Fabio Jakobsen has been forced to halt cycling for the "foreseeable future" due to flow limitations in the iliac arteries in both of his legs.

The Dutch sprinter is in his second season with his current team, Picnic PostNL, but has struggled for form in his first races of the year. His condition has become increasingly prevalent amongst both professional riders in recent years with Shirin van Anrooij and Marianne Vos both forced to undergo surgery due to the problem. It is also an issue which has affected amateurs too.

"Unfortunately after conducting recent tests, we have discovered that Fabio has flow limitation of the iliac arteries," said Picnic PostNL team doctor Camiel Aldershof. "As the diagnosis is very clear and currently limiting him on the bike, he will undergo surgery to attempt and fix the issue."

"Thankfully, he has a more favourable prognosis to return due to the type of limitation; however, this can take some time to come back from. The surgery means that Fabio will be off the bike for around six weeks initially, with no other strenuous physical activity allowed. In the meantime, we will monitor his progress and from there, when he is ready, we will gradually have him return to training and slowly build up intensity again."

External Iliac Artery Endofibrosis is a condition where blood flow is interrupted to a person’s lower limbs due to narrowing or kinking of the arteries around the hip and groin area, particularly during physical activity. It is also known as FLIA - Flow Limitation of the Iliac Artery - and whilst 90% of cases do involve the external iliac artery, it can infrequently involve the common iliac or common femoral arteries instead.

People dealing with the condition can experience a range of symptoms including pain, numbness and swelling in the thigh and calf muscles and less commonly in the buttocks.

"It’s mentally of course a setback, but now that we have found the cause of the issue, I am hopeful that the surgery can then solve it,” Jakobsen added. “Sometimes you need to take one step back to be able to make two forwards, and I hope that’s what I’m going to do now.

"I trained well this winter and came into the season with some confidence. We picked up some top ten results at UAE Tour and Paris-Nice, but when it came to those key moments and high intensity sprint efforts I suffered; my legs simply weren’t working as they should."

Other riders who have previously suffered with the condition include Ineos Grenadiers’ Bob Jungels and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. A research paper published in 2022 called for the condition to be classified as an “occupational disease” for pro riders.

Oscar Onley is a 22-year-old professional cyclist from Kelso in Scotland. Onley currently rides for the Dutch WorldTour squad, Picnic PostNL. Formerly supported by the Dave Rayner Foundation, he finished second at last year’s Tour of Britain Men and won the best young rider classification. Onley also won stage five of the Tour Down Under and made his debut at the Tour de France.

This interview is part of our Q&A series.

CW: For those that don't already know, how did you get into cycling and when did you realise that turning pro was going to be an option for you?

I started cycling when I was about 10 years old, the local club, Kelso Wheelers, their time trial started almost directly outside my house, and so I joined that when I was old enough, but my mum would always watch the tour on TV every year so I can I had a little bit of an idea about cycling, but I wouldn't say I knew much about it.

I got hooked on it quite quickly. But I was definitely not the best rider growing up. I always wanted to become pro, but I didn't really believe it was possible, but I think if you looked at my results, other people wouldn't believe it was possible. But I guess when I joined the AG2R junior team, then you start talking a little bit more in that kind of context about turning pro and what you want to do in the future. And then I guess probably when I joined DSM on the development team. Then for sure it was a goal, but again, it still felt a very, very long way off, especially in my first year.

I'd say probably actually signing that first pro contract was when I realised I can turn pro. I always had it in my head, but I was never confident that it was going to happen. I was always aware that there's a lot of things that can unsettle that, but for sure it was something I wanted to continue and try and do.

CW: Can you remember your first ever race that you rode? How did you get on?

I was 10 years old. It was the Youth C race at Ingliston Park in Edinburgh, I think they still go ahead every year. I remember I was 10th and Alfie George, who's now on a team out in France, won the race by a long way.

CW: Can you remember your first ever racing bike? Could you tell us a bit about that.

It was orange, I want to say Coyote or something brand. I must have been about 10 years old when I got it, I just remember it being really heavy. It was bright orange and had a bit of white on there and maybe a little bit of black as well.

CW: Who was your first cycling hero?

Probably Andy Schleck. I guess when I first started watching the Tour de France, it was him and Contador that were going for it. For some reason I took more of a liking to Schleck than Contador and I always wanted him to come out on top in their battles. I guess the first memory I have of the Tour was actually on the Tourmalet when they were going head to head in the mist. That's something that kind of sticks out in my memory actually.

CW: What's the best place that your career has taken you to date?

I went to Japan recently for the Saitama Criterium. I really enjoyed that trip to Japan, getting to see Tokyo and seeing a different culture. I've also been to China with the team as well, and it's something different to Europe. Europe's very impressive, and there's a lot of different cultures and countries. But when you go to Asia, then it's something completely different. It was really cool to see that.

CW: What would you be doing now if you weren't a cyclist?

That's a scary question. The more I think of it, the more that it scares me actually. I'm not really sure but it wouldn't be in an office.

It'd be something practical, probably one of the trades I guess. But my dream after cycling is to set up a cafe somewhere, that's what I want to do after my career. I've not really got much further than the thought, but that's something that I'd like to try and pursue in the future.

CW: What do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy cooking. I always try and try and make some different recipes when I have the time and can be bothered to do that. I also enjoy reading. I'm reading a book called the Power of Geography, and basically it's about geopolitics around the world and other stuff I'm quite interested in.

CW: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received in your career?

A lot of people say to enjoy it. When I was younger that really, really annoyed me, because I thought that was just an obvious thing to say. Now that I'm a little bit older, and now that it actually is my job, I guess I understand what they mean when they say enjoy it.

It’s because there are parts that are obviously really hard, so if you don't enjoy it then you can't make a career out of it. There's days you don't enjoy and there's moments you don't enjoy, but you have to enjoy the whole process and the whole way of living I think and for me that's the key.

CW: What do you hope to achieve this year?

I want to win a stage of the Tour de France I think. I got the experience from the Tour last year, and I hope to step up a level and hopefully be a bit closer to the front end in those races and those high level races. If I could win a stage there then that would be a really satisfying goal to achieve.

I had a few days, a few days in the break last year, but only really one day competing for a result. In the end I was fifth but I had a few days where I was getting into the break, but I didn't really have the legs to finish it off.

So that's now the next part of the puzzle, continuing in the break and making it to the end of the race.

Lapierre, one of France’s biggest bike brands, are to make a return to professional cycling’s top level next year to become Picnic PostNL’s new bike partner.

The team, formerly known as dsm-firmenich PostNL, were believed to have a contract with Scott for 2025, but Lapierre are present on the front of the team's new jersey, and the new partnership was announced on Thursda.

Sources had previously said that several staff members at the Dutch team’s base were openly discussing that Lapierre will join the team next year as bike partner.

The squad announced their new name on Thursday, along with a new kit, with that Lapierre logo. Riders will use the brand new Xelius DRS performance bike for all road events, and the Aerostorm DRS for time trials, in a deal that lasts four years.

The switch to Lapierre comes despite the fact that new Scott Addict bikes had arrived at the team’s service course in the Netherlands, with up to 15 bikes said to have then been built for riders like Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil. CW saw images of the new Addict being built, although it is understood that the bikes were not then shipped out to riders ahead of the new season.

It is the first time Scott have not been present on the WorldTour since 2011, with the bike brand partnered with the various GreenEDGE squads between 2012 and 2020. Scott supplied bikes to dsm-firmenich PostNL for the last four seasons.

A spokesperson for the Accell Group, the parent company of Lapierre, did not deny the link to dsm-firmenich PostNL when contacted by Cycling Weekly last month. The firm’s COO Jonas Nillson was also reported to have been in the Netherlands recently for meetings.

On Thursday, Accell's CEO, Tjeerd Jegen, said: "We’re confident that this partnership will lead to extraordinary success both on and off the road, advancing our brand in the competitive world of professional cycling and inspiring cyclists everywhere. This is how we move the company forward and bring great innovation to life. We look forward to achieving new milestones together."

Picnic PostNL's CEO Iwan Spekenbrink: "We are delighted to partner with Accell and Lapierre and are impressed by their recent development to become future proof in what has been a challenging cycling manufacturing industry for the last years.

"We share a mindset regarding our commitments to technology, innovation and performance. Our R&D experts are looking forward to working closely with their engineering and technical specialists to integrate input and feedback in the development of the next generation of our road bikes, which we will already see out on the road mid-next year."

Lapierre never shied away from their desire to make a comeback by partnering with a major team after the brand’s long-standing partnership with Groupama-FDJ ended in 2023. The two French outfits had collaborated for 22 years, although that came to an end when Groupama moved to Willier Triestina in the leadup to the 2024 season. However, this move has seemingly come out of the blue.

According to Wielerflits last month, Lapierre’s move to partner with the Dutch team was in part due to the brand wishing to get rid of surplus stock.

Romain Bardet suffered concussion on stage 14 of the Tour de France and was in no appropriate state to continue racing, DSM-Firmenich’s sports director Matt Winston has said.

The Frenchman crashed midway through the stage with EF Education-EasyPost’s James Shaw, and both riders were forced to abandon. The incident was described by Winston as a “high-speed crash on a left hand bend… as they came down a fast descent.”

Bardet was 12th on GC ahead of the stage and would have been targeting a top-10 finish and a stage win in the final week. His crash left his team with a conundrum: to let him continue or to withdraw him despite his protests.

“Romain was a little dazed,” Winston recollected. “He wanted to continue in the race, but the race doctor and myself assessed the situation and it wouldn’t have been smart to continue at that point. 

“Romain is a guy who loves the Tour de France, he loves racing in France and for sure he wants to continue for as long as possible but you also have to look after the athlete and make sure that we take the smart steps in these moments. 

“It’s easy to get back on the bike and see how it goes for 10km but he does have a concussion, the medical staff have confirmed that, and to continue wouldn’t have been the best thing overall and for the long-term.”

Winston admitted that he understood the significance of the decision - the team’s principle goal in the race was to target GC with Bardet - but further outlined the reasons.

“It was for sure not easy, and there were moments after that were I was thinking did I make the right choice,” he added. “He was a little bit dazed and when he stood up I didn’t feel like he was directly jumping back onto his feet as quickly as he should. Any guy who rides for our team I don’t want to risk their long term health - it’s not worth it.

“We always do our own in-house concussion checks - it’s really important to our team - and we really want to put those guys first and look after them. You can tell quite quickly when you know someone really well and you speak to them directly, you can tell if they are not OK.

“In this moment he wanted to continue but he was not looking in good shape. When we stood him up and we could feel it wasn’t right. It wasn’t right. He is really upset. He for sure is going to be devastated.”

Bardet’s parents are in the Alps and may drive him back home to his base in central France, but the team are acutely aware of the importance of the first 48 hours after concussion.

Read more: Concussion - is enough being done to protect the peloton?

It is a subject that the sport is only just beginning to take seriously, and the Dutch team may decide that Bardet has to stay put in a hotel over the next few days before moving.

“The thing with concussion is that we have to make sure we protect the athlete now,” Winston continued. “We can’t say he’ll be racing in two weeks - you just cannot take that call. It can take time. Hopefully we see him back racing soon but you cannot put a time limit on it. 

On Sunday, Alberto Dainese was the last man on the road on stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia, 13 minutes behind the next person to finish in Bergamo, just 13 minutes inside the time cut. Three days later, the DSM rider triumphed in Caorle in a photo finish, in a comeback he could only describe as "insane". The story arc could barely have been scripted better.

Delivered by his team to the perfect place in the final 500m of Wednesday's stage 17, Dainese was in pole position for the sprint, but still had to put a lot of work in to catch Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious). 

The five corners inside the final couple of kilometres meant that positioning was everything, something that DSM got exactly right, and Dainese delivered on. Matthews attempted to roll back the years, launching his sprint first, but could not match the Italian's power. Meanwhile, Milan once again came from so far back to almost pip his compatriot on the line; a tyre width was what won it. 

One wonders what would happen if Milan had a team capable of putting him in the right place, he might be unstoppable.

However, Wednesday was all about Dainese, the man from the Veneto, winning in the Veneto. He has battled illness over the past week, but stuck with it to get back to this point, to take his second stage win at the Giro, a year after the last.

"This is insane. The first sprints [of this race] didn't go as planned. We did a good job, but we never got a good result," Dainese explained post-race. "Today we rode an insane final with the boys. Marius [Mayrhofer] did a super job, and Niklas [Märkl] as well to finish it off. 

"When he swung off, I was a bit overtaken by the guys from the left so I had to squeeze and catch Matthews. Then in the last metres I was really digging so deep, I was on the limit. I saw Johnny coming and I couldn't really throw my bike, but I got the win. 

"Especially after the last five days, I was quite sick with stoamch issues and my breathing was not good. To win after such a struggle is insane. I'm super happy, I cannot thank the team enough, to keep me in the race and keep me motivated."

Wednesday's stage was largely flat (in both vibe and profile) after the excitement of the mountain top finish on Tuesday; a four-man breakaway was kept in check all day by the peloton, before the remnants were swept up within the last 10km.

"We were controlling the whole day, the whole team was riding super hard, and it was a good job from Alberto to finish it off," Mayrhofer, Dainese's teammate, said. "I was on the front there, I knew there were these two left corners coming up, so I went all in. That was crucial today."

On a day that was always destined to be a sprint finish, Dainese timed his effort right. Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), on the other hand, was far from the front, and could only finish 19th after not being in the right place going round the final few corners. That might be his last opportunity at a Giro stage win.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) came in with the bunch to maintain his lead in the general classification, and hold onto the maglia rosa. None of the other jerseys changed hands, either.

Results: Giro d'Italia stage 17, Pergine Valsugana to Caorle (197km)

1. Alberto Dainese (Ita) DSM, in 4-26-08
2. Jonathan Milan (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious
3. Michael Matthews (Aus) Jayco Alula
4. Niccolò Bonifazio (Ita) Intermarché-Circus-Wanty
5. Simone Consonni (Ita) Cofidis
6. Fernando Gaviria (Col) Movistar
7. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious
8. Alex Kirsch (Lux) Trek-Segafredo
9. Stefano Oldani (Ita) Alpecin-Deceuninck
10. Pascal Ackermann (Deu) UAE Team Emirates, all at same time

General classification after stage 17

1. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 71-58-43
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, at 18s
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 29s
4. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, at 2-50
5. Eddie Dunbar (Ire) Jayco-AIUla, at 3-03
6. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 3-20
7. Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 3-22
8. Andreas Leknessund (Nor) DSM, at 3-30
9. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, at 4-09
10. Laurens De Plus (Bel) Ineos Grenadiers, at 4-32

Max Poole says that during his week of racing at the Tour of the Alps, he’s learnt a lot of lessons from testing himself against some of cycling's superstars. 

After leading the competition for a large part of the five day stage race, DSM’s 20-year-old talent from northern England took home the best young rider competition. A well deserved prize after a tough week of racing in Austria and north east Italy.

One year on from his debut for the DSM senior team, Poole told Cycling Weekly that he had picked up a lot from racing against the likes of Tour of the Alps winner Tao Geoghegan Hart.

“I was a bit unsure of how I’d go this week, so it’s really nice to have been rubbing shoulders with the big boys,” he said. “The team’s done a really good job here… it’s definitely nice to be racing with these guys.”

Throughout the week, Poole was never too far out of the overall picture, and finished 12th overall. The man from Scunthorpe in northern England ended the week one minute and 46 seconds behind Geoghegan Hart. 

Poole explained to Cycling Weekly that while he took great satisfaction from his performances, it was difficult to match the power of the likes of the Ineos Grenadiers rider in the finale of each stage. 

“It’s that last little kick that guys like that have, it’s a bit hard to go with sometimes,” he explained. “The legs have been good though…It’s just that last little kick where I couldn’t really go with them.”

After sealing the best young rider competition in Brunico on Friday, Poole told the media that he’d noticed an increase in the level of competition at the Tour of the Alps.

“It’s been a really hard race, I did it last year, and I think some of the stages and the racing this year was harder,” he said. “The level was really high here and I’m really happy with the way I went in the end. It was really positive, showed me what I can do, and is a great confidence boost.”

“I think it shows me where I can go, what level I can really reach, and has given me the confidence I needed.”
 

Without revealing too much, Poole said he now knows what he needs to do in the future in order to be racing for the win against some of the best riders in the sport.

“I think I just need to pick up on little things at the top when I’m there racing for the win,” Poole added. “I think that’s the next step really, to be in there racing for the win rather than just trying to hang on for as long as I can.”

“There’s been some really good lessons from watching other people, and watching how to race here. Today I had to keep my wits about me, but there’s a lot of stuff to take forward. Mentally knowing that I can live with these guys is a really good feeling.”

DSM coach Callum Ferguson told CW that Poole’s attitude and approach that he displayed in the Alps could certainly take him a long way.

“Max is a super laid back guy, he’s relaxed and has got confidence in his abilities,” Ferguson said. “He’s young, so I think it’s very exciting for the team but also really exciting for him as he’s proven this week that he’s up there. With a bit more experience, for sure he’ll be right up there again in the future.”

Jumbo-Visma are set to line up at Paris-Roubaix equipped with an adjustable tyre pressure system. 

After giving the new equipment a run out at the recent Dwars door Vlaanderen, as well as in training, the Dutch team will take to the cobblestones of Roubaix with the new system in place on Sunday.

According to a report from WielerFlits, DSM will also use a similar system during this year’s ‘Hell of the North’ although their setup will be different to that of Jumbo-Visma. This will mark the second e time that an adjustable tyre pressure system has been used in a WorldTour race.

At Dwars door Vlaanderen, it became clear that Jumbo-Visma were testing their own system in the form of the KAPS system from Gravaa. Italian rider Eduardo Affini’s Cervelo team bike was spotted fitted with the system, although the Italian did not finish the race.

Last year’s winner of Roubaix, Dylan van Baarle, is also reported to have been testing the same system during training and is believed to be “very pleased” with the setup.

By using Bluetooth and handlebar mounted controls, riders will be able to lower and raise tyre pressure while in motion, crucially without adding extra drag to their machines.

According to Cyclingnews, DSM has been testing the Scope Atmoz ‘management system’ for the last 12 months. Riders from the team were initially confirmed to be using the system before last year’s race but eventually stuck to their stock Dura-ace wheelsets.

It was believed that DSM would eventually debut their new setup at last year’s Roubaix, and then the Tour de France, although that never materialised.

Gravaa - Jumbo-Visma’s supplier - has published some of its Paris-Roubaix findings on its website, and it’s clear that the cobbled terrain has played a key part in the development of the new equipment. 

