Cycling Weekly October 21, 2021

Last week’s announcement of the Tour de France Femmes route was another step forward for cycling. I won’t say it’s historic – after all, we used to have a women’s Tour, making this a return to what the sport had before – but it’s without doubt a great addition. And I’m happy because in my head summer just officially got extended by one week. I’ve written before how due to formative childhood memories of watching the Tour, the race has in my head become inextricably linked to the summer holidays. The downside is the day after the sprint on the Champs-Elysées my thoughts turn to autumn and the days getting shorter – even though it’s still July. So thanks to the organisers for extending my summer, it’s much appreciated. It…

Never fading Having led from lap one, a flawless Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis-Redchilli Bikes-Heidi Kjeldsen) soloed to victory by over a minute in the National Circuit Championships as the sun set on Friday night in Lincoln. Local Tindley used to work pulling pints in the pub overlooking the finish line, which she said she knew very well. “If you’re going to do it, you want to do it in front of a home crowd, don’t you?” she said afterwards. “It has not sunk in just yet.”…

Alast-ditch dash up Michaelgate and across to the leaders wasn’t enough to make it a hat-trick of titles for Ethan Hayter in the men’s National Championship road race in Lincoln on Sunday. The Ineos Grenadiers rider had already won the circuit race and the time trial in imperious fashion and was widely fancied to make it three. Instead it was Hayter’s team-mate and defending champion Ben Swift who took the plaudits, outgunning Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) up the Michaelgate cobbles, with Hayter finishing a further two seconds back in third. “I might have got the Strava segment if I’m lucky,” rued Hayter, whose younger brother Leo also scooped a bronze medal in the concurrently run U23 race, adding to the U23 time trial win he took earlier in the week.…

ELITE ROAD RACES Men: Ben Swift (Ineos); 2, Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious); 3, Ethan Hayter (Ineos). Women: Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM); 2, Josie Nelson (Coop-Hitec Products); 3, Joscelin Lowden (Drops-LeCol-Tempur). U23 ROAD R ACES Men: Fred Wright; 2, Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ); 3, Leo Hayter (Team DSM). Women: Pfeiffer Georgi; Josie Nelson; Anna Shackley (SD Worx). CIRCUIT RACES Men: Ethan Hayter; 2, Harry Tanfield (Qhubeka-NextHash); 3, Lewis Askey. Women: Jo Tindley (Pro Noctis-Redchilli Bikes); 2, Abi Smith (Tibco-Silicon Valley); 3, Corinne Side (Pro Noctis). ELITE TIME TRIALS Men: Ethan Hayter; 2, Dan Bigham (Ribble-Weldtite); 3, James Shaw (Ribble-Weldtite). Women: Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma); 2, Joscelin Lowden; 3, Leah Dixon (Tibco-Silicon Valley). U23 TIME TRIALS Men: Leo Hayter (DSM); 2, Ben Turner (Trinity Racing); 3, Oscar Onley (DSM). Women: Anna Shackley (SD Worx);…

Ethan Hayter’s first win of the championship week came on Thursday afternoon in the time trial on a 44.7km course based on Tealby, 20 miles from Lincoln. The Ineos Grenadiers rider beat Ribble-Weldtite’s Dan Bigham and James Shaw into second and third by 36 and 49 seconds respectively. It wasn’t the first win of the week for the Hayter family though (neither would it be the last, as Ethan Hayter won the circuit championships the following evening). Hayter’s younger brother Leo had already netted victory in the under-23 men’s race that morning. His win, taken on a 29.6km version of the same course as the elite men, was even more emphatic than his sibling, beating Trinity’s Ben Turner into second place by 52 seconds, and his DSM team-mate Oscar Onley…

The number of victims of a recent spate of cycle thefts by scooter bandits in and around Richmond Park has now grown to up to five. Victims include Alpecin-Fenix pro Alex Richardson and newly crowned junior time trial champion Mattie Dodd, as well as three other cyclists. Richardson became one of three confirmed ‘bike mugging’ victims a fortnight ago when he was approached by four men on two motorcycles, who pursued him before knocking him off. “Saturday and Sunday morning, that’s the safe time” “They simply rode into me at 60kph,” he said. When he attempted to hold on to his bike, he was dragged along the ground and one of the attackers brandished a machete. “At which point I thought better let the bike go,” Richardson, who rides for…