Viva Italia!

Hello there good people of the cyclo-sphere, it’s good to be back, though if I seem a bit rushed it’s because once again it appears that ALL THE RACING is going on, and I actually have some paid work of late which is fabulous news but means I’m somewhat pressed for time – luckily, I’ve prepared a fair bit of this ahead of time, and I’m hoping it all makes sense by the time it wings its way to your inbox! Let’s begin. And don’t forget, if you’d like to support this newsletter, I would be incredibly grateful - you can do so by buying me a coffee (I wish there was a ‘cake’ version of Ko-Fi as it would be a lot more accurate, but here we are).

ON THE WEBSITE

Sure it feels like about a hundred years ago already, but in case you’d like to reflect on some interesting racing on opening weekend, including two surprise winners at Omloop Nieuwsblad, then I have just the post for you…

Next up I wrote the first of three women’s Classics previews, covering the three big races in the Italian Classics block - while the Strade Bianche segment may be out of date now, you can read my thoughts on this weekend’s Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and look ahead to the return of Milano-Sanremo for the women, the following weekend.

ON THE POD

We’re back in business on the pod, with two editions since I last wrote to you. A full episode in which we dissect the action from Opening Weekend, and another shorter reaction episode where we review all the action from Strade Bianche.

Available wherever you get your podcasts!

NEWS! NEWS! HERE IS SOME NEWS!

Top story: Jonas Vingegaard out of Paris-Nice following crash

It’s the news I never want to bring you - that one of the key players in the two-man balancing act that is the Tour de France jigsaw has been hurt. Yes, following a crash at yesterday’s stage at Paris-Nice, Jonas Vingegaard - who was wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey prior to the race - withdrew from the race on medical grounds.

The good news is, despite looking in some considerable pain following the stage, the Dane hasn’t actually broken anything, suffering ‘only’ from contusions, and he now heads off to focus on recovery ahead of his next target, the Volta Catalunya, leaving the yellow jersey in the very capable hands of his teammate, Matteo Jorgenson. Get well soon Jonas!

Top story: Tour de France Grand Départ for the UK?

Touted as a possibility some time ago, there was more concrete news surrounding the potential British Grand the 2027 edition of the Tour de France - YES I AM EXCITED! The BBC brought us an update which suggests that the event is likely to take place in British soil, with an announcement expected ‘as early as next month’ and Edinburgh being put forward as one of the potential venues. Départ for

British Cycling had originally bid for the 2026 Grand Départ, which was eventually awarded to Barcelona, but it seems that ASO are about ready to sign off on 2027 as a reality. More as we have it - in the meantime I will be over here dancing by myself.

Top Story: First ever team time trial at 2026 Tour

A second Tour de France story this week, as organisers ASO revealed that stage 1 of next year’s race will be a team time-trial in Barcelona. Astonishingly, it would be the first in the race’s long history, and seems to reflect the Spanish departure - La Vuelta by contrast has often featured a TTT in its opening stages, and the women’s Vuelta includes a TTT in Barcelona this year, which will be a chance to take a look at what will likely be a similar course.

BITESIZE CHUNKS OF NEWS

• The final stage of the Tour of Rwanda was called off due to bad weather - roads were extremely slippery following a heavy rain shower the final stage in Kigali was called off just 12.5km from the finish line. Riders reported they felt ‘safe’ in the country despite unrest, as the UCI plans for this year’s World Championships, due to take place in Kigali.

• Lars ven den Berg retires from pro cycling with immediate effect. The 26-year-old Groupama-FDJ rider has been advised to call time on his career to avoid health risks.

CYCLING SICK BAY: Updates from the medical room

As the season ramps up, so do the accidents, sadly. There’s been a seemingly unprecedented amount of collarbone fractures leading to a large number of riders side-lined over the past couple of weeks - here are some other updates.

• Arnaud de Lie withdraws from Milano-Sanremo with illness - the Lotto man’s bad luck continues

• Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto) avoids any breaks following heavy fall at Strade Bianche

• David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) breaks his hand in Tirreno-Adriatico crash

• Benoît Cosnefroy back on bike following knee surgery

• Oh, all the collarbones. I will fail to remember them all - Instagram is awash with posts about them - but just some of the impacted riders are: Max Poole (Team Picnic-PostNL), Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Florian Sénéchal (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Luke Durbridge (Team Jayco-AlUla), Stan Dewulf (Decathlon-AG2R), Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty), Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) and still waiting on confirmation from Bahrain-Victorious on the status of Santiago Buitrago, who was suspected to have broken his.

