Indholdsfortegnelse for March 19, 2020 i Cycling Weekly

Will the 2020 season be the shortest in history? I, like all of you, certainly hope not. What’s gripping the world right now is frightening to say the least, and seeing race after race cancelled through the end of last week and over the weekend left me in a sense of shock. And not just because by Friday we had all but finished our 14-page Classics preview for this week. If, like me, you love the Classics, I hope you’ll enjoy our round-up of some of the best one-day races in history. A few of us were arguing about what should be included late into Saturday night, over WhatsApp with a beer or two. Whatever happens over the coming weeks we will continue to bring you inspiring stories from the…

In the days leading up to the Manchester Six Day Katie Archibald, who was set to pair with fellow Olympic gold medallist Elinor Barker, had two messages saying the race was going ahead just the day before. “It gets to the morning of the race and we got a further confirmation saying ‘Don’t worry. It’s all going ahead’. I was actually moving house at the time, so I wasn’t glued to my phone. And then I was actually just putting the last load of stuff into the van and my boyfriend shouted down saying it’s been cancelled. And then I pulled a strop and lay on the floor for a while.” She said her first thought was whether she’d get to go to Brisbane for the Six Day finals –…

Amid growing uncertainty about the viability of racing over the next few months due to the coronavirus pandemic, British Cycling announced the National Championships are set to be held in Birmingham in June. The time trials are scheduled for Thursday 18 June while the road races will take place on Saturday 20 June. That leaves the Sunday free for the linked Velo Birmingham sportive. Both men’s and women’s road races will start in Birmingham and finish in Wolverhampton. The men’s race is 159km long, with 1,580m of climbing, while the women’s is 123km with 1,285m of climbing. The time trial routes are also quite lumpy, with 23.6km for the women and 41.4km for the men.…

1 Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) 2 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High5) 3 Chantal Blaak-Van den Broek (Boels-Dolmans) Having been run every year since 2004, this is one of the longer-standing women’s Classics. But when Lizzie Armitstead (now Deignan) won in 2016, she wasn’t the first Brit to do so — Nicole Cooke was victorious in 2007. Armitstead’s was perhaps the perfect victory, teaming as it did opportunism with peril with sheer physical ability. On the run-in to the Paterberg — final climb of the race — with the climb of the Oude Kwaremont ticked off, Sweden’s Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High5) attacked out of the 10-up front group. Yorkshirewoman Armitstead latched on immediately. On the Paterberg’s steep, cobbled slopes they solidified their lead to a healthy 15 seconds. With the chasers comprising 50 per cent…

James Bracey: tech writer I’ve spent many an hour trying to break down and piece together the Mission Road over the winter period. Along the way we’ve shared possibly the hardest ride I can remember in the form of a 75-mile point-to-point ride from Farnborough to Longleat, taking in the delights of Salisbury Plain. Why was it the hardest? How does an unrelenting 20mph-plus headwind for the entire duration of the ride sound? Now that left me with plenty of time to think about the ride and the position of the bike.…

Wake time The earlier you rise before your start time, the better – within reason. T-minus two hours is a good starting point, but experiment and find out what works for you, especially when travelling is involved. Light If you need to be up before the sun rises, a useful compromise can be a light therapy product such as a Lumie light (lumie.com), which simulates natural light – more effective than simply ‘putting the big light on’. Warm up Gentle exercise before you eat is a smart move, particularly combined with some fresh air. A walk or spin on the rollers helps kick-start your systems. Breakfast Eat a high-carbohydrate breakfast, and make sure it is plain and palatable, as your digestive system is not firing on all cylinders early in…

Gran Premio di Patagonia, Sunday March 15 In Chile, which lags behind Europe in terms of Covid-19 cases, riders were still racing on Sunday. Colombian Team Medellin rider Jose Hernandez won the 138km city in Puerto Montt, crossing the line alone, 28 seconds ahead of team-mate Oscar Sevilla, a Noughties bad boy you may remember from such doping rings as Operacion Puerto. Betty Pharoah Memorial Legstretchers RR Wales Racing Academy rider Peter Kibble was victorious in the Betty Pharoah Memorial National B on Sunday. The 73-mile road race was held over four laps of a South Glamorgan course based on Cowbridge and made an arguable claim to being the biggest race in Europe on the day. Craig Rogers (Cambridge University CC) was second, Eliot Ward (Inflite-Dynamic Rides) third. Christopher Gibbard…

Gaviria gets coronavirus diagnosis Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria was among the first riders to announce last week that he had been diagnosed with coronavirus — “but I’m fine,” he said in a post on social media. “I have been given a positive result for the coronavirus, but I feel well.” The UAE-Team Emirates sprinter had been off the radar since the UAE Tour was abandoned late last month, but released a video confirming that he had caught the Covid-19 virus. Riding to work the way forward, study finds The health benefits of riding to work outweigh the greater risk involved compared to driving, a study has found. While cycling was found to be 45 per cent more dangerous than driving to work, the risk is counterbalanced by the lower risk of…

