“We’re just numbers, pawns at Ineos,” says Pavel Sivakov after Vuelta snub; Government finally trials bolt down barriers on car and bin-filled cycle lane; U23 Paris-Roubaix winner in coma after “hitting back of car hard” + more on the live blog

It turns out it isn’t just Luke Rowe who’s slightly miffed at being left out of the Ineos Grenadiers line-up for the upcoming Vuelta a España, which gets underway on Saturday with a team time trial around the streets of Barcelona.

> “I’ve gone all in for this Vuelta, and I didn’t make the cut”: Luke Rowe “pretty f***ing gutted” to miss out on Vuelta selection

Speaking to L'Équipe after finishing 56th in yesterday’s super short 2.3km prologue TT at the Tour of Germany, Rowe’s teammate Pavel Sivakov said that missing out on the Spanish grand tour was a “big blow”, especially after spending almost two months at altitude this summer preparing for the race, along with a further four weeks training and racing with what he assumed was the Vuelta squad.

The 26-year-old announced at the beginning of the month that, after six years with the British squad, he will be leaving to join UAE Team Emirates for 2024, one of a number of big-name riders heading out the Ineos exit door this winter, including Tao Geoghegan Hart, Ben Tulett, and Dani Martinez, while the future of promising Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, rumours continue to persist concerning a merger between the team and Soudal-Quick Step, a momentous move that, if true, would see Remco Evenepoel spearhead the new squad’s GC challenge at the grand tours, and help revitalise an outfit that has been in transition mode for a few seasons now after the heady successes of the 2010s.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

It’s perhaps fair to say that, despite GC wins at the Tour of Poland, Tour of the Alps, and the Vuelta a Burgos, the departing Sivakov hasn’t quite lived up to the admittedly lofty expectations placed upon him since turning pro with the then-Team Sky in 2019.

And this month’s Vuelta snub has only underlined, in his eyes, his status as just a “pawn” in the Ineos game.

“We will say that I had a big blow last week,” he told L'Équipe yesterday. “I was told that I was not going to do the Vuelta, it was really difficult. I spent a month and a half at altitude this summer and three weeks with the Vuelta squad. We then all went together to the Tour of Poland. It went well, very well indeed.

“Afterwards, I went straight back to altitude to prepare this Vuelta. I think I was in the best condition of my season, in my opinion I was even better than before the Giro, and then there you go...

“I got a phone call telling me it wasn’t going to happen. It was complicated. I’ve been on the team for six years, everyone knows I'm leaving, but that’s cycling.

“We’re just numbers, pawns. That’s kind of how I see it. It makes us realise that the ‘management’ sometimes has to make difficult decisions. I was shot at the time, but I have since pulled myself together. I want to take advantage of all the work that has been done this summer by trying to do something by the end of the season.”

Glancing at the race calendar, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the old and always interesting Tour of the Benelux – formerly the Eneco Tour, and then the BinckBank Tour – had been consigned to the dustbin of forgotten bike races.

But nope, the race is still going strong in 2023, just now in its 115th different guise as the Renewi Tour (so much for brand identity, eh?). To add to the confusion, its famous ‘golden kilometre’ of frantic bonus seconds has even been replaced by a ‘green kilometre’, to reflect the new sponsor’s waste management business. Hopefully the riders don’t mistake the new green kilometre for the litter zone, anyway…

Joshua Tarling wins his first world tour race at the age of 19 years and 190 days pic.twitter.com/KBIY4Qfjku

— Katie (@medicinexthings) August 24, 2023

While the race itself has a new name and identity, what hasn’t changed is the staggering success of British teenage sensation Josh Tarling’s debut season in the pro ranks.

The 19-year-old Ineos Grenadiers time trial specialist has only finished outside the top three once in his five solo efforts against the clock this year, securing a British national title and a bronze medal behind Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna at the world championships along the way.

And today, over a 13.6km circuit in Sluis, Tarling stormed to his first career WorldTour victory, beating two-time Benelux Tour champion Tim Wellens by 14 seconds and Tour de France prologue winner Yves Lampaert by 18, taking the leader’s jersey in the process.

