When Brandon McNulty crossed the line alongside Tadej Pogačar at last year's Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, in Canada, it was another reminder of his place among cycling's very best riders. The American has long been one of Pogačar's most trusted lieutenants at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, helping shred the peloton on climbs such as the Col de Val Louron at the 2022 Tour de France.

Yet, McNulty stands apart from many of his peers in one surprising way: he trains far less than most pros, typically riding just 15 to 16 hours a week around his home in Arizona. The 27-year-old is part of a growing group of elite and professional cyclists who follow a low-volume training plan. "Low volume" is, in this context, a relative term: we're talking about less than 20 hours per week for professionals, and less than 10 hours per week for amateurs.

Since the pioneering work of athletics coach Arthur Lydiard in the 1950s, "more is better" has been the accepted wisdom in endurance sports. Olympic swimmers would rack up 35 hours per week, elite runners upwards of 100 miles a week, and professional triathletes trained hours equivalent to those of a full-time job.

"If you ask most people, 'How many hours do professionals do?', they'll give you a number like 30 hours a week," says McNulty's teammate Jay Vine. "But that's not even close. There are a lot more efforts involved, but a lot fewer hours at sub-endurance." The Australian explains that he is training considerably less now than he did as a neo-pro on Alpecin-Fenix.

High-volume endurance training works, up to a certain point. For many athletes, that point is injury or burnout. For others, it's mental limitations that set in before physical ones. Boredom, anxiety, or disordered eating have ruined athletes who push themselves too far.

Ryan O'Boyle, an elite cyclist from the US, switched to low-volume for greater life balance. "I used to train 20 to 24 hours a week, but being married and working a full-time career takes its toll physically and mentally."

O'Boyle notes that training less was traditionally seen as lazy or weak, but has in recent years become acceptable. The shift came as the old-school 'hardmen' of cycling, those putting in 30-40 hour weeks, saw others getting faster on much lower volumes. The 'long, slow distance' model of endurance training wasn't necessarily the best approach.

Those riding less were winning more. They were fresher, faster and punchier. They seemed to have more energy, a spring in their step.

As cycling becomes faster and faster, races get shorter and shorter in duration. That makes mega-aerobic fitness less valuable than before. When the longest Grand Tour stages lasted seven or eight hours, it made sense to build your engine as big as possible. But now, the longest stages are four to five hours, with some stages lasting only two to three hours, at an average of 50kph (31mph).

In 2026, more races will be decided by speed and explosiveness than by ultra endurance. The slogging is over. Professional cycling is no longer about aerobic endurance; it's about race-winning speed.

Some professional cyclists train as little as 10-15 hours per week, even during the base season. They focus on structure, precision, intensity distribution, and recovery (see boxout sample week). Low-volume cyclists focus on quality over quantity. They have identified a tipping point of sorts, the point beyond which increased training volume leads to inferior performance.

For some, the limits are set by life circumstances: work, family, travel, and other adult responsibilities. For others, the limits are self-imposed, learned through experience and failure.

For many riders, a lingering doubt remains: isn't reducing volume taking a risk? Won't it mean that, in the long term, endurance will decline?

Jeroen Swart, head of performance at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, is a strong proponent of low-volume training. "Many professional athletes make the mistake of doing too much training or too little recovery," he says. "One of the biggest things that I introduced to UAE Team Emirates when I joined in late 2018 was increasing the load monitoring and backing off [the hours] of those riders who were doing far too much. And by doing less, performance increased."

The key to maximising performance is consistent, high-quality training. It doesn't matter if you are training five hours a week or 25, if your training quality is low, you will leave watts on the table. We've all heard of "junk miles", a term that applies to unfocused, purposeless pedalling. These rides can be a waste of time, especially for riders on a low-volume training plan. If you're only going to ride for an hour, you want to get the most out of it.

