Table of contents for April 2017 in Procycling

"David Moncoutié was a special guy. He used to pull off these incredible results. So much panache…" What do you enjoy most about riding your bike? You can find new climbs and you get a point of view that you never get from a car. Just recently I was riding in the hills behind Nice. It was really beautiful up there. What is your favourite race on the calendar? The Giro d’Italia. Maybe for a French rider that is an unusual choice but it’s my favourite for all the regular reasons: the spirit of the race, the fans… The Giro has a unique character all of its own. Who is the funniest rider on your team? I’m new to Ag2r so I will reserve judgement for now. In my old…

1. Route Adélie de Vitré 31_Mar-17, 1.1, France 2. Volta Limburg Classic 1 Apri, 1.1, Netherlands 3. Gran Premio Miguel Indurain 1 Apri, 1.1, Spain 4. Trofeo Citta di Loano 2 Apri, 1.1, Italy 5. Tour of Flanders 2 April, 1.UWT, Belgium 6. Vuelta Ciclista a La Rioja 2 April, 1.1, Spain 7. La Roue Tourangelle Région Centre Val de Loire 2 April, 1.1, France 8. Tour of the Basque Country 3 April,2.UWT, Spain 9. Circuit Cycliste Sarthe 4 April, 2.1, France 10. Scheldeprijs 5 Apr, 1.HC, Belgium 11. Paris-Roubaix 9 April, 1.UWT, France 12. Giro dell’Appennino 9 April, 1.1, Italy 13. Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta 9 April, 1.1, Spain 14. Paris-Camembert 11 April, 1.1, France 15. De Brabantse Pijl 12 April, 1.HC, Belgium 16. GP de Denain - Porte…

The Mur de Fayence is 1,300 metres of patchy, bumpy tarmac, uneven gradients and badlyplaced drain covers which rises in a series of steps and ramps from the Camandre valley up to the Canjuers plateau. Fayence itself is known as a village perché, a perched town. There are nine perched towns in total in this part of Provence, with stunning views both to and from the valley, and – an indication of the slowmotion British invasion of the 20th century – local shops selling copies of the Daily Telegraph and Guardian International. We’re 103 kilometres into the 153-kilometre first stage, standing with 25 or so spectators on the steep corner near the top of the Mur, looking into the town. The route had taken a W-shaped route from Le Cannet-des-Maures…

The winner of the first Tour du Haut Var is sitting on a bench in the almost-warm morning sunshine in Draguignan, waiting for the start of stage 2 of the 49th edition of the race. In the intervening years, Raymond Poulidor has not missed a single running of Haut Var, whether as a rider or as a guest of the race organisers. “I’m the race’s lifetime guest of honour,” he says. “I’m here every year.” The race is part of an annual pilgrimage south for Poulidor, whose nickname, ‘The Eternal Second’ referred to a series of nearmisses at the Tour de France. The image, partly cultivated, of the gallant, heroic loser made him more popular in France than, for example, Jacques Anquetil, the man who won five Tours, some at…

The Côte des Tuilières is the perfect cycling hill: hard enough to just about shed most of the sprinters; straightforward enough that really tough finisseurs can hang on. It climbs out of Draguignan on the Vieux Route de Grasse, a narrow road through a forest with two stacks of hairpins separated by very short straights, and pitches of 15 per cent. It’s a real puncheur’s climb. It’s the scene for the final battle of the 2017 Tour du Haut Var, where Arthur Vichot, wearing the race’s green jersey in place of his usual national champion’s outfit, manages to prise Samuel Dumoulin’s fingers from the race lead. Vichot is a better climber than Dumoulin, and he’s one of 11 riders who separate themselves from the rest of the field, including Dumoulin,…

CANYON ULTIMATE CF EVO 10.0 SL £8,999 ||| $tbc Although it weighs just 5.1kg on our bike scale (claimed 4.96kg), Canyon say there is much more to the Ultimate CF Evo than mere lightness. Instead of building the most feathery frame possible, the engineers were adamant that the Ultimate’s sti_fness and ride quality must be maintained. Achieving this with a claimed frame weight of 665g and a 270g fork necessitated some very special carbon fibre, access to which required Canyon to obtain permission from the Japanese Ministry of Defence. Two models are o_fered; this 10.0 SL is the lightest, thanks to a SRAM Red groupset and Lightweight Meilenstein Obermayer tubular wheels. We’ve tested it and a full review can be found on our sister site Bikeradar.com. The 10.0 Ltd costs…

Peter Sagan may be known more as a winner these days than the eternal second of his early career but he is still prone to getting beaten. In Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Greg Van Avermaet produced a finish which was almost a carbon copy of the 2016 race, and came in ahead of Sagan for his second consecutive win in the event. Van Avermaet, after a long career of consistent placings, is also starting to develop a winning habit. Van Avermaet, along with the third wheel in the leading trio, Sep Vanmarcke, had eased Sagan to the front with just over a kilometre to go. The order into Gent stayed: Sagan, Van Avermaet, Vanmarcke. The final 300 metres of Het Nieuwsblad is an elongated S-bend: a right, then a left. Vanmarcke,…

