Hive Weekly Cycling News - September 14 2023

We are coming to the end of the professional cycling season and I am hoping there is still a lot more great racing left for the year. The Vuelta is moving into its final week and it seems like there could still be some changes at the top end of the overall standings, but I think everyone will agree that Jumbo-Visma is the strongest team. We also see the final professional race for Annamiek van Vleuten in the Netherlands and we have also see the Tour of Britain run and won for another year. Even though the racing will be easing up a little, we should still be seeing a lot of news needing to be reported.

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 Simac Ladies Tour Hits The Netherlands

The Simac Ladies Tour for 2023 covers 280km across six days of racing. First raced in 1998, this years race would be Annamiek van Vleuten would complete her final race as a professional rider. Held in the Netherlands, I am not sure if van Vleuten or her Movistar team had targeted this race for victory, I am sure it was still a fitting send off for one of the best female riders in recent times. Lotte Kopecky of Team SD Worx had won the second stage and took over the overall lead for the tour, and with another win in stage 4 gave her an 11 seconds lead moving into the final stage of the tour. The stage being a 150km, seven loop circuit, saw a group of 20 riders break away from the peloton in the first half of the stage. There were a number of tries to get chase the group, but they ended up taking this break away all the way to the finish. The group pretty much stayed together until the final sprint with Lotte Kopecky leading out her team mate Lorena Wiebes, in her sprint finish, allowing Wiebes to finish easily for the stage win, with Elisa Balsamo of Lidl-Trek finishing second and Kopecky finishing third. This gave Kopecky a five second lead over Wiebes to take the overall win for the tour, with Anna Henderson of Team Jumbo-Visma finishing third.

[Image Of Lotte Kopecky Winning Stage 4, Courtesy Getty Images]

Cycling Levels Fall By 5% In England

Data published by the Department for Transport in the UK has shown that cycling has failed by 5.2% in the year to June 2023, compared to the previous year. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, this is slightly up by 0.6%, but these statistics have been labelled as a “wake up call for the government” by Cycling UK. At the time, in 2020, the Prime Minister of the time, Boris Johnson, called the jump in cycling during the pandemic as a “cycling revolution”. In the same period of the fall in cycling’s motorised traffic levels have increased by 2.3%, showing that people are returned to driving. This also coincides with UK Government announcements, planning to cut investment in cycling and walking infrastructure. It seems like a similar issue governments across the world are tackling, where some countries like the Netherlands have been able to successfully increase their, while others seem to be struggling.

Wout van Aert Wins Tour of Britain

Not the biggest race on at the moment, but the 19th Tour of Britain still had some big names racing with a lot of the major teams represented. It is definitely the most prestigious cycling race in the UK, taking place between September 3 to September 10. Wout van Aert of Jumbo-Visma had taken the overall lead on stage 5, and kept hold into the final stage, but with only 3 seconds. After seven stages of relatively flat and sprint finishes, the 8th stage moved into South Wales and finally brought with it some categorised climbs into the Tour. It looked like Carlos Rodriguez of INEOS Grenadiers, who was 39 seconds off the overall lead, could potentially pull off a major upset in the final stage. A major road incident, not related to the race caused the stage to be halted at the 83km mark. When the race started up again, Rodriguez was able to make a break with 50km left. He held off all chasers to take the stage win, ahead of Wout van Aert who was 11 seconds behind him. This gave van Aert enough time to take the overall win with second and third only 3 seconds behind. Tobais Halland of Uno-X Pro Cycling Team and Damien Howson of Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team in third.

[Image Courtesy John Walton/PA]

Back Into The Second Week Of The Vuelta

We rejoin La Vuelta in stage 12, which is a relatively flat stage from Olvega to Zaragoza. Riding downhill for a majority of the 150km stage, there is only one categorised climb, where no one was able to make any break aways, so it was left to the sprinters once again to battle out the final sprint of the stage. Juan Sebastian Molano of UAE Team Emirates timed his run perfectly to win his first stage of this years Vuelta, followed by Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Boy van Poppel of Intermarche-Circus-Wanty in third. Sepp Kuss of Jumbo-Visma was able to keep his 26 second lead at the top of the overall standings for another day.

From sprinters taking charge in stage 12 to climbing over 4000m on stage 13, although the stage is only 134km, the final mountain top climb to the finish of the stage would take almost 40km for the riders to ascend. It turned out to be an eventful day with Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma attaching with eight kilometres remaining, with no other riders able to follow. Sepp Kuss was able to manage second for the stage and Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma making third, giving the team all top three riders for the stage win. As well this left Kuss leading the overall standings, but Roglic moved second overall, and Vingegaard into third. So Jumbo-Visma also was holding onto the top three overall places as well. This actually extended Kuss’ lead to 1 minute and 37 seconds. Early overall leader and last years winner, was dropped 90km from the finish and has lost multiple minutes to the leaders, and his chances of making two years in a row look slim.

After stage 13, we thought that we had seen the end of any chance for Remco Evenepoel to make an impact on the Vuelta, he got back into the action on stage 14, from Sauveterre-de-Bearn to Larra-Belagua. Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step, tried to launch one or two unsuccessful attacks but at the top of Col de la Hourcere, he was able to successfully break away with Romain Bardet of DSM-Firmenich. They rode together until Evenepoel was able to also drop Bardet with four kilometres to go and race to a solo stage win, by over one minute over Bardet. Although Sepp Kuss was a further 8 minutes behind, he held onto the leaders jersey for another day.

[Image Rui Cost Stage Win Courtesy Getty Images]

At the start of stage 15, it is looking more and more that Sepp Kuss might have enough of a lead to take the overall, but as we move into the final week of the Vuelta, I am hoping there are still some further twists before the final stage of the race. Stage 15 from Pamplona to Lekunberri was a 158km ride where Rui Costa of Intermarche-Circus-Wanty secured his first stage win of the Vuelta, as he launched an attack on the final climb of the stage. He was joined by Lennard Kamna of Bora-Hansgrohe and Santiago Buitago of Bahrain-Victorious, with all three sprinting to the line and Costa taking the win.

And then stage 16 happened. Just when I thought Sepp Kuss was not going to be challenged in the overall standings, it was going to be one of his team mates, that is making the biggest challenge to this years Vuelta. The stage from Liencres Playa to Bejes was only 120km but had a few steep climbs where Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma launching a powerful attack with only four kilometres to go on the final climb, with no other GC contenders able to go with him. Vingegaard was able to win the stage ahead of Finn Fisher-Black of UAE Team Emirates, 43 seconds behind and Woet Poels of Bahrain-Victorious finishing third a further 10 seconds back. Sepp Kuss was over a minute behind Vingegaard, which reduced his lead in the overall standings to now be only 29 second.

And then for stage 17, it seemed that Primoz Roglic wanted to get into the action, and take away some of the glory from his Jumbo-Visma team mates. Another hilly stage, 124km from Ribadesella to Alto de L’Angliru. With three kilometres left in the stage Roglic attacked with only his team mate Jonas Vingegaard able to stay with him. Both riders finished together, with their overall leader and team mate, Sepp Kuss finishing third. Kuss was 19 seconds behind Vingegaard, meaning his current overall lead was cut to only 8 seconds.

[Image Roglic And Vingegaard Near The Finish Of Stage 17, Courtesy Getty Images ]

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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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