Vive Le Tour!

Hey there lovely people, and welcome to this week’s edition of the newsletter – the last regular edition until after Le Tour de France as we take our scheduled three-week detour for the biggest race of the season. More on that later!

Before that I’d like to welcome new subscribers, there have been a great many of you jumping aboard the good ship writebikerepeat, presumably mostly with the aforementioned Grand Tour at the forefront of your minds, so for those of you who aren’t familiar with the newsletter, here’s a quick run-down of what it’s all about.

Coming to you twice monthly throughout the year, the writebikerepeat newsletter brings you all the latest news and results from the world of pro cycling, along with opinion pieces, some enjoyable side quests to keep us entertained, and of course all the latest updates on the writebikerepeat website (for reasons long and technical, I have to keep the newsletter and website separate in terms of provider, but they are one and the same and all run by myself).

Feel free to reach out to say hi, or suggest content you’d like to see more of, or offer any other feedback really, just by replying to this email. And with all that out of the way, in a very busy week of action, it’s time to get on with the news.

(If you’re just here for Le Tour Dispatch, it will be with you shortly!)

ON THE WEBSITE

Speaking of the Tour (because of course we are), if you haven’t read it yet, here’s my straight-to-TV Team Preview, featuring all 22 teams, ‘Unchained’. It’s got the real story of each team’s chances, plus a little poetic license as I envision what Netflix might do instead. It’s partially sensible, partially a bit unhinged, take with a pinch of salt but do have a read!

ON THE POD

In addition to my writing I’m also a broadcaster and part of the On Yer Bike Podcast. If you prefer to digest your Tour de France previews in audible format, do go and check out our latest episode wherever you get your podcasts. The previous episode is a mega British National Championship edition featuring interviews and atmosphere from live at the race. And during the Tour we’ll be bringing you daily pods keeping on top of all the action - do check it out!

THE NEWS!

There’s been a fair bit of action in the pro cycling world over the past couple of weeks, here are some of the main headlines.

Tour de France line-ups revealed!

Of course, by the time this newsletter lands in your inboxes we will know the composition of all 22 teams heading to Florence for Le Grand Depart, which, when you receive this newsletter, will in fact be TOMORROW!

The contents of the squad lists will have been subject to much discussion and debate in the meantime, and here are some of the stand-out points from the announcements:

• Killer bees back together – yes, one of the key questions of this Tour de France has been answered – defending champion Jonas Vingegaard will indeed take to the start, and alongside him, loyal lieutenant Wout van Aert. Neither of the pair have raced since their respective crashes, and van Aert wasn’t initially scheduled to race Le Tour this year, but as we all well know they are a force to be reckoned with and if their form is good, Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates have much to fear, even despite the late blow of Sepp Kuss’ withdrawal due to covid.

• UAE super-team – speaking of UAE, they confirmed what we had all been expecting, revealing a team of galacticos most of whom would be the designated leader on any other team, who will support Pogi in his quest to do the first Giro-Tour double since Pantani in 1998.

•  INEOS Grenadiers bring two former winners, with Geraint Thomas riding his final Tour de France, and Egan Bernal still on the comeback trail after his horror training crash in 2022. The designated leader is likely to be Carlos Rodriguez, and with Tom Pidcock likely to get the freedom to go for stage wins, this team could well spring a surprise on the big guns, if they are on form.

• Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe - new team name, new kit, and in Primoz Roglic, a rider who is ready to take another crack at the Grand Tour that has eluded him. With a balanced team around him, could this be the year for Rogla?

ALL the team news is available at the WBR News Page and of course, widely available on all cycling websites by now – including FirstCycling, our preferred cycling data site.

IN OTHER NEWS!

It’s not all about the Tour de France! Other things happened!

Shock return for van der Breggen!

Yes, the former World Champion shocked the cycling world by renouncing her retirement to confirm she would ride for Team SD Worx-ProTime in 2025, filling the void that will be left by the departure of her protegee, Demi Vollering.

Philipsen and Arensman extend!

The former disaster turned master, top sprinter Jasper Philipsen tied his future to his current team Alpecin-Deceuninck last week, extending his contract with them until 2028. Thymen Arensman has today been revealed as extending with the INEOS Grenadiers until 2027.

