Innehållsförteckning för July 18, 2019 från Cycling Weekly

It can be hard to comprehend just how important it is to have a Frenchman in yellow at the Tour de France. For three weeks in July the rider in yellow is given almost regal status. They carry a symbol of France that’s embedded in the nation’s culture. The Tour isn’t just sport, you see — it’s more important than that. It’s civic and national pride rolled into one. It’s a country’s chance to celebrate itself as the world watches on in admiration. That pride and those celebrations are helped by having a Frenchman at the centre of it. Step forward Julian Alaphilippe — a swashbuckling, tenacious rider complete with musketeer beard. Despite his Gallic name I’ve always associated Alaphilippe with Belgium. Daft I know, but riding for Deceuninck and…

Is there nothing that can stop Peter Sagan winning a record seventh green jersey in the Tour de France? After one of the least ‘sprinty’ opening weeks in years, it would appear not. After stage 10 from Saint-Flour to Albi on Monday, he was 62 points ahead of second-placed Michael Matthews (Sunweb). Asked last week whether he could take green all the way to Paris, Sagan replied with a dry: “I don’t know, I’m not Copperfield.” But you don’t need to be much of a fortune teller to make the fairly confident prediction bar disaster (or disqualification…) that the 29-year-old will indeed be wearing the maillot vert in the French capital a week on Sunday. “It doesn’t look like [he can be beaten] at the moment,” said Aussie sprinter Caleb…

BeNe Ladies Tour (July 18-21) Marianne Vos has won the last two editions, but the Dutchwoman’s absence means a new rider will win. Two-time victor Jolien D’Hoore is Boels-Dolmans’ best bet, while Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel-Valkenburg) will be targeting success in the sprint stages. A 14.5km time trial on stage 2b will be crucial to the final GC result. Tokyo 2020 Test Event (July 21) A preparatory race ahead of the Olympics in just over a year’s time, a young quartet of British riders — Fred Wright, James Shaw, Matt Holmes and Max Stedman — will be among the riders in the 234km race that finishes in the shadow of Mount Fuji. With two climbs in the final 40km, the race could lend itself to a punchy rider winning. Adriatica Ionica…

100-mile record falls In-form Marcin Białobłocki (Nopinz) slashed more than three minutes from the national 100-mile competition record on Sunday. Białobłocki’s record attempt last month was scuppered when he went off course and was disqualified in the Eastern Counties CA 100. But on Sunday he covered the East District Championship course in 3:13.37 to beat Adam Duggleby’s 2017 mark. Białobłocki said: “Conditions were much slower than I expected, so I think I could’ve gone quicker.” 8 years… the statute of limitations on Operation Puerto blood bags The names of the athletes connected to Operation Puerto will not be made public despite many of them being known to authorities because the time limit has been reached to take action, according to website insidethegames.biz. Anti-doping authorities have been locked in a long-running…

I would like to say a massive thank-you to both Mark and Peta Cavendish for making my little boy’s dream come true. Evan is only five years old but has been a huge fan of Cav from a very young age and has been fortunate enough to meet him on lots of occasions at different races. Cav and Peta have always taken time out to make him feel special, with little gifts of cycling caps, bottles and the like. This last week Cav must be dealing with huge disappointment with not being selected for the Tour de France for the first time since 2007. But when he learnt how upset his young fan was, he and Peta arranged to make a six-hour round trip from his home to Nottinghamshire so…

“I love life, I love to laugh,” Julian Alaphilippe has said of himself. How appropriate it was, therefore, that he received the yellow jersey after stage five into Colmar from Roger Hassenforder, eight times a Tour stage winner, wearer of the yellow jersey for four days on his first appearance in the race in 1953 and renowned as one of cycling’s great jokers and anti-conformists, dubbed ‘Hassen the Magnificent’ for his class and flair on the bike and also known as “the world champion of night clubbing”. Like Alaphilippe, Hassenforder was also tagged as a musketeer, in his case alongside Jacques Anquetil and André Darrigade, with whom he shared a heightened sense of style and enjoyed a good degree of high living. In terms of the public’s affection, Alaphilippe’s most…