A high-quality session stimulates physiological adaptations similar to those gained from low-intensity, high-volume training - but in less time. Low-volume training doesn't necessarily mean doing a greater number of high-intensity sessions. Most pros still do just two to three high-intensity sessions per week, similar to amateurs; the difference is simply that they add many more endurance hours around them.

Few riders understand this better than Neal Fryett, the 46-year-old elite eSports racer. In between dad duties, the American knocks out savagely hard interval sessions in the lead-up to a goal race. "After 90 minutes of endurance riding, I'll do three sets of 12 times 30/15s with five minutes' rest between sets," he says. "I'll average 500 to 550 watts for the 30-second intervals while sprinting for the first five seconds of each."

Perhaps not surprisingly, Fryett keeps his easy days easy. "I'll target two hard sessions [per week] with the rest of the week being a mix of easy to moderate endurance riding. One day completely off the bike every week, sometimes two if needed. Being an older athlete, I likely need two more recovery days per week than an athlete half my age."

Switching to lower-volume training isn't risk-free. Suddenly doing VO2max intervals every day, with no easy riding, would quickly lead to burnout. Dropping volume too drastically would also backfire. The key is balancing training stimulus with recovery. Most coaches and physiologists agree that two to three high-intensity sessions per week (efforts at Zone 3 or above) is the sweet spot for long-term progress. Beginners should aim for one or two such sessions.

Here is the smart science part, the secret sauce. Interval training has increasingly focused on riding at the highest repeatable intensity within a given zone. In simple terms, that means structuring sessions so you spend more time at the top end of the target effort. Instead of a steady four-hour endurance ride at around 65% of FTP, many pros now break the work into intervals at 70-75%. For example, a session might consist of three 20-minute efforts at 75% FTP. Add in the warm-up, recovery and cool-down, and the ride lasts about two hours instead of four.

Is this time-saving training really superior to the old-school 'long, slow distance' model? It's difficult to say for sure. But we do know that both types of endurance training are effective, and if you only have two hours to train, you need to make that time count.

One of the biggest advantages of low-volume training is reducing fatigue, allowing you to start each session in a fresher state. When you're only training eight hours per week, it is fairly easy to build ample recovery hours between your two to three high-intensity sessions of the week.

Then again, training on tired legs is a key component in building fatigue resistance. Professional cyclists rarely arrive at an interval session completely fresh. Instead, they begin their VO2max intervals with significant fatigue in their legs. Hitting PB powers is rarely the aim; more important is adapting to the load to tolerate fatigue.

Of course, not every rider requires a high degree of fatigue resistance. For example, the amateur crit racer who rarely races for longer than 90 minutes at a time, relying on his sprint above his endurance, may get away with as little as five hours of training per week. For these riders, it's more important to focus on repeatable explosive power.

The key point is this: the right volume for you depends on what type of races or events you are targeting. If fatigue resistance is going to be a major factor, you may need to keep your training volume as high as possible.

That said, there are some sneaky ways to improve fatigue resistance by other means. "Durability - that ability to maintain power later in a race- is very much affected by your functional strength on the bike," says Swart. "As you get tired, if you retain the ability to produce torque, you can continue to produce power."

The performance chief explains that in the winter, UAE riders hit the gym three times a week and do "very specific exercises focusing on functional strength". Torque training has been shown to improve fatigue resistance - without spending upwards of five hours on the bike. An hour per week of torque work can make a real difference.

If you're weighing up how much volume you should be doing, first take a long hard look at your current training and lifestyle. Are you optimising everything for performance? Take a close look at your fuelling strategy, recovery protocol, pre-workout routine, and stress levels. Only once you can honestly say that nothing else can be improved should you consider an increase in volume.

Strength work, running, torque training and heat training are great ways to improve performance without needing to find extra hours in your busy schedule.

And remember that recovery should be made time-efficient too. Eat well, relax with your feet up, switch off, have a massage, and ensure you're sleeping well. You won't maximise your performance gains unless the quality of your recovery matches the quality of your sessions.

And the next time you think about increasing your training volume, first ask yourself: Is there some other way I could spend that extra hour that would be even more effective?

