Asgreen solos to Giro stage 14 win, Del Toro strengthens grip on pink jersey
Asgreen was part of an early breakaway trio but, after several riders were brought down in a crash which broke up the peloton, the Dane went for broke in the final kilometres and held off the chasing group.
Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin–Deceuninck) outsprinted Dutchman Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) to take second place on the 195-km stage from Treviso to Nova Gorica in Slovenia.
Del Toro ((UAE Team Emirates) managed to avoid trouble and was with the chasing group which followed Asgreen over the line to increase his lead at the head of the general classification.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Idaho-bred Matteo Jorgenson is big – and getting bigger in cycling's biggest races
Matteo Jorgenson is big. Not in the way Dexter Lawrence or Chet Holmgren are big. Not in the sense that most American athletes are considered big. But in the world of professional cycling, Matteo Jorgenson is big. In fact, cycling might be one of the only sports in which a man who stands 6ft 4in (1.93m) and weighs around 70kg (154lbs) is considered big. With broad shoulders and a wide chest that can act like a sail in the wind, Jorgenson is the kind of size that usually rules riders out of contention for Grand Tours such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia. Why? Because Grand Tours are won in the mountains, and big riders don't climb. But Matteo Jorgenson can climb – because even though he's tall, he's still remarkably light for his size. His body is a rare blend of long limbs, powerful legs and low weight. It's a build that allows him to soar up Alpine and Pyrenean slopes with the speed and elegance of his Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour winner, who at 5ft 9in and about 57kg (125lbs) is one of the finest climbers on earth. And when you can climb, people always seem to ask the same question: when is Matteo Jorgenson going for GC? That's cycling shorthand for general classification – in other words, when is Jorgenson going to try to win the Tour de France? It could also mean the Giro or the Vuelta a España, the other two three-week Grand Tours. GC means targeting the overall standings: the yellow jersey in the Tour, pink in the Giro, red in the Vuelta. Most riders who stand 6ft 3in and weigh 70kg don't get asked this question, because most riders that size don't stand a chance at GC: they can't climb. Bigger riders tend to aim for sprint stages or specialize in the Classics, one-day races like the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, where weight and strength help on the brutal cobbled roads of northern Europe. But Jorgenson might just have the legs to win a Grand Tour. He proved as much last year, finishing eighth overall in the Tour de France. For now, riding alongside arguably one of the greatest GC riders of all time in Vingegaard, it's unlikely Jorgenson will get the chance to lead Visma at the Tour. Instead, he will ride in service of Vingegaard as a domestique – a rider who supports the team leader – while hunting for stage wins where possible. So why not go for GC at the Giro or the Vuelta, and potentially become just the second American to win the former and the third to win the latter? Because, according to Jorgenson, it's not quite time yet. Matteo Jorgenson may be known for his size. But patience might become his defining trait. Jorgenson grew up racing bikes in his native Boise, Idaho. When he was six, his parents enrolled him and his brother in a local cycling club called Byrds: the Boise Young Rider Development Squad. The idea wasn't to create elite racers, but simply to get the kids outside and active. But racing stuck. By eight, Jorgenson was competing in mountain bike and cyclocross events – off-road races somewhere between mountain biking and road cycling. By nine, he was travelling as far as Oregon to race in his first cyclocross national championships. Within a year, he was also racing on the road. By 14, Jorgenson knew that if he was going to become a professional, he'd need to specialize. When an opportunity came to join Hot Tubes, the most successful US junior development team, he committed fully to road racing. At 16, after domestic success, Jorgenson travelled with the US national team to race in Belgium, the heartland of road cycling. 'I was really dogshit in Europe,' Jorgenson tells me from Sierra Nevada, Spain, where he's at altitude training camp with Visma, preparing for the Tour de France. Despite being humbled in Belgium, he wasn't discouraged. He knew his European peers had been racing tight packs on narrow roads for years, while he was still new to it all. In hindsight, that trip was pivotal. 'If I'd stayed in the US, I would have thought I was a really good bike racer,' he says. 