A time for reflection

Hello, dear readers. It’s been a difficult week for the world of cycling as no doubt you will have heard of the tragic passing of Gino Mader, of Bahrain-Victorious, following a crash at the Tour de Suisse last Thursday.

I will talk a bit more about this later in the newsletter, but forgive the sombre tone this week as it’s not felt like a time for the usual cheer and humour. Nevertheless, there is actually A LOT of news, so let’s crack on with some of that, shall we?

NEWS, GET YOUR NEWS!

Website paid membership launch

OK I’m being a bit cheeky sneaking this one in here, but it’s news, and it’s cycling-related (I write about cycling so… yes, that’s the link). Next week sees the official launch of PAID MEMBERSHIPS at writebikerepeat.com. These offer you the opportunity to gain some exclusive discounts to cycling brands, along with exclusive writebikerepeat merchandise, and to become a valuable part of the community, having a say in the content I create for the site as I build and expand my offering within the cycling media landscape. Read more about the different levels of membership in the below post, and please consider subscribing if you enjoy my work.

Rider safety controversy

There was a major backlash to the CIC-Tour Féminin Pyrénées, which was called off by the UCI over safety concerns after riders were forced to race into oncoming traffic, pedestrians and generally deal with all manner of obstacles that threatened not only their safety but that of the public.

Following the cancellation insult was added to injury by the shocking reaction from race organiser Pascal Baudron, reproduced here for you in case you’ve not yet seen it. Heaven forbid athletes can expect a safe working environment, am I right?

Giro Donne in crisis

More bad news for women’s racing I’m afraid. Every time I write, I seem to bring yet more tales of woe from the seemingly cursed Italian women’s race. With just a week to go until the race supposedly begins, it’s looking distinctly precarious, with the organisers putting pressure on the Italian federation to finance the broadcast, holding the race’s existence to ransom in the process.

In even worse news, if the race does not go ahead as planned this year there’s a possibility it may be demoted from WWT level, putting the RCS takeover that would have otherwise rescued the race from the doldrums, organisationally speaking, in jeopardy.

TDF race radio to be broadcast

There are reports from France that race radio is set to be part of live broadcasts of the race this year. Participation is not mandatory but those teams that do join will reportedly receive 5000 Euro from organisers ASO. Some teams, including Groupama-FDJ, have refused to be a part of the innovation.

Tour de France teams announced

With the Tour rapidly approaching, news about team selections has been dropping like hotcakes this week, with Uno-X, Lotto-DSTNY and BORA-hansgrohe all confirming their line-ups earlier in the week and four more teams (DSM, Intermarche, Jayco-Alula and Israel-Premier Tech) all announcing this very morning. Intermarche will lead with two African riders for the first time in the Tour’s history – Biniam Girmay and Louis Meintjes – with seven different nationalities in their team overall. Last week, Cofidis confirmed a partial line-up of five riders.

Groupama-FDJ also announced their line-up this week, confirming that 10-time Grand Tour stage winner Arnaud Démare would not be a part of their plans for the Tour this summer. It’s an interesting strategy for Marc Madiot as he opts against taking the in-form Démare in favour of the very much not in-form David Gaudu, who will lead the team’s GC ambitions, with Thibaut Pinot taking his victory lap to his home roads in his final season.

I wrote about the difficult decisions of Marc Madiot just as the news first dropped, leading to a very interesting morning of writing; if you want to understand the background behind the team selection, read my piece, below.

The transfer merry-go-round

Will they stay or will they go? The transfer rumour mill and ACTUAL transfer news is in full swing. Contract extensions have been announced for Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), and Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) who extends despite strong rumours to the contrary – if you haven’t seen the genius video the team released to announce the news, please watch it immediately I promise you won’t regret it –

There’s a mini-exodus from Ineos Grenadiers, as Ben Tulett signs with Jumbo-Visma, and Tao Geoghegan-Hart has been strongly linked with Lidl-Trek, and the acrimonious split between Arnaud Démare and Groupama-FDJ will become official at the end of the season as Marc Madiot confirmed the sprinter’s contract will not be renewed – Arkea-Samsic currently seem to be top of the pile to secure his signature.

