Cycling Weekly May 5, 2022

You may remember a few weeks back I was asking to hear from those who had been or were getting back to training post Covid. Thanks to all those who got in touch. Unsurprisingly lots of you had the virus in the past few months and it seems like no two experiences are the same. It struck down all three of our Fitness Project riders in the last month or so (see page 50) and like many of you they have taken a very cautious approach to returning to training. I have too. Although I struggled to find sports specific advice, and didn’t take 10 days off completely once symptoms had disappeared as some have advised, I have only done short training rides – nothing over 90 minutes – and I haven’t…

Both Ethan Hayter and Anna Henderson took the biggest road wins of their career last week at the Tour de Romandie and Festival Elsy Jacobs respectively. Both won the prologue time trials of their respective races and Hayter also sprinted to victory on stage two, having lost the leader’s jersey on the stage that fell between them after he was caught in a crash. Londoner Hayter was claiming his first WorldTour wins. The prologue was especially impressive as he bested time trial specialist and near-eventual winner Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) over the six-minute effort, though it is worth noting the short distance of a prologue will often favour the more explosive riders like Hayter over a pure tester like Dennis. “It was a shock to the system! I spent a lot of time at…

Geraint Thomas was unable to defend his Tour de Romandie title last week as he was distanced when the mountains arrived in force on stage four. The Welshman had already had a tough start to the race: despite a strong prologue where he finished just off the podium, he was penalised 20 seconds for taking a bottle from a soigneur a few hundred metres inside the 20km-togo mark on stage one. Then, on stage four, he found himself dropped from the group of favourites just a short distance from the top of the final climb and surrendered over a minute by the finish. That gap opened after the following day’s uphill time trial. Despite the disappointment, it is unlikely he did enough to panic the bosses at Ineos Grenadiers, who will be looking…

Mechanical problems cost her around a minute, but Joanna Patterson (The Independent Pedaler-Nopinz) was still fastest female at the Scottish National 10-Mile Championships in Renfrewshire on Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Douglas Watson (GTR-Return to Life) was crowned men’s champion in only his second 10-mile ride of the season so far. Patterson’s time of 21-23 gave her a comfortable win in the women’s event on the popular out-and-back Bishopton course, but a mis-threaded chain which only came to light once she had set off nearly cost her the win. “I had a big mechanical disaster!” admitted the 33-year-old GP. “I’m trying to do my own mechanical stuff more, but I threaded my chain wrongly and there was nobody with me to check it. “I only realised once I’d set off that the power was down, but…

SEAN FLYNN, 22 Swiss Racing Academy Chambéry, France What’s your background? As a youth rider I always raced road, track, cyclo-cross and mountain bike, and was on the GB MTB programme when I did some races with the road guys and decided to focus more on the road. I raced with SEG last year with the plan of a dual programme, but due to Covid I only raced road. Why commit to the road? I felt that I had reached a plateau with my mountain biking, and when I started to invest properly into the road, I got more into the rhythm of it and was competitive in big races at the end of last year. You’re at a new team? SEG folded sadly, but I really enjoyed being part of an international team on the road,…

Riders in the Women’s Tour will face the race’s toughest ever summit finish this June, when the race scales Black Mountain in South Wales on stage five. The six-stage race starts in Colchester on 6 June and spans the entire width of Britain – including a first ever visit to Gloucestershire on stage three, before finishing in Oxford on 11 June. This year will see the race revert to its traditional June slot, after the pandemic resulted in it being cancelled in 2020 and moving to October last year, when it was won comprehensively by Demi Vollering of the SD Worx team. The day-one roll out through Colchester will treat riders to a mini sightseeing tour, with the neutralised zone taking in landmarks such as the Jumbo Water Tower, Town Hall and the…