Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. - Rudyard Kipling
Bill & Carol McGann's book The Story of the Tour de France, 2020: The Tour During Covid-19, Better Late Than Never is available in both Kindle eBook and Audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- March 9 - 16: Paris-Nice
- March 10 - 16: Tirreno-Adriatico
Upcoming racing:
- March 19: Danilith Nokere Koerse
- March 19: Milano-Torino
- March 20: GP de Denain
- March 21: Bredene Koksijde CLassic
- March 22: Milano-Sanremo
Latest completed racing:
- March 8: Strade Bianche
- March 5: Trofeo Laigueglia
- March 4: Le Samyn Classic
- February 26 - March 2: O Gran Camiño
- March 2: Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
- March 2: Faun Drôme Classic
- March 1: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
- March 1: Faun Ardèche Classic
- February 17 - 23: UAE Tour
- February 19 - 23: Volta ao Algarve
We posted the race organizer's report with the results.
Here's the report from stage winner Tim Merlier's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Clad in the beautiful yellow jersey, Tim Merlier powered to his second victory of the week at Paris-Nice, retaining the overall lead ahead of Tuesday’s team time trial. It was the sixth success of the season for the 32-year-old, who came out on top after a complicated day on the roads to Bellegarde, where the race returned after six years.
Tim Merlier wins Paris-Nice stage two. ASO photo/Billy Ceusters
The final 40 kilometers included two nasty crashes, and Tim was caught up behind after the first incident of this type after a rider touched his rear wheel. Fortunately, the general classification leader escaped unscathed and could rejoin the peloton, where his Soudal Quick-Step teammates made sure of protecting him at the front while ramping up the pace behind the lone leader, whose gap they erased by the time the race entered the final three kilometers.
Just like Sunday, the European Champion waited for the final 150 meters to start his sprint – after another excellent lead-out of Bert Van Lerberghe – and once again unleashed a huge speed to put a couple of bike lengths between him and the other fast men on the way to his 23rd World Tour victory.
“This is a win I will always remember, because it’s for the first time in my career that I got a victory in the leader’s jersey. It’s a beautiful success that wouldn’t have been possible without my fantastic team, who controlled the race from the beginning and made sure I was in the best position for the bunch sprint. I’m happy I could make it two victories in two days. We’ll see what I can do on Tuesday, but I know it will be difficult to retain the yellow jersey in the team time trial. Nevertheless, I will do my best”, Tim said after our team’s 20th stage win at Paris-Nice.
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Axel Zingle's Team Visma | Lease a Bike posted this Paris-Nice report:
Axel Zingle again contested the bunch sprint in Paris-Nice. After a chaotic finale, the 26-year-old Frenchman finished in seventh place. Following two sprint stages, Team Visma | Lease a Bike now sets its sights on tomorrow’s team time trial.
Stage two of Paris-Nice featured a flat route between Montesson and Bellegarde. The race began calmly with three riders breaking away from the peloton, where Team Visma | Lease a Bike remained attentive at the front. Two of the escapees were reeled in well before the finish, while the last remaining breakaway rider, Jonas Abrahamsen, was caught in the closing kilometres. In the peloton, Matteo Jorgenson once again picked up two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, having already collected four seconds in the opening stage.
Paris-Nice stage two gets rolling. ASO photo/Billy Ceusters
Several crashes occured in the peloton, but the Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders stayed out of trouble thanks to good positioning. Just as in the opening stage, Zingle took his chance in the sprint. The Frenchman launched his sprint first, but in the uphill finishing metres, six riders managed to pass him. The stage win once again went to Tim Merlier.
“The slightly uphill finish didn’t seem too challenging, but after such a long sprint, it felt like Alpe d’Huez to me”, Zingle said with a smile. “With 500 metres to go, the pace dropped a little, so I decided to launch my sprint early. When I hit the front, I realised it was still a long way to the finish. In the end, I couldn’t hold on, but it was a good attempt. I really enjoyed how well the team rode today. Tomorrow, we have an important challenge with the team time trial. There’s some pressure, but I’m looking forward to ride with this strong squad.”
Sports director Grischa Niermann is pleased that his riders came through unscathed. “We knew it was going to be a nervous stage. Our goal was to keep Jonas Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson out of trouble, and we managed that once again. The key was to get through these first two stages safely. Now, we can fully focus on tomorrow’s team time trial.”
The 28-kilometre team time trial, set on rolling terrain, features a short but steep climb towards the end. “Ideally, we will be in contention for the stage win,” Niermann looks ahead. “Since the individual times of each rider count, we hope to bring Jonas and Matteo to the finish together. We are confident in our strong lineup, but the competition is fierce. It promises to be an exciting battle.”
