Mathieu van der Poel is back for Milano-Sanremo and Coppi e Bartali
Mathieu van der Poel has been added to the Alpecin-Fenix roster for Milano-Sanremo. The Dutchman is set to make his return to competition almost three months since his last race. Van der Poel’s return was scheduled for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, but it was decided to include him for Milano-Sanremo due to the several sick and injured riders in the team.
Van der Poel’s training in recent weeks has been satisfactory and his back issues seem to be gradually disappearing. Nevertheless, the team management do not want to put any pressure on the four-time cyclocross world champion; he will participate without expectations or ambitions. The 293 km race was preferred over a training session to get some extra race kilometres in the legs. After Milano-Sanremo, van der Poel will remain in Italy for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali.
Here a video message from Van der Poel about the past few months, his comeback to the peloton, and his race plans for the coming weeks. Good luck Mathieu!
Nokere Koerse 2022: Tim Merlier sprints to his second victory of the season
Tim Merlier won the Nokere Koerse 2022 just a week after the first victory of his 2022 cycling season during the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Definitely a magic moment for the Belgian rider.
Nokere Koerse is a European cycling “classic” single day race held in the Flanders, Belgium, close to Waregem. This year was the 76° edition and was 189.8 Kilometers long with numerous tough cobbled sections, a typical characteristic of the race.
Merlier crossed first the finish line in 4 hours 20 minutes and 04 seconds with an impressive final sprint just ahead of the German rider Max Walscheid (Cofidis). Thanks to the victory in Nokere Koerse the Alpecin-FENIX Belgian rider moved up two position in the general 2022 UCI Classification.
“I think the team did well. I had good legs today, good enough to finish it off in the end. It’s really nice to take the win in my own region!” he said in an interview after the race.
Tim Merlier wins the second stage of Tirreno Adriatico 2022
Tim Merlier sprinted to victory on stage 2 of Tirreno Adriatico and the Alpecin-FENIX team obtain its first 2022 win in Italy.
The second stage of Tirreno Adriatico 2022, which started from Camaiore in north-west of Tuscany and ended in Sovicille, was a thrilling race till the very end. It was 219-kilometers long and took the riders through the wonderful hills of Tuscany.
Merlier crossed first the finish line in 05 hours, 25 minutes and 23 seconds ahead of the Dutch rider Olav Kooij and Australian Kaden Groves after a fantastic final sprint. It was his first victory of 2022. Now, the Belgian rider is tied with Filippo Ganna as the leader of the points classification.
Good Job Tim! Keep it up!
Two podiums in a week for Dries de Bondt
The 2022 road cycling season for the Alpecin-FENIX rider Dries de Bondt has been very positive with two podiums in a week.
In the 54th edition of Le Samyn, de Bondt crossed third the finish line just after Matteo Trentin and Hugo Hofsetter. The 209-kilometers long race, which started from Quaregnong in Belgium and ended in Dour, was a mix of cobbles and tarmac road mainly in a flat path. It was a fun and interesting race with a great performance of the Alpecin-FENIX rider.
The Belgian rider stepped again in the podium with a second place in Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré 2022. This youngrace, in its 5th edition, took place close to Roeselare in Flanders. It’s mainly for sprinters, and last year was won by Tim Merlier, certainly a specialist of the speed, but who had to miss the the 2022 edition.
Dries performance was outstanding and we are very proud of his results.
Keep going Dries, this is just the beginning!
Strade Bianche 2022 is coming
Strade Bianche is the first Italian “classic” that the Alpecin-FENIX team will race as part of the 2022 road season.
The team will take part to the race with the following line-up: Floris de Tier, Michael Gogl, Xandro Meurisse, Stefano Oldani, Robert Stannard, Scott Thwaites and Gianni Vermeersch.
The winner of the last edition of Strade Bianche, Mathieu van der Poel, will not take part to the race but we are sure that each member of the Alpecin-FENIX team will perform at their best to succeed in the competition.
Since 2007, Strade Bianche is raced in the province of Siena. The name Strade Bianche stems from the historic white gravel roads in the Crete Senesi, which are a defining feature of the race. One third of the total race distance is raced on dirt roads. It is part of the UCI World Tour since 2017 and it’s known worldwide as “Europe’s most Southern Northern Classic.”
