drth d6u e4 du6 // MAGZUS.CLUB //

TOUR OF THE ALPS HIGH AND MIGHTY

ENRIC MAS WHY 2021 IS A CRUNCH YEAR FOR SPAIN'S BRIGHTEST YOUNG TALENT

ZWIFT CODE

SPRATT & BROWN

HOW E-SPORTS ARE CHANGING THE FACE OF CYCLING

Amanda Spratt & Grace Brown on their journey in cycling

LISA BRENNAUER JACK HAIG MERCIER TEAM

THE STRONG AND THE WEEK

MARY WITTENBERG

IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE WEEK-LONG STAGE RACES

Sam Bennett photographed by Rebecca Marshall exclusively for Procycling

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

SAM BENNETT T H E WOR L D'S BEST SPR IN T ER ON L IF E AT T H E TOP OF T H E SPOR T

PREFACE ISSUE 282 / JUNE 2021

EDITOR

W

e’ve got Sam Bennett on the cover of the mag this month, and very happy we are about it too. Bennett’s popular for many reasons. He’s had to graft his way to the top, making incremental improvements year on year until he’s reached a position where there’s a very good case for him to be described as the best sprinter in the world. He’s also very correct as a sprinter - the elbows occasionally come out in the fight for position, but he tends to ride in a straight line to the finish. He’s popular with the press for being an accommodating

HIGHLIGHTS

SAM BENNETT Sophie Hurcom caught up with the ever-cheerful Sam Bennett for our cover feature this month, with portraits by Rebecca Marshall in Monaco. Page 32.

STATE OF THE NATION: SPAIN Alasdair Fotheringham takes a deep dive into the cycling landscape of Spain for the latest in our critically acclaimed ‘State of the Nation’ series. Page 58.

LISA BRENNAUER Adam Becket interviews Germany’s Lisa Brennauer, one of the most successful and exprienced cyclists in the peloton. See page 74.

Images: Rebecca Marshall (Bennett), David Ramos/Getty Images (Spain), Sean Hardy (Brennauer).

EDWARD PICKERING

interviewee - as you’ll see from Sophie Hurcom’s piece on page 32 and as you can probably tell from our cover shots and portraits.

Bennett’s big target for 2021 is to defend the green jersey he won last year at the Tour. And he’s got a good chance of doing it - he’s ticking along nicely with five wins so far in 2021, and I’d be surprised if he didn’t add to that total later this summer.

But the analyst in me wonders if he’ll spend the rest of his life as a sprinter or whether he’ll branch out into the classics. He’s proven himself capable of winning oneday races in Belgium like Brugge-De Panne. But he showed us a glimpse of the possibilities when he made it over the Kemmelberg in the elite lead group at Gent-Wevelgem.

We’re in an era where there’s increasing crossover between cycling’s so-called specialities at the moment. This spring, Wout van Aert became the first rider since, well, that morning, but before Marianne Vos did it, the 1970s to win both Gent-Wevelgem and Amstel Gold - two races which used to attract quite different types of rider. Tadej Pogacar, a grand tour specialist, outsprinted Julian Alaphilippe to win Liège.

If Bennett does branch out, he’ll be following in the wheeltracks of his hometown antecedent Sean Kelly. But for now, a second green jersey would be enough.

Get in touch with Procycling through our website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @procycling_mag, and sign up to our newsletter at www.cyclingnews.com/news/sign-up-to-procyclings-newsletter/

Procycling / June 2021 5

32 COVER FEATURE: SAM BENNETT

“In a race, there’s just a switch flicked and I’m a different guy altogether”

FEATURES

80 86 92 96

INTERVIEW: JACK HAIG

Spain’s brightest grand tour hope on his two fifth places in 2020 and why he hopes to go better in 2021

ANALYSIS: TOUR OF THE ALPS How the Alpine stage race has become one of the calendar’s favourite events for fans and riders

STATE OF THE NATION: SPAIN Our deep dive into the cycling culture, landscape and history of the sport in one of its heartlands

IN DEPTH: ONE-WEEK STAGE RACES We examine the week-long stage races which form the backbone of the international calendar

INTERVIEW: LISA BRENNAUER The German classics specialist on her long career at the very top of the sport

The Aussie GC rider on his new beginning and racing objectives at Bahrain Victorious

INTERVIEW: AMANDA SPRATT & GRACE BROWN Team BikeExchange’s leaders on their very different paths into the Women’s WorldTour

INTERVIEW: MARY WITTENBERG The EF Education-Nippo president tells us about her journey of discovery in cycling and sport

IN DEPTH: E-RACING Future of the sport or glorified training platform?

We look at the rise and rise of Zwift and e-sports

REGULARS GA L L E RY PROLOGUE O BJ ECTS OF D ES IR E EXPERIENCE D IA RISTS

8 14 22 24 28

RETRO SUBSCRIBE W ISH LI ST DE BRIE F LAST WO R D

Images: Rebecca Marshall (Bennett), xxxx

CONTENTS

ISSUE 282 JUNE 2021

44 52 58 70 74

INTERVIEW: ENRIC MAS

1 02 10 8 11 0 116 1 30 Procycling / June 2021 7

GALLERY THE WORLD’S BEST CYCLING PHOTOGRAPHY

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Procycling / June 2021

Tour of Turkey Stage 4, Kemer, Turkey 14 APRIL 2021 Mark Cavendish has always worn his emotions on his sleeve and his effort on his face, and he shows the strain as he sprints to his third successive stage win at the Tour of Turkey, powering clear of Jasper Philipsen, in green, who finished second to Cavendish in each of his wins.

The Manxman’s victories in Turkey were his first since Feburary 2018. The flat stage was easily controlled by the sprinters’ teams, and it looked like Philipsen’s Alpecin-Fenix had control going into the final kilometre. However, the team left the Belgian in the wind too early, allowing Cavendish to come from behind, rounding his opponent in the final metres of the stage.

The sprint was marred by a huge crash behind, which did not affect the leaders but did cause chaos.

Fabio Jakobsen, who was returning to racing for the first time since his horror crash at last year’s Tour de Pologne, earned plaudits for stopping and checking those who had come off worst in the pile-up.

Image: Getty Images

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GALLERY

Amstel Gold Race Berg en Terblijt, Netherlands 18 APRIL 2021 Kasia Niewiadoma grits her teeth as she attacks at the Amstel Gold Race, shadowed by Marianne Vos. The Polish rider, who won the race in 2019, went clear on the final ascent of the Cauberg, accompanied by Elisa Longo Borghini, but the duo were reeled in by a 10-woman group inside the final kilometre. Vos went on to win the Dutch classic, her maiden victory in the race.

Just out of shot, Annemiek van Vleuten went on to finish third in the sprint, with Demi Vollering ahead of her in second. The race was held on a closed circuit due to the pandemic, with the women tackling seven laps of the undulating course which took in the Cauberg, the Geulhemmerberg, and the Bemelerberg. There were attacks from kilometre zero, with the race only settling down on about the third lap before exploding again. Niewiadoma counterattacked a group that included Vos and Vollering the final time up the Cauberg and was joined

by Longo Borghini close to the top of the climb. The Italian stopped taking turns on the front with a couple of kilometres to go, meaning the duo were inevitably caught. Longo Borghini opened the sprint but was caught by Vos, who was able to celebrate with 20 metres to go, despite Vollering closing fast.

Image: Getty Images

Procycling / June 2021 11

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GALLERY

La Flèche Wallonne Huy, Belgium 21 APRIL 2021 Julian Alaphilippe and Primož Roglič do battle on the Mur de Huy in the final metres of La Flèche Wallonne. The race that always comes down to the final ascent of the Mur, sure enough, came down to the final ascent of the Mur. Roglič, riding the Ardennes classic for the first time, attacked with 350m to go on the steepest section of the 1.3km climb, where the gradient hits 19 per cent. Alaphilippe, who won Flèche on the two previous times he had ridden it, managed the climb a lot more effectively.

He reeled in the Slovenian leader inside the final 100m, and once he was past Roglič, there was no way back. Alejandro Valverde rolled back the years with his third-place finish, days before his 41st birthday. Michael Woods came fourth, let down by bad positioning, but Alaphilippe clearly mastered the Wall of Huy, knowing when to wait and when to attack. The last survivor of the breakaway, Maurits Lammertink, lasted until 1.4km to go, but finished 71st, showing how he was swamped by the chasing peloton, and just how hard the final climb of the Mur is.

Image: Gruber Images

Procycling / June 2021 13

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PROLOGUE PROCYCLING: AT THE HEART OF THE PELOTON

MARK CAVENDISH ENDS WIN DROUGHT

Images: Franklin (main), Mahe (Bennett)/all via Getty Images, Sam Flanagan (Brown).

Turkish delight for Cavendish Comeback of the century or dead cat bounce? As always in cycling discourse, and as always in Mark Cavendish discourse, opinions on the Manxman’s four sprint victories at the Tour of Turkey were sharply divided, while the truth probably sat somewhere between the extremes.

Cavendish, coming off the back of four disappointing seasons beset by illness, had already looked perkier in 2021 than for years. In the Belgian one-day races he was fighting for wins - he mistimed his sprint at the GP Monseré and was beaten by Tim Merlier. Jakub Mareczko beat him into second on stage 1 of the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. And at

14 Procycling / June 2021

Scheldeprijs, Deceuninck didn’t seem to have a focused gameplan Bennett second and Cavendish third, both behind Jasper Philipsen. But he was sprinting for wins - in 2019 and 2020 especially, he’d simply looked off the pace and wasn’t even getting into position to sprint for a win, let alone execute the sprint itself.

But in Turkey, something clicked.

Cavendish took two days to get going, though it was a tricky bend that did for him on day one rather than his sprinting legs. Philipsen’s Alpecin-Fenix team did a brilliant lead-out for their leader on stage 2, but Cavendish’s well-timed and very fast surge for the line beat him.

Cavendish ends a wait of more than two years for a win, on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey ahead of Philipsen

150 The number of career wins for Cavendish

It was his first win since stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour in February 2018.

But you know what they say: you spend 1,159 days waiting for a win, then two come along at once. As soon as Cavendish broke the seal on his victory drought, the wins flashed up again and again like lights on a fruit machine that has suddenly started paying out. He won the next day, and the day after that, to make three in a row, and finally he took a fourth win on the last day. The final win was as impressive as any that had preceded it and was equal parts sprinting speed, tactical nous, timing and willpower. He’s shown flashes of each in the last few years, but rarely together and so consistently.

The question is, where do these four sprint wins fit in the pantheon of Cavendish’s career, and what do they mean for the rest of this year and beyond? Some fans suggested he deserved a place in the Tour de France team, in one final effort to take him from the 30 stage wins he’s been stuck on since 2016 towards the

NEXT ISSUE ON SALE 11.6.21

“ They can eat Vegemite, but they have to like it” G r a c e B r o w n o n i n i t i a t i n g t h e f o r e i g n r i d e r s i n t o A u s s i e c u l t u r e o n Te a m B i k e E x c h a n g e p a g e 8 6

all-time record of 34 held by Eddy Merckx. The idea is irresistible on an emotional and journalistic level 30 stage wins is already one of the all-time great achievements in the history of the race, and even to have a chance of increasing it would be one of the stories of the year.

But there are equally good reasons not to get too carried away. For one thing, it was the Tour of Turkey.

The intensity is several degrees lower than at the Tour and the race essentially consisted of seven bunch sprints and a summit finish. Related to that, the level of opposition was not equal to that which he would come up against in France. First, the good news: Philipsen, who has just turned 23, is one of the fastest-rising sprinters and Cavendish won four stages in Turkey to the Belgian’s two; also Philipsen’s Alpecin-Fenix lead-

out was well drilled and strong, so for Cavendish to have beaten him is a positive sign for the Brit. However, beyond that the sprinting field tailed off drastically. André Greipel is nowhere near as fast as he was in his heyday, and the other contenders Nulvwriihu#Kdoyruvhq/#Vwdqlvôdz# Dqlrônrzvnl#dqg#Duylg#Gh#Nohlmq#0# were riding for ProConti squads.

There’s also the small matter that Cavendish’s Deceuninck team have the defending green jersey and 2020 double stage winner Sam Bennett on the Tour start list. Teams can go to the Tour with multiple objectives, but two sprinters on one team is a recipe for friction, or at best confusion.

Of course, a cycling season rarely unfolds as planned, but Cavendish’s best hope of a grand tour start at the time of going to press was the Vuelta.

There are six good chances of a sprint in Spain so if Cavendish does believe that he can go back to the Tour to win more stages, the road will start from the Vuelta in August. It looks like the Tour of Turkey was a good set of results, but Cavendish still has to prove himself against stiffer opposition in the biggest races.

As soon as Cavendish broke the seal on his victory drought, the wins flashed up again and again like lights on a fruit machine

DQS is also home to Sam Bennett, last year’s green jersey winner at the Tour

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SOPHIE HURCOM DEPUTY EDITOR

PIDCOCK LIVES UP TO THE HYPE I remember standing in the Roubaix velodrome in 2017 as Tom Pidcock swept in and won the junior edition of the Hell of the North. He was just 17, and a few members of the Anglophone media left the press room, while the pro race was still in its middle stages, to watch the Yorkshireman stand on the podium. He held up his baby-sized cobble, looking even younger than his years, like the little brother of the two riders who loomed tall over him in second and third. Pidcock was already the brightest young British talent around - he’d won the prestigious Junior Tour of Wales and was the junior national, European and world cyclo-cross champion. There were plenty of rumours as to which pro teams wanted his signature already.

It’s always been a matter of when, not if, Pidcock would start winning major races once he stepped up to the highest level on the road. But there was still something remarkable watching him this spring, as he slotted into the WorldTour with Ineos Grenadiers and straight into the classics like he’d been there for years. In seven quick weeks, the now 21-year-old produced a string of consistently high results in the classics, from the cobbles to the Ardennes, unlike anything seen by a British rider. He won Brabantse Pijl, was third in the sprint at Kuurne, fifth on the gravel at Strade Bianche, then a hair’s width away from beating Wout van Aert at Amstel Gold and sixth behind Julian Alaphilippe and Primož Roglič at Flèche. You sensed Liège might have gone well for him too, if injury hadn’t ruled him out.

Pidcock has always raced to his own beat. The multi-talented all-rounder will still race cross over the winter, and is now taking a summer road break to focus on mtb at the Olympics. And on the road, we haven’t even seen him in a pro stage race yet - he won mountain stages of l’Avenir and was junior world TT champ, in case anyone forgot.

Pidcock really can do it all. We can just wait and see where he races next.

Procycling / June 2021 15

PROLOGUE

COMMUNIQUÉ CARAPAZ DISQUALIFIED Richard Carapaz became the highest-profile cyclist to be disqualified for breaking the UCI’s new rules for onbike positioning at LiègeBastogne-Liège. After his attack on the Côte des Forges, Carapaz adopted the nowbanned ‘super-tuck’ position, leading him to be stricken from the results.

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G O S S I P

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C H A T T E R

“ When I am given the green light, I’m in for a long, slow slog back to fitness, but I’ve done it before and I will do it again” Chloe Hosking after testing positive for coronavirus in April.

“I had entered a vicious cycle and I didn’t dare talk about how I felt “ Frenchman Théo Nonnez opens up about stepping back from cycling aged just 21. The rider with the Groupama-FDJ development team said he was suffering from burnout.

SD Worx donate prize money Dutch women’s team SD Worx donated their prize money from the Amstel Gold Race to raise money for TRAuma and DEmentia, a Limburg-based research project. The squad also auctioned off five jerseys and a team-issue Specialized bike.

16 Procycling / June 2021

6

The number of teams announced so far for the 2021 Tour of Britain. Five British Continental squads, Canyon dhb SunGod, SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling, Saint Piran and Trinity Racing will be joined by a Great Britain national selection in September’s race.

No Tom, enter Jonas Jumbo-Visma have confirmed that Tom Dumoulin will not be a part of their team for the Tour de France and have replaced him in their lineup with Jonas Vingegaard.

The young Dane was second overall at Itzulia Basque Country behind Primož Roglič.

Dumoulin is on an indefinite hiatus from the sport after citing mental pressures.

2022 Alejandro Valverde looks set to continue riding into his 21st year in the professional peloton. After finishing third at Flèche Wallonne, the Spaniard said that he was riding with “great feelings again”, leading to speculation that he may postpone his retirement which is currently planned for the end of this season.

37 The number of months Mark Cavendish went without a win until his victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Turkey in April. His quartet of victories took his career total to 150.

FROOME DOUBTFUL OF OLYMPICS SPOT After a disappointing start to the season, four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has admitted that he does not deserve a spot at the Tokyo Olympics based on his current form. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Froome said that he was still hopeful of his form returning.

Images: De Waele (Winder, Froome, Pinot), Claessen (Jakobson)/all via Getty.

N E W S

“I really need to learn and believe a little bit more in myself and believe that I can also play the game in a sprint.

Sprinting for the town signs in training is helping!”

30days Italian ProTeam Vini Zabù were banned for 30 days after recording two doping cases during a period of 12 months.

The Tuscan-based team withdrew from their wildcard slot at the Giro d’Italia, to be replaced by Androni Giocattoli.

Elisa Longo Borghini after she sprinted to third place at LiègeBastogne-Liège.

“Every

day I gave everything. Not racing in the Giro d’Italia is heartbreaking ”

7

Anna van der Breggen broke the record she had set herself by winning her seventh consecutive Flèche Wallonne. The Dutchwoman will be retiring at the end of this year, so the seventh win was her last.

“I felt like I was a kid riding my dad’s bike or something. The saddle was pretty high and the bars were pretty wide” Alex Howes after having to ride a neutral service bike at Flèche Wallonne. The EF Education-Nippo rider was in the breakaway when he had to hop on a Shimano service bike.

Thibaut Pinot after announcing his withdrawal from the Giro d’Italia start list. The Frenchman is still struggling with the aftermath of a back injury sustained in the first stage of the 2020 Tour de France.

156 The number of professional victories André Greipel holds, the most of any active rider. The German sprinter has announced that he will retire at the end of 2022 no matter what.

“Since the Tour de France, nothing much has changed. I heard a lot of talk but didn’t see much action taken in the different organisations who manage our sport.

It’s a pity” Kévin Réza speaks to Cyclingnews.com about racism in cycling, and the lack of action to combat it since last summer’s Tour.

“We all sympathised enormously and when you see him sitting on his bike with a smile, it makes me very happy” Dylan Groenewegen expressed his pleasure at seeing Fabio Jakobsen back on his bike at the Tour of Turkey.

Groenewegen has completed his ninemonth ban after his part in a horror crash that badly injured Jakobsen.

Procycling / June 2021 17

PROLOGUE

Q&A

ALEXANDER KRISTOFF The Norwegian sprinter talks sleeping, skiing and trance music here’s home?

Stavanger, on Norway’s south west coast.

Because I’m on the coast, the weather is very similar to Britain, maybe Scotland. Schools and stuff are still open at the moment. Compared to many other places in the world, covid is quite under control here.

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What’s your favourite climb?

I think maybe a local one here in Stavanger: Dalsnuten. I use it a lot for training, so maybe that’s my favourite. From the bottom to the top it’s about 10 minutes, and it goes up in steps.

What’s the best prize you’ve won?

You get a really good prize for Scheldeprijs, because it’s covered in diamonds - a beautiful prize.

I won a bed once. I’m not sleeping in it any more - it’s in my guest bedroom. It’s 180cm wide, so that was pretty funny to win.

If you had one extra hour in the day what would you do?

Right now, maybe sleeping. I like to spend time in my cabin or go skiing. Maybe something other than cycling.

What was the last app you downloaded?

It was probably something for my kids. No, it was a reminder for taking the trash out for pick-up.

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When were you last star struck?

I got a message from Johannes Høsflot Klæbo last weekend because I put a video of my kids skiing up, and then the best skier in the world sent me a nice message, and the kids thought it was really cool too. He said it looks like they have a good talent for skiing.

this career when I was 18. In fact, I didn’t really believe it until I got to my best years.

What advice would you give your teenage self?

I think I’d just say believe in yourself and you’ll get there.

Continue working hard and take it a step at a time. Find small goals on the way and you’ll improve.

I didn’t believe I was going to have

Toughest day on the bike?

My first year at the Giro, 2011, there was a really tough stage, maybe 5,000m of climbing. I even had to stop at a hotel halfway through because my stomach went really bad. It was not a nice day, but eventually I made it to the finish.

“I listen to hard electronic music when I’m cycling. It gets you pumped up. When I’m going slower I might listen to trance”

What’s your best cycling hack?

I listen to hard electronic music when I’m cycling. It gets you pumped up. When I’m going a little bit slower I might listen to something like trance. I do a lot of long training rides and you need a lot of time to train my way. It might not be the most effective way, but it works for me. When you’re a pro, you have all the time in the day to ride.

Image: Kristof Ramon.

Where in the world would you like to get lost on your bike?

I really enjoyed having a training camp in the US, when I was in California. I also like training in Mallorca, but I don’t think I could get lost there, because I know every road. I really enjoyed that training camp in California, though that might just have been because it was my first year as a pro.

PROLOGUE SCOUTING REPORT

ROBBE CEURENS Novo Nordisk Conti team’s Belgian puncheur on riding with diabetes ell me about Robbe.

Robbe is a 19 year old from Vlezenbeek in Flemish Brabant, just south west of Brussels, who was diagnosed with diabetes aged 14. No matter, though, he still races with Team Novo Nordisk’s Continental team. The American squad’s riders are all diabetic.

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How’s he finding the team?

This is his second year with Novo Nordisk. Robbe tells Procycling: “It’s really nice. When you cycle with diabetes, it’s a struggle, and I saw this team. It’s a dream to be in; everything is perfect. Everyone has diabetes, so you can ask about stuff. They have experience. It is the best team to be in for me.”

Does he have any results of note?

His U23 career has been hampered by the pandemic, with most races cancelled last year, and this year is an uphill battle as well. At his first race of 2021, the Trofej Umag, Robbe finished 10th in a competitive

RIDER TYPE CLIMBER PUNCHEUR

What kind of rider is he?

He’s obviously still developing, so this is all still up in the air, but Robbe fancies himself as a sprinter.

He was better at climbs as a junior, but is now getting his kick sorted.

SPRINTER

Riding with diabetes? Is that not a challenge?

It makes things more complicated, to put it lightly. Robbe explains: “You always need to look after it. You have to check your blood sugar levels. If you’re too high you can’t perform optimally, and if you’re too low your muscles won’t work as well. You can’t not look after it for a few hours.

If you go too low, it’s the same as bonking, but you can get it after a few minutes if it’s not the right amount.”

ROULEUR Robbe’s performances have been straight fire in the last two years.

He’ll keep pushing through his diabetes and fight to win races.

field. He says: “I was surprised to finish in the top 10, and I was very happy to start the season like this.

It was amazing, but unfortunately now there are no races, so it’s difficult to keep getting results.”

How did he get into cycling?

Cycling runs in the blood, it seems: “My grandfather was a cyclist, not a professional, but the level below. He was also the sports director of the local team, so I grew up with cycling.”

would say that right now Robbe is racing very aggressively in every race he is in. He is young and he feels that he can do everything: climbing, sprinting and attacking. This is a very good characteristic for young riders: they want to do everything. I’m sure with more experience he will get his own way to race and will focus on one terrain. I think he was in several training ID camps, which our team runs all over the world, and he was

I

SERGEY LAGUTIN HEAD COACH, TEAM NOVO NORDISK DEVELOPMENT TEAM

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selected by Daniel Holt, who manages the development team. Robbe is an extremely motivated rider and learning how to be a professional.

He asks lots of questions and doesn’t want to make any mistakes. And eventually, I’m sure he will become a very professional rider. I think right now it’s very difficult for every rider, because of the pandemic, but for young riders like in our team it’s even more difficult because most of our races are cancelled. While most of the

big WorldTour races are still going on, small races are cancelled. We are trying to find races or organise training camps to keep the guys busy and motivated, but honestly it’s very complicated. Each country has their own restrictions and rules and it’s very hard to travel and keep all the riders safe. If not next season, by 2023 I’m sure he will become a professional rider. Robbe definitely has talent and I’m sure eventually he will take a leadership position in the Pro team.

Images: Team Novo Nordisk/Mario Stiehl.wz

COACH’S CORNER

PROLOGUE

OBJECTS OF DESIRE T H I S

M O N T H ’ S

E S S E N T I A L

G E A R

The Whoop tracker, as used by EF Education-Nippo, measures physiological data 24/7 including fitness, sleep and recovery. Their straps come in various colours, with payment via a membership, £30 | $30/month www.whoop.com

Treat your skin with the new range from Eurosport, the home of cycling, from £10 | $14 www.eurosportactiveskin.com

High performance aero socks that have been tried and tested by time trial wizard Alex Dowsett, £22.60 | $31.42 www.thighsclub.com

Carry all the tools you need while out on a bike ride with the Mini 9 Pro Carbon set from Topeak, which is both handy and lightweight, at just 73g, £31.99 | $44.46 www.topeak.com

Learn how to eat to get the best performance on the bike, with recipes from chef Alan Murchison, £22 | $30.57 www.bloomsbury.com

Keep your palms protected with the ultralight glove from Velocio, designed for those that like to feel, £34 | $39 www.velocio.cc

Procycling / June 2021

Images: Olly Curtis, Phil Barker.

This parka comes from a collaboration between Brompton and Protected Species. Keep dry on the move, £210 | $250 www.brompton.com

Look and feel good off the bike with this t-shirt from Angry Pablo, the new brand for cyclists, by cyclists, £29.99 | $43 www.angrypablo.cc

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24 Procycling / June 2021

PROLOGUE EXPERIENCE

TANEL KANGERT BikeExchange’s Estonian rider on the difference between a pro and a champion

My other knee injury was 13 years ago. In 2008 I had pain in both of my knees, so I had a small surgery, where some of the cords were cut in order to get more natural movement. If I have pain in my knees during the season it’s usually because of my position on the bike or the cleats. It is quite easy to sort, I just have to dig into my numbers and look at my riding position. It always scares me, getting a new shoe or a new pedal.

I don’t feel like I have changed teams. I have a new bike and new kit, but I haven’t met many people.

That’s one of the things you first notice when you join a new team.

I wasn’t ready to go to the training camp, it was too early for me. I’m not stressing myself too much.

Maybe not doing crazy volume in January and February will be an advantage later in the season.

I have my objectives later in the year, so missing one race in February won’t change much.

Last year was challenging in a way. For me, mentally, it didn’t cause any problems, like training without knowing when the next race would be. I always love to

RIDER PROFILE Born Vändra, Estonia Age 34 Turned pro 2008 TEAM HISTORY 2007 Ag2r La Mondiale 2011 Astana 2019 EF Education First 2021 Team BikeExchange CAREER HIGHLIGHTS 2008 first, National Championships TT 2010 first, National Championships TT 2012 first, stage, Tour de Suisse 2012 first, National Championships RR 2013 first, National Championships TT 2013 second, stage, Giro d’Italia 2016 second, Giro del Trentino 2016 first, Abu Dhabi Tour 2018 first, National Championships TT

Kangert leads on a descent during Volta Catalunya 2021, his first race for BikeExchange

train, so it was cool that I could train more, just more relaxed. This may have been my biggest mistake.

While the rest of Europe was forced to stay inside, we in Estonia were always allowed to go out, so I did.

I only did two weeks of easier training; I never really stopped.

In April and May I was going quite well already, but in the end the human body doesn’t work that way, you can’t always be good. Maybe the workload I did was too much.

Racing with guys like Fuglsang and Nibali was a really important part of my career. You learn from how they’re racing, but more importantly how they lived and prepared. They were the examples to follow. As a young pro, if you never take the examples seriously, you may never understand what’s important. They taught me a lot about respecting their work.

I have only good memories of EF. It’s a really good team, with a good structure. I think they’ve made massive progress in the last three or four years. They’re really into the details, in the technical and

training advice. It was a good place to be. I’m in a good team now as well, but EF was very different from what I thought it would be.

I thought it would be stereotypical Americans, but they are really open minded and know a lot about different cultures. They have travelled a lot and seen a lot, so they’re really down to earth.

People often think that being a domestique is something that you choose. You’re wrong, man. If I could choose, I would choose to be a champion, but when I look at myself in the mirror I know that I am lacking a little bit here or there.

Maybe I don’t have the physiology, maybe I can’t take the responsibility.

I miss that five per cent. I always wanted to race in the big teams, with the biggest champions.

Chasing minor victories would not make me happy or take the team any further. Long story short, if I was good, I would be a champion.

I still don’t know whether I’m good enough. At the beginning of the year, I always ask questions of myself. I have to see signs, convince myself that I’ve still got a place in the peloton. It could be a test at a training camp, or the second or third race, where I can reassure myself that it isn’t too bad.

Rein Taaramäe and I went to kindergarten together. We grew up in the same small town, and he mentioned to me that we should join a cycling club. Since then, this was the sport and the lifestyle I wanted to have. In my junior years, I never told myself that I should become a pro. I never gave myself a goal. I just wanted to enjoy the ride.

