Tag: wout van aert

In praise of Thomas Pidcock

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, kit, News, racing


Is there any more versatile cyclist in the world at the moment then Tom Pidcock?

From the Flemish Berg’s to Valkenberg, and with cyclo cross in between, Tom is continuing his dominance of the mountain bike scene with two wins in the opening World Cup.

Fortunately his last lap tail whips in this race ended wheel side down (unlike a cyclocross faux par earlier in the year). The short course event, which I’d never seen before, blew me away as an event. Twenty minutes of watts and mud which made the old city centre criterium events look pedestrian in comparison.

He also won the longer form cross country event.

Such is the impact of mountain biking on me at the moment, my time trial bike is sold and gone, and I’m in the market for a hard tail.

Now that might say a little bit about me, as much as it says about Leeds is finest.

But in Pidcock there is a cyclist who does it all and can pretty much make anything on two wheels sing. In fact, my daughter asked on the school run this morning, could Tom Pidcock beat me to school on a scooter? The answer is probably yes. Although I suspect his wouldn’t be pink and covered in LoL doll stickers.

Pidcock burst on the scene through the UK Trinity/Wiggins setup and has been always focused on multi-discipline.

You could argue that with mountain bike in his repertoire. He is more diverse than Wout Van Aert or Mathieu Van der Poel.

I love Tom Pidcock because he’s not afraid to get it sideways. He’s not afraid to jump. He’s not afraid to fall. Even in yesterday’s race in the Czech Republic. He was down after a crash, allowing fellow cyclo crosser Joshua Dubau of France to get ahead.

But Pidcock hunted him down, chased him and got the win. It was brilliant.

And whilst the Giro and the upcoming four days of Dunkirk will dominate my TV viewing this week. There is a mention for the fact that GCN are now showing the UCI mountain bike series. It’s different. It’s fresh, and for a 30 year veteran roadie like to think I want to have a crack at this, then something must be being done right.

So good luck, TP. Enjoy your break. And let’s hope that the summer road season yields more results, such as your Alp D’Huez win of 2022.

For me, soon, there might be even fatter tires on a bike that I will be chugging around the fens on so keep an eye out for that.

2023 Tour of Flanders review

by James Warrener, posted in beer, Blog, News, racing

The Tour of Flanders 2023 was a ‘Pog’ fest. There was nothing that could stop it. And you knew that it was coming. But it made the race probably now a little bit less of a standout for me.

I wanted a good race, but I also wanted a different winner than the man who is dominating racing in this season.

That’s not to say Tadej Pogacar didn’t deserve it. That’s not to say he wasn’t the best rider. It’s just to say I would have chosen a different outcome.

Don’t get me wrong. come July I’ll probably be rooting for Pogacar on the roads of France.

But April is the domain of the Vans… Wout Van Aert and Mathieu Van der Poel.

And if they don’t win, the biggest classic of the mall you wonder what the future holds.

The race itself was packed with the usual amount of drama. Although we’ll probably be remembered for a bunny hop that went wrong causing most of the peloton to crash.

The big climbs themselves saw what bombs dropped by the big three. Although Van Aert and Thomas Pidcock faded a little bit sooner than anticipated.


When Pogacar attacked on the Oude Kwaremont on the penultimate lap he looked pretty dominant but that was brought back by a combination of riders.

On the last ascent he was gone, and he was gone for good.

You look at his Strava times on the last two climbs, and even though they’re less than two miles in length, he put nearly 10 minutes into my best efforts.

Now I’m not the best rider in the world. and he is but that is a massive gap. It won’t be long before questions start being asked about his dominance.

 In fact, you only have to look at social media to see they already are.

But for now, let’s enjoy what was a brilliant occasion with a frothy beer and a bag of chips and look forward to the second instalment of Holy Week when Paris-Roubaix hits the road this weekend.


Is there too much tinkering with time trials?

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

It’s been a week of time trial musings for me, culminating in this post.

I watched the revised Paris-Nice time trial with a keen eye. It was really enjoyable to see how the tactics evolved and rather than weaker teams being handicapped by having to get four riders from gun to tape, they could ride it like a team sprint on the track.

What it also did was stop a dominant TTT team from monopolising the GC top 10.

Think Jumbo in an event where Primoz Roglic, Wout Van Aert, Jonas Vingegaad and Christophe Laporte could have taken the top 4 places in a race with an early shared race against the watch.

