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Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, November 18, 2022

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2022 Tour de France | 2022 Giro d'Italia

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English. - Winston Churchill

David L. Stanley's masterful telling of his bout with skin cancer Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Upcoming racing

• Nov 20: Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse Cross
• Dec 4: Scheldecross Antwerp
• Dec 10: Exact Cross Essen
• Dec 26: Gavere Cyclocross
• Dec 27: Heusden-Zolder Cyclocross
• Dec 29: Diegem Cyclocross
• Dec 30: Azencross-Loenhout
• Jan 1: GP Sven Nys Cyclocross
• Jan 14 - 22: Schwalbe Classic & Tour Down Under
• Jan 22 - 29: Vuelta a San Juan
• Jan 25 - 29: Challenge Illes Balears-Volta Ciclista a Mallorca
• Jan 28 & 29: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

Latest completed racing:

• Nov 5 & 6: European Cyclocross Championships
• Nov 1: Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
• Oct 29: Superprestige Ruddervoorde Cyclocross
• Oct 11 - 18: Tour de Langkawi
• Oct 16: Japan Cup
• Oct 16: Veneto Classic
• Oct 16: Chrono des Nations
• Oct 12: Giro del Veneto

The team sent me this news release:

Team Jumbo-Visma Women is adding three young Dutch riders to the selection in 2023: Nienke Veenhoven, Rosita Reijnhout and Maud Oudeman. This highlights the cycling team's desire to develop young talent as an investment in the future.

Eighteen-year-old Nienke Veenhoven is one of the riders who will debut in Team Jumbo-Visma's jersey in 2023. She was coached by CyclingClassNL during the past year, a separate project of the KNWU, NOC*NSF, and Team Jumbo-Visma that aims to help up-and-coming champions reach the pinnacle of the world stage. "I have learned a lot at CyclingClassNL", Veenhoven states. "Through the way of training, but also in terms of nutrition. You grow as a rider when you get the right guidance."

Nienke Veenhoven

Veenhoven expects to develop further at Team Jumbo-Visma. "I'd like to learn the best ways to train for and build up to a race. Although I'm new to riding with the elite, I hope to soon establish myself at the front of the pack during sprints or short climbs."

Rosita Reijnhout (18) also has a recent history with CyclingClassNL. The Dutch rider rode to 25th place in the U23 category at the World Championships in Australia at the end of September and is proud of her move to Team Jumbo-Visma's women's team.

"I want to develop both mentally and physically. I hope to pick up a lot of knowledge from cyclists with a few years of professional experience. In addition, I want to gradually become a stronger rider. I am confident that I will be successful with the guidance I get here. I hope to make my mark in climbing races, and the Belgian races appeal to me. And I would love to compete in the Giro one day. That is genuinely a dream."

Maud Oudeman is already familiar with the highest level of cycling. By finishing first in a Zwift Academy race last year, she was awarded a professional contract with Canyon/SRAM. Oudeman outperformed 31,000 female competitors. The rider, only 19 years old, will soon join Team Jumbo-Visma.

"I am looking forward to it. The motto 'winning together' suits me very well. I particularly like the way Team Jumbo-Visma races because they ride as a team and work well together."

Oudeman views herself as eager to learn and dedicated. "If you give me a task, I will do everything in my power to carry it out to the best of my ability", she says. "In the beginning, I mostly concentrate on the process and hope the results will come shortly after."

Rutger Tijssen, sports technical manager of Team Jumbo-Visma Women, is enthusiastic about the newcomers. "These talents have proven in the juniors that they can do well across various courses. We considered the team's requirements and made adjustments where necessary. The only expectation we have initially from Nienke, Rosita and Maud is that they will be on a development curve."

Tijssen continued: "They are young girls. That means we will develop a personal plan for them to mature as riders. We will carefully examine the riders' current performance level. After that, we will develop logical next steps. For example, we will determine which training sessions suit them best and which race they will start. We put each athlete along a learning line, if you will, to determine what steps must be taken to advance. For each rider, this is different."