Procycling / June 2021

Images: Bettini Photo (portrait), David Ramos/Getty Images.

Last year ended badly. On December 29, I went for a relaxing run and after 20 minutes I had a sharp pain in my knee. I’ve been working to get back since then. A bit of cartilage came loose, under the patella. On January 3, I was already on the home trainer. It was scary, you kind of know that it’s what you have to do for recovery, but it’s also finding that balance between pain and comfort. You can’t work too much, but you have to do it.

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PROLOGUE PERSPECTIVES

THE CARBON NEUTRAL ZONE MICHAEL WOODS ON WHY HE’S TRYING TO RACE A CARBON-NEUTRAL SEASON

Illustration: Tim Marss.

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26

n the last hours of 2020 I was having a drink with Christian Meier, an entrepreneur and former pro cyclist. Six years ago Christian and his wife Amber opened La Fabrica, a coffee shop in the heart of Girona. This venture seems like a slam-dunk now, but when they opened, the idea of charging two euros for a cup of fairly-traded coffee, in a land where a euro could get you a croissant and an espresso, was an intimidating prospect. However, La Fabrica transformed the trajectory of the ancient city. It is rare to walk down one of its streets without hearing the sizzle of a coasting freehub, or passing a cafe with words like ‘avocado toast’ written on the menu. The town has become a mecca for cycling and coffee shop culture, and La Fabrica, along with Christian’s two other businesses, Espresso Mafia and The Service Course, have been at the forefront of this movement.

Christian has great vision and for this reason I have always enjoyed picking his brain. So, over our drinks, I asked him what his goals were for the coming year and he told me of his plans to cut down on his impact on the environment, both personally and within his businesses. Like most successful people, Christian laid out these plans unencumbered by fears of failure, and I had no doubt that he would achieve them. I was inspired.

Since becoming a pro cyclist in 2016, I have not lived a hermetic lifestyle, unaware of the world outside of cycling. I was aware of the climate change crisis well before I entered the sport. Christian’s ideas were not new ones, but whether it was the drinks, the fact that I had become a father a year earlier or the clarity with which he presented the ideas, I came out of that conversation deciding that it was time to make serious changes.

Like most athletes, my performance has often been the scapegoat for my environmental impact.

However, in a world where a veggie burger can taste as good as the real deal and Tesla is one of the most valuable stocks on the market, the excuse of performance no longer worked. I started reflecting on the significant impact that pro cycling has on the environment: the copious amounts of single-useplastic, the excessive travel and the fleet of vehicles

Procycling / June 2021

Michael Woods is a former professional runner turned pro cyclist, who broke the four-minute mile and now rides for Israel Start-Up Nation. He grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and spends the season in Girona with his family.

required to support racers. I decided that this season I would reduce these impacts and where I couldn’t, I would pay to offset the carbon my actions created.

Between changing diapers and doing six-hour rides, I jumped on calls with experts in the field of environmental impact and planned how best to approach this subject. It was easy to go down a rabbit hole, and there were nights where I lay awake contemplating the idea of quitting my job, buying a plot of land and living off grid. Running away would in no way ameliorate the problem though. Instead, I decided the best way I could influence change was to use the platform I have as an athlete to inspire others, as Christian inspired me.

I announced in March that I would be doing a carbon neutral season. Yes, I will still take flights to races, and yes, I will still drink from bidons that due to the UCI’s foolish ban on throwing bidons to fans - are rarely being reused, but I will also take every measure I can to push the sport to change.

I’m not a zealot, and therefore the message I want to espouse is that although my actions are small, it is the example that I set, and that cycling sets, that can influence change. It is only when concepts like conscious consumerism and environmentalism are normalised that governments will take action, and that is when real change happens. So, although it may seem trivial, until such policies are implemented, I will refrain from using the plastic cutlery on the team bus, pay for my offsets, and, when the UCI commissaires aren’t looking, throw a bottle to a fan.

PROLOGUE PRO DIARIES

You might wonder why I was not on the start line this year. I have started to take the emotion out of my decisions regarding racing and simply being good at them, in my mind, was not enough. I’ve done the same race programme (barring the abnormal 2020 season) for nine out of the last 10 seasons, and my spring has had the same routine. After not really enjoying the new LBL course last year and having the chance to do the Giro after discussions with my team, I decided to think big picture and analyse my run up to the Italian grand tour objectively.

The best preparation was the Tour of the Alps and in all honesty I felt like a neo pro heading off to discover a new race again.

My race was complicated. I got dropped on the first hard mountain stage, which was mainly down to a heavy training block costing me some sharpness, but I managed to

DAN MARTIN

I S R A E L S TA R T- U P N AT I O N the Ardennes races were off my calendar for the first time in my 14-year career. That’s right: thirteen consecutive appearances at Flèche and Liège, some ending in anonymity, others in the back of an ambulance but some years were successful. I got addicted to these races in my formative years, despite getting a right kicking and having some nasty crashes. There was just something special about them: the atmosphere on the Mur de Huy, and the history of Liège. Ardennes week is always just a fun time if you have a good group of team-mates, as there is loads of hotel time, coffee stops during the week and recon rides. It’s a time to build team spirit for the fights that are to come.

There is also something beautiful about one-day racing. Putting it all on the line and rolling the dice.

Less calculating than stage racing.

Starting the day fresh, finishing knowing you gave it your all and a well deserved rest day to follow.

T

grind my way back in and get third.

Then a crash on stage 4 cost me a podium shot, but I came out unscathed and feeling good about a tough week that I rode aggressively and got the most out of.

The weather was especially kind.

We seemed to get a bit of snow, but the poor weather held off for all but a matter of a few km. The scenery was stunning, the hotels were good if a bit rustic but it made a change from generic chain hotels and I even managed to fit in a recon of two mountain-top finishes of the Giro that were nearby.

As I finalise my preparation (that means feet up and rest) for my first attack on the Giro since that fateful day in Belfast 2014, I can say I feel excited to get racing. I have a lack of experience in the race which could of course cost me but that’s why this feels like such an adventure and I can’t wait. DM

Despite fatigue, Dan rode well in the Alps, where third place on stage 2 was the highlight

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Procycling / June 2021

12

2012 was a bit of a transition year.

Expectations were higher, no more so than for my Tour de France debut.

I got fourth at Catalunya, which was a strange edition as the mountain top finish was cancelled, meaning third to 15th on GC were on the same time and accumulated stage placings decided the order. Next came the first time that I really shone at Flèche and Liège, placing sixth on the Mur de Huy and

fifth in one of the toughest Lièges I have done. It gave me real belief for the future. I spent most of my debut Tour shell shocked. The race is like nothing else in the intensity both on and off the bike. I was overawed and, in hindsight, perhaps held back, afraid to not make Paris. I also got sick in the middle of the race but made a break in the Pyrenees and managed seventh on a stage. I improved a lot as a bike

rider over the three weeks and though I hated the race at the time, became addicted and determined to return stronger physically and mentally. If you look only at results, 2012 was not stellar. However it was crucial in my development as a cyclist. Perhaps the drubbing I received at the Tour took the wind out of my sails. Results had come so easily before and it was time to work even harder.

Illustration: David Despau. Images: Tim de Waele/Getty Images.

DAN’S LIFE IN CYCLING

PROLOGUE PRO DIARIES

KÉVIN RÉZA B&B HOTELS P/B KTM

ome years, it’s happy days right from the start. From day one, the team is efficient, the machine works as it should and success follows success. Everything is on an ascending spiral. Then there are years, like this one at B&B Hotels p/b KTM, seasons where success eludes us.

Our leader, Bryan Coquard, kicked off the year with third at GP La Marseillaise. We thought the first winner’s bouquet of the year would be a formality. But the races came and went without Bryan or any other of the Men in Glaz raising

case. We know that hard work pays off and are confident that

account what is changing in the peloton and is different

how he positions himself and how he likes to go into the sprint. There were things we could have done better to get him in a position to compete with Cavendish and Philipsen.

I made a few mistakes myself, but we were open about it all.

Luca is young enough to still

their arms. It’s not a question of our physical condition or

the situation will resolve itself.

The key is not to be greedy,

from previous seasons, like the fearless young riders: real

say the wrong thing sometimes.

He got closer and closer to a top

performance. The level here has never been so consistent and

and never to underestimate our rivals. Right now, every race is

killers. Racing is evolving. The protagonists change, and so do

five, and that’s encouraging because he’s still only 21. He’ll

our collective strength so high.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re

at a very high level. That means it’s important to not get carried

the racing patterns. Bryan has not lost his confidence and he

grow up. He’s the kind of rider who will do well at the grand

performing well and we’re able to execute bold strategies,

away in our own racing. Since our successful debut at the

is doing his best, but it’s the little things that mean he

tours. But there’s no rush we’ll continue to trust each

which are built on our very good physical level and desire.

Tour last year, we have gained confidence and are trying to

misses out. He’s not going to settle for podium finishes or

other. And if we win at the Dauphiné or the Tour, any

But there is just one small part missing, the part that puts you

put pressure on the rest of the peloton. It’s good to feel that

top 10s. That’s not his place.

Only victory interests him -

frustration we’ve had at the start of the year will be

over the line first, not in the top three, five or 10.

we are having at least a small influence on the races, and that

he’s like a striker in football.

Bryan is not the only Man in

quickly forgotten. KR

I’ve been in teams, including this one but also with FDJ and

always means once the finish line is crossed, we have no

Glaz who can win. In Turkey my job was to look after our young

Europcar, where we have won early. But there isn’t any panic

regrets. But the one thing we are lacking is also the holy

sprinter Luca Mozzato, who I’m getting to know this year. It

this year. If we were getting dropped or finishing well

grail: victory.

The key is to keep

down, there would be cause for concern. But that is not the

racing as well as we can and to take into

Illustrations: David Despau. Images: Mark Van Hecke/Getty Images.

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Procycling / June 2021

It’s good to feel that we are having at least a small influence on the races. But the one thing we are lacking is the holy grail: victory

Kévin feels the team is riding well and that the victories will come this year

hasn’t gone brilliantly, but we are still finetuning. I’m learning about how he operates,

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PROLOGUE PRO DIARIES

am happy with my riding during the spring, and equally inspired by my team’s performance.

I finally felt some of my old self returning, and more importantly a new sense of ‘relevance’ in the race. The team has executed processes with increased enthusiasm, and we are more confident now to see it pay off in a big win.

Unfortunately for my own ego, most of what I’m satisfied with happened before the live TV coverage started. At Strade Bianche and Liège-BastogneLiège, I was in a strong break with most of the WorldTeams

main group over the other climbs, still doing what I could for our leader while she still had a chance at victory.

It’s a pretty self-indulgent complaint, and given that the race final was very exciting, I am not miffed that I didn’t get my five seconds of fame.

I am miffed that some of the feedback I receive from self proclaimed ‘fans’ of women’s cycling is that there is ‘never a breakaway’, or ‘not enough action’. Well, a majority of the time, there is action and aggressive racing from when the flag drops. Like starting a book halfway through, or beginning a series mid-season - still entertaining, but you don’t get the whole story.

This year, there have been many races that have had live TV for most if not all of the race. The outcome has been increased viewership - a feelgood stat, but to me it’s obvious. Of course there are increased viewers if the race is actually there to be viewed. It’s affirming to hear the positive feedback from fans when they do get to see the whole race.

I want to show the world, the sponsors and staff, that every ounce of confidence they put into us as athletes rewards

he race simulation is a thing to fear. I’ve seen this title on a few rides on Strava recently (two of which have been my own) and it’s interesting to see its different permutations.

I guess it gives a demonstration as to what ‘racing’ is to people.

For me, it’s been almost two months since my last race and at the time of writing, I’m resting in the days before my first one back, the Tour de Romandie. I’ve been very motivated in the run-up to this race, which is fortunate because I’ve had a lot to do to prepare for it. I’ve basically

otherwise I would risk calling my girlfriend to finish work early and come pick me up 10km from the house.

But when you look at what people do in these sessions, you can see how racing looks through their eyes. There are plenty who see it as going fast, and therefore need to follow a motorbike most of the way to get the kilometres of a race, which could kind of make sense. You also have the techy types who see it as a series of numbers. Maybe the first 30 minutes are hard with a sprint every 86 seconds, then settle into a rhythm of 250W without ever going above or below, and then some five-minute intervals to increase the TSS at the end. This sounds like less fun but I suppose it looks good on the TrainingPeaks graph for the post-training analysis, which is, of course, most important. It’s strange to put everyone into just three groups for this, but that’s what happens when you’re writing 500 words and not a book.

However, the last group is where I sit and it covers a lot, I think. For me, I ride like I did when I was a teenager. Using a bit of imagery, I have the fight for the breakaway with all sorts

represented. At LBL, part of my role was be in the break at all

them with our equal duty of being entertainers.

needed to find full race fitness without racing. I haven’t been

of efforts at the start, and then the race goes on for the rest

costs, which inspired me to attack on the longest climb of

I’m optimistic that the demand for bike races that

doing the crazy, long weeks of 35 hours, but almost every ride

after a quick toilet break. Some climbs are steady with a team

the day. I forged a small gap and then had a group bridge to

feature women will continue to rise, and continue to be met.

has had tough intervals and then the stress on the body

controlling, sometimes I see a town sign in 300m so I go full

join me. We cooperated well, except Liv Racing had missed

In the meantime, I will be back training hard to get

that attacking every climb in the mountains gives you

gas for that, and, of course, in the last hour when I’m running

the boat and didn’t let the gap become a threat. I was super

deeper into the races. After a week off, a renewed focus

Anyway, this wouldn’t be enough, so I asked my coach if

on empty, attacks fly left, right and centre until I let myself

stoked to have established a breakaway, despite its doomed

and some other big races on the horizon, maybe you will

I could do some race simulation.

Basically, I go out there well-

off because it’s only training.

I think this is the best.

outcome, to fly the FDJ flag at the front of the race.

see me in the break again! BC

fed and raring to go like I would in a race and try to create the

Random. Just how I like it. CQ

BRODIE CHAPMAN FDJ NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE

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CHARLIE QUARTERMAN T R E K-S EG A F R E D O

T

The live coverage started just after the break was

same intervals by aiming for Strava KoMs or chasing cars

caught in both races. Once the cameras switched on at LBL,

when being overtaken, things like that. And then I go harder

another rider attacked. I tried to follow but that acceleration

11 DAYS

in me was gone. The rest of the race I yo-yoed on and off the

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and harder until I can’t breathe after four or five hours on the bike. I also try to plan it so I have a downhill to get home,

3 DAYS RACING

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KILOMETRES RIDDEN

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Procycling / June 2021 31

THE BIG INTERVIEW

SAM BENNETT

ALPHA BEATER After winning two stages and the green jersey at the 2020 Tour de France, including the sprinters’ blue riband stage in Paris, Sam Bennett has become the man to beat in the bunch finishes.

But as he tells Procycling, he doesn’t need to shout about it Writer Sophie Hurcom Portraits Rebecca Marshall

Procycling / June 2021 33

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THE BIG INTERVIEW

tereotype dictates that sprinters are the biggest characters in cycling. These are the riders who win the most, and so it’s no surprise that bravado, egocentrism and arrogance are traits typically associated with the fastest finishers.

Sprinters are the alphas. They need to be fearless, fast and a bit furious to

34 Procycling / June 2021

survive, and even more so if they want to thrive. In the blur of a sprint battle, the difference between winning and losing can come down to the millimetres of a mistimed bike throw, the touch of an elbow or the split second of hesitation in which a pathway to the line closes forever. The margins for error are low which is why the emotions run high.

Sam Bennett has always contradicted this notion. The Irishman can lay claim to being the top sprinter in the world right now, but his on-the-bike attributes don’t match his off-the-bike manner, where he’s more laid-back gent than gladiator. He’s more likely to be found making conversation with a rival than lambasting them after a finish. Any hot-headed temperament he has disappears when he steps off the bike.

Bennett further Champ on the endeared himself Champs: Bennett to the cycling world wins in Paris, wearing the green jersey last year when he

won his first Tour de France stage in Île de Ré on day 10 of the race. He couldn’t hold back the tears as the emotion of the occasion, and achievement, took hold in the post-race interview. Here was a rider who, on the verge of turning 30, had finally won in cycling’s biggest race. It was one of the most human moments of the Tour. Two weeks later he rode into Paris wearing the green jersey, having comprehensively dethroned Peter Sagan in the competition the Slovak had made his own over the last eight years, before emphatically winning on the ChampsÉlysées, becoming only the fifth rider to do so wearing green.

It’s a trend that’s continued into 2021. By the time we speak in late April, Bennett has five wins, the joint highest in the peloton and the most of any sprinter. Still, he shakes his head when we comment that we know he won’t be so bold as to state that he’s the fastest rider in the world right now. That’s just not Bennett’s style.

“I’ll never say I’m the fastest in the world and I don’t believe it. But to be honest it’s one of those things I tell myself, okay, I don’t care. And it doesn’t matter whether I am the fastest in the world or not the fastest in the world.

I just have to get to the line first,” he says.

“Sprinting is not just about being a fast sprinter; you have to be strong, you have to be positioned, there’s so much more that goes into it. I’m oversimplifying it, but it is just about getting to the line first. It really doesn’t matter who is the fastest or not.”

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

SAM BENNETT BIGGEST WINS, YEAR

BY YEAR

SAM BENNETT

have mistaken my honesty for, maybe not weakness but being unconfident.

I don’t think I’d be where I am if I didn’t believe I could do it.”

While off the bike Bennett might downplay his form or his ability, when he’s on the bike, in the heat of a sprint, something takes over.

“I think it does come out at times, especially when I’m coming into the last kilometre. Like, I want people to feel my presence. I’m not going to be a pushover, I will be a strong character when I need to be. But the rest of the time I don’t need to be. I don’t have to prove anything.

“A lot of the time in cycling, you spend so many hours on the road with these guys, it’s better to have friends than enemies. I think cycling is different to other sports, where you don’t have to psych each other out, because at the end of the day it’s up to the legs whether you have it or not at the end. There is confidence there, I just don’t have to go around saying it.”

B

ennett’s trajectory to the top of sprinting has been far from linear. That may be part of his reluctance to shout about his successes now, because he’s more aware than most that fortunes can quickly change. He became the youngest ever rider to win a stage of the Rás, aged 18, in 2008, but his formative U23 years were riddled with bad crashes and injury, the worst being a head-on collision with a car in 2009 and knee

2013

2014

2015

2016

Riding for the Conti-level An Post team, Bennett, 22, wins his first pro race on stage 5 of the Tour of Britain. The sprint comes at the end of a tough, hilly day through Wales to Caerphilly.

Joins ProConti level NetApp Endura, and wins three times. Takes the Clásica de Almería - his first one-day win as a pro - and Rund um Köln, as well as a stage at Bayern Rundfahrt.

Wins the final stage of the Tour of Qatar, his best result against opposition including Sagan, Bouhanni and Guardini. Makes his debut at the Tour but abandons on stage 17 in the Alps.

Gets the better of Mark Cavendish in the sprint on stage 2 of Giro della Toscana and defends his title at ParisBourges, but his season is defined by a crash on stage 1 of the Tour.

Images: Stephan Mantey - Pool/Getty Images.

footage confirmed he had beaten Ewan, but Bennett wasn’t taking any chances.

He spent minutes pacing, asking teammates and down the radio whether the victory was his or not, before he dared celebrate. In the weeks after the Tour, Bennett spoke of feeling “imposter syndrome” over whether he was good enough to be leading Deceuninck-Quick Step - the premier sprint team in cycling - at the race. And after waiting 10 days for the win, he was starting to worry it would never come at all. It seemed the Tour success helped Bennett find a bit of missing self-belief. How much of a role does confidence play with Bennett?

“I get confidence in the training I’ve done, when I know I’ve done my training to the best of my ability, I know it’s good enough to be there or thereabouts. Then you have to go in and race and when it’s happening, the confidence grows more and more. But then you’re only as good as your last race in cycling,” Bennett says.

“I get a lot of confidence in my preparation. I don’t think you’ll ever hear me go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m good,’ or ‘I feel great.’ I always underplay it.

I don’t know, sometimes it might be a cultural thing as well. In Ireland you’re not allowed to talk highly of yourself or you’re arrogant.

Sometimes people might

Timeline: Simon Wilkinson (2013), Sirotti (2016), De Waele/Getty Images.

Bennett’s default mode is more selfdeprecation than cocksure, and he reverts to a joke or brush off whenever he feels he may be getting ahead of himself. On cue, he continues: “Maybe I say it because if I sprint against anyone in training they beat me,” he says with a laugh. “When I was through the ranks, in each team I’ve gone to there are probably five to 10 guys who can beat me in a one-on-one sprint. But in a race, there’s a switch flicked and I’m a different guy altogether.”

What was perhaps most striking about the aftermath of Bennett’s first Tour stage win however, was the complete disbelief that he had won at all. The

Procycling / June 2021 35

Image: Jered Gruber.

Timeline: Lopez (‘17), De Waele (‘18, ‘20), Setterfield (‘19), Cleassen (‘21)/all via Getty.

Bennett adds to his tally of Paris-Nice stage wins at the 2019 edition of the Race to the Sun

38

2017

2018

2019

2020

Wins his first WorldTour race on stage 3 of Paris-Nice, ahead of rivals that include Alexander Kristoff, John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel. Wins four stages in Turkey in October, to take his year count to 10.

Secures his first grand tour wins at the Giro, where he takes three stages, including on the final day in Rome. Ends the year with a tally of seven, thanks to another hat trick in Turkey.

His most prolific year to date, with 13 wins, including two stages at Paris-Nice, two at the Vuelta and a hat trick at BinckBank Tour. But has to cohabit with team-mates Sagan and Ackermann.

Joins Quick Step, returns to the Tour for the first time since 2016 and finally wins his first stages there. The first comes on stage 10, and then again on the Champs-Élysées, wearing green.

Procycling / June 2021

“I want people to feel my presence. I’m not going to be a pushover. I will be a strong character when I need to be. But the rest of the time I don’t need to be”

2021 Wins his first WorldTour-level one-day race at Brugge-De Panne, and cements his status as the fastest sprinter in the peloton currently. As we go to press, Bennett has five wins this season.

tech. I suppose that is opportunity in itself. That opportunity didn’t come until later in my career, and that knowledge didn’t come until later in my career.

And it was about chasing opportunities, and being in an environment where I had a clear run in front of me and I could pick the race programme, that’s the biggest thing,” he says.

“But I think whenever the chances came I was always ready, I was always supported, I always did the best of my ability to be ready with the knowledge I had and I was always willing to learn.

And the more that came the more that progressed. And then also because I had to fight so hard, it was all character building. I appreciated every opportunity that did come and I suppose I’ve never got comfortable in my position. I always wanted to grow as a rider, because I know how hard it is to get here. So that’s why, even now, I’ve won some nice races but I’m still chasing a lot.”

Moving to Deceuninck-Quick Step in 2020 has been the quantum leap forward.

Rather than compete for race starts with Peter Sagan and Pascal Ackermann as he had at Bora, Bennett became the team’s unequivocal number one sprinter. That in itself surely had an effect. He was given a full lead-out train for the first time in his career, rather than relying on surfing the wheels in a race finale as he typically did before. He also had the backing of the world’s most successful sprint team, and was given a programme made up of the world’s biggest races not least the Tour, where he hadn’t started since 2016. Even doing two grand tours last year, the Tour and the Vuelta a España, was new territory. It all explains why, at 30 years old, Bennett doesn’t yet feel he’s hit his physical peak.

“I do still see areas that I need to improve on, and sometimes I mightn’t have the answers, but I need to go away and try new training methods or new things to fix it. So I’ll always try to keep learning and try to keep improving.

I know I’m 30 and that’s quite old as a sprinter, but I feel I’m almost three years behind because I had so many injuries at the beginning. I feel like I should be 27 but I’m 30,” he says.

“Maybe I should have all this information already. But I think I have a bit to improve on, just fitness and training methods, I’m still learning.”

A

common theme that comes up in our interview is Bennett’s analytical mindset. When he was younger, he watched videos of Robbie McEwen, to see how he surfed the wheels in a bunch sprint, and in the early years of his career he regularly watched his own performances back to see how he moved around. He even watches videos of his rivals, to see how they race, though watching sprints is no substitute for being in those battles and learning through the feeling in the bunch.

“When I race you never see me race with glasses that have a frame on the end of the lens, because I need to see in my peripheral vision who is behind me. So when I look down I will know the wheel or the shoes or the forks, and I know who exactly is behind me and then I can make a decision on how I will sprint off that,” he says. “I will know; do I go later to the line, earlier if I need to build up the power to the line, or if I kick hard and then just try and hang on. I’ll make these decisions based on who is around me, as well. There’s a lot that goes hand in hand with watching it and what you feel and who is around you. It’s important to have as much information as possible so you can make the best decision possible.”

Even when Bennett wins, his mind analyses whether he did something which stopped him winning by more.

“Normally I’m so focused on the next thing, I keep driving forward and maybe sometimes I should reflect and see I have come a long way. I suppose maybe I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t have that drive, and if I wasn’t that hungry.

For some reason I can never relax, I can never be happy with what I have. I always want more,” he says, then adds, with another laugh, “Maybe I’m just greedy.”

Images: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images.

injury in 2013. He was on the verge of quitting cycling when his breakthrough victory at the Tour of Britain in 2013 landed him a pro contract instead.

Bennett’s always lagged a few years behind his peers because of those setbacks. He was 23 when that contract offer from NetApp finally came, but he didn’t move up to the WorldTour until 2017, when he was 26, and Bora-Hansgrohe came on board as title sponsors of the German team. His first WorldTour win came that year at Paris-Nice.

Compare that to his nearest rivals today and it’s a stark contrast. Most of the sprinters today have been in the WorldTour from age 20 or 21, gaining experience and knowledge that Bennett wasn’t. For Bennett, his progression has always been as much about getting the opportunity at the biggest races.

“My biggest step was when Bora Argon 18 went to Bora-Hansgrohe and went to WorldTour and brought all the knowledge and staff in, and I won my first WorldTour race, because of all of this knowledge and

Procycling / June 2021 39

The double victories at the UAE Tour and Paris-Nice in February and March got Bennett’s 2021 underway as planned, but it was his performances at the Belgian classics which followed that were the best indication of how good his form is. His win at Brugge-De Panne was his first WorldTour level one-day race win, something he said he’s been chasing for a long time, and while 55th place at Gent-Wevelgem doesn’t look like much to shout about, it was one of his most impressive rides to date. Bennett was part of the elite group that went clear early in the race, surviving through crosswinds and cobbles before being one of the last riders standing after the final ascent of the Kemmelberg. He blew due to mistimed over-fuelling, which led to him throwing up mid-race, then bonking.

It’s a race sprinters like Bennett often don’t even dare to try these days because the route is so demanding, along with De Panne and semi-classic KuurneBrussels-Kuurne, another traditionally deemed sprinter-friendly race now dominated by one-day race specialists.

Bennett used to struggle to get to the finish in fresh enough condition to

40 Procycling / June 2021

sprint, and his training has always been constructed around building his strength.

The effect today is that his engine is his biggest asset over his rivals, he believes, and it’s why he was able to race deep into the finale in Belgium. His flourish this spring has given him a new appetite to return and target the classics more.

“I definitely in the future would really like to target the classics, especially this year when I was in a Belgian team at the Belgian races, I really got the Bennett’s best one-day result of the spring: winning De Panne

atmosphere. Okay, you’re missing the crowds at the races, but they are special races and I think they are races I could do well in. I don’t know if I could win any, but I think I could ride a really good race,” he says. “The races when you are going bad, they are horrible. But when you have any bit of good form they are really enjoyable, they’re a lot of fun because there’s something happening all the time and you have to stay concentrated.

I just have to get good form.”

But the most important goal now is to spend the next few months readying himself for the Tour. Nothing else matters more than winning stages and maybe defending his green jersey. In a team like Deceuninck-Quick Step, winning is an intrinsic part of the mindset, and he doesn’t want to consider anything else.

“I have to get a stage there,” he says. “If I don’t win a stage in the Tour it’s failure, and that’s pressure. But I have to do it, I have to get at least one stage. Obviously I want to go for the green again, but it takes from getting stage wins.”

Whether or not the green jersey comes his way again in 2021 remains to be seen, and Bennett points to riders such as Sagan and Wout van Aert who are sure to be in the way. Everyone is beatable Bennett’s slaying of Sagan in the Tour last year was proof of that - but to beat Sam Bennett in top form, as he has been the last year, will take some doing.

And while Bennett might not be bold and brash, he is still a sprinter, and winning is what counts most. Some traits you will never change, no matter who the rider is. “There is that confidence that the more success that I have, the more I say, okay, I can do this, that and the other,” Bennett says. “But I have to train and respect the other guys I go against.

They are training hard too but if I work everything right and if I’m there at the final I’ll have a pretty good chance.”

Images: Shutterstock.

“I have to get a stage.

If I don’t win a stage in the Tour it’s failure, and that’s pressure. But I have to do it. I have to get at least one stage”

SAM BENNETT

COUNTERPOINT

A NEW BEGINNING Sam Bennett caught the Irish imagination with his Tour green jersey.

