©ASO / Alex Broadway
Le Samyn: Trentin, the sharp thirty-something
The Italian Mattéo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), 32, won the 54th edition of the Samyn on Tuesday March 1. He sprinted among a group of eight riders on arrival in Dour: “It was a very tough race,” explains Trentin, who had just posted a second place in the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia a fortnight earlier. “As a team, we decided to go into the breakaways because Fabio Jakobsen, currently the best sprinter in the world, was in this race. So I knew that my best chance was to integrate into a small group, and everything worked perfectly. I think I did a smart sprint.”
Among the ladies, the Norwegian Emma Norsgaard won.
The results:
Men: 1. Mattéo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), 2. Hugo Hofstetter (Team Arkéa Samsic), 3. Dries De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix)…
Women: 1. Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team), 2. Chiara Consonni (Valcar- Travel & Services), 3. Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope)
*****
Strade Bianche: Pogacar (re)dials his number
Just a week after his second success in the UAE Tour, Tadej Pogacar crushed the competition on Saturday in the Strade Bianche. The two-time winner of the Tour de France broke away solo from the peloton 50 kilometers from the finish and no one was able to challenge his supremacy: “It’s an incredible victory” said the 23-year-old Slovenian. “I attacked early and only knew in the last five kilometers that I could go all the way. Even on the final climb I was still looking behind to see if anyone was coming back, so I’m super happy to have won.” The always impressive Alejandro Valverde took second place, with Kasper Asgreen completing the podium.
Among the women, Annemiek van Vleuten, the rider in the best form at the start of the season after her victories at the Nieuwsblad and in the Tour de la Comunidad Valenciana, was ultimately overtaken by the Belgian Lotte Kopecky in the final sprint.
The results:
Men: 1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), 2. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), 3. Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)…
Women: 1. Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx), 2. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), 3. Ashleigh Moolman (Team SD Worx)…
*****
Paris – Nice: Laporte opens the door
Christophe Laporte won the first stage of the 80th edition of Paris-Nice on Sunday. While the 29-year-old rider posted the first victory of his career in a WorldTour event, the first in France in 2022, the Jumbo-Visma team took the opportunity to achieve a resounding hat-trick. Indeed, Primoz Roglic and Wout van Aert finished second and third, respectively, at the end of a lively stage. Laporte announces his arrival in the Dutch team in the most beautiful way: “It was not planned, we said to ourselves that if we were well placed, I was going to attack on this hill, but when Nathan Van Hooydonck moved to let me accelerate, Wout was on my wheel and Primoz was there too. It’s incredible as a final, and I really thank the team because it’s a great gift,” said the winner of the day.
Stage 1: 1. Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), 2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), 3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma)…
*****
Races to come:
Paris-Nice 6-13/03 https://www.paris-nice.fr/en/
Tirreno – Adriatico 7/13-03 www.tirrenoadriatico.it