Strade Bianche Italy 4 March 2017 A fast-fracturing peloton traverses one of the 11 strade sterrate en route to Siena. Sky’s Micha¯ Kwiatkowski went on to win the race for a second time, thanks to a swashbuckling solo attack 15 kilometres from the "inish Image: Jered Gruber Le Samyn France 1 March 2017 The strain of racing a cobbled one-day race in miserable, wet and windy conditions shows on the faces of this group of riders. None would claim any glory on the day. Wanty-Groupe Gobert’s Guillame Van Keirsbulck triumphed in a two-man sprint finish Image: Kristof Ramon Kuurne- Brussel- Kuurne Belgium 26 February 2017 World champion Peter Sagan leads a select group of contenders during the closing stages of the second cobbled Classic of the season. Thirty kilometres from…

Meet the Ukrainian GC rider who put together a series of impressive results in Italy last season for the leading amateur squad, Team Colpack. Tell us a little bit about Mark, then. He is 20, comes from Donetsk, and moved to Italy in 2015 to ride for Palazzago Fenice. It’s a familiar path for Ukrainian espoirs, with Yaroslav Popovych one of the many alumni. Recent big names to start there include Fabio Aru and Diego Rosa. But now he rides for Colpack? Yes, he made the move last season to arguably the biggest team in the country, Colpack, who are frequently among the top-ranked teams in Italy. Many of their former riders are now in the WorldTour. I’ve heard Bahrain-Merida mentioned. Yes, the two teams announced in late January that…

I’ve never bought a bike in my life. Our journey to become cyclists in Lithuania was different to riders in western Europe. You didn’t go into a shop and buy a bike; you went into school one day and there’s a coach there looking for kids who want to ride. They get you into a club, they give you some kit and a bike for free. It wasn’t a great bike but it did the job and so I’ve never bought a bike for myself. I started as a helper early on. I grew up with another guy my age and we rode bikes together. It was the two of us against the kids from other cities and other schools - two against maybe 30 others when we were 13,…

There isn’t really a way to save energy. You have to race and you need to be sharp just in order to be in the right position. There’s no possibility of saving energy because when the important guys start going you need to be there and you can’t afford to hold back. If you lose the front of the race then you’re not going to be sprinting for the win. When it comes to the sprint, it’s super tough. You’re not sprinting on a truly aerodynamic bike. If feels like sprinting on a tractor and the whole experience is different. You’ve got bigger tyres, less pressure, and the bike is more compliant, not as stiff as you’re used to. Also your legs aren’t as fresh or powerful after such a…

The finish of stage 1 of the Tour du Haut Var, in St-Paul-en-Forêt, is very technical. There’s a climb up to the town; it’s nothing compared to the Mur de Fayence but it’s sinuous and dragging, and comes on top of a fairly hilly route. Then there are four 90-degree turns in the final few hundred metres, before a more lazy right hand bend into the short finishing straight, which is in front of the town’s library. The technical stuff doesn’t end on the finish line – immediately afterwards there’s another 90-degree bend, and it is this bend around which Samuel Dumoulin veers at speed, in first place, no-handed, both arms in the air, shouting with…joy? Relief? Happiness perhaps? Just behind him is Arthur Vichot, the French champion, whose face…

They call Tourtour “le village dans le ciel” – the village in the sky. It sits at 375 metres above sea level in the rocky pine forests of the Haut Var, about 20 kilometres north-east of Draguignan. One of the locals, who runs a souvenir shop on the main street, the Route d’Aups, tells me that it is one of the most beautiful villages in the whole country, and came third in a national competition the previous year. I’m not surprised – it’s picturesque without being kitsch, has a row of cafés on a south-facing terrace along the Route d’Aupes, and is overlooked by a church tower on a hillock high above the town. From the church, there’s a panoramic view over a wooded valley and blue-tinted hills in the…

Late in 2003, I attended an annual event in Beaujolais known as the Grand Prix des Retrouvailles. The competition, which is now sadly defunct, consisted of two events, held on the Sunday morning – an under-55s race, and an over-55s race. There was only one criterion for entry: riders had to have been professional, or independent, racers. The respective pelotons ambled good-naturedly around a circuit through autumn vineyards under a crisp blue sky and the riders ranged from lean and fit-looking right through to the opposite end of the spectrum. I can’t remember who won either race but that doesn’t matter because the main event was actually the evening before – the booze-up. In a vast warehouselike banquet hall at a vineyard, dozens and dozens of former professional cyclists were…

STRADE BIANCHE 04.03.17 Strade Bianche Women is 127km long but as with the men’s race, it’s really 275m shorter than the official distance. First into the penultimate sharp corner is generally first over the finish line – after that point, overtaking through the narrow and slippy streets of Siena is all but impossible. Elisa Longo Borghini was first through that corner, just in front of Kasia Niewiadoma, and that, predictably, is how it stayed, in the 2017 Strade Bianche. The big moves came on the penultimate gravelled climb, with 15km left. Only Lizzie Deignan and Niewiadoma could follow Longo Borghini as she blew away the remains of the peloton but outside Siena they dithered. In pouring rain Shara Gillow and Lucinda Brand caught and passed them, Brand finding herself alone…

