News Round-up: Tour de France, Giro Donne latest and Vingegaard goes 1x

The highly anticipated start of the Tour de France didn’t disappoint, delivering an attacking feast of racing over the opening two stages in the Basque Country.

Racing continued today with a stage that promised some respite for the riders and an opportunity for the fast men, but could they take advantage?

Check out the latest updates from the Tour de France, plus the rest of today’s headlines, below.

Jasper Philippsen wins chaotic stage 3 sprint at Tour de France

After two days of climbing, the sprinters had their fun on stage 3 of the Tour de France. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) surged to victory in the hotly contested sprint, taking advantage of Mathieu van der Poel’s lead-out to beat Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) in 2nd and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) in 3rd.

There was briefly a pause to the celebrations as the race officials analysed footage on suspicion that Philipsen had unfairly blocked Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), however his third career Tour de France stage victory was confirmed soon after.

Elisa Longo Borghini triumphs on stage 4 of Giro d’Italia Donne

Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) moved up to second overall on the fourth day of the Giro Donne after triumphing in a three-up sprint, beating Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) and pink jersey Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) into second and third.

Despite missing out on the win, van Vleuten still holds a vice-like grip on the overall lead, 49 seconds clear of Longo Borghini with five stages still remaining.

Check out our full race report.

Ben O’Connor: It’s simple, I’m not good enough at the moment

Photo: © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

O'Connor struggled on the opening weekend of the Tour de France.

We’re only two days into the Tour de France but the Basque Country Grand Départ has already ended some general classification hopes, while others are hanging by a thread.

AG2R Citroën’s Ben O’Connor was one of those riders who lost out on the opening weekend, finishing behind GC rivals on both stages and shipping 1:41 to race leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates).

After stage 2, the Australian gave a frank and honest assessment of his performance so far.

Egan Bernal vows to race in 'killer mode' at Tour de France

Photo: © Velo Collection (David Ramos) / Getty Images

Bernal is keen to make his mark at the Tour de France.

While some riders floundered on the Tour de France’s opening weekend, others flourished. One of those was 2019 champion Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) who has vowed to race in “killer mode” after making a solid start to the race.

The Colombian lost 21 seconds to the main general classification group on the opening day before bouncing back to finish in the lead group on the second day.

It’s an encouraging sign for the Colombian who has been negotiating a long road back from his life-threatening crash at the start of last year.

Jonas Vingegaard goes 1x at Tour de France

Following in the footsteps of teammate Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Jonas Vingegaard opted for a 1x setup on the opening two stages of the Tour de France. It’s a setup he used previously at the Critérium du Dauphiné and it must have impressed him as it has made a return at the French grand tour.

We recently sent Si Richardson over to Spain ahead of the race to hunt out the hottest tech and he was lucky enough to get up close with the bike.

Si made some other notable findings including Tadej Pogačar’s (UAE Team Emirates) heavily-customised Colnago V4RS, Mads Pedersen’s (Lidl-Trek) customised Trek Madone SLR 7, a prototype BMC created with the help of F1 giants Red Bull, plus much more.

Eurobike 2023: lightweight bikes steal the show

We recently sent Ollie Bridgewood over to Frankfurt, Germany, to explore cycling’s biggest tech show, Eurobike. It’s one of the most hotly-anticipated events of the year and regularly delivers new releases that sets the tech world abuzz.

And it didn’t disappoint. During his explorations, Ollie unearthed a wealth of lightweight bikes including Look’s new 795 Blade RS. Ridden by pro team Cofidis, the not-so-secret bike officially broke cover at the show and Look claims that it has “proven dynamic qualities for all types of courses and riders”. Elsewhere, Ollie also encountered the Swi Thrama Di2 Disc 12v which clocks in at a lightweight 6.3kg.

Rim brake aficionados will also be happy to hear that Ollie encountered a rim-brake Cipollini Dolomia Velum bike. Are rim brakes back? They are for the Cipollini brand although a disc brake version of the bike does exist.

UCI MTB Series: Pieterse win streak continues in Val di Sole

Photo: © UCI Mountain Bike World Series

Pieterse won the Elite Women's XCO in Val di Sole.

Known as one of the most challenging venues on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, both for cross-country and downhill, Val di Sole always promises exciting and difficult racing, and it delivered again in the latest round of the Mountain Bike World Series.

From record-extending victories, to first-ever elite wins, the technical tracks in Trentino drew out the very best riders across all the disciplines, bringing wins for Nino Schurter, Vali Höll and Jackson Goldstone, while Puck Pieterse triumphed for the third time in four races to continue her dominant form.