Good day and thank you for opening this week’s Wheel Talk Newsletter! Judging by social media, the riders seem to be enjoying the last of their off-season at the moment. Most riders are back on the bike at this point, shaking out their legs and enjoying easy spins without effort or any real agenda. When I raced this was always my favorite time of year – long rides with groups of friends to far-away coffee shops. There was lots of laughter and inside jokes shared, with no real thought yet about the season to come.
Wheel Talk
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Last week I had the joy of being part of two interviews. The first was a roundtable with Lizzie Deignan to announce her one-year contract extension with Lidl-Trek and retirement plans for the end of 2025. The second was a conversation with my old teammate Coryn Rivera about her first few months of retirement.
The written piece on Deignan’s news can be found here and the Q&A with Coryn here, in case you missed them. Also, don’t miss Matt de Neef’s conversation with Grace Brown (on the podcast and in written format here).
Racing Continues…
… in 64 days at the Tour Down Under!
Wheel Talk Podcast
This week I handed the microphone over to Matt de Neef for an episode with Olympic gold medalist and world champion Grace Brown. The two chatted through Brown’s dream season and her plans for the future.
In next week’s episode: I chat with Anna Henderson to talk about her Olympic success and how it impacted the remainder of her season, plus her future with Lidl-Trek.
Let’s Discuss
Laurens ten Dam has been named the new coach of the Dutch women’s national team.
After the Road World Championships, I wrote a few paragraphs here about the Dutch national team’s tactics and mentioned that the coach Loes Gunnewijk, who has worked with the team since 2019, would be stepping down. The national federation was on the hunt for a new coach, and as Loren Rowney mentioned on a podcast a few weeks ago the position was turned down by Annemiek van Vleuten. Last week they announced that they’d found their guy – Laurens ten Dam.
Ten Dam was already working as the gravel coach this season and was part of the team that delivered Marianne Vos to her gravel world title in October.
“During my work as national coach for gravel, I noticed that I really missed performing at the highest top sport level – working together with a group towards the major tournaments such as a World Championships,” Ten Dam said in a press release about his appointment.
“As an expert by experience, I enter this adventure without prejudice and that is how I want to work with the athletes. They have to be able to rely on me and I expect the same in return.”
Ten Dam’s new position comes on the heels of a controversial performance by the Dutch women at the Zurich World Championships that saw the women finish off the podium for the first time in nine years – since Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the title in 2014 ahead of Lisa Brennauer and Emma Johannson.
What’s exciting about Ten Dam’s interest in the role is his experience within the sport. He first signed for Rabobank TT3, the Dutch development team, in 2000. He raced in the WorldTour with Rabobank from 2011, when the team rose to the highest level, through 2019 when he was riding for CCC.
He has been described as a “vibe rider”, a rider who brings good vibes to a team, something that is sorely needed within the Dutch squad at high-level events. At his peak, he finished ninth overall at the Tour de France in 2014 and eighth at the Vuelta a España in 2012.
Hopefully, he will bring a whole new perspective to the Dutch national team that will see them band together for a common goal. That’s kind of a scary prospect for those racing against the women in orange.
“It is really about forging a team with a clear mission,” Ten Dam said. “There is a lot of talent within Dutch women’s cycling, so I am convinced that we are going to have some very good years ahead of us!”
A picture video worth a couple of words
Canyon released a video over the weekend – “Four Seconds Changed Everything” – about Kasia Niewiadoma’s Tour de France Femmes victory, and it is fantastic. It details the confidence Niewiadoma gained from winning the Gravel World Championships at the end of the 2023 season and how that led to her massive win in France.
Featuring journalist Rachel Jary of Rouleur, commentary legend Rob Hatch, plus management from Canyon-SRAM, and Niewiadoma’s husband Taylor Phinney, it’s a really cool insight into one of the biggest upsets in women’s cycling and Niewiadoma as a person away from racing.
In case you missed it:
Taylor Swift corner
Since the release of her self-titled debut album, Swift has stuck to a fall release schedule. Taylor Swift was released late October of 2006, Fearless on November 11, 2008, Speak Now was October 25, 2010, Red – October 22, 2012, 1989 was October 27, 2014, and Reputation November 10, 2017. She broke the theme with the release of Lover in August of 2019 and again with the surprise release of Folklore in July of 2020.
Evermore, another surprise release, came out in December of 2020, and with Midnights Swift briefly returned to her fall timeslot for an October 21, 2022 drop.
Off all her albums, Evermore and Red have the most fall/early winter feel. Red has become a Fall soundtrack for many fans and Evermore, with its album cover, screams “Let’s have a snowball fight or a walk in the forest then drink some hot chocolate and curl up by the fire”.
“Champagne Problems”, the second track on Evermore, details a proposal rejection and a broken heart from the perspective of the girlfriend. There are references to college, Christmas, and family. The song is one of Swift’s many narrative stories so detailed it could be made into a movie.
Until next time
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter; I’ll see you all next week for the next installment. There’s a fun story coming up I did in collaboration with photographer extraordinaire Dominique Powers in which we lay out some tips for spectating the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Keep an eye out for it – now is the time to start planning!
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