Indholdsfortegnelse for July 6, 2023 i Cycling Weekly

The day of glory finally arrived for Cofidis on stage two of the Tour de France, when Victor Lafay ended a 15-year dry spell for the team at their home race. The Frenchman, a stage winner at the 2021 Giro d’Italia, caught the peloton off-guard in the run in to San Sebastián, springing a surprise attack under the flamme rouge, and remaining in front to the finish line. “This is liberating for the whole team,” Lafay said in a press conference afterwards. “The first 500m were euphoric, and in the last 500m, the toxins took over. I saw I had a little gap, but I didn’t know how fast they were coming behind. I thought to myself how much I wanted to win. I saw the signs, 400m, 300m, 200m…

It was an early get-up Wednesday morning to head to Bilbao. There was an option to fly Tuesday but I fancied another night at home. A month away is a long time. I figured some more time to chill out and pack after Nationals was better. With that said I didn’t have much to pack; a full stripy kit drop was due on arrival so the suitcase was fairly empty. I made sure I got the pre-Tour trim sorted: shout out to legend barbers who’ve been supplying fresh cuts since my academy days. With the wind in my skin fade I was ready to go, very excited and motivated after Sunday’s race. It was slightly stressful finding out the national champs kit hadn’t arrived yet – luckily it was all…

Born a few seconds after his twin brother Simon back in 1992, Adam Yates turned the tables in Bilbao to finish four seconds ahead as he pulled out a small winning margin on the final climb to the line. The Yates brothers have been riding together ever since they joined the Bury Clarion cycling club back in the noughties, and although they’re now on different teams, stage one of the Tour de France was further proof of their equally matched talents. From those formative club runs when they would attack each other, and their clubmates, over the top of the climbs, to the 2013 Tour de l’Avenir when they finished first and second on stage five to Morzine (Simon taking the spoils that day), there has never been much to…

Hurtling through the air at 70kph, a matchstick’s width from the wheel in front, is a terrifying prospect for most hobby cyclists. As it turns out, the pros get scared, too. “When I think afterwards, I’m definitely scared,” says Jacopo Guarnieri, Caleb Ewan’s lead-out man at Lotto-Dstny. “But when you’re into it, you’re just so into the race, into the fighting spirit. After, you think, ‘That was close.’” The GC teams, Guarnieri explains, can make it more stressful. “Dealing with them is not always easy,” he says. “For them, the target is 3km to go, and sometimes they go so deep and line out the peloton in a moment you don’t really expect it.” Then comes the unavoidable chaos of the dash to the line. It was in a hectic…

Fans and team helpers pull the wire fence apart so Jean Robic can get a kiss from his wife Raymonde at Paris’s Parc des Princes, where the Tour de France regularly finished. Riding as part of the French team, Robic finished fifth, 35 minutes behind dominant winner Fausto Coppi. Robic was only 58 seconds off third place, as Coppi won that year by over 28 minutes. The diminutive Frenchmen, nicknamed Biquet (kid goat), had won the 1947 Tour de France on his debut, and was fourth in 1949, but unbeknown to him 1952 would be his last Tour finish. He rode four more editions, but never made it to Paris. He won stage 11 in 1953 before falling ill, then crashing and breaking bones in his spine. That stage was…

Adam Yates has had an up-and-down relationship with the Tour de France. For every top 10 finish, white jersey win or stint in yellow there has been a collapsing inflatable gantry, a day of suffering in extreme heat, or just plain bad luck. Come stage one both his legs and karma seemed to be paying back in dividends, winning alongside his brother in spectacular fashion, leaving some of the best riders in the world for dead and claiming the much coveted yellow jersey in the process. Not that this came as a surprise to his UAE team. “Actually yes, we expected this from Adam,” UAE’s team principal, Mauro Gianetti, told CW ahead of stage two. “He has shown during his career that he is at a very good level, and…

There is one race finale that keeps Michael Mørkøv up at night. It was the last day of the 2021 Tour de France, and Quick Step’s star lead-out man was guiding Mark Cavendish round a sweeping right-hand bend, onto Paris’s Champs-Élysées. Until that point, the Tour had gone almost perfectly for the double act. Dreamlike, really. With Mørkøv as his pilot, Cavendish had dashed to four stage wins, taking his tally to 34, and matching the all-time record to which only Eddy Merckx previously laid claim. On that blue-skied Sunday in Paris, however, Mørkøv believes his teammate should have surpassed it. “We were in like seventh or eighth position,” the Dane recounts. “He was in my wheel, like he was the whole Tour, but at the Place de la Concorde,…

