Latest news with #BELGIAN
The Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
De Bruyne embracing fresh start at Napoli after Man City departure
BELGIAN midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is raring to go at Serie A champions Napoli after not being offered a contract extension by Manchester City, and said linking up with compatriot Romelu Lukaku was part of the appeal. Regarded as one of the greatest midfielders in Premier League history, De Bruyne ended a glittering decade-long spell at City at the end of last season and joined Napoli on a free transfer last month. 'I have been in the Premier League for so long and in the end I made the decision to go out of England,' De Bruyne told reporters on Saturday. 'I have done what I have done and in the end I am a Man City player for life. It was also with the way that it ended for me, I thought, it is time to find a new challenge. 'When I had the whole project in front of me and then the fact that I could play in Italy and still play at a high level was exciting for me.' De Bruyne, who turned 34 last month, said he had much to learn in Italy, but with Belgium teammate and polyglot Romelu Lukaku by his side, the learning curve looks far less steep as he adjusts to Antonio Conte's side. 'Napoli already are champions but they are still improving their squad... I am hoping that I can help the team grow and I will also learn from them, a new way of playing, a new competition,' De Bruyne said. 'Romelu was happy (about the move), I spoke with him in the national team (camp), he wanted me to join. I know Romelu since we were 13-years-old, so we are really tight together. When we played in Chelsea we lived together for two or three months. 'It makes it a little bit easier that I know him because he is somebody who can translate for me and it helps because he knows the coach, he knows the team.' Napoli begin their 2025–26 Serie A campaign on August 13 with a trip to Sassuolo - REUTERS
The 42
3 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Olympic champion Evenepoel pulls out of Tour de France
BELGIAN RIDER REMCO Evenepoel pulled out of the Tour de France during Saturday's stage 14, a gruelling climb of the Tourmalet mountain in the Pyrenees. The double Olympic champion was third in the overall standings and had won stage five in the 21-stage race, but appeared exhausted after Friday's uphill time trial. The Soudal Quick-Step rider won both the Olympic road race and time trial gold in Paris, shortly after finishing third at the 2024 Tour de France and claimed the best young rider's white jersey. Advertisement But an accident in Brussels in December involving a postal delivery van scuppered the 25-year-old's preparation for this year's Tour. The opening stages were contested near the Belgian border, but Evenepoel lost a minute of the first day after being caught in a cross wind split. This tactical error deprived him of a golden chance of taking the leader's yellow jersey in the first week, where he would pulverise the field on a 33km time trial. The team will now base its attention around fellow Belgian rider Tim Merlier, who has already won two sprint stages on this Tour. – © AFP 2025
The Sun
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
Remco Evenepoel abandons Tour de France during stage 14
BELGIAN Remco Evenepoel abandoned the Tour de France on Saturday during the 14th stage, a 182.6-km mountain trek from Pau to Superbagneres. The Soudal-Quick Step rider, who was third overall, stepped off his bike and entered his team car midway through the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, the first of four climbs on the day's menu. Evenepoel had struggled in recent days, losing time in the first Pyrenean stage and in Friday's uphill individual time trial. 'Yesterday was bad, today was worse,' the Olympic champion, who won the stage 5 individual time trial, said on Friday. It got even worse on Saturday as the 25-year-old could not sustain the pace in the gruelling ascent to the Tourmalet (19km at 7.4%) as dozens of riders whizzed past him. After giving his bottle to a child on the side of the road, Evenepoel threw in the towel, a year after finishing third overall on his Tour de France debut. Evenepoel won the Vuelta a Espana in 2022. - Reuters
The 42
09-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Pogacar into yellow as Evenepoel wins Tour de France time trial
BELGIAN RIDER REMCO Evenepoel won the fifth stage of the Tour de France on Wednesday, a 33km time trial around Caen that saw Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar take the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel. World and Olympic champion Evenepoel finished 16 seconds quicker than Pogacar with the Italian Edoardo Affini 33sec off the stage lead in third. Pogacar now leads the general classification with a 42sec advantage over Evenepoel. Two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard, who began the day just 8sec behind the yellow jersey Van der Poel, had a poor day as the Dane could only finish 13th in the stage — 1min 21sec behind Evenepoel — to slip to 1min 13sec behind Pogacar in the new standings. Advertisement Dutchman Van der Poel also struggled to maintain the pace, coming in 18th, 1min 44sec behind the winner, dropping him down to sixth overall. ©AFP
The 42
07-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Merlier wins, Philipsen crashes out in Tour de France dash to Dunkirk
▶️ Relive an hectic last km that brings @MerlierTim to victory on stage 3. ▶️ Revivez un dernier km chaotique qui mène @MerlierTim à la victoire sur l'étape 3.#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2025 BELGIAN TIM MERLIER pipped Italian Jonathan Milan right at the line to win stage three of the Tour de France at Dunkirk on Monday, as Mathieu van der Poel retained the race lead. The stage was marred by a series of falls, but the two favourites for the title Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard finished safely in the main pack and remain in second and third place overall behind Van der Poel. The flat 179km run from Valenciennes along the Belgian border was marked above all by a nasty fall that caused Jasper Philipsen to quit with severe grazing and a suspected fracture. The fall ripped the green best sprinter's jersey from Philipsen's back two days after he won the opening day sprint, as he slid along the road in the 70kph crash. 😟 @JasperPhilipsen crashed hard as he approached the intermediate sprint. The green jersey was forced to retire ❌ 😟 @JasperPhilipsen a chuté violemment à l'approche du sprint intermédiaire. Le maillot vert est durement touché et doit abandonner ❌#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 7, 2025 Advertisement There were three more falls, including two nasty looking ones in the finale with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, Merlier's teammate, involved. Merlier, 32, grew up just over the border from Dunkirk and had been hoping to win the opening stage on Sunday. 'That was a mess,' Merlier said of the falls. 'I lost a great deal of energy getting in position but it was a good bike throw. I knew I'd beat Milan.' Lidl-Trek's Milan led over most of the final 150m, but even without sealing the stage win his efforts were still rewarded as he inherited the green sprint points jersey from the stricken Philipsen. Van der Poel in the leader's yellow jersey is the grandson of French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor, who came second in the Tour de France seven times, but never won and also never got to don the yellow tunic. Another Belgian, the national champion Tim Wellens, gave cross-border fans even more to celebrate as he won the day's only climb, the 2.3km ascent of Mont Cassel at 31km from the finish line. The 34-year-old will now hold the king of the mountains polka dot jersey overnight. Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin is in the best under-25′s rider's white jersey afer staying in the finishing mix in all three stages. Regional police said one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day, and while rain dissuaded that kind of turnout for stage two, huge crowds turned out again for the run to Dunkirk. The eleven bikes stolen from outside the Cofidis team hotel early Sunday were all found before the stage's end — five of them were recovered abandoned in a forest early Monday with the others being tracked down by the police later in the day. Tuesday's fourth stage is a 174km run from Amiens, as the Tour leaves the North region, to Rouen in Normandy, with five hills in the final 25km designed to spark a series of race-splitting attacks. The first section of the Tour is raced through the north and west of France. The volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome presents the first mountains as late as stage 10, with two more colossal climb days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps.
