Innehållsförteckning för June 30, 2022 från Cycling Weekly

A total of 175 riders will roll down the start ramp in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, all with one brain-teaser rattling around under their aero helmets. How are we going to beat Tadej Pogačar? The 23-year-old, who already has two Tour titles under his belt, is a pre-race favourite the likes of which we haven’t seen for decades, and no doubt some of those riders will have given up trying to solve it before they get up to speed on the Nørre Farimagsgade. Unlike Chris Froome, Lance Armstrong or Miguel Indurain, there isn’t an obvious weakness in Pogačar’s armour. In the last two and a half seasons, the Slovenian has ridden 12 stage races and triumphed at nine of them (he was second, third, and fourth in the others),…

It’s been a long time coming, but in world cycling terms Slovenia is now one of the undisputed directors of the board. With Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Matej Mohorič, Luka Mezgec and Jan Tratnik, the country is riding a breaking wave that has been building since it gained independence in 1991. Even in the 1980s when it existed as part of the old Yugoslavia, the country sought self-belief in intra-national rivalries, says Tomaž Poljanec. “I’ve been involved in Slovenian cycling since 1984,” he says. “I’ve seen it all. When we were still Yugoslavia, for Slovenian cyclists it was the most important we are first in Yugoslavia.” Back then Slovenians would rarely race abroad, and when they did, Poljanec says, it was often a struggle just to finish. “But then slowly,…

Cycling in summer is all about how much you can pack in. With the better weather there’s a freedom in the air to go where you choose – so maybe that’s driving off to a big event to cheer from the sidelines, or even take part and see months of training pay off. You could opt for an Ironman, crit or sportive, or simply load up your bikes and drive far and wide to discover dream new routes. Britain has some striking places to go cycling, from demanding Honister Pass in the Lake District to the leisurely Camel Trail weaving along a picturesque estuary in Cornwall. Prepare well and your trip should run smoothly – and you’ll certainly want to pack all those little extras. Read on for our suggestions…

Watching the Tour de France from the roadside is one of the greatest spectator experiences for any fan of the sport. It’s free to do and with some planning and preparation you can see the riders multiple times and experience some of the route by bike yourself. If you’re heading to the Tour de France this year, Cycling Weekly has all the best tips on how to get there, where to watch the action and amazing bike rides to try yourself. Stages to watch Cycling and especially Le Tour de France is embedded deeply into French culture, nothing beats the experience of watching the race at the roadside with thousands of other passionate fans. Stage four on the 5th July, is the first stage of the 2022 race on French…

GC is the main goal for Jumbo-Visma but they also have plenty of options for stages too. Last year the squad had about as successful a Tour de France as is possible without actually winning the yellow jersey. Of course, with their main GC hopeful, Primož Roglič, crashing out of the race after eight stages, the 2021 Tour didn’t go quite to plan early on. However, the team were quick to pivot their GC support to Jonas Vingegaard, who duly got himself on the podium in Paris – just one step down from an unstoppable Tadej Pogačar. Meanwhile, the juggernaut that is Wout van Aert was sweeping up stages that he really had no business winning, namely, those including a double ascent of Mont Ventoux and the pure sprinters’ playground…

Nationality: Netherlands Age: 25 2021 Tour result: n/a 2022 highlights: Winning Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and stage two of Paris Nice Strength: Sprinting, crosswinds Weakness: Getting over climbs CW Rating ★★★★ Fabio Jakobsen has had quite the journey over the past few years. After bursting on to the scene racing for Dutch under-23 development squad SEG Racing Academy, the then-20-year-old signed for Quick Step from 2018 and promptly sprinted his way to seven victories in his first season with the team. His 2019 was even more successful still – with nine wins including two stages of the Vuelta a Espana. Then, the following August, a now-infamous crash in a sprint on stage one of the Tour of Poland changed the course of Jakobsen’s life and career. After colliding with fellow Dutch fastman Dylan…

Will this be the Tour where Cofidis finally end their 14-year drought without a stage win? While they might not have been reasonably expected to do so during their many years as a second-tier team, expectations are higher since they rejoined the WorldTour in 2020. Their prospects look better this time, thanks to a host of new riders. Promising climber Victor Lafay is set to make his Tour debut, having won a stage at the Giro last year; as is all-rounder Benjamin Thomas, off the back of a couple of overall victories in minor French stage races earlier this season. There are high hopes for a couple of their new signings, too – Ion Izagirre, who has the rare honour of having won stages in all three of the Grand…

