{"id":332242,"date":"2025-12-08T11:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332242\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:22:11","slug":"im-going-to-struggle-with-him-a-lot-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332242\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m going to struggle with him a lot in the future’"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a season it was for Tibor Del Grosso<\/a>. The Dutchman from Alpecin\u2013Deceuninck made his full WorldTour debut in 2025 and regularly showcased his potential. He impressed in the Spring Classics, won a stage at the Tour of Turkey, but there was one moment where he came close to doing something truly extraordinary. It didn\u2019t quite happen – but it nearly did.<\/p>\n

It was 24 March 2025. Earlier that month, Del Grosso had made his WorldTour debut at Paris\u2013Nice, finishing a modest but valuable first week at that level. Ahead of the spring – his main target – he was also set to ride the Volta a Catalunya, working for sprinter Kaden Groves. But the rain-soaked opening stage suddenly presented him with the opportunity of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

In the hilly finale, the 21-year-old cyclocross specialist emptied himself for his Australian leader. But on a descent made treacherous by the rain, he used his renowned bike-handling skills to perfection. Suddenly, in the final kilometers, he had a small gap. His teammates cleverly stopped chasing. Del Grosso was gone, and the rest had to react.<\/p>\n

It was smart and instinctive, but it hadn\u2019t been the plan. \u201cThat day my job was actually to help Edward (Planckaert) and Kaden (Groves),\u201d Del Grosso tells Wieler Revue<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019d already pulled for a very long time on the coastal section. My finish line was basically there. But then I exited a corner first and had a gap on Edward. Suddenly I heard: \u2018go go go go!\u2019 on the team radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"matthewDel Grosso on Brennan: \u201cWhat a strong guy he is\u201d”Then I thought for a moment: ‘guys, what should I do now, I don’t have the legs for this at all,” Mathieu van der Poel’s teammate laugs. But there was only one option: keep pushing. And he did. For a long time, it looked like it might actually succeed. But in the gradually rising final kilometer he stalled, and Matthew Brennan<\/a> passed him with an ultimate jump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It hurt, of course. Del Grosso had been painfully close to his first pro win, and a WorldTour one at that. \u201cLooking back it was so close, and maybe I could\u2019ve done some small things differently,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then there was also that motorbike. But overall, I was mainly satisfied.\u201d
\nIf nothing else, he had announced himself to the WorldTour peloton.<\/p>\n

And Brennan? He went on to win 11 more races that year. The Brit took full responsibility in the final kilometre, with Groves on his wheel. But even from the slipstream, the Australian couldn\u2019t come around. It was a sign of what was to come. \u201cI\u2019m going to struggle with him a lot in the future, and so will many others,\u201d Del Grosso says. \u201cWhat a strong guy he is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a season it was for Tibor Del Grosso. The Dutchman from Alpecin\u2013Deceuninck made his full WorldTour debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[13947,49,48,635,51216,82,142284,146340],"class_list":["post-332242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-alpecin-deceuninck","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-matthew-brennan","tag-sports","tag-tibor-del-grosso","tag-tour-of-catalonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}