Is Wout’s Ronde dream over? Disastrous crash takes out Flanders favourite Van Aert; Geraint Thomas says Quintana “shouldn’t be racing” after Nairo’s Catalunya tramadol spat with Poels; Mail meltdown (again) over bike lane markings + more on the live blog

Damn.

Usually the final tune-up and form indicator ahead of the Tour of Flanders, this afternoon’s Dwars door Vlaanderen has instead been the sight of what already looks likely to be the most disastrous and consequential crash of the 2024 cycling season.

With around 70km left, a main chasing group containing all of the favourites – and most of the big names aiming to win the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix over the next two weekends – appeared to fall victim to a gust of wind, leading to a touch of wheels and a nasty collision that brought down Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen, Biniam Girmay, and Jasper Stuyven.

While Gent-Wevelgem winner Pedersen is back on his bike, his in-form Lidl-Trek teammate Stuyven was last seen being consoled and ready to depart in an ambulance, while Girmay looked to be holding his shoulder in pain.

Van Aert, meanwhile, looked to be one of the worst affected, staying on the ground after ripping his jersey almost completely, his Flanders and Roubaix dreams devastatingly up in smoke for another year.

I’ll say it again – damn.

🇧🇪 #DDV24

🏆🥇 pic.twitter.com/hd98qIbIyD

— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) March 27, 2024

On a day that initially seemed to sound a death knell for Visma-Lease a Bike’s classics hopes for 2024, after Wout van Aert was left distraught on the tarmac, the Dutch team proved they’ve still got plenty of firepower over the cobbles, as Paris-Nice winner Matteo Jorgenson took advantage of Visma’s numerical superiority to solo to victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen, another win in what has been a stunning breakthrough season for the American.

The chaos of that race and possibly season-defining crash with 70km to go, rather inevitably, resulted in more chaos, as the race’s narrative up to that point – dominated by the two super teams, Visma and Lidl-Trek – was thrown out the window.

By the closing stages, an aggressive Alberto Bettiol looked the strongest of a group that had filtered clear, including Stefan Küng, Josh Tarling, Jonas Abrahamsen, and Visma teammates Jorgenson and Tiesj Benoot.

CRAMPS for Bettiol! Not the first time this happens to him in a race. #DDV24 pic.twitter.com/CrS8fj0t5k

— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) March 27, 2024

However, in keeping with the race’s chaotic nature, Bettiol followed up a piercing attack on the Nokereberg with an abrupt challenge-ending bout of cramp. 

The Italian dispatched, Visma then made their numbers count with seven kilometres to go, as Jorgenson forged clear to become the first American winner of the Flemish semi-classic, bolstering his credentials as both an elite stage racer and classics contender, with Abrahamsen mopping up an impressive second ahead of Küng.

Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson is victorious at Dwars door Vlaanderen!!! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/Go1Uyyd72u

— Eurosport (@eurosport) March 27, 2024

“This whole season’s been a dream, it’s a bit surreal really. It’s been an insane season, I really can’t believe it,” 24-year-old Jorgenson, who beat Remco Evenepoel to win Paris-Nice earlier this month, said at the finish.

Reflecting on the crash that brought down team leader Van Aert, along with Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven, and Biniam Girmay, the American said: “I was on Wout’s wheel at the time. It was just before the Kanarieberg, obviously a decisive moment in the race, but it was just a racing incident.

“We had two lead out trains, Trek and us, we came together – Wout and Alex Kirsch came together – and it was a really ugly fall.

“I saw the whole thing and I knew Wout was going to be out of the race at that point, we were going so fast.

“Tiesj [Benoot] and I continued with the plan, there was still a bike race, but my thoughts are with Wout and all the other guys involved.”

When asked if he could end up as Visma’s leader at the Tour of Flanders this Sunday, Jorgenson replied: “I hope that’s not the case. I hope everyone’s good and we’ll assess that later.”

🇧🇪 #DDV24

Victory 2⃣5⃣0⃣ on the road. 😳

Simply 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/T6cVDRSRzX

— Team Visma | Lease a Bike Women (@visma_lab_women) March 27, 2024

So, you’re Marianne Vos, you’re 36, and you’ve basically won everything there is to win during one of the greatest cycling careers ever, as a new generation emerges at the top of the sport.

