Innehållsförteckning för December 19, 2019 från Cycling Weekly

Our final magazine of any year is usually a review of the previous 12 months, something we always enjoy doing. But this year we gave ourselves a tougher challenge: to review the last decade. That’s 30 Grand Tours, hundreds of world champions across track, cross and road, countless Classics and two Olympic Games. We hope there’s enough in here to keep you entertained over the Christmas break. We’ve even devised a fiendish 50-question quiz to see whether or not you’ve been paying attention. Let us know how you get on (without the aid of Google). But what will you remember as the defining result, ride or moment of the last 10 years? I found it impossible to limit it to one event. Britain’s Grand Tour domination, a successful home Olympics,…

Cycling Time Trials (CTT) has updated its regulations, adding a clause which means anyone caught doping will have to pay £1,000 before they’re allowed to race again. The CTT regulates time trials in the UK — this includes open event and midweek club events. The new regulations will apply from 2020. The payment will go directly to the CTT. Regulation 25 now states: “Any person whom at an anti-doping control at an Event has provided a sample that subsequently returned an adverse analytical finding that results in a sanction that such person is ineligible for competition for a period of time, shall pay a fine to Cycling Time Trials of £1,000. “Any such person shall not be eligible to compete in any Event until such time as such fine has…

Gold Bradley Wiggins – time trial Chris Hoy – keirin, team sprint, Ed Clancy – team pursuit Geraint Thomas – team pursuit Stephen Burke – team pursuit Peter Kennaugh – team pursuit Jason Kenny - team sprint, sprint Philip Hindes – team sprint Victoria Pendleton – keirin Laura Trott – team pursuit, omnium Dani King – team pursuit Joanna Rowsell – team pursuit Silver Lizzie Armitstead – road race Victoria Pendleton – sprint Bronze Chris Froome – time trial Ed Clancy - omnium…

No piece of clothing has impacted upon the cycling market quite like the Castelli Gabba. The 2013 Milan-San Remo was ravaged by snow and rain — more akin to a January race in northern Europe than the Italian spring. Riders dealt with the horrific conditions by wearing Castelli’s lightweight, breathable, aerodynamic and waterproof garment — even if they weren’t supposed to do so. Gerald Ciolek removed his Gabba in the final kilometres before beating Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara. It was an epic edition of the race — dominated by the Gabba. Cancellara had bought one himself ahead of the race; Thomas Voeckler, it was rumoured, bought each of his Europcar team-mates one at full retail price; while dozens more riders sported the jacket and blacked out the Castelli logo…

Simon Smart set up the Drag2Zero wind tunnel and has worked with Scott, Enve and Endura. He works with WorldTour teams as well as domestic time triallists. Here he breaks down the aerodynamic improvements of the last decade into four areas. 1 Rider position “Ten yeas ago there was no hardware to get you in the right position. We made the first pair of high-sided armrests for Matt Bottrill in 2012 and it was a game changer because it helped control his shoulder position. The cockpit that we have today forces you into the position that I used to spend two or three hours teaching someone to hold in the wind tunnel 10 years ago.” 2 Skinsuits “For the last 10 years I’ve been trying to produce turbulated flow around…

BRITISH RACING 1 Which American was disqualified from the 2017 Tour of Britain for riding over a railway crossing as the barriers were coming down? 2 Who was the only British rider to win bronze on the track at the 2012 Olympics? 3 Who became the first British woman to win the World Championship time trial in 2010? 4 Who became Scotland’s first ever Commonwealth gold medallist on the road in 2010? 5 In 2014 which Brit became the only non-WorldTour rider to win the Ride London-Surrey Classic? 6 Dan Staite made headlines in the UK in 2010, why? 7 Team Sky would become a dominant force in the Grand Tours, but who got the team’s first ever win and in which race? 8 Which Irishman would win the Junior…

The lawyer for former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor Richard Freeman has failed in a bid to have the remaining charges being brought against him thrown out. The decision also means that the Medical Practitioners tribunal is now not set to conclude until next year. Mary O’Rourke, Freeman’s lawyer, had argued there was insufficient evidence in the case against her client, who is accused of ordering testosterone gel to British Cycling HQ in 2011 to be used by an athlete to dope. Freeman denies these claims, which form the centre of the four remaining charges against the doctor from a slate of 22 — he has admitted to the other 18. The panel at Freeman’s tribunal made the decision not to throw out the charges because “there is a…