Heartbreak for Archibald!

Team GB track star Katie Archibald’s Olympic dreams are over after she tripped over a step and suffered a number of fractures – it’s such a strange and tragic thing to happen so close to Paris 2024, and we send her all the best for her recovery.

Canyon//SRAM strengthen!

According to reliable rumour mill Daniel Benson, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will be headed for Canyon//SRAM in 2025 to co-headline the team alongside Kasia Niewiadoma, who has extended her contract. They will be joined by UAE Team ADQ sprinter Chiara Consonni, to give a new-look side for next season.

Was it something we said?!

In retirement news, both Ramon Sinkeldam and Audrey Cordon-Ragot (currently with Lotto-Dstny and Human Powered Health respectively) both confirmed 2024 would be their final season in the peloton. Romain Bardet also confirmed he would retire, though he’s doing things a little differently, riding on into 2025 and finishing his career after the Critérium du Dauphiné. Very decent of him I think, as the end of the season is hard enough as it is without suffering the loss of another iconic Frenchman from the peloton.

Full stories on these and other main stories from around the world of pro cycling can be found on the News Page.

ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

FOCUS ON: National Championships

Look, if there weren’t less than 24 hours to go until the beginning of the Tour de France, I’d bring you an in-depth run-down of all the action from the various national championships from the past week. I love Nationals week in cycling, it’s mad and exciting and a bit unsettling as you realise you have to get used to seeing different riders in their national jerseys, and others back in their regular ones, and I promise I’ll feature it more prominently next year but quite honestly the time’s gotten away from me this year.

Notable results include those from Belgium, where Lotte Kopecky surprised precisely no-one by winning, and Arnaud de Lie surprised many, in particular Jasper Philipsen, who he beat in the final sprint. He was very emotional about his victory after a difficult early season in which he struggled with illness.

In France, Juliette Labous won for the women and Paul Lapeira for the men, in a race which many expected Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale to win, given their spectacular form this season, but most if they were honest, probably thought it would be the in-form Benoit Cosnefroy to do the job.

The British road race saw race favourites Pfeiffer Georgi and Ethan Hayter take the honours, and there was an upset in Denmark when an U23 rider (also from Decathlon-AG2R) Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen, beat an extremely strong field that included the likes of Mads Pedersen and Magnus Cort. Elisa Longo Borghini won her fifth national title in Italy, while Alberto Bettiol won solo in the men’s race to take his first.

And there were many more results, too many to list here, do check out our friends FirstCycling for more details if you’re interested.

There were three stage races still underway when I last wrote to you, for completeness here are the final results from those: at the Tour de Suisse (9-16 Jun), UAE Team Emirates sealed a dominant week, as Adam Yates took stage 7 and the overall title, while teammate João Almeida won the final stage 8 time trial and came second on GC.

The final two stages at the Tour of Slovenia (12-16 Jun) were won by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and the overall was won by Giovanni Aleotti (BORA Hansgrohe)

The Baloise Belgium Tour (12-16 Jun) saw a win for Alex Aranburu (Movistar) on stage 4 and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) on stage 5, with the GC going for Uno-X’s Søren Wærenskjold.

The only race this week is the 2.1 level Okolo Slovenska (26-30 Jun). Team Jayco-AlUla won the opening stage team time trial, before their young Dane Anders Foldager took victory on stage 2. I’ll round that one up in the next newsletter.

WOMEN

The three-stage Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées (14-16 Jun) saw victories for Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ-SUEZ) on stage 1 and Josie Talbot of Cofidis Women on stage 3. Usoa Ostolaza Zabala (Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi) won stage 2 and the overall classification.

The Tour de Suisse Women (15-18 Jun) followed on directly from the men’s and across four days of racing, Demi Vollering once again proved she is the best stage racer in the women’s peloton by quite some margin. The Team SD Worx-ProTime rider won three stages and the overall classification, but the team didn’t have it all their own way, with strong competition from Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Neve Bradbury (Canyon//SRAM). The 22-year-old Australian and and her teammate Kasia Niewiadoma lit up stage 3, taking it on from the front and making up almost a minute on GC In the process, along with a stage win for Bradbury, her first pro victory. Bradbury finished second on GC and Niewiadoma fourth, as the team continue to improve under the tutelage of Magnus Backstedt in the team car, and have much to offer in the coming years with a host of young talents rising through the ranks.

