Indholdsfortegnelse for June 19, 2025 i Cycling Weekly

It was with a guard of honour, alongside his five-year-old son Angus, that Romain Bardet closed his 14-year career as a professional cyclist on Sunday. The Frenchman retired from road racing with his final pedal stroke at the Critérium du Dauphiné, which stopped by his hometown of Brioude last week. There would be no swansong victory for the 34-year-old; Bardet finished the final stage over 11 minutes behind the leaders, crossing the line arm in arm with his Picnic PostNL team-mate Chris Hamilton. “I’ve given a lot, and now I feel the tank is empty,” he said. “I’m going to be happy to be back with my family and not have to think tomorrow about the next race.” For years Bardet carried the weight of French hopes. He finished second…

1 Levelling up Perhaps nowhere is the concept of ‘trickle-down technology’ more keenly felt than in the groupset, responsible as it is for the vital tasks of shifting and braking. Certainly, it’s the case here. Both Force and Rival now benefit from many of the technological advancements of SRAM’s top-tier offering, Red AXS. The US brand has been at the forefront of the democratisation of wireless shifting for some time, but now it’s providing WorldTourproven functionality across the board at a far more palatable price. Arguably, the only discernible differences between Red, Force and Rival are now weight and materials. 2 One-finger braking One of the finest attributes of Red AXS is its superb braking, and now the system has made its way to the Force and Rival groupsets. The…

HUUB WattShop successfully defended their title at the National Team Time Trial Championships in Cambridgeshire on Sunday, while Team Bottrill’s women did the same in their category. Dan Bigham, Simon Wilson and Will Lowden clocked 57-29 for the 30-mile course near Six Mile Bottom, taking the win from the Team Bottrill trio by 1-15 while ADDFORM Vive le Velo were third. In the women’s event Emily Martin, Kate Allan and Alex Clay combined to set a time of 1-08-08 and win the title by 1-23 from Smurfit Westrock CT, with FTP Racing Team taking third. Afterwards, Wilson said: “We’re really pleased to defend the title from last year given that we’ve had punctures and mechanicals on the previous two editions, so it’s nice to finally put a ride together that…

Paint has many functions in cycling. If you’re a manufacturer, you can paint this year’s bike a different colour from last year’s bike to justify putting the price up. If you’re leading a Grand Tour, your bike sponsor can paint your bike to match your jersey and… well, justify putting the price of the bike up next year. But a more profound use for paint is painting roads. If you’re a council, you can paint a skinny stripe of red paint down the very edge of a main road and declare it to be a bike lane. This will have many uses. It will be something to point at when someone asks where the sustainable travel grant went. It will be somewhere to keep the county’s valuable collection of broken…

S eventeen riders set out on the first leg of the Isle of Man’s Ben-my-Chree (‘Girl of My Heart’) women’s race in this photo from the early 1960s. They lap a 4.25-mile motorcycle track named the Billtown Circuit for a total of 30.8 miles of tight turns and long, open straights. Beryl Burton dominated this race in the early Sixties, as she did with many others. As she usually won alone and by some distance, she was likely leading the charge out of shot when this picture was taken. We can’t be sure whether we’re looking at the 1960 or 1961 race, but we do know that Burton won both. She had also announced herself on the global scene, becoming, in 1960, the first woman to win both pursuit and…

Saanen scenes St Mauritius Church in Saanen watches on as the women’s peloton begins the Tour de Suisse. First built 10 centuries ago, the church was reconstructed in 1942 after a lightning strike sent it up in flames. Shooting hoops Known for his swashbuckling stage hunting, TotalEnergies rider Pierre Latour turns his focus to a basketball layup on his way to sign on for stage seven of the Dauphiné. Photo finish After winning Dwars door het Hageland on Saturday, Soudal-Quick Step’s Paul Magnier doubled up over the weekend with victory at Elfstendenronde in Brugges, edging out Jasper Philipsen by a tyre’s width. Tricky descent Tadej Pogačar leads Jonas Vingegaard on the descent of the Col de la Croix de Fer at the Dauphiné. The world champion later criticised Visma for…

Might Jake Stewart be Great Britain’s surprise hope for a stage win at the Tour de France? His victory at last week’s Dauphiné certainly suggests so. The 25-year-old earned a career first WorldTour win on stage five of the race, dashing beyond one of the peloton’s best sprinters in Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan. The victory followed on from a commendable fifth place on the opening day, when Stewart finished as the best of the rest behind the overall contenders. “I’ve just been getting better and better this season,” said Stewart, the first British stage winner at the Dauphiné since Geraint Thomas in 2021. “I took a win in [Four Days of] Dunkerque [in May], and I was so close on the first stage, so to get redemption here is really good.”…

Every so often on a Saturday morning, I treat myself. Scrapping the lie-in and the Nutella pancakes, I lace up my trainers and head out the door. It might not sound much of a treat, but bear with me. The payoff comes fast. Little more than half an hour later, I’m grinning like an idiot and feeling three times as virtuous, having finished my local 5km Parkrun. Started in London’s Bushy Park in 2004, today there are over 1,000 weekly Parkruns in the UK and 2,500 worldwide. They’re free to enter, accessible to all, and offer both a relaxed, friendly community and competition for those hunting personal bests. I speak from experience when I say the endorphin hit of the runner’s high is much sweeter when experienced alongside 200 other…

Long before Alex Dowsett was setting Hour record times, winning Grand Tour stages and repeatedly becoming British time trial champion, there was another Dowsett from Essex who was speeding around and breaking records: his father, Phil. Hailing from a motor racing family – Phil’s nephew Oliver runs a successful British touring car team, Napa – the 74-year-old raced single-seater, saloon, sports and touring cars for 22 years. Though he never accomplished his dream of becoming a Formula One driver, Phil was regarded as one of Britain’s best drivers throughout the 1980s. But it wasn’t how he paid the bills. “I had a job, and that was my biggest downfall because I only had one day a week to prepare and test the car before racing,” he says. In 1989, the…

