“Vingegaard and Remco, they’re dropping you!” Tadej Pogačar’s coaches use Tour de France rivals as motivation in training clip; Wout van Aert stopped by MVDP-loving sheep – but not by flooded bike path; Nike returns to cycling + more on the live blog

It’s fair to say that Tadej Pogačar’s winter training is going well.

Just before Christmas, the world champion – attempting to improve on the perfection that was his dominant, era-defining 2024 season – smashed the iconic Strava KOM on the Coll de Rates, a benchmark climb for pros training on Spain’s Costa Blanca, by a whopping 17 seconds.

In fact, Pogačar’s mind-boggling time of 12:21, at an average speed of 31.2kph, on the 6.5km climb was so fast, Decathlon-AG2R’s French teenage sensation Paul Seixas fell 40 seconds short of it on 2 January, despite tackling the Rates with a full support team (of course, it must be pointed out that Pogačar was also aided by a full UAE mountain train).

> Was Tadej Pogačar’s 2024 the best season ever? We rank cycling’s greatest individual years, from Burton and Coppi to Vos and Pogačar

So, after one of, if not the greatest season of all time, how do UAE Team Emirates’ coaches motivate the Slovenian to tear himself inside out as he prepares for 2025?

By telling Pogi his closest rivals at the Tour de France – Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel – are dropping him and riding away for the stage, that’s how.

In a clip shared by the team on TikTok yesterday, entitled ‘2025! Let’s start’, the 26-year-old can be seen riding up a Spanish climb, before getting on the drops and putting some grimace-inducing power through the pedals.

@teamemiratesuae 2025! Let’s start🔥😄 #UAETeamEmirates #WeAreUAE #pogacar ♬ Let's Go - Jaden Bojsen & David Guetta & Sami Brielle

And while the ambient sound of the clip is covered by the ghastly musical stylings of David Guetta, Jaden Bojsen, and Sami Brielle’s 2024 song Let’s Go (I know who one of those people is), if you turn the captions on, you can find out what Pogi’s coaches were shouting from the motorbike.

“Nice! Bravo, buddy! Attack! Attack!” came the first shouts, prompting the three-time Tour winner to hit the drops.

“Vingegaard is close to the win. And Remco, they’re dropping you!”

Nothing like the fear of your closest contenders for the yellow jersey simply riding away from you on Mont Ventoux six months down the line to stop you resting on your laurels, eh?

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If there’s one thing that will take a while to become accustomed to in 2025, it’s Julian Alaphilippe not wearing the blue of Soudal Quick-Step.

The 32-year-old turned pro with the mighty Belgian squad in 2014, going on to win two world titles, six Tour de France stages (and a lengthy spell in yellow during his spectacular 2019 race), Milan-Sanremo, Strade Bianche, and three editions of Flèche Wallonne.

However, after an injury-plagued few years and the very public souring of his relationship with team boss Patrick Lefevere, Alaphilippe has finally upped sticks and moved to Fabian Cancellara’s Tudor team on a three-year deal, where we’ll have to get used to seeing the swashbuckling all-rounder clad in the all-black of the Swiss squad.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Julian Alaphilippe (@alafpolak)

“There is not one specific reason why I opted to move to Tudor, but I have the freedom to be who I am and they wanted that, too,” the Frenchman said at the squad’s media day this week.

“Yet they're also professional and know what they want to achieve. It’s a good mix to be professional and to enjoy life.

“I’m not here to compare teams. I was happy during my time at QuickStep but I’m here at Tudor now. It’s all new, the teammates, the staff, and the equipment but I’m happy to be here.”

Alaphilippe wins stage 12 of the 2024 Giro d’Italia (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Reflecting on his move to a Conti team reliant on invites to cycling’s biggest races, Alaphilippe said: “To be honest, when I had to make my decision I didn't think about WorldTour or not WorldTour. It was just about my feelings and what I wanted.

“I feel super happy and motivated to join this project and to see it from where they started, where they are now and where they want to be. It’s a challenge for me but I’m happy and proud to be part of it.”