FIVE TIPS FOR TIME-CRUNCHED AMATEURS

• Focus on quality in every session
• Stop chasing junk miles; when riding endurance, target 60-75% FTP
• Maintain life balance; don't let cycling take away from family, friends, work, and 'me time'
• Consistency beats hero weeks
• Design your training around your goals

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.

January is finished with and the scores on the doors are in. We've had a good look at the runners and riders in races across the globe from the Tour Down Under to the Trofeo Mallorca and all points in-between, and they have turned up some interesting – and enticing results.

They won't necessarily enable us to predict the winner of this year's biggest races, but they do at least hint at who has come out of the blocks with momentum, who might be biding their time, and more.

1. Remco Evenepoel means business

Having moved teams from his long-time home at Soudal Quick-Step to Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, the Belgian has wasted no time in getting some first places on the board. He is currently sitting on a 100% record, having won two of the Mallorcan races – the Trofeos Andratx-Pollenca and Serra Tramuntana, as well as the Ses Salines team time trial.

In both individual wins, crossed the line solo, and in the case of Serra Tramuntana after a 50km solo effort. When 2026 is done and dusted, it's unlikely these races will be the ones Evenepoel will be celebrating the most, but they will have given the Belgian and his team a confidence-boosting running start to the year.

2. Matthew Brennan brimming with confidence – and defiance

Having already taken a first and a second at the Tour Down Under – as well as second in the young rider classification, up and coming Britain Matthew Brennan is clearly determined to build on the successes of last season, when he launched himself at the WorldTour with a string of victories.

He also appears to have carried plenty of confidence across the off-season too and, when he finished second again, this time at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race on Sunday behind Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM), he laid the blame at the feet of a confusing 300m to go sign:

"300m sign looks the same as 200," he protested on X, explaining on the team website: "Unfortunately I launched my sprint about a hundred metres too early. That was a misjudgment."

3. Human Powered Health have already beaten their 2025 pro win record

At the beginning of the new season, anything is possible. Every team wants to go one better than the year before, achieve new aims and goals. Leading the way on that front is surely the Human Powered Health team. Thanks to Maggie Coles-Lyster's victory at the Santos Tour Down Under one-dayer have already surpassed last year's achievements, at least in terms of pro wins.

Last year Thalita De Jongh's win in the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx in Mallorca was the team's only pro victory, and it was rated UCI 1.1 – lower than the Santos TDU's 1.Pro rating. It seems a little soon after the off-season to be opening the Champagne, but we wouldn't be surprised if corks were popping that evening.

4. UAE sitting pretty on top

With seven victories and a couple of handfuls of top-fives under their belts already, both the men's and women's teams at the UAE stable are already sitting pretty at the top of the UCI's team rankings for 2026. It's a defiant counter-response, perhaps, to the success of Remco Evenepoel and a reminder that UAE's Slovenian talisman is waiting menacingly in the wings.

The men's team, UAE Team Emirates-XRG has seen wins at the Tour Down Under, thanks to new Aussie road champion Jay Vine, and at the AlUla Tour, where Jan Christen scored a final-day triumph after grabbing a sticky bottle only the day before.

On the women's side, UAE Team ADQ netted a double victory at the Challenge Mallorca thanks to Karlijn Swinkels and double Tour de France Femmes stage winner Maeva Squiban.

5. Wollaston's best ever start

Rivalling Remco Evenepoel in the 'flying start' stakes is Ally Wollaston of FDJ United-Suez. You could even argue that the 25-year-old Kiwi has outdone Evenepoel, for the three races she has won already are all WorldTour ranked. In fact the stats currently show she has won 75% of all the WWT events so far this season, thanks to a double stage win in the Tour Down Under and victory in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. That only leaves one stage and the overall of the TDU – and she even took the points classification there for good measure. It's the best start to a season she's had yet.

Wollaston looks to be building on the "bit of belief" that last season's achievements gave her, but said: "I'm still feeling my way through the races and working out what works for me and what doesn't."

