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Monday, May 19, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. - J. K. Rowling
Bill & Carol McGann’s book The Story of the 2023 Tour de France, 2023: The Viking Again Conquers the Tour is available in both Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
Upcoming racing:
- May 29 - June 1: Tour of Norway
- 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
- 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
We posted the report from GC leader Isaac Del Toro's Team UAE Team Emriates-XRG with the results.
Here's the Giro report from stage winner Wout van Aert's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Wout van Aert has won the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia. On the Piazza del Campo in Siena, the 30-year-old Belgian proved the strongest after a titanic duel with Isaac Del Toro. This victory marked the 50th professional win of Van Aert’s career. “This win means a lot to me after a tough period.”
Stage nine of the Giro was the much-anticipated gravel stage. In the finale, riders were challenged with several gravel sectors, good for 30 kilometers of unpaved roads in total. The finish line was set on the iconic Piazza del Campo, also the finishing site of the Strade Bianche.
Wout van Aert wins Giro stage nine. RCS photo
The race exploded on the first gravel section of the day: Pieve a Salti. After the early breakaway was caught, the peloton splintered under pressure from Lidl-Trek. Van Aert and team GC leader Simon Yates were always well-positioned near the front. With about 50 kilometers to go, Van Aert surged ahead. The Belgian was initially joined by Egan Bernal, Thymen Arensman, Brandon Rivera, and Del Toro. A little later, Mathias Vacek also bridged across, but Van Aert and Del Toro proved to be the strongest in the race. In the chasing group, Yates rode a solid race and would eventually finish tenth.
On the Monteaperti climb, Van Aert responded to an attack by Del Toro. Bernal was briefly able to follow their pace but had to let go not long after. Van Aert and Del Toro stuck closely together, riding together toward Siena. On the steep Via Santa Caterina, Van Aert had to dig deep to stay with his rival. In the final descending meters, he took the lead. The Belgian then powered his way to his first win of the season - and the 50th of his professional career. With this win, Van Aert also completed the Grand Tour trilogy, having now won a stage in each of the three Grand Tours.
“This win means so much to me,” said an emotional Van Aert afterward. “I don’t need to tell people how hard I’ve worked to get back to this level. It’s been a long journey over the past few months. This is more than just a victory - it’s the result of months of hard work. At times during the race, I was really struggling. Isaac rode an incredible race, and I want to congratulate him for that. I knew I had to come out of the final corner in first position, and I managed to do just that.”
“It’s extra special to take the win right here,” Van Aert added. “This is where it all started for me in the 2018 Strade Bianche. It’s where I first showed what I could do at the highest level. Two years later, I won Strade Bianche. So this is a beautiful place to take a stage win. It feels really, really good.”
Third-place Giulio Ciccone's Team Lidl-Trek posted this Giro report:
From the hugely successful Grande Partenza in Albania to the chaotic conclusion of week one in Siena, it’s been a strong start to the Giro d’Italia for Lidl-Trek.
Mads Pedersen, as promised earlier in the week, relished the chance to repay the hard work of his teammates earlier in the week to provide them with the same chance to win that they afforded him. On the approach to the first gravel sector, Daan Hoole and Pedersen led Mathias Vacek and Giulio Ciccone at the front of the bunch, safely avoid the chaos amidst the dust cloud gathering throughout the peloton. Pedersen, the purple menace, destroyed the peloton on the first gravel sector with a huge pull at the front.
Lidl-Trek had numbers in the game, with Vacek, Ciccone and Patrick Konrad amongst the vastly reduced peloton. 22-year-old Vacek, having been a model teammate for the whole race (and year!) had been given a free role to race for the stage win, and he played his cards well. After a group of four went clear on the longest sector, Vacek made his bid for glory. The Czech talent bridged across to the lead group and was looking supremely strong, until he was distanced by an acceleration from Del Toro on Colle Pinzuto.
The stage gets started in Gubbio. RCS photo
With the chance for stage victory slipping away, Vacek slowed and waited for the chasing group of Ciccone, where he emptied his remaining reserves of strengths to reel in the only remaining GC threat – Egan Bernal. The last push was down to Ciccone himself, who sprinted up Via Santa Caterina to secure third place on the stage, behind winner Van Aert (Visma) and the new Maglias Rosa, Del Toro (UAE).
