WORLDTOUR

On Wednesday, the stage five of Giro d’Italia offered thrilling moments. The rain-soaked course from Atripalda to Salerno, in South Italy, caused a series of crashes, including that of world champion Remco Evenepoel sparked by a dog. Mark Cavendish also fell on the ground and injured a knee, but apparently anything got broken. A 171 km chaotic spectacle which ended with the solo victory of the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider Kaden Groves. After achieving two third place during the previous stages, he crashed too this time, but that didn’t prevent him to reach the golden podium.

“It’s a dream to win. Everything was going well but then I crashed at the roundabout with seven kilometres to go. Luckily, I put my chain back on fast enough and the group came back together but it wasn’t very clean, we all got lost. The guys did a good job earlier and then luckily I was good enough to be in position and had the legs to lead out and win,” the Australian winner commented.

“I had one of my best days on the bike,” said Mathieu van der Poel. After a solo attack, the Alpecin-Deceuninck team leader proudly raised up the iconic cobble stone at Parigi-Roubaix on Sunday. Collecting the 4^th Monument’s trophy of his career, Van der Poel also took over the early lead-out of his teammate Jasper Philipsen. The latter stood up on the podium with the second place.

“I think I’ve done my best Classics season ever and to finish it off like this is a dream. It’s incredible how we rode as a team, with Jasper finishing second. It’s not possible to do better than this,” said Van der Poel.

Philipsen added: “We wouldn’t have dared to dream this, but it will stay with me for a long time. We can be very satisfied with the team. We are proud of ourselves. Everything had to fall into place and today it was for us. That is very beautiful”.

On Saturday, the 3rd edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift beautifully surprised the audience with an unexpected podium line-up. A thrilling outsprint brought the Canadian rider Alison Jackson to victory, while FENIX-Deceuninck Marthe Truyen conquered the Roubaix Velodrome by reaching the third place.

“I’m really happy,” Truyen claimed. “I come from cyclo-cross, I really like riding the cobbles. Paris-Roubaix has been my dream race since I was a kid. I was not scheduled for this race, I had Covid but it was a light fever, not too heavy. Once I started feeling good again for training, I started dreaming of coming here”.

The Belgian cyclist continued: “I was happy it was my task to go in the breakaway. I thought a group of 20 or 30 riders would catch us, and we could compete for the win with them. I had teammates, so it was a perfect situation. And then, in the last kilometres, I looked behind and it was still 5, 6 or 7 seconds, and it was technical, so it was not easy for a group to come back. And I realised we would sprint for victory.”

62 years later his grandfather’s golden podium in Milan-San Remo, Mathieu van der Poel signed an important chapter in the history of cycling. On Sunday, the Dutch rider achieved a solo victory in the same race, also smashing 1995 Poggio climbing time record.

This crucial win came after his recent conquest of the cyclocross world title in Hoogerheide. Regarding Milan-San Remo, the Alpecin-Deceuninck champion proudly commented: “The easiest Monument to ride but it’s the most difficult one to win”.

After the fantastic spectacle of last Wednesday – where Jasper Philipsen sprinted to win Stage 3 thanks to van der Poel’s lead-out – yesterday the Belgian rider reached a second victory during the final. Also this time, the support of his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate was decisive.

The overall race of Tirreno-Adriatico was won by Primoz Roglic, but with these two sprint victories Philipsen conquered the spotlight for next Saturday’s Milan-San Remo.

“We managed to be in a really good position thanks to all the motivation we had from the previous sprint stage – we knew we were able to do it again. The team and Mathieu again did an amazing job,” Philipsen said.

On Wednesday, the last 20 kilometres of Stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico 2023 was a rare spectacle. After a predictable battle disputed over almost 200 kilometres between the big ones of the different teams, the unexpected lead-out of Mathieu van der Poel brought Jasper Philipsen to victory. Paved his way by the Dutch teammate, Philipsen could end the race with a great sprint of 150 metres, making Alpecin-Deceuninck achieve its first victory of the season.

Jay Vine, the Australian rider of Alpecin-Deceuninck cycling team and 2020 Zwift Academy winner, is performing very well at La Vuelta 2022. Thanks to the two stages victories and other good placings, he is the current leader of the KOM classification with 40 pts ahead of the teammates Robert Stannard Jimmy Janssens, who is fourth.

Vine won stage 6 of La Vuelta, his first victory as a pro rider and his first in a Grand Tour. A very tough 181.2-km-long course, from Bilbao to San Miguel de Aguayo, that ended with the ascension of Pico Jano, a 12.6 kilometre-long climb. Through an intense fog, Jay Vine crossed first the finish line in 04 hours and 38 seconds, ahead of Remco Evenepoel, the current leader of La Vuelta general classification. It was an unexpected and epic victory!

Two days later Vine was able to win the stage 8 closing the race ahead of the Spanish rider Marc Soler. It was another race for the climbers: 153,4 kms from Pola de Laviana in Asturias to Colláu Fancuaya at 1,080 meters. Another impressive performance for the Australian.

La Vuelta is not finish yet and there are other mountains stages. We can’t wait to enjoy the next challenges.

It was a fantastic Tour de Wallonie for Robert Stannard who, thanks to his consistent performance, won the 2022 edition. What a great result for the 23-year-old Australian rider of Alpecin–Deceuninck!

The 2022 edition of the Tour de Wallonie, was held in the Belgian region of Wallonie from July 23^th to 27^th. On the Belgian roads, Stannard collected a third place on the initial stage, 174.4 kms from Templaux to Huy, , a fourth place on stage 2 and a wonderful second place on the last stage from Le Roeulx to Chapelle-lez-Herlaimont just behind the Belgian rider Bakelans.

Stannard’s performance let him lead both the general classification and the points classification. He also won the young rider classification. We couldn’t ask more from the young Alpecin–Deceuninck rider!

Jasper Philipsen sprinted to victory on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, for the final stage of Tour de France 2022. The Alpecin–Deceuninck rider crossed first the finish line in 02 hours, 58 minutes and 32 seconds, ahead of Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange – Jayco) and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarche – Wanty – Grobert Materiaux).

This was the second victory for Philipsen in the Tour de France 2022, which was an extraordinary edition for the young Belgian rider. In addition to the two stages victories, he achieved a third place on the third stage from Vejle to Sønderborg in Denmark and two second places on stage 4 (Dunkerque-Calais) and stage 19 (Magnoac-Cahors).

Philipsen finished second in the points classification. We are all very proud of the Alpecin–Deceuninck riders’ performances. We can’t wait to follow the next challenges of the team.

Stage 15 of Tour the France was the race of the first times. Jasper Philipsen won his first ever stage at La Grande Boucle. It was also Alpecin-Deceuninck first victory in the edition of the Tour.

After eight top 3 results (2021 and 2022), the Belgian rider crossed first the finish line ahead of Wout van Aert, the leader of the points classification. Philispen won the stage 15 – 202.5 kms from Rodez to Carcassonne – thanks to a powerful final sprint proving once again that he is  one of the best sprinters in road cycling.

It was his first time on Tour and Philipsen was understandably emotional in the post-race interview. “It makes it super unbelievable,” he said of his previous misses. “I know what losing is like in the Tour de France. I was close many many times. That it worked out today is incredible. I can’t believe it.”

Congrats Jasper. You deserved this victory!