There could potentially be huge wattage savings for riders that have the ability to lower their tyre pressures on Paris-Roubaix’s cobbled sectors, paired with the ability to then raise them when they reach smoother roads.

It’s not yet known which riders from both Jumbo-Visma and DSM will be using the equipment on Sunday. It’s understood that a final decision will be made after both teams have completed a recon of the course. 

After clinching her first WorldTour podium last season, former British road champion Pfeiffer Georgi is eager to repeat the feat. This time, though, she wants the top step. 

The 22-year-old, now in her fifth season at Team DSM, has taken up new leadership duties on the road, and feels stronger than ever. Speaking to Cycling Weekly, she explained that she has high hopes for this year's spring Classics. 

“I had a really good winter and I think I’ve physically made a step up,” Georgi said ahead of Saturday's Ronde van Drenthe. “I had a good end of last season, but the first few races this year, especially [Omloop Het] Nieuwsblad and just coming back from Strade [Bianche], I feel like I’m able to be more in the race and be more in the final.” 

At Omloop, the Brit was the only rider who dared to follow Lotte Kopecky’s attack on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. Georgi eventually crossed the line in fifth, her best result in the Belgian one-day race. 

“The whole team went in for me fully from the beginning,” she said. “That’s a new role for me, because I’ve always been kind of support and then the road captain.

“It was my responsibility to follow the favourites. I just saw her [Kopecky] come past and I thought I might as well try. For me, in this role, I don’t really know where I’m at or where I am compared to others. I thought, ‘If I don’t try, I’m not going to know where I am.’ Yeah, I couldn’t keep up, but I tried at least.” 

The following weekend, in her first outing at Strade Bianche, Georgi finished tenth, recording her third top 10 of the season. 

The Team DSM rider pins her early-season form on a multitude of factors. “I moved to Girona in the winter and I feel like that’s kind of helped my climbing," she explained. "I feel like I've been able to get a lot of good quality training and exposure to that terrain, the longer climbs. That definitely shapes you a bit as a rider.

“Straight from off season, I started off with more [training] intensity than I have in previous years. Before, it was always just building base, getting the endurance miles in. I think now that I've got a pretty good base, I’m able to push it, the intensity, a bit earlier. 

“I feel like I’ve really benefited because I can kind of make a step now I’ve already got the groundwork done.” 

Another thing she seems to have benefited from is the departure of her team-mate Lorena Wiebes, who joined SD Worx at the start of the season. 

Asked if the Dutchwoman’s move has altered her role in the team, Georgi said: “I think it definitely has. Now, I’m Charlotte [Kool]’s last lead-out, whereas before, I was a position back. 

“Racing wise, I think it [Wiebes's move] allows us to be a bit more aggressive, and we’ve got Charlotte as the card, but we’ve also got a lot of other strong riders, me able to race in the Classics a bit more, which is a nice opportunity.” 

With her new role, however, comes added pressure. “I think it helps that I’m not like a top favourite or a big name,” she said. “It’s more the pressure coming from myself. I kind of feel like, when all the girls ride for me all day, then I have a responsibility to perform, so that’s where the pressure comes from for me.” 

Now, Georgi wants to repay them. Her calendar lists all her favourite races - Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders - and she knows that if she continues to build on her form, the results will follow.  

“I’d love to podium in a Classic,” she said, when asked about her season ambitions. “That’s one of my goals for the spring this year. And also to win a race. I think last year was my first WorldTour podium [at Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden], so to be able to win a race, that would be a goal of mine.”

For most sprinters, being boxed in in a finale is a nightmare. Not for Charlotte Kool, though. 

As the Team DSM rider hurtled towards the finish line in Abu Dhabi on stage four of the UAE Tour Women, she found herself trapped behind her former team-mate Lorena Wiebes. It wasn’t the plan, but fortunately the elements were on her side. 

“The plan was to start actually earlier,” Kool told the media, including Cycling Weekly, after the stage. “I guess with the wind it was perfect timing and it turned out pretty good.” 

By the city’s marina, boat sails grappled with the breeze. Kool, having lost her lead-out woman Pfeiffer Georgi on the run-in to the line, was forced to improvise, latching onto Wiebes’s wheel and biding her time into the headwind.

“I think, if I saw it right, her lead-out was done quite early, so she was kind of forced to go early,” Kool said of her SD Worx sprint rival. “I have to say, we also didn’t expect this wind. It wasn’t really on the weather protocols.

“It was really chaotic. I was quite boxed in, but I just said ok, wait, wait, wait, wait until I find a gap, then I found a gap and I launched my sprint.” 

With 50m to go, Kool kicked down on the pedals and rounded her compatriot. It was déjà vu for many. Wiebes had been caught out again by the wind - as had happened on stage one - and Kool was poised to pounce. So too was UAE Team ADQ’s Chiara Consonni, who pipped Wiebes to second. 

“It seems it was perfect being boxed in,” Kool said. 

Reflecting on her bookended victories at the race, she added: “I think we started it the right way, and we finished it in the right way. I’m really, really happy we ended it this way with the team. We had an amazing week and it’s a dream come true.”

At the start of the stage, a local brass band performed the Rocky theme as the riders rolled out. It seemed an odd soundtrack, but ultimately a fitting one. For in the race’s final sprint match-up, Kool dealt a knockout blow, proving not only that she has the power, but also the tactical nous to win. 

Elisa Longo Borghini seals red jersey

On the podium in Abu Dhabi, Trek-Segafredo’s Elisa Longo Borghini stood in a cloud of red and gold confetti as the winner of the UAE Tour. 

It seemed somewhat of a formality, really. Having conquered Jebel Hafeet on Saturday, drawing out an advantage of over a minute to UAE Team ADQ’s Silvia Persico, Sunday’s final stage ended up being a victory procession. A late dig from Liane Lippert (Movistar) threatened to spoil the parade, but it was quickly quashed, and the Italian was able to cross the line with a smile. 

“It was quite an easy day,” Longo Borghini said after the race. “It’s been an amazing four days for us, for Trek-Segafredo, and we are delighted to be here.

“I feel actually really proud to be the first woman to win this Tour and I’m looking forward to the next edition. I hope this Tour will become a classic of the February calendar.” 

The day before the inaugural UAE Tour began, Longo Borghini took part in a pre-race press conference. There, Cycling Weekly asked her if she was hoping to win. “Well," she replied, "to say that I’m here to win it, it’s a little bit arrogant. I’m here to give my best together with my team and to make it a good race.” 

From forcing splits in the crosswinds on stage two, to riding clear of the peloton on stage three, the Italian certainly stayed true to her word. 

After the race, as road workers dismantled the barriers down the home straight, Longo Borghini was asked how she plans to celebrate her victory. “We are planning to go out with the staff to have some drinks and some ice cream,” she said. A well-earned treat after an impressive four days of racing.

Kool won the green jersey as the best sprinter, while Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) was named the race's best young rider and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-Sram) the winner of the intermediate sprints competition. 

There was an overwhelming feeling in Dubai that Lorena Wiebes would take stage one of the UAE Tour Women. For many, it was nailed on. So much so, even, that perhaps the only people not tipping the European champion were those racing against her.   

Enter Charlotte Kool. 

At the stage start in Port Rashid, Kool stood beneath the bow of the Queen Elizabeth II cruise liner with a grin on her face. How was she feeling for the sprint? “Really excited,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

For the 23-year-old, who spent much of 2022 as Wiebes’s lead-out woman at Team DSM, this was a chance to prove her worth. Her compatriot had moved on to SD Worx, and now she was the designated sprinter. This was her time to shine.  

Kool kept safe in the peloton as it skirted around the city’s skyscrapers, and waited for her opportunity on the flat run-in by the harbour. 

At the finish line, the wind had been picking up all afternoon. “I saw we had 40km/h headwinds, so being late was important,” Kool said after the race, but things didn’t go as planned. 

With 4km to go, her lead-out train was caught up in a crash, leaving her with just one team-mate at her service for the finale. “We had to change quite fast,” she said. “But luckily our riders know what to do. We spoke a lot about scenarios, what can happen, so switching and being calm was the key today.”

Unknown to Kool, Wiebes had also come down in the crash. But before anyone could notice, the SD Worx rider leapt to her feet, remounted her bike and powered through to the front of the pack. With 150m to go, Wiebes launched her sprint first. 

“I first had to close the gap,” Kool explained. Then, sheltering from the headwind, the advantage was with her. “I could come with speed behind Lorena,” she continued, “and I just did my sprint.”

In the end, there was something quite symbolic about how it played out. Kool, previously the understudy at Team DSM, emerged out of her old team-mate’s shadow and kicked, towards victory, into the sun. 

The significance wasn’t lost on the race winner. “Being a finisher myself, it’s something I love the most,” she said. “That’s what I’m born for, I feel. I was just really excited to be in the game myself again.”

Some joked on Twitter before the race, pondering how many bike lengths Wiebes would win by. As it turned out, it was Kool who won by one. 

The desert of northern Saudi Arabia is not where you would expect to find a man from Edinburgh, with the powerful sun a cruel challenge for a pasty Scot.

However, this is where Sean Flynn is kicking off his career as a professional rider, part of the seven-man DSM squad at the Saudi Tour. Fortunately, the Dutch chemicals company has produced its own suncream specially for this occasion, so he is no more burned that other riders with more melanin. 

Despite the step up to a WorldTour team, despite all the trappings that come with being a professional athlete, Flynn is keen to stress that he feels the same as he did before the move came.

"You almost imagine when you're younger that you will feel like a different person, but I don't, I'm just the same person, just in a different kit," he says. "I knew I was going to be a pro probably only when I signed the contract, because before that you were always in some doubt, even if there is interest, is it true. Even once I'd signed, until I got in the kit and in a race, I still didn't know if it would happen."

DSM is a good place for a young rider just starting out at this level. In fact, Flynn is only the 12th youngest rider at the team, despite this being his neo-professional year. 

"It doesn't feel like I'm going into a team with all experienced guys," he tells Cycling Weekly. "Obviously we do have people like that, like John, but there's also youthful enthusiasm, and a development attitude in the team. There's not too much pressure to be immediately winning races. 

"The team has a long term vision, which I really like. It's a nice environment, surrounded by guys in a similar position to me, still on their upward trajectory."

Flynn is actually unusual in the DSM setup, being one of only three riders aged 22 or younger that did not come into the elite team from the development squad. The other British riders there, Max Poole and Oscar Onley, used this way into the WorldTour team.

"It felt strange first off stepping in, because the DSM development guys have been there longer," he explains. "I had been in contact with the team for a while before joining, so I could see it coming, and in that sense it didn't feel too strange."

The Saudi Tour has hardly been a baptism of fire for the Scot, with the first three stages offering little in the way of terrain to properly test his climbing legs. However, stage four saw an actual climb, Flynn's first of pro life. He finished 27th, having being given an opportunity to push by his team; DSM are keen to give their young riders a fair go should the race suit.

"It's nice to start actually working properly, do the real job and not just the training," he says. "So far, I've had a really nice experience with the team and it's nice to kick it off with racing. We have quite a young squad, so it's quite nice to just get to know how the team works, and experience racing at this level. It's quite different to what I've been used to in the past.

"The level is higher, but I've tried to step up my level as well, and my professionalism and all that. It's not out of reach. Also starting at a race like this where it's not the highest, it's a strong field but it's not WorldTour, so it's nice to begin like this. Ease into it a bit, but I'm not sure you can really ease into it."

Flynn has spent the past two seasons with different development squads, which has been an interesting test during the pandemic; first with the Dutch SEG Racing in 2021, and then Swiss Racing Academy last year. A stage win at the Istrian Spring Trophy in March 2022 was a first victory of his career. It was the extra year at under-23 level which gave him the chance to lead the team and challenge for wins.

"I feel like I've progressed and learnt quickly, I don't feel like I've really taken my time," he says. "Definitely, spending last year at a development team and getting to ride more as a leader was really good, and was an important thing to experience. Hopefully, later on in my career, I might find myself in that position again. I feel ready, I'm excited to step up and race bigger races this year."

Riders seem keen to step up to elite level younger than ever, but Flynn feels he is ready at 22, and does not think it has been a particularly circuitous or delayed progression.

The Edinburgher was a mountain biker before he moved onto the road, and has raced internationally for GB, which helped slow his conversion to the road. However, ultimately he thinks that his multi-discipline background has helped him as a rider and will continue to.

"I got into cycling through downhill mountain bike, that is how my interest was sparked," he says. "Some trips to the downhill World Cup in Fort William, then I got involved in my local club. At 10/11 there's not much downhill you can do, so I got into the road scene. 

"Through Edinburgh Road Club I had the ability to experience different things, which helped shape me as a rider. Picking up skills from road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross."

As for this year, the 22-year-old is looking to just become more comfortable and find his place among the elite; DSM seems like the perfect environment for this, to build his base.

"It's quite a big difference from a development squad, just in terms of the size of the organisation and things like that, that's quite a big change," Flynn explains. "The support around you is a lot more, and you can feel it's more professional just in terms of what's expected of you. 

"Heading into this week I felt a bit overwhelmed by what I could feel from the other guys. First race of the season you always feel like you forget how to do it, but once I was back in it was good."

Few sprinters can claim to have truly dominant seasons. Of course, someone always tops the pile of most wins, but in the vagaries of bunch finishes, it is rare for one rider to pile up great seasons. If we take the measure of 20 wins in one season, in the last decade only Alexander Kristoff in 2015 (20) and Peter Sagan in 2013 (22) have managed to clear this hurdle in men’s cycling. Only one woman has managed to do it in that time period: Marianne Vos, in 2013 (22) and 2014 (21). That was until her compatriot Lorena Wiebes came along in 2022. 

Of course, the pair are very different riders at opposite ends of their careers – there are 12 years between them – but these two Dutch riders are the two most dominant riders in the modern era. 

Sure, Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen and Lizzie Deignan might claim to be more the all-round riders of the last decade, and with good reason, but none of these have had such an authoritative season, numerically speaking, as Wiebes did last year. At just 23, in her second full year at WorldTour level, every time Wiebes lined up for a bunch sprint she was expected to win. How she handled that was never more evident than at the RideLondon Classique last May, where on three consecutive days she blasted away the opposition, making world champion Elisa Balsamo and rival Emma Norsgaard mere bystanders. 

It must have become repetitive, this constant winning. “For me as a person, I’m never really excited after I win, that has never been it,” Wiebes explains to CW in late October. “I think I’m more introverted. Any time I’m happy with a win and the help of the team. It gets a bit more normal, though. It sounds a bit strange, but at one point this season I felt the pressure was on, because for a long time I hadn’t lost a sprint, so I thought I had to win… 

“I think I can cope with the pressure naturally. If I lose, I’m already looking to the next race. I don’t feel it during the race, but maybe a bit before. I think this year the most pressure was during the Tour de France, but I think it mostly came from myself because I wanted to get the yellow jersey there. 

“This year [2022] went way better than I expected. I achieved almost all my goals we were talking about before we started. It was a great season, and I’m already motivated for next year. To race more, to be stronger.”

Tour immortality

The bonus to her monumental year was becoming the first stage winner at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, therefore being the first rider to don the new yellow jersey, and immortalising herself in the process. It was an odd sight, with Wiebes being joined on the podium by a friend’s baby, but it was historic. However, it was, she says, hard to appreciate at the time. 

“At the moment [you win] you don’t realise that it is so special and important for women’s cycling, because the next day you just have to race,” she says. “Then I had the crash, and I was disappointed I didn’t finish the race, but afterwards I realised what a nice experience it was, with so many spectators at the side of the road. I’m already looking forward to this year; I don’t know if I will ride it, but to see it, follow it. 

“It was a bit hard to enjoy my day in yellow because it was so chaotic in the race, but it was a really good experience, and at the end Juliette [Labous] did a really good GC. So it was a good race for the whole team.” 

There was another stage win, in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, on stage five, but it was to be her last act in the race as she crashed out on stage seven. By that point her dream of winning green had also gone, to the woman who preceded her dominance, Vos. 

However, 2023 is a fresh year, and if she gets there, she wants to target the green jersey, as well as stage wins. It is not hard to see her becoming the record holder for stages, as Vos is at the Giro Donne, before her career is over in well over a decade’s time. 

“Everyone wants to finish the race, and I also want to be on the podium with the green jersey… it would be really nice to ride there again,” she says. 

“I think there are some chances for me this year. [We know] already that it won’t be starting or finishing in Paris, which I was a little disappointed about, but I hope there are as many spectators as last year.”

New start

2023 is a big year for Wiebes. After two and a half years at DSM she is moving on, having signed a three-year deal with SD Worx, the preeminent squad in women’s cycling. She will no long be the unchallenged team leader, but instead one of several leaders. 

The Dutch squad might not have won as many races as she did last year (19, to her 22), but the collection of stars they have is envied across the peloton. She will no longer be the protected rider in most races, something she is willing to concede, but will be another card to play alongside Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Marlen Reusser.

However, joining the team has been a long-term goal for her: “From the moment I thought I could be a professional, I wanted to be at that team, even when it was Boels Dolmans,” she says. 

“It’s a smaller team [than DSM, with its men’s team], but it is big, and there are more top riders. It will be different for me, and we can’t ride for a sprint every time. Th at’s fine, because I think I can develop myself in a new way. 

“Looking from the outside, the last couple of years, the team has seemed like a family. They have a lot of fun with each other. It gives me a lot of motivation to see how Demi and Lotte are riding there. I want to help them also in the harder races.” 

Her first meeting with the team came in California, where the 2023 squad assembled to train, visit Specialized’s headquarters and watch an ice hockey match. It certainly does seem like that family Wiebes wants, something she experienced at Parkhotel Valkenburg too, her first squad. They also seem to work for each other very well, despite the evident talent and egos. 

“Lotte and I will race for victories, but we have to work for each other too, which is fine,” she explains. “In harder races, I know she can fi nish it off , and I hope she believes in my ability to finish it off too. With [Barbara] Guarischi coming in for the sprint train, you can also see that they’re thinking of me. She’s really good as the last lead-out person as she’s not afraid.” 

There are some who worry that Wiebes and Kopecky will be looking for the same opportunities, but they are varied enough that they should have differing objectives; the former could not win Strade Bianche or the Tour of Flanders in the mould of the latter, and the latter could not win the first stage of the Tour de France Femmes like the former. 

“I don’t know Lotte, so we will see at the first team camps, but I think it will be fi ne,” she says. “I’ve never heard anything bad about her. I think all the riders fi t in the team, and that’s what they look at.” 

As for the future, Wiebes is not the finished article yet: “I know I can still grow, and I think that’s the most important thing. Just like Annemiek [van Vleuten], who is still saying she is better every year. I want to grow in hillier races, and I think I have found a good team for it.”

