Some news from in and around the sport.
Have you got the Remco Reflex? After the “Dutch reach” technique for opening a car door, Belgium postal service B Post is now offering decals to further encourage drivers to look for cyclists following one of their drivers dooring the champ last week.
Locals can get their free stickers hier or ici. A hasty PR stunt that risks reducing peripheral vision or helpful? Probably both. Evenepoel’s crash and rehab is big news in Belgium, as you’d expect. There’s no other country that is into pro cycling on the same level and Evenepoel is the magnet for this. Watching the Flemish TV news bulletin from last night you could enjoy several cycling reports, to the point where Tim Merlier was interviewed from Soudal-Quickstep’s Calpe training camp and rather than being introduced as, say, the European champion, he was “team mate of Evenepoel” because things revolve around Remco.
Staying with Tim Merlier, safety, cycling and Belgium brings us to the Nokere Koerse which he won and by some margin. It may not be the biggest race it’s been identifiable thanks to the “Nokereberg” climb, the uphill sprint finish in Nokere’s main street. A book has just been published celebrating the 80 year history of this and the cover illustration says plenty.
Only no more, as the race drops the famous finish for safety reasons. The problem has been the approach to the climb, the road funnelled downhill and this was a crash point before the sprint so this is out, in comes a wider road on the outskirts of town. It’s not the only example of changes to courses, we had the Arenberg chicane in spring which briefly seemed to get more media coverage than the race itself, plus we’ve just had the Kanarieberg and its descent pulled from Dwars Door Vlaanderen. There will be more; see the Tour de France route that has no finishes after descents and no pavé nor gravel. A safer race is a better one but the Nokere organisers have a challenge to redefine the race that has showcased the town and got its identity from the finish.
Staying with safety there are ongoing explorations about slowing down rider speed. Tires and gear size have been mentioned here and elsewhere. Le Parisien was first the other day with news that this could include handlebar width, the idea being that many have opted for narrow bars which can be more unstable. There’s an irony here in that rider union president and safety advocate Adam Hansen was one of the first to try more narrow bars in search of gains (pictured, see how dated Arredondo looks in comparison) but there’s a lesson here because it made sense if one or two breakaway riders did this. But if everyone does it, including lead-out specialists and others needing control in the diciest of moments, then nobody has an advantage any more while the group collectively is more exposed to crash risk from twitchy bars. But any regulation on this is going to be more complicated than breaking out a tape measure given bars can vary in shape, more so with brake hoods added… or at least hopefully it might be.
Staying with reports from the French media, after the team bus and the dining truck, is the transporter the new team vehicle? Vélo magazine – effectively L’Equipe’s monthly cycling magazine – reports that Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale has been transporting team cars on a truck to races and during rest day transfers (like the illustrative photo). All while regular staff join the quicker air transfer. They’ve even used an external coach driver to move the team bus too so that the actual team bus driver gets to rest on a rest day. We could call these gains marginaux but the team is committed to using English as its official language for 2025, under the branding of “an international team based in the French Alps”. It makes sense as half the roster aren’t French and Decathlon is big outside of France, apparently it’s been delighted by sales of the team bike across Asia.
Tadej Pogačar’s 2025 diary isn’t fully known yet, as the team want to see the Vuelta route and compare it to the Giro. Teams have been given headline details of the Italian route even if the official presentation is delayed to January. Pogačar’s rainbow jersey tour begins with the UAE Tour, then Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo, the E3, Gent-Wevelgem, the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Amstel, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour de France; and probably the worlds but that’s on him and not his team. You wonder how many teams will take this list and plan off it?
UAE reveal XRG as their new co-sponsor today and as is the team’s media style there’s no news of this on their website yet. Anyway it’s a new company just spun-off from the state oil and gas company ADNOC. Think of it as a Middle-Eastern Ineos, making chemicals, transporting LNG gas and that sort of thing, only sponsoring a winning team. The team sponsors are all closely-linked to the ruling family, in particular Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan (“TBZ”), brother of the UAE’s President. Even Colnago, because as loyal readers will know one of TBZ’s company’s is Chimera and it controls the Italian brand now. Cycling sponsorship is probably great value for them – you now know what XRG does – and means when we think UAE we think victory salutes and tufts of hair poking out of helmets… rather questionable human rights or persistent support for ex-President Assad.