'I could win nationals in the US and then go to Belgium and get dropped in the first 20 minutes.' Over the next few years, he raced domestically with Hot Tubes and in Europe with the US under-23 team, hoping to sign for a WorldTour team, the top level of global professional cycling. At 19, Jorgenson joined the development team of Van Rysel–AG2R La Mondiale, relocating to Chambéry in the French Alps. He lived with 12 French riders and enrolled in full-time French language classes. After placing fourth in a small French stage race, the Ronde de l'Isard, he signed with Spain's Movistar: the oldest team in the WorldTour. At just 20, he was racing Strade Bianche, Milan–San Remo, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and the cobbled Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – the same roads where, just a few years earlier, he'd been dropped early. In 2021, he made his Grand Tour debut at the Giro. In 2022, he rode his first Tour de France. But it was in the 2023 Tour where Jorgenson announced himself to the wider sporting world. On stage nine, he launched a solo breakaway some 40km from the finish. He hit the base of the Puy de Dôme – a mythical mountain climb unseen in the Tour since 1988 – with a near one-minute lead. Spectators were banned on the final climb, which lies inside a national park. The silence was eerie. Then his radio cut out. Alone, with no encouragement or strategy coming from the team car, Jorgenson pushed on. But anyone who knows cycling knew what was coming: he would be caught. And he was, just 500 meters from the line. Then a second rider passed. Then a third. In the space of a few pedal strokes, Jorgenson went from would-be Tour stage winner to missing the podium entirely. 'I left that stage hugely disappointed and pretty sick of the sport,' he says. 'It's not a happy memory at all for me.' Still, fans love heroic attacks. Even in defeat, Jorgenson had made his name. Soon after, he announced a move from Movistar to Dutch powerhouse Visma–Lease a Bike (then Jumbo-Visma), who would go on to win all three Grand Tours that year, a historic clean sweep. Despite joining a team stacked with stars, Jorgenson was drawn to Visma's obsession with data, tech and marginal gains. 'I wasn't looking for the team with the most opportunities,' he says. 'I was looking for the team that would give me the best structure to get the most out of myself. The most technological, the most motivated to progress. I'd been searching for what Visma had for years.' The results came quickly. In 2024, Jorgenson won the eight-stage Paris–Nice, followed by the one-day Dwars door Vlaanderen. He placed second in the Critérium du Dauphiné – often seen as a Tour warm-up – finished eighth in the Tour itself, and ninth in the Olympic road race. This year, he defended his Paris–Nice title and placed in the top 10 at the E3 Saxo Classic. Which brings us back to that question: will Matteo Jorgenson chase GC? With Vingegaard still recovering from injury, Visma entered 2024 without a clear leader for the Giro. The team offered Jorgenson the chance to lead. Despite last year's Tour top 10, he declined. 'I really wanted to do another Tour supporting Jonas first,' he says. The team also encouraged him to hunt stage wins for himself. 'But the top 10 in the Tour last year showed me that I am capable of competing for a GC. Trying to win a Grand Tour is one of my ambitions now. But it's a project that may take me many years to get there.'
Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Being Tour de France favourite is an honour, says Pogacar
LILLE, France, July 3 (Reuters) - Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar is pleased to be the man to beat in the Tour de France, which starts in Lille on Saturday, the Slovenian said on Thursday. The 26-year-old world champion is looking for a fourth Tour de France victory after he triumphed in 2020, 2021 and 2024. "It's been a great season, so far perfect. And going here to the Tour as one of the favourites, it's an honour," Pogacar told a press conference on Thursday. "I'm pleased and I hope I can live up to the expectations." Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the Tour in 2022 and 2023, is expected to be Pogacar's strongest rival over the three weeks of racing "The last five years were quite intense between me and Jonas," Pogacar said. "It's great competition, rivalry, and I think this year is more or less the same as the last couple of years. I'm looking forward to racing against Jonas again. I think he's in great shape." The UAE Team Emirates rider showcased his form last month by claiming three stage wins and overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine, finishing 59 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Pogacar said the opening week posed many challenges. "As always, the first week of the Tour is one of the most intense, nervous weeks," he said. "You can quite easily lose the Tour de France in the first 10 days until the first rest day." "I don't think my goal should be to aim to gain time for the first week, you just need to take care and not screw it up the whole tour... without any bad luck and some sort of incidents to survive the first week." The race's first mountain day is scheduled for stage 10 while a time trial on stage five could provide an early opportunity for gaps to emerge among the general classification contenders.
