Fenix-Deceuninck

Fenix-Deceuninck are the newest addition to the Women’s WorldTour for 2023, being awarded the final available licence to bring the total to 15, as the UCI had envisioned when they launched the WorldTour in 2020. A sister team to the Alpecin-Deceuninck squad, the women’s team started in 2020 and was initially composed mainly of cyclo-cross riders, but has been slowly growing into a road team in its own right, culminating this year with the step up to the WorldTour. 

The team still has a noticeable cyclo-cross identity, home to Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Sanne Cant and young superstar Puck Pieterse, but they’ve recruited a whole host of talented road racers too. They have the likes of Maria Martins and Kim De Baat for the fast finishes, and Julie De Wilde, Sophie Wright and Yara Kastelijn for the tougher races on the calendar. 

The team have some way to go until they’re on the level of some of the biggest WorldTour contenders, but automatic invites to all the biggest races will definitely put them on the right path.

Christina Schweinberger

Puck Pieterse

Yara Kastelijn

Marthe Truyen

Julie De Wilde

Maria Martins

Carina Schrempf

Greta Marturano

Julie Van De Velde

Evy Kuijpers

Petra Stiasny

Millie Couzens

Kim de Baat

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado

Cecilia van Zuthem

Sanne Cant

Inge van der Heijden

Annemarie Worst

Sophie Wright

Racing

News

Race News

Heartbreak for Julie Van De Velde at Tour de France Femmes

Julie Van De Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) solo off the front on stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes

It was heartbreak in the finale for Julie Van De Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck), who was caught within 300m of the finish line on stage 3 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, painfully close to the win after a long solo effort.

Stage favourite Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) took the win in Montignac-Lascaux, after a last-minute effort from SD Worx finally pulled back the lone leader.

Van De Velde had attacked with 60km to go, ostensibly to pick up Queen of the Mountains points, but she soon built up a healthy lead and her ride became a serious fight for the win when she went into the final 10km with still more than 30 seconds’ advantage.

“I heard my teammates were doing really good work trying to block the speed in the bunch, and I heard the time gap was growing again so I tried to believe in it,” the Belgian said after the stage.

For a long time, thanks to the combination of Fenix-Deceuninck blocking the chase and dsm-firmenich making little inroads as SD Worx initially refused to work, it looked as if Van De Velde might stay away.

However, in the final 2km, SD Worx finally began to contribute to the chase, and as the line drew closer the gap started falling rapidly. It was still touch-and-go with a kilometre to go, but going into the final 500 it was clear the peloton was coming with a speed that the 30-year-old could not hold off.

“I tried to not look back and just go full gas, but unfortunately I saw everyone passing me in the last few hundred metres,” she said.

Van De Velde was rewarded, however, with the polka dot jersey that had been her aim when she attacked. She took it over from teammate Yara Kastelijn, out-scoring early escapee Kathrin Hammes (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) to keep a Fenix-Deceuninck rider in the lead.

“It was Yara or me who could take the jersey, but it had to stay in the team,” she explained at the finish.

Despite what viewers would perceive as last-minute heartbreak, Van De Velde cut a positive figure after the stage, happy with what the team had succeeded in rather than lamenting what they did not.

“I didn’t imagine this was possible before the Tour so it’s really a great achievement from the whole team,” she said.

Going into the next few days, the polka-dot jersey remains a focus for Fenix-Deceuninck, but Van De Velde’s performance on Tuesday should also give her some confidence for the stages to come.

“I hope we can try to [keep the jersey]. I hope to recover good because it was a hard final for me but maybe tomorrow Yara can also take the jersey back, as long as it stays in the team it’s really great for us.”

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all eight stages of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from Sunday, July 23 to Sunday, July 30. Head over to GCN+ now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.

Highlights

Watch: Tour de France Femmes stage 4 highlights

 history, the breakaway survived until the finish and contested the stage win, with 

 honours. The young climber had spent 151km in the breakaway on what was the longest day of racing in 

At such length, the peloton found it difficult to control the breakaway throughout the course of the afternoon and allowed a large group of riders to go clear at the head of the race. It was from this group that Kastelijn made her move with 19km to ride, attacking on the penultimate climb and riding alone to the finish. Not only was this Kastelijn’s first professional victory, but it also moved her up to seventh on GC.

) who appeared the strongest riders amongst the race favourites, with Vollering taking two seconds on the reigning champion. Yellow jersey 

 (SD Worx) battled hard to reduce her time losses, retaining a 43-second lead over teammate Vollering heading into stage 5.

We’ll be showing live and on-demand coverage of all eight stages of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift from Sunday, July 23 to Sunday, July 30. Head over to 

 now to check the start times of each broadcast so that you don’t miss out on a moment of the action! As always, territory restrictions will apply.

Results

Race Results

World Cup wrap up: Val di Sole

Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM) claimed a record-extending 35th World Cup victory

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 certainly delivered this weekend.

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, Puck Pieterse, Vali Höll and Jackson Goldstone. If you missed anything from the action-packed weekend in Italy, here’s how all the races shook out.