Can he spark a renaissance for the sport in his home country?

T

ony Soprano once observed that ‘remember when’ was the lowest form of conversation, but nostalgia still exerts a pull. When Ireland began its first covid lockdown last year, repeat broadcasts of RTÉ’s retrospective programme Reeling In The Years – archive news footage soundtracked by the hits of the era – regularly featured near the top of the ratings. Maybe it was inevitable that the throwback feel to Sam Bennett’s subsequent achievements at the Tour would play so well to an Irish audience.

A self-effacing man from Carrick-onSuir winning stages and fighting for the green jersey bore obvious parallels with Sean Kelly’s heroics in the 1980s. Bennett’s success last September was the madeleine

that evoked memories of those halcyon summers, attracting daily interest in the Tour from a wider Irish public for the first time since Kelly and Stephen Roche retired.

To those returning, casual observers, the fact that Bennett hailed from Kelly’s hometown and had raced for his team might have hinted at a carefully planned development structure. In truth, not unlike Irish cycling’s greatest generation, Bennett didn’t travel along a clear pathway to the top so much as follow an orienteering course.

Kelly and Roche inspired a surge in cycling participation, but few lasting foundations were sunk to sustain it. There

Writer Barry Ryan Image Thibault Camus/Getty Images

were no Irish pros in the peloton by the time Dublin hosted the 1998 Tour’s grand départ, and at amateur level, the number of riders holding racing licences had more than halved since the peak in the late 1980s.

Come the new century, competitive cycling in Ireland had receded largely to its traditional outposts. Bennett might never have raced a bike had he not grown up in Carrick-on-Suir, where cycling remained imprinted in the DNA thanks to Kelly.

It meant that a youngster might at least drift into the sport in a way that wouldn’t be possible in most provincial towns.

Yet even in Carrick, cycling wasn’t an obvious endeavour for a teenager. The generation that had taken to two wheels in imitation of Kelly in the 1980s had grown old together, racing on to veterans level, but the Carrick Wheelers’ juvenile ranks

Procycling / June 2021 41

THE BIG INTERVIEW

King Kelly of Carrick-on-Suir Sam Bennett has more in common with his predecessor as Ireland’s greatest sprinter, Sean Kelly, than just shared nationality. The pair both hail from the same small town Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary, population 5,771.

Kelly was one of the greatest all-round cyclists there has ever been, and his versatility was greater than any of the current generation of allrounders: Peter Sagan, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel or Julian Alaphilippe.

Kelly won bunch sprints, but also a grand tour - the 1988 Vuelta - and four out of the five monuments, plus podium finishes in the two major one-day races that eluded him - the Tour of Flanders and World Championships. And seven Paris-Nice titles, two Tours de Suisse and many other stage race wins.

Bennett will never match that all-round talent, but one of the more surprising stats in Kelly’s career is that he ‘only’ won five Tour de France stages. Bennett is currently on two, but given his form he can surely envisage approaching Kelly’s total this year and next.

were almost bare. Bennett had an appetite for competition, but he could only get a full diet of racing by going elsewhere. He was dispatched to race with another notable cycling nursery, Kanturk CC in north Cork, which later produced Eddie Dunbar. In Ireland, cycling struggles to compete with the popularity of Gaelic football, hurling and soccer, but the flame is kept alive by a network of like-minded evangelicals.

Bennett returned to Carrick Wheelers as a junior, with club-mate and Olympic coach Martin O’Loughlin imparting vital lessons in sprinting. He competed on both road and track, a discipline Cycling Ireland had recently begun to emphasise despite the country’s lack of a covered velodrome.

In 2008, Bennett was among a cohort dispatched to sample the track in Gent.

A few weeks later, he was the surprise European junior points race champion.

But if Ireland’s facilities lagged behind, the country punched above its weight with the ambition of its events, and Bennett cut his teeth at two of the most important. In 2008, he landed the Junior Tour of Ireland and the following year, his first as Bennett sprints to a debut professional win in Caerphilly at the 2013 Tour of Britain

a senior, he became a stage winner at the country’s great bike race, the Rás Tailteann.

Having announced himself on home roads, Bennett was now ready for the next phase in the traditional maturation ordeal of the Irish cyclist: the French amateur circuit. Shay Elliott had been the first to survive that winnowing process in the 1950s, and men like Kelly, Roche and Martin Earley followed, but many more returned home with only broken dreams.

VC La Pomme had become the finishing school for ambitious Irishmen, with Mark Scanlon, Philip Deignan, Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin all passing through en route to the pros, so Bennett headed for Marseille.

His displays there earned him a stagiaire spot at FDJ in late 2010, but knee injuries prevented him from taking it up.

It was a sliding doors moment. From the cusp of the WorldTour, Bennett slid down to the third flight in 2011, signing for an Irish team, An Post-Sean Kelly. An Post styled itself as a Belgium-based talent academy, though Matt Brammeier was the only Irish rider from the programme to reach the WorldTour before Bennett.

It looked a regression for Bennett, but considering the nagging knee concerns, those WorldTour-level wins three years under Kelly and for Sam Bennett Kurt Bogaerts might have been what was required. The team had modest means, but Kelly’s name ensured invitations to decent races.

Above all, it had the merit of Career top-five finishes affording Bennett the chance and the time to try again in

by Sam Bennett a supportive environment.

Bennett didn’t arrive in the peloton off a systematic Cycling Ireland production line, yet he is still irrefutably a product of Irish cycling and its culture.

Figures like O’Loughlin offered guidance.

Events like the Rás inspired belief.

An Post provided a safety net. No one element was the making of Bennett, but every contribution counted.

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130

A self-effacing man from Carrick-on-Suir fighting for the green jersey bore obvious parallels with Sean Kelly’s heroics in the 80s 42 Procycling / June 2021

SAM BENNETT

IRELAND’S MOST SUCCESSFUL CYCLISTS How does Bennett’s win tally today compare to Ireland’s top cyclists over the years?

54

193 SEAN KELLY

STEPHEN ROCHE

2014-PRESENT

1977-1994

1981-1993

SAM BENNETT

WINS

RIDER

Pro Career

Wins

Seamus Elliott

1955-1970

22

Dan Martin

2008-present

21

Nicolas Roche

2005-present

12

David McCann

2001-2018

12

Martin Earley

1985-1995

8

Ryan Mullen

2016-present

7

2011-2018

6

Matt Brammeier

BENNETT’S WINS Q Grand tour stages Q WorldTour stage wins

8 22

Q Other stage wins Q One-day races Q World Tour one-day race

15 8 1

SPRINTERS’ GRAND TOUR WINS Nationality

Giro

Tour

Vuelta

Mark Cavendish

15

30

3

48

André Greipel

7

11

4

22

Peter Sagan

1

12

4

17

Caleb Ewan

3

5

1

9

Sam Bennett

3

2

3

8

Elia Viviani

4

1

3

8

Arnaud Démare

5

2

-

7

Fernando Gaviria

5

2

-

7

Pascal Ackermann

2

-

2

Dylan Groenewegen

-

4

-

BENNETT’S WINS PER YEAR

Total

4

13

10 7

7

5 3

5 3

1

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Images: SW Pix (2013), Cor Vos (AN Post), Getty Images (stats).

Sprinter

POSITION

An Post’s withdrawal ended Kelly’s team and eventually forced the Rás into hiatus. And while Cycling Ireland’s membership numbers mushroomed a decade ago thanks to sportives and government incentives to buy bikes, it remains to be seen what kind of bounce the competitive sport will enjoy thanks to Bennett, whose Tour success garnered considerably more mainstream coverage than anything Dan Martin has achieved in his outstanding career.

The echoes of Kelly and the daily narrative of the green jersey helped, but the Irish public also responded to Bennett’s modesty, which recalled that of national sporting treasures like Paul McGrath and Sonia O’Sullivan. Conversely, when Bennett was nominated for Irish sportsperson of the year, RTÉ mistakenly displayed a photograph of his teammate Rémi Cavagna, and the state broadcaster’s reports of his displays – sample headline: ‘Bennett still pointless as Pogacar stretches UAE Tour lead’ – highlight that cycling is still some way from a marquee sport, let alone one in which the mainstream appreciates its nuances.

But the value of Bennett’s success to the existing cycling community is immeasurable.

As Paris drew closer last September, cyclists and clubs across Ireland sifted the archives and began posting pictures from a decade or more earlier of a young Bennett sprinting for finish lines chalked across roads in places like Fermoy, Camross and Currow. ‘Remember when’ never felt as relevant to the conversation.

Blond ambition: Bennett lines up for An Post-Sean Kelly in 2011

54

52

Procycling / June 2021 43

ENRIC MAS After finishing second in the Vuelta in 2018 at the age of 23, Spain’s Enric Mas struggled to follow up on his breakthrough the following year. But in 2020, he found equilibrium and consistency, finishing fifth in the Tour and the Vuelta. Now he’s aiming even higher Writer Alasdair Fotheringham // Image David Ramos/Getty Images

HIGH FIVES Procycling / June 2021 45

ENRIC MAS

nric Mas is well known in Spain for his plain-spoken style and in the wider cycling world for his regular appearances in the thick of the action in the grand tours and stage races. Yet despite that, the Movistar rider remains something of a mystery for many cycling fans.

Three years ago, Mas, then riding for Quick Step Floors, took a surprise second overall in the Vuelta a España aged 23, a performance which culminated in a stage win at Andorra’s Collado de la Gallina on the penultimate day of the race. In one audacious move he’d gone from fourth to second overall as a second-year pro and it looked as if the mantle

46 Procycling / June 2021

of successor to Spain’s generación de oro, its golden generation, had finally found an owner. Lord knows somebody needed to claim it: two of the riders who’d kept Spain in the stage race spotlight for a decade, Joaquim Rodríguez and Alberto Contador, had recently retired; another, Olympic champion Samuel Sánchez, had quit the sport under a cloud after testing positive. As for those still racing, Alejandro Valverde might be forging on regardless, but at 38 that year, it was inevitable his performances would begin to lose traction sooner rather than later.

And while his unpredictability is almost part of his appeal, Mikel Landa, the previous rider dubbed as a successor, has such an erratic track record it did not suggest he can be relied on to keep the flag flying for Spain in the grand tours.

We turned out to be partly wrong about Valverde, as he proved that autumn by winning the World Championships road race. And perhaps also about Mas. He didn’t follow up the next year, as 2019 turned into a fairly unremarkable season for the young Spaniard. The only real high point was a swansong win for Deceuninck in the least prestigious of the WorldTour races, the Tour of Guangxi.

But things were different in 2020, in more ways than one. Mas moved to Movistar, but instead of the Andorran fireworks of 2018, he ground his way to fifth overall in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. It felt as if the young Spaniard had substituted the promise of high drama in the mountain stages with a very different kind of reason for fans to be impressed: consistency. It might have made Mas less of a standout figure, but in fact being wkh#rqo|#ulghu#dsduw#iurp#Sulprą# Roglic to secure a top five result in two grand tours in cycling’s most unpredictable season bar none had its own merit, too.

Mas flew under the radar in France and Spain, so it was

Mas sprints to fifth place on the Grand Colombier at the 2020 Tour

surprising to see praise from Contador, Spain’s most fiery attacker until he retired in 2017.

“We shouldn’t put him under more pressure than he already feels, because he already does that himself,” Contador said about Mas, who’d been in Contador’s foundation team as a junior.

“Right now, the key reason we Spaniards have to dream happily about cycling is Enric Mas.” hat makes that even more impressive is that prior to the event, Mas had expressed serious reservations about his chances of doing well in the Vuelta in its unusual 2020 October/ November slot, saying that it was less suitable for him than if it had

W

Mas’s best result of 2019 came at the end of season Tour of Guangxi

ENRIC MAS

1 st

ENRIC MAS MAJOR RESULTS

Stage, Vuelta a Burgos 2017

Stage, Vuelta a España 2017, 2020 Stage, Volta ao Algarve 2019

4th Stage, Vuelta a Burgos 2017 Stage, Itzulia Basque Country 2018 Tour de Suisse 2018 Stage, Volta ao Algarve 2019 Volta ao Algarve 2019

5th Stage, Tour de France 2020 Tour de France 2020 Vuelta a España 2020

“But basically,” he adds with disarming honesty, “I hadn’t started the Tour with the form I wanted to have.”

The stage where things really started to pick up for Mas was on the Grand Colombier summit finish at the end of the second week. Sure, he didn’t attack the Jumbo-Visma train setting the pace almost all the way up the southern Jura mountain climb that day - the only rider to do so was Adam Yates, and that didn’t last long. But fifth on the day was his

Images: Artur Widak (left), Tim de Waele (right)/both Getty Images.

3rd

5 th

Stage, Vuelta a Burgos 2017 Vuelta a Burgos 2017 Stage, Tour de Suisse 2018 Vuelta a España 2018 Stage, Volta a Catalunya 2019

3rd

2nd

4t h

1st Stage, Itzulia Basque Country 2018 Stage, Vuelta a España 2018 Stage, Tour of Guangxi 2019 Tour of Guangxi 2019 Stage, Volta a Valenciana 2021

2nd

taken place in the late summer.

He was happy, he tells Procycling, to be proved wrong.

“2020 was the first time I’d done two grand tours in a single season and I didn’t know how that would work out,” he says. “I’d wanted to do that in 2019 but Deceuninck had decided it wasn’t a good idea.

“I had been certain that two grand tours was the ideal thing to do as a young rider, and even in 2020, when I was a bit older and the season turned out to be such a strange one, it still worked out.

It’s true that it took me a while to get into good form after the lockdown, because in Spain and in Andorra, where I live, for two months it was impossible to train outdoors, unlike other countries.

“Okay, the riders in those countries weren’t training at

the same kind of intensity they would have been if they had had a normal racing calendar. But it’s still very different to be training normally in the open air instead of on the rollers, day after day.”

He came into the racing season short on form, he admits, and indeed on the first summit finish of the first week-long stage race after the post-covid restart, the Picón Blanco in the Vuelta a Burgos, the Movistar squad hit the headlines for being completely missing in action. The Critérium du Dauphiné was equally unremarkable, though a little better. However, come the Tour, Mas’s form began to rise.

The 26-year-old’s condition and performances through 2020 could be plotted on a graph as a steady rising line, with one brief blip: 35th in Burgos, 20th in the Dauphiné, fifth in the Tour and Vuelta, with just a poor Worlds performance interrupting the two grand tours. “I wasn’t on it,” Mas says of his ride in Imola, though the Spaniard is better known as a stage racer than a one-day racer anyway. Even his Tour trajectory was steadily upward, starting with 80th place in Nice, then moving into the top 20 on stage 2 and the top 10 on stage 8, slipping to 12th for four days before going back into the top 10 again with a week to go, the top six through the Alps and finally fifth in Paris. He never set the race on fire, but he was always there, and held his place as his rivals faltered. In the Vuelta his form topped out then started to gently decline, though he spent most of the race sitting in fifth place, not quite ever looking strong enough to rise higher, but just holding on to enough form to deserve that final placing.

“In the Tour I had an accident in the first week, on the stage that Lutsenko won, the typical kind of Tour slow-motion crash on a sharp bend where there’s a stone in the road and your front wheel slips.

So I took a few days to get over that; it wasn’t ideal,” he recalls.

Procycling / June 2021 47

best stage result in the Tour and did much more than pull him up to eighth overall. Suddenly, for the first time since Nice, he felt it was game on.

“I felt a heck of a lot better and told myself that I could actually get into the action a bit more.

It was getting a bit warmer, too, and above all it was less rainy. As our director Txente García Acosta likes to say, Movistar is a squad that thrives in summer weather, and I’d agree with that.”

The fact that he was still improving in the third week, a point in the Tour at which others are fighting to stay in contention, was encouraging, even if Mas’s strategy of not making big attacks or long-distance breaks was not one that had fans on the edges of their seats. But simply holding the pace was hard enough, he says, in a year where having to race in pandemic conditions was still a novelty, and not one he appreciated, either. “It’s different now because we are used to it, just like you journalists are, and so are the teams. But it made for a very unsettling Tour last year.”

Yet with his crash, slow start and the bad weather all behind him, the last part of the 2020 Tour was definitely Mas’s strongest. He was sixth on the very hard Col de la Loze finish behind Miguel Ángel López and seventh the next day when he finished in the main group of favourites on a stage which crossed multiple high Alpine passes. Ninth in the time trial on La Planche des Belles Filles meant that even as his old rival (and now team-mate) López plummeted out of the GC running, Mas shifted up into fifth.

It says a lot about his ambition, though, that he refuses to view that last week of the Tour as a success story, as Procycling suggests. “Hmm, I wasn’t right at the top of things, was I?” he asks. “I was a minute down on López on the Loze and I wouldn’t describe that time trial as being really, really great.

“It was what we’d been aiming for and hoped would happen, what we’d worked for. But there wasn’t any kind of feeling in Paris that we’d knocked it out of the park.”

Even so, on the Champs-Elysées last September his glass was, he says, “Neither half-full or halfempty, it was completely full”.

He adds: “But after that I went to the Worlds and by then I wasn’t really hitting the high notes and the last week of the Vuelta was really tough. We were getting into November, late in the season and rather than go on racing, I just wanted to stop riding my bike.” ven if his motivation was slipping fast by the end of the Vuelta, Mas took a very different approach to getting the same GC result in the Vuelta that he had in the Tour. For one thing, he was never out of the top six throughout. For another he also delivered his most memorable stage racing performance of the

Mas movement: attacking the favourites on the Angliru, Vuelta ‘20

E

Mas fights his way to sixth place on the Col de la Loze, TdF 2020

year, with a searing attack towards the summit of the Angliru. As race leader Roglic briefly faltered, it almost looked as if Mas’s move could blow the Vuelta apart, and he held his lead for an impressively long time.

But instead, in what was a foretaste of the rest of the Vuelta, Hugh Carthy blasted past Mas and claimed the Angliru stage win and in the third week, after a time trial on the Ezaro where Carthy once again outpaced the Spaniard, the Movistar racer’s energy gauges were flickering dangerously close to red.

“A lot of riders were still really racing at a high level, and you could see for yourself on TV it was a very intense race. In the third week some days were really tough, although on the Covatilla I was feeling fine.” But when asked which stage of the Vuelta he felt best in, he answers without hesitating, “The last.” As in, the day when he didn’t have to go on racing any more.

Images: Kristof Ramon (left), Ramos/Getty Images (right).

ENRIC MAS

Procycling / June 2021 49

ENRIC MAS

WAIT AND MAS “In terms of his age and his experience, Enric has still got room for progression in the next two, three or four years,” Eusebio Unzué, Movistar’s longstanding manager, tells Procycling. “And within that he needs to consolidate his greatest talent, which is staying on his game, day after day, in a grand tour.

“Secondly, we hope that his physical progression and experience makes him more and more a rider to be up there with the chosen few of the grand tours, and why not? - be able to beat them too.”

Either the Tour or the Vuelta could be good for Mas this year, Unzué feels. “Any of the grand tours offers enough opportunities to leave everybody satisfied, even if on paper the Tour is harder and its standout feature is that it has the greatest number of grand tour specialists in a single race. What probably matters more is that with so many new, young, riders coming through right now, the essential challenge of the grand tour, which is that only three riders a year can win them at most, is even tougher at the moment than usual.

But was it that bad in the Vuelta?

“I wasn’t dragging myself out of bed each morning with low morale,” he recalls. “But if you bear in mind that I don’t like bad weather and in November in Spain it’s mostly either cloudy or raining, that sums up my Vuelta.”

Nor did he feel that winning the Best Young Rider’s classification in the Vuelta made up entirely for other disappointments. “It was a great thing to get, but it was secondary, really, compared to how I’d have felt if I’d made it onto the podium as one of the top three finishers overall.” That said, though, he would not have swapped the final result in either Tour or Vuelta for a stage win, stating categorically, “I wouldn’t change anything at all.”

One definitive effect of finishing the Vuelta and his season so late, in any case, is that he has begun his 2021 race schedule, with much less Mas wore the white jersey from intensity than start to finish in other years. the 2020 Vuelta

“In the Volta a Catalunya I started to feel more like I was in good shape, and the Itzulia I would probably have moved up another level if it hadn’t been for my crash in the GP Miguel Indurain,” he says. “But I’m still in line for the classics, and then from there on to the Tour.” And again, after that, the Vuelta.

After these two very different but equally impressive seasons in 2018 and 2020, 2021 is something of a crunch year for Mas. With López as his new team-mate, it remains to be seen if Mas’s consistency outshines López’s much more impetuous, but far more irregular, racing style.

It’s not so much the two will have a power struggle in Movistar, more an establishing of where Mas goes from here. Because in the process of deciding his place in the team’s pecking order, Spain will have a much clearer idea if Mas really is a potential successor to that golden generation waiting in the wings, or if its fans need to look elsewhere.

Warming to his point, Unzué concludes that even when faced with what he calls “an onslaught of Slovenians”, there are ways for others to succeed. He points to a rider like Tao Geoghegan Hart. “He has a lot of qualities but he’d never shone in a grand tour before, and he could surprise the favourites and win the Giro d’Italia. That’s an indication of what can be done with consistency and a solid third week.”

Images: David Ramos/Getty Images.

“On the other hand, for all a grand tour demands that you be either a great time triallist or a great climber or both, the real test they make of you is to turn in a strong, if not brilliant, performance on every single stage. Last year Enric showed he had that quality.”

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THE TOUR OF THE ALPS

High & Mighty The Tour of the Alps has a long history but in recent years has become the warm-up race of choice for the Giro d’Italia.

Procycling reports on the 2021 edition, which saw a dominant winner against a stunning Alpine backdrop

Writer Stephen Farrand /// Photography Tim de Waele/Getty

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Procycling / June 2021 53

TOUR OF THE ALPS

Images: Tim de Waele/Getty Images, Bettini Photo (Evangelista).

A BIKE RACE IS FAR MORE THAN JUST A SIMPLE SPORTING EVENT. Every race has a winner and losers and is decided by minutes and seconds, but they also offer us lessons in geography, sociology and local history.

Think of the way Gent-Wevelgem visits the battlefields and so remembers the victims of World War 1, how the Tour of Rwanda highlights the passion for cycling in Africa and offers its riders a launch pad to pro racing. The three grand tours tell the closely entwined history of cycling and of life in Italy, France and Spain.

The Tour of the Alps may be seen simply as a final preparation race before the Giro d’Italia. But that would be myopic. Yes, it is a vital test of form and ability before the Corsa Rosa, it reveals who is on track to be an overall contender and helps everyone prepare and get excited for what is to come in May. But the Tour of the Alps has its own history and raison d’etre. It has its own concentric and connecting circles of local, regional and international significance that make it unique and also make it a very successful race that deserves respect and appreciation.

Stage victories by Gianni Moscon and Austria’s Felix Großschartner in this year’s race were locally as important as Simon

54 Procycling / June 2021

Yates’s impressive overall victory was to the global audience, and those looking for indications for the Giro d’Italia.

Großschartner was the first Austrian rider to ever win a stage and rides for BoraHansgrohe, who are based just over the Austrian border to the south of Munich.

Internationally Moscon is seen as an unrepentent bad boy for his racist abuse of Kévin Réza and other misdemeanors, but in Italy and especially in the Trentino region and the Val di Non, where his family grow Melinda apples, he is widely supported.

Ending exactly two weeks before the start of the Giro, the Tour of the Alps works perfectly as a stepping stone to the Corsa Rosa but don’t dare suggest that to race director Maurizio Evangelista.

“The Tour of the Alps is traditionally known as a key final race before the Giro d’Italia and works for that purpose, but I think the race has its own identity in so many ways,” Evangelista tells Procycling.

“We’re rooted in the local territory because we’re based here and any of the people who help put on the race and fund the race are from the area. We’re not a race that sticks to the bypasses and wide roads and we don’t want to be. We go to where the local people live, where there’s love for the race and a real sense of involvement; even in the grip of the covid pandemic, we hope to offer a moment of sport, a sense of hope and near normality.

“At the same time we don’t squeeze the riders like lemons, we limit their transfers as much as possible and find the best hotels we can. Stages are not too long, there’s no useless fatigue and we think the descents can be as exciting as the hardest climbs, as we showed this year when Pello Bilbao won the stage after a thrilling finale.

“We don’t want problems with stage finishes at altitude in the snow. We want the riders to race hard every day, but to recover and do it again and again all week. It sounds simple but it’s far from it.

Yet we think we’ve found the right formula.”

BUILDING BRIDGES Long known as the Giro del Trentino and first held back in 1962 as a one-day event, the race became the Tour of the Alps in 2017, expanding north and out of the Trentino region with stages in the Austrian Tyrol and the South Tyrol area of northern Italy, as part of the Euroregion that spans the area. This mountainous Euroregion was created in 2011 and is one of many trans-national structures across border areas of European countries.

It is something nationalists might dismiss as further ways for politicians in the European Union to squander money.

However, in an area that was fought over during the First World War and where linguistic and cultural divisions remain, the Euroregion, and so as an extension the Tour of the Alps, helps build a bridge across the Alps via trans-national cooperation.

It promotes tourism, rather than putting up bureaucratic walls and dividing people by nationality.

The Tyrol, South Tyrol-Alto Adige and Trentino Euroregion is home to 1.7 million people, attracts millions of tourists and covers 26,255 square kilometres of deep valleys and mountains between the shores of Lake Garda and the Dolomites, between Innsbruck, Brunico Gianni Moscon was and Lienz and north an early leader of the to Kitzbühel and the 2021 TotA, before the mountainous stages border with Germany.

THE MAN AT THE TOP

The Giro del Trentino was often an allItalian affair with other teams focusing on the Ardennes classics and the subsequent Tour de Romandie.

Evangelista pushed to make the race more global when he took over as part of the Gruppo Sportiva Alto Garda that owns and organises the race. The summer Trofeo Melinda one-day race was sacrificed and the sponsorship from the apple consortium can now be seen everywhere at the Tour of the Alps, from the giant inflatable apples along the finish, on the green leader’s jersey and the trays of apples awarded to stage winners.

Evangelista heads a small full-time staff and a host of experienced volunteers. One year the media vehicle driver was a DS for a local junior team. Former greats from Trentino such as Maurizio Fondriest and Gilberto Simoni help out, while Francesco Moser is honorary president and the wine sponsor for the podium celebrations.

Vitesse handles the marketing and media, private digital broadcaster PMG produces the live television and manages the TV rights and other specialists the photo finish, timing, race vehicles and moto marshals. It means around 250 people work behind the scenes during the race, which is widely considered better organised than those of Giro organiser RCS. Evangelista could apply for WorldTour status but he prefers to set his own standards and budget, rather than suffer those of the WorldTour and the UCI. “We’re not a major race organiser but we’re definitely not a bunch of amateurs,” Evangelista says.

The UCI pitched the WorldTour-level Tour of Turkey against the Tour of the Alps for a few years yet Evangelista still managed to attract many of the best Großschartner celebrates the first teams, offering good ever stage win for an hotels, smooth roads Austrian at the race

Maurizio Evangelista was a leading cycling journalist in the 1980s and early 1990s and then created the successful Vitesse communications agency. Now he is the Tour of the Alps race director; it’s the third and seemingly hardest chapter of his life in the sport.

Evangelista wrote for the Corriere dello Sport newspaper, which always loved to compete against bigger rivals La Gazzetta dello Sport. After he created Vitesse, he managed the Saeco media office in its early years and then numerous other clients. Evangelista moved to near Lake Garda a decade ago and became the Trentino/Alps race director, with his son David taking over at Vitesse.

“I think a lot of people don’t fully appreciate just how difficult and complex it is to put on a major professional sporting event out on the open road” Evangelista explains.

“They can see the results and see the problems when things go wrong but don’t see and understand the hard work to make a bike race happen. It’s also a lot more stressful and complex to put on a race during the pandemic.

“We had a double crossing of the Italian-Austrian border, which had often been closed during the different lockdowns. We had to respect the Italian medical protocol, the Austrian medical protocol and the UCI protocol. We did two sets of testing during the race and did everything we could to keep the teams safe in their bubbles and away from possible infection. That added to further stress but we managed to keep the race safe.”

The Tour of the Alps was the first big event of the Trentino-Tyrol-South Tyrol cycling season and was a test for bigger events in the months ahead.

Procycling / June 2021 55

and safe racing rather than hard cash. In 2013 he convinced Team Sky of the race’s merits and so the reigning Tour champion Bradley Wiggins took part.

Richie Porte and Mikel Landa won the final editions of the Giro del Trentino in 2015 and 2016, with Geraint Thomas winning the first edition of the Tour of the Alps in 2017. Thibaut Pinot won in 2018 before impressing at the Giro. In 2019 Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart combined to beat Vincenzo Nibali. Geoghegan Hart took his first pro victories in 2019 when he won two stages, and a year later stepped up to win two stages at the Giro d’Italia and the maglia rosa. This year, Jefferson Cepeda of Androni Giocattoli showed his talent.

Evangelista loves giving a platform to young future talents, hoping they will return to his race in the years to follow when they have won grand tours.

