Movistar rider Einer Rubio crashed into the back of a UAE Team Emirates-XRG car on Alpe d’Huez, and failed to finish stage 19 of the Tour de France as a result.

The Colombian was part of the day’s 42-man breakaway, and was towards the front of the race halfway up the final climb, sitting just behind the lead group of Richard Carapaz, Lenny Martinez and Sepp Kuss.

With around 5km to go, the eventual stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) passed Rubio, and shortly afterwards, while riding alone, Rubio rode headfirst, at speed, into the back of a UAE car that was forced to slam on its brakes for reasons not yet known.

Unlike other sections of the climb, there were no barriers holding fans back from riders where Rubio crashed.

Rubio, 28, was hurt enough that he was unable to ride the remainder of the climb. The stage’s medical report listed Rubio as having a “facial injury”, adding that he was “observed at the mobile x-ray". His team have yet to provide further details, and there was no action taken against UAE in the jury's report.

A UAE spokesperson told Cycling Weekly: "A spectator fell forward directly into the path of the car. The car braked to avoid the collision. It was a very unfortunate incident and we wish Einer Rubio a speedy recovery."

He was riding his second Tour de France, and had featured in the breakaway in the last five road stages. His best result was 16th on stage 15’s race to Plateau de Solaison.

Rubio’s last win – and only his second in professional cycling – was at the 2023 Giro d’Italia. He has been riding with Movistar since 2020.

The Spanish team have been active in breakaways throughout the Tour, particularly with Rubio, Pablo Castrillo and Raúl Garcia Pierna, but they haven’t yet scored a victory; their best result was the latter’s third-place on stage four into Foix.

Movistar’s goal pre-race was for a top-10 on GC with Cian Uijtdebroeks, yet the young Belgian pulled out on stage six after suffering with a stomach virus and fever.

Movistar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were contacted for comment.

Reigning time trial World Champion Marlen Reusser has posted an image of herself on Instagram riding what appears to be a new Canyon TT bike. “Me, riding on a pretty nice bike,” reads the caption.

The Movistar rider currently rides the Canyon Speedmax CFR TT – the machine she powered to the rainbow stripes in Kigali last September. But the dazzle camouflage paint job suggests this is almost certainly the next-generation Speedmax in prototype form.

The timing fits the familiar 'official leak' pattern: a camo bike appears on a star rider’s feed in the spring, and the covers come off somewhere between the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.

So what's new? It's quite hard to tell thanks to the paintwork, but what we can see is that the fork crown looks wider than the current Speedmax's – similar to the Factor Hanzo or outlandish Factor One road bike. It's also more deeply integrated into the head tube area, suggesting Canyon has prioritised extreme aero integration at the front end. The seat post is similarly reworked: a longer, more pronounced aerofoil profile that sits deeper and flush with the frame, rather than simply emerging from it.

The seat tube/top tube junction appears extended forward in a way that brings to mind the Cervélo P5’s 'forward' seat cluster arrangement where it appears the stays extend into the main triangle in near parallel with the downtube.

Reusser is also running twin disc wheels, which tells you nothing about the frame but everything about the intentions of the test ride. The image we've seen shows no drive side detail sadly.

What's perhaps more interesting is what the bike doesn't look like. Several manufacturers in the current design cycle have leaned heavily on their track frames for inspiration for new TT bikes, transferring silhouettes and tube shapes directly across.

The current Speedmax track bike has a distinctive look, yet this prototype doesn't appear to borrow as faithfully from it as some other brands have done with their recent TT bikes. This suggests Canyon's aero engineers may have started from a different brief – perhaps one shaped by more recent CFD and wind tunnel learnings around forward-of-rider airflow management, rather than strictly by the closed-circuit track world.

Watch this space—and the start ramp at the next TT on Movistar’s calendar.

We contacted Canyon for comment.

“It still hasn’t quite sunk in,” says Carys Lloyd. It’s the morning after the Ronde van Brugge, and the 19-year-old, still in awe, has woken up a WorldTour race winner. Her phone has been pinging with messages. Her eye is sore, swollen from the grit and mud of rural Flanders, but the pain hasn't stopped her reliving the memory. “I’m watching back the videos like, ‘Oh really? This actually happened?'”

The odds were stacked against Lloyd at the Belgian Classic – she rode without a leadout, having never won a pro race before, against a field of the best sprinters in the world – and still she won by almost a bike length. Afterwards, she cupped her mouth in disbelief. “I felt pretty good, but I never really imagined that happening,” the Movistar rider tells Cycling Weekly.

So how did she do it? How did a 19-year-old beat SD Worx-Protime's Lorena Wiebes, the greatest sprinter of all time, who hadn’t lost a bunch dash since 2024?

Lloyd starts from the top, with a conversation she had with her team-mates ahead of the stage. “We were all joking about winning,” she says, “but we didn’t really believe it, because it was Lorena’s race to win.

“I knew that I was a relatively good sprinter, but for a race like this, I kind of imagined that maybe in five years’ time I would be able to win it, after Lorena had had her peak couple of years.”

Last season, Wiebes won 25 times on the road. Lloyd was a first-year pro, the youngest rider on the WorldTour, juggling her final year of school with racing for Movistar.

After a stage top-10 at last month's UAE Tour, the Briton began the Ronde van Brugge with hopes of a strong result. She kept herself near the front of the peloton, and when the storm clouds drifted overhead and hail began, she felt she might be on for a good day. “Being from the UK, it’s something I’m a little bit more used to,” she says.

“I could see people losing their heads a little bit and getting really, really cold, thinking about the weather more than thinking about the race. For me, it was a bit painful with the hail for a bit, but once you get into it, it’s OK. I was actually a bit upset when it started to get sunny again,” she says. “It meant everything came back together.”

The bunch was packed 10-wide across a residential road heading into the finale. Inside the last kilometre, Lloyd felt a gentle elbow in her right side, and nudged back, “then I realised who I was barging shoulders with,” she laughs. It was Wiebes, dressed in the Dutch tricolour, and threading her way through to the front. “I was like, ‘Actually, I can sit on her wheel rather than elbowing her’,” Lloyd says.

Wiebes veered to the left of the bunch to tag onto the Lidl-Trek sprint train of former world champion Elisa Balsamo. Lloyd stayed right. Why didn’t she follow? “The lap before, my team-mate had said there was a slight headwind coming from the left, so [I should] maybe sprint towards the right. I took her advice,” she explains.

The move, as astute as it was, also exposed the teenager to the wind. She could have panicked, nestled back into the pack, but instead Lloyd spotted a clean run to the line. “It’s now or never,” she thought. A three-time junior track world champion, she trusted her kick was strong. “If I was going to use the energy anyway, I thought I might as well see if I could get the jump on some people,” she says. And so, with 200m to go, she rose out of the saddle and split the air in two like a thunderstrike.

What was going through her head at that moment? “Just try and sprint and see if I could hold on for a top-three,” she says. Nobody came around. Lloyd raised her right arm in victory across the line, but so drained from the effort, she dropped it straight back down to her handlebars. She then ground to a halt, and her team-mates mobbed her in celebration. What began as a far-fetched joke had come true.

Lloyd’s post-race interview soon went viral for its authenticity. “Oh f***, I actually won,” she said, smiling and apologising for the expletive. “My mum texted me afterwards and said, ‘You need to maybe mind your foul language next time’,” she says.

The teenager also told the interviewer of her mechanic, who had pledged her a new LEGO set if she crossed the line first. The store in Bruges was only a 15-minute walk away. Did he hold his promise? “He bought me the Ferrari F1 car to add to my growing collection,” Lloyd says. “Weirdly, I don’t know if he knew this, but I have the Aston Martin, the Red Bull and the McLaren, and now I have the Ferrari, so we’re up to four. Maybe I can get all 10 at some point.”

A race car, in the end, felt a fitting prize for the fastest rider on the day. Six more wins, and she’ll have the full set. What race is her mind on next? “I think [Paris-]Roubaix is something I want to look towards,” she says. “But then again, it’s a very demanding race, and anything can happen… We’ll see in the rest of the Classics and maybe later in the season as well.”

Buoyed by victory, with newfound belief and fearlessness, the 19-year-old is ready to take on the best.

Nairo Quintana has revealed that 2026 will be his final year of professional cycling, after a 16 year-long career.

The Movistar rider announced the news in a press conference ahead of the Volta a Catalunya on Sunday evening, the same race where the Colombian first showcased his dominance in the mountains in 2011.

“I want to say: it is over,” the 36-year-old said in Barcelona. “It is all over. And I am going home to my family."

"I am that boy who grew up amidst the mountains, in a place where life was anything but passive,” he continued. “I was just a kid who didn't have much, but I possessed something far stronger: the burning desire to break free.

"I learned that this wasn't just a sport. It was a way of life; lived step by step, without rushing the process. Then, in 2012, a new chapter began. From that point on - race after race, victory after victory - my triumphs were not mine alone; they belonged to an entire continent. They belonged to the Colombian land, to every life, every climb, and every finish line crossed.”

Quintana’s breakthrough performance came at the Volta a Catalunya, as the rider took the mountains title with the Colombia es Pasión squad. His form continued with a Queen Stage win at the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2012 in a race that marked the Movistar rider as a serious challenger to the dominance of Team Sky.

A stage win at the 2013 Tour de France only confirmed his talent, triumphing at Le Semnoz as he finished second overall. A year later, Quintana won the Giro d’Italia, a Grand Tour performance matched by an overall win at the Vuelta a España in 2016.

After a flurry of victories with the French team Arkéa-Samsic, he tested positive for Tramadol at the 2022 Tour, and was disqualified post-race. A year-long hiatus from cycling came as a result.

His return to racing came in 2023, with his old team Movistar. This time Quintana was a team rider, shining briefly in the Dolomites in the 2024 Giro d’Italia, only to be overtaken by Tadej Pogačar just before the line.

"These were moments of constant growth,” Quintana said of his career, “a journey that allowed me to mature both as an athlete and as a human being. It was a wonderful chapter, filled with learning, respect, and immense gratitude."

Not only is Quintana one of Colombia’s greatest riders, he has campaigned for human rights alongside his career as a cyclist, work he will continue into his retirement.

"I am not speaking of a farewell; I am speaking of a beginning," Quintana said, "a new beginning where I want to continue building, creating businesses, opening up opportunities, supporting both competitive and recreational sports, and giving back to the people - especially the youth - everything that cycling has given me."

This year’s Vuelta a España will be the Colombian's final race.

The 2026 season is well underway, with two Women's WorldTour races already completed, the Tour Down Under and the UAE Tour.

As the racing switches to Europe, it's time to look at the teams, the key riders, and the races to watch across an engrossing season. Everything is building up to a fifth Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August, but there is so much more before then.

Here is our team-by-team guide to the Women's WorldTour, and the moments of the season to anticipate.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 5 February 2026. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Teams

AG Insurance-Soudal
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leaders: Kim Le Court and Sarah Gigante
Team boss: Jurgen Foré
Raison d’être: Providing a solid platform for Le Court and Gigante to fly from

This was a winter of continuity for AG Insurance-Soudal, with two riders leaving and only one, Letizia Borghesi, joining. It means 2026 looks very similar to 2025, but with the hindsight of what happened last season, we can expect them to deliver more regularly.

Kim Le Court was far from an unknown, having won a stage of the Giro d’Italia Women in 2024, but last year was her breakout, with wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Britain Women and, the biggest, the Tour de France Femmes. Her teammate Sarah Gigante finished on the podium at the Giro and sixth at the Tour.

This pair will continue to lead the team, alongside Urška Žigart and Justine Ghekiere, both of whom have big results in them.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney
Team boss: Ronny Lauke
Raison d’etre: Challenge again for the top step of the Tour de France Femmes

It was always going to be a big ask for Kasia Niewiadoma to defend her Tour de France Femmes title in 2025, especially with the return of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at Visma-Lease a Bike and renewed hunger of Demi Vollering at FDJ-SUEZ, so to hold on to the final podium place in the end felt like a job well done. Never one to settle, the Polish rider and her team will be hoping to win back the yellow jersey this summer, but also pick up a few more victories along the way.

Although Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto won 15 times last season – their highest tally since 2019, and a marked improvement from six in 2024 – only two of those victories came on the WorldTour: one thanks to Chloé Dygert at the Tour Down Under, and the other signed by Zoe Bäckstedt at the Simac Ladies Tour.

The team will no doubt call on the two time trial sensations again in 2026. Already, Dygert has come out with fighting talk. “I’m sick of losing,” she said ahead of January’s Tour Down Under, “so this year, I’m really focusing on making sure it doesn’t happen much.” Unfortunately for the American, she left Australia with 12 stitches in her leg, and is now eyeing a period of recovery before the Classics.

There have been no new signings at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto over the winter, and only two outgoings: Tour stage winner Ricarda Bauernfiend has found a new home at Lidl-Trek, while former British champion Alice Towers has moved to EF Education-Oatly. The effervescent Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and budding climber Neve Bradbury remain among the most exciting riders in the team. Italian sprinter Chiara Consonni will be there for the flatter days.

EF Education-Oatly
USA
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Noemi Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol
Team boss: Esra Tromp
Raison d’être: Keeping the good vibes going at a young team full of talent

New to the Women’s WorldTour, EF Education-Oatly had the perfect start to their season, by winning the Tour Down Under for the second year in a row through Noemi Rüegg.

However, those were the team’s last WorldTour victories in 2025, so it is a low bar to clear for this season. In Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol they have two riders who were often at the front of races last year. The team stand out in pink, and also because they have the rainbow jersey, through Magdeleine Vallieres.

Kristen Faulkner, Olympic champion, will want more than her one win last year, while there has been an injection of youth to keep the American squad ticking over. No more Alison Jackson.

FDJ United-Suez
France
2025 WorldTour wins: 11
Team leader: Demi Vollering
Team boss: Stephen Delcourt
Raison d’être: To win the Tour de France Femmes and remain the world's top-ranked team

When the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was first announced, team manager Stephen Delcourt dreamed of winning it, building the team with that ambition in the front of his mind. Only six years ago the team was one of the also-ran squads, but since Évita Muzic won the closing stage of the 2020 Giro Rosa, their first WorldTour win, they’ve been on the rise. Last season they brought in defending Tour champion Demi Vollering hoping the yellow jersey ambition might be realised but, while she came close, second place was all the team could manage.

FDJ dominated the first half of last season. Vollering quickly repaid Delcourt's faith, blossoming into a fine leader, starting the year with victory in the four-day Comunitat Velenciana, then winning Strade Bianche, the Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women and the Volta Catalunya. They were far from a one-woman band; fellow new recruit Elise Chabbey and Ally Wollaston contributed multiple victories, helping the French team to top spot in the UCI rankings.

That said, they have fewer riders this year, but have recruited well, with German champion Frazinska Koch the pick of the new additions. A hugely versatile Classics rider and domestique, she will contribute widely, while Eva van Agt is a proven helper and Sofia Bertizzolo has been a target for the team for years now. It will be interesting to see how Scotswoman Lauren Dickson fares in only her third year in the sport. The signs are promising: she finished 17th on GC at the recent Tour Down Under, helping Wollaston to two stage wins and brilliant team performance.

Fenix-Premier Tech
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Puck Pieterse
Team boss: Philip Roodhooft
Raison d'être: Big Classics victories

Fenix-Premier Tech are among the minority of Women's WorldTour teams to have more riders this year than last, starting 2026 with 19 of the permitted 22 riders. An interesting mix of cyclo-cross and Classics riders, they have never been prolific winners. Last season they took only five, though three of those were national championships.

When they do win, they win big, with stages in the Tour de France Femmes on the team palmarès. The hugely talented and versatile Puck Pieterse is always among the action, finishing in the top 10 in every one of last year's spring Classics and winning La Flèche Wallonne. Charlotte Kool joined the squad mid-season last year and should she regain her mojo will provide genuine winning potential in the sprints.

Lidl-Trek
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leader: Elisa Balsamo and Niamh Fisher-Black
Team boss: Luca Guercilena
Raison d’être: Getting the big signings to deliver

There’s a lot of talent stockpiled at Lidl-Trek, and getting it to fire is the main goal of the team for 2026. Ellen van Dijk and Lizzie Deignan retiring could have unbalanced another team, but this one was prepared for this eventuality already, making the big changes ahead of 2025. As it is, the German squad’s signings this winter have largely been dealing with domestique reorganisation, and providing some experience to a developing roster.

Last season saw success through the year, although perhaps not quite at the level that was expected, with fewer WorldTour wins than 2024. However, there were stage victories at the Vuelta España Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Women, with Anna Henderson’s result in the latter perhaps spurring her on to more consistent success, and Elisa Balsamo won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

Niamh Fisher-Black and Riejanne Markus, both signed as general classification options, performed impressively at stage races, with Fisher-Black fifth at the Tour de France Femmes and sixth at the Vuelta. This year, they will aim to cement their places in the top five at WorldTour stage events, especially the Grand Tours. Fisher-Black has a lot of promise, and is still only 25, so one feels that there is a breakout performance still to come.

In the Classics, Balsamo has the abilities to overcome almost anyone, therefore just needs the race to fall in her favour, while she will be ably backed up by Clara Copponi, Emma Norsgaard, Shirin van Anrooij and Henderson, which has the makings of a pretty good collection of leaders for the chaos of one-day racing. The team still has four 20-year-olds, too, including Isabella Holmgren, who finished eight at last year’s Giro, so there is a lot of hope for the future.

Movistar
Spain
2025 WorldTour wins: 10
Team leader: Marlen Reusser
Team boss: Sebastián Unzué
Raison d’etre: Win regularly and develop young talent

Only four teams won more races than Movistar in 2025 – SD Worx-Protime, UAE Team ADQ, FDJ-SUEZ and Visma-Lease a Bike – putting the Spanish squad just outside of the realm of the super-teams. Of Movistar’s 10 victories at WorldTour level, seven came courtesy of the world time trial champion Marlen Reusser. And that doesn’t account for the Swiss rider’s status as one of the peloton’s best GC contenders; she finished runner-up at both the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro last year.

Movistar will also look to British prodigy Cat Ferguson for wins in 2026, one of a handful of talented teenagers in the squad. The youngest is Spaniard Paula Ostiz, the junior world and European road champion, who turned pro this year.

Picnic PostNL
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Pfeiffer Georgi
Team boss: Iwan Spekenbrink
Raison d’etre: A team in transition, with a host of young riders on board

Nine riders left Picnic PostNL over the winter, and eight came in, underlining how in transition this team is. Some of those who left will be missed badly: Charlotte Kool, Francesca Barale, Franzi Koch, Megan Jastrab and Nienke Vinke. It leaves a young, callow squad, which will hope to outperform low expectations.

They hit the ground running at the Tour Down Under, with two podiums and 12th place overall for Josie Nelson, but the Classics will be the place where the squad can really show their mettle. Pfeiffer Georgi had a quiet 2025, as she worked her way back from the concussion she suffered at the Tour de France Femmes a couple of years ago, and will be looking to show that she is still a contender.

SD Worx-Protime
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 27
Team leaders: Lotte Kopecky, Anna van der Breggen and Lorena Wiebes
Team boss: Erwin Janssen
Raison d’être: Retaking their number one ranking after a slight dip

This year represents a new challenge for the previously all-conquering SD Worx-Protime. Instead of coming into the season as the number one team, the one everyone wanted to beat, they are now number two, chasing FDJ United-SUEZ, and their former charge Vollering.

That’s not to say 2025 was a fallow year for the Dutch squad, with 48 wins across the year, including 25 wins for Lorena Wiebes, who appears unbeatable in sprints. Wiebes won through the year, from the UAE Tour onwards, taking two stage wins at both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes. Meanwhile, Lotte Kopecky won the Tour of Flanders, again, and Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold showed themselves in flashes.

However, Kopecky did have an off-year, due to knee and lower-back issues, and her tilt at Tour GC failed to materialise. Also, in the absence of Vollering, they only won one general classification title. This might be a continued trend, with a group of developing riders not quite there yet, although Van der Breggen did finish third at last year’s Vuelta España Femenina.

Expect Wiebes to keep winning, wherever she races, and Kopecky to go all in for the Classics, from Omloop Nieuwsblad onwards. Ultimately, SD Worx want to be the team that everyone watches in the peloton again, and be back to the space where they can bend races to their will. They do not have the same number of dominant riders as before, but they do have the right pieces for the right races. New signing Nienke Vinke could be the future for GC challenges, and Bredewold can continue to do her very good Vollering impression in hillier one-day races.

UAE Team ADQ
UAE
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Elisa Longo Borghini
Team boss: Yana Seel
Raison d'être: Defence of Elisa Longo Borghini's Giro title and a Tour de France Femmes podium finish

Building year on year, UAE Team ADQ are now among the most dangerous teams in the peloton. The addition of Elisa Longo Borghini last year has proved pivotal. Though they've only existed in their current form since 2022, the team dates all the way back to Nicole Cooke's Mcipollini-Giordana team of 2011. Last year's crop of 28 wins represented their most successful season, the winning shared among a remarkable 13 of their 19-woman roster.

2025 Tour de France Femmes revelation Maeva Squiban, along with Karlijn Swinkels, have already opened the team's account, winning in Mallorca last week. While they're one of the few teams to have increased the size of their roster, we can expect Longo Borghini to be most influential again.

Visma-Lease a Bike
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos
Team boss: Rutger Tijssen
Raison d'être: Another Tour de France title for Pauline Ferrand Prévot and big Classics wins for Marianne Vos

Even without Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's Tour de France Femmes victory, Visma-Lease a Bike had a great 2025, winning more races than in any of their four previous seasons while relying less on their big names. Martina Fidanza stepped up with three wins, and Ninke Veenhoven bagged two. The future lies with two young riders: the hugely talented Brit Imogen Wolff, who began winning before her 19th birthday, and Marion Bunel, who is already among the best climbers in the bunch aged only 21.

Ferrand-Prévot has a freakish ability to successfully target races, so another Tour de France win is possible. Meanwhile, Marianne Vos always bags at least one big win a year. Add in Canadian all-rounder Sarah Van Dam and Dutch rouleur Daniek Hengeveld and Visma have a recipe for success.

Uno-X Mobility, Liv AlUla Jayco and Human Powered Health

Uno-X Mobility won just one WorldTour race last year, a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas through Mie Bjørndal Ottestad, who won four more races for the team. This year, they are likely to continue their aggressive underdog strategy, which has brought them success in the past. In Katrine Aalerud, they have an experienced GC leader.

