Innehållsförteckning för July 18, 2024 från Cycling Weekly

Barring disaster, Remco Evenepoel looks well-placed to secure a spot on the Tour de France podium in his maiden participation. The Soudal-Quick Step rider, 24, was all but out of the running for the yellow jersey on the second rest day, sitting more than five minutes adrift of Tadej Pogačar, but he had a lead of 5:35 on UAE’s João Almeida. Additionally, he had an advantage of more than six minutes on Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) in the young riders’ classification. Evenepoel had attempted to downplay the public’s expectations of him in the race, stating that a top-five finish and a stage win – which he secured during stage seven’s time trial – were his pre-race objectives. But after twice finishing third in the back-to-back Pyrenean summit finishes, Evenepoel admitted,…

As the Tour made its way south through the Massif Central Tadej Pogačar’s grip on yellow looked a little shaky, but by the time the race left the Pyrenees he was back in complete control. Two stage wins, the second with huge time gaps spreading out behind him, puts him on a level no one else can get near. • Stage 10: Tuesday, 9 July Orléans > Saint-Amand-Montrond Winner: Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) Yellow: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen was once again in the day’s breakaway, but this time he was on his own as the Tour began its journey south. The Norwegian, dressed in the polka-dot jersey, was caught 15km from the line, before Alpecin-Deceuninck finally got the win they had been craving with Jasper Philipsen…

If you squint, the course for stage 21 this year looks rather like a stretched ‘m’ with a tail at each end. Beginning at sea level in Monaco, the road is initially flat. Blink and you’ll miss it though – the climbing starts just 2.5km into the stage. From here, the riders take on the category-two hairpin ascent of La Turbie – 8.2km at 5.7%. There will be a time check just before the top, after 11km. A short, rolling plateau is followed by a very brief downhill, and an equally brief second ascent to the Col d’Eze. Brief, but unpleasantly steep for its two kilometres, averaging 8.8% with ramps rising well into double figures. Then comes a long and twisting descent back down to Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais…

It’s understood that ASO, the company responsible for organising the Tour de France, charges around €90,000 (£76,000) for a stage start, and €130,000 (£110,000) for a finish, although this differs on a case-bycase basis. Dijon paid €150,000 to welcome stage six, according to the mayor’s first deputy, Nathalie Koenders. The fee may seem a lot, but with the business it brings in, the cost ends up being negligible. “Compare it to the price of an advertising slot on France 2 during the Tour de France. For a oneminute advert, it’s about €1 million,” Koenders says. “In the short term, the race has an immediate impact on our economy. In the medium to long term, it opens up our city to more people watching at home.” The race’s Grand Départ, its…

When Look unveiled the 795 Blade RS at the 2023 Tour de France, the brand embraced the trend of prioritising optimal aerodynamic design but in a more versatile package. Rather than opting for large truncated tube profiles, Look managed to engineer smaller tube profiles to craft a bike reputed to deliver consistent efficiency throughout an entire race. Undoubtedly, the Look 795 Blade RS is still an aero bike, but the latest iteration remains competitive over a much wider range of parcours. This versatility helped it win the Best Aero Bike category in our recent 2024 Race Bike of the Year awards. So, let’s take a look at exactly what makes this bike one of the best on the road. Where other brands have opted for more iterative changes in recent…

Away from riders’ superstitions and pre-race rituals, I discover that a handful of riders have a variety of lucky charms and objects that they include in their luggage when heading to a race. Many of them didn’t want to share them with me, fearful of ridicule. Luke Durbridge, however, had no qualms about divulging details of his former lucky charm. “I had a piece of wood in my helmet at the Tour years back,” Durbridge reveals. “I sort of got over that though. I just lost it, I think, in the end. I had it as something from home and then it just went missing one day after a stage. I heard Tom Boonen had something similar, like a piece of wood, too.” A few weeks before travelling to Florence…

Fourteen-year-old Harvey Widdowson has an impressive bike to match his racing ambitions. His Lapierre Xelius is built up with Shimano Ultegra Di2, plus DT Swiss E1800 carbon wheels, shod with 25mm Schwalbe One tyres. Seatpost is Ritchey WCS Carbon, while that all-carbon saddle looks like something only the most dedicated enthusiast could put up with. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…

From track to touring bikes via time trialling and road races, the name Roberts has appeared on thousands of beautifully crafted, handbuilt bikes over the years. The name is synonymous with the south London cycling scene, with bespoke, innovative bikes coming out of the family workshop since the 1960s, when Charlie Roberts formed Roberts Cycles in Sydenham. It’s believed this bike, photographed at Golden Age Cycles, was built sometime in the 1980s by Charlie’s eldest son Chas, in his workshop on Gloucester Road, Croydon. It features unfussy lugs, track dropouts and an incredibly short wheelbase. Look at how close the tubular tyres sit to the seat tube. And the shallow rake in the front fork brings the front tyre within touching distance of the down tube. If that wasn’t compact…