It was with great sadness that I read about the passing of Ron Webb. I met Ron in the Sixties at the time of the Skol Six-Day races. He had a small business in cycling clothing and I had a pair of his cycling shoes. This was in the days when perforated leather was ubiquitous and the shoes he provided were like gloves for the feet. Over the years I lost contact, but every time our paths crossed he always had a smile and friendly attitude. I spent a memorable day once discussing track design and the nuances of banking and straight lengths. It was all a bit over my head, but Ron had an enthusiasm and a willingness to give his knowledge as a first option. Having ridden some…

Great Britain’s riders have become the most successful in the world when it comes to Olympic medals and Grand Tours, leaving the nation’s Classics win tally a bit of catching up to do. That’s not to say there haven’t been some amazing one-day performances; here we choose five of the best. 1 Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) 2 Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo Test Team) 3 Thor Hushovd (Cervélo Test Team) The Manxman went into the 2009 ‘Primavera’ as the favourite and, despite the 300km wait, he delivered great value, providing British bike racing fans with the heart-in-mouth finish they craved, not to mention the top step of the podium into the bargain. As we have often found ourselves saying in this era, it was the first British win since Tom Simpson, who had…

1 Magnus Backstedt (Alessio-Bianchi) 2 Tristan Hoffman (Team CSC) 3 Roger Hammond (Mr Bookmaker-Palmans) For a generation of British fans almost completely unaccustomed to any kind of Classics success, Roger Hammond’s ride in 2004 was a watershed moment that remains one of only two Paris-Roubaix podiums in recent times — the other one courtesy of Ian Stannard in 2016. It was Hammond’s rash attack on the Mons-en-Pévèle sector that brought him to the attention of favourite Peter Van Petegem, who signalled the Brit to join him on the attack. “For me in this little team it was, ‘Bloody hell, this is unbelievable!’” Hammond recalled. And after Van Petegem flatted the stakes got higher when Johan Museeuw himself gave him a wheel to follow. But Museeuw, a three-time winner, punctured too…

Considering the men’s team pursuit record has tumbled and the men’s and women’s individual pursuit records have also dropped substantially since the 2016 Rio Olympics, it is perhaps odd that the women’s team record from those Games still stands. The event was only expanded to four riders in 2013 and so the record initially tumbled, but since the British quartet of Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald, Joanna Rowsell Shand and Laura Kenny rode to gold in Rio in a time of 4.10.236 no one has gone faster. Barker says she was “fully expecting” it to fall in Berlin. “Especially after seeing how fast the qualifying times were, and then for whatever strange reason, nobody went any faster,” she says. “I certainly would expect that 4.10 will not be the world record…

Endura has a passion for creating products that put rider comfort to the fore and are packed full of innovation. Case in point: the new 2020 Pro SL bibshort. Endura was the first company to offer differing pad widths within its shorts with the last iteration of the Pro SL, and the new version is no different. The idea behind matching a bibshort pad to the rider’s body pressure points is a clever one and Endura has developed it through scientific testing in collaboration with bike-fit experts gebioMized and rider feedback from pro riders. This 700 series pad remains mostly the same but does now feature a new, more breathable top layer to increase comfort even further. The fit has been improved with a new set of panels and the…

Let’s face it, no matter what we tell our friends, cycling comes quite far down the priority list when drawing up the day’s to-do list. We ride when we can fit it in, rather than at the best possible time for making fitness gains. As amateur riders, our family, friends, work and sleep – you choose the order of priority – put the squeeze on our windows of opportunity for getting in quality saddle-time. The question is, does it matter what time you train? The evidence suggests that, yes, it does. For various reasons, our bodies may have a preference that affects the training response. This feature will investigate the physical and mental effects of riding at different times of day. Should you schedule different types of session at particular…

You played rugby as a kid – why the switch to cycling? Yeah, I played several different sports growing up but rugby was the main one. I’d always enjoyed cycling, and was fortunate in living only a few miles from Maindy cycle track in Cardiff. I remember going there for a midweek evening session after school, using a road bike on the outdoor track, and catching the bug. 1st – Stage Maindy has produced a string of world-class stars – were you inspired by those around you? Yes, big time. I was starting out at around the time G [Geraint Thomas] was away at the Beijing Games winning gold in the team pursuit, which was a massive inspiration. On the local scene at that time, Luke Rowe was a junior,…

One of the residual fears of writing columns is being caught on the wrong side of history. Clearly this is not something that often keeps me awake at night. I’ve been wrong about disc brakes, gravel bikes, Chris Froome and every extra sprocket since 10-speed, yet still I shamelessly waste two pages of everyone’s time each week. Covid-19 is rather different. At the point where I’m writing, it’s not completely clear which way this is going to go, but it does not look good. And I don’t want to think about the possibility of the survivors finding an old copy of Cycling Weekly with a joke about how much ‘Covid-19’ sounds like the name of one of those Belgian development teams that fizzle fitfully for a season before vanishing for…

I was on a train last week, when someone got on with an e-bike. This prompted this conversation from two passengers in the seats behind me: “John, what’s that big black thing on the frame of that guy’s bike?” The speaker was referring to the battery pack. “It’s an e-bike,” said John. “Lots of old people are riding them, because they make cycling easier.” “How do they do that?” “Well, that big black box has a gyroscope in it, which means you can’t fall over.” To be fair, it’s a brilliant idea.…

