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Thursday, November 6, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated. - Lou Holtz
Les Woodland's book Tour of Flanders: The Inside Story - The rocky roads of the Ronde van Vlaanderen is available in print, Kindle eBook and audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- November 16: Trofee Hamme-Flandriencross
- December 14: World Cup Namur
- December 23: Superprestige Heusden-Zolder
- December 26: World Cup Gavere
- December 29: Trofee Loenhout-Azencross
- December 30: Superprestige Diegem
- January 1: GP Sven Nys
Latest completed racing:
- November 1: Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
- October 26: Superprestige Overijse-Vlaamse Druivencross
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Guangxi
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Holland
- October 19: Veneto Classic
- October 19: Japan Cup
- October 19: Chrono des Nations
- October 15: Giro del Veneto
- October 12: Paris-Tours
- October 11: Il Lombardia
- October 9: Gran Piemonte
- October 7: Binche-Chimay-Binche
- October 7: Tre Valli Varesine
Here's the team's post:
Editor: The assumption is that Ackermann replaces sprinter Dylan Groenewegen, who signed with Unibet Tietema Rockets for 2026 & 2027.
Pascal Ackermann will headline Team Jayco AlUla’s sprint line-up next season after signing a two-year contract with the squad
The 31-year-old German has won 45 UCI races over his career, including three stages of the Giro d’Italia and two stages of the Vuelta a España as well as being a former German national champion.
Pascal Ackermann wins the 2025 Classique Dunkerque. Photo: JL Burnod
Ackermann will join compatriot Jasha Sütterlin and Slovenian Luka Mezgec, who form part of the Team Jayco AlUla sprint train, on the squad.
He is an accomplished winner and a veteran of nine seasons in the highest ranks of professional cycling. The GreenEDGE Cycling management believe that Ackermann will strengthen the team’s sprint squad as well as providing valuable experience.
Pascal Ackermann:
“Team Jayco AlUla is a team with a great history, and one that I was already looking up to when I was younger. It has always been a dream to join the team, so I am excited for this opportunity! For me, it’s definitely the best team to continue to chase my dream of winning races! Let’s get into 2026 and get back to the top.”
Brent Copeland – General Manager:
“We are delighted to welcome Pascal to the squad and believe that he will fit in very well with the team’s well-established leadout train. He has shown over his career that he can win at the highest level, which is demonstrated by his multiple Grand Tour stage victories. We are looking forward to working with him next season and seeing what he can achieve under the guidance of the team’s coaches and sport directors.”
Pascal Ackermann:
New contract: 2026 & 2027
Nationality: German
Age: 31
Key Results
1st Giro d’Italia stages (2x 2019, 1x 2023)
1st Vuelta a España stages (2x 2020)
1st Classique Dunkerque (2025)
1st Tirreno-Adriatico stages (2x 2020)
1st Critérium du Dauphiné stage 2 (2018)
1st Tour de Pologne stages (2x 2018, 2x 2019, 1x 2022)
1st Clasica de Almeria (2020)
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
EF Education-EasyPost is excited to welcome Michael Leonard to the squad.
The 21-year-old Canadian from Oakville, Ontario, wants to show what he can do in the hardest one-day classics and earn a spot to race his first grand tour. He is already going into his fourth season as a pro and brings WorldTour-proven power and experience beyond his years. The team’s attacking style and willingness to break from convention drew Michael to the squad.
Michael Leonard
“This team has a unique identity,” Michael says. “Even growing up, watching the sport, it seemed like a team with an exciting culture. It is a team that you always see on the attack, being opportunistic, and giving riders the space to express themselves and race in ways that suit them, so they can take the best advantage of situations on the road. It's a team that definitely gets the best out of its riders. You see riders who might not fit in other places perform really strongly on this team.”
After three years in a support role, Michael is ready to come into his own. His rise to the WorldTour was rapid. He started out competing in kids’ triathlons and got into bike racing at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, a velodrome built near his hometown for the 2015 Pan American Games.
“That is what launched me,” Michael says. “We had a really good group of riders and coaches and a really positive dynamic. A lot of people from my cohort have been successful on the road and the track. That velodrome was definitely the center of my development as a kid. It is how I got into the sport.”
Once he got going, Michael began racing on the road as well as the boards. He excelled in Canada’s junior ranks and was soon ready to take on international competition.