“I was feeling super good today. When I made it to the break there was only a few km that I could recover and then Del Toro started attacking and it was a bit too much for me, but I could make it back on one of the kicks. On the last sector they went full gas and I got dropped with Bernal. I waited for the group of Cicco and pulled full gas for him to make a big gap to Roglič.” – Mathias Vacek.
“It was a hard day, it was one of the days that all the teams were waiting for and were scared for. A gravel stage in a grand tour is always hard and you never know what can happen. You can be super lucky or you can have bad luck. It’s always hard. I really need to say thanks to Mads, we had the plan before the start to run into the first gravel sector in first position and we did that, then he destroyed the bunch in a few minutes. From there we started to ride fast and we went full gas to the finish line. I’m really happy because this day was one of the hardest days of the Giro and I was feeling super good. For the GC, I don’t want to say too much because I’m looking at it day by day. I think now we have maybe the hardest day for me coming up, the long TT. I want to stay focussed on it, and then lets see what the situation is after the TT. For now I live day by day and I don’t want to look too far in front, but I’m happy with my legs and my performance.” – Giulio Ciccone.
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Here's the Giro stage nine report from James Knox's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
One of the most anticipated days of this year’s edition, stage 9 marked the end of the first week of the Corsa Rosa and had the riders face five sectors of Strade Bianche’s famous gravel roads, covering a total of 29.6 kilometers, before the spectacular finale on the steep gradients of Via Santa Caterina that led to the iconic Piazza del Campo, one of Italy’s most stunning landmarks.
Soudal Quick-Step animated the first part of the race with Luke Lampaerti, the young American attacking in the opening kilometers and booking a place in a six-man breakaway that remained off the front of the race until the last 60 kilometers, when their advantage was erased by the peloton. Soon after, the race exploded following a combination of flat tires, crashes and attacks, many of the GC riders finding themselves behind and chasing to rejoin the leaders or reduce the gap.
The peloton on one of Tuscany's white roads. RCS photo
With around 50 kilometers to go, James Knox was in the second chasing group and rode a strong race on the challenging roads of Tuscany, where he had competed only once before Sunday, at the 2021 edition of the Giro d’Italia. The 29-year-old remained attentive the whole time and showed good form as he finished in Siena part of an important group featuring many of the race contenders. Following this stage, Knox made a leap of six places in the overall rankings at the end of a tough day that reshaped the GC before the second individual time trial of this edition, scheduled Tuesday, in the same region.
And Team Groupama-FDJ posted this Giro stage nine report:
Before concluding the Giro d’Italia’s first week, the riders tackled a major challenge on Sunday in stage 9. Heading towards Siena, the “Strade Bianche” literally blew the peloton apart. While Kevin Geniets was able to hang onto the group of favorites for a long time, and secured thirteenth place at the finish, David Gaudu was lost several minutes. This, however, should offer new opportunities for the Frenchman over the next two weeks.
For the second time this season, the Piazza del Campo was set to welcome the cycling’s cream of the crop. After the Strade Bianche in March, stage 9 of the Giro stopped in Siena on Sunday, on a day relatively similar to the Italian Classic. From Gubbio, the peloton initially had to cover nearly one hundred kilometres without any proper difficulties, but then nearly thirty kilometres of white paths were waiting for them over the last seventy kilometres. More precisely, most of the gravel roads followed one another between kilometre 110 and kilometre 145, which suggested an early battle.
Siena's famous Piazza del Campo, all dressed up and waiting for the stage finish. Sirotti photo
The tension indeed increased a lot as the first sector approached, which then led to the first splits in the bunch. “We knew it was going to be a hard day for everyone, but it was even more so than we imagined because it actually exploded very early,” said Thierry Bricaud. “We knew that David didn’t have great memories of this course and that he was coming back with a lot of apprehension. He was a little scared on the descents, and rightly so, and the team stayed around him to try to limit his losses.”
As for Kevin Geniets, he managed to catch the first peloton, then took a place in a second group of favorites when a crash caused a split at the front. Five men escaped, including Wout Van Aert, Isaac del Toro, and Egan Bernal, and the rider from Luxembourg found himself with the rest of the GC contenders. At the finish, he crossed the line in thirteenth position, 1’18’’ behind Van Aert, the stage winner, and Del Toro, the new pink jersey.