Renshaw and Cavendish Reunited

The two Marks were a dynamite duo on the road, Renshaw catapulting the Manx Missile to victory on many occasions during their time together, and Astana-Qazaqstan Team delighted fans of the 34-time Tour de France stage winner this week by announcing Renshaw would join the team as an adviser, beginning his tenure at the Tour de France. The likelihood of victory number 35 increases significantly as Cavendish will feel right at home with his old friend and team mate by his side in France.

AG2R launch U23 continental development team

Er, yeah they do! That one’s pretty much explained itself – they join the likes of Groupama-FDJ and Team Jumbo-Visma in the U23 racing development squad ranks – so go them!

It’s nationals week!

It’s that time of year again folks, when countrymen return home to launch all out civil war on one another as they fight to wear their national colours for another season. At the time of writing, the time trial champions have mostly all been crowned, with Josh Tarling (Great Britain), Remi Cavagna (France), Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) just some of the winners from the men’s peloton and Urska Zigart (Slovenia), Emma Norsgaard (Denmark) and Riejanne Markus (Netherlands) among the women’s champions. Next up, the road races!

RACING RECAP – 9^th-22^nd June

As there’s been so much news this week, and given the sombre nature of the results from one race in particular, this section will be relatively brief.

It’s been a fairly lop-sided couple of weeks in terms of men’s v women’s races unfortunately, but I’ll bring you everything that’s happened in pro racing since I last wrote to you, picking up where we left off, at the back end of the Dauphiné…

Critérium du Dauphiné (3-11 Jun)

Intermarché–Circus–Wanty’s Georg Zimmermann was victorious from the break on stage 6, before the Queen stage on stage 7, which featured some of the most iconic climbs from the region, including the Cols de la Madeleine and Croix de Fers. Unsurprisingly, Jonas Vingegaard took the win on the stage, a full 41 seconds ahead of the closest challenger, Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates. Jai Hindley was third with Ben O’Connor fourth in the ongoing battle of the Aussies. Credit too to Britain’s Max Poole (Team DSM) who finished 5^th – he’s really developing into an excellent prospect.

Stage 8 saw a brilliant solo win for Trek-Segafredo’s Giulio Ciccone, ahead of Vingegaard and Yates, with Ben O’Connor finishing ahead of Hindley to take third place on the podium for the second consecutive year, behind Yates and overall winner Jonas Vingegaard, who demonstrated he’s exactly where he needs to be just a couple of weeks prior to the Tour de France.

Shout out to Torstein Træen of Uno-X too for his 8^th place finish on GC – a brilliant result and one to watch at the Tour de France.

The ZLM Tour (7-11 Jun) continued with the final three stages all being decided by bunch sprint finishes. Jakub Mareczko (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won stage 3, Arvid de Kleijn (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) stage 4 and Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) stage 5. Kooij took the overall win too, by dint of a strong performance on the opening day’s time trial.

FOCUS ON: Tour de Suisse (11-18 Jun)

A race with incredible highs and devastating lows, it’s hard to view the first half of this year’s Tour de Suisse as the same race as the second half. So I will recap the first half before a cursory round-up of the final results.

Stage 1 was a relatively short time trial. Despite the presence of both Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert, Stefan Küng was able to perform for the home crowd to take his first time trial win since February, much to the delight of his many supporters. Stage 2 resulted in a bunch sprint. There was a relatively big crash in the final run-in but with none of the main sprinters affected they were all able to contest the finish, which resulted in a win for Biniam Girmay who, like Küng, took his first win since February, ahead of Arnaud Démare and Wout van Aert.

Stage 3 posed the first climbing test of the race, and Remco Evenepoel was the first to make a move on the final climb of Villars sur Ollon. Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose and AG2R’s Felix Gall were the only ones who could hold his wheel. They stuck with him and then pushed clear with 2.5km to go, just as a chasing group latched onto Evenepoel. Juan Ayuso was next to strike out, and the three young riders took the podium spots on the day, with Skjelmose moving clear of Gall for the stage win, and Ayuso in third.

