VN news ticker: Lotte Kopecky wins final stage, overall at Lotto Belgium Tour, Movistar deal extended to 2023
Here's the news making headlines for Friday, June 25.
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Lotte Kopecky wins final stage, overall at 2021 Lotto Belgium Tour
The 2021 Lotto Belgium Tour concluded today with Lotte Kopecky (Belgian National Team) taking home the overall win.
The Belgian who races for Liv Racing throughout much of the year finished fourth in the prologue time trial, tenth on stage 1 with the same time as stage-winner Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM), came across the line in third on stage 2, and then won the final stage.
Alena Amialiusik (Team DSM) won Thursday’s stage 2, and Kopecky won Friday’s final stage 3 ahead of Yara Kastelijn (Plantur-Pura) and Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo Women).
In a few moments @LotteKopecky can also come on stage to put on the red jersey as overall winner! Congratulations! #LottoBelgiumTour https://t.co/1zcAfDDsjv
— LottoBelgiumTour (@LottoBelgTour) June 25, 2021
Telefónica extends Team Movistar sponsorship through 2023
Eusebio Unzué and his team will be in the pro peloton for another three years.
Team Movistar confirmed Friday that the Spanish communications giant Telefónica extended its sponsorship of both the men’s and women’s squads through 2023, prolonging a long-running relationship that has so far lasted 11 years.
“For us it remains a huge pride, more and more after all these years, to enjoy such a long-standing support from Telefónica,” said team manager Eusebio Unzué. “It’s already more than a decade with the company by our side, showing us their support in many aspects that go well beyond what could simply be a sponsorship.”
The veteran manager praised Telefónica, which owns the Movistar brand, for its support of the sport and its role in establishing the Movistar women’s squad in 2018.
“We’ve made significant improvements in aspects that get this sport closer together with society,” Unzué said. “Equal opportunity, with a women’s squad that enjoys the best infrastructure and hasn’t stopped bringing us joy for the last four years, as one of the best teams in the world.”
The squad revealed earlier this week a redesigned race kit that included the Telefónica Tech logo for the first time.
Spain’s lone WorldTour team dates back to the 1980s, with Reynolds and then Banesto, and includes seven Tour de France victories among its palmares.
🌠👕 ¡Damos la bienvenida a #TelefónicaTech, que lucirá en nuestra equipación desde el #TDF2021!
👨💻 Holding de @Telefonica en Ciberseguridad, Cloud, IoT, Big Data o Blockchain.
🗒️ +info → https://t.co/EggCNwIXVp
📸 Fidel Bagan / @PhotoGomezSport
@TefTechCloud | @TefTechAIoT pic.twitter.com/9d7YnJjlxT
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) June 22, 2021
New partner for EF Education-Nippo
EF Education-Nippo announced Friday that EasyPost joins as a new partner and operations supplier starting at this year’s Tour de France and extending through the remainder of the 2021 racing season.
The company, founded in 2012 as the first RESTful API for shipping, has thousands of customers shipping billions of dollars worth of packages annually, officials said.
The EF Education-Nippo team handles nearly 2,000 packages per year out of the Spanish “Service Course,” shipping items such as team kits, bicycles, and enough components to service more than 240 team bikes all needing to arrive on time.
The team will begin sporting the EasyPost logo on its helmets and team vehicles at this year’s Tour de France and beyond.