WORLDTOUR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FENIX-Deceuninck will race Giro Donne 2023 in Verde Comodoro. The special edition jersey was revealed on Saturday when the team wore it for Strade Bianche, the first Italian Spring Classic of the season.

The iconic FENIX® colour was used for the first time in 2022 for the Alpecin-FENIX (now Alpecin-Deceuninck) kit at Giro d’Italia. This shade of green, which was inspired by the peacefulness of nature, proved once again to be very distinctive amid the white gravel and hilly scenery that characterise the Crete Senesi, where the 9^th edition of Strade Bianche Donne took place.

Strong performance by FENIX-Deceuninck with an solid 6^th place by Puck Pieterse, in her Women’s WorldTour debut and second road race of the season. A memorable day that also saw Yara Kastelijn finished 15^th and Christina Schweinberger 22^nd.

Once again, FENIX has chosen the path of innovation. Not just in the interior design sector, but also in the cycling world. After a successful three-year experience with a Pro Continental team, it is time to venture further in a sport that is evolving and making history. Starting January 1st, 2023, FENIX will be the main co-title sponsor of the FENIX-Deceuninck women’s team, previously named Plantur-Pura.

“We are proud to support the growth of a women’s team that has an innovative approach and shares a set of values that is aligned with our FENIX brand,” says Stefano Mion, CEO of Arpa Industriale, the company that created FENIX innovative materials for interior design.

The team was founded in 2020 with a roster of top cyclo-cross specialists, including Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, with the aim to offer an interesting road program during the spring and summer months before the cyclo-cross season. Two years later, it is a UCI Continental team with a roster of 22 cyclists that has raced Spring Classics and the first Tour de France Femmes. For 2023, FENIX-Deceuninck will be a UCI WorldTour team.

“The team is ready to take the next step and, with FENIX, we are committed to make it happen. This is a team that does not rely on talent alone and believes, as we do, that reaching the highest level requires hard work, dedication and a constant desire to improve. They focus on growth and long-term goals requiring rigor to reach the highest standards,” says Mion.

From January 2020 until July 2022, FENIX was the second name sponsor of the Alpecin-FENIX team, now Alpecin-Deceuninck. Since then, it has continued its support as an official partner.

“FENIX will remain a partner of the men’s team, but will focus on the women from January 1,” explains team manager Philip Roodhooft. “Deceuninck will extend its partnership with the men—as name sponsor—linearly to the women’s team. This allows both companies to make a difference as a brand, but they are also important for us in the further expansion of our complete structure, not only the women’s team. Also Alpecin, Canyon and Zwift keep engaging in all our ranks. All this allows us to follow the most ideal path, which is to offer women and men the same opportunities at the highest level.”

Now that both teams have been granted the UCI WorldTour license, their riders will be competing in the top-level races including Gran Tours, Monuments and Classics.

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

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

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

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