Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes - e. e.cummings
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.
Upcoming racing:
- July 5 - 27: Tour de France
- July 9 - 13: Tour of Austria
Latest completed racing:
- June 21 - 29: Most national road championships
- June 24: Giro dell'Appennino
- June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
- June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
- June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
- June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 29 - June 1: Tour of Norway
- May 14 - 18: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- May 18: Rund um Köln
Here's the roster from Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Remco Evenepoel and Tim Merlier will lead the team at the 112th edition of the race.
Lille gets to host the Grand Depart of the biggest race in the world on July 5, when the peloton will take on a flat stage at the end of which the sprinters should be in the spotlight. It will be just the start of what could be a crazy and extremely nervous first part of the race, one whose short but steep climbs, narrow roads, and tricky finishes will seriously test the riders.
The second half of the Tour de France will bring the big climbs of this edition – Hautacam, Mont Ventoux, Col de la Loze and La Plagne – a demanding mountain individual time trial to Peyragudes and the traditional finish on Paris’ famous Champs-Élysées boulevard, which this year comes after several laps of a circuit inspired by the Olympic Games road race.
Third overall and white jersey winner at last year’s Le Tour, Remco Evenepoel will return at the start of the race – his sixth Grand Tour appearance – and the 25-year-old, the first Belgian in more than four decades to have finished the Tour de France on the podium, is excited ahead of this new challenge.
Remco Evenepoel in the best young rider's white jersey after stage 16 of the 2024 Tour de France. Sirotti photo
“It’s my second Tour de France and I’m looking forward to the Grand Depart, which won’t be far from Belgium. I think it’s obvious that I’m aiming for a good general classification, but the most important thing will be to not lose time in the first half of the race, which should be a very nervous one, with lots of traps and tricky roads. Just like last year, I want to win a stage there and do a good GC, while taking it one day at a time”, the double Olympic Champion said.
For European Champion Tim Merlier this will be his first presence since 2021 at the Grande Boucle, which the Belgian fast man will start with a total of ten wins under his belt since the beginning of the season. Soudal Quick-Step’s squad is set to include also Mattia Cattaneo, Pascal Eenkhoorn, German ITT Champion Maximilian Schachmann, Ilan Van Wilder, and Tour de France debutants Valentin Paret-Peintre and Bert Van Lerberghe.
“The race can be divided in two parts. A hectic first half, without a proper mountain stage, but with a flat individual time trial where gaps can be made, and plenty of opportunities for the sprinters and the puncheurs. Tim and Remco will have a couple of chances, but important will be that everybody makes it through those ten stages safely. The many mountain stages and the uphill time trial that come in the second part will make for an incredibly hard race, but also the last stage in Paris should play a role in the general classification. We have a strong and experienced team, capable of some nice things this summer, and so we start with a lot of confidence”, said sports director Tom Steels.
Here's the short Tour roster announcement from Team XDS Astana:
XDS Astana Team is ready for the biggest race in the world - the Tour de France, which will be held from July 5th to 27th.
Rider roster: Davide Ballerini, Cees Bol, Clément Champoussin, Yevgeniy Fedorov, Sergio Higuita, Mike Teunissen, Harold Tejada, SImone Velasco.
Sports directors: Dmitriy Fofonov, Mark Renshaw, Stefano Zanini.
Sergio Higuita winning stage five of the 2023 Tour of the Basque Country. Sirotti photo
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Harry Sweeny, Neilson Powless, Vincenzo Albanese, Ben Healy, Michael Valgren, Alex Baudin, Kasper Asgreen, and Marijn van den Berg have their hearts set on winning Tour stages this summer.
They have been dreaming up Tour de France victory celebrations ever since they were little kids. They have trained hard, traveled the world, and dedicated their lives to their sport for this: 21 stages, 21 chances, starting this Saturday in Lille.
