Innehållsförteckning för March 28, 2024 från Cycling Weekly

A bout10years ago I refused all invitations to book launches and even stopped reading cycling books. The sport was in rapid growth and at times there were two or three books launched each month. They were perfectly good books, but it was too much. As someone who spends most of his days reading about cycling, I had to stop myself from reading more in my spare time in order to maintain a semblance of balance in my life. Those launches have largely dried up now but one invite recently dropped into my inbox that I had to attend. The launch of Maurice Burton’s book. Burton is Britain’s first black champion and someone I met 25 years ago when he’d visit Geoffrey Butler Cycles (who had sponsored him as a rider)…

No woman has ever won the Tour of Flanders more than twice. On Sunday, Lotte Kopecky will head into the race as the favourite to win, a victory which would bring her a third triumph in a row, and a place in the history books. On paper, it all seems quite simple. Kopecky is the reigning world champion, the winner of Strade Bianche, and has seemed unbeatable on the course of De Ronde over the last two years. She will bring with her an SD Worx-Protime squad stacked full of talent, ready to chase down attacks, set up counterfeints, and generally cause a headache for the other teams. There’s Demi Vollering, the defending Tour de France champion, who can climb but has a kick too; there’s Lorena Wiebes, the fastest…

153 PARIS DAYS TO GO Great Britain secured its best-ever medal haul at the Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, last week, the final event before this summer’s Paralympics. The para-track squad took home 32 medals, 13 of which were gold, to top the table for the third year running. Only China won more gold medals, edging the Brits with 14. Among the standout performers for GB were tandem duo Lizzi Jordan and Dannielle Khan, who claimed three world titles in their first event as a pairing. “It was really special to get a win together in our first race,” said Jordan, who lost her sight in 2017 after a severe reaction to E. coli food poisoning, and only took up cycling in 2020. “To do it…

De Rosa fraudster sentenced American former CEO Samuel J. Mancini has been sentenced to 71 months in prison, after fraudulently raising $11 million from investors to acquire top Italian cycling marques De Rosa, De Marchi, Cinelli and Columbus. But none of the acquisitions were completed and investors say they did not get their money back. “This defendant concocted an elaborate scheme to swindle unsuspecting victims out of their hard-earned money,” said US attorney Philip R. Sellinger. TI Raleigh Festival Sixty original Raleigh race bikes and a display of racewinning jerseys, including Joop Zoetemelk’s 1980 maillot jaune, await visitors to the TI Raleigh Festival in Worksop on 14 April. The event is held in what used to be the TI Raleigh/Carlton factory (now the North Notts Community Arena). There will also…

The island of Tenerife, and especially the lunar landscape of Mount Teide, has been a favourite training camp destination for Grand Tour riders for decades, writes Chris Marshall-Bell. But it is also the place where, famously, Lance Armstrong had illicit blood transfusions and took performance-enhancing drugs, comforted by the fact that drug testers rarely visit the island. The scarcity of testing on Tenerife was highlighted again in 2014 when Froome revealed that he had had just one outof-competition doping control on Teide in three seasons, publicly lambasting the paucity of controls. In 2015, he told The Telegraph: “I wanted to know that all our competition is being tested, especially with so many teams using Tenerife as a training hub at those critical times of the year. You think that would…

High North Performance’s Emma Wilkins shares her easy-riding essentials 1 Pay attention to your breathing. You should be able to speak or even sing comfortably, and not in broken sentences. This is a good indication that you’re below your first lactate or ventilatory threshold. 2 Dial in on what it feels like to push the pedals at a low wattage or intensity. Think about how much pressure you’re applying to the pedals and learn that feeling. This can help when riding on undulating terrain to keep your effort level under control and avoid power surges when you hit an incline. 3 Riding easy can be mentally challenging, as it can be frustrating, and there’s often a temptation to chase other riders or Strava segments. Keep in mind the purpose of…

