Innehållsförteckning för November 13, 2025 från Cycling Weekly

Cycling UK’s decision to limit its 100 Women in Cycling awards to biological women has been criticised as an “exclusionary mistake” and has led to withdrawals from the list. The cycling charity produces a list of 100 notable women in cycling each year, with awardees selected for “making cycling more accessible and inclusive to all and shaping the future of cycling”. However, this year, Cycling UK updated its eligibility criteria to mean that only biological women could be nominated. A statement on its website reads: “This is in response to the recent Supreme Court decision which clarified that ‘sex’ in the Equality Act means biological sex at birth. “We have received legal advice which says that for our awards to continue to comply with the law we have to limit…

Little has remained unchanged over the past decade. In October 2016, Tadej Pogačar hadn’t won a pro race, Chris Froome was Tour de France champion again, and Donald Trump had not yet been elected US president. However, on Bank Road in Matlock, the Team B38/Underpin Racing trio of Patrick Clark (21st), Andy Nichols (13th) and Kieran Savage (12th) took their first men’s team prize at the National Hill-Climb Championship. Ten editions later, the squad is still winning. Serendipitously, it was on Bank Road where the win tally reached double figures. A decade of hill-climbing excellence continued with a 10th consecutive win for the team now known as Team Lifting Gear Products. They improved on their cumulative time from 2016, with Ross Howcroft-Jones (16th), Nichols (4th) and Kieran Wynne-Cattanach (2nd) securing…

It has not been a problem in Arizona, where I ride and live. They recognise a pedestrian/cyclist. Now the drivers who text, or are aggressive towards cyclists are the real threat to our safety. Michael Famiglietti I was in San Francisco in the summer and being from the UK, jaywalked frequently. A Waymo was some distance from me as I crossed (illegally, I might add) and it slowed before moving away again once I was well clear of it. I was nowhere near the car and could have crossed safely even if the Waymo had continued at its existing speed. I took a ride in one. Strange feeling, but also really safe. David Lewis I’d much rather see autonomous vehicles than ego-driven drivers gambling with our lives. Nejc S Driverless…

It’s nearly six years since that cold January morning when I wandered downstairs, glanced up from the headlines and murmured to my mum, “This could be really quite bad, couldn’t it?” Over the next two years, my naive worry was more than borne out. With lockdowns, masks and social distancing, Covid-19 turned the world on its head; most of us ended up catching the virus, and a significant minority, me included, are still feeling the effects – on our cycling and on our lives. Come spring 2022, I thought I’d dodged the worst of it. I was into my second year racing for Zappi Racing Team – a traditional yet brilliant setup for those aiming to turn pro via U23 Italian racing and UCI events. My ambition was to start…

Someone with a selective memory can, after an event or an experience, only recall certain parts of it. Cyclists, for example, are excellent at remembering the glorious part of a ride where they sashayed down an Alpine descent, but sometimes much less detailed in their recall of how exactly they ended up in hospital. Similarly, the cold and the wet. The way water can penetrate any glove. The day they ran out of energy 40 miles from home and cried for the three hours it took to finish the ride. Without the ability to forget these things there would be no repeat cycling. With experience, though, comes the ability to remember more. Except in the selective memory of a more experienced rider, misery crystalises as comedy. All of the above…

In a rut The elite men follow exactly the same path through the sand at the UEC European CX Champs last weekend, with Pim Ronhaar the only Dutchman in a group with four Belgians. Take off Emiel Verstrynge leaps to remount his bike at the Euros. The Belgian appears to have judged it perfectly, although there is still much left to chance in the jump. He finished sixth in the elite men’s race. Before the fall Jonas Vingegaard is all concentration as he plays a hand-eye coordination game at the Tour de France Saitama Criterium. Off the bike, he looks a lot more ordinary than his peers-maybe it’s the polo shirt. The yellow jumper A fan of Jonas Vingegaard takes supporting the Dane to the next level at the Tour…

Premier Tech is to stop sponsoring Israel-Premier Tech immediately, it was announced last week. The Canadian company came aboard as cosponsors of the cycling team in 2022. The ProTeam, which is set to be promoted to the WorldTour for 2026, announced last month that it would be renamed and rebranded for next season. However, in a statement, a spokesperson for Premier Tech said that the “core reason to sponsor the team has been overshadowed to a point where it has become untenable”. The news of the rebranding followed a series of protests against the Israeli team’s involvement in bike racing, including at the recent Vuelta a España, as Israel’s war in Gaza continued. Last month, the team was disinvited from the Giro dell’Emilia because of safety issues. Over 65,000 people…

I’ve spent the last few months dipping in and out of fantasy Factor Ostro VAM ownership, alongside pretending to own some other really exceptional pro-level road bikes. I swap them around during my testing schedule, and often end up riding very similar bikes back-to-back. So I was very keen to see how this bike performed alongside its nearest competition, while I had several of them to hand. What’s obvious is that geometry-wise, there are very few outliers in the pro ranks. The only one is the BMC Roadmachine, which features an unusually long wheelbase and a trail of 63mm, which is well outside the average. At the other extreme is the Specialized Tarmac SL8 with a trail value of just 55mm – similar to the Cervélo S5, and to the…