This changes that emphasis and I think (despite the domination of Tadej Pogacar) it made the race more interesting.

Would David Gaudu have been so influential in the latter days of the race had he shipped a minute in the time trial? probably not.

So its a positive and a big tick from me.

At a slightly different level to the World Tour (although in my view not much!) my own club started their seasonal calendar with a come and try it road bike 10.

We do operate on a sporting course (one for the older folk there) so with only a couple of straights there is limited impact a top time trialling rig can provide. But a look at the spread of times over a season its still enough.

This event saw juniors, seniors and masters take part with a decent spread of times but a close finish and narrower time spread over the podium.

(Picture from Fenland Clarion cc social media)

For me it was the chance to get that restored Bianchi into competition and despite its age it performed brilliantly under the stress of a block headwind on the 2nd quarter of the event.

What was great though was that the legs decided the result. And whilst to be fair, the same people topped the leader board as would have done if tt bikes were allowed, there was a real purity to this and it felt more competitive.

(Could just be my perception of course)

I am looking forward to having another crack in a couple of weeks where hopefully the wind will have died down a bit and the road might be dryer.

So in answer to the question “Is there too much tinkering with time trials”?

So far in 2023, for me the answer is definitely not.

The changes have been enhancements.

Some thoughts on 2023 to date

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

Its been a pretty exciting start to 2023 from a pro cycling perspective.

The World Cyclo Cross Championships were, as previously posted, some of the best races I have seen. And I started watching the sport during the 1987 Tour de France.

We had the Australian races, which for once I had more than a passing interest in tuning in for, before this block of Spanish racing to get us properly up and running.

(We also had Etoile de Besseges in France and the Tour of the Algarve starts this week in Portugal)

It’s been a fabulous period to get in some TV watching. I have seen beaches, sunshine (snow in Mallorca ironically!) and cycling… lots of cycling.

But despite my usual high level of enthusiasm I have had my eye drawn to an increasing number of posts on Twitter reporting that there is building evidence the sport has returned to its dark, dope fuelled days.

The incredible start to the season by both Intermarche and EF Pro Cycling has raised eyebrows on Elon’s social media platform.

There are comments about Miguel Angel Lopez, Nairo Quintana and how their world tour careers have ended.

Yesterday there was a lot of content from people, some of whom have been represented publicly as credible experts in the past, saying that the gravel based win of Tadej Pogacar has made mugs of any of us still watching thinking we were seeing a sport.

Does this mean that possible pandemic related cuts to doping tests and research mean that the cheats are further ahead of the authorities than they were 5 years ago?

Has my algorithm on the app started to push more cynical cycling posts my way?

I don’t know the answer to either of those questions, but it is making me consume pro cycling in a more aware if not downright disbelieving way again.

Sad.

World CX champs show sport at its best

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

Who wouldn’t be able to find an extra 1% in front of a passionate crowd of 40,000 plus spectators?

Especially at home in the Netherlands.

RnkRiderTeamCompetition
points		PntTime
1 VAN EMPEL FemNetherlands2750:54:42
2 PIETERSE PuckNetherlands2250:39
3 BRAND LucindaNetherlands1901:11
4 PERSICO SilviaItaly1701:45
5 ALVARADO Ceylin del CarmenNetherlands1501:46
6 WORST AnnemarieNetherlands1352:14
7 VAN DER HEIJDEN IngeNetherlands1202:36
8 BETSEMA DeniseNetherlands1052:41
9 ROCHETTE MaghalieCanada902:55
10 CLAUZEL HélèneFrance803:02

Fem Van Empel benefitted from the decision of Shirin Van Anrooij to stick with the U23s and romped home to get the home nation up and running in the Elite category.

We were then treated to one of the best races I have ever seen in any form of cycling.

I have used this website in the past to highlight the 1994 Paris-Roubaix as the best race I have seen. This was close to surpassing it.

The deadly duo of Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout Van Aert rode nonchalantly clear of the rest of the men’s elite field very early on.

At one point their lead over every other rider battling behind them was close to one minute. The dominance was so complete.

They did try and work each other over and onto the front in the last lap or two which saw the gap to bronze medal Eli Iserbyt close. But the top two were constantly looking back and you know full well an acceleration could come at any moment to re-establish the advantage.