Were it still 2017, Arkéa-Samsic would be arriving at the Tour with one of the most exciting line-ups of any team. In Nairo Quintana and Warren Barguil they have two riders who were among the most talented in the world at that time, back when they were riding for other teams. But, now in their early thirties, their careers have tailed off a little, and they’ve never reproduced their best form since signing. An also-ran wildcard entry for their first few Tours following a 2014 debut, the Breton team had hoped these marquee signings would propel them up the peloton hierarchy, but it hasn’t quite Star rider: Nairo Quintana (Col) His permanently dour expression and almost comically inexpressive manner has made ‘Nairoman’ something of a cult figure among cycling fans…

In the hands of a professional mechanic, a spoke key is used to build, repair and true bicycle wheels. In the hand of an amateur, a spoke key has many uses, but there are none in common with a professional user. If you’re attempting to true a wheel with a spoke key, remember that the key should be turned in the opposite direction to the one you first thought of. This remains the case irrespective of the direction you first thought of. In general you will have to turn the key several times to achieve any effect at all. When the deflection in the rim finally manifests itself, all of those turns will take effect simultaneously. Whatever you do to the spokes one side of the wheel, do the opposite…

Barry Hoban has never shied away from speaking his mind. This week he added his name to a growing number of people laying into the British Cycling Federation and questioning why British pros weren’t performing internationally. At this time only Robert Millar, who was arguably just over the peak of his career, and Sean Yates were riding at the highest level. While Hoban undoubtedly knew his stuff, he, like others, had some interesting theories as to why the Brits were lagging behind their European neighbours. “What is needed is a home team going abroad for two weeks, then racing at home, then away again. But the BCF has failed to put in place any sort of system which enables riders to pass through it and progress to world, Olympic and…

Saying Mark Cavendish is a great cyclist doesn’t seem like a particularly controversial point. Sure, the Manxman has won 161 races across his lengthy career, but not many in the manner that he won the National Championships last weekend. Sprinting is by no means easy, nor is sticking in a race as it goes through high mountains, but it does feel different from the display of attacking verve and brio that was on display in Dumfries and Galloway. There was no sprint train, no mass bunch; this was Cavendish on his own, dictating the race from the front and then winning from a group of three, ensuring Sam Watson (Groupama-FDJ) had to settle for second place and the U23 crown, while Alex Richardson (unattached) rounded out the podium. Just like…

There was double delight in the Hayter household last Thursday evening with Ethan (Ineos) and Leo (Hagens Berman-Axeon) claiming the elite and under-23 British time trial titles respectively. In the women’s races it was Jos Lowden (Uno-X) and Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) who took the titles. For anyone who remembers last year’s Lincoln champs, the results had a very familiar feel. Over two laps of a 22.1km course based on the southern Scottish town of Dumfries, Hayter senior led a repeat of last year’s podium, his 50.38 beating Dan Bigham (riding as a private member) by 1.14 and bronze medallist James Shaw (EF Education-Easypost) by 1.31. For Leo Hayter, it was also a repeat of last year’s win, with Callum Thornley (Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli) and Charlie Bailey (Private) completing the podium this…

Still impressed with his physical fitness for his age. But yeah, leave the toe clips alone Joe! Brandi Singleton Toe clips and straps are still just perfect with a normal bike to ride to work with normal shoes. A nice support especially uphill. I had them since the age of nine and never fell down because of them. Simon Langhard With the speed he was travelling at, which seemed a little over walking pace, why would he need toe clips? Maybe because he used them 40 years ago? But well done to fall like that at his age and not get injured! Frank Storlid That’s what happens when you are faking it. As an avid road cyclist I can tell you that it takes a bit of training to anticipate…

Thump-thump. An insistent knocking roused Ben Hill from his hotel bed. The Ljubljana-Gusto rider had been sleeping soundly, getting some much earned rest from his endeavours in what was proving a fruitful Tour of Slovenia. The team were having a great race, with Hill having worn the leader’s jersey on stage three. What’s more his team-mate, an unassuming 19-year-old named Tadej Pogačar was edging closer to a fine fourth on GC. 11pm, noted Hill, as he stumbled blearyeyed to the hotel door. He opened it and rubbed his eyes: standing in front of him was a gleeful Pogačar. Brandishing pizza. “He was like, ‘Oh, I got some pizza sticks cos I was hungry!’” says Hill. ‘He was delivering the pizza sticks. He woke me up out of bed, but he…

Like one of those annoying morning people who wake up raring to go even before their morning coffee, Alpecin-Fenix have landed a stage win during the opening weekend of all four of the Grand Tours they’ve featured in – including an opening-day win and stint in the iconic pink jersey for Mathieu van der Poel at the Giro d’Italia last month. That really is an astonishing return for a team that only started racing in Grand Tours last year, and hasn’t yet been inducted into the WorldTour. They have no interest in targeting a high GC finish, an approach that liberates them to hunt for stage wins at every opportunity. They won twice from breakaways at the Giro in addition to van der Poel’s opening stage win, and have so…