■ Glaetzer’s return Aussie track star Matthew Glaetzer continued his comeback at the Brisbane World Cup at the weekend, where he took silver in the keirin behind Kevin Quintero. It was a step up from the bronze he took in the New Zealand round last week — his first race back since undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer. There were five Britons competing for whom the podium was just out of reach. Hat-tip to fourth places from Jack Carlin in the keirin; and Ryan Owens, Joseph Truman and Carlin in the team sprint. ■ Gonçalves suspension Caja Rural rider Domingos Gonçalves has been provisionally suspended by the UCI after his biological passport showed up two instances of banned substances, in 2016 and 2018. The 30-year-old Portuguese rider won both his national…

For one, I am so frustrated that every time I log on to cycling websites I see that two or three of the top stories are about doping. There are dedicated sports in which doping is a prerequisite. Cycling is not one of them but maybe it should be. Over time it might help the problem and bring us back to a simpler time of athletes versus athletes. Frankly, the LA doping era was more fun to watch. Sure, they were doped to the gills but they were still fit and the entertainment value was there in spades. It wasn’t this mathematical tedium that exists today where the numbers dictate the results. As an aside, radios and power meters are also to blame for the direction of the sport. Alberto…

It felt, to the architect of Mark Cavendish’s 2011 World Championships triumph, that the stars had aligned — the Manx Missile was meant to win in Copenhagen. “Everything went right,” Rod Ellingworth, who spearheaded the team’s charge, reflects. “The timing, the conversations, the lads messing about, absolutely everything. It was streamlined.” Detailed plans began three years earlier. On a late-September day in the Danish capital, Cavendish sprinted to victory to become the first British man since Tom Simpson to earn the rainbow bands of road race world champion. It was the culmination of a lifelong dream. Ellingworth says: “When I first met and worked with Mark, he said, ‘I want to be the world road race champion.’ “This was one of his very, very top goals and he was clear…

Cycling entered the public consciousness of Britons like never before in 2012 — and all because of Bradley Wiggins. At the start of spring, Wiggins was barely identifiable among non-cycling followers, but by the end of the year he had officially opened the Olympics, been offered a knighthood, voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and had his sideburns revered across the country. The Sun even printed cut-out paper copies of his iconic facial hair for fans to stick onto their faces. The adulation was the product of a year in which he won Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné, the Tour de France, and gold in the Olympic time trial in front of home crowds. Besides the humour and throwaway lines that endeared him to the watching world,…

PINARELLO DOGMA The 2014 Tour de France represented the end of passione and the beginning of science. The marginal gains-era was already under way by the time Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012, but the Brit, using the curvy Pinarello Dogma 65.1, appeared to have disregarded it and instead relied on the classic champion’s blend of personality, panache and passion. Although Chris Froome won on the Dogma 65.1 in 2013, by 2014 Team Sky had all but commandeered its Italian bike sponsor in order to develop a world-beating new machine that fitted with its ethos. It brought in Jaguar, already the team car supplier, to provide top aerodynamicists, state-of-the-art CFD software, and a full-scale wind tunnel. The resulting Dogma F8 — F for ‘faster’ with ‘8’ denoting…

The praise was relentless and universal. Every rider, every one of the three million spectators, and all the 18.6 million people watching on TV were amazed by the success of the 2014 Tour de France Grand Départ in Yorkshire. Race director Christian Prudhomme called it the “greatest Grand Départ” and claimed it had “raised the bar for all future hosts of the Tour de France”. The race may have been tinged with disappointment for home fans — Mark Cavendish came down in a finish-line crash in Harrogate as he attempted to win a maiden yellow jersey — but the widely recognised success of the event led to the formation of the Tour de Yorkshire and eventually the county hosting this year’s World Championships. But did it inspire more people to…

A 20-year lull in the interest of the Hour record came to an end this decade when rule changes prompted a flurry of attempts to set a new standard. Prelude On September 18, 2014, in his final race before retiring, Jens Voigt set the first record since the UCI modified the rules, the German riding 51.115km in Grenchen, Switzerland. Six weeks later Matthias Brändle posted 51.852km. The Austrian had only ridden on the track for the first time four weeks prior. “I still think it’s hardest thing I have done in my life,” Brändle tells CW. “After 40 minutes I was asking myself the question: ‘Why, you stupid idiot, are you doing this?” January 31 Multiple world champion on the track Jack Bobridge fell 500m short in his quest to…

