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Saturday, June 22, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
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Current racing:
- June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
Upcoming racing:
- June 29 - July 21: Tour de France
- July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling
Latest completed racing:
- 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
- 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
Team Lidl-Trek posted this sad news:
News we wish we didn't have to share.
Unfortunately Tao Geoghegan Hart will miss this year’s Tour de France.
The Brit has being sidelined for longer than initially expected after the Critérium du Dauphiné due to illness and injuries sustained, including a fractured rib, in the crash on Stage 5.
Tao Geoghegan Hart after winning the 2023 Tour of the Alps. Sirotti photo
Wishing Tao all the best for a good recovery. The Team can’t wait to see him back racing at 100 percent as soon as he is ready.
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Here's the team's Tour preview:
Israel – Premier Tech aims to continue the team’s most successful season to date, chasing stage win glory at this year’s Tour de France.
“The main goal is to win a stage,” sports director Steve Bauer explains. “It’s a clear goal that certainly 21 other teams have as well. We have a strong, balanced and versatile team with riders able to shine in different terrains, giving us potential to be competitive throughout the race as the Tour evolves stage by stage. The competition will be fierce, but I believe in the group we are bringing to this Tour.”
“In the past editions of the Tour, we have been successful racing aggressively, opportunistically and hunting for stage wins from breakaways. We will still need to do that, however, we need to be ready for the intense sprint finishes or even to challenge the best competitors in the mountains. Every stage is a chance and a new day to race hard to be in the game. The Tour is never easy, but we know we have guys who can win.”
IPT has won three stages in the last two editions of the Tour de France, while captivating fans and spectators with its opportunistic and courageous way of racing.
Embodying this exact attitude on the bike is Tour debutant Derek Gee. The 26-year-old Canadian won the hearts of everyone watching last year’s Giro d’Italia and he’s lining up for the Tour fresh off a stage win and a sensational third place overall in Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this month. Now, Gee hopes to follow in the footsteps of his Tour de France stage-winning Canadian teammates.
Derek Gee in Yellow after stage three of the 2024 Critérium du Dauphiné. Sirotti photo
“I’m unbelievably excited to be lining up at my first Tour,” Gee tells. “It’s truly a childhood dream to race the Tour de France, and I can’t wait to experience the atmosphere of the biggest race in the world. The dream would be to win a stage and try to follow what Hugo [Houle] and Mike [Woods] have done for Canada at this race in the last few years.”
Stevie Williams is another Tour debutant for IPT who has had an incredible season so far, winning the Tour Down Under and Flèche Wallonne. After a strong show of strength at the Tour de Suisse last week, Williams is turning his focus towards the Tour de France.
Williams says: “I’m looking forward to racing in my debut Tour de France. It will be a special moment to line up at the biggest bike race in the world. It’s something I dreamt of as a kid growing up. This has already been a wonderful year for me so far with some nice victories. Now, I’m eager to target some stages over the next month and try to tick off a major goal for myself and for the team.”
This year’s course also offers numerous opportunities for the sprinters and in Pascal Ackermann, IPT has a strong card to play in the fast finishes. The 30-year-old German has previously won stages in Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia and now, he hopes to complete his Grand Tour hat-trick by taking a stage win in the Tour de France as well. Curiously, despite an already decorated career, Ackermann, too, is a Tour debutant.
“It’s a special feeling – I can’t really believe it,” he says. “I have been waiting eight years for this. Racing the Tour was my childhood dream. I grew up watching the race and I followed it on site, going camping, so it’s really special and really exciting to finally be racing it! I think my preparation has been going really well and I’m finally where I want to be.
“Getting a Grand Tour hat-trick would be very special. I’m really close to it and obviously, it’s a big goal for me. I really want to win a stage in this Tour. I’m not flying home without one.”
Tour debutant Jake Stewart and IPT veteran Guillaume Boivin are set to help Ackermann in the sprints, while Jakob Fuglsang and Krists Neilands will add firepower to the hilly stages. Former Tour de France stage winner Hugo Houle completes the team’s line-up.
IPT team owner Sylvan Adams echoes the great ambitions and he’s looking forward to seeing the many Tour debutants showing off the team’s colors during the race.
