"We had scouted the final well and knew a few moments where it was good to go" - Lidl-Trek DS confirms Jasper Stuyven's attack was well planned
Cycling
Big disappointment at Lidl-Trek after the gravel stage in the Tour de France. Jasper Stuyven seemed to be on his way to victory, but was caught in the final kilometer by his former breakaway companions.
"With that group with Turgis in it, we knew he wasn’t going to win in a sprint. Moreover, there was still a threat from behind with that group with Van der Poel and Girmay. We had scouted the final well and knew a few moments where it was good to go. Jasper picked a really good moment," sports director Steven de Jongh explained to WielerFlits why Stuyven - normally a formidable sprinter - rode away from the leading group with around eleven kilometers to go.
However it was not meant to be and ten kilometers later he was caught again. A lot of credit for that goes to Astana's Alexey Lutsenko who probably sacrificed his own chances to pull Stuyven back to the group in the final kilometer. "Unfortunately it just didn’t work out. This sucks. He can also look back on this stage with his head held high. The fact that Lutsenko then does a suicide pull to get him back, I didn't have in my script either."
Stuyven had an atypical preparation for the Tour de France, because the Belgian was initially not going to start. Yet he is clearly at his best. "After his operation he already returned very strongly in the Giro. After that he rested and prepared for the Tour of Belgium, where he was already good. After that he also rode a good Belgian Championships. When we were faced with injuries and illnesses, he already indicated that he was ready for it. It is always a dream to take a rider like that with us."
Turns out De Jongh is not a large fan of a gravel stage at the Tour either: "It has been a very nice race, but the gravel was quite loose today. That does pose some risks. Ciccone is still quite close and can still ride for the GC, so you have enough to lose. And you don't want to lose other riders either. A crash is always shitty," said the Dutchman, who saw leader Mads Pedersen give up a few days ago due to the consequences of an earlier crash.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
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If it's possible to give more than 100 percent, then @Jasperstuyven certainly did at the #TDF2024 today! 📰 racing.trekbikes.com/stories/lidl-t…
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