procycling

I'm going to miss seeing Sepp K charging up those hills the most.

Go Matteo J!

(Got my US bias in full effect, eh)

For another year is time for the Tour to start.

This start is a hard stage, maybe we we'll see some GC contenders playing (I dream). Anyway it would be interesting.

Let's commented here how the stage is going.

For those who cannot watch it procyclingstats.com is a good place to follow.

Bienvenues à le Tour

Hopeful Jonas recovered after all the injuries, but I somehow doubt it that he'll be at 100% after those injuries without much time to recover. While I'm rooting for PogRog, I fear a repeat of Giro, where Pog dominated and made it boring to watch. Or perhaps Remco will kick in, but then again he was also injured and didn't do well at Dauphine. What's you take?

...should we migrate somewhere else?

We need at least one active mod to make it worthwhile to invest time in this community and set up a bot, etc.

It's back! And it covers the 2023 race. I'm digging it so far. Seeing the seat post cam during sprints is amazing.

‘It was close’ - Primož Roglič on surviving attacks to win Critérium du Dauphiné

Primož Roglič managed to survive late-stage attacks by his closest rivals in the general classification to hold on to his lead - barely - and win the Critérium du Dauphiné for the second time in his career on Sunday. He claimed the overall by a slim eight seconds on Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike), the smallest advantage since 2001 when Christophe Moreau won by one second over Pavel Tonkov.

Going into the final day's racing, another arduous mountain trek after the Queen Stage, Roglič had a seemingly unassailable margin of 1:02 seconds on Jorgenson, and 1:13 on Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech). But it almost came undone on the final ascent of the ascent of Col des Glières (9.4km at 7.1%) with some steep pitches exceeding 10%.

The Slovenian was distanced in the final five kilometres after Jorgenson and Gee followed an attack from former Spanish champion Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). An acceleration that Roglič simply could not follow as he watched the trio pull away from him, forcing him to continue to claw his way up and try to limit the damage.

The distance to the leaders continued to increase but Roglič went ‘all in’ as the road flattened out slightly in the final two kilometres and crossed the finish line 48 seconds behind stage winner Rodríguez, and runner-up Jorgenson.

“I was hearing all the gaps [from his DS] all the time. I was happy that the others didn’t go faster. I was just tired. It was close but finally, I’m satisfied for the team.” Roglič said.

This time around the Slovenian’s overall victory was completely different from his first in 2022. Two years ago, Roglič and his then Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard rode away together to claim the final stage, and win the overall with 1:41 margin over his closest non-teammate rival in third place.

This year, not only did Roglič come to the Tour de France warm-up race with a new team, Bora-Hansgrohe, but he was returning to racing after being injured in a terrible crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April.

History seemed to be repeating itself when Roglič went down in the mass crash that caused the neutralisation of stage 5. But after undergoing assessment from his team's medical staff, he not only started the following day but powered away to claim the mountain-top stage win and take over the yellow leader’s jersey.

“It’s crazy to be able to win the Dauphiné after everything that happened, the crash and everything that came in between. It’s incredible.”

Not only was the eight-day stage race an opportunity to test his form, but it was also an important test for his team. After all, they had only raced together 14 days before the start last weekend. Bora-Hansgrohe also won the best team classification, with over seven minutes on Ineos Grenadiers.

“It’s definitely something we needed with the team, to work on the positioning, the communication, many things. I haven’t been with these guys for five years.”

Roglič was his usual stoic self when asked if the victory boosted his confidence for the Tour de France.

“Now the Dauphiné is one thing and the Tour is another. I first want to be happy because you don’t win a race like this every day.”

“For sure, you take everything that you get at the end or you have to take,” Roglič told FloBikes and other reporters at the finish line when asked if he would take third place on the Tour de France today if offered the chance.

“But still at the beginning, everyone has the same possibilities. To win it or be second, third or whatever position, So first of all, we have to be happy with the whole team we did a really nice race. Great job. We have to enjoy it. And then just going to the Tour and being relaxed.”

Stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné was neutralised after two mass crashes with 21km remaining that saw a vast number of riders fall, including yellow jersey Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).

The commissaires brought the race to a halt after the peloton was hit by two almost simultaneous crashes on a stretch of wet downhill road on the run-in to the finish in Saint-Priest.

Following discussions between the riders, the commissaires and the race organisation, it was later decided to cancel the remainder of the stage.