This week’s social media round-up has been an education for me. 'Turbo-cross' - I’d never heard of this discipline-bending cycling sub-genre before delving into a few of our news editor, Adam Becket’s selections. It is “the fast-forward version of cyclo-cross, where creators dive into the mud for a wild ride across obstacles custom-built for Turbo,” according to Turbocross.be, and is, rather paradoxically, the brain child of a man called ‘Average Rob’. Sign me up for next year, it sounds absolutely wild.

That features quite heavily in this week's social media round-up, but don't fear, there is more!

1. Cross-country athlete Ronja Eibl has taken Christmas tree collection to new highs in this multi-terrain mission to get her spruce home in time for the big day.

2. Chris Froome is dodging the brisk air of Ol’ Blighty as he enjoys a frothy coffee in the warmer-climbs of his Monaco home. ‘Christmas in Monaco is so underrated.’

3. Is this worse than an OTB onto solid ground? I can’t quite decide. Influencer Stien Edlund goes headfirst into the canal during a wintery turbo-cross race.

4. Twice is a charm - Edlund successfully stays dry on her second attempt at the newly named, ‘Stein corner’, armbands and all.

5. From canal dunkings to rain-washed cobbles, Nuno Silva (AKA Super Bock) has recreated the Tour de France Montmartre climb in Lego Movie style.

6. Turbo-cross takes another victim - fitness influencer Ada Theilken scrapes through the final hurdle.

7. Mountain climbs and fruit buffets - Moritz Mauss gives us a glimpse into the life of a rider on a team camp, hour by hour.

8. Lidl-Trek rider Edward Theuns has more than a season of racing in store for 2026, as he and his partner, ex-podium hostess Lien Crapoen reveal they are expecting their second child.

9. Meet Matteo, London's famous cycling cat.

10. But, to leave things on a chaotic note, here is Jonas Abrahamsen on the indoor trainer in a questionable set up - his basement?

It was first and second for France, as Maeva Squiban (UAE-ADQ) thundered to victory in the sixth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in a race dominated by the young French rider. Juliette Labous (FDJ-Suez) came in over a minute behind her compatriot, with Kimberley Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) coming in third.

Squiban took hold of the race on the Col du Chansert, as she took the lead from Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) in the polka dot jersey, holding a steady lead of over a minute in the final half of the race, despite being only one of four UAE-ADQ riders in today’s stage. The dominance of the rider from Brittany was on full display as race-favourites battled it out behind, on the hardest stage of the Tour so far.

Le Court maintains her lead on the race, and will wear the yellow jersey on tomorrow’s stage, sitting at 26 seconds ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

"It's a dream," Squiban said after the race.

"It's an amazing feeling. I didn't expect to do that. I knew we had a strong team, we are only four [riders] now but we were all really strong and we knew we were able to do something big today and we did it so it's a special day for us."

How it happened:

Stage six was set to be the hardest of the Tour so far, with five categorised climbs dominating the course, the first of which came at 37km into the race, the Côte de Courpière (1.7km at 6.8%).

At the start of the race, riders quickly battled to get out of the peloton, with Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) in green making an early break, soon joined by current Queen of the Mountains, Elise Chabbey of FDJ-Suez.

Asserting herself as temporary race-lead, Chabbey took the early intermediate sprint taking the maximum 25 points before being subsumed by the pursuing bunch of 20 riders.

Only four kilometres on from the sprint, the breakaway riders began their first climb of the race, the category 3 Côte de Courpière, 40 seconds away from the peloton. Led by Chabbey, with Human Powered Health’s Lily Williams and Movistar’s Liane Lippert representing three of the mix-up of 14 teams appearing in this 20-strong breakaway.

The break, however, dropped to 12 riders after the second climb of the day, with Brodie Chapman (UAE-ADQ) collecting the maximum points, with Chabbey picking up an additional two points on Côte d’Augerolles (2.7km at 5.1%).

