Cyclist Pinarello owned by Pope Francis heads to auction You can’t buy the Popemobile, but you can buy Pope Francis’ bike. The Pinarello Dogma F12, gifted to the Pope by Ineos Grenadiers’ Egan Bernal in 2021, is on auction until Sunday 24th March 2024 via the online marketplace Catawiki. The Pinarello’s colour scheme is a baby blue and white dedicated to the Pope’s native Argentina and is estimated to go for between €20,000-€30,000. When the Colombian gifted the bike in 2021, he did so as a then-24-year-old Giro d’Italia champion. Bernal is a Roman Catholic and described the meeting as ‘the most beautiful’ experience of his life, eclipsing his two Grand Tour victories. In addition to the 2021 Giro d’Italia title, the Ineos Grenadiers rider also won the Tour de France in 2019 and became the first Latin American rider to do so. Pinarello is synonymous with success in cycling and the brand has sponsored Ineos Grenadiers since their inception as Team Sky in 2010. So far, 12 Grand Tour titles have been won by the team on Pinarello bikes. Catawiki has previously been used to sell bikes such as Miguel Indurain’s 1994 Tour de France Pinarello, Jonas Vingegaard’s Cervélo R5 and Thibaut Pinot’s Lapierre Symbiosis bike from the 2023 Tour de France prior to his retirement, which became the most favourited Tour de France-related object on the site. The Pinarello Dogma F12 is on auction until Sunday 24th March on Catawiki. At the time of writing, the highest current bid is just €2,200. Not bad for a €14,000 Giro-winning race bike blessed by the Pope. Related Posts Gallery: Egan Bernal’s Tour de France winning Pinarello Dogma F12 Best road bikes: Best bikes from under £1,000 to over £10,000 The post Pinarello owned by Pope Francis heads to auction appeared first on Cyclist.

Cyclist Pro Log: Laura Kenny retires from cycling, Mathieu van der Poel inks 10-year Canyon contract, Jasper Philipsen wins Milan-San Remo, Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. At Milan-San Remo, Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the first Monument of the season for the men ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). Results powered by FirstCycling.com At Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Elisa Balsamo claimed Lidl-Trek’s fourth consecutive victory in the race, beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in the sprint. The Volta a Catalunya is also ongoing, with Nick Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech) winning the first stage thanks to a last-ditch break that earned a thumbs-up from second-placed Pogačar. Related Posts All the right moves: Elisa Balsamo profile Cycling spring Classics 2024: Race dates, Monuments, cobbles and live TV guide Dame Laura Kenny retires from cycling Laura Kenny, the most successful British female Olympian, has announced her retirement from professional cycling at aged 31. Speaking on her lengthy career, she told the BBC: ‘I always knew deep down that I would know when the right time was. I have had an absolute blast but now is the time for me to hang that bike up. It’s been in my head a little while.’ Kenny’s star is stratospheric, having won 17 European titles, seven World Championships, six Olympic medals and a National Road Race Championship. Her career spans the three Olympic Games of London 2012, Rio 2016 and the delayed Tokyo 2020, with five golds in track cycling. Kenny’s announcement comes prior to the Paris Olympics this summer. She had not returned to Team GB training following the birth of her second child last July and had suffered a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy after the Tokyo Games. Her last medal on the track came from the scratch race at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. On her future, she said: ‘It’s time to move on but stay following for the next chapter.’ Mathieu van der Poel signs 10-year contract with Canyon UCI Cyclocross Today, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) signed a 10-year contract with Canyon Bicycles, the longest-known contract in modern cycling. His partnership with the bike brand began in late 2017, and since then he has amassed a stunning 163 victories on Canyons across road, cyclocross and mountain biking. Canyon also inked an extension with the Alpecin-Deceuninck team, having been a bike sponsor for the squad since 2017. To add even more news, Van der Poel extended his contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck until at least the end of 2028. Jasper Philipsen sprints to Milan-San Remo victory An enthralling Milan-San Remo didn’t disappoint, with a group of 12 riders remaining after the punishing Cipressa and Poggio climbs. It came down to a bunch sprint after over six hours in the saddle, won on the line by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) just ahead of Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla). Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) completed the podium, finishing third ahead of Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). "𝑨𝒎𝒐 𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂 𝒆𝒓𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒊𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒎𝒐" El mensaje de Pogacar y su buen rollo con Philipsen en el podio de la Milán-San Remo.#MilanoSanremo pic.twitter.com/zvUHaJyPKf— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) March 17, 2024 The post-race scenes were a delight to watch, with hugs between rivals and celebratory pictures flooding social media. It was also nice to see Matthews on the podium again. It’s not that he hasn’t experienced some big wins throughout his career, victorious on multiple Grand Tour stages, but he has not had the same consistency of success as some of his rivals, even contemplating leaving the sport last year. I’m really glad he’s still here. Lidl-Trek win Trofeo Alfredo Binda for fourth year running Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won Trofeo Alfredo Binda this weekend, beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) in a sprint finish after 140.5km. It was a result perfectly set up with the help of Balsamo’s teammate and last year’s winner Shirin van Anrooij, with Balsamo also previously winning in 2022. It marks the fourth year in a row that the Lidl-Trek team has won the race, stretching back to Elisa Longo Borghini in 2021. Do better @TrofeoBinda pic.twitter.com/vt6L3311x1— Brodie Mai Chapman (@Brodie_Mai) March 18, 2024 But, as Brodie Champman revealed afterwards, there were some issues. With 1.5 laps to go, riders behind the front group were ‘confronted with opened roads, oncoming traffic, passing cars, red lights and busy roundabouts. We were forced to stop the race.’ Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away from bikes Former Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli revealed he chased down a group of potential thieves on the eve of Milan-San Remo. Speaking to Tuttobici, Colbrelli said he heard their bus driver shouting ‘in his boxers, and that he’d seen people trying to steal the bikes. We went outside and there were about ten young people. At one point, a car almost hit me but I just avoided it. ‘Then we started running after them and I followed them into the woods. They got away by car but I got in a car too and chased them at speed but we didn’t catch them. In the end, the staff slept with three or four bikes in their rooms.’ Colbrelli used to ride for the squad under their previous Bahrain-Merida name and won Paris-Roubaix in 2021. He retired in 2022 due to collapsing after Stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya, where he suffered an ‘unstable cardiac arrhythmia’ and later had a defibrillator fitted. After moving into a technical and ambassador role with the team, he now works as a directeur sportif for Bahrain Victorious, with a part-time role as a superhero taking on bike thief villains. See you next week. The post Pro Log: Laura Kenny retires from cycling, Mathieu van der Poel inks 10-year Canyon contract, Jasper Philipsen wins Milan-San Remo, Sonny Colbrelli chases thieves away appeared first on Cyclist.

Cyclist Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: Route, TV guide, start list and everything you need to know Beginning in 1977 as a three-day race for the men’s peloton, the Brugge-De Panne transitioned into a one-day spring Classic as of 2018 and was upgraded to WorldTour level the following year. The first edition of the women’s Brugge-De Panne race also ran in 2018 with a spot on the WorldTour calendar. It was won by Jolien D’Hoore of Mitchelton-Scott. The races begin in Brugge and typically come down to a bunch sprint in De Panne. As a result of its flat parcours, previous victors include Elia Viviani, Sam Bennett, Kirsten Wild and Lorena Wiebes. The men’s rainy 2023 Classic Brugge-De Panne was won by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in a group sprint ahead of Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma), while Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) broke away in the final 7km of the women’s race for her first WorldTour victory. Related Posts Cycling spring Classics 2024: Race dates, Monuments, cobbles and live TV guide Milan-San Remo 2024: Route, how to watch and all you need to know Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: Key information Brugge-De Panne Date: Men’s – Wednesday 20th March; Women’s – Thursday 21st MarchStart: Brugge, BelgiumFinish: De Panne, BelgiumDistance: Men’s – 198km; Women’s – 153.7kmUK television coverage: Discovery+, Eurosport 2Previous winner: Men’s – Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck); Women’s – Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: Routes Both the men and women’s pelotons will cover the same route from Brugge to De Panne, heading towards Nieuwpoort and travelling south towards Veurne. The only difference is the number of laps taken on the finishing circuit. The finishing circuit is slightly shorter than the previous edition, with the men completing three laps of a 43.9km circuit in comparison to the 48km route last year. The women will complete two loops of the same circuit. Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: How to watch Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024 will be available to watch in the UK on Discovery+ for £6.99 per month with the basic package, which includes cycling and all other Eurosport programmes. It will also be shown on the TV channel Eurosport 2 in the UK. If the race isn’t being shown in your country, you may be able to watch coverage using a VPN – Virtual Private Network – which allows users to mask their IP address and watch geo-blocked content, provided they don’t need to pay for a subscription. This is also helpful for watching paid-for coverage while travelling abroad in countries without access.   One such example is ExpressVPN, which is very well reviewed, helps users to find way to watch cycling without having to pay for broadcasters services, and costs £5.36 per month, with three months free. Other options include NordVPN, Surfshark and Kapersky. Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: TV times Wednesday 20th March (Men’s race)Discovery+: 14:00-16:30 GMTEurosport 2: 16:35-17:30 GMT Thursday 21st March (Women’s race)Discovery+: 14:00-16:30 GMTEurosport 2: 16:35-17:30 GMT Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: Start lists Data powered by FirstCycling.com Data powered by FirstCycling.com The post Classic Brugge-De Panne 2024: Route, TV guide, start list and everything you need to know appeared first on Cyclist.

