Indholdsfortegnelse for July 11, 2019 i Cycling Weekly

Did anyone else watch stage one of the Tour de France from behind the sofa? When did they become such nervy affairs? I was trying to explain this to a non-cyclist and struggled to put my finger on exactly when and why they changed. Thinking back to the early 1990s when I first started obsessively watching the race, I can’t recall ever being worried that Miguel Indurain, Tony Rominger or Poitr Ugrumov (remember him?) was going to crash out in week one. Maybe I was less invested in a non-British winner, but still, as a young fan there were some riders that I really wanted to see win, or at least battle it out in the mountains. An early crash just didn’t seem like a risk for Indurain; he just…

Qhuebeka bike hunt When one of four special-edition Qhubeka bikes on display at the Grand Départ was stolen, the Dimension Data sponsor enlisted some heavyweight help in trying to track it down, with the great and the good joining the #giveitback twitter campaign. Eddy Merckx himself got in on the act, gamely holding up a ‘#giveitback’ card and posing for a photo. If a hard stare from ‘the Cannibal’ himself doesn’t do the trick, nothing will. Gilbert set for Lotto return Overlooked by Deceuninck-Quick Step for the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix champion Philippe Gilbert has agreed a three-year deal with Lotto-Soudal, the squad he raced for under the Silence-Lotto label between 2009 and 2011. Deceuninck boss Patrick Lefevere confirmed contract talks had broken down with the Belgian because he could…

The Tour de France is not like any other race. We come in Wednesday night and you just write off the next two days. It’s all team presentations, briefs about what we’re going to do and press conferences. I 100 per cent want to just start the bike racing. You do so little riding you just want to get going. I do enjoy the team presentation though. The Belgians do a good job of putting on bike races in general but this year’s Tour team presentation really was like a Tour of Flanders start as we rolled into the big square. Especially for me because I love being in Belgium and doing the Classics but this spring I crashed out early. During the Classics I rent a house in Ghent…

In-form Marcin Białobłocki (Nopinz) defended his National 100-Mile Championship title in emphatic fashion, while Vicky Gill (Drag2Zero) took the women’s crown in North Yorkshire on Sunday. Białobłocki, the 35-year-old Polish rider who lives in Bridgwater, Somerset, added the National 100 crown to the National Circuit Championship and National 50 title he has already secured this year. He covered the Boroughbridge course in 3:24.55 to take the win by more than nine minutes from espoir Adam Wild (GS Metro). “It went almost perfectly,” said Białobłocki, who will target the 100-mile competition record in Norfolk this weekend before focusing on the National 25 title and European Championships. “A couple of times I had to slow down at the roundabouts for traffic, but I didn’t stress. The weather was perfect. It wasn’t easy…

Day one. Le Grand Départ. Across the crowded paddock came the faint but unmistakeable sound of whooping, cheering, applause, and… was that a chant? As it came nearer it grew louder, and from the morass of Tour de France riders, followers, fans and journalists emerged a small group, moving almost as one, the brisk tramp of their steps on the stony sand underfoot sounding almost like a march. The group was picking up adherents as it went. All of them excited, some jumping, craning to get a better look inside, taking pictures with their phones. Further towards the middle of the hubbub things took on a more civilised demeanour; middle-aged gents in regulation pale blue pressed shirts, well fitted slacks and deck shoes. The chat here was animated but never…

This Tour de France we’re going to see a lot of tubular tyres — still the choice of the vast majority of pro teams thanks to their ability to be ridden flat while the team car comes through with a spare wheel. Michelin’s UK distributor has sent us a set of the Power Competition tubs that the Cofidis team developed and road tested last year — picking up 21 victories and 54 podium places in the process — and which have just been launched to the public. We’ve found that the Power Competition clincher is both fast rolling and puncture resistant and Michelin is saying the tubular version also combines those qualities thanks to a cotton and aramid casing that’s reinforced with the brand’s High-Density Protek reinforcement around a super-light…

PAV BRYAN ‘Not racing? You still need a goal’ Regularly riding without goals, plans or targets is prone to eat away at motivation. Just because you’re not racing doesn’t mean you can’t have a goal. “The number one factor in retaining motivation when not racing is to set yourself a goal,” says Pav Bryan, performance director at Spokes Coaching (spokes.fit). “Be objective but make your goal challenging. It should be hard to achieve, yet still possible. This can be anything from getting your first Strava KOM to riding your first century, winning a Zwift race or setting a new power PB.” Pav Bryan’s goal-setting tips Visuals: Place pictures relating to your target in a place where you can see them — maybe a picture of a Strava segment placed near…