Yates turns the screw on Vlasov The Tour of the Alps and Martin, en route was not held in 2020 to his overall win

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“If you have a good winner and the best riders emerge, I think it indicates you’ve created a high quality race.

That’s not about being a training race for the Giro, that’s due to hard work and a coherent plan ” Maurizio Evangelista due to the first lockdown and was not rescheduled later in the year because a late summer slot makes no sense when most Italians, Germans and Austrians have already been on holiday. April is the best moment to show off the stunning snow covered mountains, when people decide their summer holiday destinations.

It is yet another aspect of the race’s success and why it survives.

With covid complicating teams’ travel options, the Tour of the Alps attracted 13 WorldTour teams and seven ProTeams this year, with the local Tirol-KTM team the only Continental squad given a place, in

a small but eloquent gesture to the race’s roots and local community. Egan Bernal was a last minute withdrawal after opting to stay longer at altitude in Colombia, and Nibali crashed a few days before in training and fractured his wrist, but the strength of the field meant they were not missed.

“We’re not trying to teach other race organisers how to suck eggs but we think we’ve created something special,” Evangelista says.

“Our formula seems to work because we’re growing year after year, despite the pandemic. If you have a good winner and the best riders emerge, I think it indicates

TOUR OF THE ALPS

A BIG-NAME WINNER Simon Yates won the GC after some aggressive racing and an impressive display in the mountains. Evangelista’s local and international goals were ticked off, the sponsors had their local heroes and bigname winner and the media had plenty to report on as the race passed through the stunning mountains of Austria then Italy.

Yates and Team BikeExchange were riding the Tour of the Alps for the first time, bringing their Giro d’Italia leader and much of the team and staff set-up that will work for him in May. Yates always looked in control in the key moments, attacking on the second ascent of the Piller Sattel climb south of Innsbruck on stage 2 to distance Sivakov, Dan Martin et al. He then rode alone to the finish to open a decisive 45-second lead.

He was equally impressive on stage 4 to Pieve di Bono between Lake Garda and the little known Brenta Dolomites, gaining more time during an attack with Aleksandr Vlasov on the Boniprati climb before holding onto the coat tails of eventual stage winner Pello Bilbao, who showed the best descending skills on the switchback narrow road through the pine trees. Martin crashed on the descent and Sivakov crashed earlier, leaving Yates with a 58-second lead.

The final stage to Riva del Garda included two mountainous finishing circuits, but BikeExchange stepped up to chase the dangerous break, which included Martin, to protect Yates’s lead.

“I think Simon Yates and BikeExchange finished the Tour of the Alps pretty happy because they showed great form and Jefferson Cepeda was the revelation of great teamwork,” the race, coming Evangelista says. fourth overall at 22

“They perhaps needed a win to boost everyone’s morale for the Giro and they’ve got it. That was invaluable and victory put them on the front foot for the Giro.”

There was an atmosphere of pride and self confidence at the Australian team after the race in Riva del Garda. Victory was the best way to bond the team ready for their grand tour challenges in May and beyond.

“This is the icing on the cake of the process of creating exactly how we race and work together,” senior directeur sportif Matt White, who was often seen taking photographs of the snow-covered mountains to send to family and friends in Australia, explains to Procycling.

“We started our build-up for the Giro last October when Simon had to go home due to covid. We were all determined to bounce back and come back to fight again.

He did the training and early racing in recent months and then the Tour of the Alps has brought everyone together.

“We haven’t done it before because we always had a big focus on the Ardennes.

This year we’ve got more focus on the Giro d’Italia with Simon and we’ve got some

new guys in the team, like Tanel Kangert or other young guys who had never raced with Simon.

“The Tour of the Alps is the perfect race before the Giro d’Italia because of the way the race is designed. Other races don’t offer the same conditions. Itzulia is intense and punchy but it doesn’t have long climbs like the Tour of the Alps does, while the Tour de Romandie is just too close to the start of the Giro.

“We regret not riding the Tour of the Alps sooner. It is in the sweet spot just before the Giro and the organisers know how to take advantage of that by putting on a great race.”

R A C E R E S U LT RIDER

TEAM

TIME

1 Simon Yates

Team BikeExchange 18:36:06

2 Pello Bilbao

Bahrain Victorious

at 0:58

3 A. Vlasov

Astana-Premier Tech

at 1:06

4 J. Cepeda

Androni Giocattoli

at 2:25

5 Hugh Carthy

EF Education-Nippo

at 2:37

Images: Tim de Waele/Getty Images.

you’ve created a high quality race. That’s not about being training for the Giro, that’s due to hard work and a coherent plan.”

Indeed only sprinters like Peter Sagan and time triallists like Filippo Ganna preferred to ride the Tour de Romandie before the Giro. The Tour of the Alps now sits perfectly with modern day training and racing loads, and Evangelista’s hard work has made it the road best travelled towards the Corsa Rosa.

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STATE OF THE NATION

FRINGE B E N E F I TS Spain has produced many grand tour winners and a few classics champions. However, its teams and fans are concentrated in one small corner of the country. And while the Tour and Giro unite France and Italy, the Vuelta just highlights Spain’s atomised cycling scene. Procycling looks into a unique cycling nation Writer Alasdair Fotheringham/// Illustration Neil Stevens

STATE OF THE NATION

H

ow frequently have you come across the argument that sport can break down barriers even between the bitterest of political and social enemies? From the earliest Olympic Games providing respite to the warring Hellenic world, through First World War soldiers playing Christmas Day football games in no-mans land, to rugby’s 1995 World Cup putting a nail in the coffin of South African apartheid, at least on the surface of it, it’s an idea as old as sport itself.

Cycling, often, has worked like that.

Matt Rendell described in this series how Colombia’s unique cycling culture helped unite a fragmented nation. The Tour de France forms part of the bedrock of France’s collective consciousness. Across the Alps, the Giro d’Italia has played a role in boosting 20th century Italy’s brittle sense of nationhood. It’s true that in Belgium, there’s a slightly murky onesided relationship between some elements of Flemish Nationalism and how they conceive of the Tour of Flanders. But Eddy Merckx saying his wedding vows in both Flemish and French shows how the seemingly chronic Walloon-Flemish divide can melt away when Belgian sporting idols do the right thing. And even if cycling is a Flemish obsession, the national football team is supported by all.

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But unlike Colombia, France, Belgium and Italy, and just as the tourism slogan of a few years back put it, Spain is different. That’s thanks to the massive importance of bike racing in just one (or two, depending on your political point of view) regions: Navarre and the Basque Country, which comprise a mere three-and-a-half per cent of Spain’s total surface area and about six per cent of its population, but which punch far above their weight in terms of the sport.

Beyond that, general interest is high if a Spanish rider is winning the Tour, for example. But what about clubs, races, investment by local authorities and general media support, to give a thumbnail description of ‘cycling culture’?

Beyond these two regions, grassroots interest and support can definitely be found, but geographically and socially, it is much more patchy.

Movistar’s Eusebio Unzué, the longest serving manager in the WorldTour, whose team is based in Navarre, confirms this to

Procycling. “Of course there are other parts of Spain with strong cycling traditions,” he says. “But Navarre and the Basque Country contain around 70 per cent of our cycling, built on the deep-rooted understanding of the sport that everyone has here.”

Unzué is not, it must be underlined, talking about Spanish families taking their mountain bikes out for a Sunday ride in the country or younger generations of urbanites riding their fixies. Rather, as he explains, he’s talking about “the number of races, the number of teams and clubs, infrastructure: the essence of our sport”.

There are other countries where cycling is a majority sport in one region and a minority sport in the rest, too. In South America, Ecuador’s Carchi province, home of 2019 Giro winner Richard Carapaz, is perhaps the prime example. Furthermore, no matter how concentrated it is in one or two areas, it can’t be emphasised enough that cycling is not, in any way, a socially divisive sport in Spain: quite the opposite.

SPANISH CYCLING

Eusebio Unzué, who has managed Movistar since the early 1980s Luis Maté (l) represents the resurgent Euskaltel team in Almería 2021

CYCLING HEARTLAND When Federico Bahamontes, the country’s first Tour winner, wanted to get ahead as an amateur in the 1950s, he said he had no choice but to move to Barcelona. He later said, “Catalonia had more money than the rest of the country combined. In cycling, it was where it was all happening.” And at that time, Spain’s second biggest industrial powerhouse, and where cycling slowly but surely overtook Catalonia in importance, was the Basque Country.

Politics played its part again in cycling’s development following the death of Spanish dictator General Franco in 1975, when agreements on how to carve up the running of Spain saw such breakaway regions - and all the rest - given a huge amount of devolved power. (It spawned a slang expression, still used today in Spain, to define this sort of large-scale power-sharing exercise: café para todos, a cup of coffee for everybody.)

Since then, modern-day Spanish governments have decided foreign policy and state laws and economic policies. But each of Spain’s 17 regiones autonomas [regional autonomies], like the Basque Country and Navarre, have the last word on expenditure for practically everything else in their region, from education through to crucially in cycling’s case - sport.

“The Basque government spends a much greater proportion of its budget on cycling than any other region in Spain,” Fernando Ferrari, head of Ciclos21, the country’s biggest cycling website, tells Procycling.

“They consider it a national Basque sport as much as pelota vasca [Basque pelota].

There are some real historic strongholds of cycling beyond the Basque Country and

Images: Gamma-Rapho (Bahamontes), Arboleda (Unzue), De Waele (Mate)/all via Getty Images.

Spain’s first Tour champion, Federico Bahamontes, who won the 1959 race

But the considerable difference in levels of direct support for cycling outside Euskal Herria, as some Basques call the combination of Navarre and the French and Spanish Basque regions, and the rest of the country is a reminder of something else: how diverse Spain is as a country.

That reminder is strengthened by the fact Itzulia Basque Country and the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya are the two biggest races in Spain apart from the Vuelta a España. However, they’re also the top cycling events for its two most restless breakaway regions.

With some notable exceptions we’ll see later, what separatist political tensions that exist tend to operate in a completely different dimension to cycling. But they can’t be totally ignored, given they underpinned much of the country’s modern history. Some historians, like the Briton Gerald Brenan, argued in the last century that one fundamental political powerplay in Spain was caused by it having a relatively poor capital city, Madrid, and richer, more industrially developed, separatist-minded outlying regions, like the Basque Country and Catalonia.

Normally it’s a country’s centre which is the strongest economically and many believe that the unusual economic imbalance of Spain played its part in how the country developed. That financial difference has evaporated and Madrid, albeit by just a few percentage points, has now become the country’s economic powerhouse, but as far as cycling is concerned, that unusual political and economic imbalance might help explain the radically different impact the sport has had in different regions, and which we can appreciate in the Basque Country compared to the rest of Spain today.

ALASDAIR FOTHERINGHAM Alasdair Fotheringham has lived in Spain for 30 years and started out as a cycling journalist in the early 1990s. Since 2010 he has also worked as a correspondent on Spanish and Portugese politics and culture for the Independent, the Times and Al-Jazeera.

Procycling / June 2021 61

STATE OF THE NATION

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Itzulia Basque Country and the Volta a Catalunya are the two biggest races in Spain apart from the Vuelta a España. They’re also the top cycling events for its two most restless breakaway regions

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Country in the small town of Amurrio.

Amurrio may only have 10,000 residents, but it is host to the Basque Country’s first full-size cycling museum, and its cycling club also cobbled together enough money to place a full-page ad in the Itzulia’s route book. Although fans were officially encouraged to stay away from the race this year, the few dozen standing on the far side of its main square didn’t just cheer the local riders or Euskaltel-Euskadi. Even Fabio Aru, whose star faded a long while back, gets a respectable round of applause when introduced by the announcer.

The depth of the Basque support for cycling, with thousands packing the climbs of the Itzulia in with ikurrinas (Basque flags), has often drawn praise from foreign riders. The former pro Jens Voigt once wrote an emotive open letter to the local tifosi thanking them for their support.

This year, it’s notable how a good few fans ignore the official warnings and, while wearing masks and mostly at a respectable distance, turn up on the climbs anyway. On the Arrate climb, the final big showdown of the Itzulia, there were even a couple of icecream vans in their usual spots, serving the diehard fans with cornettos.

Throughout the race the local Basque media is present in far more significant numbers, proportionally, than in Catalunya’s equivalent WorldTour event, or indeed the Vuelta a España, repeatedly interviewing even the least famous of the Euskaltel-Euskadi pros at starts and finishes. El Correo even rolled out a midrace scoop that you suspect it had timed to coincide with Itzulia: the Basque branch of soft drinks company KAS, which sponsored one of the sport’s most legendary teams for nearly 30 years, is considering re-creating the team.

BASQUE STRONGHOLD But it’s not just cycling at a national level where the sport continues to thrive: Itzulia is preceded, too, by the announcement the Tour de France itself will return to the Basque Country in 2023 in Bilbao, 31 years after the grand départ took place in San Sebastián. There are also rumours, too, that a World Championships may soon be announced for the region.

Images: Offside / L’Equipe.

Navarre, like Mallorca or Asturias. But even of the SC Duranguesa. In it Balier claims, if it’s not as notable a difference as it used “The real amateur cycling scene in Spain to be, those two regions remain the takes place in Euskadi.” epicentre of the sport in Spain.”

“Our cycling is different to the rest both If we look at men’s road racing, the on an organisational and a competitive revived Euskaltel-Euskadi ProTeam, level, but above all in terms of public with its profound historical and cultural support, Basque cycling is far superior connections to the region, is often seen as to the rest.” emblematic of that region’s interest. But There could well be some nationalistic what’s surely more indicative is that of pride in such sweeping statements.

Spain’s one WorldTour team and four However, it’s not just the Basques and ProTeams, only Burgos-BH is not based Navarrans who have such good things in Euskal Herria. to say about their regions’ cycling.

Even then, it’s worth Professional Luis Maté hails remembering Burgos, from Marbella on the other whose regional side of Spain. But racing government sponsors the this year with the revived team, has a long frontier Euskatel-Euskadi team with the Basque Country has given him a fresh and Burgos even has insight into the sport’s an enclave, Treviño, deep roots in the region.

TOUR DE FRANCE landlocked in the “If there’s one thing STAGE WINS southernmost Basque that makes this team stand region of Avila, as well as out from the rest, it’s the hosting one of Spain’s three huge mass of social support it 2.Pro stage races. It’s hard not to see gets and the way that support is an that interest in Burgos as being, if not integral part of the Basque character,” directly inspired, at least boosted by the Maté tells Procycling. region’s proximity to its northern cycling“I’m a veteran, from the south of mad neighbour.

Spain, where there’s no cycling culture And what about further down the cycling whatsoever, and as juniors and younger food chain? Even if we rewind 30 years, riders we had to travel 1,300 kilometres drop down through the categories and look across Spain to get here. That was our way at a special compilation of articles Spain’s of finding a place which lives and breathes leading sports daily MARCA produced cycling as a sport.” on Spanish cycling in 1993, there’s an Procycling could see exactly what Maté interview with a president of a leading was talking about, given he was talking Basque Country club, one Juan Mari Balier at the start of stage 3 of Itzulia Basque

The 1992 Tour de France grand départ took place in the Basque city of San Sebastián

STATE OF THE NATION

It’s probably no surprise, then, in the Spanish male professional peloton, the Navarro-Basque predominance is notable.

According to blogger @Alpe_dHuezBT, in the three highest divisions, Basque and Navarran-born pros make up 28.8 per cent of Spain’s total (43 of 147). Narrow it down to ProTeams and WorldTour level though, and in the two top leagues, their representation is even stronger - 38 per cent, given the Basque Country currently has no Conti-registered riders at all and Navarre just one, Sergio Rodríguez with the American-registered Team Illuminate.

What’s even more striking, though, is the two regions’ combined total of professionals of 43 is nearly triple the next biggest total for a region, which is Catalonia with 16. Don’t forget, that’s in just three per cent of the total land mass of Spain (and the two regions combined are just half the size of Catalonia).

current, prolonged absence of a top cycling name that can do battle in the grand tours with the strike rate of Miguel Indurain or the charisma of Pedro Delgado or Contador doesn’t just haunt the Basque SEARCH FOR A SUCCESSOR Country and Navarre, it stretches across the entire nation.

Yet if Euskal Herria has the cycling This is probably the point where a number infrastructure to handle such fallow of readers are saying, ‘Hang on, isn’t periods far better than other parts Contador from Madrid?’ And of the country, paradoxically, indeed, none of the four that means the ghosts of racers who have given cycling greatness past Spain the most success are also more notable in the past two decades by their absence.

Alejandro Valverde, In Euskal Herria Joaquim Rodríguez, following the retirement Contador and Samuel of Navarre-born Sánchez - are Basque.

Indurain, Basque GIRO D’ITALIA Scratch under the Abraham Olano was STAGE WINS surface, though, and you’ll briefly tipped as quickly find that Rodríguez a successor. But for all his and Contador both raced for talents, Olano’s grand tour track Iberdrola, the Basque-based feeder team record could never compare to Big Mig for the ONCE team. Valverde has raced for and that was what counted. Iban Mayo’s Movistar for well over a decade, while brief flirtation with the pinnacle of the Sánchez was an integral part of the Basque sport quickly fizzled out and the erratic Euskatel-Euskadi squad. It’s true, again, progress of Mikel Landa has only really that Contador’s Foundation may be served as a reminder of how much more flourishing in Pinto, but when his team on top of their game his predecessors were. moved up to ProTeam level this year, that And so the search goes on. Unzué, one of was thanks to two Italian sponsors, Eolo life’s great optimists, expresses confidence and Kometa, and the ProTeam is now flying that a “new name for Spain will be found under an Italian flag. soon”. But while even Portugal, whose Some Spanish multinationals back the cycling is often unfairly overshadowed by sport, but the question of how cycling can its neighbour, has produced Deceuninckgain a bigger level of support across the Quick Step’s João Almeida, it’s noticeable board in Spain is one that no-one can that none of cycling’s current crop of ignore. The obvious answer is that the breakthrough young stars are Spanish.

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Alejandro Valverde has been winning races for Movistar since the early 2000s Alberto Contador was Spain’s last grand tour winner, taking the Giro in 2015 Pedro Delgado won the 1988 Tour de France, the first of seven for Movistar Mikel Landa is a Basque hero, but has been fragile in the biggest races

The gap is beginning to yawn notably.

Spain is second only to Italy and France in total grand tour wins, but the distance between the present day Spain’s last grand tour win, Contador at the Giro in 2015, and now, is the biggest in the country’s cycling history since that between Emilio Rodríguez and Jesus Loroño’s Vuelta wins in 1950 and 1957.

“It’s true that with Alejandro’s retirement coming up soon, we do get the feeling our cycling is going to lose one of its greats. But geniuses of the sport have always existed in Spanish cycling and I’m sure we’ll have some other young lad among the best soon who can pick up the torch from where Alejandro, Contador and previous ones in these decades have left off,” Unzué tells Procycling.

FOCUS ON STAGE RACING Given the lack of talent, it’s telling newspapers are already interviewing future hopes such as Andalucia’s Carlos Rodriguez, now snapped up by Ineos for

four years. But the most striking recent addition to this stable of young talent is surely Juan Ayuso, just 18 years old and you could argue this is symbolic of Spain’s desperation as much as anything else - in one interview in MARCA, given free rein to talk about his chances of winning the Tour.

A Spanish national junior champion, Ayuso is racing with Colpack-Ballan in the U23s until September, when his five-year contract with UAE Emirates will formally begin. According to Joxean Fernández Matxin, the sports director who discovered him, Ayuso is, “The young Spanish rider who currently has the greatest potential of all, on all sorts of terrain”.

Hopefully Ayuso at UAE will be able to show his potential in a foreign team no matter the race, given Spain’s ongoing, well-documented, fixation on stage racing narrows those opportunities.

This isn’t for want of trying by Movistar, whose track record with Valverde in the Ardennes classics belies the idea that oneday races don’t figure on their hit-list.

But among the fanbase and media, the focus feels irrevocably skewed towards multi-day events.

This is partly explained by a historical dearth of major one-day races in Spain: the Clásica San Sebastián stands in glorious isolation at WorldTour level, while at 1.Pro level there are three races in the country, compared to eight in Italy (including two monuments) and six in France (plus one monument). Then if we discount the four consecutive one-day events in the Mallorca Challenge, which are essentially treated as a stage race by most teams, with considerably overlapping personnel, there are just two 1.1 races in Spain, both in the Basque Country. Compare that to France’s 15 and Italy’s nine on the equivalent level.

But the obsession with stage racing could have a historical reason too: the country’s first initial breakthrough in post-war international cycling was in the Tour de France with Bernardo Ruiz and then Bahamontes. The closest to a one-day star in the 1950s and 1960s was Miguel Poblet, the Catalan sprintercum-all rounder who took a brace of MilanSan Remo wins. But his Primaveras were overshadowed in the newspapers and cinemas newsreels of the era by Poblet being Spain’s first ever leader in the Tour, the first rider ever to win stages in all three grand tours, and his staggering haul of Giro stage wins: 20. For non-Italian riders, that’s a total only behind Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck.

With or without riders like triple world champion and triple Milan-San Remo winner Óscar Freire, Spain’s fixation with stage racing has developed into something so chronic that I can recall sitting in on a lengthy argument between two of the country’s top cycling journalists one summer in the early noughties, over whether Johan Museeuw or the late Franco Ballerini had won Paris-Roubaix that April.

(Both riders had retired by that point.)

What makes this stage racing obsession even odder is that it’s hard to argue the Vuelta a España has ever enjoyed the same kind of sustained significance as the Giro and Tour that reached beyond sport and into the broader national consciousness.

That’s not for want of trying at times: back in the days of the Franco crypto-Fascist dictatorship, the central government certainly viewed the Vuelta as one of its symbols of ‘greater Spain’. The nature of the beast helped: in the 1940s, the Vuelta was the first sporting event to unite the country geographically after its bitter

Images: Ramos (Valverde, Landa), Jordan (Contador), Gonzalez (Delgado)/all via Getty Images.

SPANISH CYCLING

Procycling / June 2021 65

Miguel Poblet was a double Milan-San Remo winner and took 26 grand tour stage victories in the 1950s-60s

Civil War. However, given the way the Occasionally threatened (and sometimes dictatorship justified its existence, by actually attacked) by the Basque terrorist etching the divisions from that conflict group ETA or its offshoots during the into the face of Spanish post-war society 1960s through to the early noughties, ever with massively vindictive, enduring since the Vuelta was hounded out of the and brutal political repression, some Basque Country in the late 1970s by proFascists in Madrid calling the Vuelta independence supporters, until 2011, a force for unity was never going to have barring the occasional dash across one the same magical effect as the Tour or of its most out-of-the-way regions, the Giro. Equally, in the early years, General Vuelta never returned to Spain’s cycling Franco turning up to give the prizes to heartland. That it did so peacefully in 2011, the winner (and Bernardo Ruiz, winner with a hugely symbolic triumph for of the 1948 Vuelta and whose Euskatel-Euskadi’s Igor Anton family were Communists, in the streets of Bilbao, is refusing to go up and receive now seen as a vehicle of them from him) or the promoting the Basque riders being obliged to Country’s sport and sing the Fascist National tourist industries, and it Anthem at the race’s speaks volumes for how start in Madrid, cycling, and Spain, has underlined the ongoing moved on.

VUELTA A ESPAÑA splits between the Civil It’s true the Vuelta’s STAGE WINS War’s two sides. struggle to gain recognition

By Franco’s death at the was also hampered by the end of 1975, though, the most fact that for many years the divisive elements of the Vuelta had Volta a Catalunya was a far more long faded, and they could have been important, wealthier race. But since the buried for good amid the country’s mid-1990s that has changed radically, and general amnesty of 1978, when politicians since then the Vuelta has truly come into from most sides agreed to try to put its own. the General’s dictatorship behind them.

By establishing a clear identity with However, it was too late in some ways multiple summit finishes and challenging for the Vuelta, which was seen by the routes, it has lost its unspoken late harder-bitten pro-separatist elements 1990s-early noughties function as in the Basque Country, and albeit to a warm-up race for the Worlds, a role that a much lesser extent in Catalonia, as would see a star-studded initial line-up being representative of repressive progressively drained of names each time centralist Spain. it passed anywhere near an international

545

The Vuelta’s struggle to gain recognition was hampered by the fact that the Volta a Catalunya was far more important. But since the mid-1990s that has changed and the Vuelta has come into its own

airport, before the top 10 largely filled up with Spanish riders. And while the Vuelta retains its longstanding reputation as a test ground for young riders, their increasing importance in cycling and the progress made in it by riders like Tadej Pogacar (third overall and the winner of three stages in 2019 in his first grand tour) is hardly a bad thing. Equally importantly, the Vuelta now has far greater economic stability than a decade or two ago, and the ownership of ASO, if odd-looking at first, has done that process no harm at all.

And in Spain the sport is not doing badly overall, either. According to Spanish Cycling Federation figures provided to Procycling, since 2015, when there were 73,886 licences issued, the number of riders overall has remained almost stable, rising to 75,172 for 2020. What is very encouraging, too, is that more than 5,500 female riders have joined the federation, still a fraction of the overall figure, but a 70 per cent increase compared to 2015.

Other good news is the significant increase of racing teams (of all categories), since 2015, up from 438 to 650 and, above all, the big rise in the number of registered UCI women’s teams. In 2017, there were just two, Bizkaia-Durango and Lointek.

In 2020, there are nine, one of them, Movistar, operating at WorldTour level and, as it happens, the first Spanish squad to win a cobbled classic, with Annemiek van Vleuten in the 2021 Tour of Flanders, since Sean Kelly took ParisRoubaix for KAS in 1986.

The membership and team data is hugely encouraging, particularly in a time when Spain is going through its biggest recession since the 1950s. But for cycling to gain a consistently broader base of support would arguably need to see Madrid and the country’s centre continue to gain in economic power, to help boost its status outside the sport’s northern stronghold through major cycling-specific investments and sponsorship. Whether that happens or not, while the advantages and downsides of Basque and Catalan separatism is way beyond the range of this article, there are those who’d claim that Spain, as a state, has always benefited from its massive cultural and social diversity.

And its professional cycling, for all that it pivots on such a small geographical axis, is surely an example of that.

Images: Offside / L’Equipe.

SPANISH CYCLING

Procycling / June 2021 67

STATS OF THE NATION

SPANISH HEROES

B EST R ES ULTS I N TH E

BIG NINE

Spanish riders have a glittering record in the stage races, with 12 Tour victories, behind only France and Belgium. But they have also produced occasional stars in the classics. Procycling lists the best

It’s feast or famine for Spain in the world’s biggest races. They’ve won the Vuelta 32 times and the Tour a dozen times, and have a good record in the Worlds. However, they’re yet to win in a cobbled classic, and their record in the hilly classics is patchy, apart from Valverde’s Liège wins.

RACE

WINS

SECONDS

THIRDS

Tour de France

12 4 32 5 0 0 4 6 2

5 7 51 1 0 2 6 6 8

13 8 41 1 1 2 3 12 5

Giro d’Italia Vuelta a España

MIGUEL POBLET

FEDERICO BAHAMONTES

LUIS OCAÑA

Career: 1945-1962

Career: 1953-1969

Career: 1965-1977

Milan-San Remo

Poblet was the first Spanish cyclist to really taste international success after the war. He won Milan-San Remo and his home race, the Volta Catalunya, twice.

He also won 20 Giro stages and was second in Roubaix and Lombardia.

Spain’s first Tour de France winner was a mercurial attacker who is often described as the best climber there has ever been and took six KoM titles, plus seven stages. His high point in the Vuelta a España was second place.

Ocaña was famous not just for winning the 1973 Tour but for being the only rider to seriously hurt Eddy Merckx in one of his Tour wins. Also won the Vuelta and Dauphiné, but beset by depression, he took his own life in 1994.

Tour of Flanders Paris-Roubaix Liège-Bastogne-Liège World Championships Il Lombardia

NUMBER OF GT POINTS/KOM WINS MIGUEL INDURAIN

ÓSCAR FREIRE

ALBERTO CONTADOR

Career: 1985-1996

Career: 1998-2012

Career: 2003-2017

The greatest Spanish cyclist there has ever been, with five consecutive Tour wins and two Giro titles between 1991 and 1995, plus numerous stage race titles. His dominance was based on his TTing, at which he took world and Olympic titles.

A rare example of a Spanish sprinter and one-day race specialist. Freire won three road race rainbow jerseys and three Milan-San Remos, as well as GentWevelgem, Paris-Tours and the green jersey at the Tour de France.

Contador was the first Spanish rider to win all three grand tours, with two Tours, two Giro titles and three victories in the Vuelta. A doping ban tainted his reputation, but his attacking spirit kept him popular with the home fans.

