The Incredulity of Thomas
Seeing clearly through the dust thrown up at Strade Bianche – or trying to
by Lionel Birnie
With Television’s Daniel Friebe on the road at Paris-Nice this week, I stepped into the hot seat to discuss Strade Bianche with EF Education-Tibco-SVB rider Lizzy Banks and Rouleur editor Edward Pickering.
Usually, once we’ve recorded and while the episode is being edited by our producers, we’ll brainstorm potential episode titles. In recent months, Daniel has upped the ante with the likes of Admirable Lord Neilson and the Battle of Hoogerheide, after Neilson Powless won the Grand Prix La Marseillaise, and A Diamond Thief in the Hornets’ Nest following Dylan van Baarle’s latest heist at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. I also liked the title of the latest episode of The Cycling Podcast Féminin – Kool and the Gang – after Rose, Orla and Lizzy discussed the emergence of Charlotte Kool to fill the shoes left by Lorena Wiebes at Team DSM.
Episode titles are an inexact science. Unlike a newspaper headline they don’t need to tell the full story but they do need to hint at what the episode is about and, ideally, do so in an intriguing way. One that always sticks in my mind and makes me smile is We have Vlasov! which Richard came up with early last February when the Bora-Hansgrohe rider Alexandr Vlasov won the Vuelta Valenciana.
This week I felt a certain pressure to come up with something that offered a bit more than a gravel-related pun. Towards the end of our discussion of Strade Bianche we marvelled at how Tom Pidcock had stayed clear when his advantage was reduced to just a handful of seconds as they approached Siena. The chasing group of six contained riders from five different teams seemingly working to six different agendas – but more on Jumbo-Visma in a moment.
Ed mentioned a a painting in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Siena, commissioned by the city in 1308. It’s an altarpiece, one of a number of panels in the duomo, by Duccio di Buoninsenga and it’s called The Incredulity of Thomas. As soon as he said it I knew we had our title – thanks Ed! – and when I saw Chris Auld’s photo of Pidcock looking over his shoulder, perhaps in half-belief that he was still clear, as he climbed the final hill on the approach to the Piazza del Duomo I thought they’d work well together.
Back in 2007, when Ed and I worked for the same magazine, we headed to Valkenburg in the Netherlands for a crash course in spring Classics culture. Over two cold days, we headed west across Belgium and into northern France, riding some of the key kilometres of the major spring Classics courses. Starting with a 30-kilometre loop including the Cauberg from the Amstel Gold Race we then headed to Remouchamps and rode a stretch of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège route, including La Redoute. It was there that the snow fell and, to combat the cold, I tore the cycling pages out of a copy of Het Laatste Nieuws to fashion a makeshift casquette. ‘You can’t allow yourself to be photographed like that,’ said Ed. He wasn’t wrong. We ended day one with the mighty Mur de Huy.
I can remember having a slight sense of humour failure when we couldn’t find anywhere to stay in Halle because the funfair was in town and all the hotels were full. We did manage to find a little guesthouse somewhere to refuel with steaks and Belgian beer ready for another cold day on the bike the next day. We rode the old closing trilogy of climbs from the Tour of Flanders course – Tenbosse, the Muur and the Bosberg – then drove across to Arenberg to sample the terrifying cobbles before a few laps of the Roubaix velodrome. Finally we headed into the cold, wet countryside approaching the Kemmelberg where I cracked and took a shortcut straight to the base of the climb while Ed resolutely stuck to the idea of the challenge – which was to ride at least 25 kilometres of each course.
Over the years, I’ve ridden the cyclo-sportive editions of the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and feeling the tarmac, concrete and cobbles under my tyres – albeit at a fraction of the speed of the professional riders – has always added something to my understanding of the races. (I’m yet to make my debut on the white roads, but it’s on my list.)
And yet, despite watching countless races over more than two decades and having seen hundreds of scenarios play out on the road, I’m increasingly uncertain when it comes to analysing the tactical nuances we watch unfold. Because there’s never one definitive story of the race, as beguiling as it is to believe that’s the case. The outcome is the result of a million different decisions, some of which seem unimportant but might have significant consequences.
Why didn’t the chase group catch Tom Pidcock? Would Jumbo-Visma’s chances have been better if Attila Valter had cooled his jets and waited to see how things turned out with his teammate Tiesj Benoot just up the road? Would SD Worx have been cursing had Cecile Uttrup Ludwig managed to latch onto the Kopecky-Vollering Express and go with them to the finish?
Teamwork – or lack of it – came under the spotlight because both races were so intriguing. The final 30 or so kilometres of Strade Bianche offer an increasingly rare challenge. The way the roads rise and fall, as well as the severity of the climbs and the gravel, fractures the bunch into small groups and makes it very hard to organise a coherent chase. However, the balance swings away from the escapee(s) and back in favour of the pursuers the closer they get to Siena and – barring the Pogcineration we saw last year – seems to guarantee a thrilling finish one way or the other.
Once the riders have crossed the line, the quest to work out why things happened the way they did begins.
Lizzy – as the only one of us to have actually raced Strade Bianche – could talk with a degree of authority to which the rest of us can only aspire. She made a compelling case that Valter got it wrong for Jumbo-Visma – so much so that she had me making an argument I didn’t truly believe.
And that’s the beauty of discussing bike racing as rich and complex as the weekend’s events. What appears to be clear-cut when looked at from the perspective of one rider suddenly appears completely different when seen from another point of view.
Science In Sport’s Spring Strava Challenge
Tomorrow (Saturday, March 11) our friends at Science In Sport will reveal details of their Strava Challenge, which will run from March 18-31. Join the SIS Global Cycle Club on Strava for the details. You can also join The Cycling Podcast on Strava.
What are your goals for 2023?
If you listened to the latest episode of Explore, featuring Phil Cavell the author of The Midlife Cyclist, you’ll have heard that The Cycling Podcast’s MAAP jersey is back in stock.
I mentioned MAAP’s Pursuit of Progression campaign, inspiring riders to share their goals for 2023 and asked for listeners to send in their aims for 2023…
Friend of the Podcast Jamie Roberts has a great trip planned for the end of April.
He’s cycling from Suffolk, catching a ferry to Saint Malo in northern France and then cycling to Barcelona – taking 13 days to ride 1300 kilometres. When he gets there he’s going to see the opening night of Bruce Springsteen’s European Tour with his daughter. He says it’s a nostalgic trip because he first saw The Boss in Montpellier in 1985.
In his email he also wrote about seeing the Tour de France for the first time as a 19-year-old in 1981. He was hooked and 42 years later he’s planning this ride inspired, he says, by our Tour d’Ecosse series but also by Explore episodes with Emily Chappell, Rupert Guinness and Timmy Mallett. He also passed on his thoughts about Richard Moore and says he will be riding with the Spirit of the Buffalo.
That sounds like an amazing ride, Jamie. Best of luck and enjoy every moment. Not so much Born to Run as Born to Ride… A pair of The Cycling Podcast’s MAAP socks will be on their way to you…
If you want to share your goal for 2023, email me at contact@thecyclingpodcast.com