Innehållsförteckning för May 13, 2021 från Cycling Weekly

When we first sat down over a video call and started to discuss how we’d compile a list of 130 people who had changed cycling we figured it would be fairly easy. Five minutes in and we quickly realised the size of the task we’d set ourselves for this celebratory issue. Coming up with 130 people wasn’t the difficult part, we could have come up with twice as many, but how would we justify one person over another when we hit our limit? Who simply had to be in, whose inclusion was a close call and who would we leave out? Such subjective decisions could be endlessly discussed. Then we hit on an idea. “Why don’t we ask riders to nominate people?” That soon expanded out to asking all manner…

The most stressful part of a Grand Tour is already done. Packed, cleaned my apartment and for the next 24 hours worried I’d forgotten something important. I did forget to turn the boiler off but aside from that, no major disasters. I’m en route to my third Giro d’Italia at the time of writing, still a few days to go until the start on Saturday but already into the swing of things. Two PCR tests under my belt in the last few days and plenty more to come to make sure we’re safe to race in 2021. Flying from Barcelona to Milan there’s already a few friendly faces making the same trip for three weeks of racing. I think slowly I’m getting the hang of all this now, after a…

April’s challenge of taking a picture at a cycling cafe seemed to go down well with lots of our riders, although one in particular made it her mission to find the best venues for rest and refuelling. Nicola Simpson visited seven over the course of the month, although one was a feed stop at an event. Pictures came in from recommended places far and wide, from Severn Beach to Tentsmuir Forest and Girona to Kentucky. The second challenge of completing a four-hour ride was easily ticked off by most riders, with many completing both on the same day. We’ve had more riders completing the 5,000 miles. Tim Searle, the man with the most miles logged on Zwift at over 200,000, joined in late April having already gone through the 5,000…

These days a bike racer’s food is often as hi-tech as their drivetrain, but it wasn’t always thus. For much of the 20th century, breakfast might have seen you chowing down on a piece of steak, perhaps with some rice. And don’t forget a health-giving cigarette – riders used to believe in smoking to open up the lungs. A sitdown meal midway through a big race was not unusual in the late 1800s, but once the Tour de France began, riders carried most of their food. It was generally unremarkable – cheese and ham baguettes or cake, for example. But stopping at water fountains was common, and even stopping at bars for beer or wine wasn’t unheard of. In the 1935 race half the peloton stopped for a drink-up with…

While we have concentrated on those with a global influence, we could hardly not give a nod to those grass-roots helpers upon whom the sport is propped up. We had plenty of nominations for them – Anna van der Breggen nominated her uncle, Jaap van der Breggen, a children’s cycling coach. “He puts all his free time into the role,” said the double world champ. “He’s fighting for a training environment where everyone is having fun… everybody is developing on their own level and respect for each other is one of the most important ‘rules’.” Pro rider Alex Dowsett nominated Brenda Hall: “She’s been a timekeeper of the Maldon 10 for far longer than I’ve been doing the events. Those that volunteer and keep volunteering keep the sport alive and…

This magazine is 130 years old this year. Honestly, it seems like only five years since we celebrated the 125th anniversary, and 10 since the 120th, but still, I think it’s admirable that we mark every five years with an excess of celebration. It’s literally the only thing we have in common with the Queen. To mark the occasion, the editor decided to compile a list of 130 people who’ve changed cycling, as a sort of guide to the last 130 years. However, I am going to outline an alternative thesis. It is this: cycling hasn’t actually changed. My first exhibit is a copy of the very first issue of this magazine. It has a cartoon about the sort of dandyish fop who is too fashion conscious to put mudguards…

Mike McNamara, who has died at the age of 85, was one of the outstanding time triallists of his generation but – some would say unfairly – his place in history will largely be defined by a Liquorice Allsort. Mac, as he was universally known, set a men’s competition record of 276.52 miles on his way to the British Best All-Rounder title in the Otley CC 12-hour event in 1967. But he was passed by world champion Beryl Burton. As she caught her man, she offered him the liquorice as a goodwill gesture. Mac accepted both the liquorice and the result with typical good grace, but there were extenuating circumstances. Burton was seeded two minutes behind Mac. When he felt an overwhelming need for a roadside toilet stop (and not…

