Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, September 27, 2024
Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Khalil Gibran
Les Woodland's book Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story - All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- September 22 - 29: World Road Cycling Championships
Upcoming racing:
- Sept 29 - Oct 6: Le Tour de Langkawi
- October 12: Il Lombardia
Latest completed racing:
- September 18 - 22: Tour de Luxembourg
- September 21: Super 8 Classic
- September 20: Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
- September 18: GP de Wallonie
- September 15: Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal
- September 15: Trofeo Matteotti
- September 14: Memorial Marco Pantani
- September 13: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec
- September 12: Coppa Sabatini
Team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe posted this
The Italian Lorenzo Finn from the GRENKE - Auto Eder team secured the gold medal at the World Championship in Zurich with an impressive solo victory. Paul Fietzke (Germany) finished fourth, and Theodor August Clemmensen (Denmark) came in ninth, rounding off the excellent results for the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe U19 riders.
Lorenzo Finn wins the U23 World Road Champinships. Photo: Sprint Cycling Agency
Lorenzo Finn is the new world champion. The 17-year-old Italian had the strongest legs in the 127.2-kilometer U19 road race at the World Championships in Zurich. Finn launched his first attack 60 kilometers from the finish but was caught by his competitors. However, with 20 kilometers to go, he attacked again, leaving his remaining rivals behind. In pouring rain, Finn built a big lead, winning the gold medal with a 2:05 minute gap over Britain’s Sebastian Grindley and 3:06 minutes ahead of the Netherlands’ Senna Remijn. Just behind, Germany’s Paul Fietzke narrowly missed the bronze medal, finishing fourth (+3:06 minutes). Theodor August Clemmensen (Denmark, +6:45 minutes) rounded off the strong performance of the GRENKE - Auto Eder riders with a ninth-place finish.
Following the 2022 title by Germany’s Emil Herzog, the gold medal at the 2024 World Championships goes once again to a rider from GRENKE - Auto Eder. Last year, Paul Fietzke also took silver. Finn’s victory is yet another testament to the excellent development program of the WorldTeam Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe. For Finn, this triumph caps off a hugely successful season. Earlier in the year, he claimed the Italian championship titles in both the road race and time trial. Additionally, he won the general classification at the Belgian stage race Aubel-Thimister-Stavelot and placed third at the French Ain Bugey Valromey Tour.
“Honestly, I still haven’t fully realized what happened today. It feels like a dream. I think I had the best legs of my life. When I was out solo, 60 kilometers from the finish, I thought, ‘This might be a bit early.’ But when my second attack worked, I knew I had a real shot. Normally, I don’t like racing in the rain, but today everything just fell into place. Now, I’m going to enjoy this moment.” – Lorenzo Finn
“Lorenzo rode an incredibly strong race. It was clear early on that he was the best rider in the field. He stayed calm despite attacks from his rivals and made his decisive move at just the right moment. An absolutely well-deserved victory. Having Paul and Theodor in the top ten as well is the cherry on top of an already highly successful season and further proof of our excellent talent development program. Congratulations to the entire team.” – Dr Christian Schrot, Sports Director GRENKE - Auto Eder
Content continues below the ads
Here’s the team’s news:
24-year-old Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer agreed on a two-year contract with Lotto Dstny. 2025 will be his first season as a pro rider.
Baptiste Veistroffer has finished the Tour of Britain two weeks ago with his current Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Development Team. For the next two years Veistroffer signed a deal with Lotto Dstny. “I’m super happy to have this opportunity. Becoming pro with the Lotto Dstny Team is a huge step. It gives me the chance to further grow. I will discover a foreign team as a Frenchman which will give me different views and experiences. I think the values of the team match perfectly with myself, being offensive. I still need to discover which type of rider I am, grand tours or classics, I don’t really know yet.”
Baptiste Veistroffer at the 2023 Tour de Bretagne
This season Veistroffer won the fourth stage at the Tour de Bretagne Cycliste. “I was able to hold off the peloton, for 30 kilometers. As a Breton winning a stage in your home region is very special.” The young Frenchman, who likes to discover the world by bike, was a triathlete before making the step to road cycling four years ago.
Stéphane Heulot, CEO of Lotto Dstny, is very happy to welcome a new talent. “Baptiste will become a pro rider with us, he still has to discover a lot and we will guide him in this process. He showed already he can ride very fast and the victory he took this year was impressive. We are eager to find out where his capabilities reach.”