How would Nico Portal, the Team Sky sports director, describe Chris Froome in 2017, when he won an historic Tour-Vuelta double? “F***ing unbelievable. He was insane,” says the Frenchman. “I am a fan of the Japanese cartoon Dragon Ball and there’s a character called Super Warrior whose hair turns from black to yellow. Froomey reminds me of him. That year Froomey became a super warrior in Grand Tours.” Assumptions about his condition — he had failed to win any of the four stage races he had competed in before the Tour — were quickly disproven once racing got under way. By stage five he was in yellow, and although he didn’t win any stages, he held off the challenge of Rigoberto Urán by 54 seconds. “It was a tense Tour.…

Giro drama It was three weeks of unabating theatre. Bury-born Simon Yates won three stages of the Giro d’Italia and after stage 15 had a lead of 2.11. Yet on stage 19, as Yates spectacularly cracked, Chris Froome spectacularly sprung into life. He attacked on the Colle delle Finestre, 80km from the finish, and overturned a 3.22 deficit and jumped from fourth to first. It was an extraordinary way to secure a hat-trick of consecutive Grand Tours — a feat he needed persuading to accomplish. “For him, it was too early,” his DS Nico Portal says. “He wanted to win five Tours first and then see. I said to him, ‘Imagine three-in-a-row, back-to-back.’ He agreed and he achieved another massive goal.” Thomas’s Tour Geraint Thomas won two mountain stages to…

Toughness is not solely about getting your legs battered by sadistic training partners; it’s also about getting frozen to the bone and pelted by cleat-bolt-sized hailstones. Pro riders are forced to contend with adverse conditions again and again. These are some of the riders throughout history who were victorious when having the most grit made the difference. 2019 World Championships road race: Mads Pedersen Torrential rain on the day of the race caused last minute route changes to avoid flooded roads. 2016 World Championships road race: Peter Sagan The Worlds were in Qatar, in unremitting heat in Doha, riders were violently sick and vocal in their complaints. 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico (Stage 5): Nairo Quintana Artic conditions awaited riders at the stage summit finish up at the Monte Terminillo ski station. 2014…

Seven years ago, Peter Berry began noticing problems with his memory. He was just 47 at the time, in good general health and running a successful timber business. “It got so bad,” he tells me over the phone from his home in rural Suffolk, “that customers would come into the yard in the morning to order timber and when they came back in the afternoon, I had no recollection of having seen them.” Three anxious years passed before Berry and his wife Teresa finally had a diagnosis: comparing brain scans from one year to the next, doctors determined that he had early onset dementia. Emotional support was in short supply. “We were sent away with a few leaflets and told, ‘We’ll see you in a year’s time’. So we went…

CYCLO-CROSS SAT-SUN, DECEMBER 14-15 National Trophy Series round six (York Sport Cycle Circuit, N Yorks): Elite Men: 1. Gianni Siebens (IKO-Crelan) 59.01; 2. G. Van der Meer (Bombtrack Bicycles) +0.27; 3. A. Vrachten (Acrog-Pauwels Sauzen) +1.36; 4. S. Flynn (Team Inspired) +2.07; 5. T. Barnes (RST/Cycle Division RT) +2.22; 6. L. Craven (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) +3.45; 7. C. Macleod (Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes) +4.06; 8. Y. Van Tichelt (Neon Velo Cycling Team) +4.25; 9. N. Craig (Scott Racing) +4.31; 10. G. Drake (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) +4.37. Elite women: 1. Harriet Harnden (T-Mo Racing) 48.19; 2. B. Crumpton (Tarteletto-Isorex) +2.16; 3. F. James (Hope Factory Racing) +2.44; 4. J. Nelson (RST/Cycle Division RT) +3.24; 5. K. Eedy (Team Empella Cyclo-Cross) +4.04; 6. K. Scott (Garden Shed UK-SCOTT) +4.32; 7. S.…

