Well, that was a week...

Hey there cycling pals, how are we all doing in this most momentous of weeks? Because I’m turning over a new leaf and trying to procrastinate less, I’m actually making a start on this newsletter a few days in advance, so that all I need to do closer to the time is just drop in the relevant information and hit send, thus avoiding a last-minute panic.

So, with that in mind – oh my goodness how good was Worlds? Those road races, what a rush! I can’t believe [xxx] attacked so early, and who expected [xxx] to come back like that in the final few hundred metres? Personally I wasn’t surprised that [xxx] was dropped on the climb, and I think we all suspected that [xxx] would [xxx] to [xxx]. Chapeau to the worthy winners, our new World Champions, XXX and XXX!

OK, obviously I am joking, a bit – I did write this intro ahead of time, but the beauty of the World Championships is, unlike so many other races, you really cannot predict the outcome. The course changes every year, so while one year may favour sprinters, another will favour punchers – plus often, the pelotons will have little to no prior knowledge of the course, beyond a few practice reccies. It's a refreshing contrast to the old familiar routes, as while we all adore De Ronde, you can say with relative certainty that the riders winning there are going to be punchy classics specialists who’ve charged up the Kwaremont as many times as you’ve had hot dinners.

There’s the added element of uncertainty as riders are grouped together by nation, rather than their trade teams, causing all kinds of new and intriguing alliances and rivalries and giving rise to completely different tactics to any other race (outside of the Olympics). Oh and don’t forget – no race radio – so no messages being constantly fed into your ear telling you how far up the road the breakaway is, or who has made a sneaky attack off the front – you have to work out your own pacing strategy and go hell for leather from as early as possible – the back-to-back wins of Julian Alaphilippe in 2020 and 2021 alone have shown this – yet nothing could have prepared us for the earliness of this year’s attack, in the men’s race at least. More on that later.

Future Worlds News: 2023 Routes Announced, Hosts Revealed

With Worlds in full swing down under, plenty of news was rolled out surrounding future editions this week.

2023’s ‘Super Worlds’ in Glasgow has already released some key information, including the schedule of events – a bumper crop featuring several disciplines and spread across various venues in Scotland, the event organisers revealed the start and finish locations for the road races this past week, with the men's road race beginning in Edinburgh and the women's in Loch Lomond, before both head towards a finishing circuit around Glasgow city centre of around 14km in length and featuring a punchy climb. With around 3,600m of altitude along the route it's not likely to be one for the pure climbers, but it will provide some rugged terrain and despite taking place in early August, the Scottish weather conditions may have a part to play.

With 2024 in Zurich and 2025 in Rwanda already locked in, there was news of the next locations to host, as well this week. Montreal looks set to be announced for 2026, and following the inaugural 'Super Worlds' in Glasgow, the next edition of the turbo cycling event will take place in the Haute-Savoie region of France, it was announced this week.

Results

Not a whole heap of racing to round up this week, but it’s quality not quantity, right?

A couple of flat one-day races in Northern Europe resulted, unsurprisingly, in two sprint finishes: Jasper Philipsen was victorious at Omloop van het Houtland ahead of wunderkind Arnaud de Lie and Dylan Groenewegen, and at Paris-Chauny, Groenewegen went one better but still missed out, this time to Simone Consonni, who garnered some precious points for his team Cofidis.

In cyclocross, Eli Iserbyt dominated the Exact Cross at Beringen, winning ahead of team mate Michael Vantourenhout and new daddy Lars van der Haar of Baloise Trek Lions. Fem van Empel won a thrilling head-to-head against Lucinda Brand to make it two wins for Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal. In Rochester, Vincent Baestaens continued his winning run and Annemarie Worst took victory in the women’s race in a particularly muddy encounter. There were also wins in Europe for Kevin Kuhn, Helene Clauzel, Clement Venturini and Amandine Fouquenet.

That just leaves the not insignificant matter of the Worlds road races, where six winners were crowned, although only five races took place...

In the Junior events, Zoe Bäckstedt made it two from two in the women's Junior road race with a margin of over two minutes, on her 18th birthday no less, and if she'd been a nation, she'd have come third in the overall medals table all by herself. In the men's final, Germany's Emil Herzog triumphed in a two-up sprint against António Morgado of Portugal.

Under-23 Unrest

Two rainbow jerseys were awarded to the best Under-23 riders although only one race took place (the men's). The UCI does not see fit to organise a separate U23 race for women (although they will begin running one from 2024), and this was, in fact, the first year in which a jersey has been awarded at all for the women’s U23 category.

The first winner of this unsung accolade was New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher Black. But as the eligible U23 riders were mostly working in support of more senior riders from their nation, and without a way for them to even identify one another during the race, the whole affair was deemed somewhat moot. Which is disappointing to say the least.

The men’s U23 race was won by Yevgeniy Federov, prompting all kinds of debate over who should and shouldn't ride in the category; some might say a relatively moot point given there are very few opportunities to wear the jersey anyway. Should riders who've ridden Grand Tours be allowed to ride in the race? Surely the best U23s are riding at elite level anyway? And so on, and so forth. The issue was complicated by the fact the Astana rider had opted to complete at elite level in the time trial.

