Innehållsförteckning för April 24, 2025 från Cycling Weekly

Headwinds, the line being too far away, and perhaps too many efforts this spring contributed to Tadej Pogačar’s defeat in the Netherlands last Sunday. “It was a really nice race,” the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider told the media afterwards. “In the end, the line was five metres too far. “When me and [Julian] Alaphilippe went, I was hoping that he would stay longer with me and that we could go long, but maybe we were too enthusiastic with the first attack. Since then, I tried to commit alone, but once Remco joined Skjelmose, they were two. “The last 15km was a really strong headwind. I couldn’t make the gap bigger. I sort of decided to wait for them and tried to beat them in a sprint, but it was a…

My mid-season break the past few years has always been around now, after the Amstel Gold race. Unfortunately, my situation now is like two years ago when my break started before I could even get to the end of the Arenberg forest. This year, albeit a week later, I didn’t make it past the Cauberg for the first time, brought down by an almighty crash at Amstel Gold. It was where the race ended for a lot of riders. I saw the crash, close to the front of the bunch, and almost came to a stop, but the riders behind hadn’t reacted quickly enough and they bundled into me. One second you’re racing for the Gulperberg, the next you’re in a pile on the floor surrounded by bikes, bodies and…

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) A third Liège-Bastogne-Liège would take the world champion to joint-fourth in the all-time winners’ list at La Doyenne, not bad for the 26-year-old, and it would be his ninth Monument. Pogačar will be the stand-out favourite for the men’s race – how far out will the attack come this time? CW rating ★★★★★ Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) The Dutchwoman didn’t race between Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold Race, instead spending time training at altitude ahead of the busy part of her season. Two years ago she won all three of the Ardennes Classics, and one more Liège would take her to three and the outright record. CW rating ★★★★★ Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) We all know about Lotte Kopecky’s punch and power, but does the…

Long before our modern saddles had a nose-job, the typical road cyclist’s saddle was a long, flat, not very comfy option for many. In a bid to improve matters for cyclists who literally couldn’t bear it, brands like ISM and SMP stepped in with ergonomic solutions that solved the problem. The difficulty was that while they did excel in supporting our most delicate areas – transforming the cycling experience for the many who benefited from them – they were not pretty to look at. And in an industry where style and appearance does a lot of heavy lifting, that was a problem. Enter Specialized, which in 2015 introduced its shortnosed Power model. Wide and stubby, unusual for the time, the press questioned its appearance at first, but the shape is…

You’d be a brave cycling fan to bet on anyone other than Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard or Remco Evenepoel to win any of the five remaining Tours de France of the 2020s. But last summer, just as Pogačar was celebrating becoming the first man in 26 years to claim the Giro-Tour double, a Norwegian triathlete declared his intention to fight for the yellow jersey in 2028. The man in question was no newbie to cycling: Kristian Blummenfelt is an Olympic and world triathlon and Ironman champion who holds several world records and has been dubbed the ‘fittest human on the planet’. But he’s never competed in a standalone bike race, and come the summer of 2028, he’ll be 34-and-a-half years old – only one male rider, Belgian Firmin Lambot, has…

Harry MacFarlane’s Van Rysel RCR features the colourway of the Decathlon-AG2R official team bikes that have attracted so much attention, and looks every inch the part. It’s fitted with Shimano Ultegra Di2 with a power meter, and the striking No.6 45/50 wheels shod with Continental Grand Prix 5000 tyres. The flipped stem is, perhaps, the most obvious indicator that it wasn’t pulled from the French team’s service course. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…

A rgos Racing Cycles has been operating in Bristol since 1974, when cycling enthusiast Arthur Needham decided to expand the horizons of Tectron Engineering, of which he was the managing director, to include custom bike frames. Its ‘low-pro’ framesets became something of a signature, while Stuart Dangerfield won the 1992 national hill-climb title on an Argos custom-made for the event. Argos moved to its current premises in the St Anne’s area of the city in 1990 and has forged a stellar reputation not just for its handbuilt frames but also for its exceptional repairs and renovations; a respray from Argos is akin to getting Michelangelo to touch up your living room ceiling. And so it is here. The frameset is made using Reynolds 531 Professional tubing. Falling somewhere between regular…