Rowan Baxter made it two wins from two rides in the Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross Championships, the Shibden Cycling Club rider taking the win in round four at Oaks Lake in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, on Sunday. The 18-year-old covered 13 laps of the course just 17 seconds quicker than his nearest rival Jack Parnaby, his Shibden CC team-mate who has yet to take a win in the series but is also yet to finish outside the top four having ridden every round so far. And in the women’s race there was a comfortable 72-second win for Libby Greatorex (CXR) with Amy Mourne (O’Shea Development Team) second and junior Isabelle Land (Calder Clarion) third. Team Empella veteran Kate Eedy enjoyed another strong weekend, the prolific rider taking victories at the fourth round of…

Sean Kelly wins the 1983 edition of the Giro di Lombardia by a whisker from an all-star line-up of rivals including Adrie van der Poel (far left), Greg LeMond (second right) and Hennie Kuiper (far right). While LeMond and Kelly both have their heads down, the American is easily recognisable in his world champion’s rainbow bands, even in black and white. For the Dutch pair Van der Poel and Kuiper, conceding victory to Kelly would have smarted the worst. Both fine one-day riders in their own right, they were team-mates on the Jacky Aernoudt Meubelen-Rossin-Campagnolo team. Having come so close, a result might have been expected from one of them, especially with an Italian sponsor. But they were up against a ‘King’ Kelly just reaching his prime. In fact this…

Cameron Mason finished fifth in the elite men’s race at the UEC European Cyclo-Cross Championships on Sunday, Britain’s best result of the weekend in Belgium. The 25-year-old Scot was in contention until the end on the sand of Middelkerke, finishing just four seconds behind the Belgian duo of Toon Aerts and Thibau Nys, who fought it out for the win in a sprint. The former was the winner, nine years after his first Euros win. The podium was completed by another Belgian, Joran Wyseure, with Pim Ronhaar of the Netherlands in fourth. “An up and down race,” Mason wrote on Instagram. “But my level was clear to see. A smoother race could have been better. But I didn’t come here to play or just to follow. In. The. Rut.” The…

Robyn Clay was crowned rider of the year by the Rayner Foundation at the charity’s annual dinner in Leeds last weekend. The 22-year-old, the winner of the National Road Series, the National Circuit Series, and the Rapha Super-League, was presented with her award at the gala night in front of almost 300 people at the Queens Hotel in Leeds. The Rayner Foundation was celebrating its 30th anniversary at the event. It supports young Brits hoping to forge a racing career abroad, and is named after the late Dave Rayner. Many former recipients have gone on to have pro careers and win the biggest bike races, from David Millar to Oscar Onley. Of the 38 riders given grants this season, 22 were present at the fundraising evening; 70 gateway trips for…

To end the season, Tom Pidcock made the trek to South Africa to take on the inaugural edition of Gravel Burn - an 800km, seven-stage gravel race through the remote and unforgiving terrain of the Great Karoo. While he came into the race with no expectations or pressure to perform, the Briton managed to win stage five’s mountain-top finish on his Pinarello Dogma GR. Owing to the rough terrain, Pidcock employed a slightly different set-up to the UCI Gravel World Championships, the most notable change being his tyre width and frameset colourway. While not as dynamic as his Gravel Worlds red/gold Dogma GR, the green/gold colour scheme of the bike he used for Gravel Burn accidentally echoes the national colours used by South African sports teams, most famously those of…

1 How much protein does a cyclist really need each day? It depends on the cyclist’s training load and level. For highly trained racers – those competing at national level or above – scientific data suggests aiming for around 1.8g of protein per kilogram of body mass per day. That’s 121g daily for a 67kg male cyclist and 103g for a 57kg female. The recommendations are similar for endurance and powerbased athletes. For recreational cyclists, daily intake of around 1.5g per kilogram is usually sufficient, and can be easily achieved through a balanced diet. 2 Is there an ideal amount of protein per meal or snack? Although research in trained endurance athletes is limited, evidence indicates that 0.5g per kilo of body mass per meal or snack is optimal to support muscle…

This Champion Mondial, in 1980s scarlet Amstel Bier team livery, was ridden by the most flamboyant and storied Dutchman the pro peloton has ever seen. An absolute demon in the mountains, Gert-Jan Theunisse may not hold the crown as the most successful climber of the 1980s, but he was a fierce contender. Career highlights include winning the 1988 Clásica de San Sebastián and taking home the polka-dot jersey in the 1989 Tour de France. That achievement in Le Tour was all the sweeter for a remarkable stage 17 win that saw him romp home in a solo breakaway that spanned 50km from the Col de la Croix de Fer to the summit of Alpe d’Huez. If anything, his appearance was more striking than his palmarès. His long, flowing, fair hair…