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The clicking of the pedals. The many colours of the peloton. The thrill and excitement of bunch sprints, cobbles, time trials and a summit finish atop mountains. A new cycling season is so close to starting, a new season that hopefully won’t be as complicated as last year. Complicated in such a way that a global pandemic bought 2020 to a halt, stopped the season and led to a re-organising of the yearly calendar. All the major races jumbled up, some clashing at once and others having to be cancelled. Lots of cycling, so much to talk about but also barely time to breath.
While 2021 should get back to the normal routine, it must be said that a re-jigged calendar last season did bring some of the best racing in years. A September Tour de France with the final yellow jersey decided by a matter of seconds, women’s cycling once again providing more entertainment and a Giro d’Italia where Tao Geoghegan Hart became the latest unexpected British Grand Tour sensation.
Coronavirus is still yet to be beaten. There is hope with vaccines that the world can get back to normal. For the past year sport has had to change, cycling no-less had to adopt a careful policy of safety, testing and the use of face masks. While no crowds in stadiums is a sad sight, quiet Parisian streets come 21 stages of the Tour or silent cobbled climbs across Flanders for De Ronde – cycling without crowds is a depressing sight. Race organisers couldn’t deter spectators all of the time and despite a jam-packed schedule it did mean more intense racing. Race after race, here there and everywhere!
Also take into consideration no Olympic and Paralympic Games last year, another complication for every athlete on the road and track hoping to compete, their training schedules changed for a games one year later than planned.
So, what will 2021 bring?
The Covid protocols will of course still be in place but from a racing point of view, the yearly calendar should be one every cycling fan is accustomed to. Opening races in Australia have unfortunately had to be cancelled although a Down Under Festival of Cycling did take place this January with Richie Porte continuing his dominance atop Willunga Hill – or the King of Willunga Hill as the Tasmanian is known!
It is in Europe that the main hub of racing takes place, from February through to October.
Early season races don’t start off lightly with stage races in Spain and Portugal including difficult climbs and before too long we see the first races in Belgium – the start of the Classics season, one-day races featuring the cobbles and hills of Flanders.
Year after year the season is defined by the three Grand Tours, cycling’s equivalent of the Grand Slams in tennis. The Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and La Vuelta a España – all three defined by a pink, yellow and red jersey. Preparation for the Giro and the Tour in particular is key to a professional with riders prioritising certain races within the calendar. Contenders to win a Grand Tour overall will favour week-long stage races such as Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie whereas Classics specialists will target the one-day races in the Spring.
The Spring Classics are legendary to watch, mainly in Belgium but also taking place in Italy and France. Five one-day races are also known as the Monuments, the most historic cycle races and most prestigious for any rider to win. Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège all lie within the Spring plus the Tour of Lomardy falling as the final showpiece of the season in October.
To cap off an enthralling season we also see a hotly contested fight to become road world champion in September. Each year a host country and cycling’s governing body, the UCI, design a course for the riders to try and win rainbow jersey’s, which they keep for one whole year.
In the UK, news of April’s Tour de Yorkshire being cancelled is incredibly sad. By September though we could see the next edition of the Tour of Britain, a one-week race that draws in the biggest names in world cycling.
Cycling is a sport of priorities. Every rider has a set race schedule and a set of goals for each season. Teams also have their own status – UCI World Tour or UCI Pro-Continental Level. Other teams are known as domestic teams and for the women it’s exactly the same.
To round off 2021 attention turns to the track with the world championships and six-day events including London as a host city.
That is basically the season in a nutshell with more plots to add to the season’s story line. All the major races will be covered but more importantly what can we look forward to this year?
It’s pastures new for four-times Tour de France champion Chris Froome as he rides for a new team in Israel Start-Up Nation. His old team Ineos Grenadiers will have plenty of decisions to make after failing to win the yellow jersey last year for the first time since 2014. Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, newly crowned Giro winner Tao Geoghegan Hart and a new addition in Britain’s Adam Yates, makes it all the more interesting as to who goes where?
Every team will have a goal in the Grand Tours, the rivalries will start to be forged sooner rather than later. All eyes will be on defending Tour champion Tadej Pogačar this year as well as the man he beat on the penultimate stage to win yellow, his Slovenian counterpart, Primož Roglič.
For the Spring Classics, it is a lottery as to who will win the one-day races. Wout Van Aert, current world champion Julian Alaphilippe, new young Swiss sensation Marc Hirschi and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel are four names to look out for in 2021.
And in women’s cycling it is going to be a delight to see Anna van der Breggen wear the rainbow jersey as both road world champion and time trial world champion. Fellow Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten will also be riding for a new team in Movistar.
There’s so much more to include with explained pieces yet to be published for you the reader.
All that’s left to say is bring on the season!
