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1 week ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Chris Hamilton has a race face that any battle-hardened warrior would be envious of. The Australian super domestique is a constant in the highest mountains of cycling’s three Grand Tours, concentrated, eyes fearlessly focused forward, mouth open, teeth gritted, elbows light but locked. It’s a pain game that Hamilton loves, even though he personally gets no glory, with his time, and effort devoted to the success of Picnic-PostNL teammates.
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1 week ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Luke Plapp was so excited and wired after his career-first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro d’Italia earlier this month that he couldn’t sleep. “I stayed up until 3am,” he tells Spokes on the phone from Italy.
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2 weeks ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
When Fergal Guihen started telling people that he was going to cycle from his farming town in Ireland all the way to Australia, locals gave the 26-year-old money because they thought he was going to die.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Duncan Murray loves riding his bike but believes that every time he ventures outside on Australian roads, he is risking his life. The outlook is not one universally shared amongst cyclists – professional, amateur or recreational - though is understandable. Nineteen years ago, Murray was badly injured after being hit by a car on a ride in Melbourne.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
When Cadel Evans was young, he dreamed of leaving Australia to move abroad and forge a career competing against the best cyclists across the sport’s traditional homelands. He did that for decades, becoming Australia’s first – and still only – Tour de France champion, basing himself in Europe. But now, 10 years after retiring from competition, Evans, his wife, Stefania, and their two children have relocated.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Tadej Pogacar’s dominance throughout the European spring has been such that the Spokes homepageis starting to look more like a homage to the reigning Tour de France and world champion. Not intentionally, there is no fandom in this hood unless your name is Ben Affleck or Matt Damon.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Almost a year on from becoming the first Australian woman to win one of cycling’s Monuments – a handful of one-day races considered the oldest, hardest, longest and most prestigious on the calendar – Grace Brown is adjusting to retirement. “It was actually nice to have an Easter compared to pretty much always being at a race,” she tells Spokes.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Same players, different order. That was the result of Paris-Roubaix overnight – the top three from the Tour of Flanders reshuffling on the podium. This time it was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) celebrating a solo victory ahead of men’s road world champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG), with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) besting Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Florian Vermeersch (UAE Emirates-XRG) in a sprint for third.
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1 month ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
I remember the first time I saw Tadej Pogacar. It was at the end of the 2019 Tour of California. Everyone raved about the now defunct week-long stage race in the USA. It had a relaxed, early season vibe, but proper racing. I have epilepsy and ultimately as a result kept a low profile because after flying into LA from Australia and checking into my hotel, I’d realised I’d forgotten to pack a bunch of necessities.
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2 months ago | 
spokessports.substack.com | Sophie Smith
Tadej Pogacar has tightened his stranglehold on the WorldTour peloton, winning the Tour of Flanders overnight. Again, there was daylight between the Slovenian and first loser, Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) celebrating a solo victory after riding away from pre-race favourites including Lidl-Trek duo Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the Oude Kwaremont - the penultimate short but steep cobbled climb.