Hive Weekly Cycling News - 27 April 2023

Welcome back for another week of Hive Cycling News

I really hate hearing about anyone crashing while riding a bike, especially when they are racing and probably in the best shape of their life. That is probably the big news this week with Tadej Pogacar crashing during a race in Belgium and needing to have surgery to mend his broken wrist and looks to be out of racing for the next six weeks. Hopefully he will have a speedy recovery and they must almost feel these types of injuries are inevitable at this level of racing.

There is a lot more racing and news below with both the mens and womens results for the Leige-Bastogne-Leige in Belgium, overall results for the Tour of Alps, and the Womens Pan American Championships. There is also some interesting information on how Jumbo-Visma have used AI to help their rides in last year’s Tour De France, and will probably continue to do so moving forward. It’s an interesting subject and working in the technology sector, something I am keen to invest time on to make sure I am not left behind when these tools continue to evolve and become more mainstream.

NOTE: I am not affiliated with Cycling Weekly, and I am not being paid any money or was influenced in any way to promote the following link.

I just wanted to share it with everyone, as I have actually purchased the Cycling Weekly “Complete Guide to Road Cycling”. There are about 130 pages of information in there, so I am hoping to get some good reading, and I actually miss hard copy magazines, so don’t mind spending a bit of money occasionally to get my hands on one. If you purchase a print copy before the 28th of April 2023, you can use the code ROAD40 to get a 40% discount on your purchase.

When I get my hands on a copy, I will make sure to let you all know how it was. If you are interested, head to the following link:
https://email.magazinesdirect.com/optiext/optiextension.dll?ID=5BA5FqjSIvThCD88LryZyLH7LAoGftLcoU12Ea6gPeYHX11PrRAMuBagUnzX8R8EMvnsp8Biz_1fUZA5_yUQ3CmctTPSaVmPETGtIu5H

[Image Courtesy Cycling Weekly]

Demi Vollering Wins The Women’s Liege-Bastogne-Leige To Assert Herself As The Dominant Ride Of Spring

If you’ve been following along the past few weeks, most Hive Cycling News articles have posted at least one story of Demi Vollering winning or placing in a race. She has done it again for her SD Worx team to be only the second women ever to win the Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallonne and the Liege-Bastogne-Leige spring races.

It looks like a different SD Worx rider may have had the race earlier in the day with Marlen Reusser breaking away with four other riders with 70km left in the race. Reusser then took a solo lead which grew to 45 seconds at one point, but was unfortunately brought back to the main peloton with only 15km left in the race.

At the same time both Vollering and Elisa Longo Borghini of Trek-Segafredo were able to lead out from the main group both sprinting to the finish line with Vollering taking the slightest of wins on the day. Marlen Reusser was able to take third place after her long stint in the front on her own. This is Vollering’s fifth win in just eight race days this spring.

[Image Courtesy of Getty Images]

Jumbo-Visma Used AI to Help Fuel Vingegaard In 2022 TDF

Recent news has been released that Jumbo-Visma worked with AI researchers in the 2022 Tour de France to help provide winner Jonas Vingegaard with his daily nutrition needs. This seems to have worked and could have given him an edge over his competition.

The news was reported in an article in New Scientist last week where it was reported that the team used researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands to help calculate and produce mathematical models to help the team plan its riders diet for the race.

Link to article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2368436-ai-helps-cyclists-work-out-how-much-to-eat-during-the-tour-de-france/?utm_source=rakuten&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=2116208:Skimlinks.com&utm_content=10&ranMID=47192&ranEAID=TnL5HPStwNw&ranSiteID=TnL5HPStwNw-7X4E8udYQzUtKD5jpVkHxQ

The researchers used a wealth of information from previous races and included riders information like power statistics, details on race terrain and the weather conditions to help create a statistical model to help predict the future fueling requirements of the teams riders from stage to stage.

It is impossible to say if this was the factor that helped Vingegaard to victory over the 21 day stage race, but at the same time, I am sure you will see a lot more of the teams take a similar approach in this years grand tours.

Remco Evenepoel Wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege as Tadej Pogacar Cashes Out

The 109th edition of the Leigh-Bastogne-Leige took place on the 23rd of April and for the second straight year Remco Evenepoel of Team Soudal-QuickStep, took out the race with a strong solo attack.

The Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the oldest single day classic on the racing calendar and runs for 258km through the roads of Belgium. Although nothing should be taken away from Evenepoel, the big news from the race was a crash to one of his main rivals of the race, Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates. The crashed occurred at about the 85km mark of the race with Pogacar being forced to withdraw from the race due to a fractured wrist. He underwent surgery straight away and looks to be on the sidelines for at least the next six weeks.

The race enjoyed a number of attacks but it was not until the 30km to go, is where Evenepoel was able to break away from the main bunch and his main rival Tom Pidcock of Ineos Grenadiers. It was the decisive move where Evenepoel was able to ride to a solo victory ahead of Pidcock with Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain Victorious taking third place.

[Image Courtesy of Getty Images]

Tao Geoghegan Hart Wins The Tour of Alps

Tao Geoghegan Hart for Ineos Grenadiers made his second career overall win as he won the overall honours of the 5 day Tour of Alps. The race running from April 17th to 21st, starts in Battenberg of Austria and moves into the Alps to finish in Bruneck Italy. The race totals 752km of racing and climbing with Georghegan Hart happy to take the win but his main focus will be on the Giro d’Italia starting in just over a week.

The final day of the race saw Simon Carr of EF Education-Easypost take a solo stage win, but Geoghegan Hart had a strong lead taking out the overall win ahead of Felix Gall of AG2R Citreon Team and Hugh John Carthy of EF Education Easypost.

Skylar Schneider Women’s Wins Pan American Championships

It’s time to forget about your cycling team affiliations and get back to supporting your national teams, with the Women’s Pan American Championships held in Panama over the weekend. Schneider of the United States took out the gold medal for the women’s road race, narrowly edging out Canada’s Alison Jackson, after her big win at the Paris-Roubaix, to take silver. Chile’s Catalina Anais Soto took out the bronze podium spot amongst a strong field of riders.

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The Vespa OFM Podcast

This week Vespa OFM Podcast is interviewing Vespa / OFM Ambassador Bree Lambert Sanders, who is a nutritionist and coach in the San Jose area. Bree who, at 54 years young, still competes at the elite level including winding up with an overall win or a place on the podium.

About The Author
I am a DevOps Engineer, Endurance Athlete, Biomechanics Student and Author. We can all achieve amazing things, it's just a matter of trying, I want to change the world, one run at a time.