Hive Weekly Cycling News - August 10 2023

I thought we had a lot happening when we had the Tour de France finish on one day and then the Tour de France Femme start the next. This week has been pretty crazy, firstly with all the general cycling news out, for the first time we also have a combined UCI Cycling World Championships. My plan was to simply do a list of all the winners for all elite and para events, but after a week of racing, the list would have simple been too big. Instead I have opted for some of the big highlights from the first week of the event.

We also include one of Peter Sagan’s new ventures as he moves into retirement this year. We did a quick note on the Tour de Pologne in Poland last week, where Matej Mohoric of Bahrain Victorious was leading the overall standings and with only two more stages he took out the overall title. Make sure you also scroll down to the bottom of the news as one of our supporters OFM talk about nutrition of the Tour de France riders and what you should take away from it for your training.

This weeks question in the Hive Cycling Community, is what's your favorite cycling website or app? Again make sure you post to the community to have your say:

Peter Sagan Opens His Own Hotel

On the 3rd of August Peter Sagan announced via an Instagram post that he has opened a resort/hotel themed on his career.

The luxury hotel in Slovakia, located just outside Sagan’s hometown of Zilina, has multiple stylised rooms, full of Peter Sagan memorabilia and even has its own green Tour de France room. The hotel also includes a fitness centre, a spa, altitude training systems and a high end restaurant.

Sagan’s post on Instagram explained that, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned pro or just an absolute cycling beginner, this resort is the perfect oasis for your two-wheeled adventures!”

Lotte Kopeky Wins World Championships Points Race

Belgium rider Lotte Kopecky followed up with her second overall performance in the Tour de France Femme for 2023 with a dominant win in the Points Race for the World Track Cycling Championships. Great Britain had been dominant on the track, and it was time for another country to put a dent into Team GB’s winning streak. The points race was a 100 lap race where Kopecky and Georgia Baker of Australia, put a big gap in the rest of the field, lapping them early on, and it would end with the two riders finishing first and second. After gaining a lap on the competition, both riders gained 20 points, with Kopecky finishing own 39 points after the remaining springs and Baker finishing with 31. Japan’s Tsuyaka Uchino finished with 14 points to take third.

[Image Courtesy Getty Images]

Switzerland Wins Mixed Team Time Trial

We get to see a lot of great racing at the world champs, and some that we rarely get a change to see outside of these types of events and these are races like the Mixed Team Time Trial. This year, Switzerland were able to successfully defend their mixed relay crown, even with one of their big names Marlen Reusser, crashing during the race. Consisting of three men and three women, the Swiss team were last to start across the 40km Glasgow circuit.

Stefan Bissegger, Stefan Kung and Mauro Schmid had a good start before they handed it over to the women's team consisting of Reusser, Elise Chabbey and Nicole Koller, when Reusser lost some time after a crash. But it did little to stop the Swiss team as they finished a full seven seconds ahead of France in second, with Germany finishing third.

[Image Courtesy UCI]

UCI World Championships For 2028 Announced

As part of the UCI Cycling World Championships taking place in Glasgow at the moment, the UCI congress was held on the first Thursday as part of the event. The congress announced that Abu Dhabi will be hosting the 2028 Road World Championships while Saudi Arabia will host the 2028 Gravel World Championships. The previous world championships that were held in the Middle East, in Qatar was delayed until October of that year to avoid extreme temperatures, so for now the precise date for the 2028 championships is not known yet. Incase you’re interested, next years Road World Championships will be held in Zurich, Switzerland, while for 2025 it will be in Rwanda and the first time ever held in Africa, 2026 will be Montreal, Canada and 2027 will be in France, with the races held in Haut-Savoie.

British Women’s Team Pursuit Wins First Gold Since 2014

The Women’s Great British pursuit team have gone through a number of setbacks over the past few years including in number of near misses at world championships and Olympic Games, but team rider Katie Archibald lost her partner and world class mountain biker, Rab Wardell to cardiac arrest in August 2024. But the team of Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Megan Barker all put in the riders of their lives to take out the gold medal at the pursuit track World Championships. The strength of the team has been around for years, but has not been able to replicate their last World Championships gold medal that took place in 2014. They faced the New Zealand team in the finals and were dominant, winning the gold medal rave by over 4 seconds.

[Image Courtesy SWPix.com]

Mathieu van de Poel Wins Road World Championships

The initial start of the race was delayed early on by environmental protestors. Even though we’ve stepped away from the Grand Tour’s for a day or two, don’t think this was an easy race. The Road Race world championships started in Edinburgh and went for 271km through to Glasgow, with only one or two major hill climbs, it was still going to be a tough day out, with only 51 riders actually finishing the race. Matthew van der Poel of the Netherlands went solo with 22km to go, on a twisty Scottish course, and had some of the biggest names in the sport chasing him. Wout van Aert of Belgium, Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and Mads Pedersen of Denmark, all rode together chasing. Lat in the race van de Pool slipped on a corner, but had enough time to remount and stay ahead. Even with a broken shoe, he was able to increase his lead in the final stages, winning the road race by just over 90 seconds to Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar who finished third.

At the finish line van de Poel was as asked about the fall and said,
“All of a sudden I was on the ground and the shoe was broken and it made it hard to give power on the pedals, especially because the cleat was also broken, so I didn't have a lot of contact anymore. But I think maybe some adrenaline took over as well."

The crash was not the only issue Mathieu had. When the protestors delayed part of the race, he urgently needed a toilet break, so urgent that he needed to stop at a local house and ask permission to use their bathroom. The resident mentioned that van de Poel was extremely polite and grateful to allow in.

[Image Courtesy Getty Images]

World Championships Medal Tally

There have been a lot of rainbow jersey's being handed out over the past week, with Great Britian leading both medal tallies, with a lot more to come:

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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:

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