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: full team-by-team guide
Two men, Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, with one plan: stage wins and the green jersey; VDP is the big star, but in recent Tours de France it's been 'Jasper Disaster' who has delivered. On the flat stages, VDP uses his explosive power and superlative bike handling to lead out Philipsen, who has won nine stages in the last three Tours and the green jersey in 2023. Anywhere a bit lumpy will be for VDP, although he has taken only one Tour stage in his career. That was at Mûr de Bretagne in 2021, so watch out for him when the Tour returns there on 11 July. Team: Van der Poel, Philipsen, Kaden Groves, Silvan Dillier, Xandro Meurisse, Jonas Rickaert, Gianni Vermeersch, Emiel Verstrynge. Main man: Mathieu van der Poel. Philipsen wins more, VDP wins bigger: Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix already this year. More than worth the price of his golden Lamborghini. Both sponsors leave at the year's end, without replacements in sight: the writing is on the wall for the homespun Bretons. Kévin Vauquelin is their strongman, but Arnaud Démare is getting back to his best and, although he's now 33, with eight stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and two in the Tour de France he shouldn't be written off. Team: Vauquelin, Démare, Cristián Rodríguez, Raúl García Pierna, Ewen Costiou, Mathis Le Berre, Amaury Capiot, Clément Venturini. Main man: Kévin Vauquelin, winner of stage two in 2024. The punchy 24-year-old Norman was within a whisker of landing the Tour de Suisse 10 days ago. Among the umpteen teams going for a stage win, with probably the most potential: the pocket climber Lenny Martinez won a stage at the Dauphiné, the don of the downhills Matej Mohoric has won three Tour stages and Milan-San Remo, while Phil Bauhaus can sprint a bit, Santiago Buitrago can climb with the best, and the former British champion Fred Wright has landed second places in stages at the Vuelta and Tour. If they can work out who's leading on any given day, good things will happen. Team: Martinez, Buitrago, Mohoric, Bauhaus, Wright, Kamil Gradek, Jack Haig, Robert Stannard. Main man: Lenny Martinez. His grand-père, Mariano, was King of the Mountains in 1978, his father, Miguel, won an Olympic gold. No pressure then. After 27 years in the pro peloton, Cofidis are deep in the relegation mire. Simon Carr and Ion Izagirre can climb, Alex Aranburu can handle the hilly days, Benjamin Thomas and Bryan Coquard are fast finishers, but Dylan Teuns hasn't won big since Flèche Wallonne in 2022. This all has a nearly-but-not-quite feel about it. Team: Emmanuel Buchman, Aranburu, Izagirre, Thomas, Carr, Coquard, Teuns, Alexis Renard, Damien Touzet. Main man: Emmanuel Buchman's fourth in the 2019 Tour is long past, reflecting Cofidis's perennial ability to sign riders past their sell by date. Gone are the brown shorts, gone is the founder, Vincent Lavenu, a raft of French riders leave at the year's end, and ownership has switched to Decathlon. The immediate target is a stage for Felix Gall, but the future hangs on the 18-year-old Paul Seixas, the 'next Bernard Hinault', who sits this one out. Team: Gall, Oliver Naesen, Stefan Bissegger, Clément Berthet, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Callum Scotson, Bastien Tronchon. Main man: Felix Gall. The Austrian won a major mountain stage in 2023 but has not kicked on and, given the churn at Decathlon, time is running out. It's all about stage wins for the American team, who lost the Giro this year in the Mexican standoff between their Richard Carapaz – ruled out of the Tour by a gastro-intestinal infection – and Isaac del Toro. Neilson Powless pulled off an improbable Dwars door Vlaanderen win in April, Harry Sweeney was flying in the Tour of Switzerland and you can bet that Ben Healy will target every hilly stage; he has yet to win at the Tour but it's