u/skodawelovecycling

1. Not just a prodigy anymore

Paul Seixas was hearing a lot lately, not exactly negative, but simply words that he is still just a future talent, that he still has a lot of time ahead, that he still needs to work a lot. And mainly his Tour de France shaped this view, but he was not 100% here. Definitely not.

And then something like the Il Lombardia result came and people were surprised. About everything. About the final result or simply about how he rode everything off their wheel. But whoever has seen Liege could not have been surprised. He has all-time talent.

2. Another off day

Remco was phenomenal at the Tour. And after that, he sat to himself, only the highest ambitions in autumn, and called it also ‘Project Canada’. But his autumn was strange. Very strange.

Off-days followed some phenomenal performances like. And he always came with no excuses and a straight answer: ‘I was simply not good enough.’ And now it is up to the Red Bull team to solve this problem.

3. Del Toro questionable performance

One of the biggest favourites. 28th place, 5 minutes down and not a word about him in the Lombardia article on the UAE website.

He said it clearly before the race that he has knee problems. And he also didn’t know why. He said that his position, bike, and shoes are the same, but he feels discomfort. Hopefully this won’t become a serious problem in the future, because currently it is.

4. McNulty rides like a world champion

No wins so far (he will have one more chance at Veneto Classic), but I am genuinely impressed by how McNulty rides. He attacks, he tries to follow the biggest stars and he also delivers some pretty nice results. Well, 5th place at Lombardia is pretty good. His best ever Monument result.

If he rides this way and this strongly, I can see him definitely winning at least one race in the rainbow stripes. My biggest wish would be a Tour stage which is the most important thing he misses in his palmares.

5. Good to see riders had enough

The flag was waved and nobody moved. Remco stood with arms crossed in his new European Champs jersey and I could feel his aura all the way to my home.

Journalist Daniel Benson then revealed that it was the initiative of Ben Healy and Tom Pidcock who helped mobilise the peloton through the WhatsApp group.

And one thing about it, I won’t hide I was pretty disappointed not all stars shared this message, and the excuse that that rider is not using social media or that he is not riding at these races shouldn’t be an excuse.

6. Another Seixas future rumours

Immediately after the Lombardia there came again the news, with quotes from Gianetti that there was a contact and that “If he asks to come to us, I wouldn’t say no.” and also that Visma is interested.

I said many times that what I would like to see the most is him staying where he is. At home in Decathlon. Simply him in Visma or mainly in the UAE gives me terrible vibes. And I believe he also wants to beat Pogačar and Vingegaard on the opposite team, not to join them.

7. This racing also belongs to GrandTours

In Lombardia we again saw some premium racing. And this happens because there is endurance involved.

I feel like GrandTours in the last years have gone in a bad way. They are trying to make the race the hardest possible overall and missing the balance. We need to have pure flat stages to let riders recover, but also long pure TTs or two time trials and mainly extremely long hard mountain stages. Because this endurance racing brings pure racing.

📷: ilciclistafotografo

World Road Race Championships:
- 2027 Sallanches, France, SuperWorlds, 20 times Cote de Domancy, 2.5 km at 9.4%, together 5700 D+ the hardest Worlds Road Race ever
- 2028 Abu Dhabi, UAE, absolute flat profile, UAE wanted to add hills, but UCI requested an edition for sprinters
- 2029 Copenhagen, Denmark, mainly flat route too, it will be difficult to build a hilly circuit around Copenhagen
- 2030 Brussels, Belgium, circuit for classics riders
- 2031 Trentino, Italy, another SuperWorlds, hilly circuit possibly similar like at 2021 European Champs where Colbrelli won
- 2032, Pune, India, organizers want some hilly circuit
- 2033, not yet announced, Colombia is rumoured in order to bring Worlds to South America again
- 2034 Groningen and Drenthe, Netherlands ,still very far away,
no route details were announced, possibly flat with maybe VAM Berg included
- 2035 Piemonte, Italy rumoured, nothing of course official yet

European Road Race Championships:
- 2027 Piemonte, Italy rumoured, nothing official yet also no routes published or rumoured
- 2028 North Brabant, Netherlands, exact towns and route not yet published
- 2029 - L'Aquila and Abruzzo, Italy, nothing rumoured about the route

