Hive Weekly Cycling News - August 17 2023

The second week of the combined UCI World Championships in Glasgow is complete and I think everyone has claimed the event was a true success. It’s been awesome to have so much world class racing over so many different disciplines, in such a short amount of time. I have had trouble keeping up with. I was also surprised to see how many of the big name road cyclists were also taking on the cross country mountain biking as well. Speak of mountain biking, the Leadville 100 has also taken place for another year, with the course record being broken and riders making the 169km journey in under six hours, which is amazing considering the terrain and altitude the riders need to cover. I hope the next few weeks won’t be too lonely with racing, although the Vuelta is coming around very fast.

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Peter Sagans Next Career Move

I know I am posting about Peter Sagan almost weekly, and I swear I am being impartial with the new I am choosing, but here is another piece of new from Peter Sagan. Over the past week of the combined Cycling World Championships, a piece of news that was not really covered was that Peter Sagan actually raced in the World Championships in the Cross Country MTB. The news was missed mostly because he cam 63rd in the race. But this has not stopped Sagan from taking on MTB as his next career move, as he is aiming to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Sagan has confirmed he will be racing for the Specialized Factory Racing team in 2024. This is actually a return to his roots as Sagan won the junior world championships in MTB in 2008 before he transitioned to the road. It will be interesting to see how he is able to transition back to the sport he started in.

Leadville 100 MTB Race Winners For 2023

Saturday 12th of August saw the 2023 running of the Leadville 100 Trail MTB race. The elite women took to the start grid at the same time as the elite men, with many of the riders wearing jackets and heavy gloves as the temperatures were at 9 Degrees Celsius(48F) for the start of the race that covers 169km, rider across the Colorado Rocky Mountains starting at 3000m, going up the 4000m at some points.

Keegan Swenson from Santa Cruz Bicycles dominated the race with his third consecutive win, setting a new course record time of 5 hours and 43 minutes, beating the previous record by 15 minutes, which has stood since 2015. A 13 rider group moved towards the front, where Swenson broke free 40km into the race, and then rode onto a solo victory, 24 minutes ahead of his closest rival Alexey Vermeulen of Jukebox-Shimano-Q+M, who was second, just ahead of John Gaston of STRAFE who finished third.

The women’s elite saw Sofia Gomez Villafane of Specialized winning on the day, beating Ruth Winder of Trek Bikes by just over 90 seconds and Alexis Skarda of Santa Cruz Bicycles, who was a further 9 minutes behind. Villafane had a winning time of 7 hours and 9 minutes, which was a big win for her after having to DNF from the 2022 race.

[Image of Sofia Gomez Villafane Courtesy Getty Images]

Lotte Kopecky wins Women's Elite World

The women’s road race started at Loch Lomond with a 154km ride to the finish line in Glasgow. A large number of riders attempted breaks, but all were reeled back in by the peloton, with Lotte Kopecky of Belgium looking the strongest and some say almost doing too much to lead most chases by the peloton to catch these breaks. It didn’t matter though as Kopecky didn’t fall away at all through out the race. Unfortunately, Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands suffered a puncture and tried desperately to get back after a bike change and she wasn’t able to fight for the win at the end of the race.

Demi Vollering of the Netherlands, Lotte Kopecky and Marlen Reusser of Switzerland remained together and it looked like a final sprint would be fought between these big names. Kopecky launched her break with around 5.5km left in the race as the road took a sharp climb, and was not able to be caught as she won the road race in 4 hours and 2 minutes. Cecile Ludwig of Denmark, attempted to catch Kopecky, earlier than the rest of the field and looked like she would ride into the silver medal spot, but Demi Vollering was able to catch her with a final sprint to the line, seven seconds behind Kopecky with Ludwig third.

[Image of Lotte Kopecky Courtesy SWPix.com]

Chloe Dygert of Team USA Wins Women’s Individual Time Trial World Championships

Chloe Dygert of the US, has completed her stunning comeback and reclaimed her position as the fasted female individual time trial list in the world after she won her second world championship in the Women’s Individual Time Trial in Glasgow. The time trial was a 36km rider, where Dygert finished in a time of 46 minutes and 59 seconds, at an average speed of 46.2kph. She won by only six seconds ahead of Australia’s Grace Brown and was over a minute ahead of third place Christina Schweinberger of Austria.

Dygert last won the world title in 2019, but then crashed out when trying to defend her title in 2020, where she required surgery to treat deep a laceration in her leg. She also took a 14 month break from road racing due to different health issues. The favourite for the women time trial was Marlen Reusser of Switzerland who pulled out of the race after the first checkpoint and may have been still suffering from a crash she sustained in the Mixed Team Time Trial.

[Image Courtesy Getty Images]

The Cross Country World Championships Taken By Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot

Team GB added to there medal tally as Tom Pidcock soloed ahead to victory in the elite men’s cross country race and the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships, taking gold ahead of Sam Gaze of New Zealand and Nino Schurter of Switzerland. Starting in the fifth row, Pidcock needed to work through the field and managed to reach the front group after 31 minutes of racing. Early on, Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands, was unable to make it three rainbow jerseys as he crashed out in the start lap as riders were trying to make their way through the packs. With one lap to go, Pidcock had broken away from the field to have a 23 second lead over his closest competitor. Pidcock finishing first with his lead reduced slightly to 19 seconds, ahead of Gaze. In 2021, Tom Pidcock had won the Olympic Gold medal at the Tokyo Games to become the youngest Olympic champion in MTB.

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot was able to take out the win the women’s elite cross country race, taking the gold ahead of her French compatriot Lorna Lecomte. The gold medal matches the medal Ferrand-Prevot won in the short course, earlier in the week. She was able to overcome a slow start to take a dominating win, taking the lead on the second lap of the race and extending her advantage from then on. Lorna Lecomte was second, a further 1 minute and 14 seconds behind Ferrand-Prevot, with Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands taking third place. This is the second time Ferrand-Prevot has won both the short track and cross country double at the worlds, and the fifth cross country world title she has won.

[Image of Ferrand-Prevot Winning The Womens Cross Country MTB Courtesy Getty Images]

Remco Evenepoel Winds Time Trial World Championships

Remco Evenepoel of Belgium has won the elite men’s time trial World Championships in Scotland, making up for a disappointing road race earlier in the week. Evenepoel took gold and became the youngest ever winner of the race and was Belgium’s first ever winner in the race. The 47km time trial was a battle between Evenepoel and Italy’s Filippo Ganna, who finished second, only 12 seconds behind, with 19 year old Josh Tarling of Great Britain who took third, opting to not race the under 23 world championships.

[Image Courtesy Getty Images]

That finishes up the Combined UCI World Championships, with Team GB taking advantage of their home ground, but I think there have been a lot of great racing over the past week and a half.

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This week we have a great video from Peter Defty discussing the riders of the Tour de France and discussing what we can learn from the way they fuel and race:

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