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Thursday, June 1, 2023
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2022 Tour de France | 2022 Giro d'Italia
Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip. - Will Rogers
Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, 2021: The Little Cannibal Dominates is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- June 2: Giro dell'Appennino
- June 4: Brussels Cycling Classic
- June 4 - 11: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 7 - 11: ZLM Tour
Latest completed racing:
- May 26 - 29: Tour of Norway
- May 6 - 29: Giro d'Italia
- May 16 - 21: 4 Jours du Dunkerque
- May 21: Rund um Köln
- May 20: Veenendaal - Veenendaal Classic
- May 7: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 6: GP du Morbihan
- May 1: Eschborn-Frankfurt
Here’s the team’s update:
One of the most important and prestigious events of the season, the Critérium du Dauphiné has changed in recent years from a race that had a bit of something for everyone to one heavily tilted towards the climbers and the puncheurs, and this year won’t be any different.
The first few days will be ideal for the explosive riders, advantaged by the many short and sharp climbs sprinkled on the course, but they will put on the table also one big opportunity for the GC contenders in the form of a 31.1km undulating individual time trial held between Cours and Belmont-de-la-Loire.
Some heavy climbing awaits in the second part of the week, Col des Aravis, Col de la Madeleine, Col du Mollard, and the mighty Col de la Croix de Fer (13.1km, 6.2%) before the final battle of the race on a special day. For the first time since 2000, La Bastille (1.8km, 14.2%) – where Bernard Hinault triumphed twice, in 1977 and 1979 – is back in the Dauphiné, and the expectations are high, especially as it will be tackled at the end of a demanding and leg-sapping stage featuring five other ascents, including the Col du Granier and Col de Porte.
Julian Alaphilippe winning stage four of the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné.
Julian Alaphilippe will return at the start of the race for the first time since 2020, and the Frenchman – winner of a pair of stages and the KOM jersey here at his previous participations – will lead a strong Soudal Quick-Step team. Andrea Bagioli, Rémi Cavagna, Dries Devenyns, French Champion Florian Sénéchal, Tour of Oman runner-up Mauri Vansevenant and Ethan Vernon – a stage winner this season at the Tour de Romandie – are the riders joining the two-time World Champion for the eight-day World Tour race.
“Most of the riders start their preparation towards the Tour de France after the altitude training camp we just had. Julian is back for the first time since the Classics, while Mauri is returning from injury. Our biggest goal for next week is to take a stage win, and in Ethan we have a guy who can get over some of the climbs and also be fast in the sprint. Rémi is also motivated for the individual time trial, so we can be confident in our chances of doing a good Dauphiné”, said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Wilfried Peeters.
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Carapaz’s Team EF Education-EasyPost posted this update:
Richard Carapaz’s victory at the Mercan Tour Classic Alpes-Maritime was a first prize for the work that he and his teammates have been doing to get ready for the Tour de France.
Richard Carapaz at the end of the 2022 Vuelta a España in his King of the Mountains jersey. Sirotti photo.
Before heading to the Alps to kick off their pre-Tour racing block, they spent a couple of weeks together high in the Pyreneés at a camp in Font-Romeu, France. The efforts they put in there are already starting to pay off.
“This victory is the result of the hard work we’ve done in those 15 days,” Richard said after winning the Mercan Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes. “We did a great camp in Font-Romeu with the team. When you do things right, you have the power to show off what you’ve trained for.”
In Font-Romeu, Richie and his teammates trained very hard indeed.
Font-Romeu is a Pyrenean ski resort nestled just over the French-Spanish border, about two hours drive from our service course in Girona. It is stationed at about 1800 meters: the ideal elevation for a bike racer to be in May. Go any higher, and the roads are still likely to be covered in snow. It’s also a good middle ground for both altitude natives and riders from sea level to benefit from the thin air without overtaxing their bodies and hurting their ability to recover. The primary aim of any training camp is to get in good work on the bike.
“For this camp, the big objective was to set the stage, so the riders’ fitness will be good enough that they will get better when they start doing the harder races that we are going to do in June,” says EF Education-EasyPost performance manager Nate Wilson. “The guys who are clearly building towards the Tour want to be good enough that when they do the Daupiné or the Tour de Suisse, they are going to get better, because those races are so hard now that if you are at 96%, they might take you to 100%, but if you are at 90%, they might take you to 86%, because they have just put you in so much of a hole in terms of the recovery. The hope is that you come out of this camp quite fit, fit enough to race at the front of races like Dauphiné, and, because you are racing at the front, you get a bit better from it, and then you come out of Dauphiné needing to basically take the last step.”
Our team’s first week in Font-Romeu was focused on allowing the riders’ bodies to adjust to the altitude. Because there is less oxygen available to fuel their efforts in the thinner air, riders’ bodies begin to produce more oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Those cells will remain in their systems for several weeks to power more intense efforts, especially over the 2000-meter-plus cols that our riders will face in races like the Dauphiné, Tour de Suisse, and Tour de France.
When riders first go to altitude, they have to moderate their efforts, however.
“When the guys come in with a good shape and a good base, we can get into doing relatively high volumes of work pretty quickly, but we have to be really careful with the intensity,” Nate says. “That is super important. Everything will start with low threshold for at least seven to ten days. For the first part, we were doing pretty general aerobic base work, basically long hours on the bike with a lot of vertical climbing meters and just getting time riding at altitude.”
Nate always reminds his riders that they won’t be able to push the same numbers at altitude as they are used to doing at sea level. Instead of focusing on their power output, he encourages them to train according to their heart rate on their Wahoo.
