Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- April 15 - 19: Tour of the Alps
- April 17: La Flèche Wallone
Upcoming racing:
- April 21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Latest completed racing:
- April 14: Amstel Gold Race
- April 14: Tour du Doubs
- April 10: De Brabantse Pijl
- April 7: Paris-Roubaix
- 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
Here’s the post from Vingegaard’s Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Jonas Vingegaard has been allowed to leave the hospital after his crash in the Tour of the Basque Country. Read his message to all fans and followers below.
Good news! A message from Jonas:
"Hello everyone, it’s time for me to leave the hospital. I want to thank all the medical staff for taking so good care of me. And I want to thank everyone for their moral support. I have received a lot of messages, presents and drawings. Heartwarming! Now it’s time to fully recover again. Thumbs up!!"
Jonas Vingegaard outside the hospital.
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The team sent me this schedule:
La Flèche Wallonne, APR 17
Phil West - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"Coming into the heart of the Ardennes classics period and with an extra local lap including the famous Muur de Huy, we can expect a very tough race. After losing Warren and Oscar to crashes at Amstel, we come to La Flèche Wallonne with a mixture of youthful talent and experience, where we will focus on being efficient with our efforts during the race and coming through the key points of the day with as many numbers in the front as possible. From there we will go into the final with an attacking mindset as we approach the Muur de Huy, where usually the best legs will decide about the winner on top of that punchy climb."
Line-up:
Matt Dinham (AUS)
Patrick Eddy (AUS)
Enzo Leijnse (NED)
Tim Naberman (NED)
Martijn Tusveld (NED)
Frank van den Broek (NED)
Kevin Vermaerke (USA)
Martijn Tusveld (shown at the 2022 Giro d'Italia) will race the Flèche Wallone. Sirotti photo
La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, APR 17
Albert Timmer - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"We're in for an exciting day of action as we take on some mid-week racing in the Ardennes. La Flèche Wallonne is famous for its incredibly steep finish on the Muur de Huy, which the peloton take on several times throughout the day. However, there are also some small punchy climbs before it so we need to be sharp as a team on the attacks in the pre-final, before we look to Juliette as our finisher for the expected big battle up the steep ascent."
Line-up:
Francesca Barale (ITA)
Eleonora Ciabocco (ITA)
Juliette Labous (FRA)
Josie Nelson (GBR)
Eglantine Rayer (FRA)
Anna van der Meiden (NED)
Liège-Bastogne-Liège, APR 21
Phil West - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"La Doyenne, the Queen of the Classics, and perhaps the toughest of all to round out the Ardennes campaign awaits us on Sunday. We will aim to ride a proactive race, ideally so that we can have numbers late into the day and with Romain [Bardet] and Kevin we then have options to tackle the race on several fronts together. As ever, with modern racing we can expect the final to open early so it will be important for us to invest energy in those moments so we come into the finish in a good way, and can play our chances. In a race like this we will need to be really sharp as a team and back each other up so we can go for the best result that's possible on the day."
Line-up:
Romain Bardet (FRA)
Romain Combaud (FRA)
Matt Dinham (AUS)
Enzo Leijnse (NED)
Chris Hamilton (AUS)
Martijn Tusveld (NED)
Kevin Vermaerke (USA)
Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, APR 21
Kelvin Dekker - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"Liège-Bastogne-Liège marks the end of our classics campaign and we want to finish on a high. We go into the race with Juliette as our finisher, but the challenging parcours offers a lot of opportunities for us to influence the race with our strong line-up, so we will be alert for any promising early moves. We look forward to taking on the final spring classic and we will do our best as a team to make sure we are present in the race until the end."
Line-up:
Francesca Barale (ITA)
Juliette Labous (FRA)
Josie Nelson (GBR)
Eglantine Rayer (FRA)
Elise Uijen (NED)
Nienke Vinke (NED)
Gent-Wevelgem U23, APR 21
Bennie Lambregts - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"Gent-Wevelgem U23 is another great race on the calendar for our Development program. It's a fantastic opportunity for our young squad to gain experience towards the WorldTour level edition of Gent-Wevelgem for the future, with it taking place on a similar parcours and featuring some of the same hard cobbled sections. We go to the race with a strong line-up that we think as a unit should be able to fight for a good result on the day. We will come together as a group and start the race with a clear plan and try to implement it as best as possible throughout the afternoon."
Line-up:
Ryan Gal (NED)
Axel Källberg (FIN)
Frank Ragilo (EST)
Adam Seeman (CZE)
Thom van der Werff (NED)
Vlad Van Mechelen (BEL)
Tour of Türkiye, APR 21 - 28
Roy Curvers - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"We return to the Tour of Türkiye this year and ahead of us is a varied parcours which takes place over eight stages, where our main goal will be to hunt for stage results. On paper there are several sprint chances throughout the week, so this is a great opportunity for our sprint group to come together and further build and improve as a unit. If we succeed in doing that, then we should be competing for top results. On the hillier days, we will look to ride offensively and support Frank to get in good moves and breaks, where we can then also search for results."
Line-up:
Tobias Lund Andresen (DEN)
Johan Dorussen (NED)
Fabio Jakobsen (NED)
Benjamin Peatfield (GBR)
Julius van den Berg (NED)
Frank van den Broek (NED)
Bram Welten (NED)
Tour de Romandie, APR 23 - 28
Phil West - Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach:
"This year the composition of the stages at Tour de Romandie looks to be quite straightforward and clear on where the opportunities lie for certain types of riders. However, we can be sure that there will always be a surprise here or there during the race, so we can't be complacent and need to keep focused each day. The time trial stages should normally be straightforward and hopefully, our punchy sprinters can go well on the short and technical loop in the prologue. Then we'll have them in action again for the sprint stages where we'll go for Emils as our finisher. For the mountain stages, we will support Gijs as our finisher, who will look for opportunities and go for day results."
