A 2023 thread to discuss all things cycling related such as upcoming tours, world championships, debates and news anything to with the world of cycling.

Tour de France great and three-time world champion Peter Sagan will retire from cycling's World Tour at the end of this season.

 

The 33-year-old Slovakian will continue to compete, and is aiming for mountain bike gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

 

Sagan won seven green points jerseys at the Tour de France between 2012 and 2019, and three rainbow jerseys for winning the Road World Championships.

Josie Knight and Will Perrett won silver and bronze medals for Great Britain on day four of the UEC European Track Championships in Grenchen.

 

Knight, 25, won silver in the women's individual pursuit after being beaten by Germany's Franziska Brausse by more than three seconds in the final.

 

In the men's omnium, Perrett won bronze having finished third in the concluding points race.

 

The 26-year-old had sat in fifth overall prior to the final race.

 

Perrett finished the points race with 136 points, while France's two-time omnium world champion Benjamin Thomas took the gold medal with 162.

Congrats to them! Never easy to get a medal in cycling (especially given that most of the best track cyclists are European anyway!)

Congratulations to Pfeiffer Georgi. The 22 year old Brit won her first World Tour race in Flanders today

 

She went solo in the last 7K from a small group which included Wiebes and Balsamo, two of the top sprinters ....... and had a team-mate to disrupt the chase

Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar won the Tour of Flanders to become the first male cyclist since 1975 to claim victory in both the prestigious one-day race and the Tour de France.

 

Pogacar is the third Tour winner to triumph in Flanders after France's Louison Bobet (1955) and Belgian great Eddy Merckx (1975).

 

"It was amazing. It's a day I'll never forget," said 24-year-old Pogacar.

 

It is his third victory in one of the five Monument one-day races.

 

Pogacar has previously won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro di Lombardia.

Missed this year's Paris-Nice race but just seen that it was won (fairly unsurprisingly) by Tadej Pogacar. Seems like he's on good form for a go at re-taking the Tour!

Tadej Pogacar added to his glittering record by claiming his first Amstel Gold Race title with a superb solo win.

 

The Slovenian powerfully kicked away from his rivals with 30km of the race remaining, staying clear to the finish in Valkenburg in the Netherlands.

 

Ireland's Ben Healy finished second, 38 seconds down, with Britain's Tom Pidcock holding off the chasers to claim third.

 

Dutch rider Demi Vollering won the women's race for the first time.

Another win for Tadej then! He seems unstoppable - but then again, we all thought that last year...

British rider Tao Geoghegan Hart made it two wins from two at the Tour of the Alps with victory on the second stage.

 

Racing for Ineos Grenadiers, the 28-year-old pulled clear with Jack Haig in the closing stages before pipping the Australian to the line in Italy.

 

It increases his overall race lead to 18 seconds over Austrian Felix Gall while Briton Hugh Carthy is third, another four seconds back.

 

Geoghegan Hart won Monday's first stage on a steep final climb in Austria.

 

Wales' Geraint Thomas, 36, the 2018 Tour de France winner, is 15th in the overall standings

Lizzie Deignan says she aims to win the biggest races on her return after her second child, but is "surprised" the Women's Tour was cancelled.

 

Deignan will contest Wednesday's La Fleche Wallonne race in Belgium after a year out of the Women's World Tour.

 

"I have the same objectives, but I'm surprised they can't sustain more races in the UK," she said.

 

The Women's Tour, cancelled in March, was one of few races to give equal prize money to the men's event.

 

Deignan, 34, added: "My role is to be the best athlete, but I'm disappointed and can also say I don't quite understand how it has happened. From my perspective, when I'm out in the UK training on British roads, participation levels are higher than I've ever seen before

Didn't know the Women's Tour had been cancelled - a shame given that it looked like women's racing was on the up with the Tour de France Femmes! But then again, maybe that's the very thing that has caused sponsors to lose interest in the Women's Tour.

Britain's Ethan Vernon won stage one of the Tour de Romandie after Mark Cavendish and Simon Yates both abandoned the race because of illness.