Content continues below the ads
The team posted this:
An eventful 2024 season is about to come to an end for Thibaud Gruel. After he made a definitive and earlier switch than planned from “La Conti” to the Groupama-FDJ WorldTour team last March, the 20-year-old found his bearings quite fast with “the big boys”. A brilliant top-10 finisher in the Bretagne Classic, the puncher from Tours talks about this very special year, as the last races loom, and not the least.
Thibaud Gruel in 2023
Thibaud, we are on the eve of the U23 world championship. How do you feel?
Very good. I am in pretty good shape in this second part of the season, and I really hope to do well in this world championship. I have only competed in it once, in Australia, when I was a junior. I like this event, with the French team atmosphere, racing for the rainbow jersey… Physically, I was doing well in training, and I was also doing pretty well in the last few hard races that I competed in. I don’t think the World Championship can be harder than the Grand Prix de Montréal (smiles). It was definitely good preparation, and it can only be useful on Friday.
What do you expect from this race?
We have a solid group with the French team. We have several cards to play, which can allow us to be there in all possible scenarios. We also know that in the U23 category, the race doesn’t necessarily unfold the same way as in the WorldTour, and it’s not always the strongest who wins. I would like to be able to play my card, but we’ll see when I’ll come into action depending on the coach’s strategy. If I have the opportunity to fight for the title, I’ll grab it 100%. I don’t set myself any limits, even if there will be a high level with some WorldTour riders coming to compete in the U23 World Championships. For instance, there are the UAE Team Emirates’ riders I used to race in juniors with: Antonio Morgado, Jan Christen, Isaac Del Toro. But there are also other very strong riders who are not in the WorldTour like Joseph Blackmore who won the Tour de l’Avenir.
This is also the last time that WorldTeams and ProTeams riders will be able to take part in the U23 World Championships. What do you think of this new regulation?
To be honest, it seems quite logical to me. I think it’s pretty good that the riders who have been fighting against each other all season in the Class 2 and U23 races are once again facing each other at the World Championships, without WorldTour riders coming back to get involved. I say that even though I’m doing it myself this year, but I started the season thinking I was going to compete at the continental level. I had this race in mind very early on, and I even talked about it with the national coach. Even if the regulations hadn’t changed, I think it would have been my last U23 World Championship. Once you join the WorldTour, you have other goals…
Let’s go back in time. In early March, the team tells you that you’re going to join the WorldTour team with immediate effect, at 19 years old. Can you tell us about that moment?
It really was a surprise. My phone rang and Marc Madiot’s name came up. I didn’t know what to expect. He then told me that they were considering making me join the WorldTeam in March. He was honest with me, he explained that the team had a lot of injured riders. But I had also done 100% of the start to the season with the WorldTeam, and he told me that I had given total satisfaction, that the team was happy with my work, with what I did, and that they had confidence in me. It was a surprise, but also great news. It all happened quite fast, but they also took the time to explain to me why, how it was going to happen and how my schedule was going to be modified.
Were you a bit nervous when they told you you’d be taking the next step earlier than what was planned, which was 2025?
Actually, I was mostly afraid that my entire race schedule would be turned upside down. But we eventually managed to keep the races that I wanted to do and the goals that I had set for myself with La Conti. I did not feel nervous about the races themselves. On the contrary, I was going to discover them, and I really had nothing to lose since it was an anticipated switch. I only felt excitement. I did not expect to be the strongest in the races this year. I was quite aware that at the WorldTour level, in particular, I would be facing stronger riders than me. I did not ask myself these kinds of questions. I simply told myself that I would go to the races and do what was asked of me as best I could. I also told myself that if the team had trusted me, it was probably because I had the required level. I wasn’t too scared about that. In addition, thanks to the exchanges between the two teams, I had already had the opportunity to do some races beforehand and to realize I could do well. I was quite serene. And if I hadn’t been, everyone would have been there to help me. At the end of the day, it’s still cycling. In the peloton, we’re all human beings with two arms and two legs.
Before really joining the WorldTeam, you ended your time with “La Conti” by scoring its first victory of the year. It’s a nice way to say good-bye.
For sure, especially that I won the Circuit des Ardennes like the previous year, on a similar finish. It felt like the circle was complete, and I’m really happy to have been able to win a race with “La Conti” considering the few days I’ve raced with them this season. I still had goals afterwards on Liège-Bastogne-Liège U23, then on the Giro NextGen, where we unfortunately weren’t invited. That being said, racing a little bit more with “La Conti” meant I was able to continue to fight for the win in certain races, which also made the transition smoother.
How did your daily life change with the move from “La Conti” to the WorldTeam?
