Uno-X Pro Cycling Team

Tobias Halland Johannessen

Søren Wærenskjold

Rasmus Tiller

Alexander Kristoff

Jonas Abrahamsen

Fredrik Dversnes

Torstein Træen

Ådne Holter

Kristoffer Halvorsen

Erlend Blikra

Anthon Charmig

Stian Fredheim

Jacob Hindsgaul Madsen

Idar Andersen

Erik Resell

Jonas Gregaard

Niklas Larsen

Anders Halland Johannessen

William Blume Levy

Tord Gudmestad

Martin Urianstad Bugge

Niklas Eg

Louis Bendixen

Lasse Norman Leth

Anders Skaarseth

Magnus Kulset

Sindre Kulset

Marcus Sander Hansen

Racing

News

Race News

-24°C and eyebrows turning to icicles: Andreas Leknessund trains in Arctic conditions

Andreas Leknessund braved extreme conditions on a recent training ride

Being a professional cyclist takes plenty of dedication, especially in the depths of winter when riders are busy clocking training miles ahead of the new season. For 

 that dedication is really put to the test in his native Norway where he recently braved temperatures of -24 degrees Celsius out on a training ride.

The 24-year-old, who hails from the Tromsø region of Norway deep inside the Arctic Circle, shared a video to his 

 head unit during the ride, which displayed the extreme temperature.

Clearly used to and prepared for the conditions, he was wrapped up in his 

 kit - which will soon change to the colours of

 for the new season - but it wasn’t enough to completely protect him from the conditions, as he panned the camera around to show icicles that had formed on his eyebrows.

If there was a league table for dedication, Leknessund would surely top it for this effort as we’re sure many cyclists would have opted to stay indoors for a turbo training session instead.

Not the Norwegian, though, who even took the opportunity to quip, “Watopia? Never heard about,” in reference to the popular training world on indoor cycling app 

The Norwegian’s ride is the latest in a long list of the unexpected things we’ve spotted riders doing this off-season, but none can match these on-bike exploits.

From sold-out shows to survival skills: The unexpected things pros are doing this off-season

Leknessund’s impressive winter preparations come at the end of another successful season. While he didn’t manage to pick up any wins, the promising 24-year-old wore the pink leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia for five days before eventually finishing eighth overall.

That was achieved in the colours of dsm-firmenich but his three-year stint with the Dutch team will soon come to an end, having agreed to return to Uno-X on a three-year contract for the 2024 season. It means he will be reunited with the team having ridden for its development squad between 2018 and 2020.

What's the most extreme conditions you've ever ridden in? Let us know in the comments.

Features

Racing Features

Fewer rules, more fun: How the pro peloton is embracing gravel racing

Plenty of road pros tackled Serenissima Gravel in Italy

While first being dubbed as a trend and something that only ex-pros do once they’ve hung up their road bikes, gravel racing now looks like it's here to stay.

The gravel racing scene has been steadily simmering away in the background over recent years, largely in the US Midwest. However, when the UCI brought gravel under its umbrella in 2022, with the launch of the Trek UCI Gravel World Series, it was a major step forward for the discipline.

 and European Championships have followed since, helping gravel racing to force its way into the mainstream cycling discourse. Even the Tour de France has included some gravel sections in its 

, while current UCI Gravel World Champion 

Road cycling has rightfully made a name for itself as a sport that is constantly chasing improvements, whether that be in equipment, nutrition or tactics. Yet gravel racing, for the most part, is openly seeking to distance itself from this mantra. Of course, technology and aerodynamic gains seep in here and there (we’re cyclists after all) but stakeholders are keen to protect the ‘spirit of gravel’, an ethos that encourages riders of any age or level to get involved.

The World Series, which offers riders a chance to qualify for the Worlds, is open to professionals and amateurs alike, with rounds held across four continents in each of the two years it has run so far - a much broader spread than the UCI’s Cyclo-cross World Cup, which currently only ventures out of Europe when it heads to the US.

Despite several differences between the road and gravel racing worlds, plenty of pros have headed off the beaten track and dabbled in gravel racing. 

visited the Veneto region of Italy last month – which has played host to the first two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships – to understand why and discover how much more gravel racing has to offer.

, a race not yet sanctioned by the UCI, portrayed a rather laidback scene despite several WorldTour and ProTeam squads in attendance. Perhaps benefitting from its timing during the last week of the road season, riders were mingling, pointing and prodding at one another’s bike set-ups, which varied drastically, as techno music boomed from nearby speakers.