2025 ended well for Liv AlUla Jayco, who won two stages at the Tour of Chongming Island; they also won stage two of the Tour de France Femmes through Mavi García. This year, they will hope that they can return to the front of races more often, through Letizia Paternoster and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, among others.

Human Powered Health will aim to be more than just the 14th WorldTour team, with a ProTour or WorldTour victory surely among their plans. In Thalita de Jong and Kathrin Schweinberger, they have experienced riders who could surprise.

Races

Spring Classics

From Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28 Feb) until Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (26 April), the women's Spring Classics season follows an almost identical rhythm to that of the men's, with female 'siblings' having been introduced for nearly all of the original major men's races. The inauguration of Milan-San Remo Donne (21 March) last season – won by Lorena Wiebes – leaves E3 Saxo Classic as the only men's WorldTour race with no equivalent. Omloop and Opening Weekend is followed in March by Italy's Strade Bianche, San Remo, and a pair of new names: In Flanders Fields. From Middelkerke to Wevelgem (formerly the more succinct Gent-Wevelgem) and the Tour of Bruges (formerly Brugge-De Panne).

There is also the Trofeo Alfredo Binda (15 March), one of the oldest Classics on the women's calendar with more than 50 years of history.

As with the men, the women's Classics tends to centre around the Tour of Flanders (5 April) and Paris-Roubaix (12 April), but some of the stronger climbers will target the hilly Ardennes races – Amstel Gold (19 April), Flèche Wallonne (22 April) and Liège.

Vuelta España Femenina by carrefour.es – 3-10 May

With the women's season rejigged to free the Giro d'Italia Women from its annual clash with the men's Tour de France, there is now a decent gap between the three Grand Tours, opening up the possibility of seeing all of the world's best riders in all three. The season is packed, though, especially in May when the Vuelta is the first of three Spanish WorldTour stage races, and with teams having such small rosters it's more likely teams will need to be very choosy when selecting their squads.

In its short history as a stage race, the Vuelta Femenina has always attracted the pick of the stage racing bunch, and that is unlikely to change this season. Not many riders have confirmed their programmes beyond the Classics and the Tour de France Femmes so far, but last year's runner-up Marlen Reusser is down to ride, and don't be surprised defending champion Demi Vollering here either.

Tour de France Femmes – 1-9 August

The 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins slowly with two flattish stages, before the temperature gradually rises. A series of hilly stages are punctuated by an individual time trial, before the pièce de resistance, Mont Ventoux. After Planche des Belles Filles, the Tourmalet, Alpe d’Huez and the Madeleine comes the Giant of Provence. The bald mountain will surely hint at the direction of the fifth yellow jersey, but there is still a hectic stage around Nice to come, like a turbo-charged final day of Paris-Nice. Four ascents of the Col d’Eze will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Demi Vollering will be itching to take back the crown she lost in 2024, and prove that she really is the best rider in the world; FDJ United-SUEZ will also demand better from their star signing. However, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has proved that she will go to huge lengths to win, and will have the French public on her side. It should be a clash for the ages. From Switzerland to the Mediterranean, the action will not stop.

Cat Ferguson began her 2026 season with a commanding sprint victory on Sunday at the Trofeo Llucmajor one-day race in Mallorca, Spain.

The 19-year-old Brit, now in her second full year with WorldTour squad Movistar, came off the wheel of her team-mate Arlenis Sierra, and held off Lidl-Trek’s Clara Copponi down the finishing straight of the third-tier event.

The victory marked Ferguson’s sixth as a pro, and followed on from three last season, including her first at WorldTour level at the Tour of Britain Women.

Speaking after the finish line on Sunday, Ferguson said: “The team for sure was the key today, with the wind. The victory would not have been possible without all the girls’ efforts, which was exaggerated even more by the wind.”

The teenager came into the finish of the 134.8km race in an 11-rider lead group, which had torn off the peloton as an echelon. The Brit had two team-mates in the group – Arlenis Sierra and Aude Biannic – while UAE Team ADQ counted five riders at the front.

“100% the team and the team plan were the key,” said Ferguson. “We stayed calm, and we are the ones who made the race, and in the end, I think that tactic paid off.

“Arlenis was my final girl for the lead-out, and I’ve already learned so much from her in one race. She’s really someone I look up to, and she showed me just how to sprint. For sure, the win wouldn’t have been possible without her today.”

Ferguson will have the chance to extend her 100% record on Monday afternoon when she rides the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx, another third-tier Mallorcan one-day race.

The Brit’s spring calendar will then take her to WorldTour events Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Milan-San Remo Women, In Flanders Fields - in Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders, Amstel Gold Race and the Giro d’Italia Women.

“The Giro is a big goal for me, and I hope I can improve to show that I’m good enough to go to the Tour [de France Femmes avec Zwift] as well because if so then that would become my main goal of the season,” Ferguson told Cycling Weekly last month.

“I’ve got to prove that I am one of the riders deserving of a place throughout the season, and show the team that I’m in good shape and that I can be an asset to them.”

Britain’s brightest talent Cat Ferguson is eyeing a Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift debut next year at the age of 20, having taken three wins in her first full year as a WorldTour professional.

The Movistar rider, who already counts five world titles across three disciplines on her palmarès, enjoyed an up-and-down 2025 season, with periods of good form interspersed by periods of overtraining and fatigue.

“I think the combination of my first altitude camps, not knowing my limits, having so much time to ride my bike, and the excitement of being a first year pro meant that I put myself into a hole,” she told CW. “I thought I could handle whatever and do a lot of training if I just fuelled more but that’s not the case and I went a bit too crazy.”

As she puts it, Ferguson “resurrected it a bit towards the end of the year” and won in her final race – a mountainous one-day race in southern Spain, an impressive result for a rider who has previously excelled on shorter, steeper climbs and flatter finishes. “That win proved to me that I can be more versatile than I previously thought, and that’s the rider I’d love to be,” she said.

Now, having already spent one winter training camp with Movistar preparing for the 2026 season, the Yorkshirewoman has set her sights on the biggest race of all. To get selected, though, she has to catch the eye of her team during June’s Giro d’Italia Women.

“Apart from Marlen [Reusser] and Liane [Lippert], everyone is a reserve. I’ll do the Giro before and however I do there will decide if I go to the Tour or not.

“The Giro is a big goal for me, and I hope I can improve to show that I’m good enough to go to the Tour as well because if so then that would become my main goal of the season.

“I’ve got to prove that I am one of the riders deserving of a place throughout the season, and show the team that I’m in good shape and that I can be an asset to them.”

Before the summer of stage racing, Ferguson’s first goals of the season will be the Classics. She opened her campaign last year with third place at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

“I didn’t expect to make it around Binda so to finish third was a surprise,” she said. “I definitely came away from the spring thinking that the Italian races – including Milan-San Remo – suited me more than I thought they did beforehand.

“I’m hoping this year with a good winter’s training behind me I can go to the Classics more prepared than last year. They’re definitely the hardest races in terms of positioning, and they were incredibly difficult for me last year because they were the first races of the year.

“But I definitely think my positioning improved throughout the season, so if I go to the Classics with better physical ability and a bit of luck – because that’s a big part of the Classics – then hopefully I can do well. The Classics are super exciting and the real pinnacle of cycling.”

Ferguson’s best run of form in 2025 came during her home race, June’s Tour of Britain Women. She won one stage and the points classification as she finished second overall.

That said, she spoke of the season not “being great physically in terms of progression” due to the aforementioned fatigue.

“I definitely made the biggest improvements mentally, with all the experience and knowledge that I gained being bigger than I ever thought,” she said. “But I still have way, way more to learn and I’ll continue making mistakes. But the ones I’ve already made I 100% won’t do again.”

After a dominant junior career, Ferguson turned pro with Movistar in the autumn of 2024, and won two pro races for the Spanish team in just seven race days before the season’s end. She is rated by many as the natural heir to her idol, Lizzie Deignan.

“I’m really enjoying it – it’s just incredible,” Ferguson said of life as a pro. “I even just appreciate living in a different country [Spain] and having a two-year rental contract. I find it incredible I get to live here for another year, to get to do this as long as I make it.

“People ask what my long term career goal is, and honestly a big goal of mine is just to keep doing cycling. I want to do it as long as my body lets me. It’s another reason to take everything slowly so that I can have a long career as it’s my dream job.”

Movistar rider Davide Formolo has been sidelined for at least six weeks after a cup of tea fell on his foot.

The 33-year-old reported the incident on Instagram on Tuesday, saying he had damaged the tendon, and required next-day surgery.

“There's nothing you can do about it, life is strange sometimes,” Formolo wrote on Instagram stories.

“You ride around 30,000km a year with trucks brushing against your handlebars as if it were normal, you throw yourself down wet descents like Valentino Rossi at Mugello, then one evening a cup of tea falls on your foot, causing a small cut, and you can no longer lift your big toe.”

“Tomorrow morning I'm having surgery to repair the tendon, followed by a long rehabilitation period that will keep me out of action for at least six weeks.”

Formolo’s expected recovery period means he is likely to return towards the end of January. The UCI WorldTour season is scheduled to begin on 20 January with the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia, a race the Italian has never done.

A Giro d’Italia stage winner in 2015, and former Italian road champion, Formolo’s last professional win came at the Veneto Classic in 2023, then riding for UAE Team Emirates. He signed a three-year deal with Movistar at the start of 2024, and next season will begin the final year of his contract.

The 33-year-old’s teacup incident is the latest in a long line of freak occurrences that have led riders to be injured.

In 2008, for example, Mark Cavendish injured his calf muscle when he fell playing a snowboarding game on his Nintendo Wii console. Like Formolo, the Brit’s incident came towards the end of the year, meaning he did not miss any racing targets.

On the more serious side, recently retired Ineos Grenadiers rider Luke Rowe broke his leg while white water rafting on his brother’s stag do in 2017. "I lifted my leg, but my foot stayed still, it was kind of hanging off, limp,” Rowe told BBC Wales Sport at the time.

More serious still, Greg Lemond almost lost his life in the build-up to the 1987 season when he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law on a turkey hunting trip. The American lost 65% of his blood volume, and was said to be around 20 minutes from dying.

Lemond returned to racing to win his second of three Tour de France titles two years later.

As we hit January, it is more than the time for pro cycling teams to release their new kits for 2026. For some, this is the best part of the year, before the reality of racing gets involved, when we can just imagine how good the jerseys will look on the road.

Rather than writing up each team individually, we thought it would work better if we collated them together, unless someone does something mad. When all the kits are out, we can do our usual arbitrary evaluation of them too, so do look out for that. In this guide, we will cover all the WorldTour teams, and notable other squads, but not all, otherwise it will get a bit overwhelming, apart from particular exceptions.

If you would rather find out which team riders will be appearing for next year, rather than what they will be wearing, you can find that on our comprehensive transfer guide for 2026 too.

Teams have also changed names – Israel-Premier Tech to NSN Cycling, Alpecin-Deceuninck to Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to Decathlon CMA CGM and more – so that will have an impact on the kits too.

While teams will have tried to keep the fresh designs under wraps, a few have leaked into the public domain. However, this list will only have confirmed designs. So far, those who are fans of garish outfits should be pleased.

So far, we are only certain of a few kits for next season, but more will appear in the coming weeks or days. We'll update this as we go!

Picnic PostNL

If I were to play spot the difference, I would be hard pushed with the 2026 Picnic PostNL kit. It remains navy and orange, with the 'Keep Challenging' stripes, and the name is the same too. There are a couple of new sponsors on there, and this is apparently different, but that's it.

As the press release says: "Clear and vibrant amongst the colourful peloton: fans, commentators and pundits alike won’t have to re-adjust for the 2026 campaign as they can expect to see the two orange stripes from those helicopter shots on even the foggiest of days."

Pinarello-Q36.5

It's a continuation of navy for the renamed Pinarello-Q36.5, but no white sleeves this year. Instead, this smart jersey is fully navy, with fancy gold accents. The bikes don't look bad either...

According to Q36.5's founder, Luigi Bergamo: "The new jersey design evolves the visual language we began developing last season to reflect the Italian values of premium, daring, design that we share with Pinarello.

"The result is a kit that allows our riders to feel, from the very first moment they pull on the kit, that they are part of something special and unique: the only team in the professional peloton founded and powered by Italian technical partners. We can’t wait to see this jersey (and our iconic Dottore bib shorts!) racing sharp at the front of the bunch."

Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco

MAAP entered WorldTour cycling with their Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco kits, and have stuck to their theme from 2025 with this purple – sorry, "Aurora" – jersey, paired with dark grey shorts.

The new addition is the flame motif, which stretches to the socks, which is a bit of fun.

MAAP's creative director, Misha Glisovic, said: "MAAP has always been driven to push the boundaries. It’s core to who we are and how we see our place in the sport. We want to use design to broaden the appeal of pro cycling, nudging the sport towards something more stylish and aspirational. Ultimately, we want to be true to our values at MAAP, and GreenEDGE shares this vision."

Human Powered Health

Women's WorldTour squad Human Powered Health have partnered with Verge Sport for their new kit. The new design keeps the orange/red/purple that we have become used to for the team, but in a new pattern, which is called 'Tailwind'. It's designed "to embody speed, motion, and momentum".

The press release says the jersey has a "rich, sweeping warm-to-cool colour gradient that represents Human Powered Health’s Pillars of Performance". It'll be paired with black shorts.

Lotto-Intermarché

The newly merged Lotto-Intemarché go with the red of Lotto for 2026. The kit is a dark-ish red, paired with black shorts, and there isn't really too much more to say about it. It's smart!

According to the statement: "In terms of colour, both main sponsors, Intermarché and Lotto, were already allies: their brand colours red and black dominate the design. The meaningful, subtle fingerprint pattern further strengthens the bold look."

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious have been red, orange, purple, and white, but never blue. That changes in 2026, when the team, now riding Bianchi bikes, will be in navy blue with teal sleeves.

The press release reveals deeper meanings: "At the heart of the kit sits a deep navy, a colour that has been part of the team’s identity since its foundation. Subtly woven into the design is a faint “X” that crosses the jersey, the Roman numeral representing ten years in the sport.

"On the sleeves of the jersey, Bianchi’s iconic Celeste is distinctly featured, perfectly matching the shallow blue waters and teal tones that represent Bahrain’s two seas."

Visma-Lease a Bike

The men and women of Visma-Lease a Bike will continue in yellow for 2026, wearing a kit made by Nimbl, who are more known for their cycling shoes.

According to Francesco Matrone, graphic designer at Nimbl: "In a WorldTour context, design must be essential, intentional, and instantly recognizable. One of our key goals was to create a visual identity that's identifiable at speed and reflects performance and clarity. It must be unmistakably Visma-Lease a Bike. Every graphic element is functional, integrated, and designed to perform under pressure.”

EF Pro Cycling

EF Education–EasyPost and EF Education–Oatly will remain pink next year, but have switched kit suppliers from Rapha to Assos.

Assos says the 2026 kit reflects a "forward-looking mindset" with a "bold colour palette" that evolves EF Pro Cycling’s unmistakable visual identity while introducing "a new, almost other-worldly energy to the peloton."

The silver bits are fun, and pink is always good to me – I just wonder what's going to happen when the Giro d'Italia comes around.

Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech

It's a brand new name for Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech – no more Deceuninck – but not a completely new kit, with similar vibes for the WorldTour and Women's WorldTour teams. The men's team has a kit made by Kalas, which is the same blue as before, more or less, but with a bit more of a light grading across the chest.

The women's team, meanwhile, wear a kit made by Alé, which is pretty similar to the orange of 2025, and there doesn't seem to be the green and blue options from before.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto are usually found in a bold, colourful kit, and next season is no different. This is Luminous, designed by Mckenzie Sampson and made by Canyon. It takes a dark purple base and merges it with turquoise, pink, coral and red.

Sampson said: "I’ve always found Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto to be an aspiring light within the peloton. They’re a team that gives a unique platform to a diverse set of riders across the globe to get their big break in cycling. To visually illustrate that sense of light and hope, we wanted the kit design to be bold yet convey the right balance of contrasting light, unique patterns, and rich saturated moments of colour."

AG Insurance-Soudal

AG Insurance-Soudal have mostly the same kit as their brother team Soudal Quick-Step, just with different sponsors. There is a new logo, too: Datashift, a Belgian leader in data solutions and strategy.

It's a blue base, with green accents across, with a white band across the chest for AG Insurance.

Ineos Grenadiers

There was rumour and speculation that it might happen, but now it is official... Ineos Grenadiers will be wearing WHITE yes WHITE shorts next season. Well, it's technically 'light grey', but come on.

Orange is the main colour on the jersey for the first time, after various blues and reds, but it is the white that stands out. It's as striking, if not more so, as AG2R's famous brown shorts, and we wonder how the riders are feeling about it...

The press release says: "The design was created with a clear purpose: immediate recognition. The exclusive use of this orange ensures a striking presence in the peloton, while the white panels on the lower sections add balance and clarity, allowing the leading colour to shine with harmonious strength. The result is a sophisticated, functional and memorable kit."

Apparently: "Orange is the new uniqueness. Orange is the new icon." Read our opinion on it here.

Soudal Quick-Step

It's evolution not revolution for Soudal Quick-Step in 2026, who have a similar kit to this season, but green rather than white as the accent colour, along with the classic blue.

According to the team: "The new design incorporates a vivid electric-lime element, a deliberate move inspired by the Shine for Safety visibility campaign launched during this year’s Ardennes Classics."

There is a lot more green on the back, which will help them stand out, apparently. It's a nice wavy pattern. The kit is designed and made by Castelli.

FDJ United-SUEZ

If you're thinking "I've seen this kit before", you would be right. FDJ United-SUEZ will be wearing their 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift kit full-time next year. It's largely black, with an explosion of red and blue on the chest.

The press release says about the Gobik kit: "The jersey reflects the unseen hours of the sport: training sessions before dawn, rides in the rain, the fear and doubts of a jour sans. In contrast, a vivid halo of light rises on the chest, symbolising the inner spark that transforms sacrifice into brilliance at the moment of victory.

Demi Vollering won't be in this kit, given the Dutchwoman is European champion.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rarely mix the colour palette up too much, and 2026 will be no different – it's largely white, with black and red trim, but it definitely has changed since last season.

The Pissei kit, handcrafted at the brand's Italian Custom Lab, has some fun geometric patterns on the stormach of the jersey, with black on the arms too. Don't expect to see Tadej Pogačar in this one, however, considering he is world champion.

Movistar

It's a second year in a row in white for Movistar, who have ditched the navy box across the chest for this cleaner offering. There is the classic M on the front, and some accents across the rest of the front.

Apparently: "Gobik sought a futuristic aesthetic, an evolution that projects innovation and performance on a white base. Technological textures, iridescent graphics and subtle transparencies were combined to create a striking design that reflects the identity and avant-garde spirit of the team." Avant-garde. Right.

Lidl-Trek

Lidl-Trek's kit is different. Definitely. There's less red on the front, more blue, and there's a new sponsor on the front, but it is, essentially, the same as last year. There's nothing wrong with that! It's a good kit! "Our favourite colours" is what the team said. Keep it simple. The men and women use the same kit, which is good.

The team say: "With a fresh twist on a fan-favorite design, Santini have delivered again with the 2026 Lidl-Trek kit. Pairing the ultimate fabrics with playful colours, the latest design delivers looks as well as performance."

Decathlon CMA CGM

Sadly, there's no exciting bumf to go with the new Decathlon CMA CGM kit, but with a new name comes a new colour - red. The brown shorts are sadly still in the dustbin of history, with new sponsors CMA CGM bringing the new colour. One sleeve is still teal (?) while the other is a lot darker, rather than the dark blue it was before.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe

Now, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's kit is yet to be officially announced, but seeing as all the riders in the plane stunt were wearing a new kit, let's assume this is the new one for 2026. It's a lot whiter than before, with royal blue sleeves, and less navy. It is similar to the special kit they used at the Tour de France this season.

SD Worx-Protime

SD Worx-Protime have veered away from the purple and pinks of recent years, and instead will race in this primary colour-heavy jersey which is called "New Dawn"

It's designed by Specialized, and is paired with black shorts. Notably, Lotte Kopecky will be racing in it, no longer being world, European, or Belgian champion, for once.

According to the press release: "The new jersey reflects the team’s and sponsors’ ongoing drive for innovation. Standing still is not an option – continuously reinventing ourselves in every aspect is a core value at SD Worx-Protime. The new design symbolises our rich history through the spark, now multiplied and displayed in various shades. This emphasises the team’s slogan: we spark success."

NSN Cycling

The team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have become NSN Cycling, and will be wearing a busy kit next season, with a base of sky blue and orange. The jury is out over whether this will be easy to notice or to lose in the peloton. They're also riding Scott bikes now.

If you want to know why it looks like this, the press release says: "It's designed by Stijn Dossche of stycle.design, is inspired by the Mediterranean city from which the team’s new identity has been forged.

"Its design blends geometry, colour blocks, and patterns reminiscent of contemporary Barcelona - a city that never stands still, where tradition meets modernity, where Mediterranean light becomes art, and movement becomes identity."

Just in time for the Tour de France Grand Départ in July, then – that's in Barça.

Groupama-FDJ United

Another new name, though less dramatic, is Groupama-FDJ United. The French stalwarts are slow to change their kits, normally, and the same is true next year. It's the fetching number they wore at this year's Tour, although it's now made by Bioracer rather than Alé. Essentially, it's royal blue with a red accent sleeve.

Cofidis

Cofidis are another French team barely changing their kit for 2026. The men's and women's teams, now both ProTeams, will use the same red and yellow jersey as this season, although the shades might have been slightly altered, and the sponsors have moved around a bit.

It is with a bittersweet feeling that 18-year-old Carys Lloyd will pass on her title of being the youngest rider on the WorldTour next year.

Born on New Year’s Eve in 2006, the Movistar rider balanced her first season as a pro with her final year of A-Levels, scoring top grades as well as two UCI podium finishes. She also made history as the youngest rider to ever compete in Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

An influx of juniors means four WorldTour riders will be younger than Lloyd next year, including her teammate Paula Ostiz, the junior world champion.

“It’s funny because Paula is only actually 12 days younger than me,” Lloyd told Cycling Weekly, adding that it’s “sweet and a bit sad” to no longer be the baby of the WorldTour. “I liked having the ‘I’m the youngest’ thing, and being the, not the underdog, but the least expected to perform,” she said.