Team manager Esra Tromp is eager to collaborate with the three new riders. "Team Jumbo-Visma believes that success must be earned rather than purchased. We have the necessary personnel, materials, and expertise to allow talent to excel. We must be patient, but I have big hopes for the new girls. We have a solid enough basis to compete in World Tour events and win."

Bettiol’s Team EF Education-EasyPost posted this:

Alberto Bettiol is ready to start training again.

The 2019 Tour of Flanders champion has his sights on next spring’s classics. To arrive on the start line of a 250-km monument like De Ronde in form to win takes months of hard work. Alberto’s chances will be defined by the training he does this winter—and the time he takes to rest and get stronger from his efforts.

Alberto Bettiol wins the 2019 Tour of Flanders.

Since his last race, Alberto has taken a month off the bike. He travelled to the Maldives and took trips to Dubai, Nice, and Venice. After a season marked by illness and five, frustrating, podium places, he needed a vacation.

“It is important to reset the mind and the body at the same time,” Alberto says. “If you recover mentally, you will be more ready to suffer on the bike. It is important to have holidays and rest in the right balance, right through the year. I had a great time these last few weeks and now I am ready to start training again.”

Alberto will return slowly to cycling. He wants to build his strength and endurance in steady steps, leading to a peak in April, without getting too tired or taking the chance of hurting himself. For the next few weeks, he will do only slow rides. He’ll spend a lot of time in the gym, working on his whole-body strength. If it’s raining, he’ll go for long walks or swim.

“Right now, my body is not yet ready to go hard,” Alberto says. “It needs a few weeks to relearn how to ride a bike and how to suffer on a bike. This is the 25th year that I have ridden a bike, but if you stop for one month, you completely reset your body. I start really slow to get back into the rhythm of the bike and also do some gym training for strength and conditioning. I prefer to do longer rides and build my endurance, before I focus on quality, as I approach the 2023 season.”

Alberto's plan is to reach peak form in April. Rest is as important to that plan as training. As the racing season nears, Alberto wants to include harder and harder sessions. Join him for his first real intervals at our December training camp in Girona. To get the most out of those workouts, Alberto needs to make sure he has absorbed the training he has already done and recovered enough to start each hard ride fresh.

“I train for two, or three days maximum, and then I do one day off or an easy ride,” Alberto says. “So every two or three days, I have a rest day, right through the year.”

This allows Alberto to arrive at the races that matter most to him ready to push his body to its limit. Alberto will finish a grand tour or classics campaign exhausted. Before he returns to training, he will take a week off, and then begin building towards his next goal.

Alberto’s schedule is complemented by his day-to-day focus on recovery. Alberto is able to reach great peaks, because he makes sure to get the most out of all the work he does on the bike. He monitors his condition with WHOOP, listens to his body, and adjusts his workload accordingly.

“When my body needs recovery, I will call my trainer, and we will talk together to change my plan,” Alberto says.

To make sure he can do the work, Alberto does his best to recover from each session. He eats well to replace the energy he has spent with high-quality fuel. He also swears by Incrediwear.

The semiconducting threads woven into Incrediwear release negative ions when stimulated by body heat, which activate cellular vibrations that increase blood flow and blood circulation and speed up the body’s natural healing process.

“The first thing I noticed was the feeling of lightness in my legs,” Alberto says. “Normally, when your legs are tired, your legs feel heavy and stiff. With Incrediwear, I feel lightness in my legs and they help me to quickly absorb the work I have done and get over my fatigue.”

As Alberto increases his workload over the next few weeks, rest will become all the more important. Day to day, week over week, and month into month, he will push himself and then recover, so he can push himself harder and harder. This year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen is on April 2. Alberto’s plan is to arrive on the start line in Brugge stronger than ever. He’ll track his progress with his power2max power meter and his performances in key races. Strade Bianche and Milano Sanremo will be crucial tests. Then, it will come down to race craft. The 2019 De Ronde champ has got that.

“Once you are there, another story starts,” Alberto laughs.

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