In 2010 Fabian Cancellara won Paris-Roubaix for the second time. He attacked at Mons-en-Pévèle and soloed to the velodrome two minutes ahead of Thor Hushovd. It might have been just another incredible performance in a spectacular season: the Swiss rider had already won Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, and would go on to win the Tour de France prologue and the World Championship time trial. But there was something different about this victory: it was the first time the ‘Hell of the North’ had been won on carbon wheels – Zipp 303s. At the time it was seen as a huge technological turning point, but carbon wheels were still eyed with suspicion by the average rider. It might be fine for Cancellara who never goes anywhere without a…

THE ENDURANCE SPECIALIST Andrew Cockburn Age: 43 Location: Saffron Walden, Essex Rides for: Saffron Walden Velo Annual mileage: >5,000 “I’m a lifelong cyclist, having done my first race when I was 12 or 13. I had been doing a lot of mountain bike racing, but the scene has collapsed since Covid. I used to do fairly well at national level, with a few top-10s, and I won Dusk Till Dawn [endurance race] a couple of times. My latest big event, last month, was the Frontier 300 [a 300km multiterrain event in the Scottish Borders], and I’ll probably do the national marathon mountain bike champs. “I did some road racing around 12 years ago, before our two children were born, but off-road racing suits me better these days. I enjoy long-distance…

TIME TRIALS SUN, 2 JULY National 50-Mile Championship (Chelmsford, Essex): Men: 1. Adam Duggleby (ADDFORM Vive le Velo) 1:41.33 2. O. Peckover (trainSharp) 1:42.52 3. J. Crook (Richardsons-Trek RT) 1:43.10 4. W. Lowden (HUUB-WattShop) 1:43.12 5. A. Dowsett (Nopinz) 1:43.17 6. J. Levick (Rose Race Team) 1:44.11 Women: 1. Emily Martin (Team Bottrill) 1:55.58 2. S. Turner (HUUB-WattShop) 1:59.41 3. L. Davies (Jadan Vive le Velo) 1:59.54 4. J. Matthews (Fulfil the Potential RT) 2:03.39 5. K. Barfoot-Brace (Team Bottrill) 2:03.45 6. L. Robinson (Essex Roads CC) 2:04.49 Welsh CA 100-Mile Championship (Raglan, Monmouthshire): Men: 1. Chris Gibbard (Bynea CC) 3:34.44 2. A. Jones (VMCC powered by Y Beic) 3:36.17 3. T. Thornley (Fulfil the Potential RT) 3:36.43 4. R. Francis (Pronto Bikes) 3:41.25 5. T. Chapman (Frome & Dist…

F. H. ‘Freddie’ Grubb, born in Kingston, Surrey, in 1887, was a hugely talented time triallist and record breaker who won two silver medals in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and then turned pro. Cycling reported: “Grubb, who has been a strict vegetarian for five years, is a non-smoker and total abstainer, and should prove a very worthy British representative abroad. He is 25 years of age, and scales 12st stripped, and when he gets accustomed to the Continental methods there is no reason he should not shine as a star of the very first order.” In 1914 Grubb started the Giro d’Italia with the Atala team, becoming the first Englishman to enter it. However, he found the Continental ‘methods’ unsportsmanlike and returned to London – only to discover that the…

What made Adam Yates’s win in Bilbao all the more special was that it came after a two-up race with his twin brother, Simon. It was just the second time in their careers that they had finished one-two in a bike race, and the first time that Adam came out on top. “It was a super-special experience,” Adam explained. “To go one-two on the final climb with your brother is not something many people can say, so it was really nice.” For Simon, it was bittersweet. “It’s difficult,” he explained. “I’m pretty pleased for him, first Grand Tour stage. Of course I’m ecstatic for him, but I also wanted to win, we’re quite competitive. Like I said, I’ll try and get the better of him in the coming days.”…