If Groupama-FDJ wanted to play it safe at the Tour de France, they’d have brought Arnaud Démare. The sprinter is one of the most dependable performers in the peloton, having won stages in five of his last seven Grand Tours, including a hat-trick of bunch sprints at the recent Giro d’Italia in the team’s biggest success of 2022 so far. But this is a team that loves to live life on the edge, and instead they’ve built their Tour line-up around a gang of climbers who could either soar to great success, or collapse completely. This unpredictability is best epitomised by Thibaut Pinot, the man whose highs and lows have defined the team’s Tour fortunes in recent years. Though fit enough to ride, he lacks the form to repeat his…

Jai Hindley’s triumph at the Giro d’Italia last month was a huge landmark for Bora-Hansgrohe, and testified that they have come on in leaps and bounds in the last year. It was a first-ever Grand Tour overall classification victory for a team whose previous best result had been a fourth place for Emanuel Buchmann at the 2019 Tour de France. Despite their lack of experience at the sharp end of the overall classification, Bora rode with the authority and nous of an experienced GCchasing team, dominating in the mountains and picking the right moments to attack the race. Most of their top GC talent was reserved for that Giro effort rather than the Tour (including Buchmann and Wilco Kelderman, who was fifth overall last year), but they have another genuine…

I ntermarché have been the revelations of 2022. Eritrean icon-in-the-making Biniam Girmay has been the main headline-maker with wins at both Ghent-Wevelgem and the Giro, but the improvement has spanned the whole team, from Jan Hirt and Domenico Pozzovivo making unlikely top 10s at the Giro, to canny breakaway specialist Taco van der Hoorn and Liège-Bastogne-Liège runner-up Quentin Hermans starring in the Classics. What’s so impressive about the team’s success is that it hasn’t been the result of any significant financial investment, but through the improvement of riders already on the books. So even though Girmay won’t be riding, the team can be confident others will step up. Star: Louis Meintjes (RSA) A cautious but talented young prospect whose career waned during his late twenties, Meintjes is another who has…

To crash once in the finishing straight of an opening week Grand Tour sprint stage, as Caleb Ewan did at the Tour de France, might be considered unlucky; to do so twice, this time at the Giro d’Italia, looks careless. Ewan never seemed himself following that tumble in Italy, and eventually abandoned without a stage win, but Thomas de Gendt managed to salvage their race with a trademark breakaway stage victory. In fact, Lotto-Soudal aren’t quite as dependent on their star sprinter as you might expect. Since he signed in 2019, they’ve won four Grand Tour stages alongside the nine that Ewan has delivered, mostly via attacks from their impressive roster of breakaway specialists. Succeeding this way might be harder now that Philippe Gilbert is 39 and past his best…

The motto at Open is “working hard to stay small”. This Swiss brand was founded 10 years ago by Andy Kessler (ex-CEO of BMC) and Gerard Vroomen (co-founder of Cervélo) – who can both safely say that they’ve done “the big company thing”. The UP is now in its third generation. Its focus is around the middle of the gravel spectrum – it’s not an expeditionready bulldozer nor an endurance bike with wider tyres. Instead, it’s designed to be light, nimble and capable; able to go fast both off-road and on – and, perhaps most importantly, to be fun to ride on both too. This review is of the frameset only, but the bike was built up with a Campagnolo Ekar groupset, Campagnolo Levante wheels and dressed in Deda finishing…

For the second year running UAE Emirates line up at the Tour de France with the defending champion in their midst. After Tadej Pogačar managed to stealth his way to the win in 2020 pretty much on his own, the team roped in the likes of Rafał Majka to provide back-up for the Slovenian in the mountains in 2021. The bolstered support that Pogačar had last year – plus a few of his main rivals crashing out of the race early on – meant that he was able to win the yellow jersey by a margin of more than five minutes. He is still very much the obvious favourite to win the race again this year, with the same support team of Brandon McNulty, Marc Soler and George Bennett in…

Once the presiding custodians of the yellow jersey with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, Ineos (formerly Sky) have been on the back foot since the arrival of the Slovenian duo of Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar. The team that was once renowned for placing a chokehold on the race with their train of domestiques has had to change tactics since they no longer rule the roost. They are also missing their out-and-out Tour GC rider, former winner Bernal, who is still recovering from injuries he sustained in a training crash earlier this year. Adam Yates will likely be the rider to pick up that mantle with former Tour winner Geraint Thomas and young Colombian climber Dani Martínez as equal back-up options. If images of Thomas riding…