To leaders being toppled in more gentle ways now and in Paris a month ago Sabrina Soussan posed with Stéphanie Pallez to announced the shared goal of winning the Tour de France. Don’t worry if you struggle to recall who these ambitious cyclists are, instead they’re the respective PDG’s of Suez and FDJ, the backers of the ambitous FDJ-Suez team. Two female bosses backing a women’s cycling, a nice story especially as they like to meet to discuss “their” team. Or did… as Soussan has just been ousted from the role at Suez, she’ll formally leave in January with one of the sniping complaints reportedly she spent too much on “external communications”… which could mean sports sponsorship? The reassuring news is the renewal deal has been done already so Suez are on board until 2028.
How long have you been following pro cycling? If you’ve been a fan for over a decade, changes are you’ve picked up a passing interest in haematology. The textbooks have been dusted off and neurons fired up again as carbon monoxide (CO) re-breathing is a hot topic. Coaches have been using this as a way of measuring haemoglobin mass, it’s been associated with altitude training camps where athletes get measured before and after to measure the athlete’s response, but it can be done before and after a period of heat training (which can also increase haemoglobin mass too, saunas are the new altitude). The concern today that it could also be used to manipulate blood levels by simulating the effect of altitude and given pro cycling’s history of looking for legal or grey area advantages, it’s worth monitoring. But how? The UCI has now asked WADA to rule on this, and asked teams not use it. Asking sounds weak, but it at least signals to riders to steer clear. Xenon was used in the recent past for similar purposes after being touted by Russian doctors in particular but subsequently banned by WADA. But xenon is a rare noble gas and has a half-life long enough to test for, someone will need a good explanation for using it (like anaesthesia). But how to test for CO – koolstofmonoxide in Dutch, монооксид углерода in Russian – among athletes given they can blame a training ride in a tunnel, a faulty gas heater or whatever? That’s what the UCI has tasked WADA with but just as cycling’s governing body as tackled Tramadol first with its own rules it could also make its own plans.
Finally to cool stuff of a different kind and to end on a sweeter note. While junior teams compete for talent, with wages, free kit and a promising calendar of racing, being able to offer a nutrition sponsor can be a deal clincher. With the move to more calories in racing and training, it’s expensive to chow down gels, bars and energy mix on every ride and time-consuming to attempt DIY concoctions. So anecdotally a swing factor is being able to offer gels by the box load.
Sauna featured in the second “Nasu – A migratory bird with suitcase” (2007) cycling anime movie ^___^
Perhaps it’s just like beetroot, as shown in “Ghislain Lambert’s bicycle”, cycling just can’t do without it…
Sensible tyres are a good idea from both the safety and punctures aspects. Don’t know about gear sizes though as this could favour riders with certain characteristics.
Good off-season round up thanks, as always.
The problem has been the approach to the club…
Climb?
The climb and fixed, thanks.
The issue of long transfers is an interesting one – the transporter solution seems fair enough, and I expect (marginally) better in terms of carbon outputs? We’ll just not mention the flying part.
France and Spain are big countries, and Italy is inconveniently shaped, so perhaps the geography combined with modern racing tastes condemns us to long transfers of some kind for the time being. But having recently seen Ned Boulting’s one man show about the 1923 Tour, its route being a literal lap of France, I couldn’t help but think it’s a concept worth revisiting somehow. Maybe a 400km stage before a rest day, instead of a transfer. Any takers?
And for fun, which current rider would be most suited to the Tours of the 1920s, with their unifying laps (another reason to revisit the concept) of l’Hexagone?
Pogačar, obviously, just as to anything else -____-
(but Remco might have a big say, since his natural aero would grant huge advantages on such a course, as an exception among ITT specialists who rely much on the specific bike).
The best vintage WVA. Jorgenson’s got the skills but not the full stamina yet.
