Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, August 2, 2024
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. - Saint Augustine
Stoic philosopher Epictetus' Golden Sayings is available in both audiobook & Kindle eBook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- July 27 - August 4: Olympic cycling
Upcoming racing:
- August 4 - 8: Arctic Race of Norway
- August 5 - 9: Vuelta a Burgos
- August 10: Clasica San Sebastian
- August 11: La Polynormande
- August 12 - 18: Tour of Poland
- August 13 - 16: Tour du Limousin
- August 14 - 18: PostNord Denmark Rundt
- August 17 - Sept 8: Vuelta a España
Latest completed racing:
- July 22 - 26: Tour de Wallonie
- July 23: Vuelta a Castilla y Leon
- June 29 - July 21: Tour de France
- June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
- June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
- June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
- June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
The team sent me this:
Jhonatan Narvaez has put pen to paper on a new contract to join UAE Team Emirates as part of a two year deal which will see him with the squad through to the end of 2026.
The 27 year-old puncheur holds 11 professional victories to his name, most notably two stage wins in the Giro D’Italia in 2020 and 2024 alongside a gold medal in the Pan American Championships road race in 2023. He will come across from Ineos where he has spent the previous 6 seasons.
Jhonatan Narvaez after stage one of the 2024 Giro d'Italia. Sirotti photo
Jhonatan Narvaez : “Since the beginning of my career I’ve always wanted to be involved at the highest level of cycling and we can say that UAE Team Emirates is the best team in the world in the last years so it’s an honour to be moving there.I feel I’ve taken big steps at Ineos but I think I still have margin to take another step in the coming years.”
"From the outside UAE looks like a well organised team with a really good ambiance amongst the riders, and with a very experienced and specialised staff who are the best at what they do and look to dispute each race they go to. I feel like I still haven’t reached my full maturity as a rider and hope to keep progressing and improve both as a classics rider and as an all-rounder.”
Mauro Gianetti (Team Principal & CEO): “We are very pleased to welcome Jhonatan to UAE Team Emirates for the coming years. He’s shown his ability both as a winner and as a worker and we feel he can slot in well to our team. Jhonatan is an aggressive rider with lots of experience at the top level so we are confident to see the best of him over the next years with us. ”
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
Team Jayco AlUla is pleased to confirm the signing of Australian talent Ben O’Connor on a two-year deal with the 28-year-old set to become the squad’s new general classification leader.
O’Connor has demonstrated his talent and pedigree on multiple occasions on the world’s biggest stage, with incredible and consistent results over the past years, including two well fought out fourth place finishes overall at the Tour de France (2021) and the Giro d’Italia (2024).
Ben O’Connor wins 2024 UAE Tour stage 3.
Having turned professional back in 2017, the rider from Perth already has a wealth of experience under his belt and the GreenEDGE Cycling management believe he has the right DNA to fit into the team environment and culture, on and off the bike.
With potential still inside, Team Jayco AlUla is eager to assist O’Connor to finally reach that Grand Tour overall podium finish after his two close fourth place results, and become the squad’s new general classification leader.
Brent Copeland – General Manager
“With Ben O’Connor we are obviously looking at someone who will fill in that general classification gap with Simon Yates moving on. We feel that O’Connor will fit into the team well, culture wise, which is really important for us. Of course, it is thanks to our team owner Gerry Ryan for his commitment and continued support of Australian Cycling and ensuring Australian riders have a place to grow and excel at the highest level in cycling.
"With the general classification, we believe he has room for improvement and with this team we will be able to get the best out of him. It is a very significant and important signing for us for 2025 and we look forward to being able to welcome Ben into the squad soon.”
Ben O’Connor
“To be honest, it’s really an idea I’ve always loved; to race as an Aussie and win on an Aussie team. I’m at a point now where I need to deliver, so it’ll be even more special to do it with an Australian set-up. To have the opportunity to race with mates at the top level is rare, and I am just so keen to get stuck in.
"My ambitions are to stay aggressive, consistent, and hopefully one day change these fourth-place overall finishes at Grand Tours into overall podium placings. Victories are just as important, and throwing the hands up in the air as soon as I can is high on the list. It’s not ‘team Australia’ but it feels like that to represent the only WorldTour Australian cycling team. Excited is an understatement.”
