A Velo Merry Cycle-mas

Festive greetings good cycling folk, this is going to be a short and sweet introduction as to be perfectly honest with you - I’ve run out of time. These things happen at this time of year, don’t you find? I’ve tried my best to keep up with the news merry-go-round but it’s been a crazy couple of weeks - hopefully I’ll get around to it all.

On the website this week - just one post, and it’s a good one - remember my call for pitches? Well the first of the new voices posts has been published. It’s an insightful piece from South African cycling fan Lace Hallendorff, who writes about how cycling bonds her with her father, expanding her horizons as a fan, and the state of the women’s side of the sport.

Read it here:

There will be a veritable flurry of posts in the coming weeks so keep an eye out - including interviews, previews and more. In the meantime let’s crack on with the news shall we?

Headline news…

The Cian Uijtdebroeks transfer saga has held the cycling social media scene in thrall this week, following the news that the 20-year-old Belgian would leave BORA Hansgrohe, to whom he is contracted through the end of 2024, for Visma-Lease A Bike. There was a whole heap of confusion as both new team and rider posted the news, while old team claimed Uijtdebroeks was still a rider for them.

It's developed fast and continues to do so, as the winner of 2022 Tour de l’Avenir has been spotted out and about on training camp in Spain with Jumbo-Visma this week, while Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveld revealed more sinister claims of internal bullying, which have yet to be answered by those implicated. It looks almost certain that Uijtdebroeks will be a Jumbo-Visma rider next year, but at what cost? There are suggestions of a one million Euro buyout being demanded by BORA hansgrohe, with the legality of the move being investigated by the UCI - more as it develops.

The Lighter Side…

Because we don’t need too much in the way of serious news right now.

Of course, I’m leading with kit reveals. In the last newsletter, AG2R featured as the first men’s World Tour team to reveal their 2024 kit, and they opened the metaphorical floodgates. Well, sort of. Well… not really. We’ve had just three more kit announcements since then, and they were as different as you imagine.

Bahrain-Victorious revealed their new white and light blue look, which is reminiscent of their special Tour de France 2023 jersey and a big departure from the red/orange, in a smart but relatively straightforward social media post. Luckily, Pro Cycling Trumps have come up, well, trumps, and produced this handy graphic!

INEOS dropped their new kit on Wednesday with a video presentation which was relatively generic, though their orange fade kit looks pretty smart to me.

Arkéa-B&B Hotels on the other hand, well. Where do I start? They teased the reveal for several days beforehand and when it came, it was truly epic. A video with suitably dramatic music and dialogue about the team’s Breton heritage, calling on the heraldry of the region, and involving Arnaud Démare lifting a sword from a chest – because, of course. He proceeds to pose with the sword alongside two of his team mates (and does a fine job of it, indeed) as the new kit – suitably named ‘Excalibur’ is revealed. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet, you really must, it’s outstanding.

Gaudu is an actual masochist!

This week’s instalment of ‘can cyclists not just chill?’ features Groupama-FDJ’s Breton climber David Gaudu who, like many of his colleagues, is unable to resist the call of serious endurance competition, even in the off-season. He ran a 76km trail run relay, in the freezing cold and the dark, and is officially a masochist. But also huge props to him, it’s seriously impressive - read about it on GCN -

Guillaume Martin officially cleverest cyclist!

OK, I’m being facetious – there are a whole heap of brilliant geniuses out there in the peloton I’m sure, but Martin has actually written a whole book on his specialist subject, Philosophy, and how it relates to his job in cycling, and he won an actual real life literary award for it! As a writer of books and a lover of cycling and a scholar myself (though not of philosophy) I feel disproportionately proud of his achievement Martin was awarded the Prix Jacques de Fouchier, by the Académie Française for a work of literature that is 'remarkable for its subject matter, composition and style', written by someone who is not a writer by profession. Chapeau, Guillaume.

Madouas for Tro Bro Léon! (artistically, at least)

French champion Valentin Madouas was revealed as the new face of Tro Bro Léon, as they unveiled their 2024 poster. The iconic race always has amazing artwork, and this image of Madouas as a Breton pirate really hits the mark – plus they’ve basically guilted him into attending now by featuring him, and I can’t think of a better pairing of rider and race to be honest.

News… in note form

(For all the other stories that I don’t have time to cover in detail)

• Mark Cavendish will begin his season at the Tour of Colombia, following an altitude training camp there with his team Astana-Qazaqstan.