Reflecting on her debut pro season, Lloyd described it as a “rollercoaster – I knew going in that it was going to be a big jump physically, but you don’t think it’s going to be as big of a jump mentally.

“There were a lot of learnings – accidentally leading out the wrong team in Omloop [Het] Nieuwsblad – but then getting to the end of the season in Italy and being able to do those really big lead-outs for Marlen [Reusser] and some of the other riders was really nice just to show that mental development.”

A three-time junior world champion on the track, Lloyd has emerged this season as a promising sprinter. Her best results were third on a stage at the Vuelta a Extremadura – “that was a bit surreal” – and second at September’s A Travers les Hauts de France.

“My tactics still aren’t completely there as a sprinter, but we’re looking at it,” she said. “Going forward, the team have told me there’s support and faith in me. Last year, they didn’t really know what I could do as a rider, let alone as a sprinter.”

Though her full calendar for 2026 is yet to be revealed, the teenager is expecting to open her season in Australia at the Tour Down Under.

“There will hopefully be some sprint opportunities,” she said. “I’m not writing off a Grand Tour next year, the team aren’t either, but it’s not a focus. They’ve said to me, ‘At the moment, we want you to focus on the Classics, but if you’re in good shape, you’re in good shape.’ That’s what I really like about them; if you have the legs, they’ll give you the opportunity.”

Lloyd's longer term dream is to make the Team GB track squad for the LA Olympics in 2028. “I’ve got a few little goals, as in stepping stones, like the Commonwealth [Games] next year – I’m looking to go for Wales,” she explained. “I’ll see where that takes me, we’ll take it every stepping stone, and hopefully it leads me to 2028.”

Oier Lazkano has spoken out, pleading his innocence, after he was provisionally suspended by the UCI over 'unexplained abnormalities' in his biological passport.

Last week, the Basque rider was revealed to have been suspended, and his then team, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, announced that he was no longer riding for them.

The abnormalities occurred during Lazkano's time at Movistar, 2022-2024, according to the UCI; it was also when his most notable results occurred, including victory at the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior in 2024, and at the Spanish National Championships the season previously.

Lazkano joined Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe at the beginning of 2025, but had not raced for the team since Paris-Roubaix in April.

Last week, Movistar stated "with absolute firmness" their "unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport".

Over the weekend, Lazkano issued a statement of his own, as reported by Spanish newspaper AS.

"I have never used doping substances or prohibited methods," Lazkano said. "I am a clean athlete and a person of integrity. I will continue, with determination and transparency, to defend my name and professional dignity. My career has been built on effort, dedication, honesty, and daily work."

Lazkano added that he has put his faith "in the truth and in sporting justice", adding that he will battle to clear his name "with all necessary actions". He said that he has instructed a legal team to act.

The Movistar statement, published on Friday, read: "During the three seasons of contractual relationship with Mr Lazkano (of the five to which the UCI study refers) all the controls to which he was subjected by the different national and international organizations, as well as internal to the team itself, yielded a negative result. By virtue of this, it was materially impossible to know, or even intuit, any anomaly such as the one now presented in the procedure opened by the International Cycling Union.

"Abarca Sports reiterates once again with absolute firmness its unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport. To this end, we will redouble with absolute determination all the efforts, controls and measures that we have been promoting to date."

Movistar have stated "with absolute firmness" their "unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport" in a week in which two of its former riders were suspended over anti-doping issues.

The Spanish WorldTour team released a statement on Friday morning responding to the news, announced on Thursday, that their former rider Oier Lazkano had been suspended by the UCI over "unexplained abnormalities" in his biological passport.

The abnormalities occurred partly during the Basque rider's time at Movistar, 2022-2024, according to the UCI; it was also when his most notable results occurred, including victory at the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior in 2024.

Lazkano joined Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe at the beginning of 2025, but had not raced for the team since Paris-Roubaix in April. After the UCI statement on Thursday, his team swiftly revealed that the 25-year-old had left the team.

Also this week, Brazilian rider Vinícius Rangel Costa was given a 20-month suspension for three failures to report his whereabouts for anti-doping controls. Rangel Costa raced for Movistar between 2022-2024, last riding for the team in May 2024 at Eschborn-Frankfurt.

According to the UCI, the Brazilian had three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period, but the announcement did not specify when that period was.

In response to UCI's statement on Lazkano, Abarca Sports, the company who owns the Movistar WorldTour team, issued a press release detailing the communications the team had received from the UCI over the issue.

A spokesperson for Abarca Sports said: "It is not until yesterday afternoon, October 30, 2025, that he has become aware of this situation.

"During the three seasons of contractual relationship with Mr Lazkano (of the five to which the UCI study refers) all the controls to which he was subjected by the different national and international organizations, as well as internal to the team itself, yielded a negative result. By virtue of this, it was materially impossible to know, or even intuit, any anomaly such as the one now presented in the procedure opened by the International Cycling Union.

"Abarca Sports reiterates once again with absolute firmness its unwavering commitment to a clean and transparent sport. To this end, we will redouble with absolute determination all the efforts, controls and measures that we have been promoting to date."

Movistar announced a restructuring of its management team this week, with Sebastián Unzué becoming head of sports, and a racing department headed by Chente García Acosta and Matt White.

For the second time in his career, Cian Uijtdebroeks has terminated a contract early to move teams.

The Belgian rider had a contract with Visma-Lease a Bike until 2027, but he has left to join Movistar, with a contract until 2029. The 22-year-old had previously left his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe contract early, at the end of 2023, to join Visma.

According to Visma-Lease a Bike CEO Richard Plugge, the move has happened because his team "cannot offer Cian the role and race program that he considers essential for his development."

Uijtdebroeks did not ride a Grand Tour this year, clearly not part of the team's premier squad for events, although he did win a stage the and the overall at the Tour de l'Ain, his first ever professional victory.

The 2022 Tour de l'Avenir champion was considered one of the most promising riders in the world when he left Bora for Visma, but due to health issues and injury, he has not been able to achieve his full potential.

In June, he escaped serious injury after he was hit by a car driver during a training ride.

Eusebio Unzué, the general manager of Movistar, said: "It is a privilege to support young riders with the ambition and talent of Cian, who has a remarkable ability to inspire. Not only because of what he can still achieve, but also for everything he has already shown.

"He brings with him a rich trajectory, and we feel fortunate that he has chosen us as the ideal team to continue building his promising professional career."

Uijtdebroeks said: "I am now at a stage in my career where further development as a GC rider in Grand Tours has become essential. I am convinced that Movistar Team – and riders like Enric Mas in particular – can help me grow in this discipline and achieve great results.

"The team also has a strong tradition in hilly one-day Classics, and I believe this environment can help me develop into a key rider in the peloton."

Plugge added: "Together we have shared two intense years, and we were delighted to see Cian achieve his first professional victory for our team this year. But the honest truth is that Cian’s ambitions and those of the team have started to move in different directions.

"At this moment, we cannot offer Cian the role and race program that he considers essential for his development. After open and honest discussions, we agreed to his request to take a new step in his career. We wish Cian every success in that journey."

Double junior world champion Cat Ferguson is set to make her debut at the Tour of Britain Women in June, British Cycling announced on Tuesday.

Ferguson, who hails from North Yorkshire, will lead Spanish WorldTour team Movistar in the four-day stage race which will take in her home county before heading north and into Scotland. The 19-year-old recently took her first win of the season at a rain-soaked Navarra Classic.

Alongside Ferguson, British Cycling revealed that Visma-Lease a Bike's rising star Imogen Wolff is also set to race. Yorkshire-born Wolff won a bronze medal in the junior time trial at last year's World Championships, and rode for the same British amateur team as the Movistar rider, Shibden Apex RT.

Wolff won a stage and the youth classification in her first race of the season, the Vuelta a Extremadura, and was recently praised by Marianne Vos for her role in the Dutch veteran’s recent stage win at La Vuelta Femenina.

Meanwhile, British Cycling also confirmed that Lidl-Trek's Lizzie Deignan will line up for one final outing at her home race before her retirement later this year. Deignan won the event’s predecessor, the Women’s Tour, on two previous occasions and took home the mountains jersey in last year’s race.

"I'm always happy to race the Tour of Britain Women," Deignan said. "I have such special memories from this race and over my career I have had a lot of success here. It's always a different feeling racing in front of home crowds so I hope we see lots of fans out cheering for the women's peloton over all four days.

"This will be my final Tour of Britain so it will be bittersweet but I am going to be surrounded by some incredible women as part of our Lidl-Trek team so I'm confident we can make it a good week and we will be motivated to achieve some nice results together."

Deignan will be joined by her Lidl-Trek teammate Anna Henderson who finished second last year. The duo raced together as part of the Great Britain Cycling Team in the 2024 edition of the race.

"I am really looking forward to racing the Tour of Britain Women again this year," Henderson said. "It's always special to race on home soil, and as a British rider, we don't have so many opportunities so I will be looking to make the most of this moment and hopefully, we will see lots of enthusiastic British cycling fans out on the roads to support us."

Sisters Zoe and Elynor Bäckstedt are also set to race for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and UAE Team ADQ respectively. Having finished 15th in Paris-Roubaix Femmes during the spring, Zoe will be making her debut at the race while Elynor will be taking part for a third time.

Alongside the raft of high profile British riders, Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) is also set to race. The Tour of Britain Women gets underway in Dalby Forest on 5 June.

All seven riders of the Movistar squad were fined 200 CHF (£182, $242) each for arriving late to present their bikes on stage one of the Vuelta Femenina on Sunday.

The incident appeared to cause a chaotic ripple effect on the teams who started immediately afterwards in the team time trial – Uno-X and Visma-Lease a Bike – each of whom began their efforts without their full line-up of riders.

Following the stage, Visma-Lease a Bike revealed they had filed an official complaint with the UCI, claiming in a statement that they had been "disadvantaged" due to a "procedural error". The Dutch squad ended up finishing 10th on the opening stage, 21 seconds down on the winners, Lidl-Trek.

"Although the riders arrived well in time for the mandatory bike check prior to the team time trial, delays occurred due to another team arriving late," the Visma-Lease a Bike statement read.

Movistar were fined 1,600 CHF (£1,458 / $1,935) collectively for not presenting their bicycles and equipment for checking "at least 15 minutes before a rider's or a team's start time", according to the race communique. This fine was 200 CHF for each of the seven riders, and a further 200 CHF for the sports director, Jorge Sanz.

Uno-X were due to begin their effort three minutes after the Spanish squad, but set off six seconds late, due to delays in one rider arriving. The team mentioned "unfortunate technical difficulties" in an Instagram post later in the afternoon.

Three minutes after Uno-X's start, Visma-Lease a Bike rolled down the ramp with only five of their seven riders. A sixth followed seconds later, before Imogen Wolff was forced to chase her team-mates, entering the course from a service vehicle exit at the side of the road.

Wolff wrote on Instagram afterwards that the organisation was "too slow with bike checks", meaning her team had to deal with "chaos".

According to Visma-Lease a Bike, there was only one race official inspecting bikes before the start, with delays felt after Movistar's late arrival.

"A second inspector was deployed later, but by then, Visma-Lease a Bike was no longer able to benefit from the extra capacity," the team wrote. "As a result, some riders received their bikes back so late that they could not reach the start on time."

Movistar went on to place seventh in the team time trial, finishing without Cat Ferguson, who experienced a puncture in the opening metres. Kelvin Dekker, one of the team's sports directors, wrote on X later in the afternoon that Movistar, too, were delayed by jury checks before their start.

Visma-Lease a Bike finished 10th, while Uno-X placed 11th.

"Sport is about fair play for all teams," said Jaco Verhaeren, head of coaching at Visma-Lease a Bike. "Sadly, that was not the case today, and we deeply regret it."

The Dutch team has said it will "pursue further steps" and file a formal complaint with the UCI management.

Carys Lloyd celebrated her 18th birthday on New Year’s Eve, and the following day, entered adulthood as a fully fledged professional cyclist.

The British teenager is one of four new signings who have joined WorldTour team Movistar for 2025. Her deal, announced last August, will see her stay with the Spanish squad for three years, and makes her the youngest talent at the top level of the sport, across both the men’s and women’s pelotons.

Lloyd is so young, in fact, that she is still completing her final year of A-levels, and will study for exams while competing against the world’s best riders this season.

“It’s a little bit nerve-racking,” the 18-year-old told Cycling Weekly. “I went to an early camp [last year] and all of the people there were going, ‘So you’re a pro next year, but you’re 17?’ It was something they were really trying to get their heads around, and I had to explain my birthday was literally right at the end of the year.

“I don’t think you can get younger than me, maybe by a couple of hours,” she added with a smile.

Lloyd first started racing bikes when she was six, and joined the British Cycling academy programme as an under-16. Last year, in her final season as a junior, she enjoyed impressive results on the road, winning two stages of the Omloop van Borsele and finishing in the top 10 at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix.

It was on the track, though, where she really excelled. In July, the then 17-year-old claimed two gold medals at the Junior European Track Championships, winning the Omnium and the Madison with partner Cat Ferguson. She then went on to earn three world titles at the Junior Track World Championships in China, winning gold in the Madison, individual pursuit and team pursuit, the latter in world record time, too.

“The quality of riders we had in our year in Great Britain was really, really strong,” Lloyd said. Her national squad ally Ferguson, the current junior road and time trial world champion, has also graduated out of the junior ranks and into the Movistar team. “I’m really lucky to have one of my closest teammates with me,” Lloyd said, “so we’re both the youngest there, rather than just me.”

By virtue of her late birthday, Lloyd is a school year younger than Ferguson, and still a sixth form pupil in Maidstone. “[Movistar] were really understanding about my schoolwork, because that was one of the things that I was worried about, especially going straight from junior to WorldTour, but also trying to do my A-levels at the same time,” she said. “It’s a bit scary, but they made it really easy for me to explain, and then they understood, and they weren’t bothered by it.”

After an initial batch of racing – her first event is scheduled to be the Challenge Mallorca at the end of the month – Lloyd will take a step back in June to sit her exams in maths, further maths and physics. “The team said, ‘Just get your exams done, and then we can talk about racing’,” she said. “They were just really refreshing.”

Lloyd has also been told that there is no pressure on her to get results in her first year as a pro. Instead, conversations with the team bosses have centred around her progression and ambitions for the future, including the races she’d one day like to ride. “I said Paris-Roubaix,” she smiled. “I’ve always looked at that race and thought I’d love to win it. It literally finishes in a velodrome, and is one of the most chaotic, cool races I’ve seen out there.”

The cobbles, however, are off the menu for the teenager this season. In the meantime, as she prepares for her professional debut, she’s making sure to keep her feet on the ground. “I’ve literally only just turned 18,” she said. “I looked up when Marianne Vos turned pro, and she turned pro when I was born. Technically, if you think about it in months, she’s been a pro longer than I’ve been alive. That’s quite scary, but it’s quite exciting at the same time.”

Promising 18-year-old Cat Ferguson will make her professional debut this Sunday at the one-day event La Choralis Fourmies.

The Brit will compete in the French race for Movistar, the team she joined as a stagiaire in August. Ferguson will ride for the Spanish WorldTour team full-time from 2024, having signed a three-year contract last September.

At 128.8km, La Choralis Fourmies will be the longest race of the teenager's young career. She will line up in France alongside teammates Lucía Ruiz, Laura Ruiz, Jelena Erić, Sheyla Gutiérrez, and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage winner Emma Norsgaard.

When Ferguson signed with Movistar last year, she described the move as a "dream come true".

"From our first meeting it felt like such a welcoming and family environment, with a great focus on developing my attributes at WorldTour level," she said.

"I look forward to learning from the best and most experienced riders in the world, and couldn't think of a better team to help me make the step up to elite cycling."

This season, Ferguson has ruled over the junior ranks, finishing on the podium in every race she started. She counts 10 wins among her road results, including the overall victories at three Nations Cup events and the British junior road race title.

Last month, the 18-year-old claimed her first rainbow jerseys at the Junior Track World Championships. She won the team pursuit with a world-record ride alongside Imogen Wolff, Erin Boothman and Carys Lloyd, who has also signed a three-year deal with Movistar. Ferguson then sealed the omnium title the following day.

The Brit's breakthrough came in 2023, when she won her first race as a junior, the Piccolo Trofeo Alfredo Binda, aged just 16, two years younger than other riders on the start list.

She finished runner-up in the junior road race at the World Championships last August, cementing her status as one of the most promising riders in the circuit. "If you told me at the start of the season I’d come second here, I'd be so happy," she said at the time.

No further details have been released about the rest of Ferguson's race calendar with Movistar this season.

La Choralis Fourmies, a UCI 1.1 ranked event, is held in the city of Fourmies in the northeast of France. Now two-time British national champion Pfeiffer Georgi took her first professional victory at the race in 2021.

Nairo Quintana’s former doctor, Fredy Alexander Gonzales Torres, will stand trial in Marseille in September accused of "possession of a substance or method prohibited for use by an athlete" during the 2020 Tour de France. 

According to a report in Le Télégramme, the trial will begin on 2 September at the Marseille Criminal Court. Gonzales Torres faces charges of “possession of a substance or method prohibited for use by an athlete without medical justification, in this case equipment, tools, products and devices allowing implementing infusions and/or intravenous injections,” according to the Marseille prosecutor’s office. 

Quintana and his brother, Dayer, were investigated while riding for the French Arkéa-Samsic team in 2020. A preliminary investigation was launched by the Marseille prosecutor's office after a police raid carried out during the 17th of the Tour de France, which finished in Méribel. 

According to Dominique Laurens, Marseille prosecutor at the time, "suspect products" and a “method that could be described as doping” were discovered during the searches. 

The prosecutor’s office confirmed on Tuesday that they would press ahead with prosecution. 

“The investigation is closed and it has been decided to prosecute Mr Fredy Alexander Gonzales Torres, the Colombian doctor of the sports team,” a spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday. 

According to the French outlet’s sources, Gonzales Torres will also have to explain in court why on 16 September 2020, he allegedly administered “without medical justification", a “substance or method prohibited in the context of a sporting event” to two riders, via the equipment he already faces charges for possession of. 

The maximum penalty that the court could hand down would be five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£64,000).

“No doping substance has ever been found… I have nothing to hide and have never had anything to hide,” Quintana said at the time of the initial investigation. 

Two years later, the Colombian was disqualified from the 2022 Tour de France after testing positive for the painkiller Tramadol. The decision to disqualify him from the race was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). 

Quintana initially finished sixth on the general classification before his result was wiped. 

In a video shared on Twitter after the ruling from CAS, Quintana said: "Today we got the response from the CAS. Sadly, it wasn't good for me.

"With pride I can say that, throughout my long sporting career, I've been through more than 300 anti-doping controls, which makes more or less three a month, and I've never had any problem with doping. I have many reasons to not do it and to have not taken this product. Sadly, the CAS result came out like this."

Quintana was not suspended from competition, but remained in the cycling wilderness for 18 months before recently recently rejoining his former team, Movistar. The Colombian climber started his WorldTour career with the Spanish team in 2012 and rode for them until 2019. He will start the Tour Colombia for his new team on Tuesday.

He previously won the 2014 Giro d’Italia and 2016 Vuelta a España while riding for Movistar.

On Sunday evening, a blonde Dutchwoman, probably the best climber in the world, triumphed at the Tour de France Femmes after a commanding performance in the final two stages of the race. 

However, this time around, in 2023 rather than 2022, it was Demi Vollering (SD Worx) and not Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) who pulled on the final maillot jaune and took to the top step of the podium in Pau, rather than the latter atop La Planche des Belles Filles.

Vollering won the biggest race of her career, while Van Vleuten finished fourth, almost four minutes behind her compatriot. It really feels like an era-changing moment, as the baton is passed from one Dutch climber to another. While now is the moment to celebrate Vollering, it is also time to celebrate her predecessor, the greatest female cyclist in the world for the past few years, possibly the greatest of all time.

This is not the end for Van Vleuten. Knowing the drive, skill and tenacity of the Dutchwoman, there is every chance that she will turn up at the World Championships next week and defend her crown in the road race - although she says she will be riding for her team, and that the course is not hard enough for her strengths this year. 

Van Vleuten's performance last year, with a surprise attack from seemingly nowhere netting her second road title, with a broken elbow, sums up the rider she has been.

At the end of this year, the 40-year-old will leave the sport, no longer at the top of it, but very near to it. By anyone else's standards, her 2023 has been outstanding. Top-ten finishes at Strade Bianche, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège; victory overall at La Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d'Italia Donne, with three stage wins at the latter, and then fourth place at the Tour de France Femmes. 

Van Vleuten is no other rider, though. Five victories from 38 race days is her lowest return in terms of victory percentage since 2016, when she took five from 45. In the six years in between she won the Giro three times, the World Championship road race twice, the time trial equivalent twice, the Vuelta thrice too, the Tour of Flanders, Liège twice, La Course twice, and the Olympic time trial title too.

Very few people have ever won everything within their power, but Van Vleuten is one of them. A complete rider, a GC rider who could dominate one-day races, the kind of athlete Tadej Pogačar is aiming to be. Between 2019 and 2022 there was a period where there was essentially not a women's race where Van Vleuten wasn't winning, or at least at the front of the race. No wonder Elisa Longo Borghini called her an alien.

All of this has happened while women's cycling has got better and better, new greats have emerged, and the whole structure of the sport has got stronger. Who else but Van Vleuten would not only win the first ever Tour de France Femmes, but do it weeks after winning the Giro Donne, to complete a double which was unthought of previously? 

Her Dutch foes and peers Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos also have claim to GOAT status in women's cycling, but the former didn't have the same level of dominance, while the latter didn't have the breadth of wins. For me, Van Vleuten will rule.

“To be honest, I would love to have her for many years because I know that she would be competitive," her Movistar team boss Sebastián Unzué told Cycling Weekly at the Tour de France Femmes. "But I think a great champion like her, having the opportunity to leave the sport in the way she can leave it this year, is something really special.

“She knows that she wants to leave the sport when she’s still at the top of her game and fighting for everything. There’s no one who can replace Annemiek. That’s the reality.”

During Van Vleuten's period of outright rule, every time she went up the road in a trademark attack, there was only one ending. That period might be over, but her record should be remembered. 

Women's cycling might become more open now, more equitable - as long as SD Worx does not win anything - but there will not be another rider like Van Vleuten. An all-time great is exiting stage left. Cheers Annemiek, and see you in Glasgow.