It has become a common complaint that the Tour de France is not exciting enough these days. My own suspicion is that in truth it’s the same as it’s always been, it’s just with more TV coverage we can see all the boring bits now, so the average has been dragged down. There have been a number of suggestions for livening it up. The Formula 1-style grid start made such an impact last year that I imagine you’ve forgotten it. The short stages have worked a little better, although at the cost of altering slightly the endurance basis of stage racing. And we have smaller teams, which as far as I can see has made no difference whatsoever. My own theory is that to liven things up, what we need…

I stopped recently to lend my pump to a stranded rider. I noticed some damage to the back of his seat tube. “Bit of an issue there,” I said. “Just a paint bubble,” he said. It wasn’t. On his cut-away aero-profiled tube it was actually the bottom of the seatpost, which had slipped down and punched a hole in the tube wall. I asked if it was possible the clamp had become loose. “I didn’t have to do the clamp up at all. The furthest down I could jam the post was just the right height, so I took the clamp off to save weight.” I gave him the name of a carbon repair specialist. But I suspect he’s still riding around on it. Enjoying the lightweight performance of his…

Incoming Team Ineos CEO Fran Millar has pledged to have a more open approach in an effort to win back fans’ trust. Millar, who was promoted to the newly created role of CEO on June 1, said the British team has done a “shambolic” job of communicating its approach throughout the period when the team was dogged by a series of scandals. Speaking to Cycling Weekly, she said there were a small cohort of cycling fans that would never trust the team, especially after the Fancy Bears leak of Bradley Wiggins’s TUE data; the Jiffy bag scandal and Chris Froome’s salbutamol case, but that there was “a sensible middle ground of the sport and the fans of the sport that deserve to feel that they can trust us”. She continued:…

Tour of Qinghai Lake (July 14-27) There is a healthy quota of British riders competing in the 13-stage Chinese race. Sprinter Matt Gibson, whose best result this year has been seventh on a stage at the Tour of Turkey, will lead Burgos-BH’s stage hopes. Edmund Bradbury (Memil-CCN) and Daniel Whitehouse (EvoPro Racing) are also racing. Stockton Grand Prix (July 14) The annual race that finishes with an open five-mile circuit in the centre of Stockton is set to be crucial for the overall tables in both the men’s and women’s series with just a few races remaining. Matt Holmes and Canyon-dhb-Bloor Homes lead the men’s individual and team classifications, an honour that currently belongs to Rebecca Durrell and Brother UK-Tifosi in the women’s classifications. Colne Grand Prix (July 16) Matt…

RideLondon-Surrey Classic route changed The RideLondon-Surrey Classic route has changed to include multiple ascents of Box Hill. The peloton have only made one ascent of the climb in each of the six previous editions of the event but will now scale it five times during this year’s race. The peloton will also set off from Bushy Park in South-West London. While the finish on The Mall will remain, the riders will make their approach from the opposite direction. 10k men… Zwift’s target for riders completing its Academy sessions Zwift is hoping to up the participation of male riders in its Academy programme. The programme, which started as a women’s initiative, saw 35,000 men and women compete for pro contracts last year. Now for every 10 men who finish all the required…

Long-suffering cyclist wife here on a caravanning holiday with HRH (His Royal Highness). I know all about weight weenies, having been introduced to the science by HRH with both cycling and caravanning. Dr Hutch would have been proud of some of the ‘lectures’ I have endured on weight weenieism. But this I believe will even have the Doc gobsmacked… Picture the scene: LSW (Long Suffering Wife) on holiday in the caravan on a wonderfully sunny day. HRH is selecting one of his bicycles to ride around the local hills (oops sorry, mountains). Having polished them with baby wipes, he dons his matching shorts, top, socks and shoes. LSW: “Have you got your mobile phone fully charged?” HRH: “No it’s only 50 per cent charged. I’m keeping the weight down!” Is…