There was a time when Romain Bardet would have been among those with the shortest odds to win the Tour de France. 

He was the home nation's chosen champion, after all. In 2016, the then 25-year-old finished second to Chris Froome, before going on to round out the podium the following year. At the roadside, crowds roared him on as the man to end a three-decade spell without a French winner. 

Now, aged 32, Bardet’s outlook is different. He knows his name isn’t uttered alongside the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, but he’s still got his eye on GC. 

“It’s becoming a bit of a game,” the Frenchman told a select group of media, including Cycling Weekly, at Team DSM’s season launch on Tuesday. “I had more pressure before because I knew I could have maybe been the best at some point. I was stepping up year by year at the Tour. 

“Now, it’s obvious that I won’t be the best guy, or amongst the two, three or four best favourites. That keeps me really pushing all the way in terms of tactics and also in training before to really raise my level to try to match the young guys.” 

This year will mark Bardet’s tenth assault on his home Grand Tour. After abandoning a promising Giro d’Italia campaign with illness last season, the Frenchman finished sixth at the Tour, but hopes for better this time round. 

“I know already some guys are faster and stronger than me,” he said. “But you never know in the Tour. Despite two really shit days last year, I was still competing in the fight for a long time for the podium. I hope to be in the same place next year, with some better legs.” 

After last year’s edition, Bardet revealed he took inspiration from 2018 yellow jersey winner Geraint Thomas, who rode his way onto the race's third step at 36 years old. 

“His performance was really brilliant,” Bardet said of the Ineos Grenadiers rider, who grappled with riders ten years his junior throughout the three-week race. “For a guy who already won the Tour, to really fight when the other two guys [Pogačar and Vingegaard] went and almost get dropped every time, he was the last survivor of the fight. 

“It was a really inspiring performance to see,” the Frenchman continued. “I think he has shown that even at 36 he can still reach his best. I think he was probably even better than when he won the Tour.” 

Could Bardet, also in his thirties, follow in the Welshman’s footsteps this July? “I don’t want to set particular results that I have to go for,” he replied elusively. “I just want to have a good, smooth preparation and be able to give it a go.

“I’m still, I think, a GC rider and I work for that all year round,” Bardet added. “If I finish 6th or 7th or 8th and I’ve done everything I can, I will be happy with that.”

Sean Flynn had been on a year-long job interview with Team DSM, the WorldTour team inviting the Briton to numerous training camps to figure out if he was worth offering a contract to or not.

They clearly thought he demanded further investigating, but Flynn was on his best behaviour every single time. “It’s all well and good being strong on the bike, but they wanted to know if I would fit in and be a good member of the team,” he tells CW. “I guess it was an audition. Imagine if I turned up and I was really annoying?”

Fortunately for Flynn, 22, he kept whatever irritating side he may have in him suppressed (spoiler: we’re pretty certain he can’t be annoying), and he impressed DSM enough for them to offer him a two-year contract, becoming the first Scottish rider in a WorldTour team since David Millar retired in 2014.

“Actually, that does mean quite a lot to me,“ he says. “There’s nothing I could have done about the lack of Scottish riders in the past decade, but I’m there now and it makes me proud to be the first one in a while to break through.

“I’ve grown up here, I’ve raced here, and it’s credit to the work from a club level right through to Scottish Cycling. I’m sure I’m not going to be the only one of us at this level for a while and hopefully it’ll have a snowball effect.”

Flynn pursued a multi-discipline approach to his cycling since he was a child, winning junior national titles in cyclocross, mountain biking and circuit racing. He will find time in his off-season to visit his first club, Edinburgh Road Club. “I hope that what I’ve done will inspire some younger riders to see that it is possible,” he adds.

“When someone can identify with someone from the same place, I’m convinced it gives them an advantage to go after that. Hopefully I can be that help for someone. 

“I’ve not always been the best at realising my position, and I think no one would be bothered to turn up if I went along. But it’s nice to see kids and how excited they get. But I still feel like a bit of a kid chasing my dream. To me, I’ve not made it yet.”

Olympic dreams

That comment is in contrast to what a 16-year-old Flynn told Scottish Cycling after he became a double junior national champion in July 2016. “In the future I would like to become a professional cyclist,” he said. “My ultimate goal is to become one of the world’s best, competing highly at world championships and the Olympics.”

He laughs when asked to expand on his changing meaning of ‘made it’. “If you had asked me four years ago what it would mean to make it, I’d have said to turn pro with a WorldTour team,” he reflects. “It’s all perspective. Anyone who achieves any level of success in anything is doing so because they are never quite satisfied; nothing’s ever quite enough.

“I am definitely someone who when I achieve something, I immediately want the next thing. I don’t ever really settle. If I get to the stage where I am an established rider having a long-term career, then I guess I could say I’ve definitely made it. But it’s hard to pin-point.”

Quick learner

Flynn only fully transitioned from mountain biking to the road at the start of the 2021 season, and he has enjoyed some impressive results in U23 and minor UCI races, showing his talents on hilly parcours with a reduced bunch contesting the finish. “I think I made the transition quite smoothly and found my feet quite quickly,” he says.

“But I know I still lack some experience in the real sharp end of races, and there are nuances in terms of the differences between being on the podium or in the top-10. Yet, in saying that, I’ve shown myself as one of the top riders in races I have been doing.”

He has now joined a team who prioritise youth development; indeed, 19 of the Team DSM’s 27-man roster in 2023 will be 25 or under.

“It’s definitely exciting to know that I will be part of a team that I can have an impact at,” he continues. “The team aren’t putting loads of pressure on me and they’re not expecting crazy results in the first year, but I want to make a difference and any opportunity I get I’ll take it with both hands. 

“I know how hard it will be to step up, to be at the front and even fighting for a win, but since the start DSM have been very clear with what project they have in mind for me, what aspirations they see for my future. 

“Basically, I just want to be myself. I like being part of a team, committing to my job whether that’s as a domestique or a leader, and as long as I have the legs I will be a useful part of the team. Hopefully the byproduct of that is that I will be racing for a long time at that level.”

Scottish rider Sean Flynn will compete in the WorldTour for Team DSM from next season - just two years after he switched to the road from mountain biking.

The talented 22-year-old had an impressive season for Tudor Pro Cycling Team, winning a stage of March's Istrian Spring Trophy and recording several notable top-10s, including fourth on GC at the Tour of South Bohemia and Paris - Tours Espoirs.

For much of his childhood Flynn's cycling was concentrated on the off-road disciplines, and he was a junior national champion in cyclocross and cross-country mountain biking. He was also a member of British Cycling's Academy for mountain bikers.

He was no stranger to road, however, being a former junior circuit national champion. During his time with BC he competed in a few road races and in 2021, feeling like he had reached a plateau with his mountain biking, he took the decision to focus on the road with SEG. It was a decision that paid off with some eye-catching results.

A sprinter who is capable of getting over hills, Flynn described his move to the Dutch team as "a dream for me to be part of one of the biggest teams in the world".

He added: "I also know that it's only the beginning and that the hard work has only just started. I'm excited to step into that higher level of racing and ride some races I've watched on TV for several years.

"I have a bit of a nervous excitement about it all, but I'm ready to work hard and prove myself with the team and become the best rider I can."

Flynn told Cycling Weekly earlier this year: "I am a sprinter but I can climb well. I prefer a harder race and a selection at the end. Some of my best results have been hose type of races where only a few survive and I can be the fastest left. When it's a reduced bunch sprint, it's easier to position yourself."

Rudi Kemna, the head coach of DSM, said: "Sean is someone that we've had contact with for some time as he made his way through the ranks. We see him as quite an all-round talent who can get over the hills and packs a good sprint - something we have seen in his U23 campaign this season.

"He's still relatively young so we want to bring him to a higher level overall with the help of our coaches and experts. We think in the future he will be suited to the hilly Classics."

Flynn will become the second Scot on the team, with climber Oscar Onley continuing to ride for DSM's development and WorldTour teams in 2023 after impressing himself, most recently at the CRO Tour where he went head-to-head with Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard.

Fellow Brit Mark Donovan, however, will be leaving the team this winter after three years. The Cumbrian climber performed well in his first season and was particularly active in breakaways at the Vuelta a España but has failed to kick on. It is not yet known for whom he will race in 2023.

Oscar Onley is to ride for DSM next season, a year earlier than planned, after he was promoted from the development team. Earlier this year he spoke to Cycling Weekly after his impressive ride at the CRO Race.

There was a lot of attention on Jonas Vingegaard last week, as the Tour de France champion won the 11th and 12th races of his career, stages of the CRO Race, his first wins since his golden July.

Unlike at the Tour, though, it was not Tadej Pogačar pushing him all the way, but an even younger adversary, 19-year-old Oscar Onley of DSM, the latest British talent to burst onto the professional cycling scene.

The rider from Kelso finished second behind Vingegaard on his two stage wins, and ended finishing ten seconds behind him overall in third, thanks to bonus seconds more than anything else, as Matej Mohorič pipped the pair of them to victory in Croatia.

At the time, Onley did not even realise how big a deal it would turn out to be, he just saw a yellow jersey - a Jumbo-Visma issued one this time - and wanted to beat him.

"I didn't realise how big it wasn't until I went to my phone after that first time I got second," he explains to Cycling Weekly, the day after the race ended. "Then I realised that yeah, it was quite a big deal. In the moment it's just another bike race and another rider, you don't really click who it is, and what kind of race it is until afterwards, I guess.

"It was a bit surreal to be to be racing against him [Vingegaard], and especially the last couple of days make when in the team meeting making a plan against Jonas, thank you go. Yeah, it's a bit different to the races have been doing so far."

The third place overall marks his best general classification finish of his nascent career, but it fits naturally in a year where he has continued to impress as a young rider, and make a bit of a name for himself among WorldTour professionals like Vingegaard and Mohorič, too.

"I wanted some results from this race, this week," Onley says. "I didn't know how well the parcours would suit me. Normally, I prefer a bit harder, longer climbs. So I wasn't sure how well I could go this week. But in the end, I think I could show myself quite well, on the courses that suited me."

However, despite sharing the podium with two of the riders of the year - do not forget Mohorič's impressive win at Milan-San Remo earlier this year - Onley or his team are not getting carried away. This is his second year of three with DSM's development squad, a programme that has brought through riders like Marc Hirschi, Nils Eekhoff and Leo Hayter before him, and he is sticking with his programme.

Being on a development team linked to a WorldTour squad like DSM allows the riders to swap in for some races, a practice employed by a few top level squads, notably Groupama-FDJ as well. It has given Onley the chance to ride at the step below the WorldTour this year at races like the Tour of Britain and CRO Race, with some of the team's professionals.

"Development wise, it's really good," he explains. "I think it narrows that step to the WorldTour. Even the races where I have been with the World Tour team, it's not like I'm getting bottles the whole race. This week, I've had the whole team working for me. That's quite special. Being a development rider and having the WorldTour guys working for me , I really appreciate it. Thanks to the team for giving me the opportunity."

Onley was a rider who stood out at the truncated Tour of Britain, being lively in what would turn out to be the decisive stage to Robin Hoods Bay.

"It was a strange end. But again, it was a really nice week," he says. "I didn't really get to show what I could do in that race. Parcours wise, it didn't suit me so well with each day just coming down to reduced sprint, it wasn't the best situation for myself. I felt really good, I had good legs. 

"After that race, I made another step up just from for how I felt in training after."

Like many riders, Onley got into cycling through his local club, in Kelso, and settled on the sport after trying many out when he was younger "In the end cycling was the one that stuck," he says. "I think, to be honest, it was more the training than the racing. I just really enjoyed riding my bike."

Away from the bike, he's into coffee, as many riders are, although he hasn't quite taken the plunge fully yet, despite fulfilling his goal by winning a stage of the important under-23 race the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta - Mont Blanc.

"Yeah, I've got quite into coffee in the last year or so," he explains. "I actually told myself that when I went to race, then I was gonna buy myself a coffee machine. Like a proper espresso machine, but I've I've not done it yet. So maybe in winter, that would be something I invest in."

He is still trying to work out what kind of rider he is, with the results in Britain and Croatia adding some questions over whether he can add punchier climbs to his roster. However, "from my side and from the team's side in the future, we'd like to go down the GC path and try and develop that".

Like all 19-year-olds who are good climbers, Onley's dream is the Tour de France, although he adds that his favourite race is actually Liège-Bastogne-Liège, so watch out for him there.

2022 has been successful, that is without a doubt. "I made a big step up from last year," he says. "I was obviously hoping to make a step up from last year, but I wasn't expecting to be competing for pro wins. I wasn't expecting that in the beginning of the year, so I'm really satisfied with this year."

Despite his win, and being up there with Vingegaard, there is no rush. He is content to wait his time and follow the DSM path. He is definitely one to watch now though, if he wasn't before.

"I think we'll be sticking with the plan, with myself and the team," Onley concludes. "One more year development. There's still some things I need to learn and gain some more experiences in like, racing for the win in different situations. I think I can really benefit from another year at this level, learning how to win."

In July, star sprinter Lorena Wiebes made history when she won the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opening stage and becoming the first woman in 33 years to wear an official Tour de France yellow jersey. 

The 24-year-old continued to make news that day for bringing a mysterious baby with her up on the podium, and then for rumours that she might be leaving her trusty Team DSM leadout in favor of a big salary offer from SD Worx, despite being under contract with the black-and-blue team through 2023. 

With a proven leadout train and by routinely pushing more than 1200 watts in the finale of a road race, the Dutchwoman has become the most feared sprinter in the peloton. This year alone, she's already netted 17 sprint victories, including two in the eight-day Tour de France Femmes.

It's no surprise then that other teams are keen to have this star finisher on their squad, and  it's now come to light that a special clause in her DSM contract, allowed Wiebes to entertain offers should they be more lucrative than her current contract.

This is not the first time Wiebes has left a team before her contract has expired. After her breakout season in 2019, Parkhotel Valkenburg secured her services until the end of 2021, but after a legal wrangle, they released the sprint star to DSM halfway through 2020.

Team DSM's press officer Emily Brammeier confirmed the rumours and contract loophole to Cycling Weekly at the time, but because the UCI rules dictate that a change of teams between two calendar years can not be announced until August 1, SD Worx and Wiebes herself had to remain silent on the matter.

"Of course we can’t confirm the new team, but what we can say is that Lorena is a good rider with a phenomenal sprint. We would have loved to continue working with her, but she got an offer she didn't want to pass up and we respect that," Brammeier said. 

Today, however, SD Worx released a statement officially announcing the signing of the sprinter, who is set to stay with the team through the end of 2025 and will be part of the team's goal to remain the number one ranked team.

"In the flat sprints our current team lacks speed. We want to compete for victory in all areas," said Team manager Erwin Janssen of Team SD Worx.

"Lorena is a pure sprint star. When it comes to pure speed, she is by far the best," added Team SD Worx sports manager Danny Stam. 

"The large number of victories this season says something about her qualities," continues Stam. "Although we mainly focus on the tougher races and as a team like to make the race, it is also nice when you have a big chance in the sprint. With Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes we have three world-class riders for the coming years who each excel in their own field."

Belgian Kopecky, the team's current sprinter has been a real asset for the Dutch team, netting high-profile wins at events like Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche. 

In 2023, Stam plans on playing his two sprint cards based on their differenced. Kopecky is able to survive the toughest races and still produce a sprint whereas no one in the women's peloton has been able to beat Wiebes in a flat, all-out sprint. 

"With Wiebes we go for the real bunch sprints, while Kopecky is played off in the somewhat tougher races. I also see in Wiebes the talent to develop further. The strength of our team has always been that we have several top riders at the start. In addition, there are more and more races on the calendar in women's cycling. That also means that we will be riding a double programme more often and will have to invest in that," said Stam.

Wiebes shared that she would have liked to have stayed with her DSM team, a squad that has in many ways been developed around her,  but that the offer from SD Worx carries too many 'opportunities' to ignore. 

"For years I have dreamed of being part of the world's best UCI women's team with several world-class riders who  I can pull myself up by," Wiebes stated. "I look back with pride on an instructive and very successful time with Team DSM. I will try to make it a successful remaining term of this season."

After just one day day in the yellow jersey Lorena Wiebes was understandably disappointed to lose the overall lead of the Tour de France Femmes. 

The DSM rider finished fifth on the race’s second stage, some 29 seconds behind the day’s winner, Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) who took the yellow jersey from her. Wiebes and her DSM team were distanced after a late intermediate sprint which came on the finish line, at the top of a short but sharp climb in the town of Provins, east of Paris.

Over the top Trek-Segafredo ripped the race to pieces, forcing a six woman group of the front from which Vos was able to take advantage.

“The day didn’t start very good because I has a small crash in the neutral, and we were all under control until the intermediate sprint,” Wiebes said after warming down on a stunning yellow sparkle Scott bike.

“It was a really smart move from Trek to go directly after the intermediate sprint and I was a bit too tired to react, I needed some recovery. We tried to close it directly afterwards, but they worked really good together on the front.”

The final kilometre was entirely uphill, and while it was not too steep, with a maximum of only 5.5%, it was always going to be a challenge for a sprinter like Wiebes. She though, was confident of being able to win the stage and did win the uphill bunch kick to finish sixth.

The day was a nervous one, marred by crashes which took out a number of riders including one of the pre-race favourites, Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope). Other than the loss of the overall lead, DSM came through the day unscathed, chatting together while warming down, but Wiebes blamed the wind.

“Everyone was nervous because of the cross winds and everyone wants to be in position and most of time then crashes happen. Nobody gives each other space of course because everyone who wants to be in the front.”

Tuesday’s third stage is unlikely to see such conditions, and the 133.6km from the centre of Reims through the Champagne vineyards to Epernay is likely to be defined by four classified climbs, three of which come in the second half of the race. 

The finish is the same the one on which Julian Alaphilippe (Quickstep Alpha Vinyl) won, taking yellow in the 2019 men’s Tour de France, and, with Wiebes’s own yellow now gone attention will turn away from her.

“More important is the GC for Juliette [Labous] so if they don’t take too much energy we’ll also go for green, but I think tomorrow will fit Liane [Lippert] really good.”

During Sunday’s opening stage rumours emerged in the Dutch media that Wiebes is set to leave DSM at the end of the season and is set to join SDWorx. While the team would not confirm her destination they admitted she would be leaving, while Wiebes herself regretted the way the news emerged.

“I think the timing was not the best because of course, I wanted to tell i the girls personally, and I had not time during the race,” she said. “That's not the best moment but we are professional riders and we keep on achieving our goals for the rest of the season, and we make it a great season.

“This team really brought me up as a rider and my development went really fast. I'm happy to be in this team and why I said we make it a great year.”