MAVI GARCÍA

Bahrain Victorious

Alé BTC Ljubljana

UCI Ranking: 13th

UCI Ranking: 18th

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE

ANE SANTESTEBAN

Movistar

BikeExchange

UCI Ranking: 21th

UCI Ranking: 42nd

ENRIC MAS

EIDER MERINO

Movistar

AR Monex

UCI Ranking: 34th

UCI Ranking: 122nd

1

GIRO D’ITALIA

18

1

VUELTA A ESPAÑA

16

17 50

WINS BY YEAR

SPAIN’S BESTRANKED RIDERS MIKEL LANDA

TOUR DE FRANCE

International wins ranked .1 and above by Spanish riders, WorldTour era. (Women: .2 and above)

120 114

95

93

91 83 74 61

60

61

57 49

46

50

43

42

PELLO BILBAO

ALICIA GONZÁLEZ

Bahrain Victorious

Movistar

Images: Getty Images.

UCI Ranking: 42nd

68

UCI Ranking: 125th

ION IZAGIRRE

SARA MARTÍN

Astana-Premier Tech

Movistar

UCI Ranking: 65th

UCI Ranking: 132nd

WINS

38

14 3

2

1 0

0

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

YEAR Procycling / June 2021

5 1

0

0

0

0

2011

2012

2013

2014

Men

Women

2

4

2017

2018

1

3

0

2015

2016

2019 2020

W E E K

I N

H E A V E N

THE ONE-WEEK STAGE RACES MAY NOT BE AS PRESTIGIOUS AS THE GRAND TOURS, BUT THEY ARE MORE THAN JUST TRAINING GROUNDS FOR BIGGER, LONGER EVENTS. PROCYCLING ANALYSES THE RESULTS OF THE TOP WEEK-LONG RACES, TO FIND OUT WHO EXCELS AT THEM

Writer Edward Pickering /// Images Gett y Images

70 Procycling / June 2021

O N E W E E K S TA G E R AC E R S

least by former winner Philippe Gilbert, who feels that the history and distance of the Dutch classic put it above Strade Bianche. If history and distance are a factor then Paris-Tours, recently fallen on harder times but with a long and prestigious winners’ list, could also be a candidate.

But whether Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold or Paris-Tours should join the nine other races at cycling’s top table or not, what’s clear, and a little weird, is that hardly anybody suggests that a stage race should sit in that final slot.

While the grand tours hog the limelight, the week-long stages of cycling give the season its backbone. The Tour Down Under is now considered by all to be the true start of the cycling season. The UAE Tour in February is the first real runout for the grand tour contenders.

March is when things really get

Paris-Nice is one of the few weeklong stage races Roglič has yet to win

going, with Paris-Nice, TirrenoAdriatico and the Volta Catalunya.

And so on, through Itzulia Basque Country in April, the Tour de Romandie in May and the pre-Tour de France Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse in June. These are the biggest one-week stage races, but even between these events, there is an almost constant succession of smaller races, over five days, four or even fewer.

Few riders make a career out of one-week stage races. Stage racers are measured by the grand tours and nothing else. The one-week stage races are often measured themselves by how effective they are at preparing riders for bigger targets. Is Paris-Nice or TirrenoAdriatico better preparation for Milan-San Remo? The Tour de Romandie used to be the traditional Giro d’Italia warm-up; now it’s a race for Tour contenders to give

here was a vociferous online movement around the time of Strade Bianche this year which promoted the idea that the Italian classic should be designated a monument. Various pros and cons were put forward. The ayes felt that the evidence of the race itself, which is epic, unpredictable and throws up an exciting battle between different kinds of riders, was enough to justify its promotion. The noes pointed out that one of the defining features of a monument is its history. (Some reasonable heads said that it didn’t matter either way, and we should just enjoy the racing, which is a good attitude to take with many of cycling’s ongoing debates.)

We ran a feature last year about cycling’s ‘big nine’ - the biggest and most prestigious events in the sport, which are the three grand tours, the five monuments and the World Championships. Whenever anybody suggests that 10 would be a nice round number, Strade Bianche is often posited as the ‘sixth monument’. Cases are also made for Amstel Gold Race, not

Procycling / June 2021 71

them an indication of how things are before they head off to altitude.

The Dauphiné has turned into the most obvious Tour tune-up, even if Egan Bernal bucked that trend by winning the yellow jersey after winning the Tour de Suisse in 2019.

But these races are also some of cycling’s oldest events - the Volta a Catalunya dates back to 1911, Paris-Nice to 1933. That makes Paris-Nice older than the Vuelta and Catalunya older than the Tour of Flanders, though there have been fewer editions in the latter case. Winning a week-long stage race takes the same combination of strength, tactics and consistency as any other event and each has their own unique characteristics, battlegrounds and set pieces.

Despite organisers ASO pushing up into the higher mountains in recent years and turning it into a race which favours the more traditional grand tour racer, ParisNice has always been renowned for

72 Procycling / June 2021

Simon Yates leads Quintana at the 2021 Tour of the Alps, with the Brit winning the GC

its traps - the crosswinds of the early flat stages and the punchy middle-mountain climbs of the Massif Central and Riviera.

Tirreno-Adriatico spent a few years as a flattish test specifically designed to favour riders like Giuseppe Saronni and Francesco Moser in the 1980s, and the home sprinters through the 1990s and 2000s, but has now evolved into

a mountainous stage race with a time trial - a week-long grand tour. As the season progresses, the races get even more mountainous, with Romandie, the Dauphiné and Suisse edging into the high mountains of the grand tours.

This means that in general the same riders who have thrived in the grand tours tend to also do well in the week-long stage races. Even

ONE-WEEK STAGE RACE VICTORIES SINCE 2018

8 PRIMOŽ ROGLIČ

5 EGAN BERNAL

5 REMCO EVENEPOEL

5 TADEJ POGAČAR

3 Jakob Fuglsang, 3 Michał Kwiatkowski, 3 Adam Yates

5 ALEJANDRO VALVERDE

O N E W E E K S TA G E R AC E R S

the smaller events, like the Volta ao Algarve, Valenciana and Vuelta a Burgos, follow the same model.

The only exceptions are events like the Four Days of Dunkirk and Eneco Tour, rare stage races which take part in much flatter regions and favour classics specialists.

We’ve always known who the best grand tour riders are. With only three races per year, it’s obvious - at the moment, it’s Tadej Srjdf du/#Sulprą#Urjol f#dqg#Ehuqdo1# Five years ago, Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador dominated the grand tours, with Froome above the others for his Tour wins, but all four head and shoulders above the others.

We also know who the best classics riders are. Right now, they are Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe, with a surprise guest appearance in Liège-Bastogne-Liège this year e|#Srjd fdu1#Ilyh0soxv#|hduv#djr/# Alejandro Valverde was the best in the hilly classics and Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara dominated the cobbled races. On the women’s side, Vos, Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten rule the roost.

However, no big deal is ever really made about who the best short stage racer in the world is, perhaps because they are seen as a means to an end - training for bigger races. So we’ve decided to redress that imbalance a little by taking a dive into the one-week stage races. We’ve ignored the grand tours and measured the best riders in the world by their results in shorter stage races.

And who is the best? In the best tradition of cycling, it’s inconclusive.

Valverde has won more of these events than any other rider in the peloton, and by quite some distance. Of course, he has been a pro since 2002, so he’s had a lot more time to gather wins than anybody else, and even though his last GC win was in the 2019 Route

d’Occitanie, he’s accumulated 23 wins in stage races shorter than three weeks. It’s fitting that Valverde, who has won several classics and a grand tour (and 19 more top-10 finishes over three weeks) should find his niche in between the two extremes.

Quintana is in second place, with 15 GC wins in shorter stage races. He turned pro 10 years after Valverde, so his hit rate is more impressive, yet with Quintana as well, there is the impression that he is not the force he once was,

BEST ONE-WEEK STAGE RACERS Current pros, all stage races outside the grand tours

15

NAIRO QUINTANA Rider Alejandro Valverde Nairo Quintana Primož Roglič Jakob Fuglsang Chris Froome Richie Porte Vincenzo Nibali Geraint Thomas Rui Costa Egan Bernal Tadej Pogačar Remco Evenepoel Michał Kwiatkowski Rohan Dennis Adam Yates Dan Martin Ion Izagirre Miguel Ángel López

23

11

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE Nat

Wins 23 15 11 10 10 9 9 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 3

2nd 10 6 2 2 1 10 3 4 4 2 1 0 8 6 5 6 5 3

PRIMOŽ ROGLIČ 3rd 6 5 3 7 2 3 5 4 8 2 1 0 4 0 0 7 5 4

4-5th 6-10th 7 16 6 7 5 1 6 13 4 6 11 6 6 19 2 5 12 15 6 4 4 1 1 2 3 5 3 4 10 4 7 10 7 10 5 1

despite an impressive purple patch in early 2020. The only three other riders to have won 10 or more shorter stage races are Roglic, which is not surprising, Jakob Fuglsang, which is, and Froome.

Roglic has been professional for a far shorter period than any of these riders, so it’s unfair to compare him against Valverde.

He’s like a football team with several games in hand. So we’ve had a look at the results since the beginning of 2018, and here Roglic is way ahead of anybody else, with eight one-week stage race GC wins, three more than anybody else.

One short stage race is not the same as another, however, and it’s also instructive to look at which riders have done well in a spread of events. Of the biggest, most prestigious and most wellestablished races - Paris-Nice, Tirreno, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, the Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse, only two riders in the current peloton have won four Richie Porte and Quintana. Before his third place in the Tour last year, Porte was always perceived as the closest the peloton had to a specialist in these races.

Porte is one of five Ineos Grenadiers in the top 15 riders by results in the shorter stage races.

Khġv#zrq#qlqh/#zkloh#Plfkdô# Kwiatkowski, Rohan Dennis and Adam Yates have all won four. This strength in depth was reflected in the team’s performance in the recent Volta a Catalunya where they filled all three places on the final podium, the first team to do so in a WorldTour-level stage race since the 1991 Paris-Nice.

The Giro is up and running and the Tour looming on the horizon, so it’s likely the results of the shorter stage races will be forgotten as the grand tours unfold. But they’ll still be an important part of the season, keenly contested and always with a worthy winner.

Procycling / June 2021 73

74 Procycling / June 2021

LISA BRENNAUER

Perfection recharged Lisa Brennauer has bounced back from a couple of less successful years to be back at her best, Procycling finds out what has changed HEN THE FIRST WOMEN’S PARIS-ROUBAIX was postponed for a second time, you would be hard pushed to find someone more disappointed than Lisa Brennauer. The German champion had a brilliant classics campaign that culminated in a second-place finish at the Tour of Flanders, and so was looking to be in perfect form for the pavé test that was due the next weekend.

Having gone on a few recon rides, Brennauer has insight into what the race will be like, when it eventually happens: “It has a really brutal character,” she tells Procycling. “The winds and the cobbles, the small roads. I just expect a really big fight. I don’t even know how to describe the cobbles or this race because you have a picture in your mind from how you saw it on television and how you imagine it to be, and then you’re there and and you’re riding the cobbles and it’s so hard. Nothing is in the place where you think it would be.”

But before getting to Roubaix, now scheduled for October, Brennauer has a busy summer ahead of her. Not only will the Ceratizit-WNT rider be heading to Tokyo for the Olympic road race and time trial events, but she will be competing on the track as well,

Writer Adam Becket Portraits Sean Hardy as part of the team pursuit team. That’s if everything goes as planned, of course, which she is at pains to point out.

“I’m pretty sure that I will go and that I will be selected by my national federation, but you know how it is. You never know until finally they select you. I think that it’s realistic to say that I will compete in those three disciplines.

“It’s the biggest race every four years. It is a dream, from when I was a kid, to be at the Olympic Games. It’s the whole thing around it, it’s being with all those athletes from all over the world, from all sports. It’s a unique event.”

It isn’t inconceivable that Brennauer could win gold medals in all three disciplines, or at least get good results in all of them. She is one of the top time triallists in the world - she won the world TT title in 2014 - and one of the best on the road after a hard, selective race, while the Germany team pursuit squad finished third at the 2020 Track World Championships.

Procycling / June 2021 75

LISA BRENNAUER

A

RETURN TO THE TOP RUNG OF the sport has been a long time coming for the German. She burst onto the scene in the 2014 World Road Championships, where she was denied a clean sweep of rainbow bands, having won the team time trial and individual time trial, but being outsprinted by French rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and having to settle for second in the road race.

To say that that Brennauer had a fallow period afterwards seems extreme, with consistent results throughout the past eight years totalling 23 wins, but it is apparent that she has returned to near her exacting best in the past year or so.

The time spent not winning as much as she would have liked has been useful, though, and has given her a new perspective on cycling.

“We always find ourselves sometimes just on top of things, sometimes running or always this step behind and not quite there,” Brennauer explains. “Then when you work super hard and you find yourself back in the game and on top of things it’s when you start appreciating it so much. I always find that. With losing you appreciate the winning part so much, then you understand that it’s not just happening, it’s something you worked hard for, something you achieved. It’s not just something that you just came across, it’s an achievement and something you can be proud about.

“So when last year I had lots of time at home, I had some time to reflect and

re-think a lot of things. I think what happens a lot when we’re on this fast train of cycling is that we forget to actually realise what we’ve achieved.

Sometimes I forget to be proud about the things that I have achieved in my career. As soon as you step down from the podium you’re already thinking about the next race.”

Following the return of racing in 2020, Brennauer finished in the top 10 of every one-day race she participated in, and took a second consecutive victory at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta.

She also became German champion for the second time, all of which she is appreciating more now.

“It’s not that I want to lean back and not prepare for the future. Sometimes it’s just we don’t allow ourselves to reflect and that’s what happened to me last year. I think it’s something positive I want to take from last year, and I was able to take into the restart of the season last year,” she says.

I 76 Procycling / June 2021

T IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE return to Brennauer’s best has come since she has moved to CeratizitWNT, the German team which made

a big statement by signing her in 2019.

Brennauer says that it feels like where she needs to be: “WNT feels like home.

I think the fact that one of the offices of the company is in Kempten [her hometown] makes it special for me to race for this team, that’s why I say it’s just like home. I’m very connected to the team and to the company.”

The team is no longer just a vehicle for her and Kirsten Wild, and with the signing of Lizzy Banks and Lotta Henttala this year, there are clearly bigger ambitions out there. However, the German champion from Kempten is clearly still the star of the German team from Kempten.

“It has been a great two and a bit years in the team,” Brennauer says. “Also, I feel it is a stable environment and a good environment and we’re developing step by step. It’s growing and we’ve been going a step further every year. It’s going to be exciting to see what this team has in store for the future.”

A rider with Brennauer’s experience has a lot to offer her fellow riders, especially Self-professed perfectionist the four at the team who Brennauer are 23 or younger. It is suits the TT

a new experience for Brennauer, but it is one she enjoys.

“I wanted to teach riders a lot. I’ve often been in a leader role and I still am, but the team is also growing and we have riders developing and stepping up.

Then new riders, too. So there are riders stepping up and growing and it’s really nice to see this but also nice to be part of this development.

“I am willing to share knowledge.

I think that’s the first step and also I feel that a lot of them are still looking up to me a little bit. But they dare to ask questions and ask me stuff, but also that they developed their own tactics or thoughts about the races. It’s not me telling them or bossing them around, but riders having their own opinions and developing their own Brennauer thoughts about the race. sprints to her It’s nice when we come second national together to speak about title in Germany

the race and particular strategies.

Everybody can also give their input.”

Learning is a two-way street, as well, which she is at pains to point out: “What I find now with the team developing is that it’s really a big help for me too, because you are never done with learning. Riders start telling me what they saw me doing, like what I could maybe do better. It’s a very good thing.

I like it when that happens and I encourage them to do that.

“I had the feeling two years ago when I joined the team that it wasn’t like this, so people wouldn’t dare to really tell me.

As soon as they found out that I’m this person that likes and needs this feedback they started giving me feedback and it’s important,” she says.

Brennauer is at pains to say that she needs constructive criticism just as much as any rider, despite being at the top of the sport: “It’s important that they understand that I need this and that I also make mistakes. A problem sometimes when you’re leader is that people think you know everything already and you don’t need the support or the clap on your shoulders or a hug.

But I sometimes need someone to encourage me to do things and keep moving forward and keep developing, otherwise I’m standing still.”

Time-trialling is still Brennauer’s favourite discipline, because it allows her to indulge her perfectionism, which is one of the things she most enjoys in her profession.

Images: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images (left), Bettini Photo (right).

LISA BRENNAUER

“A problem sometimes when you’re leader is that people think you know ever y thing already and you don’t need the support, or the clap on the shoulders, or a hug”

LISA BRENNAUER

Images: Luc Claessen/Getty Images.

“I like being outside doing what I love,” she says. “You also have this freedom of choice of where and what you do. You can ride your bike alone and get a bit lost in your thoughts or you can ride in a group.

Especially in time trials, it’s a super nice way for me to live my perfectionism. I am a perfectionist, and you can really get lost in the details and you can find little watts here and there, and improvements.

“I think you can see it in everything I do. I want to do things well, and it doesn’t make me happy if I can’t do things the way I wanted to do them. It’s a strength, but also a weakness at the same time.”

With some caveats, one can see how a cyclist can achieve perfection on the track, or in a time trial, but it is difficult to achieve that same level in the chaos of a road race, especially a classic, where there are riders all over the place and the possibility of a mechanical at any moment. This is something that Brennauer has been forced to work on, and perhaps is why she has had a slew of good results in one-day events.

She says: “Sometimes, things will not go my way and for me A strong spring it’s a disaster, and saw Brennauer I quickly have to get to finish third in Gent-Wevelgem the point where I can

78

Procycling / June 2021

move on and be good with it. It’s a struggle and it’s awesome at the same time. I have to learn to deal with it, and you learn how to switch and make quick decisions for the situation.”

The weird calendar thrown up by the nature of the pandemic resulted in a positive for the German champion: when it came to riding the Belgian classics again, it was less than six months since they had last been raced, allowing for better knowledge of the courses and tactics.

“Normally when you come back here to those Belgian races, it’s a year ago so you forget a bit about the roads and you have to remember again. Now we’re here and everything is just like we raced here yesterday or last week. Everything’s still pretty fresh in your mind. I like this feeling, actually,” she says.

“The character of the races is that you should always be in a good position or somewhere near the front. Whenever you think, now is a time I can relax a little bit, you don’t do it. For me, it means that I feel more secure, more on top of the game and I can anticipate better what’s coming next, what do I have to expect.

For me it makes a big difference knowing the race well because it’s a bit of roller coaster, it’s up and down left and right.”

39 WINS

RACE TYPE GC Stages One day

D

WINS 9 22

2ND 5 21

3RD 5 26

8

8

9

ESPITE THIS, THE 2020 season was far from entirely positive for Brennauer, who goes as far as to describe it as disastrous.

“Everybody was thrown out of their routine and plans. Not only us in cycling; probably everybody felt the same.

Suddenly your plans get destroyed and you have to quickly make new plans and also find a new routine and new goals and the way of keeping going.”

However, with racing approaching normality, and the Olympics still officially going ahead, Brennauer is looking forward to a potentially momentous year. She is also delighted to be part of a sport that has grown exponentially during her career.

“There has been big progress, especially over the last couple of years.

I think teams are developing, but the UCI and the world of cycling are also trying to move forward and give us a platform, with the Women’s WorldTour, for example. It’s a really positive development, but I also want to say that I don’t think we’re yet where women’s cycling can be and where we want to be. I hope there are lots of people who see the potential,” she says.

Brennauer is excited for the future of the sport and for her career, and looking at her results, that’s not surprising.

80 Procycling / June 2021

HAPPY HAIG After five years with Mitchelton, Jack Haig moved to Bahrain Victorious, where he hopes to find balance between his sporting ambitions and his sense of contentment Writer Adam Becket /// Image Bettini Photo

Procycling / June 2021 81

JACK HAIG

ontentment is a difficult thing to quantify, especially when it comes to professional sport.

You can measure wattage, you can count calories, but it is difficult to reach happiness. It’s a vague quality for all of us, and so there’s an uneasy link between it and the exacting quantifiable world of cycling.

For Jack Haig, though, happiness is important. It is something he has spent a long time thinking about. He explains: “I’m a big believer that you can do all the training in the world and think you’re in the best shape possible, but if you’re not enjoying life and the bike, then the results are never going to come.”

Now in his sixth year as a pro, the Australian switched teams over the winter, leaving the Australian bubble of MitcheltonScott for a whole new environment at Bahrain Victorious. It was a big move for someone who had spent five years on his ‘home’ team.

However, it seems to be going well so far, with two top-10 finishes on general classification in the three races he has ridden in 2021, most notably at Paris-Nice, where he finished seventh overall.

Happiness, though, is crucial to results.

Haig is clear about what he wants to get out of the sport.

“I don’t say that I want to finish my career having won a grand tour, I just want to have a long and happy career within cycling,” he says.

C All smiles in the leader’s jersey of Valenciana 2020.

His final result: 2nd

82 Procycling / June 2021

“I truly believe that if you’re having that happy career, the results will come naturally. You don’t need to set goals for those results. The more important focus is to be happy, and keep learning, and with that comes the results.

I know it’s not a very catchy quote, but it is what is important to me.”

Last year was undeniably tough for Haig, who went on record as struggling with his motivation during the pause from racing.

Part of the reason for that lack of motivation were the pay cuts imposed on Mitchelton-Scott’s riders during the pandemic, which were reported to be as high as 70 per cent in some situations.

He told The Cycling Podcast last April: “The motivation for this period was a professional motivation to do well at my job, but now the salary cuts being so drastic, it has taken away from that. My motivation to ride my bike and to stay fit is now a personal, mental, sanity and general wellness motivation.”

“It was a difficult year for everyone. It’s difficult to look back with too much enjoyment,” he says now. “Especially at Mitchelton, we had quite a turbulent period with salary cuts, and instability over the team, and the Manuela Fundación stuff. Also Simon Yates testing positive [for covid-19] and having to cut the Giro short.”

Last June it looked like Mitchelton-Scott would become a Spanish team owned by Manuela Fundación. But after protracted negotiations and wrangles over who legally owned what, the takeover was called off, and the Australian team continued to be owned by Gerry Ryan, and is now Team BikeExchange. But one can understand the pressures that put on the riders, the uncertainty becoming another thing to deal with amid the pandemic.

In hindsight, though, Haig says, “In terms of professional cycling, we managed to salvage the season relatively well. We did all the big races. We managed to make the best of a bad situation.”

His motivation returned as more and more racing happened, at the end of July and into August.

“The first race, Vuelta a Burgos, we still had quite a heavy pay cut, and

Moving team is a big switch, but it is something that Haig has enjoyed so far, in his brief period with the Bahrain team.

Haig tells Procycling: “It has been a bit difficult to get to meet everyone with all the masks, and the covid bubbles, but it has been good. It’s quite a change, being at a new team. It has taken a bit of getting used to. And it was pretty strange seeing all the Mitchelton guys at their training camps on social media, and seeing them out on their training rides together.

We went past them a few times; they had a camp quite close to us. But it’s exciting as well. I’ve been meeting new staff members, getting new ideas from coaches.”

“I truly believe that if you’re having that happy career, the results will come naturally. You don’t need to set goals for those results to be there. The more important focus is to be happy, and keep learning ”

there was a lot of uncertainty, but as more racing happened my motivation came back. I was really motivated to do well after finishing in the top 10 at Tirreno and to help Simon at the Giro.”

After that disruptive 2020, Haig is looking to the future. He does not have defined goals for this year, but instead just wants to find his role at Bahrain Victorious.

“I’ve signed for three years with the team, so I really want to find

my role here, and find out how I can develop the best, but also help the team develop,” he says.

“I would really like to be part of helping build the team, and have an influence in that. Along with that, my goal is to continue to stay happy and focused on cycling, and always try and learn.

I think once you stop learning, the progression stops, and you also start to lose a bit of what professional cycling is.”

Haig on the attack ahead of Nibali on stage 9 of the 2020 Giro d’Italia

Despite his impressive start to last season, where he twice finished second on general classification at Spanish stage races (Valenciana and the Ruta del Sol), Haig feels that he had begun to stop moving forwards with his career.

He explains: “I’d been at Mitchelton for five years, so I just wanted to meet some new people and try some new ideas. I sort of felt like I’d stagnated a bit in my progression, and I was hoping that with a change in team, that would bring about some progression.

I think that the team is in the process of changing a lot, and I want to be part of developing this new team, if that makes sense.”

His move to the Bahrain Victorious squad was engineered

by Rod Ellingworth, who has now departed to rejoin Ineos Grenadiers as director of racing.

Despite this, Haig thinks he has made the right choice.

“After meeting the management here, and getting to know the staff I’m actually pretty happy with the decision, even without Rod here,” he says.

Images: Tim de Waele/Getty Images, Betiiniphoto (Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana).

A NEW BEGINNING

Procycling / June 2021 83

A CHANGE IN FOCUS The Bahrain Victorious project is an interesting one, with 15 different nationalities across the 28 riders, making it one of the most international in the WorldTour. The withdrawal of McLaren as co-sponsors did cause doubts about the future of the team, but it still appears to be a strong squad.

Haig is one of four riders who are likely to ride for GC at different races, along with Wout Poels, Pello Bilbao and Mikel Landa. The Australian is keen to point out that he doesn’t want to step on any toes in terms of leadership, though.

He explains: “I want to take the opportunities as they come. There are those three riders that you named, but there is also space to have an extra one there. For example, if we went to the Tour

84 Procycling / June 2021

and myself and Wout went, I would have no problem with working for another person. I did it for quite a long time in Mitchelton, and I would know that Wout would be the number one leader. We would just see how the race evolves for both of us, and it gets figured out on the road.”

As we went to press, the team had won three races in 2021: Phil Bauhaus won a stage at the Tour de la Provence, Bilbao a stage of the Tour of the Alps and Sonny Colbrelli a Romandie stage. But there is also promise in their GC ambitions, with Landa finishing third at Tirreno-Adriatico and Bilbao sixth at Itzulia Basque Country, alongside Haig’s seventh at Paris-Nice. There is room for the 27-year old to grow at Bahrain. No longer will he be the understudy to the Yates twins and Esteban Chaves, which seemed to be his ceiling at Mitchelton.

“You might say that theoretically these young guys aren’t going to last as long, or maybe they have hit their ceiling” Haig riding himself into form at the 2021 UAE Tour, where he was 30th

Haig in the thick of the action as Liège 2021 hit its most crucial moments

Not that he feels he has nailed down a spot as a GC rider.

“I hope that I can do that in the coming year or two. I feel as though I haven’t had the chance yet to test myself and find my spot in professional cycling,” he says.

“I think I need a bit more of an opportunity to find where exactly I excel. I’m not too sure if going down the big grand tour GC path is maybe where I’m best, and instead focusing on week-long stage races.

And then focusing on being one of the best domestiques in a grand

JACK HAIG

tour. I guess it’s just testing the waters, finding out where I’m best suited.”

Haig is on the longlist for the Tour de France team, which he should go to alongside Poels. He says: “I should do the Dauphiné, and then hopefully the Tour.

Those are two races that I would love to do well at. The plan is to go to the Tour as a stage-hunting team, more than GC. If you’re not an Ineos or a Jumbo, one of those big teams, I think you get more out of the Tour if you can go there and be active and get in breakaways and fight for stage wins, rather than fight for eighth on GC.” As he points out, Sunweb rode a more memorable Tour last year than even UAE Team Emirates or Jumbo-Visma, and so were widely considered to be the team of that race, despite being nowhere on general classification. Possibly expect to see Haig going for breaks

and attacking rather than hanging onto the coat tails of Roglic and Pogacar for as long as possible, and by dint of that trying to grind his way into the top 15.

18 CAREER PODIUMS

PEAKING PROCESS 1st

2nd

3rd

WINS Stage, Tour de Pologne 2017 Stage, Ruta del Sol 2020

SECONDS Tour of Slovenia 2016 Stage, Tour of Slovenia 2016, 2017 Stage, Critérium du Dauphiné 2019 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2020 Ruta del Sol 2020

THIRDS Tour of Utah 2018 Bretagne Classic 2019 GP Bruno Beghelli 2019

It’s fair to say that Haig enjoys cycling, as much as he sees it as a job too. He would make a good advocate for the sport and the activity once he hangs up his wheels in the future.

“I like the freedom of cycling,” he explains. “To be able to explore new places and go on adventures and meet people. It’s a bit of the lifestyle.

“I think a bicycle is one of the best ways to be a tourist, but also to interact with the environment you’re in. You’re passing fast enough that you can cover a decent amount of ground, but not too fast that you miss the small details.”

One gets the sense that Haig is in no great hurry to define himself as a rider, but is still exploring the extent of his potential, which is interesting in an age where some top riders appear to be fully formed aged 20 or 21.

This is something that intrigues him. “It is pretty crazy to think, when I was neo-pro and in my first years of being a professional, I was just happy that I was finishing races, let alone getting results.

Now to see these young guys come in and get results straight away kind of makes me feel quite old, aged 27. If you look back five years ago, age 27 as a ‘GC prospect’ was someone coming into their prime.

“I don’t think I could pinpoint the exact reason, but the sport’s mentality is changing quite a lot now. There’s a lot more education in terms of the training and the nutrition. For myself, it wasn’t until I was a first year under-23 that I started training properly.”

Yet as he points out, we don’t know whether these younger prospects will burn out, or whether they’ve already peaked: “Look, you might say that theoretically these young guys aren’t going to last as long, or maybe they have hit their ceiling.