This lil kid just won his first WT race, a stage in #RenewiTour! Only 19 years old 🤯

Congrats 🇬🇧 Joshua Tarling! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/zMNMCdH9f1

— Domestique (@Domestique___) August 24, 2023

Tarling’s win also means – according to GCN’s resident statistician Cillian Kelly – he’s now the joint youngest rider to take a victory in cycling’s top tier, tied with (who else?) Remco Evenepoel, who was also 19 years, six months, and nine days old when he soloed to the win at Clásica San Sebastián in 2019.

Now, that’s not a bad record at all to share. And, considering what Remco has since gone on to achieve on both the road and TT bike, could we once again be staring, blinking, at the beginning of a new Cancellara or Martin-esque time trialling dynasty?

While Mathieu van der Poel’s sensational 2023 – crash at the mountain bike worlds notwithstanding – has cemented the Dutchman’s status as the multidisciplinary king of cycling, his old ‘cross and road shadow Wout van Aert is ready to do his own bit of branching out, swapping the mud and the cobbles for some loose dirt at this weekend’s UCI Gravel World Series event in Houffalize.

The Jumbo-Visma star will line up alongside the likes of retired roadies Niki Terpstra, Johnny Hoogerland, and Jan Bakelants at the start of the 110km race, which will kick off at the foot of the Côte de Saint Roch, one of the emblematic climbs of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, as he builds towards October’s world gravel champs in the Veneto region of Italy.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UCI Gravel World Series (@ucigravelworldseries)

At last year’s inaugural UCI world gravel championships, Van der Poel finished third, behind Alpecin–Deceuninck teammate Gianni Vermeersch. After their electric battles for the cyclocross and road rainbow jerseys this year, could we be set for another MVDP v WVA showdown for a world title in October.

Also, the way things are going, all we need is Tom Pidcock to take to the gravel and Van Aert to pull the mountain bike out of the shed, and the multi-discipline takeover of cycling will be complete.

> The rise of the cycling multi-disciplinarian

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Netherlands, Marianne Vos – fresh from winning a UCI gravel round in Sweden at the weekend – laughs while staring at all her road, ‘cross, mountain bike, gravel, and track trophies and jerseys…

Figures released by bike manufacturer Merida this week will do little to quell the sense of doom and gloom surrounding the cycling industry in 2023, as the Taiwan-based company announced that their profit for the first half of the year has fallen by 38.8 percent to €38.30 million.

According to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, sales are also down 6.6 percent to €453.02 million, compared to the first six months of 2022, Bike Europe reports. A statement on Merida’s website, however, refers to sales of €451.71 million, which would mean a drop of 6.72 percent.

> Shimano bike component sales fall by 18% as company cites “weak” demand for products

While Merida did not give any reason for the significant decline in profit and revenue, it is clear that the company – which supplies bikes for the WorldTour Bahrain Victorious team – is facing the same industry-wide pressures and price reductions currently reverberating throughout the cycling market, as well as dealing with high inventory levels.

 

 

 

 

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It’s one thing smashing these ultra-distance events in super-quick time, breaking records in the process; it’s quite another thing to continue slogging away at it, riding your bike for weeks, just to make it to the end.

But that’s what British cyclist Han Lu has done, reaching the finish of this year’s Transcontinental race at the Greek port of Thessaloniki late last night, almost exactly a month since she set off from Geraardsbergen on her 4,000km journey across Europe, and over three weeks since Christoph Strasser finished first for the second consecutive year.

> Potholes, road rash, stray dogs, bee stings, cracked rim... Transcontinental suffering

The 49-year-old, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in the UK, was one of the recipients of this year’s Mike Hall Bursary, a scheme set up to help riders from low-income families participate in the Transcon.

At her first ever cycling event a few years ago, RideLondon, she “rode like mad just to stay warm” through a storm, catching the cycling and ultra-distance bug in the process.

“I met a TCR rider last year and became obsessed with the idea of the Race,” she said before setting off last month. “It will be a big push for me, because I have always wanted to go out bike touring but I don’t have the confidence to go by myself. This way, I have no choice.”