One of the most powerful fitness-builders is the 20-minute sweetspot session — basically long intervals. We recently asked Training Peaks founder Hunter Allen: if you could choose only one duration, length and intensity level to train at — for all eventualities — what would it be? He said: “Train for two hours and do three times 20 minutes at your sweetspot (88-93 percent of FTP or 80-85 percent of maximum heart rate). FTP is the number-one direct determinant of cycling performance success. If you built up to an hour a day close to FTP, you would improve…. until you were adapted to that hour per day, of course — at which point you’d have to start doing more!” Sweetspot intervals is a simple session, but don’t mistake simple for easy.…

ROAD RACING Men’s Stockton Grand Prix (Durham University, Cleveland): E, 1, 2: 1. John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) 100 miles in 3:56.44; 2. M. Bostock (Canyon-dhb) +0.05; 3. T. Pidcock (Team Wiggins); 4. J. Scott (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling); 5. S. Thwaites (Vitus Pro Cycling); 6. J. Sutton (Richardsons-Trek); 7. D. Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling); 8. T. Mazzone (Spirit Tifosi); 9. J. McEvoy (Madison-Genesis); 10. A. Tennant (Canyon-dhb) all same time. Overall classification (after seven rounds): 1. Matthew Holmes (Madison-Genesis) 122pts; 2. J. Shaw (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) 114; 3. R. Townsend (Canyon-dhb) 90; 4. S. Thwaites (Vitus Pro Cycling) 88; 5. I. Bibby (Madison-Genesis) 84; 6. M. Christian (Team Wiggins) 82. Team classification: 1. Canyon-dhb-Bloor Homes 381 pts; 2. Madison-Genesis 249; 3. SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling 243; 4. Team Wiggins 232; 5.…

Last summer, when I had a broken hip and was more or less defenceless, a so-called friend decided he would introduce me to the pleasures of cricket on television. It was not, I’ll admit, as dull as I expected. In fact I’d happily concede that it was certainly no worse than watching a blank screen for a week. But I never really understood what was happening. Or maybe I understood what was happening, but didn’t understand why it was interesting — I didn’t know enough to tell. I decided that I’d ask my friend round to watch a stage of the Tour de France. He had educated me on cricket. I would educate him on bicycle racing. It seemed only fair. I selected a sprint stage, obviously. About 10 minutes…

Word from a bike shop manager, who tells us of a customer who arrived recently with a bin liner full of old Team Sky kit. “I’ve come to exchange this lot for Ineos kit,” he said. “OK,” said the assistant, a little confused, but willing to help. He started totting his way through it all. “We don’t have all of it in stock, but we can order it. In total it’s £886.” “No,” said the customer. “I mean the free exchange. You know, where the team is paying for everyone to upgrade their kit?” The moral of the story? Don’t believe everything your riding mates tell you. Not unless you want to witness a lot of bike shop staff trying not to laugh at you.…

As Julian Alaphilippe lapped up the plaudits during the first half of the Tour, the Frenchman repeatedly highlighted the legwork that most of his Deceuninck-Quick Step team-mates had put in to ensure he was in the position to win. As the rider given the task of keeping the break within range, Kasper Asgreen was the most dogged of the Belgian team’s domestiques, never more obviously than on the 230km stage to Chalon-sur-Saône. The 24-year-old spent five hours on the front of the peloton to ensure Elia Viviani had a chance to sprint for victory. Unfortunately for Asgreen, the Italian punctured in the final straight, leaving the Dane’s long slog unrewarded.…

