Welcome to Daily News, your roundup of news items from across the world of cycling. We keep this post updated throughout the week so that you can stay informed on all things bike racing, tech, industry, culture, advocacy, and more.
Here is what is making the headlines this week …
Friday, November 29, 2024
- Pidcock to Q36.5 could still happen
- Tanfield scrambles to launch a new British pro team
- Jungels: Cyclists can only push so much harder before reaching a ‘limit’
- Polish U23 time trial champ tests positive for dEPO
Pidcock to Q36.5 could still happen
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) finds himself in the headlines in more than one way this week. The 25-year-old Brit had some interesting things to say as he reflected on his turbulent 2024 campaign in an interview with the Cyclist Magazine podcast, while La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Ciro Scognamiglio has reported on X that the potential for a transfer to Q36.5 is “still on the table.”
Pidcock was rumored to be very close to leaving Ineos Grenadiers for the Swiss second-division squad last month before the deal apparently fell apart at the last minute, but according to Scognamiglio, there could be renewed action on that front, and soon.
Meanwhile, Pidcock himself spoke to the challenges of being in the spotlight at all times, telling Cyclist Magazinethat the media “want to show two sides of you: the winner or the loser. There is no middle ground. There never really is. You read so many different stories. I deleted everything in terms of social media during my holiday. That was wonderful.”
Tanfield scrambles to launch a new British pro team
In other British cycling news, 30-year-old Harry Tanfield is reportedly hoping to put together a pro team racing at the Continental level for 2025 as both Saint Piran and Trinity, the only British men’s Continental teams this season, are both folding. According to The British Continental, Tanfield is in talks with potential sponsors, and British Cycling has extended the deadline for applications to give the last-minute effort a bit more breathing room.
“We want to be a ground-up new team, to fill the gap left by Saint Piran and Trinity Racing stopping,” Tanfield said. “The idea is to provide a crucial platform for UK cycling and help under-23 riders to progress to the next level. With the licence deadline extended by two weeks, we have to act fast in order to have a budget agreed in principle.” [The British Continental]
Jungels: Cyclists can only push so much harder before reaching a ‘limit’
Both Bob Jungels (who is heading to Ineos next year) and Simon Pellaud (who is still hunting for a team after his Tudor contract was not renewed) have spoken about the ever-rising level of competition – and the related demands placed on riders – in the modern peloton.
“I think we will reach a limit at some point of mental strength and mental capacities of riders,” Jungels told Rouleur. “There is a lot less downtime, more time at altitude camps, and all year round you’re required to take care of nutrition and this or that. It’s becoming a tough year every year. I believe there is a time for everything – time to have beers with mates, time to weigh your rice. To have a long-lasting career, you have to find your own balance.”
Pellaud shared similar sentiments in an interview with Le Matin. “I sincerely wonder if cycling as it has become is viable in the long term. The level, the tempo, the risks we take … It’s madness,” he said. “The daily life that you have to lead to exist in the elite does not suit me. There are so many demands that there is no more room for anything other than cycling. The new generations have no life. I prefer to evolve lower but be competitive.”
Polish U23 time trial champ tests positive for dEPO
The UCI has provisionally suspended Kacper Gieryk, who won his third under-23 Polish time trial title this year, after the 21-year-old returned an adverse analytical finding for dEPO (a form of EPO) in a September doping control.
Gieryk’s team, the Continental-level Lubelskie Perła Polski, noted in a statement that the positive test came during the World Championships in Zurich, and said that they “remain fully ready to cooperate with the appropriate institutions to resolve this situation.”