Among those still racing but think them at their top, Bardet. Alaphilippe. Bernal. Carapaz.
Some could become proper GC men instead of stage hunters, though no hope to match the names above for the win unless a fuga bidone goes great: Soler, Sivakov, Wellens, De Gendt, Pidcock, Mohorič, Izagirre…
Nibali and Valverde from the previous generation, maybe the absolute top Sagan (!), then Evans and Vinokourov, then not much anybody until the likes of Bugno and Fignon. The guys from the 70s would do great, not as much those from the 60s…
Oh yes, a peak Sagan could fit the bill! And perhaps any rider that could expect to win in both Flanders and the Ardennes.
Though I secretly like the idea of a Ganna-type riding minutes ahead on a long flat-ish northern stage and holding on for grim death after that… Not sure these would be races with good TV ratings.
In the 20s they had big mountain stages already (you can notice a growing split between TDF and PR palmarés), so although I share your suggestion above as a very good proxy, a further degree of long climbing prowess was utterly needed, at least to resist rather than attack (young Sagan could impress on a climb), together with fondo, good handling skills (but not as much being able to “limare”, i.e., flowing smoothly in a thick peloton), not being too skinny, dirt riding, a proven attitude for solo rides and/or breakaway riding (which is very similar to racing as a whole back then), being a decent rouleur but not having TTs as the main prove of the above as you should be very aero and effective on a normal bike. Nowadays, it would also correspond to being more of a “Giro rider” than a TDF one. Adverse weather, general chaos, longer stages.
The winner could be an unheralded rider who doesn’t have much “explosivity” but can ride for hours and hours, it could be Gianni Vermeersch or Kevin Vermaerke, Valentin Madouas or Ben Zwiehoff as much as Remco Evenepoel or Wout van Aert.
To add to the complication, some riders can have huge stamina, amazing W/kg… but they call a taxi if they get a puncture when training solo; or sheepishly ask someone else on the group ride to fix it “because they’ll do it quicker so we’re not standing around for as long” so the self-reliance angle is different, although this can be learned quickly.
I feel seen (except for the huge stamina and amazing W/kg bits)
“The winner could be an unheralded rider who doesn’t have much “explosivity” but can ride for hours and hours…” I stopped reading here because I just know you had Ian Stannard in mind. Nothing better to tempt him out of retirement.
Vermeersch is a good shout though. Maybe the gravel crowd can pick up the 1920s style race – they already sort of do that anyway.
Eros Poli
I’d like to throw a cureveball here with Ben Healey and as one who has quite the stamina despite his small stature which will come in handy when climbing. Or Kasper Asgreen who can plow on for hours on end without tiring.
Of riders of old, Anquetil come to mind.
The general concept is right, but I’m not sure at all you needed that little explosivity.
For sure, less than now. But a lot of racing back then (probably way more in the 30s than in the 20s, but it’s worth having a deeper look into the subject) was very similar to what we can see nowadays when a break is forming. Groups were splitting all the time and being in the one or ones closer to the front might be important, making a good jump quite decisive at times.
Long gravel races are a good comparison, only racing one every couple of days…
Vermeersch and Madouas are very good picks. Healy too. Asgreen wouldn’t survive the mountains, me thinks, while Anquetil’s results in the Classics don’t bode well for his time-travel experience in the 20s, when stages were often closer to that kind of hectic situations.
A 1920s style peripheral Tour de France revisited: what a good idea – particularly for those like me living in the N-E corner. Less good for those in central cities such as Tours, Orleans, Clermont, Limoges… a one-off?
And TV viewers probably too. Dotwatching can have its entertainment but it won’t work for mainstream broadcasts.
Skujins!
If I rode a bike, I would never ride within a door’s width of a car. In the UK, at least, people fling their doors open with gay abandon.
Same here, I just assume all drivers are blind, stupid and murderous, makes riding a lot safer if you expect folly
In France too, and as city bike lanes outside parked cars are only 1m wide thet make them pretty useless.
DSM becomes Picnic for 2025. More new colours to recognise. Hopefully I’ll master it by M-SR.