Will Barta managed to snap his bike in half on a tricky corner during a wet descent on stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday.

The Movistar rider appeared to collide with a wall on the descent from the Passo delle Radici, in the same crash as Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), with 81km to go of the day. 

Barta seemed to be free of serious injury, but his Canyon Aeroad CFR came off worse, with the front fork snapped clean off the frame, with the bike only held together by the internal cables. 

Broken bikes are usually quickly hidden from sight in order to please sponsors, but a race photographer grabbed the above shot of the apart Canyon on the roadside.

In footage shared by Eurosport, Barta can be seen stood at the side of the road, presumably after sliding out and his bike at least colliding with a wall on the corner. Vine remains on the ground, picking himself up, presumably after sliding out himself. A spectator then drags the Canyon off the road in the video. Movistar then came to Barta's rescue.

Both Vine and Barta remounted to race the remaining kilometres of a stage which was dominated by wet weather.

Another Movistar rider to crash was Fernando Gaviria, about 10km after his teammate, as the peloton contended with tough conditions throughout the 196km from Scandiano to Viareggio.

Three riders were forced to pull out of the Giro during stage 10: Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Martijn Tusveld (DSM) and Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), reducing the field to 150 riders.

Other crashes on Tuesday on wet roads included Warren Barguil and Michel Ries (both Arkéa-Samsic), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Trek-Segafredo) and Lukas Pöstleberger (Jayco AlUla).

In the aftermath of the latter's crash, a member of staff attempting to help Pöstleberger out of the road collided with Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), bringing him down to, much to the Italian's displeasure. 

All of these riders were able to remount their bikes, although the extent of injuries in the peloton is not clear.

It is not the first time that crashes have dominated the action in inclement weather in this Giro. On stage five, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) were all involved in incidents, with the latter hitting the deck twice.

Alejandro Valverde is set to return to competitive racing, as part of Movistar’s new gravel squad.

Last year, the Spanish veteran announced that he would retire from the road at the end of the 2022 campaign.

However, in an announcement from Movistar this morning, the team confirmed that the 42-year-old would return to competition as part of its new gravel arm, a first amongst current WorldTour teams.

The first two races on the calendar for the Movistar gravel squad are both in Spain. First up is ‘La Indomable’, a 105 kilometre race in Southern Andalusia, on Sunday 23 April, followed by the Traka in Girona on 29 April.

The gravel squad will include riders from Movistar’s road, and esports teams. Iván García Cortina will be competing alongside Valverde, as well as Ana Dillana and Hayley Simmonds of the esports squad.

According to the team, Valverde, Dillana and Simmonds are set to race at ‘La Indomable’, with Cortina joining the squad a week later at the Traka.

Spanish brand Gobik, the team's current kit supplier, has produced a new jersey for the team's new project. According to a press release from Movistar, the design “honours the adventurous and non-conformist spirit of gravel”.

Movistar have said that more riders will be announced for the new project “in the near future”.

As a discipline, gravel racing has massively risen in recent months, with the inaugural gravel World Championships taking place in late October last year in the Veneto region of Italy. The men’s race was won by Belgium’s Gianni Vermeersch, with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot taking the elite women’s title.

Multiple road stars were on the start line including Mathieu van der Poel, Magnus Cort, Peter Sagan and Greg van Avermaet. Sagan also rode the Unbound gravel event in Kansas, USA in June.

After a successful first edition, the second edition of the gravel world championships will be held in Italy again in 2023 before the competition moves to Belgium for 2024.

Looking ahead to when the competition ventures to his home roads, Wout van Aert has previously suggested that he would consider including the gravel world championships in his schedule for the current year.

“I watched the last edition on television and thought it was nice to see,” Van Aert said regarding last year’s race won by his fellow Belgian Vermeersch. “I was positively surprised at how much attention this world championship received. I think the world championship on gravel has a great future.”

“Yes, I know that the gravel worlds will be held again in Italy next year and then in Belgium the following year,” Van Aert added. “Maybe I’ll do it in the years to come.”

The expanded Women’s WorldTour calendar has been branded "a mess" by Movistar women’s team boss, Sebastián Unzué.

The number of top tier race days has increased from 67 last year to 86 in 2023, though that would have been 88 had two Swedish races not been cancelled.

“I think that the way the race programme is structured is a complete mess, it doesn't take into account any of the needs or interests of the teams,” he told Cycling Weekly. 

And despite being a home race for the Spanish squad, the introduction of a seven day Vuelta España this May, a month already with three other stage races, came in for particular criticism from Unzué. 

“I have been a critic since I first found out we are having the Vuelta España at the start of May, it’s a nonsense for me.”

May used to be a month of relative rest for the Women’s WorldTour peloton but has become increasingly busy. This year there are 17 days of racing comprising four stage races - one each week, beginning just eight days after the one day classics season closes at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Under its previous Ceratizit Challenge moniker the women’s Vuelta has grown from a one day criterium around central Madrid in 2015 to three stages in 2020. The following season it moved away from the capital growing to four stages, then five last year.

For 2023 the race is seven days and has followed the example of events like the Women’s Tour and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, disengaging from the men’s equivalents to allow increased visibility, moving from September to its new May date.

It’s now slated to finish four days before Itzulia Women which is followed by the four stage Vuelta Burgos, after which the peloton heads to the UK for the three day Ride London. The new event has also caused the cancellation of two Spanish one dayers.

Unzué said: “If we continue having all these Spanish races and the British races towards the end of May and the start of June, in my opinion there is no space for it [the Vuelta].

"The teams have 14 or 15 riders and when you come from such an intense period in February, March and April you get to May and you have the Vuelta España when normally you should be giving a five or 10 day rest to the riders. It makes things much more complicated.

“It’s something the UCI needs to work on urgently, it’s clear things will not change for 2023, but for 2024 this is one of the most urgent needs that women’s cycling needs.”

Women’s Vuelta route a mystery

Despite being only three months away the women’s Vuelta route remains unpublished, the event website has not been been updated with the new name, and the race's social media accounts have not mentioned the expansion to seven days. 

Meanwhile, the course of the men’s Vuelta in August and September was announced last month.

Unlike men’s cycling, currently many of the women vying for top spot in the cobbled classics are also those contesting the highest profile stage races. The positive from this is a more coherent through-season narrative. 

Last year Movistar’s own Annemiek van Vleuten won Omloop het Nieuwsblad, placed second at the Tour of Flanders and won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, going on to take overall victory at all of the Giro Donne, Tour de France and the Ceratizit Challenge. 

“It’s one of the things that in my opinion makes women’s cycling so great to watch, you find all the main riders in all the important races,” Unzué points out. "So I would really not like to lose that because this is an extra attraction that we have."

With 2023 her final season before retirement, Van Vleuten is likely to be highly motivated to go out with a bang, but Unzué believes the packed calendar does not help teams’ planning.

“It doesn’t take into account the performance or preparation side, how are riders going to prepare for races when the calendar is so terribly structured throughout the year?” he continued.

Perhaps an obvious resolution would be for teams to recruit more riders. After all the UCI mandate a maximum of 22 women, including two new professionals, on each Women’s WorldTeam, but Unzué insists that is not so simple.

“Probably the biggest issue is that there’s no riders. We’ve already gone too fast, the commitment for top level teams are huge, and the conditions for top level riders are great, everyone can have a competitive salary and this is amazing, where we want it to be. But we have not developed the base of the pyramid. We have too many WorldTour teams and too many races, but we don’t have enough riders. 

“I ask myself what is the UCI doing to change this? I’m not sure if their roadmap is thinking so much about the long term benefits and the long term health of the sport.”

Cycling Weekly understands the UCI had floated the idea of development teams for top tier squads - Canyon-SRAM have their Generation outfit - but Movistar is not the only team to reject the idea.

“I think it's great that they expect that, it’s part of a professionalisation of the sport, but it's also not the right moment,” Unzué insists. “Right now we don't have the resources to do that, it's impossible, I am on the limit a to just do our activity which is racing.

“For me it's really important that the UCI starts working with the base because if not, development is not gonna grow and teams are not gonna grow.” 

Neither the UCI nor Vuelta organiser Unipublic responded to Cycling Weekly's request for comment.

Movistar and Netflix have joined forces once more for a fourth series of the drama ‘The Least Expected Day.’ 

According to Spanish news outlet Ciclo 21, a fourth series of the drama following the Spanish team will be released next year following the exploits of the men’s and women’s teams in the 2022 season. 

The drama has gained swathes of fans over the past three seasons, with many tuning in to gain fly on the wall access to the unceremonious departure from the team of Miguel Ángel López, leadership contests at various Grand Tours and the retirement of Movistar talisman, Alejandro Valverde. 

Season three saw the drama diversify as it looked to cover Annemiek van Vleuten’s success for the women’s team. 

Here are six things we hope to see covered in the fourth edition of the hit show. 

ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN TAKING OVER VALVERDE’S STAR ROLE 

It was refreshing to see Van Vleuten given centre stage in the most recent edition. 

However, with the Dutch rider landing victory at the Tour de France Femmes, Giro Donne, Vuelta Challenge and the World Championships road race, surely it’s about time that Valverde was shunted off the stage with Van Vleuten taking the star role? 

After all, she’s won more high profile races than all of the men’s Movistar team put together over the past few seasons. 

On top of that, she’s also got involved with teammate Carlos Verona’s charitable project Bikes4Masai, and is currently in Kenya to see their work first hand. 

Surely that would make for excellent viewing in one episode alone? Van Vleuten in the rainbow jersey riding her gravel bike in Kenya.

ENRIC MAS GOING CLOSE AT THE VUELTA 

With Primož Roglič and Richard Carapaz out of the picture, Enric Mas ended up being one of the closest challengers to overall winner Remco Evenepoel at this year’s Vuelta. 

Mas is no stranger to the Vuelta podium, having finished as runner up on other occasions, but it was refreshing to see him not being held back by hissy-fits from López at the most recent edition. 

In season three, we saw that behind the mask of a Grand Tour fighter, Mas is mild-mannered and softly spoken. All the makings of a serious champion.

Mas pushed Evenepoel all the way in Spain, and we want to see more from him as he attempted to win his home Grand Tour.

VALVERDE’S FINAL FAREWELL 

After multiple years of saying that was that, Alejandro Valverde finally confirmed his official retirement after October’s Il Lombardia, which also saw Vincenzo Nibali bow out of professional cycling.

The previous three seasons showed what most people already knew, Valverde may as well be God in Pamplona. 41-year-old Valverde has played a star role in the team for years, and has had a remarkable career, if you forget his involvement in the Operation Puerto doping scandal. 

With him finally letting the curtain fall in 2022, we expect to see lavish parties, tears and emotion all on show in his final outing in the Spanish team’s colours. 

Who knows, maybe a statue celebrating the cycling veteran is currently being commissioned in Pamplona as we speak. 

More of the women's team than just Van Vleuten

While Van Vleuten is undoubtedly the star of the Movistar women's team, and it would be easy for the doc to just focus on her exploits, there are 13 other women on the squad, all of whom would be great on camera.

Emma Norsgaard, Arlenis Sierra and Sheyla Gutiérrez all pitched in with multiple wins this season, showing that the future is bright beyond the 40-year-old Dutchwoman. 

Movistar are one of the top squads in the Women's WorldTour, and have shown real range since stepping up to the elite level a few years ago; while the men's team has struggled, the women's team has flourished. Perhaps it is worth more attention on them this time around.

VINCENTE GARCIA ACOSTA’S MOTIVATIONAL BUS TEAM TALKS 

The 50-year-old former professional with the Banesto team is now a long-serving sports director on the Movistar team. 

“Chente”, as he is affectionately known, has played a starring role over the past three seasons. The former Tour de France and Vuelta stage winner comes across as a passionate manager, who leads from the front and expects his charges to follow his example. 

The past three seasons have featured multiple shouty team talks from the Spaniard, as he looks to gee up his riders before an assault on a Vuelta Queen stage. As well as Enric Mas getting the hairdryer treatment from “Chente” after removing his earpiece in frustration mid race at the Vuelta. 

We want more “Chente” highlights in season four. 

MOVISTAR MANAGEMENT ADMITTING THAT THEY GOT IT WRONG WITH MARC SOLER 

Last year, we saw Marc Soler flourish in pastures new at UAE Team Emirates. The Spaniard landed a brilliant Vuelta stage win for his new team, and was consistently on the attack throughout the race. 

The previous season saw him heavily criticised in his final days with Movistar, as team management chastised Soler for not pushing through the pain at the 2021 Giro d’Italia. 

Since moving to UAE Team Emirates he seems like a new rider and all the better for it. The Spaniard admirably refused to speak ill of the Movistar team last month at the Vuelta a Espana although you would have forgiven him for doing so. 

In season four, we’d like to see Movistar top brass admit that perhaps Soler should have been given more of an opportunity to shine with their team. 

Annemiek van Vleuten, reigning world champion and Tour de France Femmes winner, is spending her off-season on a cycling holiday in Kenya, visiting the lands of the Masai tribe whom she recently helped to raise money for. 

The Dutch rider and multi-Grand Tour winner is in the African country to help support the charitable initiative started by her male teammate Carlos Verona, Bikes4Masai.

Van Vleuten has shared several pictures of her adventures so far with the local people on Instagram, and uploaded several rides she’s been on with Verona to Strava.

Verona started Bikes4Masai with his wife, Esther Casasola, with the aim of raising money to buy bicycles for young Masai people, who often live a significant distance from their nearest school. The charity’s aim is to enable children to have a chance at an education. 

Van Vleuten isn’t new to getting involved with charitable work alongside her title winning exploits on the bike. She recently raised €17,000 for charity by auctioning off her old kit.

Proceeds were split between the Bikes4Masai scheme, and the Amy Pieters Foundation, which provides support to Van Vleuten’s former teammate who suffered a life-changing head injury at the start of the year. 

Van Vleuten, who won the Tour de France Femmes, Giro d'Italia Donne, Vuelta Challenge and World Championship road race in 2022, put on the auction for the two charities at her local bike shop in the Netherlands. 

Large numbers of people reportedly turned up for the auction, looking to get their hands on one of the Dutchwoman’s Movistar jerseys, or one from her Tour de France Femmes victory. 

After raising the  money, Van Vleuten said: “This is super cool. I've done this here before, but this is definitely the biggest turnout ever.”

On Verona’s Bikes4Masai scheme, she added: "They now sometimes have to walk 20 kilometres to school. We try to buy bicycles for them so that they do go to school.”

"It's very nice that everyone is so generous. This makes me really happy.”

The owner of the bike shop, Roel Peerenboom said that Van Vleuten’s auction brought a lively atmosphere to his store for the third year running. 

"It is nice to see that someone is so popular and that you can convert the cycling gear, which no longer has much value to her, into money for a good cause," he said .

"It's great to see that so many people come to it, even though it's not directly the potential target group for my store. These are real cycling fans and we sell bicycles other than high-end racing bicycles. But that does not alter the fact that this bustle in the business is always fun."

Since 2008, when Mark Cavendish first burst on the scene at Grand Tour level with Team Columbia, the Manx sprinter has won 53 stages at the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. In the same time period, Movistar, the grand Spanish team, one of the stalwarts of the professional peloton, has won 46 Grand Tour stages.

The squad has endured a difficult few years, with relegation hanging over them for much of 2022, now they are out the other side, but could still do with some more wins on the board. 

To this end, it would appear to make sense that the squad might sign Mark Cavendish, a proven winner, the man with more GT stage wins than Movistar over his career; despite him being 37, it is a team that has nothing against older riders, just look at Alejandro Valverde and Annemiek van Vleuten.

Therefore, the emergence of a story in the Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport which hints at Cavendish heading to Movistar was quickly greeted with a lot of sage nodding and excitement on social media.

The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider is still without a team for 2023, with his two-year stint at Patrick Lefevere's squad coming to an end, and he is still stuck on 34 Tour stage wins, meaning he does not hold the record outright.

A new B&B Hotels project was expected to be the destination for Cavendish, after he did not have his contract renewed by Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl. B&B would likely gain a wildcard invite to the Tour, which would help Cavendish on his quest to break the record.

However, on Monday evening, a planned press conference to launch the rebranded team run by Jerome Pineau, set for Wednesday, was postponed at short notice.

On Tuesday morning, the leading French sports newspaper L'Équipe published a report suggesting that none of the potential sponsorship contracts have been signed yet, with the team past the UCI's initial registration deadline. While Pineau has reportedly reassured riders, it still appears up in the air.

Why not Movistar?

There is just one problem with this, and that is that it simply does not add up. The team even quickly denied it, actually taking to social media to quash the rumour, as they have already hit their limit for riders next year.

The Gazzetta piece suggested that Movistar DS Max Sciandri was interested in Cavendish - the pair have a long history which dates back to the sprinter's time at the British Cycling Academy.

Movistar wrote on Twitter: "Can we please, kindly remind everyone that we’re at 30 riders on our men’s team for 2023 (the UCI maximum) and this is just the desire of Max, who has been close friends with Cav for a long time."

They followed this up: "We understand it's a low month when it comes to news in cycling, but come on, some things are too much!"

Officially, Cavendish remains without a team, but the longer this goes on, the more rumours might continue - it is a low month, after all.

Abarca Sports, the managing company of Movistar Team, has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the Saudi Cycling Federation, the Spanish WorldTour team announced on Monday. 

The agreement will see both sides “exchange experiences” and work together to develop bike racing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In a statement shared on Movistar’s website, the team said: “The Saudi Cycling Federation and Spanish Abarca Sports (Movistar Team) signed an agreement today in the presence of Mr. Abdullah Alwathlan the President of the Saudi Cycling Federation and Mr. Eusebio Unzué the President of Abarca Sports and General Manager of Movistar Team.

“The agreement aims to develop technical staff, enhance cooperation on training programs, exchange experiences, hold regular workshops and support events, races and activities in the Kingdom for years to come.

“The cooperation between the parties aims to jointly develop cycling projects in the Kingdom at all levels."

Neither the term of the partnership nor its financial value were disclosed.

The agreement is not Saudi Arabia’s first venture in the sport of cycling. Last July, Australian team BikeExchange-Jayco signed a two and a half year deal with AlUla, a boutique tourist destination in the north west of the Middle Eastern country. 

In a statement shared at the time, BikeExchange-Jayco general manager Brent Copeland said: “The mutual respect and alignment of values are great for GreenEdge Cycling and it will be exciting to see how our partnership can help AlUla to grow awareness among the passionate cycling community as a luxury heritage destination.”

In 2020, Saudi Arabia teamed up with Tour de France organisers ASO to launch the Saudi Tour, a five-stage 2.1 category race that dates back to 1999. The most recent edition, held in and around AlUla, was won this February by Lotto-Soudal rider Maxim Van Gils. 

Saudi Arabia’s investment in cycling comes as part of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030” initiative, which seeks to diversify the oil-rich state’s ventures and reputation around the world. 

In March last year, The Guardian reported that Saudi Arabia had spent at least $1.5 billion on sporting events including golf, tennis and horse racing. Later that year, a consortium led by the country’s Public Investment Fund acquired Newcastle United Football Club for £305 million ($409 million).

Amnesty International's latest report on Saudi Arabia highlights a "crackdown" on "rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly" in the country. 

It’s finally here, season three of the highly anticipated “Least Expected Day” Netflix series following the Movistar team around over the past year.

The overrunning theme across the first two series of cycling's answer to Eastenders was largely that having co-leaders at a Grand Tour rarely works. Not only does it create tension on the bike but also for the poor souls in the cars forced into the position of finely balancing the riders' egos as they look to guide their team to success.

After watching the first two series you warm to “Chente” Garcia Acosta and forgive him for all the over zealous shouting at the slightest prompt. 

After all how could anyone not get frustrated with the strange dynamics within the squad? Eusebio Unzué is sat there in the background like poor Ian Beale, just hoping for an easy life until others decide to have their say and things get out of hand.  

If those first two years were anything to go by, you would hope that Movistar would have learned their lesson although with the signing of Miguel Ángel López for the 2021 season it would appear not. The Colombian rider produced some big performances for the team but also brought the fireworks just as “Chente” and co would have been hoping for an easier year. 

Just three minutes into the series and for those that don’t follow cycling all year round, you’ll soon realise it was anything but. 

Luckily, if you’re not one for the tantrums and drama I watched series three of the Spanish soap opera so you don’t have to. 

Here’s what I learned about Movistar's 2021 season 

MARC SOLER WAS POORLY HANDLED IN THE TEAM

Marc Soler has been a huge talent for years within the sport ever since he first won the Tour de l’Avenir in 2015. 

He then continued to progress at a rapid rate with all the makings of a successful Grand Tour winning rider. Add an overall win at Paris-Nice in 2018 and he was firmly on his way although it was unfortunate that everything fell into place around the same time that Mikel Landa, Nairo Quintana and Richard Carapaz were amongst the Movistar ranks. That’s without even mentioning Alejandro Valverde. 

Since moving to UAE Team Emirates he seems like a new rider and all the better for it. The Spaniard admirably refused to speak ill of the Movistar team last month at the Vuelta a Espana although you would have forgiven him for doing so. 

Never more so than when the team management were visibly frustrated with him in the documentary for not pushing through the pain at the 2021 Giro d’Italia.  

Soler’s results should have earned him more of an opportunity and he has now already had that at the Spanish Grand Tour this year. A motivated Marc Soler is a guaranteed Grand Tour stage winner amongst other things. 

UAE are very lucky to have him. 

ALEJANDRO VALVERDE MIGHT AS WELL BE GOD IN PAMPLONA

Not many sports stars are still treated with almost Godlike status when they’re 41 years old. Except if their name is Alejandro Valverde. 

Granted his career has been remarkable, and he deserves a huge amount of accolades, as well as acknowledgement of his doping ban, but you can’t help but feel that 2022 is calling time on proceedings a little too late. A little like ageing 1960s rock stars still churning out records just simply based on their name. 

That isn’t to be disrespectful to the the four time Liège–Bastogne–Liège winner -Valverde is arguably one of the greatest racers of the last 20 years if you forget his involvement in the Operacion Puerto - but one can’t help but be left feeling that Movistar may have benefited more from coaching a rider like Soler more effectively as opposed to keeping an ageing “El Bala” going indefinitely.

