Doppio: 12

a weekly double-shot of road racing

Wednesday 5th June 2013

issue 12

rapha.cc

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SATURDAY

SUNDAY

— Critérium du Dauphiné S1

MONDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S2

TUESDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S3

WEDNESDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S4

THURSDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S5

FRIDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S6

SATURDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S7 — IG Nocturne — Tour de Suisse S1

SUNDAY — Critérium du Dauphiné S8 — Tour de Suisse S2

the dauphiné this week Stage 1 Chapeau to Canadian David Veilleux, whose solo 47km escape put Europcar in the yellow and blue jersey. Chris Froome and Richie Porte of Team Sky, Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff ) and Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha) finished almost two minutes back.

Stage 2 Diminutive sprinter Elia Viviani (Cannondale) survived the day’s six categorized climbs, which did for many of his heavier brethren, and took a perfectly judged sprint over Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). Veilleux remained in the overall lead.

Stage 4 | Wednesday | 32.5km ITT Villars-les-Dombes → Oiseaux A flat individual tt gives the gros moteurs of the peloton a run-out and will likely define the gc challenges before the mountains to come.

HC

HC Stage 5 | Thursday | 120km Grésy-sur-Aix → Valmorel Back into the hills today and any breakaway is likely to be swept up on the final climb, 12.7km at 7% up the Montée de Valmorel.

Stage 3 A great sprint win for Edvald Boasson Hagen after the pace on the Col des Sauvages left many sprinters behind. Nevertheless, Nacer Bouhanni (Europcar) and Elia Viviani (Cannondale) took some beating.

Stage 6 | Friday | 143km La Lechère → Grenoble Four categorised climbs and a technical 20km descent to the finish make this one for a breakaway. We say they’ll go on the Col des Ayes.

tour de suisse preview

Stage 7 | Saturday | 187.5km Le Pont-de-Claix → Superdevoluy e one we’ll all be watching – the Queen Stage takes in Alpe d’Huez and the Col de Sarenne, which feature in the Tour. Expect big things.

Stage 8 | Sunday | 155.5km Sisteron → Risoul A classic southern Alps parcours and a category-one summit finish keep things interesting right to the line. e winner will have to dig deep.

race type: Week-long stage race | distance: 1,300km | region: Switzerland

Swiss Watch Now that Tour de France plans are coming together – or in Sir Bradley Wiggins’ case unfortunately, coming apart – there remain few opportunities to gain race fitness. e Tour de Suisse’s constantly undulating parcours and frequent outbreaks of firstcategory and hors catégorie climbs will take a Swiss Army knife to any rider’s problematic form.

Hot on the heels of a flat prologue on Sunday is the race’s Queen stage, that tackles the 2,478m Nufenenpass before a summit finish at Crans Montana, and Wednesday’s stage five does not offer any huge mountains but has a Toblerone-like profile. Even the final time trial is lumpy, with a finishing climb that’s more than 10 kilometres long. While the real Tour de France gc contenders are skipping Switzerland – their clocks are set to a

different schedule – many domestiques and lesser lights are on the start sheet. Rui Costa of Movistar is defending his title and Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard) will be competing for his home tour crown. Team Sky, meanwhile, will be blooding younger riders including Joe Dombrowski, Luke Rowe and Ben Swift.

Despite the chocolate-box scenery, it is a race rarely won by a pure grimpeur: riders as different as Gino Bartali, Eddy Merckx, Sean Kelly, Andy Hampsten, Jan Ullrich and Cancellara have taken overall victory. e Italian Pasquale Fornara has won a record four times, while Swiss greats Ferdi Kübler and Hugo Koblet each won three.

how's your #wom ens100 t raining g oing?

a weekly double-shot of road racing

Wednesday 5th June 2013

ig london nocturne history

Harlots and Holy Orders

London Some settled sunny weather and 20c. Get those pins out.

V-Neck Base Layer, Touring Shorts.

