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Thursday, May 1, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Men willingly believe what they wish. - Julius Caesar
Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the Tour de France, 2022: The Fastest Tour Ever is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- April 27 - May 4: Tour of Turkey
- April 29 - May 4: Tour de Romandie
- May 1: Rund um den Finanzplaz Eschborn-Frankfurt
Upcoming racing:
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 11: Tro-Bro Léon
Latest completed racing:
- April 27: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 24 - 27: Vuelta Asturias
- April 21 - 25: Tour of the Alps
- April 23: La Flèche Wallonne
- April 20: Amstel Gold Race
- April 20: Tour du Doubs
- April 15 - 18: Giro d'Abruzzo
- April 18: De Brabantse Pijl
- April 12-13: Paris-Roubaix
- April 7 - 12: Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
- April 8 - 11: Region Pays de la Loire Tour
We posted the report from third-place Artem Schmidt's Team INEOS Grenadiers with the results.
Here's the report from winner Matthew Brennan's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Matthew Brennan convincingly won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie. The 19-year-old Brit of Team Visma | Lease a Bike proved to be the fastest of the peloton and took his sixth win of the season. Due to the bonification seconds gained, Brennan will start tomorrow in the yellow leader's jersey.
Matthew Brennan will wear yellow when he starts stage two. Sirotti photo
"It's very special to win here. We came here with the goal of winning a stage, so to have already succeeded makes me and everyone involved with the team very happy," the winner stammered afterwards. "Once we survived the last climb, I knew there was a chance we could sprint for the win. The guys did a great job and made sure I stayed out of trouble all day. I'm incredibly grateful to them."
In the first stage-in-line, the riders had to cover lots of altimeters. Team Visma | Lease a Bike had its sights set on a bunch sprint and helped ensure that the breakaway-riders were caught at 25 kilometers from the finish line. In the final kilometer, Brennan positioned himself at the front and sprinted convincingly to victory. "It was a chaotic sprint. I had to constantly fight to keep the good wheel and towards the end I was even a little more in front than I would have liked. I stayed calm and luckily was able to finish it off."
With the win in Romandie, Brennan brought his season total to six. The talented Brit already took two stage wins in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and was the strongest in Le Tour des 100 Communes, GP de la Ville de Lillers and GP de Denain. For Team Visma | Lease a Bike, it was the twelfth win of the calendar year. "Things are going really well so far. It would be nice if we can get another stage win this week. I'm looking forward to the next few days and hope to be able to support Jørgen as best I can in the mountains."
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Team Groupama-FDJ posted this Tour de Romandie report:
Heading towards Fribourg on Wednesday, Enzo Paleni attempted to make the most of the first road stage of the Tour de Romandie by joining the breakaway. The peloton, however, remained in control, and the leading group also split up halfway through the race. The young Frenchman was caught before the final hour of racing, then Matthew Brennan dominated a sprint of seventy riders for the victory. Rémy Rochas, David Gaudu, and Stefan Küng finished with the same time as the winner, and the Swiss man therefore kept his sixth place overall.
In the aftermath of the the shortest day of racing (3.4 kilometers on the prologue, editor’s note), the longest was on the menu this Wednesday on the Tour de Romandie, with nearly 195 kilometres to cover between Münchenstein and Fribourg on an undulating profile. “We said we would try to go in the breakaway,” explained Stéphane Goubert. “Enzo saw the opportunity and seized it.” After ten minutes of racing, five men took the lead ahead of the peloton, where three teams quickly took on the chase.
“Enzo and his breakaway companions got a maximum lead of four minutes,” said Stéphane. “Then, some guys attacked in the front for the mountain points, which wasn’t very wise in my opinion. They should have tried to stay together as long as possible.” In a series of three hard climbs hallway through the race, the breakaway split apart. Enzo Paleni found himself alone chasing Ben Zwiehoff and Gerben Kuypers, and was later caught by the bunch, with more than sixty kilometres to go. The leading duo was reeled in with twenty-five kilometres remaining, while the tension gradually grew within the pack.
Stefan Küng at the start. Sirotti photo
Around local rider Stefan Küng, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team remained well-positioned as the final stage approached but was unable to get in the mix for the stage win as the peloton was still quite big despite the last two slightly uphill kilometres. “We wanted to try to do a nice sprint, but the final was a bit dangerous, and we didn’t want to take too many risks, especially with the Giro coming up,” added Stéphane. “It was a good day nonetheless, although the guys suffered a bit from the heat overall today, as did the whole peloton. It was still a long, hard day, with 3,000 meters of climbing.”
Matthew Brennan eventually won a small bunch sprint on Wednesday, Rémy Rochas was as the team’s first rider on the line (22nd), while another hilly profile awaits the riders tomorrow. “It will be hard at the start with two nice climbs, and it’s going to be tiring”, concluded Stéphane. “It could be a day for the breakaway. If there’s a will in the peloton to be aggressive, it could make for a very tough stage, with a lot of action. We have to be prepared for it, without putting all our energy into the first part of the race”.
And here's the Tour de Romandie report from Team Soudal Quick-Step:
One of Europe’s most beautiful medieval cities, founded almost 900 years ago and ruled by the Habsburgs for more than five centuries, Freiburg hosted a stage finish at the Tour de Romandie for the fourth time in the last decade. The peloton arrived there after a 194km journey that saw them take on four classified ascents before, the last of which was summited with more than 70 kilometers to go.
A five-man breakaway, from where two riders attacked in the final two hours of the race, animated the day, but the bunch did their homework and easily reeled in the attackers around 25 kilometers from the finish. Things began heating up before a short but punchy climb that came just before the flamme rouge, as more teams made their way to the front.