Remember, you can watch highlights and replays of all this weekend’s racing on 

Pieterse continues winning streak as Schurter extends record

Cross-country racing kicked off on Friday night with the short track, which delivered some explosive racing on the challenging Val di Sole course. In the women’s race, the finish was about as close as they come, culminating in a head-to-head sprint between Laura Stigger (Specialized Factory Racing) and Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), with Stigger just edging it on the line. In the men’s, it was all together coming into the final lap, but emerging short track specialist Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) was not ready to risk it in a sprint, and rode off the front in the last half a lap to win his second XCC of the season.

After just missing out in the short track, Puck Pieterse was on the front of the race from the get-go in Sunday’s XCO, gradually riding the rest of the field off her wheel. An early flat for Jolanda Neff (Trek Factory Racing) took her out of contention, and it was Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Ineos Grenadiers) who led the early chase and the gap was not huge for much of the race, but the Frenchwoman began to fade towards the end and Pieterse had a lead of a minute going into the final lap. She held on to the finish to win her third race in four rounds, whilst a consistent ride from Martina Berta (Santa Cruz Rockshox) earnt her second, and Rebecca Henderson (PMG Racing Team) finished third.

In the men’s race, it was explosive from very early on, with Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM Racing) and Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing) attacking shortly after the start, before Schurter dropped the South African heading into the second half of the race. The Swiss world champion simply looked strongest on the difficult Italian course, and held off the chasing field to take his 35th World Cup win, further extending the record he broke last month. Schurter’s companion Mathias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon) had been distanced early on, but battled up through the field to finish second, whilst recently-crowned European champion Vlad Dascalu (Trek Factory Racing) claimed third after the likes of Schwarzbauer faded towards the finish.

On the downhill track, it was a tough and eventful weekend on one of the most challenging courses on the calendar. Unsurprisingly, then, it was the very strongest and most skilled who emerged on top. In the women’s race, an early fast time by Jess Blewitt (GT Continental Factory Racing) looked like it could challenge for the top spot, but when Camille Balanche (Dorval AM Commencal) and Vali Höll (Rockshox Trek) took the course, they took chunks out of the Kiwi, and each other. Balanche set a time of 4:10 to claim second, but it was world champion Höll who tamed the Black Snake most effectively, going almost three seconds quicker than Balanche to take her second win in a row.

When the men hit the hill, it was Canadian joy on Canada Day as Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) took his first elite win, following in the footsteps of his junior rival Jordan Williams (Specialized Gravity) who won in Lenzerheide. Some rain in the middle of the day had scuppered some riders’ runs, but when it cleared up and the top contenders dropped in the times began to fall, with Goldstone setting a time which would prove unbeatable. Compatriot Finn Iles (Specialized Gravity) came closest, but was still just off Goldstone’s time and had to settle for second. Thibaut Daprela (Commencal Muc-Off) finished third, his best result of the season, whilst a mistake cost Loris Vergier (Trek Factory Racing) a spot in the top three.

Blöchlinger and Pedersen remain unbeaten

In the U23 cross-country races, it was a repeat of the last three rounds once again, with Ronja Blöchlinger (Liv Factory Racing) and Sofie Pedersen (Wilier-Pirelli Factory Racing) winning the short track and Olympic distance respectively, both completely unbeaten so far this season in each discipline. The XCO was the closest it’s been yet, with Pedersen away with Samara Maxwell (New Zealand) for much of the race and sprinting for the line, with the Dane taking the win.

In the men’s races, it was more Canadian success as Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road) took double victories, winning both the short track and the XCO. It was a sprint to the line that earnt him the XCC win, but on Sunday he attacked solo to win 30 seconds ahead of Adrien Boichis (Trinity Racing), with Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing) 14 seconds further adrift in third.

In the first downhill race of the weekend, the junior women delivered some surprisingly big time gaps on what is usually a fast and tight course at Val di Sole. It was a dream debut for Sacha Earnest (KiwiDH), who ended up winning by 12 seconds in her first-ever World Cup, beating the last two rounds’ winners Erice van Leuven (Commencal Les Orres) and Lisa Bouladou.

The men’s race was much closer, and after a surprising string of results in the World Cups so far, finally one of the big favourites got his first win as Bodhi Kuhn (Trek Factory Racing) topped the podium with a time of 3:43, which would have been enough to edge into the top 10 of the elite field. It was disappointment for the USA’s Ryan Pinkerton, who crashed near the top but still held on to finish second, only a second down on Kuhn. Henri Kiefer (Canyon CLLCTV Pirelli) took third.

There’s a short break from World Cup racing in July, before the World Championships which will form part of the combined Glasgow Worlds. The downhill takes place from August 3 to 5, whilst the cross-country races will be the following weekend, August 8-12.

The UCI Mountain Bike World Series returns on August 24 as the downhill and cross-country racers head to Pas Arinsal, Andorra.

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Christina Schweinberger	27	3	1832
Puck Pieterse	22	0	1025
Yara Kastelijn	26	1	714
Marthe Truyen	24	1	612
Julie De Wilde	21	3	442

Fenix-Deceuninck

Fenix-Deceuninck

The Team

Top Fenix-Deceuninck Stories

Heartbreak for Julie Van De Velde at Tour de France Femmes

Watch: Tour de France Femmes stage 4 highlights

World Cup wrap up: Val di Sole

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