The third climb took Wiebes victim, as the sprinter temporarily dropped from the peloton on the lead up to the 10.3km climb, Col du Beal. At the opposite end of the race, the peloton pushed ahead with an advantage of over a minute.

Wiebes battled to stay in the peloton as she, and other riders including FDJ-Suez’s Ally Woolaston were repeatedly dropped.

Even before the riders had hit the categorised climb, they had been riding an incline of 5% over about 20 kilometres, meaning that the race had arranged and rearranged even before they hit Col du Beal. Once on the climb though, riders start to flag, with Millie Couzens (Fenix-Deceunick) and SD Worx-Protime’s Blanka Vas clinging on to the back of the yellow jersey group, separated from the peloton by just 35 seconds.

Pushing towards the top of the mountain, FDJ-Suez looked to make a bid for the upcoming points, with Amber Kraak attacking at the front of the breakaway. However, her charge was unsuccessful, and the rider looked to pay for this early attempt at 47.9km to go as the peloton caught her, along with Lidl-Trek’s Lauretta Hanson.

The Queen of the Mountains points were scored by Silke Smulders (Liv AlUla Jayco), picking up 10 points against the polka-dot jersey. Though on the descent, Chabbey was back at the head of the race, in a small three-rider breakaway alongside Smulders and Usoa Ostolaza (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), though only separated by eight seconds by a chase group. The rest of the race spilled out close behind, with a strung-out peloton only thirty seconds behind.

The trio’s tentative lead was quickly closed as the peloton caught up with the break, suppressing Chabbey’s solo attack as they did so.

Then, on the fourth climb of the day, the French rider, Maeve Squiban (UAE-ADQ) made a successful attack, leading out the race and picking up the five points available at the top of Col du Chansert, with a lead of 1:10, with 29km left to race.

On the descent, Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) was hit with a gearing issue, unable to push down the mountain with the peloton. Squiban, however, maintained her lead at the front of the race with an ever-strengthening lead of 1:20. Behind her, in the fight for bonus points, Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) crossed the line just ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney of Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto.

It was Squiban’s race to win, from there-on out, the Breton rider holding a consistent lead from the group in pursuit to allow the young rider to enjoy her hard-won victory.

Results

Tour de France Femmes 2025, stage six: Clermont-Ferrand > Ambert (123.7km)

1. Maeva Squiban (Fra) UAE Team ADQ, in 3:20:46
2. Juliette Labous (Fra) FDJ-Suez, +1:09
3. Kim Le Court (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, +1:13
4. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-Suez,
5. Dominika Włodarczyk (Pol) UAE Team ADQ
6. Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Bel) VolkerWessels CT
7. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
8. Magdeleine Vallieres (Can) EF Education-Oatly
9. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck
10. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, all at same time

General classification after stage six

1. Kim Le Court (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, in 18:29:05
2. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike, +26s
3. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, +30s
4. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ, + 31s
5. Anna van der Breggen (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +35s
6. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +53s
7. Sarah Gigante (Aus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +1:03s
8. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, +1:12
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly, +1:24
10. Evita Muzic (Fra) FDJ-Suez, at same time

To the uninitiated, the Tour de France may seem to be one man in yellow, chased by 180 other riders trying to take it off him, or win stages. But dig a little deeper and it becomes a race of teams and endless tactics, where the fate of a stage can hinge on the cohesion of the group, as well as the individual ambitions of riders.

The Tour de France is a team event, raced by 23 groups of eight, in most cases all working to support their lead rider. Every rider has a role: sprinters vie for stage-wins; GC contenders race for the yellow jersey, with the rest of the team typically made up of domestiques. These are the workers there to support their leader, sheltering them from the wind, keeping them protected in the peloton and supplied up with water, gels, food and clothes grabbed from the team cars when needed.

But how does a team work together effectively? How do these domestiques, all capable riders at the top of their sport, sacrifice individual victories for the sake of the lead rider and their teams?

