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Pro Log: Cycling mourns loss of Muriel Furrer and Bas van Belle, UCI announces next Worlds hosts, Pogačar and Kopecky win rainbows
Welcome to the latest edition of Pro Log, where we look at the pro cycling news from the past week. Here’s a rundown of the latest results:
- Tour de Langkawi, Stage 2 (154.5km), Monday 30th Sept: 1st Matteo Malucelli, JCL Team UKYO, 3:34.58; 2nd Manuel Peñalver, Team Polti Kometa, +0sec; 3rd Arvid de Kleijn, Tudor Pro Cycling, +0sec.
- UCI Road World Championships, Men’s Road Race (273.9km), Sun 29th Sept: 1st Tadej Pogačar, Slovenia, 6:27.30; 2nd Ben O’Connor, Australia, +34sec; 3rd Mathieu van der Poel, Netherlands, +58sec.
- UCI Road World Championships, Women’s Road Race (154.1km), Sat 28th Sept: 1st Lotte Kopecky, Belgium, 4:05.26; 2nd Chloé Dygert, USA, +0sec; 3rd Elisa Longo Borghini, Italy, +0sec. 1st U23 rider: Puck Pieterse, Netherlands.
- UCI Road World Championships, Men’s U23 Road Race (173.6km), Friday 27th Sept: 1st Niklas Behrens, Germany, 3:57.24; 2nd Martin Svrcek, Slovakia, +0sec; 3rd Alex Segaert, Belgium, +28sec.
- UCI Road World Championships, Men’s Junior Road Race (127.2km), Thursday 26th Sept: 1st Lorenzo Finn, Italy, 2:57.05; 2nd Seb Grindley, Great Britain, +2:05sec; 3rd Senna Remijn, Netherlands, +3:06sec.
- UCI Road World Championships, Women’s Junior Road Race (73.6km), Thursday 26th Sept: 1st Cat Ferguson, Great Britain, +1:54.48; 2nd Paula Ostriz, Spain, +0sec; 3rd Viktória Chladonová, Slovakia, +0sec.
Tadej Pogačar launches 100km attack for victory
It was not a matter of if Tadej Pogačar would attack, but when. The Slovenian headed into the World Championships road race as favourite and lived up to the billing, initially kicking away at the 100km to go mark to get to the breakaway that included countryman Jan Tratnik.
Tratnik dropped back to help his teammate and a few kilometres later they joined the front group. Pogačar attacked once more on the Bergstrasse climb and had France’s Pavel Sivakov for company. The Slovenian then rode away from his breakaway companion (and trade teammate) with 52km to go and that was that. While his gap was never massive, it began to creep towards the finish line in Zürich, before stabilising at around 50 seconds.
Pogačar crossed the line after six and a half hours in the saddle to win the rainbow jersey. Behind, Australia’s Ben O’Connor broke away from the chasing group to claim second, while Mathieu van der Poel won the sprint for third.
With his latest victory, Pogačar becomes only the third man in history to complete the Triple Crown of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Championships titles in the same season, the others being Eddy Merckx in 1974 and Stephen Roche in 1987.
Lotte Kopecky defends road race title
Lotte Kopecky was the big favourite at the start line of the rainy women’s road race. The 28-year-old Belgian had spent the past year in the rainbow jersey and in that time won Strade Bianche, Paris-Roubaix, doubled up at the Belgian Championships, and raced to second place at the Giro d’Italia to name just a few achievements.
Kopecky had been dropped on the final climb but was able to work her way back into the lead selection. The group eventually came to the line together and Kopecky proved to be strongest in the sprint. The USA’s Chloé Dygert secured second with Elisa Longo Borghini coming home third.
This was also the last year that the women’s U23 race was incorporated in the elite race. Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands finished 13th overall and won the U23 title.
Cycling mourns loss of Muriel Furrer and Bas van Belle
18-year-old Swiss rider Muriel Furrer died after crashing just a few kilometres from her hometown of Egg during the junior women’s road race at the World Championships. She was taken to the Zürich University Hospital but suffered a serious head injury and passed away the next day.
The UCI released a statement saying, ‘The international cycling community loses a rider with a bright future ahead of her.’
Not much is known about the incident at the time of writing. The police investigation is ongoing. It is another tragic loss for Swiss cycling, coming just over a year after the death of Gino Mäder.
On the same day it was also announced Dutch cyclist Bas van Belle had died unexpectedly at the age of 24. The cause of death is uncertain at present. KNWU, the national governing body of cycle racing in the Netherlands, released a statement saying they would ‘remember him as a warm-hearted and friendly person, as well as a talented cyclist’.
Bas was the older brother of Loe van Belle, who rides for Visma-Lease a Bike, and Lisa van Belle, who is with Proximus-Cyclis CT. Bas’s last race was the Ronde van Midden-Brabant where he finished 65th.
Women’s Milan-San Remo confirmed, plus future World Championships hosts announced
A women’s Milan-San Remo returns to the race calendar from 2025 after an absence of 20 years. The exact route and distance are to be confirmed but it will take place just prior to the men’s race on the 22nd March 2025. It was last contested in 2005 when it was called the ‘Primavera Rosa’ and was won by Germany’s Trixi Worrack.
The UCI also announced the locations for 16 World Championships from 2025-2030. They are as follows:
- 2025 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships: Sakarya (Turkey)
- 2026 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships: Apeldoorn (Netherlands)
- 2026 UCI Snow Bike World Championships: Châtel – Haute-Savoie (France)
- 2026 and 2027 UCI Masters Track World Championships: London (Great Britain)
- 2028 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships: Sunshine Coast – Queensland (Australia)
- 2028 UCI Junior Track World Championships: Asuncion (Paraguay)
- 2028 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships: Hoogerheide (Netherlands)
- 2028 and 2029 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships: Jakarta (Indonesia)
- 2029 UCI BMX Racing World Championships: Heusden-Zolder (Belgium)
- 2029 UCI Road World Championships: Denmark (city/region to be confirmed)
- 2029 UCI Gravel World Championships: Villars-sur-Ollon (Switzerland)
- 2030 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships: Namur (Belgium)
- 2030 UCI Track World Championships: Brisbane (Australia)
- 2030 UCI Road World Championships: Brussels (Belgium).
That’s in addition to the previously revealed hosts of the road Worlds: 2025 Kigali (Rwanda), 2026 Montreal (Canada), 2028 Abu Dhabi (UAE), plus the next Super Worlds with all the cycling disciplines in Haute-Savoie, France in 2026.
See you next week.
The post Pro Log: Cycling mourns loss of Muriel Furrer and Bas van Belle, UCI announces next Worlds hosts, Pogačar and Kopecky win rainbows appeared first on Cyclist.