UAE’s questionable human rights are right up there with every other country that sponsors a cycling team: Bahrain, Israel, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia.
Of course, Western countries also had links with Assad, back when he was considered an ally of the West (just as his enemies are now allies, having been quite the opposite only a few years ago… and so it goes on), as you can see by putting this into a search engine:
Revealed: Tony Blair’s extraordinary efforts to court Syria’s dictators
Speaking of the end of a long dictatorship, I believe that Lefevere just stepped down from his position of QS CEO.
As the new CEO, a true manager comes in nearly straight from the world of consultants (after a single year of transition as COO), hence the new board’s extremely meaningful and groundbreaking approach, and I quote:
” The board’s focus will be on evolving the team’s strategy going forewords “.
End of quote. Applause. Next slide please.
Running a bike team is not a democracy.
Don Patrick has kept the quickstep show on the road for 21 years, during which they’ve not notched nearly a thousand victories.
I would rather have his blunt say it how I see it approach rather than a stream of management gobbledygook.
Yep, I never liked much him but, on paper, I like even less a Deloitte man (or whatever).
But maybe someday a consultant might give us a good surprise.
Inrng could be one 😛
Besides, I said “on paper” because luckily people can still break a stereotype.
Reality is more complicated than good or evil, although both can be found sometimes in their pure form.
And sometimes that’s also true in geopolitics, not only in cycling.
I missed the story where LeFevere was implicated in the mass murder and torture of Quick Step riders. Please send link.
Speaking of jokes (dark humour, indeed), what about European democratic countries *immediately suspending* Siryan requests of asylum bid from day one after a conflict which brought to power people from Al Qaeda-belonging Al Nusra, which specifically “intends to establish an Islamist caliphate across the Levant” and explicitly adovcates for “expel[ling] the minority Alawite and Christian communities from Syria”?
(quotes from an unclassified document provided by the intelligence to Australian Parliament – whose website makes it available – in order to justify the listing of Al Nusra as a terrorist organisation)
These guys, born in strict connection with ISIS/ISIL which had played a significant role in founding the group before it jumped to Al Qaeda some 10 years ago, must be considered terrorists according to the UN, USA National Counterterrorism Center and whomever follows their guidelines, but of course we can count on ’em to keep the Syrian people safe at home.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/10/why-is-europe-pausing-syrian-asylum-claims-after-al-assads-fall
Is the government of your country taking this sort of decision?
Note that “this includes both new applications and those that are still being processed” (i.e., it’s not about preventing Assad’s friends from fleeing to Europe, just in case you had that kind of imaginations).
Remember you live in a democracy, so in case you voted whether for the currently governing party or not (and, to a measure, even if you didn’t vote at all)… this sort of decision represents you.
Lefevere’s Belgium is on the list, as Italy is. Or Denmark. Spain isn’t (for now). What about yours?
Tyres that slow riders down as well as not peeling off wheels when they puncture seem a very obvious and simple idea, as do wider handlebars.
It is wearisome that cycling doesn’t take simple measures quickly, not helped by safety-obsessive Hansen’s fixation on weather.
And if they did these things, perhaps they would leave the historic parcours of races alone: they were always fine before, ergo they are not the problem.
Is there an issue with making the bikes heavier? Just add ballast for pro’s if the manufacturers don’t like it.
Ballast mainly slows you down when climbing, or, more generally speaking, at speed and on terrains when weight to power is more relevant than pure power, so the safety effect in the racing moments where most issues are currently detected would be negligible. Bikes are often nowadays still a bit heavier than a few years ago, a shame they also appear to be more fragile. My personal carbon test is how often you happen to see a broken bike…
Hansen’s fixation is not on weather, just check the Flèche or the Vuelta this year, it’s rather about… weather at the Giro.
Good points (both paragraphs).
Hansen is a riders’ representative not a safety officer. He raises issues the riders ask him to raise, nothing more.
False. Check the Vuelta.
And the mechanism to raise those issues lacks transparency to say the least.
