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Monday, April 29, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
David L. Stanley's masterful telling of his bout with skin cancer Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
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 - 28: Tour of Turkey
- April 23 - 28: Tour de Romandie
- April 26 - 28: Vuelta Asturias
- 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
We posted the report from GC winner Carlos Rodriguez's Team INEOS Grenadiers with the results.
Here's the report from Team Bora-hansgrohe:
BORA - hansgrohe finishes the Tour de Romandie in 2nd and 3rd place overall. Aleksandr Vlasov (2nd, 7 seconds behind) and Florian Lipowitz (3rd, 9 seconds behind) stand next to the winner Carlos Rodriguez on the final podium.
Vlasov underlines his reliable form in this season's WorldTour stage races. After 5th place in Paris-Nice and 4th place in Catalonia, he has now made it onto the podium. With the confidence of a successful first half of the season, Vlasov now takes a break from racing for several weeks - the build-up to the Tour de France begins.
The final GC podium, from left: Aleksandr Vlasov (2nd), Carlos Rodriguez (1st), & Florian Lipowitz (3rd)
While a podium finish was Vlasov's stated goal for the Tour de Romandie, Florian Lipowitz focused on preparing for his Grand Tour debut. For the youngster, the last days were only his third stage race at WorldTour level. The aim was to get into a race rhythm before the Giro d'Italia. His strong performance in yesterday's queen stage, where he missed the stage win by just a few meters, shows that he is in top form at the right time. This is Lipowitz's first GC podium in the WorldTour - Turin can come.
Florian Lipowitz:
"I'm really happy with the result. Before the race, I never thought I would be able to ride up front here. I came here with mixed feelings because I haven't had that many race days yet and I came straight from an altitude training camp. I wasn't sure what my form would be. To be able to ride up front gives me a lot of confidence."
Aleks Vlasov:
"I think it was a good week for the team with 2nd and 3rd place in the GC. It was also a really good team performance yesterday in the queen's stage. For me it was a nice race and I'm happy with my form. Lipo showed that he's super strong and I wish him good luck for his first Giro."
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Here's the report from GC fourth-place Ilan Van Wilder's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Ilan Van Wilder added another World Tour top-five to his growing palmares, after the ones at last year’s Tour de Pologne and this year’s UAE Tour. Now in his third season with Soudal Quick-Step, the 23-year-old from Jette showed again how much he has progressed since joining the Wolfpack in what was a demanding and wearing edition of the Tour de Romandie, which concluded in Vernier after a rain-soaked, full gas day.
Ilan Van Wilder finishes stage four.
A solid display across the six stages of the Swiss race and some strong climbing performances on the mountain top finishes of Les Marécottes and Leysin helped Ilan bring Belgium’s best GC result in more than three decades here and another notable result for our team in a World Tour race this season, after the runner-up places we got got in Paris-Nice with Remco Evenepoel and the Volta a Catalunya, where Mikel Landa also concluded second.
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Here’s the Romandie Tour report from Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Tim van Dijke just missed out on a podium spot in the final stage of the Tour of Romandie. In the sprint of a reduced peloton, the 24-year-old rider from Team Visma | Lease a Bike had to settle for fourth place. Dorian Godon sprinted to victory for the second time this week.
Without the not fully fit Koen Bouwman, the peloton set off for a wet ride of over 150 kilometers. Jan Tratnik tried to get in the breakaway, but didn't manage to join the front group. However, the leaders got little margin from the peloton and were caught at about 25 kilometers from the finish line.
It was a wet day in Switzerland. The riders at the start line.
In the final kilometers, Van Dijke was led to the front by Tratnik, Johannes Staune-Mittet and Julien Vermote. The young Dutchman entered the final turn in fourth place and also crossed the line in that position. "I think a better result was possible," Van Dijke said afterwards. "When I wanted to start the sprint, I got hemmed on the left side of the road. I was disappointed with that."
Nevertheless, Van Dijke praised the fact that the team had done everything possible to get him to sprint. "The guys gave me a lot of confidence by riding up front and countering all the attacks. In the last 600 meters Julien brought me to the front and I was able to move up nicely. Normally I prepare the sprint for Olav Kooij, but I am very happy that I got the chance to sprint myself twice this week. I will take these learning moments with me to the next races."
Van Dijke has had a busy spring and is happy that he is still achieving a high level even now. "Things are going well. I was motivated to take the chances I would get this week. In Tuesday's prologue I had hoped to go for the podium, but sixth wasn't bad either. I think this fourth place is a nice way to end the week. I'm proud of that."
Sport director Grischa Niermann is pleased with his team's work ethic. "Initially we wanted to try to get Bart Lemmen in the breakaway today, because theoretically he still had a chance of winning the mountain jersey. In the beginning, four men quickly rode away and unfortunately none of us were among them. Then we kept quiet for a long time so we could support Tim in the final. The guys did a good job and we can definitely live with fourth place," Niermann said.
The German looks back on the past week with mixed feelings. "We took a good step towards the Giro and gained enough race rhythm. In terms of results, however, we cannot be satisfied. Of course it was not realistic to think we could win the GC or several stages here, but you always want to compete for the win. We somewhat succeeded in that with Tim twice, but not in the other stages."
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Heres the report from van den Broek's Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL capped off an incredible week of racing at the Tour of Türkiye on Sunday where they secured the GC title with Frank van den Broek.
Taking five exceptional stage wins throughout the race, conquering both the sprints and the mountains, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL headed to Istanbul on Sunday morning with the joint goals of protecting Van den Broek’s GC lead but also to play their cards for the stage once again. However, heavy and continuous rain from the early hours of the morning onwards saw wet and slippery roads in the centre of Istanbul, and the organisers ultimately decided to neutralise the stage for the safety of the peloton. That meant the bunch rolled it into the centre of the city behind the lead race car, completing one local lap, before Van den Broek was able to celebrate a brilliant first GC win with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL.
Frank van de Broek wins Tour of Turkey stage 6.
An elated Van den Broek recalled: “This week has been a dream. We started off on a high note with Fabio’s stage win on the opening day, then we took some learnings from stages two and three, and then Tobi started winning! On the mountain top finish day the boys supported me really well. I surprised myself by taking the win there and the lead in GC with it. We then focused on keeping the jersey and the extra sprint chances after that. It was a bit of shame that it rained so much today, but for the rider’s safety it was a good decision to neutralise the race I think. I’m very happy to take the GC win with the team and it has given me a lot of confidence for the races to come.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Roy Curvers concluded: “After a really fruitful week in Türkiye for us we can conclude that the processes and way we are working is paying off. On the sprint side of things we really made steps in how we are working together in the deep finals of stages and we see that the group is growing closer and closer together. While with Frank we had the plan to support him as well as possible, with a view towards the GC but without pressure or high expectations, so he could just learn what it is like to ride as GC leader. So for that to finally end up in a stage and GC win is a fantastic thing. In general, it was also a week where we really showed our DNA as a group; with real teamwork leading to successes, making good plans as a unit, and with full support that gave our young talents the chance to explore their possibilities and abilities. We can all be proud of our week here.”
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