Physiologically, they might not get any faster, but they have just got to their fastest level quicker.”

One thing is for certain, though.

Haig just wants to keep riding his bike, and feeling content.

He concludes: “I would love to finish my cycling career at whatever age I choose, just happy, and having had a good time, and having met great people. I loved my time in the Mitchelton team, all the people I met and learned from there. And now, it’s a new experience at Bahrain. I’m quite happy, to be honest.”

If Jack Haig can be happy and comfortable, then the results should come.

Images: Corvos (UAE Tour), Bettiniphoto (Liege)

JACK HAIG’S RESULT HIGHLIGHTS

Procycling / June 2021 85

MEETING

Amanda Spratt and Grace Brown are leaders at Team BikeExchange.

They tell Procycling how they took wildly different pathways to end up at a similar destination

Interview Edward Pickering Portrait Photography Sam Flanagan

86

Procycling / June 2021

POINT

Procycling / June 2021 87

Procycling: Where are you now?

Amanda Spratt: Right now we’re in a beautiful castle in Holland, the day before Amstel Gold, getting ready to get up very early to race tomorrow, with breakfast at five in the morning, racing at 8:30.

That sounds hard. On the other hand, you’re staying in a castle...

AS: That’s how the women’s peloton rolls these days.

How is the season going?

Grace Brown: For me it’s been a pretty good season so far. I had a good cobbled classics campaign and I’m now focusing on the upcoming races.

AS: It’s been my first winter in Europe. I’m getting used to feeling cold every day and missing the Australian summer.

Is it more like a normal season this year, or is covid still really affecting your racing and training?

GB: The race settings are the same with covid, but there’s a bit more certainty around the races going ahead. I think we feel a bit more sure about doing a full season. The atmosphere and protocols and everything outside the actual race is still very different.

Are you getting used to it?

AS: You never get used to PCR tests.

That’s how it is right now and it means we can get through all the races. I’m looking forward to having the crowds and spectators back.

How was the European winter for you, Amanda?

AS: I spent the first half of the winter in Italy and Switzerland. I got my quota of snow days and decided to migrate to Spain for January and February. I was getting jealous of my friends in the Australian summer.

Did you stay in Europe because of covid and travel restrictions?

AS: My partner is in Europe and getting back to Australia and doing quarantine ate into my season. I talked to my coach and

88

Procycling / June 2021

we decided this was a good year to have a nice slow build and not have the stress of summer racing in Australia.

GB: Unlike Spratty my husband is in Australia so I went back. I did the Santos Festival of Cycling and National Championships; it was nice to get some racing in before coming to Europe.

You’re two Australians on an Australian team. Is it something you notice?

GB: It feels a bit like a family on this team, and there’s shared experience among the Aussie riders because we’re so far from home. But we’re not a fully Australian team – a majority are European.

AS: I find it comforting to hear the Aussie accent. Sometimes with the Aussies the banter and slang gets you stares at the dinner table. But it’s fun to be together.

GRACE BROWN'S BEST RESULTS

15 C AREER PODIUMS

1st

2nd

3rd

MAJOR WINS Brugge-De Panne , 2021 Brabantse Pijl , 2020 Australian national TT champs , 2019

SECONDS Nokere Koerse, 2021 Australian national RR champs, 2021 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 2020

THIRDS Tour of Flanders, 2021

Is it a point of strength?

AS: I think so. We do become quite close and look out for each other.

We’re all spending nine or 10 months away from loved ones every year. Euro riders have said in the past they didn’t realise how long we are away from home.

They can go home on a weekend or between races and we have no choice but to do 10 months. It brings us closer together and allows us to understand each other better on and off the bike.

Are you Australianising the others or are they internationalising you?

GB: It works both ways. The core of the team has been Australian for a while. The European riders enjoy the culture of our team and feel really welcome. At the same time they teach us things about being a bit more Euro. It’s not like we’re an Aussie bubble without integrating.

SPRATT + BROWN

Does a certain personality type fit in with this team?

GB: Not necessarily, but you have to be a real team player and open and honest. We’ve got many personalities on the team and everybody is welcome but if you’re not giving, that would be hard.

AS: Some riders have come into our team and said how nice it feels and that we all get along. Everybody is really honest and if somebody has a problem it doesn’t happen behind somebody’s back. We’re all up front.

Being Australians on an Australian team is a point of similarity between the two of you, but you had very different paths to this point. Can you tell me about your respective paths into the sport?

AS: I got involved in cycling through my family. My grandfather and father used to ride and race when they were young. My brother is 18 months younger and we got taken along to the local BMX track when I was nine. I did BMX racing for five years up to world championships level. I started going across to the road when I was 12. I had a really successful junior career and went to the AIS system which allowed me to go straight to Europe. Unfortunately I had a bad injury, which kept me out for a year and a half – I had piriformis syndrome, with surgery, rehab and a lot of chronic pain management for a few years. My return to real form coincided with the start of this team.

at 15, 16 I was still just enjoying going out with my brother and dad. When I was 16 I got a coach and started taking it more seriously. I went to the junior Worlds, got results there and thought this is something I want to pursue.

Grace, it’s been a different path for you...

GB: I started running in primary school and competed at a national level. I continued that through high school and into university but I was riddled with injury and got quite frustrated with the lack of progression. At that point I bought a bike; my dad had been encouraging me for quite some time so I finally gave in. I got pretty hooked into the cycling scene and started racing.

From there, it was just taking the next opportunity that was in front of me.

You were a middle distance runner before...

GB: I ran 1,500 to 5k on the track, and also competed in cross country.

I put a fair bit into it, but I wasn’t as disciplined in it as I have been in cycling. It wasn’t as all-consuming as cycling has been for me.

“ “

I work with a sports psychologist and find it really helpful. You have to train your brain like you train your body

“ “

AS: I don’t think the nonAustralians have passed the Vegemite test yet.

GB: They can eat it, but they have to like it.

Grace Brown

Grace Brown fights the cobbles on the Kemmelberg during GentWevelgem 2021

What crossover is there between the two?

GB: One of the reasons I kept getting injured is that I was quite muscular for a runner, a bit heavy, I think.

I had power but it was holding me back a little bit - my biomechanics are better for cycling than for running. But I’m highly competitive. That’s the main crossover between the two.

What are you good at in cycling?

AS: I think I’m really resilient.

I’m hardworking, I think I have good tactical ability and I really love that aspect of cycling. It’s not just physical. You have to be the smartest rider to win and that’s something I love. I enjoy suffering

Images: Luc Claessen/Getty Images.

It looks like even from nine or 10 you had a career path stretching out in front of you and it seems smooth, even though I’m sure it hasn’t been. Have the steps always been quite logical?

AS: When you look from the outside it looks like that but when I was nine on a BMX, I wasn’t thinking, this is going to be my job in 20 years. Even at the 2008 Tour

Procycling / June 2021 89

MEETING POINT

AMANDA SPRATT'S RACE HIGHLIGHTS and always trying to be better.

I’m the kind of rider who, if I have a training session, it has to be better than my last one or I get disappointed. My coach says it won’t always be my best day and it’s the effort that goes in that counts. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that.

What’s the split between your physical talent and technical, tactical and psychological assets?

AS: I don't know the split, but for sure I have cycling genes. I have some talent, but especially at the elite level it’s what your technical skills are like that makes the difference. I went from Australia, where we race with 40 girls, to racing against 150 on Dutch or Belgian roads. Little things like positioning in the bunch, nerves and pressure. Leadership adds more pressure. Many things take up a lot of energy. It’s one thing to be able to train really well but you have to be able to pull all that together on race day as well.

How do you learn about all of that?

AS: I started young, so some stuff I learned along the way. In my BMX days we used to do knock-off competitions where the last person

“ “

I still get nerves.

Especially in races that I really care about but for me it’s a positive thing. When I’m nervous I know I’m ready

“ “

Amanda Spratt

90 Procycling / June 2021

on the bike wins and you learn what it’s like to use your elbows in a race. I wasn’t able to start at the front of the bunch - it was a process, you get tips like following a good rider. Or maybe one race, the goal is to be at the front and you get a sense of accomplishment from achieving that. I work on all that and also work on expectations and nerves. I still work with a sports psychologist, learning different techniques coming into a race. It’s not always spoken about a lot, but it has opened my eyes.

Grace, you didn’t have the luxury of 10 years to pick up these kinds of skills organically. Has it been a steep learning curve on the technical and tactical side?

GB: Huge. I wasn’t good at that stuff when I came to Europe and I felt I was in such a deep pool and that getting to the top of the sport would be impossible. But I never lost

motivation. Never saying, that’s just something I’m not good at.

51 CAREER PODIUMS

1st

2nd

3rd

MAJOR WINS Australian National RR Champs, 2012, 2016, 2020 Tour Down Under, 2017, 2018, 2019 Emakumeen Bira, 2018 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, 2016

SECONDS Trofeo Alfredo Binda, 2019 World Champs road } race, 2018 Liège-BastogneLiège, 2018 Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt, 2016

THIRDS Giro d’Italia Femminile , 2018, 2019

What are your assets in cycling?

GB: I started off being quite good at time trialling. But I can be quite punchy. Physically I can match other people but also mentally I’m not afraid of attacking and taking a risk in a race. I don’t like to wait around.

Last year was a breakthrough, with second place in Liège-BastogneLiège and a win in Brabantse Pijl.

How did it come together?

GB: I came into those races with really good form but it was also building all those other aspects – positioning, race craft, mentality, the technical and tactical stuff. At the end of last year it came together and it was a moment of: aha, I know that I can be up there now. It sort of felt a bit sudden but I’d been working towards it for a long time.

Liège was the tipping point.

BROWN + SPRATT

Amanda, 2018 was your best season so far - what changed for you that year?

AS: I developed confidence and belief in myself. I started out as a domestique and progressed and showed I had more ability. I’m not under any illusions about how good it was to have Annemiek van Vleuten on the team for so many years. In a lot of scenarios we had both of us in the final. I almost used that as a way of getting away in races and being able to use strength, be brave and take risks.

You’re up against generational talents in Van Vleuten, Van der Breggen and Vos. Does it feel tough having to work out how to beat them? Is it intimidating?

AS: It’s not a mental block but you can see the Dutch are the best in the world and have been for a number of years. We often joke, you wouldn’t want to be Dutch and have to try to make the Worlds team, with seven or eight riders in the world’s top 10.

They’re incredibly strong, but you can break down what they are good at and what they are not. They are definitely beatable.

How do you beat them?

AS: Work hard.

GB: And remembering they are human. We have our weaknesses but so do they. We just have to find them. We have different strengths and we can use that to become stronger than our rivals if they are a single rider.

As a team do you talk a lot about tactics and race plans?

AS: We look at the course and the start list and we think tactically

GB: I work with a sports psychologist and find it really helpful. You have to train your brain like you train your body.

Training neural pathways between your thoughts and your behaviours and feelings.

AS: You go crazy hard on a climb and your body tells you it’s too hard and you want to stop, so it’s working on how to overcome that and push your body more. When you can do that it’s a real breakthrough.

Spratt was in the mix at Amstel Gold this spring, coming fourth and contesting the win

about the options and the likely scenarios. I’m the kind of rider who doesn’t need a specific point to attack. If you get fixed on one scenario and it doesn’t happen it’s hard to change the mindset. Being flexible is a lot easier.

What have you learned along the way that’s been important to ensure your success in bike racing?

AS: Being patient, in terms of the number of years I’ve been racing, but also in races. You might be good at the start, but the job is later in the race. Trusting your team-mates and communicating well...

GB: I’ve had to learn a lot about racing in a short time. But in the recent period of racing where I’ve got more expectation on my shoulders: trusting in my strength and committing to my moves. When I attack, or when I have to follow a wheel and it’s really hard, just, like, go all in and believe that I can do it.

Can you tell me a little about the work you do on the psychological side of things?

AS: There are so many stresses: team environment, sometimes we’re not necessarily friends, we have different personalities and we have to learn to manage that. All the racing aspects: pressure, instincts, everything that adds up to a good performance. It’s something I’m working on almost daily.

Do you still get nervous before starting races?

AS: I still get nerves. Especially in races that I really care about but for me it’s a positive thing. When I’m nervous I know I’m ready and it’s more about managing my thoughts and getting myself confident and thinking about the hard work I’ve done. I get butterflies, but once I’m in the race I’m really focused on my job.

GB: Before the race you feel nervous and are anticipating everything that’s going to happen and how you’re going to react in that scenario. But as soon as you clip in and roll off it’s all about the processes that you’ve trained yourself for. But then there are also moments in the race that are quite nerve wracking, when you’re fighting for position. That’s not really nerves but anxiousness and that’s another thing that I work on, turning the fear reaction into a commitment reaction to go forward and know that this is the time to act rather than retreat.

You mentioned training neural pathways. Does that involve visualisation? Meditation?

GB: I might be feeling scared in a situation and naturally my reaction is to back out. But I need to retrain that automatic reaction to one where I stay where I am or go forward. Practicing that feeling, turning it into an action until it becomes automatic. You can’t just do it, you have to really do it over and over again. It’s unnatural. It’s not what I would normally do.

Images: Luc Claessen/Getty Images.

Were you disappointed or pleased with second in Liège?

GB: I think I was completely happy with that result. It was like a victory.

The thought of getting a podium at Liège even a couple of months before seemed quite far away. It didn’t matter that Lizzie Deignan stayed ahead of me because it gave me confidence in my ability to win it.

Procycling / June 2021 91

MARY WITTENBERG

Bridging the gap Mary Wittenberg, the president of EF Education-Nippo, is the most senior female executive in the men’s WorldTour. She tells Procycling about her journey into cycling, her background as an elite runner and her plans to make the sport bigger Writer Edwarrd Picckeringg // Illusstraatioon David Despau

W

hen a corporate headhunter suggested to Mary Wittenberg that she go and talk to the people at the Boston headquarters of a firm which specialised in language and cultural education and exchange, it didn’t sound like what she was looking for. Sports executive Wittenberg, the former race director of the New York marathon, had been on a few months’ sabbatical after leaving her most recent job at Virgin Sport and was wondering what to do next. All she knew, as she had known almost her entire working life, was that she wanted to work in sport. She had never heard of EF Education First, but the combination of Boston, education and travel was interesting enough to her that she went anyway. The headhunter warned her not to say she was just going to see what happened, but that was what she was thinking.

In Boston she met with Eddie Hult, the chief exec of EF North America and son of EF’s founder Bertil Hult, and they talked about running and cycling. For all Wittenberg knew, she could have ended up running a travel business - Eddie’s modus operandi is to get to know people first and then work out what they can do for the company.

A short while later, Eddie called and said, “Why don’t you come and run the bike team?”

And that’s how Mary Wittenberg became the most senior female in the men’s WorldTour. She is EF Education-Nippo’s president, responsible for liaising

between the company and the team staff and for working as a partner with team CEO Jonathan Vaughters.

“I love this team, and we are well suited for the ups and downs of life,” she says. “From the early days with JV and Doug [Ellis, the first financial backer] it’s always been scrappy, and built with a lot of heart, always finding ways to get things done.”

You get the sense that EF Education First might have been looking for a counterweight to Vaughters, who set up the team as a development squad in 2003 and gradually turned it into a reliable mid-table WorldTour team with some huge racing highlights - wins in four of the five monuments and the Giro, and two podium finishes at the Tour - and a USP of quirky characters, leftfield race calendars and fashion statements. EF Education-Nippo has a different ownership model to most WorldTour teams in that it belongs to the sponsors: Vaughters, Wittenberg, the riders and team staff are EF Education First employees. When they bought the team from Vaughters and Ellis, they restructured. Vaughters had been frazzling himself for years trying to find sponsors and funding, with seasons spent in various degrees of precarity. Once Wittenberg was hired, Vaughters could focus on the sport and Wittenberg the business.

However, whether by accident or design, EF Education First covered their bases twice. They not only had Vaughters, a former athlete who had over the years built up a strong business acumen, but Wittenberg, a former lawyer who had over the years built up strong sporting acumen.

“We have the business side and the sports side,” she says. “But I would say we overlap a lot more. I care

“We are serious about cycling and performance, but we let the riders be who they are. We try to be the bridge between the pros and regular people”

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MARY WITTENBERG

Images: Jordan Clark Haggard (left), Jojo Harper (right).

a lot about the sport, its structure, equality and cycling as a sport. Jonathan cares a lot about the business. We both have range but also highly complementary areas of focus and skills. Jonathan is very smart, and one of his greatest strengths is empowering his people.

“Increasingly I’m really focusing on the commercial side. Performance is really well covered already with Jonathan, and our sporting directors are great. Like, really great. But how do we open this up? It’s not about just racing to win. For us, it’s how do we open this to more people? Marketing and storytelling is an area of strength for us, but in the end the business model requires revenue, and it’s really clear that’s where I need my time and energy.

“This is not a win-at-all-costs team. We want to bring in partners that fit with the brand of EF and the team. I would define success as creating an amazing group of partners who are aligned in our mission to open cycling up to the world.

“We are serious about cycling and performance, but we let the riders be who they are, so Magnus Cort can put his [Instagram] hotel ratings up and Lachlan [Morton] can do GBDuro. We’re always trying to be the bridge between the pros and the regular people.”

Being the bridge between elite athletes and regular people is exactly what Wittenberg did at the New York marathon, which she ran for 17 years from 1998. It’s a mix of priorities which cycling has dabbled in but not fully exploited in the same way as running: EF Education-Nippo’s gravel programme and forays into non-UCI mass participation events is one attempt to bridge that gap.

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ittenberg grew up in Buffalo, New York, the eldest of seven children. Buffalo was a steel town, with a strong Irish and Italian catholic heritage, which had grown fast in the mid1800s with the construction of the Erie Canal across New York state. Though her mother took some time out to raise and educate the children, she was a teacher and her father was an accountant. Wittenberg wanted to go to law school because she wanted financial stability.

“That meant being either a doctor or a lawyer, and I didn’t like the sight of blood,” she laughs.

But she also knew she wanted to work in sports, which she had seen in Buffalo, with its NFL and NHL teams, were the centre of the community.

“I played all the other sports - basketball, netball, softball,” she says. “No good at any of those. Then I tried rowing, which I loved. All you have to do is work, and I can do that.”

The rowing went okay, but on a dare she entered a running race in her senior year at college. It was only a small race, but she won. She went to Notre Dame Law School in Indiana, which is where the running got serious. They only had a men’s cross country team, but she persuaded the coach to let her run with the men, then she entered a marathon, where she got inside the US Olympic trials qualifying time by running a 2:46.

Sport was now more than a hobby. Wittenberg weighed up her career choices by working out how they could fit in with running, and she found a law firm in Richmond, Virginia, where coincidentally the UCI World Road Race Championships would take place in 2015 and was the base for Wittenberg has Medallist Sports, the organisers of the Tour been involved in the de Trump and Tour Dupont in the 1980s and EF team branching out into mass 1990s. The head of the corporate team was participation a runner, and lured Wittenberg to the firm gravel events by working out a deal where she could clock off at 3:30 and go to train with the Richmond University men’s cross country team in the afternoons.

She qualified again for the Olympic trials, with a 2:44, but then injuries started taking their toll.

“I wasn’t going to make the Olympic team, let alone get a medal,” she says. But while the running career had peaked, she was doing almost too well as a lawyer.

“I found that not only did I like being a corporate lawyer, but I also really liked doing deals. Deals are a lot like sports,” she says. “You get on a deal, and you’re all in and you get a great feeling of finishing it before you start the next one. But she was still looking for a job that actually involved sports, and that didn’t get any easier when she was promoted to a partner, which tied her to the firm for a little while longer.

“I committed to myself on that day that I would find a way to work in sports,” she says, and she spent the next year looking at sports companies.

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MARY WITTENBERG

That was when an opportunity at the New York Road Runners, organisers of the New York Marathon, came up.

In the 1970s, Fred Lebow, the chairman of the NYRR, caught the wave of the US running boom, setting up the New York marathon and growing it into the biggest event of its kind in the world. It was the original big city marathon. Lebow ran the event for over 20 years but retired with illness in 1993 and died the next year.

His successor, Allan Steinfeld, was a brilliant logistical operator and organiser, but the event was starting to hit the buffers in terms of its vision, with rival big city marathons in London and Chicago taking over in prominence. Wittenberg came in, and while Steinberg could focus on the organisation, Wittenberg could work on the vision and the future. It almost looked like a practice run for her role at EF Education-Nippo.

“I wanted the marathon to be the greatest, most inspiring event in the world,” she says, and one of the biggest achievements in her Wittenberg brings her experience of time at the race was helping to launch the working with the Marathon Majors in 2006, a tournament New York Marathon into her role at EF series of the five most prestigious marathons Education-Nippo in the world - New York, Boston, London, Chicago and Berlin, plus the Olympic and is an amazing sport for you!’ There are so World Championships marathons when they few global marketing platforms in sport, took place. Tokyo came on board in 2013. certainly ones that are annual, like the Tour de France.

For Wittenberg, combining the elite and the “We also want to have greater equality - we’re not everyday was the thing and it is part of what EF all the way there. We’d have better racial diversity.

Education-Nippo are trying to achieve now. “The We want equality in sport and access to it, and we can beauty is that they fit together,” she says. “Track and be a part of changing that.” field is just the pros. But the major marathons have the As arguably the most senior female employee of top of the game and the recreational side. The pro side any men’s WorldTour team, Wittenberg also has isn’t as big as cycling, but the mass side made it a big a perspective on how EF Education-Nippo, which happening. In cycling they are mostly separated is one of a shrinking number of men’s WorldTour but both are really important, and the future from teams without a women’s team, can progress. a commercial perspective shows great benefits “We very much want a women’s team and are when they come together.” actively looking,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity for But there is more to what Wittenberg wants to a partner because they want to be part of something achieve in cycling. “It’s easy to work with great new. That’s a big opportunity. Within the sport there partners in the endemic space, like Rapha,” she says. is so much opportunity to use the men’s platform to “They’re really a part of it. It’s not a sponsorship. The weave the women’s story right in. Companies around challenge is getting out to the broader world of nonthe world are understanding the power of women’s endemic companies, outside cycling, and saying, ‘This sport and we’re just at the very start of that.

“Our goal would be next year. We don’t have to start a team from scratch. That would be one way to approach it. Ideally we find a way to support something that is already happening. There are many great women’s programmes right now that could use support so there are opportunities there, if we wanted to start with something already happening. If the timing was later we could look for 2023. But now is the time.”

Reaching true equality in cycling is going to be a marathon, rather than a sprint, but in Mary Wittenberg, the sport has somebody who is perfectly placed to help bring it about.

“We very much want a women’s team and are actively looking.

It’s a great opportunity for a partner because they want to be part of something new”

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E-RACING

Cycling is undergoing a quiet revolution, with the advent of e-sports. Procycling looks at the grow th of online racing, which attracts a huge number of riders and even has its own Worlds Writer Kate Wagner // Illustration Gary Neill

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’m not particularly good at it, but it is still racing. It doesn’t really matter, either, because there are 100 other people riding, as individuals, around me – a global peloton of faceless avatars. Their names are things like ‘J. Surname [TEAM VEGAN]’ and the race is called, rather plainly, Crit City Race.

The parcours consists of laps around a virtual town, mostly flat with a short cobbled climb thrown in for good measure, a semblance of traditionalism. I’ve got two water bottles on a little folding table in the living room which sits right next to my bike. When my little 3D person wheels onto the cobbles, my smart trainer vibrates, and when I sprint to the line – 32nd, but that’s never the final score, you’ll have to

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go to another website for that later – there is no danger, no barriers or other people to crash into. I’m in the safety of my own home. It’s the only racing I know how to do – I started riding bikes seriously when the pandemic was underway after my in-laws gave me a Cervélo TT bike that’s 20 years old, and in its passé gunmetal grey paint job, I found a spark.

The race only lasts about 30 minutes, but it’s full-gas from the start. Like cyclocross, it begins with a bunch sprint, everyone trying to get in everyone else’s wheel, trying to make it into a select group at the front. There is no collaboration, no teamwork – it’s every rider for themselves, and you’d better believe every single tick in elevation is a proving ground. When gaps open up, they tend to remain open, for bridging each time is a massive effort. If you manage to snag a wheel, stay on it, or else. Physics is reduced to a bit of code, and there’s no wind to help or hinder. It’s short, brutal and merciless. This is e-racing.

If you want to ride your bike on the internet, there are half a dozen or so ways to do it, from training-based programmes like TrainerRoad to competitive and social platforms like Zwift and RGT Cycling, which are the two main arenas of e-racing.

If you want to join Moolman Pasio a team, there are celebrates winning Facebook groups the first UCI with thousands of Esports Worlds

members, and until recently, chaos reigned supreme. However, starting around 2018, things began to professionalise, a process that sped up considerably during the pandemic, when everyone, including the professionals, was forced into lockdown. There was suddenly a swath of virtual classics, a virtual Tour de France, all broadcast on various streaming platforms just like an irl (real life) race would be. 2020 saw the inauguration of the UCI E-Sports World Championships, which added further legitimacy to riding online.

However, despite this, e-racing still manages to feel underground, unmanaged, like the Wild Wild West.

road cycling – Zwift instead scans for discrepancies in riders’ power data and the data they’ve reported to the app with regards to their weight and height, both of which change the physics of the rider’s avatar and their watts-per-kilo figure.

Still, there are teams like Saris+The Pro’s Closet and Canyon E-Sports that offer top riders sponsorships, and even the pro teams are getting in on the action.

Alpecin-Fenix and Canyon-Sram have both offered professional contracts to the winners of Zwift’s Zwift Academy programme, and Movistar announced a fully-funded e-racing team this past March. Meanwhile, on RGT (which is less socially-oriented), there was the Echelon Racing Series, supported by USA Cycling, which had a ‘pro’ league comprising top riders from competitive amateur teams, receiving full coverage on both YouTube and VeloNews.

Just like in irl cycling, there are teams, sponsorships, racing leagues at various levels and regulations, aka anti-cheating measures. To briefly explain, anyone can ride on Zwift, which separates riders into four categories based on their watts-perkilogramme for races which happen at all times of the day, some of which are restricted by category or by gender and many require a heart rate monitor as an anti-cheating measure. The official results of these races are not those posted on Zwift but rather on ZwiftPower, a thirdparty website that filters the results, eliminating people who are riding outside The 2020 UCI Cycling E-sports World Champs on Zwift

their category or using unapproved tools like ZPower. It’s kind of messy how things escalate from there.

The premier league in Zwift is called the Zwift Racing League or ZRL, and teams have to apply to gain access to this league.

However, this doesn’t mean that all of the teams are pro teams – in fact, a lot of amateur and online-only teams manage to gain access as well. ‘Pro’ teams in the online racing sphere are rather nebulous – there isn’t a governing body in Zwift or RGT that sets categories analogous to, say, WorldTour vs Continental, and, like the wild wild west, most of the ZRL is unregulated, meaning there isn’t a testing pool in the same way there is in real-life

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Images: SWpix.com (t/a Photography Hub Ltd.

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t’s best to think of platforms like RGT or Zwift as race organisers similar to ASO and series like ZRL as being similar to, say, Flanders Classics.

Different races in different places require different strategies and talents from riders and this is also the case with different platforms with different riding physics.

With governing bodies like USA Cycling and the UCI getting involved - imposing strict regulatory measures for its World Championships, including drug testing, sending every competitor the exact same model of trainer (a Tacx Neo NT2) and a complicated series of weigh-in videos it’s clear that the powers that be in cycling are taking this seriously, and it’s no wonder. Seeing as there are hundreds of thousands of people Zwifting at any given time, that’s a lot of eyeballs for sponsors.

Despite the chaotic state of its current iteration, e-racing has a lot of potential and a lot of positives. SD Worx rider Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, winner of the inaugural UCI E-Sports World Championships, spoke extensively to me about the role of e-racing in lowering the cost of entry into competitive cycling and leveling the playing field for women’s cycling in particular. Moolman Pasio, who entered cycling later in life than the average professional after graduating from university with a degree in chemical

E-RACING

engineering, likes the fact that that e-sports bring in people from all walks of life. She’s currently working on starting an e-sports team of her own, through the cycling tourism business she runs in Girona, Rocacorba Cycling “Seeing all the different types of women on this WhatsApp group, from youngsters who are just starting out and trying to get to the top, to full-time working women who never imagined racing their bikes...

For people like that, [e-racing is] way less intimidating than the crews, tactics and skills, and riding in a bunch,” she said.

When Moolman Pasio used to do ‘ride with a pro’ events before the pandemic, she was frustrated by how few women showed up compared to men. After hosting women-only social rides on Zwift, she realised that the sport’s intimidating nature kept people out. “When they’re riding in the virtual world, they feel safer because they’re in their own home,” she said. “One woman said it perfectly; she told me, ‘My avatar has no shame.’ So, all of a sudden, they were way more open to asking questions, to trying new things because no one can actually see them.

That’s when I realised how important this was going to be for growing the sport,” The equipment plays a role, too. To ride competitively in real life, the cost of entry is prohibitive – a really good racing bike runs around 6,000 euros, but a smart trainer that can be used with any bike ranges from 600 to 1,200. In addition, on Zwift, UCI rules about things like minimum bike weight, a number that is based on the mass of the male body, are no longer relevant.