“The heart rate is the best feedback for what the internal stress is,” Nate says. “The powermeter is the measure of what the mechanical output is, what you are producing for the effort, but really we want to be training effort, so heart rate lets us focus towards that. The only thing with heart rate is that the range gets a bit compressed at altitude, so at easy paces, your heart rate might be elevated, but your max heart rate comes down a little bit as well. You have to have that understanding. With all of the data that we use, it is important for the riders to understand that the best way is to combine those data with their own sensations and how they feel, and I try to coach them towards that.”
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Once riders had adapted to the thinner air, the really hard work began. Richie and his teammates did interval after interval on the long, steep climbs near Font-Romeu. The effort you saw Richie do to win the Classic Alpes-Maritime, where he accelerated again and again on the steepest slopes of the Col de Valberg to crack his chasers, he practiced dozens of times at camp.
“The second part of that camp was race preparation,” Nate says. “We started to do a little more intensity over threshold, some intensity right on threshold and some days that were kind of a mix of intensity, bringing it all together closer to what we would face in a race.”
Although those efforts were very intense, it was important that our riders could also relax in Font-Romeu. The coming months are going to be the most stressful of the season. The pressure will only mount as the Tour de France approaches. The Tour is always the highest-stakes race of them all. Before embarking on that adventure, it was important that the riders could decompress while getting in the work they needed to do on their bikes and that they could really get to know each other away from the races and television cameras’ glare. In Font-Romeu, everything was taken care of for them. They had a chef to cook healthy meals, a mechanic to make sure their bikes were in order, soigneurs and a chiropractor and nutritionist to consult, and coaches to follow them in training.
“We want the rest of the camp to be the other side of the coin to what the training stress is,” Nate says. “We train hard but in order to benefit from the hard training we want the recovery to be as good as possible, so we just make it simple with not too much on the schedule and a good process around recovery. Nutrition, massage, having some down time, and getting into bed at a good time – that’s the most important stuff. A lot of these guys are going to do races together in the coming weeks, so just being able to spend time together and get to know each other and be re-familiarised with each other off the bike as well as on the bike is really helpful.”
Camp was also an excellent opportunity to dial in our equipment for the Tour de France. Richie and his teammates tested the Vision wheels and Vittoria tires that they will race for each stage of the Tour de France. Richie also spent time getting comfortable in his time trial position on his Cannondale SuperSlice. Every ride was fueled using the Neversecond system that our team will use in the race. The riders also slept on their new Eight Sleep temperature-controlled mattresses, so they are all set for the Tour.
First up is the Dauphiné. There, Richie and his teammates will aim to make the most of the form they built in Font-Romeu and fine tune their fitness for the Tour de France. With several big mountain stages on the schedule, the Dauphiné is going to be a big test. Afterwards, Richie will head to Andorra for a higher altitude camp with some of his teammates.
“The first step there is going to be recovery and sleep and good food,” Nate says. “And then we will start doing the last little bit of work before the Tour, which will still be big climbing days, but at that point we will also get behind the scooter and do a bit of motorpacing to make sure that that race rhythm that got introduced at Dauphiné doesn’t go away.”
The Tour de France starts in one month. After Richie’s victory at the Mercan Tour Classic Alpes-Maritime, the whole team is confident. We’ve got a plan. There is still a long way to go.
“Things are good. Everyone is healthy. Everyone’s form is improving,” Nate says.
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The team sent me this:
A warm Roman evening welcomed the end of the 2023 Giro d’Italia on Sunday as Team Jayco AlUla left the Italian capital with two stage wins – with Michael Matthews and Filippo Zana – a 7th place in the general classification with Eddie Dunbar, plus 15 top-10 finishes across the three weeks of racing.
Filippo Zana (left) wins 2023 Giro stage 18.
The numbers underline not only the impressive performance of the team, but also how the eight-man squad animated the race on almost every single stage.
Now the dust has settled on the first Grand Tour of the season, we caught up with Dunbar, General Manager Brent Copeland and Sport Director David McPartland to reflect on a successful time in Italy.
Brent Copeland – General Manager:
“I think we have to be very satisfied with our Giro d’Italia. We started with some key goals, and we managed to achieve them all. The two great wins with Matthews and Zana, plus Dunbar’s top-10 overall are the standouts, but we mustn’t forget the many strong placings across the three weeks of racing.
Having the Italian champion win such a beautiful stage in the Dolomites, with the beautiful tricolore jersey was a truly magical moment. Alongside the great victories and the 7th place of Eddie in GC, the way the team rode in such a proactive way brought us huge satisfaction. Last but not least, the incredible group and working environment the sport directors and staff were able to create over all three weeks makes us tremendously proud.”
Eddie Dunbar – 7th Overall:
“I am very happy with my Giro and with my seventh place in the GC overall. My season didn’t start in the best way with my hand injury in Valenciana back in February, and that forced me to rethink my approach going into the Giro. My goal was always to get into the top-10 and learn as much as possible, and I achieved both, so this makes me optimistic about the future.”
David McPartland – Sport Director:
“The Giro has once again proven to be a special race for this team. We have taken home two stunning stage wins, a 7th overall on GC and several top 10’s across the three weeks. And they have all come from different riders, which shows the depth and versatility of the team.
"Perhaps the most impressive aspect is not even the results themselves, but rather the actual way in which the guys achieved them. Each day chasing objectives and whether it be for the stage or GC, they committed to each other and the team plan day in and day out. We can be proud of the team and our performance at this year’s Giro, and we are already looking forward to returning next year for even more.”
2023 Giro d’Italia:
Michael Matthews: 1st Stage 3 & 3rd Stage 17
Filippo Zana: 1st Stage 18 & 3rd Stage 8
Eddie Dunbar: 7th Overall
Alessandro De Marchi: 3rd Stage 11
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