{"id":194038,"date":"2023-10-04T13:48:23","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T13:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=194038"},"modified":"2023-10-04T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T13:48:23","slug":"van-wilder-stuns-favourites-in-tre-valli-varesine-then-slams-soudal-jumbo-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/10\/04\/van-wilder-stuns-favourites-in-tre-valli-varesine-then-slams-soudal-jumbo-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Wilder Stuns Favourites in Tre Valli Varesine, then Slams Soudal-Jumbo Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soudal-QuickStep\u2019s 23-year-old Belgian Ilan Van Wilder surprised the likes of Tadej Poga\u010dar\u00a0(UAE Team Emirates), Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d\u00a0and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) with a bold solo move on the final climb of Tuesday\u2019s Tre Valli Varesine to spring an enormous upset. He then used the victory as a platform to voice his strong disagreement with the imminent merger of his team with Jumbo-Visma.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Speaking to Italian television after the race, Van Wilder said that his winning move was merely intended to put some tempo into the leading group of 10 top riders, which included the two big favourites. \u201cThen I had a gap, so I went full gas. With also my sports director [Davide] Bramati going crazy in the car, saying I have to do a TT to the finish. So I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the weeks since the announcement of the merger had been \u201cdifficult for us [Soudal riders]. So this victory was for my teammates to say we don\u2019t agree with all this [obscenity] and we want to continue with Soudal-QuickStep. We are strong enough and I hope it will be like this.\u201d This was the first prominent voice of dissent against the merger, which could put Jumbo\u2019s Jonas Vingegaard<\/a>, Wout van Aert and Sepp Kuss on the same team as Soudal\u2019s Remco Evenepoel, Julian Alaphilippe and Van Wilder, assuming they remain with the team. Though cycling\u2019s governing body UCI has officially announced the intent of the two teams to join forces, the merger has not been finalised.<\/p>\n

Carapaz finished second in the race, 16 seconds behind the winner, while Aleksandr Vlasov (BORA-Hansgrohe) finished third at 18 seconds. The 196.5 km race from Busto Arsizio to Varese kicked into gear after about 50 km when a group of nine riders formed a successful breakaway and quickly built a gap of more than 5 minutes to the peloton. A succession of unsuccessful chase attempts began with 65 km to go when Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) and eventually Vlasov made a promising move. But all the breakaway attempts were chased down by the peloton, under the impetus of \u00a0Poga\u010dar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates and Rogli\u010d\u2019s Jumbo-Visma.<\/p>\n

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\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 RESULT: Tre Valli Varesine @simovelasco<\/a> finished 29th, 45\u201d behind winner Van Wilder, @iamdlax<\/a> was 41st. #TreValliVaresine<\/a> #AstanaQazaqstanTeam<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/zPN4mUy4zN<\/a><\/p>\n

— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) October 3, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n