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Tuesday, February 25, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. - T. S. Eliot
Plato's dialogue Crito is available both in audiobook and Kindle eBook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- February 26 - March 2: O Gran Camiño
- March 1: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Latest completed racing:
- February 17 - 23: UAE Tour
- February 19 - 23: Volta ao Algarve
- February 22 - 23: Tour des Alpes-Maritimes
- February 14 - 16: Tour de la Provence
- February 16: Clásica de Almeria
- February 15: Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia
- February 8 - 12: Tour of Oman
Here’s the team’s update:
The fourth edition of O Gran Camiño – the five-day event created in 2022 – will see Soudal Quick-Step line up at the start there for the first time. Our team, which has racked up seven victories so far since the beginning of the season will be present in Galicia with James Knox, Mauri Vansevenant and Jordi Warlop. The trio will be joined by Soudal Quick-Step Devo Team riders Thomas Pesenti, Federico Savino, Gauthier Servranckx and Viktor Soenens.
Jonas Vingegaard won the race in 2024.
The race gets underway on Wednesday from Portugal, with what should be the fast men’s only opportunity to score a victory this week, and continues with a hilly stage in Pontevedra, which will be to the liking of the puncheurs. Another reordering of the general classification is set to take place at the end of the undulating 15.5km individual time trial, scheduled just before the hardest stage of the race, one featuring four classified climbs. On the last day – on the way to Santiago de Compostela – numerous hills, six gravel roads sectors and a hard uphill ramp to the line all come with the promise of another exciting battle between the yellow jersey contenders.
“Gran Camiño will be a demanding race, but we have a strong and motivated team for it. Mauri is capable of fighting for a stage win and also a good general classification, but also some of the other riders can bring good results. Regarding the Devo team guys, it will be a nice and important opportunity for them to race with the World Tour team and to learn and discover how things go in a big race. We look forward to what we hope will be a solid week of the team, one in which we’ll once again give our best”, said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Kevin Hulsmans.
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Scaroni’s Team XDS-Astana posted this interview
After a successful weekend Christian Scaroni talks on his first victories, start of the season, team performance and next goals.
Last weekend, you finally broke the ice…
Yes, indeed! It was an unbelievable weekend with three victories! I had been waiting for this success for so long. So many times over the years, I was close to winning but couldn’t quite reach it. And now, I finally did! We had a great time in France, and as a team, we delivered an outstanding performance. The team was just fantastic over these three days, and I’m happy I could deliver!
Christian Scaroni wins Tour des Alpes Maritimes stage one. Sprint Cycling photo
How would you evaluate the start of your season? What are your thoughts on the team’s performance in general?
Now, after several weeks of racing, we can say that we’ve had a strong start to the season. This year, we needed to start strong—it was and still is vital for us, as this season is decisive for the allocation of WorldTour licenses for the coming years. That’s why I aimed and prepared to compete at my maximum from the very first races to earn the points that the team needs. Obviously, the season is long, and this is just the beginning, but I would say that I’m satisfied with my current form and with the team’s overall performance. We put in a lot of hard work in December and January at our team training camps, and we need to keep pushing forward, chasing victories and points. We understand that it won’t be easy, but we are fully committed to continuing in this direction. Also, having a strong start to the season is great for morale—everyone sees the good results and understands their contribution. That, of course, helps us maintain momentum. In Classic Var and Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, two important races for us, we were aiming not just for a good result but for a victory, and I’m really happy that we succeeded.
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So, what's next?
Next week, I will stay in France to compete in two one-day races: Faun-Ardèche Classic and Faun Drome Classic. Then, in March, I will race in Italy—Strade Bianche, Milan-Torino, and then the stage race Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali, which is one of my key objectives in this early phase of the season. To prepare for my second and most important goal of the season, the Giro d’Italia, I will go to an altitude training camp on Teide, Spain.
Speaking of the French races last weekend, were you already familiar with them from your time in the U23 category in France?
Actually, this was my first time participating in these races. That’s why we also spent some extra time last week scouting the decisive final sections of the Tour des Alpes-Maritimes stages. Obviously, that helped a lot and gave us more confidence going into the race. We managed to develop a solid strategy for both races, and in the end, we came out of the weekend with three wins and valuable points for the team.
