Innehållsförteckning för September 10, 2020 från Cycling Weekly

This week we’re launching the nominations process for my favourite category at the CW awards. The Local Hero award is perhaps the most important one we give out each year as it recognises the tireless work of the incredible people up and down the country who give up their time to run events, coach riders, time keep, marshal, volunteer, and basically make the sport happen. Two years ago, the brilliant Debbie Wharton was shortlisted for her work with the Maindy Flyers club in Cardiff. Over the last week I’ve been reading Juan Dickinson’s new book on what they confidently call “the world’s most successful cycling club”. Debbie shot to fame in 2018 when alumnus Geraint Thomas won the Tour de France. Her whirlwind couple of weeks of media appearances are…

Red carpet visit Recently appointed French prime minister Jean Castex followed the race from Tour director Christian Prudhomme’s car on the first day in the Pyrenees. “We’re being careful, but life takes over, the Tour is taking place, the party continues. I am really very happy with what I saw today,” said Castex after applauding stage winner Nans Peters over the line in Loudenvielle. Portal remembered Prior to the start of the ninth stage in Pau, the Tour paid tribute to Ineos DS Nicolas Portal, who died in March. The team joined Portal’s widow, Magalie, and his two children, Lenny and Aïnoa on the start line for the tribute. Ineos also presented Portal’s family with a book filled with stories and memories provided by the racers and staff that the…

Vitus’s Energie Evo seeks to fulfil the demand for a dedicated cyclo-cross racer with a frame worthy of World Cup level racing, let alone cranking it around the nearest muddy playing field for an hour plus five laps. The new frame is almost unrecognisable when compared to the existing Energie. Gone are the incredibly slender wishbone rear stays and more traditional tube shapes; in its place is a far more purposeful and chunky looking frame full to the brim with up-to-date features. It’s also been on a serious diet and now weighs a claimed 880g for a medium. A key feature of the new frame is a focus on increasing the tyre/mud clearance within the frame and fork. In itself this is a crucial aspect of a good frame. Geometry…

The new Emonda came into my life at the perfect time, just as restrictions were being lifted and you could ride with others. This meant it accompanied me on some of my more ‘interesting’ rides – away from the regular test loops. An 80-mile loop of the Purbecks, plus a couple of hilly routes through the South Wales borderlands saw me rack up over 4,000m of climbing in the first weekend alone. The Emonda has handled it all well and then some despite my often questionable route planning.…

Event coordinator Claire Floret, who has ridden the route of the Tour de France for the last six years, provides her top tips for multi-day success. ■ Train for a year before the event ■ You don’t need to be a road racer, but it is important to be able to cover the distance and ride for a long time day after day ■ Do conditioning exercises so that your body can cope with riding long distances every day for 21 days ■ Don’t forget the mental aspect. This is also mentally demanding and everyone has a day or two when things get very emotionally challenging. ■ Simulate tough situations in your preparation ■ The days are long, as you wake up at 6am, finish riding as late as 9pm…

We need to talk about the slow death of time trialling. It’s the only bit of cycling I was ever much good at, so I’m taking every kilometre of time trialling that’s gone missing from the Tour de France over the last decade personally. And there are a lot of them: in 2012 there was 100km of time trialling at the Tour (which is why Bradley Wiggins won it). In 2005 there was 130km. In 1990 there was almost 200km. This year? 36km. Granted some of it is uphill, which makes it last a bit longer, but still, if you own as many pointy helmets as I do, it’s the sort of trend that leaves you sleeping uneasily at night. It’s all because our attitude to climbers has changed. Once…

Stage two There’s no time to ease into the race, with stage two lumpy all day and 3,140 metres of climbing making it the hilliest of the race. The steep pitches come early on and there’s no real opportunity to recover before the uphill finish, the final kilometre including ramps of over 10 per cent. Stage four At 170km, this is the longest single day’s racing in both Giro Rosa and WorldTour history. With 2,240 metres of climbing it’s another lumpy day, and though a break will get away, it will likely be brought back for the favourites to fight on the final 10 per cent ramps to the line. Stage nine Cut short by one stage, the queen stage is also the final day and it is a brute.…

