Table of contents for Review of the Year 2020 in Procycling

Where’s home? Carmarthen in southwest Wales. I used to live in France, from mid-2016 to the end of 2018, and I just decided I prefer home. I thought I was a better professional cyclist at home. I bit the bullet and moved back, and I haven’t regretted it. What is your favourite race? The one I’ve enjoyed racing the most so far is the Giro, and probably to watch as well. What is your favourite climb? I’ve got one at home: the Black Mountain, the longest climb in west Wales. The 2010 Tour of Britain went up there. I’ve spent half my training days going up and down there. Where in the world would you like to get lost on your bike? Italy. It’s not that wacky an answer but…

How do I view 2020? Simply weird! Out of rhythm. But I think we faced the challenges as well as we could. We had the racing break, we had a second half of the season and from the sporting side, I would say we as a team were almost as successful as last year. We finished with wins in the Tour and classics. The season was a good one for me. Away from racing, I also had the birth of my second baby and I got married, so it was a very good season in a special year. Re-signing my contract at the end of last year made things easier for me during these difficult times. I handled the lockdown pretty well. I was safe and didn’t worry when I…

2014 Van Aert’s first world title comes at the U23 cyclo-cross World Champs in 2014, when he beats riders including his perennial rival Mathieu van der Poel in the Netherlands. 2016 At the age of 21, wins his first elite title at the cyclo-cross Worlds on a home course in Belgium. Goes on to win the rainbow jersey for the next two years, cementing his place at the top. 2016 Defeats former TT world champ Tony Martin on his way to his first elite road win, the prologue of the Tour of Belgium, also beating multiple WorldTour riders while riding for Conti team Crelan. 2016 Triumphs for the first time in a one-day race, the Belgian semi-classic Schaal Sels, confirming his potential on the road as well as in the…

La Planche des Belles Filles derives its name from a tragedy that occurred there back in the mists of time in which the young maidens of a local village threw themselves into a lake to avoid capture by marauding invaders. It’s a popular local myth, though a more likely explanation for the name is that it’s a derivation of the old French ‘belles fahys’, or ‘beautiful beech trees’, so the events of the legend probably never happened. Primož Roglic might wish that the modern sporting tragedy which saw his hopes cast into oblivion at the hands of the marauding young Slovene Tadej Pogacar on La Planche had also never happened. Roglic, a good time triallist, started the second-last stage of the 2020 Tour de France, an individual test to and…

1 1 Primož Roglič Jumbo-Visma 2 Richard Carapaz Ineos Grenadiers 3 Dan Martin Israel S-U Nation Red jersey: Primož Roglič 2 1 Marc Soler Movistar 2 Primož Roglič Jumbo-Visma 3 Dan Martin Israel S-U Nation 3 1 Dan Martin Israel S-U Nation 2 Primož Roglič Jumbo-Visma 3 Richard Carapaz Ineos Grenadiers 4 1 Sam Bennett Deceuninck-QS 2 Jasper Philipsen UAE Emirates 3 Jakub Mareczko CCC Team 5 1 Tim Wellens Lotto Soudal 2 Guillaume Martin Cofidis 3 Thyman Arensman Sunweb 6 1 Ion Izaguirre Astana 2 Michael Woods EF Pro Cycling 3 Rui Costa UAE Emirates Red jersey: Richard Carapaz 7 1 Michael Woods EF Pro Cycling 2 Omar Fraile Astana 3 Alejandro Valverde Movistar 8 1 Primož Roglič Jumbo-Visma 2 Richard Carapaz Ineos Grenadiers 3 Dan Martin Israel S-U…

