Leeds to Harrogate Grand Depart – Tour de France 2014 Gallery
All images ©Chris Maher / CyclingShorts.cc 2014
John Degenkolb talks Post Stage 1 Tour de France 2014
After crossing the line on stage 1 of the Grand Depart in Harrogate for the Tour de France we caught up with John Degenkolb of Team Giant Shimano on Marcel Kittel’s win and his own hopes for stage 2.
Image ©Pierre TH / CyclingShorts.cc
CDNW Surf & Turf – 2 Day Women’s Road Race 2014 Report
Images ©chrismaher.co.uk/Cycling Shorts – photos are regularly updated on flicker.com
Round Four in the Women’s Road Race Series was held in Lancashire. Over a two day period the race was split into three events. A one mile individual time trial prologue, A fourty-five minute criterium and an eighty-one kilometre circuit race.
Wiggle Honda’s Laura Trott won both the individual time trial and the criterium to hold the blue leaders jersey over-night. Pearl Izumi’s Katie Archibald was a close second, followed by RST Racing Team’s Grace Garner in third.
A damp start to the final event brought an early end for several riders in the first couple of circuits. This didn’t affect the top placed girls, and a couple of attacks by Archibald, Storey and Dani King split the peleton into three groups. A mechanical for Storey, saw her drop back from a leading group of around thirty girls by lap five.
The main group remained together for a couple of laps, with Storey maintaining her deficit at around two-twenty, but unable to re-join the leaders.
A chat the evening before amongst the Wiggle girls, had come up with a plan to make a surprise attack from within the group. Mid way through the race, the girls found themselves stuck in the middle, with no-one wanting to attack. So with this game plan in mind they launched a drive up the “Little Rise” on the course. Trott, then King, then Elinor Barker went away from the bunch and this was the decisive move that shaped the final out-come.
Talking to Laura after the race, she said about their game plan, “This is the perfect situation”. “I looked behind an it was just the three of us. I looked behind again and Katie had joined us”. “We just worked then as a Team Pursuit”. “With Dani and Elinor counter attacking (Archibald) all the way to the end, I just got a free ride to the finish”.
The Wiggle Girls then led the race leader into the final sprint for the line, with Archibald chasing them down. Trott had the freshest legs to follow, then lunged for the line, beating Archibald for the third successive time.
Surf & Turf 2Day Final overall.
1 Laura Trott Wiggle Honda 03:00:53
2 Katie Archibald Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:00:12
3 Danielle King Wiggle Honda 00:00:23
4 Elinor Barker Wiggle Honda 00:00:31
5 Grace Garner RST Racing Team 00:02:21
6 Lydia Boylan Velosport – Pasta Montegrappa 00:02:27
7 Nicola Juniper Private Member 00:02:28
8 Jo Tindley Matrix Fitness – Vulpine 00:02:29
9 Megan Barker M and D Cycles/Scimitar Sports/ Fusion Sports RT 00:02:29
10 Rebecca Womersley WyndyMilla – Reynolds 00:02:30
11 Emily Nelson Fusion Development Racing Team 00:02:30
12 Elizabeth Malins Fusion RT Gearclub Bike Science 00:02:30
13 Lauren Creamer Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:02:31
14 Abigail Dentus Team De ver 00:02:31
15 Melissa Lowther Matrix Fitness – Vulpine 00:02:31
16 Gabriella Shaw Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:02:32
17 Lucy Shaw Solihull CC 00:02:32
18 Rebecca Rimmington Merlin Cycles 00:02:33
19 Eve Dixon Team 22 00:02:34
20 Jane Barr Velocity 44 Stirling 00:02:34
Stage two 81 Kms or 13 laps of 6.2 Kms.
1 Laura Trott Wiggle Honda 02:07:08
2 Katie Archibald Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 02:07:08
3 Danielle King Wiggle Honda 02:07:10
4 Elinor Barker Wiggle Honda 02:07:13
5 Grace Garner RST Racing Team 02:09:08
6 Megan Barker M and D Cycles/Scimitar Sports/ Fusion Sports RT 02:09:08
7 Nicola Juniper Private Member 02:09:08
8 Rebecca Womersley WyndyMilla – Reynolds 02:09:08
9 Abigail Dentus Team De ver 02:09:08
10 Lauren Creamer Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 02:09:08
Stage one 45 min Criterium.