I was already based in Besançon since I was supposed to do the whole year with “La Conti”. I preferred to stay there and finish this season rather than return home to Tours where the terrain is a bit less hilly. The area around Besançon is really nice to train on. So from this point of view as well, the transition was smooth. As I stayed there, my lifestyle remained more or less the same. I was with my mates from “La Conti”, we would ride together from time to time, and I could also take advantage of the Performance Centre facilities, massages, cryotherapy, or the mechanics. My coach was also there, which sometimes allowed me to do some motorpacing sessions. I don’t regret staying in Besançon at all. There were a lot of benefits.
In April, you made your WorldTour debut in the Tour de Romandie. What struck you first?
What struck me, even before the start, was the density and the overall level. There were only WorldTeams, or almost, and only strong riders, who I know very well from the TV. Then, the way of racing is different. It is more organised than in Class 2 races. But once it gets going, it doesn’t stop. In Class 2 races, when it goes full gas and you turn around, there are only twenty guys left. In Romandie, I turned around and everyone was still there! You just realise that this is what high-level racing is. It didn’t worry me too much because it was a WorldTour event, and I had to adapt. I was still able to score two top-10s during the week, which was very good, especially since that wasn’t necessarily the goal. I just seized opportunities in the sprint when I had the chance once I had done my job for Lenny and David.
Overall, how did you experience these first months with the WorldTeam?
In terms of integration, it wasn’t a problem at all. I had already done the winter training camps and raced a lot with them before. I adjusted quite well. From a sporting point of view, I took a break after the Tour de Romandie, and it took me a little while to get back on track. I wanted to be in the mix for the French championships, but I didn’t get in great shape before the summer. Having raced the Polynormande, the Tour du Limousin and the Tour du Poitou-Charentes really gave me a boost for the end of the season with the Bretagne Classic and the Canadian Classics in particular, where I found good legs again. I just had a bit of a dip in the middle of the season, but I don’t feel like I had to digest the switch. On the contrary, I actually feel like I’ve done one single season, without any real change.
You also mostly took on a domestique role while you were often a leader in the young categories. Was it easy to switch from one to the other?
It depends on each person’s mentality. It’s neither easy nor difficult. Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating, but once you’re there racing, you do what you have to do when you have to do it. And you also have to be honest: you also know that the leaders are stronger than you, that you couldn’t do what they do. I was domestique a lot, but I’m quite aware that I was there to learn and that it was normal for my first season. I had no problem doing it, but I didn’t tell myself that I wanted to do that my whole career either (smiles). When you’ve often been a leader, it also makes you realize what it’s like. It opens your eyes to some details, and you understand even more what others do for you when you are the leader. It is interesting to have this point of view.
When did you start to feel really comfortable racing with the “big boys”?
As in any season, there are times when you feel more or less good. In the times I felt really good, I felt I could be more or less active in certain races, or at least to be there when things got harder. It gives me hope for the future. There are also times when I thought: “this is a different world, I am far from it”, but it was mainly when I was not in great shape. Actually, I got this feeling of being able to be active at the higher level even before my move to the WorldTeam. I think of Paris-Camembert. I was in the mix in all the climbs, but I made a stupid mistake in positioning on the last one and I found myself in a second group while I could totally be up front. I could have made a much better result that day (14th, editor’s note). I was disappointed with the result but after the race, I told myself: it’s possible to be up there from time to time.
In late August, you finished eighth in the Bretagne Classic at WorldTour level, a year after finishing eighth in the amateur race. Does it say a lot about how far you’ve come?
Symbolically, it means something indeed. There were 260 kilometers, 6 hours and 15 minutes of racing, and I was just excited to compete in such a long Classic. I wasn’t really scared, I was just looking forward to seeing how it would go and what I would be able to do. In the end, I felt really good, I was quite well positioned throughout the race, and I followed the first group. It was my first time in such a Classic, so I didn’t know how much I could trust myself and how my body would be able to react. I didn’t dare to attack, I just followed and sprinted at the end. But to still be there after 6h15, 260 km and not struggle completely, that was really good. It remains a great memory of this season.
We also saw you in good form in Hamburg and then in Canada.
I felt very good in those races. In Hamburg, it was a bit unusual because the race had been shortened and Paul had crashed out. There was a steep climb to do three times in the final, and that suited me very well because it was a one-minute-thirty effort. I was in a good position on the last climb, no one had really attacked, so I thought I would go myself because I was not going to beat Olav Kooij in the sprint. In Canada, I didn’t get any results, but the legs were good. I just lost a bit of energy at certain points for details, but we had big leaders anyway and I helped them as much as possible. In Montreal in particular, it was really really hard, and when things started to explode, I was still up there, and I was able to help Romain, Val, and Rudy until late in the race. It was surely positive, and being able to do that in very high-level races gave me confidence.