Stage 4 featured the climb of Crans Montana, most recently featured in the Giro d’Italia. It was a long climb and some great tactical riding from AG2R-Citroen allowed a clearly highly motivated Felix Gall to launch early. There was a great deal of attacking after that, from the likes of Romain Bardet and Wilco Kelderman, with the young Bora rider Cian Uijtdebroeks also performing really well. Evenepoel could not keep up with the pace on the climbs once again, perhaps unsurprisingly given he was just returning from a period off the bike with covid. Race leader Skjelmose did a good job of hiding in plain sight, allowing his GC lead slip away in a planned move, as Felix Gall rode for a thoroughly well-deserved stage win.

Juan Ayuso won stage 5 in what should have been a career-defining moment for the young Spaniard. But it was over-shadowed by serious crashes for both Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Gino Mäder.

The situation was unknown overnight but before the start of stage 6, Team Bahrain-Victorious revealed the worst possible news – that Gino had passed away, not recovering from the injuries he sustained in his crash.

The organisation were understandably as shaken and devastated as the rest of the cycling world and made the decision to neutralise the stage, and hold a short ride in Gino’s memory. The following stage (7) was neutralised until the final 30km, where those who wanted to race, could choose to do so. The stage was won by Remco Evenepoel, putting him back into the frame for the GC, a position which he consolidated on the final day’s time trial, despite the day being won by Juan Ayuso. Overall, the most consistent rider was Mattias Skjelmose, who took the GC win with Ayuso in second and Evenepoel recovering his position to finish on the podium. AG2R will be left looking at ways to improve Felix Gall’s time trialling abilities, as he is clearly an incredible prospect in the mountains.

There were three other stage races taking place at the same time as the Tour de Suisse and ZLM Tour – here’s a quick run-down of what went on.

Tour of Slovenia (14-18 Jun) – both stages 1 and 2 ended in bunch sprints; both won by Team Jayco-Alula’s Dylan Groenewegen. Stage 3 was won by BORA-hangrohe’s Ide Schelling, stage 4 another victory for Jayco-Alula, this time through Jesus Peña (his first pro win), and the final stage saw Matej Mohorič take the win for Bahrain-Victorious, just ahead of the overall winner, Jayco-Alula’s Filippo Zana, in a race that was thoroughly dominated by the Australian team.

The Belgium Tour (14-18 Jun) also doubles as the annual summer CX meet, as riders train for cyclocross season. But despite the presence of many off-roaders, it was a battle of the top two Belgian teams for most of the week, with the high-powered Alpecin-Deceuninck fulfilling their destiny on stage 1, Mathieu van der Poel leading out Jasper Philipsen for win number 6 of the season for the Belgian sprinter. Showing he too is in great shape ahead of the Tour de France, Fabio Jakobsen took stage 2 (and stage 5) for Soudal QuickStep, with Uno-X’s Søren Wærenskjold the winner of the stage 3 time trial, and Mathieu van der Poel taking a stage for himself on stage 4.

La Route d’Occitanie (15-18 Jun) was probably quite good to watch but honestly there was just too much else going on for me to pay much attention to this one. The stage winners were as follows: Stage 1 – Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost); stage 2 – Jason Tesson (TotalEnergies); stage 3 – Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) and stage 4 – Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost).

ONE DAY RACING:

Thibau Nys won the GP Kanton Argau (9 Jun). The young cyclocross star for Lidl-Trek is really having a breakthrough season on the road.

The one-day sprint classic Elfstedenronde (11 Jun) offered chances for sprinters not at any of the three stage races already running, and with Jasper Philipsen present there wasn’t much chance for anyone else – the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider is on fire this season and racked up his 5th win.

The mixed-media race (gravel, tarmac, bit of a Belgian Tro Bro Leon) Dwars door het Hageland (10 Jun) was a thriller. The final was fought from a group of 7 at the front, with Mathieu van der Poel missing out after a puncture and riding hard with his team mates to try and make it back on, which they almost did. With just 12 seconds between the two groups heading up the final climb, the front group had thinned to 3: Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-DSTNY), Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X) and Stan van Tricht (Soudal-QuickStep) with a second group containing Yves Lampaert, Loic Vliegen and Simon Clarke hot on their heels. Onto the cobbled climb to the finish, and Rasmus Tiller took the lead and held on all the way to the line. Catch this one if you can.