• Ellen van Dijk is back on the road with her team Lidl-Trek after the birth of her first child, Faas. She will target the Olympics in 2024, among other races.

• Arkéa-B&B Hotels have already confirmed that Arnaud Démare will lead the team at the 2024 Tour de France. Passed over by Groupama-FDJ in 2023 under somewhat controversial circumstances, the former three-time French national champion will target the Tour’s seven sprint stages.

• Groupama-FDJ drew a line under their partnership with Lapierre in favour of Wilier-Triestina bikes from 2024 onwards.

• 38-year-old Maciej Bodnar announced his retirement from professional road racing. The Polish rider has been a part of the World Tour peloton for 15 seasons, riding mostly in service of Peter Sagan.

Transfer round-up

17-year-old Dane Albert Philipsen will join Lidl-Trek from 2025. Philipsen is the current junior World Champion both on the road and in mountain biking. He's also European time trial champion, proving his versatility and potential for the future.

Ukrainian climber Mark Padun signed for Italian Pro continental team, Team Corratec-Selle Italia. Padun had mixed fortunes in his two years with EF Education-EasyPost, following his breakout performance at the 2021 Critérium du Dauphiné where he won two stages.

Davide Cimolai leaves Cofidis for Movistar.

Cyclocross: Toon Aerts will return from his suspension on 17 February with the Deschacht-Hens-Maes. Aerts team. He has signed a two-year contract with them. Pim Ronhaar will ride as a stagiare with Lidl-Trek on the road next summer.

Wholesome content of the week

YES IT’S A FEATURE NOW! Because we really need this, y’know? It’s bleak out there, on multiple fronts and sometimes, all you need is… BENOIT COSNEFROY DANCING WITH A DOG. You’re welcome.

Cyclocross Dispatch

It’s that weird bit of cyclocross season, where many of the multi-discipline riders disappear off for training camps, and even some of the more seasoned off-roaders take a bit of a break ahead of a packed Christmas schedule – but there’s still been some great racing in amongst all the comings and goings. Here are all the latest results and race reports from the (televised!) cyclocross scene.

Our round-up begins with the Superprestige Boom (2 Dec), where the elite women’s race once again offered us the tantalising prospect of a proper head-to-head battle between Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel, with the women sparring for a couple of laps, but Fem once again proved to be just too good, dropping her friend and rival to move clear and take the win. The men’s race was won from the front by a determined Joris Nieuwenhuis. The Baloise Trek rider is enjoying his best ever form on the cross bike, in a resurgent Lions team, and he took the race on from the start, with a dogged ride from local boy Cameron Mason in second. Mason who lives within walking distance of the course in Boom toiled alone in second position, but couldn’t close down Joris, who made it two elite wins this season, with Mason scoring yet another podium. The selfie shot from which was one of my favourite posts of the day:

The following day it was another round of the UCI World Cup, this time in Flamanville (3 Dec). The French World Cup tie saw a few major names missing out for the women, which allowed the young riders to shine – Blanka Vas and Leonie Bentveld were lively early on in the race, as was Marie Schreiber who followed her characteristic good start by storming clear for a while. Then, an error from Schreiber allowed the door to open for Lucinda Brand, whose experience and power enabled her to distance the rest of the field and take her second World Cup win of the season. With Schreiber and Bentveld completing the podium in an excellent showing for the under-23s, a special mention goes to Shirin van Anrooij, who after a terrible start worked her way back through the field from almost two minutes down, passing no less than 12 riders to finish in a remarkable 5^th place. She is surely about ready to begin challenging the leading riders.

The men’s race proved a number of things: Pim Ronhaar has come of age. Thibau Nys needs a rest. And Eli Iserbyt is a terrier who will not EVER give up.

Yes, it was a masterclass in resilience and self-belief from the Pauwels-Sauzen Bingoal rider who found himself somewhat on the back foot chasing down Ronhaar and hemmed in by his teammates Van der Haar and Nieuwenhuis, but over successive laps he narrowed the gap, before finally closing on lap 5 and springing away the following lap, taking advantage of a tired Ronhaar to head for his first World Cup win of the season – it’s been a long time coming for a rider who normally dominates the early season.

In other news, there was some confusion over which race series was occurring when some ducks appeared on course – with the rubber duck the traditional prize for the X2O Trofee, perhaps it was an act of sabotage, or some excellent guerrilla marketing, but either way it provided an additional obstacle for the men to tackle, as the stubborn birds refused to move for something as trivial as a bike race. Fair play.

