British sprinter accuses race organisers of “playing with our health”, as motorists make their way onto roundabouts used by peloton; Pogačar set for early Vingegaard clash?; ‘Mighty Atom’ Eileen Sheridan dies; Archibald’s golden 20 + more on the live blog

We’re not even halfway through February and we’re already on to our third instalment – at least – of ‘sketchy sprint finishes caused by poor organisation’ (I’ll think of a catchier title this afternoon, I promise…).

Last month, you may recall, the Tour Down Under was marred by lines of parked cars dramatically reducing the width of the road in the closing kilometres of a stage, while over in Argentina, world champion Remco Evenepoel lambasted the organisers of the Vuelta a San Juan after a “hectic and dangerous” finish which forced the peloton to navigate spectators standing on central reservations and in the middle of the road.

> “I almost hit a woman”: Remco Evenepoel blasts “hectic and dangerous” Vuelta a San Juan sprint finish, as riders forced to avoid fans standing in middle of road

Yesterday’s finish of the sprinter-friendly one-day race, the Clásica de Almería, proved just as sketchy, as motorists were able to make their way onto the same roundabouts used by the bunch on the finishing circuit around Roquetas de Mar – separated from the race, it seemed, by only one piece of rope and a police officer’s motorbike.

However, no such rope was available at the exit of the roundabout, potentially creating an opportunity for a rider – amidst the chaos and confusion of a sprint finish, and the intense battling for positioning within the peloton – to be spat out right in the face of oncoming traffic.

While thankfully there have been no reports that anyone was injured in the closing kilometres of the race, British sprinter Dan McLay – who recorded a DNF as Matteo Moschetti secured a surprise win for the new Q36.5 team – took to Twitter to vent his frustration at the Clásica de Almería’s organisers.

Fucking disgrace @Clasica_Almeria . If you can’t close a road properly you can’t have a race on it. Just playing with our health.

— Dan McLAY (@McLAYDan) February 12, 2023

“F***ing disgrace Clásica de Almería,” the Arkéa–Samsic rider bluntly tweeted. “If you can’t close a road properly you can’t have a race on it. Just playing with our health.”

Seems like the “lessons” Evenepoel alluded to in Argentina still haven’t been learned…

💚 @TamauPogi se marcha en solitario camino a Baeza.

Todavía 33 kilómetros para el final de esta #ClásicaJaén23.

¡ESPECTÁCULO!

pic.twitter.com/kWGGhfNdWy

— Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior (@ClasicaJaen) February 13, 2023

In arguably the least surprising development of the 2023 road racing season so far, Tadej Pogačar’s long-range solo attack at today’s gravel-heavy Clásica Jaén Paraíso stuck, as the UAE Team Emirates leader cruised home for a comfortable victory on his first outing of the year.

49 seconds behind Pogačar, who has already thrown down the gauntlet for Tour de France rival Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma, the Ineos Grenadiers’ promising classics star Ben Turner outsprinted Pog’s teammate Tim Wellens for second.

Que exibição de Tadej Pogacar @TamauPogi (@TeamEmiratesUAE) na #ClasicaJaen23, atacando com mais de 40 km pro fim para vencer sua 1ª corrida da temporada, com @benjeturner (Ineos) e @Tim_Wellens (UAE) completando o pódio.
pic.twitter.com/WnyUUsgjxT

— BikeBlz (@BikeBlz) February 13, 2023

And, before anyone starts worrying, the Jaén Paraíso’s organisers kept up their tradition – introduced following last year’s inaugural edition of what will surely become a February staple – of awarding the winner a giant golden olive:

Literally my face if someone ever handed me a giant olive https://t.co/DO70EOXR9U

— kate wagner (@derailleurkate) February 13, 2023

That’ll look well next to your yellow jerseys, Tadej…

Eileen Sheridan 1923 - 2023 RIP
She who held all the records. pic.twitter.com/QRSrOiF3KC

— Road Records Association (@RRA_GB) February 13, 2023

Eileen Sheridan, the legendary cyclist who broke a series of place-to-place records in Britain in the 1950s, has died, just eight months shy of her 100th birthday.

Known as the ‘Mighty Atom’, due to her diminutive stature (she was only 4ft 11in tall), Sheridan established herself at the leading time triallist of her day in the UK, taking national titles at the 25, 50, and 100 miles distances, along with setting a new 12-hour record, and winning the British Best All-Rounder title twice.