Attacks were traded in a blow by blow fashion and having the planks on an uphill section certainly made a difference on a number of laps.

VdP was getting over them and away quicker than his Belgian rival and it might well have been the gapping of Wout lap after lap at this point of the course that took the edge of his final sprint.

What I do know is that this race will live long in the memory and you should most definitely watch it back (even if you saw it live!)

Bike racing doesn’t get much better than this… unless its the 1994 spring classics and its snowing outside the Arenberg forest of course.

RnkRiderTeamCompetition
points		PntTime
1 VAN DER POEL MathieuNetherlands2751:07:20
2 VAN AERT WoutBelgium225,,
3 ISERBYT EliBelgium1900:12
4 VAN DER HAAR LarsNetherlands1700:13
5 VANTHOURENHOUT MichaelBelgium1500:46
6 KUYPERS GerbenBelgium1350:54
7 VANDEPUTTE NielsBelgium1200:57
8 SWEECK LaurensBelgium1050:59
9 MASON CameronGreat Britain901:08
10 VENTURINI ClémentFrance801:30

Race results from Procyclingstats.com

Diegem – Classic racing under the lights…

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

The best racing of the year came with only hours to spare.

Floodlight cyclo-cross seems to be a thing nowadays, more so than ever.

Last night was festive fun at the highest level as the big three traded the lead before the final corner decided the outcome.

No spoilers from me.

But during the race Mathieu Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock traded the lead through heavy mud and tough single track.

If you’ve not watched it, please get on GCN+ and enjoy…

Best race of the year?

100%

Remco and Annemiek save the world(s)

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

After a bit of moaning from me in the build up to the Australian hosted world championships, I have to say that they delivered more than anticipated.

A bad looking fall in the midweek relay time trial left Annemiek Van Vleuten unlikely to even start the Womens race on Saturday. But, she managed to patch up her fractured elbow and take her place at kilometer zero.

There were plenty of times, even in the closing stages, where she looked likely to get dropped. She was also placed in the second or third group on the road more than once. It looked like a case of hanging on to get the best finish possible.

But as groups merged in the final kilometer AVV came to life.

She darted down the right hand side of the road with the perfectly timed attack.

After lots of riders trying to get away without success, this was one increase in pace and it stuck.

She was the most deserving of champions of the world and the finish will go down in history. It would have been epic, even without broken bones.

RnkRiderTeamUCIPntTime
1 VAN VLEUTEN AnnemiekNetherlands6003504:24:25
2 KOPECKY LotteBelgium4752600:01
3 PERSICO SilviaItaly400190,,
4 LIPPERT LianeGermany325150,,
5 LUDWIG Cecilie UttrupDenmark275130,,
6 SIERRA ArlenisCuba225110,,
7 LABOUS JulietteFrance175100,,
8 NIEWIADOMA KatarzynaPoland15090,,
9 CHABBEY EliseSwitzerland12580,,
10 LONGO BORGHINI ElisaItaly10070,,
from procyclingstats.com

Once Mathieu van der Poel had dropped out of the men’s race following a night of disruption at his hotel, culminating in a visit to the police station, all eyes were on Belgium for the win.

After the drama of Leuven last year, everyone wanted to see how the dynamic between Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel would play out.

Most pundits agreed that Remco would be the one to attack early and Wout would save himself for any sprint finish.

That’s exactly how it played out with the recent Vuelta winner slipping into a late group and then dropping its other members one by one.

It was as dominant a worlds performance as I can remember.

He soloed home with very little stress to cement himself as the rider of the late season and take the rainbow jersey.

RnkRiderTeamUCIPntTime
1 EVENEPOEL RemcoBelgium6003506:16:08
2 LAPORTE ChristopheFrance4752602:21
3 MATTHEWS MichaelAustralia400190,,
4 VAN AERT WoutBelgium325150,,
5 TRENTIN MatteoItaly275130,,
6 KRISTOFF AlexanderNorway225110,,
7 SAGAN PeterSlovakia175100,,
8 BETTIOL AlbertoItaly15090,,
9 HAYTER EthanGreat Britain12580,,
10 SKJELMOSE MattiasDenmark10070,,
from procyclingstats.com

A couple of notable rides came from Peter Sagan who showed his best form in a couple of years to come home seventh and our own Ethan Hayter who made the top 10.