Sunday’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opening stage win confirmed Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) as the undisputed sprint queen of the women’s peloton. The 24-year-old's Champs Élysées victory was her 16th of the year, and she has beaten all comers, with her team providing her the best drilled lead-out in the peloton.

But according to rumours published by Dutch website AD.nl, she will leave the team for SD Worx when the season is over. This, despite being under contract with DSM until the end of the 2024 season. According to the AD article, her current contract includes a clause which allows her to leave if she Is given a significantly better offer. The SD Worx offer, it appears, was simply too lucrative to decline. 

Though no numbers were published, the article alleges Wiebes is set to become the best paid rider in the peloton.

It would not be the first time the Dutchwoman has left a team before her contract has expired. After her breakout 2019 season, Parkhotel Valkenburg secured her services until the end of 2021, but after a legal wrangle, they released the sprint star to DSM halfway through 2020.

In just a few years, Wiebes has developed into the women’s peloton's most potent sprinter. Just look at her performance at RideLondon Classique, where she won all three stages in dominant fashion. Her Champs Élysées victory only confirmed her status as the world’s fastest finisher.

Her secret, it seems, is increased strength training.

“Through the whole season I did some strength training and I think that's improved my sprint pretty good,” Wiebes told reporters in her post-race press conference. “And every ride I'm motivated to get the highest watts possible.” 

Pretty good indeed. According to her Strava entry for Sunday’s Paris win, her maximum power hit 1211 watts in her winning sprint.

Not bad for a rider who weighs only 60kg. And it’s no fluke either, scoring similar figures to win four stages at the Baloise Ladies Tour earlier this month.

Indeed, according to Strava, to win the fourth stage there she hit 1267 watts.

Whatever Wiebes says there is more to it than pure power. Despite a mix-up in the pitch darkness of the tunnel leading into the last kilometres of the Paris circuit,  Wiebes was still perfectly positioned by her DSM team for Sunday's finale.

“The lead out was chaos, but I stayed on Pfeiffer Georgi’s wheel and Charlotte Kool was still behind me,” she explained. “Our plan was to swap positions after the tunnel, but there was so much chaos that I just stayed on Pfeiffer's wheel and she put me in a perfect position.”

DSM were nowhere to be seen as the race entered it's final kilometre, but when they swung right onto the Champs Élysées for the final sprint, there they were there. Once placed in just the right position by her teammate and former British road champion Georgi, Wiebes used her knowledge of her rivals to the best advantage.

“Marianne started her sprint really early but I expected it and I had another gear and accelerated one more time to the finish line.” 

Wiebes had been dreaming of victory and taking the yellow jersey since the route was revealed last October, and such was her winning form all year she began the day as odds-on favourite and the pressure was on for her to perform.

“I was fine with the pressure because I put the most pressure on myself when I knew the parcours,” she continued. “I was quite relaxed before to start, we did everything as normal but I started to become a bit more nervous towards the final.

“It was a really special moment that my family was here, I didn't know that they would come so close and they were able to to get there.”

Monday’s second flat stage between Meaux and Provins gives the Wiebes a second stage winning opportunity and the chance to extend her lead in both the general and points classifications.

“The stage win is really important, but after that the GC is important for Juliette [Labous], so if it's not taking too much energy we will go also for green, but we will not put crazy amounts of energy in it.”

While the Giro Donne attracts criticism in some parts the smiles following a good performance show the race still means a lot to the riders competing in Italy.

After stage eight at Passo Maniva Juliette Labous’s smile was perhaps the broadest of the winners’ in the seven stages so far. 

The 23 year-old DSM rider crossed the line beaming and, despite the heavy rain which began five minutes after she raised her arms and sent those gathered along the railing running for cover in the Hotel Locanda Bonardi, her smile endured.

“I feel happy and can be really satisfied,” she stated in a matter of fact way which belied the joy obvious on her face. “It’s a lot of work and there were some hard days in the heat so I’m really happy. Finally I can put my arms in the air.” 

The victory came after she joined an early 14 woman breakaway, holding on as the peloton closed and her fellow escapees fell away. “I have never been in a breakaway that goes to the final like that so it was special, I had to think about how to win.”

While she is only 23, the win has been a long time coming. In May she won the overall at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, and while that was special, she did not win a stage. Indeed the last time she crossed the line first was at the Tour Feminin in the Czech Republic five years ago.

It’s not that she lacks class in any way. She has European junior titles to her name, did well at junior worlds, and is a former elite French time trial champion. She is persistently in the top 10 of big race, but a real victory eluded her.

She turned professional with what was then Sunweb aged just 18 in 2017, and the following year rode her first Giro, she and team mate Liane Lippert trading the young rider’s jersey until they were finally toppled late in the race.

This edition is her fifth Giro, remarkable for someone so young.

With Sunweb and now DSM she, and plenty of other young women, have been given the opportunity to develop, and this is now bearing fruit for the team. And while Lippert is obviously a punchy climber, it has become clear this this season that Labous is better on long climbs.

She came to the Giro as the team’s GC rider, but her bid for glory was stymied by Monday’s extreme heat, when she capitulated, losing 11 minutes and any chance of the GC. But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, without that she would never have been allowed up the road on Thursday.

“It shows that I can come back after disappointment, I'm just trying to find a positive out of it. I knew after that stage that GC was over, but I tried to directly switch my focus.

“We said today that I had to be in the break and [the team] would set me up on the first lap, but actually I went in the breakaway anyway, so the plan was perfect. Normally the breakaway is hard to go to get in and today it was kind of easy, it went directly, and then I had to motivate the other girls to to really keep on going to have a big gap.

While the escapees built a lead well over nine minutes, as the final climb approached cohesion began to wane at the same time the peloton began to put pressure on. When Labous finally made her move two riders were 30 seconds up the road, but the peloton was bearing down, only around 1-40 behind when she hit the front, around eight kilometres from the line.

“I was waiting for that moment and it was a bit tricky because the gap was coming down really fast, from five minutes to two minutes, so I thought I have to go as hard as I can and then I was solo. It was really long but I tried to work to my power because I knew what I can do for around 45 minutes.”

While she has at last broken the hoodoo with victory, she remains 10-14 off Annemiek van Vleuten’s (Movistar) overall lead, though she has moved to 12th place on GC, and promised to try again before the week is out. 

However, if there were any doubt before she has shown she is among the best climbers with the Tour de France Femmes approaching in just over three weeks. 

“Selection is not out yet, but if I’m on the Tour I will for sure be confident because I'm happy about my climbing and I think there is  a lot of nice stages there and especially the last two which is which are in my region so I hope I can do well there.”

Juliette Labous won her first stage of a WorldTour race on Thursday, taking a stunning solo win at Passo Maniva in stage seven of the Giro Donne. 

The Frenchwoman had been part of a 14 woman breakaway group which went up the road early in the day, and was last woman standing to take victory by 1-37.

On what was an exciting and tactically fascinating day, Annemiek van Veluten extended her overall lead to 31 seconds, finishing second after finally attacking Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) in the closing kilometre. At first the Spanish rider seemed to be able to hold the wheel, but such was the savagery and length of Van Vleuten’s effort, she eventually had to concede, rolling over the line four seconds down.

With Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvele Aquitaine Futuroscope) the three women repeatedly traded blows on the final climb, and the young Italian was unable to hold on, but managed her effort well, finishing fourth, another six seconds back.

Having proved they are the strongest climbers on Monday, he three women dominate the GC, sitting in the same order they finished the day, third placed Cavalli 4-09 ahead of fourth place. And, with race in the foothills of the Alps of the next two days, reaching the Dolomites on Saturday, there may well be more shifts in the GC hierarchy.

Friday’s 104.7 stage between Rovereto and Aldeno sees the peloton tackle two tough, long climbs, and if that’s not enough, the 10km descent to the line invites attacks.

How it happened 

The Queen stage, and the only mountain top finish of the ten, day seven of the Giro Donne was one for fireworks.

The route followed the well-established formula for a Giro Donne mountain stage, starting flat and staying flat until a final climb. Starting near Brescia in the village of Prevalle the peloton first looped south, back through the start for three 14.2km laps, before heading south-west and, finally, north, arriving at Passo Maniva 112.9km later.

Not as difficult as other queen stage climbs in recent Giro Donne history, at more than 12km at an average gradient of 7.8%, the climb topped out 1742m above sea level. The climb may not be famous, but it is a stiff challenge, the ramps becoming ever steeper, though it never settles, allowing respite for some but interrupting the rhythm of others

Its is rarely used, stage five of the 2019 Baby Giro being the most recent to finish there. That was won by Colombian Andrés Camilo Ardila, who now rides with UAE Team Emirates, and who won the overall of that year’s event. The winner of Thursday’s Giro Donne stage might well have also won overall. 

Unless, of course, the day’s winner came from a breakaway.

Sure enough, on the first lap 14 women escaped the clutches of the peloton. Elena Cecchini (SDWorx), Alba Teruel (Bizkaia Durango), Mikayla Harvey (Canyon-SRAM), Jennifer Ducuara (Colombia Tierra des Atletas-GW-Shimano), Magdeleine Vallieres Mill (EF Education-Tibco-SVB), Emilia Fahlin (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), Beatrice Rossato (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria), Katia Ragusa (Liv-Xstra), Paula Patiño (Movistar), Georgia Williams (BikeExchange-Jayco), Cristina Tonetti (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), Amalie Lutro (UNO-X), Alice Arzuffi (Valcar Travel and Service) and Juliette Labous (DSM) soon had a lead of one minute.

Labous started the race as DSM’s GC hopeful, but lost time in the heat of stage four, starting Thursday 11-55 down, in 22nd place. Of the huge breakaway the Frenchwoman was highest placed on GC, though if they stayed away she may have faced a challenge from other climbers, with Patiño and Harvey a particular threat.

With 50km done the breakaway had a lead in excess of a huge eight minutes, and the chance of the race’s first true breakaway win became a possibility, especially when the gap grew to 9-13, the road beginning to rise to gently.

Such was the lead for the breakaway, and specifically for Labous, that she became a genuine threat to anyone but the top three, but other teams helped the Movistar team of overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten, historically the peloton’s best climber, and peloton’s deficit began to fall. 

With 40km to go the lead was down to 8-20 and the breakaway suddenly seemed less secure, and fifteen kilometres later another minute had being lopped off.

Soon afterwards Lutro made a move off the front of the group, though she gained little traction, especially as the race was about to explode. 

Behind, Movistar came to the front of the group and began to work hard cutting more time of the leaders’ advantage. However, as they did so the FDJ-Nouvellle Aquitaine Futuroscope team of third placed Marta Cavalli also moved up, sharing the work and making a statement to the rival squad. 

As the climb proper started Tonetti was caught first by Tonetti, then by by Labous and Williams, the latter quickly despatching the other pair, the French woman soon on her own with seven kilometres to go with a leading of two minutes. But the action was behind. 

Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) was the first to attack, thinning it and setting in place the team’s two woman strategy. And when she was caught Danish team mate Cecilie Uttrrup Ludwig took to the front, keeping the pace high.

With Labous’s lead for a while at 1-40, but back out to 2-12, Erica Magnaldi came to the front of the the 15 woman bunch to work for her UAE Team ADQ leader, second paced Mavi García, and  fascinating battle of wills developing on the mountainside.

Either Van Vleuten, García or Cavalli would attack, the trio would get a gap, but then be brought back, most often by Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), only in the final kilometre did one of those ones stick, Van Vleuten heading into second place on the day. 

ResultGiro Donne, stage seven, Prevalli - Passo Maniva Race (112.9km)

1. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM in 3-22-36
2. Annemiek van Veluten (Ned) Movistar at 1-37
3. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ at 1-41
4. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 1-47
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-50
6. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 1-57
7. Gaia Realini (Ita) Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria at 2-13
8. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco at 2-29
9. Clara Koppenburg (Ger) Cofidis at 2-37
10. Silvia Persico (Valcar Travle and Service at 2-39

General classification after stage seven

1. Annemiek van Veuten (Ned) Movistar in 18-14-12
2. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ Marta at 31 sec
3. Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 1-10
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 5-19
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 5-54
6. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco at 6-12
7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 6-22
8. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 6-33
9. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ at 8-25
10. Elise Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 8-30

There is a strong case to be made that if Romain Bardet had not been forced out of the Giro d'Italia with illness, the Frenchman would have gone onto win the race. 

He was looking in his best form for years, had just come off the back of a win at the Tour of the Alps, and was flying high on general classification as the race meandered towards its crucial final week. His rivals were either unproven or flawed, and there was a consensus that he was finally back at the top.

Sadly for him, and for Team DSM, Bardet quit the Giro on stage 14, suffering from illness, ruining their carefully laid plans.

The early withdrawal from the Giro does mean, however, that he is ready and raring to go for the Tour de France, which begins in just over a fortnight. The Frenchman confirmed the news in a social media post on Monday morning, his first Tour for DSM.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly on Monday afternoon, Bardet said he was "pretty excited" to be heading back to the French Grand Tour, his home race. It is the scene of his greatest successes, where he twice finished on the podium, finishing second in 2016 and then third in 2017, both times behind Chris Froome. He has also won three stages at the race.

Last year, he missed the Tour for the first year since 2012, as he raced the Giro instead, where he finished seventh on general classification, and then the Vuelta a España, where he won a stage, his first victory in three years.

"To be honest, I'm pretty excited," Bardet said. "I don't think it will be a different story because the Tour remains the Tour. On the approach, I naturally expected to be at the Tour, but I really hoped to have a successful Giro before. It's a bit of a change for me, we have to adapt. 

"I have no racing before the Tour, just some training, so there is much more unknown. We will line up with a super aggressive team, and hopefully do something like the team did in the past, going for some nice stage wins together."

He is referencing the 2020 Tour, where DSM, then Sunweb, won three stages at the race through Søren Kragh Andersen and Marc Hirschi. More than that, though, the team impressed through their dynamic racing, always seeming to be on the front foot. It was a blueprint for how a team can ride the Tour without a focal general classification rider.

On that, Bardet maintains that he will not be aiming for high up on GC as he goes into the race.

"GC is not the goal," he said. "It's so frustrating for me, with the Giro, and the last time at the Tour I did not finish with a crash. I just need to enjoy the racing a bit more. Take it stage by stage, it looks like a super hard Tour, and I just want to be healthy and also a bit safe. Hopefully have some good rides in the mountains."

He was forced out of the pandemic-delayed 2020 edition after suffering concussion in a crash, so it will be a case of making sure of staying upright first and foremost, and then seeing where he is at.

Bardet's form is a mystery, seeing as he was seemingly on top of it heading into the Giro, but then has not raced since. It is a mystery for the man from Haute-Loire as much as it is for people in the media or his fans.

"That's the main question," Bardet said. "That's what I keep asking myself now. I don't really know, we will see. I only did two weeks at the Giro, then I was off the bike for one week, and then we start from the bottom again. For sure I won't be in top shape at the start, but I will try to do my best to be fully good again in the Tour."

Joining him at the Tour will be his compatriot and old rival Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), also taking part in his first edition since 2020. For fans of nostalgia everywhere, it would be fun to have some more of the Pinot-Bardet show this July.

Romain Bardet is set to return to the Tour de France next month. The Frenchman confirmed the news in a social media post on Monday morning.

It will be the first time that Bardet has ridden the Tour for Team DSM, who he joined at the beginning of 2021; the last time he rode the French Grand Tour was in 2020, his final year with AG2R La Mondiale. He failed to finish on that occasion, suffering from concussion.

The 31-year-old left the Giro d'Italia early last month due to illness. He was lying in 4th overall when he was forced to leave the race on stage 13. 

Last year, he missed the Tour for the first year since 2012, as he raced the Giro instead, where he finished seventh on general classification, and then the Vuelta a España, where he won a stage, his first victory in three years.

“Super excited to announce I will be at the Tour de France with DSM! We have been building up to this one with everyone so looking forward to racing in front of our French fans again,” he wrote on Instagram.

Bardet was looking good at the Giro, as he was high up on the general classification, alongside riders like Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and eventual winner Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe).

When his teammate Romain Combaud was interviewed after stage 14 at that race, he said: "There was only one week left. It's horrible for us. He is a great champion." However, now Bardet has the opportunity to make up for it.

He won the Tour of the Alps back in April, his first general classification win since 2013, proving he had the legs for an overall challenge, one which he was forced out of doing at the Giro.

The Frenchman has twice finished on the podium of the Tour de France, finishing second in 2016 and then third in 2017, both times behind Chris Froome. He will be joining his compatriot and old rival Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) at the Tour next month, so there will be a bit of nostalgia at the race.

The Tour begins with a time trial in Copenhagen on the 1 July. There is not a lot of time-trialling in this year's race, which could favour Bardet, but it is hard to know if he is anywhere near the level of two-time winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who are considered the favourites.

As Lorena Wiebes and her DSM team lined up for post race photographs after the Dutch sprinter’s third Women’s Tour stage win, the 23 year-old Dutchwoman did not look happy. Stood in the Breast Cancer Now pink jersey of race points classification leader, she looked more like she had missed out rather than taken a 47th career win.

“It was not the plan,” she told CW once her team mates and the attendant photographers had left her alone, stood in the street still astride her bike.

It seems a bizarre thought that a team would not allow the world’s best sprinter to try for the win on a course that suited her, especially when she was in such scintillating form. That DSM would not allow the Dutch rider the opportunity to equal Marianne Vos’s (Jumbo-Visma) record of three stage victories in one edition of the Women’s Tour, or to take her fifth stage in two years, matching another record.

But DSM have an abundance of talent, and the day wasn’t not meant to be for Wiebes, but for their neo-pro Charlotte Kool.

“The plan was to go for Charlotte,” continued Wiebes as she caught her breath. “But at one point we lost each other and I didn’t hear that she lost my wheel and when I went through the final corner I just moved up and then I looked back and I didn’t see her in the wheel, so then I just continued.

“It’s not the way we want to end it.” 

The final bend on the 142.9km stage between and Chipping Norton and Oxford came just over 250m from the line and without her compatriot on her wheel Wiebes had no choice but to continue.

“You don’t go and brake at that point and you have to go with the situation, but like I said, it’s not what we wanted to do.”

It’s been a stellar race for Wiebes, Saturday’s victory her third, and despite more than 2,000m of climbing on Thursday’s fourth stage she came close to winning in Welshpool. There, after two tough Cambrian Mountains, DSM came within 20 seconds of a group of 10 accomplished climbers who had escaped on the first of those climbs. She still won the bunch kick for 10th place.

“We did a really good  team effort this week and we showed that we were really strong and the girls did an amazing job,” Wiebes added. “The atmosphere in the team is really good and that really helps, we are all committed to the team and to the plan, we have a plan and we go for it.”