Long, long ago, when tyres were thin and frame tubes were round, my friend Bernard organised a bike race. It was a time trial. A small time trial. A small, badly organised time trial. It was notable for the village hall being double-booked with a funeral, which gave it a more upbeat atmosphere than many time trials, but led to a tense stand-off over a plate of bread pudding. In retrospect, we should possibly have let the grieving family just have it. I’m still waiting for the race results, and also my prize money. Nonetheless… “I can’t believe how the Tour of Britain fell apart,” he said on a ride last week. “I mean, it’s not difficult to organise a bike race. I should know.” “So you could have found…

The campaign for a velodrome in the West Midlands has received renewed hope following a positive business review. The report, backed by mayor Andy Street, concluded that a business case exists for a facility in the region, which “could include” a 250m velodrome. A feasibility study will now follow, exploring designs, locations and funding. “It’s good news,” said Street. “For a number of years there has been a lot of campaigning on this issue and my commitment was to fund a business case for a velodrome. We now have that report.” A petition for a velodrome in the West Midlands was started in 2018, in the hope of building one for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Despite ardent campaigning, however, plans did not advance, and the racing took place at…

How does altitude training work? At altitude, where there is less oxygen, the body produces more red blood cells to carry more oxygen. “Fundamentally, if you’ve got more oxygen-carrying capacity – more red blood cells, more haemoglobin – that means you can deliver more oxygen to the muscle, which means you will be able to go harder, or for longer,” says exercise physiologist Jamie Pringle. “That’s our number-one metric of fitness: the amount of oxygen the body can use.” The benefits are gained not just from staying at altitude, but also from training there, says Pringle. “Training in that environment is harder, but your body adapts more. That’s why people are using altitude training.” How high do you have to go, and for how long? Training camps tend to take place…

It used to be oh so simple, just road bikes and mountain bikes. In the road category, we were limited to two faithful options: a winter bike and a race bike. Cyclo-cross existed too, in a muddy no-man’s land, but there was little mixing of the on-and off-road riding genres. Then came endurance and aero bikes, then gravel. The latter has been a buzzword for the last half-decade, and for good reason. Emphasis on more casual riding, enjoying the outdoors and getting away from traffic resonates with the masses. It’s fair to say that the gravel genre has sculpted the landscape of the cycling industry in recent years. Walk into a bike shop today, and you will be bombarded with myriad options – road race bikes, road endurance bikes, all-road…

The week: 24 February - 2 March Location: Flanders, Girona, Tuscany Training for: Opening Weekend, Strade Bianche Latvian pro Toms Skujiņš has had a breakthrough start to the season. Although already in possession of a healthy palmarès, including multiple national road race and TT jerseys, as well as a four-day stint in the Tour de France’s polka-dots, the Lidl-Trek rider has now started to show real pedigree in the Classics. A strong showing at Opening Weekend, where the 32-year-old went toe-to-toe with a trio of Visma-Lease a Bike’s big-hitters on the bergs of Omloop, was followed by another tough day at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and then, just six days later, Skujiņš rode to a second place at Strade Bianche – bested only by an imperious Tadej Pogačar. It’s that actionpacked week that he…

If the battle between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel can be seen as one between two different individuals, then perhaps the only way to beat them is with an organised team. This is what Lidl-Trek offered both at the E3 Saxo Classic and Ghent-Wevelgem; a squad working together to overcome the singular might of the biggest favourites. It did not quite work out at E3, although Jasper Stuyven did finish second, but the plan went flawlessly at Ghent-Wevelgem. Van der Poel was aggressive at Ghent-Wevelgem, but seemingly every time he attacked, he was accompanied by a swarm of Lidl-Trek riders. This, it appears, is how the world champion is beaten. However, the game might get even more difficult once van Aert is added into the mix on…

