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Live blog: UCI responds to Austrian blood doping scandal, GB Cycling Team boss says don't write us off ahead of Tokyo Olympics, women’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad breakaway leader forced to stop as she catches men’s race (+ poll) + more

All today's news from the site and beyond.....
04 March 2019, 19:21
Syringe
UCI probing blood doping scandal after two Austrian pro cyclists confess

The UCI has said it is investigating a doping scandal in Austria that over the weekend has seen two professional cyclists admit using performance enhancing drugs.

On Saturday, Stefan Denifl – winner of a 2017 Vuelta stage when riding for the now defunct Irish UCI Professional Continental team Aqua Blue Sport – confessed to blood doping.

Today, he was joined by Groupama-FDJ rider Georg Preidler, who said he could not "live with this secret any longer.”

Their reported confessions follow a raid by police in Austria – where doping is a criminal offence, falling under the heading of sporting fraud – on athletes competing at last week’s Nordic Ski World Championships in Seefeld, where five athletes were arrested.

The investigation revolves around German sports doctor Mark Schmidt – formerly team doctor with the Gerolsteiner cycling team, which was wound up a decade ago following doping scandals involving Bernhard Kohl and Stefan Schumacher.

In a statement, the UCI said that it is

Aware of the revelations of an investigation carried out by Austrian authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) within the sport of cross-country skiing.

As it was not implicated in this investigation, which was not aimed at cycling, the UCI does not have any first-hand information concerning confessions made by cyclists. The UCI has asked the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation (CADF), the independent body mandated by the UCI to define and lead the anti-doping testing strategy and investigations in our sport, to request the co-operation of the Austrian authorities and WADA to ensure all information directly or indirectly concerning cycling is handed over without delay. The UCI will also ask the CADF to offer any assistance that could help the investigation. 

The UCI will follow the investigation closely and take all measures possible as soon as it is in possession of the elements requested.

04 March 2019, 18:12
GB Cycling Team boss Stephen Park says don’t write off Tokyo Olympic hopes

Great Britain Cycling Team performance director Stephen Park insists “It is too early to be writing Britain off yet," despite a disappointing performance at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland, last week.

Elinor Barker’s victory in the points race on the opening day was the sole gold medal, while silvers were added in the men’s and women’s team pursuits and Ethan Hayter won bronze in the men’s omnium.

The country’s hopes of success in the women’s Madison – a first-time Olympic event at Tokyo – were dealt a blow when the number one pairing of Laura Trott and Katie Archibald were both forced to cut short their championships through, respectively, illness and concussion.

Team GB has dominated the track cycling events at the past three Olympic Games and Park told BBC Sport: "Medallists who went to Rio were just emerging as riders at this stage."

The Netherlands and Australia each took six gold medals in Poland, with Great Britain sixth in the medal table.

But, a year and a half out from the Olympics, it’s a situation the country has found itself in before.

UK Sport funding across Olympic disciplines is based on the performances at the Games themselves – and Team GB upping its game on sport’s biggest stage after seemingly underperforming at the previous year’s Worlds happened ahead of both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

"We've still got 17 months so plenty of runway yet - we're not at desperation stakes or anything," Park said.

"We are certainly clear that there are some gaps to be made up not just in sprinting but in the endurance events as well.

"If we look four years ago, we finished 10th on the medal table. It is too early to be writing Britain off yet."

04 March 2019, 11:34
Strava Stats from Omloop and Kuurne

The opening weekend of the Cobbled Classics season presents the riders with a bit of a shock to the system. Gone are the *relatively* easy and orderly early season stage races and in come the organised chaos of Flemish racing.

Omloop Het Neiuwsblad was the easier of the two races this weekend with the men's race ambling along at a pace gentle enough that the women's race, which at that point was kicking off, caught up to the men's race and caused a bit of a farce. The Women's race was delayed for some time to allow the men to get out of the way. We've got a poll on what should have been done, so have your say there.

Screenshot 2019-03-04 at 11.52.48

The women's race saw some huge attacks and thanks to Christina Siggaard, we have some very interesting data from her top 10 finish. The Team Virtu rider averaged 204w for 3hrs38mins covering the 127kms at an average speed of 35.1km/h. She burned through just under 3,000kcal, showing just how intense the racing is.

Screenshot 2019-03-04 at 12.16.31

The men's event had a much slower start with riders looking to save their energy for the demanding finale. Luke Durbridge spent much of his day looking after Mitchelton Scott's leaders and his data shows the sporadic nature of the efforts required. So much of his day was spent coasting or casually spinning at under 200w (an easy pace for the big Australian). But this is contrasted by countless spikes above 1000w that he had to generate into and through the main cobbled sectors and bergs. His average power of 276w is pretty misleading, with the weighted average of 332w giving a better picture of how tough his day was. The final 70km saw Durbrige churning out an average of 341w with several big spikes over 1,000w. All of this was good enough to help his teammate Matteo Trentin to 9th place. The 200km race was still covered at over 40km/h.