Alaphilippe is joined at Tudor by fellow new signing Marc Hirschi, with the duo hoping to challenge Tadej Pogačar’s hegemony in the hilly classics.

“I hear he’s only at 20 per cent of his potential and that he’s only just started to have a good breakfast,” the 32-year-old joked about Pogačar’s current dominance.

“Pogačar is a phenomenon and it’s beautiful for cycling to see him dominate in the rainbow jersey. But luckily there's not only him out there. I’m focused on my own racing. I’m not focused on beating Pogi, that’s now how I race.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

And for those wondering if Alaphilippe’s veteran position at Tudor will mean he’ll adopt a more conservative approach to racing at Tudor, think again.

“I've always been an attacker and at Tudor, I feel I have space to be a leader but also help teammates. It’s not all about me, it’s the team too,” he said, adding that it would be a “dream” to race the Tour this year.

“Panache and aggression can always beat power numbers. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here anymore. I enjoy cycling by going on the attack. I’m working to be back to my best and when I’m at my best level, I enjoy myself. My goal is to be the best I can be.

“I think cycling needs a lot of panache and things that are extraordinary. Numbers and calculations are taking a bigger place in the sport year after year, we’re pushing the limits.

“But I still like to race with my instinct and I think I’ll keep that until the day I stop racing.”

Pre-season shots fired from the social media fanbase:

At least he won’t know how to react when Primož drops him 😏

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— VamosCiclismo (@vamosciclismo.bsky.social) January 8, 2025 at 12:58 PM

A charity in Scotland which collects donated bikes, fixes them up, and gives them to refugees or asylum seekers has handed out its 3,000th bike – which it says can help people new to the UK connect to the local community and improve their physical and mental wellbeing.

Bikes for Refugees was founded in 2016 by Steven McCluskey, after he and partner Beth met Yaman, who’d recently arrived from Syria and had bought a rusty old bike which he’d taken to his local shop, Pedal Forth Cycles in Leith, to get fixed.

“The bike wasn’t worth repairing but the guy who ran the bike shop very kindly donated a bike to Yaman,” Steven told the BBC this week.

“I noticed how something quite simple, that you or I might take for granted, just made a massive impact on his daily life. It helped him to connect to local services, it promoted his mental health and wellbeing. It enabled him to meet other people.”

Since then, Bike for Refugees has expanded and now boasts 50 volunteers and community hubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, receiving, fixing, and donating over 3,000 bikes.

“It has grown organically. It’s been about identifying a need and trying to respond to in a creative way,” Steven said.

“If you are an asylum seeker you're not allowed to work. You’re given an allowance of £7 a day for food, clothes, and public transport costs, so a simple thing like a bicycle can really help with people’s resettlement.”

“It will help me in navigating the city,” Edith, a member of the group who is looking forward to receiving a bike after arriving from Nigeria last year, also said.

“I don’t need to board the bus. Now I’ll ride my bicycle and go anywhere I want to go. That will help me build my confidence and also save me some costs on transportation.”

However, with more than 300 households on their waiting list, Bikes for Refugees currently aren’t able to meet demand as quickly as they’d like, with New Year donations viewed as vital to their work.

“Very simply, we always need new bicycles,” Steven says. “We want to get bikes into people’s hands as quickly as possible, so the better condition the bikes are in, the better.

“If you have a bicycle in your shed or your garage, then please think of us and the people we support.”

Belgian champion Arnaud De Lie here, showing everyone it’s not necessary to traipse all the way to Mount Teide to boost those red blood cell levels – I know what you’re thinking now, don’t even go there…

Minus five UCI points for using the phrase ‘pain cave’, however. Sorry, Arnaud, I don’t make the rules.

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll look back in bewilderment at a time we built cities mandating a 2,000 kilo machine to haul a kilo of stuff.

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— Melissa & Chris Bruntlett (@modacitylife.com) January 8, 2025 at 7:09 AM