Five tech highlights from Serenissima Gravel

“It's something different but quite similar to road racing. It mixes things up and makes it fun for everyone at the end of the season, that's why it's so popular even now,” admitted the eventual winner on the day, Florian Vermeersch.

Vermeersch had just finished runner-up in the second edition of the World Championships but, despite the high-profile event, the Lotto Dstny rider found his preparation to be in stark contrast to how he gears up for road races. 

“I think road riders like the relaxed side of gravel, especially at the end of the season. It's still a high-level race but it makes it more relaxing.

“The week leading into the Gravel World Championships was super relaxing for me and I never had the feeling that I was going into the Worlds. I was just relaxing and enjoying everything in the moment. That’s what makes it nice for me.”

Florian Vermeersch’s Ridley Kanzo Fast: Gravel World Championships Pro Bike

Yet for all of the 2021 Paris-Roubaix runner-up’s light-touch preparation for gravel racing, other road pros view the discipline from another completely different angle. 

“We were talking in the bus beforehand and are more nervous now than normally at a [road] race because we don’t know what we’ll meet out there. It's also exciting, the main thing we said on the bus was ‘don’t crash today’,” revealed Uno-X’s Torstein Træen.

The uncertain and ‘expect the unexpected’ style of racing that gravel provides could be down to its relative novelty within pro cycling but also because very few road races, bar some cobbled Classics like Paris-Roubaix, offer such unpredictability.

Træen’s teammate Fredrik Dversnes, who came third on the day at Serenissima Gravel, doubled down on the idea that one of gravel racing’s biggest selling points to both fans and riders is its chaotic nature, with very few road events able to offer the same type of plot.

“I think for sure there are road races like this but you don’t see them that often. [In] a race like today, it's fucking cool, when guy after guy gets exhausted and falls off [the back of the bunch], especially if you are one of the strongest.”

The Norwegian continued: “Anything can happen in these races. They’re not predictable at all. No one controls the race, there are constant attacks and no one really knows. They are the strongest guys there at the end.”

But why are so many road pros, including 

 – who won on his gravel debut back in August – seeking this change of scenery? 

stance on rules and technology. For the World Championships, any dropped-bar bike is allowed, so long as it weighs at least 6.8kg. There are no rules around tyre width or bar width, nor for that matter any regulation on sock height.

Gianni Vermeersch, the inaugural Gravel World Champion from 2022, believes riders are attracted to the freedom they’re granted at gravel races. 

“That’s actually the nice thing about gravel, you saw it at the Worlds. Some riders are going with a road bike with quite wide tyres which is possible.

“I think they don’t have to make too many laws or rules, let the riders choose the best option that they want to race, if they want to race with road tyres, just let them do it. It's a nice part of the gravel scene, the tactics and technology,” the Belgian added.

The Serenissima Gravel race, perhaps given its lack of UCI status, saw some riders tackle the event on set-ups that wouldn’t look out of place on the road, while others used gravel bikes, cyclo-cross frames, and just about anything in between.

Dversnes found this aspect of the race fascinating, adding: “I was wondering about the choice of some teams to go with the road bike, that was cool from them.” 

His Uno-X team all used bikes that have spent more time on the gravel tracks of Scandinavia during the winter than they have been pedalled in anger, but does it matter? The 26-year-old thinks not.

“If you looked at my bike, compared to the other two guys in front of me you’d see some significant differences. That says a lot about how much effort we put into this though, this was more just fun for us, we don’t top-spec our bikes for this race but it definitely proves that it works good enough. That [bike] will go back home with me after this race and do the winter training with me in Norway.”

Gravel racing offers road pros a laidback and free-spirited alternative to the often formulaic and data-driven WorldTour environment. So could it soon overtake cyclo-cross as the go-to choice for those European pros seeking something competitive during the off-season? Or could it be that the two work together in perfect harmony?

The jury seems to still be out on this topic.

As has been the theme, gravel’s accessibility stands up well when compared to ‘cross, something Træen was quick to point out. 

“Cyclo-cross is more technical. Gravel you can do more easily than cyclo-cross but cross’ requires a lot of equipment, you need to have the right tyres for the right courses,” explained the Norwegian.

This ease and gravel’s aforementioned laidback approach to rules and the technology used make it an attractive proposition - especially against cyclo-cross where CX-specific bikes are the norm. However, Træen does underline cyclo-cross’s uniqueness in that it’s technical and separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to bike handling.

Florian Vermeersch doubled down on this point, adding: “Cyclo-cross is more specific, it's much more about technique and intervals whereas gravel racing is longer endurance, it's also a bit about technique but less than in cyclo-cross.”

However, there’s no denying that gravel racing has something that cyclo-cross could only dream of: a global appeal. 