Sadly we were unable to watch the annual pilgrimage up Mont Ventoux for the CIC-Mont Ventoux race as it wasn’t televised (at least in the UK). The race was won by Groupama-FDJ’s young climbing starlet Lenny Martinez. The diminutive Frenchman took his first pro win, narrowly beating Michael Woods, Simon Carr and Cristian Rodriguez.

WOMEN

There is a rather conspicuous lack of racing on the women’s calendar to report which is a bit strange really – the CIC-Tour Féminin Pyrénées (9-10 Jun) being curtailed early left an even bigger hole in the schedule. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio won stage 1 of that race, with Marta Cavalli victorious on stage 2 and also overall, if that even counts – though having said that, it was promising to see the FDJ-SUEZ rider starting to get back to her previous good for.

Aside from that, there were a couple of one-day races – Lotte Kopecky won Dwars door het Hageland (10 Jun) and Julie de Wilde of Fenix-Deceuninck won the Flanders Diamond Tour (11 Jun) (both 1.1 level). There were six days with no racing after that, until the Tour de Suisse (17-20 Jun). The four-day race was dominated by SD Worx, Blanka Vas taking stage 1 after strong teamwork put her in the best position going into the final sprint for the line. Marlen Reusser somewhat unsurprisingly won the individual time trial on stage 2. Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) was victorious on stage 3, breaking the run of SD Worx wins, which was restored on stage 4 by Niamh Fisher-Black, who took her first pro win for the team after sitting on Kasia Niewiadoma’s wheel for around 30km, in defence of her leader Marlen Reusser, who took the overall victory with Demi Vollering in second place, because SD Worx do a 1-2 like no other.

And that was that. Nothing else on the women’s racing schedule until the Giro Donne begins this time next week – if indeed, it goes ahead.

FINAL THOUGHT

I usually try my best to keep up with results as they happen, when I’m writing for this newsletter. If I don’t it all tends to become a last-minute panic, and I have enough of those in my life. But for a few days last week, I didn’t write a single word about cycling. I didn’t keep up to date with the results; I didn’t watch any of the racing. It felt grotesque, a mockery, to even consider writing about this sport. My plans for covering the Tour de France were instantly forgotten. What did it matter? How can we carry on when the sport we love has led to a young man losing his life? The futility of it drained me, rendered me inert.

As I watched the sombre procession of riders at the Tour de Suisse complete their brief ride in memory of Gino, I felt so powerless. But I was also deeply moved that as a collective, the riders showed their support by coming together on the road to honour a man who will be a much-missed presence in the peloton. Some chose not to continue racing, to take some time away, and others rode on in the race, and in other races, choosing to honour Gino’s memory in the only way they felt they could: with their bodies, and their machines, giving everything to the sport we all love, as a pure form of expression.

Just as they expressed themselves on the road, I too can really only use the tools I have at my disposal to try and ease the pain, both my own, and that of others. So I will continue to write about this sport, despite how incomprehensible and how painful this loss is to me, having never even met the man. Because it’s really all I can do. I can’t offer tributes to him beyond that he was loved and valued by his team mates and friends in the wider sport, and everyone had a good word to say about him. He was too young, and the loss too great to fully process, though I did attempt to summarise my feelings in a post over at the site, published alongside tributes from writers Lorenzo Fortunabro and Stine Agerbæk. You can read all the pieces below, if you would like to.

THE LAST WORD

Next time I write to you, we’ll be knee deep in the Tour de flippin’ France! I’m planning extensive coverage over at the website, with a range of segments that will hopefully present the race in unique and interesting ways – please do sign up to make sure you don’t miss a moment.

In the meantime, if you’d like to show your support for the newsletter or any of my other free cycling content, please consider buying me a coffee. Your support really does inspire me to keep doing what I do.

Until next time, to France.

Cheers,

Katy