What do you do? Well, you go and win races you’ve never won before to take your tally to 250 UCI road race victories, of course.

After winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for the first time last month, the legendary Dutch rider outsprinted Lidl-Trek’s own multi-disciplinary star Shirin van Anrooij to secure her maiden Dwars door Vlaanderen after the pair escaped from an elite leading group in the closing stages of the Flemish semi-classic.

This is what happened in the men's race ahead to cause the neutralisation and shortening of the women's Dwars Door Vlaanderen#DDV24 #DDVwomen pic.twitter.com/SqBl6nT3On

— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) March 27, 2024

This being the 2024 edition of Dwars door, something unusual and chaotic was bound to happen – and with the bunch fracturing with 50km to go, the race was temporarily neutralised following an awful looking collision between a Soudal-Quick Step team car and a medical vehicle on the road ahead during the men’s race.

Riders finding novel ways to keep warm while the race was neutralised 🫂👮#DDV24 | @RolandCycling pic.twitter.com/tuBpbph3cF

— Eurosport (@eurosport) March 27, 2024

With the race back underway, and the riders suitably warmed up, an elite group of five, including Lidl-Trek’s Van Anrooij and Elisa Longo Borghini, Letizia Paternoster, Puck Pieterse, and Vos, forged clear.

One glaring omission from that group was, of course, SD Worx, the peloton’s dominant team. And with the departing Demi Vollering foiled by a puncture, world champion Lotte Kopecky was forced to bridge across solo.

However, with SD Worx remaining firmly on the backfoot, despite Kopecky’s obvious strength, Lidl-Trek took advantage of a once in a blue moon opportunity to assert their numerical advantage by sending cyclocross star Van Anrooij up the road.

Marianne Vos wins Dwars Door Vlaanderen!

You never see wasted effort from Marianne Vos, she marks the right moves when she has to and didn't hesitate with the others when Van Anrooij attacked today (great ride from her too!)#DDV24 #DDVwomen pic.twitter.com/kZwP4ddcDk

— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) March 27, 2024

The tactics may have been spot on, but with the ever alert Vos quickly on her wheel, the 22-year-old was destined to be a lamb to the slaughter in the sprint (a doomed attempt to bridge to the front by Longo Borghini evidence of the team’s acceptance of that physical reality), and so it proved – Vos adding another historic line to her British Library-sized collection of successes, as an impressive Paternoster rounded off the podium by surprisingly beating Kopecky in the sprint for third.

The Ronde could be interesting…

#DDVmen #DDV24 Mads and Alex both got back on their bikes but we’ve gotten the update that Alex has since abandoned the race 😢🥺

Jappe was taken to hospital for further checks 💔 https://t.co/zFuij2pSX7

— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) March 27, 2024

Meanwhile, Intermarché-Wanty have also announced that Biniam Girmay, who headed into the cobbled classics with high hopes after a frustrating 2023, is also on the way to hospital for checks: 

😰 Biniam Girmay crashed hard during Dwars door Vlaanderen and is heading to hospital for checks. We keep you informed. #DDV24 pic.twitter.com/2Z0d0NuKGb

— Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) March 27, 2024

> CyclingMikey says cyclists breaking rules are “annoying”, but not focusing on drivers to improve road safety the “wrong way round”

It’s Nairo-bashing week in the pro cycling podcast world, it seems.

After Wout Poels recounted his fiery confrontation with Quintana on the roads of Catalunya, Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe – no strangers to stirring the pot or indulging in some tongue-in-cheek analysis – offered their own take on the controversial Colombian.

> “Remco hates Jumbo, and Jumbo hates Remco… You should hear what Roglič says about Remco. So that’s not going to work, is it?” Geraint Thomas questions ‘Soudal-Visma’ merger plans

During yesterday’s episode of the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast, the two Ineos riders were asked for their picks for May’s Giro d’Italia, an obvious question that prompted an obvious answer: Tadej Pogačar, of course.

As the pair strained for any other possible pink jersey contenders (excluding Thomas himself, of course), Quintana’s name popped up in the conversation.

“He shouldn’t even be racing,” Thomas said.

“I know,” concurred Rowe. “Little f***ing rat.”

That rather blunt assessment did elicit some laughs, so it’s hard to tell how serious the Welsh duo are, but still, shots fired.