Yes, the US CX scene has a strong number of hardcore supporters, with a steady stream of races, whether that be in the shape of amateur events or World Cup rounds, the occasional World Championships or the US CX series. Despite this, cyclo-cross was made and has predominantly remained in northern Europe where the weather is conducive for spills and thrills. Meanwhile, gravel already has lofty global ambitions. 

After two Worlds hosted in Veneto, the 2024 edition will, ironically, be hosted in the cyclo-cross heartland of Flanders before heading to France (twice), Australia and Saudi Arabia in the following four years. That’s in stark contrast to the ‘cross Worlds which only venture out of their native territories to the Czech Republic throughout the next four editions.

Cyclo-cross’ struggle to infiltrate further than northern Europe and the US is something that Gianni Vermeersch doesn’t see as such an issue for gravel racing when he admits: “In Belgium, we’ve tried already for cyclo-cross to become more popular but it's really difficult and I think now with gravel they’ve found the perfect combination between cyclo-cross and road cycling.”

Having spent most winters during his career riding ‘cross, the Alpecin-Deceuninck man believes the diversity of start lists at gravel races is something that will help its worldwide appeal that CX can sometimes lack.

“Gravel speaks to a lot of nationalities. We’ve been trying for a long time in cyclo-cross but it always stays within Belgium and the Netherlands. With my roommate Quinten [Hermans] we were looking through the top 50 of the Gravel World Championships and every country is there which is the good thing about it."

The Belgian even went to the extent of suggesting that gravel racing has the potential to earn a spot on the most global stage of them all, the Olympic Games.

“Maybe in the future to get an Olympic sport [there is a] much better [chance] for gravel cycling. I think gravel cycling has the possibility to get something Olympic which was not possible with cyclo-cross because it's in the winter.”

Yet for all the demand to see gravel racing grow, some, including Florian Vermeersch, believe gravel racing’s charm lies in its untouched nature. It’s rough and ready, not bogged down by rules or requirements. The bigger the platform that it gets, the more at risk it could be of sterilisation.

“It certainly has the potential I think but I don’t know if it would be very good for gravel if it became an Olympic sport. I’m a believer in the spirit of gravel where everyone from 19 to 75 can participate in gravel events or even the World Gravel Series, and I think it should stay that way. That’s what makes it so nice,” he affirmed.

The Belgian's caution is understandable. To take a leaf from the 'spirit of gravel', it could be argued that a global reach isn't the only parameter that determines whether gravel racing and cyclo-cross are classed as successful. The fact that road riders have more opportunities to explore other disciplines and test themselves in different ways should, in itself, be considered a positive.

Interviews

Edvald Boasson Hagen out of contract and rejected by Uno-X, but still wants to continue

Edvald Boasson Hagen was once referred to as the 'new Eddy Merckx,' but now stands without a contract for the coming season

 is struggling to find his next contract and may face a premature end to his racing days. The 36-year-old has not been offered a new contract by 

, Boasson Hagen is still without a team to race for next season.

The Norwegian is one of a number of riders who will suffer from 

’s decision to retire from professional road racing. The Slovakian was a major factor in 

’s sponsorship of the TotalEnergies team and with his retirement, their investment has now dwindled ahead of 2024 and left TotalEnergies with little choice but to see the likes of Boasson Hagen leave the team.

The five victories that made Peter Sagan unforgettable

With TotalEnergies out of the equation, Boasson Hagen has had to cast his attention elsewhere and as his hopes dwindle, the three-time 

 stage winner has changed agents to try and bring about a resolution. Previously represented by Andrew McQuaid, Boasson Hagen has turned to former Finish cyclist Joona Laukka as his new agent.

, Boasson Hagen has revealed that there have been a few teams who only offered him terms on a minimum wage contract, which stands at around €68,000. However, the 36-year-old is not willing to ride on such terms and with the wealth of experience he offers, values himself at a higher mark.

“In order to get a new contract in such a market, you have to be upfront, and I have been upfront over the last few months and am talking to some teams,” Boasson Hagen commented. “I haven't lost faith and have some options. I've been cycling for a long time and don't want to cycle for free.”

“There are some teams that have indicated that I can ride for them if I want, but that I would be on minimum wage. I still want to cycle, but it must still be worth it.”

The age of the young superstars leaves many experienced riders struggling for a ride

The list of those who have retired in recent months is long, and contains many names who came to define cycling throughout the 2010s, but there is a sense that 2023 marks the end of that generation’s time at the top of the sport. Greg Van Avermaet and Peter Sagan are both now gone, as are Thibaut Pinot, Luis León Sánchez, Tony Gallopin, Dries Devenyns, Imanol Erviti and Rohan Dennis.

