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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby. - Langston Hughes
Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2023 Tour de France, 2023: The Viking Again Conquers the Tour is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- March 18 - 25: Volta a Catalunya
- March 19 - 23: Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
Upcoming racing:
- March 20: Classic Brugge - De Panne
- March 22: E3 Saxo Bank Classic
- March 24: Ghent - Wevelgem
- March 24: La Roue Tourangelle
- March 27: Dwars door Vlaanderen
- March 27: Paris-Camemnert Lepetit
Latest completed racing:
- March 16: Milano - Sanremo
- March 16: Classic Loire Atlantique
- March 15: Brendene Koksijde Classic
- March 14: GP de Denain
- March 13: Danilith Nokere Koerse
- March 13: Milano-Torino
- March 3 - 10: Paris-Nice
- March 4 - 10: Tirreno-Adriatico
- March 2: Strade Bianche
We posted the report from winner Nicholas Schultz's Team Israel-Premier Tech with the results.
Here's the report from second-place Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates:
Tadej Pogačar came out of the blocks fast but not quite fast enough on stage 1 of the Volta Catalunya in Saint Feliu, taking 2nd place in the uphill sprint behind Nick Schultz (Israel Premier Tech) who made a late move at -1km.
Stage 1: Nicholas Schultz beats Tadej Pogacar
UAE Team Emirates led the race for much of the afternoon setting a hard pace on the 173km starting and finishing in Saint Feliu. Joao Almeida and local favourite Marc Soler kept the pace particularly high inside the last 25km making it difficult for any attacks to get away.
Schultz made his move as the road peaked upwards heading under the Flamme Rouge, building a sizable gap which just proved a few centimeters to much for Pogačar who was closing the gap fast.
Pogačar: “I really enjoyed the day to be honest, it was a hard day in the saddle with a good tempo all day and our guys did a great job. I messed it up a bit in the final, I should have tried to close the gap to Schultz immediately but he was strong also and deserved the win after how he attacked in the last kilometre. I did a good sprint and I wanted a win for all the work the team did. Tomorrow on paper looks hard with a tough finish on Vallter 2000. We have a strong team here and we want to make it hard as possible.”
The race continues tomorrow with a summit finish from Mataro to Vallter 2000 (186km).
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Here's the report from seventh-place Ilan Van Wilder's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Sant Feliu de Guixols, a small town lying on the Mediterranean coast not far from Girona, one of the hottest cycling destinations in the world, welcomed again the peloton of the Volta a Catalunya for the opening stage of the 103rd edition.
The profile of this 174km journey was a hilly one, comprising numerous climbs of which three were classified. The last was Alt de San Grau, averaging 3.5% over 7.2 kilometers, crested by the bunch with 20 kilometers to go. On the fast descent that followed, Mauri Vansevenant accelerated and tried to get away only for the others to react and shut down this audacious move, keeping things together.
Ilan Van Wilder winning the 2023 Tre Valli Varesine.
Going into the final kilometer, a series of tricky corners awaited just before the ramp to the line, and it was there that Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) took off and soloed to victory. Soudal Quick-Step’s Ilan Van Wilder came home together with the main group a few seconds later, taking a solid seventh – a good result for the Belgian ahead of La Molina, the first of the week’s three summit finishes.
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Here’s the Catalonia report from ninth-place Sepp Kuss’ Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Sepp Kuss finished ninth in the opening stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The first stage of the Spanish stage race had a few hills in store for the peloton, but nevertheless a peloton sprinted for the win in the uphill finish line. Nick Schultz won the stage.
With Cian Uijtdebroeks and Kuss, Team Visma | Lease a Bike hopes to aim high in the general classification this week. The latter gives a comment about the first stage after coming in. "It was quite a tough day. This allowed us to get into the rhythm nicely. As a team, we were there when it mattered. Personally, I feel in good shape. I'm really looking forward to the mountain stages this week. There are quite a few of those coming up”, Kuss stated.