Harry Quinn’s obituary, posted on British Cycling’s website after the legendary Liverpool frame-builder died at the age of 92 in 2009 read: “In an era when frame builders possessed almost mythical qualities for riders, to own a Harry Quinn-framed bike placed you at the top of the equipment pecking order.” Quinn, whose father (also called Harry) had founded Coronet Cycles in 1890, had built bikes for Bill Bradley, the 1959 Milk Race winner, and Reg Harris, who was often but not always associated with Raleigh. But it was the lo-pro he made for the mercurial Colin Sturgess that really helped Quinn gain mythical status: when the 20-year-old won the world professional pursuit title in 1989 on a sumptuously curvy Harry Quinn, the cycling world swooned. The previous year Sturgess had…

GP De Star Sint-Niklaas (Dec 21) Christmas racing gets under way in the aptly named Flanders town of Sint-Niklaas. Sven Nys won this race — also referred to as Waaslandcross — a record four times. Cyclo-cross World Cup round six: Namur (Dec 22) Britain’s Thomas Mein sits third in the U23 men’s standings ahead of the festive period double-header. His compatriot Tom Pidcock will be aiming for a podium in the elite men’s race. Cyclo-cross World Cup round seven: Zolder (Dec 26) Katerina Nash leads the elite women’s standings from Britain’s Anna Kay, but it is Annemarie Worst — winner of two rounds already — who will be favourite to win the Boxing Day classic. Azencross (Dec 27) Wout van Aert is expected to make his return to cyclo-cross at…

Fabian Cancellara is taken aback by CW’s question. “2010 was… yeah. I’ve never thought about it deeply before, but it was a crazy year,” he says. The Swiss rider won the Tour of Oman, E3 Prijs-Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour de Suisse prologue, two stages of the Tour de France, wore the yellow jersey for six days and finally, took a fourth World Championship time trial title. The story behind the most successful year of Spartacus’s career can be traced back to disappointment at the previous season’s World Championships, in Mendrisio, Switzerland, when he blew an opportunity to become a double world champion. “I was too excited, lost my focus and concentration levels and attacked moves that weren’t right,” he says. So the Swiss decided to “turn a…

“I would have laughed and thought you were taking the p***,” says Geraint Thomas when we ask what he’d have thought if we’d hopped out of a Delorean on the Champs-Elysées after his first Tour de France in 2007, and told him that not only would he one day win the Tour de France, but that he’d be the third Brit to do so. “Brad hadn’t shown anything in terms of GC, it was 2009, he was fourth and then later upgraded to third [after Lance Armstrong’s ban]. Obviously Chris Froome was little known then as well and I had just finished 140th, second to last.” To say then that British Grand Tour racing has come a long way since 2007 is something of an understatement. Prior to 2008 British…

Great Britain were favourites for most of the track events at London 2012 — but the men’s team sprint was one race that they were not expected to win. Despite boasting Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny in their trio, preparation for the Games had been bereft of victories and they were regarded as unlikely contenders. The might of France with Grégory Baugé, and the Maximilian Levy-led Germany, were predicted to contest the first of 10 golds inside the velodrome. But a young Owain Doull had listened to positive stories emanating from the camp. “I would hear snippets of how everyone was going, but it was like Chinese whispers and by the time it got to me it would have been blown completely out of proportion,” Doull, a member of British…

“She is the best ever. Just look at her results,” Jeroen Blijlevens tells CW of Marianne Vos, whom he has coached for many years throughout her career. And 2013 was vintage Vos. It was the year when she swept all before her in almost every race she rode. Cyclo-cross Worlds She began the year by winning her fifth consecutive and sixth overall gold medal in the Cyclo-cross World Championships. She eased to victory in Kentucky, in the United States, beating home favourite Katherine Compton by 94 seconds. Spring success Switching to the road in the spring, she racked up seven victories, including a maiden Tour of Flanders and a fifth La Flèche Wallonne. Dusting off her mountain bike, she also won a handful of UCI races off-road. Stage racing glory…

In the 2010s socks got longer and louder. In what was hopefully a more innocent decade than the one before, the word ‘dope’ was reclaimed to describe particularly impressive socks, as in #sockdoping. However, there was actually a performance advantage to be gained by sockdoping — aerodynamic fabrics with seams to trip the airflow into staying attached saved a measurable number of watts, so that the UCI issued a new rule about sock height for 2019 (“Socks must not rise above half the distance between the middle of the lateral malleolus and the middle of the fibula head”), enforced to much hilarity at this year’s World Championships with a contraption that looked like it came straight out of your grandad’s shed.…