1 Laura Trott Wiggle Honda 00:51:50
2 Katie Archibald Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:51:55
3 Grace Garner RST Racing Team 00:51:57
4 Danielle King Wiggle Honda 00:52:00
5 Dame Sarah Storey Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:52:00
6 Elinor Barker Wiggle Honda 00:52:00
7 Lydia Boylan Velosport – Pasta Montegrappa 00:52:00
8 Claire Thomas Velosport – Pasta Montegrappa 00:52:00
9 Nicola Juniper Private Member 00:52:00
10 Jo Tindley Matrix Fitness – Vulpine 00:52:00
Prologue Time Trial 1.6Kms.
1 Laura Trott Wiggle Honda 00:02:05
2 Katie Archibald Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:02:07
3 Grace Garner RST Racing Team 00:02:09
4 Danielle King Wiggle Honda 00:02:09
5 Dame Sarah Storey Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:02:10
6 Elinor Barker Wiggle Honda 00:02:11
7 Lydia Boylan Velosport – Pasta Montegrappa 00:02:12
8 Claire Thomas Velosport – Pasta Montegrappa 00:02:13
9 Nicola Juniper Private Member 00:02:13
10 Jo Tindley Matrix Fitness – Vulpine 00:02:14
Results by British Cycling
Women’s Road Race Standings TBC
The next round of the Women’s Road Race Series in the Curlew Cup is in Northumberland on Sunday 22nd June.
Race Report – Women’s Tour 2014 Finale
Marianne Vos takes Friends Life Women’s Tour overall victory
Marianne Vos cemented victory in the inaugural Friends Life Women’s Tour by taking her third consecutive stage victory in Bury St Edmunds, out sprinting Giorgia Bronzini and Amy Pieters on Angel Hill.
The ensuing time bonuses ensured Vos finished 30 seconds clear of stage winners Emma Johansson and Rossella Ratto in second and third places, with the latter also claiming the Matrix Fitness Best Young Rider jersey for the highest placed Under-23 rider.
Italian duo Bronzini and Susanna Zorzi, who claimed the week’s overall combativity award, were fourth and fifth overall, with Pieters just edging Lucy Garner and Hannah Barnes in sixth, seventh and eighth places.
Garner also took the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Best British Rider jersey, inheriting it on Sunday morning in Harwich after Lizzie Armitstead withdrew through illness and then defending it from Barnes in the final sprint, despite clipping the barriers in the final corners.
For the second day running Lotto Belisol Ladies’ Emma Pooley was in the thick of the action, winning the Combativity Award for her constant attacking on the 108.3 kilometre stage through Tendring and Suffolk.
Loes Gunnewijk, Lauren Hall and Lisa Brennauer joined Pooley, but with no Rabo Liv rider in the font group they were brought back, setting up the final sprint finish of the week into Bury St Edmunds’ Angel Hill, where packed crowds awaited.
For the third day running it was Vos who powered clear, our sprinting Bronzini, with Pieters and Barnes in close attendance behind.
Vos’ consistent run of top three finishes and bonus points saw her claim the YodelDirect Points jersey, while Sharon Laws and Jolanda Neff’s week long battle for the Strava Queen of the Mountains jersey ended in favour of the British rider, three points ahead of her Swiss counterpart.
Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies claimed the overall Team Classification, with American rider Hall their highest finisher in ninth overall.
Highlights of Stage Five are on ITV4 at 9pm on Sunday evening, with a repeat at 8.10am on Monday morning.
New Home for SCCU Good Friday Meeting
It’s with a heavy heart that Cycling Shorts brings you this sad, sad news about the SCCU Good Friday Meeting (Southern Counties Cycling Union), I won’t drop the other Cycling Shorts writers in it, but a few of us have been having the same collective grumble about this all morning.
I wanted to call this article “Herne Hill abandoned for shiny new venue with no soul”, but I’m resisting.