Now we move on to the end of season Italian classics races and cyclocross… gone quickly hasn’t it?

Worlds a world away

by James Warrener, posted in beer, Blog, News, racing

After the proximity of the 2021 worlds in Belgium, I have to say that so far this years vintage in Australia has yet to fire for me.

We have seen close finishes and crashes but… well its not Julian Alaphillippe outside the Stella brewery is it?

This is no disrespect to Aussies or their base for the championship. I have a really close friend who lives close to the course, but I would phase this as a development event rather than a championships based in one of the sports heartlands.

Maybe the Qatar event is still affecting my viewpoint and over the weekend I will be engrossed in a Tadej Pogacar vs. Wout van Aert classic…

Let’s see.

Le Tour 22 – Stage 16-21 Week 3 Vingegaard makes it to Paris

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

I had to think long and hard over a headline. Implying that the winner Jonas Vingegaard merely “made it” to Paris might be seen as belittling his achievement. But the context I am after is showing the challenges he faced with the climate, with climate protestors and the fact that Tadej Pogacar wasn’t going to hand over the title without a battle.

We left the race in the South of France after one of the hottest days on record for the Tour.

Stage 16 was a medium mountain stage which saw Israel-Premier Tech continue their ascension out of the World Tour relegation places when Hugo Houle rode away to win the stage. He was ably back by team mate Mike Woods for a Canadian one two.

The next day to Peyragaudes saw Pogacar win the stage without creating any distance between himself and the yellow jersey.

Despite being super confident that the Slovenian would have what it took to come back and win the race overall, his lack of ability to drop Vingegaard made me start to doubt his chances of doing so. This was clear evidence that the Dane had his number and that it would take something really special to dislodge him.

The final mountain stage to the disgraced (based on the evidence of former winners) peak of Hautacam saw Pogacar dropped for good.

After dueling on the way up the penultimate climb, the top two on the overall classification both had sketchy moments on the hot tar going down.

The yellow jersey had his foot out to save him from snaking into a ditch before Pogacar went over and crashed.

Vingegaard waited for his rival and when he caught up they shook hands as if to say “no more, this could get silly and dangerous“.

They did battle it out on the final climb before Wout Van Aert (who else?) delivered a monster turn for his leader which saw him win alone.

Christophe LaPorte got reward for all of his efforts in this race and across the season to date with the only French stage win after escaping in Cahors. Jumbo continued to monopolise the stage wins with Van Aert taking the final time trial for the second year in succession before Jasper Philipsen made it two stage wins in Paris.

There are those in the media calling this the best Tour ever. I think that might be a bit steep based on 1989 (and others!). But it was exciting from first to last and raced continually.

The only real off day was stage 15 but with the alps in the riders legs and a 40 degree, baking hot stage between them and the second rest day that can be understood.

I really enjoyed it and the race had a worthy winner in Jonas Vingegaard. Whether he is starting a dynasty or will be a one off winner, only next summer will be able to tell us.