As well as her Women’s Tour hat trick Wiebes also won all three stages at Ride London and has firmly established herself as the world’s best sprinter and DSM the best sprint team, inviting comparisons with Mark Cavendish’s Highroad team. And Kool has proved herself the ideal final lead out rider for Wiebes.

Also 23, Kool joined the team over the winter from NXTG, a development team where she was the main sprinter. While she has her own wins already, she knew she joined the squad as a lead out rider, though was assured there would be opportunities of her own.

“I think you will find out quite fast where my chances will be,” she said prophetically earlier in the week. 

After two stage wins and one day in the leader’s yellow jersey Lorena Wiebes finished 10th on the hilly Women’s Tour stage four into Welshpool. It was never meant to be a day for the sprinters, with many touting it as the day for the general classification.

However, that didn't stop Wiebes' DSM team mates doing their best to deliver her to the final at the front of the bunch - with British National Road Race champion Pfeiffer Georgi pivotal in the effort. 

“I never gave up in my head, I was fighting until the last kilometre," the 21 year old told Cycling Weekly.

Starting in Wrexham the race headed to the Cambrian Mountains, and as well as two classified climbs and plenty of lesser ascents, there was barely a flat metre on the entire 144.7km. Wiebes seemed to have other plans though. “We will go all in tomorrow to make it three,” she said in a team press release after her second stage victory on Wednesday.

And it was a close run thing. Her DSM squad took her to within 20 seconds of the group of climbers who escaped on the first of those climbs and eventually fought for the stage victory. Even after all that Wiebes still won the sprint for 10th place, 1-16 behind winner Grace Brown (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope).

When the race finally emerged from the 4G blackhole of central Wales and onto the world’s TV screens, the peloton was 100km in and the leading group had been up the road for 30km. Due to DSM’s efforts the advantage for 10 of the world’s best riders had rarely exceeded 30 seconds, and their entire team were still nailing it on the front.

Only the last significant unclassified ascent did the gap grow to 50 seconds, but such was DSM’s commitment even then it came back to 20 seconds. In the end though such an effort has a cost and only DSM team mate Georgi was left, her white national champion’s grey with wet and road grime.

“Yeah, that was so hard,” said Georgi. Though unsuccessful the team’s performance was a realisation of a plan which came very close to working.

“We tried to aim for a sprint today,” she continued. “Just control the moves with all of us at the front because it was so technical and hard from the beginning, have the overview and keep control of the race.

“We were doing really well but we were a bit unlucky, Lorena had a flat tyre before the last climb so we had to wait a bit. But then the whole team was fully committed, and we just chased as hard as we could. In the end it didn’t pay off.”

Georgi’s final turn on the front seemed to last forever, the 21 year-old burying herself kilometre after kilometre. 

“I never gave up in my head, I was fighting until the last kilometre. Because I think you just need to keep trying, and if it doesn’t pay off, it doesn’t pay off, but you can’t give up just because it’s slipping away, you never what what’s going to happen.”

Wiebes and the team have had a stellar season and an even more successful visit to the UK. The Dutch rider won all three stages at Ride London, and had her final lead out rider, Charlotte Kool not crashed in the technical final into Bury St Edmunds on Monday, her form is such that she seemed nailed on to win the Women’s Tour’s opening stage. 

“We go into races with a plan and everyone commits 100% to the goal, and obviously Lorena is in amazing form so it gives a lot of confidence when you of your job properly and she can finish it off.”

Friday’s penultimate stage is the race’s first ever mountain top finish, so maybe not one for Wiebes of Georgi. “I’ll just hang on, try to survive, I don’t think I’ll be there, but we’ll give it a go. We’ll go again Saturday.”

A second crash in as many days could have disrupted team DSM's plans at the Women’s Tour on Tuesday, but a cool headed sprint train delivered Lorena Wiebes to the win - vindicating a leadout rider who blamed herself for the previous day's get-down. 

The win was special to Charlotte Kool, who - having led into the first of two late, tight corners, before crashing and taking Wiebes and others with her - was harbouring feelings of responsibility, despite other riders blaming a dangerous run in to the finish. 

“I can say I blame myself for that crash. I took that corner way too fast and I was especially disappointed to take the rest of the bunch and especially Lorena with me, so it’s really fun to take that win today," Kool told Cycling Weekly, now full of confidence and adding: "let’s go for more stages!”

But the stage two win was almost not to be. With just eight kilometres of the 92.1 parcours remaining, a crash at the front of the peloton put the entire team out of position, leaving them chasing to get back to the leading group. 

Wiebes was able to get back to the reduced peloton relatively quickly, but the rest of her team took a while to rejoin, though their road captain, British champion Pfeiffer Georgi never regained the group. 

When Kool finally made it to the sharp end of the race, the 23 year-old neo-pro went straight to the front, delivering her leader perfectly.

“I came from the back and I saw Lorena and I did the best I can so Lorena didn’t have to sprint too long. I saw the 200m line and I thought ‘this hurts!’ but it was OK, 200m will be fine, she can do that. And she of course finished it off, so it’s good that we can switch tactics if something happens.”

DSM have built their team around Wiebes, who is without question the world’s in-form sprinter this year. So far in 2022 the 23 year-old has nine wins to her name, taking her total to 45 since her first in May 2018.

Though she can find her own way to the finish line, her presence on the team has allowed DSM to develop the best lead out in the women’s peloton, though it is surprisingly democratic according to Kool.

“Pfeiffer is the road captain but we are actually all in charge,” she explains. “Pfeiffer makes the orders on chasing or which side [of the road] we choose, but we are all pretty smart and we all know how the game works, so I can also give orders and Lorena can give orders. It’s like we do it all together actually, everyone can say something and we will all listen."

Could it be a case of too many leaders? Not so, "we all have the same direction so it’s not like everyone is saying left or right, if someone shouts left then the whole group is left,” Kool said. 

Kool joined the team this season from the NXTG development squad, and has sprint victories of her own, with two last year and one since joining DSM. However, though she remains ambitious, for now she is happy to work as Wiebes’ right hand woman.

“I think we can be really happy about how it goes this year. For me it was pretty new to be lead out instead of sprinting for myself, that’s a switch, but I learnt a lot from it, and I think I can take all the things I learn now to the future.

“I signed early for the team and the most important was to grow as a rider so that I can also handle the hard finals and harder races. I think I made already a huge step, so I never had any problems and I’m also getting chances. 

“The team has a lot of confidence in my own sprint. And Lorena and I are really good together and we have a lot of fun and I think we learn from each other and she’s helping me. It’s a big benefit for me to work with one of the best.”

Lorena Wiebes bagged an incredible hat trick on Sunday, winning her third stage of the three at the Ride London Classique in the shadows of the Houses of Parliament.

The Dutch rider and her DSM team were imperious, their well drilled lead out positioning her perfectly, 23 year-old Charlotte Kool dropping her leader off with 175m to go. Once she had her nose in front no one one looked like beating Wiebes, world champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) taking second and Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) third.

Three stage wins and a clutch of intermediate sprint bonus seconds ensured Wiebes won the general classification by 19 seconds ahead of Balsamo, with Emma Bjerg third overall, a further nine seconds down.

Throughout all three stages Wiebes never looked like she would be challenged. Not only does she ride on the back of a formidable DSM lead out, but she is simply the fastest in the peloton on flatter courses. 

While others, like Bjerg, Balsamo and Kopecky might be better on lumpier routes, Wiebes is untouchable on days and short odds are the best you will find for Wiebes claiming the first Tour de France yellow jersey in Paris in July.

How it happened

For its final stage the revamped version of the Ride London Classique returned to London, though not to The Mall, where the one day race started and finished until 2019. This time the 83.5km stage would take in two different loops. 

The opening two circuits were only eight kilometres, with the remaining seven up to 10km, passing the Houses of Parliament, the new New Scotland Yard, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and some of the city’s other well known sights.

Even with the new route, essentially stage three was a pan flat criterium, and with Lorena Wiebes taking an overall lead of 18 seconds into a race with only 16 bonus seconds available, all the DSM rider had to do was finish on the same time was the winner.

As would be expected the race began in fast and furious style, with the high pace not deterring attacks, though none of those were able to stick. Amber Kraak (Jumbo-Visma), Julia Borgström (AG Insurance-NXTG) and Anastasia Carbonari (Valcar Travel and Service) were the only group to build any real gap, taking the intermediate sprint after 25km, but they didn’t last long.

SDWorx were the main protagonists, kept the pace high, their Swiss champion Marlen Reusser going so hard gaps appeared in the group behind at one point.

However, the smaller teams were in no mood to take it lying down, AG Insurance-NXTG and St Michel-Auber93 continuously attacking, though getting nowhere.

Inside the final 20km AG Insurance-NXTG sent Ally Wollaston up the road, this time with Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) the pair managing to get a gap of 20 seconds. However, after a while the peloton organised themselves and the gap began to come down, as Wollaston forged ahead alone.

When the New Zealander was caught the main sprinters’ teams came to the front en masse, jostling for position as once again the pace lifted in preparation for the bunch sprint.

Results

Ride London Classique, stage three: Embankment, London - Embankment, London (83.5km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Team DSM in 2-01-01
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
3. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx
4. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 
5. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Liv Xstra
6. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
7. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) Canyon-SRAM
8. Coryn Labecki (USA) Jumbo-Visma
9. Maike van der Duin (Ned) Le Col-Wahoo
10. Jesse Vandenbulcke (Bel) Le Col-Wahoo all at same time 

Final General Classification 

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Team DSM in 09-10-02
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 19 sec
3. Emma Bjerg (Den Movistar at 28 sec
4. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDW orx at 31 sec
5. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 34 sec
6. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) AUE Team ADQ at 35 sec
7. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 37 sec
8. Julia Borgström (SWE) AG Insurance-NXTG at 39 sec
9. Jesse Vandenbulcke (Bel) Le Col-Wahoo at 41 sec
10. Simone Boilard (Can) St Michel-Auber93 at 41 sec

Lorena Wiebes continued where she left off by winning the opening stage of Ride London Classique in Essex on Friday. The DSM sprinter, who won the race’s last edition back in 2019, took the win by around five bike lengths from her nearest rival after a tough finish in Maldon.

In what was an exciting final, the lone breakaway rider, British time trial champion Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) held on into the very last kilometre, but as the road kicked up into the finish town, she was unable to hold on. 

With the Brit despatched, DSM’s sprint train able to drop Wiebes off to take the victory, with World champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) crossed the line in second place with Emma Bjerg (Movistar) taking third.

Saturday’s second stage is a tougher affair, the bunch beginning the day in Chelmsford before heading north, then south-West to Epping forest for two laps of a gnarly, hilly final circuit. 

How it happened

Having been a one day race until the most recent edition in 2019, for 2022 Ride London Classique has been extended to three days. In line with the sportive’s move from Surrey to Essex, the race has done the same, with the opening two days held in the county.

To start, stage one took the riders on a circuitous route starting and finishing in the town of Maldon, east of Chelmsford. The race began with two opening circuits, before a larger one led to two final laps of the finishing town. Each of those included an intermediate sprint on the finish line in the town’s heart, coming immediately after a steep final dig. 

Unfortunately, the race was notable for the lack of information available to followers. With no live coverage of the opening two stages, fans were relying on online updates, which were thin on the ground from either the organisation or any other source.

This didn’t prove too much of an issue though, as the early part of the stage was uneventful, with the bunch staying together until 50km were behind them.

Only inside the final 45km did the race come to life, the pace lifting as the peloton headed into Maldon on narrow roads, where the bonus seconds came into play. Though some riders were dropped on the run in, a good sized peloton crossed the line for the first time.

Here Lorena Wiebes (DSM) took the maximum bonus seconds, though it was British national time trial champion Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) who used the increased pace to launch a solo move, edging off the front to build a gap of 50 seconds on the first of the two 21.8km laps. 

With the sun shining Henderson made hay, her lead quickly extending to 1-50, crossing the line with one lap to go with her lead down to about 1-35 on a peloton which, though largely together had been thinned by the narrow roads and crashes.

However, as that lap wore on the gap began to diminish and the Brit entered the final 10km with her advantage down to 50 seconds. and that steadily decreased as the race went on, Liv-Xstra doing the work with Rachel Barbieri or their Canadian champion Alison Jackson in mind.

When DSM came to the front Henderson was finally caught, for what was a reduced bunch sprint. 

ResultRide London Classique, stage one: Maldon - Maldon (132.5km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) DSM in 3-30-25
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo) 
3. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
4. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx 
5. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope 
6. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 
7. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service, all at same time 
8. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, at 4 sec 
9. Simone Boilard (Can) St Michel-Auber93
10. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) EF Education-Tibco-SVB, all at  same time

General classification after stage one 

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) DSM in 3-30-12
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafred0, at 5 sec
3. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar, at 9 sec
4. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx, at 11 sec
5. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Furturoscope, at 13 sec
6. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service
7. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service, at same time
8. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, at 17 sec
9. Simone Boilard (Can) St Michel-Auber93
10. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) EF Education-Tibco-SVB, at same time

Frenchwoman Juliette Labous won her first WorldTour race on Sunday, taking the general classification at the four day Vuelta a Burgos. 

The DSM rider held on for second place on the final stage mountain top finish to take the overall ahead of compatriot Evita Muzic (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), with Demi Vollering third overall.

Vollering (SDWorx) managed to take the stage. Having lost time on stage three she was forced to attack repeatedly on the steepest, final five kilometres of the climb to Lagunas de Neila. Though Labous was dropped late on, the French woman finished second, only 17 seconds down, taking the overall by the same margin. 

It was another brutal day in Spain, the opening kilometres ridden faster than the predicted average speed again. No breakaway was allowed to form until late in the day, though even that was caught very early on the final climb.

After Labous followed one of Vollering's earlier moves she was finally gapped late on, and while the Dutch rider rode her way steadily to yet another victory, her sixth this year, Labous dug in, her rival never losing likely to take the 35 seconds she needed for the overall.

The overall result is a real landmark for both Labous and her DSM squad. She and German team mate Liane Lippert are of similar age and have had parallel careers with the Dutch based squad. However, they have struggled to take big wins. With her punchy climber’s sprint, Lippert finished second on stage three, but the with Labous better at long uphill efforts the team’s strategy to ride for the Frenchwoman on Sunday paid off.

How it happened 

Though this year’s final stage started from a place and is a few kilometres longer, the defining feature remained the same as last year's edition. The finishing climb to Lagunas de Neila is not an easy one, 11.8km in length at an average of 6.3%, it becomes harder hear the top, the final three kilometres rarely dipping below 10%.

Last year SDWorx dominated, Demi Vollering leading deep into the final when the race became a head to head between her team mate, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), the former taking the stage and overall.

Neither were racing this year, Van Vleuten out injured, while Van der Breggen was directing operations from the team car.

For once though, SDWorx didn’t hold the box hand going into the last day. Their top rider on GC was third-placed Lotte Kopecky, and though the Belgian champion is hugely versatile, the long, severe finishing climb meant there was little expectation of victory. 

Instead New Zealander, Niamh Fisher-Black was their top rider on GC, the 21 year-old climber starting the day 18th, one of a large group 22 seconds behind leader and stage three winner, Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ), with a whole host of climbing talent in between the two.

That ensured stage four was an intriguing prospect, the 125.1km stage the race’s second longest, rolling out of Covarrubias, tackling two third category climbs before heading to 1,870 metres and the closing test.

It was another fast start, the peloton setting off with intent and arriving at the 40km mark just ahead of the fastest predicted schedule, no one able to establish a breakaway ahead of the day’s first climb.

Only with 60km ridden did a small but very strong group get away, Scot Anna Shackley with her SDWorx team mate Kopecky, along with Elise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM), Marie Le Net (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo). As the peloton finally took a breath the five women quickly established a lead of 50 seconds over the peloton as the bunch headed south towards the second climb, the Alto del Collado Vilviestre.

They were never allowed much more though, the gap hovering around the minute mark the break taking nearly 50 seconds into the final 17km, with DSM and the UAE Team ADQ squad of overall leader García leading the chase.

The early slopes of Lagunas de Neila were kind to the bunch, but as the steeper slopes approached the five escapees were finally caught. And with the climb wearing on FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope took to the lead of a peloton which was fast being worn away, only 20 riders surviving to tackle the closing eight kilometres.

Around five kilometres from the line Vollering (SDWorx) managed to prise two others off the front, both Juliette Labous (DSM) and Paula Patiño (Movistar) ahead of the Dutch woman on GC.

As overnight leader García drifted backwards the leading trio were caught, by a small group, but once again Vollering went, with Labous hanging on for second on the day and a first ever GC victory.

ResultVuelta a Burgos, stage four: Covarrubias - Lagunas de Neila (125.1km)

1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx in 3-39-39
2. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 17 sec
3.Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 37 sec
4. Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) EF Education-Tibco-SVB at 44 sec 
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at same time 
6. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 50 sec
7. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Trek-Segafredo at 54 sec
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZL) SDWorx at 1-06
9. Ane Santesteban (Esp) BikeExchange-Jayco at 1-20
10. Paula Patiño (Col) Movistar at 1-28

Final general classification

1. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM in 13-06-28
2. Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 17 sec
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx at same time 
4. Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) EF Education-Tibco-SVB at 27
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at same time 
6. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Trek-Segafredo at 37 sec
7. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valvar Travel and Service at 46 sec
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZL) SDWorx at 56 sec
9. Ane Santesteban (Esp) BikeExchange-Jayco at 1-03
10. Paula Patiño (Col) Movistar at 1-11

It has been 11 long days at the Giro d'Italia, but finally the Italian tifosi have something to cheer about. Alberto Dainese's victory on stage 11 to Reggio Emilia was the first by a native since Filippo Ganna's time trial win in Milan last year.

The Team DSM rider seemed to surprise everyone, including himself, by triumphing over a stellar sprint field which included Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) and Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ). In doing so, the 24-year-old took just the third win of his career, and the first WorldTour level victory he has ever achieved.

Some stage to do it on, at one of the few sprint opportunities at his home Grand Tour, after coming close a few times at the Vuelta a España last year. His final burst of speed was expertly timed to round Fernando Gaviria (UAE-Team Emirates) and win under 150km from his home town of Abano Terme.

"Yeah it’s not really my home stage," the young man explained after his victory. "That comes a bit later, stage 19 in Treviso. It feels pretty amazing, a stage in the Giro, anywhere would feel amazing. Especially being so close to home it’s something incredible. I still cannot believe it happened, I’m super happy."

Dainese has been forced to wait his turn for an opportunity in this race, with just three out-and-out sprint opportunities before Wednesday. He has also been sharing DSM's sprinting role with Cees Bol, while also being part of a team that is pull behind a GC push for Romain Bardet, currently sitting fourth overall, and with Thymen Arensman in 12th.

