It’s been another amazing week in cycling news and the final grand tour of the year, the Vuelta, is back for 2023. We’ve seen some great racing so far and there is still a lot more racing to come. The women’s racing has also been pretty fierce as well with the Tour of Scandinavia. I think it has been a great success, with a really exciting finish and looks to be drawing some big names to the race. If you have missed Marrianne Vos at all, her season has finished up early this year after surgery on her iliac artery. The Dutch rider had an amazing start to the season, specifically with two stage wins at La Vuelta Feminine, but has seemed to struggle since there. Hopefully she will be back to her best soon.
Before we move on with this weeks news, have you thought about delegating some of your Hive to the Cycling Community. You don't have to delegate a lot, but every bit helps, with the Cycling Community(
Belgium Rider Tijil De Decker Dies On Training Rider
For another week I need to again convey the sad news of a young rider loosing his life during a training ride. Young Belgium rider Tijl De Decker, who was 22 years old, has died from injuries he sustained in a training crash on Wednesday 23rd, 2023. In a statement released from his team Lotto-Dstny, they advised that De Decker had crashed into the back of a car while training and was brought to a hospital in Lier, where he underwent emergency surgery before being transferred to Antwerp University Hospital that evening.
“It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of our rider Tijl De Decker. Today Tijl (22) has lost his battle to recover from the severe injuries he sustained after his crash on training last Wednesday, Despite the best efforts of the staff at the hospital, Tijl couldn’t make it through and this morning he lost his battle.”
De Decker is originally from Antwerp and raced for the Lotto-Dstny development squad this season where he won the under 23 Paris-Roubaix in early May. He also managed a stage win at the Tour of Taiwan and second at the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic. He was set to be promoted to the professional team in 2024.
[Image Of Tijil De Decker Courtesy Lotto-Dstny]
2023 Arctic Race Of Norway
The Arctic Race of Norway finished up last week with Stephen Williams of Israel Premier Tech taking the overall race win after a the race taking place over four stages in Norway. Williams had won the third stage of the race and had a one second lead heading into the final stage of the race. He did his best to cover all attacks in the final stage and made sure he finished inside the peloton to make sure he did not lose any time of Christian Scaroni of Astana Qazaqstan Team. The final stage went to Clement Champoussin of Team Arkea Samsic, who won in a sprint over Norways Christian Eiking.
The Arctic Race of Norway is considered to be the most beautiful bike race in the world, and from some of the pictures I’ve seen I can understand why. Cycling Weekly has put together some images from the race at the following link
Josh Tarling Equal Youngest Rider To Win World Tour Race
Josh Tarling has had a great 2023 and it kept going where he won the individual time trial, during stage 2 of the Renewi Tour in Belgium. We won the stage by 14 seconds making him the equal youngest rider to ever win a race on the UCI World Tour, which he shares this record with Remco Evenepoel. Tarling of UAE Team Emirates averaged 54km/h over the 13km time trial in Sluis, holding off some big names to take the victory. He adds this victory to the 2022 U23 Time Trial world championships and a bronze on the 2023 Time Trial World Championships in Glasgow, finishing behind Remco Evenepoel. As a first year pro rider, Tarling now takes a lead in the overall classification into stage three of the Renewi Tour.
[Image Courtesy Getty Images]
The Tour Of Scandinavia Concludes
[Image Annamiek van Vleuten Courtesy Getty Images]
The Tour of Scandinavia turned into an epic battle with only two seconds deciding between first and second in the overall classification. Annamiek van Vleuten of Team Movistar had a 17 second lead at the start of stage five, which she had picked up from the individual time trial of stage 4. Cecile Ludwig of FDJ-SUEZ promised to attack on the final stage, to try and take back her lead and it did not disappoint. Ludwig made her move early on in the 1200m finishing climb and winning the stage by 5 seconds. Van Vleuten had been a little relaxed on the final climb but still finished in the second bunch, allowing her to keep her lead and win the overall title by 2 seconds ahead of Ludwig with Amber Kraak of Team Jumbo-Visma third. This is van Vleuten’s second last race before she retires, and she said that is made her happy that she was able to be competitive at the highest level until the end.
The Vuelta Kicks Off For 2023
[Image Courtesy
@lavuelta Twitter Page]
The Vuelta a Espana for 2023 is back, and is the last mens grand tour of yeah, with 2023 having one of the strongest fields we have seen in a long time. The Vuelta kicked off in Barcelona on August 26 with a 14.8km Team Time Trial. Different conditions faced the mens race compared to the women’s race a couple of months ago, with the first rain to hit the region of Catalonia in weeks, made the stage very treacherous. The stage win was a surprise with Team DSM-Firmenich winning with 17 minutes and 30 seconds. They edged out Team Movistar by a fraction of a second, with EF Education-EasyPost a further 6 seconds behind. This gave Lorenzo Milesi of Team DSM-Firmenich, who was the first over the line for his team to also be holding the overall lead at the end of stage 1.
Stage 2 was the first stage to take riders onto the Spanish roadside, but was pushed 9km down the road due to safety issues caused by the rain. The stage from Mataro to Barcelona, tracked for 182km, with rain continuing for the day. Adreas Iron of Lotto-Dstny broke away on his own with only three kilometres to win the stage by 7 seconds ahead of Karen Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Andrea Venedrame of AG2R Citroen Team, who was third. But stage 3 was the Vuelta’s first summit finish in Andorra, with a break away of 11 riders formed a break away early on in the stage, but this was reeled back in with UAE Team Emirates taking charge of the peloton. The defending champion from 2022, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quick Step waited till the final sprint once the lead group had shined out a little to win the stage by one second ahead of Jonas Vingegaard of Jumbo-Visma and Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates. The drama to the stage was Evenepoel crashing just after the finish line, as he ran into someone standing in the way. It looked a lot worse than what it was with Evenepoel left with a bloody face, but seemed to be ok not long after the crash. This also gave Evenepoel the overall lead after stage 3 by 5 seconds over his closest rival.
[Image Of Remco Evenepoel Courtesy Getty Images]
Stage 4 of the Vuelta had riders going from Andorra la Vella to Tarragona for 184km, which would see the sprinters battle for the stage win for the first time in this years Vuelta. Unfortunately, a crash occurred in the final corner of stage, which effected some of the riders making their final spring. Juan Sebastian Molano of UAE Team Emirates saw the crash as an opportunity to start his sprint, but had Karen Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck on his back wheel. Groves managed to pass Molano. In the last metres of the stage to take the win ahead of Molano and Edward Theuns of Lidl-Trek. This gave Groves the green sprinters jersey for the Vuelta and the results of the stage also kept Remco Evenepoel in the lead for the overall standings.
Karen Groves made two stage victories in a row as he also won stage 5 from Morella to Burriana. The 186km stage saw the peloton stop any attacks from happening, with Groves sprinting to the front ahead of Filippo Ganna of INEOS Grenadiers and Dries Van Gestel of TotalEnergies who was third. Remco Evenepoel was able to extend his lead in the overall standings to 11 seconds at the end of stage 5.
[Image Of Kaden Groves Courtesy Sirotti]
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This week we have a great video from Peter Defty discussing the riders of the Tour de France and discussing what we can learn from the way they fuel and race:
About The Author
I am a DevOps Engineer, Endurance Athlete, Biomechanics Student and Author. We can all achieve amazing things, it's just a matter of trying, I want to change the world, one run at a time.