Screenshot 2019-03-04 at 11.55.56

Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne was much harder from the start and Oliver Naesen's ride shows his 304w average power comparing pretty closely with the 336w weighted average. The race lasted just under 4 hours, in which time Naesen burned a whopping 5,573kcal! The final 47km of the race saw Naesen pushing an average of 336w for 1hr5mins, a brutal effort at 43.7km/h that still couldn't bring back a flying Bob Jungles.

Team Sky rider Owain Doull, who isn't on Strava, displayed some pretty impressive stats to take a great 2nd place behind Jungles. Team Sky shared his stats in a very handy little video.

I feel tired just talking about these stats. Time for a recovery nap!

04 March 2019, 11:07
NuBike, a bike with a chainless drive system, is crowdfunding on Kickstarter

It's not the first and won't be the last bike to operate without a chain (see our video on CeramicSpeed's Driven concept) but this new take on the humble bicycle is certainly eye-catching. NuBike "almost pedals itself", say the creators, with longer pedal cranks to deliver more power to the rear wheel. "Gravity and near vertical pedaling, combined with the rider’s weight, produces continuous force throughout the entire stroke", say NuBike. This is combined with a carbon frame that has a beam moulded inside to strengthen it - this only adds 1.3kg to the frame. Check out the Kickstarter here, where you can pre-order a bike for $ 3,600, shipping to anywhere in the world. 

 

04 March 2019, 08:28
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad poll: what do you think?
 

Scroll down for the story and let us know what you think should be done to remedy the farcical scenes from Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race. 

04 March 2019, 08:25
Too fast for the men - controversy as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad breakaway leader Nicole Hanselmann forced to stop as she catches men's race

There's been much criticism of the organisation of Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race in Belgium, after women's race leader Nicole Hanselmann caught the men's race ahead with just 35km gone. There was just a 10 minute gap between the two starts which was questionable in the first place, but even worse was that the organisers decided Hanselmann and the peloton behind her had to stop, neutralising the women's race so the men could get a gap again. 

The way the issue was dealt with will be frustrating for those hoping cycling was turning a corner with regards to gender equality, and as the Twitter commenter above states, it may have made more sense for the men's race to stop for the women's which was moving faster at the time. It's also very questionable why there was just a 10 minute gap between the two races in the first place, which budgets in no time whatsover for mechanical issues or crashes. What should be done to avoid a repeat situation? Take part in our poll above and/or leave a comment to let us know your thoughts. 

04 March 2019, 08:03
One to watch? Team Sky's Owain Doull takes impressive 2nd at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne

The 25-year-old Welshman put in a gutsy performance to finish second behind Bob Jungels, out-sprinting third place finisher Niki Terpstra to the line. With Sky not exactly flourishing in one-day races and classics since they started their World Tour domination, could Doull be the man to get them those titles? Based off this performance there's much more to come. 

04 March 2019, 07:57
Surely he can't be Alpe-py with that?

We hate to point it out to this well-meaning gent, but it's probably always best to check your spelling and grammar if you're committing the words to your skin permanently!

04 March 2019, 07:51
This weekend we were talking about... UCI orders E3 Harelbeke to withdraw controversial advert

The UCI says it will initiate legal proceedings if the organisers of the E3 BinckBank Classic fail to withdraw an ad which shows two women in bodypaint, entwined to form a frog. “Who shall crown himself prince in Harelbeke?” reads the accompanying text. Two days later and the tweet still exists, as you'll see above. Our full story is here

04 March 2019, 07:47
Capture.PNG
This weekend we were talking about... Near Miss of the Day 262

Our Saturday near miss was reported to police, with cyclist Dave saying the complaint was rejected because he was, in their opinion, riding to close to the central white line. Full story and video here

04 March 2019, 07:43
Team Sky Arc de Triomphe
This weekend we were talking about... Britain's richest man could back Team Sky

It's been reported that Sir Dave Brailsford recently met with Britain's richest man, Sir James Ratcliffe, about the possibility of him providing financial backing to Team Sky. Read more here

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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13 comments

Avatar
triathleteguru | 5 years ago
0 likes

There are so many people arguing over what should have been done, but I think most when presented with the facts would realize the organizers did the only thing they could have and that it was not a sexist decision!

If it happened the way all the reports have inferred, then yes, you could argue sexism was behind the call. However, every single article about this that I've seen has the facts wrong or have left out some very important facts.

The men were not racing at a slower pace, just the peloton and the convoy following it. At the time of the neutralization, there was a breakaway in the men's race that had around a 14 minute lead! All the people who question why the women weren't allowed to pass the slower men do not realize there were four men that far ahead. A 14 minute lead at the pace they were racing is around a 10km stretch. Not only that, the cobbles were less than 5km ahead when the women were paused, so the lead men were actually through the first section of cobbles, hopefully if you are on this site you understand why you can't easily pause a race  that is goig 40 kmh on cobbles!

Following the cobbles, the race courses diverged with the women's course making a right turn while the men's course went straight. After all the men passed the spot where the women were to turn, the course would be modified or officials/police prepared for the women’s right turn (the men would later return to this spot at which point they also would turn right). So not only were the upcoming cobbles the men were already on (and through) a reason to pause the women who were still on wider well paved roads, the fact the races were soon diverging made intermixxing the two races a logistical and safety nightmare!