In 1950, she began her new habit of breaking place-to-place records, setting a new best time for London-Birmingham before taking the London-Oxford record soon after.

Eileen Sheridan vient de décéder à l’âge de 99 ans. Star des années 1950, l’Anglaise est l’une des plus grandes championnes cyclistes de l’histoire.pic.twitter.com/BQDzZpL2Xg

— David Guénel (@davidguenel) February 13, 2023

The following year, at the age of 28, she was signed by bike manufacturer Hercules as a professional record-breaker and duly attacked – and succeeded in breaking – the 21 coveted place-to-place records. In 1954, she completed the most famous of these landmark solo trials, Land’s End to John O’Groats, on less than an hour’s sleep in two days and 11 hours.

After knocking 11 hours off Marguerite Wilson's previous LEJOG record, she continued on to set a new 1,000 record too.

Eileen Sheridan taking a drink at speed from her husband Ken. pic.twitter.com/8iOqa7w8Hb

— Cool Bike Art (@CoolBikeArt1) November 28, 2022

Of the 21 records Sheridan set during that illustrious three-year spell in the 1950s, five – including London-Edinburgh – remain intact, while her 1,000 mile marker stood until 2002, when Lynne Taylor surpassed it.

Adolphe Abrahams, known as the founder of British sports medicine, described Sheridan as “a human machine of the highest grade”.

Eileen died at the weekend, aged 99. Tributes have since poured in across the cycling world for one of the sport’s true pioneers:

Sorry to hear that Eileen Sheridan has left us today, aged 99.

An incredible sporting hero and trailblazer. https://t.co/Wwv1yT9xtK

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) February 13, 2023

Eileen Sheridan RIP at 99
Link below to her explaining the intricacies of her End to End record to me whilst sat on her back door step in Isleworth.

Listen to RRA in conversation with Eileen Sheridan by Road Records Associationhttps://t.co/EDGkbTgHhO

— Mr Broadwith (@24HourMaths) February 13, 2023

Very sad to hear the news about Eileen Sheridan. We occasionally spoke on the phone after I first met her for @rouleurmagazine & @thebikeshow interview. One of the undisputed greats. 99 years, what a life. My thoughts are with her nearest and dearest. pic.twitter.com/bVpLeGr5D3

— Jack Thurston (@jackthurston) February 13, 2023

Maurice Burton, Emma Pooley, Rebecca Romero, and Paul Sherwen became the latest inductees into British Cycling’s Hall of Fame, as part of the governing body’s annual awards dinner in Manchester on Saturday night.

First launched in 2010 to mark British Cycling’s 50th anniversary, the Hall of Fame now constitutes 69 members, ranging from world champions to coaches, volunteers, organisers, and race officials.

The shortlist for 2023 was decided by a selection panel chaired by British Cyclin’s president Bob Howden and including Dame Sarah Storey, following a public nomination process (the first such process since 2016).

Maurice Burton at the Skol Six 1980.

📷 John Coles. pic.twitter.com/uJWwkKZ3t2

— cycling archives (@mission753) August 28, 2020

A six-day stalwart and leading track rider, Burton is one of British cycling’s true pioneers, battling institutional and societal racism to be now regarded as the country’s first black cycling champion. The Londoner won the national junior sprint title in 1973, before taking the amateur scratch race in 1974, the same year he represented England at the Commonwealth Games.

Frustrated by the national federation’s unwillingness to select him for the 1976 Olympics, and the racist boos that greeted him during races, Burton instead threw himself into the six-day scene in Europe, before a crash ended his career and he took over the De Ver cycle shop in Streatham in the late eighties.

Emma Pooley celebrates her time trial rainbow jersey win in 2010

Pooley and Romero, meanwhile, were two of Britain’s leading lights as the sport boomed in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

One of the sport’s most gifted climbers and time trialists – and one of my favourite riders of all time – Pooley won the world time trial title during a sensational 2010 which saw her also win Flèche Wallonne, the Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs, the GP de Suisse, the Tour de l’Aude, the Giro del Trentino, the GP Plouay, and both the national road and TT crowns.

Pooley also twice finished second at the Giro Donne – winning four stages along the way – and took silver in the 2008 Olympics TT, as well as being a vital cog in Nicole Cooke’s road race winning GB machine in Beijing. Since retiring in 2017, the combative climber has now turned her attention to the worlds of triathlon and duathlon.