- 2.1 stage race Vuelta Ciclista a Canarias (14-17 Jan)

- 1.1 one day race Clásica de la República in Mexico (17 Jan) together with 2.1 stage race MEX Tour (19-23 Jan)

- 2.2 -> 2.1 Pune Grand Tour in India (26-31 Jan)

- 2.1 stage race Tour of Colombia (26-31 Jan)

- 1.1 -> 1. Pro Surf Coast Classic (28 Jan)

- 1.1 one day races in Greece Visit South Aegean GP (6 Mar), Region On Dodecanese GP (7 Mar) a week later than usual

- 1.1 one day race Cholet Agglo Tour moving from 3 October to 21 March

- 1.1 one day race G.P. Emilia in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy (29 Mar)

- 2. Pro stage race Tour of Norway (27-30 May)

- 1.1 one day race Premium Alpine Race in Bled, Slovenia (15 Jun) while 2. Pro Tour of Slovenia (17-20 Jun) gets shortened from 5 days to 4 days

- 1.1 one day race CRO Race Classic in Split, Croatia (21 Sep) while 2. Pro CRO Race (22-26 Sep) gets shortened from 6 days to 5 days

My takeaways to it:

The new 2027 UCI calendar has just been released, and I’ve also tried to add what I know from inside information and summarize all the major changes for you.

Very big changes await us in January, when so many new races have been created. I honestly don’t know exactly what is behind this sudden change, but it’s certainly interesting to see.

The whole season will start with a new stage race in the Canary Islands on January 14, while the Tour Down Under will take place from January 19–24. There are also new races in Mexico, and together with Colombia, they have tried to make the calendar work in a way that allows riders to go directly from Mexico to Colombia.

Pune Grand Tour has also been upgraded by one level, so there are a lot of changes across the calendar in that month. I’m expecting a weaker startlist at the Tour Down Under, although Tadej Pogačar is currently just slightly rumoured to start.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that organizers seem to be using a tactic of shortening their stage races by one day and creating a one-day race immediately before them.

Why? UCI points which can attract a better startlist.

If you come to race in that country, you are no longer fighting only for the 250 UCI points available for winning the stage race, but potentially another 125 UCI points for winning the one-day race before it. And that is especially significant when you consider that a stage win during that stage race is worth only 25 UCI points.

Hopefully, this summary helps team members make their jobs a little easier, while also helping you, my followers understand all the changes coming to the 2027 calendar. Enjoy 🫶🏻

📷: Mike Evans

Only one is missing from the palmares of Remco Evenepoel and this Sunday he will have the biggest chance so far in his career to do it.

The route suits him very well and many big names are missing from the start list. His main opponents will be Ciccone, Pellizzari, Ayuso, Roglič, Christen, Scaroni or Pedersen.

Paul Seixas declined with him wanting to focus on Il Lombardia; the GB team won’t come so no Pidcock, MVDP ended his season, Van Aert is also not on the start list, and so on.

Can Remco Evenepoel finally complete the collection and be the first one in cycling to do it?

📷: pipecano_photo

1. Brandon McNulty:

"I've been able to win some races in my career, but I've never been a superstar. It was more about having special moments to be part of races and be with Tadej winning monuments.“

"It's been a long ride, I never really thought this was something possible. It's absolutely crazy. It was my dream to be in the WorldTour even as a kid. But to do something like this is unbelievable.”

2. Tom Pidcock:

"It was hard to make the difference, to get the gap with the wind the way it was, with the USA team and with Matteo, who was super strong once Brandon attacked. But yeah, also Del Toro was obviously working for McNulty in the end there as he is on the same team (UAE) as well."

"I think if me and Ciccone, if we had a little bit more of a gap and we managed to stay away, I think we would have caught McNulty. But yeah, it's how the race goes."

3. Remco Evenepoel:

"I wasn’t really good today, unfortunately. From first lap the pace was incredibly high and I immediately felt that I didn’t have my best feeling. It was a very hard race because of the pace set by the French team. Maybe they destroyed their own leader with it too.”

