Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, December 3, 2021
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2021 Tour de France | 2021 Giro d'Italia
He who would keep a secret must keep it a secret that he hath a secret to keep. – Sir Humphrey Appleby
Upcoming racing:
- Dec 11: Ethiascross-Essen
- Dec 19: Namur Cyclocross
- Dec 27: Heusden Zolder Cyclocross
- Dec 29: Diegemcross
- Dec 30: Azencross
- Jan 1, 2022: GP Sven Nys Cross
- Jan 16 - 23, 2022: Le Tour de Langkawi
- Jan 22, 2022: Flandriencross
- Jan 26 - 29, 2022: Challenge Illes Balears
- Jan 30 - Feb 6, 2022: Vuelta a San Juan
- Feb 12, 2022: Gavere Cyclocross
Latest completed racing:
- Dec 5:
Scheldecross Antwerp- Cancelled because of Covid-19 - Nov 13: GP Leuven
- Nov 7: Elite Men European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 6: Elite Women European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 1: Koppenberg Cyclocross
- Oct 31: Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse Cross
- Oct 24: Ronde van Drenthe
- Oct 23: Ruddervoorde Cyclocross
Les Woodland's book Cycling Heroes: The Golden Years is available as an audiobook here.
Declercq's Team Deceuninck-Quick Step posted this:
“El Tractor” was again chosen as the Best Domestique at the Belgian Kristallen Fiets ceremony. For the fourth consecutive year, Tim Declercq got the prestigious Kristallen Zweetdruppel trophy, making him the record holder.
This season, Declercq did an incredible job and played a quintessential role in many of the Wolfpack’s victories, as he spent countless kilometers at the front of the bunch, from February until October. His amazing work, commitment and effort were on display in the Classics, but also at the Tour de France, where the 32-year-old Belgian fought hard until Paris, despite an unfortunate crash, helping Mark Cavendish secure the green jersey.
2021 Tour de France, stage 9: Tim Declercq with Mark Cavendish on hs wheel. Sirotti photo
“It’s a super nice reward and this Kristallen Zweetdruppel trophy acknowledges I did my job again well this season. I’m really happy to be the Best Belgian Domestique for the fourth year in a row. The competition isn’t getting easier. I take a lot of satisfaction from what I do. You need to know what you are capable of and what you aren’t. I know my body is made for this kind of work. Of course, everyone dreams of winning races as a young kid, but then when you realise that will be difficult you can quite easily make the choice to work for your teammates. That I can do this in one of the best teams in the world is just great”, said Tim.
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Matej Mohorič’s Bahrain Victorious team posted this:
Matej Mohorič presented his long-planned foundation today at the Hotel Grof in Vransko. The purpose of the Matej Mohorič Foundation is primarily to help develop cycling amongst the youth in Slovenia.
Ever since becoming a professional cyclist, Matej has thought of ways to help and invest back into the local community and help others make it as a top cyclist.
Matej Mohorič winning Tour de France stage 19.
The foundation will work closely with the Cycling Association of Slovenia, which strongly supports the project and confirmed future cooperation. Matej Mohorič and the President of the Slovenian Cycling Association, Pavel Marđonovič, also opened and signed this cooperation by signing the Letter of Intent.
At the press conference, Matej presented his new Foundation: “This year’s generation of young cyclists in national team is extremely strong and they have huge potential, so this was also a reason that this year is the right time to establish and start operating the Foundation. Primarily, I would like to help with my knowledge and experience. I will help in a way that I will join the youngsters in the preparations organized by the Slovenian national team. I will help with my knowledge, experience and financially, as it is an excellent investment to build a quality and a top program for the young cyclists.
"I hope that these guys will have about the same opportunity as other national teams in Europe and have an even better starting point. In one part, the Foundation will focus on juniors, and in another respect, I will try to help more locally, especially the more minor boys, for whom we will try to organize more races than there have been so far. With the help of the Slovenian Cycling Association and cycling clubs, we will look for those individuals who have a great desire to be involved in cycling but may not be able to afford it. We will provide them with cycling equipment to start training. In addition, we will join many events that promote cycling as a healthy way of life and recreation. We will try to bring this sport closer to local communities and inform children and young people that cycling can be an extremely healthy way of life and a healthy environment for socializing as an afternoon activity. “
The president of KZS, Pavel Marđonovič, said at the press conference: “It is a great pleasure for me that Matej will support the Slovenian Cycling Association or more specifically the youth national team. The youth category is significant for the continuation of a career. It is a period that is extremely sensitive to age, potentials are already being shown at this time, and this period is crucial to react at the right time and help young cyclists and guide them properly. We currently have 25 youngsters from 6 different clubs in the national team, and they all have the potential to follow Matej’s success. Matej was a Youth World Champion and U23 World Champion, he is one of the best cyclists in the world, and he is an outstanding analyst who delves into the details of cycling. So from this point of view, he is ideal and invaluable not only for financial support but also professional and motivational for young boys, professional staff, and liaisons.”
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Here’s some guidance from team EF Education-Nippo:
Whether you are riding a gravel event or the Tour de France, all of your training will come to nought if you run out of the right fuel on the road. And you will never get the best out of yourself in training if you don’t have the energy to finish your hardest sessions.