Handheld electric pumps didn’t exist just a short while ago, but Trek has just released its own take on the new trend, with the Air Rush. Trek’s offering is compact and easier to carry than a traditional pump, with the convenience of CO2 cartridges but without the expense of having to replace the cartridges. There’s less waste of course, too. The Air Rush uses a 33.7Wh Lithium-polymer (LiPo) battery designed to work in a wide range of temperatures. The device is charged using a USB-C cable. When fully charged Trek claims that it is equivalent to nearly four 16g CO2 cartridges. This translates to enough air to fill three 28mm road tyres from flat to 75psi, or seven 45mm gravel tyres from flat to 35psi. The Air Rush is designed…

You wake up groggy after a late night, pick up your phone and check the day’s training. Instead of hard threshold efforts, your app reveals the plan has changed to an easy spin. It knows your sleep was poor, your stress levels are high, and your recovery suboptimal. The decision seems logical, but it wasn’t made by a human being – it was made by Hugo, HumanGO’s digital coach, powered by artificial intelligence. AI is already big business in sport and is projected to be worth £27bn by 2030. At the elite level, it’s fully embraced, used by WorldTour teams such as UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma-Lease a Bike to ride faster, recover better, and win the biggest races. But what about the everyday cyclist, the keen amateur juggling a…

While Graham Webb is perhaps best known for winning the 1967 World Amateur Road Race Championship, his palmarès on the track is equally impressive. In 1966, Webb won the National 4,000 metres individual pursuit title, as well as the team pursuit. The Birmingham-born rider also set national records for 10, 25 miles and the Hour; he held the latter for decades until Graeme Obree and then Chris Boardman surpassed his mark. And this is the bike he did it on. Webb’s Tommy Godwin frameset is made using Reynolds 531 doublebutted tubing. It features a notably high bottom bracket of 11 x 1/4in to handle the steep banking of the track. The frame was restored to its original colours by Dave Marsh. He would go on to build two bikes for…

If the Critérium du Dauphiné is anything to go by, a fourth Tour de France title looks a formality for Tadej Pogačar next month. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider won the Grand Tour’s amuse-bouche stage race at a canter, beating Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel by minutes, and winning three of eight stages. “It was a really amazing week,” Pogačar said afterwards. “For sure, it helps morale and motivation for the Tour, the biggest goal of the season. I think it’s a mental boost for the whole team.” The world champion opened the Dauphiné with intent, outsprinting Vingegaard on day one and earning himself the first yellow jersey. After suffering losses in stage four’s time trial, he won again on stage six, this time accelerating away from everyone – still…

Marlen Reusser (Movistar) further proved her credentials as a leading stage racer with an emphatic victory on the final day of the Tour de Suisse Women to seal the overall win. The 33-year-old beat former Tour de France Femmes champions Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) to the fourth stage honours, book-ending her race with victories. Vollering finished second in the general classification, while Niewiadoma took third. With some astute riding on the final day, Reusser allowed Vollering to close the gap to Niewiadoma after the Pole attacked from a select group on the descent of the final climb as the finish drew near. Once Vollering had reeled in the Canyon rider, Reusser attacked over the top, capitalising on the fatigue among her rivals, particularly Vollering, to take…

Fantastic work on the ToB Women this year – great course made for great racing! Tim Phillips It’s good to see we are supporting a policy for an annual stage race for both genders. What we need to do now is obtain sufficient sponsorship to make it world class as other European cycling nations have done. Neil Corlett Many thanks for bringing the women’s race and with it the first WorldTour event to the Scottish Borders for the Queen stage. Despite the challenging typically Scottish summer weather, it was fantastic to see so many line the route. Haste ye back. Richard Minnikin How about British Cycling do something about the state of grassroots cycling in the UK? They are only focussed on the Olympic cycles and elite sport and couldn’t…

When Van Rysel launched the RCR Pro last year, I wasn’t overly kind to it. Not because it was a bad bike - in fact, it was well-made and specced fairly well (with a couple of major quirks), but because its ride feel just didn’t inspire me the way other bikes have. For UK buyers, especially those in the mid-price point, I felt it didn’t offer outstanding value compared to better-established names. Fast forward to this year, and I approached the new RCR-F with a completely open mind. I’m glad I did, because this is a markedly more focused, better-executed bike. Where the RCR model felt like a slightly softened, all-round race bike, trying to do a bit of everything well, the RCR-F doesn’t need to pretend to be anything.…

Week: 12-17 May Location: Dallas, Texas Training for: Unbound 200 ● Monday Recovery ride I focused on recovery and getting reset for the week. On Mondays, I usually run errands or hop on a bike with flat pedals. Today I took it easy and focused on getting reset. I had no specific power goals. Total riding: 2hr ● Tuesday AM Endurance ride, PM: Crit races In the morning, I had breakfast before the ride: oatmeal with yogurt and coffee. The ride included a cafe stop and a second breakfast. On Tuesdays, I usually do a ‘pancake ride’ with some friends – indeed, this 2.5-hour endurance ride ended at the pancake store. In the evening, I did a crit race. In the masters race, I focused on getting into the break.…

Abi Plowman’s Cannondale SuperSix Evo, pictured here at the top of the Pea Royd Lane climb in South Yorkshire, features a mix of the ‘climber’s favourite’ groupset – SRAM Red – and its sibling SRAM Force. Wheels are Mavic Ksyrium SSC, shod with Continental Grand Prix 5000 tyres in 25mm. A lack of bar tape gives away this bike’s climbing focus, as well as the event-mandatory front and rear lights. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…