"I don’t think I’m the type of person who is going to look for excuses. I fought and tried to finish as high as possible. It was mainly because of the work the guys had done that I kept fighting to finish as high as possible. I just wasn’t super, I simply wasn't good.”

4. Paul Seixas:

"What I did today is a disgrace. Cramping up like that, it's a rookie mistake. I've never cramped up in my life on a bike, today I must have made a mistake somewhere. I'm extremely disappointed, not only for myself because it's what I deserve, but for all of France, for the whole team. They did an incredible job, they don't deserve a leader like me."

5. Thomas Voeckler:

“Paul had said before the race that any result other than victory would be a failure. So he considers it a failure. As for me, I'm not going to tell you that I'm jumping for joy. In any case, I don’t have any bad word him. We need to put things in perspective.”

“Paul is very disappointed, his teammates are disappointed. We did what we had to do with Bruno. We had to make the race tougher. Then, it's true that it slipped away from us a bit, because the race was of insane intensity.”

6. Isaac Del Toro:

“I am very satisfied with my effort. I left nothing until the finish line. But I am not happy. We knew we could win. We came there with that mentality. We made a big change as a nation. You have to understand again: we didn’t win, but we took another step in ambition and in the mentality that we, Mexico, belong in this kind of race. We came to be present.“

7. Wout van Aert:

“I quickly felt that this would not be my day and that I wasn’t strong enough. It was incredibly hard, and a little too hard for me. I rode a good race, but with four laps to go I was already running on empty. I am disappointed, but there was no more in the tank. The French made the race extremely hard.”

8. Mathieu van der Poel:

“Of course I came to try and become world champion, but I’m proud of the race I did. It was what I had in mind. I wanted to go all in from far out already, to always be ahead of the moves from the real climbers, and I think I managed to do that well. In the end, it was still close.”

“I immediately saw that McNulty’s attack was a good move. He had already ridden well on this course, and he was a name I had in the back of my mind, but I don’t think it was up to me to respond.”

9. Matteo Jorgenson:

“I’ll accept that [MVP tag]. I think Brandon was probably the MVP, but Quinn and I did an amazing race. Really, we made a plan last night…we set our egos aside a little bit and decided, ‘Okay, we just want an American to win this race.”

“It might be my proudest victory. Right now it’s easy to say that, but I really believe it. I spent a lot of time thinking about this, I wrote a bit of a document last week when I was training in Vermont to send to the guys with some analysis.”

10. Michael Matthews:

“After what I’ve been through the last two years with the embolism in my lungs thinking my career was done, to breaking both my arms at the start of this year and thinking my career was done. Now bouncing back to being second in the world’s road race, I’m just speechless honestly.”

“I think this was probably my last opportunity to be a world champion. Obviously mixed feelings, but at the same time I have to be proud of the way I’ve bounced back. Whether I’m first or second, honestly, it feels like a win. I just got beaten by a better bike rider today… chapeau to Brandon.”

11. Primož Roglič:

“I surprised myself today and also in which group I ended during the race. It was a bit of a new group for me to ride with them, but obviously I still had legs there at that moment. There was nothing to hide. I was all in, racing. At the end I just ran out of energy. Empty. It was a fight to finish, so I’m happy to finish this race.”

📷: anthnstudio

In most sports, the biggest event of the year is where you show the future of the sport. Cycling does the opposite.

At almost every single race throughout the year, riders have earpieces. The people in the team car are informed if a rider crashes, has a puncture, gets a mechanical, and they can communicate the time gaps, what position the riders are fighting for and so on. And I am not even talking about how much safer it can be. Then the World Championships arrive, the biggest one-day race of the year, and it feels like the UCI is pushing the sport 30 years back.

Radios have been banned at the Worlds and the Olympics for years. The UCI’s logic is that these events are usually held on closed circuits, so the safety risk is lower, while racing without constant instructions from the car makes the race more rider-led and less predictable. David Lappartient has also not wanted to reverse the decision.