Professor Stephen Reicher of the University of St. Andrews uses his theories from the world of psychology to try and better understand how the peloton works. An expert in group psychology and identity formation, cycling also has his heart - just to the back of the video call his bike pops half into frame, leaning gently against a towering bookshelf.

“You get this classic tension between the individual and the group, right?” he tells me, blue eyes sparkling.

“If everybody cycled for themselves, the team would lose. So you have to get people who are prepared to cycle for the collective good of the team, people who are prepared to sacrifice themselves, who are prepared to chase down breaks.

And yet, at the same time, of course, they want to win, because why would you get into cycling if you didn’t? And secondly, to get a contract in the future they’ve got to show themselves and display themselves. So there’s always this tension between the individual good and the collective good.”

The key to winning the race is, of course, in investing in great riders, but it also comes down to the strength of the team - and the careful management needed to strike the right balance is echoed in wider sociological trends.

“People in social sciences talk about the tragedy of the commons.”

The thought experiment calls back to the time when land was held in common. If everyone who shared a claim to that land grazed a single sheep, there would be enough space and grass for all. But if a few people decided to introduce a second sheep, there wouldn’t be enough grass to share, and all the sheep - and the people who kept them - would starve.

“So how do you stop people exploiting the system and acting for their individual interest? And how do you limit their individual interest for the sake of the collective good?

“One of the really big temptations is to be what’s called a “free rider” [/loader]. In other words, everybody else has just one sheep, and you sneak in a second one. You do well, and then more and more people become free riders as a consequence.

“And if you think about it, that tragedy of the commons is that over grazing. And the overuse of resources is, if you like, the key issue in the Tour de France - if everybody just sits in the breakaway, it will collapse.”

At this juncture, Dr Reicher reaches for a battered book, placeholders sticking out of the top, pages lovingly worn. It is 'La Société du Peloton', by the Groupama-FDJ rider and psychologist Guillaume Martin. He turns to the final page and translates its concluding line from French to English:

“Three racers attack, will they manage to organise themselves? Will they allow themselves to be caught by the peloton? The issue is uncertain, but we can be sure that the race will be beautiful.”

Often, the key to a successful breakaway is the commitment of its riders to work together. Will one rider sit on another's wheel and refuse to collaborate, or will they alternate leading riders, allowing the group to conserve energy and form a fierce breakaway? How does a team avoid a “tragedy of the commons?”

“It’s like a game of chess.”

Every day, coalitions between riders of different teams happen. Once in the breakaway, they have a common goal - to stay away from the chasing peloton. However, at one point in the race attacks will inevitably be made, the new goal set towards stage wins. It might come 100km to the end if the distance from the peloton is wide enough, or on a climb, or in the final stretch of a sprint depending on opportunity and rider capabilities.

Sometimes coalitions between riders happen between those with the same nationality, sometimes old favours are called into play during stages, or thrown forwards for future call-ins. Sometimes breakaway team-mates earn the rare honour of a double combativity award like the TotalEnergies riders in this year's Tour. Sometimes team loyalties break down during the races - players go rogue.

“The most famous example was in 1985. Greg LeMond was working for Bernard Hinault to win the Tour de France.”

In 1984, the aging champion Bernard Hinault had broken from Renault to set up his own team: La Vie Claire. The following year, Hinault poached his ex-teammate and current World Champion Greg LeMond, to help him secure his fifth Tour de France victory. LeMond, though arguably the more capable rider of that 1985 Tour, worked for Hinault to secure his record breaking win. However, the following year the American extinguished Hunault’s desires for a sixth victory, taking the win for himself - the first of two more to come.

More recently, Sky teammates Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins kick started their feud on Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour. Froome rode clear of his teammate in an move criticised by Wiggins, and which threw doubt on the team’s leadership.

The key to ensuring a team works harmoniously is in the ability to cultivate a shared identity, argues Dr. Reicher.

“Good leadership is about creating a sense of “us”.

The success of the group is the ability of the leader to get people to think in group terms - a victory of the group is a victory for me, so I’m not feeling jealous of them, but affirmed by their victory.”

