"I'm not 100 per cent sure."
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time.
Stood out to me today: "I've been doing it for a long time, and my kids are a bit concerned about their inheritance."
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
"We didn't manage to have teammates with her in the finals, and that's our biggest mistake."
Ronny Lauke on keeping Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney at CANYON//SRAM zondacrypto
Four riders on the 2027 roster. Most of their leaders out of contract. And the team manager is sleeping fine. Ronny Lauke spoke to Daniel Benson ahead of the spring classics and was remarkably relaxed about the uncertainty around his squad.
"I dont have sleepless nights. The majority of the riders have transparent connections with the team, so if there's ever a need to talk, they can talk to me, and on the other side, there's a lot of talent out there that can be brought to the next level, so we just need to do our homework and do things right," he said. "We still have a good team. We have Neve Bradbury, Antonia Niedermaier, and Zoe under contract, and we have a good basis to build on; I'm pretty confident. It's still April, and we have time."
The key thread running through all of it is Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who has been linked consistently with Lidl-Trek. Lauke does not deny the gap. "In two particular races this year, we didn't manage to have teammates with her in the finals, and that's our biggest mistake. Look at Strade Bianche, she was alone for the last two hours, and that simply can't happen in a WorldTour race for a team with high ambitions."
He is trying to keep her, but when pushed on his confidence level, he gives the honest answer: "I'm not 100 percent sure."
Too close to the Amstel or an opportunity? Teams are divided over the Brabantse Pijl as a Friday race
Maxime Monfort and Kevin Hulsmans on the Brabantse Pijl calendar debate
Too close to the Amstel" or "an opportunity": Teams are divided over the Brabantse Pijl as a Friday race.
The field for Friday's Brabantse Pijl is down. Eight WorldTour teams skipped it, compared to none five years ago when the race was on a Wednesday. WielerFlits asked the teams why, and the answers split cleanly in two.
Maxime Monfort, sports director at Lidl-Trek, was direct: "There is really only one reason. We believe the race is too close to the Amstel Gold Race. Previously the race came shortly after the Tour of the Basque Country, and I still thought that was better. Not everyone goes all-in for six days chasing a GC in Spain. And you still had four days of rest. Now you only have one before the Amstel Gold Race. That's not enough." He also flagged a bigger shift. "In modern cycling, riders approach it very differently than ten years ago. You can ask yourself whether an extra race in the week of a major goal is even necessary anymore. Riders train differently and need to be fresher for their races."
Kevin Hulsmans, sports director at Soudal Quick-Step, saw it differently. "It's a short race — 162 kilometers — and it's certainly doable. It gives a lot of riders a good chance to test their legs and see where they stand. You also build extra race sharpness, which is exactly what helps at the Amstel or Liège. That can be an advantage." He also acknowledged the other side: "I understand the hesitation. It's a bit of a dilemma." But for Soudal Quick-Step, the Friday slot is actually an opportunity. "You still get Remco Evenepoel at the Amstel. When riders like that are at the start, it's harder. Not that we're saying we have to go all-in at the Brabantse Pijl, but it is a race with a reputation. A team like ours should not be absent, and we want to win."
Meanwhile, Mathieu Heijboer, Head of Performance at Visma | Lease a Bike, pointed to a simply overloaded calendar: "Every year we notice that in the week after Paris-Roubaix it's quite difficult to put together a quality selection." With the Giro d'Italia approaching and altitude camps already required, the math doesn't add up for a race that only arrived on Friday last year.
"I don't think Lenny deserves to be treated so harshly."
Miguel Martínez on his son Lenny, Paul Seixas, and social media criticism of young riders
Miguel Martínez, a former pro who now works with Bahrain Victorious in a race reconnaissance role, spoke to Cyclism'Actu TV about his son Lenny Martínez, the sticky bottle incident at last year's Tour de France, and the pressure placed on young riders today.
On his role within the team, the elder Martínez described how he helps bridge the gap between sports director Roman Kreuziger and his son's mentality. When Kreuziger wanted to tell Lenny that Stage 4 of Paris-Nice was one he had to win, the father stepped in: "I said, no, you shouldn't tell him that. I know Lenny, you have to tell him to aim for a top 3 finish. If he gets a top 3, he'll definitely be close to winning. He'll go for the win." Small adjustments, but ones that paid off: Lenny won the final stage of Paris-Nice outsprinting Jonas Vingegaard, and finished second at the Volta a Catalunya behind Vingegaard.
The sticky bottle controversy from last year's Tour de France came up directly. Martínez senior acknowledged the mistake but pushed back hard on the scale of the reaction. "I don't think Lenny deserves to be treated so harshly because of this. He earned his points later on, he was attacking the whole time. But the only way for Lenny to respond is with victories, and that's what he's going to do now."
From there, he widened the lens. "Criticizing young riders who make so many sacrifices, I say no. Because it hurts the families. Not the riders themselves, because the riders don't watch it anymore. But the parents of riders."