Personally I feel the event will lose a lot of it’s core supporters who have stood by the event no matter the weather, in fact the weather is part of the charm of the Good Friday Meet (and other Good Friday races around the country)… people will still go out in mucky weather to watch or take part in cycling in the UK. At least at an outdoor track the riders pass the spectators repeatedly keeping the audience gripped, the same can not always be said of road racing, it whizzes past you once… reach for your flask of coffee and hobnob (other biscuits are available) and the photo opportunity is gone! Isn’t part of the point of these races to get outdoors and enjoy what spring throws at us?! Herne Hill will be remembered with more fondness than Lee Valley ever could be. It seems it’s yet another event cashing in on the new and sacrificing the old. In my mind this isn’t a move of location, it’s a total change of event.
I want to see grass roots venues being treated with the respect they deserve, if the cycling bubble we are currently riding in does burst (fingers crossed it won’t) you need venues like Herne Hill to help keep cycling going in the bad times, don’t snub it in the good times, why can’t these venues continue to host these sorts of races?… so what if demand outstrips supply of tickets, it becomes a more exclusive event.
The international pro riders I know who ride the GFM year in year out always tell me they love going to Herne Hill, they say it feels like you’re in the heart of a community.
I won’t be able to make it down this year to Lee Valley, I know I grumble, but I know it will still be a great day of racing and I’m sad I can’t go this year, it’s always well organised and quirky… if you haven’t been to the Good Friday Meet before and don’t like British weather then you have no excuse this time, get down to Lee Valley for an action packed day of cycling!
I’ll give it a go next year…. maybe.
Disappointed of the weather beaten (but hardy) North.
So after much rumour…here are the details of the relocation we received this afternoon.
On 18th April 2014 The SCCU Good Friday Meeting will be departing one historic Olympic Venue for another as it makes a move from Herne Hill to Lee Valley Velopark to help celebrate the opening year of the park and the cycling legacy of London 2012.
Lee Valley Velopark
We know that many of our supporters at Herne Hill will be disappointed that they will not be making their annual pilgrimage to Burbage Road ‐ and it will certainly be a very strange feeling for us to not be unlocking the gates at 6 o’clock in the morning – but after 110 years of forecast watching we will not be at the mercy of the British weather this year!
This decision has not been taken lightly. We’ve spent several months weighing up all of the options whilst constantly aiming to bring the best afternoon’s racing we can to our loyal supporters.
Herne Hill is a much‐loved and highly respected venue and work to renovate and evolve into a multi‐use facility is ongoing, taking it from strength to strength and elevating it far above it’s Victorian peers. Whilst the Good Friday meeting is undoubtedly a part of the velodrome’s history we are aware that track racing has moved on over the years and the event also needs to evolve to meet the expectations of the new generation of enthusiasts and supporters.
With this in mind, we felt that it was appropriate to bring the meeting to an indoor venue.
Rest assured, Herne Hill will continue to be a home of world‐class events and we fully intend to expand the number of outdoor‐specific and continental‐style events we promote at the venue, returning to the traditions and racing styles which the venue has hosted for over a century.
To our traditional supporters we say come with us, and to our new supporters we say welcome to some great racing!
Event website: http://www.bristowevents.co.uk/GoodFriday.html
Road Racing : the next steps – Rider Etiquette
Everybody’s bought their licences and they’re raring to go at the start of the season. This article relates to anybody who wants to have a go at racing on the open roads…
First thing that I want you to take a look at is the first 30 seconds or so of the following clip from Dirty Dancing (yes, I am serious):
You may all think that I have totally lost the plot, but Patrick Swayze makes two important comments:
- “Spaghetti arms” – the need to keep your [body’s] frame locked and your head up;
- “Dance space” – Jennifer Grey (as the amateur dancer) keeps encroaching on his space, to which he states “I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine”.
Yes, I get that the late Lord Patrick of Swayze is going on about doing a rumba; or whatever dance he is teaching her – I have only ever danced a rumba to “Hungry Eyes” (I’m not joking, either), so I don’t want anyone to correct me on the dance please, but it’s an important lesson to anybody who is contemplating racing on the open road in a road race.