Even thumbtacks couldn’t decisively deflate Tom Pidcock’s Tour de France ambitions as he came away from the opening weekend in the Basque Country with reasons to believe he is on track to take another step in his progression as a rider. While the Yorkshireman wasn’t able to match the top GC riders on the steepening slopes of Côte de Pike on stage one, he finished in the front group on stage two despite being one of several riders who got tacks in their tyres (see p8) and said he was “reasonably comfortable” on the final climb, an ascent more representative of what is to come at this Tour de France. “I want to go for stages as my main priority, but still focus on GC” He attacked in the run…

I would define this cake as a properly functional sports food because it combines several properties which are very useful for the riders. It’s low fibre, high in carb, and also gluten-free. It’s perfect the day before a time trial or a climbing stage. We try to diminish the fibre content of the diet, while increasing the carb content. We usually try to add some of the local traditional foods into the menu, mainly because they’re fresh, because they come from the territory, and I think it’s important to link the menu with gastronomic culture. For the Basque Country, we went for Cuajada, which is a nice cold yoghurt, which can be used both at breakfast and other meals, but also an afternoon snack. The recipe below is the most…

One of the fascinations for me of the opening weekend of racing in the Basque Country has been the gradual, enlightening process of working out the continental drift of the big teams. With Jumbo-Visma, it is clear that they have approached the race with the same pattern in mind that got them the win last year. But last year was insane: everything they tried seemed to work. And even when it didn’t work, it worked, because of the immense services of both Primož Roglič and the mighty Wout van Aert. The problem they have is the history they made in 2022 depended to a large extent on an unrepeatable ride from van Aert. If Jonas Vingegaard is going to win this, he will need good fortune and stellar form. But…

Pre-race favourites suffered misfortune as surprise winners took the national 50-mile titles following an eventful morning in Essex on Sunday. Adam Duggleby was the somewhat surprise winner of the men’s event after scratch rider John Archibald punctured at the 25km mark, ending his race. After winning the women’s national TTT last month, Team Bottrill looked on course for a podium clean sweep. “I beat some good riders, I can’t complain with how I rode” However, reigning champion Kate Allan and team-mate Alex Clay both crashed out in separate incidents as Emily Martin took her first individual national title. Duggleby, aged 38, won his first national time trial title in five years, recording a time of 1-41-33 on the two-lap, out and back course between Chelmsford and Great Dunmow. The Leeds-based…

Every year this happens, it’s ridiculous that someone would be throwing thumbtacks into the path of the riders. My hatred of people increases each day. James Stubbings This wouldn’t have happened if they were using rim brakes! Well, no one has said it, so I thought I’d throw it into the opinionated ether. David Ward I thought that the pros use tubeless with that miracle slime in them that was supposed to seal them up? I thought tubeless was supposed to be the end all and be all of cycling tyre technology? Jerry Conaway Crazy how a bike can be rendered useless by a thumbtack in the road. It’s 2023 people, not 1923! Let’s use some modern technology! Dave Perkins I think the problem is the thumbtacks. Not the technology.…

We asked Mavic – producer of the legendary aluminium Ksyrium wheels and at the same time famous for the classic Cosmic Carbones, one of the prettiest of the early carbon deep-section wheelsets (though admittedly a carbon fairing on aluminium rims) – to talk us through the pros and cons of carbon-fibre and aluminium. “The characteristics of each material are very different,” says the French brand’s global PR manager, Michel Lethenet. “A material’s stiffness is measured in Young’s Modulus, which tells you the stiffness per unit of volume/mass in pascals or gigapascals. Based on that, a piece of carbon is stiffer per unit of mass than a piece of aluminium, titanium or steel. But carbon fibres need to work in the right direction to be stiffer than the other materials.” Lethenet…

Government data for England shows that there was a huge surge in cycling during the coronavirus pandemic, peaking in March 2021, when levels of cycling were 63% up on the 2013 baseline. However, since then, cycling levels have fallen by 24% – implying that many of those who took up cycling during the pandemic are no longer riding. It’s not all bad news: current cycling levels remain 11% above where they were pre-pandemic. That said, the statistics show a 3% drop in cycling between December 2021 and December last year, so the decline may be continuing. Traffic levels and work patterns returning to normal, as well as deteriorating road surfaces, are likely to be among the reasons why so many of those who took up cycling during 2020 and 2021…