Very Strange Racing Behaviour
A catchphrase is born in Coorevits Corner, plus a new episode for Friends of the Podcast is ONLINE NOW
by Lionel Birnie
Very Strange Racing Behaviour. And with those four words from veteran Belgian reporter Hugo Coorevits, a catchphrase was born.
He was referring to Opening Weekend and, in particular, Visma-Lease A Bike’s tactics at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Hugo has been reporting on the Classics for more than 30 years so when I heard his verdict on the racing I felt less guilty for feeling distinctly underwhelmed by the weekend’s action.
Opening weekend was a great example of how so much of what we love about watching cycling is the anticipation of the event.
Perhaps I’d built it up too much in my mind and my expectations were too high but the pre-race storylines were intriguing. Could Visma-Lease A Bike make it four wins in a row at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad? Would Tom Pidcock build on his early-season form for Q36.5? Or would someone else write their name in Omloop history (and jinx their Tour of Flanders hopes in the process)?
As Daniel and I had recorded our weekly episode with Larry Warbasse on Monday afternoon, Rob Hatch and I met up in central London on Friday for a full Omloop Het Nieuwsblad preview. Maybe it was the caffeine in the post-11am cappuccino, or the fact the sun was shining bright and it finally felt like spring was in the air, but we were both eagerly anticipating the race. Unfortunately, it failed to deliver – but that’s fine. Boring races are every bit as much a part of the season’s rich tapestry and they serve to elevate the humdingers still further.
In this week’s episode, Daniel made the point that perhaps we fetishise the ‘mythical’ Muur-Bosberg finish from the old Tour of Flanders course. To be fair, there was some stinkers over the years before the organisers changed the finish to De Ronde too. I was there in 2001 when Gianluca Bortolami won an eight-up sprint at the end of a particularly tame edition and, later on, Quick Step seemed to crack the code when Stijn Devolder won back-to-back editions in 2008 and 2009, suggesting that the old run-in to Ninove had outlived its usefulness.
In our preview I referred to the 2021 edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as an outlier. That was won by Davide Ballerini when 45 riders came to the finish all together, but on Saturday the lead group was slightly bigger, with 49 riders in it. There were very few drop-outs too. Only 19 of the 174 starters failed to make it to Ninove, meaning the race had by far the highest percentage of finishers in Omloop history (89%).
Maybe it’s simply that the weather was too nice and the wind gently discouraging. The sun was out, the roads were dry, the breeze was fresh but relatively light and in the riders’ faces for crucial stretches of the course. There wasn’t the gradual attrition that bad weather brings. The weather isn’t so much of a make-or-break factor at the Tour of Flanders because of the additional 60 kilometres and the extra climbs but at Omloop it can be decisive.
Take nothing away from Søren Waerenskjold, it was a magnificent win – the biggest of his career and, arguably, the biggest for his Uno X team too. The Norwegian, runner-up Paul Magnier, who was second to Mathieu van der Poel at Le Samyn a few days later and will surely win a big race soon, and Jasper Philipsen were just clear of the rest but, for me anyway, there’s something slightly unsatisfying about a big sprint finish to a Classic. It’s why Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – or the Donkey Derby as Daniel called it – is the lesser of the Opening Weekend races. There’s so much further to go to the finish from the last major climb and it more often falls the way of the sprinters. In fact, it’s usually horrible weather that creates the memorable editions, such as Bobbie Traksel’s surprise win in 2010 when there were only 26 finishers.
Anyway, things move on rapidly. Now we look ahead to Saturday’s Strade Bianche wondering whether anyone can prevent Tadej Pogačar from launching another long-range attack. There was a time not that long ago when attacking alone 80 kilometres from the finish would have been described as Very Strange Racing Behaviour. Now it feels almost routine, which is perhaps why it’s so hard to see past the Slovenian doing the same thing again on Saturday. But cycling always has the capacity to surprise – the women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad showed that – and so we will tune in expecting the unexpected.