He says: “I am pleased with our roster for this year’s Tour. It was one of the toughest team selections we have ever had to make which speaks of the depth of our rider roster. Ultimately, our performance team was unanimous in making these selections, knowing we wanted a team geared towards hunting for individual stages, rather than a high placing on GC. For the third consecutive year, our roster will boast three Canadians, cementing our position as both Israel’s and Canada’s home programs. I’m particularly excited for our first time Tour participants, representing half of the group selected. They will be hungry to make it count.”
Danish rider Fuglsang, who raced his first Tour in 2010, says: “I’m excited and happy to be going to the Tour again. I’m happy that I made the selection one more time. I hope that this time I can make it all the way through and finish the race with the time trial, as that stage will be special for me, running from my home in Monaco to Nice.”
Houle, one of the three riders to win Tour stages in IPT colors, adds: “I think we will have a lot of fun! The Tour is a unique race that I really like. I hope to have a good role in the team’s performance, playing a key part in the target stages for the other riders, but also to try to win a stage again from a breakaway.”
Fellow Canadian rider Boivin, who has raced the Tour every since since 2021 for IPT, says: “Every year the team gets better and it’s harder to make the selection. I’m really proud to be a part of the team this year and to be riding my fourth Tour in a row. It’ll be a good, hard, and busy three weeks, but I’m looking forward to helping our leaders get more wins at the Tour!”
Stewart, the team’s fourth Tour debutant, made the selection despite missing the first two months of the season through injury. “It’s the race I grew up watching – the 2009 Tour de France is what got me into the sport and I think it’s every bike rider’s dream to be in it,” he says. “To be selected for my debut Tour de France in 2024 is pretty amazing and it’s a dream come true.
“It’s been a long road. Also, it wasn’t really planned at the start of the season – when I sat down with the team at the end of last year I’d be going to the Tour, but things have happened to me since! It was a long process getting back to fitness – I spent a lot of time at altitude, a lot of time away from home and my family, making the sacrifices you’ve got to make to be at the top of this sport, but I’m super happy the hard work has paid off.”
IPT at the Tour de France
Riders: Pascal Ackermann (GER), Guillaume Boivin (CAN) Jakob Fuglsang (DEN), Derek Gee (CAN), Hugo Houle (CAN), Krists Neilands (LAT), Jake Stewart (GBR), Stevie Williams (GBR)
Sports Directors: Steve Bauer (CAN), Sam Bewley (NZL), Dror Pekatch (ISR), Rik Verbrugghe (BEL)
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Bardet’s Team dsm-firmenich PostNL posted this:
A figurehead of the sport and a rider that is beloved by fans worldwide, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL are pleased to reveal that ahead of what will be his last participation at the Tour de France, they have extended their contract with Romain Bardet through 2025.
Hailing from Brioude in France, Romain entered the professional peloton with AG2R La Mondiale in 2012 and has gone on to become one of the most prominent and well-respected riders in the peloton over the years. A leading light and hope for Tour de France glory amongst the French public, Romain’s palmarès speaks for itself with epic second and third places overall at the race in 2016 and 2017. Next to that, he has also taken three stage wins and a famous polka dot jersey.
Roman Bardet wins stage 19 of the 2016 Tour de France. He finished second in the GC that year. Sirotti photo
Romain’s career has also impressed with a silver medal at the World Championships and multiple podiums and places of honour in the biggest stage races in the world. Since joining Team dsm-firmenich PostNL in 2021, he tasted success at the Vuelta a España with a memorable stage win, top tens on GC at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France and a resilient and hard fought second place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2024. It’s not just his performances on the bike that should be mentioned, in 2022 he was awarded the International Fair Play award for his sportsmanship towards fellow rider Julian Alaphilippe, with Romain stopping to assist after Julian was caught up in a heavy crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, taking himself out of contention for a result. To those within the team it’s his professionalism, enthusiasm and a genuine true, authentic kindness to his persona that stand out.
With his glittering record behind him, 2024 will be Romain’s last full road season. In 2025 Team dsm-firmenich PostNL and Romain will have another tilt at the Giro d’Italia, before his last WorldTour level race at the Critérium du Dauphiné; a race on home soil that holds personal significance for the Frenchman.
