Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. Here’s a rundown of the latest results before we get started:
- Tour of the Alps, Stage 2, Tues 21st April: 1st Giulio Pellizzari, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, 3h 28min 17sec; 2nd Thymen Arensman, Ineos Grenadiers, +00sec; 3rd Mattia Gaffuri, Picnic PostNL, +00sec.
- Tour of the Alps, Stage 1, Mon 20th April: 1st Tommaso Dati, Team Ukyo, 3h 21min 35sec; 2nd Tom Pidcock, Pinarello 36.5 Pro Cycling, +00sec; 3rd Florian Stork, Tudor Pro Cycling Team, +00sec.
- Men’s Amstel Gold Race, Sun 19th April: 1st Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, 5h 59min 40sec; 2nd Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek, +00sec; 3rd Benoît Cosnefroy, UAE Team Emirates XRG, +1min 59sec.
- Women’s Amstel Gold Race, Sun 19th April: 1st Paula Blasi, UAE Team ADQ, 4h 02min 15sec; 2nd Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon-Sram-Zondacrypto, +27sec; 3rd Demi Vollering, FDJ United-Suez, +27sec.
2027 Tour de France Femmes Grand Départ routes revealed
The stages for the Tour de France Femmes 2027 Grand Départ in the UK were revealed on Monday. The three days from 30th July to 1st August kick off with an 85.7km stage from Leeds to Manchester where the first maillot jaune will be awarded on Deansgate. Stage 2 takes riders over almost 3,000m of climbing across 154.4km through the Peak District from Manchester to Sheffield. Stage 3 will then finish things off with an 18km team time-trial around central London, the first TTT in the race’s young history.
Remco Evenepoel and Paula Blasi win Amstel Gold Race
Remco Evenepoel beat defending champion Mattias Skjelmose in a two-up sprint to win the men’s Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. It marks another strong one-day result for the Belgian this season following his podium at the Tour of Flanders, and is a good sign ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he will face Tadej Pogačar.
UAE Team ADQ’s Paula Blasi claimed a stunning debut victory in the women’s race for her first victory of the season and the biggest of her career. Despite slotting into a stacked squad via a late call-up, Blasi went solo on the Cauberg and dropped SD Worx-Protime’s Nienke Vinke to go clear. Behind, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney pipped Demi Vollering in the sprint for second, teeing up an exciting clash at Flèche Wallonne.
Matteo Jorgenson breaks collarbone
Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson has been ruled out of the Ardennes Classics with a broken collarbone. The American went down on a wet corner alongside Ineos Grenadiers’ Kévin Vauquelin at the Amstel Gold Race, meaning Visma will be without their leader for Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Jorgenson has had a strong start to this season, finishing second at the Faun Drome Classic, eighth at Strade Bianche and second overall at Tirreno-Adriatic, and had forgone the cobbled Classics to focus on the Ardennes.
Tour of the Alps kicks off
The Tour of the Alps is underway and served up a surprise result on the first day of action. At the end of Stage 1, Tommaso Dati from Japanese Continental squad Team Ukyo beat Tom Pidcock in a sprint to give the race a surprise race leader and the team a massive win against strong competition.
Pidcock was scheduled for all the Ardennes Classics but a heavy crash at the Volta a Catalunya sidelined him with knee ligament damage and a tibia stress fracture. The Brit has returned to the peloton earlier then expected, changing his schedule to include the Tour of the Alps to get racing in his legs before Liège-Bastogne-Liège at the weekend.
Tuesday’s Stage 2 saw Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Giulio Pellizzari (above) notch his first win of the season and jump into the race lead after a mountaintop sprint ahead of Ineos Grenadiers’ Thymen Arensman and Picnic PostNL’s Mattia Gaffuri, who had held on from the breakaway.