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Monday, August 25, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. - Vince Lombardi
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Current racing:
- August 23 - September 14: Vuelta a España
Upcoming racing:
- August 26 - 29: Tour Poitou Charentes en Nouvelle Aquitaine
Latest completed racing:
- August 20 - 24: Renewi Tour
- August 19 - 22: Tour du Limousin
- August 17: Hamburg Cyclassics
- August 17: La Polynormande
- August 12 - 16: Tour of Denmark
- August 15: Circuit Franco-Belge
- August 4 - 10: Tour of Poland
- August 7 - 10: Arctic Race of Norway
- August 5 - 9: Vuelta a Burgos
- August 6 - 8: Tour de l'Ain
- August 3: Circuito de Getxo
- August 2: San Sebastian Classic
We posted the report from the race organizer with the results.
Here's the Vuelta report from stage winner Jonas Vingegaard's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Jonas Vingegaard won the second stage of the Vuelta a España in spectacular fashion. On the first uphill finish, the Dane proved strongest in a reduced group, taking the stage win and the red jersey from Jasper Philipsen.
“I’m extremely happy with this victory. Taking the red jersey on top of that makes it even more special”, Vingegaard says afterwards. Despite a crash just before the climb to Limone Piemonte, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader felt strong. “The team rode brilliantly. It’s truly fantastic to win like this.”
Jonas Vingegaard wins stage two on a foggy hilltop. Sirotti photo
During the second stage in northeastern Italy, the peloton was shaken by a crash on the right side of the wet road. Five riders from Team Visma | Lease a Bike - including Vingegaard - were involved, but all were able to continue. At the foot of the final climb to Limone Piemonte, the yellow-and-black team once again took control at the front of the peloton, setting Vingegaard up perfectly. The Dane outsprinted Giulio Ciccone to take the stage win.
“Before the last corner, I thought I couldn’t pass Ciccone. Luckily, the finish was further away than I expected. You should never pass up a chance to win in a Grand Tour. That’s why I went all-in today”, Vingegaard says, adding that he came through the crash relatively unscathed. “I fell quite hard, but at first glance, it seems fine. Of course, I have a few scrapes.”
Teammate Matteo Jorgensen crossed the line in ninth place. “Jonas’ victory is impressive. It looked very explosive. It was really cool to see him do it this way.” Vingegaard’s stage victory brings Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s total for the season to 31 wins, after Matthew Brennan claimed his second triumph of the week in the Deutschland Tour as well today.
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Here's the report from GC fourth-place Egan Bernal's Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Egan Bernal climbed to an impressive fourth place on stage two of the Vuelta a Espana, as the race produced an early showdown for the general classification contenders.
On wet Italian roads, the peloton tackled the second-category Limone Piemonte summit, with Bernal accelerating well in the final metres.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) claimed the victory despite going down in a large crash on a slippy roundabout with 26 kilometres remaining.
Victor Langellotti also went down in the pileup but was able to remount and claim 15th place on the stage. The INEOS Grenadiers put in a strong lead out display on the climb, with Michal Kwiatkowski, Ben Turner and Filippo Ganna laying the groundwork before big turns from Bob Jungels and Brandon Rivera.
Filippo Ganna at the pre-race teams presentation ceremony. Sirotti photo
Magnus Sheffield was also involved in a crash on the run-in but was able to finish without issue.
Bernal now sits fourth overall, 10 seconds back on Vingegaard and two seconds ahead of a number of other GC rivals after finding himself on the right side of a time gap split.
Egan Bernal: “I actually didn’t think of fighting for the win. I started the stage with a different mindset. Yet I found myself at the front, and decided to try my luck. It’s good for my morale to be up there. There was some stress in the bunch, as usual in the first week of a Grand Tour. Luckily I felt very protected all day long thanks to teammates like Ben, Pippo, Kwiato… I came out alright from the stage thanks to them.”
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We posted the report from stage five and GC winner Arnaud De Lie's Team Lotto with the resuilts.
Here's the report from Team Groupama-FDJ:
The final stage of the Renewi Tour offered a nice show on Sunday around Leuven. However, none of the moves that happened in the final hour of racing proved successful. Former French champion Valentin Madouas also went on the attack ten kilometers from the finish, briefly took to lead, but was unable to hold off the peloton. Still up there in the final, Paul Penhoët then went for the sprint and finished in eighth place. Valentin Madouas lost a position in the overall standings and finished just outside the top 10 (11th).
Arnaud De Lie wins Renewi Tour stage five.
Although the 1,500 metres of elevation gain recorded in the final stage of the Renewi Tour weren’t particularly impressive, the repetition of around thirty climbs around Leuven could still provide some action on Sunday. This was confirmed from the start, as the breakaway was initially fiercely contested. Lewis Askey was able to hit the front for a while, but ultimately, a quartet managed to break away after around thirty kilometres. The peloton let the gap grow to three minutes, but he also quickly came back, and stretched out considerably, shortly after entering the final eighty kilometres.
The attacks eventually began half an hour later on one of the short but explosive climbs of the finishing circuit. A few favorites broke away, and Valentin Madouas showed himself for the first time to close the gap. The moves continued, without much success, until approaching the “green kilometre” with about twenty-five kilometres to go. The Breton couldn’t take part in this battle, which benefited some of his competitors on GC. Shortly after starting the final lap, a threatening group including Mathieu van der Poel, Tim Wellens, and Alberto Bettiol was caught, and the Groupama-FDJ cycling team then formed around Valentin Madouas.
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“We tackled this last stage motivated, with the goal of being opportunistic with Valentin because we knew it was going to be open in the final,” explained Thierry Bricaud. “The goal was to join a small group to win the stage and achieve a good overall result. That’s what Valentin tried to do. The guys showed great commitment.”
Launched by Lewis Askey and Clément Russo on the Keizersberg, ten kilometers from the finish, the former French champion went all in and broke away slightly from the pack with three other riders. However, the attempt didn’t last. “The course was hard, punchy, but at the same time not hard enough,” explained Thierry. “The stage was intense, that’s for sure, but there were always teammates left to pull.”
Barely caught, Valentin Madouas gave it another go in pursuit on the penultimate climb of the day, but all the attackers were eventually caught after the final climb, around four kilometres from the finish. “We also knew there was a possibility of a small sprint, in which case Paul could be part of it,” added Thierry. And the young Frenchman was definitely present at the front in these closing kilometers, as he even followed an attack from the Belgian champion Tim Wellens.
Everything came back together shortly after, but Clément Russo kept his sprinter in the front positions as they approached the flamme rouge. Dries De Bondt anticipated the bunch sprint, and the Groupama-FDJ lead-out man kept pulling until 300 metres from the finish line, before the sprint really started.
Positioned on Mathieu van der Poel’s wheel at that point, Paul Penhoët couldn’t compete for victory and took eighth place. “Paul maybe did a bit too much in the final, but we can’t blame him for that; he wanted to do well,” Thierry said. “He had a bad experience four years ago at the U23 World Championships with a somewhat similar scenario, and he didn’t dare follow. That will serve him for the future.” As for Valentin Madouas, he had to give up his place in the top 10 overall on Sunday, finishing in eleventh position in this Renewi Tour 2025.
“Overall, we’re a little frustrated because we weren’t on the right timing on stage 3, we could have done a lot better, and we lost the opportunity to do two great sprints with Paul in the first two days,” concluded Thierry. “Paul still had the opportunity to make a nice sprint yesterday. On the overall, it comes down to a few seconds for the top 10, but that’s racing. We were maybe a bit too conservative in the first few days, but today and yesterday, the guys showed great commitment and didn’t give up.”
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