In an announcement on race radio, the organisation explained that they were unable to ensure medical support for the peloton in the closing kilometres given that the ambulances following the race were all required to bring riders to hospital.

It was decreed that the peloton would ride the final kilometres into Saint-Priest together, but there would be no stage winner and no time awarded for the general classification.

“In accordance with the jury of commissaires of the UCI it's been decided that due to the fact there are no ambulances can take care of the security of the riders because they are all busy going to different hospitals, the race will be neutralised,” was the Englishlanguage statement on race radio.

“The race will be neutralised and the peloton will ride all the way to the finish line under the escort of the Garde Republicaine. The times will not be taken into account, there will not be a winner for today's stage.”

Laurens ten Dam and his fellow former professional Thomas Dekker had arrived in America for last weekend’s Unbound Gravel.

24 hours after landing, they headed out for a three-hour training ride near Marietta, Oklahoma, finishing up outside a Mexican restaurant where they planned to have lunch. Presumably not wanting to disturb their fellow diners, all sweaty and dirty after hours out riding, they decided to have a quick makeshift shower with a bottle of water in the parking lot outside.

“After Thomas had rinsed me off, I quickly changed my pants between the car doors,” Ten Dam said on his Live Slow Ride Fast podcast. “But as I do that, I hear someone shouting very angrily across the street.”

Their European comfort with nudity was clearly too much for one local, who promptly called the police.

“Suddenly there were five police cars. The man who had shouted at us was also there and said: ‘You should go to jail for this’,” Ten Dam continued.

“Within five minutes there were five police cars. At that moment, the man who had been yelling at Thomas comes over and yells for Thomas to be put in jail.”

“Walking around naked on the street apparently caused so much offence …” Dekker explained. “It’s really not allowed there.”

“We were told that we had been charged with indecent behavior. The charges stated that we sprayed each other with water bottles like two ‘gay cyclists’,” Ten Dam explained what the pair were told by police, before Dekker added the officers had “the IQ of a shrimp.”

...

One of the UK’s leading young cyclists has been forced to pull out of this week’s Tour of Britain after being hit at “high speed” by a 4x4 driver, who she said then verbally abused her.

Kate Richardson, who won the women’s individual pursuit at the British Track Cycling Championships in February and was a European under-23 champion last year, said she had broken her collarbone again after the “incredibly scary” incident.

“I was on a narrow single track road, no more than 3m wide, on a blind bend and clearly the driver couldn’t wait 10 more seconds to overtake me,” she wrote on Instagram. “He decided to try and squeeze his huge 4x4 past me at a high speed, hitting me hard and knocking me off my bike.

“Initially, he just drove on but turned around and came back later to verbally abuse and threaten me before getting back in his car and driving off again. Thankfully another driver came across the scene pretty quickly and kindly helped me up and drove me home.”

The 21-year-old from Glasgow, who posted pictures of her badly damaged cycling kit, said she had also suffered road rash and severe bruising across her right hip in the incident. She confirmed she would miss the Tour of Britain, which starts on Thursday.

“I’m currently uncertain about what the rest of the season holds,” she added. “This is a lot more than just a physical injury, it was incredibly scary and I count myself lucky that I walked away relatively unscathed compared to what it could have been.”

Richardson, who also won the women’s edition of the Lincoln Grand Prix on the road last month, said she had reported the incident to South Yorkshire police.

“Mentally though, it will take a while to overcome,” she added. “Knowing that once again I’ll be missing a key racing block, whilst knowing what sort of shape I’ve worked so hard to be in, is hugely disappointing and hard to get my head around.

“The police are dealing with the incident, and with witnesses and potential CCTV footage I’m hopeful that some sort of justice will prevail.”

It is only a 15-second video but, riding around the Alps, a rider managed to find himself riding together with Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders are getting ready for the Tour de France and it is possible to see them at work.

It's a little stalkerish, but I think I would record this too, if somehow this happened near me.

Just happy to know there all coming back, really.

Competition! Alps! Let's go!

On Sunday, for the queen stage of the 2024 Giro d’Italia, Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates not only took a solo win, but the Slovenian also doubled his lead in the general classification. After uploading the incredible Stage-15 ride to Strava, as one does, the twenty-five-year-old pro got flagged.

“Who TF flagged me,” the 2024 Giro d’Italia leader posted to his Strava account. He also added a few emojis to let everyone know he was having a laugh about it.

