Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, April 4, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Perhaps we've never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon Earth and decided there's no sign of intelligent life. - Neil deGrasse Tyson
Les Woodland's book Tour de France: The Inside Story - Making the World's Greatest Bicycle Race is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- April 4: Route Adélie de Vitre
Upcoming racing:
- April 5: GP Miguel Indurain
- April 5: Volta Limburg Classic
- April 6: Ronde van Vlaanderen
- April 7 - 12: Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
- April 8 - 12: Region Pays de la Loire Tour
- April 9: Scheldeprijs
- April 13: Paris-Roubaix
Latest completed racing:
- April 2: Dwars door Vlaanderen
- April 2: Paris - Camembert Lepetit
- March 24 - 30: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
- March 30: Gent - Wevelgem
- March 30: La Roue Tourangelle
- March 25 - 29: Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
- March 28: E3 Saxo Bank Classic
- March 26: Classic Brugge-De Panne
- March 22: Milano-Sanremo
- March 21: Bredene Koksijde Classic
- March 20: GP de Denain
Here’s the team’s news
The second Monument of the season is scheduled to take place this weekend, and the course it puts on the table will once again be a hard and relentless once which could lead so several selections happening long before the finish in Oudenaarde, which gets to see the winner getting crowned there for the 14th year in a row.
A total of 268 kilometers, 17 climbs, many of them featuring double-digit gradients – including the Molenberg, Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg – and seven cobblestone sectors are the many ingredients of the 109th edition, which will get underway early in the morning from the beautiful historic center of Brugge, home to one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe.
At the start of the 2024 Tour of Flanders. Sirotti photo
Soudal Quick-Step will be at the start of De Ronde with a motivated seven-man team consisting of Pascal Eenkhoorn, former Belgian Champion Yves Lampaert – a top-five finisher in 2020 – Luke Lamperti, Paul Magnier, Casper Pedersen, who concluded a strong and impressive fourth at last week’s E3 Saxo Bank Classic after almost 100 kilometers in the break, Pepijn Reinderink and Bert Van Lerberghe.
“De Ronde is the same long and hard race that we know with some difficult roads and tough climbs. On top of that, the wind could play an important role on Sunday and in the way things will unfold, especially between the climbs. We have a nice and motivated team, featuring both experienced and young riders. For the latter, it will be a good occasion to take on these iconic roads, to discover De Ronde and gain valuable experience for the future. We hope to do a strong race, have a bit of luck on our side this time, and be in the mix for a good result at the end of the day”, said sports director Tom Steels at the press conference that took place at the headquarters of our sponsor Safety Jogger, where our line-up was revealed.
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Here’s the team’s update:
Team Jayco AlUla leader Michael Matthews returns to Ronde van Vlaanderen this weekend, more eager than ever before to clinch a spot on the podium at the iconic Flemish race on Sunday.
Highlighted as one of the key races that the 34-year-old is hungry to add to his impressive list of palmares, De Ronde has left a bitter taste in the Australian’s mouth after the 2024 edition, where he sprinted himself onto the podium only to be painfully relegated afterwards in the sprint to the line.
Michael Matthews before the start of the 2024 Tour of Flanders. Sirotti photo
Coming off the back of an agonisingly close podium finish at Milan-Sanremo, where the all-rounder claimed fourth place, the form is clearly there, the motivation is higher than ever before, and Team Jayco AlUla is confident that ‘Bling’ can deliver on the day if luck is on his side.
Matthews – “Flanders is a race that I love, and it is a race that I really would love to win and believe I can win. 2024 was a hard pill to swallow with what happened in the final sprint, however I am back and in great shape once again and want to be there in the final once again, battling it out for victory. It is of course like all races now, going to be tough, but I have confidence, a strong team and I just hope everything goes smoothly on the day.”
Surrounding Matthews will be German duo Max Walscheid and Jasha Sütterlin, bringing a wealth of classics experience to the squad. The trio will be joined by Australian Olympic track champion Kelland O’Brien plus the Dutch duo of Elmar Reinders and Jelte Krijnsen.
Neo-pro Briton Robert Donaldson rounds out the seven-rider squad ready to tackle Sunday’s second Monument of the 2025 season, a brutal 268.8km event.