"This morning the plan was to go for Cees in the sprint," the Italian explained. "But in the last KMs we swapped as he didn’t feel so good. I just tried to stay relaxed and follow the guys. 

"It’s insane that Romain sitting third [sic] in GC gave me a leadout into the last corner. It shows we really work as a team. Then I was a bit boxed in in the middle and I found a gap on the left. I just went to the line. I think I had Gaviria on the right, in the last 20m I could pass him and that feels super."

Adding to the superb nature of this win is the fact that DSM have triumphed just three times this season, although they have looked a different beast since Bardet started to motor at the Tour of the Alps last month.

Dainese's key teammate Nico Denz said that the squad "deserved" the victory.

"It’s really emotional," he said. "We’ve been through a lot with him, we’ve been super close a lot of times in the Vuelta last year. This win is really deserved for him and for us as a team."

After GC contender Domenico Pozzovivo (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) gave the winning leadout to teammate Biniam Girmay on stage 10, now it was Bardet's turn to show that he was more than just a pure climber.

Team DSM, for now anyway, seem to be balancing the needs of their general classification riders alongside their sprinters, and the win might just give them the confidence they need to go deep into this race.

"We came here also with a GC focus around Romain," Denz said. "So the last 8kms it was really important to stay out of trouble, which is why I took a lot of wind. Everyone works for everyone. Romain here with GC ambitions is doing the leadout for a sprinter guy, and this is just the cherry on top of the cake."

It has been rare for teams going for GC to have a split strategy at a Grand Tour, with smaller squad sizes meaning a decisive choice is usually made. If DSM can make it pay off, it will be a special performance.

For Dainese, though, this will be one to remember. The Italians can now be happy that they have something to celebrate, even if they might not win the race overall.

Asked to explain what his teammate is like, Denz simply said: "He's an Italian."

"I’m actually rooming with him," the German continued. "He’s really calm, and an emotional guy, and for sure he will keep this one forever in his mind."

How was your first day at work? Did it take you some time to work out the coffee machine, or find out where the toilets were? It may or may not have been scary, but it probably took some time to ease in, right?

For Max Poole, his first day was a little different. It took the shape of a 161km stage from Cles to Primiero, stage one of the Tour of the Alps. Just the 3693 metres of climbing to deal with on his first day ever with the senior DSM team - having seemingly skipped straight from the junior ranks.

The 19-year-old was part of the squad looking after his team's general classification hope that week, Romain Bardet. Frenchman Bardet would go on to win overall at the end of the race. Quite the opening experience for the man from Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire, UK).

Speaking to Cycling Weekly ahead of stage three of that race in the Tyrolean town of Lana, Poole said that racing alongside Bardet was a bit weird.

"I'm starting to get used to it a bit now," he explained "But it's just really good being around him. He's had so much experience in big races, Grand Tours, winning, he has so much good advice for us youngsters."

Poole is actually in his first year with DSM's development team, he has only been at under-23 level for a few months, after making the jump from the junior ranks. However, reasonably unusually, the majority of his racing this season has been with the senior squad, as he rode the Tour of the Alps and then most of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque.

This baptism of fire hasn't overawed the promising rider from Lincolnshire, at all, in fact he has looked relatively comfortable. He might not have pulled up too many trees results wise, but his team are happy with where he is at, and he has caught the eye as a young man in his opening season.

"It's good," Poole said. "I think you learn a lot from just being in the peloton and from a top coach like Matt [Winston]. We've got some experienced guys here as well so it's just about being around and learning from them."

Whether the compliment to Winston was prompted by the coach being a metre away from Poole at the time, we can neither confirm nor deny.

Asked what elements of his experience with DSM's senior team had taught him the most, Poole highlighted the opportunity to ride shoulder to shoulder with his idols: "Just riding in the in the peloton... you can get so much experience," he said, adding it was his "first race of the year in general" - perhaps forgetting that he raced a stage of Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux.

"It's gonna take me time," Poole continued. "You can tell a big difference in the way it's raced, just from junior racing. I haven't really raced under-23 yet so it's a big difference. There are times where it just completely goes out and there's times where it's just full gas."

Integrating the development squad in with the senior equivalent is a major part of DSM's ethos, and they're happy with how Poole has slotted into the ranks. 

"I think he's done a really good job," Winston tells Cycling Weekly. "The first few races he missed due to illness, but we didn't see a reason to change his programme, he's a super talented guy and we thought this would be a really good start for him here in the Alps.

"First real race, and he's with our GC guys and he's giving them really good support through the race," Winston observes. 

"It was on my race programme from the start," Poole said. "I've had some problems with illness and injury. But I'm here now and I was happy to be here as well. I was looking forward to it and I'm up for a fight, I'm not just going to give up."

The 19-year old Briton is following in the wheel tracks of many other talents that DSM, and its former guises including Sunweb and Giant-Alpecin, have produced. Tom Dumoulin, Marcel Kittel and Warren Barguil are just a few of the success stories.

However, DSM has attracted attention for the number of riders who seemingly leave the team, including the three already mentioned. Earlier in the year, rumours of punishments and overzealous rule-making surfaced.

Perhaps this is just part of the deal with being a smaller-budget team in the WorldTour, or perhaps it is something to do with their training and planning methods. 

Another young British talent, Leo Hayter, left DSM's development team early at the end of last year. This week, Thymen Arensman was reported to be the latest talent to be leaving the squad, according to VeloNews.

"I think there's always two sides to the story," Poole says."I've had no issues at all. I can't really see why anyone would have an issue, but it's tough."

Winston defended the team's methods earlier this year in an interview with Cycling Weekly: “The guys in the team are having a good time, moving forward. They don’t say it’s too strict. They understand the way of working and how we go together. 

"We have a way of working, a protocol in place, and it’s to the aid of everyone," he said.

Perhaps most interesting is Poole's unconventional route into cycling: the young rider was encouraged by someone his dad met while working as a window cleaner. Not quite what George Formby sang about.

"My dad was a window cleaner," Poole explained. "He just cleaned some windows for someone who went weekly to Quibell Park [stadium and velodrome] in Scunthorpe, so I went to give it go, and did a bit of football as well. When it came to the point I was having to choose, cycling was the one. 

"I played in midfield, or sometimes on the right," he said, although laughed off the suggestion he was like David Beckham.

Playing football helped him identify some talent on a cardiovascular level, obviously. 

"I was quite good at cross country," Poole said. "I mean, the pure runners I could never keep up with, but I had a decent engine. I think I've always had a good engine. Even when I was really little I'd just ride around the village on like a little tractor thing."

DSM is just the latest step in Poole's development, he spent his junior years at Fensham Howes-MAS, as well as working with British Cycling. However, this last race experience represents a big step up, and the first-day syndrome is evident.

"It's little things, like the first time he's used a radio on stage one, and kind of just getting into the swing of things," Winston explained. "He's done it in a really good way and he's really settled in and he's speaking in the meetings and I think he's enjoying it. 

"I spoke to him at the end of [stage two] and he said, it was so much better than stage one, because the first day you're using a radio it's going on in your ear and everything else is going on. But yesterday was already much better. His level will just keep continuing to grow from this."

The only way is up: watch out for the man from Scunthorpe.

There might be 12 riders within 90 seconds of each other at this year's Giro d'Italia after nine stages, but for Romain Bardet there are two riders he is looking out for.

Speaking from Italy via Zoom on the second rest day, the Team DSM rider said that "maybe" himself, Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) are the "three best" at this year's race.

The trio failed to breakaway from the other favourites on Sunday's stage to Blockhaus, instead finishing on the same time as João Almedia (UAE-Team Emirates) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe). 

However, the trio did look the most lively on the final climb, with only Bardet and Landa able to follow Carapaz's big attack, even if it did amount to little in the end.

"It was a pretty big attack, and a sudden change of pace, so it was all out," the Frenchman explained. "There's still a long time to go. In the last few kilometres Landa was super strong also. We've shown that maybe that we're the three best, but we didn't manage to get much of a gap, but it was still a good day."

"I think it was the first really hard stage of this Giro," he said. "It was a first test. The stage before was very demanding, so it was very good to be up there with the best guys, even if we didn't make a big time difference."

As much as one can work out over a dodgy internet connection to the south of Italy, Bardet looked very relaxed, comfortable in his status as one of the favourites for the maglia rosa. His first GC win for almost ten years at the Tour of the Alps last month must have given him confidence, and at 31, he has the experience to help his undeniable skill.

This is his second Giro, after he finished seventh at last year's race. After leaving AG2R La Mondiale for Team DSM at the end of 2020, the Frenchman looks relieved of the burden of having to target the Tour de France, as he did for eight consecutive editions from 2013 to 2020.

"You can see that teams maybe have less control on the race than at the Tour," he said. "It's more open, and so far over the nine days the GC classification is still really tight. It's pretty interesting."

As the race goes into its second week, the mountains are put away for a bit, with a few more rolling stages. One would suggest this might be relaxing, but nothing is every really relaxing at the Giro.

"The first four stages of this second week are not maybe the most suitable for big change, but still it's the Giro, so you never know," Bardet told the media. "There are some climbs in the final, and with the tension in the bunch... we also have to focus on these stages."

Stage 11 looks like another day purely for the sprinters, but the rest of this week could be dominated by the breakaway, although as Bardet said, anything could happen. Stage 14 is certainly one that could see an ambush happen, before the race returns to the serious mountains next Sunday. A different GC leaderboard ahead of the next rest day is very possible.

During this Giro it was announced that Bardet had extended his contract with Team DSM, which will keep him at the team until at least 2024.

"I'm feeling good and performing well," he said. "Everything is really good for me here. Since I joined I've made big steps, and again I'm successful on the bike. Off the bike it's a really good environment to live in."

He also has the advantage, at the Giro anyway, of working alongside Thymen Arensman, who is also up there on GC, just 1-27 behind the race leader.

"Thymen is a super nice guy and I think it's super good that we can both be there in the final," Bardet said. :It's a good advantage for us."

It's clear the pair get on well, and Arensman seems just as relaxed as his teammate, checking in that his hair looks OK before answering any questions.

"It’s a great learning experience for the future. I’m really happy to be here," the 22-year-old Dutchman said.

"It has been a great first week, also very nice to ride a bit in the front and help Romain. Also with a good and strong team here, it’s good to be at the front of the bunch and help each other."

At times in this race, it has seemed very 2015 with Ineos Grenadiers aping their old Sky tactics and utilising their fabled mountain train. With Bardet again up there on GC, that's another thing that feels archaic. Except maybe now it's different, maybe he can win.

Team DSM chose not to use its new on-board ‘tyre pressure control system’ at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, despite gaining approval from the UCI.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Dutch team said that at Roubaix "riders must be completely one with their bike and control all components intuitively".

As a result, the debut of the Scope Atmoz tyre pressure control has been pushed back to the Tour de France this summer, where pavé will feature on stage five. On Sunday the team lined up in Compiègne without the new technology on their bikes.

The integrated set-up allows riders to digitally inflate, deflate and monitor tyre pressure on the move via air reservoirs, located in the hubs, which are connected to the tubeless tyres via a hose into the rim. 

Scope said the Atmoz system uses mechanical valves which regulate airflow between an air reservoir and the tubeless tyre. This allows the rider to adjust the tyre pressure in real time. 

In a press release from DSM, the team said, “Since 2020 Team DSM and Scope have been working on a tyre pressure management system that allows riders to inflate and deflate their tyres whilst on the bike. 

“This week on the cobbles has confirmed that we can be confident in the system and our overall setup, we have decided to make our debut at the TDF where we will race it at the cobble stage.”

The UCI approved the technology on 1 April, yet clearly the team has not fully tested it enough to have faith in it. They did use it in recons of the course in the week ahead of Roubaix, however.

On Saturday, at Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the women's Team DSM did not use the system, with Lorena Wiebes admitting at the start that she did not know much about it.

At Paris-Roubaix, the release stated, “riders must be completely one with their bike and control all components intuitively.”

“We can’t wait to spend some more time riding with this system and be a part of what we are confident will be a huge movement in the sport.”

In line with UCI regulations, Scope's Atmoz system has to be commercially available for all. As such, you too can own a pair for just €3.998,00 according to the brand's website. 

After winning last year’s first edition, Lorena Wiebes made it two from two winning the Scheldeprijs 2022 after a perfect team performance.

Her DSM team had ridden all day, monitoring a three-woman break, but in the final they still had new recruit Charlotte Kool in place to lead her team captain out. Even so Wiebes was forced to open her sprint with 250m remaining, but simply rode away from her rivals, winning by two bike lengths.

Chiara Consonni (Valcar Travel and Service) took second, with Rachele Barbieri (Liv-Xstra) in third. 

Despite taking what was effectively their B Team to the race, with Wiebes on board DSM were left to control. But such was the quality and focus throughout the young Dutch squad, they were skilfully able to keep the break within touching distance, though not so close to encourage counter-attacks.

Though they allowed other teams to take the lead in the final few kilometres, the Dutch team always remained third or fourth wheel, Kool moving into position late in the day.

The victory was Wiebes’s fourth of the year, and the 40th of the 23-year-old’s prolific career. Her position as the peloton’s fastest woman is far from secure though, with world champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) also on four, and the battle for front supremacy is one of the the most interesting narratives of the season.

Trek-Segafredo themselves have been one of the dominant teams of the year to date, but seemed to have misfired in their last two races. While they placed Chloe Hosking well in the final three kilometres of Wednesday’s race, the Australian was forced into the wind far too early and was unable to sprint, though managed to finish sixth.

How it happened 

In its second edition, the women’s Scheldeprijs was the last of organiser Flanders Classics’ men’s races to add a women’s event at UCI level. Unlike races like the WorldTour Tour of Flanders or the ProSeries Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Wednesday’s race sits at 1.1 level, along with next week’s Brabantse Pijl.

This classification typically reduces prize money, but also limits the number of top tier WorldTour teams able to take part, as well as the race distance. However, the 138.1km route starting and finishing in the Antwerp suburb of Schoten, is considerably longer than some WorldTour events.

With strong wind forecast from the south-west echelons were a possibility, though with the route heading north-east toward the Dutch border before turning back towards three 18.6km closing circuits, opportunities for crosswinds and gutter action were limited.

That tailwind ensured the opening kilometres were ridden at high pace, no one able to get away, and it was 30km in before Brit, Abi Smith (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) reacted to a move from Irish woman Megan Armitage (IBCT).

They were joined by Canadian, Simone Boilard (St Michel-Auber93 WE), and the three women took a while to settle. Smith did much of the work to establish the gap, which took 10km to reach 40 seconds. However, over the ensuing six kilometres, the trio were allowed their escape and the gap stretched out to 1-20.

Despite a couple of ill-fated and inexplicable moves from the peloton, the breakaway’s advantage extended to 1-57. However, with 80km to go DSM came to the front working for last year’s winner Lorena Wiebes and, assisted by Valcar Travel and Service, that lead began to tumble.

By the time the leaders hit the first of two cobbled stretches - the second of which was ridden four times - their advantage was down to 1-20, and was as little as 30 seconds when they crossed the finish line for the first time, 51km remaining.

And there they dangled. An unsuccessful attempt by Amandine Fouquenet (Arkéa) changed very little, the break continuing to work hard to maintain their advantage, and DSM ensuring the peloton held station. The lead was out to 54 seconds at the beginning of the penultimate lap, another Arkéa rider, Marie-Morgane Le Deunff optimistically riding in no-woman’s land, but the change was of no consequence.

Though DSM led the peloton across the line for the final circuit with their deficit still over 30 seconds there was little jeopardy until Smith attacked at the start of the cobbled Broekstraat. With some excellent results against the clock the 20-year-old Brit presented a threat to the sprinters teams, but with more than 100km off the front she was unlikely to succeed and was caught with just five kilometres to go.

A huge crash near the front some 4.6km from the finish split the peloton, but did nothing to prevent a bunch kick.

Result

Scheldeprijs Women 2022: Schoten - Schoten (138.1km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) DSM in 3-21-56
2. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service
3. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Liv-Xstra
4. Georgia Baker (Aus) BikeExchange Jayco
5. Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Movistar
6. Chloe Hosking (Aus) Trek-Segafredo
7. Julie de Wilde (Bel) Plantur Pura
8. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) EF Education-Tibco-SVB
9. Anna Trevisi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
10. Charlotte Kool (Ned) DSM, all at same time

Lorena Wiebes mastered the finishing climb to win Danilith Nokere Koerse for the second time in her career on Wednesday.

Having lost all but one of her team mates to crashes, the Dutch rider was peerless in the final, freelancing and taking the inside line before being the first to open her sprint. Powering over the cobbles in the saddle, she crossed the line around 15 metres ahead of the rest of the field. 

Wiebes rode the final two kilometres on the wheel of Lotte Kopecky, but held her nerve and position when the Belgian champion moved across to the middle of the road. Kopecky finished second and was once again the beneficiary of excellent team work, SDWorx leading the race in the final five kilometres before Lonneke Uneken dropped her off in the final. 

However, she was unable to match the raw pace of Wiebes, who won the race’s first edition in 2019. Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) finished third.

It’s been a stunning start to the year for Wiebes. After winning the sprint for third at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, she has since won GP Oetingen and last weekend’s WorldTour opener, Ronde van Drenthe.

However, with so may of her team mates unable to finish in Nokere on Wednesday, there could be some worry about support for the 22 year-old as the northern classics begin to come thick and fast.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In only its third edition, the women’s version of the venerable Nokere Koerse, the men’s version of which has been around since the 1940s, is developing fast. This year not only do they have live TV for what has quickly been promoted to the second tier ProSeries, they also have equal prize moment for both races, making a clear statement about equality for the women’s sport.

This ambition and a great route combined to create a strong field of riders lining up in Deinze for the 125.9km ride to Nokere. The route included nine Flemish bergs and the cobbled Nokereberg featured three times, with the finish line coming at the top of the last ascent following two local laps. 

It was a busy, aggressive start to the race, with Trek-Segafredo and Jumbo-Visma carrying on where they left off at Saturday’s Ronde van Drenthe by riding particularly active. However, it was Human Powered Health who managed to get a rider up the road, Olympic Team Pursuit champion Mieke Kröger escaping after around 20km.

A consummate time trialist, the German was never allowed too much space, only taking around 35 seconds over the Tiegemberg some 43km in, that lead never growing, and she was caught as she reached the top of the Nokereberg for the first time.

Crashes marred this part of the race, former British champion Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) forced to abandon. Others to crash were Barnes’s successor in the British jersey, Pfeiffer Georgi and Wiebes herself taking a tumble.