Spaghetti Arms
Keeping your arms relaxed but in control of your handlebars is very important, as is keeping your head up. Time and time again you see riders in a bunch who aren’t in control of their bike properly. Some think it’s cool to ride either none-handed or with their wrists balancing on their handlebars in the middle of a bunch. Sorry, my friends, this is not “cool”. I don’t care if you see Grand Tour riders doing it on Eurosport – that is not appropriate behaviour in a local bike race in the UK, when there is oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the road.
“Dance Space”
More often than not, riders think that it is somehow appropriate to move themselves into a gap that is actually non-existent. If you were driving a car along a dual carriageway and there was a vehicle in each lane, you wouldn’t drive up the middle of the cars, so why ride into a “gap” that doesn’t exist? And saying “inside” to the rider who is on the left hand side in the gutter isn’t the same as saying “barleys” – where you can do what you want because it doesn’t matter as you won’t get any bad luck because you’ve crossed your fingers. Errr. No. Sorry, that doesn’t work.
Actions have consequences
Okay, you might think that I am having a rant because somebody brought me off on Sunday and that I should just shut up because “crashing is part of racing”. Fair enough, I understand the risks, having raced (on and off) since 1993, but I am not convinced some people understand the consequences of racing on the open road. The closed circuits that British Cycling have built are great tools for learning skills and act as an entry into racing, but people seem to apply the same racing rules to the open road as they do to closed road circuits. There’s a major difference that seems to pass people by – oncoming traffic. This means that if you push your way into a gap that doesn’t exist, the rider who has to make way for you then has to move elsewhere, which often means that they have to ride on the wrong side of the road, or hit the cats eyes that mark the middle of the road, which can then lead to issues in itself.
It’s not just the women…
Historically, women’s racing on a domestic level has been littered with crashes (partly due to the large difference of abilities that you can find when catering for “women” as a whole), but the numbers of crashes in the local men’s races (in the North West at least) is increasing at an alarming rate. More often than not, crashes occur because people stop concentrating (if only for a nano-second), which leads to a touch of wheels, people braking and then a domino effect occurring behind the culprit. Or the person on the front decides that they don’t want to be on the front anymore and swings across the front of the bunch, without looking before making the manoeuvre (I saw that happen with my own eyes on Sunday), or just slams on for no apparent reason.
Mutual Respect
If you have ever watched the professionals racing on the TV, for the most part you will see riders giving each other space – they respect each other as riders and as fellow professionals – they will give each other space on descents, especially – and any crashes (except the bizarre like Jonny Hoogerland’s in the Tour de France) tend to happen either in the last few kilometres when teams are jostling for position in the lead up to a sprint finish, or due to street furniture (roundabouts, bollards, etc) when the roads become really narrow. The latter shouldn’t happen in a domestic race in the UK because of risk assessments being carried out.
Admittedly, there can be potholes and puddles and grids (we live in the UK after all), so let people know if there’s an issue that you can see, including oncoming traffic – communication is the key in these instances.
The Moral to the Story
If you only take a few things away from this article, I hope that they are:
- Give your fellow competitors room;
- Treat everybody with respect;
- Remember that every action (however minor it may seem to you) has a consequence;
- Never stop concentrating when riding in a bunch.
The above are my observations from racing with men and women. Crashing is an expensive option both economically (I consider myself lucky from the crash I had on Sunday, but practically every item of clothing that I had on was wrecked, including a brand new helmet and a pair of Oakleys, which if I wanted to replace it all would cost in the region of £750 – and that’s not including the cost of fixing my bike) and physically (I headbutted the floor at 22 mph and have injuries to most parts of my body, although they are mostly cuts and bruises – the guys who came off in the men’s race weren’t as lucky and have broken bones and written-off bikes) and therefore, in my humble opinion, should be avoided at all costs – which means looking out for each other. Incidentally, for the majority of us, we have to get up and go to work the following day (you know, so that you can pay for the bike riding) or go home to look after dependents (whether that’s kids or other halves!) – you can’t do either if you’re smashed to bits.
Finally…
Let’s keep the #partyontheroad safe, so that everybody can enjoy the party after the race and remember – nobody puts Baby in a corner…
Until next time…