Celebrating her lanterne rouge finish last night, the Transcon organisers said: “Dot-watchers and the Lost Dot team will rest easy tonight knowing that the last rider on the road has completed their journey. We imagine Han will, too.

“We congratulate all riders who have completed TCRNo9 since the GC cut-off, and we congratulate Han on her resilience and determination to finish this Race, exemplifying true Race spirit.”

And, if I may be so bold, she also exemplified what riding your bike is all about. Chapeau.

Devon and Cornwall’s roads policing team have confirmed that the driver will be prosecuted, while adding that they also identified 280 – 280! – other instances of motorists speeding or using phones while driving in the space of just one hour, during a recent crackdown on motoring offences during rush hour.

> Driver caught speeding past child cyclist at an “eye-watering” 61mph in a 30mph zone outside school 

Extreme weather conditions are continuing to plague bike races in Europe this summer, with the organisers of the Tour de l’Avenir – the de facto U23 version of the Tour de France – deciding to move today’s 141km stage from La Tour-de-Salvagny to Lac d’Aiguebelette forward by two hours in a bid to counteract the horrendously high temperatures plaguing central France and the Alps this week.

As a result, the riders were treated to a 10.30am start (a nice throwback to their junior days, no doubt) – though I reckon the big lake at the finish could still prove tempting to some, anyway.

ℹ️ Le départ est avancé à 10h30 au lieu de 12h30 en raison des fortes chaleurs. ☀️#TDAV #TourdelAvenir ✨

— Tour de l'Avenir (@tourdelavenir) August 24, 2023

Yesterday’s stage also fell victim to the extreme heat, as the organisers removed one of the two finishing loops around Evaux-les-Bains – cutting the distance by 16km – after temperatures reached 37.5 degrees in the town.

And, to think, the Vuelta is starting this weekend too. I’m sure some weather apps will be working overtime in the next few days…

 

 

 

 

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Some worrying news from Belgium last night, as this year’s winner of Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, the U23 version of the Hell of the North, Tijl De Decker, was involved in a serious collision involving a motorist yesterday and is currently in a coma.

According to Het Nieuwsblad and Sporza, the 22-year-old, who is set to turn pro with Lotto Dstny in 2024 after racing for the Belgian squad’s development team this year, “crashed hard into the back of a car” while on a training ride, losing a lot of blood.

He was rushed to hospital in Lier where he underwent surgery, before being transferred to Antwerp University Hospital (UZA). He remains in a coma.

“The accident took place on a public road, outside the centre,” a spokesperson for Lier police said. “The cyclist was seriously injured and taken to hospital. It remains to be seen how his condition evolves. A traffic expert from the public prosecutor’s office has arrived on site, and an investigation is underway into the exact circumstances. I can confirm that a passenger car was involved in the accident.”

Tijl De Decker was involved in a crash today. He was brought to a local hospital where he underwent surgery.
Later today he was transported to the UZA.
More news about the consequences of the crash will follow after further examinations
Our thoughts & prayers are with Tijl ♥️🙏

— Lotto Dstny (@lotto_dstny) August 23, 2023

Lotto Dstny last night confirmed the news, writing on social media: “Tijl De Decker was involved in a crash today. He was brought to a local hospital where he underwent surgery. Later today he was transported to the UZA. More news about the consequences of the crash will follow after further examinations. Our thoughts and prayers are with Tijl.”

The young Belgian has enjoyed a fine 2023 with Lotto’s development squad, helping him secure his first professional contract with the senior team for next year. In March, he won a stage of the Tour of Taiwan, before taking a breakthrough win at the U23 Paris-Roubaix in May, just weeks after finishing second at the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic in Melton Mowbray. We wish him all the best.

De Decker’s horror crash comes just days after another up-and-coming star of the sport, 21-year-old British rider Thomas Gloag, was injured after being struck by a driver while out on a training ride.

The Jumbo-Visma prospect suffered a knee injury in the collision, which required surgery, ruling him out for the rest of the season.