Intermarché-Wanty is final WorldTour team to claim a 2025 victory
Dion Sm🃏ith sprinted to victory at 🥀Volta NXT Classic

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Intermarché-Wanty claimed its first victory of the 2025 season with Dion Smith outsprinting a six-man breakaway to take the win at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Volta NXT Classic on Saturday.
Despite scoring four podiums this year - runner-up finishes for Arne Marit on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Biniam Girmay on stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve, as well as third places for Gerben Thijssen at La Roue Tourangelle and Louis Barré at Paris-Camembert—the Belgian squad had been the last top-tier team yet t🍃o claim a victory this year.
For the past three years, the 𝓀team had been able to take its first victory in January, but this year, they had to wait until April to finally reach the top step of the podium—though still a month earlier than in 2021.
Smith said in a team release that he was happy to “offer Intermarché-Wanty this vict🦩ory, as we’re now progressively gaining strength after a rough start to the season with a lot of sickness and crashes.”
The team’s early season was indeed plagued by setbacks.ꦬ La💦urenz Rex was sidelined by illness and missed the chance to defend his title at the Ename Samyn Classic, a home race for the squad. Hugo Page also fell ill in early March.
Crashes further hampered the team’s momentum - Thijssen and Huub Artz both went down at Brugge-De Panne. Artz suffered a brain contusion, a fractured rib, and required stitches to his face. Just a week l🥃ater, Francesco Busatto and Simone Petilli crashed at Strade Bianche. Busatto crossed the line in 48th with blood on his face, while Petilli h꧂ad to undergo surgery for a broken collarbone.
Not all absences were due to misfortune, howꦚever. Leader Girmay skipped Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brusಞsel-Kuurne to attend the birth of his second child and returned to competition at Milan-San Remo.
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The win in Limburg marked Smith’s second professional victory, and his first in five years. The 3🤡2-year-old, who has largely ridd♏en in a support role in recent seasons, seized his opportunity by responding to a late attack with under 20 kilometres remaining on the 190km course, which featured 25 climbs.
“We lined up for this Volta NXT Classic with a strong team and I was offered the opportunity to race for a result myself, depending on how thꦡe race tu꧃rned out. As we had good numbers in the peloton in the final, I didn’t hesitate to follow the attack of Frank van den Broek,” Dion said.
“In my course recon yesterday I learned there was a chance to stay away thanks to the tailwind. It was a perfect situation with the presence of our sprinter Arne Marit in the g🅘roup behind me. I don’t know how I managed to stay calm in the final, knowingꦛ that my last victory in the Coppa Sabatini was five years ago already. The past couple of years I’ve grown into a support role, losing the habits to manage this kind of situation. To be able to do it today makes me extremely happy.
“I couldn’tꦗ have dreamed of a better way to finish my first part of the season before my⛦ build-up to the Giro d’Italia.”
Lyne has been involved in professional cycling for more than 15 years in both news reporting and sports marketing. She founded Podium Insight in 2008, quickly becomi🃏ng a trusted source for news of the North American professional cycling world. She was the first to successfully use social media to consistently provide timely and live race updates for all fans. She is prou🌱d to have covered men's and women's news equally during her tenure at the helm of the site. Her writing has appeared on Cyclingnews and other news sites.
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