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Sunday, June 16, 2024

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2023 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

Fashions fade, style is eternal. - Yves Saint Laurent

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Bill and Carol McGann's book The Story of the Giro d'Italia, A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy, Vol 2: 1971 - 2011 is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
• June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour

Upcoming racing:

• June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
• June 21 - 26: Many National Championships
• July 1 - 23: Tour de France
• July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling

Latest completed racing:

• June 2 - 9: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 5 - 9: ZLM Tour
• June 7: GP Canton Aargau
• June 2: Brussels Cycling Classic
• May 29: Circuit Franco-Belge
• May 4 - 26: Giro d'Italia
• May 23 - 26: Tour of Norway
• May 26: Rund um Köln

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Tour de Suisse stage seven team reports

We posted the report from fourth-place Wilco Kelderman's Team Visma | Lease a Bike with the results.

Here's the report from third-place Matthew Riccitello's Team Israel-Premier Tech:

There can be no denying that Matthew Riccitello is the breakout star of this year’s Tour de Suisse. The 22-year-old rider has now bettered his best UCI WorldTour stage result twice in the past three days, with the American climbing to third in Villars-sur-Ollon on Saturday.

A happy Matthew Riccitello finsihes third in stage seven. Sirotti photo

Only Sunday’s 15.7-kilometer time trial – the centerpiece of which is today’s final climb – stands between Riccitello and a new highest GC placing in a top-ranked race. He moved to fifth overall following this latest impressive ride on the fourth straight day in the mountains.

Riccitello was best of the rest behind the UAE Team Emirates duo of Adam Yates and Joāo Almeida, conceding just 14 seconds to the riders who look set to take the first two podium positions on Sunday.

Also up for grabs is the best young rider’s white jersey, which he has already worn in the race. He sits just 12 seconds behind its current wearer Mattias Skjelmose.

“It was a hard day all day,” Riccitello says. “I do a bit better I think when everybody’s tired. I felt good on the last climb and I surprised myself a bit.

“I tried to follow Joāo and Adam but I couldn’t hang on all the way to the line. I just had to kind of time trial to the finish. But, overall, it was a good day.”

Riccitello also acknowledged the effort of his IPT teammates in the race. Marco Frigo and George Bennett in particular excelled today, notably positioning him well on the lower part of the final climb. Bennett finished 25th on the stage and now sits 18th on GC.

“The team has been super great and just trying to keep me in a good position, in the wheels all day, and I’m just really thankful for them,” Riccitello adds. “I’m happy to finish with a decent result to kind of pay it back to them. I owe a lot to them, helping me through the day.”

Here's the report from Oscar Onley's Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL delivered Oscar Onley to the final climb in position to take his third top ten of the week in Villars-sur-Ollon.

After a frantic start, the bunch seemed content to let a sizeable group gain an advantage keeping them at around one minute for the majority of the stage, until seizing the chance to catch them on the long, sweeping descent back into the valley. The focus then became ensuring Onley was well-positioned heading into the final climb of the day, where he would fight his way to seventh on the stage and eighth overall heading into the final TT tomorrow.

Oscar Onley finishes stage five.

After the stage Oscar Onley commented: “The guys were really good supporting me today with positioning into the climb and coming back between the climbs. Again the final climb was down to the legs, I felt in control and tried not to go over my limit. I think the result reflects my level this week in the race so I have to be satisfied”

Here's the report from William Junior Lecerf's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

Saturday brought the fourth and final summit finish of this year. On the menu, three classified climbs, a vertical gain of 3000 meters and around 120 kilometers – enough to make an important selection long before the final climb of the day, Villars-sur-Olon. The breakaway, despite being a strong one on paper, stood no chance against the peloton, where the GC favourites were keen on fighting for victory.

With the last member of the front group reeled in four kilometers from the finish, attacks between the general classification contenders began soon, but it was only in the last kilometer that the winner emerged, yellow jersey Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) being the one who prevailed.

William Junior Lecerf finishes 23rd, at 2min.

William Junior Lecerf did another good effort on the ascent, and his strong outing helped the 21-year-old Belgian make a gain of two places in the overall standings. Soudal Quick-Step’s neo-pro – who won a stage at the Tour du Rwanda earlier this season – can make his way into the top 20 on Sunday, when the Tour de Suisse schedules a 15.7km uphill individual time trial.

Here's the Tour de Suisse report from Lenny Martinez's Team Groupama-FDJ:

The penultimate stage of the Tour de Suisse, around Villars-sur-Ollon, didn’t see Lenny Martinez confirm the form he showed the day before with his fifth place in Blatten. Rudy Molard and Stefan Küng accompanied the climbers to the final climb, before the favourites battled it out for victory. The Swiss competition closes on Sunday with an uphill time trial.

The 2024 edition of the Tour de Suisse has set its climax in Villars-sur-Ollon, with a penultimate stage around the Vaudois village, before a final time trial on Sunday also scheduled in this town. Shortly after the 2:23pm start, on a section of the first ascent of the Col de la Croix, Harold Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan), Finlay Pickering (Bahrain-Victorious), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates), Sylvain Moniquet and Maxim van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) attacked to create the day’s breakaway.

This group never managed to build up a significant lead. On the second ascent of the Col de la Croix, this time entirely covered, the breakaway riders attacked each other. In the peloton, led by the Ineos-Grenadiers team, Lenny Martinez unfortunately found himself outpaced. "Lenny was ambitious after the stage he did on Friday, but it turned out he didn’t have such good legs. He was out of the mix with the favourites", Thierry Bricaud summed up.

Lenny Martinez (shown before the stage start) finished 117th, @ 19min 19sec. Sirotti photo.

At the top of the second category climb, Rudy Molard and Stefan Küng had managed to keep their place in the first group, but the high-speed descent led to a number of splits in the peloton. Stefan Küng succeeded in reintegrating the Yellow Jersey group, before Rudy Molard did the same. Lenny Martinez never achieved to do so. "As soon as you’re under pressure, things get complicated, Thierry Bricaud admitted. It’s not often that this happens to him. It’s one of the bad days a racing cyclist can have. He fought hard anyway, because it’s not in his mind to give up. It’s just a bad moment to get through, his season is still long."

7.7 kilometres before the finish, Rudy Molard and Stefan Küng finally got dropped from the main group, before climbing at their own pace. There is one stage left and for the Swiss rider, it will be contested in an exercise he loves, but on a terrain that doesn’t suit him: an uphill time trial. Starting in Aigle, home of the headquarters of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the stage will be 15.7 kilometres long. "He’ll do his best to prepare for the next races", Thierry Bricaud concluded.

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