“Not just extreme, but poor coaching”: 18-year-old pro does “crazy” 100km “recovery ride” immediately after 157km race — but is ex-pro right to criticise team?; Safety concerns over Rwanda world championships; Pidcock wins again + more on the live blog

Albert Philipsen, the 18-year-old Danish rider who within one month of turning pro has already won the youth classification at the Tour Down Under, might have shocked fans with his “crazy” 100km “recovery ride” after the 157km, however, there’s one person who isn’t very impressed, and it’s none other than former Aussie pro Rory Sutherland.

> “These pro cyclists are crazy”: 18-year-old rider’s 100km “recovery ride” immediately after 157km race ridden at 48km/hr

Commenting under a post on social media, Sutherland expressed his doubts over such a long and hard recovery ride, in which Philipsen continued to set personal bests and ended the six-hour total ride with an average speed of 41.8km/hr.

“As an 18-year-old with hopefully a minimum of 12-15 years ahead of him this is (again in my opinion) not just extreme, but poor coaching and thinking long-term about an athlete's health,” the former Movistar and UAE Team Emirates rider said.

When one person pointed out that Philipsen has dipped his feet in all kinds of discipline — MTB, cyclocross and road — and just loves to be on the bike, as well as adding that “things have changed a lot now” and “Mathieu van der Poel is doing 200km+ training rides every day at the moment”, Sutherland replied: “I certainly don’t disagree that things have changed… We all have our opinions, I think it’s too much personally. I think whether you love to ride your bike or not shouldn’t come into it, all professionals love to ride their bikes. MvdP [Van der Poel] isn’t 18.”

Nick Owen, Paralympic manager and coach at the Australian Cycling Team also agreed with Sutherland, adding: “This obsession with juniors racing and training as senior riders is going to cause many issues for many rides in my opinion.”

But besides Sutherland and Owen, most seem rather impressed with the Strava post, commenting that “he’s one to watch” and even heralding him as the “next Van der Poel”. Either way, the young Dane has found himself in the middle of some interesting discussions today.

Do you think Sutherland is right in criticising Philipsen and his team for allowing him to do the monster recovery ride or do you think there’s no harm in doing an extra 100 kilometres after a race, as long as the rider wants to do it?

With the violent situation in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo exacerbated by the advancing M23 rebel group reportedly backed by Rwanda, the UCI has come forward today and released a statement saying that it is “closely monitoring” the developments ahead of the road world championships, scheduled to take place in Kigali, Rwanda in September 2025.

“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in close collaboration with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, is closely monitoring developments in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and their potential impact on the organisation of the UCI Road World Championships scheduled for next September in Kigali, Rwanda,” the governing body of pro cycling said.

“The ongoing conflict is confined to the DRC, and Rwanda remains entirely safe for tourism and business.

“We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution of the situation. The UCI wishes to emphasise that sport, and cycling in particular, are powerful ambassadors for peace, friendship, and solidarity.

“Moreover, following the spread of rumours on this subject, the UCI clarifies that no relocation of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships from Rwanda to Switzerland or any other location is planned at this time.”

2025 UCI Road World Championships Rwanda presentation at Zürich (Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, which is set to host the world championships, is located 150km from the Goma border. The BBC has reported that the Rwandan government has deployed troops to the Goma frontier area as a security measure.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the Belgian Cycling Federation confirmed to  Dernière Heure that they have delayed their reconnaissance programme and raised concerns for the safety of riders and support staff.

Nathalie Clauwaert from the BCF said: “We have lots of questions, and we're not the only ones.”

“There were already lots of doubt about the quality of the accommodation there. But right now, our concerns are of a very different nature."

“The most important thing is to be able to be certain of our riders' security and all the support staff.”

Doubts have also been cast over the upcoming Tour of Rwanda at the end of next month, with the route taking the peloton very close to Goma at the Rwanda-DR Congo border. The Belgian media has also suggested that Martigny, Switzerland could emerge as a ‘Plan B’ should the event at Kigali fail to go through.

Here’s a cheerful start to your Friday with a humble reminder of how good the pros are — a realisation made even more shocking when you find that the rider is just 18 years old.