Remco Evenepoel heads to the start of stage one. Sirotti photo
Soudal Quick-Step made sure that Remco Evenepoel was at all times well positioned, and the Olympic Champion safely concluded in the peloton the stage won by Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) from a bunch sprint. In the general classification, where there were a couple of changes as a result of the finish line bonus seconds, Remco remained in the top ten.
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We posted the report from stage winner Wout Poels' Team XDS Astana with the results.
Here's the report from Team Picnic-PostNL:
The queen stage at the Tour of Türkiye saw the peloton take on a challenging 3000 metres of climbing in only 115 kilometres of racing, which included a brand-new summit finish of Kiran – which averages over nine percent in gradient for nine kilometres. From the start it was a hectic and aggressive racing but Team Picnic PostNL kept their cool, sticking to the plan of bringing last year’s winner Frank van den Broek and Juan Martinez into position to go for it on the last climb.
A wet Wout Poels wins Tour of Turkey stage four.
The stage was made only more difficult by heavy rains that fell over the peloton and along the parcours, but the team remained steadfast and brought the climbing duo into the last ascent in the lead positions of the peloton. From there, a strong tempo was set and riders were jettisoned from the bunch, before Poels made a probing move at five kilometres to go which Martinez covered. Van den Broek and Lopez soon joined them, but the pace lulled and a few more riders returned, however they immediately attacked and that upped the tempo once more. Coming into the final three kilometres it was a battle between the four riders and Poels made his decisive attack. Martinez and Van den Broek battled all the way to the line up the steep slopes, taking a brilliant third and fourth place on the day thus holding the same positions in the overall battle as the stage race heads into its second half.
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Here's the update from Team Bahrain Victorious:
May 1st, International Workers’ Day, has also – since 1968 – marked a fixture in the cycling calendar: the German one-day Classic Eschborn-Frankfurt. The race has been held annually since 1962, but the first six had no fixed date.
The parcours is a challenging 198.7km through the Taunus hills, surrounding one of Europe’s major financial hubs.
Over the past few years, the route of “Der Radklassiker” has been revised, tipping the advantage to Ardennes classic specialists.
Bahrain Victorious come to the 62nd edition of the race with a well-balanced and motivated lineup tailored to the demands of the route. Matej Mohorič, returning after his crash at Paris-Roubaix, and Edoardo Zambanini, fresh from a strong Ardennes campaign, will lead the team. Also back in action, having completed all the concussion protocols, is Torstein Træen. The Norwegian rejoins the peloton for the first time since a crash on Stage 7 of the UAE Tour in February forced him off the bike until now.
Matej Mohorič will lead Team Bahrain Victorious at Eschborn-Frankfurt. Sirotti photo
Sports Director Aart Vierhouten shared his thoughts ahead of the race:
“We’re heading to Frankfurt with a strong team and a clear goal to go for a good result. Zambanini and Mohorič are our main leaders. Both are excellent riders capable of performing well in the finale. They’ll be supported by Andrea Pasqualon, Roman Ermakov, Robert Stannard, Sergio Tu, and Torstein Træen, who is excited to be racing again. We’re happy to have him back with us.”
“It’s a demanding course: two ascents of the 12km Feldberg, and three climbs of the Mammolshainer Stich, which has gradients of up to 16% over 300–400 meters. It’s not long, but it’s always a decisive part of the race. The last time up comes just 30km from the finish. I believe Matej and Edoardo will be there in that key moment. They’ll get the best result possible. I’m confident we’ll be in the mix at the front.”
Bahrain Victorious head to the startline ready to take on the punchy terrain and fierce competition, aiming for a strong performance at Germany’s most prestigious one-day race.
And here's the Eschborn-Frankfurt preview from Team 36.5 Pro Cycling:
On the 1st of May it’s time for another World Tour race on the calendar for the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. Matteo Badilatti, Sjoerd Bax, Gianluca Brambilla, Fabio Christen, David de la Cruz, Harm Vanhoucke and David González represent the team led by sports director Jens Zemke. He has special memories of this race.
Sjoerd Bax (shown at the 2022 Coppa Agostoni) will be on the Eschborn-Frankfurt start line. Sirotti photo
“I have to start at the beginning,” he says. “This is the race that got me into cycling in the first place. It was Rundum Den Henninger Turm back then and it’s my home race. We always watched as a family and when I was ten years old I took part for the first time. I did every year until I ended my career as a pro at 35. Then I became a sports director and did another 15 editions. I have done this race on the 1st of May for forty years now.”
The race did change from a pure sprinter’s race to a race with more meters of elevation and different race scenarios. The finish is in Frankfurt where large crowds come to watch on their day off.
“The formula of the race was the same for many years,” Jens explains. “A breakaway and then a sprint. This race is broadcasted from start to finish so it was a bit uneventful. They added in many more of the beautiful Taunus mountains and moved the last climb closer to the finish. Now you see more riders from the Ardennes Classics coming over or riders with the final prep before the Giro. It’s possible to win solo or with a small group. Someone like Fabio Christen has the sprint after a hard race like this.”
Zemke knows the race is a hard one with 13 World Tour teams lining up but he hopes for a good showing and a good result for the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team.
“It will be hard to win in this field but as always we are doing our best. I wake up with goosebumps on May 1. I never managed to win it as a rider but as a DS we did win it three times. This is one of the biggest one-day sports events in Germany and I am confident I can bring my passion for Eschborn-Frankfurt across to our riders. It’s a special day.”
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