News writer The first week of this year’s Tour featured fewer long, flat sprinters’ stages than it has done for more than 10 years. Hurray! I’ve got nothing against bunch sprints — they can provide some of the most exciting action of the race and tend to induce whoops, hollers and even gasps from the couch — but it’s the preceding 200 kilometres that are the problem. It can be a joy to watch, idling away the time as the French countryside rolls by, learning about local cheeses and chateaux. But there’s a reason they’re referred to as a procession. The broadcasters often won’t bother airing much of these stages because, for the fan, nothing perceptible happens. Of course the sprinters are some of cycling’s biggest characters — hot-headed macho…

Lizzy Banks may have finished 68th in the general classification of last week’s Giro Rosa, over an hour behind overall winner Annemiek van Vleuten, but a stage win ensured her race was a huge success. Having won only two road races since beginning competitive riding in 2015, the 28-year-old won last Friday’s eighth stage during the longest race on the calendar. Riding for Bigla, Banks escaped an 11-woman break in the closing 12km taking her first professional victory, 30 seconds ahead of American team-mate Leah Thomas. “I remember thinking it’s about three k to go, then saw the five k sign and wanted to throw myself in a bush!” Sheffield-based Banks told CW. “I didn’t believe until the final finishing straight that it was possible, and I still can’t believe…

Jumbo-Visma’s head of performance is a man called Mathieu Heijboer — the man Merijn Zeeman says “should take the credit” for Jumbo’s TTT victory on the opeining weekend. “Too much honour,” says Heijboer with an embarrassed chuckle when we put it to him. “But thanks.” “What I see as the beginning of what was the success in this TTT was that in 2014 we had a terrible time trial with Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam in the Tour de France. We had a bike that we just flew in on the second rest day and they had to ride that bike in the time trial. A lot of things went wrong there. “That winter I asked Richard Plugge, our general director, if he could give me some freedom to…

Last year’s most-asked question for Sky about the identity of their leader has resurfaced with a new twist. Instead of Chris Froome or Geraint Thomas being the focus of enquiry, it is now the Welshman and his young team-mate Egan Bernal. When talking to Dave Brailsford and other members of the Ineos staff, it appears neither man has an edge, that they are authentic co-leaders. Yet Brailsford reveals there is a hugely significant difference between them that cannot be ignored as a factor when the team, and more especially the road, finally reveals the identity of its number one rider — experience. “Everyone’s getting carried away a little bit with regard to Egan,” Brailsford told Cycling Weekly. “He was brilliant in winning Paris-Nice, dealing with the crosswinds on the flat…

Astana gets aggro Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang led rider protests after stage eight to Saint Etienne that Julian Alaphilippe had used the help of a race moto in order to retake the yellow jersey, by attacking in its slipstream. When asked about the incident, the Frenchman responded sarcastically, saying: “Yeah, we put our bikes on board and attacked by motorbike, it’s easier that way.” Qhubeka bike found The Qhubeka ‘yellow jersey’ bike that was stolen on the first weekend of the Tour, igniting a ‘give it back’ campaign involving some of cycling’s top names, was found at the end of the week, after being spotted in Brussels by an off-duty police officer. It was one of four bikes commissioned by the official Tour charity partner, specially painted in the colours of…

Daryl Impey has been a part of four Tour de France victories: he was part of the 2013 TTT win and he led out Simon Gerrans to a stage win in 2013 — he took the yellow jersey that day too — and in 2016 I was in a breakaway with Daryl and Michael Matthews and Michael won. And now Daryl gets to win one. He’s been a massive part of the team and it was really cool to see a good mate of mine take a victory. We heard about it on the radio. Matt White, our DS, was trying to keep his cool, being all deadpan on the radio, “Just to let you know Daryl has won the stage.” After the stage I said, “You could show a…