Another skilled multi-discipliner, Romero first tasted Olympic success in 2004 in rowing, before switching to the bike, where she took the rainbow jersey in the individual and team pursuit at the 2008 worlds. Later that year in Beijing, she became the first British woman to compete and medal in two different Olympic sports, winning gold in the individual pursuit ahead of GB teammate Wendy Houvenaghel.

Finally, the late Paul Sherwen became one of the voices of cycling for many fans who came to the sport in the 1980s and 1990s, when he moved into TV commentary – alongside his long-time colleague and friend Phil Liggett – after a successful road career that saw him win multiple British national titles and race seven Tours de France. He died in 2018, aged just 62.

“There is no greater honour in British cycling than being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and as you can see from the current roll call of 69 members, induction is reserved for those who have made a marked impact on the history and growth of our sport,” British Cycling president Howden said.

“Exceptional champions and equally fierce campaigners for gender parity in the sport, I’m delighted to welcome Emma and Rebecca to the Hall of Fame, and as Britain’s first black cycling champion Maurice is one of our sport’s true pioneers, whose inspiration and legacy continues to blaze a trail for others.

“Paul’s death in 2018 left a huge hole in our sport, and he is warmly remembered by millions as the voice of the Tour de France, alongside fellow Hall of Fame inductee Phil Liggett.”

Two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar may be set for another interesting double this spring, with L'Équipe reporting this morning that the Slovenian may take on the gravel roads of Strade Bianche (where he will defend his title) on 4 March before heading straight up north for the following day’s opening stage of Paris-Nice.

If true, that busy week will mark Pogačar’s debut at the Race to the Sun – eschewing his habitual early season rendezvous at Tirreno-Adriatico, where he’s taken the last two editions – and will see him go head-to-head in an earlier-than-expected encounter with reigning Tour champ Jonas Vingegaard.

According to the French sports daily, the UAE Team Emirates rider’s potential change of plans stems from a desire to mix up his usual spring programme and to alleviate some of the pressure on his shoulders heading into his crunch showdown with Vingegaard in July.

Pogačar on his way to winning the 2022 Strade Bianche (Anton Vos/CorVos/SWpix.com)

Swapping Tirreno for Paris-Nice isn’t the only notable change on Pogačar’s calendar. The Slovenian is currently making his season debut at the Spanish one-day Clásica Jaén Paraíso, after deciding to skip his team’s home UAE Tour for the first time since 2019.

He will then ride the Ruta del Sol later this week before his rumoured March double-header.

“Paris-Nice is still in our thinking,” UAE Team Emirates boss Mauro Gianetti told L'Équipe. “We are in the process of evaluating the possibilities, it is not quite decided. We will already see how he is for his recovery, morally, physically.”

Come on, Pog v Jonas at Paris-Nice? Give the people what they want!

That's the good ones too....

— velofellow (@VeloFellow987) February 13, 2023

🥰🥰🥰 pic.twitter.com/y9he4CQP9m

— Anders Mielke (@AndersMielke) February 11, 2023

In exactly six months’ time, Annemiek van Vleuten, Lizzie Deignan, Elisa Longo Borghini and co. will be getting ready to set off from the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, on the way to Glasgow for the final road race of Scotland’s ‘mega’ cycling world championships in August.

Worryingly, while heavy rain made several sections of the course impassable the last time the UK staged the road worlds, in Harrogate in 2019, the treacherous state of this year’s pothole-laden route – as spotted by local cyclist Liam – may prove more hazardous to the peloton than an early Van Vleuten attack:

Hello @DLappartient, Glasgow 2023 may be remembered for all the wrong reasons. With 6 months to go this is the state of the roads for the Elite Men and Women: pic.twitter.com/uoeIcV7moN

— Liam McReanan (@LiamMcReanan) February 11, 2023

pic.twitter.com/JfIYJeitBI

— Liam McReanan (@LiamMcReanan) February 11, 2023

UK has some of the worst roads in W. Europe. The roads around Glasgow some of the worst in UK.

These roads have been like this for years, decades. Kilometre after kilometre, the whole course is like this. Very dangerous in a peloton. Is there enough time/money to fix them?

— Liam McReanan (@LiamMcReanan) February 11, 2023

We’ll have more on Scotland’s pothole worlds shortly…