Welcome to Daily News, your roundup of news items from across the world of cycling. We keep this post updated throughout the week so that you can stay informed on all things bike racing, tech, industry, culture, advocacy, and more.
Here is what is making the headlines this week …
Monday, March 3, 2025
- Van der Poel will start his 2025 season at Le Samyn
- TV moto driver gets a yellow card for being too close after Faun-Ardèche wrong turn
- Jorgenson says Visma has not 'clicked yet' but remains confident
- Fox Factory sees Q4 sales growth, forecasts flat 2025
Van der Poel will start his 2025 season at Le Samyn
Mathieu van der Poel had initially planned to get his 2025 campaign underway at Tirreno-Adriatico, but Alpecin-Deceuninck has announced that he will instead make his season debut earlier than that, at Le Samyn on Tuesday.
"If the itch gets too strong, you just have to race!" Van der Poel said in a statement shared by the team.
Although Van der Poel's surprise decision has understandably led to speculation that he might also start Strade Bianche on Saturday, team co-leader Christoph Roodhooft told Het Nieuwsblad that that will not be happening. [Het Nieuwsblad]
TV moto driver gets a yellow card for being too close after Faun-Ardèche wrong turn
After the lead group at the Faun-Ardèche took a wrong turn in the finale, the UCI decided to give the driver of the television motorcycle a yellow card for being too close to the riders, and thus apparently being a contributing factor to the incident.
Saturday's wrong turn was the second time in two weeks that a mid-level race had ended in such a way, although in contrast to the Volta ao Algarve, where the stage in question and the erstwhile victory of Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) were simply annulled, Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) took a Faun-Ardèche win that remains on the books.
Jorgenson says Visma has not 'clicked yet' but remains confident
Reflecting on a disappointing Opening Weekend, Matteo Jorgenson acknowledged that Visma-Lease a Bike is not off to quite the start they enjoyed last year – when they won both the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne – but that there is reason to be optimistic.
"We just haven't clicked yet, so it's also difficult," he said, as Cyclingnews reports. "We have a lot of new riders for the Classics in the team because of more bad luck, losing Christophe [Laporte] to really big sickness and then Dylan [van Baarle] still hasn't entered after his collarbone fracture in Down Under."
"So we're still missing our core team, but I think actually this year is going to be good. We didn't win both Opening Weekend races, but we can build into the Cobbled Classics a little bit instead of starting at the top and kind of petering out." [Cyclingnews]
Fox Factory sees Q4 sales growth, forecasts flat 2025
Fox Factory’s bike segment grew 8.3% in the last quarter of 2024, but full-year sales were down 14%, according to its latest financial report. The company, which owns Fox and Marzocchi suspension, RaceFace and Easton components, Ride Concepts shoes, and Lizard Skins accessories, expects flat sales in 2025, and has focused on cost-cutting and streamlining operations at its Taiwan factory while considering future expansion outside the island.
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