Mat Hayman – Sport Director “Sunday is the second cycling Monument of the year and Michael will be our leader. It’s a race that left him bitterly disappointed last year with a what we think was a harsh decision, so he’ll be back to try and emulate his performance from 2024. Unlike last year’s conditions it is looking like it’s going to be nice weather in Belgium and so like always, we are expecting a very hard race.”
Team Jayco AlUla at Tour of Flanders 2025:
Robert Donaldson (GBR)
Kelland O’Brien (AUS)
Elmar Reinders (NED)
Michael Matthews (AUS)
Jelte Krijnsen (NED)
Jasha Sutterlin (GER)
Max Walscheid (GER)
Here’s the team’s news
XDS Astana Team rider Alberto Bettiol will not compete in Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Alberto Bettiol, the reigning Italian champion and 2019 Ronde van Vlaanderen winner will miss this Sunday’s Flemish Classic due to illness. Alberto was not able to finish Dwars door Vlaanderen. He was diagnosed with pulmonary infection with chlamydia pneumoniae.
Alberto Bettiol at the start of the 2024 Dwars door Vlaanderen. Sirotti photo
“It feels devastating not to be able to compete in Ronde van Vlaanderen this Sunday. This race means a lot to me, and it was one of the big goals of the season, especially while wearing the Italian tricolor jersey. I felt weirdly weak recently and medical examination confirmed this infection. There is nothing I can do but accept this decision and I need to shift my focus to the next goals”, — said Alberto Bettiol.
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Here’s the team’s news:
As the WorldTour’s one-day specialists have their sights set on the Ronde van Vlaanderen in Belgium, some of the world’s best climbers will head to Spain this weekend for the beginning of an important block of racing in the mountains. In turn, UAE Team Emirates-XRG are ready to tackle the GP Miguel Induráin and Itzulia Basque Country with a squad full of climbing talent.
First up for the riders will be the one-day GP Miguel Induráin on Saturday, 5 April – a race that always delivers an entertaining spectacle – before the Itzulia Basque Country takes place between Tuesday, 7 April and Saturday, 12 April. The latter is the second WorldTour stage race of the season in Spain and will see UAE Team Emirates-XRG look to defend the title won through Juan Ayuso last time out.
At the GP Miguel Induráin, it will be UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Brandon McNulty who will start the race as defending champion, after his fine performance in 2024. On that day, the American climber outsprinted Maxim Van Gils for the victory after an afternoon of non-stop attacking.
Brandon McNulty winning the 2024 GP Miguel Indurain.
Having recently celebrated his birthday, the 27-year-old will wear the race no.1 on his back on Saturday but be joined by a host of riders capable of putting their opponents on the back foot. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad for the 1.Pro race is as follows:
Igor Arrieta (Spa)
Isaac del Toro (Mex)
Felix Großschartner (AUT)
Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
Brandon McNulty (USA)
Marc Soler (Spa)
Pablo Torres (Spa)
Featuring a series of punchy climbs in the finale, the GP Miguel Induráin often tears a peloton full of hopefuls to shreds, ending in a survival of the fittest before the downhill finish to Estella. Last year, it was McNulty who came out on top, and we could see another attacking race this time around.
In the UAE Team Emirates-XRG ranks, Marc Soler comes off the back of a strong performance at his home Volta a Catalunya, in which he helped Ayuso to a great stage win and finished as the best Catalan rider. He will be joined by Isaac del Toro, who triumphed at Milano-Torino just a couple of weeks ago, and is only getting stronger as his experience grows in the WorldTour ranks.
For Soler, the Catalan will hope to continue where he left off at Itzulia Basque Country, with the 31-year-old taking fourth place behind Ayuso’s victory last year. Added to his seventh-place finish in 2022, the six-day affair is clearly a race which suits the experienced rider, and this time around he will look to support the ambitions of debutant João Almeida.