But riders and teams are clearly not happy with the situation, because what actually happens is confusion. Here are some quotes that really interested me:

Wout van Aert after the 2022 Worlds:

“Apparently I crossed the finish line in fourth, but I couldn’t tell if I was sprinting for 10th, 15th, or second. It’s a pity, because I had the legs to climb onto the podium with Remco. Racing without radios is outdated.“

Tadej Pogačar, who finished 19th that day, said:

“We didn’t know which place we were racing for. I thought maybe we were racing for the top-10, but nobody knew we were in the fight for the medals. In the end, we were left empty-handed. Without radio it’s difficult. You couldn’t see anything and you didn’t know anything.”

Christophe Laporte and Michael Matthews, who took silver and bronze, also said they did not realize they were sprinting for medals.

Juan Ayuso after the 2024 Worlds:
“I do not understand why in World Championships we do not have communication via earpiece. Little that can be done can change a person’s life. There are many questions.”

Visma manager Richard Plugge also spoke out during the 2024 Tour de Pologne radio trial:

“It was chaos today, without radios. UCI cannot continue with this radio ban. It turns the race into a complete farce like we saw in the Olympics where riders cannot call the car for basic assistance.”

And Wout van Aert added a few days ago here in Montreal:

“I will already be happy with these bottle messages if it means I know a little more about what is happening in the race. I have said many times that I am not a fan of racing without earpieces.”

Remco Evenepoel added:
“It is a good idea, but there are risks. If you miss a bottle and there is an important message on it, then you have not seen it.”

And the national coach of Belgium summed it up:
“It is frustrating that we still have to think about solutions like this. I think the decision to race without radios came at a time when people felt racing had become too controlled. The sport has changed a lot since then.”

So what do you think about this topic of UCI not allowing radios at the Worlds?

1. Enric Mas winning his dream race after so many failures in the past years and 4 previous podium finishes here.
2. Johannessen winning on a big race for the first time in his career after 52 World Tour TOP 10s
3. Roglic podiuming the race overall after saying before the race he can't even lie on his right side.
4. Gall being the only rider to podium two Grand Tours in one season since 2019 apart from Roglic, Pogacar or Vingegaard
5. Buitrago crying after the stage where he came second, but still won the KOM jersey overall and was able to get the honor to stand on the podium.
6. The Sepp Kuss and Visma masterclass in stage 20.
7. Richard Carapaz attacking and attacking.
8. Bryan Coquard winning his first ever Grand Tour stage in 13 years of career
9. UNO-X completing the trilogy with winning stages at all Grand Tours
10. Witnessing Wout van Aert at his top shape
11. One of the best Grand Tour debuts ever with five stage wins for Brennan
12. Landa winning after so many injuries and crying during the interview where he said he didn't want to give up for his children
13. Joshua Tarling standing on the podium with the white jersey after the first stage
14. Pogacar's insane watts and solo show in Andorra
15. The hotel

Before I give my opinion, I’ll put here the quotes from Quinn Simmons and Wout van Aert:

Wout van Aert:

“I hope at some point that we have a bigger American circuit. It’s a big market… Cycling is ‘something’ here. It’s a shame that we don’t use this platform to show off on the highest level.”

Quinn Simmons:

“The entire peloton wants to bring back the Tour of California, wants to bring back Utah. All the riders, we want to race here. Let’s get rid of Guangxi and do a Tour of California toward the end of the year or something like that.”

“The problem is convincing the Americans to organize something that loses money. If you want the WorldTour teams to be there, you have to pay us to come.”

So, is it realistic?

That last quote from Simmons actually talks about the situation in a very understandable way. But for me, there is an even bigger problem: how people in the US see cycling and cyclists in general.

Despite all of that, I find it crazy that the “best and richest country in the world” doesn’t have some big road cycling stage race.

The Tour of California was cancelled. The USA Pro Challenge disappeared. The Tour of Utah disappeared too. I honestly don’t know why this downfall happened over the last few years when we have some really good US pros.

In my opinion, they should create a one-week US Tour (it could even have a sponsor name, like the Coca-Cola Tour or whatever) and every year it could be held in a different US state.

One year in California.
Next year in Colorado.
Then maybe Utah, Florida…

Basically, something similar to how we have the World Championships in different countries every year.

It would give the US a proper big cycling event, allow different states to showcase their landscapes, and potentially make the race much more interesting for both fans and sponsors.

What do you think about my thoughts?