The universality of online is another perk.

For riders based in places a long way from Europe, like Tibco-SVB’s Sarah Gigante, e-sports allow for more racing during more times of the year. “I can race the best Zwift races from across the world from the comfort of my lounge room, which makes a huge difference for Australians in particular,” Gigante said.

Zwift is the closest normal people like me will get to riding with and against the pros. I get a notification every time Mathieu van der Poel is online, and, should I choose, I could hop on my bike and try to stay in his wheel for a few seconds if I wanted to. Even though that’s nothing like being in his presence after a race, it’s still something, a point of access, and that’s very appealing. Hence why teams like Trek-Segafredo will occasionally do Zwift social rides with their riders, where they answer questions while pedalling at a leisurely pace that anyone can follow. Building these relationships between teams and fans is important for growing the sport, just like other social media is in terms of brand recognition and audience engagement.

I get a notification every time Mathieu van der Poel is online, and I could hop on my bike and try to stay in his wheel for a few seconds if I wanted

oolman Pasio, who is 35, told me that e-sports have specifically given her a career to look forward to once she retires from the road.

Meanwhile, some of the best e-sports racers aren’t even professional cyclists or pro athletes at all. Saris+The Pro’s Closet e-racer and winner of the overall Echelon Racing Series Jacquie Godbe is an MD/PhD student at Northwestern University in Chicago. She started e-racing during the pandemic as a means to recover from a running injury and because the gyms that allowed her to train for her sport E-racing involves a sign-in, a of choice, triathlon, weigh-in and antidoping measures were closed.

Images: SWpix.com (t/a Photography Hub Ltd.

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“I’ll fully admit that e-racing started as a substitute for what I couldn’t do,” Godbe said in an email. “However, as I learned more about the platform and got to explore more and more opportunities within the sport, it rapidly developed into a passion. As far as identifying as an e-sports specialist? I guess at this point I have to!” Godbe now has a dedicated training programme through her coach devoted entirely to e-racing.

One thing is clear, however.

E-racing is becoming its own animal, distinct and nuanced in its own way. We saw in the UCI World E-Sports Championships how riders like Anna van der Breggen failed to bridge the gap between road racing and e-racing. Because it was in December, many pros were off their peak or didn’t train specifically, choosing instead to simply wing it. That was a mistake.

Moolman Pasio is from South Africa and is routinely outnumbered by riders from stronger cycling nations in the Worlds road race. However, she saw e-Worlds as an alternative path to the rainbow bands, and she trained for the online event explicitly, reconning the course in practice, tracking the Zwift data of her competitors and planning her in-game power-ups (which are given to the riders after they complete a lap or a king of the mountain and include either a feather which reduces the weight of the rider in-game or an aero-helmet to give them an aerodynamic boost, an element totally foreign to all other kinds of racing). Godbe, who finished fifth, sat down with her coach and oriented her training around being as explosive as possible on the final hill. As an e-sports specialist, she focused also on the in-game mechanics, the drafting and downhill mechanisms that play a big role in team and individual strategy. Gigante, who was already in training for the Australian National Championships, found it easy to add Zwift

Worlds to her existing schedule, as Australian racing often happens earlier than the traditional road calendar. She came second.

So what’s next for e-sports? For years, Zwift founder Eric Min has targeted the 2024 Summer Olympics, wanting e-racing to be among the sports there. As the discipline continues to professionalise, it’s likely that more and more pro teams and their sponsors will get involved, either in forming teams of their own or in using e-racing as a recruitment tool for the road.

Still, schedule-wise, the e-racing world caters to the big guns on the road. The E-Sports World Championship takes place in December during most riders’ offseasons, and both the Echelon series and ZRL run during the winter, focusing most Competitors at the British Cycling Zwift eRacing Championships

heavily on the slower months of December through February, which would benefit riders from places in the southern hemisphere whose road racing seasons run opposite to those in Europe, as well as those riding cyclo-cross in the autumn and early winter. This is a double-edged sword for many of the pros, who do not want to risk peaking too early, which, in a way, evens the playing field for those emerging as e-sports specialists.

As it stands now, Zwift is a massive platform, and while regulation continues to be a problem, the standards set by the UCI for the first World Championships prove that, at least at the top end, anticheating measures are possible to achieve.

We may see e-racing take on some of the glamour of professional gaming, where tournaments are held live in stadiums and

broadcast on channels like ESPN with full commentary, something that could sell a lot of tickets. Given that gate money, or lack thereof, has been cited as one of the most challenging aspects of building a sustainable business model for the sport, this will attract a lot of attention from the sport’s stakeholders.

The future of e-sports is bright, especially as its own discipline within cycling. It is unique in tactics and skills and favours a wider variety of bodies from all kinds of different backgrounds than road cycling, which is still very European and whose stars get younger and younger every year. Either way, one thing is certain: your trainer-bound bike might not be going places, but e-racing certainly is.

RETRO MERCIER TEAM

ALWAYS THERE The Mercier team was ubiquitous in cycling from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Though they never won the Tour, they came close, and won most other major races. Procycling looks at the history of a quintessentially French team Writer William Fotheringham Image Getty Images

here were many remarkable things about the career of the late Raymond Poulidor: longevity, consistency, immense popularity in spite of the fact that he never wore the yellow jersey and that rivalry with Jacques Anquetil. But another thing that set Poulidor apart is often overlooked: his career-long loyalty, for the best part of 20 years, to the same team, sponsored by the Mercier cycle company. In a dog-eat-dog sport, such faith is rare indeed.

Never quite as distinguished as Peugeot, Mercier played second fiddle to Anquetil and Hinault’s squads when Master Jacques and the Badger were in their pomp. They never won the Tour de France. However, the team’s 40 stage wins in 21 starts was more than respectable, as was their record elsewhere, and they made an impact on the Tour and other races more often than not, with podiums and stage wins. In soccer terms, they were solid middleof-the-table finishers, with one astonishingly popular and durable star. Think Matt Le Tissier-era Southampton FC. The Mercier cycle company was founded in 1919 by three brothers, Emile, Marcel and Constant, initially to make parts for pedals. By the early 1930s, they had expanded to

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produce complete bikes, and around the same time they ventured into team sponsorship. In 1937, the company won the Tour for the first time, with Roger Lapébie, although his bike did not actually have a Mercier badge on it and Lapébie was riding for France. After the war, the team expanded, and adopted a light purple jersey, enjoying a run of oneday classics success with Flemish riders such as Marcel Kint, Briek Schotte, Rik Van Steenbergen and Raymond Impanis.

Mercier was at its most successful at this time, taking wins in all the great Belgian classics. But the phase for which the team is best known began in the mid-1950s, by which time they had added the BP oil company to long-time tyre sponsor Hutchinson, the jersey had changed to deep purple, and former team rider Antonin Magne, who had won the Tour twice in the 1930s, joined as directeur sportif in 1953.

Briefly, Louison Bobet rode for them, but he would be listed as Bobet-BP-Hutchinson, because he used his own bikes.

The defining moment came when Poulidor, then aged 24, signed up at the end of 1959. Poupou’s breakthrough year was 1961, when he landed Milan-San Remo and the French Nationals. 1962, the team’s first Tour de France – it had been run on a national team format since the war - was a triumph, with Poulidor winning a stage, taking third

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overall and three other Mercier riders finishing between 10th and 17th.

Magne and Poulidor were one of the great cycling partnerships. “He was obsessed with Poulidor, and the rest of the riders were there to help Poulidor,” was Barry Hoban’s view of Magne in the Yorkshireman’s autobiography Watching the Wheels go Round. “He could have had the whole team in a break except Poulidor and would still have stayed behind Poulidor.” Much of Hoban’s book is devoted to races he would have won if only Magne had been wise enough to pay a modicum of attention to his British sprinter.

Magne, nicknamed Tonin le Sage – Tonin the Wise – wore a countryman’s long white smock and black beret and, like Poulidor, made much of his rural roots in central France, unsubtly positioning himself, his star and their team as the antithesis to the sophisticated and urban Jacques Anquetil, although Anquetil’s urban roots extended only to the fact that his family lived near Rouen.

Hoban had numerous gripes about Magne’s inability to see beyond his biggest star. Magne provided only Poulidor with the best equipment, such as light silk tyres – the rest of the team rode 280g cotton training tubulars - and was unwilling to spend money on the team.

He was the last to invest in six-speed freewheels, the last to let his team use 42-tooth chainrings and was stingy with his tyres.

Hoban, like most of the riders, bought his own tyres, but he had no option but to use the jerseys without a zip which Magne insisted on, because they cost the sponsors one franc less than zipped kit. At times, when the team turned up at races and saw Anquetil’s St Raphaël squad kitted out in silk jerseys, light wheels and tyres, their heads would fall off.

The manager liked to be addressed as Monsieur Magne.

“His word was accepted as gospel… he was looked upon with awe. When he entered a room it was like the Pope coming in.” Hoban, however, would ask the manager why he had recommended such and such a tactic, although on one occasion, it landed him in trouble. “Magne had been giving us instructions and I didn’t believe a word, so I said, ‘Oh Monsieur Magne, arrêtes ta connerie.’” There was deathly silence and all the riders burst out laughing.

Poulidor was in hysterics. Roughly speaking Hoban, still in the process of learning French, had said, “Stop talking crap, Monsieur Magne.”

The Magne-Poulidor partnership spanned the golden era when Poupou and Master Jacques faced off each July in the Tour de France, with the whole nation riveted to the month-long soap opera. It culminated in the 1964 duel on the Pûy de Dôme summit finish, and not surprisingly Mercier’s sales figures grew accordingly. By 1968, however, even with Anquetil approaching retirement, it was increasingly clear that Poulidor was unlikely ever to win the Tour, but fortunately Magne was about to sign another star, a young, uppity Breton called Cyrille Guimard.

In contrast to Hoban, Guimard felt that Magne was happy to give him the responsibility that he craved, he liked the old man’s professionalism, and his view was that when the team failed tactically, that was largely due to Poulidor’s lack of leadership ability. Hinting at the future that lay ahead of him as France’s most successful directeur sportif, Guimard had no hesitation in getting involved in decision making and would challenge the team’s suppliers when he felt the equipment was below par.

In November 1969, at a dinner in Paris in honour of Magne, Edmund Mercier, the son of the company’s founder, stood up, made a presentation to the DS, and congratulated him on his retirement, to the utter amazement of all those present. Sitting at the same table was Louis Caput, who was set to take over from Magne, with the Spanish company Fagor coming as lead sponsor; for the first time since the 1930s, the bike company was to cede Poulidor chats to the team name to another.

Mercier manager “Magne was an irreplaceable icon…

Magne before ParisLuxembourg 1966 He and Caput were like night and

Magne wore a countryman’s smock and black beret, and, like Poulidor, made much of his rural roots in central France

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day,” wrote Guimard in his Guimard (in green) takes the fight to Eddy memoirs Dans les secrets du Tour de Merckx in the 1972 France. “Magne: the Auvergne Tour de France countryman, conservative, pragmatic; Caput the Parisian urchin with a line in constant banter. Two worlds, two totally different views of cycling. We kept going with the same riders but it was a totally different team.”

Magne had considered Guimard too young to ride the 1969 Tour; he was launched into the race under Caput in 1970. The pugnacious Breton won the first stage, in his first Tour, ahead of Merckx and all the best sprinters; headlines were guaranteed. He wore the green jersey for a week, until Walter Godefroot took over.

In 1971 Guimard kicked on, winning two stages at the Vuelta, taking the points jersey, and finishing seventh overall at the Tour. That left him well placed to challenge Merckx for the green jersey in 1972 – he had taken the points prize that year in four stage races but unluckily, this happened to be the year when the Cannibal was looking to prove he was back to his best after his near-defeat the previous year to Luis Ocaña.

Guimard won stage 1, taking the yellow jersey, and that marked the beginning of a scrap with Merckx that was the main talking point of the race. The pair fought for bonus seconds, with Merckx taking the lead back after stage 3’s team time trial, and Guimard grabbing it again the next day. Guimard’s challenge for the overall lasted until stage 8, when he lost the jersey, after which he turned his

MERCIER’S WINS IN THE BIGGEST RACES RACE

YEAR

RIDER

Tour of Flanders

1942 1944 1946 1943 1948 1952 1954 1956 1948 1956 1963 1954 1956 1960 1961 1963 1964 1965 1979

Briek Schotte Rik Van Steenbergen Rik Van Steenbergen Marcel Kint Rik Van Steenbergen Rik Van Steenbergen Raymond Impanis Louison Bobet Maurice Mollin Fred De Bruyne Frans Melckenbeeck Rik Van Steenbergen Fred De Bruyne René Privat Raymond Poulidor Raymond Poulidor Raymond Poulidor Rolf Wolfshohl Joop Zoetemelk

Paris-Roubaix

Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Milan-San Remo

GP des Nations Vuelta a España

attention to green; he scored narrow wins in stages 14 and 15, the latter, on Mont Revard, after Merckx had already raised an arm to celebrate the win.

The drama took a final twist with Paris in sight when Guimard’s left knee gave out, and he abandoned on stage 18, unable to bend his leg. After the finish, when Merckx was awarded the maillot vert, he passed it on to the young Frenchman, who burst into tears. There were other consolations for Mercier: Poulidor rode conservatively to finish on the podium behind Merckx and Felice Gimondi, and Mercier also took the team standings. It was Guimard who had won hearts, by being the first Frenchman to take the fight to the living legend, but his retirement cost the team about £7,000 in prize money, according to Hoban.

There had been another change in 1972. Fagor had pulled out, and had been replaced by the insurance company GAN, at the instigation of the late Claude Sudres, whose son Philippe heads up the press department at Amaury Sport Organisation today. GAN – Groupe Assurance Nationale – had been founded in 1969, and had no public profile, until Sudres senior had the idea of buying a slot in the Tour de France’s publicity caravan and sponsoring the Tour’s afterrace animation.

While travelling around France, he got to know Caput, “who was left hanging when Fagor stopped”, said Philippe Sudres. The insurance company took a while to decide and the late confirmation of their backing meant that for that year, the team had the minimum of 15 riders, including Hoban, who had returned after two years under Jean Stablinski at Sonolor. The insurance company put in 400,000 francs (about €61,0000); Mercier made a smaller contribution on top of supplying equipment.

Images: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images (left), Offside / L’Equipe (right).

MERCIER TEAM

I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H

Procycling / June 2021 105

Image: Offside / L’Equipe (left), Getty Images (right).

Claude Sudres came in as manager with the task of running everything bar the sporting side of the squad, a novelty for cycling at the time. The team leaders were Poulidor, of course, and Guimard, and the year began with an astonishing win for Poupou in Paris-Nice, where he snatched the white leader’s jersey from Merckx, no less, in the final time trial up the Col d’Èze. “They said to my father, ‘Watch out, apart from Guimard this team has only old guys in it,’” recalled Philippe Sudres. “But they won plenty of races.”

In 1975 Mercier hit its production peak, shifting 150,000 bikes through a franchise system involving local shops, the same way that Peugeot and Gitane functioned. The sponsorship worked for GAN as well, who went from being a new enterprise with no public profile to being universally known, helped by the opening of shops in most French towns, which would be involved whenever the Tour visited.

“They owe their notoriety to the Tour, in the same way that L’Alpe d’Huez does,” said Philippe Sudres. Another policy was to support local amateur clubs with kit and equipment.

Guimard was never the same rider again; for Mercier, this meant relying on the consistent Poulidor and a key signing, the young Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk, who joined

in 1974. In the early season that year, Zoetemelk was unstoppable, winning Paris-Nice – the team’s third in a row after Poulidor took the 1973 edition – Catalan Week and the Tour de Romandie and he looked set to challenge Merckx in the Tour until a bad accident in the 1974 Midi Libre left him sidelined.

Fortunately Poulidor hit form again, delighting France with a stage win at Pla d’Adet, and finishing second to Merckx, while Zoetemelk returned to something like his best in 1976, when the pair finished second and third to Lucien van Impe in the Tour, enabling Poulidor to bow out with a podium finish in his final Tour at the age of 40.

Zoetemelk then took the fight to both Bernard Thévenet and Bernard Hinault between 1977 and 1979. By now, the partnership with GAN had ended, and they had been replaced by the ice cream company Miko.

The Mercier family were unsentimental in their approach to their directors. Caput was given a month’s notice when the 1978 season ended. “Compared to the golden handshake given to Magne, this was the cast-iron stab in the back,” wrote Hoban, who added that Caput “was so disenchanted with his dismissal that he bought a house in the country and moved 200km out of his native Paris”. His replacement was Jean-Pierre Danguillaume, who had raced for Peugeot.

One of cycling’s iconic battles: Poulidor (r) against Anquetil on the Puy de Dôme, in the 1964 Tour

I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H

106 Procycling / June 2021

RETRO MERCIER TEAM

Zoetemelk took “The bike company was on its last second for Mercier legs by the time I signed for them,” behind Hinault at the 1979 Tour de France said John Herety, the former Rapha DS who raced with the team – which was backed in its final years by the supermarket chain COOP - in 1982 and 1983, and lived above Danguillaume’s shop. By this time, there was increasing competition from abroad, but the buyers in the rural areas where bike sales were strongest were increasingly turning to cars.

“We had bikes badged Mercier but they weren’t made by Mercier. They did me a red-white-blue frame when I won the British Nationals in 1982, but I think that was because they were doing one for Régis Clère who won the French title at the same time. It was a happy team; I have fond memories of it. I’d hear that at Peugeot it was a bit grim around the dinner table. I never did the Tour with Mercier, so I don’t know if it all got a bit more serious there.”

“It was a fun team,” is how Herety recalls the last two years of that distinguished line of squads. “Danguillaume was a joker, a raconteur. He was smart. When he raced, he’d always have a glass of wine at the dinner table, he’d be smoking a cigarette and he’d make much of the fact he wasn’t going to bed early. Everyone thought that was how he behaved all the time but when he was at home he lived like a monk and trained like an animal. He was a good manager, in that he never pushed me to do things I didn’t want to do. You knew what was expected of you, it wasn’t particularly strict. I can only remember one occasion when he got upset with us, when we rode poorly in the Tour de l’Aude and we were made to ride back to the hotel. I told him it was dumb. I think it was just aimed at a couple of the French riders, but we all had to suffer as well.”

There were plenty of high points in the Danguillaume years. In the 1979 Tour, Zoetemelk matched Hinault for much of the race, winning a stage and finishing second overall. A year later, with Zoetemelk having transferred to Raleigh, Raymond Martin won the KoM jersey, while in 1983, Coop-Mercier won six stages and led for seven with

Jean-Louis Gauthier and Kim Andersen. The team showed well at the Vuelta, winning overall with Zoetemelk in 1979, and taking six stages in 1981. The bike company’s last Tour, without name sponsorship but supplying bikes to CoopHoonved, was not one to remember.

The writing was on the wall. Through the 1980s, the French cycle industry declined as the rural workers who bought most bikes moved to cars. The flagship, Peugeot, stopped sponsoring a team in 1986; Gitane, part-owned by the Renault car company, was sold in 1985. Mercier filed for bankruptcy that year and ceased production not long afterwards. The name was finally bought by a Luxembourg holding company at the start of the 21st century.

Now, Mercier is a badge on electric bikes, made in the far east, although production is expected to return to France this year. There is also a high-end clothing brand owned by Emile Mercier, son of Marcel, who bought the rights back from the holding company in a bid to relaunch the family business in a slightly different direction. There is, however, no sign of a return to the peloton.

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Procycling / June 2021 107

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Procycling / June 2021 109

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BMC ROADMACHINE 01 FOUR £6,200 ||| $6,999 The BMC Roadmachine is designed to do it all. This endurance bike is for the cyclist who wants to cover a lot of tarmac, but who isn’t fussed about the tiniest of watt gains from aero advantages and wants more compliance over sheer speed.

Not that it’s slow, however. This high performance 01 version is made of top-quality carbon, with an integrated aero cockpit. This model comes with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and CRD-321 carbon wheels. www.bmc-switzerland.com

110 Procycling / June 2021

Procycling / June 2021 111

Photography: Olly Curtis, Neil Godwin, Phil Barker

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Procycling / June 2021 113

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114 Procycling / June 2021

Debrief A N A L Y S I S

•

I N S I G H T

RACE OF THE MONTH / LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE / 25.4.21

Pogchamp: Tadej Pogačar celebrates his Liège-BastogneLiège victory in front of Alaphilippe, Gaudu, Valverde and Woods

Images: Kristof Ramon (main), Erik Lalmand - Pool/Getty Images.

This is the age of the all-rounder Remember when classics specialist Julian Alaphilippe almost won the Tour de France? Tour de France specialist Tadej Pogacar went one better by winning Liège-BastogneLiège. The result confirmed what

we’ve known for some time - that the era of the specialist is over and cycling is tilting back to the multitalented. It wasn’t just Liège - Wout van Aert and Marianne Vos both won Gent-Wevelgem and Amstel Gold, a double which hasn’t been achieved since the 1970s. Forget the

R A C E R E S U LT RIDER

TEAM

1

Tadej Pogačar

UAE Emirates

2

Julian Alaphilippe

Deceuninck-Quick Step

st

3

David Gaudu

Groupama-FDJ

st

116 Procycling / June 2021

•

TIME 6:39:26

23 Professional wins for Tadej Pogačar, at age 22

D A T A

days of Chris Froome winning grand tours and only grand tours and Tom Boonen’s season being based exclusively on April. Everybody can now do everything again.

It has also been a spring in which we’ve been reminded that cycling is a complex sport. If it were as simple as the fastest sprinter winning a sprint, Alaphilippe would have taken an overdue maiden victory in La Doyenne. However, life and bike races are more complicated than that. Recall the finish of the Tour of Flanders where the diesel Kasper Asgreen was given no chance against the much faster Mathieu van der Poel… until he beat him.

The difference in both races was not only what had gone before, but one more simple fact: Asgreen in the Ronde and Pogacar at Liège were strong enough that after 250km-plus, they could tear up the form book.

On the surface, Liège 2021 was similar to last year - five riders (against four in 2020) went clear on

ADAM BECKET

EDWARD PICKERING

SOPHIE HURCOM

EDITOR

DEPUTY EDITOR

S TA F F W R I T E R

Ed thinks we should leave the Mur de Huy alone at Flèche Wallonne.

It is what it is: one of the best single kilometres in cycling; just don’t watch the whole race.

Pressure, what pressure? Sophie was impressed with how coolly Demi Vollering won Liège after expert work from SD Worx. One of the riders of the spring.

Stating the bleeding obvious here after the spring he’s had, but Tadej Pogačar is the real deal. He’s so young and powerful, and Adam wonders if he will keep improving.

the final climb, the Côte de Rocheaux-Faucons. That quintet included Alejandro Valverde, who’s been an all-rounder since before it was fashionable, Michael Woods and David Gaudu, plus Alaphilippe and Pogacar. Pogacar’s team-mate Davide Formolo made the initial surge on the Roche-aux-Faucons to start breaking up the lead group, and Woods attacked over the top of Formolo pulling the winning quintet clear. When it looked as if the group behind might squeeze the gap closed on the nasty drag after the Roche-aux-Faucons, Woods attacked again, reinvigorated the leaders and made the gap permanent.

The politics of the lead group weren’t complicated. Alaphilippe and Valverde had the best reputation as sprinters, though the Frenchman does look to have been operating just a few percentage points below his effervescent best in the last year or so and Valverde is, let’s not forget, 41. And it’s best never to underestimate Pogacar, as the cycling world found last summer his final TT win tends to obscure our memory of the rest of the race, but he did outsprint small groups to win two other Geoghegan Hart stages. Gaudu pulls the Ineos train and Woods, on La Redoute, therefore, splitting the field

needed to separate themselves from the others if they were to have a chance, but only Woods tried, 1,500m from the end, and his rivals were wise to his plan. In the sprint, Valverde found himself on the front, which was a blunder.

Alaphilippe, in fourth wheel, could not have asked for a better situation, and his kick was perfectly timed to take him past Valverde, Woods and Gaudu. It was just that Pogacar’s kick was even more perfectly timed.

Pogacar’s win was hidden in plain sight through the race. He’d been floating around in the wheels, especially when Ineos took the race on at La Redoute, and looked fairly easy in following their surges. His UAE team set up the winning break.

Ineos, on the other hand, did a lot of work and dictated entirely the shape of the race… until they missed the crucial move. Tao Geoghegan Hart led a mountain train style quartet of Ineos riders, with Kwiatkowski, Yates and Carapaz, up the climb, and the pressure he put on pulled clear a dozen riders. Carapaz made a televisual solo move after the Côte des Forges. But the other teams had significant numbers, and they did to Ineos what Ineos used to do to everybody else in the grand tours and smothered the Ecuadorian’s attack. Kwiatkowski tried to bridge to the leaders after the Roche-auxFaucons but along with the rest of the race, he could only watch as the strongest riders in the race, and the strongest rider in the world, disappeared up the road.

LA DOYENNE & THE TOURS

Pogačar’s victory was hidden in plain sight through the race. He’d been floating around in the wheels, especially when Ineos Grenadiers took the race on

Tadej Pogačar didn’t quite break new ground in winning Liège and a grand tour, but he’s joined a fairly elite group in doing so. Thirteen Liège winners in cycling history have also won grand tours; Pogačar is one of seven who have won Liège and the Tour de France.

It’s no great surprise that three of the greatest Tour riders - Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault - were Liège champions, but most riders who doubled up with La Doyenne and a grand tour were classics specialists who managed to win a three-week stage race as well.

Of the monuments, Liège is one of the most suited to grand tour riders. It cannot match Il Lombardia, which is virtually mountainous and can boast 25 winners who were also grand tour champions. But the climbing that the peloton faces in Liège-Bastogne-Liège means that there is a certain degree of crossover. Paradoxically Julian Alaphilippe, who Pogačar beat in the sprint this year, should be far better suited to Liège but has still never won it.

L I È G E /GT W I N N E R S LBL WINNER

GT wins

Léon Scieur, 1920

Tour 1921

Ferdi Kübler, 1951-2 Jacques Anquetil, 1966 Eddy Merckx, 1969, 71-3, 75 Bernard Hinault 1977, 80

Tour 1950 Tour 1957, 1961-4; Giro 1960, 64; Vuelta 1963 Tour 1969-72, 74; Giro 1968, 70, 72-4; Vuelta 1973 Tour 1978-79, 81-82, 85; Giro 1980, 82, 85; Vuelta 1978, 83

Sean Kelly, 1984, 89

Vuelta 1988

Evgeni Berzin, 1994

Giro 1994

Alexandre Vinokourov, 2005, 10

Vuelta 2006

Alejandro Valverde, 2006, 08, 15, 17

Vuelta 2009

Andy Schleck, 2009

Tour 2010

Danilo Di Luca, 2007

Giro 2007

Primož Roglič, 2020

Vuelta 2019, 20

Tadej Pogačar, 2021

Tour 2020

Procycling / June 2021 117

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

PROCYCLING PICK / FLÈCHE WALLONNE FÉMININE / 21.04.21

The Queen of the Mur de Huy atching Anna van der Breggen during the final 30 kilometres of Flèche Wallonne was a bit like watching an assassin prepare to kill someone in a movie.

The Dutchwoman’s face was expressionless, her body barely moved an inch, her shoulders frozen, except for the constant turning of her legs on the pedals.

While riders of the calibre of Annemiek van Vleuten and Elisa Longo Borghini visibly gritted their teeth and exhaled, their shoulders rocking as they attempted to break Van der Breggen before the Mur de Huy, the 31-year-old kept her gaze fixed low on the road in front of her, and simply followed every move.

There was no inkling of emotion as to how she was feeling, or the effort she was exerting. She looked completely at ease and in control.

Images: Czerwinski (Niewiadoma, AVDB), Franklin (Cavendish)/all via Getty Images.

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118

Kasia Niewiadoma tried to stop her, valiantly. The Pole, looking back in her best form this spring, was the only rider who could match Van der Breggen as she led the way up the 1.3km Mur spinning a low gear and high cadence, while everyone else was shed out of the back. Still, Niewiadoma was grinding compared to Van der Breggen’s gliding. As the gradient kicked up, nine, 10, 11, 12 per cent, through to 19 at its steepest middle section, Niewiadoma lined up shoulder to shoulder with Van der Breggen. It was a power play, an attempt to psych the defending champion out and show that she could be equalled. But even then Van der Breggen didn’t flinch. The only significant movement she made was when she rose out of the saddle at around 200 metres to go, and accelerated away to the line. There was nothing Niewiadoma, or anyone else, was able to do about it, as Van der Breggen claimed her historymaking seventh consecutive Flèche Wallonne victory.