While it may be premature to consign Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome to support roles at Ineos, their team-mate Egan Bernal appears to be the rider most likely to establish the next yellow jersey dynasty at the Tour de France. Not only is the young Colombian hugely talented in the mountains, but he has regularly shown he can defend himself well in time trials, has a canny tactical mind and tends to be unruffled both on the bike and off it. If Bernal does live up to his pre-Tour billing as the favourite and confirm Dave Brailsford’s belief that he is the next great Grand Tour rider, he could, at 22 and with Ineos’s wealth and rider power behind him, become very difficult to beat each July. Yet the Colombian…

Fifty years ago, when Merckx first won it, the Tour was a very different beast. The 1969 race saw five time trials spread across 25 stages — six of which fell on double days. Unsurprisingly the total distance was considerably longer than it is today, to the tune of around 400 miles. It’s hard to overstate the dominance of Merckx that year. When he wasn’t washing his own kit — as riders did back then — the 25-year-old found the time to romp away with a total of five stages and a further five podium places. His wins included three of the four individual time trials, plus the TTT with Faema. Then there were the sprints, and the King of the Mountains jerseys he took for good measure. It’s no…

Buy a new bike or components Maybe your current bike looks tired or maybe your 2kg training wheels are a dead weight on climbs. If the thought of riding your current steed fails to fill you with excitement, or the fit, weight or functionality of the bike is holding you back, it could be time to invest in a new ride. Ensuring you buy a machine that fits and caters for your aims — ‘new bike day’ can be the highlight of a decade! Watch a great bike race Sometimes we need to see feats of superhuman strength, perseverance in the face of pain, attacks, thrilling descents and epic climbs to inspire us. How many riders have been motivated to train and push themselves after watching great races? A good…

Sibiu Cycling Tour (July 3-7) Kevin Rivera (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) won the Romanian race by a margin of 17 seconds from team-mate Daniel Muñoz. The Costa Rican won stage two’s summit finish at Bâlea Lac in the Făgăras Mountains, and then held on to his lead in the following two stages. Sint-Martinusprijs Kontich (July 5-8) Britain’s young South East Cycling Team were the fastest in the opening stage’s team time trial, beating the German national team by nine seconds. Josh Teare then won stage two, his team-mate Thomas Gloag finishing third. Fellow Brit Max Walker was third on stage three. Giro Rosa (began July 5) Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) caught Lucy Kennedy (Mitchelton-Scott) in the last metre on stage three of the 10-day race to secure her second successive stage victory. Canyon-SRAM…

As the CEO of Ineos, Fran Millar is now indisputably one of the most powerful people in cycling, and quite probably the most powerful woman. Older brother, ex-pro rider and TV commentator David Millar, is in no doubt that being a woman has been an asset to his sister. “I’ve always considered her to be better than me. I’ve always said, ‘Wait until you see my sister.’ She was the v2.0 since we were kids. I’ve always seen an excellence in her… She’s a woman and I think that brings a different and better skill set,” he says. He describes her as caring and rational but that being a woman in the world of cycling and making it to the level she has he says is “doubly impressive”. And yet…

Sunday’s Beaumont Trophy was dominated by controversy with several instances where tractors and cars appeared on the course, and the commissaires came in for criticism for their handling of the situation. Rory Townsend (Canyon-dhb-Bloor Homes) sprinted to victory in Northumberland, clinching his third National Road Series win in four races but his achievement was overshadowed by what had gone on before. It was shortly after a large break of riders had appeared to get clear of the bunch and were heading for the Ryals climb when a tractor came on to the course, partly blocking the road. Two motorbikes stopped to highlight the danger, and the attackers skirted round the tractor and continued their effort. But after around half an hour and with another tough lap completed the race was…

HAYDEN GROVES ‘Take on an epic challenge’ Multi Grand Tour course conqueror Hayden Groves advocates taking on the challenge of a lifetime For inspiration and motivation, look no further than Hayden Groves, former racer, superstar chef and author of The Three Tours Cookbook. In 2015 — along with former professional footballer and leukaemia survivor Geoff Thomas — Groves first rode the route of the Tour de France the day before the pros to raise money for Cure Leukaemia. In 2017, he rode all three Grand Tour courses. CW: How did you train? HG: Combining long days as a chef with riding is difficult, so the majority of training was actually my commute home from London to Hertfordshire. Four out of five days, I did 50, 60, 70, even 80km loops…