The following is actual race commentary from before the women paused: "After covering 39.8km in the first hour of racing, Howes, Devriendt, Jans and Wirtgen have a lead of some 13:50 over the peloton. Deceuninck-QuickStep take this as their cue to hit the front and set about trimming that lead down to more manageable proportions."

So for the first hour of the men's race, the average pace at the front was 40km an hour!

Unfortunately, lots of people, including the race's own press release regarding the neutralization, have gotten the facts wrong or left some of the important details I've mentioned above out.

Avatar
Natrix | 5 years ago
1 like

Nubike kickstarter finished on Feb 14th and failed to raise enough money.............

Avatar
janusz0 replied to Natrix | 5 years ago
0 likes

Natrix wrote:

Nubike kickstarter finished on Feb 14th and failed to raise enough money.............

So, there are limits to insanity. 

I remember a guy in Lowestoft who’d engineered a beautiful hydraulic transmission for his bicycle. Of course, it was quite inefficient, but adequate for utility cycling. I don’t think it had variable transmission  ratios, but a modern version, might be able to beat a NuVinci on weight and power efficiency. Perhaps Rohloff is already working on it:)

 

Avatar
milkman | 5 years ago
0 likes

#Nicole Hanselmann Oh man really? I wonder what the fallout for Nicole would have been had she just pushed on through? Disqualification probably but massive exposure for her sponsors? It'd have been worth it I’m sure

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
0 likes

There was a gentleman I used to meet between Frimley Green and Farnborough North, in the Hatches, who had developed his own system of near vertical pedal strokes, I think it may of had gears.  It did look to work better than that one.  Nice bloke too.

Avatar
janusz0 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Oi, road.cc, why can’t we delete duplicate posts?!!

Avatar
janusz0 | 5 years ago
0 likes

NuBike

It may have some merit, it would be good to know the efficiency of the drive train, rather than be shown serious misunderstanding of leverage and gravity.  By the look of the pedalling "cadence" in the video, the mechanical advantage of the drivetrain is similar to that of a chain driven drivetrain.  However, there appears to be no way to vary the mechancal advantage so, at best, this is a single speed bike.  It is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkpatrick_Macmillan's treadle system revisited.  DoesNuBike's "inventor" realise this?

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
3 likes

.

Avatar
HarrogateSpa | 5 years ago
5 likes

We hate to point it out to this well-meaning gent, but it's probably always best to check your spelling and grammar if you're committing the words to your skin permanently!

I hate to point it out, but it might be best for road.cc to let other people's spelling and grammar mistakes pass without comment.

Avatar
Jack Sexty replied to HarrogateSpa | 5 years ago
2 likes
HarrogateSpa wrote:

We hate to point it out to this well-meaning gent, but it's probably always best to check your spelling and grammar if you're committing the words to your skin permanently!

I hate to point it out, but it might be best for road.cc to let other people's spelling and grammar mistakes pass without comment.

Dont no wot ur talkin aboot...

Avatar
brooksby | 5 years ago
0 likes

Quote:

It's also very questionable why there was just a 10 minute gap between the two races in the first place, which budgets in no time whatsover for mechanical issues or crashes.

This. IMO they either need to put a *much* bigger gap between the two races or else (shock! horror!) run the women's race as a completely separate event, on a different day.

Avatar
Bmblbzzz replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

It's also very questionable why there was just a 10 minute gap between the two races in the first place, which budgets in no time whatsover for mechanical issues or crashes.

This. IMO they either need to put a *much* bigger gap between the two races or else (shock! horror!) run the women's race as a completely separate event, on a different day.

Or run them together as separate but simultaneous races, just as there are different categories running in the same marathons. 

Avatar
John Smith replied to Bmblbzzz | 5 years ago
0 likes

Bmblbzzz wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

It's also very questionable why there was just a 10 minute gap between the two races in the first place, which budgets in no time whatsover for mechanical issues or crashes.

This. IMO they either need to put a *much* bigger gap between the two races or else (shock! horror!) run the women's race as a completely separate event, on a different day.

Or run them together as separate but simultaneous races, just as there are different categories running in the same marathons. 

 

I feel like this may be the way more sports need to go. With the latest controversy in the news over intersex and transgender athletes I feel that there is going to have to be some hard questions asked about equality, as two diffrent views on equality clash.

 

I think more immediately we need to stop beliving that athletes are experts on a sport just because they participate in it. We have seen so many statements on trans and intersex athletes on both sides of the debate that are not based on facts at all. In the case of this race we are seeing people chime in with statements about the women showing the men, how the men should let the women through etc. which completely failes to understand the sport. Road cycle racing is not about going flat out all the time, its about managing energy and there is a flow of the race. Clearly the flow of the womens race was diffrent to the mens, and the organisers failed to take this in to account. If the mens race had been stopped it would either have to be stopped for a long time or probably ended up catching the womens race once the pace picked up. There is a small chance the mens race could have been slower, but assuming that would be a huge risk.

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