📷: hardyccphotos

2026 is really a historic year… For the first time in the history of professional cycling, three different riders each won five or more stages in a Grand Tour in the same calendar year.

Jonas took five stages at the Giro, Tadej took five at the Tour, and now Matthew has taken five at the Vuelta.

This combination has never happened before. Close was Maertens, who took 13 stages at the 1977 Vuelta and another seven at the Giro, but the third race did not produce another 5-stage winner. Not even in 2003, when Alessandro Petacchi became the last rider to win stages in all three Grand Tours in one season (six Giro, four Tour, five Vuelta).

Why are we seeing this kind of dominance from some riders more and more? Is it just a coincidence or are the aliens just so many levels far ahead of the other riders?

I feel like we’ve basically been lied to all season by the narrative about how sprinters should focus on the Giro and skip the Vuelta.

Because it’s honestly insane that the Giro was considered the biggest opportunity for sprinters, while when it came to the Vuelta, every piece of media was basically saying: good luck to anyone bringing a sprinter.

At the Giro, we ended up with just four wins for pure sprinters… three for Paul Magnier and one for Jonathan Milan. And even the first stage had a pretty sketchy, narrow finish, not ideal for sprint trains.

Then two more stages could technically be called “flat”: the Napoli finish on cobbles, where basically everyone crashed and Davide Ballerini won, and that bizarre Milan circuit, where the breakaway was able to stay away and Fredrik Dversnes won in the end.

And one of the fastest guys this season Dylan Groenewegen basically had only two genuine opportunities to sprint for the win. And yet this was the Giro that, as Wielerflits described it, “seems like a true paradise for sprinters.”

Then we had the Tour, which was usual, and everyone assumed the Vuelta would also be usual meaning almost no opportunities for sprinters. But it feels like nobody studied the routes at all.

So now Matthew Brennan can absolutely dominate this field with 4 wins with still one chance left (+ one Coquard win), because so many teams believed the sprinters would have almost no chance here.

Soudal Quick-Step decided not to bring either Merlier or Magnier. Lidl-Trek brought Pedersen instead of Milan, who only rode the Giro and so on. And with all respect, we have Meeus and Coquard as the main challengers for Brennan.

And, funnily enough, it all fits Visma perfectly. At the race where they were targeting the GC (Giro), many teams built squads around the sprints. At the race where Visma were targeting the sprints and the green jersey (Vuelta), many teams instead focused on puncheurs and climbers.

So why do so many top sprinters decide not to even take the start at the Vuelta even when both the World Champs and the European Champs are hilly so there were no other goals in their season left?

📷: girocycling

Two days after the collarbone operation, Tadej Pogačar could already leave the hospital and, in the company of a friend and team masseur Žiga Jerman, set off for home in Monaco.

VUELTA

I will start with the Vuelta. The circus continues and it should be one of the most open Grand Tours in the post Covid era. Enric Mas in red chasing his dream, Primož Roglič chasing the absolute record of the most Vuelta wins, the current bookies' favourite Felix Gall, and then with a bigger gap Kuss, Onley, Carapaz.

Yes, despite how crazy it sounds for a neutral fan, I was mostly excited for the Vuelta because I could see Pogi every day, but this is life, this is cycling and now I look forward to seeing new stories being written in the overall standings. I won’t hide that I will cheer for Enric Mas.

And for other competitions and stages… the green jersey is basically decided with Wout van Aert looking like the only one who is really chasing it. The KOM jersey can be totally open. And the last thing: we can expect to see many breakaway stages, because despite Decathlon having a strong squad here, I don’t see them chasing hard for stage wins; it will be all for GC.

OTHER RACES

The injuries to Tadej mean the season is over so we will see a new World Champion, new European Champion, and also after 5 years, a new Il Lombardia winner. Can’t help myself from saying that Remco Evenepoel is definitely now the main favourite for all 3 (or even 4 if we count Worlds ITT).

But he is not levels above the opposition like Tadej was. And riders like Del Toro, Seixas, Van Aert, or maybe even Van der Poel will feel a lifetime opportunity to get some big win.

And last thing on that, whoever wins any of those races will unfortunately need to prepare to hear his whole life that he won because Tadej was injured. But we should not push these talks to belittle their victory.