SUPERMAN LÓPEZ HAS A BIGGER EGO THAN RONALDO

More often than not it’s footballers who receive the public scrutiny for having excessively big egos but the 2021 Vuelta showed that Miguel Ángel López has one to rival that of Manchester United's Portuguese star striker Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Not many sportspeople simply refuse to keep going when things aren’t going their way, but that's exactly what ‘Superman’ did at the 2021 Spanish Grand Tour.

As the race was reaching its conclusion, the Colombian climbed off his bike and gave up after a spat with management as teammates were asked to work for Enric Mas instead of him. 

The podium was slipping away from López but instead of continuing to ride for the team he appeared to give up.

In the aftermath of the incident 'Superman' revealed that tension had been building for some time between him and the rest of the group.

There are of course two sides to every story. Movistar have unfortunately built a reputation as being a squad full of strange tactics and dynamics which López fell foul of. However at times during the series he comes across as fiery and difficult to handle unlike the more gentle and softly spoken Enric Mas. 

He just about redeems himself with an apology over dinner at the end…. Just. 

MAS COULD HAVE WON THE 2021 VUELTA 

Were it not for the drama, one thing that jumps out straightaway is that Enric Mas had the shape to have won the 2021 Vuelta a España. 

He repeatedly had opportunities to push on and take hold of the race but was held back by the team's strange tactics and hissy-fits from López. Mas was once considered as being the next big thing in Spanish Cycling and 2021 could have been the year he finally delivered if it wasn’t for the drama within his team. 

Throughout the series he comes across as mild-mannered, calm and dedicated. All the makings of a serious champion. You also wouldn’t blame him for ripping out his ear piece after being hammered by “Chente” on one particular stage. 

Perhaps one day the climber from Arta will finally get his moment when everything falls into place.

VAN VLEUTEN SHOULD MANAGE THE MEN FOR A DAY

Instead of the gung-ho approach of ex-pros such as "Chente" Garcia Acosta, the men’s team would do well to have Annemiek van Vleuten managing them for a day. 

Who else could possibly be better placed to share experience than the calm and collected multiple Grand-Tour winner? The episode which follows the women’s team around at the height of her 2021 season is undoubtedly the best and perfectly captures Van Vleuten’s character as an individual as well as a huge athlete. 

The calmness, dedication and drive that saw her win the 2021 Tour of Flanders are instantly apparent. 

Watching on you're also left feeling like it really is no surprise that she went on to win all three women’s Grand Tours in 2022. 

Instead of arguing with management during his time at Movistar, López would have done well to take a leaf out of the Dutch rider's book instead. 

Annemiek van Vleuten once again showed she is the world’s best stage racer, winning the Ceratizit Challenge for the second consecutive time.

Her victory came on the back of an imperious climbing and descending show on the race’s second stage to Colindres. There she overhauled a 25 second deficit from the opening day team time trial, building a lead approaching two minutes which she defended to Madrid.

The win comes on the back of those at the Tour de France Femmes aves Zwift and the Giro Donne, the Movistar rider bagging the women’s version of all three women’s ‘grand tours’ within 10 weeks of each other.

The stage itself was won by Elisa Balsamo, the world champion winning in Madrid for the second time. Perfectly placed by her Trek-Segafredo team mates she was able to sit on the wheels after team mate and compatriot Elisa Longo Borghini launched an attack with 500m to go.

As others chased Longo Borghini they inadvertently led out Balsamo, who won the sprint by about five bike lengths, kissing her rainbow jersey as she raced in it for the final time.

Lotte Kopecky (SDWorx) was second with Marta Bastianelli (UAE ADQ).

That the organiser televised only the final 32km was a huge disappointment. Previous days’ coverage didn’t start until well after the men’s Vuelta stage had finished, but with Sunday’s concluding stage starting before the men, and, with a good chance of aggressive racing throughout, organisers seemed to have missed a trick by not screening the race in its entirety.

The lack of visual coverage and the near total absence of race updates on the organiser’s social media channels meant the early part of the stage was held in an information vacuum.

Next year’s race will be extended to seven stages, and with the race moving to the start of May there will be no overlap with the men’s event, so perhaps organisers more comprehensively show their race to the world. 

How it happened

For its final stage the race returned to where it all began on 2015, the centre of Madrid for 16 and-a-half laps of an almost flat city circuit, totalling 95.7km.

While the format on its own might not be expected to create exciting racing, the presence of three two and one second bonus seconds on laps eight, 10, 12 and 14 historically makes for frantic, aggressive racing.

Sure enough, on the first lap home rider Sandra Alonso (Ceratizit-WNT) made a move off the front, the team clearly honouring their sponsor’s backing of the race. She was soon joined by Sara Poidevin (EF Education-Tibco-SVB), Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) and Carlijn Achtereekte (Jumbo-Visma) and they set about gaining a lead. 

Starting the day in 46th place overall, 22-34 behind the Van Vleuten’s overall lead, Alonso was the best placed of the breakaway, so they were quickly allowed to build a lead of around one minute. That grew slowly to 1-35 at the end of the sixth lap and it seemed the bonus sprints might not affect the race after all.

The leaders eventually shared all of those sprints among themselves, the bunch still around a minute back one lap later. However, before the second bonus sprint the gap began to drop significantly, and they crossed the line after 10 laps only 35 seconds back, though they were not ready to bring them back just yet, allowing them to dangle within touching distance.

The breakaway were still out front with four laps remaining, though by then only 25 seconds ahead, Van Vleuten lingering at the back of the race, avoiding the bustle of the bunch and the crashes that almost inevitably happened.

With two laps to go the battle for the combativity jersey became heated up, Buijsman attacking the break and taking Alonso with her, but they were caught with just over nine kilometres remaining. Instantly Sara Martín (Movistar) and Niamh Fisher-Black (SDWorx) attacked hoping to ease the pressure on their sprinters, but they too were caught, the pace lifting.

BikeExchange-Jayco led the bunch across the line to begin the final lap, but the race was far from settled, attacks heading up the road. However, SDWorx took control, their Swiss powerhouse Marlen Reusser setting an infernal pace as the sprinter’s teams repositioned themselves again.

In the final lap all the sprinters’ teams were present at or near the front, Movistar led around the final hairpin turn, but when Long Borghini launched her all or nothing love 500m from the line the day was Trek-Segafredo’s.

ResultCeratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, stage five: Madrid - Madrid (95.7km)

1. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo in 2-21-37
2. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx 
3. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE ADQ
4. Megan Jastrab (USA) DSM
5. Sofia Bertizzolo (Ita) UAE ADQ
6. Maria Giulia Confalionieri (Ita) Ceratizit-WNT
7. Tereza Neumanová (CZE) Liv-Xstra
8. Alex Manly (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco
9. Julie Leth (Den) UNO-X
10. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-SUEZ_Futuroscope all at same time 

Final general classification

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 12-21-46
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-44
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx at 2-11
4. Liane Lippert (Ger) DSM at 2-34
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-SUEX-Futuroscope at 2-43
6. Ane Santesteban (Esp) BikeExchange-Jayco at 3-03
7. Anna Shackley (GBR) SDWorx at 3-07
8. Elisa Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 3-29
9. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 3-35
10. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM at 3-38

Silvia Persico won the fourth stage of the Ceratizit Challenge in Segovia on Saturday. The Valcar Travel and Service rider was part of an eight woman group which contested the short climb to the finish line in the city’s centre, coming to the front in the final 50m to take her first WorldTour victory.

Demi Vollering (SDWorx) finished a close second, with Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) third.

The winning move was kicked off by German champion Liane Lippert (DSM). As what remained of the peloton took the final, 180º turn into the closing 600m metres she opened her sprint, shredding what remained of the group.

Through the narrow city gates she still led, but overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) moved through to the front before Longo Borghini launched her long range sprint. However, it was not to be, her compatriot Persico coming over the top for victory.

The day was notable for the extraordinary performance of Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer (Soltec). The Austrian, riding her first ever WorldTour stage race, attacked from the gun and built a huge lead on the peloton as she did in Tokyo. 

However, in contrast to the Olympics she was caught - though only with 1,100m of the 160km stage remaining.

The Austrian has raced very few UCI events since her triumph in Tokyo, and the Ceratizit Challenge was her first WorldTour race since then. Indeed, should she finish Sunday’s final stage in Madrid it will be the first top tier race she has ever completed.

Van Vleuten retained her overall lead and goes into the final stage with a lead of 1-51 on Longo Borghini.

Sunday’s fifth day is almost guaranteed to end in a bunch kick. The 95.7km race tackles 16 and-a-half laps of a near flat 5.8km circuit in the centre of Madrid, after which Van Vleuten is likely to claim a remarkable triple crown of the Giro Donne, Tour de France Femmes and the Challenge by La Vuelta.

How it happened 

By far the longest stage of the five, the fourth day started in Palencia and finished 160.4km later in Segovia. Almost 55km longer than the next longest stage, the peloton also rode a 17km neutral roll out making for a long day in the saddle.

While the opening part of the profile resembled the crenelations of a medieval castle, the route smoothed out, though dragged very gently upward until a section of gravel and an uphill finish, the line coming at the top of the day’s only classified climb.

That climb was only 3.7%, but a couple of hundred metres at 7% was likely to challenge the pure sprinters.

In aggressive mood as she was in the two previous road stages, Anna Kiesenhofer (Soltec) attacked the moment the flag dropped. No doubt hoping to replicate her Olympic gold winning ride in Tokyo, she quickly had a lead of 30 seconds, soon that expanding to over a minute.

With the Austrian’s advantage growing Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health) attacked an already fractured peloton. The Dutchwoman made little impact though, getting 1-30 ahead of the peloton by which time Kiesenhofer’s lead was 5-30. 

She started the day 7-14 behind overall leader Van Vleuten, and as the stage finally entered its closing 90km Kiesenhofer’s advantage had grown to a massive 9-30 and the chance of another upset for the Austrian seemed possible.

Despite the suffering a minor crash KIesenhofer maintained her lead, and the game of brinkmanship in the bunch finally saw Movistar take to the front, even Van Vleuten taking her turn and beginning to chip away at the deficit.

By the time she entered the final 50km Kiesenhofer’s lead was down to seven minutes and Van Vleuten was back in the virtual race lead, though the Austrian’s chance of a stage win remained, causing other teams to come to the front.

With 30km remaining her lead was below five minutes, but it wasn’t dropping fast, even with Canyon-SRAM, FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope and DSM among the teams assisting Movistar at the front. Ten kilometres later she had lost another 90 seconds and success seemed less certain, especially with the tough finish.

Victory for the Austrian was less certain with 10km to go, her lead onto the gravel sector down to 1-35 and losing a further 50 seconds before she was back on tarmac, just 1700m later.

A smaller peloton emerged from the gravel though plenty of teams had sufficient riders to contribute on the front, but still Kiesenhofer took 28 seconds into the final 2.5km and the final climb to the line.

On that ascent SDWorx came to the front, their Hungarian champion Blanka Vas lifting the pace and catching Kiesenhofer just 1100m from the line and the race was set to be decided on the climb to the line.

ResultCeratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, stage four: Palencia - Segovia from - to (160.4km)

1. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service in 4-11-01
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 
4. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx 
5. Liane Lippert (Ger) DSM
6. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar all at same time
7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope at 04 sec
8. Anouska Koster (Ned) Jumbo-Visma at 06 sec
9. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM at 11 sec
10. MAvi García (Esp) UAE-ADQ

General classification after stage four

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 10-00-02
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-51
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx at 2-18
4. Liane Lippert (Ger) DSM at 2-41
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-SUEX-Futuroscope at 2-50
6. Ane Santesteban (Esp) BikeExchange-Jayco at 3-03
7. Anna Shackley (GBR) SDWorx at 3-14
8. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 3-35
9. Elisa Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 3-36
10. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM at 3-45

Annemiek van Vleuten put on a climbing masterclass at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta on Thursday, winning the second stage and taking the overall lead.

The Movistar rider led an attack on the day’s penultimate climb dragging out out four rivals. Over the next two kilometres she almost systematically dropped them, one by one. In the space of just over four kilometres Van Vleuten put had not only stamped her authority on the race, but humbled the peloton’s other best climbers.

Despite some obvious descending issues at the Giro Donne earlier this summer, Van Vleuten was able to maintain her gap on the downhills, even increasing it on the flat eight kilometre run in to the line. 

In the end she won the stage by 2-17, with Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) putting in a powerful sprint to take second ahead of Liane Lippert (DSM). 

Finishing 10th, Anna Shackley (SDWorx) was the best placed British rider, taking her best WorldTour result.

Van Vleuten will take a lead of 1-55 into Friday’s third stage. It's another hilly one, finishing at the top of a climb, but such was the Dutchwoman’s superiority on Thursday she is unlikely to be challenged and seems set to take the overall win. 

Should she manage to hold on she will have won the Giro Donne, Tour de France and what is the women’s version of the Vuelta in the space of 10 weeks.

How it happened 

Though only the second day of the five, Thursday’s stage was the one where the race could be won. Indeed, such is the week’s parcours it was perhaps the stage where those with overall ambitions needed to make the difference.

Starting up in Spain’s northern coast, in the town of Colindres, where the day also finished, the route headed south, into the Cantabrian Mountains tackling five classified climbs through the 105.9km. While two of those came early on, not only were the final three entirely in the route’s second half, they were the hardest, each with ramps over 11%.

And with the final ascent averaging 8% over its 3.2km, and topping out just 14km from the finish line fireworks were guaranteed.

Those fireworks began nearly as soon as the opening climb arrived, a group of five heading up the the road on the Alto Fuente Las Varas. Lucinda Brand (Trek-Segafredo), Sarah Roy (Canyon-SRAM), Maike Coljé (Massi Tactic), Polish breakaway artist Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT) and Brit Sophie Wright (UAE ADQ) built a small gap before Brand and Roy forged on alone.

While Wright slipped back, Lack and Coljé battled on, but while they almost got back to the front, Brand and Roy were too strong, building a lead of more than two minutes with 60km remaining. That gap extended to 3-45 as they completed the flattish middle 25km and headed onto the Campo Layal climb.

As the climb kicked up overall leader Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) suffered a minor crash, and was escorted back to the bunch by world champion Elisa Balsamo, getting back on just as the peloton crested the climb, the leaders’ advantage down to 1-20.

On the flat before the penultimate climb last year’s winner, Annemiek van Vleuten sent her Movistar team to the front and the deficit to the leaders began to drop fast. Half way up the climb, with 30km to go the leaders were caught by a much reduced peloton which Van Vleuten attacked.

Almost instantly she had dragged a grip of five off the front, the Dutch rider on the front pushing the pace. Longo Borghini, Demi Vollering (SDWorx), Mavi García (UAE ADQ), and Liane Lippert (DSM) on her wheel, the rest of the bunch in bits and bobs down the road.

Just over three kilometres from the top German champion Lippert was dropped, García soon followed suit, and just after a gap opened to Longo Borghini Van Vleuten attacked again, finally distancing her compatriot, Vollering, and riding on alone.

At the top of the climb Van Vleuten had a lead of more than 40 seconds on Vollering and 1-03 over Longo Borghini and Lippert who worked together in pursuit. On the descent she increased her advantage and began the final climb 1-06 ahead of the trio of Vollering, Longo Borghini and Lippert.

Just under 15km from the line, as she crested the final climb Van Vleuten led by 1-41 and the race was won.

Friday’s 96.4km third stage is another hilly one, but while the day’s main ascent is 16km long, its average gradient of only 3.4% is unlikely to provide too many opportunities to split the race.

ResultCeratizit Challenge by La Vuelta, stage two: Colanders - Colindres (105.9km)

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 2-56-30
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 2-16
3. Liane Lippert (Ger) DSM
4. Demi Vollering (SDWorx) all at same time 
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope at 2-50
6. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 
7. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 
8. Elisa Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM 
9. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM
10. Anna Shackley (GBr) SDWorx all at same time 

General classification after stage two

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 3-20-16
2. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-55
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx at 2-24
4. Ane Santesteban (Esp) BikeExchange-Jayco at 2-41
5. Liane Lippert (Ger) DSM at same time 
6. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-SUEX-Futuroscope at 2-46
7. Anna Shackley (GBR) SDWorx at 2-58
8. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 3-19
9. Brodie Chapman (Aus) FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope at 3-32
10. Elisa Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 3-34

Annemiek van Vleuten’s race winning move on stage seven on the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was a defensive tactic accord to the Movistar DS, Jorge Sanz.

The Dutch rider attacked on the ascent of the day’s first classified climb, Petit Ballon, and never looked back, blowing the peloton to pieces. By the finish in Le Markstein she had put 3:26 into her nearest rival, SD Worx’ Demi Vollering, and looks set to win a historic yellow jersey on Sunday.

Van Vleuten launched her attack on the slopes of the day’s first climb, Petit Ballon, and such was her pace only Vollering was able to follow. The two Dutch women stayed together onto the Col de Platzerwasel but when Van Vleuten lit the after-burners, she dropped her Dutch compatriot and never saw her again.

“We wanted to attack on the first climb because we knew the downhill was really dangerous and that some riders wanted to put pressure on Annemiek,” Sanz told Cycling Weekly among the hubbub around the Movistar team bus.

Though she is unmatched going uphill, at the recent Giro Donne, which she won convincingly, Van Vleuten had seemed a little vulnerable on the descents. She crashed on one downhill, though instantly remounted and won the stage, but teams have seen her descending as the only chink in her armour, and an attack would have been obvious.

“We wanted to open a safety gap, but everything exploded and Vollering came with Annemiek so we decided to continue,” Sanz explained. “If the gap was smaller, on the second climb the plan was then just put a pace on and wait for the other riders to come then put the pressure on again. This way we were one step forward. The world is not easy but it was easier than expected.”

Van Vleuten leads Vollering by 3:14, with Sunday’s final and eighth stage suiting her perhaps even more as it features two classified climbs before the final, brutal ascent to Super Planche des Belles Filles. So, attack or defend?

“We will first enjoy the victory of today and then in the meeting we will see. We can play with her, play with some others, but the first goal is to defend the GC,” Sanz concluded rather predictably.

Around 50 metres from Movistar’s bus, SD Worx were not so jubilant, though there were no tears or recriminations. “She was just better,” lead DS Danny Stam said to no one in particular.

Vollering had had just enough energy to acknowledge the huge crowds as she rode the final 200 meters of the stage, but in reality she was a broken woman.

After visiting the podium to receive the polka dot mountains jersey, and completing the inevitable TV interview duties, she rode back to the SD Worx team bus, and after a hug and words of encouragement from Stam, turned to face the waiting press.

“I’m completely empty, I feel my whole body is hurting at this moment. I was fighting with everything that I have, now I’m completely empty,” she said, her voice full of fatigue.

“I hoped that I could hang on a bit longer and that we could stay with the big group a bit longer, and there were only two of us so soon,” she explained. “Then I knew I had to hang on as long as possible and try and focus on my breathing and trying to focus on how good I was feeling.

“Then at one moment she was setting this speed and I needed to stand up and my legs exploded completely and it was a bit too much."

Vollering shared that she had told Van Vleuten that her performance was 'not normal' and Van Vleuten was quick to offer Vollering a few words of comfort in return.  

"She said 'I have so much more training experience and training overall, it will come to you'," Volelring recalled. "So let’s hope.”

Though Vollering appears secure in second place with a 1:19 lead on Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Vollering hoped for a good recovery overnight and plans to work hard to maintain her standing in the general classification. 

After being sick early in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) has recovered and heads to the decisive mountain stages as favourite for the overall.

The Dutch superstar was suffering with stomach issues for the opening days, lost time on the short, sharp uphill finish of stage two, and was dropped on the tougher climbs through the Champagne vineyards on day three. 

“I was so sick that I was not busy with what other people were thinking, I was just thinking about surviving,” Van Vleuten told Cycling Weekly while warming down on the turbo after Friday’s sixth stage, which was won by Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma).

“I don’t think anyone knew because I played some good poker, I didn’t let anyone know I was sick. Maybe some of the girls saw that my team mates pushed me a lot on the second and third day, but on the second day I was not surprised [she was not attacked] because they did not know.

“I was scared that there would be echelons from the start because that would have been disaster for me, I lost something but not too much. On the third day I paid the price for being sick the two days before.

“Now it’s not in my head, accept the situation and move on and take the best out of it. I am looking forward to tomorrow [Saturday.]

The gravel of the following stages also seemed to present the Movistar rider with problems, but her GC rivals still did not attack and put time into the pre-race favourite, despite the illness by then being public knowledge. 

“It was so hard on the gravel we also had no idea of who punctured and he DS had no overview we had no overview because of the gravel, so it’s not easy to create something,” explained DSM’s GC hopeful Juliette Labous.

While Van Vleuten refused to talk about the climbs on the weekend’s stages, Labous was happy to. The 23-year-old lives near Besançon, only a 50 minutes’ drive from the start of Sunday’s stage to Super Planche des Belles Filles, and knows all the weekend’s climbs well.

So which is the hardest day?

“I would say tomorrow, but Sunday will also be hard because we will have done Saturday’s stage before, but if you look at the profile and you ride them separately it is tomorrow.”

Stage seven takes the peloton 127.1km between Sélestat and Le Markstein, a ski resort just below the 13.5km climb of the famous Grand Ballon.

Before that they have the ascents of Petit Ballon and the Col du Platzerwasel to contend with. Both average over 8% and both are over seven kilometres, and with little flat all day long it could prove decisive.

“I think it can be a small group at the finish because you have a small downhill and then a flat part which can bunch it up a bit, but the peloton will be really split,” asserted Labous.

Other riders Cycling Weekly asked thought Saturday would be the decisive stage, and even that we would know the winner on Saturday.

“I honestly think stage seven is going to be the hardest with all that climbing,” said Veronica Ewers (EF Education-Tibco-SVB). “You have an eight kilometre climb and move immediately into another eight kilometre climb, then the long climb to the Grand Ballon, it’s going to be brutal and that could be the decision maker.”

Sunday is no walk in the park either. A second category climb comes after 52 of the 123.3km, then they ascend the Ballon d’Alsace, but it’s Super Planche des Belles Filles that is the real challenge.

 “There are also some punchy climbs in the middle that I think will split the peloton,” continued Ewers. “I think the GC favourites will be in that first split, and then hopefully, hopefully for spectator's sake, it'll be a pretty awesome race up.”

Labous thinks the GC winner will be decided there. At seven kilometres it averages only 8.7%, but has ramps of over 10% and finishes with 24%. On gravel.

