Intense weekend that leaves us with many new national champions on the road

As every year, the weekend before the start of the Tour de France is reserved on the UCI calendar for the dispute of the national championships in most countries. Australia or South American countries are exceptions, as they have difficulty in having cyclists in full season, so they move the dispute to the beginning of the campaign. National championships that, apart from the victory of Iván Romeo in the Spanish Championship, left us with many new faces.

These are the new holders of the champion jerseys of their respective countries

Intense days of cycling that we have experienced in the lead-up to the Tour de France with the start of the various national cycling championships. Races that have brought us more than one surprise, such as the one held in Italy that was won by Filippo Conca, a former professional cyclist who competed for two seasons with Lotto-Soudal and two more with Q36.5, but at 26 years old, after being left without a team, he was competing in the Elite category with the Swat Club. Without a doubt, this victory will put him back in the spotlight of some team that will return him to professionalism.

Also unexpected was the victory of Dorian Godon in the French championship, who managed to give the triumph to Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale after beating two cyclists in top form like Romain Grégoire and Kévin Vauquelin.

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In another reference country like Belgium, the news came even before the race started with the non-start of Wout van Aert, who was sick, exactly as it happened before the Giro d'Italia, now before the Tour de France, and we know how that ended. This left the way clear for Tim Wellens, who achieved one of the titles he had longed for, demonstrating in the process that he arrives at the French event in great shape to support Tadej Pogacar in his 4th Tour victory.

Speaking of Slovenia, the victory went to the very young Bahrain-Victorious sub23 cyclist, only 19 years old, Jakob Omrzel, also a recent winner of the Giro d'Italia Next, showing us that this country continues to produce quality cyclists constantly, even though it was a race without the presence of any of the great Slovenian figures.

The Netherlands race was held a day earlier, a race that was resolved in a mass sprint and in which Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe cyclist Danny Van Poppel managed to beat Olav Kooij and Dylan Groenewegen who completed the Dutch podium.

Another surprise was the resurrection of a disappeared Soren Krag Andersen in Denmark, who managed to elude surveillance to win solo over a Mads Pedersen who was the undisputed favorite for victory. In any case, the jersey will remain in the ranks of Lidl-Trek, a team that will also have to prepare a special jersey for the Latvian Champion, Tom Skujins.

The result of the Norwegian Championship was curious at least, won by Uno-X Mobility cyclist Andreas Leknessund in a race where the Norwegian team placed their 11 participating cyclists in the top 12 positions of the classification. Only INEOS Grenadiers cyclist Tobias Foss managed to crash their party by taking the seventh place.

Less surprising are the victories of the tireless Rafal Majka in Poland, the always tough Ivo Oliveira in Portugal, Derek Gee in Canada, or Mauro Schmid in Switzerland.