Innehållsförteckning för April 16, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

What’s your earliest Olympic memory? Mine is Daley Thompson winning the decathlon and Carl Lewis winning everything else (or so it seemed to me). Watching them compete in the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics is one of the most influential moments in fuelling my love of sport. Cycling-wise I have a hazy memory of Chris Boardman in 1992 (although I was already hooked on the Tour de France by then) and a clear memory of watching him in the TT in Atlanta (1996) and being really disappointed he didn’t win gold. This issue was meant to be looking forward to the Tokyo Games. April 16 is, or was, 100 days to go to the opening ceremony in Tokyo and reason enough to start getting excited. As it became clear the Games…

Joining the WorldTour has changed the way I watch bike races, or at least the way I was watching the racing. Being a part of the top level doesn’t mean that I am any less of a fan of the sport. In fact, getting to know some of the riders who fight it out in the Tour and riders like Jasper Stuyven, who went on to win at the opening weekend in Belgium this year, has only made me feel even more excited and nervous when watching races on TV. When I was in quarantine in Abu Dhabi, watching Jasper take the win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad several weeks ago, I was convinced my heart rate was actually higher than his for the last 30km. Seeing the different personalities and…

PEARSON CYCLES With bike shops counted as essential services and therefore allowed to stay open, retailers up and down the country have had to quickly adapt what they do and how they do it. This week we spoke to Will Pearson, of Pearson Cycles in Sutton, South London. The shop – believed to be the oldest bike shop in the world – is providing free bike checks and services for NHS staff and has launched a knock and drop service for those living within five miles of the store. Located near several major hospitals, their workshop has been inundated. “We’ve done over 60 NHS and key workers’ bike checks and repairs. And every day we’re helping more,” explained shop manager Pearson. “We are offering all cycle checks and labour from…

The soundtrack to the summer of 1996 was unquestionably ‘Wannabe’, the infectious pop smash hit that catapulted the Spice Girls into the British and international consciousness. It, along with Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’, heralded the start of new era, Britpop, where an all-conquering cohort of Brits would take the music scene at home and abroad by storm. Lines like “Get your act together we could be just fine,” could have been aimed at the British cycling scene, which was on the verge of experiencing a similar journey to world domination – albeit at a slower rate. But for that summer, as the countdown began for the Atlanta Olympics, the old order still reigned. The sport was short on money and compromises had to be made in the build-up – even a Rolling…

2008 Doping revelations at the Tour de France caused IOC vice-president Thomas Bach to talk in threatening tones about road racing’s very future in the Olympics. “Obviously, the riders have not changed their mentality,” he said after Leonardo Piepoli and Stefan Schumacher tested positive for CERA. “They had a chance to do so, but they did not… you have to consider giving men’s road cycling a pause,” he told Associated Press. 1980-1984 Four years after the boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 led by the USA, the Soviet Union announced that it would not be in attendance at the Los Angeles Games due to what it called “anti-Soviet, anti-socialist” sentiment on the part of the host nation. A total of 14 countries joined the boycott, instead hosting their own…

Recent news of a British rider and his family in lockdown in Italy, keeping up with his training on Zwift. Because his partner home works, he’s having to keep an eye on their two-year-old daughter while he’s training. For the first week or two, he found this difficult. He had to keep getting off the bike. And of course, any race or group he was with vanished up the road never to be seen again. He has now, he tells me, installed a kiddie seat on his bike on the turbo, where his daughter can see the screen and provide encouragement. “She seems really happy there,” he told me. However, he admits he has not added her weight to his for the purposes of the Zwift power-to-weight algorithm. So he’s…

Contador auctions bike for coronavirus Alberto Contador is selling his special-edition bike from the 2011 Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. The retired Grand Tour star is raising money for the Spanish Red Cross during the coronavirus pandemic, and has decided to auction his custom Specialized Tarmac on eBay to raise funds. “I want to make one more effort,” wrote Contador on Instagram. “I’m going to auction this bike, original Giro-Tour 2011, very special for me, the proceeds will go entirely to [the Spanish Red Cross].” Welsh street loses world’s steepest title The Welsh street crowned steepest in the world has lost its title after an appeal. Ffordd Pen Llech in the town of Harlech, Gwynedd, was handed the title in the summer of 2019 after Guinness World Record officials…

