expected reduced bunch sprint, Julian Alaphillippe perfectly timing his effort as he drive for the line and ensured he was well clear of the rest when he raised his arms for his first victory since February.

A flat sprint day followed on stage 3 which yielded little in the way of entertainment aside from the final bunch gallop, which saw the main sprint threats Dylan Groenewegen and Sam Bennett go head-to-head alongside race leader Christophe Laporte. Bennett deviated, forcing Groenewegen to do the same, Laporte won anyway taking his second stage win of the Dauphiné and both sprinters were later relegated, in a race that hasn’t gone their way.

The stage 4 time trial was long and decisive, shaking up the general classification and creating major gulfs between the key players, the likes of Mikkel Landa and David Gaudu losing out on time while Adam Yates and Ben O’Connor consolidated, and Jonas Vingegaard went all out to leave himself absolutely spent at the end of the race, yet he couldn’t take the stage win, or the yellow jersey - those accolades belonged to his compatriot Mikkel Bjerg of UAE Team Emirates, victorious by a margin of 12 seconds, and overcome with emotion at his first pro win.

Stage 5 saw a shift to medium hills, and with a breakaway including the engines of Nils Pollitt and Thomas de Gendt and some decent firepower there was a chance that it might go all the way for the leading group, until Richard Carapaz chanced an attack on the final climb of the day, dragging Jonas Vingegaard with him.

A group of GC favourites detached itself from the peloton to give chase, and the tables turned, an unexpected GC day coming to pass as Carapaz faded and plummeted out of sight, and the GC group failed to coordinate themselves in time to reel Vingegaard back in. The Dane took the stage and 34 seconds over the rest of his main rivals, who will be ruing their inability to work together as the yellow jersey lands on the back of reigning Tour champion, where it may well stay to the conclusion of the race on Sunday.

THE WOMEN

We were midway through the Thüringen Ladies Tour (23-28 May) when I last wrote, and SD Worx had won both of the first two stages. Well, things stayed decidedly SD Worx-y for the remainder of the race. Such was the Dutch team’s monopoly, not only did they win ALL the stages, with five different riders taking a stage each (and various iterations of other team mates rounding out the podium on most days), they also finished with a 1-2-3 on the GC, the overall winner Lotte Kopecky, with Lorena Wiebes and Mischa Bredewold rounding out the total domination.

The three-day RideLondon Classique (26-28 May) wasn’t won by SD Worx – mainly because they weren’t participating, but it was a chance for other teams to have their time to shine, and Team DSM did just that, winning the first and last stages and the general classification with their sprinter, Charlotte Kool. A team who have found wins hard to come by this season, Canyon//SRAM, took the central stage, through Chloe Dygert, who also finished second on GC, with Trek-Segafredo’s Lizzie Deignan in third place.

In the women’s version of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta del Sol (31 May-4 Jun), Israel-Premier Tech’s Tamara Dronova impressed early on winning the first two stages, but the overall GC victory went to Movistar’s Katrina Aalerud.

DON’T MISS

It feels a bit like cheating to suggest that if you haven’t already, you should go back and watch the final time trial stage of the Giro d’Italia. I haven’t mentioned the race in this newsletter, as I continued to cover it in depth over at my site, and it’s been a while now, but honestly, I can say with confidence that Stage 20 was the best time trial I have ever seen. For the drama, the joy, the beauty, the fans, the narrative, the redemption, the heartbreak, the sportsmanship, just absolutely everything about it was spellbinding. Add a little cherry on top watching Geraint Thomas lead out his old mate Mark Cavendish to victory on the final stage in Rome, in what would be Cavendish’s final Giro stage ever, and you have the makings of a Hollywood movie.

The Brussels Cycling Classic wasn’t half bad, either.

STARS OF THE FORTNIGHT

Every week I nominate the rider or riders who have shone, strived or generally just made cycling better in the past two weeks.

1. Rune Herregodts (stage 1, Critérium du Dauphiné) for his dogged, never-say-die breakaway effort, despite the last-minute heart-break.

2. Mikkel Bjerg (stage 4, Critérium du Dauphiné) for taking his first pro win and his elation afterwards.

3. Yentl Vandevelde (stage 1, ZLM Tour) for giving hope to underdogs and breakaway hopefuls everywhere.

FINAL THOUGHT: Tour de France Unchained

For those of you who have been holidaying on Mars or perhaps work year-long shifts on a deep sea submersible, there’s big news: Netflix made a documentary about the Tour de France. For the rest of you – IT’S HERE!

Yes, Netflix’s long-awaited docu-series ‘in the heart of the peloton’ (to translate its original French title) takes a dive into the most famous bike race in the world, following the protagonists of the 2022 Tour (or at least, the ones from the teams who wanted to be involved).

While I would like to have binged the lot in one sitting, I’ve only managed to watch a couple of episodes so far, but have been impressed on the whole aside from a few questionable editing choices. The producers of the series claim to be aiming for ‘Drive to Survive’ levels of impact on the sport of cycling, and as a huge fan of the sport it’s going to be interesting not only to see how the programme makers have chosen to represent the various interweaving narratives of the Tour, but how it will be received by a wider audience, one less familiar with the intricacies of the sport.

So it’s with trepidation and excitement that I have begun viewing the series, as a kind of ‘insider looking from an outsider’s perspective’ – so far the key players have been introduced in order and back stories woven neatly to create an emotional connection with the viewer – quite how this will work in a sport with so many characters, I’m not sure yet, but I’m excited to see the outcome. Here’s the trailer for you interplanetary travellers:

THE LAST WORD

It’s been a busy couple of weeks so I’ll leave you with this quick request: if you are a creator or small business in the world of cycling, or you know someone who is, please consider sponsoring my upcoming Tour de France Daily blog posts that will appear on my website - they represent an opportunity to reach a broad range of new customers, and there are a variety of options available, so please just reply to this email to get in touch and ask for further information if this is something that might interest you.

In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed this, or any of my other cycling content, please consider buying me a coffee to support my continued efforts to bring you free independent cycling writing.

Thanks for reading, and see you again in a fortnight, when the Tour de France will be imminent and I will more than likely be making incoherent squeaking noises and flapping ineffectually.

All the best,

Katy