Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien
Plato's dialogue Phaedo is available in both audiobook & Kindle eBook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- April 1 - 6: Tour of the Basque Country/Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
- April 2 - 5: Region Pays de la Loire Tour
- April 3: Scheldeprijs
Upcoming racing:
- April 7: Paris-Roubaix
- April 10: De Brabantse Pijl
Latest completed racing:
- March 31: Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders)
- March 30: Gran Premio Miguel Indurain
- March 30: Volta Limburg Classic
- March 29: Route Adélie de Vitré
- March 27: Dwars door Vlaanderen
- March 27: Paris-Camembert Lepetit
- March 18 - 24: Volta a Catalunya
- March 24: Ghent - Wevelgem
- March 24: La Roue Tourangelle
We posted the report from the race organizer with the results.
Here's the report from stage winner Paul Lapeira's Team Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale:
Paul Lapeira:
"I won twice three weeks ago in the Coupe de France, but now I'm coming to a WorldTour race where the level is completely different and I'm also winning, which is great. I tried to attack for the first time at 1500 metres, but the peloton wouldn't let me go and came straight after me. I then decided to get up for the sprint. Bruno (Armirail) came to pick me up and put me back in the pack at 700 metres, and he did the rest until the 200-metre mark. When I saw that things were starting to pick up again, I launched my sprint, and that did it! It's so good!"
Paul Lapeira wins stage two.
The news:
Team leader Felix Gall crashed on the final stretch towards Cambo-les-Bains. The roads were made slippery by the rain at the end of the stage. Felix was soon back on the road with the help of Nans Peters, who gave him his bike.
The number: 7
Valentin Retailleau takes a top-10 WorldTour finish with a fine seventh place at the end of the second stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. Bruno Armirail takes ninth place overall, 24 seconds behind leader Primoz Roglic. With his victory, Paul also moves up to 11th place overall.
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Here's the Tour of the Basque Country stage two report from third-place Louis Vervaeke's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
An undulating 160km stage that travelled from Irun to Kanbo, where a 350m uphill drag averaging 7% promised an exciting battle for victory is what the Itzulia Basque Country had in store Tuesday afternoon, when the peloton took on the race’s first road stage.
The rain which decided to make its appearance for the second straight day made for a very nervous peloton, and this led to numerous crashes in the last 15 kilometers. Fortunately, none of the Soudal Quick-Step riders were involved, and the team could escort Remco Evenepoel to the intermediate sprint, where the Belgian Champion snatched one second. This helped Remco move one place in the general classification, only ten seconds from the yellow jersey.
Remco Evenepoel (shown winning stage 8 of this year's Paris-Nice) is now in third place in the Tour of the Basque Country. Sirotti photo
In the reduced sprint, Louis Vervaeke impressed with his fast turn of legs which netted him third, behind winner Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R), while Evenepoel concluded just a couple of places behind, in the same time.
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Here’s the Basque Country Race report from Jonas Vingegaard’s Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
In the second stage of Itzulia Basque Country, Jonas Vingegaard managed to finish in the first group after a hectic finale. The Dane maintained his fifth place in the overall classification. The stage win was for Paul Lapeira.
In the hilly second stage of Itzulia Basque Country, the peloton crossed the Spanish-French border. After the start in Irun, a breakaway of five riders gained an advantage over the peloton, in which the Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders rode attentively.
When the breakaway was reeled in a good distance from the finish, the weather conditions worsened. After a rain-soaked finale, in which the wet roads posed an extra risk, Vingegaard and Loe van Belle finished in the first group. The rest of the yellow-and-black formation also reached the finish line safely a minute and a half later.
"I am relieved that we survived this stage unscathed", sports director Frans Maassen said afterwards. "The rain and the slippery roads proved to be very dangerous. It was a stressful day, but I'm glad we were able to finish it trouble-free. In the end, Loe did a great job in keeping Jonas out of trouble."
Joans Vingegaard about to start stage two of this year's Tirreno-Adriatico. Sirotti photo
On Wednesday, the longest stage -including six categorized climbs- awaits the riders. Vingegaard will enter the third stage as fifth in GC.
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And here's the Tour of the Basque Country report from Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:
After Monday’s opening time trial, Tuesday saw the first open road stage of the week at Itzulia Basque Country. Set to be the main sprint opportunity of the week, although in typical Itzulia fashion there were still several rolling climbs to contend with, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL aimed to bring fast finisher Emils Liepins into the finale. Staying safe and out of trouble earlier in the day, the team moved forward into a good position at around 20 kilometres to go but from that point the bad luck started. Liepins suffered a puncture and after a hard chase with the help of the guys returned to the group at around five kilometres to go.
However, the pace was high and the bunch nervous on the damp, wet roads, and unfortunately a crash in the front third of the bunch saw all of the team miss out on the front split. Oscar Onley was involved in the spill but managed to get back on his bike and finish the stage with some minor cuts and scrapes. It unfortunately meant the team couldn’t compete for a result on the stage, with Warren Barguil leading the team home.
Road captain Romain Combaud explains more: “The first part of the day we did really well and stuck all together. We were in a good position at 20 kilometres to go but in the end it was a lot more hectic, with a lot of bad luck. Emils had a flat tyre at around 12 kilometres to go when it was really fast, so it was a hard chase back. We made it back at around five kilometres left and we tried to put him in a good spot, especially Martijn who did a good job, but because it was so fast and hard it was already a bit too late I think. We were then again unlucky with Oscar involved in the crash at four kilometres to go, but he is okay apart from some cuts so that is the most important thing for the rest of the week. It was just bad luck all round. We have four more opportunities so will keep our heads up and continue in a good way.”
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