Cycling Weekly April 7, 2022

Ispent a large chunk of Sunday watching the men’s and women’s Tour of Flanders. Something I haven’t had the luxury of doing in years. What a treat. Seeing the huge crowds at the side of the road made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I realised just what many races have been missing for the last two years. The noise as Lotte Kopecky won in the Belgian champ’s jersey reinforced just what an essential part of bike racing the spectators are. Then there’s Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar. What more can be said about these two? The finish of the men’s race was one of the greatest racing moments I’ve ever seen and will be talked about for years to come. Getting to watch…

Serial winner Tadej Pogačar made a rare but glaring tactical error at the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, where he finished fourth in a two-up sprint for the win. The Slovenian had ridden a superb debut at the cobbled Monument but was beaten by Mathieu van der Poel after he and the Dutchman played a waiting game to start the sprint. That saw chasers Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) catch them up and squeeze Pogačar off the podium within sight of the line. Had Pogačar kept riding or gone to the front he could have assured himself a place in the top two or even won. “The strongest riders are always up at the front” The Tour de France champion was visibly annoyed but after he’d calmed down he told…

Fred Wright was exhausted but elated after finishing seventh in the “hardest race ever” at the Tour of Flanders. The Bahrain-Victorious rider attacked with Ineos Grenadiers’ Dylan van Baarle with 48km to go, and the duo were eventually joined by race winner Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Groupama-FDJ’s Valentin Madouas. The 22-year-old eventually rode to an impressive seventh, the joint second-best result by a Briton in the men’s race this century – only bettered by Luke Rowe’s fifth in 2016. A visibly emotional Wright joked to the press afterwards that, “I can’t really speak; I’m so tired. I think I need some food.” But the Londoner did explain his day out front in the first cobbled Monument of the season. “Oh, man, that’s just an elimination race,” he said. “For them [Pogačar,…

Lotte Kopecky confirmed her status as a national hero in Belgium as she became the first Belgian woman to win the Tour of Flanders in more than 10 years. The home crowd erupted as she outsprinted Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) and SD Worx team-mate Chantal van den Broek-Blaak on Sunday. In a dynamic that was reminiscent of the men’s race hours earlier Kopecky doggedly stuck to the wheel of superior climber van Vleuten over the final ascents of the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg. “I don’t believe it yet – I just won the race of my dreams” “I don’t realise it yet. I just won the race of my dreams,” Kopecky said at the finish. She revealed the team’s DS had told her to force van Vleuten to the front in the closing stages…

This year’s Tour of Britain promises to be no easy ride, bookended by two summit finishes and 18,500m of vertical ascent along the way. Race organiser Sweetspot announced full details of the route this week, which begins in Aberdeenshire on 4 September and finishes on the Isle of Wight eight stages later on 11 September. Riders will lay down a GC marker as early as stage one, which finishes at the Glenshee Ski Centre after a 4.7km ascent at an average 4.8%, the gradient topping out at 8.5%. And the race could easily be decided on a tough final day on the Isle of Wight, which finishes at the Needles with a 1.5km, 3.7% haul with a very challenging final 400m that will leave little room for complacency. There is no let up…

Trans cyclist Emily Bridges and the whole of the women’s peloton have been left in limbo after the UCI failed to reach a decision on whether Bridges is able to compete in the female category ahead of last weekend’s omnium National Championships. Bridge’s inclusion at the race had raised concerns among a raft of people connected to the women’s peloton over whether or not she has an advantage from going through puberty as a male despite undergoing hormone therapy. One source told Cycling Weekly that there had been talk among riders of staging some form of protest at the event. That never came to pass because, despite apparently meeting the requirement to keep her testosterone levels below the required 5 nmol/l for the required 12 months, it was announced late last Wednesday that…