Across Nord, Picardy, Brittany, and Normandy, our guys will go on the attack as soon as the time is right. They will make the most of every opportunity in the Massif Central and in the Pyrenees and Alps. Watch for them to attack all the way to the final circuit in Paris, over Montmartre and onto the Champs-Élysées.
We are going to light up this Tour de France on all terrain, from the windy north to the high peaks in the south to the City of Lights, with eight riders who each have the power, grit, and skills to win a stage on their day and make their childhood dreams come true.
Read our riders’ thoughts before the start of the 2025 Tour de France in Lille.
Harry Sweeny:
At my first Tour, I came close to winning a stage, and, to be honest, I don't think I really realized what it would've meant to win. I was so excited about just being in the race that I couldn't really even think about winning.
The Tour is the only race I've ever done in my career where every morning I was excited to get off the bus and just be there. A lot of the time, the racing is overshadowed by how hard it is. But, my first Tour, although it was super hard, especially for a neo pro, even when I was having a bad day, I still enjoyed it.
Getting to the Tour is something that many pros never do in their lifetime. Winning a stage in the Tour is something that not only changes your career, but can change your life. The intensity of the race comes from the fact that every day someone's life can change.
Having worked so hard for the last four years to get back to the Tour, it gives me goosebumps to think about what it could mean to win there, while actually being in the shape that is needed to win a stage. It would be one of those full-circle moments. Put it this way: It would be a highlight of my life.
Neilson Powless:
My best memory from the Tour de France so far was probably the cobblestone stage in the 2022 Tour de France when I realized I was fighting for the yellow jersey. I've been chasing that feeling ever since. It is so hard to get into that position.
That has been the thing that has motivated me for years now, just that feeling of being within reach of the yellow jersey, even if just for a day.
Neilson Powless riding stage 8 of the 2025 Tour de Suisse. Sirotti photo
I want to win a stage as well. That would definitely make my career feel complete. I've gotten to the point where I've won some big races, and I've raced at the front of a lot of big races, a lot of Monuments, but I must say that a win at the Tour de France, or wearing the yellow jersey, is still just the thing that's missing. Honestly, it's getting to the point where it feels like that's all that matters. I am trying to do everything I can to make that happen one day.
I feel pretty confident now with the races I've done this year. I know that even when I don't feel like my very best, because you're always going to go up and down during the Tour de France, I can rely on my racecraft. I've become the type of rider that's quite opportunistic and punchy and strong. I can rely on all of the tools I've been developing over the last eight years as a professional and still find a way to race for the win. That is really going to come in handy at the Tour de France.
Vincenzo Albanese:
I have always watched the Tour on TV. Participating for the first time makes me really happy. It’s been a hard journey to get here. Over the years, I have had some setbacks and had to train hard to come back stronger than before. This is one of the most important occasions in my career and I hope to live up to it. The first 10 days are more suited to my characteristics. I will do everything to help the team. My personal ambition is to try to win a stage. With this team, we will have lots of opportunities.
Michael Valgren:
I am pretty happy with my career already, but I need a grand tour stage win. Obviously, when you win a stage at the Tour, you go into the history books, especially in Denmark. Not many guys from Denmark have won a stage at the Tour. Just to be on that list with the other big names that I looked up to as a young kid would mean a lot. Then, I could just be proud, knowing that I would have achieved one of the hardest things in cycling and won a stage in the hardest race there is.
This is now my eighth Tour, and I really think I really timed the form perfectly. I was going well at the Dauphiné, but had in mind that I was going to the Tour. After the Dauphiné, I took a big step forward. I really hope I can use that to go for my own results or help the team win a stage.
Alex Baudin:
Ever since I was five, when I started racing on the bike, I have watched the Tour every year.
Most years, the Tour came near my house in the Alps and we went when we could to watch the riders. It is the biggest race in the world. In France, we talk about the World Cup in football, the Olympics, and then the Tour de France. Everyone watches the Tour de France in summer.
As soon as you tell someone that you are a cyclist, they ask if you ride the Tour. Now, I will be able to say, yes, and that feels really good. It has been my dream ever since I was a little kid, so that is really special.