Back to the Alps The peloton flies round a sweeping bend on stage one of the Tour of the Alps. The snow can be seen on top of the Adamello-Presanella Alps in the background. Giulio Ciccone won the day. Still cobbles The cobbled Classics might be over, but the Maasberg climb in Elsloo is still a bumpy ride for the men’s peloton at the Amstel Gold Race. The climb, 600m at 3.7%, comes early in the event. Down it The women’s podium at the Amstel Gold Race react appropriately to being given thirds of Amstel last weekend. Puck Pieterse finished first. The men’s podium, meanwhile, merely sipped their beers. Sporting course Elinor Barker of Uno-X Mobility can see a rider to chase in the distance during Buxton CC’s Mountain Time…

In the end, SD Worx-Protime didn’t need their world champion, Lotte Kopecky, or their former world champion Anna van der Breggen, or the European champion Lorena Wiebes. Instead, they won the Amstel Gold Race through their former European champion Mischa Bredewold. Bredewold, 24, would be many teams’ first or second leader in the Classics, but has had to play a watching role, first behind Demi Vollering before she left, and now behind Kopecky and Van der Breggen. However, when she was given the opportunity to show her mettle after joining a key 23-rider breakaway on Sunday, she soloed to victory to take the biggest win of her career. She attacked inside 2.5km to go, over the Cauberg for the final time – the last of 22 climbs in the race…

After a final outing at Paris-Roubaix, the V4Rs - Colnago’s most successful model - makes way for the next chapter in its V Series: the V5Rs, a bike that’s lighter, sleeker, and built to push the limits of modern road racing. The V5Rs has some big tyres to fill. Its predecessor was ridden to victory in the Tour, Giro, Tour of Flanders, and the Worlds. Already put through its paces beneath the riders of UAE Team Emirates teams, the V5Rs comes with a bold claim: it’s the lightest frame Colnago has ever produced. At 685 grams for an unpainted size 485 frame (roughly equivalent to a 54–56 cm), it shaves off 12.5% compared to the V4Rs and supposedly without losing any stiffness. This was made possible through a new carbon…

Technology moves in circles. We all know that aerodynamically the narrowest tyre and rim is fastest. Once the tubeless tyre technology catches up we will all be back on 25s. 32mm tyres exist only because disc brake bike compliance is awful and tubeless sealant doesn’t work on tyres with low volume. Rob Coleman 32c skinny? That belongs in fat bike category. I still ride 25c lol. Michael Parasdas Tyre size is nothing new. Sean Kelly used 21 to 23mm tyres when he won Paris-Roubaix twice. That’s what you call hardnut racing back in the Eighties. And the roads were a lot rougher? Aemon Atkinson Ed - Riders would in fact ride wider tubulars (25c) at Paris-Roubaix on specially built wheels, with lower pressure. Some teams would have wheels that were…

Fizik, best known for shoes and saddles, has launched a new line of helmets for road, gravel and mtb. The Kudo, Kudo Aero, Kassis and Kunee helmets are an impressive first venture into protection, with what looks like an innovative fit system adaptable to a range of head shapes. Internally, the helmets use an EPS foam liner and a polycarbonate outer shell. The helmets also feature the latest generation MIPS Air Node rotational impact protection, layered just beneath the padding, further improving rider protection. All of the helmets have achieved the Virginia Tech rating of five stars. The road and gravel helmets also feature a rear-mounted 35-lumen rechargeable light. The Kudo Aero, arguably the most striking in the range, retails at £269.99 and is available in three sizes and three…

Kelly Murphy and Elinor Barker could not be separated at the Buxton CC Mountain Time Trial on Good Friday, the pair both posting the same time for the 22-mile rural Staffordshire course which provided the setting for round four of the RTTC Classic Series. Murphy (Gorilla Cycling Club) and Barker (Uno-X Mobility) both clocked 1-04-16 to share the win, while Ellen Reynolds (Elevate RT) was third. Meanwhile, Jude Taylor (Team PB Performance) won the open event in 55-20, 26 seconds ahead of HUUB WattShop’s Casper Von Folsach, while Solihull CC’s James Pearce was third. Elsewhere Legato Racing Team’s Michael Lythgoe and Deb Hutson-Lumb were crowned VTTA National 10-Mile champions after wins at the Royal Albert CC event in Scotland on Sunday. 75-year-old Lythgoe’s age adjusted time of 18-23 gave him…