San Francisco Getting cooler on Sunday, but only to 70f. Take a Rapha Gilet for an early start.

Osaka Sunny and 25c.

Don't forget the suncream.

Lightweight Cap, Pro Team Base Layer.

Quinto Warm and thundery for the Tour de Suisse start.

Pro Team Race Cape, Team Sky Cap.

ig london nocturne preview

Street Fighting Men Despite having taken part in every IG London Nocturne, Rapha-Condor-JLT have yet to score a victory. Team manager John Herety ponders his team’s chances this year.

Why do you think Rapha-Condor-JLT have never won the race?

I think it’s because everyone knows we’d love to win it. Having our two main sponsors as the founders of the event [Rapha and Condor], riding in front of our home crowd, maybe it all makes the riders a bit anxious. Having said that, we’ve always competed well.

Is it the course, or simply who’s got the best legs?

Definitely who’s got the best legs. Look at the riders that have won it, they’re people who have come straight off the WorldTour. Ian Stannard won last year and Alex Dowsett the year before, lapping the field. Rest assured we’ll give it a good go ourselves. Dowsett will be the man to beat but I think his Movistar teammate [Beñat Intxausti] will be in for a big shock. ese city circuit races seem quite intense. ere’s a lot of travelling, often not getting to hotels until midnight, then getting up early the next morning.

I don’t think the Tour Series [effectively the UK’s crit league] gets the respect it deserves. It’s tough, hardfought road racing on city streets. You have to look after yourself and recover really well.

It’s been compared to gigging with a band. ere are certainly some similarities, touring all over the country, performing in towns with cheering crowds. e riders go home and forget that they’ve got to do their own laundry; they end up putting their kit in the dishwasher.

Are these kinds of races good for British cycling?

It’s important for the UK. We’ve got a more educated public now because of Wiggins and the Olympics but circuit racing has always been pretty easy to understand.

While we are trying to get our riders to WorldTour level, the Tour Series is a good format for sponsors to get their pound of flesh.

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E POULTRY AVE

Ahead of this weekend’s annual IG London Nocturne, the Doppio takes a wander through the narrow lanes of the historic east London district the event calls home.

Smithfield drips with medieval history. Home to the city’s finest butchers for the best part of 1,000 years, in the eleventh century the area of ‘smothe field’ was as well known for drunken tavern patrons as it was for its sheep and cattle market. e livestock driven through the narrow Clerkenwell lanes caused havoc on market days, sending not just drunks flying but the numerous prostitutes that were another feature of the area. In Smithfield, harlots rubbed shoulders (and probably a whole lot more besides) with holy men. e Knights Hospitallers of St. John, a monastic order which provided medical assistance during the Crusades, made their home in neighbouring Farringdon. Part of their original priory survives today, in the form of an archway over nearby St. John’s Lane.

Smithfield Market eventually earned its royal charter in 1638 and throughout its history, the area has hosted spectacles both gripping and grisly; from jousting, to freak shows, to public executions. e sleek beasts on show at this weekend’s Nocturne, however, provide a more refined evening’s entertainment. Offering elitelevel criterium racing around a tight, city circuit, the Smithfield Nocturne was first held in 2007.

It proved a hit from the beginning, drawing a 5,000strong crowd to that inaugural running, and has also enjoyed its fair share of celebrity support, graced, in the past, by the likes of Sir Chris Hoy and Mark Cavendish.

Notable winners include Geraint omas in 2008 (then of Barloworld, now of Team Sky), and Team Sky’s Ian Stannard in 2012. e event is also characterised by some of its more creative expressions of the cyclist’s art; in addition to an urban cyclocross race, this year’s event will include a penny farthing race and a track bike criterium. e folding bike race, meanwhile, is usually one of the most fiercely contested events of the evening. e 2013 IG London Nocturne takes place on Saturday, 8th June. e Rapha Team Sky Supporters’ Bus will be on the back straight. For full programme: londonnocturne.com.

weekend weather

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how's your # wom ens100 t raining g oing?

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