OH HAPPY DAY!

Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…

In case you didn’t see this, you need to see this. For context: Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) won stage 5 of Paris-Nice, ahead of Visma Lease A Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson. Jorgenson took it upon himself to attend Martinez’ post-race press conference, at which he posed the question (in perfect French): will you let me win on Sunday?

A good sport and a good sense of humour (what he did the next day, was deadly serious - Lenny probably should have just said ‘yes’!)

And this cute post from Instagram, in which Jasper de Buyst (Lotto) rides on the track with his little boy on a teeny tiny track bike.

ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP

I’m doing things a little differently this edition. I’m just going to run through the past 17 days in cycling, in chronological order, picking up results as I stumble over them, until we get to this current week, in which I will just post links as I’ve been working! (Yay)

We begin by going back, waaaay back, to 26 February to be exact, when O Gran Camino (26 Feb-3 Mar) began, and I forgot to even mention it in the last newsletter because I was rushing away on holiday. But hey, it’s neater this way. And what with one thing and another, I didn’t watch any of it so I’ll just get that anti-climax out of the way and give you the results:

Magnus Cort (Uno X-Mobility) took stages 1, 2 and 5 from bunch sprints. With the best will in the world, with just three World Tour teams it wasn’t exactly the deepest of fields, but a win’s a win I guess, and Cort managed three of them, so fair play. Derek Gee (Israel Premier-Tech took victory in the time trial and with a second-place finish on stage 4 from a breakaway, he secured the general classification, while the stage win went to Sergio Chumil of Burgos Burpellet BH, the second win for the rider from Guatemala.

Then it was time for OPENING WEEKEND!!! By the time you read this, the races will be old news as we’ll have had Strade Bianche and be knee-deep in Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, so I’m not going to dive deep into the mechanics of how the races unfolded. I drew some general conclusions in my post for the website, but here, in case you missed it, are some short summaries of the races.

Omloop Nieuwsblad (1 Mar) was a weird one both for the men and the women. The men’s race unfolded in typical Classics-style, with plenty of attacking, and some confusion over exactly what type of race it was going to be, basically until the last minute when everyone realised it was actually going to be a bunch sprint after all. Before this tactical shift, Stefan Küng had made a bold breakaway attempt 8km from the finish line, and if the counter-attacking had continued he may just have hung on. Instead, Alpecin-Deceuninck and some of the other teams still with srptiners in the group united into a cohesive bunch, bringing Küng back (sob!) and bringing about a sprint, that was won by the first Norwegian ever to win the race, Søren Wærenskjold.

The women’s race was absolutely bonkers, as the peloton played chicken for so long that they forgot to actually go and collect the eggs – OK I’m not sure if that analogy actually works, but effectively they watched one another for long enough to allow the breakaway over 14 minutes of lead, and by the time they began to work to close the gap, it was too late. Cue the chase for a first pro win between Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Lotte Claes and WinSpace Orange Seal’s Aurela Nerlo, with Claes the victor, as unlikely an outcome on paper as we’ll see all season – if you had money on her to win, then the next round is on you.

Sunday’s Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (2 Mar) also finished in a sprint, but this is the usual outcome of the race so it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Nor was the winner, with Jasper Philipsen proving he’s not to be written off just yet, surging to victory ahead of a strong sprint field that included both his vanquishers in the UAE, Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier, along with plenty more top names.

The women competed in the 1.1 Omloop Het Hageland (2 Mar), which was an aggressive, exciting race, with plenty of lively attacks from Puck Pieterse and Anna van der Breggen controlling the select group which would contest the final on behalf of her sprinter, Femke Gerritse.

Alongside the Belgian races, two French races took place last weekend, with the Faun Ardeche Classic (1 Mar) the first of these. It was an exciting race with plenty of late attacks, and a select group taking turns to lead on the various ups and downs heading for the finish line. In the end, the select group of around 10 riders was made somewhat more select by the failure of around half the group to take the correct turning at the final roundabout, just a few hundred metres from the line. From there, Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire was able to power to victory, in a race where he came second last year. Oops.

The Faun Drome Classic (2 Mar) followed a day later, but as something of an anti-climax given the drama of the previous day. UAE Team Emirates’ Juan Ayuso attacked with more than 30km remaining and rode solo to victory, with the gap to second-placed Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) rarely falling low enough to suggest there would be any competition for the victory.

Le Samyn des Dames (4 Mar) was an exciting encounter, with Liv AlUla Jayco the primary aggressors heading into the final kilometres, with a number of teammates riding to split the race and reduce the lead group. Unfortunately for them, said group contained European champion Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-ProTime) and as they approached the finish line, it was too easy for Wiebes to kick up a few gears and accelerate away from the rest to an easy victory – the 93^rd of her career.

The men’s Le Samyn (4 Mar) followed, and though it marked the season debut on the road of Mathieu van Poel, it wasn’t necessarily expected to be a race for the former World Champion, given it’s a race that normally ends in a reduced bunch sprint. The inimitable Dutchman attacked with 65km to go and led solo for a couple of minutes but decided against such folly, and the race proceeded with plenty of attacking, though nothing that stuck – it would indeed be a bunch sprint to finish. And guess who won? It was Mathieu van der Poel. Proving that he’s not just a Classics rider – or lead-out man – or cyclocross sensation – he’s a sprinter now, too. Because why not? The victory kicked his season off in style, and Alpecin-Deceuninck went from having won exactly zero races on the 1 March, to have two victories under their belt by the 4th.

Stop for breath. Grab a drink. NO REST!!

The season continued at pace the following day with the Trofeo Lagueglia (5 Mar), an always exciting and unpredictable romp around the Ligurian coast, with repeated ascents of the Capo Mele, of Milano-Sanremo fame, to contend with. Juan Ayuso and Christian Scaroni, two of the most prominent names of the season so far, looked set to go head-to-head for the race win, but they found they had company first from Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) who caught them a couple of times on the descent only to lose them again on the climb, and latterly Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), leading to a group of four coming to the line. Ayuso attacked early and held off the rest to take his second victory in just three days.

And the very next day, the Vuelta Extremadura Féminas (6-8 Mar) began – three days of racing in Spain, beginning with a double-stage day. First up, a 9km time trial, won by the time-defying machine herself, Ellen van Dijk of Lidl-Trek. Later in the day, Greta Marturano of UAE Team ADQ won stage 2 in a two-up sprint, beating Sigrid Haugset of Team Coop Repsol to the line. Stage 3 was won by Norwegian Mie Ottestad and stage 4 saw a debut World Tour victory for British rider Imogen Wolff of cyclocross fame - the Visma-LAB rider taking the final stage as van Dijk sealed the overall victory.

Then there was STRADE BIANCHE (8 Mar)! Of course it was a fascinating day of racing on the white roads of Tuscany, but rather than go into depth here, I’m going to furnish you with some links, if you’re still keen to hear about it.

We talk about the races in depth on the On Yer Bike podcast - link here, or above. I was on live duty for the women’s race for TNT Sports during the day and wrote the post-race report so you can read more about the women’s race here:

And check out the incredible photography from ALL THE AWESOME PHOTOGRAPHERS on Instagram including Pauline Ballet, Harry Talbot, Chris Auld and of course the incredible Ashley and Jered Gruber (and loads more - I will try to make a list in time for Paris-Roubaix).

From there we hurtled headlong into the coolest week of warm-up races on the men’s cycling calendar, the simultaneous Paris-Nice (9-16 Mar) and Tirreno-Adriatico (10-16 Mar). I’ve been working all week covering Daniel Benson’s Substack, so all of the links come from there - check out the story of the race, courtesy of me, via Dan (and sign up if you love great independent cycling media!).

We began with Paris-Nice, stages 1 and 2 in which Tim Merlier won twice, convincingly, though one day was quite fun and the next, quite miserable with a number of crashes. And Tirreno stage 1 in which Filippo Ganna got his own back on Juan Ayuso for last year, winning the opening ITT and taking the leader’s jersey.

Stage 2 and 3 in which Jonathan Milan smashed the first sprint of the race, while the teams at Paris-Nice headed off from a Formula 1 track for a team time trial, which was won by a formidable Visma-Lease A Bike, space age helmets and all.

