Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
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2017 Tour de France | 2017 Giro d'Italia
A true man hates no one. - Napoleon Bonaparte
Latest completed racing:
- November 5: European Cyclocross Championships
- Oct 28 - Nov 5: Tour of Hainan
- November 1: Cyclocross Koppenberg
- October 29: Cyclocross Ruddervoorde
- October 28: Cincy CX, Devou Park
- October 28: Grote Prijs van Brabant
- October 19 - 24: Tour of Guangxi
Sky rider Owain Doull looks back on the 2017 season
Team Sky posted this review:
Welshman Owain Doull was struck down with appendicitis on the eve of his opening race of the campaign - the Tour Down Under, back in January - but quickly bounced back.
Here he talks the transition from the track, cobbles, racing with Michal Kwiatkowski and what's next in 2018.
Best moment of the season
Doing the Tour of Britain this year. We had a special team there. G, Kiry, Kwiato, Elia - all massive riders - and Tao who is one of my good friends. Also, for me, having appendicitis knocked me back at the start of the year and it was only towards the back end of the season that I started to feel like myself again and started riding well, around the time of Tour of Britain. It wasn’t even a goal before the race to take on the GC but I was always at the front, I did a good time trial as well and I ended up finishing ninth overall.
Most enjoyable race of the season
Again - the Tour of Britain. I just really enjoyed it this year, racing on home roads. Obviously I’ve done the race a lot in the past but this year racing for Team Sky made it a whole different beast, with the amount of support the team gets out on the road. It’s pretty special.
On the last day the weather in [Owain's hometown] Cardiff was pretty horrendous and beforehand I was a bit worried about how many people would turn up to watch the race. But it blew me away. There were so many people out on the road supporting the race and cheering everyone on, even in that bad weather.
Then going to Maindy Flyers the day after with G to see my old club and some of the people who helped me before was really special. I couldn't believe the amount of kids now cycling at Maindy. When I was there it was just 20 or 30, but when we went it seemed like there was hundreds.
Owain Doull at the 2015 Tour of Britain, where he was 3rd in GC and won the points classification. Geof Sheppard photo.
Hardest race of the season
Tour de Romandie. I’d done a big block of Classics racing, which I was really happy to do and super happy to have made the team for, but it was one race after another after another. Then we went into Romandie and I was still feeling the effects of what had happened to me at the start of the year [appendicitis], and with the weather and the general parcours, I found that one of the hardest races I did all year.
But it was another WorldTour stage race, plus I was on a race with Chris [Froome], so it stood me in good stead. I think up until Poitou-Charentes [in August] I’d done maybe 50 race days, and every single one had been WorldTour. You get sucked into a bubble and forget how high that level is, because it becomes the norm. So it was actually quite nice then to go to races like Poitou-Charentes and the Tour of Britain, which are that one grade below, and be competitive again - I was ninth at the Tour of Britain, seventh at Poitou Charentes. Being back at the front end of a bike race was nice.
Best teammate
Kwiato. He’s a really cool guy anyway, but it’s amazing to ride with him. I only raced with him a few times - the Ardennes at the start of the year and Strade Bianche, but I picked up more at the Tour of Britain. It’s how he goes about a race, how he approaches it, and how he always wants to win, all the time - it doesn’t have to be with him, but with someone. He was the most impressive and inspiring person I raced with this year.
Biggest change
Coming from a track background, where you’re aiming to peak once or twice a year, and you don’t race that much to here, where you race a lot more, was perhaps the biggest difference. I had almost 70 race days this year and obviously every race you do, from January through to October, with the Tour of Guangxi for me, you turn up and you’re expected to do a job and be at a level where you can support your teammates. That consistency is important. I think I’ve been pretty consistent across the board, but that’s the biggest step up - having that consistency.
I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve had a great year with the team and from start to finish I’ve been looked after so well. OK, I always come back to my appendicitis, but it’s a prime example for this: I missed a lot of race days, but there was never any pressure or rush to make me race any earlier than I had to.
Goal for 2018
The Classics. After doing them this year, I realised the scale of it, and how big they are, and also that if you want to be competitive, or want to get further into those races in the future, you have to put the work in. Every year you train, but until you go to those big races and see the level you have to be at to be competitive in them... It’s quite inspiring. So that’s the big one for me next year.
I can’t think of one specific thing someone told me, but from the start of the year a lot of people have said being a neo-pro I’ll be given as broad a mix of races as possible to learn about most disciplines and before coming here I thought, ‘Ah I know about most races,’ but after doing this year I realised it’s true - you learn so much. I did all the cobbles, the majority of the Ardennes, really hilly races like the Tour de Suisse, new stuff like the Hammer Series… That broad spectrum of experience has been really good.
Lotto-Soudal newcomer Anabelle Dréville wants to develop her climbing skills
Here's the team's latest news:
Next year we welcome the French rider Anabelle Dréville to the Lotto Soudal Ladies team. The 22-year-old medical student claimed the second place in the fifth stage of the Tour de l’Ardèche this season. Anabelle is a time trialist, who also wants to further develop her climbing skills. In 2015 she got 20th at her Flèche Wallonne début. The year before she won bronze in the road race at the European Championships for U23 riders.
Anabelle Dréville
Anabelle Dréville: “I am very much looking forward to this new experience. Elise Delzenne told me there is a great atmosphere in the team. Next year I want to have a wonderful season with the team and aim for results together. Personally, I want to set a step forward in hilly races, like the Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race. I also would like to be selected for the World Championships in Innsbruck. I got 20th in my first Flèche Wallonne, but the two next editions I set a less good result. It would be fantastic to achieve another place in the top twenty.”
“The stage in which I got second at the Tour de l’Ardèche was a mountain stage. After two or three climbs we were left at the front with fifteen to twenty riders. On the descent a large group closed the gap on us. With about 25 kilometres to go, I decided to attack and Jessica Pratt was the only rider to join me. We succeeded in staying in front with an advantage of about two minutes. I was beaten in the sprint, but I was very happy with the result. This gives me confidence for the future.”
“I am a medical student in Lille. It is not easy to combine my studies with cycling, but the university enables sportsmen and –women to do so. I’m in year five now, but I have already completed all theory and now I only need to do four internships. I’m now at the end of my first internship and half November I will start the second one. As of January I will work half-time and I’m free in summer.”
Bicycle Product Suppliers Asscociation shipments to dealers down 5 percent through September
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News sent me this update:
BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — Shipments from Bicycle Product Suppliers Association members to dealers over the first nine months of the year were down 5 percent from the same period last year, an 86,448-unit shortfall. Sales by dollars fell 3 percent.
The only categories to post growth were BMX, up 19 percent over last year, and e-bikes, up 75 percent. Comfort and road bike categories fell most, down 19 and 12 percent, respectively.
While the mountain bike category was down 1 percent overall, front-suspension 29ers posted 11 percent growth, and 27.5 full-suspension bike shipments rose 4 percent. Fat bike shipments were off 3 percent but still remain a larger business for BPSA suppliers than categories such as BMX, cruisers, 26-inch suspension, women's sport road bikes and commuters.
You can read the entire story here.
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