Ben O’Connor
New Contract: 2025 & 2026
Nationality: Australian
Age: 28
Key Results:
4th Tour de France GC (2021)
1st Tour de France stage 9 (2022)
4th Giro d’Italia GC (2024)
1st Giro d’Italia stage 17 (2020)
1st UAE Tour stage 3 (2024)
2nd UAE Tour GC (2024)
2nd Tour of the Alps GC (2024)
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The team sent me this update:
The Frenchman Axel Zingle will reinforce Team Visma | Lease a Bike starting next season. The 25-year-old rider is a great talent for the classics and will stay with the team until at least the end of 2027.
Zingle is only in his third professional season but has already made a name for himself during this time. He has shown his prowess in the French circuit with several victories and has also achieved notable placings in the spring classics.
Axel Zingle in yellow after stage two of the 2022 Arctic Race of Norway.
“Axel is a great talent for the classics,” says sports director Grischa Niermann, who will be a part of the sports management of Team Visma | Lease a Bike starting next season. “Moreover, he has a good sprint that particularly shines at the end of tough races. This has earned him numerous podium finishes. We believe he still has room to grow, and we are delighted that he dares to take on this adventure with us.”
"I expect to learn a lot from the best riders in the world and the rest of the team to become the best version of myself.
Axel Zingle:
“For me, it is truly a dream to join Team Visma | Lease a Bike,” Zingle adds. “In my opinion, this is the best cycling team in the world. It has always been my goal to join such a strong team to become better myself. I am very motivated to join the team next season and hope to contribute in the classics. I expect to learn a lot from the best riders in the world and the rest of the team to become the best version of myself.”
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Here’s the team’s post:
We came out of June with an amazing team victory at stage one of the Tour de France, which was a great boost for the whole team. With the rest of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia Women, and High Altitude Camp, July has been another busy month for the team. Here’s the overview, as concise as possible and no more than 500 words!
After the outstanding performance on the opening day and the memorable day in yellow and green the day after, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL was committed to further shaping the race by being active in the breakaways and sprint finishes too. In the sprints, Fabio Jakobsen aimed to improve on the promising fifth and seventh places that were secured in the sprints in the opening week. However, the days since the rest day were especially challenging for the Dutch sprinter, and he had to step off the bike during stage 11. This was a hard loss for the team, but they kept their morale high and fought together for results day by day. Not all efforts were rewarded, but John Degenkolb fought to a solid top ten result, Oscar Onley took a really promising 5th place, before Romain Bardet showed a brave ride to 10th in what was his last ever road stage of the Tour de France.
Romain Bardet in yellow after the first stage of the 2024 Tour de france. Sirotti photo
Meanwhile, our Women’s program took on the Giro d’Italia Women. The team showed a great performance all week with podiums on stages three and eight by Juliette Labous and Franziska Koch. Juliette rounded off the great teamwork with further top-ten results on numerous stages, culminating in a solid sixth place in the GC.
Around the same time, a group led by Max Poole gathered in Austria for a High-Altitude camp to prepare for their goals in the final part of the season. For Max, this marks another step on his way back to racing after his crash at Tirreno-Adriatico, and we can’t wait to see him back in action soon.
Our Women’s program also lined up for the Baloise Ladies Tour in Belgium. The group showed a great race with four stage podiums, three more top-ten results, and an amazing win by Charlotte Kool, who finished off the perfect lead-out from her teammates on stage two. The great team performance was also reflected in the GC, where Pfeiffer Georgi finished second and her teammate Charlotte Kool sixth.
Looking back to this month, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna said: “We can be proud of the performances of our teams at the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France. We have shown that we can achieve a lot together with the basics we have worked on all year. Both the sprint and the GC groups of our Women’s program showed they are still among the best of the peloton, and the victory in Belgium is another confirmation of that. We will keep working on details to achieve more great moments together in the coming period.”
As we enter the final part of the 2024 season, there is still a lot ahead of us in the coming months. We hope you enjoyed this recap and our performances in the last few weeks and are as excited as we are for what’s still ahead!
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