My friends and family are even more excited than I am. I have been focused on the race and on my preparation. I really want to be on top form.
This journey started a long time ago, when I first wanted to become a pro. Riding the Tour is one of the checkpoints you want to reach in your career. First, you do a grand tour and then race the Tour de France. Now it’s my third year as a pro and I am ready.
The next goal and the next dream is to win a stage. There are always surprises at the Tour and you never know what is going to happen.
Kasper Asgreen:
Winning a stage at the Tour de France is a dream for many bike racers. To have been able to achieve that is something that I will be proud of and cherish for the rest of my life.
The Tour is the reason why I started cycling. I had been trying out a few different sports and nothing really caught on, and then over the summer, I was watching the Tour, and I said to my parents, maybe I should give that a try. It looks fun. And then, from a very young age, I had this unfounded belief that I could get there, completely based on nothing. I have never been one to sell myself short.
The dream now is to win another stage at the Tour. As a rider, you feel the occasion. Everybody's just a bit extra prepared. There is more pressure, more media, just a bit more of everything. And there are a lot of fans, especially at home. That makes it really special.
Coming out of the Giro, the shape has been progressing really nicely. I have been able to do some good work. I am looking forward to carrying that into the Tour and seeing what that can bring.
I have circled a few stages to go for the breakaway myself, and as a team we have a lot of good options. We have all shown that we are going really, really well and showed strong results lately. I am looking forward to racing with the guys. When you are going for stages, every day is a one-day race. And with our roster, it looks like we have guys who can go for it 100 percent most days, so I think it'll be pretty exciting.
Ben Healy:
I would love to win a stage at the Tour de France. Last year was my first experience at the Tour and it was just massive. I am really proud of the way we raced last year. We were always part of the action. It’s a shame that we lost Richie in the run up this time, because he was flying at the Giro, but I think the rest of us are ready to step up. We will have lots of chances. We’ve got a really balanced team that can go for it almost every day at the Tour. This spring gave me a lot of confidence. I got my best results in the Ardennes and at Strade and had the win in the Basque Country. Since the Dauphiné, I have been working hard up at altitude in Andorra. Now it’s time to race.
Marijn van den Berg:
During summer holidays from school, we always went to the south of France with our bikes. My brother and I rode our bikes quite a bit and would go to watch the Tour there, in the bars and the restaurants, but also next to the road. We would get bottles from teams at the team buses. That was always super cool. And then last year, it was my first time riding the Tour, and it was surreal to bring back all those memories and realize that I was now helping make those same memories for kids who were the same age as I was back then.
The Tour is the biggest race of the season, with so much media attention. Everybody is so focused and ready to be at their best for this race. The level is super high. The level is really high during the rest of the season too, but at the Tour everybody seems to have an extra five percent.
The sprints are super chaotic. All the teams line up and nobody gives each other a centimeter. You have to be super focused and you cannot make any mistakes.
Winning a stage would make my career. For a cyclist, to win a stage at the Tour de France would mean everything. I'm not a pure sprinter, of course. Vincenzo is there and he's also in super shape. I will help him and hope I get some chances for myself.
The parcours this year is really special with all of the iconic climbs and mountains. It’s a real tour of France. With the finish in Nice last year instead of Paris, it was a bit of a different Tour. This one is classic. It will be a different experience to get to finish on the Champs-Élysées.
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And here's the Tour de France news from the Lotto Cycling Team:
Lotto Cycling Team heads to the Grand Départ in Lille with a strong lineup for the start of the 112th edition of the Tour de France.
Arnaud De Lie, Brent Van Moer, Jarrad Drizners, Eduardo Sepúlveda, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Jenno Berckmoes, Jasper De Buyst and Sébastien Grignard: these are the eight riders who will defend the colors of Lotto Cycling Team in the upcoming Tour de France. They’ll do so in a unique jersey- loyal partner Caps will be prominently featured on the kit for the three-week race- as they fight for victory.