There’s a new Grand Tour force in town, and they have ambitions to get even better. A third podium finish in the space of four Grand Tours was sealed by Mikel Landa’s third place at the recent Giro d’Italia, where Bahrain Victorious also sealed a third successive Grand Tour team classification. Add to that their multitude of world class stage-hunters like Matej Mohorič and Dylan Teuns (who shared three wins between them at last year’s Tour), and this is a team that fires on all cylinders. If there’s a limitation to Bahrain Victorious, it’s that they lack one very elite leader who can genuinely compete to win a Grand Tour. That was apparent at the Giro, where Landa couldn’t land a killer blow despite being set up by his team-mates,…

Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl are the definition of bang for your buck. Founded in 2003, the team are one of most established and respected teams in the peloton, with bristly Belgian Patrick Lefevere at the helm. Lefevere is known for getting a good deal on riders and running a tight ship, and it works. The clout that comes with riding for the so-called ‘Wolfpack’ and having them riding in support is enough to motivate riders who duly go on to win many races. In early 2022, however, the team who are accustomed to dominating the Classics were conspicuous by their absence. The best results were a win at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with Fabio Jakobsen and young superstar Remco Evenepol winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège – small fry for a team who are used to walking away…

When Romain Bardet left Ag2r-Citroën in 2020, it appeared the team’s days as a GC force at the Tour de France were over. Bardet was a dependable presence at the very front of the race, twice making the podium and never missing out on a top-10 finish between 2014 and 2018, and the team didn’t have an obvious replacement for him, and chose not to invest in another similarly wellestablished GC rider. But a new dawn broke when Ben O’Connor finished fourth last year, and the Australian has the form to again push for the podium this year. He’ll be assigned leadership status, but as a team that has won stages in seven of the last nine Tours, Ag2r will also have other options for success. Benoît Cosnefroy could win…

The 2022 season has so far been a challenging one for EF Education-EasyPost. They endured a winless March, April and May, leaving them in a scrap to avoid relegation out of the WorldTour under the UCI’s new league system. Despite their troubles, the team haven’t yet resorted to the path other relegation-threatened teams have taken by chasing UCI points in smaller races, and instead have continued to prioritise the biggest races. The Tour will therefore be a huge moment in their season, and they’ll need to improve upon recent editions having only won one stage since 2018. Without either a top sprinter or a GC candidate, the focus will be on chasing stage wins. Stefan Bissegger stands a chance in the time trials, but it’s the form of Esteban Chaves…

When SRAM began offering Rival, its third-tier groupset, with eTap AXS wireless shifting last year, it seemed only a matter of time before Shimano would follow suit and bring Di2 to its much-loved ‘workhorse’ groupset, 105. Well, that time is now. Although it was expected, the arrival of Shimano 105 Di2 is no less significant. Like Rival AXS, it brings electronic shifting to a wider audience, or in Shimano’s words, a “more attainable package.” For several years, and through a number of iterations, 105 has arguably been Shimano’s most popular groupset. Sitting below Dura-Ace and Ultegra in the pecking order, it’s routinely punched above its weight, or price to be more accurate, with the benefits of trickle-down technology making its functionality barely discernible from its more expensive brethren. So, can…

FLAGSHIP MODEL Open UPPER Campagnolo Ekar with all-carbon Enve finishing kit €8,600 There is no ‘one down’: the frameset is the least you can pay. So let’s look at the most expensive model. The UPPER version of the UP benefits from a different carbon lay-up which saves a total of about 180g. Together with Campagnolo’s Ekar groupset, all-carbon Enve finishing kit along and Enve’s AG25 700c gravel wheels, the bike comes to a total of €8,600. ONE UP Open UP Campagnolo Ekar €6,200 To get the Open UP frame fully built, you’re looking at a full Campagnolo Ekar 1x13 groupset, with the finishing kit also being fully carbon and from Enve – just like on the UPPER. The wheels instead are HED’s Emporia GA Pro, and you’re given the choice…

Ayoung Laurent Fignon (wearing his trademark headband) hunts down a flagging Cilo rider on his way to Morzine on a sweltering stage 18 of the 1983 Tour de France. This was the year of Fignon’s first win – having had an unerringly consistent race, the 22-year-old Frenchman, riding for Renault-Elf, had pulled on the yellow jersey for the first time ever after finishing fifth on Alpe d’Huez the previous day. He would keep it to Paris, managing to win his only stage of the race on the penultimate day’s 50km time trial around Dijon. The elephant on the Champs-Élysées was the absence of Bernard Hinault, another French rider who had won four of the previous five Tours, who was out injured. But the following year, Fignon proved wrong the doubters…