Book Review: The Road Book 1989

A review of the Road Book 1989, a comprehensive record of the 1989 Professional Road Racing Season

The Road Book 1989 is the inaugural cycling almanack in the Blue Series celebrating one of the most exciting years in the sport, the year of the closest Tour de France finish and the year the Berlin Wall fell.


When the first Road Book was published covering the 2018 season it immediately identified a gap in the market few realised was there and brought a unique level of insight into the sport of professional road cycling. With it though came one point of frustration – why did no one do this years before?

Well, the creators of the Road Book listened and the Blue Series of Road Books was born, with the flag dropping on 1989. A year that reminded American audiences, again, that the biggest sporting event in the world wasn’t the Super Bowl or the World Series, but the Tour de France.

As with the ‘Red Series’ the book is chock full of statistics and essays by those in the thick of the action. All the big races are in there and with each a description of what happened that day both on and off the bike, the latter a reminder that while professional road cycling can seem like a bubble it happens in public life goes on around it. Here’s an example:

TOUR DE SUISSE
Stage 4
17 June 1989
Liestyal-Bad Zurzach

166.5kmThe city of Liestal is famous for its Chienbase traditional parade held annually on the Sunday night after Ash Wednesday. Often characterised as a pagan spring festival, it features the startlingly dangerous-looking sight of people processing through the cobbled streets of the old town clutching huge flaming torches of strips of pine.

p 196

Of course 1989 is the year that a certain American with a French surname, Greg Lemond, broke French hearts in the most painful way when he bested French ‘national treasure’ the late Laurent Fignon by a mere eight seconds, on the final day, in Paris. Three hammer blows that struck deep into the French psyche. It was the closest the French have come to winning their home race in the 33 years since. It was also the year of the Tour de Trump versus the Tour de Rump, not a typo – see page 121.

A gallery of photographs from some of the best photographers in cycling bring 1989 to life and remind us that this was the era not just of steel frames but before shell helmets and the ubiquitous presence of sunglasses, when the suffering and glory was there for all to see. Everything changes, but nothing changes.

Happy Reading!

More details on the Road Book Series can be found on the official website here: https://theroadbook.co.uk/

Tour of Britain 2023 Set For Welsh Finish

Tour of Britain 2023 to finish in Wales as new long term agreement unveiled.

Nic Dlamini and Rory Townsend battle it out during the 2018 Tour of Britain in Wales (SWpix.com)

The Tour of Britain organisers Sweetspot have signed a long term deal with the Welsh Government to bring the UK’s biggest professional cycle race to Wales over the next four years.

The agreement, which began with the 2022 Women’s Tour stage between Wrexham and Welshpool in June, will secure future visits of both races to the principality. The venue for the 2023 finish is yet to be disclosed but is scheduled for Sunday 10 September 2023. It will be the 16th of the modern race that will have taken place in Wales since its return to the calendar in 2004. A further five stages of the Women’s Tour have also been hosted by Welsh regions since the race’s inaugural 2014 edition.

Welsh Government Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, said: “We’re looking forward to welcoming the Tour of Britain back again next year – and to our longer-term partnership with the Tour.  Wales’ credentials for hosting cycling events is now well-established. The Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour are the perfect showcase for our landscape and the welcome we provide to the competitors and spectators and we look forward to working with our Local Authority partners as the Tour of Britain continues to reach all points of Wales.”

Following the hosting of the final stage of the 2023 Tour of Britain, the agreement will see the 2024 Women’s Tour start in Wales for the first time ever.  In 2025 it will be the turn of the men’s Tour of Britain to start in Wales for the first time since 2018, and then 2026 will see the Women’s Tour’s overall finish in Wales for the first time in seven years.

Anne Adams-King, Welsh Cycling CEO, said: “It’s great news that the Tour of Britain will visit Wales again for 2023 and that the race and the Women’s Tour have secured a longer-term partnership with Welsh Government. We hope this news will help boost the popularity of cycling in Wales and help inspire the younger generation to take up their bikes.”

Mick Bennett, Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour race director, said: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with the Welsh Government and to be bringing the final stage of the 2023 Tour of Britain to Wales.

“The long-term support of the Welsh Government is invaluable in allowing us to plan for future stages of the races in Wales. Together we are working to reach as many parts of Wales as possible with both races over the next few years in order to give as many fans as possible the chance to see the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour.”

Promo video – courtesy of the Tour of Britain

Since 2004 the Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour of together have visited 18 of the 22 local authority regions in the country covering almost 1800 miles (3,000 kilometres) of racing in Wales, visiting the cities of Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, and Wrexham, as well as the Snowdonia and Brecon Beacons National Parks. 

According to independent reports by the Frontline agency the benefit to the Welsh economy has been in the tens of millions of pounds. The race has also enabled the showcase of both community projects and Wales’ rich portfolio of tourist attractions, from the revamped Carmarthenshire velodrome and the national closed road cycle circuit at Pembrey County Park in Carmarthenshire, to the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and the Great Orme.

Tour of Britain organisers hope to build on the support from the hundreds of thousands of road-side fans and millions more on TV. Since 2012, 12 stages of the men’s Tour of Britain and two stages of Women’s Tour in Wales have been broadcast live, reaching millions of viewers in the UK and around the world. Every stage held in Wales has also enjoyed free-to-air highlights broadcast in Britain.

Further details of the final stage of the Tour of Britain 2023 will be announced in the New Year, with more information on the host venues and routes for the Welsh stages of future editions of both races to be unveiled in due course

Lotte Kopecky Wins Strade Bianche Women Elite

Belgian Champ storms home first on Siena’s Piazza del Campo

Siena, 5 March 2022 – Lotte Kopecky (Team Sd Worx) has won the eighth edition of Strade Bianche Women Elite Eolo, 136km from Siena to Siena (Piazza del Campo). The Belgian rider crossed the finish line in the historic square just ahead of Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team Women). Third place went to Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team Sd Worx) at 10″.

Lotte Kopecky (Team Sd Worx) wins ahead of Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team Women) Photo Credit: LaPresse.
L:R Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar Team Women), Lotte Kopecky (Team Sd Worx), victor, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Team Sd Worx) Photo Gian Mattia D’Alberto – LaPresse

Saturday’s Strade Bianche double header delivered two first time winners with Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky taking the win in the Women’s Elite race, before Slovenian super star Tadej Pogacar followed up in the men’s event.

Lotte Kopecky in second spot as the peloton takes on the white roads of Tuscany. Foto LaPresse – Marco Alpozzi

It came down to a duel in the Women Elite event, with Kopecky and pre-race favourite Annemiek van Vleuten neck and neck up the last drag along the Via Santa Catarina before Kopecky edged van Vleuten on the line.

Speaking seconds after the finish, a victorious Lotte Kopecky said: “I cannot believe I just won! It was a great team effort from the whole Team Sd Worx. I knew I had teammates behind me that had my back. I had a good feeling in the finale, I tried to follow Annemiek Van Vleuten and I just kept pushing until the last corner, I knew I had to be first on the last corner, I was prepared for the sprint. It is the biggest victory of my career”

Full Results are available here