Either way, at least the Kazakhstan team can finally claim they really are 'rolling pedals for the gold medals' as per their prophetic pre-season rap. What do you mean, you'd forgotten about that? Allow me to refresh your memories:

I'm not going to do a top 3 this week as it feels a bit unfair given the minimal number of races, but I would of course like to extend my hearty congratulations to the new elite road World Champions - Remco Evenepoel and Annemiek van Vleuten.

On paper, these are two riders who had the power to ride away from their competition, but in reality, only one of them did - despite the French threatening early on in the race, Evenepoel put his foot down with 30km still to ride and won by over 2 minutes to become the first Belgian to wear the rainbow jersey since Phillippe Gilbert ten years ago in Valkenberg. Van Vleuten, hampered by an elbow injury sustained earlier in the week in the mixed team time trial and so unable to rely on her long-range power, had to use all her race smarts to her advantage to secure her victory, producing one of the stand-out rides of the year in the process. She dons the stripes for the first time since her victory in Harrogate in 2019.

Their wins were both well deserved and hard fought, although they were both very different. A great many debates sprung up in the aftermath of Worlds, as they often do, and rather than expound upon them here I thought it better to break out into long form over on my website - if you'd like to read my thoughts on prodigies, pain, and what makes a race a race, please head across to read the post in full:

The Van Der Poel Incident

It was a rollercoaster week for the Dutch team, and nothing sums this up more than the troubling incident involving Mathieu van der Poel that took place the night before the race. If I don’t mention it, it will be seen as a glaring omission, but quite honestly, I don't know what to say. I've typed and deleted paragraphs repeatedly, and have come to the conclusion that I don't need to go over the facts here - I'd advise you to check out your preferred cycling news platform for the latest - and I would urge you to do just that, so you are abreast of the facts and can make your own mind up. I'd also recommend you steer clear of social media.

The polarity of the discussion on Twitter has been hard to stomach. Social media is not known for pulling its collective punches, but often, the branch of Twitter that focuses on pro cycling tends to steer clear of the worst of the platform’s traits. This case does seem to have brought out the worst in many people, with gleeful condemnation on one side and complete denial on the other, the black and white absolutism of social media preventing any nuance, though there are shades of grey in every story.

There are no winners in this one, of course. However you spin it, MVDP exercised poor judgement. But with the facts still emerging and the legal appeal yet to take place, rather than go to war over it, the focus for many of us has to be how we reconcile our feelings for him as a rider and/or a person. It's a personal decision and one that will take time to reach. It’s tough, as many of the long-suffering cycling fans who have been through the dark past of the sport can attest to, when an athlete you admire is found to have done something that morally, you do not agree with. It irrevocably alters your perception of them, tarnishes your memories of their past successes, and forces you to examine your own biases as you try to relocate yourself, adjacent to your view of them. It is not an easy pill to swallow. And that's all I'll say on it for now, as I come to terms with my own reactions to the story as it continues to unfold.

Cyclocross World Cup - no London, as yet

With the cyclocross community having widely believed that a round of the CX World Cup would take place in London this December following rumours earlier in the year, there was disappointment from the UK contingent when the UCI published the complete schedule last week, and London was missing from the list.

In its place, Dublin. Due to host a 'cross race before covid hit, it feels like a fair shout, and the Irish capital joins Gavere and Maasmechelen as new locations for this year, along with Benidorm, announced earlier in the year, as Dendermonde and Rupchen both withdraw from the circuit for financial reasons. According to Tomas van den Spiegel of Flanders Classics, who organise the races, they are still working to secure a long-term fixture in the UK, most likely London, and that it will hopefully be added to the schedule next season.

Everyone over to Ireland, then?

In Other News

WHOLESOME CONTENT OF THE WEEK (A segment I hope to repeat on a regular basis. Even if it means weekly images of Thibaut Pinot and his goats).

A picture did the rounds this week which many people, at first glance, will have blinked at for a second, thought 'aw, cute' and then moved on with their day, thinking no more of it other than 'why is this image getting unusually large numbers of social media likes?'

The picture in question, below, is of a meeting between European champion Fabio Jakobsen of QuickStep-AlphaVinyl and Mayson Groenewegen, the young son of Dylan Groenewegen of Team BikeExchange-Jayco, following a race last week.

Once I identified the subjects of the image, a whole raft of emotions swept over me - to see this kind of reconciliation, however brief or non-verbal it may (or may not) have been, is a salve to the souls of all cycling fans, given the circumstances surrounding the two men. It just warmed my heart, and let's face it, there's been precious little opportunity to say that lately so I'm taking what I can get. More of this, please.

Until next time…

*DEEP BREATH* Wow. This has been a long edition, and I haven't even really talked all that much about the racing, let alone delved into my final topic of the week which was going to be 'how Arnaud de Lie has gone from zero pro wins to single-handedly fighting for Lotto Soudal's World Tour survival and being the 6th best placed rider in the WORLD this year as a result,' but there's always next time, right?

Thanks so much for reading, if you made it this far, I do hope you've enjoyed this week's bumper edition. No man is an island, and no cycling writer is, er, very good on her own either, so if you enjoy my writing and would like to hear my thoughts on a particular topic, please feel free to reach out with suggestions, either via DM or just in a Tweet – I’m always open to ideas.

Cheers,

Katy

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