“It’s really a hard one, until the gravel it’s always steep or false flat really, not steady but super hard, and then the gravel is just the finisher and really tough.”

Will Van Vleuten be beaten?

“We will see,” says Labous. “We are used two her being first on GC already from the first half of the stage race, this is new and it all depends on how she’s feeling.”

Annemiek van Vleuten confirmed her third Giro Donne victory on Sunday, the Movistar rider finishing in the bunch after a sprint finish in Padova. 

Van Vleuten took the overall lead in the heat of last Monday’s fourth stage and never looked like ceding control, extending her lead with a second win on stage eight and only losing time on the penultimate day, though by then she knew victory was assured. 

The woman she lost time to was Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) rider finishing second overall, almost tow minutes down. Having been in second place since stage four, Mavi García slipped to other place on Saturday, retuning that position in the final general classification.

As predicted the final stage finishes in a bunch, with Valcar Travel and Service rider Chiara Consonni taking the honours after a long range sprint. Her Italian compatriot Rachele Barbieri (Liv-Xstra) took section place while Emma Berg (Movistar) took third, her best result of the race overall.

Fittingly given her status in the sport, Van Vleuten’s win puts her in rarified company, her three wins are only bettered by Fabiana Luperini, who won five editions between 1998 and 2008, and Anna van der Breggen with four. Alongside Van Vleuten are Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) and Swiss Nicole Brändle.

This year’s Giro was an excellent edition. The GC might have been decided on stage four, but the race provided exciting and dynamic racing throughout.

The race is often lost in the Tour de France hype, though organisers are hoping to change the date for next year’s race to avoid French event, and this gain more publicity.

How it happened

The Giro Donne has headed south again, away from the relative cool of the Alpine foot hills to Padova, at 12 metres above sea level, and into the low 30s heat once more. 

With a population of 211,000 the city, close to Venice, is the biggest the race visited in this event, and the race was set to finish in Prato dell Valle, Italy’s biggest piazza and one of the largest city squares in Europe. A sign of the race’s increased prestige.

It was the shortest road stage of the week, only 90.5km, starting in Abano Terme, a few kilometres south west of the finish city, heading west for the day’s only classified climb, then looping south through Monselice, before heading north for the largely flat run to the finish.

The flag dropped and an attacks came immediately, Eva Maria Gatscher (Mendelspeck) gaining a small advantage, though she was caught ahead of the classified climb 21.7km into the race.

The race emerged from the climb split into two parts but soon regrouped before three more riders headed up the road, they too didn’t last long, and finally two more got away. Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education-Tibco-SVB), Alessia Vigilia (Top Girls Fassa-Bortolo) managing to build a lead of 1-30, while DSM and Trek-Segafredo led the peloton

Doebel-Hickok and Vigilia’s lead extended out to nearly two minutes at one point, but the sprinters’ teams were hungry for another, final chance of glory. As the race entered the closing 25km Canyon-SRAM and Movistar headed to the front to help and the gap finally dropped below one minute.

With the Trek-Segafredo team of double stage winner Elisa Balsamo on the front the gap dropped fast and the leader’s advantage was less than 30 seconds as they entered the race’s closing 10km, already navigating the suburbs of Padova.

With the breakaway caught at 4.4km, Balsamo was briefly separated from her leadout, only finding them with one kilometre to go, Lucinda Brand heading to the front. But the world champion remained detached and was unable to position herself correctly.

As Balsamo tried to go through the middle of the bunch, with 200m to go Rachele Barbieri (Liv-Xstra) went hard on the right, but only succeeded in leading out Chira Consonni, who came round her compatriot  to take her team’s first WorldTour win of the season.

ResultGiro Donne, stage 10: Abano Terme - Padova (90.5km)

1. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service in 2-12-4
2. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Liv-Xstra 
3. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
4. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 
5. Sofia Bertizzolo (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
6. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
7. Clara Copponi (Fra) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
8. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx
9. Martina Fidanza (Ita) Ceratizit-WNT
10. Teniel Campbell (TTO) BikeExchange-Jayco all at same time 

Final general classification 

1. Annemiek van Veuten (Ned) Movistar in 27-07-26
2. Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 1-52
3. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ Marta at 5-56
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 6-45
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 11-12
6. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 12-22
7. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 13-08
8. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ at 15-13
9. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 15-49
10. Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM at 17-29

By winning stage eight of the Giro Donne Annemiek van Vleuten made a third title almost inevitable. But despite her amazing and unequalled strength and race craft, she has one weakness.

While she is far from the peloton’s worst descender she is not the best and that showed during Friday’s stage in Trentino.

All that was left for the 39 to do to win the stage was to ride the stage’s remains 4.9km but on a ride hand hairpin bend she went in too hot and went down on her right side. As befits a champion of her standing, she picked herself and the bike up, got bak on and not only won the stage but extended the gap she had when crashed. 

Despite her extended advantage she was not too happy.

“In the final kilometres I made stupid mistake on the descent, so I feel it’s a bit disappointment that I made such a stupid, unnecessary mistake,” she told the post race TV interviewer.

“Sorry mum, sorry mum watching me, but I’m all good so nothing happened I managed to not make it bad but, it was unnecessary so I feel a bit stupid for that.”

Thirty minutes later, as she headed from her warm down to the press tent she could be seen walking gingerly, though not limping, but insisted she felt fine, despite a swelling on her right forearm having emerged.

“I’m feeling fine. I felt that I could not make the corner so I just went straight into the bars to prevent a severe crash. It was bit stupid and unnecessary as I had a good lead, so that was a small not-so-good from today. I was stupid but I’m fine.”

That descent was ridden twice, the first time in the middle of the race after the climb of Passo Bordala, the second time from Lago di Cei coming only 12km from the line. The first time Elisa Longo Borghini and her Trek-Segafredo team mate Lucinda Brand set about putting the pressure on all three overall GC podium positions.

And they succeeded. Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) was dropped, while Van Veuten found herself forced to chase after being caught win the wrong side of a split. While she clearly got back on, it is a tactic other teams will continue to use.

Otherwise the day went to plan for the Dutchwoman and her Movistar squad.

“Exactly why you saw on television was the team plan, to set it up in the last climb and then I could take time on the GC riders today,” she explained said. “Jelena Erić, my team mate did an awesome job to lead me out for one kilometre, but then you feel the nerves that she has set this up for me so I need to go.”

As you might expect Van Vleuten rarely gives a clue about plans for future stages, but her track record is one of using every day that suits her abilities to grind the opposition into the dust. 

“I’m not going to tell that much, we will have a meeting with the team and we will make a plan and for sure. I’m not so clear on the GC now but I think it will be up to also the girls that want to go on the podium.

“I think that for this year that the ninth stage was the best stage for me to do something because of my recovery and all my endurance that I do, every day I feel recovered so yeah I know it’s in my advantage.”

Annemiek van Vleuten all but cemented her third Giro Donne overall win, taking a second stage victory in Aldeno on Friday.

Despite crashing on the final descent, she was able to finish 29 seconds ahead of Marta Cavalli, whose second place has elevated her to the same position on GC.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) had her best day of the race so far, timing her effort to perfection and using her excellent descending skills to their best effect to take third place on the day. 

The stage was active all day, never once settling, making for exciting viewing. 

Van Vleuten was her usual imperious self, the Movistar rider bridging to a lone breakaway rider on the final climb, eventually dropping her and holding off the attentions of Cavalli, the FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine rider establishing herself as a GC winner of the future.

After appearing vulnerable on the earlier descents Van Vleuten’s crash on the descent came when her lead on the Italian was approaching 50 seconds, but despite overcooking a right hander and coming down hard, she was able to extend her lead to 59 seconds in the final five kilometres.

With one more mountain stage to come, before a less challenging final day into Padova on Sunday, she leads overall by 2-13 on Cavalli. 

Saturday though, is no café ride. Starting at San Michele all’Adige and finishing 112km later in San Lorenzo Dorsino, the race takes in three climbs in the Dolomites, including the race’s Cima Coppi (It’s highest point), the Passo Daone, 1291 metres above sea level.

How it happened

For stage eight the Giro Donne has moved further north for a second, possibly decisive mountain stage.

Starting in Rovereto, not far from the northern tip of Lake Garda, and south of Trento, the race head south, returning north up the valley and into the mountains for two significant climbs. 

Passo Bordala came first, 15km at an average gradient of 6.9%, it topped out just over half way. Second was the 10km climb to Lago di Cei, which was 7.3% and sure to see some action. However, the 12km descent to Aldeno was sure provide some opportunities.

Though it might be difficult to upstage the mountains which tower over Rivereto, the town’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Arts tried its best, riders signing on in its serene feeling courtyard.

Attacks came early with, with a number getting small gaps before being dragged back. On the early slopes of the Bordala climb, Australian Brodie Chapman (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) took her turn.

With Chapman not far up the road her compatriot, stage one winner Kristen Faulkner (BikeExchange-Jayco) went after her, only for German Clara Koppenburg (Cofidis), to tag along. Faulkner, whose team mate Amanda Spratt abandoned before the stage suffering with COVID taking room mate Georgia Baker with her, eventually headed on alone, while Koppenburg and Chapman worked together. With Anouska Koster (Jumbo-Visma) in pursuit the peloton slipped to 1-48 behind the leader.

Faulkner topped the climb alone with Koppenburg not to far behind and Chapman in the gap ahead of a peloton now consisting of just a handful of riders, including the favourites and race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar).

The same descent would be ridden twice, off each climb, and Lucinda Brand, in the group with Trek-Segafredo team mate Longo Borghini split the group, distancing Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) who needed team mate Erica Magnaldi to get her back.

Van Vleuten was also briefly distanced, but Brand, and Cavalli who started the day third overall, worked together further distance the Spaniard, Chapman coming back to help her captain, executing the French team’s strategy 

Brand eventually led a small group off the front, though FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope set about closing the gap, catching them some 24km from the line, Faulkner still 1-35 up the road. 

After being distanced by Cavalli on the descent, Van Vleuten had to attack to defend. Team mate Jelena Erić set a furious pace into the bottom of the climb before the race leader attacked, once again taking Cavalli and García with her. Once again the race’s three strongest women were alone on a climb.

With Faulkner still ahead,  at 18.5km to go, Van Vleuten dropped the other two, catching Faulkner who sat on, while behind García was in trouble, the 39 year-old falling back. Cavalli ground her way doggedly on, hoping to climb to second overall

With Cavalli edging ever closer to the leading duo, Van Vleuten went again, and though she dropped Faulkner the Italian was still closing gradually. But the pressure eventually told for the 24 year-old, and the Dutch woman stretched, bent and finally broke the elastic, cresting the final climb 12km from the line with a lead of 34 seconds on the Italian. 

While behind García had completely capitulated, sliding ever backwards the to leaders were just about equal until Van Vleuten’s crash, which seemed either to spur her on or dent Cavalli’s confidence.

ResultGiro Donne, stage eight: Rovereto - Aldeno (112.8km)

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 3-03-16
2. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 59 sec
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-38
4. Kristen Faulkner (USA) BikeExchange-Jayco at 1-45
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx at 3-01
6. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ
7. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM 
8.Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope all at same time 
9. Neve Bradbury (Aus) Canyon-SRAM at 3-10
10. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 3-59

General classification after stage eight

1. Annemiek van Veuten (Ned) Movistar in 21-17-18
2. Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 2-13
3. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ Marta at 3-42
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 7-03
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 9-05
6. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 9-33
7. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 10-41
8. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ at 12-35
9. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM at 13-25
10. Elise Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 13-29

Juliette Labous won her first stage of a WorldTour race on Thursday, taking a stunning solo win at Passo Maniva in stage seven of the Giro Donne. 

The Frenchwoman had been part of a 14 woman breakaway group which went up the road early in the day, and was last woman standing to take victory by 1-37.

On what was an exciting and tactically fascinating day, Annemiek van Veluten extended her overall lead to 31 seconds, finishing second after finally attacking Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) in the closing kilometre. At first the Spanish rider seemed to be able to hold the wheel, but such was the savagery and length of Van Vleuten’s effort, she eventually had to concede, rolling over the line four seconds down.

With Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvele Aquitaine Futuroscope) the three women repeatedly traded blows on the final climb, and the young Italian was unable to hold on, but managed her effort well, finishing fourth, another six seconds back.

Having proved they are the strongest climbers on Monday, he three women dominate the GC, sitting in the same order they finished the day, third placed Cavalli 4-09 ahead of fourth place. And, with race in the foothills of the Alps of the next two days, reaching the Dolomites on Saturday, there may well be more shifts in the GC hierarchy.

Friday’s 104.7 stage between Rovereto and Aldeno sees the peloton tackle two tough, long climbs, and if that’s not enough, the 10km descent to the line invites attacks.

How it happened 

The Queen stage, and the only mountain top finish of the ten, day seven of the Giro Donne was one for fireworks.

The route followed the well-established formula for a Giro Donne mountain stage, starting flat and staying flat until a final climb. Starting near Brescia in the village of Prevalle the peloton first looped south, back through the start for three 14.2km laps, before heading south-west and, finally, north, arriving at Passo Maniva 112.9km later.

Not as difficult as other queen stage climbs in recent Giro Donne history, at more than 12km at an average gradient of 7.8%, the climb topped out 1742m above sea level. The climb may not be famous, but it is a stiff challenge, the ramps becoming ever steeper, though it never settles, allowing respite for some but interrupting the rhythm of others

Its is rarely used, stage five of the 2019 Baby Giro being the most recent to finish there. That was won by Colombian Andrés Camilo Ardila, who now rides with UAE Team Emirates, and who won the overall of that year’s event. The winner of Thursday’s Giro Donne stage might well have also won overall. 

Unless, of course, the day’s winner came from a breakaway.

Sure enough, on the first lap 14 women escaped the clutches of the peloton. Elena Cecchini (SDWorx), Alba Teruel (Bizkaia Durango), Mikayla Harvey (Canyon-SRAM), Jennifer Ducuara (Colombia Tierra des Atletas-GW-Shimano), Magdeleine Vallieres Mill (EF Education-Tibco-SVB), Emilia Fahlin (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), Beatrice Rossato (Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria), Katia Ragusa (Liv-Xstra), Paula Patiño (Movistar), Georgia Williams (BikeExchange-Jayco), Cristina Tonetti (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo), Amalie Lutro (UNO-X), Alice Arzuffi (Valcar Travel and Service) and Juliette Labous (DSM) soon had a lead of one minute.

Labous started the race as DSM’s GC hopeful, but lost time in the heat of stage four, starting Thursday 11-55 down, in 22nd place. Of the huge breakaway the Frenchwoman was highest placed on GC, though if they stayed away she may have faced a challenge from other climbers, with Patiño and Harvey a particular threat.

With 50km done the breakaway had a lead in excess of a huge eight minutes, and the chance of the race’s first true breakaway win became a possibility, especially when the gap grew to 9-13, the road beginning to rise to gently.

Such was the lead for the breakaway, and specifically for Labous, that she became a genuine threat to anyone but the top three, but other teams helped the Movistar team of overall leader Annemiek van Vleuten, historically the peloton’s best climber, and peloton’s deficit began to fall. 

With 40km to go the lead was down to 8-20 and the breakaway suddenly seemed less secure, and fifteen kilometres later another minute had being lopped off.

Soon afterwards Lutro made a move off the front of the group, though she gained little traction, especially as the race was about to explode. 

Behind, Movistar came to the front of the group and began to work hard cutting more time of the leaders’ advantage. However, as they did so the FDJ-Nouvellle Aquitaine Futuroscope team of third placed Marta Cavalli also moved up, sharing the work and making a statement to the rival squad. 

As the climb proper started Tonetti was caught first by Tonetti, then by by Labous and Williams, the latter quickly despatching the other pair, the French woman soon on her own with seven kilometres to go with a leading of two minutes. But the action was behind. 

Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) was the first to attack, thinning it and setting in place the team’s two woman strategy. And when she was caught Danish team mate Cecilie Uttrrup Ludwig took to the front, keeping the pace high.

With Labous’s lead for a while at 1-40, but back out to 2-12, Erica Magnaldi came to the front of the the 15 woman bunch to work for her UAE Team ADQ leader, second paced Mavi García, and  fascinating battle of wills developing on the mountainside.

Either Van Vleuten, García or Cavalli would attack, the trio would get a gap, but then be brought back, most often by Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), only in the final kilometre did one of those ones stick, Van Vleuten heading into second place on the day. 

ResultGiro Donne, stage seven, Prevalli - Passo Maniva Race (112.9km)

1. Juliette Labous (Fra) DSM in 3-22-36
2. Annemiek van Veluten (Ned) Movistar at 1-37
3. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ at 1-41
4. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 1-47
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 1-50
6. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 1-57
7. Gaia Realini (Ita) Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria at 2-13
8. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco at 2-29
9. Clara Koppenburg (Ger) Cofidis at 2-37
10. Silvia Persico (Valcar Travle and Service at 2-39

General classification after stage seven

1. Annemiek van Veuten (Ned) Movistar in 18-14-12
2. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ Marta at 31 sec
3. Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 1-10
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 5-19
5. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx 5-54
6. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco at 6-12
7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 6-22
8. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service 6-33
9. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ at 8-25
10. Elise Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 8-30

A 69 year-old man who allegedly intentionally reversed into Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and two friends has been released with charges by Spanish Police. Over the weekend he handed himself into local police in Murcia after a hit and run incident involving the Movistar captain. 

Local media have reported that the man testified on Monday before the head of the court of instruction number 3 in Murcia. The duty judge decreed the provisional release of the 69-year old although he is obliged to appear in court when the case continues. He has also been ordered to surrender his vehicle and driving licence beforehand.

“The head of the court has indicated that, although there are indications of a possible crime against road safety, injuries and abandonment of the scene of the accident, it is not appreciated that the requirements that would justify pre-trial detention are met, such as the risk of escape, the concealment or destruction of evidence or preventing him from commiting a crime again” said Spanish media. 

Alejandro Valverde has since been discharged from hospital

The Movistar rider was out riding with two friends in Murcia, Spain, when the incident occurred at the weekend. Spanish newspaper Marca reports that eyewitnesses saw a vehicle overtake the trio at high speed without leaving a safe distance, leading to the riders remonstrating with the driver. 

The driver then reportedly reversed back into Valverde and his friends, before fleeing the scene.

All three riders were taken to the Virgen de la Arrixaca hospital, but fortunately none of them suffered any serious injuries, confirmed by Valverde and his Movistar team on social media.

Eyewitnesses managed to spot the licence plate of the vehicle before the driver handed himself in, and Spanish outlet Ciclismo a fondo is now reporting that the incident was being investigated as an attempted murder. 

Valverde spent the night in hospital under observation, after suffering a cervical contusion and feeling dizzy at the scene of the incident. The Spaniard felt better overnight, though, with doctors discharging him on Sunday. 

From his hospital bed, Valverde said: "I want to thank you all for the support and affection that I have received today. Luckily everything has been a scare and I'm fine." 

Now recovering at home, the Spaniard will likely resume training in the coming days as his preparations for the final Grand Tour of his career continue. Retiring at the end of 2022, Valverde had earmarked an appearance at the Vuelta a España as one of his last in professional cycling.

With the race starting on August 19, the 42-year-old still has over a month to get back in peak condition for the Vuelta, with an appearance on July 30 at the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa also a possibility. 

“That was f***king hard!” said Annemiek van Vleuten between gulps of water and recovery drink, while removing her helmet. 

Sheltering from the brutal Italian sun in the shadow of Cesena’s Rocca Malatestiana castle, the world’s best stage racer was recovering from winning the fourth day of the Giro Donne. It was a victory which propelled her into the overall lead and towards her ambition of winning a third title in the 10 day Italian race.

It was a consummate victory, but perhaps not the kind of win we have grown used to seeing from the 39 year-old. She created the winning move on the second of three classified climbs, had increased the pressure on the descents, then attacked in her fellow escapees. 

But, unusually, she did not come to the line alone, instead having to use her head to get the best out of her legs. in a move redolent of her win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in the spring, she forced Mavi García (UAE Team ADQ) to the front, sweeping past her in the final bend then opening her sprint to put a second into her Spanish rival.

But it wasn’t the plan. At least it wasn’t when she saw the road book before the race. It was the route recce after arriving from the three opening stages in Sardinia which made her think she had to do something, if only just to defend.

“I saw the crazy descents,” she said in a post race TV interview. “We have Johan Cruyff in the Netherlands, the famous footballer, and he always says that attack is the best way to defend and that’s what I did today. I thought it’s more easy if I attack and then I can do the descents easy so the idea was more to stay safe and more out of trouble today, but then I saw I had a gap and I had to go for it.”

Podium done, race leader’s jersey received, and an endless warm down on the turbo later the Movistar rider was back for interviews.

“Also for me I like to attack and for me GC riding is boring if I have to wait all day so yeah, I had this opportunity and I took it.”

The stage result has devastated the GC. On Monday morning the gap from first to 100th place was just 1-51, now Elisa Longo Borghini is five minutes behind Van Vleuten in fourth place. And while García is only 25 seconds down in second, and Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) is at 57 seconds, surely the GC is surely decided.

“I leave that to the journalists, for me it’s focus day by day. Everything can happen in a stage race” 

And it has done. In 2017 she lost 1-59 in cross winds on the fourth stage of the 2017 race, eventually finishing third, 1-39 behind the maglia rosa. “[I will be] super attentive, for sure it’s a little bit more easy to defend and maybe less exciting for the GC. 

“I was not expecting that to be honest, I expected to have quite a group of a favourites, I was not expecting to drop them on the first climb already.”

Van Vleuten has not had the best of years, at least not when compared to her normal dominance, and then there were some injuries which meant that when she started last week’s Giro time trial she had not raced since her dominant win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. However, she warned that despite Monday’s performance she’s not yet at her physical best.

“I just came  back from altitude just before the prologue, I flew directly from Livigno, so I'm now not in my best shape. The altitude effect is top two weeks after you come back and it will sustain for four weeks, so I will make it to after the Tour de France.

“The most challenging element is to mentally recharge, because for me it's hard to recharge yourself for another stage race. But with a beautiful stage race as the Tour de France coming up it’s not hard to get pumped again.”

The Giro may well be gone, those with Tour de France Femmes ambitions should be afraid. Very afraid. 

Annemiek van Vleuten took a masterful win at the Giro Donne on Monday, moving into the overall lead with stage victory in Cesena.

