Do you guys believe in bad luck? I think my tip might be the bearer of bad juju for riders I back to win. The latest victim is Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ). My heart broke watching the Italian champion struggle to get back on her bike after a heavy crash at the Tour of Flanders and eventually DNF the race.
It was, however, an incredible race, won by Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) for the third time and making history. And as we'll see in the race recaps, she didn't have the perfect lead-in.
If nothing else, both Longo Borghini and Kopecky's Wednesday and Sunday race experiences are perfect examples of professional cycling. One day you're winning, the next you're stepping into the team car. It's a rollercoaster and not for the faint of heart.
My best wishes to Longo Borghini and others who came down.
Race recaps
Dwars Door Vlaanderan
The warm up for De Ronde, often described as "Baby Flanders," is as much a mental game as it is physical. A seed of doubt for the coming Sunday can easily be planted in a race with a punishing parcours in the heart of Flanders.
The race was attritional prior to the favourites coming to the fore. The early breakaway was not fated for a long day out, with Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Amber Kraak (FDJ-Suez) steamrolling off the front on one of the many cobbled sectors.
The duo was soon hunted down by Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Longo Borghini, with the latter going clear and bridging to Reusser and Kraak on the Huisepontweg cobbled sector. The Italian then put the hammer down again, and with all the class in the world, charged away to lead the race solo.
A 26 km solo time trial was ahead of her, but Longo Borghini never faltered. In contrast, Kopecky had her vulnerable moments particularly on the Eikenberg. It was an uncharacteristic display of weakness, but it seemed she was able to recover prior to the finish, winning the bunch kick behind the winner in Longo Borghini, ahead of Balsamo.
There is a saying a book can be written about a bike race, indeed Tim Krabbé did so in 1978. Form can yo-yo throughout a race, as well as the mentality of the rider. No doubt Kopecky experienced just that, battling with some demons. It shows the strength of a rider to be able to bed those doubts and perform at the finishline.
Longo Borgini was determined to show the peloton what is possible against the behemoth of SD Worx-Protime. And prior to Sunday, that might have opened the floodgates for opposition.
Racing continues ...
Scheldeprijs
Woof. That is how many riders feel about this race after a big Classics campaign. If you've done the quadruple of Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and De Ronde – yes, the legs would be cooked but the mind more so. It is the mental component that is mandatory in a race like Wednesday's Scheldeprijs.
Flat as a pancake, fast, risky, and without wind, typically a sprint finish. The start list has big names, but the biggest – Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) – is a notable absentee. Since the start of this event, Wiebes has won every single edition. It's now the turn of another rider to take the top step...
When: 9th April, 11.40 CET
Distance: 130 km, with a larger lap of ~60 km prior to a technical local lap for the remaining 70 km.
How to watch: TNT Sports (UK); FloBikes (US and Canada)
Weather predictions: A balmy day in Belgium, with the fine weather we saw at Flanders continuing into the middle of the week. Light winds suggest a sprint finish.
Riders to watch: While Paris-Roubaix is a flat one, it is not a sprinters race. This is the last chance for the pure sprinters to show their legs in the Classics season. Liv AlUla Jayco, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Picnic-PostNL and Lidl-Trek are coming into the race with some big names in Georgia Baker, Chiara Consonni, Charlotte Kool and Elisa Balsamo respectively. Kool will no doubt want to close her sprint Classics account with a win, and she'll have Rachele Barbieri and Abi Smith to lead her out. Similarly, Balsamo comes in with one of her most valuable leadout riders in Ilaria Sanguinetti.
SD Worx-Protime will be giving an opportunity to another rider, and it could be youngster Gerritse or seasoned veteran Barbara Guarischi. Expect the last drag race of the spring in the week of Paris-Roubaix.
Other sporting news
The XC (cross-country for the non-dirt folk) World Cup was held in Araxá, Brazil over the weekend. It's the first World Cup of 2025, and plenty of talent was on show.
Isabella Holmgren took out the U23 XCO and XCC categories, racing for Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC in the rainbow bands as the U23 World Champion.
Samara Maxwell became the first ever Kiwi female to win an Elite XCO World Cup. She had a dominant performance, and in her post race interview she put her success down to a simple, but rarely given thing: belief. She has had a rough couple of years, and her team (Decathlon-Ford Racing Team) stuck by her and trusted she would return stronger than ever. That investment by them has returned in spades. Maxwell said, "Having everything fall into line for these amazing people [her team], is the most special part."