Lotto Cycling Team is thus heading to France with a varied and well-balanced squad. With Jarrad Drizners and experienced rider Jasper De Buyst, Arnaud De Lie has excellent support for his sprint train. Lennert Van Eetvelt will rely on support in the mountain stages, notably from Eduardo Sepulveda. “Brent Van Moer and Sebastien Grignard showed in Switzerland last week that they can take on various roles. They’re riders you can always count on. And Jenno Berckmoes proved he’s in good form with his stage win in the Baloise Belgium Tour. That Arnaud De Lie is coming back from a difficult period is something we all know, but in the Tour de Suisse he gained confidence day by day. He’s back to his old self and ready for three weeks in France.”
Arnaud De Lie before the start of stage three of the 2025 Tour de Suisse. Sirotti photo
Lennert Van Eetvelt will also make his Tour de France debut on Saturday. For Arnaud De Lie, it will be his second appearance. “Without putting pressure on our young guys- we’re going to France mainly to learn- we still believe in our chances. There will be sprint opportunities for De Lie, and climbing chances for Lennert", explains sports manager Kurt Van de Wouwer in more detail about the selection. “With Drizners we have someone who can keep the group together; De Buyst and Sepulveda will bring their experience and composure. I believe that with this diverse and strong squad, we can make it a great Tour."
Both Lennert Van Eetvelt and Sebastien Grignard suffered serious crashes last Sunday during the Belgian Championships. Further medical checks have since shown nothing alarming, so fortunately both are cleared to start without any problems.
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Here's the team's post:
Ben O’Connor was always destined to have a job that kept him outside. While he didn’t know what he was going to be growing up, he loved being in the outdoors.
The 29-year-old Australian grew up close to the Swan River, which cuts right through his home city of Perth, so he was never short of activities to pick from.
“We were always on or in the river and that was such a cool thing. It was kind of like your nature escape within the city suburbia,” O’Connor explains. “There were cliffs maybe a kilometre away and me and my mate would always go fishing there after school. There was a golf course just around the corner. There were cricket pitches and nets and tennis courts.
“It was really one of those places that encourages you to go outside. It’s great weather, it’s sunny, windy, I absolutely love it. I can’t think of a city I love more. I think that’s one of the things that helped me to be outside all the time. I never felt like I was couped in.”
Ben O'Connor at the 2023 Tour Down Under. Sirotti photo
Before he made his move to Europe for his racing career, O’Connor was a regular visitor to the continent. His parents are from Liverpool, in the UK, and emigrated to Australia in their mid-20s, before he was born.
“When I was young, I went a lot, but it’s been a while since I’ve been in Liverpool, 10 years maybe. It’s cool, it’s very different to how it used to be. From when I was first there when I was young compared to my last visit, it was already a big change with the whole Liverpool One situation and the rejuvenation of the docks,” O’Connor says.
“My dad did some work in Adelaide. I am pretty sure they wanted to leave. I don’t think that Liverpool in the ‘60s was the place you wanted to grow up. My dad always wanted to leave as soon as he could, and my mum was convinced by the idea.
“They had no money, absolutely nothing but they wanted to get out. They moved when they were 25 or 26, they just had mattresses on the floor in an empty house. It’s pretty crazy how it’s all changed.”
Missing the sea
The outdoors remains a major part of O’Connor’s life now as a professional cyclist, but the terrain is much less varied than they were growing up. Like several of his Team Jayco AlUla teammates, and other professionals, O’Connor has set up his European base in Andorra.
Living at altitude has its major benefits for his career, but it’s hours away from the nearest beach. While the mountains are his forte on the bike, it’s the beach that holds his heart.
“That’s the thing that I miss the most about living in Andorra, the thing I miss most about being in Europe, is the beach. I am more of an ocean person than I am a mountains person,” he says. “It’s not that I like to be at the beach for hours, but I miss the ocean, I miss the sound, the depth, the freshness. I love how it’s always changing. The mountains are epic and living in Andorra you really have that full seasonal change, but the water is the thing I miss the most about Australia.