In-form John Archibald took a solo win in the men’s Stockton Velo29 Grand Prix on Sunday, while Rebecca Durrell sprinted to victory in the women’s race to strengthen her overall series lead. Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) attacked alone with around 100 kilometres remaining, and managed to hold off a charging bunch in a perfectly timed effort. The Scot, who racked up two podiums at the British National Championships a couple of weeks ago, said: “At first I was just tapping along nicely and hitting the hills hard. When I got to the circuit I was really blowing, but I had 3-4 minutes on the bunch. I knew I was going to lose time every lap, and at first I was doing OK. But later I was losing a minute a…

Lanterne Rouge The amount of time Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert) trails leader Julian Alaphilippe after stage 10 2 hour 4 minutes 4 minut 41 seconds 41 secon THE BATTLE FOR GREEN Where the points were won in the first week Intermediate points (black bar) versus stage finish Breakaway stars 5 Number of abandons in week one Speed demon 95.2 kph Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) – Descending the Ballon d’Alsace on stage 6 10.39 - the biggest gap the breakaway has had, achieved on stage 9 to Brioude…

Our fascination with training techniques and hunting out marginal gains borders on consumeristic excess — the more we spend, the faster it’ll make us, we hope. Many of us spend money on increasingly elaborate training tools, apps and online diaries, as well as obsessively reading research material. Delving into the world of sports science, planning our training and even getting out on the bike to do a session can feel increasingly, even overwhelmingly complicated. Does it really have to be this way? It wasn’t always so; reports of some of the greatest names in cycling show that training used to be a much more straightforward affair. “Ride as much or as little, as long or as short as you feel. But ride,” said Eddy Merckx. When asked how to go…

Minimise the big losses This applies to every part of your cycling, from training to your bike and kit. Take a step back and look at the big holes in your fitness and preparation before examining the smaller details. Go really hard for a short time Bursts of short, hard effort work as a stimulus for adaptation. The higher the intensity, the shorter the effort. There is plenty of research around manipulating work-to-recovery ratios, but for a simple rule of thumb, keep it even; work for a minute, recover for a minute. Go easy, go long, go often Volume fell out of favour when short, hard HIIT sessions became popular — but for endurance riders, if you have the time to spare, getting out for two-hour (or longer) rides will…

Tour of Austria (July 6-12) Ben Hermans triumphed on stage four’s 17.4km summit finish to take the overall lead and he maintained his advantage at the summit of the general classification to secure a second successive victory in the race. Tour des Deux-Sèvres (July 11-14) Welshman Owen James was the fastest on stage one of the French race, but the Côtes D’Armor-Marie Morin-Véranda Rideau rider relinquished his overall lead on stage 3a. Fellow Briton Harrison Jones, riding for GSC Blagnac, finished ninth on GC. Ain Bugey Valromey Tour (July 14) British teenagers Oscar Onley and Oliver Rees performed well in the four-stage race in France. The latter finished seventh on stage one, a result he replicated on the final general classification. Rees, meanwhile, was second on stage two, fifth in…

There are many leaders’ jerseys at the Tour de France. There is one for skinny people who are good at climbing. There is another one for skinny people who are good at climbing and have team-mates who are also good at climbing. There is one for Peter Sagan. There is one for kids. But there is no jersey for the poor sods who do most of the actual work. This is why no one grows up dreaming of being a rouleur, and there is so little recognition of the art of barrelling along a flat road at 50kph, without hesitation, deviation or complaint. Even if you buy the magazine named after them, you’ll find it’s full of photos of skinny guys, moodily lit rear gear mechs and inexplicable bits of…

In the days before everyone had a car, the average club racing cyclist would ride his or her race bike (which was also usually their work bike and training bike) to time trials, grass track meetings or road races. Before the race they’d strip off unnecessary equipment — saddlebag, lights, mudguards — and leave it all at the start to pick up later. This gave rise to a dilemma, though: did you ride there on your best racing wheels, with the possibility of puncturing your lightweight tubulars on the way, or did you ride on your usual training wheels, with the risk you might lose out on that PB on a float night, or get pipped in the bunch sprint for lack of zip? Worse, what if someone ripped out…