Probably best to stick to the audio books this week, Nairo…

🇧🇪 #DDV24

Wout has done so many races in his life, but… 🔫💥😱 pic.twitter.com/2Mhl5k52cG

— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) March 27, 2024

Not going to lie, this was me at the start of every single track race at last year’s world championships in Glasgow. Every single one.

So, thanks Julian and Wout (who literally spends his winters sprinting at the sound of a gun) for making me feel slightly better about my shredded nerves and embarrassing jumpiness.

I hope all those who laughed at me in the press box feel good about themselves now…

Franck Bonnamour, the first WorldTour rider to be flagged for biological passport anomalies in over a decade, has been dismissed by his Decathlon AG2R team, despite the French rider insisting that he’s innocent and that he will fight his case against the UCI.

At the start of February, cycling’s governing body announced that 28-year-old Bonnamour – who won the most combative award at the 2021 Tour de France while riding for B&B Hotels, following a series of attacking displays – has been “has been provisionally suspended in accordance with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules due to unexplained abnormalities in his Biological Passport”.

> Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider Franck Bonnamour provisionally suspended by UCI over “unexplained abnormalities” in biological passport

And this morning, Decathlon AG2R announced that they have terminated Bonnamour’s contract. Without going into any specifics, the team insisted that it “advocates the practice of cycling in accordance with stringent ethical rules”, and noted that Bonnamour’s suspension by the UCI “follows tests carried out before he joined the team on the 1st of January 2023”.

The French rider, who joined AG2R last season and whose sole professional victory came at La Polynormande in 2022 (though he did just miss out on a big win at Paris-Tours the previous autumn), raced once in 2024 for the team at the Tour Down Under, finishing 13th on stage two to Lobethal, though his immediate future – like so many biological passport cases before him – now appears to be defined by a potentially lengthy legal battle, as he maintains his innocence and denies he’s a doper.

Communiqué ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/etZTbo71jf

— Franck Bonnamour (@FranckBonnamour) March 26, 2024

In a social media post last night, confirming his dismissal from Decathlon AG2R, Bonnamour wrote: “I have always done my job respecting the rules that the UCI imposes on me. I have always complied, of course, with the numerous anti-doping controls that this sport has required of me for years. I have never used prohibited products or any blood manipulation.

“With the help of my lawyers and scientists, we’re working on my defence. I have always been an honest, upright, and clean racer and therefore cannot be accused of cheating.”

The often horrific state of the UK’s roads – and their disproportionate and hazardous impact on cyclists – is something we’ve covered frequently on road.cc over the years.

But, for all this country’s shoddy, crumbling, and downright dangerous infrastructure, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a hole quite as big as the one that caught out South African cyclist Ian Said during a Sunday club ride earlier this month:

Blimey.

The 60-year-old told the Citizen that he suffered a broken nose, “quite a lot” of bruising, and cuts after tumbling into the hole on the R23 Heidelberg Road near Brakpan, 20 miles east of Johannesburg, on 17 March.

The hole appears to have been carved out of the road as part of repair or maintenance work, with Said noting that it was angled in a way that the morning light made it “almost invisible”.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, which responsible for maintaining the R23, told a local newspaper that it would attend to the hole, but offered no explanation as to its origin or why it was left unattended.

So, who knew that spending all your time on a farm looking after animals could make you a better bike racer?

Well, that’s according to the latest UCI rankings – which have seen Thibaut Pinot rise three places up to 20th in the list of the top male pro cyclists in the world, while also making him the number one French rider on the planet… despite the mercurial French climber retiring almost six months ago.

Don’t believe me? Well, here’s the current UCI top 20:

No, Pinot isn’t getting extra points for getting up early to milk the cows – though there’s an idea to spice up the cobbled classics – he’s simply benefitting from the governing body’s rolling 52-week ranking system, which means that illness-stricken Christophe Laporte, who enjoyed a storming start to 2023, slips down to 35th overall and loses his French number one crown after losing the points he accumulated last March.

That also means Pinot will soon see the points he picked up at a number of French one-day races and the Tour de Romandie last April disappear into the ether, as he slides peacefully into idyllic rural retirement.

So drink in the last statistical remnants of Thibaut Pinot the elite bike racer while you can…