“I had the opportunity to come to Europe and start racing with the Toronto Hustle development team,” Michael says. “And then I got the opportunity to move full-time to Italy as a second-year junior, and I grabbed that with both hands, because it was where I wanted to go in my career and in my life. The transition was hard, to be honest. Nobody in my city or on my team really spoke English. But it was also really cool because it was an opportunity to be fully immersed in Italian cycling culture. There were so many people on the team who had been in cycling for so long. It was a place where I could learn so much. For me, being in Italy, being part of that culture, and going to races every weekend was living the dream.”
Michael’s strong junior results earned him his first WorldTour contract. His step up to the big leagues was a big one, but he managed it well, despite breaking his hip at the start of his second season.
“I'd actually say that injury gave me an opportunity to reevaluate my approach to the sport and different things I was doing in training,” Michael says. “It gave my body the opportunity to reset, to finish growing a bit, and to absorb the demands of the previous year. By the time I got back to racing that year, even considering how much I'd missed, I was almost immediately better than I had been the year before. Since then, it has been a continuous upward trajectory. I've managed to fit in well, supporting the team in some of the bigger races.”
Michael has shown that he can be more than a helper. He is the reigning Canadian time trial champion. In 2024, he won a stage at the Tour de l’Avenir—under-23 racing’s Tour de France—and has since earned very promising results in tough, hilly WorldTour stage races.
“Last year, Michael won the opening time trial at the Tour de l’Avenir,” says EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters. “It was a short prologue. One of the things I've always looked for in very young riders is their ability to do short time trials. There is an old expression in sports physiology: you can always make a miler into a marathoner, but you can never make a marathoner into a miler. That TT got me thinking, ‘Okay, this is a good sign that he's got the fundamental super-high-VO2-max motor. I think this guy can do something big for us.’ Michael doesn't have any big results in the pros just yet. He had to work a lot during his first three years. I think that our team will be a big reset for him. He is a time trialist who can also climb and is quite handy in a breakaway. He can get his body down really low and produce power on the road bike all day and he brings that double trouble in that he can climb too, so he can actually finish the job on the final climbs once he gets in a breakaway.”
Michael is now focused on keeping his momentum rolling. He wants to make the most of his talent. To do that, he is concentrating on the day-to-day work of getting faster.
“I'm not somebody who's super driven by a specific number or a specific race or a specific result, but I want to be somebody who's consistently animating the biggest races,” he says. “I want to be someone who's consistently up there fighting for stages, fighting to support teammates, always showing myself really well. That's what I want for my career. And then at the end, I want to look back and feel that I achieved everything I could have.”
When he is at home at his European base in Andorra, Michael enjoys playing the piano and reading history books. We think he can write his own chapters of cycling history with EF Education-EasyPost.
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Here’s the team’s news:
Team Visma | Lease a Bike is delighted to welcome Austrian rider Katharina Sadnik to the squad on a two-year contract. The 22-year-old joins from the KTM Factory MTB Team after an impressive season in which she won the Women’s U23 UCI XCC World Cup overall title. Following a standout year on the mountain bike, Sadnik is ready to take on a new challenge as she transitions fully to road cycling.
Katharina grew up in a sporty family in Austria, where her love for cycling began at a young age. “I started mountain biking when I was around nine years old,” she says. “We were introduced to mountain biking at school and one of the teachers told my parents ‘She’s got talent on the bike, let her try racing.’ That’s how it all started.” From that moment, Sadnik's passion for the sport grew quickly.
Katharina Sadnik
After years of success in mountain biking, Sadnik felt it was time to take the next step. “I had been thinking about it last year. I was training a lot on the road bike, and I loved the speed. I started doing my first road races. This year, I rode Tour de l’Avenir and Tour de Féminine, where I finished tenth. It was my first proper introduction to road racing and I really enjoyed it. I wanted to experience more.”
The decision to join Team Visma | Lease a Bike marks a major turning point in her young career. “I never thought Team Visma | Lease a Bike would be interested in me,” she admits. “When the first contact came, I couldn’t believe it. I have a lot of respect for what this team stands for and I’m really proud to become part of it.”
Sadnik expects to feel at home in tough one-day races, such as Paris-Roubaix. The Austrian cyclist is motivated to learn the dynamics of team racing. “In mountain biking, you race individually, but on the road you have a whole team around you. That’s something I really look forward to. Sharing experiences, working together and relying on each other. I want to be a helper, to support my teammates and to grow into a valuable team player.” She’s eager to continue her development as a road cyclist: “I want to keep learning and improving with every experience. I’m excited to focus fully on road racing now and see how far I can go.”
