“An absolute disgrace”: Paris-Roubaix moves women’s race to clash with men’s edition and changes name; Amateurs won’t be deterred by snow, pros deterred by wind + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"An absolute disgrace": Paris-Roubaix changes name and moves women's race to clash with men's edition
Some things don’t last. I remember when a Freddo was 15p, when my junior school didn’t have a KFC right next door, and when Steven Kruijswijk was described as one of the best GC riders in the world. Change is inevitable, and it’s finally reached Hell.
We had a one-two of disgruntling news from Paris-Roubaix organisers yesterday. First that the race would change its name for the first time in its 130 year history. Following in the long tradition of Het Volk, the Criterium du Dauphine, and Gent Wevelgem, say hello to Omloop Het Nieuwsbald, the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alps and In Flanders Fields – From Middelkerke to Wevelgem.
And now, Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France. Is there nothing holy in holy week anymore?Press officer turned journalist Brian Nygaard did well to summarise the spectator’s average reaction…
But amidst the flurry of our favourite monument’s announcements yesterday, including revised routes and wildcard invitations (including nods for the Unibet Rose Rockets and George Hincapie’s new Modern Adventure outfit), came the women’s route, and an all-important date change.
In a move organisers say will ensure “maximum TV exposure”, the women’s race will now coincide with the men’s race on the Sunday, finishing an hour after their counterparts.
Guardian reporter Jeremy Whittle reports that the date change will give over the Saturday to the Paris-Roubaix Challenge sportive. But with the men’s race expected to finish around 4:30 and the women’s race around 6:00, it means there will only be around an hour in which the women’s race will receive undivided attention. Talk about equality…
Racing round-up: no hairdryer treatment required for Ferguson, Pidcock third behind UAE 1-2
19-year-old Cat Ferguson continued to show her good form at the start of the season by winning the second stage of the Volta a Valenciana. Ferguson held off Letizia Paternoster for her second win of the season after winning a one-day race three weeks ago. It all bodes well ahead of a busy classics campaign and a planned debut at the Giro d’Italia. After winning yesterday’s stage, Demi Vollering retains the overall lead.
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I tipped Tom Pidcock for a good result at the Vuelta a Murcia earlier today thanks to the steep final climb of the day. Unfortunately, by the time the peloton reached it, UAE Emirates had already put the race to bed. On a very windy course, UAE set about ripping the race-up and eventually a two-up attack comprising Marc Soler and Julius Johansen stuck. The Dane did most of the work before Soler broke free for his first win of the year, a significant win in light of recent news implicating Soler’s father in a doping scandal. Pidcock also broke free to finish third, but will have a tough task of overhauling the Spaniard’s 40-second advantage on general classification.
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Elsewhere, 23-year old Arnaud Tendon claimed the first professional win of his career at the very damp Tour de la Provence, hanging on from the breakaway alongside Mattia Bais before outsprinting the omnipresent Giro breakaway artist. The biggest moments of the stage though came from Soren Kragh Andersen, who crashed whilst leading the race after falling on the descent. Then came another close call when a car came on to the course and narrowly avoided the breakaway.
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Sadly it’s not the first time we’ve seen this sort of thing at this tier of French racing…
Arm signals are cyclists’ most effective communication with motorists… as long as drivers aren’t on their phone
I like it when we dip our toes into academia, it’s encouraging to know that through all the internet sometimes throws our way, evidence is still on our side. In this case, you better not be reading this behind the wheel…
"Are this lot ever going to be happy": locals worried about digging up cycle lane they used to hate
Who remembers the Linthorpe Road cycle lane? It was potentially the most reviled piece of cycling infrastructure in the country. At least based on the number of times local business outrage flashed across our screens.
In case you’ve missed it, a £1.7 million cycle lane was installed in Middlesborough, 2022. Its orca kerb separators were tripped over and cycled into. Businesses bemoaned the loss of parking spaces and footfall. Despite data showing cycle use increasing by a reported 70 percent, the lane was quickly denounced for both its location and its implementation. One business even labelled it a “bike run for drug dealers”. Ultimately, a new city mayor joined forces with the Tees Valley Region to ensure the bike lane’s demise. Work has now started on ripping up the infrastructure.
BBC Radio Tees have now produced a package on the saga as the lane (slightly later than planned) is now being dug up. The report features both the previous and current Middlesborough mayors (both Labour) and the views of local businesses who “don’t understand why it was installed in the first place.”
Worryingly, plans to replace the Linthorpe lane with similar infrastructure are still at a relatively early stage. Amusingly, the famously fickle Facebook audience seem rather concerned by this matter. Here are some highlights:
“Why is a lane for bikes controversial? Councils should be encouraging active travel. All towns should have alternatives to driving.”
