Reflecting on the 2023 Road Racing Season

The road racing season for 2023 is pretty much over, but track racing and cyclocross will keep us who follow all disciplines of bicycle racing entertained for the time being. The beginning of October delivered a top notch field of two-wheeled racers over paved and dirt road sectors around Pieve di Soligo, Italy at the UCI’s second official World Championships of Gravel racing. Randy raced in the masters age category Saturday event, and we both attended Sunday’s Elite men’s event. The top four finishers came from primarily road racers, with the top US finisher, Keegan Swenson as the first of the gravel specialists across the line. Reflecting on the year, I asked good friend and Netherlands based mechanic John which one day race he enjoyed the most. Which one captivated you? John named the big monuments from the spring as particularly exciting races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but concluded the World Championship Men’s Elite Road Race in Glasgow stuck out as his favorite for the year. The battle between the titans of cycling, Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen entertained until the very end. Randy concluded that the women’s Paris-Roubaix race had tons of suspense and sticks in his mind as the best one day event with Alison Jackson driving the break to hold of a star studded peloton and still had enough to take the win on the famed Roubaix velodrome. Personally I enjoyed the men’s Tour of Flanders which showed a dominant display of power by Tadej Pogačar as he distanced his rivals up the Oude Kwaremont climb, catching Mads Pedersen and dropping him to solo to the win. A reflection back on the 2023 road racing season offers a chance to realize how special those one day events are and excites me to look forward to the 2024 season.

The Best Time of the Cycling Year! (2023)

The most exciting time of the year for the professional cycling fan is the Tour de France!!!! Just a day away (starts July 1, 2023 this year)! So many possibilities, so many stories to be written, so much excitement to come. Will it be a two man race, what story lines will play out throughout the 3 weeks? Will an American take a stage win or wear a jersey for one day at least???

With the first grand tour just days away, the 2023 cycling season shifts from one day classics and week long stage racing to the big shows. First up is the Giro d’ Italy, the Tour of Italy with two of the best in the peloton setting out to battle for the Pink Leaders Jersey. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), the winner of the most recent grand tour (Tour of Spain 2022) versus Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma), a three time Vuelta winner. Of course there will be other challengers, but the pre-race predictions all point to these two riders to battle as they did just a little over a month ago in Spain at the Volta Catalunya week long race.

Several racers put in their final effort tune up recently at the one day World Tour classic race in Germany at the Eschborn-Frankfurt course. An addition of a second ascent of the Grosser Feldberg climb tore up the script of a sprinter friendly finish producing a exciting breakaway success with Danish stalwart Soren Kraugh Anderson coming out on top. The Alpecin-Fenix rider lead out the sprint, and held off his breakaway companions for the victory in front of the Old Opera House in downtown Frankfurt. Listen to Randy and Dean (nearly) each week to recap all of the excitement!

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