Cycling Weekly – August 22, 2019

10 | August 22, 2019 | Cycling Weekly

WEEKLY COLUMN

KATIE ARCHIBALD

RACING AHEAD

Ladies Tour of Norway (August 22-25)

The four-day race has been won by

Marianne Vos in each of the last two

editions. Typically a closely-fought race,

the Women’s WorldTour race features

stages that are likely to end in sprints

and others that look certain to be decided

by attacking moves.

Cyclassics Hamburg (August 25)

Elia Viviani is aiming for a hat-trick of wins

in the German port city, although the

Deceuninck-Quick Step rider will have to

beat previous winner Alexander Kristoff

(UAE-Team Emirates) and Dylan

Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma).

Schaal Sels Merksem (August 25)

Dating back to 1921, the race is a 10-lap

kermesse that usually ends with a rider

winning from a late attack. Last year,

however, Timothy Dupont (Wanty-Gobert)

won in a bunch sprint. Canyon-dhb p/b

Bloor Homes are racing.

Tour Poitou-Charentes (August 27-30)

French legend Sylvain Chavanel won

this race four times and finished second

another three times, the last of which was

last year. Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic)

will fancy his chances on the punchy stages

and could threaten the GC. Rudy Molard of

Groupama-FDJ is one of the favourites.

Druivenkoers-Overijse (August 28)

Belgian Jérôme Baugnies won this race

three years in a row from 2015, but his

dominance was ended last year by his

Wanty-Gobert team-mate Xandro

Meurisse. There are three large laps

followed by eight loops of a city-centre

circuit in Overijse.

Fighting form

I

’m back on the track and very

happy about it, but not going

very well and a bit sad about that.

Both are things I instinctively

want to lie about. I talk about

velodromes enough that you’d assume I

was on there at least most weeks... what

have I been doing if I’ve not done been on

the track? And I’m never sure if it’s polite

to say you aren’t on form. I hate to hear it

from other people. You’re not going well?

To always be going well would mean never

going really well — stop complaining. How

self-indulgent, to be sad about being slow.

But I am currently quite slow and it’s made

me quite sad.

I’ve been riding a lot in Zone 2 and lifting

in the gym. Now, a copy of this magazine

ends up in the British Cycling staff

kitchen every week, so if I was

divulging top-secret training

content nationally I believe

I’d be found out. I’m

comfortable telling you

this about my training

for two reasons. First:

the offices are being

done up and I think the

kitchen is out of action because I saw a

physiologist put their dirty mug in their

rucksack to ride home with, refusing to

wash it in the bathroom. Second: riding in

Zone 2 and lifting in the gym being top

secret is akin to a chef ’s secret ingredients

being salt and pepper. Who knows if

Stephen Park [performance director] will

read it this week?

But now I’d like to start going fast again.

I’m racing in five weeks time at a UCI track

event in Poland, and in nine weeks’ time

it’s the European Championships in

Apeldoorn. If you’re thinking, “Heh, but

the Euros have already been?”, well that

was the European Games you’re thinking

of, an event that takes place every four

years specifically to confuse you. The

European Championships still happen,

and the fact I’m counting to them in

weeks like an expectant parent

tells you how excited I am

for the track season.

You’ll know once

I start going fast again

because I’ll get

so excited I’ll be

counting in days.