Line-up:
Pavel Bittner (CZE)
Patrick Eddy (AUS)
Sean Flynn (GBR)
Gijs Leemreize (NED)
Emils Liepiņš (LAT)
Niklas Märkl (GER)
Tim Naberman (NED)
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Here's the team's update:
UAE Team Emirates continue their spring racing campaign with two important World Tour races scheduled, starting with the Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday (17 April) followed by the oldest Monument of the calendar known as ‘La Doyenne’ , Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday (21 April). Also on Sunday the team will debut at the Giro Della Romagna in Italy.
The team for Liege will be lead by Tadej Pogačar who comes into the race after a blistering start to the season with victories already in Strade Bianche and the Volta Catalunya.
Tadej Pogacar winning 2024 Strade Bianche. Sirotti photo
The Emirati squad will also look to the good form of Amstel Gold Race runner-up Marc Hirschi and the experience of veteran riders like Diego Ulissi.
Pogačar: “ Liege is one of my favourite races and also one of the hardest, so it’s always nice to go back there. Since Catalunya I’ve spent some time at altitude with some teammates and we’ve been building up well together towards the Giro. For these Ardennes races we have a very dynamic team. The form is good and I think I can do well but on a whole the team is very strong and we’ll have options which is always an advantage.I’m excited to pin on a race number again on Sunday.”
Sports Manager Matxin Fernandez (Spa) alongside Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman (Slo) and Tomas Gil (Ven) will take charge of the team for both races.
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Here’s the team’s news:
The future is bright for Joe Blackmore. It may not have been a name that many had heard in the cycling world prior to the 2024 season but it didn’t take long for that to change.
Having burst onto the road racing scene in 2024, after just four races on the road in 2023, the 21-year-old Brit has done nothing but impress in his first four months with Israel – Premier Tech Academy. So, it will come as no surprise that he’s already landed a pro contract, joining IPT’s ProTeam on a two-year deal for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Joe Blackmore winning Liège – Bastogne – Liège U23
Blackmore added the Liège – Bastogne – Liège U23 win to his palmarès on Saturday, the latest result on a long list that includes his General Classification victories at the Tour du Rwanda, Tour de Taiwan, and Circuit des Ardennes and three stage wins. But this is just the beginning.
“I’ve really enjoyed my first few months with the team and the race calendar I have,” says Blackmore. “I didn’t expect to win so much already. I knew that my winter without cyclocross allowed me to train more so I expected to be a bit stronger than last year, a bit closer to the front, but I didn’t expect to win all these races. I guess once you start winning, you’re on a roll.”
Despite the unsurprising interest from other teams, Blackmore looked no further than Israel – Premier Tech.
He says: “Israel – Premier Tech seems like a really good team, and everyone is caring and supportive. I’ve raced up with the ProTeam a bit already, and I really like the environment and the opportunities I have been given so I was motivated to stay. As for my objectives, I really want to go for the win in every race that suits me, and I have my eye on the mountain bike and road World Championships this year. I’m not a pure climber, I’m not a pure sprinter so I think one week stage races and punchy one-day races are particularly suited to me and eventually, I’ll see how I go at the Grand Tours.”
Blackmore’s background as a mountain bike and cyclocross rider first caught the attention of IPT Academy’s newly-appointed Manager Tim Elverson, who encouraged the Brit to spend more time on the road.
“I first saw Joe back in the 21/22 cyclocross season and I could see something in him so started to keep an eye on him,” explains Elverson. “I’ve rolled the dice before bringing riders from cyclocross over to the road, so I started working with him from September last year. He came to Israel – Premier Tech Academy and embraced the learning curve and has really settled into the family environment we have built, which I believe has allowed him to grow quickly. With the opportunities IPT can offer and the WorldTour structure we have, the progress he can make is limitless.”
While Blackmore is still finding his way on the road, Elverson believes his versatility holds the key to his future as a pro rider.
“Obviously, Joe is very much on the up and it is still unclear exactly what type of racer he will become but my feeling is he is particularly suited to short stage races and the Ardennes Classics. Although, with the way he handles the bike and his love of a hard race, I think there are few Monuments that may suit him. Joe is a calculated racer and with the experience we have in this team, the only sure thing is there will be many wins to come.”
Blackmore’s promotion from the Academy to the ProTeam sees him join a long list of riders who have made the jump within the IPT structure, a testament to the team’s recruitment strategy says IPT owner Sylvan Adams.
“Joe has been a very quick learner since making the switch to road racing,” says Adams. “And as he’s shown, he is a smart, fearless competitor, and a real winner. Joe’s remarkable results and his new contract are an additional validation of our recruitment strategy, with seven riders promoted over the last three seasons. Signing Joe to IPT was the easiest decision we’ve made this year. I’m excited to see his development next season when he will be up against the best. He’s got a great future ahead.”
IPT General Manager Kjell Carlström echoed Adams’ words, highlighting the team’s successful start to 2024.
“2024 is IPT’s 10th season in the peloton and it is already shaping up to be our best,” adds Carlström. “A large part of our success has come from taking a chance on riders, particularly young riders like Joe, over the last couple of years and concentrating on the professional structure and unique atmosphere in the team. I truly believe this is the best place for Joe in these crucial early stages of his career and if the last four months are anything to go by, Joe is already right at home.”
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