The stats on the day showed that Pogačar rode a distance of 220.96 km (137 miles) and an elevation gain of 5,531 meters (18,146 feet), completed in six hours nine minutes and 47 seconds for an average speed of 35.9 km/h (22.3 mph). That is, admittedly, pretty wild.

And then it happened again. On Wednesday, the day after Pogačar took his fifth win of the race, he got flagged for a second time. For this one, he posted, “Haters gonna flag.” He also took the KOM on the PASSO ROLLE da bivio Valles segment.

‘Flagging’ on Strava occurs when another user on the app highlights an activity as questionable. This commonly happens when someone clearly kept their activity going even though they were in a vehicle. It also happens if someone uploads an activity under the wrong mode, like a bike ride that’s listed as a run and is thus impossibly fast.

And to be fair, Pogačar does ride his bike at speeds that could be confused for a motor vehicle, but he still doesn’t appreciate his KOMs being taken away because he’s just so fast.

Why? Just why?

I will never understand these people crowding the lane.

I know a bunch of people were hurt in that Tour of the Basque Country crash. I believe Jonas V and Wout VA are still out. Is Primož R? Anyone else?

Thanks!

(OP note: Lizzy did a TL;dr, which is below, but I recommend reading the whole things, she documented it pretty well.)

The short story

In order to fully understand everything that has happened, I strongly encourage you to read the full article below, but this is a very short summary of what I want to say.

On 28th July 2023, I was notified by UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) that I had returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF), also known as a positive test, for two substances. Formoterol, a medication I have been using for asthma for 4 years was detected at a concentration in line with how I have been prescribed it. The second substance, chlortalidone, a diuretic, was detected at a low concentration indicative of contamination. The presence of the contamination amount of the diuretic meant my asthma medication formoterol, which is normally allowed, initiated a second AAF.

I have spent the last 9 and half months of my life investigating, researching and writing my submissions to establish how the contamination event occurred. UKAD were insistent that I should have a two year ban despite the fact that both the concentration and the substance indicated a type of contamination which anti-doping bodies have been aware of for over a decade.

The matter was referred to a tribunal. Five days before the tribunal hearing, after previously stating that they would not change their position, UKAD in fact did a full 180. UKAD concluded that I was not at any fault and had exercised an extremely high level of care at all times in order to avoid ingesting a prohibited substance. UKAD therefore wanted to avoid a tribunal hearing on the basis that UKAD found me to bear “No Fault or Negligence” for the positive test and therefore have No Sanction and No period of Ineligibility imposed.

This process has cost me a huge amount, literally and metaphorically. My husband and I spent every penny of our savings and the huge mental toll has left deep scars.

But somehow, through it all, I knew I had to fight. Right from the start, I learnt of other athletes in the similar situations with a contamination of chlortalidone, whose lives and careers were also being torn apart. This process pushed me right to the edge and my fear that an athlete would go beyond that edge is what drove me to try and incite essential positive change. With my background in medicine, my good fortune in life to have had an excellent education and finally my dogged determination, I truly believed that if I couldn’t fight the injustices in this system, then no athlete could.

Prior to being completely cleared of any wrongdoing, I was repeatedly told by UKAD and lawyers that I would receive a two year ban. This simply didn’t make sense. No party thought I had “consumed” chlortalidone with any intent, yet that’s how the system works and my life continued to be torn apart for nothing.

It is difficult to emphasise enough how significant UKAD’s finding is that I bore No Fault or Negligence. To put it in black and white, I understand that this is the first time that UKAD has ever issued a finding of No Fault or Negligence (and therefore zero sanction) when the athlete has not specifically identified the exact source of the contamination.

I encourage you to read the full article below to have a complete understanding of the process. I believe you will find the behaviours of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), UKAD and the pharmaceutical industry to be shocking and at the very least, the thorough documentation below will provide you with a far better appreciation of the anti-doping system, its treatment of athletes and, most importantly, how it is currently failing honest and hardworking people.

Finally, I encourage respectful comments and discussions, whatever the opinion, but I kindly ask you to think carefully about the impact what you say will have on me and my loved ones. Please therefore: read the story in full and understand all the facts before making a judgement or commenting hastily and please remember that behind the computer screen is a human who has been going through hell for months now.

Lizzy Banks*___*

If you missed any of the Vuelta a Burgos Fémina, this is a pretty good recap of the four days of racing last week.

