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Wednesday, November 8, 2023
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter. - Blaise Pascal
Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the Tour de France, 2022: The Fastest Tour Ever is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- Dec 17: World Cup Namur Cyclocross
- Dec 26: World Cup Gaver Cyclocross
- Dec 27: Superprestige Heusden Zolder
- Dec 28: Superprestige Diegem
- Dec 29: Exact Cross Loenhout-Azencross
Latest completed racing:
- Nov 5: European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 1: Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
- Oct 28: Superprestige Ruddervoorde
- Oct 22: Superprestige Overijse-Vlaanse Druivencross
- Oct 12 - 17: Tour of Guangxi
- Oct 15: Japan Cup
- Oct 15: Veneto Classic
The team sent me this news release:
Team Jayco AlUla is thrilled to welcome triple Australian champion Luke Plapp to the team on a four-year contract through to the end of 2027.
The powerful 22-year-old is regarded as one of the hottest young talents in the WorldTour peloton and GreenEDGE Cycling is delighted to have the reigning Australian road race champion join the setup for the coming season.
Luke Plapp wins the 2023 Australian Road Championships.
Plapp, a multiple national champion at junior and U23 level, burst onto the professional scene with an impressive victory in the national time trial championships in 2021. Back-to-back Australian road race titles in 2022 and 2023 further confirmed his ability as he made the step up to WorldTour level with INEOS Grenadiers in 2022.
The management team believe the best is yet to come from the man from Melbourne. With his strength and natural ability, Plapp has already shown he can challenge for general classification success, notably this year with an impressive second place finish at the UAE Tour.
With a diverse skillset, the young Australian will provide Team Jayco AlUla with another string to its bow, as the men’s squad adds depth to the roster for 2024.
Brent Copeland – Team Jayco AlUla General Manager:
“There’s no mistaking that Luke has incredible talent, so for us to be welcoming him to our team with a four-year contract is very exciting for everybody involved. We have to thank Gerry Ryan for his commitment to making this signing a reality, as well as our partners AlUla and Giant for their support.
"Luke is still a very young rider; we are motivated to work with him and have him grow with us as a team into the future. With our strengthened climbing group for the coming season, Luke will have a good support team around him, and we are looking forward to seeing him challenge for general classification success and continue to aim for top results in time trials. As an Australian team, we are already very much looking forward to the national championships in January and seeing if he can defend his road race title for a third year running.”
Luke Plapp:
“It honestly does feel like I’m coming home, I’m such a proud Australian and to now be able to ride for the Australian team, it’s a real honour. I just can’t wait to get started; the next four years are going to be amazing on this team.
"I can’t thank Gerry Ryan and the team enough for this opportunity. Gerry has done so much for Australian cycling and to now be on his team and to be able to ride for him, it makes me really proud and super grateful. I can’t wait to achieve great things together. It is such a great group of guys and I know so many of them already so I’m really looking forward to kicking things off well in my first race with the team.”
Luke Plapp
Date of Birth: 25th December 2000 (22)
Nationality: Australian
Joins GreenEDGE Cycling: 2024 – 2027
Key results:
2x 1st Australian Road Race Championships (2022 & 2023)
1st Australian Time Trial Championships (2021)
2nd UAE Tour – Overall (2023)
2nd U23 World Championships Time Trial (2021)
3rd Tour of Norway – Overall (2022)
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Here’s the update from EF Education-EasyPost:
Carmen Small is coming home.
That’s how she describes joining EF Education-Cannondale as the team’s lead directeur sportif as the team prepares for its inaugural season.
“I think I’ve found a good home,” Carmen says. “It’s an American team and I’m an American. Even though the team is European-based and we have a strong, international roster, this is super nice for me because I’ve only ever been on foreign teams. It’s really nice to think about going to US nationals. I’ve never gotten to do nationals as a director, so I’m super excited about that.”
Carmen Small
There are a lot of things the two-time American time trial national champion is looking forward to in her first season with EF Education-Cannondale. For starters, the chance to work with general manager Esra Tromp once again.
“Working with Esra, I’ve only had positive experiences,” Carmen says. “I believe in her. She’s an incredible manager. She really knows how to bring out the best in people and how to foster the goodness in a team. Getting to work with Esra was number one.”
Carmen loved the idea of joining a team in its first year. To get to build a team and its culture from the ground up is something she has done before.
“When Esra approached me about this team, it was super interesting because it’s a first year program. I had experience with Team Virtu to build that team up so I’m not new to the game of new teams but this was nice because while of course EF Education-Cannondale has the infrastructure set up from the men’s side, it’s a blank slate. That gives you the opportunity to build and create something new and see what you can develop out of it. That was interesting to me.”
Between her years both as a rider and as a DS, Carmen has been in professional cycling for nearly two decades. In that time, she’s seen and experienced a wide range of approaches to cycling. Some have worked better than others but she was drawn in by EF Pro Cycling’s attitude toward the sport.
“I love the philosophy of the team,” she says. “The playfulness of it. They’re fun, but also serious. They’re very professional but at the same time they can have a laugh and create something that’s a little bit different. You notice this from the outside. It’s not ‘we have to be serious and not smile and not laugh in order to win races.’ So let’s laugh a bit, enjoy what we’re doing, and then success will come.”
While Carmen makes it sound easy, she knows that a lot of groundwork has to be in place before riders starting clicking, having fun, and earning wins.
