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Friday, April 26, 2024

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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia

A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. - Frank Lloyd Wright

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Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, Vol 1: 1903 - 1975 is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• April 21 - 28: Tour of Turkey
• April 23 - 28: Tour de Romandie
• April 26 - 28: Vuelta Asturias

Upcoming racing:

• May 1: Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt
• May 4: GP du Morbihan
• May 4 - 26: Giro d'Italia

Latest completed racing:

• April 21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
• April 15 - 19: Tour of the Alps
• April 17: La Flèche Wallone
• April 14: Amstel Gold Race
• April 14: Tour du Doubs
• April 10: De Brabantse Pijl
• April 7: Paris-Roubaix

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Tour de Romandie stage two reports

We posted the report from winner Thibau Nys' Team Lidl-Trek with the results.

Here's the report from third-place Luke Plapp's Team Jayco-AlUla:

Australian champion Luke Plapp once again showed the world his talent on today’s second stage of the Tour of Romandie. Making a brave move in the final three kilometres of the stage, the 23-year-old successfully bridged across to a leading group, putting it all on the line to challenge for the victory, he eventually crossed the line in third place.

The peloton gets ready to start stage two. Sirotti photo

After cold and snowing conditions for the opening prologue and stage one, the riders enjoyed a day of sunshine for the 171km stage, which featured one main mountain pass, Les Mosses.

The race heated up over the main climb of the day and as the peloton heading towards the final, the breakaway still held on to a three-minute advantage. Briton Simon Yates launched a strong attack with just under three kilometres remaining, setting up teammate Plapp.

As the remaining breakaway riders still dangled ahead, Plapp launched a powerful move over the top and barreled towards the remaining leaders as the road headed north towards the finishing line.

Making the catch and with one kilometre remaining, Plapp continued to empty the tank, pushing the pace, with only two riders remaining tight on his wheel, but with the reduced peloton close behind.

After opening up the gap, Plapp then peeled off the front with 600m to go, taking a moments rest before opening up his sprint early with 300m remaining ahead of a tight hairpin bend.

In the end, the finish line proved to be a little too far away as the Australian was suddenly passed in the closing 200 metres and had to settle for third place on the day, but after a brave and gutsy ride.

The young 23-year-old now moves up to third place overall, 22 seconds adrift from the new race leader Nys ahead of tomorrow’s 15.1km individual time trial.

Luke Plapp – 3rd place:
“It was a really beautiful day, the weather was amazing, it was nice to be in just a skinsuit during the race so that was really nice surprise which I enjoyed. The whole day was relatively solid because the breakaway had so much time. It was a bit of an interesting day to be honest, with the break, nobody knew which team was going to ride, there was a bit of a standoff. Then it was quite controlled and that last climb, I surprised myself to be honest. I didn’t expect that.

"Simon did an amazing attack into the final that sort of softened everybody up, so I just tried to take my opportunity. I am happy with my shape, and we will see how tomorrow goes. TT is my favorite event in the world, I can’t wait, it is going to be a fun day for me.”

Here's the report from Team Bora-hansgrohe:

Six days of racing, divided up with Swiss precision: 2 time trials, 2 undulating stages, 2 mountain-top finishes. This is the demanding program of the 77th edition of the Tour de Romandie.

The race kicked off with a prologue that was short on kilometers but full of curves. Roger Adria mastered the 2.3 kilometers through Payerne as the fastest rider from BORA - hansgrohe. He was half a second faster than Aleks Vlasov, who, together with Jai Hindley, is going into the stage race as the team's GC leader.

Stage 1 promised a hilly day, which ended flat in Fribourg, but did not necessarily have to be a sprint decision. Almost all the teams in the peloton arrived without a clear sprinter. That's why BORA - hansgrohe put the peloton under pressure.

Jai Hindley at the start of stage one. Sirotti photo

Rolf Aldag:
“We wanted to have a rider in the breakaway because the course was not clearly designed for a sprint. Gampi wanted to try, and he did. When the group was caught, Gampi attacked again. He realized that he still had the momentum and just went for it. That was strong!”

The two leaders Aleks Vlasov and Jai Hindley went into the first mountain-top finish on Thursday with a good starting position in the overall standings. With only a few seconds separating them, all the favorites are close together. The final climb to Salvan was set to sort the classification.

Once again, BORA - hansgrohe started the stage in attack mode and placed a rider in the breakaway with Roger Adria. He was only caught in the last 3km by the chasing group - where the team was very present with Florian Lipowitz, Jai Hindley and Aleks Vlasov. Florian Lipowitz, who has just extended his contract with BORA - hansgrohe, went on a final attack and finished the day in 4th place. Aleks Vlasov followed in 6th place and jumped up to 8th place in the overall standings.

At the halfway point, BORA - hansgrohe leads the team classification of the WorldTour-race.

Rolf Aldag's interim conclusion:
“We're on target, but it's a surprising Tour de Romandie. Even after the first mountain-top finish, it's still a game of seconds. At the moment it looks like it won't be the mountains that decide the Tour, but the time trial and bonification seconds. Tomorrow's time trial is demanding and I assume that there will be a preliminary decision. We'll make sure that we put everything on the road tomorrow.”

Here’s the Romandie Tour report from fifth-place Juan Ayuso’s UAE Team Emirates:

Juan Ayuso put in a strong climbing display to take the 5th spot on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie today in Switzerland. The first big mountain day of the race from Fribourg to Salvan/Les Marécottes (171km) saw UAE save their energies until the final ascent where Ayuso and reigning race champion from 2023 Adam Yates were in the GC battle behind as the early race break battled for the stage honours.

UAE Team Emirates rider Jan Cristen riding the prologue time trial

The day was won by Thibaut Nys (Lidl-Trek) who was one of the few remainders from the day’s early breakaway. The race continues tomorrow with a time trial with start/finish in Oron (15.5km). Nys leads the race overall with Ayuso close behind at 27” in the GC.

Ayuso: “I’m feeling better every day here, yesterday I suffered quite a lot on the stage. It’s good that even through the suffering I’m still up in the mix. Tomorrow is an important today and hopefully I can take back some time before Saturday. The race is still very open and Yates and I are still in a good position so we’ll fight until the end.”

And here’s the Romandie Tour report from Ilan Van Wilder’s Team Soudal Quick-Step:

The first of the week’s two summit finishes took the riders to Les Marécottes, a quite steep 7.3km climb which – at least, on paper – should have brought some significant changes to the overall standings and create wider gaps between the favourites ahead of Friday’s individual time trial.

But the presence of that important stage against the clock and the strong headwind on the final ascent completely flipped the script and only a few attacks happened in the closing kilometers of the stage. Even in these conditions, a selection was made and the general classification was reshuffled, Ilan Van Wilder being among the ones who gained a couple of positions thanks to a solid display on Les Marécottes.

Ilan Van Wilder winning the 2023 Tre Valli Varesine.

The 23-year-old Belgian – who earlier this season finished fourth overall at the UAE Tour – started the day in eighth place and now sits just three seconds off the podium of the Tour de Romandie, having the chance of moving up in the rankings in Oron, where the third stage will take place.

“The team did a great work and made sure we keep our energy for the climb. The guys were there for me and I think we all did a good job which puts us in a nice position going into the time trial”, said Ilan at the end of stage two.

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