There are still lots of ways to stay connected while in lockdown. This week we’ve got a Zwift workout and race plus a Q&A with the Barnes sisters taking pride of place in our diary. THE RACE TROFEO BOLOGNA A race up the Bologna loop climb on Zwift. It’s just 8km, a prologue time trial-style effort, but there’s lots of climbing (236m) in that distance. Thurs 16 April, 13:30 (men) 14:30 (women) THE WORKOUT RIBBLE SPRING SERIES Ride along with the British Ribble Weldtite pro team on this steady-paced ride up to Zwift’s volcano, before testing yourself against the pros on its slopes. Fri 17 April, 18:00 THE CAFE RIDE HANNAH AND ALICE BARNES VELOTALK OK, so this isn’t strictly a ride, but more the cafe stop. Here, the Barnes…

Chris Newton Newton went on to claim Olympic medals in Sydney, Athens and Beijing, hanging up his professional race wheels at the end of 2010. He became a coach on the British Cycling Academy and helped riders who are now at the forefront of the sport, such as Simon Yates. He still does that job to this day for a new generation of talent. Yvonne McGregor Following the disappointment of Atlanta, McGregor went on to claim bronze in the individual pursuit at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She became world champion in the same discipline later that year. In 2002 she received an MBE for her services to cycling and trained as a massage therapist, a career she has pursued ever since. Matt Illingworth The Essex-based rider continued to ride…

When I was young and new to cycling, all the motivation to ride hard that I needed, was a glimpse of an unknown rider in the distance ahead. I’d chase them down, overtake, and steam off over the horizon in a manner designed to impress. The effect on my victim’s self-esteem should, if you think about it rationally, have only been enhanced by the flapping tracksuit trousers and rowing top that were my early cycling wardrobe. I very much doubt that this was actually the case. I was embarrassed for myself, even at the time. I moved on from that. I started to motivate myself by the thought of winning races. I envisaged myself atop a podium with a medal being hung around my neck. And in the fullness of…

On a scale of one to 10, how was your last training session? I would say five, on average. I just did two and a half hours, quite easy today. How do you stay motivated with no racing on at the moment? I just try to think that at the moment, we don’t have anything, but if you keep training and some other guys don’t have that motivation, you might be a little bit better when it starts back, even if you don’t know when that’s going to be. It’s also good to have a kind of routine every day so you wake up and you have a few small goals every day. At the end of the day, riding my bike is what I love to do. We have…

For nurses like Claire Murnin, working on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis, keeping the wheels turning is harder than for most. How are you doing? I’m a Clinical Nurse Educator at the Ulster Hospital (near Belfast), and I’m deeply concerned for the future and the potentially devastating impact of Covid-19. I’m currently planning for an anticipated surge in critically ill patients and supporting staff in making the difficult clinical decisions that lie ahead. Has the lockdown made you do new things in cycling? I normally cycle around 7,000 miles per year! I feel privileged to still be able to cycle to work and I usually start my day at 6.15am with a ride of around 10 miles to the hospital. My longer weekend rides of around 70 miles have…

It would be madness to stop us riding bikes, currently allowed as part of the once-a-day exercise regime. At the moment the police give you a cheery wave if they see you. They are not worried as we are not an issue for them. It’s obvious what we are doing (exercising/shopping/commuting, going to the chemist etc). However, if we are stopped from cycling for exercise purposes, the police would have no idea if what we are doing is permitted within any guidelines (i.e. commuting). The next thing might be a call to close bike shops, thus inconveniencing those who commute or shop by bike. Cyclists will then be walking/jogging on pavements. I’ve already heard some people say that if exercise is banned then they will simply change their shopping routine…

“I like Geraint Thomas, because obviously I can relate to him doing pursuit and all. Well, I don’t know what it’s like to ride the Tour de France, I must admit, but I like him,” says Newton when CW asks the enduring cycling enthusiast about who his favourites are in the modern era. “I like Chris Froome too. He doesn’t seem bolshie; he’s quite understated. “I’m not all that keen on Bradley Wiggins though for some of his attitudes. When he was getting the medal at the Olympics and they were playing the national anthem he was pulling faces. I know it’s nothing but it’s something when you’re in a position like that. I know he’s a good rider, I was a bit like him in my era. My mother…

While Team GB’s gold-tinted Olympic track exploits are well documented, the road race events haven’t yielded quite the same haul of metalwork. The women have given us the most to shout about, with a gold from Nicole Cooke at Beijing in 2008, followed by Lizzie Deignan’s silver behind Marianne Vos in London 2012 — in an event that was only introduced to the Games in 1984. In contrast the men have never tasted road race gold. Scroll back through the years (which, in four-year cycles are eaten up quickly) and you’ll find Max Sciandri’s bronze from Atlanta ’96 and, 40 years prior to that in 1956, a bronze from Alan Jackson. But you need to go all the way back to 1928 before alighting on Frank Southall’s silver medal from…