Stage winners and leaders

Date–RaceWinnerLeader after stage
07/01Stage 1 | Copenhagen – Copenhagen LAMPAERT Yves LAMPAERT Yves
07/02Stage 2 | Roskilde – Nyborg JAKOBSEN Fabio VAN AERT Wout
07/03Stage 3 | Vejle – Sønderborg GROENEWEGEN Dylan VAN AERT Wout
07/05Stage 4 | Dunkerque – Calais VAN AERT Wout VAN AERT Wout
07/06Stage 5 | Lille – Wallers-Arenberg CLARKE Simon VAN AERT Wout
07/07Stage 6 | Binche – Longwy POGAČAR Tadej POGAČAR Tadej
07/08Stage 7 | Tomblaine – La Super Planche des Belles Filles POGAČAR Tadej POGAČAR Tadej
07/09Stage 8 | Dole – Lausanne VAN AERT Wout POGAČAR Tadej
07/10Stage 9 | Aigle – Châtel les portes du Soleil JUNGELS Bob POGAČAR Tadej
07/12Stage 10 | Morzine – Megève CORT Magnus POGAČAR Tadej
07/13Stage 11 | Albertville – Col du Granon VINGEGAARD Jonas VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/14Stage 12 | Briançon – L’Alpe d’Huez PIDCOCK Thomas VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/15Stage 13 | Bourg d’Oisans – Saint-Etienne PEDERSEN Mads VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/16Stage 14 | Saint-Etienne – Mende MATTHEWS Michael VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/17Stage 15 | Rodez – Carcassonne PHILIPSEN Jasper VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/19Stage 16 | Carcassonne – Foix HOULE Hugo VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/20Stage 17 | Saint-Gaudens – Peyragudes POGAČAR Tadej VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/21Stage 18 | Lourdes – Hautacam VINGEGAARD Jonas VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/22Stage 19 | Castelnau-Magnoac – Cahors LAPORTE Christophe VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/23Stage 20 | Lacapelle-Marival – Rocamadour VAN AERT Wout VINGEGAARD Jonas
07/24Stage 21 | Paris La Défense – Paris (Champs-Élysées) PHILIPSEN Jasper VINGEGAARD Jonas
from Procyclingstats
RnkPrev▼▲RiderTeamUCIPntTime
11– VINGEGAARD JonasJumbo-Visma100050032″79:33:20
22– POGAČAR TadejUAE Team Emirates80038040″2:43
33– THOMAS GeraintINEOS Grenadiers6753407:22
44– GAUDU DavidGroupama – FDJ5753004″13:39
55– VLASOV AleksandrBORA – hansgrohe47528015:46
66– QUINTANA NairoTeam Arkéa Samsic4002606″16:33
77– BARDET RomainTeam DSM3252404″18:11
88– MEINTJES LouisIntermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux2752206″18:44
99– LUTSENKO AlexeyAstana Qazaqstan Team22521022:56
1010– YATES AdamINEOS Grenadiers17520024:52
from procyclingstats

Le Tour 22 – Stages 10-15 Week 2 sees a change in yellow

by James Warrener, posted in Blog, News, racing

We left our week 1 round up in Chatel in the shadows of the high Alps.

It had been a fast and furious first week with Tadej Pogacar and Wout Van Aert carving the race and the stages up between themselves.

After a rest day in Morzine we got going again with the hero of the opening weekend Magnus Cort getting a well deserved stage win in Megeve. A narrow sprint win from a breakaway was such a Cort way of getting EF off the mark for this race after a number of close calls.

The next day we got our first look at the GC contenders at over 2000m of altitude although most pundits (including myself) had already called Pogacar the winner of this tour.

Jonas Vingegaard and his Jumbo team had other ideas repeatedly attacking the Slovenian in the valley roads around the colossal Col du Galibier. Pogacar was able to react to all attacks at this point but when the Dane attacked on the Col du Granon almost in site of the finish, the leader was dropped.

And how.

A deficit of around 30 seconds became over 2 and a quarter minutes of a lead for Vingegaard. It was now on.

The expected attacks the following day on Alp D’Huez didn’t really materialise with the crowds and the breakway situation maybe playing a part.

Tom Pidcock kept up the UKs recent claim on the Dutch mountain with a brilliant stage win forged in his downhill skills and backed up by his speed up hill.

Highlight of the Tour so far for me.

As we headed towards a weekend of 40 degree heat a breakaway was finally allowed its day with Mads Pedersen a deserving stage win after managing his compatriots on the final climb into St Etienne.

Yesterday as the race trundled into Carcassonne we had time to reflect on a brilliant second week packed with mountain views and twists and turns in the race.

Jumbo’s minds were bought back into sharp focus however. Primoz Roglic had left the Tour at the start of the day as a result of his Roubaix tumble. However they hadn’t budgeted on Steven Kruijswijk hitting the deck and breaking a collar bone. Advantage Tadej?

Its all to play for as we head into the key final week of this Tour de France… I am not going to pick it now!

RnkPrev▼▲RiderTeamUCITime
11– VINGEGAARD JonasJumbo-Visma2516″59:58:28
22– POGAČAR TadejUAE Team Emirates24″2:22
33– THOMAS GeraintINEOS Grenadiers2:43
44– BARDET RomainTeam DSM4″3:01
55– YATES AdamINEOS Grenadiers4:06
66– QUINTANA NairoTeam Arkéa Samsic6″4:15
77– MEINTJES LouisIntermarché – Wanty – Gobert Matériaux6″4:24
88– GAUDU DavidGroupama – FDJ4″,,
99– PIDCOCK ThomasINEOS Grenadiers10″8:49
1010– MAS EnricMovistar Team9:58