The following weekend saw one much-lauded return, as Wout van Aert was the first of the so-called ‘Big Three’ to grace the cross field with his presence. He debuted at the Superprestige in Essen (9 Dec) amid a relatively slim field in terms of depth, ensuring that his warm-up race would be a fairly gentle affair. Well, aside from the puddles of mud.

An exciting women’s race ensued in the absence of all the big names, with Marion Norbert Riberolle taking the win just 12 seconds ahead of Aniek van Alphen after a close battle.

The men’s race saw the return of not just one legend of the sport but two, with Zdenyk Stybar also returning to action alongside the more highly billed arrival of Wout van Aert, riding his first race in the 2023-4 season. They both started strongly, but it was Van Aert who held firm, taking the win with 1.30 to spare, Jens Adams and Thijs Aerts completing the podium.

The following day another round of the UCI World Cup and the unique, snowy parcours of Val di Sole (10 Dec) in Italy was the destination.

Top-billed in the women’s race were World Cup leader Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Puck Pieterse. Alvarado slipped on the snow just after the start causing a chaotic pile-up behind her, but it actually worked in her favour as it spread the field out and gaps were established extremely early, with Kristyna Zemanova the first rider to pull clear, Alvarado subsequently able to work her way back to the front marker relatively quickly and overtake. She looked set to take another win, leading the race for some time, but Crelan-Corendon’s Manon Bakker was steadily pegging her back and when she caught and passed Alvarado there was no looking back. The Dutchwoman went on to win a career first UCI World Cup in impressive fashion.

The men’s race saw Joris Nieuwenhuis continue his excellent run of form and yet another World Cup win in the bag for the Baloise Trek Lions. Over a minute back, Niels Vandeputte took second for the second successive year - he’s really making his mark on the snow - and Joran Wyseure scored his first ever senior World Cup podium.

UP NEXT: Announcing his return to the cross field a whole week early, Mathieu van der Poel joins Tom Pidcock in returning to off-road racing action on Saturday at the X2O Trofee in Herentals, ahead of probably my favourite course of the year on Sunday - the UCI World Cup travels to the gnarly, hilly course of Namur.

FINAL THOUGHT – Time waits for no cyclist

I feel as though I really dropped the ball this year, having not gotten around to any kind of season review piece for the website, and every day that goes by, we move closer to the 2024 season, which unbelievably begins in just under 5 weeks in Australia for the Tour Down Under. And the 2023 season becomes gradually less relevant, and more of a distant memory.

Training camp season is well and truly underway, and the precious little time riders have to relax and unwind is already done and dusted and they’re back out on the road clocking up the miles in preparation for another long season. And it really is long. And so the cycle (pun absolutely intended) continues.

But there’s still value in looking back. Lessons learned from last season will be carried into the next, with riders seeking to rectify errors, improve on lacklustre performances, or repeat strong ones. Training, nutrition and gear tweaked accordingly, as all possible gains are exploited in the quest to achieve greatness. And for us, sitting on the metaphorical side lines, the tantalising prospect of speculating on the season ahead, and investing our hopes and dreams in a new configuration of riders, teams and equipment as we start to think about what we’d really love to see in 2024.

Lots more on that on the website in the weeks to come - I’ll be busy sticking my fingers in my ears and singing loudly as I pretend that Omloop, the ‘traditional’ beginning to cycling season, really is the beginning, as I strive to bring you previews and predictions and lots of new features for the new year - one which will be the best year EVER on the site.

THE LAST WORD

I’ll leave the last word this week to the brilliant Cycling out of Context Twitter account, who compiled their yearly compilation of out of context cycling moments. It sums up everything that’s brilliant about this sport, outside of the athletic endeavour itself – the characters, camaraderie, madness and surreal off-the-bike moments that encapsulate cycling at its best. Because let’s face it, when is cycling ever really IN context? Enjoy, if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading, as always, and also as always, if you feel like supporting my endeavour to bring you free cycling content, please consider one of the following options - I do love Christmas presents!

• Buying me a coffee

• Purchasing an item from the writebikerepeat online store

• Or upgrading your site membership to one of the paid tiers - discount codes and free gifts (for certain tiers) available (along with my eternal gratitude)

Until next time, au revoir and oh also FESTIVE GREETINGS to one and all!

Katy