“Need to go to Denmark and Holland to see how it’s done properly”
“Judging by all the volume of news stories on this subject and the quotes saying businesses on Linthorpe Road are being hit hard by a cycle lane […] we can obviously expect news stories of the shops thriving – I would honestly like that to happen but it’s unlikely” added another.
“It was only a waste of money as it didn’t get extended out to the housing estates and beyond. A full cycle network allowing people to get to work cheaply and safely would have been a great thing. But this car centric society can’t stand anything that [they] think does nothing for them.”
And, my personal favourite, “Lmao complain when it went in, complain when its being taken out 
are this lot ever going to be happy about anything lmao”
"Isn't it windy?"..."No it's Friday"
That dreadful joke is the perfect segue to today’s racing, which I’ll have a full round-up for later. But Tom Pidcock’s season debut has been shortened at the Vuelta a Murcia in Spain due to strong winds. The rather unique two-day stage race has now seen its opening stage cut to 83km in length.
But, if he fancies it, Pidcock could still contest for the stage win thanks to the short, steep Alto Virgen del Castillo that the peloton will summit just 4km from the finish. His strongest rivals include the UAE pair of Tim Wellens and Benoit Cosnefroy, Pello Bilbao (who led the peloton in negotiating the stage shortening) and, if he fancies a move on the descent, Matej Mohoric.
Love is in the air...
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Boston cyclists plough on despite snow blocking infrastructure
The people of Boston, Massachusetts are hardy souls. Hardier than me at least. Some of you might be keen masochists, yearning for a weekend thrashing around a snowy cyclocross course. I am not…
But the prospect of road riding in snowy, freezing conditions is a tough one. But after weeks of heavy snow and a bleakly cold winter, locals in New England seemingly can’t wait to get back on two wheels. Sadly city infrastructure priorities are putting them at risk.
7 News Boston ran a package yesterday airing the concerns of cyclists unable to use the city’s vast network of cycle lanes, because snow from the road has been piled up there to make way for vehicles.
Tiffany Coggell, Executive Director of the Boston Cyclist Union told the station that “Currently the majority of bike lanes look like a place to hold snow that has been removed from the roadways and from the sidewalks,” before adding that “When they clean the bike lane but don’t clear the parking spaces, the cars park in the bike lane.”
Coggell added that the city has sent out snow ploughs, but declined to reach out to campaigners to help solve the issue. Here’s hoping those lanes can be cleared soon. Or maybe, just maybe, the temperatures will dare to rise just a tad…
Hit-and-run driver who killed cyclist while texting to be released from prison early
Neomi Velado’s killing of Benjamin Montalvo was her fourth crash at the wheel whilst texting…
Mayor launches primary school cycling challenge
Let’s bring you some good news you may have missed. Earlier this week the South Yorkshire Combined Authority launched their third annual Walk and Wheel challenge for primary school kids. The initiative encourages school children to walk, cycle or scoot to school instead of travelling in a pesky car.
Taking place later in May, the challenge will also enable participating schools to possibly win scooters, bikes, a scooter pod, and a cycling workshop delivered by triple Olympic gold medallist and South Yorkshire’s Active Lives Commissioner Ed Clancy.
Participating schools will also receive stickers, activity charts and sheets and pupils will be able to learn about physical health, mental wellbeing, sustainability, road safety and community benefits.
South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard gave a quote, saying “Schools are at the heart of our plans, because every child deserves to feel safe walking to school, playing outside or heading to the park.”
Clancy himself added “Every time I visit a school, I’m reminded just how much it matters to give kids the freedom to move in the way that works for them. Whether it’s walking, wheeling, scooting or jumping on a bike, these small daily journeys help build confidence, independence and healthy habits that can last a lifetime.
“What really inspires me is the energy and pride young people bring to it. They show us exactly what’s possible when we create neighbourhoods where children can travel safely and feel welcome on our streets. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.”
Hear hear!
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It's not a 'statement' though - it's road.cc's words, based on l'Equipe's interpretation. The actual statement issued on it said that the judge authorised it "guaranteeing strict proportionality between the infringements on the rights of the athlete and the stakes of the fight against doping in terms of fair competition and protection of his health."
Trust me Callum, if you'd grown up watching the Tour in the 1980s, as I did, you would not be hankering after those long flat stages that weren't even as exciting as watching paint dry, it was more like listening to paint dry. As for the supposed benefits of those long TTs, what did they give us? Indurain winning five Tours in a row without winning a single road stage in any of them. As McT says below, you simply can't Pogacar-proof a course and we just have to accept, and enjoy, the fact that we are watching the greatest GT cyclist of all time. Anyway I think it has been a great Tour so far, yes no enormous drama about the inevitable winner (though of course Vinegaard and now Lipowitz have shown us that anything can happen) but just about every day has had a fascinating plot and multiple subplots. Some time in the future there will be another Indurain-style winner, playing it cautious, following moves, making incremental gains and winning without ever lighting up the race and we'll be saying I wish the old days of Pogacar making those spectacular solo breaks were back.