Team manager Rutger Tijssen shares his enthusiasm about Sadnik’s arrival: “Katharina comes from mountain biking, which has given her exception bike handling skills. That will be very useful in the spring classics. We see a role for her in supporting our team in these races. She’s still young, but she has a lot of potential, and we’ll give her the time and space to grow into the role we have in mind for her."
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The team sent me this:
Team Picnic PostNL are pleased to reveal two more additions to their Women’s program for next season: Audrey De Keersmaeker and Gaia Masetti. Belgian De Keersmaeker will wear the team’s jersey through 2027, while Italian Masetti has a contract for 2026.
Audrey De Keersmaeker:
A former swimmer who won silver two times in the open Belgian championships that also broke the Belgian record in her weight class for bench press, De Keersmaeker came to the sport of cycling later in her career. Winning the TV show “Koers zoekt vrouw” during the Covid-19 pandemic, she earned a contract on a cyclocross team for the end of 2021. Her experience in cyclocross saw her make the step-up from a Club team to the Continental level on the road at the start of 2024. The past few seasons have mostly been about gaining experience on the road, finding her way in the bunch and how to handle the hectic nature of the peloton, and exploring where her abilities lie. Some promising performances over a variety of terrain this season such as ninth at the Volta NXT Classic and 13th at a hard edition of Brabantse Pijl show that De Keersmaeker’s development is still on an upward trend.
Audrey De Keersmaeker
De Keersmaeker expressed: “What really drew me to Team Picnic PostNL is the professional structure and the level of guidance the team provides. I recognised myself in the team’s mindset — structured, ambitious, and always looking to improve — so it immediately felt like the perfect match. What I’m most excited about is working together with everyone involved: the riders, trainers, coaches, and all the experts who help make this such a complete environment for growth. I haven’t been in the peloton for very long yet, so I’m still discovering what kind of rider I truly am, but I’ve already found that I love the tougher races with climbing; the Ardennes classics are exactly the type of courses that inspire me. My biggest goal is to keep developing together with the team, to become the best version of myself while helping those around me do the same. I’m a fighter, I never give up on or off the bike, and I like to bring positivity and motivation into the team atmosphere. That energy is something I hope will make a difference here.”
Team Picnic PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna continued: “Audrey is an attacking rider by nature, someone who always races with initiative and positivity. She’s versatile, and she’s never afraid to go on the offensive, even in flatter races. That’s exactly the kind of mindset we want to encourage: racing with an open view and a willingness to make things happen. Audrey will be an important part of that style for us. We see her playing a key role in hilly races and the Ardennes, as well as in mountain stages where she can stay up there with our best climbers. Next to this, she also has the instinct to join meaningful breakaways. We’re convinced she’ll bring a lot of energy and value to the group with her way of racing.”
Gaia Masetti:
Coming from Sassuolo in Italy, Masetti has been racing her bike in the elite women’s peloton since coming out of the junior ranks at the end of 2019 and has progressed with her previous team from the Continental level to the Women’s WorldTour. 2023 was a stand-out season for the young Italian, where she took a solo win at the hilly La Classique Morbihan, alongside multiple other strong performances throughout the season such as fourth at the U23 European championships road race. More recently, the last two years have seen Masetti ride strongly in support of her teammates at some of the biggest races in the world, helping them to some top results. She has also had her share of bad luck with illness and injury but has shown resilience and a strong character to come back at the highest level.
Masetti said: “Joining Team Picnic PostNL feels like becoming part of something truly connected. I’ve always noticed how the riders race as one, supporting each other from the first kilometre to the finish line, and that kind of togetherness is something I really value and want to contribute to. I’m genuinely excited to begin this new chapter and see how far we can grow together. I still feel like I haven’t reached my limits as a rider, and this environment feels like the perfect place to keep developing and discovering what I’m capable of. Over the past few seasons, I’ve gained experience across many different races, and I’ve learned how and where I can make the biggest difference. I’d describe myself as a versatile rider who’s always ready to work hard and commit fully to the team’s goals. My biggest strengths are my determination, consistency, and drive; I never stop until I achieve what I set out to do. Off the bike, I’m someone who brings a lot of positive energy and laughter. I believe that a good atmosphere within the team helps us all perform at our very best.”
Team Picnic PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna added: “Gaia brings valuable experience and real captain qualities to the team. She has strong race insight and leadership skills, and that’s where we see her biggest impact. With the right guidance, we also believe she can take another physical step forward and be right there in the finales. She’s a true road captain; someone who can guide the team in the toughest races, whether that’s the hilly classics or the harder Belgian one-day races. Her presence will be a big asset for us in those moments.”
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