Amateur winner in Italy; Evenepoel defeated in Belgium; Traditional win in France - 3 big National Championships update
CyclingMonday, 30 June 2025 at 09:57
Three of cycling's main nations have had their men's national championships road race finish almost at the same time. Italy, Belgium and France all have new national champions in circumstances that were rather unexpected - and amongst them, a new win for UAE Team Emirates - XRG.
In Belgium it was Tim Wellens who took the victory in BInche, a race in which Remco Evenepoel had all eyes on him, attacked, formed groups, but in the end was anticipated by the UAE rider who won with a long-range attack. Evenepoel rode to second with Jasper Philipsen rounding out the podium - with several riders arriving before the peloton.
In Italy we have perhaps had the biggest surprise of all out of the main nations. Filippo Conca, former Alpecin and Q36.5 rider, has won the road race after winning a reduced group sprint beating UAE's Alessandro Covi. The 26-year old now races for the ASD Swatt Club, a non-professional Italian team, and has taken the victory of his career which could bring him back to the top level next year.
Meanwhile in France we had an incredibly chaotic race with several teams having over a dozen riders in a hilly circuit finishing in Les Herbiers. Decathlon in the final climb controlled the race into a sprint where Dorian Godon - recently connected with INEOS Grenadiers - outsprinted Romain Grégoire and Kévin Vauquelin to take the title.
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- That's a pretty harsh comment for your fellow riders! If he was better positioned for the sprint, he would be one of the riders that crashed... so then would he be one of those that prefer to crash rather than sprint? I think no one wishes to go down ever...Lobz7724-07-2025
- Ahhh! Bad luck, Carlos! Wishing you a speedy recovery! Another one of my top10 TdF 2025 prognostic abandons...Lobz7724-07-2025
- Trouble is, UAE is probably a one-way street, more interested in sucking up talent than selling it, must have used Bayern as a case study for how to right the competition ;-)Mistermaumau24-07-2025
- Also, yes other events have had success but the complications of the Tour are unique. The number of spectators vastly outweigh any comparable event, the variety of people too, locals, tourists, enthusiasts (this leads to far more feelings of being a priority “fan” compared to others than in stadiums or singular events where crowds feel more uniform, mentality like it’s my village, it’s my sport, it’s my holiday, others have less right to enjoy this here. The heating up by the caravan has to be analysed too, does it really create a better ambiance or does it stoke up tensions (I have seen grown men literally fighting over some stupid keyring from “territorial” catching rights, kids having crises (which boils over onto parents and then other annoyed bystanders because another caught more, someone hurt because one brand decided it would be cool to have youths (volunteering?) throwing hard drink cans into the crowd from a tall vehicle travelling at pro cycling speeds, anything can happen these days. Huge millions of people over thousands of km for 3 weeks, it’s as tough to prevent incidents as it is to stop riders crashing. Crowds don’t even mass up so closely at car rallyes (different perspective on dangers but still largely blind), you certainly couldn’t do a tdf for cars the way crowds are stationed, I think too many casuals who watch just don’t realise the speed of bikes (maybe too influences by tv scenes of mountain stages) and entourage who are in a frame of mind they have the whole visible surface to use. Far easier to avoid obstacles in F1. Far easier to fence people in in buildings. Far easier to control crowds that have to go through a gate or pay.Mistermaumau24-07-2025
- UAE is arrogant? Nils Pollitt clarified this, but as usual, this site omitted his explanation. He was telling the rider that the yellow jersey was having a nature break, and that it is an unwritten rule that attacks should be restrained under such conditions. Obviously, it is unfair to attack a rider who is peeing. The peloton also expect the yellow jersey team to control breakaways, so it is normal that UAE would reel in unwanted breakaways. These are racing situations not governed by hard and fast rules. Any rider or any team is free to go in front and take up the peloton pacing activity. It is unwarranted to label this as arrogant behavior. Tadej was merely expressing his opinion on the matter. As for the political stance of UAE, I don't think it is relevant, and media has a way of baiting sports figures to comment on matters unrelated to sports, in order to have something controversial to write about. Let us not allow ourselves to be fooled.FredMan24-07-2025
- Yes, you’re right though I don’t expect organisers to message subgroups individually with heavy campaigns. The problem in my opinion though is that people hear and understand the message but it’s forgotten as soon as their enthusiasm rises in the ambiance and they see others pushing limits more and more. Some of it is understandable and unavoidable but only because too many people no longer know how to hold back. The person in front moves forward to get a better view, so do you and the one behind, and then it starts all over again because everyone’s gain is cancelled out. Someone sticks their kid through to see better or raises them on their shoulder, same effect. Someone walks past and just stop right where they block your view, you move. People just aren’t thinking about the effect they have on their surroundings anymore and whether they are “perpetrator” or “victim” everyone feels justified and free to do as they feel and even when it leads to an accident they feel they had nothing to do with it, their actions didn’t participate in the build up.Mistermaumau24-07-2025
- Absolutely, it would be great if a few more in the public would help out handling or at least warning what in many cases must seem like suspicious, I mean, in this case, you don’t exactly go unobserved wringing your way through a thick crowd with a bike in tow. For having visited regularly I know that unfortunately too many get completely carried away by mass behaviour which often goes on closer and closer to limits until someone breaches it. Tough job keeping masses in line. I witnessed last year’s TT near Dijon and there was practically an animator taunting the police who were trying to prevent certain crowds from closing the road too much for the cars behind riders to pass. It was the point where the local Frenchie got fined for stopping to greet family which caused some criticism in both directions but I can tell you, in the euphoria and with the previous taunting having heated the more virulent young men, that crowd was close to provoking the kind of incidents only some can see coming.Mistermaumau24-07-2025
- I hope you’re right and that they slow down or run out of energy because they’re smashing it. The average is still 44! Fastest ever Tour was less than 42.1. It’s hardly slowed down since stage 10 when it was 44.8. Stage 9 and the 13 TT were the only that put a dent in things and then not much and proportionally the last stages won’t affect it as much so we may end with 43 especially if the sprinters or breakaway go for one final effort in Paris but I’ll go for 42.8. Still, we’re talking around 2% faster than the fastest ever, that’s like breaking the marathon record by 3 minutes and I don’t see no bionic shoes in cycling.Mistermaumau24-07-2025
- Indeed, and what is perhaps even worse is the writing of the articles, which feature an ever-increasing number of typos and word omissions. One wonders if the original articles on other sites are just as poor.itsent24-07-2025
- It’s actually kind of sad and disappointing that this site doesn’t link to the articles it hoovers up from.Mistermaumau24-07-2025