 

Soudal Quick-Step rider Vernon, 22, sprinted to victory from a reduced peloton in Vallee de Joux, Switzerland, to also claim the race lead.

 

Jayco-Alula rider Yates, who was a contender for the overall title, withdrew because of stomach issues.

 

Astana sprinter Cavendish pulled out with 60km to go after feeling unwell.

Adam Yates became the third British rider in four days to claim a stage victory at the Tour de Romandie as he also assumed the overall lead.

 

The 30-year-old won Saturday's stage four in the Swiss Alps by seven seconds from France's Thibaut Pinot to take the yellow jersey from Spain's Juan Ayuso.

 

Yates has a 19-second lead on American Matteo Jorgenson ahead of Sunday's fifth and final stage in Switzerland.

Stage Four Result

 

1. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) 4hrs 40mins 41secs

2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama - FDJ) +7secs

3. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +19secs

4. Max Poole (GB/Team DSM) +21secs

5. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Movistar Team) +21secs

 

General classification after stage four

 

1. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) 13hrs 14mins 41secs

2. Matteo Jorgenson (US/Movistar Team) +19secs

3. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +27secs

4. Max Poole (GB/Team DSM) +38secs

5. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/Groupama - FDJ) +41secs

Marianne Vos won stage three of La Vuelta Femenina to strengthen her hold on the red jersey.

 

Vos, 35, beat compatriot and stage two winner Charlotte Kool in a sprint finish to widen her lead to 13 seconds.

 

American Chloe Dygert remains second overall after finishing third on the 158km stage between Elche de la Sierra and La Roda in Spain.

 

Great Britain's Anna Henderson, a Team Jumbo-Visma team-mate of Vos, remains fourth with four stages left to race.

Australia's Kaden Groves won a chaotic raid-sodden stage five of the Giro d'Italia featuring numerous crashes, including one caused by a dog.

 

Britain's Mark Cavendish finished fourth after skidding across the line on his backside following a collision metres from the finish.

 

World champion Remco Evenepoel crashed twice, the first after a dog wandered on to the road in front of him.

 

"Knee is a little sore but don't think anything is broken," said Cavendish.

 

Soudal Quick-Step doctor Toon Cruyt said Evenepoel avoided serious injury and should be fine for Thursday's 162km sixth stage through Naples.

Stage Five

 

1. Kaden Groves (Aus/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4hrs 30mins 19secs

2. Jonathan Milan (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) Same time

3. Mads Petersen (Den/Trek-Segafredo)

4. Mark Cavendish (Gbr/Astana)

5. Nicolas Dalla Valle (Ita/Team corratec-Selle Italia)

6. Mirco Maestri (Ita/Eolo-Kometa)

7. Filippo Fiorelli (Ita/Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane)

8. Andrea Vendrame (Ita/AG2R Citroen)

9. Michael Matthews (Aus/Jayco-Alula)

10. Niccolo Bonifacio (Ita/Intermarche-Circus-Wanty)

 

General classification

 

1. Andreas Leknessund (Nor/Team DSM) 19hrs 6mins 3secs

2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Soudal-Quick Step) +28secs

3. Aurelien Paret-Peintre (Fra/AG2R-Citroen) +30secs

4. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1mins

5. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) +1min 12secs

6. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 26secs

7. Aleksandr Vlasov (Neutral/Bora-Hansgrohe) same time

8. Toms Skujins (Lat-Trek-Segafredo) +1min 29secs

9. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 30secs

10. Vincenzo Albanese (Ita/Eolo-Kometa +1 min 39secs

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Denmark's Mads Pedersen won the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia after the peloton caught a two-man breakaway with the finishing line in sight.

 

Pedersen claimed victory following a sprint after Australia's Simon Clarke and Italian Alessandro de Marchi were passed with about 250m to go.

 

Italy's Jonathan Milan was second, with Pascal Ackermann of Germany in third on the 162km stage through Naples.

 

Norway's Andreas Leknessund retained the overall lead of the race.

 

Pedersen, 27, has now won stages at the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana and Giro d'Italia.