only a matter of time. Team: Healy, Sweeney, Powless, Vincenzo Albanese, Michael Valgren, Alex Baudin, Kasper Asgreen and Marijn van den Berg. Main man: Ben Healy. Aggressive Irishman who started out on the Halesowen track in Birmingham and is now a consummate stage hunter. Since Thibaut Pinot retired, FDJ have lost their way. Time to find it again with this group: the British rider Lewis Askey has won twice already this year, Paul Penhoët is a promising young sprinter, while Romain Grégoire took a stage in the Tour of Switzerland and Valentin Madouas has an Olympic silver medal to his name. Team: Guillaume Martin, Madouas, Grégoire, Askey, Penhoët, Quentin Pacher, Cyril Barthe, Clément Russo. Main man: Guillaume Martin. The amiable Norman author consistently places between 10th and 15th at the Tour, which is every bit as exciting as it sounds. Jim Ratcliffe's Grenadiers are far removed from the Team Sky glory days, without a Grand Tour overall win in four years. Here they are among the mid-table stage hunters, with an obvious target a win for the hulking Italian Filippo Ganna in the early time trial plus a spell in yellow, while Carlos Rodríguez targets the top five. It's Geraint Thomas's last Tour but the Welshman's form is in doubt after a recent crash. Team: Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Filippo Ganna, Axel Laurance, Carlos Rodriguez, Connor Swift, Geraint Thomas, Samuel Watson. Main man: Carlos Rodríguez. Now 24, the Spaniard is a consistent racer yet to improve on his fifth overall in the 2023 Tour. Relegation looms large for the Wallonian squad because they rely on the sprinter Biniam Girmay and he hasn't been on his form of last year. He needs to repeat 2024's sweep of three stage wins plus points jersey because the rest of the team looks thin, Sunday's German title for Georg 'Gigi' Zimmerman notwithstanding. Team: Girmay, Hugo Page, Laurenz Rex, Zimmermann, Louis Barré, Vito Braet, Roel van Sintmaartensdijk, Jonas Rutsch. Main man: Biniam Girmay, the Eritrean sprinter who blazed a trail for cyclists of colour when he took the Gent-Wevelgem Classic in 2022, but has yet to win in 2025. Plenty of potential, but what to target, given the recent health problems of their leader, Michael Woods? Joe Blackmore is a massive raw talent, Jake Stewart has a new lease of life evidenced by his Dauphiné stage win, and if Woods is fit he'll climb with the best. Between them, they can deliver a stage win. Team: Blackmore, Woods, Stewart, Alexey Lutsenko, Pascal Ackermann, Guillaume Boivin, Matis Louvel, Krists Neilands. Main man: Joe Blackmore. IPT won't have a fixed leader, but last year's Tour de l'Avenir winner's progress will be a pointer to the future. Even without the sprinter Mike Matthews, the Australian team have three obvious focal points: Ben O'Connor for the overall standings and a mountain stage; the Irishman Eddie Dunbar for the hilly days; and the Dutch fast man Dylan Groenewegen, led out by Luca Mezgec, to add to his six career Tour sprint stages. Team: O'Connor, Dunbar, Groenewegen, Mezgec, Mauro Schmid, Elmar Reinders, Luke Durbridge, Luke Plapp. Main man: Ben O'Connor. The Australian climber broke through at the 2021 Tour and landed second in last year's Vuelta a España and UCI world championship. After a prolific spring, July is all about stage wins, with Jonathan Milan for the flat finishes and the precocious Belgian Thibau Nys for anything tougher. On the hilly days look out for Edward Theuns and Mattias Skjelmose, who snaffled the Amstel Gold Classic from under the nose of Tadej Pogacar in April. The stage hunter Quinn Simmons has the peloton's most dramatic facial hair, and on current form has a good chance of Making America Great Again in France. Team: Milan, Skjelmose, Theuns, Nys, Simmons, Jasper Stuyven, Simone Consonni, Toms Skujins. Main man: Jonathan Milan. Italian sprinter with four stages in the Giro to his name who shines when the roads are the lumpy