Hive Weekly Cycling News - November 1 2023

I am going to be spacing the weekly cycling news to bi weekly as the 2023 season finishes up. We still have a lot of news coming in, so I didn’t want to stop the news completely, but I guess we will see what happens in the coming weeks.

We remind you most weeks before we move on with this weeks news. Have you thought about delegating some of your Hive to the Cycling Community. You don't have to delegate a lot, but every bit helps, with the Cycling Community(@hive-177745) growing and the payouts being rewarded is also growing, so it is definately worth you time.

The Tour d’France and Tour d’France Femmes Routes For 2024 Released

[Image Courtesy Tour de France: https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route]

The routes for the mens and women’s Tour de France has been released last week, providing us with a glimpse of where riders will be taken through to challenge for the most prestigious grand tour on the 2024 calendar.

For the men, the race directors have advised they have tried to create a more balanced race with the 111th edition of the race starting in Florence, Italy on the 29th of June 2024, and running for three weeks, finishing in Nice, on the 21st of July. It is the first time the tour will start in Italy, and the first time it finishes in Nice. This has been done to avoid the preparations that will be taking place in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games. The mens race will also include two individual time trial stages, with organisers advising there will be eight flat stages to cater for the sprinters. The 2024 route will cover a total of 3,492km, ascending over 50,000m of elevation, which is 20% more than the 2024 Giro d’Italia, with many of the climbs coming in the final week of racing.

The women will again battle out an eight stage race, with the end of the competition, finishing on Alpe d’hues. 2024 will be the third edition of the new Tour de France Femmes, and will be later this year, held form August 12 to August 18, with the race starting in the Netherlands, to then travel through France. Again the dates have been shifted from late July to accomodate the Olympic Games.

The women will be riding a total of 946km, including three flat stages and one individual time trail, two hilly and two mountain stages. From the Netherlands, the route will cross into Belgium, before moving into France by the fourth day of racing.

More Troubles For Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles

We reported last week that the parent company of Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles was reporting a downturn in sales, due to the recent economic climate. It is now being reported that the company has stopped paying suppliers for the time being and is not receiving any more good until further notice. This is not good news, although reports have surfaced that the company will be offering stock at 60% off for their Black Friday Sales, which will start in the next week or so. Obviously the company still has a large inventory in their warehouse, but it will be interesting to see if the company and brand will last into 2024. The company that owns Wiggle Chain Reaction Cycles, Sigma Sport United, have also reported one of their subsidiaries have filed for insolvency, so it looks like the Wiggle Chain Reaction brand means a lot for the company. Personally, I am following this news pretty closely as when Wiggle first came into the Australian market, it was the first time that we were being offered a reasonable price for cycling and other sports gear. So as a brand, I hope they survive these issues, at least in the near future.

[Image Courtesy Wiggle]

Riders Supplementing With BiCarb Soda In The Peloton

In previous years there have been a lot of talk about riders supplementing with Keto esters in some of the Big Grand Tours to try and get an edge over their competition. For the 2023 tours, a lot of this talk has changed to focus more on the use of BiCarb Soda. I personally haven’t tried this myself, but have been curious as they seem to be effective in improving performance for athletes, but I’ve always been a little weary as the large amounts needed to give a performance boost can also give a large amount of stomach issues, if its not something you are used to. My personal trainer used to tell me about the power increase he had seen in running sprint performance, with a long list of research to back its use.

I’ve been saying BiCarb Soda, but as you also might know it as sodium bicarbonate, which is the same stuff you might already have in your kitchen to add into your favourite cake recipe, or on occasions help with an upset stomach. This basic kitchen ingredient helps stop the build up of lactic acid in your muscles, which “should” allow you to push harder for longer. If you do a basic search on google, you will get a long list of articles, specifically outlining the fact that Jumbo-Visma have been using it. Two articles I have read recently that I thought would share are listed below:
BikeRadar
CyclingWeeky

I’d be keen to hear anyone else’s experience with using bicarb soda and cycling. The new products on the market are asking you to take a large number of capsules to get the full benefit.

The Final World Tour Event Of 2023 In China

The Tour of Guangxi is the final world tour event of the year, and it was only a last minute decision for Jumbo-Visma to enter the race, putting their faith in ex mountain bike rider Milan Vader to lead the team to victory over the 6 stage race in China. Although the climbing over the stages was not too high, the final ascent of stage 4 saw Vader attack to win the stage and take the overall lead at the end of the stage as well. He would keep his six second lead he took into the final stage, and with Jumbo-Visma team mate Olav Koolj winning the stage, the team had a lot to celebrate. Vader winning ahead of Remi Rochas of Confidis and Ethan Halter of Ineos Grenadiers who finished third overall.

2023 Velo d'Or Awards Winners Announced

Demi Vollering and Jonas Vingegaard have been presented with this year’s Vélo d'Or awards for men and women. This was the first time in the 31 year history of the award that it was presented in a formal ceremony in Paris. The award is usually presented as the front-page story in Vélo Magazine. Vollering was presented the award after notably winning the Tour de France Femme and was also the Women’s WorldTour winner for 2023, while Vingegaard had won his second Tour de France GC title and finished the season as the second best rider in the UCI World Rankings. This year, a new category award was presented to the best Classics rider, with Lotte Kopecky winning the women’s award and Mathieu van de Poel winning the mens. Both riders were road world champions this year and were presented Eddy Merckx Trophy for their performances in the past year.

[Image of Jonas Vingegaard and Demi Vollering Courtesy Getty Images]

Mathieu van der Poel wins Madrid Criterium

Mathieu van der Poel of Alpecin-Deceuninck claimed the overall victory in the second edition of the Madrid Criterium, by winning the road race and finishing second in the elimination race. This is actually the first time that Van der Poel has actually lined up to race in Spain, and included a peloton which was small but included a number of other professionals, minus last years winner Tadej Pogacar. Luis Leon Sanchez of Astana Oazaqstan, who was a sentimental favourite, won the elimination race, in this being his final year of his 20 year professional career. Van der Poel emerged from a group of six riders, through the road race circuit, ahead of a large crowd to win the event.

The Tour de France Singapore Criterium Event

The Tour de France Singapore Criterium is more of an exhibition event than a race, but the 20 lap, 3km street circuit saw a lot of big names make the trip from Europe to see the sites of Singapore. Riders like Chris Froome and Peter Sagan of Israel-Premier Tech, last years winner of the event Tadej Pagocar of UAE Team Emirates, La Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma, Mark Cavendish of Astana-Qazaqstan and Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin Deceuninck. The criterium was the headline event for the weekend in Singapore, which was followed by a team time trial won by UAE Team Emirates, and a series of amateur criterium and charity events.

Pagocar, Sagan and Froome were all active from the start with Pogacar making a solo attach stick with 4km to go and was on his own at the start of the final lap. Froome lead the chase group to catch Pogacar, catching him in the final kilometres of the race. It was Jasper Philipsen who out sprinted Mark Cavendish in the final straight to win the race, with Pogacar still able to take third.

[Image Courtesy Getty Images]

USA Cycling Announces New eEports League

Echelon Racing Promotions and USA Cycling announces new eSports League and US National eSports Championships to be help in Zwift. The partnership will host a six race series that will serve as a series of qualification races for the USA eSports Elite National Championships. All of the Echelon Racing League events are open to co-editors from all nationalities and will have categories for racers of all abilities and levels. But to compete in the National Championships, racers must hold a current USA Cycling License. All the race details and dates can be found on the Echelon Racing website, at the following link: https://www.echelonracingleague.com/

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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:

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.