Powered by Politt Nils Politt (UAE Emirates) put in a huge turn to set the pace from the bottom of the Tourmalet to the top on stage 14. The 6ft 3in German is not a natural climber Time to shine The sun’s rays shine through the windows of the velodrome in Cottbus, Germany, as if to highlight the upcoming talent on show at the Under-23 and Junior European Track Championships Lidl love Elisa Longo Borghini gets ready to bring it in for a big hug after securing the win at the Giro d’Italia, the first time this year a European women’s WT stage race hasn’t been won by SD Worx-Protime Emerald style Max Fitzgerald lands a win for the national squad in the six-stage Junior Tour of Ireland. Brendan Luongo…

With three stage wins and a firm grip on the green jersey as the Tour leaves the Pyrenees, Biniam Girmay now looks set to head to the Paris Olympics as one of the favourites for the road race. As the sprinter with the most stage wins (so far), and who has been best able to survive more challenging terrain, the odds will be shortening on the 24-year-old Eritrean with every stage. “Of course we live here in a madhouse,” Aike Visbeek, Intermarché-Wanty’s manager, said of the Tour and Olympic double bill. “You still have to get to Nice and survive that, and then it’s two weeks until the Olympics. “That will also be challenging. The parcours suits him, but he’s still fresh in his head, and with this shape… he…

This is the 15th year that Sky/Ineos have raced the Tour de France. It is also perhaps their most anodyne outing to date. They are in the race, for sure. But at times it has felt as if they are simply plugging gaps in the peloton. Carlos Rodríguez is fifth on GC. Tom Pidcock took a second place on the gravel stage, and he’s gone home. Michał Kwiatkowski has been in a couple of breaks. That’s it. Never have they seemed more anonymous. It is sometimes difficult to remember that this is the team that won the Tour in 2012, '13, '15, '16, '17, '18 and '19. Some of the old guard remain, but they are shadows of their former selves. Their most recent champion, Egan Bernal, around whom the…

As Jonas Vingegaard beats Tadej Pogačar to the line to take a surprise win in Le Lioran on stage 11, there was a reality check for the yellowclad Slovenian. When Pogačar attacked on the Pas du Peyrol with 31 kilometres to go, he undoubtedly thought he’d be riding to the stage win and extending his overall lead. The attack only gained him a handful of seconds on Vingegaard over the days penultimate climb, but that was all he’d needed over the top of the Galibier the previous week. Then, on the climb of the Col de Font-de-Cère, the unexpected happened – Vingegaard started to close the gap. The Slovenian suddenly looked nervous, regularly checking over his shoulder. He could see the Dane getting nearer, but was unable to do anything…

The next generation of British track talents shone at the junior and under-23 European Championships last week, topping the medal table at the event in Cottbus, Germany. The Great Britain squad collected a total of 26 medals, including 12 golds, eight silvers and six bronzes, improving on last year’s tally of 22. The standout rider from the championships, which closed on Sunday, was 18-year-old Brit Georgette Rand, who took home three junior sprint titles, winning every event in which she competed. “It’s just a dream come true,” said Rand, who triumphed in the individual sprint, keirin and 500m time trial. “It makes the training so worth it. It just means everything.” Rand’s big target of the championships was the individual sprint title, around which she had built her season. “I…

Translation: Pogačar in his prime was beaten by a decimated Jonas, so we need to start a smoke screen. Javier Rodriguez The race and competition is exciting enough without manufactured drama. Tadej and Jonas have always shown a huge respect for each other. Lesley Mayne Pogačar’s problem is that he gets desperate for more time. But he’s already ahead by 1:15 [at the time of writing], so what he needs to do is save energy for week three. Attacking now is making it more likely he will lose minutes in week three. Sutton Atkins There is definitely some demons there, the scars from ’22 and ’23 and now this stage. Jonas out-climbed him by 35 seconds on the Col du Pertus and it’s only 4.5km. Chris Lord The UAE riders…

If you ever find yourself sitting around a dinner table with a group of Italian professional riders, whatever you do, make sure you pass the salt correctly when asked for it. important in any team where there is an Italian influence. “It’s an Italian thing,” Jayco-Alula’s Luke Durbridge tells Cycling Weekly in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne before stage five of this year’s Tour. The bizarre culinary superstition is, he says, “You can’t pass the salt to any of the Italian riders at dinner, you have to put it [down] on the table,” Durbridge continues. “So you pick up the salt, lean over, and put it on the table next to the person. If you pass it hand to hand it’s really bad luck, and they get very upset if you get it wrong.”…