Tadej Pogačar isn’t supposed to lose. The world champion is victorious in almost everything he turns his hand to, especially when the race is a hilly affair, and he has launched his trademark solo attack. There would have been those who thought about turning their television off after the UAE Team Emirates rider attacked alone with over 40km to go. However, as with Paris-Roubaix a week before, Pogačar finished second at the Amstel Gold Race. In the process, Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose pulled off the biggest and most stunning victory of his career on Sunday, pipping Pogačar and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) to the line in a three-way sprint. The Dane had led a valiant bid to claw back a solo move by Pogačar, who attacked with 43km to…

1 Wallonia’s time After what must seem like weeks of Flemish dominance of the bike racing narrative, Liège finally gives the French-speaking part of Belgium something to shout about. The race takes place in the very east of the country, in the hilly Ardennes. It’s more Liège waffles than Flemish frites, and Orval and Chimay over Bolleke and Westvleteren in terms of beer. 2 Liège finish Despite the name, for almost 30 years the race finished in Ans, a northern suburb of Liège, at the top of a steep climb; this discouraged solo attacks and encouraged a final, interminable sprint, like a slightly less vicious Flèche Wallonne. However, since 2019, the finish has been in the centre of town, with the final climb coming 13km from the finish – a…

It took an executive order from president Vladimir Putin to secure Shane Perkins’s astonishing nationality switch in 2017. A double world champion track sprinter, Perkins had won an Olympic bronze medal for Australia in 2012, but was axed from the national squad four years later ahead of the Rio Games. Then 30 years old, he was faced with two options: retire or fight for his place against younger riders. He decided the former was out of the question, but as he mulled over his future, a third option came to the table. Russia needed another rider for their sprint team, his cyclist friend Denis Dmitriev told him – did he want to join? “If you had told me at the beginning of last year that I would be Russian in…

Electric mini-pumps are the latest gadget to hit our saddle packs and jersey pockets. Thanks to rapid advances in lithum-ion batteries and motor techonology, these sub 100g tools can reinflate a tyre in a minute or less and get you quickly back on the road. Electric mini-pumps measure little more than seven by seven by three centimetres and look set to make both manual mini-pumps and gas canisters redundant. Longevity and performance in poor weather will play a part in their popularity, but if they do become a staple part of our ride kit they can do away with both the desperate, roadside arm action needed with a mini-pump and the wastefulness of the CO2 cannister. In our grouptest we’ve put six pumps through their paces to find out which…

Beer is an alcoholic drink produced by fermenting grains like barley, and is even older than 8-speed. In fact it dates back further than anything else ever mentioned in this column other than a) the Alps and b) gravel. (The substance not the racing.) What a bald description of beer misses out is that other than expensive proprietary waxes, it is the most effective lubricant in cycling. Without beer, the progress of a Tour de France field up Alpe d’Huez would be as quiet and respectful as a state funeral. With beer, on the other hand, it’s a preposterous vertical bacchanal. Beer, especially Belgian beer, is also an opportunity for obsessives who are not just in the know, but are desperate for everyone else to know. The perfect cognoscenti beer…

W ho knew that the fluoro visor cap that was such a key part of Eighties and Nineties fashion could be traced back to Fifties Continental Europe? Fans in the 1953 Tour de Romandie – otherwise conservatively dressed – roar their approval from below the shade of visor caps. On what looks to be a roasting day in bright sun, glare-shielding headgear would probably have been appreciated by the riders too. The image sees them led by Italy’s Carlo Clerici, with home superstar Hugo Koblet in close formation behind. The Swiss rider won three of five stages in that year’s race, going on to win Romandie for what would be the only time in his career.…