The double GC winner had been part of a two woman group with Mavi García in the final 10km, but outwitted and out-dragged the UAE Team ADQ rider to take the win. After manoeuvring the Spanish rider onto the front as they entered the final kilometre she left her there, only coming through just ahead of the final, right hand corner, around 200m from the line her sprint enough to open a gap.

The pair had dropped the rest of the peloton on the second of three classified climbs, with only Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) able to go with them. Cavalli, sporting the triclore jersey cuffs of a former Italian champion, looked the strongest of the three, but on an unclassified climb around 12km out she popped.

Though she fought bravely the 24 year-old was unable to catch the leading pair and eventually finished third, 43 seconds down. With the next rider crossing the line nearly five minutes after Van Vleuten it seems the GC is decided with six stages remaining.

After the three previous stages Van Vleuten will take a lead of 25 seconds over García into the fifth stage. Starting in Carpi and covering 126.1km to Reggio Emilia it is the longest of the 10, though there is little to trouble the sprinters, so a bunch kick could be on the cards, though with such big gaps on GC it might be a day for the breakaway.

How it happened 

For its return to the mainland, the fourth stage of the Giro Donne headed to one of Italian cycling’s heartlands. With flat lands and the edge of the Apennines, the Emilia Romanga region is one of the country’s best cycling regions.

And while Cesena, which hosted both the start and finish of the 120.9km stage, is famous for the Biblioteca Malastestiana opened in 1454 and is Europe’s oldest civic library, it is also famous for cycling. Bikes are everywhere and it’s not a stretch to imagine Marco Pantani clattering through the cobbled streets, Il Pirata having been born in the nearby costal town of Cesenatico. 

On Monday a different generation rolled through the streets and north for a flat opening 35km. As it headed west and south the route became more challenging, the first of three classified climbs started with 35km done. A further uncategorised ascent of 2.8km and 7.1% average gradient topped out 10km from the and was an obvious staging post for the ambitious.  

Even the breeze was hot when the rode from the shade into the searing 35º sunshine, but that didn’t stifle attacking racing, with a number of unsuccessful attacks. After 15km of aggression, finally Lara Vieceli got away, dangling off the front a while before being reabsorbed only for the process to start over.

Her Certaizit-WNT team were clearly up for a fight though, because a few kilometres later Franziska Brausse got away, taking a lead of 30 seconds through the intermediate sprint and onto the first climb, where she was caught. 

After the descent the bunch split, a group of 14 women creating a small gap, but that soon came back and the race continued to fly through the roasting Italian countryside, the pace too high for anyone to stay away.

That pace began to tell on the second climb, overall leader and world champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) struggling. And as she slipped backwards a group of three women emerged at the front.

Marta Cavalli (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), and Mavi Gacía (UAE Team ADQ) powered on over the top of the climb and over the ensuing kilometre built a lead of a minute on a small chasing group.

All three began the race as overall favourites, and worked well to increase their lead over the top and on the descent, established what turned out to be a race winning gap of over a minute on a group which grew from seven to 10 women. As the race entered its final 25m that advantage had grown to more than two minutes and not only was the stage decided, and was only going one way.

Meanwhile, at the front the leaders worked well, but when Van Vleuten launched one of her trademark savage attacks only García was able to follow, Cavalli dropping back. Van Vleuten tried a number of moves, the Spanish rider responding in kind, but the part entered the final kilometre together.

ResultGiro Donne, stage four: Cesena - Cesena (120.9km)

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 3-13-13
2. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ at 01 sec
3. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 43
4. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 4-51
5. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco
6. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 
7. Elise Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM 
8. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
9. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
10. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx all at same time 

General classification after stage 4

1. Annemiek van Veuten (Ned) Movistar in 8-46-33
2. Mavi García (Esp) UAE Team ADQ Marta at 25 sec
3. Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 57 sec
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo at 5-00
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope at 5-13
6. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco at 5-14
7. Elise Chabbey (Sui) Canyon-SRAM at 5-21
8. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZ) SDWorx at 5-28
9. Silvia Persico (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service at 5-29
10. Erica Magnaldi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ at 6-10

Former World Champion and Movistar rider, Alejandro Valverde, has been involved in a hit and run incident during a training ride in Murcia, Spain. 

Valverde was on a training ride with two friends when the incident occurred in Alcantarilla. All three of the riders are now reported to be in hospital with no reports of any serious injuries. 

Movistar have confirmed the news via Twitter and that the Spanish rider would remain under observation for the next 24 hours. 

Movistar said: “We confirm that Alejandro Valverde has no fractures or serious injuries after suffering an incident this Saturday when he was riding with a teammate in Alcantarilla. ‘Bala will remain under observation for 24 hours and will later be discharged. Your partner is also ok.”

According to an eye witness on the scene, a car passed the three cyclists at full speed and close up against the group. One of the riders with Valverde reportedly challenged the driver over his actions and according to the witnesses account, the driver stopped the car and then reversed into the cyclists damaging Valverde’s bike in the process.

This afternoon Valverde posted on his Instagram account saying: 

"I want to thank you all for the support and affection that I have received today. Luckily everything has been a scare and I'm fine." 

In October 2021, Valverde confirmed that he will retire after the 2022 season.

While Annemiek van Vleuten’s solo victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday might have seen the Dutch rider return to peerless form, the victories have not been so easy to come by this year.

The 39-year-old has three wins to her credit already this season, beginning with a stunning solo stage and GC win at Setmana Valenciana back in February, following that with first place at Omloop Het Niewsblad.

However, though she has other podium places since, things have not been so simple. At Strade Bianche she was unable to drop Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) on the steep Via Santa Caterina into the centre of Siena. Then, four weeks later, despite attacks on the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg she was unable to go clear to win the Tour of Flanders, again losing out to Kopecky. 

An all-out attack at Amstel Gold Race saw a group on her wheel up the Cauberg, and at last week’s Flèche Wallonne she was out-dragged by Marta Cavalli on the Mur de Huy. Despite clearly giving her all, at times this spring Van Vleuten has seemed below her best. 

“Winning has become harder in women’s cycling,” she explained after Sunday’s brilliant win. “I think there are more contenders, I know that I’m better than ever in the spring, but it’s not that it always gives you the win.”

The results of the creation of WorldTour teams and the consequent introduction of a minimum wage and increased professionalism are certainly paying off in the women’s sport. For so long it has been dominated by a small number of remarkable athletes, and while they are still winning plenty, as Van Vleuten’s victory illustrates, others are challenging.

Of those perhaps Cavalli is perhaps the most obvious. While the Italian has truly thrown down the gauntlet with victories at both Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne, she was outstanding at last year’s Giro Donne.

The young DSM duo of Liane Lippert and Juliette Labous are improving year on year, and her move to Canyon-SRAM has seen Pauliena Rooijakkers emerge in hilly races. Add in SD Worx’s roster of climbing heavyweights and it’s clear there is the greater depth which makes predicting winners a far more tricky occupation.

Despite this on Sunday Van Vleuten put on a display redolent of her best ever performances. 

Her first attack on La Redoute was predictable, she’s attacked there before including when she won in 2019, but this year she was unable to drop SD Worx’s Marlen Reusser, who sat on. 

Her second effort, on the final classified climb of the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons was conclusive, and when she consolidated her lead on a steep drag and few kilometres later we saw the Van Vleuten we have become accustomed to seeing over the last five years. With such a palmarès, that she seemed to lack conviction is testament to the increased climbing depth in the peloton.

“To have the confidence today to go two times all out over Redoute and Roche-aux-Faucons, to have the confidence and then when it works out that’s the best," Van Vleuten said. "You need also some guts to go from the bottom and to have the confidence that I can drop them, but it’s not easy. It’s hard and then to still take the victory is amazing.

“Also I have more chances when I got two times all out, because the strength comes with age, and the more efforts I have the more chance I have to breakaway solo.

“I couldn’t believe until the finish line because it was a block headwind after Roche-aux-Faucons I knew already this morning at the start that it would be hard for a solo breakaway because if they start to work together I knew that they would catch me. It’s then one option, aero, time trial mode and give everything.”

Annemiek returned to form with a stunning solo win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, bringing back a lone leader on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons riding the final 10km alone.

A group of five had crested the climb only 15 seconds behind the Movistar rider, but despite working well together they were unable to catch her, a further unclassified climb allowing her to extend her lead.

That five woman group were left to battle for the podium places, with Grace Brown (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) winning the sprint for send place ahead of last year’s winner Demi Vollering (SD Worx).

It was an aggressive, combative ride from Van Vleuten. She first tried to replicate her 2019 winning move by attacking on La Redoute, and though she had a gap, Marlen Reusser (SD Worx) sat on her wheel and they were brought back.

Despite appearing under pressure, she tried again, using the final classified climb of Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons to bridge to Brown, who was alone up the road, and finally get her gap. 

On the final run into the finish in Liège she was able to hold off a concerted chase from four strong women, who worked well, riding through and off, but were unable even to maintain their deficit, let alone close the gap on the rampaging Dutchwoman.

How it happened

The one-day Classics season came to an end with the sixth and longest women’s edition of what is one of the oldest races on the men’s calendar. Another difference from the men’s event is that the women start in Bastogne as opposed to Liège for the 142.1km race.

Lumpy all day, with barely a metre of true flat until the run into Liège, seven classified climbs were dotted along the route, the first of which, Côte de Mont-le-Soie, came after 55km. 

The attacking began began early, though was hindered by a headwind and it took 13km for anything stick, Tamara Dronova (Roland-Cogeas-Edelwiess) leading the race through the outdoor sport resort of Houffalize, before being caught by Katia Ragusa (Liv-Xstra).

However, other teams sent riders to join them the general pace in the peloton increased and the leaders were reabsorbed. Liv-Xstra were in aggressive mood though, and after a brief hiatus Quinty Ton and Jeanne Korevaar got away with Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) and Brit Flora Perkins (Le Col-Wahoo).

Finally, the day’s breakaway had formed, and by the time they had covered 45km the leading quartet had a gap of 1-30 and ahead of the day’s first classified climb. 

They maintained that advantage over the top and onto the second climb, but as they reached the top of the third, the Côte de la Haute-Levée, the leaders were back in the peloton’s clutches, SD Worx doing much go the work to bring them back.

The race did not settle though, and on the descent towards the Col du Rosier a powerful break of eight women went clear. 

With the exception of Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange-Jayco), none of Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), Sara Martín (Movistar), Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM), Leah Thomas (Trek-Segafredo), Evita Muzic (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope), Leah Kirchmann (DSM) and Carl Honsinger (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) were their team’s leaders, but all are incredibly capable riders, and representing all the main WorldTour teams might have been allowed to go all the way.

As they hit the fifth of the eight climbs, the Côte de Desnié, the eight-woman break had a lead of 1-30. Jumbo-Visma, still without Marianne Vos, and UAE Team ADQ led the chase behind. However, other than Martín, the breakaway were cooperating well, riding through and off they struggled to make an impact. But things changed on the approach to the race’s key climb of La Redoute, SD Worx, Movistar, and Trek-Segafredo coming to the front, and as the leaders passed the massed ranks of camper vans at the bottom, their advantage was less than 50 seconds.

And when Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio came to the front of the peloton for SD Worx, with 2019 winner Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) on her wheel, that gap was down to 20 seconds, long before the top of the climb. 

With the gap down to 10 seconds Van Vleuten made her signature move on the steepest slopes, quickly catching the leaders, but unable to drop Reusser, the two women topping the climb with a lead of around 10 seconds on a group of eight different riders.

Last year’s winner Demi Vollering was joined by team-mate Moolman-Pasio, Trek-Segafredo had Paris-Roubaix winner Elisa Longo Borghini and Leah Thomas, while Flèche Wallonne winner Marta Cavalli had French champion Evita Muzic with her for FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, while Spratt and Paladin survived from the earlier move.

With her two SD Worx team-mates behind Reusser sat on Van Veluten’s wheel as the gap gradually came down, and with six further women getting back on a group of 16 formed, though only for a few seconds.

With 22km to go Grace Brown (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) attacked, and the Australian time trial champion, who finished second in 2020, instantly had a gap, taking a lead of 24 seconds onto the final classified climb. The Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons was where Brown had set off in pursuit of Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) in 2020, but there was to be no fairytale for the Australian as Van Veuten attacked again.

The Dutch rider reached Brown alone, a group of four chasing as she slowly opened a gap of around 15 seconds over the top. With Longo Borghini sat on, Brown, Cavalli, Moolman-Pasio and Vollering worked hard in the chase, dangling in sight of the leader, but Van Veluten took a lead of 20 seconds into the final 10km, which was largely downhill.

Result

Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes 2022: Bastogne - Liège (142.1km)

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar, in 3-52-32
2. Grace Brown (Aus) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, at 43 sec
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx
4. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) SD Worx
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, all at same time
6. Marta Cavalli (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope, at 47 sec
7. Arlenis Sierra (Cub) Movistar, at 1-58
8. Liane Lippert (Ger) Team DSM
9. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
10. Amanda Spratt (Aus) BikeExchange-Jayco, all at same time

One final time up the Mur de Huy for Alejandro Valverde, one final podium for the Spaniard.

In his 20 year career, Flèche Wallonne has been the race that has come to give him his best success: five victories, two second places and one third place. His final runners-up spot on Wednesday came days before his 42nd birthday, and clearly meant a lot to the Movistar rider.

No one has been able to conquer the steep gradients of the Mur, to time their effort to perfection, as much as Alejandro Valverde - apart from maybe Anna van der Breggen, but the pair have never raced each other.

"I can only feel happy about my performance today," he said post-race. "I’ve been so close to victory. I was pushing so hard that I felt more pain in my arms than in my legs!"

"This second place is worth as much as a victory," he continued. "I’m turning 42 in five days and this was my last Flèche Wallonne. Having performed at this level, with lots of sufferance but finishing on a good note, gives me hopes of a nice Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday."

With no Valverde, other riders will now have a chance to take on the Mur - Wednesday's winner Dylan Teuns of Bahrain-Victorious will certainly be back, now he knows how to win.

Valverde's first victory came in 2006, when Teuns was just 14, showing how he has stayed at the top of the sport for so long.

"Teuns has been stronger than me – period," Valverde said. "Congratulations to him."

A race that requires so much about timing clearly favoured riders who have done it multiple times before, although Aleksandr Vlasov was an exception, finishing second in Huy.

Although the final climb is clearly so decisive, the whole day requires an organised team in order to make the most of the test at the end. Valverde was clearly grateful that he was allowed the honour of a team working for him at Flèche one last time.

"I want to thank my team for the excellent work they’ve done for me the whole day," he said. "They’ve given me an excellent travel to the Mur de Huy. Then Enric Mas set a very strong pace on the final climb that enabled me to be in perfect position for the final accelerations."

With Valverde shuffling off the cycling scene, the pace seemed higher than ever to him on the Mur.

"It must have been the fastest-ever climb to the Mur de Huy," he said. "Definitely one of the fastest. Some days you end up the race feeling you could have done more, but it’s not the case today."

With energy exhausted in Huy, Valverde can now look to other objectives in his final season, happy that he gave it his all, one last time, at his race.

A hugely tense final 15km saw Emma Norsgaard take a fourth win of the season for Movistar, with monstrous sprint at Le Samyn des Dames.

Opening the taps with with well over 250m of the slight uphill finish straight remaining, the Danish star blasted past a two woman breakaway with only 150m of the 99km race to go.

Riding the final 100m in the saddle, the 22-year-old held off Chiara Consonni, the Valcar Travel and Service rider taking second place, with her compatriot Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) hanging on for third after being part of that late break.

It’s been a stunning start to the year for Movistar, the prolific Annemiek van Vleuten taking a stage and the GC in Valenciana last month, before winning Omloop het Nieuwsblad last weekend.

Norsgaard, who last year raced with the name Jørgensen on her licence and is now registered as Bjerg after marrying UAE Team Emirates rider Mikkel, is a rising star and is likely to go well in the remaining Classics.

Her 2021 season was stunning, taking a series of top results throughout the spring, including finishing second at last year’s Le Samyn. So far this year she has stepped up again, taking sixth at Het Nieuwsblad and second at Omloop van het Hageland on Sunday.

However, judging by Tuesday’s podium ceremony she needs to work on her podium skills after needing assistance opening the winner’s fizz. She is likely to have plenty of opportunities though.

How it happened

While the men’s race has been a feature of the calendar since 1968, the women’s race is much younger, Dutchwoman Adrie Visser winning the first edition as recently as 2012.

With SD Worx not on the start line in Quaregnon for the 99.4km race to Dour, the race lacked their two previous winners in Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and defending champion Lotte Kopecky. And with Trek-Segafredo starting without European champion Ellen van Dijk and Jip van den Bos’s Jumbo-Visma absent, Movistar’s Sheyla Gutiérrez was the only previous winner racing on Tuesday.

The race was unusual in permitting seven-woman teams for the seven climbs and 15 brutal cobbled sectors which punctuated the route, and were almost certain to make for an attritional day out, justifying that extra rider.

The reality though was somewhat different, the first 90 minutes of the race passing with little incident or breakaway. Only after around 40km did the race split, the challenging stones of the Chémin de Wilhéres taking their toll.

Though the race came back together it was not for long, as the action kicked off on the toughest cobbled sector, the Rue de Belle Vue, which conclusively split the bunch. 

Late on the second of three local laps Brit Lizzie Holden (Le Col-Wahoo) got away with the perpetually aggressive Grace Brown (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope). Holden though, was unable to hold the Australian’s wheel and it was left to Brown to forge on alone, though the sprinter’s squads never allowed her much space, her lead never exceeding 40 seconds as the bunch sped up, narrow roads and cobbles making positioning vital.

Trek-Segafredo worked hard on the front with Valcar Travel and Service, though with 13km to go on the Côte de la Roquette former dual British champion, Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) attacked the bunch in an attempt to close the Australian down, catching her with 10km to go.

Barnes was in full flight, dropping Brown when she nearly slid out on a bend, though by then what remained of the peloton were close behind the Canyon-SRAM rider and she was caught shortly after.

It was then Trek-Segafredo’s turn, Audrey Cordon-Ragot making a first move, with Shirin van Anrooij going the moment the former was caught. FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine’s Italian signing, Vittoria Guazzini went with her, the two young riders working well into the closing three kilometres and onto the final crossing of the Rue de Belle Vue.

A bunch of around 25 riders trailed by around 15 seconds but by the time they emerged onto tarmac their lead had only grown and an upset seemed likely. With sprinter Clara Copponi among the chasers Guazzini had never fully committed and the lead dwindled in the final 1000m.

Results

Le Samyn des Dames 2022: Quaregnon to Dour (99.4 km)

1. Emma Norsgaard (Den) Movistar in 2-37-17
2. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Valcar Travel and Service
3. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
4. Susanne Andersen (Nor) Uno-X
5. Clara Copponi (Fra) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
6. Marjolein van't Geloof (Ned) Le Col-Wahoo
7. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
8. Alice Barnes (Gbr) Canyon-SRAM
9. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) Canyon-SRAM
10. Laura Tomasi (Ita) UAE Team ADQ all at same time 

Annemiek Van Vleuten took her third win of the year with a consummate performance at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday.

The former road and double-time trial world champion outsprinted compatriot Demi Vollering after the pair rode the final 13km alone. The two women escaped on the day’s final climb, the Bosberg, and with two SDWorx teammates in an eight-woman chasing group Vollering was able to sit on.

The two Dutch women entered the final 2000m with a lead of more than one minute, but Van Vleuten eased up, imploring Vollering to come through. However, the younger woman held fast, staying out of the wind as their lead began to come down, despite finessing in the chasing group.

As the peloton caught the chasers, Vollering finally came through inside the last kilometre, leading ahead of one of right-angled bends. However, it was Van Vleuten’s nous and experience which won the day, the Movistar rider dive-bombing on a bend 400m from the line, opening her sprint leaving Vollering unable to come by.

In her first race of the year, Vollering was left distraught in second place, while another Dutch rider, Lorena Wiebes (DSM) led the peloton home in third place.

Van Vleuten has started the year in formidable form, last week winning a mountain stage of the Setmana Valenciana Volta Comunitat Fémines, taking GC at the four-day race.

How it happened 

The first of this year’s women’s cobbled classics set out from its home at the T’kuipke velodrome, home of the Ghent Six-Day, and took a typically circuitous 128.4km route to it’s relatively new finish in Ninove.

On the way the peloton encountered the season’s first cobbles and bergs, obstacles that will characterise the coming week’s racing. The day covered nine bergs, two of which, Muur Kapelmuur in Geraardsbergen, and the Bosberg were cobbled, along with another five stretches of pavé.

Not only are those two final climbs cobbled, they also come in quick succession, the top of the Bosberg coming a frantic 13km from the finish. The last three of the 17 editions have been won solo, with those final climbs proving pivotal to the result.

With just over 25km ridden a small break of two women escaped the peloton’s clutches, Emily Newsom (EF Education-Tbco-SVB) and Svenja Betz (IBCT) building a lead approaching four minutes. However, while Betz was dropped briefly, she was picked up by four others who caught the American and a group of six entered the final 55km with a lead of just over three minutes.

Newsom, Betz, Kylie Waterreus (Lotto Soudal), Anastasia Carbonari (Valcar Travel and Service) Laura Tomasi (UAE Team ADQ) and Fien Delbraere (Multum) completed the first stretch of cobbles, the Huisepontweg, with 57km gone and a lead of 3.20.

However, their lead was wiped out in the ensuing 15 km, and the race headed onto the Haaghoek and into the final 35km with Trek-Segafredo massed on the front. 

While they led onto the Leberg, it was on this fifth climb that Swiss champion Marlen Reusser (SDWorx) powered clear, taking Liane Lippert, European champion Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) and British time trial champion Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) with her.

The leading quartet worked well and when DSM and Trek-Segafredo spread across the front of the bunch on a narrow road they finally broke the elastic, the advantage quickly growing to more than a minute.

But on wider roads with the power of Movistar, Canyon-SRAM and FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope leading the way, the gap began to come down, and the lead was reduced to 29 seconds as they hit the bottom of Muur Kapelmuur.

On the climb Henderson was dropped, but crested the climb with 2020 winner Annemiek van Veluten (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (SDWorx), the latter sitting on as they chased the leading trio, including her team-mate.

Meanwhile, as three became six at the front, a third SDworx rider, Belgian road and time trial champion, Lotte Kopecky chased on alone, catching them at the foot of the Bosberg, the day’s final climb.