106 days Raced by Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) in 2012, the most in a single season 110 years — how far back you have to go to find a younger Tour de France winner than Egan Bernal (22 years and 196 days) in François Faber (22 years and 187 days) A DECADE OF WINNING WORLDTOUR TEAMS RANKED BY VICTORIES 20 The number of consecutive Grand Tours ridden by Adam Hansen between the Vuelta a España 2011 and the Giro d’Italia 2018 0.54s The smallest Tour de France-winning margin, set by Chris Froome over Rigoberto Urán in 2017 Winningest riders of the decade 45.2kph 157 36 The fastest ever edition of Paris-Roubaix, won by Greg Van Avermaet in 2017 17,359km Raced by Danilo Hondo in 2010, the most of any rider in…

Can you celebrate if you almost won? Australians — especially their cricketing contingent — would say no; you only celebrate after you’ve succeeded. But this July, France was smiling like they’ve not had cause to since 1985. Because for two and a half tantalising weeks it looked as Julian Alaphilippe might finally — at last! — end France’s 34 year hoodoo and win the Tour de France. Alaphilippe? It was inconceivable. The Deceuninck-Quick Step rider won one-day races and, at best, week-long stage races that weren’t laden with mountain-top finishes and three gruelling climbs a day. But the 27-year-old defied his own expectations to take hold of the yellow jersey, lose it, reclaim it and then propel himself to within three stages of a famous, unfancied and historic victory. Unfortunately…

We have all felt mentally tired, even if ‘mental fatigue’ isn’t a term we use very often. Be it after a particularly long, gruelling ride or a stressful day at work, when you’re mentally fatigued, your concentrate is hampered, and hills become mountains. Training rarely addresses this mental tiredness directly — yet it is possible. The ability to stay alert, resilient and motivated in adverse situations — critical for all cyclists — can be trained. It’s time to find out how. Sports psycho-biologist Professor Samuele Marcora, who researches mental fatigue at the University of Bologna, points out that “mental fatigue increases your perception of effort for the same power output, and so will decrease your performance.” Therefore, instead of burying yourself to notch up your FTP by a watt or…

INDOORS Turn off distractions: Listening to music or using software such as Zwift and The Sufferfest can motivate you through a session. However, this comes at the expense of training your brain’s endurance. Completing a session in silence is boring, but the lack of stimulation makes your mind work harder. Break rituals: If you ordinarily need to have a coffee to psych yourself onto the turbo, do it without. If you always tidy the area around the turbo so your sessions and mind are clutter-free, do it after. If you usually listen to a motivational podcast before you jump on the turbo, skip it. We all have our routines but they can end up becoming a mental crutch. You can’t always be in control of extraneous variables, so adapt to…

Dementia is usually associated with old age, so we asked Guy Walker of Alzheimer’s Research UK to explain why a significant minority, like Peter Berry, are affected while still relatively young. “Around five per cent of those with dementia, about 42,000 people in the UK, are under 65. This is called early or young-onset dementia, with Alzheimer’s the most common cause. The causes of Alzheimer’s disease are complex and not yet fully understood. Age is the biggest risk factor for dementia, while genes and lifestyle factors can play a role. In very rare cases, early-onset Alzheimer’s can be caused by inherited faulty genes, but for the most part it is not known why some people are affected by dementia at an early age. Research is helping to unravel the causes,…

“We’re doing a double issue with a review of the decade,” they said. “You’ve started work on it early,” I said. “What?” they said. “Decade doesn’t end till 2021,” I said. “There wasn’t a year zero, it went straight from 1 BC to 1 AD. So the first decade didn’t end till January 1, 0011. And so on. Unless you have a nine-year decade somewhere.” “So you celebrated the millennium on January 1, 2001?” “Yes. It was surprisingly easy to get a restaurant reservation.” Ultimately I lost the argument. So here it is, a full year early, the Dr. Hutch review of the decade. The discrepancy matters less than it might, since nothing happened in 2010. It was Team Sky’s first season, but they weren’t much good, and for the…