“I also miss the Aussie seafood, and the variety. You’ve got all the reefs, deep ocean, and sand flats. I could go on a tangent about the fish that I miss. Australian fish is unrivalled in its variety.”
Finding cycling:
O’Connor’s youth was filled with outdoor activities, so it’s unsurprising that he finally started road cycling. However, darting around on the road came a little bit later than some of his fellow pros having watched his friend’s dad ride.
It would be a while before his friend would let him come along for a group ride, and O’Connor had to hone his craft alone until they started riding together.
“My parents bought me a bike because I really wanted to start riding. I had a mate whose dad was into riding, and I always envied the look of a road bike. It’s something that I always wanted to do. I used to just like being on a bike, like a mountain bike, and going along from where I was living in Perth,” says O’Connor.
“I started riding over the weekends, by myself. My mate wouldn’t ride with me, because he said I was too dangerous, and I didn’t have the skills so I went by myself around the Swan River, and that’s how I started. I got better, bit by bit, until eventually he let me ride with him.”
With his bike, he started to explore the further reaches of Perth and it’s there that he really found his love for the sport. Though he was not yet an avid watcher of professional cycling, he would still sometimes imagine himself as one of those elite riders pushing their way up an alpine ascent at the Tour de France.
“The first time I went out into the hills around Perth, was with this mate and his dad. We did this easy loop around the Perth Hills. It was the first time I’d ever gone up a hill. In Perth, it’s rolling around the river but it’s nothing special, but this was maybe a five-kilometre climb. That was the world to me. It felt like I was really climbing a mountain. You could envisage what you would see on TV when the Tour was on, because that was the only race you knew about because you’re young and you’re Aussie and I didn’t follow cycling.
“We did a little race up to a place called Kalamunda. His dad gave us a big gap and then he caught us right on the line. On the way back home, there is this one road in particular that stays in my memory. I was so in the box, I was absolutely bonking out of my mind, I was being dragged home by my mate and his dad. That was kind of what started the love for it.”
Taking nothing for granted:
Having gone from practicing alone so that he could eventually ride with his friend, O’Connor started taking the sport more seriously and contested his first race aged 17. It was a criterium on a sweltering day in Perth and he romped away for the win.
“I’d got in contact with a coach, a friend through a friend, and he started my first training programme. My first race was a crit, and it was 40 degrees. They put the A and B grade together, because it was so hot that people didn’t turn up,” he says. “I won the crit, solo from the start, and that’s when I realised that maybe I wasn’t bad at this sport.
“I never imagined that it would take me to being a high level professional and actually doing well in the biggest races. All of us are professionals, but to be racing against the best is something that only some of the best can do and maybe sometimes you take it for granted.”
He continued to race and was picked up by a local Perth team in 2015, quickly rising the ranks and turning professional in 2017. Meanwhile, the friend that inspired him to ride in the first place has supported him on his journey and O’Connor dreams of one day being able to work with his friend in the sport.
“I think he’s just proud. It’s also his dream to get to professional cycling, and to work within a team is his dream. Maybe one day it would be cool if we could work together. That would be a fitting touch of both coming a long way to get into the sport that we both love. He was never envious, that’s for sure,” says the Australian.
Next month, O’Connor will ride his 11th Grand Tour and his fourth Tour de France at the helm of Team Jayco AlUla. It will be the first time the Australian squad has a homegrown general classification leader at the men’s race since its inception in 2012.
“The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, and I’ll be proud to lead the team in the GC role with Team Jayco AlUla. Hopefully we can come out the other end in Paris with a really sweet result,” says O’Connor. “I think it will be interesting to see how an Aussie goes in an Aussie team, fighting all the way to Paris for the GC. It’s something I’m really looking forward to, something I’m really proud of, and something I also want to promote for cycling in Australia.”
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