Before the very last races, how do you assess your season?
It’s been a pretty good season. First of all, I have a victory in the bags, and at least that’s something! I also have three top-10s in the WorldTour, including one in a Classic, which is not insignificant. I can say that this season is a success because if someone had told me that I would do that on January 1st, I wouldn’t have believed it! I didn’t even think I’d be racing in the WorldTour before 2025. I’ve improved well, and at the age of 20, that’s the most important thing. I’m pretty happy with the transition from “La Conti” to the WorldTour. I’ve been trusted in a lot of high-level races, and I wanted to prove that the team could trust me and that I had the level to compete in these races. I’m pretty happy overall, and I hope the team is too.
Given the end of the season you’ve had, do you already feel ready to take on more responsibilities or do you still need time?
At 20, you’re always excited, and you want to fight to win right away, like you used to do as a U23 rider. The team is also there to tell me when I can go for my own chance or when I should support another guy. But being a leader and trying to win races, that’s all I ask for! It is also decided based on the form and the line-up in the race. For now, I haven’t been a leader very much, which is normal because I joined the team during the season. Everything can’t come at once, it would be too fast. You have to learn, but I feel that the team trusts me when I am in form. Everyone sees that I am improving, at my own pace, and that it will be possible to give me responsibilities as I go along, but without rushing things. I know that if I continue to progress, it will come. In the meantime, I am also learning by being around the leaders, by seeing how they behave. You also realize that it is much harder to be a leader. When everyone is on the limit, the domestique can take it easy after doing his job. The leader, on the other hand, has to be there until the end. It is harder mentally, physically, and you also have to have steady nerves.
What will your program be after the Worlds?
I’m supposed to go to the Italian Classics campaign, but we will have a larger group there, so I don’t know yet exactly which ones I will compete in.
Content continues below the ads
Here's the team's anouncement:
Team Jayco AlUla is pleased to confirm the signing of up-and-coming Dutch talent Jelte Krijnsen for the 2025 season, having been impressed with the youngsters’ hunger and motivation following some eye-catching results this season.
Despite only stepping up from national club team to continental team level in March, Krijnsen quickly found his feet claiming a stage win at the UCI 2.2 level French race, Tour du Loir-et-Cher, in April.
The 23-year-old transitioned into the sport from a speedskating background and has since enjoyed a stand-out second half of the 2024 season, with stunning victories at the UCI 2. Pro level Tour of Denmark and UCI 1.1 level Druivenkoers Overijse in August. Here the youngster displayed great talent and determination to come out on top against some of the best WorldTour professionals.
Jelte Krijnsen winning the Druivenkoers Overijse in August. Photo: Sprint Cycling
Currently riding as a stagiaire with a ProTeam for the remainder of the year it is clear to see that the Dutchman is hungry for more and is a fast learner. Settling into the elite peloton, Krijnsen recently fought to an impressive fourth place on stage three of the Tour of Britain and claimed sixth overall signalling his natural ability on the climbs. GreenEDGE Cycling hopes that the Flemish Classics will be an area where he can shine in the future.
Having followed his progression closely, team management believe that the rider from the Netherlands is ready to join the WorldTour in 2025. The team are confident that with the right tools and professional environment to grow in, that Krijnsen will thrive and continue with his promising trajectory having displayed himself as an exceptional talent throughout 2024.
Jelte Krijnsen:
“Joining a WorldTour team truly is a dream for me. I still can’t believe this dream is coming true next year. With Team Jayco AlUla I have found myself a team which has a lot of confidence in my abilities as a rider and this really motivates me to strive for the best. Together with the team I want to do well in the spring classics, these kind of races suit me quite well. My goal is to get the best out of myself and compete at a good level in the WorldTour.”
Brent Copeland – General Manager:
“We believe that we have found a raw talent here with Jelte. He is young and inexperienced when it comes to racing in the elite WorldTour peloton and yet he has had some very impressive results with minimal support. We are therefore very exciting to see what Jelte can achieve over the next years with the right environment and support of a WorldTeam and we hope that he will grow with us and become a big talent of the future.”
Jelte Krijnsen
Age: 23
Nationality: Dutch
New Contract: 2025
Key Results
1st Druivenkoers Overijse (2024)
1st Tour of Denmark – stage 4 (2024)
1st Tour du Loir-et-Cher – stage 3 (2024)
3rd Olympias Tour – GC (2024)
4th Tour of Britain – stage 3 (2024)
6th Tour of Britain – GC (2024)
Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary