February recap – Racing is back in Europe

After our Men’s program’s successful start to the 2023 season, February was time for our Women’s and Development program to make their season debut.

Our Women’s program started its season with the inaugural edition of the UAE Tour. The girls showed great racing in what was an amazing four days of racing. Not only did they win the first and final stage in bunch sprints with Charlotte Kool, but they shaped the race all week in the echelons, showed force on the climbs with Esmée Peperkamp, and took two more podiums with Charlotte and Pfeiffer Georgi, plus the points jersey at the end of the race.

“We’ve really enjoyed it here, we have done so well. We really are a team, and we do it all together. Yesterday with Esmée we also showed that we are capable of a lot of nice things. To finish it off like this is a dream”, Charlotte said after winning the final stage. Team DSM Coach Albert Timmer added: “Of course the finish wasn’t how we planned or a perfect lead out like the other day, but it was purely down to Pfeiffer and how she sees the race and then acts on it, so that was really impressive. I think we have to give a big shoutout to her, but also to the rest of the team who looked after each other throughout not only today but the whole week. It’s been a crazy week for us and I’m happy with how we have started the season with two wins at the highest level and a top eight in the GC.”

 

Racing finally arrived in Europe with our Men’s program taking on the Figueira Champions Classic and the Volta ao Algarve. There, some of our younger talents showed their potential. Kevin Vermaerke and Pavel Bittner took some nice top-ten results and Oscar finished seventh at the queen stage and won the youth classification in the Algarve

At Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in Spain, our Women’s program rode really actively all week, shaping the race and being present in the breakaways. It paid off nicely with Megan Jastrab sprinting to third on day two and 19-year-old Elise Uijen winning on the last day after an outstanding ride in the break, taking home her first victory as a professional.

 “Today we were really looking to make the race as a team; attacking and going for the stage win. In the end after a lot of attacks I made it into a group. We knew it could go all the way for the stage win so I tried to do my best. In the end it came down to a sprint with another rider and I could finish it off. I’m really happy to take my first pro win and for the team too. We were able to put the cherry on the cake here, because this week we have really built on something, and it’s a blast to end it this way”, Elise said after her great victory.

After a 7^th in GC for Romain Bardet at Tour Alpes Maritimes du Var, WorldTour racing continued for our Men’s program in UAE for the final race out of Europe in the first part of the season. After a good TTT, Harm Vanhoucke and Andreas Leknessund showed some good climbing legs on Jebel Jais and finished sixth and eighth on the first GC day. The baton then was passed over to our sprint group who set up Sam Welsford to sprint third at stage four in what was an exciting finish, followed by another two sixth places in the next sprint opportunities. The heat on the climb of Jebel Hafeet proved extremely difficult (we faced temperatures of up to 38°C!), but the team fought their way to the line with Harm finishing twelfth on the stage and ultimately tenth in GC – a solid result to build on towards the next goals after some strong racing by the whole team.

The month concluded with the long-awaited Opening Weekend in Belgium, with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad as the first classic of the season for both our Men’s and Women’s programs. While the men had to deal with some bad luck and ill-timed crashes, the women had a good start to their classics season. They were present in all crucial moments with Pfeiffer rounding it off, sprinting to a strong fifth position.

“All the girls were so strong today. From the beginning we set out to make an impact in the crosswinds. At all our key points we were always in position and I was protected all day; especially into Molenberg and when it started to split I was in a position to follow. Physically I felt really good. I tried to follow Kopecky on the Muur but couldn’t quite do it but still made it over in the chase group behind. It was a bigger group coming to the finish and in the end I could take fifth which we can be content with. Of course, you will always look for more but I think it’s a good start and we showed today that we’re a really good team and it’s just the first classic so we have more that we can build on”, Pfeiffer said after the race.

On the same weekend, our Development program kicked off their season as well. In their first race in the U23 Road Series – together with the Dutch Food Valley Cycling Team – the guys were present all day, sprinting to a nice fifth place with Vlad van Mechelen, who also now leads in the young riders classification after the race.

Before we come back to the classics later in March, racing continues all over Europe with races like the dusty Strade Bianche, the “Race to the Sun” at Paris-Nice and the “Race between the seas” for Tirreno-Adriatico. We’ll see you out on the road!