This week’s only race is the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour (25-30 June) in Germany. Stage 1 was won by Margot Vanpachtenbeke of VolkerWessels Pro Cycling Team from the day’s early break, after the peloton failed to close down her or breakaway companion Ruth Edwards. Stages 2 and 3 were both won by Ceratizit-WNT’s Martina Fidanza in a sprint. The conclusion of that one, next time.

FINAL THOUGHT – The Big Show

The Tour de France is almost upon us and honestly, just thinking about it sends a shiver down my spine. There’s really nothing else like it, and actually, come to think of it, cycling as a sport has multiple unique moments throughout its yearly cycle (pun intended) that really mark it out from other sports. After all, a rugby match is a rugby match – though one match may differ in importance from another; a 100m race is a 100m race – and so on, and so forth. While you can perhaps boil cycling down to ‘it’s just a bike race,’ if you’re determined to be reductive, there’s really very little from one race to the next which is standardised, even from one edition of the same race to the next. Routes vary, distances vary, start and finish towns change, time trials come and go and lengthen and shorten. External forces intervene to demand last-minute changes to routes. And that’s all without taking into account the constant shifting landscape of teams, equipment, and most importantly riders and their own individual form and everything that entails.

Even the three Grand Tours are completely unique from one another, in style, personality, format, and vibe. And the Tour de France, well. However you feel about the amount of oxygen it sucks out of the rest of the sport, it is what it is for a reason, and it’s the pinnacle of the cycling year for everyone involved, from riders, to team staff, to fans, to writers like myself who will throw everything we have in an attempt to capture the unique stories of each stage, and each edition, for posterity.

And with that in mind, I’m proud to reintroduce ‘LE TOUR DISPATCH’ – a daily bulletin bringing you news directly from Le Tour, and from around it too – featuring daily stage recaps, previews of the next day’s stage, a daily feature and some fun surprises along the way, this is the peak of my year and it’s a passion project I am working on alongside a number of other talented creators, alongside my day job, in the hope that we can provide you something unique, informative and entertaining, to supplement your enjoyment of the race.

READ THIS BIT!

Just in case your attention drifted, I need you with me for this next bit. Because I’m doing things slightly differently this year: in the past, with the regular Grand Tour bulletins we’ve produced, I’ve merely informed you they are available, or emailed you once in a while to let you know they are there. This time around, I want them to be easily accessible and available to you the moment they are ready – so you will be hearing from me every day during the next three weeks. For those of you who might find this additional baggage a bit much to take, I urge you not to unsubscribe – if you enjoy my content throughout the year, then I hope you’ll bear with me for the next three weeks. Because if I can’t use the Tour de France as an excuse to pop in and say hi to you daily, when can I, really?

On the flip side, if you’re joining me only for Le Tour as it’s the only race you’re really interested in following, that’s totally fine – you may wish to unsubscribe afterwards and join me again next year – or perhaps, the race will stoke the fire in you and you’ll be keen to continue on with me to enjoy the rest of what the cycling calendar has to offer. And I’ll be introducing a new venture after the Tour that will attempt to capture you with that in mind – more on that in due course!

So – hopefully this news will fill you with joy and we’ll get started IMMEDIATELY with the first edition, which will drop into your inboxes in an hour or two, looking ahead what you can expect from the Dispatch, and including features on Le Grand Depart, this year’s debutants, regional points of interest and a look ahead to stage one, along with the first in our series of ‘5 Minutes With…’ in which you can get to know some of the riders of this year’s Tour a little bit better. It’s FUN!

THE LAST WORD

Thank you for jumping on board with me, whether you’re one of my newest subscribers or one of my loyal early adopters, you are all truly valued and I can’t wait to share the biggest race of them all with you over the next three weeks.

If at any point, you’d like to support my goal to provide top quality free cycling content, you can do so by buying me a coffee – I guarantee you it will make my day and spur me on to

Vive le Tour!

Cheers,
Katy