Cycling Weekly April 28, 2022

Bike shows can be hard work for us poor old journalists. (Put those violins away.) Spending all day on our feet, trying to keep track of meeting after meeting, drinking too much coffee and often, shock horror, missing lunch! But I have to say, I genuinely enjoyed my day at the Cycle Show at Ally Pally last week. One of the things the pandemic has reminded me is that you really only realise what you’ve got when you lose it. I haven’t been to a bike show for several years now and although there weren’t any incredible new bikes that haven’t been seen before, catching up with people in the industry was a nice way to spend the day. With economic gloom hanging over us, it was especially pleasing to see the e-bike…

Remco Evenepoel saved Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl’s spring with a lone victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège last weekend. The 22-year-old attacked over the top of the Côte de la Redoute and rode away from the reduced peloton to win by almost a minute. The Belgian team that so regularly dominates the one-day races that define April and hogs the sports pages in Belgian newspapers hadn’t won since Fabio Jackobsen sprinted to victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne at the end of February – Milan-Turin, won by Mark Cavendish, is not considered a bona fide Spring Classic. In the three other Monuments ridden so far – Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix – their best placed finisher was Yves Lampaert in 10th at Roubaix. At Flanders, last year’s winner Kasper Asgreen was their best, in 23rd. “You got…

Geraint Thomas rode his first Liège-Bastogne-Liège since 2018, helping Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Daniel Martínez in the finale where the Columbian sprinted to fourth place behind Quinten Hermans and Wout van Aert. “As always it’s a hard, attritional race,” Thomas said. “I chopped off [the front] for a bit, but was then trying to help Dani and Kwiato [Micheł Kwiatkowski]. We were on the back foot early with a few boys feeling sick but we all pulled together.” Tom Pidcock escaped injury having been caught up in the big crash at 62km to go. The cyclo-cross world champ could be seen in the TV replays launching off the side of the road and down the embankment, but a while later caught back up to the Remco Evenepoel group. Immediately after the finish in…

Going two months without a win would have alarm bells ringing for any rider. Any rider except for Annemiek van Vleuten that is. Before Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège win the Dutch Movistar rider had gone almost two months without getting her arms in the air, having been outfoxed and outnumbered in Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, and outridden up the Cauberg in Amstel Gold and Mur de Huy in Flèche Wallonne. “A win is more beautiful if you fight for it” To make amends she didn’t leave anything to chance in Liège, attacking first on La Redoute to force a group away, then again on the final climb of Roche-aux-Faucons to move clear on her own. Despite the headwind, her rivals couldn’t do anything about her lead, which grew to over 40…

Thibaut Pinot closed out a 1,007 day winless run with an emotional victory on the final stage of the Tour of the Alps last week. The Frenchman hadn’t won since the 2019 Tour de France on top of the Col du Tourmalet, and had to pick himself from a crushing defeat the previous day in order to stand on the podium again. On Thursday’s stage four to Kals am Grossglockner he’d watched as Miguel Angel López (Astana) rode away in the final metres. Pinot had been in the break all day and gone solo on the final climb, looking good for the win. But in the end he could do nothing as López rode away from him. “I wish life would smile on me for one day, but I have to…

Ollie Wood headed British medal success at the Track Nations Cup in Glasgow at the weekend, claiming gold in the omnium. The 26-year-old, who was a member of the British team pursuit squad at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year, won the opening scratch race, finished third in the tempo and sixth in the elimination race. That left him second behind former world champion Benjamin Thomas going into the final points race. Once the gun had gone he went on to put in a dominant performance, including gaining a lap on the field, to lift himself onto the top step of the podium. He said: “You don’t get many chances to race in front of a home crowd; it’s nice to win gold anyway, and even nicer in front of a home crowd. “I…