The Portuguese has enjoyed a period of recovery after a brutal edition of Paris-Nice, which yielded a fabulous stage victory atop La Loge des Gardes. Returning to racing in the Basque Country, the 26-year-old will lead a UAE Team Emirates-XRG side that includes much of the team from GP Miguel Induráin:
João Almeida (Por)
Igor Arrieta (Spa)
Isaac del Toro (Mex)
Felix Großschartner (AUT)
Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor)
Brandon McNulty (USA)
Marc Soler (Spa)
Itzulia Basque Country is a race that UAE Team Emirates-XRG have enjoyed in the past, with Ayuso’s victory in 2024 backed up by Soler in fourth and Del Toro in seventh. That is not to mention the podium placings of Dan Martin and Tadej Pogačar in 2019 and 2021, respectively, with the latter pipping Primoź Roglič to an impressive uphill stage victory.
As the results indicate, this race is a delight for the climbers, with the Basque Country packing a plethora of punchy climbs and leg-numbing mountains, enough to separate the best from the rest. This year’s route is no different.
After a flat individual time trial on the opening day and a stage which could fall to the sprinters on day two, Itzulia Basque Country truly gets into gear on stage 3. With 3,035m of elevation gain to tackle across 157km, stage 3 will be the first real showdown of the race and is set to end with a 1.4km-long climb at 10%. If that isn’t enough to whet the appetite, stages 4, 5 and 6 all harbour their own difficulties which will no doubt have any sprinters on the startlist heading for the exit door.
Stages 4 and 5 both hold around 2,800m of climbing before the general classification is decided for good on the sixth and final day of racing. Beginning and ending in Eibar, the peloton will climb over 3,500m across a 153.6km-long course, which includes seven categorised climbs and plenty of scope for attacks. The final climb of the race will top out with almost 20km to ride, with most of the tough tests encountered early in the day.
Sports director Andrej Hauptman will guide the team at GP Miguel Induráin, before being joined by fellow sports director Simone Pedrazzini in Itzulia Basque Country.
Looking ahead to this trademark tough test in northern Spain, Almeida was full of excitement heading into his debut.
Almeida: “We go into Basque Country with a very strong team. It will be the first time I race here so I’m excited to take it on. The passion for cycling there is something special and the fans really get behind everybody. It’s a famously hard race but we have a team for the job and full of options which is an advantage. The course isn’t ideal for me but I’ll do what I can.
“I was very pleased to take a victory in Paris-Nice, it was a particularly sweet one. We’ll be hoping for more of that at La Itzulia.”
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Here’s the team’s news:
A tribute to the past, a statement for the future, worn by the next generation: Lotto Cycling Team is celebrating 40 years of the National Lottery in the peloton with a unique cycling jersey, to be unveiled during the Tour of Flanders.
The salmon pink of Predictor-Lotto, the fluorescent colors of Lotto-Super Club. The blocks of Lotto-Caloi, the flame of Lotto-Adecco, and the iconic stars of the very first Lotto-Eddy Merckx jersey from 1985. It all comes together this Sunday at the Tour of Flanders. Lotto Cycling Team and the National Lottery have stitched 40 years of racing history into a single, unique piece—to celebrate the Lottery’s 40th anniversary in the peloton.
The special jersey.
In 2025, Lotto Cycling Team will mark four decades of partnership between the National Lottery and the team—an achievement unmatched by any other cycling team in the world. What began in 1985 as a bold move by the National Lottery to promote the Lotto brand has grown into a household name in the peloton, and that legacy lives on through the next generations. Lotto has played a pivotal role in shaping professional cycling, from the development of young cycling talent to fueling Belgian cycling culture to contributing to legendary victories.
“Lotto and cycling are inextricably linked. For forty years now, the National Lottery has been investing in the future of Belgian cycling. We are a sponsor, but more than that a steadfast partner in the development of young talent and a bridge builder by bringing the sport close to Belgian cycling fans. History and future come together in this one unique Jersey” continues Jannie Haek, CEO of the National Lottery.
“The legacy of 40 years of Lotto, carried by the riders who will shape the future of the sport. It couldn’t be more symbolic. Moreover, it’s a tribute to all the riders, staff, and supporters who have been part of the great Lotto family over the past 40 years.”
“We are incredibly proud that the team will take the start of Flanders’ Finest wearing this jersey, this tribute. We will do everything we can to honor it in the best way possible,” adds the team. Both the men’s and women’s teams will wear the jersey during the Tour of Flanders, and the women will also compete in it at the Vuelta, which begins in early May.
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