Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Thursday, November 7, 2024
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics: the cause of freedom versus tyranny. - Hannah Arendt
Bill & Carol McGanns book The Story of the 2024 Tour de France: The Happy Warrior Triumphs is available as a Kindle eBook. To get your copy, just click on the link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- November 17: Flandriencross
- December 15: Namur
Latest completed racing:
- November 3: European Cyclocross Championships
- November 1: X20 Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
- October 27: Superprestige Overijse-Vlaamse Druivencross
- October 15 - 20: Tour of Guangxi
- October 20: Japan Cup Road Race
- October 20: Veneto Classic
- October 16: Giro del Veneto
- October 13: Chrono des Nations
Here's the team's announcement:
In 2022, he debuted with the team by winning the Clássica Comunitat Valenciana. This year, he secured his second victory with Team Polti Kometa (his first ever in a ProSeries race) in the third stage of the Tour of Turkey. Overall, 2024 has been his best season as he achieved a string of top-10 and top-5 finishes in sprints (including a 3rd place in the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia) and won the points classification at the Tour of Antalya, dominated by his teammate Piganzoli.
Danny Van Poppel sits up to celebrate his win, but Giovanni Lonardi is protesting the sprint. The protest was upheld.
In a few days, sprinter Giovanni Lonardi will turn 28 and celebrate this step into full maturity with a two-year contract renewal: “I’m happy to continue with this team,” he says, “because I feel great here! The extension through 2025 and 2026 solidifies our mutual trust. I had other offers, but I decided to stay here and I’m certain it’s the right choice.”
Sporting Director Stefano Zanatta: “Lonardi is coming off a positive season where he’s competed well against top opponents. He deserved to win more and we’ll keep working together to increase that tally. We’re on the right track and re-signing a rider like him was an obvious choice.”
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Here’s the news from Evenepoel’s Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Remco Evenepoel picked up his second trophy of the off-season. Just one month after making it four Kristallen Fiets awards, the Belgian took the honors at the Flandrien of the Year Gala, which rewarded him for another standout season in the colors of Soudal Quick-Step.
In 2024, Evenepoel became the first male rider to win the road race and time trial gold medals at a single edition of the Olympic Games, successfully defended his ITT rainbow jersey in Zurich, and completed his set of Grand Tour stage victories at the Tour de France, where he took home the white jersey in addition to finishing an impressive third overall.
Remco Evenepoel (shown in 2024 TDF stage 20) won the Tour's White Jersey. Sirotti photo
“Winning this prestigious trophy for the second time in my career is something that makes me proud, because it rewards what has been one of my best seasons since turning pro. I want to thank my family and my team for their continuous support and for believing in me, this wouldn’t have been possible without them. It’s something that motivates me to become even better and achieve more beautiful results in the Soudal Quick-Step and Belgian jerseys”, an obviously delighted Remco said.
Following Tuesday’s ceremony, Soudal Quick-Step cemented its position as the team that gave the most winners of the Flandrien of the Year since the event’s inception, with a total of twelve trophies won by six different riders: Paolo Bettini, Tom Boonen, Yves Lampaert, Remco Evenepoel, Michal Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe, the last two being recipients of the International Flandrien of the Year prize.
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
Tour de France Femmes stage winner and one of the biggest prospects in the peloton, Cédrine Kerbaol will race for EF-Oatly-Cannondale beginning in 2025.
The 23-year-old French all-rounder is hoping to build on her best season yet and is eager to race in pink.
“This team was something I was always interested in,” Cédrine said. “There are a lot of strong riders here so I’m coming with expectations of doing big things with the team.”
Cédrine Kerbaol
A former U23 and elite French time trial national champion, Cédrine excels on a variety of terrain. In 2023, she earned a silver medal at the U23 individual time trial world championships and was the best young rider at the Tour de France Femmes. This season she added to her already impressive palmarès by winning the Vuelta CV Feminas, Durango-Durango, stage six of the Tour de France Femmes, Chrono Roland Bouge, and closed out her season with a solo victory at Tre Valli Varesine.
“Long, solitary efforts like a time trial or a breakaway are my main strength on the bike. That’s how I like to race. I’m a strong climber and, something I wouldn’t necessarily have said in the past, a strong descender too,” Cédrine said, referring to the downhill masterclass she executed to win a Tour de France Femmes stage this summer. “I try to be balanced. I try to be a bit of everything.”
As the first Frenchwoman to win a stage of the Tour de France Femmes, Cédrine has her sights set on her country’s grand tour. “I love the Tour de France Femmes and next year the second stage starts in my hometown. I was born in Brest so that’s a really, really big target I’m looking forward to,” she said.
With each season more successful than her last, Cédrine credits much of her success to the lessons she’s learned from the times she’s come up short.
“There are always good things to learn from every situation,” she said. “Of course, when you win a race, you see that things can work a certain way. But when you lose there is plenty to learn. What can I do better next time? What mistakes do I need to not make again? That’s how you learn so much about yourself and about who you are. I find that in this sport, you learn a lot about psychology.”
For Cédrine, cycling is just as much about putting in the hours on the bike as it is about being mentally prepared and knowing herself.
“Racing is a physical challenge but also a mental challenge and I really enjoy this. My dreams are what motivate me. I like to keep my dreams to myself but I want to be the best rider I can be so I am always looking for the best way to get there and, of course, to also have fun,” Cédrine said.
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The combination of growth and fun is precisely why signing with EF-Oatly-Cannondale appealed to Cédrine.
“The mood of the team is both familial but also professional. It’s important to me that I feel very comfortable in a team and with EF-Oatly-Cannondale, I really think I’m going to feel at home. And, of course, we’ll have fun! I’ll be back with Nina Berton who signed with the team earlier. She’s a really good teammate and a really good friend, also. I’m excited about this but, honestly, I’m excited about everything for next season,” Cédrine said.
EF-Oatly-Cannondale general manager Esra Tromp is equally excited to have Cédrine join the squad.
“Cédrine is a rider that fits with the DNA of the team. Her style of riding is exactly how we want to race. It’s exciting to watch how she will risk losing in order to give her all for a result. She is an impressive rider and still quite young. We both have big ambitions and I am confident that we will grow and achieve together. Cédrine’s strength and versatility make her the ideal rider to complete our 2025 roster,” Esra said.
Off the bike, Cédrine is passionate about science and nature. She has a degree in nutritional science and loves to read about science. When she has time at home in Brittany, she’ll often drive her van to the mountains to hike and ride.
It was her love of the outdoors and her energetic disposition that ultimately led her to cycling. Growing up in Brest, she took up surfing and dabbled in triathlon before she joined the local cycling club at age 14. Cédrine started out mountain biking and switched to the road within a year or two.
“Being outside is what I love about cycling and that it’s very, very hard,” she said. “I started cycling because I needed to put my energy somewhere and that’s still the case. This is a proper hard sport and I like to suffer.”
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