Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Sunday, August 13, 2023
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2022 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- August 5 - 13: World Road Championships
- August 9 - 20: Volta a Portugal
- August 13: La Polynormande
Upcoming racing:
- August 15 - 18: Tour du Limousin
- August 15 - 19: Tour of Denmark
- August 15 - 19: Vuelta a Burgos
- August 17 - 20: Arctic Race of Norway
- August 19: Bemer Cyclassics
- August 22 - 25: Tour Poitou-Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine
- August 23 - 26: Renewi Tour
- August 26 - Sept 17: Vuelta a España
Latest completed racing:
- July 29 - August 4: Tour of Poland
- July 31 - August 2: Tour de l'Ain
- July 30: Circuito de Getxo
- July 29: Clásica de San Sebastián
- July 26 - 27: Vuelta a Castilla y Leon
- July 22 - 26: Tour de Wallonie
- July 1 - 23: Tour de France
Here’s the team’s report:
After Mauro Schmid, Rémi Cavagna and Jannik Steimle each took a medal in the Mixed Relay TTT, Ethan Vernon became Elimination World Champion and Remco Evenepoel powered to gold in the individual time trial, now the young Slovakian showed his quality by finishing top three at the end of an attritional race.
France's Axel Laurance finishes ahead of Antonio Morgando, Martin Svrcek & Jack Rootkin-Gray. Sirotti photo
Saturday’s 168.4km event had everything: rain, crashes, attacks, and suspense until the very end. Martin was at all times attentive, keeping an eye on the many moves that began coming as the race unfolded on the tricky circuit in Glasgow and making sure he remained with the pre-race favourites as the peloton splintered.
With just a couple of laps until the finish, the 20-year-old from Nesluša found himself in a strong move from where Axel Laurance attacked, putting some daylight between him and the others. Svrcek worked hard together with his companions to bring the Frenchman back – as the gap hovered around 15 seconds the entire time – but they narrowly missed out on making the catch, which left them fighting for the other two medals.
In the closing 150 meters, as the road began to slightly rise one last time, Martin unleashed a strong sprint and took bronze just behind Portugal’s Antonio Morgado, a huge result for him and Slovakia, who returned on the podium of this race for the first time since 2007, when Peter Velits powered to victory in Stuttgart.
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Here’s the team’s news release:
Nina Kessler will join EF Education-Cannondale beginning with the 2024 season. The Dutch rider has raced 14 seasons in the professional peloton and brings experience and leadership to our new squad. The experienced Dutch rider will be a road captain and mentor to her teammates
Kessler started her racing career excelling on rolling courses with punchy climbs and developing a strong sprint but in recent years has transitioned to more of a road captain’s role. She loves taking a leadership position and racing hard to support her teammates.
Nina Kessler
“I really like helping my team and guiding my teammates, taking a lot of responsibilities, and doing lead outs. Get the team together as a road captain and guide them in the finals. Those kinds of things. I have to say that I’m really good at reading the race and helping my teammates. I do love hard races,” she says.
Team general manager Esra Tromp values Kessler’s leadership qualities and will rely on her expertise in the races.
“Nina has lots of experience in different teams and different environments which is really helpful, especially for the young riders. She probably is not the rider who will win the most races but she is really important to the team to perform at a really high level because of her experience. She brings a lot to the race meetings but also in the peloton itself. In the race you need people with experience to make decisions and that is something Nina can do really well,” Tromp says.
Uniting the team on and off the bike is a major goal for Kessler. She knows how to push her teammates in training and races but also the importance of cracking jokes at the dinner table.
“I think I’m pretty good at motivating the team and the riders,” Kessler says. “Especially because we will spend so much time together, you always have ups and downs, so you want to be sure you’re always giving your teammates confidence. If you have the support of your team and you do whatever you can, it’s always good. I want to give my teammates that confidence and the message to just chill and do what you can.”
Growing up in the Netherlands, it’s no surprise that Kessler’s favorite races are the classics and that she loves a punchy course. Though she prefers one-day races, she does enjoy stage racing also.
“In stage races, I tend to get better every day or just less tired than everyone else. I can handle it pretty well. I think that’s because I have some distance in these legs already from all the years!”
Though she is already an experienced and knowledgeable racer, Kessler is not done pushing herself.
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“I definitely have noticed that I’m still growing stronger. I make steps every year, like how my climbing is going better. I still have the feeling that I haven’t yet reached my top, top level. My goal is just to go deep in the finale of big races and then to play the game with the team. It doesn’t matter if it’s for me or for my teammates, I just want all of us to reach the best we can.”
When she’s not training or racing on the road, you’re likely to find Kessler training and racing on the beach. She took up beach racing – what Kessler describes as “mountain bikes on the beach with really big tires and really low pressure – around the time she was winding down her track racing career. During the winter, it satisfies Kessler’s competitive drive – she is the current Dutch beach racing national champion – but it’s also an opportunity to ride in a completely different environment, one that is fun but still challenges her.
There is more to the 35-year-old than just bikes, however. In her twenties, she balanced racing with studying and earned her bachelor’s degree in business economics. She then combined racing with a more traditional job, that of accountancy which she practiced for several years. But given that her family is also connected to cycling – both her parents are soigneurs and her siblings are big cycling fans – Kessler never seems to stray too far from the sport.
“It’s a pretty tough life to be in cycling,” she says. “You have a lot of lows but you know there will be a high. Going through bad moments makes the good moments even better and that’s what cycling has taught me. There will be more good moments for sure.”
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Here’s the team’s news release:
Astana Qazaqstan Development Team has signed a short-term agreement for 3 months (until the end of the 2023 season) with the Italian rider Michele Gazzoli (24), who until last summer competed for Astana Qazaqstan Team.
In the summer of 2022, the International Cycling Union (UCI) classified the violation of anti-doping rules by Gazzoli as accidental and unintentional, which is why the disciplinary penalty was limited to one year of disqualification and the cancellation of the results of just the Volta ao Algarve. Now, Michele Gazzoli is free to race again.
“Michele has already received his punishment for the mistake, and now he has the opportunity to correct it, to try to restart his career. The young rider deserves such a chance. What happened last year was a tragic accident, the UCI accepted all explanations and agreed with it, deciding that the violation was unintentional. Therefore, through our continental team, we would like to help Michele try to rehabilitate himself and continue his career. It won’t be easy, and the rider has no guarantee ahead of him. But we know that Michele has been training hard all this time, that he still has a huge motivation and goals that he would like to achieve. The contract with the continental team is signed for the last three months of the season, during which Michele will have the opportunity to compete in the races with the continental team, as well as one or two times to race with Astana Qazaqstan Team. What will happen next depends solely on the rider and how he will use this chance”, – said Alexandr Vinokurov, General Manager of Astana Qazaqstan Team.
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