Historic wins and comebacks: 7 takeaways from action-packed week of cycling

Ever since he joined Visma | Lease a Bike at the beginning of the 2024 season, Cian Uijtdebroeks has had trouble finding his form, as he was affected by problems of numbness in his legs for the past two years. The very promising Belgian, winner at the Tour de l’Avenir 2022, managed to finish fifth at the Tour of Oman in February before having to pause his season once again from April to June.

The 22-year-old came back to competition at the Donostia Klasikoa San Sebastian, where he finished in a very encouraging ninth place. Last week, Uijtdebroeks lined up at the Tour de l’Ain, with the ambition of raising his arms for the first time in his professional career. After finishing second behind Nicolas Prodhomme in Lélex, the Visma | Lease a Bike rider triumphed in Belley after an amazing solo raid of 50 kilometres, pushing his nearest opponent three minutes behind.

This stage win also allowed Uijtdebroeks to bring home the general classification, a very important step in the young career of the Belgian, whose return was a reminder to all cycling fans of his amazing potential. The native of Abolens will not ride La Vuelta this year, but he will take on the Czech Tour next week with an objective of raising his arms once again.

When INEOS Grenadiers announced the signing of Victor Langellotti during the off-season, many cycling fans discovered for the first time a rider coming from an extremely small country: Monaco. This microstate often serves as the residence for cyclists due to certain fiscal advantages, but also for its proximity to the lower French Alps; it is also the place of birth of Langellotti, who became the first Monegasque to ride at the highest level of cycling.

Before joining the British team, the 30-year-old spent seven years with Burgos-BH, posting some results on the secondary French calendar but also winning an uphill-finish stage at the Tour of Türkiye ahead of some very talented climbers, including Alexey Lutsenko and Giulio Pellizzari. Langellotti proved his worth earlier in his first season with INEOS, finishing second at the Tour of Norway, but very few analysts predicted him to win at the WorldTour level.

After finishing third in Karpacz, Langellotti moved onto the podium of the general classification before the queen stage around Bukowina. During the final kilometre, while all eyes were on Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who seemed to be heading for victory, the Monegasque took his chance and launched his sprint from extremely far, jumping his American opponent on the line after an amazing effort. Unfortunately, Langellotti was not able to keep his leader’s jersey during the final ITT, but his win will still be a historic moment to remember, not only for him but also for his country.

After a strong first half of the season that saw him on the podium at the UAE Tour and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it was heartbreaking to see Giulio Ciccone leave the Giro d’Italia after a terrible crash while he was in the fight for the podium. 

Following this painful personal disappointment, the Italian rider of Lidl-Trek took his time before coming back to racing at San Sebastian. There, Ciccone dominated his opponents and added the biggest victory of his career to his trophy cabinet, showing his ambitions for the weeks to come. 

Unfortunately, the Vuelta a Burgos did not start well for the native of Chieti, as he crashed at the finish of stage 1, losing almost 1’30” on Roger Adria (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), the winner of the day. However, the three-time Giro stage winner still showed his strength by finishing second at Valpuesta and, more importantly, by triumphing at the top of the Lagunas de Neila on the final stage, which was also the hardest. Even though he wasn’t able to regain enough time to win GC, Giulio Ciccone has shown that he is ready for La Vuelta, as a leader or as a stage hunter.

Over the past weeks, the sponsorship change of Decathlon-AG2R has been all over the newspapers. Indeed, it has been announced that AG2R La Mondiale, the historic sponsor of the French team, will be replaced by CMA CGM at the beginning of next year, resulting in an augmentation of the budget for manager Dominique Serieys. Though no riders have for now been officially announced, rumours are everywhere, with riders such as Olav Kooij and Matthew Riccitello linked with the team.

This announcement proves an ambition for Decathlon-AG2R to become one of the super teams of the peloton. However, given their excellent results this week, could the French team already be considered among the best in the peloton?

Their amazing week began with the success of Paul Lapeira on the Polish roads, the first of the year for the former French champion, who also took the leader’s jersey. Unfortunately, the rider from Brittany crashed heavily on the road to Walbrzych the following day and was not able to maintain his lead during the queen stage. 

This World Tour success was followed by the first professional win of his young teammate Léo Bisiaux, as the neo-pro raised his arms in Valpuesta during the Vuelta a Burgos. At only 20 years old, the Frenchman confirmed that he is one to watch for the future as he beat Isaac Del Toro and Giulio Ciccone on an uphill finish. Despite conceding some time on the slopes of Lagunas de Neila, Bisiaux ended the week on the podium in GC, a good sign before taking on La Vuelta.

