Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, April 19, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? - George Carlin
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Current racing:
- April 15 - 19: Tour of the Alps
Upcoming racing:
- April 21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Latest completed racing:
- April 17: La Flèche Wallone
- 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
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Here’s the team’s update:
Sunday brings the fourth and final Monument of the spring, the 254.5km Liège–Bastogne–Liège – one of the climbers’ best opportunities to add a major one-day race to their palmares. The route will be an up-and-down one the entire day, with the riders having to tackle eleven ascents before the final flat kilometers taking them to the center of Liège, where the 110th edition will conclude.
Côte de la Redoute (1.6km, 9.4%), Côte des Forges (1.3km, 7.8%) and Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons (1.3km, 11%) – the last of these coming just 13 kilometers from the line – will be the hills where the race promises to get tougher, paving the way for the big and potentially decisive moves of the day.
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Soudal Quick-Step – a three-time winner of “La Doyenne” – comes to the start of the oldest Monument in the world with James Knox, Fausto Masnada, making his first outing since Tirreno-Adriatico, Pieter Serry, Mauri Vansevenant and Louis Vervaeke, who will be joined by neo-pros Gil Gelders and William Junior Lecerf, the latter a stage winner at the Tour du Rwanda and runner-up at the AlUla Tour this year.
William Juinior Lecerf in 2023 at the Tour of Rwanda
“We are without our two leaders for this race, but we have confidence in this young and motivated group. We come to the start with a plan and we are ready to go out there and fight for a good result. The weather won’t be kind on Sunday and could end up playing a big role, but we are determined to give our best before concluding our spring classics campaign”, said sports director Klaas Lodewyck.
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We posted the report from stage winner Simon Carr's Team EF Education-EasyPost with the results.
Here’s the report from Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL:
Today’s fourth stage of the Tour of the Alps marked the queen stage of this year’s edition. The riders had to take on six hard climbs during the 141.3 kilometres between Laives and Borgo Valsugana, the perfect setting for another exciting GC battle. After a fast start, Gijs Leemreize made the jump into the break of the day, while the rest of the team was doing a great job to look after Romain Bardet in the chasing peloton. The pace remained high all day and the breakaway didn’t get much more than a three-minute advantage on the bunch. Most of the attackers got caught back along the way and the team’s focus switched back to Romain when the attacks amongst the favourites kicked off. He showed a strong performance, stayed calm, and was able to stay with the best all day. While Carr took the win after a long solo out of the breakaway, Romain battled to a solid 7th place for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL from the chasing group. Ahead of the final day, he now sits in fifth place in GC, still in contention to jump on the podium.
Speaking after the stage Bardet expressed: “I am a bit disappointed about how things went in the final today. I feel like I missed an opportunity to gain some time and positions in the GC and sprint for a better result. I felt good on the last climb and we managed to open a small gap, but it went back together on the last downhill. One last chance tomorrow, where we will go for it again.”
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