“One thing I’ve learned as a fundamental is that you have to have each other’s backs. That’s not just riders, that’s also the staff. You want to create an environment that’s helpful. Maybe on paper it’s not your job to go do a certain task but you want to help your teammate and so you just do it. I think Esra and I see eye to eye on that. We both want to build an environment where we’re all helping each other to be successful,” Carmen says.
A major component in finding team success is simple communication.
“Having a good relationship with the riders, being able to communicate to them what my expectation is, I think is a really big deal. That means having a lot of pre race talks, and then in the race, I'm their motivator. I try to get the best out of them as riders.”
If it sounds like Carmen knows what she’s talking about, it’s because she does. Before her career as a DS, she raced professionally. And before that, she was a math teacher in Colorado.
“Being a DS is, in a lot of ways, very similar to being a teacher. You have to be organized. You have a lesson plan, a race plan. But it’s also about keeping riders accountable. Are you doing your homework? That's a big part of cycling and women's cycling especially is growing and growing and growing. You see more and more that we need to keep changing and keep improving the small things to improve the overall. Because it's definitely getting faster and faster every year and the sport is becoming more and more professional. And as the salaries increase, the expectations also need to increase. What do we expect the riders to do and perform? And that in part comes down to what are you doing at home? Are you doing your homework?”
Carmen will have done her own homework ahead of our first race in 2024. And on that day when she gets in the team car to follow her riders, you can count on her to be prepared – and excited.
“I really love my job. I really love it,” she says. “I love working with the riders. They give me a lot of motivation. They give me a lot of energy. I love helping them prepare mentally and I love motivating them. The main thing I feel when I’m at work is excitement. I always got nervous as a rider and now I’m not nervous. The riders have to do the hard work while I get to stay in the car and talk on the radio. If we’re coming into the finale of a race and I know we can win, I’m still not nervous but I am prepared. I’m bracing myself and I’m ready for the excitement. That feeling doesn’t change whether it’s a camp or a race. It’s the same feeling for me throughout the season. I get that same motivation every time. Whether it’s a development race or the Tour de France, I do my job exactly the same and I love it exactly the same.”
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
The Australian ex-pro Mark Renshaw (40), who collaborated with Astana Qazaqstan Team during the last Tour de France as a sprint and lead-out consultant, is going to join the Kazakh project in 2024 as a Sports Director.
Masrk Renshaw after the first stage of the 2013 Tour of the Benelux.
“I am very excited to be taking on a Director Sportif role with Astana Qazaqstan for the upcoming 2024 season. After working on the Tour de France alongside the staff & riders at Team Astana Qazaqstan I knew that I have more to give professional cycling. With the support of my amazing family, to get back into elite sport I believe I can help lead our talented riders to victories in some of the biggest and best races on the calendar. I need to thank Alexandr Vinokurov for giving me this opportunity to pass on my experience to the team. We have some huge objectives ahead of us in 2024 and I can’t wait to work on achieving these goals with the team”, – said Mark Renshaw.
“We had a very good experience with Mark Renshaw during the Tour de France. His help and advice were very useful not only in the matter of sprint issues but also in general in the matter of race strategy. We had a nice conversation afterwards; we have a common vision on many things about the team development through the prism of conducting the races and preparation to it. So, I believe that having a young Sports Director with a different modern vision to cycling would help us to keep on improving”, – said Alexandr Vinokurov, General Manager of Astana Qazaqstan Team.
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Here’s the team’s news:
Lidl-Trek is pleased to announce that Michi Schär will join its ranks of Sports Directors, taking his 18-year of professional racing experience to the team car. 37-year-old Schär will work primarily with the Lidl-Trek men’s team and is keen to learn from the wealth of experience amongst Lidl-Trek’s team of sports directors, whilst contributing his own tactical nous as he learns the craft.
Michael Schar on a break in stage 10 of the 2020 Tour de France. Sirotti photo
“I have a good feeling to make the transition to life as a Sports Director at this moment,” said Schär. “I had 18 years as a pro in the WorldTour and now I think stepping over to the other side is the right time. I’m looking forward to make the change from rider to director and start a new chapter.
“I’m super happy to join Lidl-Trek! In particular, I was thrilled when Luca Guercilena [Lidl-Trek General Manager] gave me the call. I have a nice history with Luca from when he was the Swiss federation coach a long time ago. We did the Olympics and many World Championships together. The 2012 Olympics made a great impression on me due to the way Luca treated us and motivated us. For me, it was the best race I’ve ever done. To get this call was a big honor for me and to join Lidl-Trek is something special.”
“I was attracted to Lidl-Trek thanks to the fantastic team philosophy and culture. I already know some people from the staff group, and of course some riders. When we were at the races I’d always stop by the bus and have a little chat with some people from Lidl-Trek. I had a very good impression from my first experience with the team during the camp in America. I really liked the philosophy of the team and the team building that was done was fantastic. I’m happy to move back into an American-style organization. It was cool to see that the riders and staff have such a strong bond together; as an external person being introduced to the group it felt good.
“What I’m most excited for is to see how the other side of the sport looks, in the car and getting into tactics. It’s a completely different facet of the sport and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this new challenge. I’m also really looking forward to learning from the existing DS group because it’s a very experienced group of great people, I can learn so much from them.”
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