{"id":478522,"date":"2026-03-16T11:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478522\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T11:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T11:42:11","slug":"write-off-sd-worx-protime-at-your-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/478522\/","title":{"rendered":"Write off SD Worx-Protime at your peril"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CORVOS_00038775-140.jpg\" alt=\"Write off SD Worx-Protime at your peril\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                        <a class=\"article__category\" href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/news-and-racing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News &amp; Racing<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__sub-title\">It&#8217;s been a slower start to the spring than they would have liked, but the signs are good.<\/p>\n<p>                                <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Matt de Neef\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"author__photo lazy \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Matt-de-Neef-150x150.jpg\" width=\"99\" height=\"99\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t the start to the Spring Classics that SD Worx-Protime wanted.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/8-takeaways-from-the-womens-opening-weekend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Omloop Nieuwsblad<\/a> delivered an untimely mechanical for Lotte Kopecky and Anna van der Breggen looked conspicuously off the pace. <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/evolution-of-a-powerhouse-fdj-united-suez-is-more-than-just-demi-vollering\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Strade Bianche<\/a> didn&#8217;t deliver much joy either. Van der Breggen&#8217;s largely anonymous 18th was the team&#8217;s best result in a race where it had won seven of the race&#8217;s 11 editions.<\/p>\n<p>From the outside looking in, it was easy to criticise. Was this a team past its prime? A team of perhaps former champions that had lost their edge? Had SD Worx-Protime been left behind by more-modern superteams like <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/evolution-of-a-powerhouse-fdj-united-suez-is-more-than-just-demi-vollering\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FDJ United-Suez<\/a> and UAE Team ADQ?<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s no doubt SD Worx-Protime now has greater competition than it did a few seasons ago \u2013 and that&#8217;s a good thing for the sport. But while the Classics didn&#8217;t start the way the Dutch outfit wanted, perspective is important.<\/p>\n<p>The spring is still young, with much racing to come. And while SD Worx-Protime <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/karlijn-swinkels-takes-first-worldtour-victory-at-trofeo-alfredo-binda\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">didn&#8217;t win at Trofeo Alfredo Binda<\/a> on Sunday afternoon either, the team&#8217;s performance suggests things are heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CORVOS_00038775-181.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/>Van der Breggen (left) would certainly have preferred to win on Sunday \u2013 she&#8217;s never won Binda before \u2013 but second was an encouraging result.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/race-result\/?race_id=9046&amp;season=2026&amp;stage_id=9046\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">results sheet<\/a> tells part of the story. Van der Breggen in second place, in the winning group of three, just behind winner Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ). Blanka Vas winning the bunch kick for fourth. Kopecky just behind in seventh. SD Worx-Protime was the only team with more than one rider in the top 10, and they had three.<\/p>\n<p>But arguably more important than those results was the way they raced on the day, Van der Breggen in particular.<\/p>\n<p>            This post is for paying subscribers only<br \/>\n            <a class=\"gh-btn\" data-portal=\"signup\" href=\"#\/portal\/signup\" style=\"color:#FF6F42\">Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Already have an account? <a data-portal=\"signin\" href=\"#\/portal\/signin\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n<p class=\"reactions\" data-post-id=\"69b73bb8d4f8fe2ffa879bca\">\n                    \ud83d\udc4dYep<br \/>\n                    \ud83d\udc4eNope\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"tags\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/news-and-racing\/\" title=\"News &amp; Racing\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f293b3 news-and-racing\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News &amp; Racing<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/womens-cycling\/\" title=\"women&#039;s cycling\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f29644 womens-cycling\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">women&#8217;s cycling<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/trofeo-alfredo-binda\/\" title=\"Trofeo Alfredo Binda\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f295d3 trofeo-alfredo-binda\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trofeo Alfredo Binda<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/anna-van-der-breggen\/\" title=\"Anna van der Breggen\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f2900c anna-van-der-breggen\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anna van der Breggen<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/sd-worx-protime-2\/\" title=\"SD Worx-Protime\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f294e3 sd-worx-protime-2\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SD Worx-Protime<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/lotte-kopecky\/\" title=\"Lotte Kopecky\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f2930d lotte-kopecky\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lotte Kopecky<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/lorena-wiebes\/\" title=\"Lorena Wiebes\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f2930a lorena-wiebes\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lorena Wiebes<\/a><br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/escapecollective.com\/tag\/milan-san-remo\/\" title=\"Milan-San Remo\" class=\"tag tag-67a677ae0c7ad49bf4f29378 milan-san-remo\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milan-San Remo<\/a>\n                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News &amp; Racing It&#8217;s been a slower start to the spring than they would have liked, but the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-478522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478522","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=478522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}