Getting in the breakaway at the Tour is hard; winning from it also requires you to be smart. The first breakaway win of the Tour was on stage six by Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), who, as usual, played his cards well. Exciting American rider, Neilson Powless (EF) attacked early on the final climb. Perhaps this was an order from his DS, but I wondered why attack so early, given the track record of Lutsenko? Would he have been better waiting and trying to follow Lutsenko? His team manager Jonathan Vaughters said after the race it was “inexperience” from Powless. Experience is a factor, particularly with the excitement of your first Tour. However, can teams do more to help their riders relax, and to improve their decision making in such situations? On…

FIRST SUMMIT FINISH DAY 4, TUESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER Today was the first time I’ve ever been told: “You take the gruppetto at this point.” It kind of goes against your racing nature. Obviously I’ve been in gruppettos before but it’s always been at a point where I literally can’t keep up. But it’s about conserving energy, it’s a Grand Tour and I’ve never done one before so you do as you’re told. It is a weird feeling being a bit fresher, especially as there are fewer spectators on the climbs, it did just feel like you were riding in France with a bunch of guys. NO BREAK DAY 5, WEDNESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER The day was mostly downhill and we just rolled down. I did 3.40 at 169 watts. My average…

BRYAN COQUARD (B&B Hotels): “Everyone’s afraid of this difficult Tour. If you get into a long break, it’s not the fear of what it might take out on that day that is worrying, but the long-term effect that it might have.” TOM DUMOULIN (Jumbo-Visma) after stage four: “We led the bunch but you have to know when to leave a little something under the pedal.” MATTEO TRENTIN (CCC) after stage three: “I think some of the guys were already feeling tired because the break went straight away and nobody wanted to push on the climb too hard. We had two hard days and I think everyone welcomed some easy pedalling.” STEFAN KUNG (Groupama-FDJ) after stage three: “It was a peaceful day and there aren’t many of those on the Tour.…

Caroline Soubayroux talks us through a typical day’s nutrition. Breakfast: Boiled egg, ham/bacon, cheese, cereals, granola, coco pops, baguette with jam, pain au chocolat, yoghurt, banana, ham, coffee On the bike: Dried bananas, nuts, Haribos, apple compote, energy bars, electrolyte drinks, water (constantly replenished) – up to 10 bottles on a hot mountain stage Mid-morning/mid-afternoon feed station: Cheese, apple cake, chocolate, coffee Lunch: Sandwiches, ham, savoury nibbles, fruit, cakes, coffee Civic reception: Savoury nibbles, occasionally a little local fizzy wine such as Cremant Evening meal: A two- and three-course meal, depending on how late dinner is served. Food choice depends on the menu choices – generally pasta, pizza and local speciality meal such as tartiflette/fondue, then coffee…

Some of the most interesting training innovations in cycling are stolen from other sports. A correspondent got in touch to tell me about a friend of his who’d heard of a veteran middle-distance runner training for a four-minute mile by simply running as hard as possible for four minutes, and eventually getting to the point where he reached the finish line in time. Our hero in this case worked out he could break his club’s 10-mile time trial record if he could ride 10 miles at 400 watts. So he just started riding efforts at 400W for as long as he could hold it, and hoping that through the miracle of adaptation he would eventually be able sustain it for a full 10 miles. At the time of writing, after…

“It’s a big honour riding in yellow. It was good fun while it lasted,” Adam Yates said in Laruns after his four-day spell as the leader of the Tour de France ended when he was dropped on the Col de Marie-Blanque and finished almost a minute behind new yellow jersey Primož Roglič. “I did everything I could. I said from the very beginning, even before the Tour started, that I wasn’t at 100 per cent. And I think we did well. We hung on for as long as we could. There are a couple of guys going better than me. But I think we can be proud.” His Mitchelton-Scott DS Matt White said it was clear from early in the day that Jumbo-Visma wanted to take the yellow jersey and…

The most notable of the emerging sprinters at the Tour de France has been Sunweb’s Cees Bol. Third on the opening day and a close second to Wout van Aert on stage five in Privas, the towering 25-year-old second-year professional can also count on an impressive leadout train, which stood out particularly on that stage into Privas by dictating the pace-making in the closing kilometres. “He’s a really good, upcoming sprinter. We’re really happy with the progress that he’s making,” said the team’s coach Matt Winston. “When you look at our leadout team as well, we’ve also got a good group of young guys like Joris Nieuwenhuis and Casper Pedersen who can work with Cees.” After Sunweb had led into the final kilometre on stage three but then made a…

