Innehållsförteckning för May 21, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

The non-start of the Giro d’Italia really hit home to me just how much I’m missing the pro racing. While little can beat the intensity of excitement around Flanders and Roubaix, it’s the travel and exploration that makes following the Grand Tours such a joy. Whether you’re spectating or reporting, travelling from start to finish via accommodation and places to eat is a major part of the attraction – while the Russian roulette nature of the next location makes it exciting too. We’ve found ourselves working in a rickety old barn in a run-down industrial town one day, only to end up in a picture-perfect mountain setting the next. I’ve had to make do with a packet of crisps and a can of drink for dinner before, but I’ve also…

2020 Worlds could move to Qatar The 2020 UCI Road World Championships moving from Switzerland to the Middle East is looking more likely, with Qatar specifically highlighted as the probable new location, according to reports. A World Championships in Switzerland at the end of September is a “no-go” according to the UCI, writes Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, with Swiss regions less than keen to have a global sporting event descending on their communities in the aftermath of a pandemic. Connor Swift rides the Tour de Yorkshire 2020 route solo After the Tour de Yorkshire became one of the many races cancelled by the coronavirus, former British road race champion Connor Swift decided to ride the 2020 course on his own. The Arkéa-Samsic rider rode the four-stage race route with little…

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One of the foundations of Marco Pantani’s ongoing appeal was the way his style of racing evoked the exploits of cycling’s legendary performers, a comparison that was made even more pertinent by his attitude away from the bike. “There’s a lot to be said for the comparison with the Italian legends of the sport, with the likes of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali,” says journalist and author William Fotheringham, who interviewed Pantani several times during his career. “Pantani did race in a quite different way and his team was structured around him alone. He was quite different to most of his rivals in other ways too. He didn’t have a manager until 1999. Up till then, you could just phone him directly and arrange an interview. Usually he’d give you…

Tirreno-Adriatico, 2012 The peloton climbs the hills of Tuscany on the way to a sprint finish that would be won by Mark Cavendish (Sky) Giro d’Italia, 1974 Felice Gimondi (Bianchi-Campagnolo), seen here in a rare colour photo from the time, wasn’t able to unseat the great Eddy Merckx at the Giro that year. But the 34-year-old, who already had two Giro titles and a Tour de France win in his palmarès, did return to the top step of the Giro podium in 1976 – his last Grand Tour title Giro d’Italia, 1988 The pink jersey of Franco Chioccioli (Del Tongo-Colnago) climbs the Gavia on a stage that would go down as a classic. There was snow on the mountain and American Andy Hampsten (7-Eleven-Hoonved) attacked near the bottom. He didn’t…

1996 Ganna is born. He has a good start: his father Marco is an Olympic canoe racer. 2011 Begins racing as a cadet with Pedale Ossolano. 2012 Wins the Cadet National TT. 2014 Wins Junior National TT, individual pursuit and Chrono des Nations. 2015 Joins the U23 ranks and gets a ride as a stagiaire with Lampre-Merida. 2016 Signs for Colpack. Sets a new Italian IP record at the London Track Worlds on the way to his first world title in the discipline. 2017 Turns pro with UAE-Team Emirates. 2018 Takes three top-fives in time trials, second overall at the Vuelta San Juan and his second Worlds IP title. 2019 Joins Ineos and sets about a break-through road season, with his first WorldTour victory (BinckBank ITT). Wins a third IP…

Eating for good health and immunity has gained extra importance lately. We asked Team Ineos chef James Forsyth to share some of the expertise he puts into practice to keep Froome, Thomas, Bernal et al fighting fit. It has been more challenging than usual lately keeping our plates colourful and interesting – what are your top tips? Keep it simple when it comes to home cooking – develop dishes over time. A dish on a restaurant menu has usually evolved over time, eventually becoming a signature of the chef, with the finished article sometimes very different from the initial concept. You can adopt this approach in the home setting. Start with a dish you are comfortable cooking, then each time you cook it change a component, add or substitute different…

WOMEN’S LEADER: MELISSA SCRIVIN Leading female Melissa, from Gloucester, recorded a punchy 933 watts What’s your cycling background? As an asthmatic kid, I did no sport. More recently, my partner had stopped riding because of me and was getting depressed. In July 2016, I said, “We’re going cycling – together!” Miraculously, I discovered I could cycle. In 2017, we did RideLondon, and in 2018 London to Paris. Current training regime? We were training for L’Étape, but our local hills are short and sharp, so we were already hill-climbing indoors pre-lockdown – our trainer replicates real-world routes and gradients. Now I’m doing Tour de France stages for variety, and recovery days on rollers. I’m trying to ride every day. Do you work on your sprinting? My sprint just comes naturally. Building…

There are a number of ways to cope with a large, red ‘Road Ahead Closed’ sign. One is to just ignore it, zigzagging through any cones if necessary, and take your chances. It’s surprising just how often the road isn’t obstructed at all, and it just turns out to have been the highway guys practising putting out signs. The bonus here is that you’ll have enjoyed a very peaceful bit of road. If there actually are some roadworks, you can usually get past by walking a few yards, or by riding carefully and being nice to the guys digging the hole. If necessary, fake an interest in their sewer pipe. No one ever asks intelligent questions about sewer pipes. Don’t ask them if they’re installing 5G. On the other hand,…

