race type: One-day race distance: 221 kmregion: South-east England

e largest ever one-day race to hit the streets of theuk did not end the way some home fans would havewanted it. No Spitfires flew over the Mall to salute avictorious Ben Swift or Mark Cavendish (who wasthat afternoon winning the final stage of the Tour ofDenmark); instead, the fledgling ‘Classic’ was won byan up-and-coming French sprinter, Arnaud Démare,riding for French team fdj. Despite being labelled by some as an ‘unknown’, 21-year-old Démare has good pedigree: he won last year’sCholet Pays de Loire, a race over similar terrain innorth-west France, as well as three stages and theoverall race in this year’s Four Days of Dunkirk. And histeam, vigilant all day with Dominique Rollin in themain break and then Yoann Offredo in the counter,was the only one to organise a decent sprint leadout. Sacha Modolo’s Valvole Bardiani team had seemeddetermined to shepherd the Italian to victory, but hehad to make do – as he did at the Olympic test eventthat covered a similar course – with second place.And Yannick Martinez put in a very creditable per-formance for La Pomme Marseille – as did Rapha-Condor-jlt’s young stage-race hope Mike Cuming,who figured in the break for a lot of the day. So what happened to the favourites from Cannon-dale, Orica-Greenedge, or Team Sky? Difficult tosay, actually, since even the tv commentators seemedto be getting fed very little information, but PeterSagan (distanced) and Matt Goss (punctured) didnot feature in the finale; and Swift, flown in fromPoland, will have been disappointed with 10th. Make no mistake, though, this was a proper bike race.Leith and Box Hill may not be the biggest bumps thepeloton has ever seen, but credit goes to Garmin-Sharp’s David Millar for blowing the field apart onZig Zag Road – and the run-in from Box Hill to theMall was taken at an average of 49kph. In all, then, it didn’t quite go to plan for the hometeams or the big guns. But the crowds and the specta-cle of the race passing through central London showthe huge potential for this homegrown Classic.

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 7th August 2013

rapha.ccissue 19

are cowboy hats #prost y le?

03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11SATURDAY

— Danmark Rundt S5— Tour de Pologne S7

SUNDAY

— RideLondon— Danmark Rundt S6

MONDAY TUESDAY

— Tour of Utah S1WEDNESDAY

— Tour of Utah S2— Volta a Portugal S1

THURSDAY

— Tour of Utah S3— Volta a Portugal S2

FRIDAY

— Tour of Utah S4— Volta a Portugal S3

SATURDAY

— Tour of Utah S5— Volta a Portugal S4

SUNDAY

— Tour of Utah S6— Volta a Portugal S5

ridelondon-surrey classic

Big Guns Hold Firetour de pologne

Here’s Wiggo AgainArguably the most notable feature of the 70thedition of the Tour of Poland was the return ofTeam Sky’s Sir Bradley Wiggins, who markedhis comeback by claiming the final-stage time trial.Recently, Wiggo’s stellar 2012 has seemed a distantmemory, and he started in Poland working hard to keep Rigoberto Uránup in the gc. Victory on Saturday will have gone some way to silencingthe nagging doubts that dog every rider during a layoff. e Tour de Pologne was Sir Brad’s first competitive action since May,and he secured the 37km stage, from Wieliczka to Krakow, in 46mins36secs, 56 seconds ahead of Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Leopard) –which bodes well for the World tt Championships next month.As for the gc, it was Orica-Greenedge’s flying Dutchman, Pieter Ween-ing, who was sitting pretty on Saturday evening. Weening had gone intothe final stage trailing the yellow jersey of Christophe Riblon (ag2r) by27 seconds. ough Weening finished 1min 44secs behind Wiggins, sixthon the stage overall, it was sufficient to reel in his French rival and put 13seconds between himself and Spain’s Jon Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi),bumping Riblon to the bottom podium step.

danmark rundt

Cav Brings Home the Bacone best of British was also on display on the outskirts of Copenhagen asMark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) came from a long wayback to claim victory on the sixth and final stage of the Tour of Denmark.Seemingly boxed in as the sprint began, Cav had to reel in around adozen riders in the closing metres, eventually overhauling Europcar’sBryan Coquard to claim his 16th stage win of the season.is was his third win on the historic streets of Fred-eriksberg, and it evoked the quartet he has notched upon the Champs-Élysées. With 90 days of rac-ing in his legs already this season, it was a tiredCav who took the applause. Belkin’s WilcoKelderman, meanwhile, enjoyed a morecomfortable day in yellow, defending his six-second lead over Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) tosecure gc victory after an early five-manbreak. Of these, Lotto-Belisol’s SanderCordeel made one final bid for glory 20kmfrom home but with the QuickStep traindetermined to set up the Manx Missile, theBelgian was never going to be allowed to stayaway for long.

women’s cycling

Racing Towards EqualityWhile the men’s pro peloton has moved on, many ofthe world’s top women riders are currently engaged intheir own battles on French roads. e Route de FranceFéminine is a week-long stage race taking place mainlyon the roads of northern and central France; formerworld champion Giorgia Bronzini, riding for Wiggle-Honda, has won two stages, and Emma Johannson(Orica-ais) has led since the start. e Mcipollini-Giordana team has been attacking ferociously andanimating the road stages, and the race is poised withonly seconds between the riders in podium positions –but you’d be forgiven for not knowing, since tv cov-erage is non-existent and stage reports hard to find. However, the volume of support for equality and forcoverage, on tv and in other media, is becomingharder to ignore and in the past few weeks eventshave gathered pace. In July, Emma Pooley, MarianneVos, triathlete Chrissie Wellington and KathrynBertine (a pro rider and film-maker currently work-ing on Half the Race, a documentary about women’sracing) started a petition supporting the creation of awomen’s Tour de France, which now boasts 90,000signatures. mp Harriet Harman has also written anopen letter to aso’s Christian Prudhomme asking thesame thing. At the moment, the Gallic ‘Non’ is still in full effect,apparently for reasons of logistics, but there will be awomen’s Tour in the uk in 2014: the Tour of Britainorganisers have announced a five-stage race to takeplace in May, mainly in East Anglia and the EastMidlands. Not the same as the men’s Tour of Britain,maybe, and the organisers also cite logistical reasons(unlike in France, where road closures for cycle racingare the norm, the men’s Tour of Britain has only 20-minute rolling closures, which use all the availablemotorcycle escorts), but the prize money will be equaland major tv time promised. Meanwhile, an almighty fight is brewing, with BritishCycling’s Brian Cookson running against Pat McQuaidfor the uci presidency in September, and improvingthe status of women’s racing is a key part of his bid. Of course it’s not simply about pro racing, and the ef-forts would come to nothing without participation.Rapha’s Women’s 100, which saw thousands of womenride 100km on 7th July, was only one sign of the ex-

plosion in the numbers of womenriding their road bikes – let’s

hope all these stars align tobring sustainable, long-term change.

a weekly double-shot of road racing Wednesday 7th August 2013

are cowboy hats #prost y le?

team movements

Transfer-Europe-Express

e Doppio stirs the porridge on the lat-est transfer news (and gossip).e 1st August is the first day of theyear that the top pro teams are al-lowed officially to sign new riders.However, there have been rumours flying and behind-the-scenes machinations for weeks or even months –and riders looking to move on or to gain a new con-tract have been trying to show their best on the road. e big news so far is that Rigoberto Urán, runner-upat the Giro, is departing Team Sky after three seasonsto join the Belgium-based Omega Pharma-Quick-Step squad. Many were disappointed that the Colom-bian was moving on from the British team, but it meansmore waffles, beer and frites for the punchy climber.Meanwhile Team Sky has secured the services of Tas-manian climber Nathan Earle, who will be reunitedwith former teammate Richie Porte. Earle is movingfrom the Continental Praties squad and stepping onto the WorldTour stage with “open ears” and a big ap-petite for rice cakes.Also joining QuickStep is Mark Renshaw. He’s leav-ing Dutchies Belkin and making the short trip downthe road to rekindle his relationship with MarkCavendish. Cav hasn’t had a terrible season with his newBelgian teammates, but it hasn’t been as clinical asprevious campaigns. Meanwhile, Renshaw has hardlybeen thriving on his own, so Cav’s old htc leadoutman steps in to put the train back on the tracks in2014 (and take over head-butting responsibilities?).Argos-Shimano, who’ve shown they are a sprintingforce to be wrestled with, are looking to bolster theirperformances in the mountains by sniffing around thesaddle of Wouter ‘Bean’ Poels and Flandrian super-rouleur Dries Devenyns.According to the Gazzetta dello Sport, Cannondale arecurrently swooping in, Dracula-style, for the Italianveteran Michele Scarponi of Lampre-Merida and 24-year-old Giacomo Nizzolo of Radioshack-Leopard. And speaking of vampires, Astana wish to revive theWorldTour fortunes of ex-Liquigas ‘climber’ FrancoPellizotti, currently residing at Pro Continental teamAndroni Giocattoli. e Giro-winning Kazakhs havealso signed the experienced bruiser Lieuwe Westra ona two-year deal. Frightening.

weekendweather

LondonFine and low 20s,possible showersSunday PM. ProTeam Bib Shorts,Pro Team Jersey

San FranciscoTemperatures inthe high 60s, couldget foggy in town.Rapha Gilet, ArmWarmers

OsakaIn the mid 30s, oppressive andthundery. Super-Lightweight Jersey,Rain Jacket

SydneySunny and fine,around 19c. ClubJersey, Classic BibShorts, Rapha Cap

Utah80f even at altitude:tough racing. Light-weight Jersey, ProTeam Base Layer.