Fresh off the back of winning the young rider jersey at the Tour Down Under in his first-ever pro race, Lidl-Trek’s Albert Philipsen continued his racing season in Australia with the Surf Coast Classic, a UCI 1.1 one-day race.

Albert Philipsen at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, Men's Junior Road Race, Glasgow (Pauline Ballet/SWpix.com)

Although the multidisciplinary Danish rider came home in 44th position in the race, which ended in a bunch sprint finish won by Tobias Lund Andresen—another young Dane from Team Picnic PostNL—Philipsen has managed to draw attention to his post-race escapades thanks to his Strava upload, which showed that he added almost 100 kilometres to the race.

The coolest thing? He labelled the update on Strava as “Recovery ride”.

Actually, what’s even cooler is that despite the race being ridden at almost 48km/hr from Lorne to Torquay, Philipsen’s 252km-long ride ended with an average speed of 41.8km/hr (he hit a top speed of 94.2km/hr), lasting just over six hours with almost 3,000 metres of climbing.

The 2023 junior world champion also claimed the King of Mountain badge on the  Lorne-Benwerrin Climb, riding the 25km segment with over 400 metres of climbing in 17:50, beating Michal Kwiatkowski’s record by one second.

So to sum up his last few weeks: He turned pro with Lidl-Trek, skipped the U23 classifications, made his debut in the Tour Down Under, and then went on to prove his GC credentials by winning the youth classification and securing a top 20 overall finish. And now, he’s showing off in front of us amateurs by casually doing a 100km recovery ride and setting several personal bests along the way.

Alright then, I’ll note him down in my diary as one for the future, or maybe the present.

Poor management, missed opportunities, burned bridges, call it what you want — but Tom Pidcock has wasted no time settling into his new team Q36.5 Pro Cycling after the uncomfortable exit from Ineos Grenadiers, with the 25-year-old rider claiming a second victory at the AlUla Tour and gaining a comfortable lead in the general classification.

A 9km attack saw Pidcock fly solo across the Skyviews of Harrat Uwayrid, the queen stage of the five-day tour with riders climbing the volcanic mountain. And just like in the second stage, in which he claimed victory for the first time in Q36.5 colours, there was basically no competition for the double Olympic champion.

🌟 Tom Pidcock does it again! 🌟

The @Q36_5ProCycling rider soloes to a SECOND stage at the 2025 AlUla Tour and extends his lead in the GC 🙌 pic.twitter.com/fKcF6PsF13

— Eurosport (@eurosport) January 31, 2025

> Boom! Tom Pidcock starts life at Q36.5 with a bang by blowing away rivals with vicious attack to win abridged hilltop finish stage at AlUla Tour – and celebrates by pointing to his new sponsor

Pidcock said after the finish: “On a climb that steep I went to the bottom to set my own pace. Offence is the best form of defence, sometimes. When I came to this race, they said it’s normally a tailwind up here, but it was a headwind. It was a long eight kilometres. There were four guys behind me, and I don’t know how well they were working but I was on my own. It was a long way, but I am happy. I extended my lead, and this gives us a buffer going into tomorrow. I did a lot of training that helps me do these efforts. This week I set a new 5–10-minute power record so I am definitely in good shape.”

“I looked at tomorrow’s stage and I think it will be windy so it will be a stressful day to hold this jersey. It’s definitely not over but I think I couldn’t have done much more up till now.”

With this win, Pidcock is in a comfortable lead in the general classification, with Bahrain Victorious’ Rainer Kepplinger 29 seconds behind him, he should have his first stage race GC victory in the bag with his new team, barring any terrible misfortune.

> £1,000 fine and 12-month ban for DPD delivery driver who left cyclist with broken neck after cutting across cycle lane

Credit for these goes to Steve Fleming, who shared images of these très bizarre and très amusante road signage for cyclists from France, including a wicked speed bump for a poor cyclist who just wants to have a chill ride, an interesting mix of cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders indicating a shared ‘greenway’, and finally, a road cyclist with a helmet making their way down a serpentine descent that looks a bit too much like the Ventoux...

(Credit: @SteveFlemingM9 on Twitter)