side of flat. It's all about one man for the second division Belgians: Arnaud De Lie had a fantastic 2024 and managed five top-five stage finishes in his first Tour last year. But he's had a nightmare this season, with poor form and morale, although he looked more bullish recently in the Tour of Switzerland. Team: De Lie, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Jasper De Buyst, Jenno Berckmoes, Jarrad Drizners, Brent Van Moer, Alec Segaert, Eduardo Sepúlveda. Main man: Arnaud De Lie. The 'Walloon bull' has 24 pro wins to his name and he's still only 23; a first Tour stage is the obvious goal. The oldest team in the bunch would look a bit stodgy without Iván Romeo, who is in his first pro season and the hottest prospect in Spanish cycling. He won a stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné and just landed the Spanish national title, so expectations will be sky high in the next three weeks. Team: Romeo, Enric Mas, Pablo Castrillo, Nelson Oliveira, Einer Rubio, Gregor Mühlberger, Will Barta, Iván García Cortina. Main man: Iván Romeo. He's all of 21, so it's time to test the old adage that if you're good enough, you're old enough. The relegation-threatened Dutch squad are without the sprinter Fabio Jakobsen or the recently retired Romain Bardet. Oscar Onley's stage win and third overall at the Tour of Switzerland have soothed the nerves; he should improve on his fifth place on a stage last year, while there is a first Tour start for his fellow Scot Sean Flynn. Team: Onley, Flynn, Frank Vandenbroucke, Tobias Lund Andresen, Niklas Märkl, Warren Barguil, Pavel Bittner, Tim Naberman. Main man: Oscar Onley. The 22-year-old former runner from Kelso has progressed rapidly and unobtrusively since turning pro in 2023. The big bucks from Red Bull are transforming a formerly stolid German team. They landed the Vuelta last year with Primoz Roglic but the Slovene is more than usually accident prone – he quit the Tour last year and the Giro this year after heavy crashes – so fingers will be crossed every time there's a pile-up of any dimension. If Roglic can stay upright, the podium is a fair target, as he is a doughty all-rounder when he's in one piece, and his mountain support men, Florian Lipowitz and Aleksandr Vlasov, were bubbling under nicely in the buildup to the Tour. Team: Roglic, Vlasov, Lipowitz, Danny van Poppel, Laurence Pithie, Mick van Dijke, Gianni Moscon, Jordi Meeus. Main man: Primoz Roglic. The Slovene has five Grand Tour wins and two weaknesses – his age and his capacity for falling off when he really shouldn't. In early June, the Belgian squad nudged past 1,000 wins since their foundation; they will add to that in the next few weeks, targeting sprint stages with the European champion, Tim Merlier, and the overall classification with the double Olympic champion, Remco Evenepoel, who will have the stage five time trial in his sights after winning the Critérium du Dauphiné contre la montre ahead of Tadej Pogacar. Win that and the foundations are there for a repeat of last year's third place overall. One question: do they target green with Merlier or yellow with Evenepoel? It's the kind of dilemma most managers would give their eye teeth for. Team: Evenepoel, Merlier, Bert Van Lerberghe, Mattia Cattaneo, Ilan Van Wilder, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Maximilian Schachmann. Main man: Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian prodigy is the best time-triallist in the race but he needs to gain a few per cent in the mountains to stay with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. Perennial underdog French squad who hit the jackpot last year with a stage win for Anthony Turgis; they will be a daily presence in doomed escapes to garner television time. Their main sponsor will also appear on the Ineos Grenadiers jersey, but rumours of a merger are reportedly unfounded. Team: Turgis, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Steff