Just inside 40km to go, on the cobbled Lange Ast, a series of attacks lifted the pace as UAE Team ADQ, BikeExchange Jayco and Le Col-Wahoo all mounted charges. However SDWorx were a constant presence with Lotte Kopecky and Christine Majerus, both with wins under their belt already this year, constantly lurking near the front.

But, rather than attacks whittling the peloton, crashes defined the first lap. This not only split the peloton, but caused pre-race favourites like Commonwealth champion Chloe Hosking and her British Trek-Segafredo team mate Elynor Bäckstedt to abandon.

The final 27km lap began relatively passively, but just inside the final 20km a four woman lead out from Parkhotel-Valkenburg saw both Femke Markus and Mischa Bredewold get away. The two Dutch riders are both young and extremely strong, Bredewold especially a star of the future, and riding a two-up team time trial were allowed to build a gap approaching 30 seconds.

However, recognising the threat, the peloton organised itself to hold them at arm’s length before, on the cobbles of Lange Ast, their gap was all but closed. SDWorx’s Lonneke Uneken did much of the pursuit work and the two leaders were caught with 9km remaining.

A lull in the action ensued, the peloton apparently settling for a bunch kick, before, with 5km remaining, Luxembourg champion Majerus came to the front of the race. She stretched the peloton on the winding roads, while Kopecky was escorted to the head of the race by Uneken. However, throughout this, Wiebes played an excellent tactical card by holding the Belgian’s wheel into the final 300m and subsequently crossing the line first.

RESULT

DANILITH NOKERE KOERSE WOMEN ELITE: DEINZE - NOKERE (125.9KM)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) Team DSM, in 3-14-47
2. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx, in same time
3. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
4. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service
5. Marjolein van’t Geloof (Ned) Le Col-Wahoo
6. Barbara Guarischi (Ita) Movistar
7. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) Jumbo Visma 
8. Eugénie Duval (Fra) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
9. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) EF Education-Tibco-SVB
10. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) Canyon-SRAM

Matt Wintson, sports director at Team DSM, has passionately defended the men's team work environment in the face of accusations of strictness and individuals being unable to freely express themselves.

In the past two winters, Marc Hirschi, Michael Matthews and Tiesj Benoot have all departed the Dutch team, the trio all reported to have been unhappy with the processes in place.

In December, Belgian broadcaster Sporza quoted an unnamed team personnel as saying:  “The team doesn't realise it's working with humans instead of robots. They want 33 riders who all 33 do the same and think the same. But actually you are dealing with 33 individuals."

But Winston, who joined the team’s coaching staff in January 2019, said that he couldn’t understand the noise around the team, telling Cycling Weekly that “it’s strange when I see these comments.

“We had a guest rider with us on a recent training camp and his feedback was ‘I can’t believe how strict it wasn’t'.

“The guys in the team are having a good time, moving forward. They don’t say it’s too strict. They understand the way of working and how we go together. 

“When people leave the team, or are looking for a different opportunity and they’re asked for their comments, we have this tag that we’re too strict. But I really don’t believe we are too strict. We have a way of working, a protocol in place, and it’s to the aid of everyone.

“We’re confident in the way we work, we believe it’s the right process. I also really stand behind this: as a team I’d never come to you and say that this rider does this or doesn’t do that. That’s not fair.

“We see this stuff, but it’s not us to respond directly and shoot down a person.”

An oft-reported anecdote is that rider Søren Kragh Andersen was told he couldn’t change his saddle height as that wasn’t the business of the rider.

Winston voluntarily brought up this topic. “It’s often said that people want to change their saddle heights but that they have to consult a few people before changes are made," the Briton said.

“It’s true that we don’t make changes on the spot, but people perceive that as us being too strict. The reason we do it is so that everything is logged centrally.

“A WorldTour rider has six or seven bikes, so when a mechanic is making a change by the side of the road but we have no update that the saddle height has been changed, it causes issues as the rider is not able to think about how he can win the race but instead he is busy with his bike. 

“What we try to do is have a central process. We support the guys with a bike fit and those changes are made with an expert. An expert is paid to advise on what they believe is the best, and they may suggest leaving it for three weeks and see how it feels. That is their job.

“We will continue in the way we believe is the best way forward. We are an expert-driven team, like other teams and federations, and we employ experts in their areas of expertise.

“In terms of nutrition, for example, we employ a nutritionist who has invested their time to learn about that particular field. A rider will give input into how their body is feeling, and the expert is in consultation with them and will take the feedback on board and make the decision. 

“We empower people to deliver their insight into their positions of expertise, just like we empower riders when we are talking about ways to win a race. 

“People are saying it is too strict, but look at it another way: doesn’t it sound like quite a smart way of working? I’m always surprised when I see [these comments]. When people don’t want to buy into that, that’s when we get people talking about us having a super-strict protocol. It’s just a process.”

Addressing the allegation of there being too many steps to pass before a decision can be made, Winston said that “only certain people will say that we’re the bad guys”, before robustly defending the procedures.

“In your role, if you had six journalists from Cycling Weekly all calling me, I would be saying, ‘do you guys not talk to each other?” he continued.

“Every position needs a process, a way of working, and we want to hold that line. We have respect for the riders, for the experts, and for other people.”

Of the eight new signings for the 2022 season, only the return of John Degenkolb was a headline acquisition, the 33-year-old German coming back to the team after five years away.

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In his first spell, he won Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo and 10 stages of the Vuelta a España. 

Asked if the narrative around the team had made it hard to bring riders in, Winston responded: “You only need to look at Degenkolb. He left the team but he wanted to come back.

“He knows our way of working. We have constructive conversations with each other, we challenge each other, and ask questions of each other. We might say something’s not possible so we have to go in this direction. We’ll look at it, say let’s change something, make it different and we adapt.

“For a lot of riders it really works. [Romain] Bardet and Degenkolb are two of the best riders in the world an they stand behind our way of working. 

“We’re in a place now with riders who are all on the same page, all moving forward in the same direction and that’s key.”

Leo Hayter has left Team DSM Development Team and will join Hagens Berman Axeon.

The 21-year old British U23 time trial champion had one more year on his contract with DSM's development squad, but has left to join the American continental team run by Axel Merckx instead.

It is understood that Hayter was looking to move to the WorldTour ahead of DSM's own projection, likely in 2023. Once it was clear he was committed to moving up, something DSM did not consider aligned with their plans to keep him at a development level, he was allowed to look elsewhere for a contract by the German team.

In a statement on Monday evening, DSM said: "We were not going to offer Leo a WT contract before 2023, so we gave Leo the freedom to search elsewhere for that. 

"As a result we asked him to give up his place on the Development program for 2022 so that a spot could become available for us to recruit a new young talent."

According to reports in Cyclingnews, Hagens Berman Axeon had a free spot after American rider Samuel Janisch decided not to carry on with his racing career at the end of 2021.

The American squad said on Monday: "Leo Hayter was not in the position to already secure a professional contract with Team DSM. Team DSM wanted to make that spot available for another young talent, so Leo was therefore free to search for a new team for 2022. We are happy to add him to our roster for the new season."

Merckx, who runs the outfit, told Cyclingnews: "We had one of our guys decide that he wanted to go back to school. He didn’t want to pursue cycling and I totally respect that. At the same time, I got a message that Leo might be available.

"I said that if he did become free then I would hire him right away because it’s a perfect situation for me and the team. Until then it was up to his agent and DSM to finalise if he was free of contract. It’s a great trade, and we’re really excited to have him on the team."

At the end of last year, Hayter told Cycling Weekly that he did not think he was "ready" to be a WorldTour rider yet.

"In terms of power and numbers, for sure I could be joining this year, but it's everything else that comes with it.

"I'm not the most confident in the bunch, neither am I that confident going downhill. I want to improve them first.

"The form I had at the end of this season was great, but I missed my first year of U23 because of Covid and then I missed three months last season with problems. I've not had a full U23 season racing and I want to go to the Tour de l'Avenir and Baby Giro, get them ticked off."

Hayter won the U23 version of Liège-Bastogne-Liège last year, and finished 12th overall in Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste, as well as winning a stage there. His brother, Ethan, rides for Ineos Grenadiers, and the pair won both men's individual time trial events at the British Road Championships in October.

It is "difficult" to read criticisms of Team DSM, Cees Bol has said, adding that the atmosphere is "great" within the team.

In an interview with Dutch website Wielerflits, the sprinter said negative reports of DSM are "sometimes difficult to read, especially because I really enjoy being in this team".

Earlier this month, Sporza  published a piece on the team, which included unnamed riders saying the way the team was run was like a "Soviet regime" with another adding they were "treated like little children".

In response Bol said: "Of course it is sometimes difficult when the performances are disappointing and things are not going so well in the team. I consider it one of the highlights of the year that we got back on top of that during the season."

The German squad only managed eight wins in 2021, which left them bottom of the UCI's WorldTour rankings, while Bol won one race, a stage of Paris-Nice.

Tiesj Benoot was the latest rider to leave DSM under a cloud, breaking his contract early. He joined Marcel Kittel, Michael Matthews, Tom Dumoulin, Marc Hirschi and Warren Barguil in leaving the team before the end of their contracts. 

Bol, however, insisted that he was in the "right place". "I'm in the right place and that I have the right people around me to get better again. I have that feeling this winter too. Everyone is really into it. 

"The atmosphere is great in the team. I really have the feeling that we can make it a good season in 2022."

Despite being taken to the Tour de France as a designated sprinter, Bol struggled on the biggest stage, with his best result being two sixth place finishes. 

He explained: "I was quite ill prior to the Tour. I wasn't been able to train for ten days because of a high fever, which had a big effect on my physical shape anyway. You start off with a little less confidence if you are not one hundred percent."

"What makes it extra difficult is that almost everyone is in top form at the start, he continued. "As a team we are so ambitious that it was difficult to accept that on some days things went quite well and that a sixth place was the highest achievable. With the history that preceded it, that might not have been too bad. But instead of seeing it as a positive, it actually only got harder because we saw it as a setback."

This set in a negative mindset with the team, Bol said: "It was quite difficult and disappointing that we wanted more, but we couldn't. I had been trying harder and harder for quite some time, without going back to basics first. Eating, training, sleeping and trying to race as a team. I think we were too focused on details."

However, things improved later in the season, with DSM winning three stages at the Vuelta a España through Michael Storer and Romain Bardet.

Bol said: "At a certain point, after the Tour, the realisation came and we started building from the bottom up. Perhaps the Vuelta team had already done that a little earlier. That was great to see. I sat at home on the couch and watched it. From August everything went well for the whole team and we were attentive again in the finals."

The Dutch sprinter's schedule is yet to be decided for next year, but Bol said that he will be heading to at least one grand tour to aim for a stage win.

"One day it's the Tour, the next it's the Giro [d'Italia]", he said. "The Tour is the biggest stage in this sport, but that's also the only Grand Tour I have experience in, in that respect it's also cool to do the Giro. And the Vuelta starts in the Netherlands, so that's also super nice. A kind of home game. Actually, all three have something. Also in terms of course, not one of them stands out."

Romain Bardet has said "I haven’t shared the doubts of the riders who left, so it’s not easy for me to understand" after various riders have broken contracts with Team DSM.

A recent piece by Sporza  was posted hours before the team's 2022 presentation, it included unnamed riders saying the way the team was run was like a "Soviet regime" with another adding they were "treated like little children".

Bardet, however, has flourished at DSM making his Giro d'Italia debut where he finished seventh overall as well as taking a stage at the Vuelta a España and the Vuelta a Burgos. 

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In an interview with CyclingNews, Bardet said that riders breaking contract and leaving has not impacted on morale in the team, thanks to its transparency. 

"It’s always very honest: you know that you have to give the best of yourself, because it’s the least you can do in such a high-level environment. And the team has always thought in terms of what’s best for the whole group.

"Of course, sometimes riders have different ambitions, but no departure has affected the morale of the riders here, because we have confidence in the work of the staff and the experts around the team on a daily basis. 

"It’s not a disruption. It’s honest and courageous on the part of the team to allow someone to follow his own path and leave rather than have a conflict. From my point of view, it hasn’t affected us. I haven’t shared the doubts of the riders who left, so it’s not easy for me to understand."

Over the last few years multiple high-profile riders have broken their contract with the team, with Marcel Kittel, Michael Matthews, Tom Dumoulin, Marc Hirschi, Warren Barguil and most recently Tiesj Benoot all leaving early. 

Former rider Ilan Van Wilder took legal action against the team as he wanted to leave. He has now joined Deceuninck - Quick-Step after breaking his three-year contract with DSM.

Two anonymous riders told Sporza: "Woe to you if you had trained a little bit differently for a day. You immediately got on the phone with an angry staff member and you had to justify yourself.”

"They had a protocol for everything. It was really extreme. And every year new rules were added. Rules that get on riders' nerves.

"We felt that we had to listen to Mr. and Mrs. the teacher all the time. We were treated like little children. If you didn't do something right, you had to stand in the corner, as it were.

"Some riders may need that approach. But especially the older riders do not need many superfluous rules that were then unnecessarily complex."

The team is seeing 10 riders leave at the end of this season with just two retiring in Nicolas Roche and potentially 24-year-old Martin Salmon.

The others leaving are the formally mentioned Benoot and Van Wilder as well as Jai Hindley to Bora-Hansgrohe, Michael Storer to Groupama-FDJ, Jasha Sütterlin to Bahrain Victorious, Max Kanter to Movistar, Felix Gall to Ag2r-Citroën and Chad Haga to Rally Cycling.

John Degenkolb, Jonas Hvideberg, Sam Welsford and Frederick Rodenberg Madsen and a couple of DSM development riders are down to join the team for 2022.

Tiesj Benoot has been announced as joining Team Jumbo-Visma on a two-year deal after breaking contract with Team DSM.

Jumbo-Visma broke the news of the signing of Benoot just hours after DSM announced that the Belgian would be finishing his time with the team a year earlier than his contracts original end date.

The 27-year-old from Ghent will be joining the many stars of the Dutch registered team with Wout van Aert, Primož Roglič, Tom Dumoulin, Jonas Vingegaard and the rest, Benoot is a talented rider on all terrain with a win at Strade Bianche in 2018 as well as second overall at Paris-Nice in 2020.

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Benoot said: "I don’t think I’ve reached the top of my abilities yet. At Team Jumbo-Visma I think I can make that step forward. I have looked up to this team for the past few years. I know some guys from the team, so I can get an idea of how things work. There is a professional way of working that appeals to me."

It's an excellent signing by Jumbo-Visma with Benoot more than able to be a support rider on all terrain for the sprinters, Classics riders or GC contenders, or even be a leader himself.

"The confidence I gained after the first conversations gave me an extra push," he continued. 

"I am convinced that I can become the best version of myself as a cyclist on this team. In the big races I want to be able to play a decisive role in the final, both for a leader and for myself if that opportunity presents itself."

In a statement by Team DSM they said that during the 2021 season it was clear that Benoot was not able to deliver on his commitments which in turn damaged his performance, therefore the team decided to cooperate with the termination to keep a positive feel in the team.

In the statement Benoot was quoted saying: "I have good memories here at Team DSM, with some great opportunities and I have learned a lot. It’s fun to be part of this team, but it’s also demanding. 

"That is not a negative towards the team; the many staff and specialists, as well as team mates are all really passionate, that’s why riders can get a lot out of themselves. I just wasn’t fully able to go for it together. I wish the team, my colleagues and team mates all the best."

Benoot is not the first to leave DSM early with the most recent being Ilan Van Wilder who joined Deceuninck - Quick-Step after forcing his way out of the team through legal action. 

Marcel Kittel, Warren Barguil, Tom Dumoulin, Marc Hirschi and Michael Matthews also did the same. With two other star riders leaving due to an end of contract with Jai Hindley and Michael Storer along with four others leaving the team at the start of 2022.

Being the brother of one of cycling's emerging superstars will always prompt questions about similarities and differences. It's unfair, really, for what one brother does doesn't necessarily affect what the other does.

But Leo Hayter's fine with it. Partly because he's no doubt accepted the line of questioning will perpetuate in the coming years, but mainly because he isn't a replica of Ethan's skillset. 

Ineos Grenadiers' Ethan is national time trial champion, and Leo is the U23 champion in the discipline, while both have a background in track racing, but that's where the comparability starts to end.

"I think it's quite obvious already that we're different riders," the 20-year-old, whose  autumn sequence of victories included winning the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, tells Cycling Weekly. "I would never be winning a bunch sprint at the Tour of Britain, but he wouldn't win the U23 Liège. In general I think we're quite different.

"Of course there are similarities physiologically, and we have a similar height, but he's a lot heavier and muscular than I am and he gets that from the track because he still does it and I haven't since 2019. He also has a better kick.

"But I can climb longer than he can and climb better overall. We'll find out more this year if we race against each other more often."

The probability is they will add to their racing battles that at the moment has been limited to just the Tour of Norway, that Ethan won, the Coppi e Bartali, and the National Championships. Leo quips: "Ethan outdid me in Norway - I've got to play catch up."

But they won't really start to duel against one another on a regular basis until 2023 when Leo hopes and expects to be on a WorldTour team. 

He has bucked the modern trend of becoming a pro earlier than what was once normal and chosen to stay with Development Team DSM for a third season, saying that "the main reason was I don't think I am ready to be a WorldTour rider yet.

"In terms of power and numbers, for sure I could be joining this year, but it's everything else that comes with it.

"I'm not the most confident in the bunch, neither am I that confident going downhill. I want to improve them first.

"The form I had at the end of this season was great, but I missed my first year of U23 because of Covid and then I missed three months last season with problems. I've not had a full U23 season racing and I want to go to the Tour de l'Avenir and Baby Giro, get them ticked off."

Hayter won't be content with just being present there; he's going to win and is focusing much more on his time trialling this winter to give him an upper hand on his competitors.

>>> Ethan Hayter could win a Grand Tour, says British Cycling junior coach who guided upcoming golden generation

"At Liège, the winner of l'Avenir [Tobias Halland Johannessen] was there," he remembers. "I know I can climb pretty well, and from my numbers I can be up there with the best. It's a matter of doing it on the day.

"The main thing I took from Liège was confidence. I always knew I had the power to be one of the best U23 riders - I see it in training, every time I do a maximal effort - and that was the proof I needed. The proof of the pudding, if you like.

"I needed that win to solidify where I thought I should be and where I was at that moment.

"Unless everything goes wrong, the plan is to go pro in 2023. It's nice knowing though that I still have one more year as a cushion at U23 if I need another year. I don't think I will though."

For all the innumerable inconveniences that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to sporting calendars in 2020, it’s worth sparing a thought for Megan Jastrab.

