Youth steal the show in a bumper week of action

Greetings, my two-wheeled sport-loving compadres (yes, I feel the need to come up with ever more complex ways to say ‘cycling friends’ every week), and how are we all in this finest of Octobers?

It’s Italian autumn classics week, and there's been a flurry of activity in cycling news too. After the drama and temporal dislocation of Worlds, this week has ushered in a semblance of much-needed normality.

The autumn classics are a rounding out of the year, a bow to be tied atop the already rather substantial package of the cycling season, and a chance for riders whose form has arrived late to have one last tilt at victory before everyone’s off for a well-earned rest. So who's flourishing so far this fall? First up this week: the results.

A RIGHT ROLLICKING RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

We are nearing the end of the season, but the schedule doesn't seem to have got the memo - there is to be no 'gradual winding down' for the men's and women's pelotons, with more races than you can shake a stick at crammed in every which way over the final couple of weeks.

The last major stage race for the men’s peloton unfolded this past week in Croatia. Bahrain-Victorious’ young sprinter Jonathan Milan won the first two stages of the CRO Race, Jonas Vingegaard took two mountain stages in his first race since the Tour de France, with the remaining stage wins going to B&B Hotels’ Axel Laurance and Ineos Grenadiers’ Elia Viviani. The overall classification was won by Matej Mohorič, by dint of bonus seconds accrued during the race, with Vingegaard runner-up by a single second.

Plenty of sprint finishes to report on this week, with Cofidis benefitting from a strong pair of performances, Axel Zingle winning the Famenne Ardeche Classic and Bryan Coquard taking the win at the Tour de Vendee, Olav Kooij won the Munsterland Giro, beating a field of the world’s top sprinters in the process. Davide Ballerini won Coppa Bernocchi, in a day that saw Julian Alaphilippe back to his marauding best, albeit riding in his regular trade kit for the first time which was somewhat jarring, aesthetically speaking.

Elisa Longo Borghini won the Tre Valli Varesine with Tadej Pogačar winning the men’s race in the afternoon. The same day, Binche-Chimay-Binche crowned Lorena Wiebes and Christophe Laporte its respective winners, with the supporting cast in the limelight as Remco Evenepoel raced in his new rainbow jersey for the first time, and the peloton said goodbye to Phillippe Gilbert and Ilio Keisje, who rode the last professional road races of their careers.

In cyclocross, the Exact Cross at Meulebeke saw Lucinda Brand grab her first victory of the season as she sprinted to victory after a tense battle with Fem van Empel. Denise Betsema was a close third. Michael Vantourenhout took the win on the men's side ahead of his team mate Eli Iserbyt.

Blanka Vas and Michael Boros won two races apiece in the Czech Republic's ToiToi Cup.

Across the pond, Annemarie Worst won both legs of the Charm City cross, and Vincent Baestaens took another win on day 1 in the men’s elite category, but Curtis White was finally able to overturn Baestaens’ rout of the USCX, taking the second day and finally scoring a home victory.

Thanks to the brilliant services of First Cycling and Cyclocross24 as ever.

Performance of the Week

(if you care to, please imagine me singing the title of this segment in a 1980's radio jingle style)

My favourite performance this week isn’t a win at all, but the exploits of one young man scoring two second places on two stages and a third overall.

Oscar Onley of Team DSM has propelled himself into the consciousness of cycling fans and media over the past few weeks, first at the Tour of Britain, where he was one of the top climbers at the race, keeping up with the likes of Tom Pidcock and Dylan Teuns, and last week at CRO Race, where he went toe-to-toe with Jonas Vingegaard on two hilly stages, almost taking stage wins twice. He finished in third place on GC behind the Dane and the eventual winner, Matej Mohorič. The kid has come on an incredible amount this season, and at just 19, it’s going to be exciting to see how he develops over the next few seasons. 

SIGNING NEWS

Outside of the rumour mill, plenty of actual concrete transfer action has been going on this week on both the men’s and women’s side.

UAE Team ADQ have shored up their resources, developing a strong relationship with Valcar Travel & Service and bringing on board several of their riders, including the in-form Sylvia Persico, and sprinters Chiara Consonni and Eleonora Gasparrini, along with Alena Amialiusik and Mikayla Harvey from Canyon//SRAM. Veteran Marta Bastianelli has also extended her contract with the Emirati team, backpedalling on her decision to retire at the end of the 2022 season. UAE are looking in great shape for 2023 now, particularly in the field of sprinting.

Canyon//SRAM have been busy too, signing British champion Alice Towers, extending the contract of Neve Bradbury and announcing former champion racer Magnus Bäckstedt as a new Director Sportif for 2023.

Lukas Postlberger (BORA-Hansgrohe) and Zdenyk Stybar (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) both move to Team BikeExchange-Jayco, and Team DSM's Joren Nieuwenhuis switches disciplines, transferring to Baloise Trek Lions ahead of a winter of cyclocross.

ALSO IN THE NEWS...

INEOS make waves in the media (if not in actual reality)

The British team have been headline news all week, although they themselves have maintained a pointed silence, outside of announcing race squads and presenting Filippo Ganna's custom time trial bike - the first ever to be 3D-printed - that he will attempt to break the World Hour Record on.

First, there was the news that Dave Brailsford reportedly messaged Patrick Lefevre congratuling him on Remco's World Championship victory and asking if he ever fancied selling him, to give him a call.

While the text message was apparently real, the resulting media speculation seemed to invent a narrative that did not exist. Remco to Ineos would be huge surprise, given Evenepoel is contracted to QuickStep-AlphaVinyl through 2026, in what is one of the longest contracts in pro cycling. The very real possibility that Lefevre may part with arguably his most vital asset if the price was right is a stark reminder that it’s all just a business, at the end of the day, although Lefevre refuted the claims, saying Remco was staying put.