• Friends of the Podcast subscribers can discuss the racing with fellow listeners in our online virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. Sign in to your Friends of the Podcast account here now.
New episode: Gravel Dust & Rainbows
Last October, Simon Gill and I made a trip to Belgium for the third edition of the UCI World Gravel Championships in Leuven. We’ve made the same journey many times for the Classics but this was my first experience of a gravel race – unless you count Strade Bianche, Tro Bro Léon and the Cicle Classic.
For old times’ sake, I’d booked accommodation on board a boat, as I had for The Lionel of Flanders series way back in 2017. We took gravel bikes and rode to Mol – Tom Boonen and Jasper Philipsen’s home town – and then Herentals, Wout van Aert and Rik van Looy’s home town. Then we rode the Rainbow Gravel Ride, which covered the final 50-kilometre circuit through the Brabant Forest before watching the race, which was a lot trickier than following a road race because so much of the course was narrow and therefore closed to spectators.
It was a short but really enjoyable ride, taking in about a dozen different surfaces including tarmac, cobblestones, forest trail, farm tracks, the whirligig pedestrianised ramp and platform of Leuven’s railway station, and even some gravel. Ian Boswell described it as the ‘mixed surface World Championships’ and some gravel purists felt it was too far removed from the off-road spirit and soul of the original movement.
But I felt it perfectly encapsulated where cycling is at the moment – a melting pot of styles and interests that can all co-exist, and sometimes come together – and that became the theme of the podcast.
The episode features Unbound winner Ian Boswell and his friend Larry Warbasse, Colin Clews, who anticipated the gravel craze a decade or so early when he created the Cicle Classic, and Connor Swift, who finished sixth in the men’s race in Leuven.
Gravel Dust & Rainbows is online now for Friends of the Podcast. If you’re a current subscriber, it should be in your podcast player now. To sign up and support the podcast, or to re-add your feed to your preferred play, log in to your Friends of the Podcast account here.
Pavel Sivakov talks to Daniel before Paris-Nice
The season may only be a couple of months old but UAE Team Emirates have already won 14 races with seven different riders. One of them is Pavel Sivakov, who clinched the general classification at the Ruta del Sol in southern Spain. With Tadej Pogačar not riding Paris-Nice, which starts on Sunday, Sivakov is set to assume joint leadership duties with Brandon McNulty and Joāo Almeida.
Daniel spoke at length to him about regaining his confidence, watching Paris-Nice after school when he was a kid, and what a big summer he has in store riding to support Pogačar at the Tour de France again. We played a bit of that interview in this week’s episode but thought you’d like to listen to the whole conversation.
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The Richard Moore Youth Race Series
The West Lothian Cycle Circuit in Linlithgow was the recipient of money raised by the sale of Stacy Snyder’s cups last year and that funding will be used to create a series of youth races that kicks off next month.
The Richard Moore Youth Race Series is a collaboration between four clubs – Edinburgh Road Club, Falkirk Junior Bike Club, Stirling Bike Club and West Lothian Clarion. There will be five rounds held at the circuit in Linlithgow, starting on Tuesday, April 22 and held monthly until August.
The four clubs came together to create the series of races so young riders could put into practice the skills they’d learned during coaching sessions held on the circuit. The races will be open to girls and boys aged 10 to 15 (under-12 to under-16 age groups) and some of the evenings will include races for younger riders too.
We are delighted that they have chosen to name the series after our co-founder Richard, who was a member of Edinburgh Road Club, one of the club’s working together to create the series.
There will be a Buffalo Award for the most attacking rider to reward effort rather than just results. I love that idea. Richard’s nickname, coined by Daniel, was a lighthearted joke at his expense but it summed up his approach to his work and life in general. Get stuck in, do your best and see what happens is an ethos that will serve any rider well in a race.
We’ll keep tabs on the races as they take place, but you can read more on the series Facebook page. Any riders who want to enter will be able to do so shortly on the British Cycling website.