The year before, aged just 17, she rode to three world titles, winning the junior road race in Yorkshire, just a month after earning rainbow stripes on the track in the junior Madison and omnium events.

She was the new poster girl of American cycling. But she never once got to show off her coveted five colourful bands.

“I didn’t get to race in any of the three rainbow jerseys, not even once,” she tells Cycling Weekly. “Not on the track, not on the road, nothing. I only raced once in 2020 because of Covid.

“I know it’s special to race in the rainbow jersey - well, they say it’s special! - so it was quite a hard pill to swallow. It still hurts, to be honest.”

Jastrab’s disappointment was tempered slightly, however, by the fact that USA Cycling allowed her to train in her track rainbow jersey with the elite category. “That was fortunate,” she remarks. “It felt weird being with elite champions, but they said I was going to wear them no matter the category.”

She was training on the track in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics that got shunted back a year to the 2021 summer. As the Games got closer, her outstanding ability promoted her to the senior women’s team pursuit squad who, spearheaded by Chloé Dygert, were among the favourites to win gold. 

Jastrab had trained with Dygert and co. but thought she was going into the Olympics as fifth reserve. Until she became a leading figure.

“I had done team pursuit stuff at junior level and we weren't going as fast,” she recollects. “I wasn’t expected to be in the Olympics TP until a few months to go. I had done one simulation with the girls before but my very first senior TP race was in Tokyo.”

It went well, too. The Americans posted a time of 4-10.118 in qualifying that, had Germany not went three seconds quicker just moments earlier, would have been a new world record. 

In the next round, they went ever quicker, posting 4-07.562, but losing against British opposition.

“A 4-07 was insane compared to what the world record [4-10.236 - ed] was before the Games,” Jastrab, who turns 20 in January, says. “It was pretty crazy because as soon as we had finished the qualifying, the coaches asked me to do the same thing again.

“I questioned, ‘but, why? I’m not riding? Another team’s riding.’ And then they said they wanted me in the finals. I was like, ‘hold up, I’ve only just done my first elite TP and I’m happy with that.  But if you’re happy and want me to go again, sure!’ It was crazy.”

Jastrab, and her three colleagues rode to a bronze medal that she admits, collectively, was “seen as a failure because there were such high expectations.” 

The wonder girl from Los Angeles, however, had made her mark again.  Already in her young career she’s made a habit of surprising.

Take her world titles as a junior. “My parents wanted to come to Frankfurt to watch me in the Junior Track Worlds and I told them not to bother because I didn’t really have a shot of winning,” she recounts. 

“I thought I might get a podium at best, that would have been great. So to win not one but two golds was, like, woah. That was exciting and weird.”

It wasn’t the first time Jastrab had said no to her parents. “My mum’s a really good cook, but as a child I didn’t eat a lot,” she laughs.

“I was so fussy with my food until about three years ago. It’d be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or nothing.

“My parents tried, forced me to expand my food pallet, but I hated the tasted of absolutely everything.”

Now the teenager has an apology to make. “I love Instagram and literally my whole feed is of food and I’m forever screenshooting recipes.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, mum, I’ve missed out on all of your good cooking, I’m so sorry’. I ask her to send me the recipes for all these foods, and I’m saying, ‘yeah, I know I didn’t like that before, but now I do.’”

A keen maker of “extravagant salads”, Jastrab raced 13 days last season with Team DSM, a move partially brought about because of her win on the road at the 2019 Worlds.

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She was the favourite for victory in Harrogate on a course that played to her strengths. “I like challenging courses,” she explains. “Anything like a Classic route.

“When a race comes down to who has got through the hard parts, that’s what I like. Not a super-long climb, but anything under five minutes.

“There’s more stage races coming up in women’s cycling, so being a well-rounded cyclist is really important. I need to be able to go well up the hills, TT well, and I like sprinting. If the weather’s bad, that’s fine.

“In the last 18 months I’ve mainly just been doing track training, so I need to work more on the road now. I’m confident in the DSM performance team.”

Her priorities right now, though, are building  towards the Paris 2024 Olympics, where she plans to have finished her double major in exercise science and business that she is studying at Milligan University in Tennessee.

Fellow students in the university grounds might not appreciate it, but they will be walking past the pin-up of female American cycling.

“It’s actually a privilege to have that tag,” she says, “because it’s not a popular sport in this country. If I have the responsibility of being the poster child of the future of women’s cycling in the US, I’m going to keep putting in as much as possible so that younger girls understand the sport and have fun doing it.

"I want to promote cycling as something successful for everyone and a way to stay healthy. It’s a privilege to be that representative.”

Her journey has only really just begun.

A Team DSM rider has launched legal action against the team in the hopes of bringing his contract to an end. 

Ilan Van Wilder, a 21-year-old Belgian pro, and his agent have chosen to issue a legal challenge in order to bring the rider’s contract to an early end. 

A hugely promising talent in the junior ranks, Van Wilder stepped up to WorldTour level with Team DSM, formerly Team Sunweb, last season on a three year contract.  

Following rumours that he wanted to leave the team before the end of his contract in 2022, Van Wilder has now launched a legal action in the hopes of breaking free from the German-registered team. 

A statement from Team DSM confirmed the news: “We are aware that one of our riders, Ilan Van Wilder and his agent have chosen to take legal action to break Ilan's employment contract with Team DSM . In this way they hope to make a switch to another team possible before the end date of the existing agreement. We are obviously very disappointed with this procedure.

“Instead of taking the right approach, actually asking for a transfer, a negative media campaign has been chosen, discrediting the team and those who work with Ilan on a daily basis, in order to force a premature termination of the agreement .”

“Let it be clear that the people in the squad have absolutely fulfilled their responsibilities and obligations to work with Ilan. During the legal proceedings, Team DSM will not comment further on this matter.”

Team DSM has been at the centre of major upheaval in recent years, starting with the departure of Tom Dumoulin and a slew of key backroom staff at the end of 2019.

Since then, there have been a number of high-profile departures from the squad, most notably rising star Marc Hirschi who broke with his contract to join UAE Team Emirates. 

The team has previously disputed reports of unrest in the team, saying that “the rumours you're talking about are mostly about internal stuff, things that don't have to come out.” 

Most recently, a report from cycling news site Wielerflits suggested that Classics talent Tiesj Bennoot was looking to break his contract early, after signing a contract extension last summer.  

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Benoot, a former Strade Bianche winner, joined DSM in 2020 from Lotto-Soudal, winning one stage of Paris-Nice with the team. 

DSM declined to comment on the rumours of Benoot’s departure. 

Nicholas Roche has announced his retirement from professional cycling at the age of 37 after a 17-year career with some of the best teams in the peloton. 

Roche competed in his final event at the Irish National Championships road race in Wicklow on Sunday, October 3, his 1270th pro race. 

The Irishman chose his home race as it finished in his "favourite place in the world," surrounded by friends, family and Irish fans.

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In a tweet, Roche said: "Today I announce my retirement from professional cycling.

"This is both the hardest and easiest decision I have ever had to make. I have been so lucky to have spent time with some of the best cyclists in the world, past and present.

"We often discussed when it the right time to start a new chapter. I always thought I would keep racing for as long as possible, however these riders often said that one morning you will wake up and just know it is time to retire."

Roche rode alongside the likes of Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Peter Sagan, among many other great names in his career, supporting them but also taking major results himself.

"I never believed them until that day arrived in August for me," he continued. "For the first time in my life I woke up one morning before a race knowing it was time to do something else."

Roche has taken 12 wins throughout his career with the last being the National Championships double in 2016, an achievement just managed by Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) this year.

His two stages of the Vuelta a España in both 2013 and 2015 were his biggest wins, giving him time in the leader's jersey as well as two top-10s overall at the Spanish Grand Tour. He also managed top-15s in the Tour de France as well as other big results.

Roche said that the last race of his career was emotional as he rode through his home country with friends, family and the fans, which he said made racing in Ireland "so special."

"There were a lot of emotions running through my head the last few kilometres, a tear was shed, but luckily I have no regrets.

"It feels very fitting that the last race will be here for it was in the Wicklow mountains as a 12-year-old that I started dreaming of one day being a professional cyclists. Little did I know that my dreams would come true."

Roche added that since that day in August he wakes up every day excited for new opportunities. He will be joining Trinity Sports Management in a consultancy role. This has been Roche's management team for over a decade.

He will be learning from long-time friend and agent Andrew McQuaid as well as being able to put more focus into his Roca sports shop by opening a new branch in Galway.

Finally, Roche finished with: "There are other plans in the making, and I look forward to sharing more details soon.

"I thank you all for the incredible support I received during my cycling career."

Roche's cousin Dan Martin has also announced his retirement from the peloton at the end of the 2021 season.

Martin, winner of Tour de France stages an Monuments, calls time on his career after 14 seasons. 

Michael Storer said he “knew exactly what he needed to do to win” on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España 2021, as he took his second victory in this year’s race.

The Australian, racing in Team DSM colours, took another stunning breakaway victory in Rincón de la Victoria, attacking on the only major climb and holding on to a slim advantage to win the day. 

Storer, 24, has flourished in this year’s race, after he won from another breakaway on stage seven to Balcón de Alicante in very similar fashion.

Speaking after the stage Storer, who has won four pro races in his career, said: “It’s truly even more unbelievable than the last time. It was a massive fight for the breakaway, one of those epic days. I think we did 80km before it went. I was happy to be in there.

“I was feeling good on the last climb and I knew exactly what I needed to do to win - I needed to attack.” 

Storer has come of age this season, having already raced four seasons at WorldTour level with Team DSM (previously Sunweb).

All four of his professional victories have come in the last month, as he won stage three of the Tour de l’Ain and secured the overall in the process, following that up with two Vuelta stages. 

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On the moment he attacked, Storer said: “I just felt the moment, I went and hoped for the best.

“I didn’t have exact time gaps but I knew it was tight. I knew Ii had to go fast on that descent even though it was dry and slippery roads in this region. I was happy with my descent. It was just enough to hold on. 

“I dreamed of one stage at this Vuelta. Now I have two after 10 days. It’s truly unbelievable.”  

Leo Hayter has said that he "felt like he was racing rather than being part of a race" at the Tour of Norway, in a recent social media post about how he has re-found his love of the sport.

Younger brother of Ineos Grenadiers talent Ethan, Leo Hayter rides for the Team DSM development squad as he learns the ropes of racing in the professional peloton. 

The 20-year-old, who recently joined the new cycling agency run by Anthony Joshua, has admitted he struggled in recent years to really enjoy racing, but in a social media post Hayter said he'd found the joy of racing his bike again during the Tour of Norway. 

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In the post to his social media channels he said: "It finally clicked today in the Tour of Norway. I've had a really tough few years and I think it's clear I've struggled to adapt to racing at this level."

Hayter added that he needed to take a month off back in May, as he went from cycling being his life to "suddenly not wanting to have anything to do with it".

"I'd like to thank my team, and more specifically my coach Roy for pushing me through the darkest times when I felt helpless," he continued.

"It was a process that was far from smooth, but I finally feel happy to be riding and racing my bike"

Hayter was a key rider at the Tour of Norway for his team as he took long pulls on the front of the peloton, and also went on the attack on stage three with the likes of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal).

This is where it finally clicked for Leo Hayter, he said, as he competed alongside his brother, 22-year-old Ethan, who won the first two stages and the overall. 

Leo said that the penultimate stage of the race, in which he finished in the front group behind winner Pedersen, really reminded him why he had chosen this career, saying that it was "the first time since 2019 that he really felt like he was racing rather than being part of a race."

Romain Bardet fell out of overall contention in the Vuelta a España 2021 after being caught out in a large crash in the final 10km of the fifth stage.

The French Team DSM rider was sitting in a good position in the general classification, at just under a minute to the now former leader Rein Taaramäe (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), who also lost time in the fall.

Bardet finished 180th on the stage alongside Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mikel Nieve (BikeExchange), who also both came down hard. They all lost 12-32 to the peloton that was led in by Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix).

A statement from Team DSM said: "After the final rider was brought back into the peloton with 15k kilometres to race the pace continued to rise and the peloton remained nervous. 

"A touch of wheels near the front of the peloton saw a large number of riders hit the deck with just over 10 kilometres left, including Bardet who received checks on the road before continuing to finish some time down on his team-mate [Alberto] Dainese at the front of the race." 

Bardet is now in 93rd place overall, 13-32 down on the frontrunners. 

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Team sports director, Matt Winston spoke briefly to Eurosport after the stage: "We never want to crash. It was a shame but we're happy we have Dyneema in our kit because, once again, it saved the majority of the injuries and he was able to come through.

"He's got a little bit of pain but definitely the Dyneema once again saved us - We don't know the extent of the injury [to his knee] yet."

Dyneema is a protective jersey and shorts used by the team that is designed to not break on impact with the road and to protect riders when involved in crashes, particularly protecting the arms, side and legs.. 

This is a disappointing crash for Bardet and the team who looked to be in a good position with Bardet, after an unusually good time trial in the opening stage followed by a solid enough ride on the first climbing day on stage three.

The French climber also came in with form after winning a stage and holding the leader's jersey for a couple of days at the recent Vuelta a Burgos, a week before this race.

The extent of Bardet's injuries are not yet known, but if he is still fit to ride the team now has a great option to go for stage wins in the huge amount of massive mountain stages that are yet to come in this Grand Tour. 

The rumours and speculation of unrest inside Team DSM have been a running storyline in the last few seasons. 

Following the departure of Tom Dumoulin and key staff from then-Sunweb, the team have faced broken contracts, riders breaking lockdown rules, and a dispute over saddle height.  

At the start of the 2021 season, the media and fans were shocked to hear that star Swiss rider, Marc Hirschi, was angling for a move that would break his contract with the team. This was after he appeared in the team's new kit photo shoots for the new season, alongside new signing Romain Bardet.

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Eventually, Hirschi did move on to join UAE Team Emirates but has failed to hit the heights of the 2020 season due to illness and injury. He is also unable to discuss the reasons for leaving DSM.

But he was not the first and hasn't been the last to leave the team in a sore manner. Tom Dumoulin and Marcel Kittel both left under a cloud. Dumoulin also took a large part of the team with him to Jumbo-Visma meaning new staff were needed.

In more recent times, stories of Michael Storer being kicked off the training camp in the summer of 2020 for buying shampoo from a shop came out as well as Søren Kragh Andersen being refused when he asked for his saddle height to be changed.

Team sports directors Matt Winston and Rudi Kemna spoke in an interview with Wielerflits.

Kemna spoke about the rumours of riders wanting to leave the team: "We are very eager to share our goals and the way we work towards them with the outside world. On the other hand, we also find integrity important. The rumours you're talking about are mostly about internal stuff. Things that don't have to come out. 

"And of course, we will not immediately respond to that in the media. One of our keywords is cooperation. Respect is an important pillar in this. We, therefore, expect our employees and riders not to share certain 'issues' with the media."

Ilan van Wilder, Kragh Andersen, Jai Hindley, Andreas Leknessund and more have been rumoured to either want to leave or for there to be a change. Hindley, who finished second in the Giro in 2020, has already signed for Bora-Hansgrohe with Storer leaving for Groupama-FDJ in the 2022 season.

Van Wilder is one rider that had a lot of "friction" around him as the young Belgian climber was rumoured he wanted to leave but DSM "do not intend to let Van Wilder leave." as he is contracted until 2022.

Kemna was keen to point out that the press never asked him or anyone else at the team for answers during the Tour de France even though he would've been happy to be quoted.

"I've seen a lot of negative messages about our team, but nobody ever came to ask me anything in the Tour. Of course, the media has an observational role and you have to bring news. That seems fair to me, but we are involved. You can check with us to see if it is correct."

The team look to be very focused on their main goals with a huge amount of focus on the Grand Tours and Monuments, like British Cycling do for the Olympics. this isn't an accident.

Winston spoke about the upcoming Vuelta a España: "We create a top sports environment. Soon I will leave for the Vuelta. We are on-site three days in advance and discuss everything in detail. After that, we can start with a clear mind and only talk about the course. I'm from British Cycling, where we used to work like that, albeit with the Olympics as the main goal. At Team DSM, too, we want to achieve our goals in perfect conditions."

It isn't all mass exodus at DSM though, former rider John Degenkolb will be returning to the team after a few seasons away with Trek-Segafredo and Lotto-Soudal in the 2022 season.

A point of pride for cyclists is boasting how many bikes they have hanging in their garage.

For Joris Nieuwenhuis, finisher of the last two Tours de France, his bike collection plays a very distant second in importance to his other love in life: the guitar.

The Team DSM rider may sit among the WorldTour peloton's lesser-known members, but you'd be hard pressed to find one of his riding colleagues who also counts eight or more guitars in their possession.

Music is Nieuwenhuis' hobby away from his job. "I learned when I stopped school and started becoming a pro cyclist, around five years ago," the Dutchman, 25, told Cycling Weekly at the Tour de France.

"I was like, 'Ok, Joris, what are you going to do with all the free time you have?' I really like guitar music, so bought myself a guitar and it just started from there. I have eight of them now."

When he gets back from training, once he's eaten a recovery meal, often the first thing he'll do is settle down and start making music.

"Sometimes I play for five hours a day," he said. "Sometimes less, but I just play until I want to. I just like it.

"When I start, I don't notice the time passing and I don't want to stop.

"It's the freedom I can get from it that I like the most. You can do whatever you want to do with a guitar: there are no limits, no boundaries.

"And there's never that feeling that you are too good. You always feel like you can be playing better, you can improve."

Nieuwenhuis' favourite type of genre is blues music, and he lists Rory Gallagher, Tom Morello and Peter Green as his favourite artists, although hurriedly added that "I can go on and name more, if you like."

Imitating his musical icons, however, isn't his usual style. "Actually, I just mostly play my own weird stuff," he modestly said of his typical performances.

"I never really learn songs: I just have the notes in front of me, read the riffs a little bit, play on a loop, record it, that kind of stuff."

Nieuwenhuis, whose best professional result was finishing third at last autumn's Paris-Tours, took his guitar to 2020's Tour de France, his maiden Grand Tour.

"I took it last year but realised I didn't have time to play it," he said. "But when I went home, it was the first thing I did."

Julian Alaphilippe plays the drums and when put to Nieuwenhuis then the duo should hook-up and form a band, the Dutchman was keen on the idea.

"I heard he played the drums," he said. "Pretty cool. So we just need a singer now. Maybe Emily [Brammeier, DSM's press officer] could sing for us.

"I know Sam Oomen plays the guitar so he can join as well. I have a bass but can't play two. Actually, you know Daniel Oss? He's a bass player."

So next year, in Paris, when the men's Tour ends and the women's race begins, the quintet can make their band debut? "Afterwards in Paris, yeah, we'll all play," he smiled.