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 …
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
- Visma is 'not satisfied' with the way the Cobbled Classics went this year
- Evenepoel looks to 'get the race rhythm back' in 2025 debut at Brabantse Pijl
- Kristoff rode the wrong way after hitting his head in a Roubaix crash
- Quick Hits
Visma is 'not satisfied' with the way the Cobbled Classics went this year
As Wielerflits reports, Visma-Lease a Bike head of racing Grischa Niermann admitted that the team wanted more out of this Cobbled Classics campaign. The Dutch squad has failed to take any wins in WorldTour one-day races so far this season.
"We are not satisfied with this," Niermann said. "We went for more this spring. This is the maximum we got out of it. This is just it, but it is not like we are drawing a positive balance now."
Wout van Aert rode to runner-up honors at an especially disappointing Dwars door Vlaanderen, where Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) managed to beat a trio of Visma riders in the finale, and he was just off the podium at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Two years ago, Visma seemed to have the strongest Classics squad in the peloton, but things have not gone nearly as well for team more recently. Wout van Aert has struggled to get back to the form he showed prior to crashing out of Dwars last year, while Christophe Laporte has dealt with illness across two seasons now.
"At the moment there are a number of men who are simply better than us," Niermann said. "We are going to think about how we are going to do better in the future."
On the bright side, Laporte is returning to training this week after a long layoff. The Frenchman has yet to race in 2025 after closing out the 2024 season with a Paris-Tours win. [Wielerflits]
Evenepoel looks to 'get the race rhythm back' in 2025 debut at Brabantse Pijl
Getting doored by a Belgian postal worker derailed Remco Evenepoel's offseason and left him facing a lengthy recovery, but the Olympic champ is starting his season on Friday at Brabantse Pijl, as Soudal-Quick-Step confirmed on Tuesday.
"I am counting the days until I can race with the guys again for the first time in more than six months," he said in a team press release. "It's been a long time since my previous outing with the team, but I am happy to be so close to my return. I've worked hard all these months, I've been on a solid training camp in Spain, and I feel good and motivated for Brabantse. I'm not going there with any specific goals, as the most important thing will be to get the race rhythm back after all this time."
Kristoff rode the wrong way after hitting his head in a Roubaix crash
Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Mobility) has said that he may have suffered a concussion in a crash at this year's Paris-Roubaix.
"I landed on the head in the crash so I had a small headache," he said in a video shared to his team's social media account. "I also started riding the wrong direction in the race so I thought maybe there was a concussion. I was a bit tumbled up and I went against the traffic and suddenly I saw riders coming against me so I said, 'Oh, I need to turn.'"
He quickly left the race after that, ending what may be the final Monument appearance of his career.
Quick Hits
Alessandro De Marchi, a breakaway specialist who won three Vuelta a España stages over the course of his career, has said he will retire at the end of the 2025 season ... Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset finished Paris-Roubaix with a broken hip ... Roubaix espoirs runner-up Jakob Söderqvist will join Lidl-Trek's WorldTour squad next year.
Monday, April 14, 2025
- Man who threw bottle at Van der Poel turns himself in
- Paris-Roubaix Femmes draws nearly two million viewers
- Medical updates from the Hell of the North
Man who threw bottle at Van der Poel turns himself in
The roadside spectator who threw a water bottle at race leader Mathieu van der Poel has reportedly turned himself in to Belgian police, according to several reports in the Belgian media. The incident happened with roughly 33 km left in the race as Van der Poel was in the lead solo after Tadej Pogačar's crash, when a person threw what Van der Poel said was a full bottle, weighing roughly half a kilogram, directly in his face as the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider was riding roughly 50 km/h on the Cysoing à Bourghelles cobbles sector.
Both Sporza and VRT reported the suspect turned himself in to police in West Flanders, and VRT added that authorities in Lille, France, have also opened an investigation. No charges have yet been filed, and it's unknown yet whether Van der Poel and his team will also seek legal action after the race winner's promise immediately post-victory to do just that. Nieuwsblad reports the suspect was at the race with a supporters' club of Matej Mohorič, but the club denied he is a member and said he has been banned from any future activities. Nieuwsblad cited an unnamed source as saying the suspect is sorry for his actions.
Paris-Roubaix Femmes draws nearly two million viewers
Audiences for women's racing continue to grow. L'Equipe reported Sunday that viewership for the 2025 Paris-Roubaix Femmes averaged 1.1 million viewers domestically on France 3 (a 13.1% audience share) and peaked at 1.9 million viewers for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's solo ride into the velodrome. That's a record for the race, which held its first edition in 2021. Total international viewership data was not available. [L'Equipe]
Roubaix medical update
One of the more frightening images from Roubaix was Stefan Küng crossing the line with a bloodied face. The Groupama-FDJ captain, who was in the first chase group until a flat took him out of the action, crashed roughly 15 km from the finish on the Carrefour de l'Arbre sector. A team press release reported he will need stitches but made no mention of a head injury; Küng also suffered a horrific crash at the 2023 Time Trial World Championships, smashing his helmet and finishing bloodied with a head injury.
Küng was far from the only rider to sustain injury over the weekend. Lidl-Trek's Mathias Vacek also crashed and finished with blood on his face, while Davide Ballerini (XDS-Astana) suffered a broken wrist after colliding with a spectator. An errant spectator also spelled the end of the race for Movistar's Cat Ferguson in her debut Paris-Roubaix, as she crashed heavily on the Tilloy à Sars et Rosieres sector after hitting a roadside fan. Fortunately, her team said, she suffered bumps and bruises but no fractures.
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