CERVÉLO R-SERIES £4,618 ||| $6,000 The Cervélo R-Series is an all-round bike designed for anything thrown at it. Fast on the flat and up climbs, it is suitable for those long weekend rides or short sharp efforts. This model comes with Sram’s Force eTap AXS groupset, for seamless shifting and control, and disc brakes. Cervélo say: “Stiff and lightweight, with geometry that promotes stable handling, the R-Series urges you to attack on the climb and push the pace on the descent.” The bike, they say, also has precise handling and gives instant feedback to the rider. The cockpit is designed for aggressive riding, but the bike’s “elite road fit” allows for a broad range of positions in the saddle. www.cervelo.com ERE GENUS AE65 £1,259 ||| $1,635 Aesthetically perfect and fast,…

WOUT VAN AERT Is this the best all-round cyclist in the world? I caught up with Wout van Aert to talk victory, defeat and monumental ambitions. Pics by Kristof Ramon. See page 46 ELISA LONGO BORGHINI Trek-Segafredo’s Italian star is popular with fans and riders alike. Sophie Hurcom interviewed her about her best season yet. See page 64 GIRO D’ITALIA Barry Ryan was on the ground at the corsa rosa and witnessed one of the most unpredictable grand tours there has ever been. See page 72.…

The Irish champion is 20? Yes. Ben Healy, born this century, won the Irish Nationals in Limerick in October. Ben rides for Trinity Racing and beat Nicolas Roche, who has been a pro since Ben was four, with a long solo attack. Ben told Procycling: “It’s surreal. It has taken a few days to believe I’m the elite national champion. it’s pretty cool.” What’s his background? Like Irish riders Dan Martin and Ryan Mullen, Ben was actually born in the UK. He’s from the West Midlands and qualifies for Ireland through his paternal grandparents. Ben explains: “I wasn’t getting selected for GB when I felt I should have been, which made me reach out to Ireland.” How did he get into cycling? At an early age thanks to his dad.…

The Tour de France was a strange experience for me this year. One thing it did make me realise was just how much I love riding GC. The challenge of having to maintain concentration for 21 stages; the intensity of knowing that at any point you could lose all that work with a silly mistake or bad luck. It’s demanding physically but even more exhausting mentally. I did enjoy not having to contest chaotic sprint finishes or crosswind stages, with my aim simply to ride to the finish as conservatively as possible, but it was also quite boring as I waited for my body to heal from the fractured sacrum I started the race with. I had my mind already fixed on the Vuelta, and the experience made me stronger…

The easiest way to begin these diaries is always to describe what I’m doing or where I am as I type. This diary is my last of the year and is a reflection of the whole season, so I find it appropriate that I’m sitting on my bed, finishing a pint of ice cream. No drama, no Belgian rainstorm, just home. I’d be lying if I said that most of what I do in life isn’t motivated by ice cream. We train, do stupid core work, travel around the world, endure quarantines, race our bikes, crash, win, get second, 57th, and reach 198bpm for too many seconds for …ice cream? It’s the literal and metaphorical treat that I always look forward to. After my crash at Cadel Evans in January,…

The peloton, reduced in size and making its way through a spectator-less France in March, was an incongruous sight. Paris-Nice seemed isolated, inside its own bubble, still open for business while everything around it was shutting down as the covid pandemic gripped the world. While governments panicked and people contemplated a sudden new normal, Paris-Nice continued on its way south. Were we to know while the action was going on that there would not be another WorldTour race until August, perhaps the mood would have been even more frenetic, as teams tried to grab anything they could before the season was suspended. There was a portent of things to come later in the year, as Sunweb seized each day with their aggressive tactics. Tiesj Benoot won a stage, and possibly…

Rarely, if ever, has the Tour de l’Ain, a small race in provincial France, assumed such importance within the cycling calendar as it did in 2020. Thanks to the vagaries of the reorganised race calendar however, it became one of the key warm-up races for the Tour de France, along with the Critérium du Dauphiné a week later, and it featured an all-star cast. Both races seemed to confirm one thing: that Jumbo-Visma and Primož Roglic were the team and rider to beat. Jumbo-Visma muscled Ineos out of their habitual place on the front of the bunch and seemed unable to put a foot wrong. At the Tour de l’Ain, Roglic won both mountain stages comfortably, beating defending Tour champion Egan Bernal in the process. Meanwhile, his team-mates Steven Kruijswijk…