It is unknown when top-tier bike racing will be able to recommence after the UCI called off all international racing until 3 April due to the coronavirus pandemic. The sports governing body found its hand forced as more and more races and teams cleared their schedules and eventually made the call on Sunday to axe nearly a month’s worth of racing. It said the suspension of classifications, such as WorldTour points, is intended to preserve “sporting equity for all athletes” and will be backdated to 3 March. Even before the UCI made its decision races had been falling like flies, sometimes as a result of organisers taking the decision, sometimes due to governments cracking down on large gatherings. The biggest so far has been the postponement of the Giro d’Italia…

Isabella Stone was based in Herzele, Belgium, and just early last week was carrying on as normal, planning for her next race. Instead by the time last weekend arrived, she was already home in Oxfordshire. Her story illustrates just how quickly things developed. “After the race on 8 March I was excited for the following weekend of racing,” she said. “Coronavirus news was becoming more and more serious on TV with more high profile races being cancelled, but it didn’t really occur to me that it would affect me so soon. During the week there were more and more headlines of countries going into lockdown. Cycling Vlaanderen released a statement on Thursday 12th saying all racing in Belgium was cancelled until March 31st,” Stone continued. “I was quite shocked. It…

1 Nicole Cooke 2 Olivia Gollan 3 Edita Pucinskaite The Amstel Gold is a race that suited Nicole Cooke’s aggressive riding style down to a T, and after two near misses the Welshwoman became the first British rider to win the race, out-muscling a fragmenting bunch on the steep slopes of the Cauberg to win by two seconds. The women’s race itself was just three editions old at the time, with Cooke an early adopter. Like the modern iteration, it was 75 miles long, starting in Maastricht, although the finish was different — harder — at the top of the Cauberg. It was ideal for Cooke, who, reported the BBC, “launched her attack and managed to stay in front with a typically determined sprint finish to win by two seconds.”…

1 Tom Simpson (Peugeot-BP-Michelin) 2 Garben Karstens (Televizier) 3 Jean Stablinski (Ford France-Hutchinson) Tom Simpson was Britain’s most prolific Classics winner by some way, winning Flanders, Milan-San Remo, and the crazy-long Bordeaux-Paris too. But it was perhaps his win in the 1965 Tour of Lombardy that was the most impressive. Simpson joined a 12-rider attack led by home rider Italo Zilioli off the Madonna del Ghisallo, recalls the archive report at museociclismo.it. At the Passo d’Intelvi, defending champion Gianni Motta (Molteni) attacked, with Simpson the only man strong enough to follow. Reaching the top with more than two minutes in hand on the majority of the break, things looked good for the pair. But Raymond Poulidor (Mercier) rampaged out of the bunch, dragging a five-man chase group to within 45…

Continually riding in a low-energy state may lead to relative energy deficiency (RED-S), a dangerous condition that may have severe implications for long-term health, including bone density and your endocrine system. However, there is some evidence that occasionally training with low reserves of carbohydrate – targeted blocks of controlled ‘train low’ work – can have a positive effect on performance. Cochran et al (2016) suggested the body reacts to a reduction in available fuel by initiating an increase in mitochondria production – the cells’ energy-producing factories – in a way similar to how high altitude stimulates an increase in red blood cell production. Training low is inevitable if riding pre-breakfast, especially if the previous evening’s meal was early and or low in carbohydrate. This approach may be beneficial if used…

ROAD RACING SAT, 14 MARCH Roy Thame Cup and Spring Chicken Road Race (Buckingham): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Oliver Maxwell (Saint Piran); 2. J. Freeman (Meudon Pedal Heaven); 3. D. Clayton (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling); 4. R. Graham (Spirit Tifosi RT); 5. S. Auld (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling); 6. O. Hucks (Leisure Lakes Bikes); 7. J. Sauvagnargues (Trinity Road Racing); 8. A. Cox (Team Bottrill); 9. B. Foames (TBW23); 10. I. Vagg (Project 51). 3, 4: 1. Joshua Crow-Stewart (Arctic Aircon RT); 2. S. Clarfield (Lee Valley YCC); 3. M. Lord (Lee Valley YCC); 4. A. Dale (Lee Valley YCC); 5. J. Corbishley (Velobants.cc); 6. G. Oehlert (Mono CC). Gifford Road Race (Scottish Alba Series round one, Gifford, Scotland): E, 1, 2, 3: 1. Zeb Kyffin (Ribble Weldtite Pro…

If you’re used to riding and training with a club run or a group of friends, training alone can be difficult. The main problem is motivation. Your ego’s fear of humiliation at the hands of your mates (or, for that matter, their humiliation at yours) is a much more potent force than your ego’s enthusiasm for a solo training session successfully completed. For the newer and/or younger rider, tools like Strava or even a simple GPS unit can help. You can try to set PB times over various segments of a ride. It does mean you’ll only ever go training when there’s a gale blowing, and you’ll always hit a peak of form about two weeks after the equinox. This is why Philippe Gilbert is so good every April –…