Etching his name into the record books John Archibald set a new competition record and won the National 100-mile Championship for his first time. At his first attempt at the championship, the HUUB WattShop rider stopped the clock in three hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds – an average of over 31mph in wet conditions. His time won the event by nearly eight minutes and was 39 seconds quicker than Marcin Białobłocki’s previous record of 3-13-37 which has stood since 2019. Archibald, aged 33, has won a host of time trial national titles but not the 100-mile crown until now. “I got 25 miles into the ride in 48 minutes and thought that if I averaged that for every 25 miles then I’d break it,” said Archibald. “I knew that…

Tadej Pogačar closed in on a historic Giro-Tour double after he increased his lead in the Tour de France to more than three minutes in the Pyrenees. Ahead of the final six days, the Slovenian superstar, 25, had what he had and UAE Team Emirates admitted was a “comfortable” advantage over Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard, 27. The last three stages present several difficult obstacles, including the ascent of the 2,802m high Cime de la Bonette on Friday and a mountainous final day time trial in Nice, but Pogačar has repeatedly demonstrated in the opening two weeks that his condition and form is superior to that of defending champion Vingegaard. Should he win a third yellow jersey in Nice on Sunday, he will become the first man since Marco Pantani…

• Rest day I woke up on the rest day with a nice feeling. The gravel day was done and the first week was in the bag, the second week had some nice opportunities and my body was doing surprisingly OK. The first nine days had flown by and I remember feeling a lot more fatigued at this point last year. That doesn’t mean the rest day wasn’t welcomed with open arms, but things were definitely looking up. It was a typical lazy start to the morning with a late breakfast and an hour-and-a-half spin on the bike. The hotel was in the middle of nowhere but we stumbled upon a French cafe in one of the sleepy towns on our ride, so stopped and sat in the sun. The…

The finish line in Saint-Vulbas leaves a lot to be desired. Traced outside an industrial park, on an uninspiring stretch of fresh, black tarmac, there’s a grassy scent in the air. Thousands of people line the road, their cars parked in rows in a neighbouring field. The landscape offers little of note, except for four towering concrete cylinders – the town’s nuclear power plant, its most recognisable feature. Before 3 July 2024, Saint-Vulbas, home to around 1,000 people living 20 miles north-east of Lyon, had never welcomed the Tour de France. “Not a lot happens here,” says Hélène, a local resident who has come to work in first aid at the race. “I’m not too into cycling, but it’s great for the area. There are decorations in the town. There’s…

The Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men will start in Scotland this September, with six stages stretching down to East Suffolk. The race will begin with a circuitstyle finish in the Borders town of Kelso on 3 September, before dropping into England with a stage to Redcar on day two, including the climb of Saltburn Bank, which has featured in the last two National Road Championships routes. On day three, the peloton will set out from Sheffield en route to Barnsley across the Yorkshire hills. Stage four is currently being kept under wraps by the race organiser, British Cycling, while stage five has been confirmed to start and finish in Northampton. The race will close along the Suffolk coast, finishing on 8 September in Felixstowe. Commenting on the route, BC…

You won’t be surprised to hear that Alberto Bettiol has a lucky charm, hidden under his saddle. “I have a painted red stripe,” he explains. “I have had it ever since I started to cycle when I was younger. I think I have had it maybe since I was five now, I don’t ever race without it.” Dr Perry warns that an over reliance on lucky charms can be detrimental, for professionals, amateur racers and hobbyists. She explains that gradually breaking the ritualistic cycle will ultimately improve your riding in the long run and says the time is better spent on the finer details that are actually within your control. “Over time, what’s helpful is to move superstitions and rituals towards routines,” she explains. “Routines can be helpful to you.…

Location: New Forest, Hampshire Website: 3Ccycle.club The story of the jersey The jersey’s predominantly white background is designed to help riders be seen while out on the roads, says Martin Balk – the chair and a co-founder of the 3C Cycling Club. “The asymmetric design is loosely based on a pro team from 10 years ago,” he says, although he stays tight-lipped on exactly which one it is. It has gathered admirers out in the wild, too, with one club member approached at the Isle of Wight randonnée by a rider who told them: “I’d like to join your club just to be able to wear that jersey.” It is supplied by Shutt Velo. The story of the club The club gets its unusual name from its original links with…

Feed stops at the Tour de France have changed dramatically since the 1930s, as demonstrated by this picture of Belgian cyclist Jef Demuysere, who has procured a drink from a roadside tent – while the boot of a car also looks to be open for business. In modern racing nothing is left to chance, with individual portions of food and drink, scientifically tailored to the rider they’re bound for, handed up at set points along the course as the riders speed by. Even more ad hoc than the set-up in this image from the 1932 Tour, taken on the third stage between Nantes and Bordeaux, was the propensity to raid roadside bars – often emerging with beer – and getting the team to pick up the tab. But with stages…