When Elisa Longo Borghini was a child, she kept a little notebook in which she would record the names of the winners while watching the Giro d’Italia and Giro Rosa. She’d write down the results of that day’s stage, who was in the maglia rosa and what the time differences were. By her own admission, she was a cycling nerd. Longo Borghini was a sporty child from a sporty family. Her mother, Guidina Dal Sasso, was a cross-country skier who represented Italy at three Winter Olympics. Her brother, Paolo, is 11 years older and rode as a professional cyclist between 2004 and 2014 with teams such as Liquigas. The young Elisa looked up to him and the path he trod, and was his biggest cheerleader. “I was a real fan…

1 1 Filippo Ganna Ineos Grenadiers 2 Joao Almeida Deceuninck-QS 3 Mikkel Bjerg UAE Emirates Maglia rosa: Filippo Ganna 2 1 Diego Ulissi UAE Emirates 2 Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe 3 Mikkel Honore Deceuninck-QS 3 1 Jonathan Caicedo EF Pro Cycling 2 Giovanni Visconti Vini Zabù-KTM 3 Harm Vanhoucke Lotto Soudal Maglia rosa: João Almeida 4 1 Arnaud Demare Groupama-FDJ 2 Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe 3 Davide Ballerini Deceuninck-QS 5 1 Filippo Ganna Ineos Grenadiers 2 Patrick Konrad Bora-Hansgrohe 3 Joao Almeida Deceuninck-QS 6 1 Arnaud Demare Groupama-FDJ 2 Michael Matthews Team Sunweb 3 Fabio Felline Astana 7 1 Arnaud Demare Groupama-FDJ 2 Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe 3 Michael Matthews Team Sunweb 8 1 Alex Dowsett Israel Start-Up Nation 2 Salvatore Puccio Ineos Grenadiers 3 Matthew Holmes Lotto Soudal Maglia rosa: João Almeida…

Beware Arnaud Démare when he gets on a roll. The Frenchman has long been seen as a second-tier sprinter, even in spite of two Tour de France stage wins and a victory in Milan-San Remo, but when he’s on form, the wins tend to come in threes, fours and even fives. He’s got 75 career wins, which is more than any of the current ‘A’ list of sprinters - Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, Dylan Groenewegen, Pascal Ackermann et al - and he’s well on his way to getting into three figures, which is a rare achievement in cycling. But drill down into that wins list, and the purple patches stand out, all the way back to his early years. In 2013, in his second year as a professional rider, he…

The Julian Alaphilippe of 2020 has not quite been the swashbuckling version of 2019. Last year, the Frenchman was effervescent, winning Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo before embarking on an unforgettable Tour de France, where he won two stages, lit the race up with his aggression, and wore the yellow jersey deep into the final week. This year, things have been more difficult. He’s never been far from his 2019 form, but the results haven’t quite gone his way. He made the winning attack on the Poggio in Milan-San Remo, but was unthinkably caught on the descent by Wout van Aert, and then outsprinted by the Belgian at the finish. At the Tour, he won a stage, but narrowly, and spent much of the rest of the race fading, getting…

Giro d’Italia, Stage 18, Stelvio Pass 22 OCTOBER 2020 The Passo dello Stelvio, in all its mystical and sublime glory, awaits the 13th passage of the Giro d’Italia up its slopes on stage 18 of the 2020 race. The climb would once again prove decisive in the battle for the maglia rosa. It was billed as the main obstacle of the Giro’s queen stage, and the peloton had to face the climb’s 48 hairpins before reaching the top, which at 2,758 metres marked the Cima Coppi for the race’s highest peak. Yet even then, the suffering was not over, as the stage’s finish line did not come for another 37 kilometres. Going over the top of the pass, Jai Hindley and Tao Geoghegan Hart, along with Geoghegan Hart’s Ineos Grenadiers…

