Pro Log: Laura Kenny retires from cycling, Mathieu van der Poel inks 10-year Canyon contract, Jasper Philipsen wins Milan-San Remo, Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away

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Pro Log: Laura Kenny retires from cycling, Mathieu van der Poel inks 10-year Canyon contract, Jasper Philipsen wins Milan-San Remo, Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away

Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. At Milan-San Remo, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the first Monument of the season for the men ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).

At Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Elisa Balsamo claimed Lidl-Trek’s fourth consecutive victory in the race, beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in the sprint.

The Volta a Catalunya is also ongoing, with Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) winning the first stage thanks to a last-ditch break that earned a thumbs-up from second-placed Pogačar.

Dame Laura Kenny retires from cycling

Laura Kenny, the most successful British female Olympian, has announced her retirement from professional cycling at aged 31. Speaking on her lengthy career, she told the BBC: ‘I always knew deep down that I would know when the right time was. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up. It’s been in my head a little while.’

Kenny’s star is stratospheric, having won 17 European titles, seven World Championships, six Olympic medals and a National Road Race Championship. Her career spans the three Olympic Games of London 2012, Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo 2020, with five golds in track cycling.

Kenny’s announcement comes prior to the Paris Olympics this summer. She had not returned to Team GB training following the birth of her second child last July and had suffered a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy after the Tokyo Games.

Her last medal on the track came from the scratch race at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. On her future, she said: ‘It’s time to move on but stay following for the next chapter.’

Mathieu van der Poel signs 10-year contract with Canyon

Today, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) signed a 10-year contract with Canyon Bicycles, the longest-known contract in modern cycling. His partnership with the bike brand began in late 2017, and since then he has amassed a stunning 163 victories on Canyons across road, cyclocross and mountain biking.

Canyon also inked an extension with the Alpecin-Deceuninck team, having been a bike sponsor for the squad since 2017.

To add even more news, Van der Poel extended his contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck until at least the end of 2028.

Jasper Philipsen sprints to Milan-San Remo victory

An enthralling Milan-San Remo didn’t disappoint, with a group of 12 riders remaining after the punishing Cipressa and Poggio climbs. It came down to a bunch sprint after over six hours in the saddle, won on the line by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) just ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla). Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) completed the podium, finishing third ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).

The post-race scenes were a delight to watch, with hugs between rivals and celebratory pictures flooding social media. It was also nice to see Matthews on the podium again. It’s not that he hasn’t experienced some big wins throughout his career, victorious on multiple Grand Tour stages, but he has not had the same consistency of success as some of his rivals, even contemplating leaving the sport last year. I’m really glad he’s still here.

Lidl-Trek win Trofeo Alfredo Binda for fourth year running

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won Trofeo Alfredo Binda this weekend, beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in a sprint finish after 140.5km. It was a result perfectly set up with the help of Balsamo’s teammate and last year’s winner Shirin van Anrooij, with Balsamo also previously winning in 2022.

It marks the fourth year in a row that the Lidl-Trek team has won the race, stretching back to Elisa Longo Borghini in 2021.

But, as Brodie Champman revealed afterwards, there were some issues. With 1.5 laps to go, riders behind the front group were ‘confronted with opened roads, oncoming traffic, passing cars, red lights and busy roundabouts. We were forced to stop the race.’

Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away from bikes

Former Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli revealed he chased down a group of potential thieves on the eve of Milan-San Remo.

Speaking to Tuttobici, Colbrelli said he heard their bus driver shouting ‘in his boxers, and that he’d seen people trying to steal the bikes. We went outside and there were about ten young people. At one point, a car almost hit me but I just avoided it.

‘Then we started running after them and I followed them into the woods. They got away by car but I got in a car too and chased them at speed but we didn’t catch them. In the end, the staff slept with three or four bikes in their rooms.’

Colbrelli used to ride for the squad under their previous Bahrain-Merida name and won Paris-Roubaix in 2021. He retired in 2022 due to collapsing after Stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya, where he suffered an ‘unstable cardiac arrhythmia’ and later had a defibrillator fitted.

After moving into a technical and ambassador role with the team, he now works as a directeur sportif for Bahrain Victorious, with a part-time role as a superhero taking on bike thief villains.

See you next week.

The post Pro Log: Laura Kenny retires from cycling, Mathieu van der Poel inks 10-year Canyon contract, Jasper Philipsen wins Milan-San Remo, Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away appeared first on Cyclist.