Finally, Nicolas Prodhomme continued his amazing season by raising his arms on the second stage of the Tour de l’Ain. The winner in Champoluc during this year’s Giro was beaten by Cian Uijtdebroeks the following day, but nonetheless scored his fifth success of the year.

Overall, Decathlon-AG2R showed great strength this week, with the performances of young and local riders. Though much of the spotlight from the media is on the wonderkid Paul Seixas, who will take on the Tour de l’Avenir in a few days, the French team can also count on other very talented riders, a solid base for a future super team.

Thanks to his success in Sorreisa at the occasion of the second stage of the Arctic Race of Norway, Alexander Kristoff elevated his number of career wins to 98. At 38 years old, one of the best Norwegian riders ever will retire at the end of the season; can he reach the symbolic bar of 100 successes before then?

Even though he has won very prestigious races during his long and amazing career, it seems that Alexander Kristoff has never got bored with success. The native of Stavanger raised his arms for the second time this season during the Arctic Race of Norway, fighting the clock to enter the elite club of the riders who triumphed 100 times during their career. 

Despite the fact that time is running out, the former winner of Milano-Sanremo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen still hopes to win again, at the Deutschland Tour or in Malaysia during the Tour de Langkawi at the end of the season. Though some of the greatest sprinters on the planet should be at the start in Germany, the start list is Malaysia is weaker and, despite the presumed participation of the likes of Alberto Dainese (Tudor) and Fabio Jakobsen (Picnic-PostNL), the South-Eastern Asian race could provide the opportunity for Kristoff to end his career on a beautiful note.

Fifteen. That’s the number of general classifications won by UAE Team Emirates this season. This new record shows the dominance of the Emirati team, who claimed nine World Tour stage races out of the 12 available this season, leaving only Paris-Nice (Matteo Jorgenson), the Volta a Catalunya (Primož Roglič) and the Giro (Simon Yates) for the others.

Even more impressive, these nine general classifications came from five different riders, as the American Brandon McNulty added his name to the list after triumphing at the Tour of Poland. This success for the rider from Phoenix shows the dominance of his squad, capable of winning World Tour races with riders that are usually domestiques for Tadej Pogačar, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso or even Isaac Del Toro throughout the season. 

The success of McNulty alongside that of Isaac Del Toro at the Vuelta a Burgos put the total victories for UAE Team Emirates at 72. Mauro Gianetti’s men will very likely surpass their total of 81 established last year, confirming their dominance of the international calendar.

If these results are amazing for UAE Team Emirates, it can become boring for the fans of our beloved sport, who always see the same jerseys at the front of the peloton, always the same men raising their arms. Even at smaller races, it seems that when the Emirati team is participating, they almost always find a way of triumphing, leaving almost nothing for the others during races that play out with less and less suspense.

With the third and final Grand Tour of the year arriving in two weeks, some of the outsiders for the general classification were testing themselves one last time before heading to Turin. Though the main favourites Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida and Richard Carapaz were not racing this week, some of their opponents for a potential podium competed, particularly at the Vuelta a Burgos.

Among them, Egan Bernal made a good impression during these five days in Spain, finishing sixth on GC. The Colombian will chase the only Grand Tour missing from his trophy cabinet and will aim to do better than at this year’s Giro, where he finished seventh. Another rider who shone in Burgos was the young Giulio Pellizzari, who returned to competition after showing his talent during his national tour. The young Italian will have to fight for leadership with Jai Hindley, but he showed that he was in better form than his Australian teammate by finishing fourth in the GC while the former winner of the Giro ended the race 25th. 

By contrast, for some leaders, the efforts in Burgos were not ideal. For example, Mikel Landa, returning to competition for the first time since his crash in Albania during the Giro, was missing from the first groups, finishing an anonymous 18th place on GC.

On the other side of Europe, in Norway, Tom Pidcock shone before La Vuelta. He benefited from the weaker start list of the Arctic Race of Norway to take victory for the fifth time this season and ended his Norwegian week only eleven seconds behind Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) in the overall classification. A good sign for the British rider who should aim for stage wins during La Vuelta and could compete for the KOM jersey with Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), also in great shape after his second place at the Vuelta a Burgos.