Cras, Alexandre Delettre, Thomas Gachignard, Emilien Jeannière, Jordan Jegat, Mattéo Vercher. Main man: Anthony Turgis. At 31 'Toto' is the ur-French cyclist: attacking constantly, winning once in a blue moon. Another stage win would be career-defining. Founded by Fabian Cancellara, this Swiss division two squad looks promising for their first Tour. Michael Storer is the climber, Alberto Dainese the sprinter, Marc Hirschi the man for the lumpy stages, while Julian Alaphilippe just has to be his sparkling self. You wouldn't bet against a stage win for this group. Team: Alaphilippe, Dainese, Hirschi, Storer, Marco Haller, Matteo Trentin, Fabian Lienhard, Marius Mayrhofer. Main man: Julian Alaphilippe. His years of plenty are over but the double world champion needs only a hint of success to get the home press purring. You can argue the relative merits of Tadej Pogacar's UAE posse or Jonas Vingegaard's Visma all you will, but it's academic. If Pogacar is on song, UAE are the strongest, without a weak link in their Tour team, perfectly drilled and improving each year as their leader matures. It's when things go wrong for the Slovene, or he's absent, that it gets interesting. At the Giro a few weeks ago, UAE were shapeless and unable to win the race for their Mexican Isaac del Toro; at the 2022 and 2023 Tours, they were unable to control Visma. João Almeida, the Tour of Switzerland winner, is a possible plan B. Team: Pogacar, Almeida, Adam Yates, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Tim Wellens, Jhonatan Narváez, Nils Politt. Main man: Tadej Pogacar. En route to a record to match Eddy Merckx, 'Pogi' is the perfect all-rounder. But even big Ted had off days; that's all his rivals can hope for. Now in their third Tour, the Norwegians are canny operators, targeting what they can when the big men aren't playing. For example, they put Jonas Abrahamsen in the mountains jersey for 12 stages last year. No place for the veteran Alexander Kristoff but every chance of a stage win from this talented, aggressive squad. Team: Abrahamsen, Magnus Cort, Søren Waerenskjold, Andreas Leknessund, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Anders Halland Johannessen, Markus Hoelgaard, Stian Fredheim. Main man: With nine stage wins across the Grand Tours, the mustachioed Magnus Cort is a threat every time he gets in a break. Alongside UAE Emirates, Visma is the race's other mighty Armada – winners of all three Grand Tours in 2023. They field the most valuable teammate in cycling, Wout van Aert, alongside the recent Giro champion, Simon Yates, plus the 2023 Vuelta winner, Sepp Kuss: either of these or even the US's Matteo Jorgenson can take on the role of leader if Jonas Vingegaard crumbles or falls. A well-drilled team was key when Yates snatched this year's Giro, and helped Vingegaard break Pogacar in 2022 and 2023; Visma need to be perfect to crack the Slovene and his team this year. Team: Vingegaard, Van Aert, Jorgenson, Kuss, Simon Yates, Victor Campenaerts, Tiesj Benoot, Edoardo Affini. Main man: Jonas Vingegaard. The Danish double Tour winner is the only rider who can match Pogacar, but he was slightly off the pace at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné. A monstrously strong spring has lifted Kazakhstan's finest out of the World Tour relegation zone – 21 wins for 10 different riders is spectacular – but this lineup, without any of their big winners from earlier this season, suggests that they threw everything at the Giro d'Italia, a more fertile source of ranking points. They will get in the breaks on the hilly and mountain days, but other teams will be better organised and more desperate. Team: Harold Tejada, Sergio Higuita, Simone Velasco, Clément Champoussin, Mike Teunissen, Evgeny Fedorov, Davide Ballerini, Cees Bol. Main man: No clear leader. Evgeny Fedorov has won twice recently, but the Kazakh road and time trial titles aren't the best pointer to Tour form.
