Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Sunday, April 7, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- April 7: Paris-Roubaix
Upcoming racing:
- April 10: De Brabantse Pijl
Latest completed racing:
- April 6: Women's Paris-Roubaix
- 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
- 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
We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Here's the report from fourth-place Marianne Vos' Team Jumbo | Lease a Bike:
Marianne Vos missed a podium spot in the fifth edition of Paris-Roubaix. In a titanic battle, she fell short of victory and had to concede to Lotte Kopecky.
The peloton rolls out from the start city of Denain. ASO photo
Despite several attack attempts, the high pace in the peloton prevented a breakaway. On the sixth cobbled stretch of the day, the race broke completely open. Lotte Kopecky pulled the throttle and managed to create an elite group, which included Vos, Sophie von Berswordt-Wallrabe, and Lieke Nooijen.
On the Camphin-en-Pévèle, the decisive blow then followed. Vos accelerated and was joined by five riders. Despite several attack attempts, no one managed to escape, and the leaders rode together towards the Vélodrome André Pétrieux. On the Roubaix cycling track, Kopecky eventually proved to have the fastest legs.
"It's always a very special sprint," Vos reflected. "I came too early and from outside they came with more speed. Finishing in Roubaix is always different, but Lotte (Kopecky) deservedly won today. It's disappointing not to succeed, especially when you're so close. But I'm also aware that you don't win just like that.”
Von Berswordt-Wallrabe was at the start of the Hell of the North for the first time today and showed up several times. "It was a super cool experience to ride here. We gave everything as a team today and went full for the win. Then it's really unfortunate that it doesn't work out. We tried everything to let Marianne win, and then it is very unfortunate that she just came up short. But this is unfortunately part of the sport.”
A home race for Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women is scheduled next week with the Amstel Gold Race. "It felt good again today and I noticed that I wasn't bad, I'll take this with me to next week when the Amstel Gold Race is coming up. My next goal," Vos concluded.
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Here's the Paris-Roubaix Femmes report from Letizia Borghesi's EF Education-Cannondale's team:
Letizia Borghesi ducked her head to the side and kicked down through her pedals, marking the sprinters in her group. She’d fought her way back into the race after a chaotic start, which left her teammate, last year’s champion, Alison Jackson behind in a chasing group. Letizia rode onto the track a half lap behind the leaders. She just stuck her elbows out and pushed with all she had left to the line. Her sprint was good for 13th—her best-ever result in a monument.
It was Lotte Kopecky who won the race. ASO photo
The Queen of the Classics hadn’t gone to plan for EF Education-Cannondale, but our team rolled with the punches and rode away from the Roubaix velodrome with their heads held high.
‘It was a good performance,” Letizia said on the infield after her sprint. “In the beginning, I dropped my chain and was thinking I was going to be out of the race, but then I kept fighting really hard. I made a huge effort to come back to the first group and then I kept fighting until the finish line.”
Last year’s champion Alison Jackson applauds the grit that Letizia showed in this year’s edition. Her own chances were scuppered by crashes early in the cobbled classic.
“There was a lot of chaos out there today,” she said. “That is how it is. That is exactly what I expected. The wind made it really hard and you had to be in a good position. I always said that if I had a clean run with no mechanicals or crashes I could win. That was what happened last year. This year, I came down twice, got pushed over on some gravel sections. That is why we love and hate this race.”
Letizia sure loves Paris-Roubaix. Once she made it back to the front, she used her cyclocross skills to surf onto each cobbled sector on the wheels of the biggest names in the sport, showing them that she belonged with them, and then gritted her teeth and rattled over the stones.
Those efforts had cost her after 148.5 kilometers and 17 sectors of pavé.
“I was hoping to do a better sprint but the energy was low at the finish and I just couldn’t,” Letizia said, “but it is for sure a big performance that gives me a lot of confidence for the future.”
We’re already looking forward to the next Paris-Roubaix Femmes. First up, is tomorrow’s men’s edition of the monument.
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We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Here is the report from stage six winner Carlos Rodriguez's Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Carlos Rodriguez pulled off a superb final day performance at the Tour of the Basque Country to win stage six and move up to second place overall.
The Grenadier was present when the accelerations began in the GC group, measuring his efforts well before jumping clear alongside Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).
The pair combined well on the final run-in, with Ayuso taking overall victory and Rodriguez winning the stage in Eibar.
Carlos Rodriguez wins the final stage with Juan Ayuso right on his wheel.
A close battle between the lead duo and the chasing pack, which included the yellow jersey of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), meant the final podium positions went right down to the wire. In the end Carlos finished a single second ahead of Skjelmose, and 42 seconds back on Ayuso.
Brandon Rivera headed up the road early on as part of the day's big breakaway of 23 riders. The move was eventually reeled in as the pace rose in the GC ranks in the final kilometres.
Carlos Rodriguez:
"Obviously it would be good to have won the general classification. It's difficult to finish this way - but I'm happy for Ayuso he deserves it. He did a really good race.
"I want to thank my team for all their support and believing in me. I'm going to celebrate this victory with them tonight. They deserve it."
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And here's the Basque Country Race report from GC winner Juan Ayuso's UAE Team Emirates:
Juan Ayuso took the biggest victory of his young career claiming the overall title at the Itzulia Basque Country today.
The Emirati team played their cards to perfection on the 137km hilly circuit starting and finishing in Eibar, which left Ayuso in a good position to capitalise in the closing kilometres and net the teams 21st victory of the season.
The afternoon started on a positive note with the confirmation that Jay Vine would not require surgery following his brutal crash on stage 4 which left many of the pre-race favourites injured and out of the race.
Dr.Adrian Rotunno (Medical Director): “After examining MRI and final clinical assessment, thankfully no surgery will be necessary for Jay. The fractures are stable enough not to warrant surgical correction.
Jay will remain in hospital over the following days to allow for ongoing observations and further recovery. He will be in a neck brace for up to six weeks but will be able to start with general body rehab from next week.”
The race sprung into action when a large break of around 20 riders went off the front including Sjoerd Bax and Igor Arrieta which built up a maximum lead of just under 4′. An attack from the peloton from Marc Soler saw the Catalan bridge over to the front of the race and put the pressure on the team of race leader Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl Trek) as the kilometres ticked away.
With the main peloton heavily reduced, Ayuso made his move on the Izua climb with stage winner Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) in tow.
The pair would arrive to the line together with Ayuso taking the overall win and Rodriguez the stage.
Race winner Juan Ayuso
Ayuso: “It’s incredible. It’s my first World Tour stage race win and to do it here in the Basque Country in amazing. I have to give full credit to my teammates, I think we raced perfectly from start to finish and we deserved the win. Everything went perfectly, we raced to put Trek under pressure with getting the guys up the road and then me following over in the end. It’s my first time arriving to the Ardennes in good form so I’m excited to see what I can achieve.”
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