Cycling Weekly February 7, 2019

For this week’s magazine we set ourselves the unenviable exercise of compiling a list of the most important cyclists of all time. We limited ourselves to 40 but we could have easily gone up to 100, given the myriad riders who initially spring to mind. It’s not a list of the most successful —that would have been relatively easy — or the most popular, but those who have changed, shaped or influenced the sport, and the only thing we did all agree on was who came in at number one. The most enjoyable part of pulling these lists together is the arguments that we have when deciding on the order. They started weeks ago, and will no doubt carry on long after the magazine is off sale. Seeing as we…

Britain’s new cyclo-cross world champions Tom Pidcock and Ben Tulett will have scant time to enjoy the glory of victory before becoming smaller fish in bigger ponds as they step up to the elite and U23 ranks respectively. They became U23 and junior champion respectively at the weekend, winning in emphatic style at Bogense, Denmark. Pidcock will wear his U23 rainbow jersey in the final few races of the cross season before embarking on a road campaign with Wiggins-Le Col, while junior champ Tulett, 17, won’t even get to wear his new jersey in anger as a big road season geared towards the Yorkshire World Championships beckons. Nineteen-year-old Pidcock is eligible to ride in the U23 category for another three seasons, but having won the U23 World Cup overall, the…

Anna Kay (5th, U23) A battling performance from the Gateshead rider, who took silver at the recent National Championships. Having embedded herself near the front at the start in Bogense, she hung in there during the inevitable war of attrition and was still there at the end, securing the top-five place she was hoping for. Nikki Brammeier (8th, elite women) Bad luck in the form of a mechanical at a particularly inopportune moment — and after a very good start too — put paid to Brammeier’s Worlds ambitions. But once back in the race she continued to fight hard to eventually finish in a respectable eighth place, but nevertheless wondering what could have been. Helen Wyman (15th, elite women) A poor start saw Wyman well down and having to fight…

I’m back in Portugal with British Cycling for a pre-Worlds training camp. We’re staying in the same hotel — I’m even in the same room — as on our last camp so it’s got a bit of a Groundhog Day vibe to it, but on a day where all my meals are cooked for me, someone else does my washing, and I get to ride a bike and laugh at funny GIFs on our group chat the whole time. I love it. The one big difference is there’s only four of our (female track endurance) squad here. For the past couple of years we’ve been a team of eight riders, at one point nine, but because of differences in individual training plans or personal logistics, we’ve ended up cut in…

Etoile de Bessèges (Feb 7-10) Stage three’s rolling parcours and the following day’s 10.7km time trial will be pivotal towards the overall GC. Tony Gallopin won in 2018, ending a run of three successive second places. DVV Verzekeringen Trofee Krawatencross Lille (Feb 9) In the final race of the competition, the recently-crowned 2019 world champion Mathieu van der Poel should add the series to his palmarès, barring a 59-second loss to Toon Aerts, currently in second place. Sanne Cant, meanwhile, is 2.34 ahead of Loes Sels, and should top the classification. Telenet Superprestige Hoogstraten (Feb 10) Held in Antwerp in Belgium, British U23 world champion Tom Pidcock has already won his age-group classification courtesy of four race wins, with his compatriot Ben Turner currently in second-place. Mathieu van der Poel…

How would you rate your last race out of 10? I’d give it a seven, it was OK. I’ll have to get it up to an eight or nine tonight [in the sprint finals of the Track National Championships], Joe Truman is going well. If you could only win any race what would it be? I’d have to say the Tokyo Olympics because it’s our biggest opportunity. Did you ever dream of winning big road races when you were younger? Not really, I was a bit unusual. I suppose because I’m from Bolton, which was quite close to the velodrome, I started racing on the velodrome straight away. When did you first know you wanted to be a pro? I was really lucky — when I first started they had…