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Pro Log: Grand Tour wildcards confirmed; Lotto’s snazzy kit; Double rainbow at the Tour of Flanders
Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. Here’s a rundown of the latest results before we get started:
- Men’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, Sun 6th April: 1st Tadej Pogacar, UAE Team Emirates XRG, 5h 58min 41sec; 2nd Mads Pedersen, Lidl-Trek, +1min 01sec; 3rd Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin-Deceuninck, +1min 01sec.
- Women’s Ronde van Vlaanderen, Sun 6th April: 1st Lotte Kopecky, SD Worx-Protime, 4h 24min 34sec; 2nd Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike, +0sec; 3rd Liane Lippert, Movistar, +0sec.
- GP Miguel Indurain, Sat 5th April: 1st Thibau Nys, Lidl-Trek, 4h 59min 54sec; 2nd Alex Molenaar, Cara Rural-Seguros RGA, +03sec; 3rd Andrea Bagioli, Lidl-Trek, +03sec.
- Mens Dwars door Vlaanderen, Weds 2nd April: 1st Neilson Powless, EF Education-EasyPost, 3h 57min 14sec; 2nd Wout van Aert, Visma-Lease a Bike, +00sec; 3rd Tiesj Benoot, Visma-Lease a Bike, +00sec.
- Women’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, Weds 2nd April: 1st Elisa Longo Borghini, UAE Team ADQ, 3h 12min 49sec; 2nd Lotte Kopecky, SD Worx-Protime, +29sec; 3rd Elisa Balsamo, Lidl-Trek, +29sec.
World Champions win big at the Tour of Flanders
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Tadej Pogačar dropped his rivals on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont to go solo to the finish in Oudenaarde for his second Tour of Flanders victory and eighth Monument.
After chasing down and passing Wout van Aert with 18km to go, no one could follow. Behind, Mads Pedersen won the sprint for second ahead of Mathieu van der Poel.
It was a similar story in the women’s race in that a decisive lead group formed on the final ascent of the Oude Kwaremont comprising Lotte Kopecky, Kasia Niewiadoma, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Liane Lippert, who then extended their lead on the last climb of the Paterberg.
It would go down to a four-woman sprint and Kopecky prevailed, making history as the first woman to win three editions of the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Ferrand-Prévot placed second with Lippert in third.
Early in the race, defending champion and favourite Elisa Longo Borghini crashed out and sustained a ‘significant concussion’.
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Grand Tour wildcards announced
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After the announcement of men’s Grand Tours adding an extra team to take the number up to 23, the wildcards for all three have been revealed. Q36.5 Pro Cycling received an invite to both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España and Julian Alaphilippe’s Tudor Pro Cycling got the call up to the Giro and the Tour de France. Italian teams Polti-VisitMalta and VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè will also be going back to the Giro, TotalEnergies and Uno-X will go to the Tour and Cara Rural-Seguros RGA and Burgos-Burpellet-BH.
Controversially, Spanish team Equipo Kern Pharma haven’t been invited to the Vuelta despite being a standout squad at last year’s race, winning three stages. Organiser Unipublic typically rotates invitations to Spanish teams to allow them all chances to shine. Race director Javier Guillén told newspaper AS, ‘We don’t want to limit ourselves to national teams either, because La Vuelta is a very international race.
On the women’s side, receiving Vuelta Femenina invites are Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi, BePink-Imatra-Bongioanni, Eneicat-CMTeam and Lotto, while the Tour de France Femmes has also given the call up to Laboral Kutxa, along with St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93 and Winspace-Orange Seal. The Giro d’Italia Women is the only men’s or women’s Grand Tour yet to reveal its wildcards
Lotto teams show off new kit
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Lotto have created a special kit celebrating an incredible 40 years of the team, with the colours from their history combining to make a pretty incredible jersey.
The team wore it at the Tour of Flanders and the women are also scheduled to wear it at the Vuelta Femenina next month.
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