David Gaudu finished about five minutes later with the previous GC leader, Diego Ulissi. “He’s certainly seven minutes behind in the general classification tonight, but that will also give him some freedom in the upcoming mountain stages,” concluded Thierry. “Now we’ll have to recover well and look ahead to what’s next. A new Giro is going to start. David will have opportunities and could move up in the general classification if all goes well. The Giro continues!” Before that, a well-deserved rest day is coming up on Monday on the Tyrrhenian coast.
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We posted the report from stage winner Jake Stewart's Team Israel-Premier Tech with the results.
Here's the report from GC winner Sam Watson's Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Sam Watson secured the overall GC win on the final stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk.
Watson took his first professional stage win, with the flat finish into Dunkirk ending in a bunch sprint. The Grenadiers were determined to hold the pink jersey after Watson’s win yesterday, with Victor Langellotti, Ben Swift, Oscar Rodriguez and Omar Fraile all taking turns on the front.
Sam Watson wins Dunkirk stage four.
Watson won the final intermediate sprint, securing the bonus seconds to ensure he could roll in with the main bunch to take the overall win.
Langellotti also finished ninth on the GC after a fantastic week of teamwork in France.
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We posted the report from winner Matthew Brennan's Team Visma | Lease a Bike with the results.
Second-place Biniam Girmay's Team Intermarché-Wanty posted this report:
This Sunday 18th of May, Biniam Girmay added a second podium finish in the space of two races in Rund um Köln, a one day race of 181 kilometers held in the area around the city.
Five days after his second place in the Classic Dunkerque, the Eritrean sprinter once again came close to victory at the end of a classic race controlled from start to finish by Intermarché-Wanty. Vigilant on the few short climbs that dotted the 181-kilometer course, Biniam Girmay’s teammates did everything possible to allow their leader to contest the victory in a bunch sprint.
Matthew Brennan wins the race with Biniam Girmay (on the left) right with him.
After work in the chase behind the early breakaway from Gerben Kuypers, Adrien Petit, and Tobias Müller, the sprint train composed of Jonas Rutsch, Huub Artz, and finally Hugo Page brought Girmay into the final straight, before a head-to-head with Matthew Brennan. With this second place, he repeats his performance from last year in the same event, 50 days before the Tour de France.
“Today we did a great job as a team, taking our responsibility to control the race. It wasn’t easy, as the other teams challenged us from the beginning. I saw them talking to each other, so we anticipated the acceleration on the first climb and were well represented in the front. The attacks continued until the final, but we were always in control and my teammates also did a great job to prepare my sprint. It is of course frustrating to finish again so close to the victory, but at least I can reward my teammates with this nice podium. Congratulations to Matthew Brennan, he has already shown that he is one of the top contenders in the sprint.” - Biniam Girmay
And here's the Rund um Köln report from Milan Menten's Team Lotto:
Milan Menten sprinted to a strong fifth place in Rund um Köln. Toon Aerts also impressed in his very first race in the colors of the Lotto Cycling Team.
Heading into the final, Lotto still had four riders in front. Brent Van Moer, the young Victor Vaneeckhoutte, newly joined Lotto Cycling Team rider Toon Aerts, and Milan Menten were all active in the final kilometers. “The team did a great job positioning me,” Milan Menten reflected. “With one kilometer to go, on the bridge, we got a bit boxed in, which meant I had to find my own way forward. All the sprinters were really on the limit. Looking back, I should have thrown myself into the sprint a bit more. Then I might have even finished fourth.”
Menten eventually secured a fine fifth place. Sports director Nikolas Maes commented: “We showed ourselves as a team and executed a strong race plan. Toon Aerts, who was riding with us for the first time today, also had a great race. He was able to show his value right away, which is a boost for him and for us.”
Arnaud De Lie made his return to competition in Rund um Köln after six weeks of absence. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped. De Lie had to abandon the race early, an unfortunate outcome for the team leader who had worked hard in recent weeks to make his comeback. The team will now re-evaluate what went wrong and see where the approach might need to be adjusted.
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