"I was breaking power records and still not winning"
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time, nothing else.
This stood out to me today: "There's a good chance it won't be pleasant when they wake up tomorrow. They will think: wow, we have been through a battlefield."
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
“I was breaking power records left, right, and centre last year and still not winning”
Adam Yates on chasing performance at 33 in a peloton that keeps pulling away
The numbers keep going up. The results don't follow. Adam Yates framed this tension as plainly as anyone has in a while, speaking to CyclingNews in February. "Even last year, I think I broke most of my power efforts. I'd say it was one of my worst years, but I was the best I've ever been in terms of power. OK, I really struggled in the Giro, and obviously helped Tadej in the Tour, but other than that, I was breaking power records left, right, and centre and still not winning, so take that as you will."
The baseline keeps rising. What used to be enough to place at the UAE Tour is now just the price of admission. "The big difference I'm seeing is that everyone is just full gas from the start of the year. I remember going back a couple of years, and my level wasn't super high at the UAE Tour, but I was still up there on the podium. Every year it's getting harder and harder to win races, and even these races now at the start of the year, the level is super, super high, even in Oman I was doing power records, left, right, and centre and there's still guys in the wheel and a lot of guys still fighting, so it's just getting harder and harder."
On the generation coming up behind him, Yates is clear-eyed rather than threatened. "A lot of the young guys, well, they know more than me, to be honest. Obviously, maybe they don't have the experience, but in the grand scheme of things, they know most things. There was a big jump at the beginning of the 2020s, with everyone getting more professional, more focused, even now people are doing altitude in the off-season and not really having off-seasons, and rethinking what is normal in bike riding."
He sees no ceiling. "I think in ten years, it's also going to be a completely different sport again, and it's always going to be like this because there's always somebody who wants to win and is more ambitious."
On Pogačar, the man he continues to work for: "He never says he's bad. He never complains. He never has a problem. So I think when you have a leader like that, it's quite easy to work for him. It's quite easy to be more motivated. I think that's also why he wins so many races, he's a killer."
“Most teams just look at whoever is the best junior or U23 rider”
Anton Schiffer on arriving at Visma-Lease a Bike from triathlon, via sports science and a coaching career
Anton Schiffer is 26, has a degree in sports science from the German Sport University Cologne, coached 30 athletes while still racing himself, and started his first WorldTour race earlier this year. The path to Rouleur is the kind of story Visma seem to have a taste for. Roglič jumped from ski jumping. Bart Lemmen came from the Dutch Air Force. Now Schiffer, who spent his teenage years racing triathlons and his early twenties building a coaching business, until Covid shut the pools and left him with nothing but his bike. "This is how I found out that only cycling is really quite fun. Running had been my strongest sport, but then swimming and cycling caught up, and I struggled with running injuries. More and more I enjoyed cycling, and triathlon went further into the background. It was a gradual switch, a natural development, to focus more on cycling."
His arrival at Bike Aid, his first cycling team, came with some institutional skepticism. "The boss of the development team said he was skeptical because cyclists don't like triathletes so much; they usually have a bit of hesitation thinking they don't know how to ride a bike." He won them over. By 2025, he was finishing second at the Tour of Hellas and fourth at Sibiu, with a summit finish stage win included.
Visma came calling. "In 2023 and 2024, Visma were the best team in the world, so it was crazy for me that they approached, it was like a dream. But I also knew from the year before that teams have similar conversations with 10, 15, 20 guys a season, so I didn't take it too seriously and didn't have too high hopes." They offered him a two-year contract anyway.
He arrives with his scientific habits intact. He still reads papers, meets monthly online with university friends to discuss new research, and coaches a handful of riders on the side. His ambitions are measured. "At first I'll be a support rider," he states. But GC is the long-term aim, and his take on how he got the chance is direct: "Most teams just look at whoever is the best junior or U23 rider and try to sign them, or riders who have already been established in other teams before. So for me it's really nice that Visma think outside the box, they are willing to try to do something differently, and give guys like me the chance to show ourselves."
“KOM hunting is the best thing about cycling”
Charlie Lewis-Follows on beating Bernal, Seixas, and Van Aert to the Strade Bianche KOM
Two days after Pogačar won Strade Bianche, a 21-year-old British amateur stripped his bottles, removed his saddlebag, and went to work on the Via Santa Caterina. Two minutes and 22 seconds later, Charlie Lewis-Follows had toppled Egan Bernal's Strava KOM by three seconds. Below him now: Romain Bardet, Paul Seixas, Wout van Aert. "I just was like, 'All right, I'm just going to ride hard and see how I do,'" he told Cycling Weekly. He'd missed the segment record by four seconds on his first attempt earlier in the week.
Lewis-Follows lives in Girona and races for Huesca La Magia Renault Auto 4, a development squad. His route to that point ran through a coeliac disease diagnosis that cost him what should have been a strong start to his U23 career. "I'm glad I figured out what the problem was now and not a few years down the line, but I wish it happened a few years earlier because I feel like I could have had a really good first couple of years as an U23. It's a shame, but you can only move forwards."
He's building his name now partly through social media, the Santa Caterina attempt itself a spur-of-the-moment decision after joining a group of content creators in Italy for the weekend.
The KOM is a deliberate practice for him, not a sideshow. "The amount of dopamine I personally get from planning out the pacing strategy, the time to work out what power I need to do and really get into the nerdy side of things is just so enjoyable, and the dopamine hit you get if you get a pretty prestigious one is just unmatched for me."
