2024-03-04 23:30:00
Tudor Pro Cycling shows its true potential against the World Team. Arvid Deklein (Netherlands, Tudor Pro Cycling), who had been content with 2nd place four times this season, took his first win of the season on the second day of Paris-Nice.
Olaf Kooi (Visma Liesabijk, the Netherlands) and Mads Pedersund (Riddle Trek, Denmark) competed in a sprint the day before photo: ASO
Of the “Big Four” (Vingegaard, Pogačar, Roglič, Evenepour) who will face off in this year’s Tour de France, Primoš Roglić (Slovenia, Bora-Hansgrohe) and Remko Evenepour (Belgium, Soudal Quickstep) ) was on its second day in Paris-Nice. The layout, which features two Class 3 mountains in the first half of the course, is suitable for sprinters, and as expected, a heated battle of speed ensued.
On this day, with the possibility of group separation due to strong winds, Jonas Lucci (Germany, EF Education Easypost) and Mathieu Bourgaudeau (France, Total Energy) aimed for the top of the third-class mountain set immediately after the start. pops out. Here, Lucci, wearing his mountaineering award jersey, passed first and earned three points, and the two, who had no intention of running away, returned to the main group. Afterwards, Pascal Einkorn (Netherlands, Lotto Destiny) tried to run away by himself, but was quickly caught, and just like on the flat stage of the Tour, a group of people covered the distance to the finish.
Jonas Lucci, who lost his mountaineering award jersey on this day (Germany, EF Education Easypost) photo: ASO
As the participants headed in a straight line from Thoiry, the starting point, to Montargis in the southeast, the battle for the mountain award broke out once again on the second Class 3 mountain. Bourgodeau, assisted by Pierre Latour (France, Total Energy), passed Lucci and took the lead (Latour 2nd, Lucci 3rd). The points earned here were double the first (6, 4, 2 points), so Burgodeau overtook Lucci and won the mountaineering award jersey.
Although five riders, including Gianni Moscon (Italy) who transferred from Astana to Soudal Quick-Step this year, crashed, the race proceeded without any major trouble. The pace then picked up once for the intermediate sprint with 45.7km remaining, and Danny van Poppel (Netherlands), Bora-Hansgrohe’s ace spinner, passed in the lead. Following him were Riddle Trek’s Mads Pedersen and Matthias Skelmoos (both Denmark) who are aiming for the top overall position.
Protons are unable to escape and continue to move forward as a group photo: ASO
There was no escape after that, and the two-lane course was stretched out across the length of the track until it reached Montargis. As sprinters Jayco AlUllah and Decathlon AG2R Ramondial tried to pick up the pace, professional team Tudor Pro Cycling took the lead with 2km remaining.
Wisma Liesabijk, who had won the sprint the day before, took the lead from Flamme Rouge (1km remaining), but the crucial Olaf Kooi (Netherlands) was lost in the pack. Then, with 300m left, Van Poppel took the lead and started the sprint, while Tudor’s rival, Michael Zeilert, and Arvid DeKlein (both from the Netherlands) launched the race. Decline overtook Van Poppel with 100 meters remaining and held off the oncoming Laurence Pichy (New Zealand, Groupama FDJ) to take the sprint victory.
Arvid DeKlein (Netherlands, Tudor Pro Cycling) crossed the finish line first, holding off his rivals photo: CorVos
Arvid Deklein (Netherlands, Tudor Pro Cycling) gets his long-awaited first win of the season photo: CorVos
Decline came close to winning but kept missing out, finishing runner-up once on the AlUla Tour and three times on the UAE Tour. “We had been aiming for a win on the World Tour. I’m very happy that we were able to get it like this and that we were able to run so well as a team. As a team and as an individual, we continue to move forward every year. He may be older than most players, but he continues to improve,” said Decline, who achieved his long-awaited first win of the season and is showing rapid growth despite being 29 years old.
Arvid Deklein (Netherlands, Tudor Pro Cycling) celebrates his victory on the World Tour photo: CorVos
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