Confusion reigned and snow fell on the route of the Giro d’Italia’s stage 16 as riders stood firm in light of the extreme weather and eventually forced the day’s route to be shortened to 121 km.

The freezing cold and snowy Umbrailpass, the highest peak of this year’s race at 2,498 metres and already a replacement for the removed Stelvio, was slated for the start of the stage but has been removed after riders unanimously agreed to not race unless the Umbrailpass was taken out of the day’s route.

Stage 16 will now start at 2 pm local time from Spondigna for a 121 km stage that will take in the first category Passo Pinei en route to the second category summit finish at Monte Pana.

A number of possible contingency plans had been drawn up the day before should an extreme weather protocol be needed, with possible neutralisation and extra measures such as a third team car being allowed in the race convoy to ensure riders had adequate clothing. A “parking zone” at the top of the Umbrailpass was also mooted, which would have neutralised the race for three minutes to allow riders to change clothes.

At the stage start in Livigno, race organiser RCS maintained the full route would be completed but with the race neutralised until after the Umbrailpass, which the riders protested, before another plan was hatched to roll out of Livigno for 10 km and then jump in team cars to head to the new Spondigna start line for the race proper. That suggestion was also not agreed to and so all riders eventually left the Livigno start line in vehicles to head to Spondigna.

Towns, such as Livigno, pay race organisers money to host stage starts and finishes, and contracts will likely include stipulations that if for whatever reason the stage can’t start or finish in the town as intended, the race will return for free the next year. Today’s alteration will have cost RCS money, which is why they were so keen to have riders on the road in the start town as originally planned.

Race director, Mauro Vegni, told TV broadcaster RAI after the decision had been made: “The mountains are like this, sometimes you have to face certain situations. Our decision certainly hasn’t been an improvised one, it was foreseen by the protocol established yesterday.

“We tried to provide additional safety measures for the riders but we agreed that if the conditions worsened we would have avoided the Umbrailpass. And that’s what happened, it would have been stupid to take on certain risks, especially on the descent.

There’s a wonderful history of GC riders doing things GC riders shouldn’t do. Go back to the 2016 Tour de France, for example, where the tail end of an otherwise processional stage from Carcassonne to Montpelier saw the wind kick up. Echelons formed, collapsed, and formed again, and when things finally shook out it wasn’t a quartet of Classics bruisers off the front. It was Chris Froome in the yellow jersey, his elbows flapping in the breeze like any good adherent to the Jonathan Milan School of Aerodynamics. With him: a peak Peter Sagan, looking like it wasn’t even that hard, Sagan’s teammate Maciej Bodnar, who I think should have been gifted the victory (Froome prevented this), and Geraint Thomas, again wondering how on earth he got here.

First rest day of the Giro d'Italia, what's on your mind and what have you been watching? It doesn't have to be Giro-related, Itzulia Women and Tour de Hongrie just wrapped up too. Heck, if you want to talk gravel or MTB, that's cool, I hear Lucinda Brand is tearing it up on gravel, and the MTB World Cup is still going on in Brazil.

Hope this is OK. Mods, remove this post if it's not.

I used this image to get a list of regions. Forgive me if yours is not correct / easy to choose.

Tell us your country in the comments if you don't mind.

It was somewhere in the roundabouts on the outskirts of Lucca that despair began to take hold.

As the Giro d’Italia headed into the birthplace of Mario Cipollini, the race’s all-time leader in stage wins, a four-rider breakaway was up the road, and the sprinters’ teams had marshalled behind for the chase. But something was wrong. A manageable gap, some 45 seconds at the 10 km-to-go mark, wasn’t dropping.

Lidl-Trek threw its full might into the chase for stage 4 winner Jonathan Milan, driving a classic HTC-High Road style train, but as the kilometers ticked by, the gap stayed stubbornly in place. GPS-based time gaps can be of questionable accuracy, but whatever the actual number, the main problem for the chase was that number wasn’t changing.

Depleted or just discouraged, Milan’s teammates disappeared from the front, the Maglia Ciclamino swarmed by a hodgepodge of riders from Soudal-Quick Step, Visma-Lease a Bike, and other sprint hopefuls. No matter, the gap still didn’t budge much, and in the end the break held off the pack by a comfortable 11 seconds, denying the sprinters a crucial chance at a stage win.