Cyclist Cyclist’s Milan-San Remo predictions 2024 Milan-San Remo is here again. The first Monument of 2024 and it’s going to be hotly contested. Even with Wout van Aert sitting this one out, there are a lot of riders who could really do with a big win on Via Roma. We’ve gathered the collective brainpower of the Cyclist team to make our predictions for this weekend’s race, and they’re all wholly uninspiring, but someone will probably be right considering what’s the bookies are saying. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom. Pete Muir, editor: Mads Pedersen Lidl-Trek As usual, it will come down to who can attack on the Poggio. Mathieu van der Poel will be marking Tadej Pogačar. Pogačar will be marking Van der Poel. Mads Pedersen will get the jump on both of them. And I say that as someone who has never been wrong in a race prediction. Will Strickson, website editor: Filippo Ganna Ineos Grenadiers Filippo Ganna outsprinted Tadej Pogačar and Wout van Aert for second last year, in a year he was focussed on battering the Hour record. Everyone will be anticipating Van der Poel, so it’s either going to be someone completely rogue or Ganna, and I couldn’t vote against that face. Robyn Davidson, editorial assistant: Mathieu van der Poel Milan-San Remo I’ll go for a breakaway featuring Pogačar, Pedersen and someone like Christophe Laporte. Van der Poel will go two in a row and win with a bike throw. Martin James, production editor: Tadej Pogačar James York Yes, it’s hardly deep insight to choose (arguably) the best cyclist in the world right now as the most likely to win, but come on, He told everyone where he was going to attack at Strade Bianche ahead of time, did exactly that, and still won at a canter. That’s a degree of superiority, plus a touch of elite-level shithousery, that you can only admire. Not that I’m expecting him to win with an 81km solo break like he did in Tuscany, because Milan-San Remo is a very different kind of race and even he’s not capable of that… is he?  Related Posts Who are the favourites for Milan-San Remo 2024? How to watch Milan-San Remo 2024 Milan-San Remo 2024: Route, how to watch and all you need to know The post Cyclist’s Milan-San Remo predictions 2024 appeared first on Cyclist.

José Manuel Diaz finished in the Top10 of stage 2 to Vallter 2000 in a brilliant performance, but on the third day of the Volta a Catalunya his goals were taken out by an extremely unusual accident involving the medical assistance car. Diaz, sitting 10th in the GC at the start of stage 3, was the le...

Mark Cavendish managed to win a sprint stage at the Tour Colombia early in the year but has since not had a good time. The Manxman has not been able to be quite competitive since, and this spring has been far from successful, with illness now taking him out of competition. “It was impossible to star...

Mathieu van der Poel has recently signed a long-term contract with the Canyon bike brand, with whom he's won almost unheard of amounts of races within pro cycling. He's taken the opportunity to answer questions regarding his biggest rivals, cyclocross, the Olympic Games and the current aggressive st...

Wout van Aert began his season the earlier he's ever done throughout his career and is in an ongoing schedule that is different than anything he's done in the past. He's hoping for the risk to pay off, and will gauge his current form at the crucial E3 Saxo Classic. "The last three weeks have gone we...