The main issue is the layout of the stages with the bigger climb first then a shallow finish climb. It means pogacar can get a gap at the top of the big climb and then stretch 10-15 seconds to a minute plus at the finish over smaller riders like Vingegaard. A summit finish on the hardest climb might not lead to the most exciting racing but equally would keep the gaps closer. I totally agree with the TT kms though, they should have 60+km tts in the grand tours.
@MaxiMinimalist I mean, that statement makes it sound like they had reason to think those two are doping. Either they didn't follow procedure and are making shit up to cover themselves up or something is going on.
Quite possibly. But the changeover time loss would be a bit more significant if it was done on the flat just after the downhill when the riders are travelling faster, the deceleration, changeover and acceleration loss could easily be around 30 seconds, which is quite a lot of a 34 minute effort.
So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump's book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?
@Mr Blackbird Fair points, though I was wondering if doing the climb and descent on a standard bike and swapping to TT for the flat section would have been worth it? Certainly quite a few riders seemed to be having handling difficulties maintaining the best line on the descent with their TT machines.
No. The climb wasn't severely steep and allowed a reasonable speed to be maintained on a TT bike, his bike handling skills on road or TT bike are outstanding for the descent and on a road bike he would have lost a lot of time on the flat last 9k section. Terrific performance by him though!
Would he have performed better on his normal bike?
the National Bus and Rail Union told the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) the following month, saying the requirements (making the cyclist scum wear helmets and HiViz) would, “make the roads a safer place, as it would make potential hazards easier to spot.” Nothing to do with driver behaviour then? Stagecoach is even putting intimidating threats against cyclists on the side of the buses now! ttps://upride.cc/incident/px60beo_stagecoach41-closepass/
13 thoughts on ““An absolute disgrace”: Paris-Roubaix moves women’s race to clash with men’s edition and changes name; Amateurs won’t be deterred by snow, pros deterred by wind + more on the live blog”
Apparently the England rugby team also play home matches at somewhere called “The Allianz Stadium”. Which is odd, given that we all still go & watch them at Twickenham. Somethings never actually change, despite what sponsors & organisers might want you to think.
This is, of course, a good point well made. But even more so when the name change is just adding more words to the end. Everyone will just abbreviate the new name to, erm, Paris-Roubaix. The bigger issue is definitely the treatment of the women’s race.
It surprises me that no-one seems to have asked Roger De Vlaeminck what he thinks.
When MVdP inevitably breaks Roger’s record, Roger will say that MVdP didn’t actually win ‘Paris Roubaix’ more times than him.
No one ever asks Roger anything, he just has a way of butting into cycling media to spout his vitriol.
Don’t you mean Allianz Cabbage Patch? Just to differentiate from the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich.
Have they sponsored the pub too now?
Every time I go to this site, I have to manually refresh the page or it shows me an old version of the site. Is anyone else having this issue?
Yes – noted it on the forum page requesting comments on issues since the WordPress migration.
Cheers – I thought there might be a forum topic on this, but I never venture on there
One may assume that ASO makes (a lot?) more money from the Paris-Roubaix Challenge registrations (from 45 to 94 euros) plus merchandising and partnerships than from the TV rights of the women’s race. It isn’t a sad reality. Just the confirmation that ASO runs a lucrative business (131 million euros profits in 2025).
Racing in Spain tomorrow is highly unlikely due to strong winds alert released by the authorities. To be continued.
And another example of a lenient sentence:
“Driver jailed after causing crash that killed two
… jailed for six years and eight months for causing two deaths (and many injuries)
… less than a month after passing her driving test.
… previously admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by driving whilst uninsured.
… 96mph in a 60mph zone
… she attempted to overtake three vehicles at once while travelling at 96mph, before trying to abort the manoeuvre and hitting the taxi.
Simon Stirling, defending, suggested Mitchell’s actions were a result of “inexperience rather than irresponsibility”.
He added that Mitchell had only passed her driving test three weeks earlier and would not have understood the risk of the manoeuvre she was attempting.
Gloucestershire Police said an analysis of Mitchell’s social media found that she had been filming Snapchat videos while behind the wheel.
These videos showed her “lack of care for driving safely”, police said, with one showing her veering onto the opposite side of the road towards an oncoming car as friends shouted for her to stop.
Mitchell must serve half of her sentence in custody before being eligible for release on licence.
She has also been disqualified from driving for eight years and four months, must undertake an extended driving test to regain her licence, and was ordered to pay a statutory surcharge.”
War on drivers?
But cyclists.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ew3vp8dlzo