Doppio: 19

a weekly double-shot of road racing

Wednesday 7th August 2013

issue 19

rapha.cc

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

SATURDAY

— Danmark Rundt S5 — Tour de Pologne S7

SUNDAY — RideLondon — Danmark Rundt S6

MONDAY

TUESDAY

— Tour of Utah S1

WEDNESDAY — Tour of Utah S2 — Volta a Portugal S1

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

— Tour of Utah S3 — Volta a Portugal S2

— Tour of Utah S4 — Volta a Portugal S3

ridelondon-surrey classic

tour de pologne

Big Guns Hold Fire

Here’s Wiggo Again

race type: One-day race distance: 221 km region: South-east England e largest ever one-day race to hit the streets of the uk did not end the way some home fans would have wanted it. No Spitfires flew over the Mall to salute a victorious Ben Swift or Mark Cavendish (who was that afternoon winning the final stage of the Tour of Denmark); instead, the fledgling ‘Classic’ was won by an up-and-coming French sprinter, Arnaud Démare, riding for French team fdj.

Despite being labelled by some as an ‘unknown’, 21year-old Démare has good pedigree: he won last year’s Cholet Pays de Loire, a race over similar terrain in north-west France, as well as three stages and the overall race in this year’s Four Days of Dunkirk. And his team, vigilant all day with Dominique Rollin in the main break and then Yoann Offredo in the counter, was the only one to organise a decent sprint leadout.

Sacha Modolo’s Valvole Bardiani team had seemed determined to shepherd the Italian to victory, but he had to make do – as he did at the Olympic test event that covered a similar course – with second place.

And Yannick Martinez put in a very creditable performance for La Pomme Marseille – as did RaphaCondor-jlt’s young stage-race hope Mike Cuming, who figured in the break for a lot of the day.

So what happened to the favourites from Cannondale, Orica-Greenedge, or Team Sky? Difficult to say, actually, since even the tv commentators seemed to be getting fed very little information, but Peter Sagan (distanced) and Matt Goss (punctured) did not feature in the finale; and Swift, flown in from Poland, will have been disappointed with 10th.

Make no mistake, though, this was a proper bike race.

Leith and Box Hill may not be the biggest bumps the peloton has ever seen, but credit goes to GarminSharp’s David Millar for blowing the field apart on Zig Zag Road – and the run-in from Box Hill to the Mall was taken at an average of 49kph.

In all, then, it didn’t quite go to plan for the home teams or the big guns. But the crowds and the spectacle of the race passing through central London show the huge potential for this homegrown Classic.

SATURDAY — Tour of Utah S5 — Volta a Portugal S4

SUNDAY

— Tour of Utah S6 — Volta a Portugal S5

Arguably the most notable feature of the 70th edition of the Tour of Poland was the return of Team Sky’s Sir Bradley Wiggins, who marked his comeback by claiming the final-stage time trial.

Recently, Wiggo’s stellar 2012 has seemed a distant memory, and he started in Poland working hard to keep Rigoberto Urán up in the gc. Victory on Saturday will have gone some way to silencing the nagging doubts that dog every rider during a layoff. e Tour de Pologne was Sir Brad’s first competitive action since May, and he secured the 37km stage, from Wieliczka to Krakow, in 46mins 36secs, 56 seconds ahead of Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard) – which bodes well for the World tt Championships next month.

As for the gc, it was Orica-Greenedge’s flying Dutchman, Pieter Weening, who was sitting pretty on Saturday evening. Weening had gone into the final stage trailing the yellow jersey of Christophe Riblon (ag2r) by 27 seconds. ough Weening finished 1 min 44secs behind Wiggins, sixth on the stage overall, it was sufficient to reel in his French rival and put 13 seconds between himself and Spain’s Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), bumping Riblon to the bottom podium step.

danmark rundt

Cav Brings Home the Bacon e best of British was also on display on the outskirts of Copenhagen as Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) came from a long way back to claim victory on the sixth and final stage of the Tour of Denmark.

Seemingly boxed in as the sprint began, Cav had to reel in around a dozen riders in the closing metres, eventually overhauling Europcar’s Bryan Coquard to claim his 16th stage win of the season. is was his third win on the historic streets of Frederiksberg, and it evoked the quartet he has notched up on the Champs-Élysées. With 90 days of racing in his legs already this season, it was a tired Cav who took the applause. Belkin’s Wilco Kelderman, meanwhile, enjoyed a more comfortable day in yellow, defending his sixsecond lead over Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) to secure gc victory after an early five-man break. Of these, Lotto-Belisol’s Sander Cordeel made one final bid for glory 20km from home but with the QuickStep train determined to set up the Manx Missile, the Belgian was never going to be allowed to stay away for long.

ar e cowb oy hats #pr ost y le?