CW news editor If Chris Froome does leave Ineos following a spat with team management, it wouldn’t be the first time that Dave Brailsford has been content to see his star Tour de France rider walk away. Remember Bradley Wiggins’s off-script announcement on the BBC Breakfast sofa in 2013 when he broke the news that he wasn’t being selected for the Tour despite being reigning champion? He never started another Grand Tour and left the team less than two years later. L’Equipe’s story of Froome’s dissatisfaction with his place in the pecking order has eerie echoes of that. But then Brailsford, who would have chief responsibility for such a decision, didn’t get where he is today without a willingness to make clinical decisions on what will give his teams the…

Marco Pantani is about to put Pavel Tonkov to the sword at Plan di Montecampione and make his decisive move in the 1998 Giro d’Italia. The 20-kilometre ascent in the Bergamo Alps was perfect for Pantani’s skills and he didn’t disappoint the thousands of fans waiting further up the climb. Pantani in pink, Pantani out in front, Pantani victorious – that is what the tifosi wanted from their hero and that’s what they got. A phenomenon like Pantani comes along just once in a photographer’s career, and I remember being so excited when he first broke on to the scene in the 1994 Giro, attacking Miguel Indurain and Evgeni Berzin and taking out the two hardest stages of the race. Pantani went on to win many great races, including the…

1992: Pantani turned pro with Carrera towards the end of the season. 1994: Started the Giro as Claudio Chiappucci’s lieutenant, but was promoted to Carrera leader when he won consecutive mountain stages. He finished second overall, then made his Tour debut, finishing third on GC and best young rider. 1995: Missed the Giro following a crash, but won two stages at the Tour. Sustained a severe leg break when hit by a car that entered the course during Milan-Turin. He was sidelined for a year. 1997: Won two Tour stages and finished third overall. 1998: Won the Giro and Tour, taking two stage wins at each race. 1999: Won four stages at the Giro but was excluded from the race two days from the finish for an elevated haematocrit. 2000:…

The language of the peloton may traditionally be French, but Italy has always been where the romance is. From Fausto Coppi to Ferrari, coffee culture to Colnago, the country has always inspired serious allure in anybody with a sense of style or heritage. There’s a reason Dave Stohler, the young protagonist in the cycling flick Breaking Away, couldn’t get enough of spaghetti and not cottage pie. As well as having a mile-long pedigree in style, Italy remains a global force, with most of us owning one or several pieces of Italian kit, from bikes, to finishing kit to clothing. We looked at some of the major players that most of us have either owned or lusted after in one of those green, white and red reveries so common in cyclists.…

MAPEI KIT If good design is making otherwise mundane things beautiful then Mapei’s kit from the 1990s is potentially the best bit of design of the 20th century. Not because cycling kit is dull, it’s anything but; however, when it comes time to re-do your bathroom, if you are a cyclist you can’t help but be drawn to the Mapei adhesives in your local DIY store. That’s because those packs of amorphous sludge still bear the cubetti design that was made famous by cycling’s original superteam. That cube design still sells jerseys too. Few, if any, 1990s retro kits still sell like those do – now made by Santini. The famous cubes can still be spotted on hoardings at the World Championships, which the company has sponsored for several years…

Italian pro Cesare Benedetti is focusing on his nutrition as one way to maintain a healthy and balanced routine during the Covid-19 lockdown. “Take care of your nutrition. You need to give yourself some small nourishing gifts every day because you need to keep the mind focused too. Your daily dose of chocolate will keep your mood positive – but don’t have too much! “I’m trying to teach myself to be more self-disciplined when it comes to food – trying to keep to a good rhythm. For example, for three days in a row, I’ll vary my breakfasts: one day, porridge, the next day, pancakes with avocado and honey, and on the third day, a low-carb meal such as eggs with avocado, if I can still find the ingredients in…

The number of UK Covid-19 cases and daily death tolls is on a slow but definite downward trajectory, prompting optimism that the easing of lockdown can permit some racing to be held later in the year. Currently, there is a ban on any domestic racing until the end of June, and at present there are no National A road races left. There does, however, remain 15 National B road races planned for late summer and late autumn. Riders and teams, however, would like to see that number increased and the creation of a condensed calendar. “The best case is that we get some sort of racing, a packed schedule of maybe six-to-eight weeks towards the end of the year in the autumn,” Canyon-dhb rider Mark Christian said. “The UCI calendar…

RICK HUGHES, WORTHING EXCELSIOR “I am still pushing hard for a sub-22-minute 10” How are you keeping yourself motivated to ride? I have been on a training plan since September last year to prepare for this year which of course didn’t happen; hopefully there will be a few events later in the season to push for. How did you get into riding? I started riding seriously following a strange problem with my right leg which only responded to riding a bike and not much else. In addition to this, my father became very unwell due to smoking and my older brother died suddenly due to lifestyle choices he made; as a smoker for many years myself, I thought it best to quit and try to get in better shape. How…