Hanging up his road wheels, Romain will take on a new adventure in the team’s colours with a discipline that lights the spark for his simple love of all things two-wheeled, gravel racing. Romain will take part in multiple off-road races throughout the second half of the year; enabling him to still find that competitive edge while being able to spend more time with his young family.
Talking about his plans for next year Romain said: “I have really enjoyed my time with the team so far so for me, it was a no-brainer to either continue with them or fully end my career. I am very grateful for the relationship I have with all the team members and for the trust that the management is putting in me. I was not really sure if I wanted to continue cycling, but I still feel that I can bring value and keep chasing big results with the team, so I am happy that we are going into another year together to do something a bit special. For me, this is the way I dreamed of finishing my career. I hope to still chase some big victories with the team in 2025, especially in the Giro, to try and get the missing stage win there. I also feel that I want to give the team something back in this race after doing it together three times. I will also keep working with the younger riders in the team and help them develop towards their GC goals.
"The Dauphiné will be my final road race, as it is my favourite race on the calendar. It is really mountainous and close to where I live. These are the roads I used to train on a lot, so there couldn’t be a better place to finish my road career. After that, I am really excited to tackle a new challenge and do gravel racing with the support of the team. It will be a kind of transition for me, but I will do my best in some of the World Cups and hope to also do well in the World Championships in Nice in 2025.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna added: “It has really been a pleasure to work with Romain over the past few seasons. He is a true professional who always gives his all for the sport and gives energy to those around him. We’ve seen Romain not only perform brilliantly on the bike with us, but he has a passion for helping those around him, and with a voice of wisdom and calmness he helps to guide and mentor the young up-and-coming GC talents within the team. We’re excited that we can continue working with him in his final year on the road and be there to support him as he takes on his new adventure in gravel racing.”
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
UAE Team Emirates have officially unveiled the team heading into the Tour de France (29 June-21 July) which gets underway in the city of Florence, Italy for the Grand Depart.
The team heads into the 21 stages led by the former two-time winner of the race Tadej Pogačar, with a mix of climbers and rouleurs to support the Slovenian.
The 25 year old who most recently won the Giro D’Italia in May will face challenges along the 3492km course which begins in Florence with a 206km road stage to Rimini before moving west entering France through the Alps after passing through cities like Bologna and Torino. The race will conclude in Nice on July 21, with a move away from the traditional finish in Paris.
Can Pogačar add a yellow jersey to his 2024 season collecton: Sirotti photo
Sports Manager Joxean Matxin Fernandez (Spa) will lead the squad alongside Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman (Slo), Simone Pedrazzini (Swi) and Fabrizio Guidi (Ita). The team is comprised of 8 riders:
- Tadej Pogačar (Slo)
- Juan Ayuso (Spa)
- Pavel Sivakov (Fra)
- Marc Soler (Spa)
- Nils Politt (Ger)
- Adam Yates (GB)
- Joao Almeida (Por)
- Tim Wellens (Bel)
Pogačar: ”It’s already my fifth time coming to the Tour and I’m really excited about it.We’ve worked really hard all year as a team to prepare for this and we hope we can give everyone watching 3 weeks of exciting racing.
"It’s nice also to be going back to an Italy again to start the Tour. Obviously I’m coming from there with good memories of the Giro and thankfully I can say that preparation has gone very well since then. I took a bit of a break after Giro and then the past weeks have been fully focused on the Tour.
"We’ve spent a lot of time together as a group training at altitude and put in a lot of hours in the saddle. We’re in a really good place as a group and I think now we just can’t wait to get started and hope to fight for the win and put on a good show.”
Yates: “I think as a group we’re in a really good place and know what we have to do to support Tadej. We’re aiming for the win and we know if things go our way it’s possible so it’s just a matter of staying focused and pulling together all the way to Nice.”
Almeida: “It’s my first ever Tour which is exciting and I’m proud to be going there as part of a very strong team with big ambitions in the race.The Tour de Suisse was a nice confidence booster and confirmation the condition is good so we’re ready to get things going.”
Ayuso: “I’ve dreamed of being at the Tour de France since I was a kid so to be here about to start my first Tour feels amazing. It’s a privilege to be part of a race like this in a team like this so I will try and soak it all in as much as possible, but we have a big objective also and that is to win. We’re coming from a good block of training at Isola and the group is really united and motivated so we can hope for good things over the next three weeks.”
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