And if someone takes it back? "That's kind of the fun of the game. There's no risk and only reward, whereas with racing, I feel like there's a lot more risk."
“You may call me a trendsetter with those long trousers, but there was just no time to change”
Jonas Vingegaard on the bib-straps-over-jersey outfit that accompanied his Paris-Nice stage win
It became the image of the stage. Jonas Vingegaard crossing the finish line of a brutal Paris-Nice day with the straps of his extra-long bib shorts worn visibly over his jersey, rain jacket already discarded, bib shorts half-scissored and ready to be torn off by a teammate who was no longer there.
Thijs Zonneveld (DS at Beat Cycling) reached for the obvious comparison on social media: "He looks like the next-door neighbour who pulls his rusty racing bike out of the shed three times a year and heads off in those long trousers he's had for 30 years."
Vingegaard, winning, was unbothered. "It went so fast," he said after the stage to Sporza. "You didn't even have time to take off your clothes. You may call me a trendsetter with those long trousers, but there was just no time to change. I think a lot of guys were very cold. Personally I was not, because I had a lot of clothes on. Maybe that's the reason I couldn't take them off."
Team Visma- Lease a bike director Marc Reef filled in the rest. "They predicted terrible conditions, so we were very well prepared. To be ready as quickly as possible for the finale, Jonas' trousers were half-cut, so they could be immediately torn off by a teammate. Only: at the moment they needed to come off, there was no teammate anymore. And so we decided to ride to the finish with the trousers on." Reef laughed at his own admission that "it did look a little strange," before adding: "But the most important thing in such a situation is to stay warm. And that worked. So, fine!"
Commentator Jan Bakelants, working the broadcast, offered a more colourful verdict via a tip from Jef Van Meirhaeghe, a close friend of Victor Campenaerts: Campenaerts had apparently removed the chamois from Vingegaard's long bibs before the stage, stitch by stitch. "If that's true, he proves his extraordinary value once again. With a double chamois they might have had to adjust Vingegaard's saddle height, and then there was a danger he would start doubting everything."
Reef, asked about Vingegaard's inspiration for the on-the-fly fashion solution, was equally mystified: "With things like this, you'd think it was Victor, but this time Jonas came up with it himself."
“I had them completely fired up from the team car to tackle that final climb”
Sven Vanthourenhout on Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe's tactical masterclass at Paris-Nice
Three riders in the top four. Six of seven in the first echelon. Sven Vanthourenhout, Sports Director at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, was entitled to his satisfaction after a stage that could have unravelled in any direction. "Yes, it was a nice day," he told Sporza, a line that only worked because of how the day had gone. "Was this the plan? It's easy to say 'yes' now. But I had already said this morning that we expected war. Then you can do two things: watch, or make war yourself."
When a crash reduced their numbers mid-race, Red Bull still had five riders alongside Vingegaard in the front group, and Vanthourenhout leaned into it. The Van Dijke brothers, Tim and Mick, drove the tempo on the final climbs. "They were fully absorbed in the situation. I had them completely fired up from the team car to tackle that final climb." The brothers finished third and fourth. On Daniel Felipe Martinez: "He was pretty frozen. If the Van Dijkes hadn't been there, he would probably have been dropped much earlier. But now he maybe dared to keep going because the guys had supported him so much."
The only thing the day couldn't deliver was the stage win itself, Vingegaard proving untouchable on the final climb. Vanthourenhout was philosophical. "If you start the final climb with him in the group, you know it becomes very difficult, even if we didn't know how he was feeling after such a chaotic day. Should we have played more of a game? Well, after a day with the feels-like temperature around three degrees, there were few options. Second place was already certain, the win would have been a dream."
What matters now is recovery. "There's a good chance it won't be pleasant when they wake up tomorrow. They will think: wow, we have been through a battlefield."
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
Not awarded today
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
“9.” — Pedro Delgado, when asked how many times Pogačar will win the Tour de France, to Diario de Triatlon.
“It was calm and cold, so everyone had cold legs. In that case, everyone can usually hold the same speed. That's why I wanted to go first.” — Tobias Lund Andresen after winning the stage in Tirreno Adriatico, to WielerFlits.
“Sometimes you have to stay positive without a win, otherwise life just stays boring.” — Arnaud De Lie after finishing second in the Tirreno Adriatico sprint stage, to Sporza.
“If they ride the Cipressa as hard as in previous years, it's going to be too much for Arnaud. That's why he's not racing it and we're targeting Gent - Wevelgem instead." — Aike Visbeek, Performance Manager at Lotto-Intermarché, explaining why De Lie will skip Milano-San Remo (WielerFlits).
“We did expect it to be a crazy day, but not that it would get this out of hand.” — Jonas Vingegaard after winning yesterday's stage in Paris-Nice, to Sporza.
“I'm really happy I was able to brake just in time to avoid riding into him, which would have been bad for me, but also bad for him, you know, an 85 kilo guy riding into you at 70 km/h - 80km/h is probably not nice." — Edoardo Affini on nearly riding into Juan Ayuso after his crash, on Cycling Pro Net.
“It was just boring. I had an average heart rate of 103 today, that says it all.” — Oliver Naesen on yesterday's stage in Tirreno Adriatico, to HLN.
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay