Innehållsförteckning för June 1, 2023 från Cycling Weekly

Is there a classier rider in the pro peloton than Geraint Thomas? The magnanimous way he coped with losing the Giro d’Italia on the penultimate stage singles him out as a wonderful role model. And his massive, 600 metre turn to help out his old British Cycling team-mate Mark Cavendish in the closing moments of the final stage shows what a great person he is. It’s hard to believe that at the end of the 2021 season his Ineos team thought his days of challenging for a Grand Tour were over. Since then he has finished third at the Tour de France and second at the Giro – comfortably the team’s best Grand Tour rider. All of which begs the question, what now? There was talk of him retiring at…

It may not be eight days, nor a UCI race, but Ireland’s Rás Tailteann is going strong – and boy it was an experience. I spent the week ‘on loan’ with Foyle CC. Racing on teams of five, there were three members of the Foyle club as well as me and Commonwealth Games medallist Finn Crockett. It’s a bike race that is nonsensical. There is zero control, today’s GC can be tomorrow’s in reverse. Trying to guess where the breakaway will form is a waste of time; you may as well just throw a dart at a map. With five-man teams, it’s almost impossible to control. I got in a big breakaway on day one with all the GC favourites, and every single person in that breakaway pulled an even…

Wahoo bosses look to indoor market push after refinancing The bosses of US firm Wahoo have said they see big opportunities for indoor cycling technology days after the firm refinanced. Wahoo founder Chip Hawkins was keen to keep exact details under wraps but when asked what he was excited about he said: “I think the trainers will be really exciting this year, we’ve got a lot of stuff going on, there’s still a lot of room for innovation there.” Mike Ashley eyes ProBikeKit takeover Mike Ashley is set to take control of cycling retailer ProBikeKit, as his Frasers Group is in talks to acquire the brand, according to reports. The group, which also owns Sports Direct, is expected to take over ProBikeKit through its Evans Cycles subsidiary, Sky News reported…

Like the other nations, GB have to qualify to compete at Paris 2024. The qualification window opened in July last year, and counts points gained in Continental Championships, Track Nations Cup events and this August’s Track World Championships. In the team pursuit, the top 10 nations qualify, while only the top eight go through for the team sprint. Interestingly, GB have failed to qualify a women’s team sprint trio for the past two Olympic cycles. As shown below, their chances for Paris look promising. Where does each team currently stand in the Olympic rankings? Men’s team pursuit - 2nd (to Denmark) Women’s team pursuit - 2nd (to New Zealand) Men’s team sprint - 4th Women’s team sprint - 2nd (to Germany)…

The roads where I lay claim to a handful of Strava ‘Local Legend’ titles were my Specialized Allez proving ground. Flowing descents and 20% ramps meant that I got to understand how the bike performed on both 20-mile lunchtime blasts and 50-mile ventures into the Surrey hills. I was riding the eight-speed Claris equipped Allez with the Tektro mechanical disc brakes. The standard 27.2mm seatpost and round alloy bars made the set-up refreshingly straightforward. The steerer tube had 50mm of spacers under the stem, so my first ride was quite upright and relaxed. However, on shorter rides, I did slam the stem, and this really changed the personality of the bike. No longer did it feel like an endurance thoroughbred, but instead came alive with a more direct-feeling front end.…

Specialized/Fjällräven Räven anorak £260 While the Specialized/Fjällräven collection of products is aimed primarily at the adventure cyclist, the remit of the Räven Anorak is more expansive. Covering everything from biking to hiking, isolated trails to busy city streets, it cuts a stylish look wherever you are. The Räven Anorak has a great many zips, none of which run the full length of the jacket. However, this does help to increase the windproofing and weather resistance. Pulling the jacket on is still pretty easy, though, as the two side zips run from the hip almost up to the armpit. Even when wearing a helmet, the up-andover method of putting on the jacket is relatively trouble-free. There are no pockets on the rear of the jacket, which is a slight limitation for…

