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Friday, May 30, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. - Helen Keller
Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2024 Tour de France: The Happy Warrior Triumphs is available print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the link on the right.
Current racing:
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 29 - June 1: Tour of Norway
Upcoming racing:
- June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
- June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
Latest completed racing:
- May 14 - 18: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- May 18: Rund um Köln
- May 13: Classique Dunkerque
- May 11: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 10: GP du Morbihan
- May 9: Tour du Finistère
- April 27 - May 4: Tour of Turkey
- April 29 - May 4: Tour de Romandie
- May 1: Rund um den Finanzplaz Eschborn-Frankfurt
- April 27: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 24 - 27: Vuelta Asturias
We posted the report from second-place Mirco Maestri's Team Polti-VisitMalta with the results.
Here's the Giro and Tour of Norway report from Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Egan Bernal maintained his position in sixth on the Giro d’Italia GC after a transitional 18th stage.
An early break saw Ben Turner up the road with 26 others, but a mechanical saw him forced to return to the peloton with 59km remaining. The Grenadiers regrouped, eventually rolling in together, with attention quickly turning to Friday and Saturday's key mountain tests.
Nico Denz wins Giro stage 18. Sirotti photo
In the opening stage of the Tour of Norway, an unfortunate crash saw last year’s GC winner Axel Laurance abandon the race.
Tough conditions saw the Grenadiers battle rain and wind on the 182km loop starting and finishing in Solakrossen, with Victor Langellotti finishing in the front group in 21st place.
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Here's the Giro report from Team Groupama-FDJ:
For the third time in this 2025 Giro d’Italia, Rémy Rochas got in the mix in the front of the race. On Thursday, he did it in an eighteenth stage that was initially uncertain, but ultimately favoured the breakaway. However, isolated in a group of around thirty riders in the lead, the Frenchman couldn’t join the fight for victory in an extremely flat final, taking 26th at the finish line. Two major mountain days now lie ahead for the peloton.
One of the breakaways with 80 kilometers to go.
A real battle was expected on Thursday in the Giro between the fugitive and the sprinters. On a quite short 144-kilometer stage, with some hills in the middle of the route, everyone was hoping to have their say. The start of the race was therefore decisive for the day’s outcome, and while Enzo Paleni was the first attacker, a tough battle then took place for around twenty kilometres to establish the breakaway. The young Frenchman, like Lorenzo Germani and Clément Davy, tried hard, but it was ultimately Rémy Rochas who landed in the right group, just before the bottom of the first climb, at kilometre 30. “We were ambitious for this stage, there was a lot of motivation among the boys, but maybe too much,” said Stéphane Goubert. “In the end, Rémy found himself in front although we didn’t expect him there.” “Today the plan wasn’t necessarily to take the breakaway for me, but I ended up there with a bit of luck,” added Rémy. “Eventually, I felt better than the last few days, when I was a little sick.”
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Enzo Paleni tried to bridge across at the last minute but couldn’t join the breakaway on the first climb due to the strong pace set at the front. The peloton completely lost interest in the stage victory, while Rémy Rochas tried to manage as best he could in a group of nearly forty riders, including a few sprinters. “When I saw who was in the breakaway, I wondered how I was going to deal with it,” he smiled. “The middle of the race was still quite interesting, with some nice roads that I knew quite well. In the intermediate sprint, we seized our opportunity with two riders from the Bardiani team. I tried to push a bit on the descent but given that there were only two of us left and it was a bit far from the finish, I preferred to wait. I thought the sprinters’ teams were controlling the breakaway, which wasn’t really the case.” After a ride of about fifteen kilometers up front, the Groupama-FDJ rider was caught.
The attacks then resumed before entering the finishing circuit. “Van Aert tried on a small climb, we found ourselves chasing, but the right group went right after,” said Rémy. “Being alone against teams with numbers was quite complicated. Nico Denz made the little jump that I couldn’t do.” Eleven men therefore broke away for good with thirty kilometres to go, and the German rider then went solo to take the stage victory. Rémy Rochas had to settle for twenty-sixth place on the day. “It ended so-so in terms of results, but I’m happy I felt good again.”
“He made the most of his terrain at the halfway point, but it was difficult to have any hope with the big guys there and the profile of the final,” concluded Stéphane. “Tomorrow will be a very long stage with a series of climbs. We hope the breakaway can fight for the victory, but the decision is not ours.” Rémy added: “We’ll try, and the whole team will be at the start to get the best out of this stage. If the legs are good, it will be easier to take the breakaway on this uphill start. We’ll need to give it our all in any case to try to anticipate the big guns.”
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We posted the report from second-place Matthew Brennan's Team Visma | Lease a Bike with the results.
Here's the report from Team Picnic-PostNL:
The Tour of Norway got underway on Thursday afternoon, with a rolling stage. All eyes though were on the weather conditions with strong winds and rain forecast for later in the day. It was a steady start to things with a break of five going clear, but the pace began to ramp up ahead of the crosswind section.
Team Picnic PostNL managed to get four riders in the reduced peloton of around 40, as they continued to battle into the wind. On the ever changing parcours and route direction, the bunch would split up and regather, before another team then pressed on. This battle continued until the finish, but ahead the break continued to work well together. Ultimately one rider held on from the early move to take the win, while Tobias Lund Andresen got up for sixth place in the sprint from the bunch.
The scene at the start of stage one.
Lund Andresen expressed: “Today was a hard day. Everyone knew there were going to be echelons after the 100 kilometre point. Until then it was pretty relaxed in the bunch. Just before we got to that point it started to rain which made it even more hectic. We did well to stay in the front echelons and have four guys in the front peloton coming towards the laps. It kept splitting and then coming back together. We tired to chase down the breakaway but couldn’t quit manage to bring them back. It’s a shame but I think the next days will be interesting for us, and there are already some gaps on GC, so we’re looking forward to the stages to come.”
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