13 WORLDTOUR TEAMS AT GREAT OCEAN RR We are now two months into the expanded, WorldTour. But it seems the sport is no closer to a coherent structure, or a ranking system that has relevance to fans, or, most importantly, a story. It takes a visit to the UCI website to find out that BMC’s Richie Porte currently leads the individual WorldTour rankings, ahead of his team-mate Rohan Dennis, and Nairo Quintana, because nobody else is reporting it. BMC, unsurprisingly, lead the team classification. But don’t forget that there’s also the World Ranking, which is led by Peter Sagan ahead of Greg Van Avermaet and Chris Froome, and the World Ranking by nation. (France, ahead of Belgium, if you’re interested.) If you follow the win rankings, there is a list…

Blistering mountain descents, slick cobbles, pain, risk, passion, drama. These are the essence of the planet’s toughest sport. They are at the heart of the grand spectacle of bike racing. Health and safety doesn’t immediately translate into a sport that has suffering and danger woven into its very fabric. Introducing safety into such a dangerous sport seems impossible. Unless, that is, the melee of a sprint finish is just another day at the office. Tightrope walking looks pretty scary, unless you happen to be a tightrope walker. To the pro cyclist, the risks are just part of the job: calculated, frequent and vital to success. A bunny hop here, a bit of gutter there. If they crash in the pursuit of glory, picking a gap that wasn’t quite there, then…

TASMANIAN DEVIL Richie Porte started his career as a Tour contender, then wobbled. Now he’s a Tour contender again. But as a person, he’s the same guy as the first-year ProTour rider who finished seventh overall and won best young rider in the 2010 Giro d’Italia. Porte is more worldly these days: a high-profile athlete, a resident of Monaco, recently married to his British wife. But he’s not left his Tasmanian roots behind. “I think probably the hardest thing for me at the moment is not being able to have a dog,” he said to me recently. “I love when I’m in Tassie and with my brothers and my parents; they’ve all got dogs. I think I miss that normality, having a normal kind of life. But in the next…

You don’t choose the moment to attack: it arrives and you take it or you don’t. You’re watching your rivals, how many team-mates they have… The moment when the race goes really hard and you’re almost dead? Then you know your opponents are almost dead, too, but there’s never a single moment. You don't always make the right choice but you handle the circumstances in the best way you can. One year I arrived back in the front group after a broken wheel and I was so f*cked with adrenaline. There was a break and I had the sensation that we didn't have control of the race so I went after them straight away. You also have to handle the emotions a little bit. The best thing is when you’re…

Le Cannet-des-Maures is nestled between scrubby forested Provençal hills some 40km inland from Saint-Tropez. It’s a quiet town of cafés and a set of railway lines running east to west from a small gare, and very well served by the autoroutes – the A57 and A8 meet just to the east. Le Cannet may look small but its population has doubled since the 1980s. The Brasserie Lou Cigalou, just down the road from the station, is bustling and busy in the early spring sunshine. Every table on the terrace is full, though it’s chilly enough that the customers are generally keeping their coats on. This is the south of France, but the plane trees by the roadside still have no leaves, so it’s clear winter has not long finished. The…

If there’s a local team in the Tour du Haut Var, it’s Delko-Marseille Provence KTM, a French Professional Continental squad who, as their name suggests, are from Marseille and partly funded by the city, which is 125 kilometres away from the start and finish of stage 2 in Draguignan. Delko are an ambitious team, and they don’t look out of place in the Allée d’Azémar, a wide space in the town centre where various team buses, campers and cars are packed in under the morning sunshine. The previous day, Delko had three riders in the 22-rider split that contested the stage win – the highestplaced was Mauro Finetto, only in 16th, but they’d had Rémy Di Gregorio in the break as well, and he’d done enough to win the combativity…

Serge Pascal is a former policeman, a native of the small town of Flayosc, which is situated seven kilometres directly west of Draguignan. He has the wiry energy and the weathered glow of a lifelong cyclist: during his career he helped run the national police cycling team, following which he then chose the busiest possible retirement – running the Tour du Haut Var on behalf of the local cycling club, the Olympique Cyclisme Centre Var Draguignan. “I wasn’t a race organiser,” he says. “I happened to be president of the Draguignan cycling club and I helped the previous organiser with the race. One day, he said, ‘Serge, it’s time for you to take over.’ I wasn’t at all planning for that.” Pascal took over from Moïse Puginier, who organised the…

With Fabian Cancellara retired and Tom Boonen soon to leave the sport, the cycling world hasn’t had to wait long for a new rivalry to fill the gap left behind. Ahead of their showdown in the cobbled Monuments this year, Procycling has delved into their past Classics battles, in races both have finished, and found that Sagan has the edge, for now at least. The data bears out Van Avermaet’s reputation for coming second but it does show that this might have changed in the last year or so. An interesting wrinkle: should either man succeed, he would become only the sixth rider in 40 years to complete the Omloop/ Kuurne and Flanders/Roubaix double, a rare achievement. HOME DROUGHT Northern France and Belgium may well be known for their big…