Nothing gold can stay: Greg Van Avermaet on retiring with no regrets

As for those struggling to find a contract, Zdeněk Štybar has admitted the Gree-Tour of Guangxi will probably be his final professional race given the lack of a contract offer. Meanwhile, as per 

, the African trio of Tsgabu Grmay, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier and Merhawi Kudus are among those who are still searching for a new contract.

"The sports world has had a quantum leap in the last 5-6 years,” reflects Uno-X directeur sportif Stig Kristiansen. “There has been a marked change in terms of performance, but also when it comes to riding style and watts per kilogram in all phases of the race.”

“Names like [Tadej] Pogačar, [Wout] van Aert and [Mathieu] van der Poel have a huge influence on how cycling is done. If one of them is on the starting line, you can be sure that the final will start with 120 kilometers to go, instead of 60. They change the course of the race wherever they are, and they make sure that a real bike race is run every time they are on start.”

In this age, Boasson Hagen has struggled to leave his impression on many races and this is playing out in his struggle to source a new deal. The veteran started the season well with third place at Gran Premi València and fourth in the spring at the GP de Denain, but he has since failed to notch up any top-10 results.

His last notable major result was third place at the cobbled stage of the 2022 Tour de France, but Boasson Hagen’s motivation to continue racing remains as strong as ever. If he is to have raced his last professional race, it won’t be by his own decision.

“I can't bear to sit here every year and wait to find a team,” he admitted. “I really want to ride at least one more year, but I can also ride for two years if I feel it's worth it. That's the motivation, I would like to continue.”

Should Boasson Hagen continue, it won’t be with Uno-X Pro Cycling

Boasson Hagen’s new agent, Laukka, also represents fellow Scandinavian cyclists 

 (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), but it is understood his representation of 

 is of the most significance. With those connections, Laukka has floated his name to dsm-firmenich, who employ the services of both Bardet and Degenkolb.

Nothing further is known at this stage, but the 36-year-old will take hope from the news that 

 has found a new team at the age of 37. He may have taken a slot with EF Education-EasyPost that Boasson Hagen could have angled for, but the move shows that there is still a market for experienced rouleurs.

Rui Costa agrees terms with EF Education-EasyPost

However, one team that Boasson Hagen and Laukka can rule off the list is Uno-X Pro Cycling. The UCI ProTeam may employ exclusively Scandinavian riders, but there appears to be no room for the 36-year-old and his wage for the coming seasons.

“Uno-X is a very nice team, and I would have liked to have cycled there. It's a shame I'm not allowed to do that. At least it seems as if that door is closed,” Boasson Hagen admitted.

The last conversations between Boasson Hagen and Uno-X last took place in 2020, when the Norwegian decided to opt for a bigger contract with the French TotalEnergies outfit, and directeur sportif Kristiansen has confirmed Uno-X do not see Boasson Hagen riding with them in 2024.

“Do we have room? That is the first question. I don't have a full overview, but I think we have one free place compared to what is the maximum limit. And it's not like we have to fill that space.”

“It's probably a question of price - as it almost always is,” he noted. “By Norwegian standards, we are a ‘gigantic project,’ but we are a small team compared to the big WorldTour teams. We are not a WorldTour team, either. We have to do things our way. It also means that we don't put money on the table for everyone who wants to join us. We have to develop quite a few riders ourselves.”

Boasson Hagen’s case won’t have been helped by Uno-X’s ambitious signings of Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost), Andreas Leknessund (dsm-firmenich) and Markus Hoelgaard (Lidl-Trek) for 2024 and beyond, all of whom will squeeze the team’s wage budget.

Uno-X bolster their ranks with Magnus Cort and Andreas Leknessund

For the time being, it appears as though Boasson Hagen faces an uphill battle to find himself a suitable contract for 2024, but after an 18-year career, the experienced Norwegian knows a deal can turn up at any point between now and December, so patience will be a virtue.

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Tobias Halland Johannessen	24	7	1477
Søren Wærenskjold	24	16	1073
Rasmus Tiller	27	6	1049
Alexander Kristoff	36	92	1040
Jonas Abrahamsen	28	1	709

Uno-X Pro Cycling Team

Uno-X Pro Cycling Team

The Team

Top Uno-X Pro Cycling Team Stories

-24°C and eyebrows turning to icicles: Andreas Leknessund trains in Arctic conditions

Fewer rules, more fun: How the pro peloton is embracing gravel racing

Edvald Boasson Hagen out of contract and rejected by Uno-X, but still wants to continue

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