He’s also been keen to take a stand on some issues so he can be seen to be on the side of riders because for some time riders have wondered what the point of the CPA was. So he’s also picked a few visible fights to win as well as all the things that don’t hit the headlines like attending all the committee meetings.
I wonder how much that is true, and does he represent all the riders, or only some? And do the riders really complain about riding in rain at the Giro more than 40 degrees at the Vuelta?
Also, I wonder how much he can claim to represent the riders, not the teams, when the CPU’s voting process involves one rider from each team voting on any given issue, in a non-secret ballot. Hansen consistently claims that ‘every rider has a vote’, but if 6 out of 10 riders on your team vote one way, all the dissenting votes are not counted. Also, are we seriously supposed to believe that that rider is voting how his colleagues want and not how his boss has told him to vote? (The fact that these votes are apparently always unanimous is not suspicious at all.)
The problem with weather at the Giro is that it comes with chaotic organisation. Unlike Ferrari race strategists, they don’t have a Plan B or Plan C.
Unlike ASO/Unipublic, isn’t it? Plan B from them wasn’t anywhere to be seen last season. RCS had B and C, only “the riders” changed their mind about what they had agreed several times…
All other things being equal, ballast also makes you faster downhill. Probably the pros descend plenty fast enough already if we’re thinking about safety.
I’ll be surprised if Pogačar rides the Giro, he’ll be wanting to be as mentally fresh and physically strong as possible for the Tour given that Vingegaard is to some extent an unknown quantity – is he 99% of a fully fit Pogačar or 101% ? This is the central narrative of the 2025 season. Possibly we will see them both at the Vuelta as well for a rematch. Note that Adam Yates is making noise about targeting the Giro already.
I also think Pogačar also wants new challenges and doing the Vuelta is just that.
Teams have a summary of the Giro and are waiting for Vuelta route but the unmentioned aspect is how much of a war chest RCS has this year to pay appearance fees as this can be the swing factor to attracting riders too.
Agreed re new challenges. It’s interesting and a bit surprising, for example, that he’s riding G-W – presumably basically because this is one he hasn’t won?
I’d like to see Yates have a go at the Giro. He’s got a reasonable chance, and the more competitive riders who are there, the better. I hope Evenepoel (injuries-willing) and Roglic both go. (And I really hope neither of the big two do.)
Time is running out for Roglic so I think it would be logical for him to do the Giro.
I think Rog probably realises that he has almost no chance of winning the Tour if Pog and Vin finish the race. The same is very probably true for Eve, at the moment, and I think he’d be better off trying to win the Giro for now (assuming Vin or Pog don’t do it).
The question that could be asked (or that R and E could well be asking themselves at some point) is:
Is it more challenging, awesome or whatever (and therefore more laudable) to go against major odds and strive for a win or at least being capable of posing a credible threat to P and V for as long as possible and to finish third than it would be to win a Giro without P and V?
(Their teams and sponsors probably wouldn´t need much time to give their answer.)
Thursday
Being beaten by 5-10 minutes by Pogačar for a (very) slim chance of GC success and the odd stage victory, is likely much less awesome than a Giro win even without P and V.
I’m very curious about the Giro. I don’t think there’s any chance that Pogi is going, so it becomes a question of who amongst the best riders will engage in Pogi dodging. I can see Roglic skipping it to focus on his ever-decreasing chances at the Tour, which would potentially leave an all-B-tier Giro gc group. I personally fall on the “more drama is better than amazing performances” side of the fence, so I’m intrigued to see the final start list. Hard to imagine another win by someone like Hindley, but I would love to see it.
Today’s Cycling News:
“Primož Roglič to target Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in 2025 for Red Bull.
Slovenian to head back to the Corsa Rosa for the first time since taking overall victory in 2023”
Rog has fair chance of winning Giro again. And if TdF result is disappointing, it can be attributed to “Giro fatigue”.
Still, if a 100% fit Ving & Pog are at TdF, it will probably be a race for 3rd. Given Roglic’s string of DNFs in last few years, that would be a major personal victory, and Red Bull shouldn’t be too displeased, either.
Well there you go. Unless one of the big three decides to show up he’ll be the favorite.