TADEJ

And I will close this post speaking about Tadej. What happened to him today was absolutely terrible and I am even grateful that those are the only injuries and that there is no neurological fallout. How he went head-first over the handlebars… it could’ve been so much worse.

The worst part of his injuries is a C7 cervical fracture, but also a concussion should be taken slightly. I expect around 8 weeks in a collar as although the fracture is stable, the bone needs at least 6 to 8 weeks to become strong enough to withstand vibrations. And of course mostly absolute rest.

Now it is absolutely impossible to say when he will arrive back in the peloton or at which level he will be. But you know my theory. Every hard injury is not like, oh it is healed now I will be back on my previous top level.

No, big injuries can put you years behind. One of the reasons Pogačar got so good was that he never had to deal with really big injuries and could build year by year on his development and becoming the best version of himself.

But he may have almost normal winter preparation so he can shine again in spring hopefully. But this Vuelta will definitely hurt him, but he will come back one day to conquer it. But what will hurt him more will be his home European Championships in Slovenia. Because there will be another Vuelta, another Worlds, another Lombardia, but not home European Champs.

But I don’t think this crash will affect him mentally, he is a strong person, a champion which we could see even with those injuries he didn’t want to give up at first try and asked for a bike. He will be back.

📷: alan.bucar

1. How much is enough for Pogačar?

Of course, winning the Vuelta while spending the least amount of energy, but he always wants to go for more. But what is more?

He already has 3 stage wins, and there are still 5 mountain-top finishes. I think he and UAE will decide whether to go for it considering the race situation. If it is like yesterday, when they had to pull just for 60 km, it is okay.

One thing I am sure he will want is to hold the red jersey from start to finish. And then at least one more stage win arriving solo while doing his signature celebration.

Green jersey is unlikely, maximally he will fight for it if he is in the lead or very close to the win in the third week, mountain jersey is unlikely for me as guys from the breaks will pick up many points, but if UAE goes for many stage wins, it can happen.

But I don’t think he and UAE will go into full chasing mode in so many stages. Still, there are Worlds-Europeans-Lombardia that he should think about. Plus I am sure the team will want to give other guys like Vine, Torres some chance to go for a stage win from the break.

2. How will Visma solve the Brennan-Van Aert problem?

Wout is in the green jersey and it looks very good, but we still have in front of us two 50-point pure flat stages. Brennan might be faster, but Van Aert’s green jersey should be the main goal for the Visma team from now on.

Brennan already has two stage wins, Wout has done a great job for him at this Vuelta and generally in many other races for this team, not it is time for Wout to be the main leader.

He simply needs points against Pogačar and this green jersey should be and I believe it is a big goal for him. He has won the points jersey at the Tour and winning it at all three Grand Tours is a big achievement. If he does it there at the Vuelta, he will definitely go to the Giro next year.

3. Uncles still got it

Seriously what is going on? Yes, I always talk about the theory that older riders maybe cannot be that great for the whole season, but they can be their older self at one big goal they pick, but still wow.

Mas is phenomenal, how he came to Pogačar was insane. Yes, we can talk that maybe Pogačar thought that nobody was coming back or that he didn’t have much nutrition, but it is still exceptional.

And Roglič? Also about him I can say only the best words. He was hit by a car, couldn’t ride a bike, and now this? Bold take, but I believe they will both end on the final podium, although Gall is still the favourite.

4. It will be the time for others to shine

Until yesterday only Pogačar and Brennan had won, but today we could see how the next 14 days can mostly look like. I expect many stages to end with breakaway wins.

It is hard to say who can succeed because often great shape is not enough and many other factors matter, but here are my special picks.

Mountains: Gregor Muhlberger (he is 10th in GC, but why not attack and put pressure on other teams), Juan Felipe Rodriguez (he is in the World Tour team just few weeks, but he impressed me so much at this Vuelta, EF should give him freedom), Martin-Berthet Groupama FDJ duo, Lorenzo Fortunato, Jan Hirt & Tobias Halland Johannessen.

Hilly stages: Attila Valter (I feel like he shines more at hilly terrain than at big mountains), Finn Fisher-Black (I believe Red Bull should give him freedom), Axel Laurance, Victor Langellotti, Orluis Aular, Thibau Nys Christophe Laporte and of course Wout van Aert.