If the Tour de France is the figurehead of bike races then the Tour director is surely the figurehead for cycle sport, and two of them have been nominated in our main list. But five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault also wanted to pay tribute to them all: “For me, what has changed cycling is above all the evolution of the Tour de France, through the successive leaders,” he told Cycling Weekly. “From [Félix] Lévitan and Jacques Goddet, Jean-François Naquet Radiguet, followed by Jean-Marie Leblanc and now Christian Prudhomme, these men allowed the Tour de France to become a world famous event.” Hinault also credits Eddy Merckx in this “for his immense track record”. Lévitan and Goddet were not the first Tour bosses – that was Henri Desgrange. But Goddet was…

Being the first of your nation to win one of cycling’s biggest one-day races, the five Monuments (Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège or the Tour of Lombardy) is a sure-fire way to increase the popularity of cycling in your home nation and inspire a generation of young riders. Here’s the men and women who did just that. Men 66 Léon Houa (Belgium) 67 Josef Fischer (Germany) Maurice Garin (France)* 69 Giovanni Gerbi (Italy) François Faber (Luxembourg)* 70 Heiri Suter (Switzerland) 71 Wim van Est (Netherlands) 72 Miguel Poblet (Spain) 73 Tom Simpson (Great Britain) 74 Sean Kelly (Ireland) 75 Andrei Tchmil (Moldovan) 76 Evgeni Berzin (Russia) 77 Rolf Sørensen (Denmark) 78 Raimondas Rumsas (Lithuania) 79 Tyler Hamilton (USA) 80 Magnus Bäckstedt (Sweden) 81 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) 82 Stuart…

As CW’s very own Doctor Hutch points out in his acclaimed book Re:Cyclists, “80 per cent of the modern bike had been more or less perfected by the time Queen Victoria died.” Cycling Weekly was there practically from the start, the first issue going to print just six years after John Kemp Starley came up with the Rover Safety Bicycle in 1885. By the turn of the century even the first, rudimentary two-speed derailleurs had entered production. The technical developments that have followed since have been essentially bells and whistles – but what bells and whistles. This may be evolution rather than revolution, but with each turn, cycling has become a more efficient, more practical and safer mode of transport. Many of the biggest changes have come in the last…

Comparing riders from the same generation is what racing is for. Thankfully racing doesn’t work for making comparisons across different generations of rider, because if it did, cyclists would have almost no topics of conversation that they could sustain much past halfway down the first pint of the night. There are a few simple principles. A current rider can never be ‘best’. That is because there is always a readily identifiable reason why current riders have it easy. ‘Modern’ training. Equipment. The races are shorter. The weather is better. Doping. Lack of doping. Or, probably the best one, the level of competition these days isn’t as high as it used to be. If a current rider wins everything, it’s because no one else is any good. If a historic rider…

Dylan Groenewegen said he just needed “to get that old feeling back, as well as my self-confidence”, after taking fourth place in stage two’s bunch sprint. Following a nine-month hiatus, imposed by the UCI for triggering the crash that left Fabio Jakobsen badly injured in last year’s Tour of Poland, Groenewegen’s return to competition has been much anticipated. Considering the stage on which he was performing, not many would have predicted such a high finish. Groenewegen seemed happy enough with his fourth behind winner Tim Merlier, Giacomo Nizzolo and Elia Viviani, but admitted he wanted more. “I have to be satisfied with this fourth place after nine months of absence,” he said. “Though I am still a bit disappointed. I am a winner and I always want to achieve more.…