But, in true spring classics style, the race was in a constant state of flux. As they hit the cobbles, with three more women within touching distance, Van Vleuten attacked, with only Vollering able to hold the wheel.

Once again Vollering held the box hand, two teammates behind giving her the excuse to sit on, while Reusser led the chasers, whose number had swollen to eight. Despite Reusser’s effort, as the race entered the final five kilometres Van Vleuten had taken the leaders’ advantage to 55 seconds and the race was set for a two-up sprint.

ResultOmloop Het Niewsblad Elite Women: Ghent - Ninove (128.4km)

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar in 3-28-15
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SDWorx, at same time
3. Lorena Wiebes (DSM) DSM at 25 seconds
4. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
5. Clara Copponi (Ita) FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
6. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
7. Anna Henderson (Gbr) Jumbo-Visma
8. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Ceratizit-WNT
9. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
10. Julie Leth (Den) Uno-X, all at same time 

As of Tuesday, all men's WorldTour teams have released their jerseys for this season, which is good news for those among us who like to be prepared ahead of the season, and who get giddily excited over news about kits.

Some teams have departed wildly from previous offerings, with a whole host of name changes going on as well, so it is important to cast an eye over these strps.

While many teams and riders have maintained a relatively consistent aesthetic, it is worth brushing up on the colours they will be wearing this season before it all kicks off. It also gives us a chance to put on our fashion critic hat - a fetching beret, of course - and rate the kits.

You might not agree with all of these ratings, out of five, and of course appearance is a subjective decision. However, since I'm in charge of the narrative here, this is how I feel about the respective strips right now. When further women's WorldTour kits emerge, we will update this list further.

AG2R-Citroën - 4/5

AG2R-Citroën go for the same look as last year, with the sponsor plastered diagonally across the largely white jersey. The French team have a habit of keeping the same kit for a few years at a time; they had the same horizontal blue, white and brown striped kit for three years between 2018 and 2020.

Let's tackle the brown shorts. Yes, they are a bit much, but they are a staple of the AG2R wardrobe, and mark the team out. Are they really that bad? I certainly don't mind them, and it would a shame to see them out of the peloton, they're something a bit different from all the blacks and blues, certainly. 

The introduction of Citroën as a co-sponsor last year saw the light blue of AG2R La Mondiale disappear, and that's no bad thing, with the largely white jersey giving a cleaner look.

Astana-Qazaqstan - 2/5

I think my immediate reaction to this kit is to shrug. It is almost exactly the same as their 2021 kit, so reasonably boring. The big difference is the absence of Canadian sponsor Premier Tech, who have now moved onto the jersey of the team formerly known as Israel Start-Up Nation instead.

There are too many blue tones in the peloton, and the fade into the diamond patterns on this kit does not save it. It could really do with an update, but props to the lack of confusion through using pretty much the same kit again.

Vincenzo Nibali and Miguel Ángel López will return to the Kazakstani team and pull on the familiar colours, which have largely stayed the same since they entered the pro cycling scene over a decade ago.

Bahrain-Victorious - 4/5

Right, this is getting silly now. The third team in a row to keep the same kit as 2021, Bahrain-Victorious will use the same strip that saw them achieve great success across the season.

It is similar, but not exactly the same, as the kit they revealed at the beginning of last year - that one was made Italian brand Nalini before they switched to Alé mid-season. It was in this kit that the team impressed at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España, before Sonny Colbrelli went on his winning streak which concluded at Paris-Roubaix in October.

The block pattern is appealing, and I like the light blue sleeves, which add a little bit of excitement to the kit. It is very smart, just a shame that we do not get to seem something a bit different for the new year.

Bora-Hansgrohe - 5/5

Here we go, something different and radical. Bora-Hansgrohe were bound to see their kit change at least a bit once they swapped outfitters from Sportful to Le Col.

The eye-catching blocks of colour really mark this one out for me, with two different shades of green and a splash of red lower down the jersey. The differing colours of the sleeves look smart, too.

It is a fitting change as Bora-Hansgrohe head into a new era without Peter Sagan on the team, and look to the future with Jai Hindley, Aleksandr Vlasov and Sergio Higuita joining.

Canyon-SRAM 5/5

I will not hold back, I love this kit. It's another one in the Women's WorldTour that is pinky/purple, yes, but it is distinctly different. It will certainly stand out in the peloton, with the green triangles on the shoulders.

I even like the strange meteorological symbols, even if I don't really understand what they mean, and I would happily wear this kit out and about myself. Canyon have outdone themselves in their first in-house made offering for the team.

Canyon-SRAM will be looking to Sarah Roy to deliver this season as a new signing, and hoping that Kasia Niewiadoma continues to perform at the highest levels.

Cofidis - 4/5

This is a refreshing look from Cofidis, a change from their quite staid and dated looking recent offerings. This will be worn by their men's team and their new women's team as well.

The iconic red and white remain but with a stylish update, sectioned off into block colours. The shoulders are white, torso red, and the jersey is joined by accompanying black shorts.

It is made by Decathlon's cycling brand Van Rysel, which is an interesting entrant into WorldTour kit-making, and one that features heavily in our guide to the best cheap cycling clothing, based on reviews under the previous name of B'Twin. Ion Izagirre and Bryan Coquard are among the riders appearing in the colours for the first time.

EF Education-EasyPost and EF Education-Tibco-SVB 4/5

Rapha have made two similar kits for the EF Education sponsored teams: EF Education-EasyPost (men's) and EF Education-Tibco-SVB (women's). Both are good, but I think I prefer the women's with the lighter blue, rather than the darker blue/green on the men's kit.

The men's team has competed in a kit featuring pink since 2018, when EF came on board, but this season features more dark blue in blotches across the jersey, and it is combined with navy shorts. The women's team, previously known as Tibco-SVB, is joining the EF Education stable this season.

A press release from Rapha read: "The new design, executed through creative coding and image/pattern manipulation, is a modern interpretation of the Argyle pattern that has been a staple part of EF’s visual language for years."

FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope - 4/5

FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope's is a great kit, stylish but different from a lot of the Women's WorldTour peloton.

The jersey is designed by Gobik, and is very different from the similarly sponsored men's WorldTour team Groupama-FDJ. It is mostly vibrant blue, with a hint of red around one shoulder and white sleeves. The dark navy shorts are nice and complement it as well.

Grace Brown is the team's biggest signing, joining from BikeExchange, and they will have high hopes of her and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig firing together.

Groupama-FDJ - 3/5

No discernible changes for another French team, with Groupama-FDJ following AG2R in going down the sustainable route. It is a very smart kit, deliberately redolent of the French tricolor.

It will look fitting on riders including Michael Storer and Quentin Pacher, who have joined the outfit from Team DSM and B&B Hotels p/b KTM respectively. Groupama-FDJ always do a great job with national champion's jerseys, with Ignatas Konovalovas and Kevin Geniets sporting their country's colours. 

Again, while there is nothing wrong with the kit as it is, perhaps it is due a refresh. We can but hope that before 2023 Marc Madiot has a word with kit suppliers Alé.

Human Powered Health - 4/5

Human Powered Health, formerly Rally Cycling, are stepping up to the Women's WorldTour and have added a bit of flair to their previously block orange jersey with some reds and purples.

The jersey alone is great, it is just a shame that they are not the only women's team to feature orange merging into purple and red, with SD-Worx and UAE Team ADQ opting for similar designs.

The men's ProTeam will wear the same kit, and it is very smart, paired with black shorts. We will have to hope that the orange-purple kits all look very different from a birds-eye view once racing begins.

Ineos Grenadiers - 4/5

After a few years with Castelli, Ineos Grenadiers have moved to a brand beloved by cycling clubs looking to print custom cycling kit, BioRacer. The kit has new-look red shoulders, a slight upgrade to the mostly navy jersey that the British team wore last year.

It is pretty smart and will make sure they stand-out amid the other blues of the WorldTour, although it does remind me of Bristol Bears rugby union team. Belgian brand BioRacer probably didn't think of them in their design.

The British squad has looked towards youth this year, signing Luke Plapp, Ben Turner, Ben Tulett and Magnus Sheffield among others. Elia Viviani also returns to the team he last raced for while it was still Team Sky. Not a bad kit.

Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert 2/5

It is fine, I guess? Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert have kept their, um, interesting colour scheme of fluorescent greeen and dark blue, but there is more white space on the centre of the jersey.

This space has been filled with sponsors, a lot of them, which seems a little unbecoming of a WorldTour team, but then everyone has to survive somehow. Other teams seem to do it more tactfully, however.

The Belgian squad will hope they can get Alexander Kristoff firing this season in order to deliver some needed victories. Taco van der Hoorn, stage winner at last year's Giro d'Italia, is also one to watch out for.

Israel-Premier Tech - 2/5

There is nothing wrong with the newly-named Israel-Premier Tech's kit, it is just a bit underwhelming. It has changed from 2021, with the introduction of a bit more white on the jersey and a patterned blue lower half, rather than plain navy.

I should say at this point I am biased against sports teams in the colour blue thanks to my dislike of Portsmouth Football Club. This might be why blue kits are spoiled in my eyes, sorry to much of the WorldTour.

We have not seen the kit on a rider yet, so it may look much better in person. Jakob Fuglsang and Hugo Houle are among the riders that are going to pull on the Israel-Premier Tech kit for the first time this season, after both moved from Astana.

Liv Racing Xstra

This Liv Racing Xstra kit is bold, with its flower motif, and that should be noted. However, it is the same jersey as last year, just with the new Xstra headline sponsor added.

Also, it is reasonably dark and I think I prefer a brighter kit, but it definitely is different from the rest of the Women's WorldTour peloton. Furthermore, thanks to other teams changing their colours, this Liv kit should not clash with others anymore.

With the departure of Lotte Kopecky to SD Worx, the Dutch squad will be forced to look elsewhere for wins. They still have Canadian Alison Jackson and signed
Eva Buurman in the off-season.

Lotto-Soudal - 4/5

Just as I mostly dislike blue kits, I mostly like red kits. So cheers to Lotto-Soudal for what is the reddest kit in the peloton this season. It's smart, it doesn't try too hard, and it will certainly stand out in the peloton.

Apart from a white band around the middle for the main sponsors, and black around the cuffs, the kit is all in the vibrant hue which just promises to be fast. The team will be hoping for a much improved 2022 after a disappointing season last year.

Lotto-Soudal have signed Victor Campernaerts back from Qhubekha NextHash, and will be hoping Caleb Ewan delivers in sprint finishes throughout the year and avoids injury.

Movistar - 3.5/5

Movistar's new look comes from the production lines of Italian kit brand, La Passione, which replaces Alé as the team's new clothing brand. It's simple and smart, but a little bit boring.

It reminds me of Team Sky's kit from 2017, and seeing as Sky won the Tour de France and Vuelta a España that year, Movistar will be hoping some of the magic rubs off on them.

The same jersey will be worn by their women's team, led by the effervescent Annemiek van Vleuten, with a Tour de France-Giro Donne double possibly on the cards. This could be a historic kit. 

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl - 4.5/5

Rules are there to be broken, aren't they? After telling you all how much I disliked blue, I'm now saying that Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl's jersey is one of my favourites of the year. Castelli have moved to the Belgian team from Ineos Grenadiers, and their first offering is a belter.

The new jersey has less blue than last season's effort, and is reminiscent of what the team wore in 2017. There is white across the shoulders and a band of pink around the chest.

Might we see a record-breaking Tour de France stage win for Mark Cavendish in this kit? More definitely, we will see more feats from Julian Alaphilippe and Remco Evenepoel. 

SD Worx - 3/5

The second of the purple-pink-orange kits on this year's list, SD Worx's jersey is fine, and I like the fact it is with black shorts, but that is about it. A few too many colours on the jersey for me, but there is nothing bad about it either.

I prefer the team's efforts with its national champion's jerseys, which is good because they have two more to sort now Lotte Kopecky and Marlen Reusser have joined the squad.

The team are in transition after Anna van der Breggen retired, but still have lots of firepower with Demi Vollering, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio.

Team BikeExchange Jayco - 1/5 for the men's, 2/5 for the women's

My aversion to blue is rearing its ugly head again here, but I am not convinced there's too much to like about BikeExchange's kit. The women's one is better thanks to the strength of the "aubergine" colour on its jersey, but the weak blue on the men's does not work for me.

It is the third kit on this list from Alé, with the Italian manufacturer joining the squad along with bike manufacturers Giant and Liv. This is the reason for the change in colour from the old BikeExchange kit, apparently.

The shorts are far too light a shade of blue for my liking, and might not leave much to the imagination mid-race. Dylan Groenewegen, Kristen Faulkner and Lawson Craddock are among the new signings that will be wearing this kit soon. 

Team DSM - 3/5

DSM have not changed their kit for this season, like so many other teams. This is a good thing, however, as it is pretty smart. Unlike a few years ago, there aren't that many teams in black either, so they do stand out in the bunch.

The men's and women's teams wear exactly the same kit, with 'Keep Challenging' stripes down the middle of the jersey. It also manages to have a few little sponsors and yet not look cluttered.

John Degenkolb is heading back to the team he left when it was still Sunweb, and they also have quite a few graduates from their development team making the step up. Meanwhile, the women's team will surely focus around Lorena Wiebes as before.

Team Jumbo-Visma - 4/5

Not a lot has changed, but this is a solid effort from Jumbo-Visma, who manage to have multiple sponsors across the jersey without it looking like too much. The big Cervélo logos on the shoulders do not even really get in the way.

As long as they alter it for the Tour de France, it should work throughout the season. The women's team will likely wear the same kit, with Marianne Vos leading the line.

Tiesj Benoot, Rohan Dennis and Christophe Laporte have joined the Dutch super team, where they will hope to link up well with Primož Roglič, Tom Dumoulin and Wout van Aert.

Trek-Segafredo - 3/5

Both kits are broadly fine, minimalist efforts, with Trek-Segafredo's men wearing white with a red hilight, and its women wearing white with a band of light blue.

They are reasonably prosaic, however, which is not a massively bad thing but does not thrill me. There are also quite a few teams with largely white kits in the men's peloton, which means it might be a little hard to distinguish between them.

Joining the women's team this season is world champion Elisa Balsamo, of whom much is expected. On the men's side, riders brought in include Tony Gallopin and Dario Cataldo.

UAE Team ADQ - 2/5

The third and final Women's WorldTour kit to feature orange and purple, the inaugural UAE Team ADQ kit is not really my cup of tea, with a bit too much colour blending going on, and it lacks a solid identity.

It is interesting that the women's team did not copy the UAE flag-based colour scheme of it's men's counterparty. The flag does feature lower down on the front and back of the jersey, but there is more colour across the whole thing.

Riders who have switched across from Alé BTC Ljubljana include Mavi García and Marta Bastianelli.

UAE-Team Emirates - 3/5

I am hard-pushed to find a difference between this one and last year's UAE-Team Emirates' kit. The jersey of Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar is still quite smart and classy, however, with the little red and gold accents doing a lot.

It is made by Gobik, the same people who make FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope's kit, and is simple. However, it is yet another largely-white jersey in the peloton, which might blend together a bit next season.

João Almeida, Marc Soler and George Bennett have all joined the super-team, bolstering its climbing ranks.

Annemiek van Vleuten has said that 2021 was her best season yet, adding "[I] exceeded my goals" and stating that taking gold in the Tokyo Olympics was her best performance. 

In a video interview published by her team, Movistar, on Thursday, the former world champion also said she was surprised by the level of the squad in her first year there, and that she was still hungry for more.

The 39-year old said: "I think it’s maybe my best year. Overall, I achieved all my goals. Maybe even exceeded my goals. I also think it’s my best season because in the Tokyo Olympics I had my best performance."

Van Vleuten won silver in the road race, which was tinged with disappointment as she thought she had in fact won. Whereas, in fact, Anna Kiesenhofer had already crossed the line in first. However, just three days later Van Vleuten won gold in the Olympic Games individual time trial.

On that, she said: "I think the most special feeling of the Tokyo Olympics during the time trial was that I really was 'on the flow' that day... You don’t feel the pain, you don’t count the kilometres, I was only really focused on my task. Go as hard as possible, pushing loads of power."

>>> Women's peloton moves away from purple but converges on new theme

She also won the Tour of Flanders, the Clásica San Sebastián and Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2021, part of the 12 wins she had in total.

The Tour of Flanders was one of team boss Sebastián Unzué's goals at the beginning of the season, Van Vleuten revealed. 

"To join the team and finish it off in Flanders ten years later, I was waiting so long for the second win in Flanders," she said. 

"Having all the team there, doing it together, it was a real team effort. I saw the happiness of the team after the finish, that was gold for me. That made it even more special, to win Flanders with this team."

2021 was the Dutchwoman's first year with Movistar, after five years with what is now Team BikeExchange. She admitted that she was surprised at the level of the team when she joined; this was only Movistar's second year at WorldTour level.

"I didn't expect that they were so professional already," she explained. "It's really nice to race with a younger team, because I can add a lot of my experience, to give a bit back to them. It was a really nice combination."

She argued that she was not alone in making the team more successful. "I don't think I am the factor of change. With Emma [Norsgaard] also there, we're racing a lot of times for the win.

"That's already making a huge difference in the motivation, in the focus of everyone. And also how other teams look at our team. Movistar is a team they will really take into account."

Van Vleuten crashed out of Paris-Roubaix, meaning she ended the season "in a not so nice way", but said "doctors confirmed I will not have any problems in the future".

As for the future, the 39-year old said she was still motivated to continue: "I see a lot of challenges, and if I still see a lot of challenges, it makes me hungry to continue."

Spanish WorldTour team Movistar have revealed their new-look kit, produced by La Passione.

The colour scheme has reverted to the dark blue of a few years ago, but the large M on the front is light blue, as opposed to reverting to the green of yesteryear. A smattering of light blue lines and touches of black for good measure add to this classy, in our opinion, design.

The jersey was modelled by Annemiek van Vleuten, Alejandro Valverde, Sara Martín, Matteo Jorgensen, Enric Mas, Emma Norsgaard, Puerto Rican champion Abner Gonzalez and new Brazilian signing Vinícius Rangel in a video uploaded by the team to their social media channels before posting pictures of the riders in the smart kit.

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The new look comes from the production lines of Italian kit brand, La Passione, which replaces Alé as the team's new clothing brand. This comes after just over a year with Alé, who took the place of Scottish brand Enduram, who ended deal with Movistar as they said there was a "developmental dead end being enforced by the UCI."

This is supposedly the last time we will see Valverde in a new jersey for a burgeoning season. The 41-year-old has said that the 2022 season will be his final summer as a professional cyclist, during which he is set to take on the challenge of both the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.

The Spanish Grand Tour likely being his big send off means that a homage dedicated to him is rumoured to be part of the route for 2022, which is set to be released on Thursday, December 16.

In the women's team, Van Vleuten will likely be looking at the returning women's Tour de France which comes shortly after the Giro Donne, making the double a very feasible feat. 

The Movistar eTeam will also be wearing their new kit as they compete in the Zwift Racing League.

They are not the first WorldTour team to reveal their new kit for 2022 with Ineos Grenadiers kicking off the new kit season followed by Ag2r-Citroën then Trek-Segafredo and Team DSM.

Saint Piran are not a WorldTour team, the level Gabriel Cullaigh has dropped down from and where he believes he still belongs, but in signing for the British Continental team, the 25-year-old will have the opportunity that he seldom had during two frustrating years at Movistar: he will be able to bike races.

"After the last two years of only racing 48 days, I want to take advantage and race as much as I can. Saint Piran will be the best opportunity for me," Cullaigh told Cycling Weekly.

The Yorkshireman endured a difficult past season with Movistar as explained to this publication last week, an article which prompted support across cycling to Cullaigh including from Allan Piper who expressed regret that he couldn't do anything to help the Classics rider. Cullaigh previously had an offer to join UAE-Team Emirates on a one-year deal before signing for Movistar.

But that is in the past, and after the frustrations of recent months, Cullaigh now just wants to look forward.

"I wanted to stay at WorldTour or ProTeam level, but the only team who had contacted my agent Andrew [McQuaid] was Qhubeka and we’re still not sure if they’re going ahead or not," Cullaigh said.

"I’ve had my doubts, held on with hope, but didn’t want to keep waiting and waiting and then not have anything.  

"[Saint Piran manager] Steve Lampier and I spoke at the Tour of Britain and we’ve kept in touch since. I’ve always got on well with Lamps. He said he didn’t want me on the team because that would mean I didn’t get a WorldTour ride, but if it came to it he’d happily have me and he’d give me what I needed in terms of a wage. 

"After a few weeks he said they had the funds that I asked for if I need to come back. Steve was patient with me and I decided to go for it.

"It’s an exciting project and Steve wants to make them a success, be a well-renowned British Conti team that everyone knows and respects, a bit like JLT was. That’s his goal and he has his ideas on how he wants to race and how he wants everyone to have a hands on approach. I liked the sound of it."

The position Cullaigh finds himself in was one similarly experienced by fellow Briton James Shaw who had to drop down to the third-tier with SwiftCarbon in 2019 after two years at Lotto-Soudal.

Shaw has worked tirelessly hard in the intervening three years and his results this year for Ribble-Weldtite - most notably two fifth-placed finishes on GC at the Tour of Slovenia and Tour of Norway against WorldTour opposition - led to him signing a two-year contract with EF Education - Nippo.

Cullaigh can draw inspiration for his peer. He said: "James and I are the same age. We were on the [British Cycling] talent team together, we went through juniors and U23s almost like rivals, but we kept in touch.

"He sent me a nice message recently saying that it sounds like I am in a similar position to what Lotto did to him a few years back.

"He really thought about sacking it all in, but he said he knows that would have been the worst decision he could have made. It’s been super impressive what he did this year and it’s great to see it’s possible to jump back up if I can find a place in the right team."

While Saint-Piran's principal focus will be on the domestic calendar, they also hope to race abroad a number of times each month. Last year, Tom Mazzone won the Grand Prix de la Somme Conseil Départemental 80, increasing the team's chances of race invites.

After a year of disappointment, Cullaigh is determined that the 2022 season will just be a one-year hiatus away from the sport's echelons. "I'll give it a year - I owe it to myself. I'll have a good bit of racing and there will be opportunities. I will get my head down and take the moments when they come

"Working with Gary [Sadler, his coach], I can make it work. The main thing is focusing and enjoying my racing and competing. Hopefully the results will come, and with that I can continue this lifestyle and jump back up."