WORLDTOUR

The fourth edition of Binche Chimay Binche pour Dames finished with a bunch sprint which saw Christina Schweinberger crossing the finish line second. Her FENIX-Deceuninck teammate Marthe Truyen was fifth.

The 117.2-km-long course is known for its final climb along the famously cobbled Rue de la Pepinière, which must be completed less than a kilometer before its also cobbled finish. The race, held between the Belgian cities if Binche and Chimay in Wallonia, is one of the last dates in the road calendar.

“A bronze medal feels so good after a year with more downs then ups!”, wrote Julie de Wilde on an Instagram post after taking the third place in Individual Time Trial at the World Championships in the U23 category. 

The Belgian rider completed the 29.9 km-long Swiss course from Gossau to Zürich in 42 minutes and 37 seconds.   

“I want to thank my team, the national team, and everybody who’s close to me for keeping the confidence. This performance gives me some extra motivation for this week to go all-in another time!”, said de Wilde. 

She will be competing again on Saturday September 28, when she will represent Belgium in the World Championships Road Race. 

Belgium won its first-ever medal in the team time trial mixed relay at the 2024 European Championships with a third-place finish. And FENIX-Deceuninck rider Marion Norbert-Riberolle is one of the six riders who made it possible. 

The mixed relay is one the lesser-known road events. It was introduced for the first time in 2019 for both World and European Championships. Each competing country has a team of six riders, three men and three women which will take turns to do a part of the course. The time recorded is the sum of the one done by the men and the women riders. 

The Belgian men’s trio was composed by Edward Theuns, Noah Vandenbranden, and Victor Vercouillie, while the women’s were Alana Castrique, Jesse Vandenbulcke and Norbert-Riberolle.  They finished third behind Italy and Germany, which won the gold and the silver, medals. 

Austrian Christina Schweinberger won the bronze medal in the individual time trial at the 2024 European Championships in Hasselt, Belgium. The FENIX-Deceuninck rider completed the 31.2 km course in 40 minutes and 2 seconds. 

“It feels good. This year wasn’t going so smooth, so I’m really happy with the podium finish. I was a bit nervous before starting but it was also a good motivation. Lotte (Kopecky) was unbeatable, I knew that before, but I gave my best and I’m happy to have gotten the medal,” said Schweinberger in a post-race interview.  

“I think I started a bit fast. I invested more at the beginning, maybe too much, so I lost a bit in the end. In the last kilometer, it was full on head wind, and it felt never-ending. But compared with other ITTs of that length like Glassgow last year, it passed much faster. It a was a good course and I’m happy.” 

The European Championships ITT was won by Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) while Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) took the silver. 

Schweinberger is now looking forward to the Road World Championships, which will take place in Zurich, Switzerland from September 21st until 29th. The Austrian rider is expected to compete in both the ITT and the road races.  

What a great day for Puck Pieterse! On the same day, the FENIX-Deceuninck Dutch rider won stage 4 of Tour the France Femmes, earned the polka-dots jersey as the best climber and the white jersey as the leader of the youth classification. Moreover, it’s her first-ever victory on a World Tour road race.

The stage four of Tour de France Femmes was a very intense,  122,7 km-long race. The course went through two countries: from Valkenburg, in the Netherlands, to the city of Liège, in Belgium. Puck Pieterse won the stage in a final harsh sprint ahead of yellow jersey Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM).

“It’s unbelievable, actually. The last few days I had super-good legs, and today I didn’t feel my legs at all. To take the win here in a sprint against Demi, that’s really a dream come true,” said Pieterse.

FENIX-Deceuninck rider Christina Schweinberger finished the final time trial of the season with a second place at the Chrono des Nations in Les Herbiers, France. The 27.23 km course was won by fellow Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer by one second.

Schweinberger’s 2023 season was several podiums, especially during ITTs. In this specialty, the 26-year-old Austrian rider obtained the third place at the European Continental Championship, and the second at both the World Championships and the National Championships Austria.

Mathieu van der Poel conquered the 2023 UCI World Championship and wrote a new page in the history of the cycling thanks to an epic and spectacular win on the Scotland roads.

The Dutchman crossed first the finish line after more than 6 hours and 270 kms, from Edinburgh to Glasgow, ahead of the Belgian Wout van Aert, Slovenia Tadej Pogacar and Danish Mads Pedersen. The 28-year-old Alpecin-Deceuninck captain attacked the group of riders in the last 25 kms and held on to his time advantage despite a crash 16 kms before the finish line.

After the race, van der Poel said that he was “overwhelmed” by the victory.  “It means everything,” the Dutchman said of his title. “It was one of the biggest goals I had left and to win it today was amazing. It almost completes my career, in my opinion. It’s maybe my biggest victory on the road.”

It was a remarkable win for Van der Poel, who had been targeting the rainbow jersey for several years. He is the first Dutch to conquer the rainbow jersey in almost 40 years, and the first cyclocross world champion to also win the road world championships on the same year.

Over the next 11 days, eight FENIX-Deceuninck riders will represent their countries in the World Cycling Championships that are taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.

Maria Martins (Portugal) will compete in the Women Elite’s scratch and omnium events, while Laura Süßemilch (German) will focus on the team pursuit.

Julie de Wilde (Belgium) and Christina Schweinberger (Austria) will first race the individual time trial on August 10^th, followed by the road championship, which will take place on August 13^th. Here they will be joined by Marthe Truyen (Belgium), Sanne Cant (Belgium), Julie van de Velde (Belgium) and Carina Schrempf (Austria).

In bocca al lupo to all the riders!

Stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes is one for history books. With 177,1 km from Cahors to Rodez, it was the longest race since the creation of the Women World Tour in 2016 and Yara Kastelijn won it solo after attacking on breakaway, in which she spent most of the day.

It was also the Dutch cyclocross specialist’s first professional road victory, and the first Grand Tour win for FENIX-Deceuninck. “It’s really a dream. I can’t believe this – it is really a team victory because I had to do nothing all day… A victory is what we want and we have it now – and I’m super proud of this,” said Kastelijn in the post-race interview.

Kastelijn and teammate Marthe Truyen joined other 12 riders in first breakaway, which formed 15 km from the start. In the final climb, she attacked solo managing to cross the finish line a minute and eleven seconds ahead of the chasing pack. The Fenix-Deceuninck is now seventh in the general classification and second in the mountain ranking.

FENIX-Deceuninck is returning to the Italian roads, this time for its first ever Giro Donne where it will be racing in its iconic Verde Comodoro jersey.

As the proud naming sponsor, we are excited to present the seven riders who will be taking part in the first Grand Tour of the season, starting on Friday June 30th in Chianciano and finishing on Sunday July 9 in Olbia.