Stages 3/4 in which the weather played havoc, the riders in Italy having to travel nearly 240km in the rain, with a surprise winner in Andrea Vendrame, while the race was neutralised at Paris-Nice due to a sudden hail/snow storm and chaos reigned, before Mads Pedersen inflicted pain on everyone by going on an absolute tear, before handing over to whichever GC riders had managed to survive the conditions. At which point Jonas Vingegaard attacked, but Joao Almeida won.

Stage 4/5 in which Filippo Ganna had an absolute blast forcing echelons on the flat plains of Ficule, and we had an exciting finale with plenty of attacks but resulted in a surprise ninja sprint victory for the only fast man to survive at the front, Olav Kooij, while at Paris-Nice, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) took his first World Tour victory with a brilliant attack up the steep finish, while Visma switched the race lead back to Jorgenson, after Jonas Vingegaard crashed.

And to bring you bang up to date, stages 5/6, in which we saw a dramatic last-gasp breakaway win for Fredrik Dversnes in Tirreno-Adriatico after an exciting finale, and Visma-Lease A Bike wreaked havoc on the GC in France by forcing echelons which stuck, with a little help from their friends from INEOS and Lidl-Trek - one of whom - Mads Pedersen - sprinted for the stage win.

FINAL THOUGHT – Milano-Sanremo form guide

We’ve seen some fascinating racing unfold over the past couple of weeks, and it’s helped shape our thoughts over who might be looking hot ahead of the first Monument of the 2025 season, and who’s perhaps not.

Last season’s winner Jasper Philipsen can’t be ruled out. He hasn’t had the most auspicious of season openings, but he found his form at just the right time, winning Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne ahead of some top rivals to ensure that his name is still in the frame. Once again, his teammate and former winner Mathieu van der Poel will be foremost in everyone’s thoughts. The Dutchman has one win so far this season, from a sprint of all things, and though he’s missed the mark a couple of times in Tirreno, he’s clearly in good shape. How will the team play the race this year?

Two more sprinters on the same team who have both been mentioned as possible favourites are Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek. The latter should be capable of handling the Poggio given his recent climbing form, and if a large group come to the line together - well, we’ve seen the raw power he has at his disposal. He took a heavy fall at Tirreno however, so his form isn’t guaranteed. Pedersen’s is certain - he’s been riding like an absolute freight train at Paris-Nice, topped off with a stage win today. He’s made no secret of the fact that Paris-Roubaix is his top priority, but a tilt at MSR isn’t going to disrupt his progress towards the cobbles, and he’s finished 6th twice and 4th once in his three participations, so will be a hot favourite.

Speaking of favourites, Tadej Pogacar is clearly desperate to add this race to his palmares - it’s the one Monument in which he’s previously participated that he hasn’t been able to find a way to win - don’t put it past him, but equally, if he’s going to miss out on any victory this year, it’s likely to be this one, as it’s clearly a bit of a thorn in his side. Still - I’d still have him as favourite given he’s in his best ever shape, according to his team manager.

Filippo Ganna has finished on the podium in recent years, and the Poggio hasn’t troubled him in the past, with his immense power the difference-maker when it comes to staying in touch with any selection over the top of the key climb.

Outsiders include Tom Pidcock, Michael Matthews, Biniam Girmay and Matej Mohorič - as a former winner, he knows his way to victory here. Perhaps the current top dog in those who may be overlooked is Olav Kooij. He survived echelons and a fair bit of climbing to take stage 4 at Tirreno - no other sprinter was capable of sticking with the lead group - his resilience is proven, and he has the team to help him find his way to the front - he’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

In any case, it will be a long, soporific, but beautiful 5 hours of racing, followed by arguably the most thrilling hour of racing all year. Enjoy! And don’t forget to tune in for the women’s race - which I preview on the website. It’s set to be an absolute barnstormer.

THE LAST WORD

It’s been a bit of a weird one eh? Hope you’ve still enjoyed it, see you in a couple of weeks, at which point we’ll have had one Monument and not be far away from the next…

If you enjoy these newsletters, you could buy me a coffee – all your support is gratefully received, I actually get to invest it into going to a bike race this year, oh wait I didn’t mention did I? I’m going to the Tour de France! Just a flying visit for Le Grand Depart in Lille but I couldn’t be more excited, and can’t wait to write about my experience, although it may just be general yelling about croissants and such.

Anyway, until next time, thanks so much for being on board - I really appreciate you all. Enjoy the racing this weekend!

Cheers,

Katy