How do you like your new bike? Have you gotten used to it in race conditions?
As I mentioned before, the bike is super-fast, highly aerodynamic, and rigid. When a team changes its bike sponsor, there are always some concerns or challenges at the beginning, but as we’ve seen in our first races, everything has worked out well. Our new X-LAB bikes have definitely drawn a lot of attention, and I believe we’ve already given them a strong debut in professional cycling. Let’s hope we keep this momentum going and that new victories will follow.
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Eekhoff’s Team Picnic-PostNL posted this:
“I heard all these cracking sounds, so I stayed lying down just to be safe.” On January 30th, Nils Eekhoff was involved in a crash and collided hard with a lamp post on stage three of the Alula Tour. He was immediately taken to the local hospital, where it was discovered that the teeth on the left side of his face had been significantly damaged. Mentally, Nils was quick to switch gears: “I was immediately determined to fight back.” How is his recovery going? What is his biggest challenge right now? And what does his path back to racing look like? You can read all about it in this story.
Nils Eekhoff on his way to winning the prologue time trial in the 2023 ZLM Tour
The Crash
“I saw it only at the last moment, and then I couldn’t do anything anymore.” Nils clearly remembers the crash in Saudi Arabia. The peloton was moving at high speed towards the sprint. Nils saw an opening on the right side and began to accelerate, ready to bring the rest of the team’s sprint train forward, but suddenly, another rider ended up in his path.
“I was blocked in. I steered as far out as possible to the right to get around him and ended up hitting the curb. I managed to balance on it for a bit, but eventually, I fell over. Then I saw a lamp post coming towards me.”
The impact was hard and Nils hit the pole with the right side of his head. “I didn’t immediately know what the damage was. I had pain in my jaw, blood in my mouth, and I heard these cracking sounds, so I stayed lying there just to be safe. I didn’t dare move my neck.” The race medical staff immediately attended to Nils and made sure he was safe, before he was taken to a local hospital. It was there that the extent of the damage became clear: several broken teeth and a fractured jaw.
A major setback, but Nils was immediately determined to fight. “At first, you feel like giving up, but then all I thought was: I want to get back as soon as possible.” Lots of messages from colleagues, friends, and family have also given him a boost. “My inbox was quite full. A lot of people had seen the footage, because the crash was visible in the TV broadcast so people were quite worried and wanted to reach out to me.”
Rehabilitation process
The first few days after the crash were mainly about tests and recovery. Nils flew back to the Netherlands the day after the crash and spent the weekend with dentists and oral surgeons. “Everything on the left side of my mouth was broken. The dentist filed a lot and sealed it with wax. One molar was split in half, and one canine was torn horizontally.”
With the extent of his injuries, eating has been a challenge since then for Nils. “I’m not allowed to chew, just eat and drink liquids. The first week, I lived on mashed potatoes, and now I’ve switched to rice dishes, but they all have to be blended. I get all the nutrients in I need, but it’s becoming a bit monotonous without being able to chew yet.”
Despite the limitations, he’s already training again. “Four days after the crash, I started again, but indoors on the trainer. I also bruised my hand in the fall, so it’s better for my hand to train indoors. That way, I avoid the shocks from the road as well.” Alongside training, his days consist of hospital appointments and physical therapy, but he has managed to find other things to do too.
“We’ve just moved house, so I also have time to do some DIY.” Is that a positive side effect of the crash? Laughing but determined, Nils adds: “Well, I would have preferred to be racing!”
Looking Ahead
Although his exact return to racing is still uncertain, Nils hopes to be able to return to action in March sometime. “If everything goes according to plan, it should be achievable but it depends on the recovery of my jaw and the next dentist appointment.” There’s a check-up every week, and only after the next appointments will it be clear if any further procedures are needed.
The situation still requires some patience, but Nils remains positive. “It’s going in the right direction. I’m back in a building phase with my training. Now, it’s mainly about waiting to see how things progress, but I’m doing everything I can to be back as soon as possible.”
One thing for sure is, we’re sure that Nils will be excited to be back in the thick of it when he is ready to do so.
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