2022 Rigoberto Urán has re-signed with EF Pro Cycling for a further two years. His big aim is to finish on the podium at the Vuelta a España, in order to complete a career sweep of grand tour top threes. “Stage 15, I bet him that there’s no chance I’m going to win this, don’t be ridiculous, I’ll buy you a new car if I win ” Tao Geoghegan Hart learns that you shouldn’t bet against yourself, in a rash conversation with his brother during the Giro d’Italia. €8m The budget that the successor team to NTT Pro Cycling will reportedly have next year. Cyclingnews.com reported that team boss Doug Ryder is close to securing a deal with cycling clothing brand Assos for sponsorship, to keep the South African team…

Well, as I write this it is November 8 and the final race of the 2020 professional cycling season has finished. The majority of the year was condensed into a hectic three to four month period. I hope it’s been entertaining for the fans but I think a big thank you is deserved by the race organisers and teams who’ve managed to continue keeping things going during this time. I didn’t see the Tour de France making it to Paris let alone the Giro d’Italia getting to Milan, the Vuelta a España to Madrid and every other race that has been on this mad calendar. From a rider’s perspective it has been a peculiar year, either two seasons for the price of one or one almighty long season, depending on…

There was a weird atmosphere around the Team Sunweb bus at the 2019 Tour de France. Morale appeared to be at an all-time low. On the road, the team was misfiring. It had been a fallow season already with only six victories by July, and at the halfway point of the Tour on stage 11, a despondent Michael Matthews, the team’s leader, had recorded seven top 10s without a sniff of a win. He was running out of ideas, and it looked like the team was, too. News reports that morning in Mâcon all indicated that the longstanding talisman and grand tour winner, Tom Dumoulin - who had pulled out of the Giro d’Italia with injury in May and then ruled himself out of the line up at the last…

Mark Cavendish’s run of 30 stage wins at the Tour de France is the only other winning streak in modern day cycling that compares to Marianne Vos’s success rate at the Giro Rosa. The Dutchwoman started this year’s race already on a staggering 25 Giro stage victories - her nearest challenger, Fabiana Luperini, whose stage wins came in the mid-late 1990s, has 15 by comparison - before she added another three at this September’s race to take her total up to 28. It’s a feat that now spans 13 years, with Vos’s first Giro win coming way back in 2007 when she was just 19, not long after she won her first World Championships title as a teenager. Ever since, she’s won at least one stage in every one of…

A week before the Vuelta a España in mid-October, the final race of this weird 2020 season, and Nicholas Dlamini is one of over 100 riders still officially listed without a contract for next year. His team, NTT Pro Cycling, with whom he turned pro three years ago, is at the time without a title sponsor for 2021. The clock is ticking. Normally, at this late point, new contracts would be long sewn up and the uncertainty of whether Dlamini will be racing next year is stressful. It doesn’t help that the transfer market this year has perhaps been more fought over and inflated than ever before. The potential closure of NTT and the takeover of CCC by ProTeam Circus-Wanty Gobert have pushed almost two WorldTour teams’ worth of riders…

WORTH £37.99 Compact and durable multi-purpose lights fit for most bikes High quality lights, with daytime flash and enhanced lens, plus 17.5 hour runtime Paired with Heroes of Procycling book Your special Christmas offer Upgrade to include digital for only £10 Order the gift that keeps on delievering www.magazinesdirect.com/pcmxmas OR CALL 0330 333 1113 AND QUOTE BBE2 *Terms and conditions: Offer closes (31st January 2021). Offer open to new subscribers only. Direct Debit offer is available to UK subscribers only. £44.99 payable by 12 monthly Direct Debit plus free gift worth £37.99. Orders purchased as a gift before 21st December 2020 will start with the first issue published in January. All gift orders purchased after this date will begin with the first…