And here's the Paris-Nice stage two report from Team Groupama-FDJ:
Although the wind did not join the party on Monday, on stage 2 of Paris-Nice, there was still some nervousness towards Bellegarde. This notably resulted in several crashes. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet also hit the ground, but he escaped serious damage. The leader of Groupama-FDJ eventually finished in the time of the winner, Tim Merlier. Together with his teammates, he will tackle a very important time trial tomorrow.
The day's unchallenging profile
The Paris-Nice peloton headed south on Monday towards the Loiret département, and while a bunch sprint seemed inevitable after the 183 kilometers of racing, there was a slight uncertainty about how the day would unfold within the peloton. This doubt, depending on the strength and direction of the wind, was finally dispelled early on, and the peloton initially appeared quite calm behind a three-man breakaway that went straight away. The gap rarely exceeded two minutes, and the trio was almost caught before the last fifty kilometers.
Only Jonas Abrahamsen kept on going up front while Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet suffered a small crash within the pack, where the stress really increased. “The end of the race was nervous because there was no racing all day,” explained Benoît Vaugrenard. “It was a typical Paris-Nice stage.” A first big crash occurred forty-five kilometres from the finish, then a second one twenty kilometres further. The peloton always calmed down after the various incidents, which meant everything could come back together.
At the head of the race, Abrahamsen stayed away until the last two kilometres, then the bunch brought him back, and the sprint took place. Once again, Tim Merlier claimed victory and the entire Groupama-FDJ team finished in the pack. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet crossed the line with “only” a few bruises. “Although it’s not very serious, it’s always annoying to crash on the eve of a team time trial,” said Benoît. “It looks like everything is okay, but they say that a crash is never insignificant. Since we don’t have a sprinter here, the day’s goal was to cross the line in the winner’s time and without incident. The mission was partially achieved. We were already focused on tomorrow”.
A team time trial of about twenty-eight kilometres is looming between the Magny-Cours circuit and Nevers on Tuesday, with a rule similar to that of the last two editions: the time will be taken from the first rider to cross the finish line. “It’s a very important time trial for us,” concluded Benoît. “We have big goals and we’ve prepared well for it. There’s a lot of motivation and concentration going into tomorrow. A top 5 would already be a great performance.”
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We posted the report from stage winner Filippo Ganna's Team INEOS Grenadiers with the results.
Here's the report from second-place Juan Ayuso's UAE Team Emirates:
Juan Ayuso got off to a strong start on day one of Tirreno-Adriatico, with the 22 year-old taking 2nd place on the stage behind the absolute favourite Filippo Ganna (Ineos-Grenadiers).
The Italian stage race began with the usual out-and-back time trial of 11.5km in the town of Lido di Camaiore on Italy’s western coast, with Ayuso aiming to defend his victory of 12 months ago on this stage.
Ayuso, who holds two victories to his name already this year, clocked a time of 12:14, blitzing the pan-flat course with an average speed of 54.4kmph.
Juan Ayuso riding to second-place. Sirotti photo
The result sees the UAE Team Emirates-XRG co-leader now sitting in 2nd overall and will well the white jersey as best young rider on stage 2 tomorrow from Camaiore to Follonica (192km). The podium was rounded out by Johan Price-Pejtersen (Lidl-Trek).
Isaac Del Toro also put in a notable performance with the Mexican talent sneaking into the top-10 in 9th spot at +38”.
Ayuso: “I think I managed a good ride, especially with the General Classification in mind. I missed a little bit on the final leg coming back after the turn, I didn’t have quite the sensations I hoped for. The performance Ganna did was amazing so congratulations to him. For the coming days the idea will be to stay up front and try and gain time. We’re probably going to have some rain in the next days so each day will count. Then of course we’ll have some of the big hilly days later in the week which we’ll be fully focused on.”
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And here's the Tirreno-Adriatico report from Team Picnic-PostNL:
Tirreno-Adriatico got underway on Monday afternoon with the traditional time trial along the beachfront in Lido di Camaiore. At only 11.5 kilometres long and mostly straight roads with only one u-turn to speak of just before the halfway mark, it was set to be a day for the powerhouses and specialists, while the GC riders looked to limit losses. Team Picnic PostNL set out to get around the course in a good way, with Casper van Uden setting the team’s best time of the day; as the squad look ahead for the stages to come.
The stage was an out-and-back trip along the coast.
Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “Today was all about getting through the stage in a good way and without any issues. The riders and staff went through the TT processes well together, making sure everything went smoothly. Now we’ll regather and turn our attention to the probable sprint stage tomorrow where we’ll go for it with Casper as our fast finisher.”
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