Van der Breggen’s career was already made up of a string of remarkable performances and race records - her double at the World Championships in the road race and time trial last year being a classic case and point. Yet her winning streak at Flèche is the peak. That Van der Breggen had won six consecutive editions of the Belgian classic before this year’s race had

R A C E R E S U LT RIDER

TEAM

1

Anna van der Breggen

SD Worx

3.28.27

2

Kasia Niewiadoma

Canyon-Sram

at 0.02

3

Elisa Longo Borghini

Trek-Segafredo

Procycling / June 2021

TIME

st

Police? There’s been a Mur de: Van der Breggen takes Flèche win seven in Huy Niewiadoma looked strong on the Mur, and scored her best result yet with second

16 VdB’s biggest winning margin in seconds, in 2017

begun is something unparalleled in the modern era of the sport. To then win a seventh is something no rider, male or female had ever done before in a one-day race. Sean Kelly won seven GC titles at Paris-Nice in a row, but that was a stage race, and Jacques Anquetil won nine editions of GP des Nations in the 1950s, but only six of those were consecutive, while Gianbattista Baronchelli also won six editions of the Giro dell’Appennino between 1977 and 1982. The closest comparison in terms of consecutive one-day wins during the last 20 years is Alejando Valverde’s four in the men’s edition of Flèche, between 2014 and 2017 three short of Van der Breggen.

Flèche Wallonne is a race criticised for its predictability.

No matter the course and the kilometres that come before, the men’s and women’s races are defined

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

TOUR OF TURKEY / 11-18.4.21

VIEW FROM THE TEAM CAR Rik Van Slycke, DS, Deceuninck-QS Delko’s José Díaz might have won the GC title thanks to his stage 5 win on the eight-stage race’s only mountain finish, but it was Deceuninck-Quick Step who dominated in Turkey, winning four of the seven bunch sprints through a rejuvinated Mark Cavendish.

by the final sprint up the Mur de Huy. Van der Breggen’s success here made the race outcome even more inevitable. You have to go back to 2014 to find a different winner, a time when many of her rivals in the group that entered the climb weren’t even racing as pros yet.

That sense of inevitability when Van der Breggen raced here, while predictable, is also what makes her achievement impressive. We all knew she was likely to win, and still she went ahead and did it.

Van der Breggen is retiring at the end of this year, and a new era will begin at Flèche in 2022. “Next time, I won’t bother the girls any more.

It’s up to somebody else now,” she said, when speaking after the podium celebrations. But a piece of this race, in this part of the Ardennes, will always belong to Anna van der Breggen.

It was always the team plan to have Mark try to get his first win of the season over there. We should have been happy with one victory, but the circumstances went in another direction and he was, for us, in very good shape. He was sprinting like before, in his way, from wheel to wheel and bam, he had the little last explosion like he had a few years ago - five, six, 10 years ago. He was also surprised that it went so well and that he could win four.

The first stage, we were well placed with Hodeg as his lead-out, and then suddenly the Polish champion from Bingoal came inside and they couldn’t make the corner and were pushed into the barriers. He did the sprint, to save as much as he could, but he felt he was really doing a good sprint, and that gave him confidence and the opportunity for the next day.

The comeback For us it was a little kids: Cavendish bit upside down. celebrates with Normally we have Fabio Jakobsen

a few ProContinental teams coming into WorldTour races and now we were two, three WorldTour teams into their world. In the beginning it was a little bit chaotic, because their way of riding is different. Still, whatever happens they kept looking at us. It is very difficult to control a race with two, three riders.

After the first stage, we were not the leader; we convinced the team in respect of the jersey they still had to pull if there was a breakaway, and we managed to keep everything together.

Astana was there, and Alpecin with Philipsen, and they understand the system with the breakaway, how you get a bunch sprint.

This was a sprinters’ team. There was nobody for GC and stage 5 was the only stage we had nothing to do with. We also had Fabio, and we didn’t know how he was. So we focused completely on Cav.

R A C E R E S U LT RIDER

TEAM

TIME 29:19:40

1

José Manuel Díaz

Delko

2

Jay Vine

Alpecin-Fenix

at 0:01

3

Eduardo Sepúlveda

Androni-Giocattoli

at 0:06

Procycling / June 2021 119

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH UAE ARE STILL RELIANT ON POGAČAR here was a psychological battle going on at Itzulia Basque Country between Wdghm#Srjdfdu#dqg#Sulprą# Roglic, played out via the proxy of their teams. Roglic led the race with a very strong ride in the opening time trial, and it looked, with a 20-second buffer on Pogacar, that Roglic could deploy Jumbo-Visma into defensive mode, control the race, and assume that their leader would not cede that much time on the final summit finish in Arrate. However, on day four, UAE Emirates slipped Brandon McNulty into a late break, along with Jonas Vingegaard from Jumbo, while Jumbo applied the brakes behind. McNulty went into the race lead, with Roglic now second and Vingegaard third, and it looked as if Jumbo had blundered. They’d gone from having their best rider in first place, to having to deal with a dangerous rival in first. However, McNulty has not quite achieved the consistency to match his occasional brilliance, yet UAE rode to defend him on the final day, instead of briefing Pogacar to watch Roglic and for the rest of the team to defend McNulty. When the American faltered, Pogacar was marooned with him, and Roglic infiltrated a dangerous break which put a minute into Pogacar and far more into McNulty. Pogacar made a spirited chase, but the effort that could possibly have gone into trying his luck at Arrate just went into a futile pursuit, while Roglic and Jumbo suddenly looked very astute.

T

120 Procycling / June 2021

LIÈGE-BASTOGNE-LIÈGE FÉMININ / 25-04-21

#TACTICS 101: STRENGTH IN DEPTH WORX iège-Bastogne-Liège may be a climberfriendly race, but the 15 flat kilometres that now sit between the top of the final climb and the finish line mean it plays into the hands of a rider who can climb, but also sprint: see Marianne Vos. It’s also why SD Worx were backing their bright young talent in Demi Vollering, the 24-year-old Dutchwoman, who finished third in Liège on her debut in 2019. Vollering is cut from a similar cloth to her compatriot in that she excels at short, sharp climbs, but her biggest asset is also her speed. Having finished narrowly second to Vos at Amstel,

L

if Vollering were to win, it would help to get rid of Vos first.

Using their strength in depth has always been SD Worx’s modus operandi. Niamh Fisher-Black went up the road in the early break, before continuing solo in a long-distance effort. It meant SD Worx’s five other riders could sit in, while rivals burned out their team-mates.

Fisher-Black wasn’t reeled in until the Côte de la Redoute, after 100km, when Ashleigh Moolman Pasio was next to go on the offensive. The South African attacked twice on the climb, the second time forcing a move with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Lucinda Brand. By now, Vos was doing much of the chasing herself.

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

BR ABANTSE PIJL / 14.4.21

Press Conference: RUTH WINDER

It’s your first one-day win, so does that make it even more impressive?

Yes. Also just that it’s a Belgian classic on top of that. Obviously, it’s different this year with not so many fans, but it feels like bike racing in Belgium and the Netherlands is huge. It feels really cool, and people recognise you on the road and congratulate you and stuff.

World champion Van der Breggen sets the pace on the final climb, to distance Vos

At the foot of the decisive Côte de la Roche aux Faucons, the final climb with 15km to go, SD Worx still had four riders, while most other favourites were isolated. Chantal van den Broeck-Blaak piloted Van der Breggen to the front, where she proceeded to set such a fierce pace, she shed almost everyone, including Vos. Vos tried valiantly to chase back on and she did briefly rejoin the front group of five, but the energy she’d spent took its toll and she was definitively dropped. With Van der Breggen left to execute a 10km long lead-out to the line, all Vollering had to do was sprint to win. Which she did.

So it means something more?

The fans are so into it. For me, bike racing is entertainment, it’s a sport. Of course I love it, but it’s also about how the more people can watch it, the better it is. The fans and the spectacle of sport alone is one of the reasons I love sport, so that’s really cool for me when people get excited about the race.

The fact that it was so close made it stressful for me and Demi [Vollering], but it made it really exciting for all the fans.

You wouldn’t want to repeat that?

It was a little painful, especially as I wouldn’t have been unhappy with second. I think I did everything I could in that race. Obviously I wanted to win, and winning felt really good and it meant a lot.

How did you make it into the front?

Annemiek van Vleuten attacked and was setting up Leah Thomas, on the climb about a kilometre from the finish of the circuit. We caught the girls that were up the road, and we were Photo finish: super motivated Vollering celebrates to work together but Winder is awarded the win and stayed clear.

What were the moments after the finish line like?

We crossed the line and Demi had

R A C E R E S U LT RIDER

TEAM

1

Ruth Winder

Trek-Segafredo

TIME

2

Demi Vollering

SD-Worx

st

3

Elisa Balsamo

Valcar-Travel & Service

st

3:20:00

Images: Claessen (AVDB), Van Hecke (Winder)/Getty Images.

How special does it feel to win?

It feels really cool. It is a big race to win for me, and I’m still very excited by it, even if it was by a tiny amount and I didn’t have that ‘I’ve won a race’ feeling, because I didn’t get to celebrate on the line. So it feels different to the other races I’ve won, but it’s still really special.

celebrated. Demi celebrated so confidently that I just assumed she’d seen something. I had to go to the podium, one of the officials came over and said I was there for first place. I think I cried a little bit, then I did the TV interview, and then they told me I didn’t win again. I felt nauseous, for what felt like half an hour.

Procycling / June 2021 121

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

Deceuninck-Quick Step 20 Jumbo-Visma 14 Alpecin-Fenix 10

UP TO APR 27

UAE Emirates 10 Groupama-FDJ 8

Deceuninck-Quick Step . . . . . . 7 Alpecin-Fenix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 UAE Emirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Trek-Segafredo . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Jumbo-Visma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Groupama-FDJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ineos Grenadiers . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Inform TMX Make . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Black Spoke Pro Cycling . . . . . .1 Ag2r Citroën . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Qhubeka-Assos . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Cofidis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Team BikeExchange . . . . . . . . .1 Movistar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

WINS

BY TEAM

Trek-Segafredo . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Lotto Soudal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

STAGE RACE WINS

Team BikeExchange . . . . . . . . 4 Bora-Hansgrohe . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

TEAM

WINS

PODIUM

2

5

2 Jumbo-Visma

2

2

3 UAE Emirates

2

1

4 Team BikeExchange

1

1

5 Lotto Soudal

1

6 Trek-Segafredo

1

1

1

7 Bora-Hansgrohe

1

1

1

8 Groupama-FDJ

1

9 Delko

1

10 Mazowsze Serce Polski

1

1

Jumbo-Visma's clean sweep at Itzulia Basque Country bumps them up from third to second place this month, joint on wins with Ineos and UAE. Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard finished first and second on GC, while they also took the points, KOM and team prizes.

MEN’S WINS BY RIDER

ONE-DAY RACE WINS

Ineos Grenadiers 13

Ineos Grenadiers

POINTS

KOM

TEAM

6

5

TADEJ POGAČAR

SAM BENNETT

JUMBO-VISMA

U A E E M I R AT E S

DECEUNINCK-QUICK STEP

Jonas Vingegaard Mathieu van der Poel Wout van Aert Mark Cavendish Filippo Ganna Davide Ballerini Ryan Gibbons Jasper Philipsen Arnaud Démare

Jumbo-Visma Alpecin-Fenix Jumbo-Visma Deceuninck-Quick Step Ineos Grenadiers Deceuninck-Quick Step UAE Emirates Alpecin-Fenix Groupama-FDJ

BEST TEAM-MATE

5 1

1

1

1

1

1 1

1

Tadej Pogačar might be leading the way with six wins under his belt already in 2021, but his Italian team-mate Davide Formolo has been central to those efforts. He has been there for five wins, and played a big role in Pogačar's win at LiègeBastogne-Liège at the end of April.

1 1

Belgium move into the lead, thanks to Jasper Philipsen's win at Scheldeprijs and two stage wins at the Tour of Turkey, and Wout van Aert's win at Amstel Gold. Italy though, are keeping the wins ticking over with Gianni Moscon picking up his first two of 2021.

17

15

12

11

10

BELGIUM

ITALY

DENMARK

SLOVENIA

GREAT BRITAIN

DAVIDE FORMOLO U A E E M I R AT E S

Procycling / June 2021

4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3

4

MEN’S WINS BY COUNTRY

122

5

PRIMOŽ ROGLIČ

ANALYSIS / INSIGHT / DATA

WOMEN’S WINS BY RIDER

WOMEN'S WINS BY TEAM

ONE-DAY RACE WINS UP TO APRIL 27

2

2

2

ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN

GEORGIA WILLIAMS

MOVISTAR

T R E K- S E G A F R E D O

BIKEEXCHANGE

SD Worx Valcar-Travel and Service Jumbo-Visma N/A InstaFund La Prima SD Worx Liv Racing

2 2 2 2 2 1 1

UNLUCKIEST RIDER Movistar's Danish fast finisher Emma Norsgaard has finished second four times already this season, in just 11 race starts. She has finished inside the top 10 a further three times, including third on GC at the Healthy Ageing Tour. A win is surely on the horizon for the 21-year old.

Images: Getty Images, Team Jumbo-Visma (Roglic), Corvos (Williams).

8

With wins at Flèche Wallonne and Liège in the Ardennes, to go with Strade Bianche and Omloop, SD Worx has been the team of the classics campaign.

ELLEN VAN DIJK

Anna van der Breggen Chiara Consonni Marianne Vos Carla Oberholzer Vera Looser C. van den Broeck-Blaak Lotte Kopecky

SD Worx BikeExchange Trek-Segafredo Movistar Tibco-SVB Liv Racing Valcar-Travel Jumbo Visma Minsk Cycling Club Rally Cycling

4

SD Worx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 BikeExchange . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Valcar-Travel and Service . . .3 Trek-Segafredo . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Jumbo-Visma . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Movistar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Tibco-SVB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Liv Racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Team DSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

4 3 2

2

2 1

STAGE RACE WINS

TEAM 1

WINS

Trek-Segafredo

PODIUM

1

POINTS

KOM

TEAM

1

1

1

1

2 SD Worx

There's been no stage racing for the women's peloton throughout April, which means that Trek-Segafredo remain at the top of the table thanks to their win at Healthy Ageing Tour last month.

Ellen Van Dijk's GC win remains the only one of the season so far.

1

3 Ceratizit-WNT

1

4 Movistar

1

5 6 7 8 9 10

WOMEN’S WINS BY COUNTRY Wins from Anna van der Breggen, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering during the Ardennes campaign keep the Dutch riders streaking ahead at the end of the spring, on 12 victories. Ruth Winder's victory at Brabantse Pijl, meanwhile, gives the USA their first win of the year.

EMMA NORSGAARD

12

4

2

1

1

NETHERLANDS

ITALY

BELGIUM

AUSTRALIA

USA

M O V I S TA R

Procycling / June 2021 123

THE NUMBERS

THE BEST IN THE ARDENNES WHO RODE THE MOST RACES?

No one male rider dominated in the hilly classics this spring; Amstel, Flèche and Liège. The lowest combined total of results was by Julian Alaphilippe, who won Flèche and finished runner-up at Liège. The only other riders in the top 10 of all three races were Max Schachmann and Alejandro Valverde.

RIDER

NAT

TEAM

AMSTEL

FW

LBL

No one male rider rode all of the WorldTour one-day races that have happened so far this year. This is unsurprising, with the depth of modern teams allowing completely different squads to compete in Italy, over the cobbles, and in the Ardennes. Only two riders managed 10 races: Gonzalo Serrano, who only missed Gent-Wevelgem, and Greg van Avermaet, who missed La Flèche Wallonne.

JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE

DECEUNINCK-QS

6

1

2

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE

MOVISTAR

5

3

4

MAX SCHACHMANN

BORA-HANSGROHE

3

10

9

RIDER

TEAMS

MICHAŁ KWIATKOWSKI

INEOS GRENADIERS

8

23

11

MICHAEL WOODS

ISRAEL START-UP NATION

32

4

5

DAVID GAUDU

GROUPAMA-FDJ

34

7

3

GUILLAUME MARTIN

COFIDIS

16

16

15

GONZALO SERRANO GREG VAN AVERMAET MICHAEL SCHÄR HEINRICH HAUSSLER DANIEL OSS

Movistar AG2R CITROËN Ag2r Citroën Bahrain Victorious Bora-Hansgrohe

STARTS

10 10 9 9 7

THE MOST CONSISTENT TEAMS MEN Now the classics season is over, we have looked at which teams have been most consistent over March and April. It’s no surprise to see Deceuninck Quick-Step top of the pile, seeing as they won four out of the nine biggest races. On top of that, they claimed a further two second places at spring classics.

TEAM

OHN

SB

MSR

E3

GW

RVV

AGR

FW

LBL

Deceuninck-Quick Step

1

2

16

1

14

1

6

1

2

Alpecin-Fenix

14

1

5

3

10

2

7

12

51

Jumbo Visma

41

4

3

11

1

6

1

2

13

UAE-Team Emirates

8

7

12

18

3

18

12

-

1

Trek-Segafredo

63

18

1

14

-

4

40

11

8

Ineos Grenadiers

22

3

15

25

8

10

2

6

11

It's a similar pattern with the women’s teams across the eight one-day WorldTour events this spring. SD Worx were the most dominant, with established riders like Anna van der Breggen ably supported by new stars, such as Demi Vollering.

TEAM

SB

TAB

DP

GW

RVV

AGR

FW

LBL

SD Worx

1

14

3

11

5

2

1

1

Trek-Segafredo

2

1

7

17

4

8

3

3

Jumbo-Visma

7

2

-

1

12

1

11

6

Movistar

4

11

2

9

1

3

4

2

Canyon-Sram

9

4

8

18

20

10

2

4

*OHN: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, SB: Strade Bianche, MSR: Milan San Remo, E3: E3 Harelbeke, GW: Gent-Wevelgem, RVV: Tour of Flanders, AGR: Amstel Gold Race, FW: La Flèche Wallonne, LBL: Liège–Bastogne–Liège, TAB: Trofeo Alfredo Binda, DP: Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne 124 Procycling / June 2021

Images: Luc Claessen/Getty Images.

WOMEN

R A C E

C A L E N D A R

/

J U N E

2 0 2 1

ADAM BECKET S TA F F W R I T E R

WHY I LOVE… CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ 30 May-6 June | Fra | 2.UWT There is something special about the Dauphiné. It heralds the real beginning of summer, and the serious ratcheting up of tension ahead of the Tour de France, just weeks away. This year’s race concludes with three stages in the Alps, which will be perfect to whet the appetite for the Tour action a month later. The race is also run by ASO, so often is used as a testing ground for courses and climbs that might be used in the Dauphiné’s bigger brother at a later date.

It’s a week-long stage race that is unashamedly brutal, thanks to its location in and around the Massif Central and the French Alps. The scenery is always beautiful, and the racing always means a lot. Last year’s edition was especially important due to the lack of other racing DATE

RACE

CAT

DATE

RACE

18-22 May

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol

2.Pro

30 May-6 June Critérium du Dauphiné

22 May

Tour du Finistère

20-23 May

Vuelta a Burgos Feminas

23 May

Boucles de l'Aulne-Châteaulin

1.1

23 May

Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia

1.1

8 June

Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge

24 May

Ronde van Limburg

1.1

6-13 June

Tour de Suisse

2.UWT

25-30 May

Internationale Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour

2.Pro

9-13 June

Baloise Belgium Tour

2.Pro

27-29 May

Tour of Estonia

2.1

9-13 June

Tour of Slovenia

2.Pro

27-30 May

Boucles de la Mayenne

2.Pro

10-13 June

La Route d'Occitanie-La Dépêche du Midi

1.1

4 June

GP Canton d’Aargau

2.WWT

5 June

Dwars door het Hageland

5-6 June

Tour de Suisse Women

CAT 2.UWT 1.1 1.Pro 2.1 1.1

2.1

1.WT: One-day UCI WorldTour race / 1.Pro: Major one-day race / 1.1: Minor one-day race / 2.WT: UCI WorldTour stage race / 2.Pro: Major stage race / 2.1: Minor stage race / WWT: Women's WorldTour race

in the run-up to the moved Tour de France and reinforced Jumbo-Visma’s prominence going into that race. I like it because it gives a real glimpse of who has form and who hasn’t, although sometimes those who look like they’re flying at the beginning of June are not necessarily in the best shape in the middle of July.

Procycling / June 2021 125

NOT TO MISS

VUELTA A BURGOS FEMINAS 20-23 May | Spain | 2.WWT Finally, the women’s peloton has a topranked stage race to contest, with the Vuelta a Burgos the first WorldTour stage race this season. Not too long ago, the women’s calendar was packed with multi-day racing options, but with the likes of the Tour de l’Aude, Tour de France

Feminin and Women’s Challenge long ceased, today the programme is heavily skewed towards one-day racing. In fact, of the 24 WWT races this year, just seven are stage races - and the Itzulia race has already been cancelled because of covid.

There’s been one edition of the Vuelta a Burgos before, in 2019, when it was ranked 2.1 and won by FDJ’s Stine Borgli.

This year’s route certainly looks a lot

Tour warm-up intensifies LA ROUTE D’OCCITANIE 10-13 June | France | 2.1 Just 13 days separate the end of La Route d’Occitanie and the start of the Tour de France this year, in one of the last chances for riders to get some extra kilometres in their legs before the Brittany grand départ. Formerly known

FLASHPOINT

Typically the Southern French race mixes rolling, hilly stages with at least one mountain summit finish, where the GC is ultimately settled.

Although it dates back to 1977, until 1985 it was held during the spring, in March and April.

Despite its closeness to the Tour since, no

VUELTA A ANDALUCIA RUTA CICLISTA DEL SOL

as the Route du Sud, the French stage race is

rider who has won here has ever gone

18-22 May | Spain | 2.Pro

just four days long, but has tempted

on to win the yellow jersey - probably in

The challenge of La Toba, which comes 62km into stage 3 of the Ruta del Sol, is the fact that

a number of Tour GC favourites over recent

126

more climber-friendly than two years ago, with four tough-looking days.

There are eight categorised climbs, and three of the stages end atop one of them.

Chief among them is the summit finish at Lagunas de Neila on the final day, where the GC battle will surely be decided. It’s a climb long associated with the men’s race, and has regularly featured as the decisive end-point since it began in 1965.

part due to clashing with the Dauphiné and

it’s the third of four climbs in a day packed with 5,000 uphill metres. The stage is held within the

years. Nairo Quintana is a two-time winner

Suisse. The closest anyone has come in

Sierra de Segura mountain range, with La Toba the longest of the day’s four climbs (10.5km in

and Alberto Contador won in 2015, while

recent years is Quintana, who won Occitanie

length), the highest (at 1,607m) and with the steepest sections (15 per cent gradients at its

Egan Bernal is the defending champion.

in 2016 and finished third in the Tour.

worst). There’s still a stage to come, but expect the GC battle to be decided here.

Procycling / June 2021

BEST FOR FRENCH CUP ACTION TOUR DU FINISTÈRE 22 May | France | 1.1 The Finistere region of Brittany derived its name from the Latin word meaning ‘end of the earth’, as beyond it lies miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The Tour du Finistère might not be as sinister sounding as that, but it does feature all the character of a typical Breton race: wind, winding, narrow roads, and lots of short hills. Starting and ending in Quimper, the race is part of the Coupe de France, and unsurprisingly is a favourite of French riders and teams.

DISCOVERING THE NEXT POG AND ROG

RACE CALENDAR / JUNE 2021

Alexander Kristoff

on the limit of what I can do, so that’s why it suits me. The times I have won it, I was the fastest guy left in the pack. All the quicker guys were dropped, so I managed to win it in the sprint. I also won over the same final in the Tour de Suisse, in the first stage victory I got there.

The sprint is slightly uphill, but not super steep and not so long. So I don’t get caught before the finish line there. It suits me because it’s hard but it’s still possible to survive, when others are dropped. Usually I have a good sprint even if I’m tired, other fast guys lose their sprint more than me when they’re tired, so this is why this race suits me.

2019’S ON… GP DU CANTON D’AARGAU 4 June | Switzerland | 1.1 It’s a hard race. It’s a local circuit, but I think it has changed over the years. The first time I won [2015] was a different lap to the last two times [2018 and 2019]. It’s the same climb every year though, the Schlatt. It’s not an easy race, but usually there’s a group of 50-80 riders in the final. It has always been

TOUR OF SLOVENIA 9-13 June | Slovenia | 2.Pro

Images: Ramos (Ruta del Sol, Burgos), De Waele (Quintana, Suisse), Getty Images, Bettini Photo (Kristoff).

If any race is set to increase in standing, it’s surely the Tour of Slovenia, the home race of the defending Tour de France champion and runner up. This is also where Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar made their names. Roglič’s GC win in 2015 helped him sign a contract with Jumbo, while Pogačar finished fourth in 2018, when he was just 19 and riding for a Conti team.

Scouts will no doubt be looking for similar talent this year.

A TDF STAGE 11 DRESS REHEARSAL MONT VENTOUX CHALLENGE 8 June | France | 1.1 The stand-out day of the Tour de France this year is surely stage 11, featuring two ascents of Mont Ventoux. The organisers of the Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge clearly had an eye on what ASO came up with, as their one-day race will also now feature two ascents of the iconic mountain for the first time in its three-year history.

Starting in Vaison-la-Romaine, the 154km race doesn’t feature any flat road, with four other climbs packed in.

TIME TO CLIMB TOUR DE SUISSE

tuner before winning the yellow jersey. Andy

6-13 June | Switzerland | 2.UWT

Schleck raced in Switzerland in 2010, although he was retrospectively awarded the Tour title -

Tradition dictates that riders who want to win the Tour have to choose between the Tour de

Alberto Contador, who was DQed, favoured the Dauphiné. Then Egan Bernal did it in 2019.

Suisse or Critérium du Dauphiné as their final preparation race. No other two stage races at

While the Dauphiné offers more recovery time, the latter has something the French

this time of year are as tough and pack in as many days and as many climbs. But going back

race doesn’t, in its two time trials this year, to match those in the Tour. That, plus the

to 2007, of the nine Tour winners, only two of them chose the Tour de Suisse as their last fine-

climbing, could tempt a few more Tour favourites to Switzerland this year.

Bernal wears the yellow jersey in Suisse in 2019, before winning the Tour

Procycling / June 2021 127

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THE LAST WORD

LAURENS TEN DAM Laurens reflects on the power of visualisation for professional cyclists

B

Visualisation can be very helpful when you’re a pro cyclist. For me it helped me to prepare for a time trial where everything could be measured and there is just you, your bike and the ticking clock 130 Procycling / June 2021

sourness in the stomach to balance the ph level in their bodies. I admired those explosive types, because this talent was very far from my characteristics.

I thought I suffered, but compared to Alaphilippe who grew three years older in one climb going after Roglic, I was smoking a cigar on that Mur. So there was Annemiek at the bottom of the Mur, a week before the actual race. She knew the woman to beat was the Queen of Huy, reigning world champion Anna van der Breggen. Anna had already won on that mountain six times and was hunting for a seventh consecutive win. And what did Annemiek do? She arranged a visualisation in real life there was a male rider playing the role of Anna. They did the Mur a few times with different scenarios. A long attack from Anna, a long one from Annemiek, and a shorter sprint for the finish.

We all know the result in the end: Anna van der Breggen proved to be the Queen of Huy winning her seventh title.

But the level of professionalism from Annemiek to not take that for granted, and the dedication to be at her best matching Anna shows what a big champion she is. We can be proud of the women presenting us fights like this over and over again.

Van Vleuten practiced the Flèche finale many times, to visualise the different possible outcomes

Laurens ten Dam is an ex-pro cyclist. He lives by his motto, ‘live slow, ride fast’, while doing podcasts, organising gravel events and running a coffee brand and clothing label. 2021 goals? Back to gravel racing!

Illustration: David Despau. Image: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images.

efore the last time trial of the 2013 Tour de France, I was lying in my bed and had just had a lunch of dry, white pasta. I closed my eyes and suddenly I was visualising. I swear I could feel the power of my legs trying to get that 55 big ring going. I could ride every corner, my eyes closed, and feel the sensations of the final sprint towards the finish line. And after the finish I would go over it again and again, until it was time to pin that number on and get dressed for that important time trial. Nobody taught me this, it just was there, but it appeared only on the really important days out there. Doing this, I prepared myself for the pain that was coming.

Visualisation can be very helpful when you’re a professional cyclist. For me, it helped me to prepare for a time trial where everything could be measured very well because in the race of truth there is no such thing as an opponent: just you, your bike and the ticking clock.

But visualise all the different scenarios in the final of an Ardennes classic, and your reactions to your opponents’ actions might give you the edge you need to obtain that big prize you want.

Three weeks ago, I stumbled on a next-level visualisation tactic from cycling superstar Annemiek van Vleuten. A few days after the Ronde van Vlaanderen she headed to Huy, where the famous Mur is situated. With the recent changes to the finals of the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-BastogneLiège, I think we can all agree this is now the most famous climb of those classics. The characteristics of Flèche Wallonne, with that steep climb at the end, make sure that the race will be very controlled and in at least 95 per cent of the races finishing there, it will be a furious climb to decide the race by the light and explosive climbers. You need to be able to empty your tank of energy within three minutes.

Lactate will be sky high, and at the finish line the best will go so deep that they are ready to throw up, to get rid of the