There was an intriguing three-way battle on the final stage of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var. In the first two stages of the race, Michael Woods had put himself into the race lead, and his performance on the steep Mur de Fayence made it look

Michael Mørkøv is like every other selfless domestique who suffers for the benefit of his or her appointed leader. His results rarely reflect his sacrifice, and as he points out: “It’s never me standing on top of the podium with the flowers and the p

Maybe after 15 seasons as a professional bike rider, you’d think a sense of routine would have long set in when a new year comes around, that familiarity would have overtaken the novelty and anticipation that riders at the start of their careers feel

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21 FEBRUARY 2021 The peloton is rent asunder by strong crosswinds on the opening stage of the UAE Tour. With the wind coming from the right, the only shelter from it is to the left of the rider in front, which means that the width of the road limits

What do I need to know? Antti-Jussi is 21 and is from Korso, Finland, near Helsinki. He rode last year for Estonian Conti team Tartu 2024-Balticchaincycling.com, which is now called Ampler Development. What kind of rider is he? The young Finn describ

The distance between the best climbers in the world has shrunk considerably in recent years. A dozen riders finished within 34 seconds of the first rider home on the HCranked Col de la Grand Colombier in last year’s Tour, for example. Tactics aside,

It’s crazy to say, but it was nine years since I had raced the Tour du Haut Var, now called the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes et du Var. Bizarrely I got 14th in 2012 and 15th in 2021. The name may have changed but the character of the race is intact. I wa

There’ll be a time, probably not too far in the future, when Marianne Vos will have retired and cycling will have to reckon with having witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime rider. No other rider in history has a spread of victories as vast and as varied as

We were very happy with Mads’ win because the day before in Omloop the team underperformed. Then we had a short meeting, and I told them I had a sh*t day and we told them to just make it good on Sunday. They did a really good race, so I was super wit

Where’s home? Currently it’s Girona in Spain, I’ve been there over this past winter. New Zealand is really home for me, but I haven’t been there for a while now. I’m from Nelson, at the top of South Island. What’s your favourite race? Last year was m

I think it’s the most heroic race of the year. It’s the most spectacular one as well and obviously it’s one of the most known in the world. It is so different and hard that everybody goes to their limit and over it. Even at the finish - I was just ta

The number of watts at which Mathieu van der Poel’s final attack at Strade Bianche peaked. The Dutchman released all of his power data on Strava following the race. Michael Woods on targeting the hilly classics after he was ruled out of Tirreno-Adria

GC One-day Stages Coppa Sabatini, 2020 Tour of Utah, 2015 Herald Sun Tour, 2019, 2020 Paris-Chauny, 2018 National Championships RR, 2016 Tour of Alberta, 2015 Herald Sun Tour, 2016 Tour of Belgium, 2018 Vuelta a España, 2020 Philadephia Cycling Class

With apologies to Philip Larkin and the opening lines of his famous poem, Annus Mirabilis, which are butchered above. Writing in 1967 about 1963, Larkin was referring not to cycling but to another physical activity. He was not being literal. But this

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THE LONG WAY ROUND Procycling: How are things from the perspective of early 2021? Dion Smith: I’m in Spain, and we’ve got a couple of restrictions in terms of curfews but I can still get out and train. The first few races in Spain were postponed and