April Recap – In the mix on all terrain

After a good first month of the classics for the team, more cobbles and the Ardennes awaited our Men’s and Women’s programs in April. While it was a quieter month for our Development program, some had the chance to gain some valuable experience with the Men’s program within the mixed races.

The month kicked off with the second monument of the year: Ronde van Vlaanderen. The race became the expected tough battle for glory, with Juliette Labous putting on a strong fight for the team. She followed the best in the crucial moments and sprinted to a strong sixth place from the first chasing group behind the solo winner.

Both programs continued at Scheldeprijs, which is dubbed the unofficial World Championships for sprinters, and one where the team has tasted success in the past. The team did a great job in both races, present in the peloton through the whole day, bringing their finishers to a nice spot for the final sprint to the line. Both of which were rewarded with second places by Sam Welsford and Charlotte Kool.

Meanwhile, the Development program were back in action in France at the Circuit des Ardennes. While the focus was on gaining experience and learning from each other, Moritz Kärsten was able to show himself by riding strongly in the breakaway on the hilly second stage. He couldn’t follow the very best, but finished ahead of the chasing peloton with a strong fourth place.

France was the location for the third monument of the season, “The Queen of the Classics” – Paris-Roubaix. The weekend kicked off with the women’s race and after a fast start, a big breakaway went clear, with Daniek Hengeveld being present for the team. From there she tried to take the race into her own hands and force a selection by attacking. Nobody was willing to follow her move, and she was caught back after a strong solo ride. Daniek went on to support Pfeiffer Georgi into the final, bringing the chasing group back to the front. The breakaway proved too strong and took the win, while Pfeiffer sprinted into a strong second place from the group of favourites, which was an eighth place in the race and a strong conclusion of the cobbled classics for the Women’s program.

Reflecting on the classics period for the Women’s program Team DSM coach Kelvin Dekker expressed: “We were really enthusiastic coming into the classics period. We knew that we are coming a little bit more out of an underdog position this year and were ready to use this to our advantage and surprise everyone. We already set good basics during the preparation at UAE Tour and Valencia.  In both races, we won stages with great teamwork, so we knew, we were ready. We had a strong finisher with Pfeiffer for most of the races, but also the climbing group was really strong and rode with an attacking mindset. That’s what we also wanted to show in the races together with good teamwork to go for good results. Looking back, we showed all of that – we won a race, we shaped the races on many occasions, and we almost always went home with a good result, sometimes more satisfied than the others. Next to the results, a lot of our young riders stepped up during the classics campaign. Overall it was a really successful period for us and something to build on for the next years.”

The team colours were also on display at the men’s race, the day after. When the race opened up with 100 kilometres to go, John Degenkolb was able to follow the early attacks. He looked very strong, riding in the leading group and even being the first rider entering the Pavé section, which was named after him. But into one of the last cobbled sections, he got caught up in a crash and the dreams of taking the second win in the Velodrome were over. Luckily, he was able to continue and got a more than warm welcome during the finishing laps where he crossed the line as the seventh rider of the day, a strong result and impressive fighting spirit from John.

Looking back on the spring campaign for the Men’s program Team DSM coach Phil West explained: “We went into the classics with the goal to take something out of that period. We wanted to race positively, and influence and impact things for our own development rather than purely following and seeking a result. It’s not the easiest thing to do when you are in what are the biggest races in the world at that time but we have to keep respect for that if we really want to achieve top-level results in those races. Sometimes you have to take a step back to see what do we have to do right now to put in place for the future. Doing it in this way showed that when we give big attention to the basics and really push that, it can really pay off. From that point of view – when we are able to do it, and see that there are more riders coming deeper into the race, I think it puts us in a good position for the coming years. So we can be happy with that.” 

With the cobbles behind us the Ardennes were waiting around the corner. The Women’s program took their rhythm from the cobbled classics and started with a good seventh place at Amstel with Pfeiffer, while Juliette just missed the top ten at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège after strong rides by the whole team.

The Men’s program showed itself too at the Ardennes and after being set up by his teammates nicely, Romain Bardet showed some strong legs at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Unfortunately he was boxed in on the Mur de Huy and finished ninth, and at Liège came a little bit short in one of the sprints in one of the chasing groups and came in in a solid 15^th place.

Meanwhile, a young group took on the Tour of the Alps in Austria and Italy. While having to fight with several setbacks, the team showed great moral, fighting spirit and teamwork and Max Poole stepped up as finisher. After being called up shortly before the race, he could ride with the best throughout the whole five days, finishing just outside of the top ten in the GC and winning the young riders classification.

Following on from that stage racing continued in the final week of the month with our Men’s program in action at the Tour de Romandie while our Development program were in action at the Tour de Bretagne. In Switzerland the team has been performing at a high level throughout the race so far with Romain Bardet nabbing a fourth and third place on stage one and three, in which the latter Oscar Onley took fifth. While in the tough time trial, Max Poole continued his strong run of form and claimed tenth place; a result he would back up the following day on the summit finish at Thyon 2000 with a brilliant fourth place (his first ever WorldTour level top five) after a commanding ride by the whole team; with good early positioning work by Chris Hamilton and Marco Brenner, before Onley decimated the bunch and Bardet’s relentless attacks split things further. Over in Bretagne some committed riding by our young group has seen finisher Vlad Van Mechelen in the mix on almost every stage, where he’s claimed two top five finishes.

At the time of publishing, Poole and Bardet sit in fourth and seventh respectively on GC in Romandie, while Van Mechelen holds onto ninth in Bretagne – with changes possible on the final day of action!

After a successful classics campaign full of new experiences, great teamwork and aggressive racing, the longer stage races are around the corner in May. While the men will take on the big loop through Italy, the women will face the Vuelta Femeninas. All three programs will build on the nice foundations they’ve set in the past period.