While it's true that the Grenadiers lack a GC contender for the Tour de France that can rival Pog, Rog, and Vingegaard, the attempted swoop somewhat flies in the face of the ethos Ineos had seemed to be building, with the new young generation of talent at its heart. But this type of cultural shift takes time of course, and sponsors aren't always known for their patience, so perhaps there is a pressing need to find a rider capable of filling the gap left by Richard Carapaz, if Egan Bernal's return to full fitness does not go as hoped. A Tour de France winner among the ranks has been essential to Ineos' plans in the past - can they wait for a new one to develop, or will they try and plug the gap in the meantime?

The second piece of Ineos-based news was that the British team are apparently planning to launch their own women’s team, and will reportedly sign champion multi-disciplinarian Pauline Ferrand-Prevot in a major statement of intent. They have taken their time to join the women’s peloton leading many to criticise them for not getting on board earlier, but it's better late than never, and would be a welcome injection of both money and attention for women's cycling, particularly in the UK. Once again, there's no concrete information on this yet, so watch this space...

Quintana parts ways with Arkea-Samsic

Going the opposite way around the revolving door of the transfer market is Nairo Quintana, who this week announced his departure from the French pro continental side. While the team did not overtly indicate this was a direct result of the rider’s recent failed drugs test, it’s likely this was instrumental in the decision. Quintana maintains his innocence and will appeal the findings, while looking for a new team – the rumour mill has already connected him with a French World Tour side – although AG2R-Citroen have been quick to rule themselves out.

Bitesize Chunks of News - YUM!

• Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope) made her return to racing following her horror crash at the Tour de Frances Femmes. She came 6th in the Giro dell Emilia and rides a few more races before the end of the season.

• Young debutantes Leo Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) and Tom Gloag (Jumbo-Visma) made their professional debuts at the Giro Dell Emilia. Hayter didn't finish the race but subsequently came 30th in the Coppa Bernocchi. Gloag finished a creditable 17th and improved on that, coming 12th at the Tre Valli Varese - a notable start to his pro career.

• The Giro d’Italia made its first 2023 route announcement – stage 1 will be an 18.4km time trial in the region of Abruzzo, with a flat stage to follow on stage 2. Stage 7 was announced too – a tough, four-star stage featuring a summit finish at the Campo Imperatore.

• Mathieu van der Poel has announced he will compete in the first ever UCI Gravel World Championships. Plenty of road riders are trying their luck including Greg van Avermaet, Peter Sagan, Daniel Oss, Miguel Angel Lopez and Gianni Vermeersch. Elisa Longo Borghini, Riejanne Markus, Tiffany Cromwell and Barbara Guarischi are some of the names making the temporary switch from the road on the women's side.

• Ellen van Dijk features in a new Netflix documentary! Narrated by Idris Elba, 'Human Playground' looks at feats of human achievement, with the first episode focusing on Paris-Roubaix Femmes, amongst other things.

FINAL THOUGHT

De Lie v Kooij: a budding rivalry in the making?

On a cloudy Monday in north-west Germany, a 20-year-old sprinter powered to his 15th win of the season. Whilst not a World Tour level race, the field was anything but second division – an assemblage of the top sprinters in the world lined up, ready to go toe-to-toe in the last pure sprinting battle of the season. They included Tour de France stage winners Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen, Sam Bennett, who won two stages at La Vuelta, and plenty more besides. The 20-year-old rode the final kilometre without a lead-out, piloting himself into position onto the wheels of some of the greatest fast men of this generation, and proved too strong for all of them, riding away in the final 50m to score another victory in what has been a stellar first pro season. That man was Jumbo-Visma's Olav Kooij. Let the record show: he's a bit good, he is.

Another 20-year-old, Arnaud de Lie, has been quietly going about the business of trying to - almost single-handedly - save Lotto Soudal from World Tour relegation. Pictured above with a cow for some reason, de Lie has just 9 wins compared to Kooij's 15, but de Lie's wins are far more significant in terms of UCI points, and in a team comprising such legends as Philippe Gilbert, Thomas de Gendt and Tim Wellens, it's de Lie who has made all the difference in the race for survival. Indeed, he currently sits 6th in the World rankings for 2022, above the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Richard Carapaz and Mads Pedersen. 

And he's not just quick - he's clearly versatile, and resilient too. He can handle himself in grim conditions and on cobbles (he is Belgian, after all). Just the other day he fell off his bike heading into the home straight at the Famenne Ardenne Classic, immediately remounted and continued the race. Check out the footage below, courtesy of Inner Ring.

These two young sprinters have the World at their feet. They may not follow the same career trajectory going forward, with De Lie looking as though he’s set to become a more all-around Classics type sprinter and Kooij resembling a purer sprinter, but I am anticipating a long era of great battles between these two.

The Last Word...

On the whole, without intending to, I've turned this week's newsletter into a celebration of youth in the peloton. It feels fitting, following the inauguration of Remco Evenepoel as the youngest World Champion in almost three decades, to end the season on a youthful note, and relish the healthy state of the sport heading into future years. With new rivalries blossoming and the promise of future wunderkinds to provide worthy adversaries to the current crop, the shiny new golden era of cycling looks set to continue for a long time. Hurray!

Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to drop me a line if you have any comments or questions, or to share my sign-up link on social media if you think anyone else might like to join in with the madness. 

Next week will be the last weekly newsletter, and then I'll drop into your inbox fortnightly during the off-season.

Cheers,Katy

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