Wednesday 7th August 2013

a weekly double-shot of road racing

team movements

Transfer-Europe-Express

weekend weather

London Fine and low 20s, possible showers Sunday PM. Pro Team Bib Shorts, Pro Team Jersey

e Doppio stirs the porridge on the latest transfer news (and gossip). e 1st August is the first day of the year that the top pro teams are allowed officially to sign new riders.

However, there have been rumours flying and behindthe-scenes machinations for weeks or even months – and riders looking to move on or to gain a new contract have been trying to show their best on the road. e big news so far is that Rigoberto Urán, runner-up at the Giro, is departing Team Sky after three seasons to join the Belgium-based Omega Pharma-QuickStep squad. Many were disappointed that the Colombian was moving on from the British team, but it means more waffles, beer and frites for the punchy climber.

Meanwhile Team Sky has secured the services of Tasmanian climber Nathan Earle, who will be reunited with former teammate Richie Porte. Earle is moving from the Continental Praties squad and stepping on to the WorldTour stage with “open ears” and a big appetite for rice cakes.

Also joining QuickStep is Mark Renshaw. He’s leaving Dutchies Belkin and making the short trip down the road to rekindle his relationship with Mark Cavendish. Cav hasn’t had a terrible season with his new Belgian teammates, but it hasn’t been as clinical as previous campaigns. Meanwhile, Renshaw has hardly been thriving on his own, so Cav’s old htc leadout man steps in to put the train back on the tracks in 2014 (and take over head-butting responsibilities?).

Argos-Shimano, who’ve shown they are a sprinting force to be wrestled with, are looking to bolster their performances in the mountains by sniffing around the saddle of Wouter ‘Bean’ Poels and Flandrian superrouleur Dries Devenyns.

According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Cannondale are currently swooping in, Dracula-style, for the Italian veteran Michele Scarponi of Lampre-Merida and 24year-old Giacomo Nizzolo of Radioshack-Leopard.

And speaking of vampires, Astana wish to revive the WorldTour fortunes of ex-Liquigas ‘climber’ Franco Pellizotti, currently residing at Pro Continental team Androni Giocattoli. e Giro-winning Kazakhs have also signed the experienced bruiser Lieuwe Westra on a two-year deal. Frightening.

San Francisco Temperatures in the high 60s, could get foggy in town.

Rapha Gilet, Arm Warmers

Osaka In the mid 30s, oppressive and thundery. SuperLightweight Jersey, Rain Jacket

Sydney Sunny and fine, around 19c. Club Jersey, Classic Bib Shorts, Rapha Cap

Utah 80f even at altitude: tough racing. Lightweight Jersey, Pro Team Base Layer.

women’s cycling

Racing Towards Equality While the men’s pro peloton has moved on, many of the world’s top women riders are currently engaged in their own battles on French roads. e Route de France Féminine is a week-long stage race taking place mainly on the roads of northern and central France; former world champion Giorgia Bronzini, riding for WiggleHonda, has won two stages, and Emma Johannson (Orica-ais) has led since the start. e McipolliniGiordana team has been attacking ferociously and animating the road stages, and the race is poised with only seconds between the riders in podium positions – but you’d be forgiven for not knowing, since tv coverage is non-existent and stage reports hard to find.

However, the volume of support for equality and for coverage, on tv and in other media, is becoming harder to ignore and in the past few weeks events have gathered pace. In July, Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos, triathlete Chrissie Wellington and Kathryn Bertine (a pro rider and film-maker currently working on Half the Race, a documentary about women’s racing) started a petition supporting the creation of a women’s Tour de France, which now boasts 90,000 signatures. mp Harriet Harman has also written an open letter to aso’s Christian Prudhomme asking the same thing.

At the moment, the Gallic ‘Non’ is still in full effect, apparently for reasons of logistics, but there will be a women’s Tour in the uk in 2014: the Tour of Britain organisers have announced a five-stage race to take place in May, mainly in East Anglia and the East Midlands. Not the same as the men’s Tour of Britain, maybe, and the organisers also cite logistical reasons (unlike in France, where road closures for cycle racing are the norm, the men’s Tour of Britain has only 20minute rolling closures, which use all the available motorcycle escorts), but the prize money will be equal and major tv time promised.

Meanwhile, an almighty fight is brewing, with British Cycling’s Brian Cookson running against Pat McQuaid for the uci presidency in September, and improving the status of women’s racing is a key part of his bid.

Of course it’s not simply about pro racing, and the efforts would come to nothing without participation.

Rapha’s Women’s 100, which saw thousands of women ride 100km on 7th July, was only one sign of the explosion in the numbers of women riding their road bikes – let’s hope all these stars align to bring sustainable, longterm change.

ar e cowboy hats #pr ost y le ?