5. Chaos

For me, at this year’s edition it was too much chaos even for the Vuelta. Yes, they couldn’t do much with that hailstorm and cancelling the stage, but the race hired influencer Erola Jans asking riders inappropriate questions or Hayter having to cut shorts because he got offered only an XS suit (yeah that’s right, a sprinter's jersey only had XS).

Only then to see Enric Mas having to do the same today, because it was too tight for him too. Pogačar also didn’t have the rainbow stripes on his leader’s jersey despite the fact that he is still the world champ.

And that downhill yesterday. I might be soft, but using that 20 km to go was too much and it was a big luck that nothing extra serious happened. I understand Vuelta is special, but they should use these narrow roads for rampa stage finishes and not downhills.

📷: oblanco78

1. This is the best thing that can happen to cycling

We can all agree this race was absolutely epic and definitely one of the best races of the whole year if not the best. And it is the best thing that can happen not only to women’s cycling, but to cycling in general.

Because cycling in order to grow, it needs also to have the gap between men’s cycling and women’s cycling to be as small as possible. And boring men’s Tour de France for years and absolutely insane women’s Tour de France for years can shrink this gap year after year.

And I can see with my own eyes it is really happening. There are more fans on the road, more sponsors are willing to invest in that and generally people take it more seriously.

And I don’t agree with the negative comments around Pogi and Torito coming to the race, that it is about women and not men again. But you would be surprised how many don’t even know something like the women’s Tour de France exists. Every little thing to make people discover it helps. So I am glad they came to support their girls.

2. Is the calendar too limited?

Philip Roodhooft from Fenix PremierTech says that the investments have become too big to accept the calendar as it is. He points out that women’s cycling needs more top races.

He does a great comparison that it is just basically about the Giro and Tour and a few one-day competitions that matter. Which means together just 25 to 30 commercially interesting days while just a single Grand Tour between men is 21 days.

3. Should Tour de France Femmes be longer?

And here we come to another point. Currently, TDF Femmes is 9 days long. I don’t say it should become twice as long, not because I don’t believe they wouldn’t be able to handle it, but because I think it would be counterproductive and it would destroy the race.

But I think 12 days with one rest day somewhere in the middle would be nice. I think we should have more serious mountain stages, as we had only one HC climb this year plus I would also welcome more pure flat sprint stages. I know Wiebes is super dominant, but one big sprint stage in a year is not enough.

4. Demi was simply the strongest

I think we can all agree that the strongest rider won the race. Demi had an awesome time trial and despite her losing time on the Ventoux stage, she was able to drop all her rivals even on small hills thanks also to a perfect job by FDJ-Suez. And 3 stage wins, wow.

But Demi was not just the strongest rider in this race, she is simply the best rider in the world. Until this Tour, I had a little doubt with also Pauline Ferrand Prevot existing, but now I have zero doubts.

Demi this year won Valencia, Omloop, Ronde, Fleche, Liege and Giro-Tour double. And now she has won 5 Grand Tours in her career. Phenomenal.

5. Kasia monster Ventoux performance

But despite saying Vollering is the best, it takes nothing away from what Kasia produced on Ventoux. 5.31 W/Kg for 55 minutes which is the best performance in women’s cycling history.

And what her husband Taylor Phinney commented on my blog that from the screenshot he saw it’s more like 5.60 W/kg that it is even more insane.

Despite questionable tactics by Demi that day, I believe Kasia was the strongest and she absolutely deserved to be the Mont Ventoux winner and that win was legendary.

6. Ferrand Prevot’s performance

What we saw at this Tour is not the usual Pauline Ferrand Prevot. Demi and Kasia were really strong, but under normal circumstances she should still podium comfortably.

So what happened? Only 12 race days before the Tour; the same was last year. Sickness with which she had to withdraw, sources say it just developed overnight before the DNS.

It is now up to the coaches, but generally it was not a good Tour for Visma in both races. And we can speculate if even for the French as they haven’t won a single stage in TDF Hommes and not at TDF Femmes either.

Well, these are my takeaways and I will love to hear your opinion about those too. 🫂