Professional bike racers burn through thousands and thousands of calories on a daily basis. A six-and-a-half-hour classic will often cost them more energy than most people need for three days. That’s extreme, but if you want to be competitive on your bike, you’ll need a lot more fuel than the average person too. EF Education–NIPPO’s nutritionist Will Girling thinks that you can learn a lot from our riders’ approach to fuelling.
The first thing to note is just how much the riders take in on their bikes. Neilson Powless, winner of the 2021 Clásica de San Sebastien, is one rider who has benefitted from eating more in races. “It’s just incredible how I’ve gone from eating, like, one gel an hour to now taking in 500 or 600 calories an hour,” he says.
Neilson Powless wins 2021 Clásica de San Sebastien. Sirotti photo
Will explains:
“As exercise duration increases, especially if it goes above two hours, carbohydrate intake should be heading towards 90 grammes per hour. If a race is going to be four hours or more, hitting 90 grammes per hour is going to be the minimum. It’s then important to consider other factors as well, such as the intensity of the race. So, if it is a one-day race, it’s normally longer and harder for the whole day, so riders should aim to consume 90 to 120 grammes of carbs per hour.”
That is a lot of carbohydrates. Scientists used to believe that athletes could only absorb 60 grammes per hour. That was based on glucose. Now, modern research shows that when glucose is mixed with fructose and other types of sugars, athletes can digest significantly more. That is because the different types of carbs take different pathways to get to your gut.
Consuming 90 to 120 grammes of carbohydrate per hour will give you an advantage over rivals who consume fewer, especially towards the end of a long, hard race. The higher intake will allow you to maintain higher blood glucose levels and better preserve your stores of glycogen. Glycogen is the fuel that you will need to launch a race-winning attack or stay with the leaders on the last climb of a stage.
“Glycogen is the fastest and most immediate form of energy that we have,” Will explains. “It is stored in our muscles in a format that we can use straight away. As intensity goes up, our bodies go from burning predominantly fat to glucose and then from glucose to glycogen.”
However, your muscles can only store so much glycogen—about 1500 calories worth. You won’t have any left when it counts if you’ve been running low on glucose. Racing with low blood glucose levels will force your body to use more glycogen to make up the deficit, so, when you really need that glycogen during the crux of a race, you will be running on fumes.
It’s one thing to know how many carbs you should be taking in; actually doing it is another thing altogether. The first challenge is knowing what is in your food and drink. Different sports nutrition products contain different amounts of the different types of carbs in different ratios. During a race, no one has time to read nutritional labels or do mental maths. EF Education–NIPPO’s performance nutrition partner NEVERSECOND does away with this problem.
“With NEVERSECOND, everything is just divisions of 30 grammes,” Will says. “So, the guys are just like, I need three units or four units, and it’s that simple. The bottles will either have 30, 60, or 90 grammes of carbs. They can see on the bottle what it is—obviously they will have a slight preference—and then they just have to have a gel or two or a bit of food per hour.”
NEVERSECOND’s gels and drink mixes are made with a 2:1 ratio of glucose to fructose to ensure maximum absorption. Since the riders often prefer to eat solid food during the first couple of hours of a race, the team’s soigneurs make rice cakes which contain 30 grammes of carbohydrate as well.
Still, the riders need to train their bodies to absorb so much carbohydrate during intense efforts. Will encourages them to practice.
“You need to be able to train your gut to be able to manage high levels of carbohydrate,” he says. “That requires two sessions a week. Preferably, a session will include some intensity and be at least four hours or so, similar enough to a race day, so they have the expenditure and can really put in the fuel. That way they will get that practice they need, without negatively affecting body composition.”
These types of practice sessions make the riders’ bodies more efficient at burning carbs as well,, which is something that they will struggle with if they do too many undernourished rides.
“I like to think of enzymes like workers,” Will says. “We’ve got guys with sledgehammers essentially who knock down walls of fat. And we’ve got other ones who knock down walls of carbohydrate. If you do loads and loads of fasted, low-carb training, you are going to start to lay off your carbohydrate wall demolishers, and you are going to increase the hiring of guys who knock down fat walls. But that means that when you suddenly come to race, if you haven’t practiced knocking down any carbohydrate walls, you are going to be very inefficient at doing it.”
That doesn’t mean that you need to eat gels every time you ride your bike. It’s all about fueling for the work that you are going to be doing.
“If you are going to go for a two hour mosey with your mates to a cafe, I wouldn’t say that you need to be on top of your fuel for that,” Will says. “Probably just the cafe stop will be enough. But if you are going to go out with your mates to do a three-hour to four-hour ride—you know what it is like with your friends; you start hitting those hills and smashing it up every single one, and guys start giving digs to each other—you probably want to be on top of your fuelling on that day.”
It is much better to nourish yourself well on the bike than to come home famished and eat everything in your refrigerator. You want to avoid getting into an unhealthy cycle of under-eating and overeating and then under-eating again to compensate. If you balance out your diet, you will be able to train much better.
“If you have more fuel on the bike, then you can also put in more work on the bike and burn more calories,” Will says. “You can put out more intensity and do your efforts properly.”
This is especially important if you have a race coming up. Will advises every athlete to practice their race-day nutrition.
“You want to do some big rides and get your nutrition dialed in. For four to eight weeks, I would be taking those products that you intend to use with you one to two times per week. If you are going to be racing and you want to give your best effort, then undoubtedly 90 grammes of carbohydrates per hour has been shown to improve performance, reduce finishing times, and also improve recovery.”
That strategy has surely worked well for Neilson Powless and his teammates.
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