With Roglic’s luck, he’ll have problems making it through the first week of the Tour anyway, but doing both the Giro and Tour seems a odd decision. The team and sponsors want him at the Tour regardless, I suppose.
Wouldn’t slower tires make an absolute value of lost power, e.g. always 20 W at 50 km/h? This would favor larger riders.
Perhaps the problem with the sprints is that the lead-outs are already too fast? You could limit this by the fastest allowed gear ratio, say 53×11, and allow one fast cassette per team, and then it is up to the team to decide who gets it on which day. This would also limit the descent speeds.
Finally, I am against such technical limitations. The riders have shown multiple times they can cause a huge crash even in straight sprints.
I’m assuming you’re joking. Watching these guys spinning at 160 cadence and bouncing all over the place will be like F1 mandating porpoising.
The 53×11 cassette isn’t the issue… it’s the 56-60 tooth chainrings at the front that the sprint leadouts can push.
Honestly, it was dangerous in a sprint leadout 20 years ago too, that aspect isn’t changing. I
Tire rolling resistance is nominally, directly, proportional to the “normal” force on the tire, ie the bike + racer’s weight on tire pointing directly down to the road surface.
That assumes all the other variables are held constant (compound, carcass construction, tread design, tire size, etc).
So if everyone used same tire, light riders would not be disproportionately penalized relative to heavier riders having more absolute power.
Don’t some motorsports also mandate same tire type for all the cars?
Perhaps UCI could mandate everyone must race on “Gatorskin Hardshell” tires, possibly the slowest tire in the market 😉
The devil is in the details. The coefficient of rolling resistance changes with pressure, and scaling laws dictate that a heavier rider will benefit slightly from this. Most significant however is the vibrational energy generated by any surface rougher than an indoor velodrome, which is a (very) non-linear function of load and pressure.
I read somewhere that the narrow tyres have higher rolling resistance than a bit wider. The preference for the very narrow tyres is the reduced projected area I.e. air resistance.
And weight.
But even the aspect of rolling resistance isn’t just as easily simplified, although in general terms it works a bit like you say.
I’m more worried by the fact that tyres are lasting less than 15 years ago. The range as sort of gone down from 5-10K kms to 3-5K kms.
Tadej’s planned 2025 races is so refreshing. Can we set up a separate competition similar to the cyclocross super prestige and add a $1M pot for the top 3 placings amongst those races?
If it was a mix of one-day and one-week races (I would leave the GTs out), then Pogi would obviously win and I would expect Remco to be a distant second. But beyond that, it would be a fascinating competition. Maybe Jorgenson on the podium?
re Remco’s crash: “Door” zone = Death zone. Cyclists literally get killed and maimed from door collisions. I know cyclist who lost 1/2 finger in a door collision. Finger was reattached, but now has limited range of motion and sensation.
I don’t know situation on the typical cramped & narrow European streets, but in US there’s burgeoning trend for cyclists to “take the lane”. In many if not most US states, that’s perfectly legal on most roads, with same rules as slow moving motor vehicles.
A USA reference guide: https://cyclingsavvy.org/road-cycling, “FAQ: Why do you ride like that?”
“Take the lane” is also standard practice for group rides in my cycle club, for at least 10+ years. Some common sense has to be applied, and occasionally there’s dick motorists who’ll honk a lot, but they’re not homicidal.
My observation is there’s more risk riding roadside in the gutter, because motorists usually ignore anything not directly in front of them.
I take the lane too…. it’s important to drive defensively. But being honest, I stay off major roads as much as possible because drivers are far too aggressive.
One small thing to note in Belgium is the cycle paths. There are many which is great at first sight. But you might see them when you watch races and they can sit between the road and the pedestrian sidewalk and often with parked cars beside or to go around. The problem comes with the obligation to use them, even Evenepoel. Clearly you can move out of the way of a parked car and its door but it makes snaking around objects and obstacles more stressful.
The obligation to use cycle paths is one of the most crazy laws ever. A big clue for the theory about the existence of a social hate of sort against cycling people. Including in Belgium!