Good luck to all the Alpecin-FENIX team for their participation to Strade Bianche 2022!
Philipsen closes the UAE Tour 2022 with the Green Jersey
Jasper Philipsen won the general points classification of the UAE Tour 2022 wearing the coveted Green Jersey. It was an exciting competition where the Alpecin-FENIX rider performance was outstanding and where he confirmed himself as one of the best sprinters in the Pro Continental category.
The young Belgian won stages one and five and arrived second position on stage two. He closed the classification with 96 points, 7 points more of Dmitrii Strakhov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) the second rider on the rank. What a great result!
Congratulation to Jasper and to all the Alpecin-FENIX riders and staff who rocked the first World Tour race of the season. The team is demonstrating it has all to deliver a great cycling season. Stay tuned!
Second place and red jersey for Philipsen at Stage 2 of UAE Tour
Jasper Philipsen crossed in the second position the finish line of the second stage of the UAE Tour 2022, after a nail-biting sprint battle with Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl).
The stage was176 kilometers from Hudayriyat Island to Abu Dhabi Breakwater and it is designed sprinters.
“I was missing just a few watts today. I was a bit far back at the end but I just had to go,” said Jasper Philipsen. “I knew it was going to be a tough sprint because of the headwind and Mark was the fastest today. I’m a bit disappointed but we’ll try to go for the win again in the next sprint.”
After yesterday’s win and today’s second place, the Alpecin-FENIX cyclist retains the GC red jersey, while also leading the points and best young rider classification.
UAE Tour 2022: Jasper Philipsen wins the first stage
Jasper Philipsen took an impressive sprint victory in stage one of the UAE Tour 2022. The Alpecin-FENIX Belgian rider crossed first the finish line in 4 hours 42 minutes and 34 seconds and an average speed of 39 Km/h ahead of Sam Bennett (BORA – Hansgrohe) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers).
The Al Ain Water stage was 184 kilometers long, starting and ending in Madinat Zayed, the largest town of Al Gharbia desert region. The UAE Tour is the first race of 2022 World Tour.
“It was a pretty fast finish and we could see the line from very far away. We managed to make our way to the front and go for the sprint,” Philipsen said in an interview after the race while wearing the leader’s red jersey. “This morning I was not confident at all and this was the first race of the season for me. It’s a really nice feeling to win against such a big list of top sprinters.”
Congratulation to Jasper and to the entire Alpecin-FENIX team: the 2022 World Tour started in the best possible way.
Jakub Mareczko sprints to the victory on final stage of Tour of Antalya 2022
Jakub Mareczko achieved the first victory of Alpecin-FENIX’s 2022 road season. The 27-year-old Italian rider won in a sprint the four and final stage of the Tour of Antalya 2022, ahead of Arvid De Kleijn (Human Powered Health) and Matteo Malucelli (Gazprom-Rusvelo).
Mareczko crossed first the finish line in 3 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds after a 162 kms thrilling race long. He also won the general sprints points classification of this Turkish competition.
“I’m very happy with this win! Fabio, Simon, and Sam worked very hard and gave me a good leadout. We’ll try to do it again in the next races,” Mareczko said after winning the race.
This was his first victory with Alpecin-FENIX with which he has a two-year contract. Congratulations to Jakub and all the team for the great work.
Puck Pieterse is the new UCI Cyclocross U23 Women World Champion!
Puck Pieterse won the 2022 U23 Women’s Cyclo-cross World Championship in Fayetteville after crossing first the finish line in 46 minutes and 27 seconds and beating her teammate Shirin van Anooij.
It was a nail-biting race characterized by the Dutch riders’ dominance, as Pieterse, van Anooij and Fem van Empel were in the lead almost throughout the six laps. The podium was completely Dutch, completed by van Empel who arrived third.
“It was such a weird race really. We kept overtaking each other and no one could get away. I had a plan to go away on the big climb,” Pieterse said in an interview after winning the rainbow jersey. “I didn’t know I had it at first, it was really close. I am glad we could get on the podium with three girls.”
In Fayetteville, the 19-year-old Alpecin-FENIX rider demonstrated once more the hard work and determination that she has shown consistently throughout the season. While she had been eight times on the podium and won theU23 GC in the World Cup, Sunday’s World Championship was her first victory of the 2021-2022 CX season.
