{"id":331154,"date":"2025-12-23T07:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T07:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/331154\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T07:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T07:09:14","slug":"milan-fretin-reflects-on-a-season-marked-by-costly-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/331154\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan Fretin reflects on a season marked by costly mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe first, in his view, was leaving the Giro d\u2019Italia early. With Cofidis fighting relegation, the team opted to withdraw Fretin after two weeks so he could chase UCI points in June one-day races. A strategy that proved unsuccessful in the end, as Cofidis lost the World Tour licence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should not have pulled out of the Giro after two weeks,\u201d he explained. \u201cBecause of that, I didn\u2019t get a proper rest period, and I noticed it in the finales of those one-day races. Mentally, I wasn\u2019t fresh enough. The result was that in the races after the Giro, I picked up little to no UCI points.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second setback followed in early July, when Fretin went on an altitude camp in Italy. \u201cI trained incorrectly,\u201d he admitted. \u201cWe now know that I prepare better in sunny Spain. That suits me better than high mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those experiences have shaped his plans for 2026, a season in which Fretin aims to take another step forward. His spring programme will be very similar to that of 2025, with a focus on classics where he will be aiming for victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the spring, I will more or less ride the same programme as last year,\u201d he said. \u201cMainly classics like Nokere Koerse, where I can play for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"milanfretin\"\/<\/p>\n

Fretin won Ronde van Limburg ahead of Dehairs and Menten<\/p>\n

Sprint ambitions and Tour de France debut<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is also targeting progress in bunch sprints, in which he aims to take a step forward in 2026.\u00a0“My stage win in the Tour of the Algarve gave me a lot of confidence. Especially when you see who I beat there (Meeus, De Lie, Girmay, and Van Aert).”<\/p>\n

To close the gap to the very top sprinters, Fretin plans to have some leadout, which wasn’t the case last year for some reason. \u201cLast year I was often on my own in the sprints, but now I will always have two fixed lead-out riders with me: Piet Allegaert and Alex Kirsch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also spent more time in the gym this winter. \u201cTo improve my acceleration and explosiveness,\u201d Fretin explained. \u201cI realise that sprinters like Philipsen and Milan are faster than me in the final 200 metres. That remains a work point.\u201d<\/p>\n

A direct comparison with Jasper Philipsen could come soon, as Fretin expects to make his Tour de France debut this summer. \u201cNormally, I will ride the Tour for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a childhood dream coming true. But if you\u2019re on the start line of the Tour, you naturally have to dream of more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first, in his view, was leaving the Giro d\u2019Italia early. With Cofidis fighting relegation, the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[109039,4985,129089,129088,101,56,54,55,108462],"class_list":["post-331154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cofidis","tag-cycling","tag-milan-fretin","tag-ronde-van-limburg","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-volta-ao-algarve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}