Egan Bernal continued his remarkable recovery by finishing third at the Volta a Catalunya, his first podium in a WorldTour race since his lifethreatening training ride crash in January 2022. The Colombian, a winner of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, has now finished in the top 10 in the four stage races he has competed in this season, and his performances at Catalunya were the clearest indication yet that he could one day fight for Grand Tour glory once again. “Some of my numbers are the same or better than before my crash, but they’re not sufficient enough to win yet,” the 27-year-old said. “Every day, and every year, I am improving, and my power is getting stronger.” Ineos Grenadiers have been so impressed – but not surprised…

Last week, I was at the Para-cycling Track World champs in Rio, working with a stalwart of the para-cycling scene and former minister of sport for Romania, Eduárd Novak. His first cycling Paralympics was Athens. But he reached out to me for support after a pretty poor World Champs in Glasgow last year, with age finally starting to catch up with him. Of all the places I’ve been to coach, Rio has certainly been the most colourful. The time difference makes waking up early for once a possibility so I’ve been able to ride and run and see the sights. Day one I saw a swamp puppy (alligator), day two I saw a metre-long lizard while riding the Olympic TT course from 2016. The fun of being self-employed at least…

I live in southern Spain after moving from Scotland. The roads up there were unreal to the point of being outright dangerous. I took a picture once to send to the council of a 6cm deep pothole long enough to stand my whole bike in. I also once got compensation – which involved a bit of a fight – after bouncing off the road due to the poor surface and needing hospital treatment. I can’t understand how down here in Spain the roads are the complete opposite. I run a bike-hire business and do probably 10,000km a year and know of only one stretch of road that is ‘a bit rough’. But that is probably a better surface than the M25. Spain is not known as a wealthy country, but…

If you’re that way inclined, there are plenty more ultra-distance events to choose from. GB Duro (2,000km) This year’s GB Duro runs from Land’s End to Cape Wrath in north-west Scotland in a single 2,000km gravel stage. There are no prizes for winning but no cut-off either. Paris-Brest-Paris (1,200km) The granddaddy of them all, ‘PBP’ began life as a road race in the 1890s, but for the past 70 years or so has been run as a noncompetitive Audax event. Silk Road Mountain Race (1,938km) Run off in a single stage like GBDuro but in the far less compromising terrain of the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Features singletrack, double track and old Soviet roads. Indian Pacific Wheel Ride (5,500km) One of the longest rides on the calendar, the IPWR runs west…

Tenerife has two international airports: Tenerife South and Tenerife North. Flights to all parts of the UK go from the South airport, which is served by Tui, Ryanair, Jet2, easyJet and British Airways. Return flights start at £54. Rooms at Parador de Las Cañadas del Teide start at €102 per night. Visit paradores.es Teide Altitude Training offers bespoke packages tailored to pro teams and ambitious amateurs: velocitycyclecoaching.com TEIDE ALTERNATIVES Other popular European altitude camp destinations Sierra Nevada, Spain: 2,300m Tignes, France: 1,810m St. Moritz, Switzerland: 1,856m Font Romeu, France: 1,850m Livigno, Italy: 1,816m Andorra: c.1,500m Val di Fassa, Italy: 1,460m Gran Canaria, Spain: stay at sea level, climb to 1,956m…

Santini has announced the latest addition to its spring/summer 2024 collection, the unisex Ombra jersey. The new threads are the latest product of Santini’s long-standing partnership with manufacturer of premium performance fabrics, Polartec. The Italian clothing brand says the idea behind the new jersey is to be able to “dress both men and women indistinctly, ensuring optimal fit”. Six different colourways are available, with a mix of vibrant and classic hues, which Santini says are designed to meet everyone’s tastes. “OPTIMAL FIT FOR ALL GENDERS IS PROMISED” The new Ombra has a performancefit, thanks to Polartec Power Stretch fabric that stretches four ways and is said to never lose its original shape. Fast-drying, sweat-wicking Polartec Delta has been used for the side panels. The usual three-pocket set-up remains at the…