There is no definitive science to how group cohesion can be consistently secured - there are many ways to do this, none of them completely known. But looking at the peloton today, there is one team most clearly working as a strategic whole, according to Dr. Reicher.

“Visma-Lease a Bike. I think most people recognise that Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is a stronger overall cyclist, but Visma-Lease a Bike [now] have a stronger team - if they attack him, he has to respond to each attack. So the ability of a team like Visma-Lease a Bike is as critical to the tour as the individual legs of Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.

“Cycling is just about the only sport where you can have a conversation like this. It’s very much about the team, and the ability of the team to work together, and the ability of people to sacrifice themselves in false attacks, to throw out the opposition which makes all the difference.

I haven’t got the data. I look from the outside, I read it in Cycling Weekly. I have no more insights than you have. But what is quite clear, and what makes it so fascinating, is that this is a conversation we can have that’s critical to what’s going to happen in this tour. If it was just about the strongest rider, quite frankly it would be a bit dull - we’d most likely know the outcome already. But it is so much more than that. It’s about society, too.

Individuals don’t have a chance to defeat the group if they have no coherence as a team. It’s understanding that team process, and how to nurture it, but also that diplomatic process of being able to form those groups on the road that is central to the sport and part of its magic.”

New look women's WorldTour squad UAE Team ADQ have revealed their roster, new jersey and sponsor for the 2022 season.

This new name is taking over from the Alé-BTC-Ljubljana team in the women's WorldTour, marking the investment of yet another male team sponsor into the women's side of the sport with UAE Team Emirates joining.

The sponsor, ADQ, is a growing sovereign wealth fund that is worth about $100 billion and is reportedly the United Arab Emirates' third largest investor. 

>>> Vuelta a España 2022 route: New Asturian summit finish, Sierra Nevada and the return to Madrid

Looking at the squad for the new season, the team's line-up hasn't changed much at all with former world champion Marta Bastianelli leading the line along with Spanish champion Mavi García with seven others staying on.

There are six newcomers to the team too with UAE rider Safeeya Al Sayegh bringing the sponsors a home rider, junior world time trial champion Alena Ivanchenko is joined by fellow Russian Maria Novoloskaia.

Italians Sofia Bertizzolo and Erica Magnaldi also join with Swiss rider Linda Zanetti completing the list.

The UCI confirmed that the team would be part of the women's WorldTour as part of six new teams joining the top division of the sport.

They will be without their star rider of 2021 in Swiss champion Marlen Reusser as she will be moving on to join Team SD Worx in the new year.

But this new team will be looking to grow as the women's WorldTour has expanded hugely, not just with teams but also races as the 2022 calendar currently includes 68 days of racing, thanks to the inclusion of multiple new stage races such as the Tour de France Femmes and the Battle of the North.

UAE Team Emirates principal, Mauro Gianetti, said when the team announced they would be making a women's squad: "We are pleased to announce that we are working to create a female team to compete on the world stage as part of the UAE ambition to develop cycling, in support of a global project that started back in 2017.

"Together with the Alé-BTC-Ljubljana Team we have found the right opportunity and the availability we were looking for and, in collaboration with the UCI, we are preparing all the necessary documents for the completion of the acquisition of the WorldTour licence starting from January 1, 2022.

"In the coming weeks we will have the definitive framework and we will be ready to present the project."

UAE Team ADQ 2022 squad

Marta Bastianelli (Ita)
Mavi García (Esp)
Safeeya al Sayegh (UAE)
Sofia Bertizzolo (Ita)
Maaike Boogaard (Ned)
Eugenia Bujak (Slo)
Alena Ivanchenko (Rus)
Erica Magnaldi (Ita)
Maria Novoloskaia (Rus)
Alessia Patuelli (Ita)
Ursa Pintar (Slo)
Laura Tomasi (Ita)
Anna Trevisi (Ita)
Sophie Wright (GBr)
Linda Zanetti (Sui)