It is, as they say, the hope that kills you. For Geraint Thomas to get so close to winning the Giro d’Italia – 48 hours, in fact – and still lose, was gutting for the Welshman. On Friday evening the Ineos Grenadiers rider was 26 seconds up on Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), and sitting atop the general classification on stage 19. Just 24 hours later, after an incredibly difficult mountain time trial, the positions were flipped, with Roglič gaining 40 seconds on his Welsh rival, and thus winning the Giro d’Italia, his fourth Grand Tour title, while Thomas had to settle for his second runner-up spot over three weeks. “We can be content, but we want to win at this team, so it’s a bit hard” Roglič and Thomas were even…

British Cycling has blocked transgender women from competing in female events. This comes as part of two new transgender policies issued by the governing body covering competitive and non-competitive activities. The organisation’s previous testosterone-based policy was suspended in April last year. This was, in part, due to fears trans athlete Emily Bridges would have had an advantage competing at the Omnium National Championship. Under the new competitive policy, events will no longer have male and female categories. Instead there will now be a female and an ‘open’ category. Transgender men, women and non-binary athletes can compete in the open category alongside male athletes. The female category will remain in place for athletes whose sex was assigned female at birth. Transgender men who are yet to begin hormone therapy will also…

Artificial intelligence is part of our lives and in the news more than ever before – but how exactly does it work? It’s easy to imagine it vaguely as some kind of futuristic computer brain with a personality, but it’s a little more prosaic than that. Essentially, AI uses complex algorithms and powerful hardware to process data. According to Mike Moore of our sister title TechRadar: “AI as a concept refers to computing hardware being able to essentially think for itself, and make decisions based on the data it is being fed. These systems are often hugely complex and powerful,” he adds, “with the ability to process unfathomable depths of information in an extremely quick time in order to come to an effective conclusion.” A key component of AI is…

Women’s sprint coach Kaarle McCulloch always tries to focus on the person behind the rider. “I was the sort of athlete that wouldn’t do anything else [besides cycling], and it broke me a little bit,” she says. “[My coach] would say things to me on a Friday afternoon, when we finished training, like, ‘Don’t come back to training on Monday without a story.’ At first, I was like, ‘What does that even mean?’ But he meant go live your life, go be a person. “Now, the first thing I ask [my riders] when they come to training isn’t, ‘How are your legs today?’ It’s, ‘What did you do on the weekend? How’s your cake business going? Have you spray tanned anybody this week? How’s uni going?’ And then we talk…

What runners have known for some time cyclists are now starting to appreciate – there’s a lot to be said for a smartwatch. While you’ve likely been wedded to your cycling computer because of its navigational nous, today’s smartwatches are often just as capable of getting you successfully from A to B, while at the same time offering a plethora of health and performance data that your bikemounted computer can’t match. It turns out that by being on the wrist a smartwatch is better able to track your health, even while you sleep. This round-the-clock surveillance can be turned into valuable information, letting you know when you should train and when you should rest. It’s tantamount to having your own cycling coach with you at all times. “A smartwatch is like…

TIME TRIALS SUNDAY, MAY 28 Hounslow & Dist Wh Ron Brown Memorial 100 (Upper Froyle, Hampshire): Men: 1. Lee Williams (Fulfil the Potential Racing) 3:44.48 2. S. Barley (AS Test Team) 3:47.01 3. C. McDermott (Festival Road Club) 3:47.52 4. M. Barnes (RAF CA) 3:49.22 5. C. Geldard (North Hampshire RC) 3:51.48 6. S. Pink (Poole Wheelers CC) 3:58.30 Women: 1. Emma O’Toole (Districts of Hamwic Cyclesport) 4:19.50 2. N. Shinkins (Bournemouth Jubilee Wh) 4:32.58 3. S. Van Der Plank (New Forest CC) 4:43.12 4. R. Waite (North Hampshire RC) 5:07.42 Merlin Cycles Classic Series 28 (Circuit of Greystoke Forest, Cumbria): Men: 1. John Archibald (HUUB-WattShop) 1:00.02 2. W. Lowden (HUUB-WattShop) 1:03.40 3. M. Schubert (Darlington CC) 1:08.26 4. A. Robinson (VC Cumbria) 1:08.49 5. C. Booth (Giant-Kendal-Sidas.uk) 1:09.01 6. C.…

At a 100-mile time trial some years ago, a friend of mine arrived at the start line in good time, when he heard from the back of his bike a quiet hissing. He rode as fast as he could back to his car, and changed to his spare back wheel. He rode to the start, accepting the time penalty for doing so. But, to his horror, he heard again the hiss of deflation. He tore back to the HQ to see if he could borrow a third wheel. When he got there he noticed that, strangely, the first wheel was a) still fully inflated and b) no longer hissing. The hiss was coming from a bottle he’d filled with flat Coke (very fashionable as an energy drink once) that turned…

Nothing showed the true spirit of Geraint Thomas at this Giro d’Italia more than his performance on stage 21, where the Ineos Grenadiers rider helped lead out Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) to victory in Rome. With 2km to go, Thomas moved to the front of the bunch, after noticing that Cavendish had just one team-mate, Luis León Sanchez, left. Cavendish had not yet won a race in 2023, let alone a stage at the Giro, but had not looked short of speed, just lacking in positioning. “THEY CONTINUE TO BE AT THE TOP OF THE SPORT” That turn from Thomas did not win the stage for Cavendish, his 17th Giro stage win in a storied, starry career – that was Cavendish’s final turn of speed which saw him power to victory…

Lizzie Deignan was pleased to be back at the sharp end of racing at last weekend’s Ford RideLondon Classique, where she finished third, just one month after returning from maternity leave. The three-day WorldTour event, which was won by Team DSM’s Charlotte Kool, saw the Brit return to the fore at Trek-Segafredo, following the withdrawal of the team’s sprinter, Elisa Balsamo, who crashed twice on the opening stage. “I’m really happy with my progress,” Deignan told Cycling Weekly, clutching her podium flowers on London’s The Mall. “On paper, this race doesn’t suit me, but I was able to have an impact.” The former world champion entered the final day in second in the overall standings, but ended up conceding a place to Canyon-SRAM’s Chloé Dygert, who rode aggressively to collect…

Britain’s oldest living Olympic medallist Alan Newton, who won bronze at the 1952 Olympic Games, has died aged 92. Newton grew up in Stockport near the legendary Fallowfield track. It was here that he found himself watching cycling and falling in love with the sport in 1947. Soon he joined the Stockport Road Club and was competing regularly. The track was given a makeover during his first winter of riding, becoming concreted and banked, which helped his training as did commuting to his work each day carrying “quite a bit of kit”. He was selected for the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, and although a strong rider, his call-up was assisted by two of the favourites suffering a loss of form and a crash respectively. Speaking to Cycling Weekly in 2020,…

Today’s smartwatches are just that. Certainly the five on test could all be signed up members of Mensa given the breadth of their intelligence – which naturally makes them difficult to separate. The Garmin Forerunner 255 was always at a disadvantage given the considerable discrepancy in price between it and the other watches – and its lower score deserves to come with an asterisk. If you’re looking for a smartwatch to use primarily as a fitness tracker the 255 is likely to be all the watch you need but its lack of mapping limits its use for cyclists who don’t have an existing GPS computer. Likewise the Apple Ultra is somewhat hindered by its price, but at the opposite end of the scale. At least £300 more expensive than the other watches…

Foodie cycling commentator Jonathan Harris-Bass fondly recalls the 2011 Giro Stage two of this year’s race took me straight back to the greatest steak I have ever eaten and the best bottle of wine to accompany it. We travelled from Etna to Tortoreto Lido overnight, driving all the way, and when Rob Hatch, myself and our legendary Italian producer Marzio arrived at our destination, morale was low. After a quick nap, some laundry and a wander along the coast, Rob and I looked for somewhere to eat. The first restaurant we encountered was whitewashed with an enormous black and white image of Michael Jackson on the wall – we decided we could do better, but after a glass of wine, and a fruitless search we returned to this osteria slightly…

When I think of the Giro d’Italia over the last few years, I think of many things. I think of third weeks that make your legs hurt just looking at the profiles. I think about an awful lot of Covid-19. And of Geraint Thomas falling off in all sorts of ways that really aren’t his fault. But mainly I think of rain. And wind and snow, and riders struggling to put on jackets because their hands are too cold to find the arm holes. Last week, on a stage shortened because of the rain and cold, the weather was still bad enough for a fan to ski past the bunch on one of the descents. But here is a strange thing. Most of us love to feel a kinship with…