DAN MARTIN UAE EMIRATES
In all the time I have been writing for Procycling, I don’t think I have started a column with these words. Perhaps it’s a sign of my age and experience, but... cycling has changed a lot since I turned professional in 2008.
Back then, training started in earnest in January and even then, the older generation told stories of not having touched the bike until 1 January. I generally began riding on 1 December but with a lot of time in spent in the gym, avoiding the worst weather. It was possible to show up at the first races in February slightly unfit and use them as training for the serious racing in March with Paris-Nice. Nowadays, December training camp often feels like a race, and some of the hardest races are the seemingly insignificant short stage races in February. Show up at them at 90 per cent and you are in for a kicking.
The teams’ need for WorldTour points is still partly to blame, as sponsors look at the ranking throughout the year to determine success. Start the season badly and the pressure mounts. Start well and momentum builds. Have a good Tour and all is seemingly irrelevant, but that’s another story entirely.
Rider contracts also come into play. Any rider coming to the end of a deal will be keen to start the season strongly and hope to get a deal signed in the spring. But this theory can also be proven wrong as I had my best season in 2017 and signed my contract with UAE in August. Race organisers are keen to take advantage of the excitement of the new season, meaning there are substantial races in the spring. Have your race in February and you can guarantee a strong start-list as the best prepare for an important block of racing in spring too. This front-loaded start to the season and relative lack of racing in the autumn means a lot of riders finish their seasons in September and start training again in mid-October, which of course explains the excitement to race again in January!
It’s not better or worse, just different. And with races all over the world, we live in a more globalised sporting environment. Yet every year when a string of races are cancelled in early spring due to the weather, I can’t help but feel that the sport needs to embrace the change and forget the traditional race calendar. Purists will disagree but there’s nothing worse than a cancelled race for anybody.