August recap – Success across Europe

After July being an action-packed month across all three programs, things were a little quieter at the beginning of August. But it wouldn’t be long until the next big highlights would animate our TV screens once again.

Firstly, our Men’s program finished the journey to Poland with a couple of solid day results, that saw Oscar Onley finishing in 10^th place in the general classification, a nice accomplishment for the Scottish rider and the team.

Speaking of Scotland, the World Championships in and around Glasgow were marked in the calendars of quite some Team dsm-firmenich riders, as they represented their countries to fight for the famous rainbow jerseys.

Some well-known faces were in the mix in the men’s road race as Matt Dinham and Kevin Vermaerke made the jump into the breakaway on the testing parcours and showed themselves between the very best. While Kevin had to let go after a strong ride, Matt joined the group of favourites and then finished in a great seventh position for Australia. John Degenkolb also had a solid day finishing 16^th just a few positions ahead of Kevin who finished in 20^th.

Two days later, a period of hard work was rewarded, and a dream came true in the U23 time trial. On the 36.2 kilometres long parcours around Stirling, it was Lorenzo Milesi who had the best time and crowned himself a World Champion.

“It’s unbelievable. It was a brutal race; especially the last kilometre on the climb, it was really painful. It was painful to watch Segaert too all the time as it was close between us. I just went full from the start to the end. There was a headwind in the first part, so it was important to start well and then keep it up. I just gave it everything to the line. I knew that I needed to push full to the end. It’s not sunk in yet, I think I will need a moment to realise just what’s happened. I want to thank everyone that’s been a part of this,” a proud Lorenzo said after the podium ceremony.

Team dsm-firmenich Head of Science Narelle Neumann explained the preparation process ahead of the TT: “Our preparations for the TT at the World Championships started already many months before the race. Together with our biomechanics and aerodynamics experts, we were able to optimize Lorenzo’s TT position, especially for the characteristics of this parcours. Next to this, we worked on an individual and pacing plan with specific individual power goals for each section of the TT. This meant he could manage energy in the best way possible, making sure he had a constant and steady output on the flatter parts while still pushing hard on the final climb. For the day itself, we prepared a day plan, making sure he got the ideal nutrition and had the best possible physical and cooling preparation to be optimally activated for the effort. All of this preparation by everyone involved worked out perfectly on and off the bike and we are amazingly proud that Lorenzo finished it off with the world title.“

To round off our World Championships campaign, Juliette Labous and Franziska Koch made the podium in the special mixed relay team time trial. Juliette came second with France, while Franziska was not far behind with the German team in third place.

The focus then switched to Scandinavia where our Men’s and Women’s program took to the start line, starting with the Tour of Denmark. Tobias Lund Andresen shone on home soil as he sprinted twice into fourth place and once into seventh place.

Next was the Arctic Race of Norway – a race that the team has good memories of. The first day started with the unfortunate news that last year’s winner Andreas Leknessund had gotten sick overnight and couldn’t start. The team dealt with the situation in the best way possible and at the end of a rainy day, brought Alberto Dainese into perfect position so he could sprint to his second victory of the year. Kevin Vermaerke had a fantastic week which was rewarded with third on GC and a win in the youth classification. Matt finished sixth, only three seconds behind his teammate, rounding off a good race from the whole team.

Over to our Women’s program who competed at the Tour of Scandinavia with stages in Norway and Denmark, Megan Jastrab opened the race with a fifth place after good positioning by the team coming into the final. On the queen’s stage it was the young French rider Eglantine Rayer who took home a solid 12^th place and a lot of experience out of the stage. The parcours remained difficult and testing with a tough uphill sprint on the third day, where Megan was in good position, but missed a little bit on the final meters and came in ninth. Stage four featured a time trial and Franziska Koch showed some good legs, executed the pacing plan really well and finished the parcours in the sixth fastest time. On the final day, Eglantine and the team defended her spot in the top 10 of the GC successfully.

The next stop for the Men’s program was the Deutschland Tour. Kevin Vermaerke and Marius Mayrhofer sprinted into fourth and third respectively at stage one and four and Kevin finished sixth in GC, making it a solid race for the team.

Meanwhile, the sprint and classics group were in action at the Renewi Tour in Belgium and the Netherlands. After days of efforts, everything came together in the perfect way on the fourth stage. The team gave a great lead out to bring their finisher Sam Welsford into perfect position. He had the best push to the line, finishing all the hard work off perfectly to take a fantastic sprint win.

After his first WorldTour win Sam said: “You could see the nerves and the tension rising as the laps went on, but luckily enough the boys looked after me so well today. Full credit to them, they looked after me and kept me at the front in the narrow section, then delivered me in a great position with the lead-out. It’s been a good year so far with the team and I’m happy to take my first WorldTour win.”

Only a couple of hours later, the team colours were on the top step again. Under some testing conditions at the opening team time trial of the Vuelta a España, the eight guys from the team stayed calm and focused and passed the parcours in what would ultimately in the fastest time of the day. It was the best possible start for the group on and off the bike in Spain, with Lorenzo Milesi rounding off a nice month by taking the first red jersey of the race.

Team dsm-firmenich coach Phil West reflected on the success: “It’s a really, really nice way to start the Vuelta and it’s a lovely example of teamwork from both the staff and riders. We set out to go through our process throughout the day. Of course, in these races you never know quite what can happen, so we just focused on what we could control, and that’s what we did. Unfortunately, the rain came before the start so there was quite some water on the circuit. Even despite the weather, the guys focused on the process and executed their plan in the race as the best we could and in the end, we came out with a really nice ride. It’s a good way to kick this Vuelta off and we’re looking forward to the next days.”