The victory is Barnes’s first since her win at the 2019 British National Championships road race, and her first outside of Britain since the 2018 Internationale Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour in Germany. The 25-year-old said she needed to live up to expectations of a victory from within the team on Saturday’s stage. She said: “I feel relief… I feel like I was expected to win today from within the team but also from the other riders in the peloton. I’m one of only a few sprinters here so it was time to show it, and also after the amazing work the team did in the final 25km, there was no other option but to win today.” She added: “We knew that no one else would help the chase with me…

Three-year ban for Zabù rider Former Vini Zabù rider Matteo Spreafico has been banned for three years after two positive dope tests at last year’s Giro d’Italia. He had taken the banned substance enobosarm (ostarine), which can produce similar effects to anabolic steroids. The 28-year-old was also stripped of his results from the race and fired from the team. Another Vini Zabù rider, Matteo de Bonis, tested positive for EPO earlier this year, leading to the team being suspended for 20 days. Our Bespoke blunder! Apologies to Tom Bromley, the author of a new book Bespoke: A Guide to Cycle-Speak and Saddle Slang. He featured in our fitness feature on ‘impostor syndrome’ (CW 29 April) but we spelled his surname incorrectly throughout the piece. Covering everything from ‘tete de la…

I completed the CW5000 Challenge on April 24. A lot of the miles were done virtually due to a mixture of inclement weather, lockdown, age (71), and my main challenge this year: the 200-mile Norfolk Epic taking place in June. I’ve used a combination of Zwift and the Tacx app with my Tacx Neo turbo trainer. Zwift has assisted in building strength as it makes me more competitive in events or training sessions, while the Tacx app allows the input of GPX courses complete with elevation rises and falls. This has allowed me, virtually, to ride portions of the route of the Norfolk Epic. So the virtual miles have been as useful as the road miles, but road miles have been taking over since March and it’s been good getting…

Being the first person from your nation to win the Tour de France opens doors and raises the profile of the sport back at home. Here’s the winners who were the first of their nation. 20 Maurice Garin (France) 21 François Faber (Luxembourg) 22 Odile Defraye (Belgium) 23 Ottavio Bottecchia (Italy) 24 Ferdinand Kübler (Switzerland) 25 Federico Bahamontes (Spain) 26 Jan Jansen (Netherlands) 27 Greg LeMond (USA) 28 Stephen Roche (Ireland) 29 Bjarne Riis (Denmark) 30 Cadel Evans (Australia) 31 Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 32 Egan Bernal (Colombia) 33 Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)…

Major Taylor The African American was one of a vanishingly small number of black champions in cycling’s formative years. Unfortunately, his story serves as a reminder of how little has changed with regards to diversity in cycling. Ian Steel The Scottish rider certainly had an effect on cycling in the UK as his Peace Race win in 1952 set off a chain of events that ended the war of Britain’s two governing bodies, the NCU and the BLRC. Phil Liggett “It’s impossible to think about how, why and when I fell in love with cycling without hearing Phil Liggett’s voice as soundtrack and guide,” wrote journalist and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast Richard Moore, who nominated Liggett. “A sport needs a voice like Liggett’s to ‘cut through’, particularly in places…

EVENT #43 COURSE LONDON 8 Surely the most cosmopolitan Club 10 in the event’s history, there were nine different nationalities in the top 15 last Wednesday (5 May). CW’s Michael Hutchinson took the win in 24.21, 19 seconds faster than Conor Verbruggen in second, while Pete Younghusband was third. A closer contest among the women saw Emma Koppe take the win in 27.09 with a nine-second margin of victory over Leah Brewer in second, who was just one second faster than her twin sister Lois in third. CLUB 10 AT LONDON 8 FAST FACTS FASTEST MAN Calum Johnston 22:38 (Week 29) FASTEST WOMAN Rachael Elliott 24:16 (Week 16) VISITS TO THIS COURSE 9 MEN WOMEN JOIN US EVERY WEDNESDAYAT 6 PM CLUB 10 TT COURSESINCLUDE: LON DO N 8, BO LOG…