Regarding the article on Ray Booty (CW 14 May), I thought that I would tell you my experiences of the great man. The yearly awards for time trialling were held at that time in the Royal Albert Hall. The first half of the presentations were performances by variety acts such as Bob Monkhouse and Tommy Trinder. On more than one occasion, the acts had to be stopped because we were impatient to see our heroes. The recipients would have their names called for each award and then walk down the middle aisle of the seating towards the stage. When Booty appeared, the roof of the Albert Hall nearly came off. People banged the seats, rang bells and stomped their feet. I took a Klaxon motor horn with me and gave…

On one side of the door the light is golden and vibrant, the glow provided by Fausto Coppi, Gino Bartali, Felice Gimondi and so many other legends of Italian cycle sport, their exploits captured in grainy black and white images. On the other side, it’s much darker, the gloom heightened by the Nosferatu-shaped shadow cast by the figure in the doorway, elfin, a bandanna covering his bald pate, a large earring hanging from each ear, very much living up to his alter ego, ‘the Pirate’. This is the picture that is generally painted when analysing the fortunes of Italian cycling following the death on Valentine’s Day in 2004 of Marco Pantani. When he was in his pomp in the mid-1990s, Italian cycling was still surfing a wave of popularity that…

Gino Bartali Born: 18 July, 1914, Ponte a Ema, Florence Died: May 5, 2000, Florence Active: 1935 to 1954 Major victories: GC Giro d’Italia x3: 1936, ’37 and ’46; GC Tour de France x2: 1938 and 1948 Nickname: Gino the Pious One of the sport’s finest, Gino Bartali was born in 1914 in the small Tuscan town of Ponte a Ema, near Florence, and began racing around the age of 13. While his career will forever be entwined with that of compatriot and rival Fausto Coppi, Bartali had two of his three Giro victories under his belt before Coppi started his professional career. Bartali’s first taste of the big time came in 1935, riding Milan-San Remo as an independent, finishing fourth and earning a ride with professional team Frejus, with…

As a cyclist in Italy, where going outside for exercise was a no-no during the strictest weeks of lockdown, Filippo Ganna is likely in the minority because he has felt quite content. While others have been climbing the walls, barely able to contain their desire to go on a long ride or get back to their jobs, the 23-year-old Team Ineos rider from Verbania in the country’s north-west has been cherishing time spent with family. “I’m really close with my family and I like to spend time with them. Ultimately, I have really enjoyed that,” he says. “Normally I might only be with them for, I don’t know, 50 days out of 300.” That’s not to say he hasn’t been making the most of any lockdown cycling opportunities that have…

For possibly the best example of Italians’ singular ability to make things look good, look no further than Fausto Coppi. There are many things about the 1950s great that were iconic, but front and centre were the American-made Ray Ban sunglasses. Ray Bans were more commonly seen on the faces of movie stars in the 1950s, but Coppi brought them into the world of cycling. Oddly, they never really caught on more widely. Perhaps the riders of the day feared they just couldn’t pull them off. Even today it’s a rare person who can make wearing such shades on the bike look good. In 1990, the US brand would itself find an Italian home when it was bought by Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica for a reported $640m.…

Chef, host of Amazon Prime show EatRaceWin and author of the Grand Tour Cookbook, Hannah Grant (hannahgrant.com) shares two of her favourite waffle recipes – perfect comfort eating. If you don’t have a waffle iron, use a frying pan instead CARROT CAKE WAFFLES Makes 3-4 waffles Preparation time: 7min Cooking time: 3min per waffle Ingredients ■ 1 banana (ripe)■ 1 tbsp olive oil■ 2 eggs■ ½ tsp ground cinnamon■ ½ tsp ground cardamom■ Pinch ground cloves■ 4 carrots■ 1 apple■ 1 tbsp oat flour (blended rolled oats)■ 1 tsp baking powder■ ¼ tsp salt Optional ingredients ■ 1 tsp poppy seeds■ Lemon zest, finely shredded Ingredients for the filling ■ ¼ of the shredded apple and carrot from above ingredients■ Yoghurt■ Filling ingredient of your choice Method 1) Peel and…

As I may have self-indulgently mentioned, in lockdown I have managed a consistency of training that I’ve been missing for years. The result has been that, as the pandemic ravages the UK, I’m getting fitter. I do, at least, have the grace to feel guilty about this. But it is making the strain of events marginally easier to take. I have been keeping my household up to date with my riding, so that it can share in the strain-reduction. “My FTP is up by 10 watts,” I reported to Mrs Doc three weeks ago. “FTP is up again – another five watts,” I said last week. And just yesterday, I was pleased to be able to report, “The old FTP is still improving. I’m over 20 watts up on where…

The number of cyclists on the roads at the moment has been a source of great pleasure. I was especially pleased to see a couple riding not far from my home in matching kit, including helmets, which not one but both of them were wearing back to front. The pleasure grew almost too much to bear when, within minutes, I overtook another rider who was wearing his shorts inside out. The pad was blue and red and the effect was strikingly similar to one of those monkeys that you see on David Attenborough programmes. I’ll miss this sort of thing when it stops.…