Cycling Weekly March 10, 2022

I’ve worked in cycling media for a decade, but these 200 words feel like the most difficult I’ve had to write. Perhaps it’s because conversations around women’s cycling so often become politically charged. Some questions are easy to answer. “Is it predictable, or boring, to focus our ‘Women’s Special’ fitness feature on menstrual cycles and the menopause?” No: these are fundamentally important topics, which we’ve been steadfastly ignoring for decades. “How can the industry encourage more women to ride?” is a question I’ve been asked many times, and it’s much harder to answer; women who cycle aren’t one homogeneous group, but a diverse community of riders. Thankfully, our sport is beginning to reflect that. In 2021 the women’s peloton enjoyed its first Paris-Roubaix. This year the Tour de France Femmes bolsters the calendar;…

At Strade Bianche last Saturday SD Worx proved rumours of their demise had been greatly exaggerated. The Dutch team produced a swashbuckling performance in Italy, dominating the closing 30km of the race to deliver new signing Lotte Kopecky to the biggest victory of her career. The Belgian champion held the wheel of double winner and pre-race favourite Annemiek van Vleuten on the climb into Siena, before diving up the inside on the final corner. Kopecky’s move was redolent of van Vleuten’s own divebomb at last week’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which saw her outsprint another SD Worx rider, Demi Vollering, to take victory. Vollering had sat on for most of the final 13km and her inability to take victory in what was her and the team’s opening race, attracted comment that SD Worx’s…

Ninth place in Siena for Dutchwoman Shirin van Anrooij showed the 20-year-old as a star in the making. The Trek-Segafredo youngster is perhaps better known for her cyclo-cross exploits, having recently taken silver at the U23 Worlds, and is yet to take a win on the road. But after making the winning break and placing fifth at last week’s Omloop het van Hageland, and following that up with seventh a few days later at Le Samyn des Dames, Saturday’s result is another step in the right direction and suggests a big win is on its way. She can sprint and punchy climbs seem a forte, so not only do Trek-Segafredo have another top young talent on their roster, but it seems the Dutch have another superstar rolling off their production line.…

In a performance that led even Eddy Merckx to call him one of the greats after the race, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) won the men’s Strade Bianche on Saturday (5 March) in Siena, Italy. The Slovenian attacked solo with 50km still to ride on the Monte Sante Marie gravel sector, opening a gap on the ensuing descent and building a lead of more than a minute to eventually finish with 37 seconds in hand over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) came in alone another eight seconds down. The Slovenian winner called it “a beautiful, incredible victory. I started [my attack] from afar, and I was only sure I’d made it when there were about five kilometres to go. Even on the last climb I checked if anyone was…

The Women’s Tour will feature its “toughest summit finish in race history to date”, organiser Sweetspot proclaimed as it unveiled the routes of three of the race’s six stages. Stage one will see over 100 of the world’s best riders race from Colchester, in Essex, to Bury St Edmunds on 6 June, the final day of the Queen’s Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. The following day will conclude with an ascent of Wales’s Black Mountain, in Carmarthenshire, after a departure from Pembrey Country Park. The final of three stages to be announced will begin in Oxfordshire’s Chipping Norton, concluding in the centre of Oxford. Inclusion of the Black Mountain climb marks only the second hill-top finish since the race’s inaugural 2014 edition; the Welsh giant measures 7.2km in length and features sections at 21%. While…

Buoyed by the home crowd, Welsh riders and teams stepped up and had an extremely successful National Championships in Newport, capturing six national titles. The engine room of that success was the women’s sprint team who won the team competition and saw Rhian Edmunds win both the 200m time trial and the individual sprint. After the team event, rider Lowri Thomas said: “It’s absolutely insane – the crowd has been wicked all weekend. It’s really exciting to come here and win.” The men’s team pursuit squad had probably the most dramatic win as the lead swung back and forth between them and opponents the East Midlands team throughout their final race. William Roberts said: “Our coach was walking the line and at the end I flapped a bit. But you can’t control what…