A Whole New Worlds

Hello everyone, and a very merry Worlds week to you all. Have you been enjoying the festivities? I have to admit, there’s a special buzz around these Worlds, the first of their kind in that they bring together 13 different cycling disciplines in one huge event, and it’s not just because I spent much of the time in Glasgow, working and enjoying the racing, although I can’t lie, that to be there was pretty special.

It’s more than that though; there was a sense of Olympic level hype, that brilliant magic that major competition sprinkles over the viewing public as suddenly everyone’s an expert on downhill mountain biking or para cycling track categories. And why not? Because surely the point of such an event is to cross-pollinate, bringing fans from one cycling discipline to another, opening minds and hearts to new possibilities, figuring out just what the heck ‘Trials’ is and how on earth anyone can flip a BMX bike three times and not cause themselves seriously bodily harm.

I’ll be writing about the Worlds in more depth over on the site, and although I have enjoyed taking in some new cycle sports, I will be focusing in more detail on my first love of road cycling. With some track seasoning and perhaps a small dollop of MTB on the side.

For now though, OTHER STUFF has had the cheek to be going on outside of the Worlds hype, so there’s a whole boat load of news to catch up on. Let’s start there.

NEWS! NEWS! GET YOUR NEWS!

HEADLINE STORY: Transfer window opens! Let the games begin

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when rumours become reality, and riders out of contract pack their bags and head for pastures new. And it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s the sprinters who are quickest off the mark, with the fast man merry-go-round in full swing, as a number of transfers have already taken place. First was Arnaud Démare, fresh from his fall-out with Marc Madiot and his non-selection for the Tour de France, who found a home with another French side, Arkea-Samsic, soon to become Arkea-B&B. The following day Démare’s main lead-out rider Miles Scotson followed suit.

In the last few days a glut of further sprinter signings have occurred as the QuickStep clear-out sent Ethan Vernon the way of Israel-Premier Tech, Jonathan Milan headed to Lidl-Trek and Fabio Jakobsen to Team DSM-firmenich.

Uno-X have been busy, bringing Magnus Cort on board, and EF have also signed a few young riders, while Pro Team Tudor signed – well, basically everyone, releasing a signing announcement that had no less than 7 names on it. The most high profile of these was arguably Matteo Trentin, with Michael Storer and Alberto Dainese also announced.

Groupama-FDJ signed a trio of riders (Rémy Rochas, Sven Erik Bystrøm and Clément Russo), and Lidl-Trek underlined their bid to become the most well-rounded and well-liked team in the eyes of neutrals as they brought Tao Geoghegan Hart on board, along with Clara Copponi on the women’s side, and most recently Andrea Bagioli from an ever-decreasing QuickStep squad. Today, Warren Barguil has signed a new long-term contract at Team DSM-firmenich.

I’m sure I’ve missed some and there will be many more to come no doubt – more on this next time, including the will-they won’t-they story of the summer, as rumours surrounding Remco Evenepoel and a move to Ineos Grenadiers continue to gain traction.

BITESIZE CHUNKS OF NEWS – YUM!

- Jos Van Emden retires! After a long and successful career the Dutch veteran calls time on his career, aged 38.

- The UCI announces that a women’s Pro Team division will come into being as of 2025 – great news for the increased depth and development of the women’s side of the sport.

- In other’s women’s team news, EF have just announced a new continental team: EF Education-Cannondale have already made a number of signings, including Veronica Ewers, Noemi Ruegg and Nina Kessler.

- The Tour of Poland continues its poor safety record as a crash involving a TV motorbike and spectators on stage 5 resulted in a four members of the public being hospitalised.

RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP – 26 Jul-13 Aug

A whistlestop tour around all the races, plus a closer look at the action from the World Championships.

MEN

Lotto Dstny’s Eduardo Sepulveda won stage 2 and the GC at the Vuelta a Castilla y León (26-27 Jul). Felix Englehardt (Team Jayco Alula) won stage 1.

The four-day Czech Tour (27-30 Jul) saw wins for four different riders across the stages – Itamar Einhorn (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 1, Florian Lipowitz (BORA-hansgrohe) stage 2, Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo Visma Development Team) stage 3 and Adam Toupalik of the local continental team Elkov-Kasper won stage 4. Lipowitz took the overall classification with his teammate Ben Zwiehoff in second place.

At the one-day Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (29 Jul), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) took glory for the second year in a row, beating Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) in a two-up sprint for the line after the two broke away from the bunch together.

The Tour of Poland (29 Jul-4 Aug) was the most significant stage race of the last few weeks, with an impressive line-up that saw competitive racing across seven stages.

Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) won the stage 1 and stage 7 bunch sprints, Matej Mohorič (Bahrain-Victorious) took stage 2 and Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) stage 3. Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) got the better of Merlier and co to take stage 4, with Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) victorious on stage 5. Mattea Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep) won the stage 6 time trial.

In the final GC standings, it was Matej Mohorič who came out on top, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) second, and Polish homeboy Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers) in third.

Astana-Qazaqstan’s Alexey Lutsenko soloed to victory at the one-day Circuito Getxo (30 Jul), ahead of Tony Gallopin (Lidl Trek) and his team mate Simone Velasco. And in the Tour de l’Ain (31 Jul-2 Aug), Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) won the overall by a hefty margin of over two minutes, mostly gained on the final stage up to Lelex Mont Jura which he also won. Jake Stewart began a great three days for Groupama by winning the opening sprint, while Alexander Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost) won stage 2.

And finally, Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-DSTNY) won ahead of a host of French sprinting talent at the one day Polynormande (13 Aug).

WOMEN

The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (23-30 Jul) happened! And it was absolutely brilliant. I covered the race with daily dispatches over on the website so if you’d like to catch up with the race in more detail, please do head on over there to check it out.

Here’s a quick summary of what you missed.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES, DISTILLED

Stage 1 was expected to be a bunch sprint, but Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) had other ideas, breaking away from the bunch to claim the stage win and the yellow jersey. Liane Lippert of Movistar showed her strength to win stage 2 and the peloton broke the heart of breakaway hopeful Julie van de Velde on stage 3 as they arrived in time for the expected bunch sprint, which was won by the expected Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx).

The breakaway took that personally, and the next three stages were won by unexpected riders (ie not riders from SD Worx), with Yara Kasteijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) taking revenge for her team mate Van de Velde on stage 4, Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM) proving her mettle and coming of age on stage 5 after a promising season thus far, and Movistar’s Emma Norsgaard was overjoyed with the return to form that saw her take the win on stage 6.

And then came the Tourmalet. It was an epic, beautiful stage of racing that saw riders rising through the mist of the Pyrenees, Lotte Kopecky riding out of her skin in defence of the yellow jersey, which she passed to team mate Demi Vollering who won the stage in emphatic style, underlining her status as the strongest rider in the women’s peloton this year. SD won the day, the GC, and the final stage, as time trial specialist Marlen Reusser took the expected win against the clock on stage 8.

FOCUS ON: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Ah, Worlds, how you have already come and gone and it’s still August is kind of mind-blowing to me. Usually taking place in mid-late September, the new combined Cycling World Championships format has been a marvellous, glorious experiment in two-wheeled madness, with 13 different cycling disciplines brought together over 11 days in Glasgow and around Scotland. And it was really something.

I’ll be writing about it in more depth over on the website so for now I’ll just do a brief run-down here. Stay tuned for more.

The junior road races were won by Julie Bego of France and Albert Philipsen of Denmark (the latter went on to win in mountain biking too, in a display of flagrant multi-discipline skill – we love to see it). The junior time trials were swept by Australia, with Felicity Wilson-Haffenden and Oscar Chamberlain the victors.

In the men’s under-23 category, it was success for Lorenzo Milesi of Italy in the individual time trial, while in a road race that was barely distinguishable from a kind of bowling with young men on bikes, France’s Axel Laurance held on from the day’s early break to take an amazing win.

The elite time trials were won by Chloe Dygert and Remco Evenepoel respectively, with silver for last year’s winner Filippo Ganna and an epic ride from 19-year-old Josh Tarling from Great Britain to take bronze. Antonia Niedermayer of Germany took the woman’s under-23 title.

As for the elite road races… well what can I say really? I’m sure you watched and enjoyed them as much as I did but they were truly epic, with two worthy World Champions crowned in Mathieu van der Poel and Lotte Kopecky, both multi-disciplinarians themselves – van der Poel becoming the first man ever to hold cyclocross and road world titles in the same year, and Kopecky winning three rainbow jerseys at the Championships, with two track titles already under her belt.

THE LAST WORD

If you thought that we’d all get a bit of down time to chill out, post-World, pre-Vuelta, you’ve got another think coming. There are five stage races taking place this week, plus a couple of one-day races to boot, so make sure you tune in if you can, or if not fear not as I’ll be back with you with all the details in just a couple of weeks’ time.

Until then, if you’ve enjoyed the newsletter and would like to support me in my quest to provide free, entertaining and informative cycling content year-round, feel free to buy me a coffee. And don’t forget to check out the website, and maybe even sign up, to read my long-form pieces. Or head to the store to pick up a unique piece of writebikerepeat merchandise!

Until next time,

Cheers,

Katy