Sepp Kuss after winning the 2023 Vuelta a España. Sirotti photo
"On paper it wasn't the most challenging day of the week”, Uijtdebroeks says. “However, it was nonetheless a very hectic day. The main goal for Sepp and me was not to avoid unnecessary time loss. Thanks to the team’s effort, we managed to achieve that. In the finale, the pace picked up, and I felt that my legs were in great shape. That bodes well for the upcoming days."
Team Visma | Lease a Bike also faced a setback in the opening stage. Bart Lemmen crashed and was forced to abandon the race. "It doesn't look very promising considering his injuries. We’ll have to wait and see what the verdict is going to be. Bart is now on his way to the hospital for further examination," sports director Marc Reef concludes.
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Here’s the team’s news:
The upcoming 4 races will not only serve as a warm-up for the second Monument of the season (the Tour of Flanders), but will also be an opportunity to add another good result to our 2024 tally. Last year Matej Mohoric and Andrea Pasqualon scored top 10 results at E3 and Dwars respectively, and this year we are aiming for even better.
The first race is the Classic Brugge – De Panne: 201 completely flat kilometres. The route is very similar to last year and hits the North Sea coastal town of Nieuwpoort after 40km. Rain, and especially high winds, could break the race into echelons from that point on since the race stays very close to the shore.
From all flats we go to almost no flat at all at E3 Saxo, which is the best warm-up for Flanders with a lot of the paved “bergs” that feature in the second monument. This race is for “puncheurs” so expect a lot of early splits in the peloton, with multiple attacks on the hills that are a constant throughout the parcours.
After a day’s rest the team will start Gent – Wevelgem: the longest cobbled classic of this set at 252km. The first half is flat while in the second half, riders will face rolling hills where the classics specialists will try to drop the sprinters. There are some gravel sectors thrown into the mix to make the race more interesting, but the outcome will most likely be a reduced bunch sprint.
The last (and the shortest) of this block is Dwars door Vlaanderen, at 188km. A combination of small hills and cobbled sectors will challenge the peloton, with the toughest sectors all coming in the last 71km where attacks will be launched.
Our Sports Director Enrico Poitschke analysed all 4 races: “First we start with Brugge – De Panne, which should be a race for the sprinters, but last year we saw that when weather conditions are extreme with wind and rain it becomes a hard race. At the moment the weather forecast looks good for Wednesday and from that side we have a lineup that will support Phil Bauhaus. We saw Phil is in good condition and we’ll try to bring him into a very good position for his sprint. Everything is possible, but our goal is top 5. Our team has a lot of experience that will be needed at this race. It’s Łukasz Wisniowski’s first race for our team, and he has shown in past years that he’s very motivated for Classics, so we hope he’ll be a good support to our guys in the crosswind situations and also in the preparation for the sprint, to be a lead out together with Govekar, Rajovic, and Bruttomesso who showed in the smaller races that he’s already on the top level and now starting for the first time a World Tour race.”
Phil Bauhaus wins stage three of this year's Tirreno-Adriatico. RCS Sport photo
Poitschke continued to talk about E3 Saxo: “This race is in its character completely different from De Penne. It is a very hard race, one of the hardest of the Classics. We have a clear leader in Matej Mohoric. He’s in very good shape, he did very strong races at the beginning of the season including last weekend’s Milano – Sanremo. The whole team will support Matej, but we also have Fred Wright who can help in the final or follow some early moves.”
2 days later on Sunday 24th is Gent – Wevelegem: “The race is very good for Matej, as he showed in last few years that he’s ready to fight for the win there. The whole team will support him. This race will also depend on the weather conditions to determine how hard that race is.” After this race riders have a two-day break before they start Dwars door Vlaanderen: “Matej and Fred will take a break before the Tour of Flanders. We’ll see in the upcoming races who’s in good shape and we’ll give guys from “the second row” a chance for result at this race.” concluded Poitschke.
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