I'm not crying. You are.
Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC) won the short course (XCC) edition in the rainbow stripes. No matter her stature in the sport, her reaction to winning is always as if it's for the first time. An endearing human, a phenomenal athlete.
Wheel Talk podcast
It was a massive week of racing to unpack, with ups and downs all over the place. The crew go through Dwars and Flanders, with a look forward to the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix Femmes. We briefly touch on the topic of concussion and how duty of care can be raised for riders in this space.
So what's my take?
Quit glamorising crashes in race broadcasts.
Riders hitting the deck is not what viewers should be greeted with at the beginning of race coverage, end of story. Crashes play a crucial part in bike racing. As many in the sport will say, it's not a case of 'if' but 'when' your time will come to hit the pavement.
However, let us not glamorise the act. In a recent article about risk, I explored the risk of professional cycling – with crashes a key part. Reusser made the point that crashes entice viewership, gaining more 'clicks.' As the old saying goes, "It's like a car crash. You just can't look away."
This is a moment of huge vulnerability for the rider involved, and also their loved ones watching. Bre Vine, former e-Sport racer and wife of UAE Team Emirates-XRG pro Jay Vine, called out the producers of the Tour of Basque country in 2024. Vine was feared dead by his wife based on the footage shown time and time, again, saying "I will admit when I saw the live coverage of him just lying there not moving for such a long time, I genuinely wasn’t sure if I still had a husband and if the worst had happened."
Wout van Aert's battered body was under sharp focus of the camera after a shocking high-speed crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen '24. Viewers watched as Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) was loaded into an ambulance and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) also looked in distress.
And let us not forget the replay, over and over, of Marta Cavalli (Picnic-PostNL) at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2022 suffering a monumental incident. That crash was played around the world.
So that brings me to the coverage of the women's Tour of Flanders. The opening minutes showed race replay, however, it was full of crashes. These moments are pivotal to the outcome of the race, yet they must be handled and shown with sensitivity to the rider and their families in mind.
Indeed it was in this montage where we learnt the Italian champion and dual winner of this race, Longo Borghini, suffered a major crash in the early stages of the race. UAE Team ADQ soon released a statement regarding her condition. She was released from hospital and will continue to be monitored under concussion protocol.
Out of respect to the riders and their families, let's cut out the close analysis of the aftermath of a crash.
A picture worth a couple of words
Another monument, another fourth for Kasia Niewiadoma at De Ronde. The Polish rider has made the top-10 at this race eight times. At what point does the frustration start to set in?
Who runs the world?
In this week's edition, it's not just women but all athletes in the MTB space who get the spotlight.
Athletes have taken the power back from race organisers in the off-road scene, with an open letter urging Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to reverse their decision to limit the podium for races from five, to three.
The company has been under scrutiny by rusted-on fans of the sport. They took over ownership of the World Cup series from Red Bull in 2023. They have also monopolised streaming of road races in the UK. WBD merged Eurosport into TNT Sports and hiked the monthly price of subscription from £6.99 to £30.99. Across the pond in the USA, things aren't much better, as FloBikes (part-owned by WBD) charges $150/year for its coverage, and fans must also subscribe to WBD-owned Max to get many other races like the Giro d'Italia Women.
Mountain bike racing has traditionally had a five-person podium. The open letter cites this gives smaller teams exposure for their brand sponsors. MTB, like most of cycling, is a sponsor-heavy sport and these relationships rely on brand exposure. The rationale for limiting the number of podium spots seems to be, "aligning mountain biking with broader sporting standards and improving the sport's presentation." Fairly vague and nondescript, to me.
Former world champion Kate Courtney (She Sends MTB) was vocal on her instagram, posting the open letter followed by a statement of her own, "This may seem like a small thing - but it is an important one for many reasons. It also shows that as riders, we are united and we demand a voice in shaping the future of our sport."
Reigning Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot (Visma-Lease a Bike) was one of the 120+ signatories, alongside Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC) and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Jolanda Neff (Cannondale Factory Racing).
Athletes know their sport best. Perhaps the organisers should listen.
Until next time
How does SD Worx-Protime get beaten? This and more is in store for the week leading into Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. Keep your eyes out for a seperate preview as we ready ourselves to wave goodbye to Flanders for another year.
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