After the European Championships last month 19 bikes, some belonging to British Cycling, some to riders’ trade teams, were stolen from the back of the British Cycling van at Charles de Gaulle airport, in Paris. BC men’s coach Matt Brammeier described it as a “professional” theft, which is now under investigation by French police who attended the scene and took forensic evidence. It’s left some of the British Cycling Academy riders without bikes to ride. “We’ve not managed to get replacements yet, which is disappointing,” said Brammeier. “Cervélo has been really good in working with us really hard to get replacements. It’s looking like we should have something this week.” He said part of the delay had been the team hadn’t been able to make a planned switch to disc…

Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott Winner for the last two years, the world champion has dominated the season so far. Winning at Omloop Het Nieuwsbald way back in February, she returned from lockdown with three one-day wins in Spain before doing the same at a boiling Strade Bianche. However, as the season has progressed she has appeared more vulnerable, unable to drop her rivals as easily. Van Vleuten’s consecutive Giro victories have been built on Alpine climbs and though this year’s race is hilly, the climbs are not as long. CW rating ★★★ Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans Like her compatriot, Van der Breggen is a double Giro winner, and has specifically targeted this month’s race. While she struggled to show form early in the post-lockdown season, she has…

I was delighted to see the picture of my first club (From the Archives, CW 13 Aug), taken around 1949, a year before I joined the South West London, NCU Private Members Section. This was the ‘Inters’, one of four groups that made up the Section. The leaders are Wally Moore and Liam Dennehy, closely followed by their wives Joan and Pam. A little bit of nostalgia can be quite cheering in these Covid times, please keep delving into the archives. John Else, Chippenham, Wilts Ed - Once again our readers come to the rescue! Many of our archive photos have little information with them, and while it’s little surprise that riders are recognised when we feature racing images, we didn’t think the riders in the above image, featured in…

A week into the Tour you could almost forget the Covid-enforced changes and restrictions that have been imposed on the race. Heading away from the Grand Départ in Nice, one of France’s Covid red zones, the tense atmosphere that had cloaked the Tour lifted significantly. Access to the start and finish area mixed zones, the sole place where the media and riders can interact each day, became a little less restricted due to the fact that so many journalists either couldn’t or had opted not to travel to France. In Nice, just one English-speaking journalist had been allowed in, but since then as many of four of us have been allowed to enter, enabling each of us to seek out our own stories rather than share quotes and information. At…

So much has happened in the first week. It all happened on Sunday really, in terms of seeing the GC developments and the potential podium. Up until then there were quite a few names there or thereabouts, but I think it’s clear now – the strongest three are Primož Roglič, Tadej Pogačar, and I’d say Egan Bernal. I have a lot of confidence in Bernal for the second and third week. I think he’s just riding into form by the looks of things. I don’t think he’s going to be as confident as Roglič and Pogačar for the final time trial, so he’s going to want to take some time somewhere, and he’s going to quickly run out of time if he doesn’t start making moves. Pogačar had a great…

21 years 106 days Maxime Chevalier (B&B Hotels) Youngest rider in the race 40 years 126 days Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) Oldest rider in the race Lanterne Rouge The amount of time Pavel Sivakov is behind Primož Roglič 2 hours 39 minutes 54 seconds SPEED DEMON 68.8kpm Caleb Ewan’s speed when winning stage 3 THE BATTLE FOR GREEN Where the points were won in the first week Intermediate points (black bar) versus stage finish (white bar) points 9 Number of abandons in week one…

Aline Clement, 40, PE teacher Aline is a former half-ironman triathlete Coraline Conan, 23, mechanical engineering graduate Originally a rugby player, Coraline got into cycling four years ago Bettina Fischer, 35, triathlon coach Bettina took up triathlon four years ago, and cycle racing two years ago Claire Floret (team coordinator), 35, PE teacher Previously a competitive rock climber, Claire took up cycling six years ago Karine Geneau de Lamarliere, 35, management consultant Karine started cycling 10 years ago while living in London Nathalie Giloy, 31, research engineer Nathalie got into cycling through triathlon five years ago Valerie Jeudy, 36, nurse Originally a runner, Valerie started cycling five years ago Magali Lagarde, 41, nurse Previously a hammer thrower, Magali stepped off the athletics field into bikes Celine Lauret, 33, teacher Celine…