On Paul Seixas and whether he should race the Tour de France this year: "Even if he doesn't perform well over three weeks, he'll gain a year. That's incredibly important. And these days, we don't burn out young riders. I think he absolutely has to ride the Tour."
"I hope other women who want to become mothers don't encounter the difficulties I'm facing in returning to the professional peloton."
Sandra Alonso on returning to the peloton after becoming a mother
Spanish rider Sandra Alonso returned to racing with ENEICAT-BE CALL after losing her professional contract following the birth of her child. Her first race back was the Vuelta a Extremadura 2026, where she rode for the Spanish national team. She spoke to Marca about what the return means.
"Returning to competition means so much to me. After this chapter that was so important on a personal level, coming back to the peloton is a mix of excitement, motivation, and a responsibility to myself. I feel like I'm coming back with more perspective, more maturity, and a special energy to prove that I still have a lot to contribute."
The ENEICAT-BE CALL connection is meaningful to her: "It's a team I know well, where I already experienced an important stage before making the leap to professionalism, and coming back here is almost like coming full circle. It's a humble team, but with a great passion for this sport and a genuine commitment to its riders."
She was plainspoken about the structural problem behind her story. "Being a mother and returning to compete at the highest level should not be seen as an obstacle, but as something natural and even positive. I hope my experience helps change that mentality and, above all, I hope other women who want to become mothers don't encounter the difficulties I'm facing in returning to the professional peloton. Supporting these processes should be a source of pride for teams and a reflection of the values they represent."
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
"It’s honestly unbelievable that De Lie can ride this badly. This spring, he’s struggling so much that you start to wonder: ‘How is that even possible? What on earth happened?’ Then the usual story will come up again, that he needs to recharge in the Ardennes and go see his cows."
— José De Cauwer, Belgium’s most authoritative voice in cycling and longtime Sporza analyst, delivers an unfiltered verdict after Arnaud De Lie’s third straight disappointing spring classics campaign (Wielerclub Wattage)
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
"I always try to avoid a sprint when I can. I trust my sprint, but I trust more in arriving alone, then you have a 100% chance of winning." — Iván Romeo, CyclingUpToDate, after soloing to victory on Stage 3 of O Gran Camiño
"The narrow time gaps prompted a thorough review of both riders' times and the time bonuses earned during the stage, with the result flipping to Alessandro Pinarello as the new leader. The NSN rider will be in yellow tomorrow." — O Gran Camiño organization, WielerFlits, roughly ninety minutes after Stage 3's finish, reversing an earlier result that had awarded Jørgen Nordhagen the race lead by two seconds
"It's a race that suits me. I'm also glad I can wear my national champion's jersey again in Belgium. I won't have the best legs, but I'll do my best to work for the team while I build toward my next goals." — Tim Wellens, Sporza, confirming his comeback at the Brabantse Pijl, with the Amstel Gold Race also on his program
"He was impressive. He was by far the best rider in the race. He didn't win, but he rode his fastest Roubaix ever. But the winner has the final say." — Tom Boonen, Wielerclub Wattage, on Mathieu van der Poel's fourth-place finish at Paris-Roubaix
"If you don't take those gains, you won't even be in the race these days. We had this conversation even at training camp here — we would take the risk of puncturing way more than riding slow tires, because if you ride slow tires, you just aren't in the race. There's such a huge difference between slightly slower tires and fast tires. Even this year at Strade Bianche, we rode these puncture resistant tires. And after 30k, we had three guys left in the race. In the end, you can't take that risk. The only risk you can take is you ride fast stuff. And if you puncture, you puncture. But if you don't ride fast stuff, you're out of the race before you even start." — Larry Warbasse, The Cycling Podcast, on a difficult tire dilemma
"The crazy thing is I still think he probably has margin to progress because from all my friends on the team, I hear he's just a normal kid. He's not measuring every gram of his food. He's not doing so much of the stuff that a lot of the pros today are doing. So the scary thing is he probably still has margin to progress." — Larry Warbasse, The Cycling Podcast, on Paul Seixas
"It was great to be by his side last week. We don't know how far Paul will go, but in 10 or 15 years, we'll be able to say we were there with him when we ended that 20-year WorldTour win drought." — Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Eurosport, on Paul Seixas after his win at the Itzulia Basque Country
"Maybe I am very good — or even one of the best in the world — in races of 160 or 170 kilometers. But in the 200-kilometer races, I am simply out of it. So I am working hard on that: not necessarily getting better in an absolute sense, but trying to hold that same level when the races get longer and harder." — Iván Romeo, Laura Meseguer YouTube Channel, on his capabilities and areas of development
"I've been doing it for a long time, and my kids are a bit concerned about their inheritance. They like it when we're there [at races], but they see their inheritance going out the door." — Gerry Ryan, Domestique, the founder and primary backer of the GreenEdge cycling project, suggesting 2027 could be his final year of ownership of the Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco teams while seeking additional Middle Eastern sponsorship
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay