Cycling is full of moments that make absolutely no sense to normal people. Try explaining to a colleague why you’re excited that a weather forecast predicting 80% rain somehow produced perfect sunshine. Tell your partner about the stranger who shared turns with you for 20 kilometres without either of you saying a word. Explain why arriving at a café exactly as the fresh pastries come out of the oven feels like divine intervention. You’ll quickly discover that non-cyclists and cyclists live in slightly different realities.

The strange thing is that none of these moments appears in race results. Nobody gets a trophy for riding an entire season without a puncture. There are no medals for getting a tailwind both ways or managing to keep a recovery ride easy. Yet every cyclist knows these moments matter. In some cases, they matter more than the ride itself.

They’re the stories you tell later. The tiny victories, lucky breaks, and absurd coincidences that become part of your cycling identity. The Epiq moments only another cyclist can truly appreciate.

The epic wins nobody else understands

Most sports are wonderfully straightforward. You win, you lose, or you spend years arguing with referees. Cycling is different. Some of the most satisfying achievements never appear in any official record.

Take riding an entire season without a puncture. To a non-cyclist, that’s maintenance. To a cyclist, that’s a statistical anomaly worthy of academic research. Or consider increasing your FTP by 1 W/kg. Nobody outside cycling will understand why you’re smiling at a spreadsheet. Yet every rider knows exactly how many hours, intervals, and moments of self-doubt are hiding behind that number. Not to mention the missed beer opportunities with friends.

Then there are the strangely personal milestones. Climbing more than 2,400 meters in a single ride. Completing a 50-kilometre ride without stopping once. Managing to keep a recovery ride easy despite every instinct screaming for “just one hard effort”. The last one is perhaps the hardest and rarest achievement in modern cycling.

No trophies. No podium ceremonies. No prize money. Just the deep satisfaction of accomplishing something that only a handful of equally obsessed people will truly appreciate. Which, somehow, makes it even better.

 

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The strange acts of kindness cyclists never forget

Cycling has a funny way of turning complete strangers into temporary coworkers. Not friends. Not acquaintances. Just people united by a shared desire to avoid riding into a headwind alone.

Take the silent alliance. You find yourself next to another solo rider. Nobody introduces themselves. Nobody exchanges names. Yet thirty seconds later, you’re taking turns at the front with the coordination of a professional team pursuit squad. Then, twenty kilometres later, one of you turns off, raises a hand, and disappears forever. The entire relationship lasted less than an hour and somehow felt completely normal.

The same strange social rules exist everywhere. A driver positions their car perfectly so you can lean on it at a traffic light and avoid unclipping. A café gives you a discount simply because you arrived dressed like a fluorescent highlighter. A stranger buys you a beer after hearing how far you’ve ridden, which is one of the few situations where talking about your ride mileage is socially acceptable.

When you’re riding a bike, you can see how epic people can truly be.

The stories you’ll be telling your grandchildren

Most rides are forgotten surprisingly quickly. You remember the general route, perhaps the coffee stop, and little else. Then there are the rides that become stories.

Like the first time you cross a national border on a bike. Nothing really changes. The road remains a road. Yet somehow, rolling into another country under your own power feels disproportionately satisfying. The same applies to spotting a deer standing motionless in the forest, watching you pass like a mildly disappointing nature documentary.

Then there are the stories nobody outside cycling fully appreciates. A professional rider follows you on Strava. You hit 80 km/h on a descent and spend the next week mentioning it in conversations that had absolutely nothing to do with cycling. You complete a ride abroad and immediately begin referring to it as your “international cycling experience”.

The best part is that every cyclist has a few of these stories. And every single one gets better with age.

Perfectly rational by cycling standards

Every hobby has its own language. Cycling simply takes things a little further and occasionally drifts into behaviour that would seem deeply irrational to outside observers.

Take drafting a complete stranger for five kilometres. To a cyclist, this is a perfectly reasonable arrangement. To everyone else, it looks suspiciously like following someone home. The same goes for blasting through a puddle at full speed despite having every opportunity to avoid it. There is no practical benefit. The cyclist does it anyway.

Then there are the moments that make even less sense. Someone compliments your bike, and you immediately gain ten watts. Your crush likes a ride photo, and suddenly your resting heart rate is no longer resting. You score a date while riding and immediately convince yourself that cycling is the greatest social invention since the telephone.

None of this makes much sense. Yet every cyclist reading this understands it perfectly. Which is either a beautiful thing or evidence that we’ve all spent far too much time on bicycles. Probably both.

Are you an Epiq moment hunter?

The funny thing about Epiq moments is that you rarely see them coming. Nobody starts a ride expecting to find a perfect tailwind in both directions. Nobody leaves home planning to form a silent alliance with a complete stranger, receive a free pastry at a café or spend the next week talking about a deer they saw in a forest. Yet these are often the moments we remember most.

They’re not race victories. They won’t earn you a trophy, a jersey or a lucrative professional contract. Most of them won’t even make sense when you try explaining them to non-cyclists. But every rider knows exactly why they matter.

That’s the idea behind the Epiq Moments Bingo game. We took forty of these weird, wonderful, and strangely meaningful cycling experiences and turned them into a challenge. Some will happen sooner than you think. Others may take years to collect.

The real question isn’t whether you’ll complete the card. It’s how many Epiq moments you’ve already experienced without realising they deserved a bingo card of their own.

The post The Epiq Moments Only Cyclists Can Appreciate appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

Medicinal cannabis has been regarded by many as a natural remedy for a range of mental health struggles, from anxiety to PTSD. But what does the science actually say? A new analysis in The Lancet dives deep into decades of research to separate hope from hype.

To assess the true impact of cannabinoids on mental health, researchers conducted the largest analysis to date, examining both the safety and effectiveness across a wide range of conditions. The study reviewed 54 randomized controlled trials spanning 45 years, involving thousands of participants worldwide. The scale and rigor of this research make its conclusions hard to ignore.

No evidence that medicinal cannabis helps anxiety, depression, or PTSD

The key result from the study is very clear. Medicinal cannabis does not effectively treat anxiety, depression, or PTSD. In some cases, it may even worsen mental health outcomes.

Lead author Dr. Jack Wilson from the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre warns, “The routine use of medicinal cannabis could be doing more harm than good by worsening mental health outcomes, for example a greater risk of psychotic symptoms and developing cannabis use disorder, and delaying the use of more effective treatments.”

Limited evidence for some conditions

The study did find some indications that medicinal cannabis might help with cannabis use disorder, autism, insomnia, and tics or Tourette’s syndrome. However, Dr. Wilson emphasized that the supporting evidence for these uses is not strong.

“The overall quality of evidence for these other conditions, such as autism and insomnia, was low. In the absence of robust medical or counselling support, the use of medicinal cannabis in these cases is rarely justified.”

He added, “There is, however, evidence that medicinal cannabis may be beneficial in certain health conditions, such as reducing seizures associated with some forms of epilepsy, spasticity among those with multiple sclerosis, and managing certain types of pain, but our study shows the evidence for mental health disorders falls short.”

Mixed results for substance use disorders

The review also examined how medicinal cannabis affects different substance use disorders. Results varied depending on the condition.

Cannabis-based treatments showed some potential for helping people with cannabis dependence. However, the study found a concerning effect in people with cocaine-use disorder, where cannabis use increased cravings.

“Similar to how methadone is used to treat opioid-use disorder, cannabis medicines may form part of an effective treatment for those with a cannabis-use disorder,” Dr. Wilson said. “When administered alongside psychological therapy, an oral formulation of cannabis was shown to reduce cannabis smoking.”

“However, when medicinal cannabis was used to treat people with cocaine-use disorder, it increased their cravings. This means it should not be considered for this purpose and may, in fact, worsen cocaine dependence.”

Calls for stronger regulation

The rapid rise in medicinal cannabis use and prescribing has raised concerns among major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. Experts point to limited regulation and ongoing uncertainty about how effective and safe these products really are.

“Our study provides a comprehensive and independent assessment of the benefits and risks of cannabis medicines, which may support clinicians to make evidence-based decisions, helping to ensure patients receive effective treatments while minimizing harm from ineffective or unsafe cannabis products,” Dr. Wilson said.

As the debate continues, one thing is clear: the promise of medicinal cannabis for mental health may not yet match the reality.

The post Medicinal Cannabis for Mental Health: What the Latest Science Shows Might Surprise appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

After the premature climax of stage 6, when Tadej Pogačar effectively ended the competition for the yellow jersey, the three stages leading up to the first rest day were actually a welcome relief for the riders and, I presume, for fans, who were all still catching their collective breath from the drama on the Col du Tourmalet.

In any case, with the GC a done deal, attention will now be on the green jersey competition, which for the moment holds most of the suspense. You can’t blame Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates–XRG for killing off the race; it’s their job to win as many Tours as they can, and from the evidence of stage 6, the sky’s the limit.

And you can’t blame race organisers for placing the decisive stage so early in the race; they probably regarded it as a test of the yellow jersey hopefuls. It’s not their fault that everyone except the world champion failed the test miserably – failing, in this case, being defined as finishing 2:38 or more behind the soon-to-be five-time Tour de France champion.

Heat and speed

The biggest post-Tourmalet news was that organisers shortened Sunday’s stage 9 by 30 km because of the heat. In truth, the heat has been a big topic of conversation from the beginning of the Tour, as Europe has been suffering from an unusual (though for how much longer will this be unusual?) and persistent heat wave, with temperatures in some early stages surpassing 40°C (104°F), and generally hovering around 35°C most days.

The truncated version of the stage kept all four categorised climbs and its predominantly lumpy profile, with lots of ups and downs and hardly any flat terrain – in other words, a perfect stage for drama and breakaways, which have had a very low survival rate on this Tour so far. But today was different.

Long story short, after many futile attempts, a 15-rider breakaway finally formed with 97 km left to ride on the 154.6 km course from Malemort to Ussel. UAE Team Emirates kept a tight leash on the front group, never letting the gap grow more than 1:20, perhaps because the team has never seen a race it didn’t want to win.

Eventually, though, they relented, and the breakaway shrank to four riders after Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Premier Tech), unhappy with the indecisive group he was with, attacked 25 km from the finish, on the last of the categorised climbs, the Mont Bessou (0.9 km @ 6.4%). He and the other three riders – Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) and Alex Baudin (EF Education–EasyPost) worked well together to keep the hard-charging peloton –  now driven by Lidl-Trek, riding for Mads Pedersen, and Netcompany INEOS, pushing the interests of Filippo Ganna – at bay. Van der Poel attacked from the front of the group 250 meters from the line and held off Johannessen to win the third Tour stage of his career, with Pidcock finishing third.

“It was a super hard day,” the winner said afterwards. “The start of the Tour was not great for our team, but I think, like always, we stayed calm. We have a really nice group here, and we kept believing it would turn around, maybe not today, maybe the second week, maybe the third. It’s really nice to go to the first rest day with a win.”

As van der Poel said, it had been a frustrating first week for his team as Jasper Philipsen failed to win a bunch sprint (see below). Asked about how the heat had affected him, van der Poel replied, “It was for sure better than the first few days. I was struggling and had difficulty recovering even from the easy days. Already, the past few days, I felt a bit better. Today, I finally had some legs to go for it.”

Merlier dominates…

The stages that ended in bunch sprints – Friday’s stage 7 and Saturday’s stage 8 – were for the most part calm and predictable until the final 10 km or so, when the inevitable dance for position began. And the sprints were chaotic, dramatic and, unlike the mountain stages, unpredictable.

Take stage 7, for example, where the sprinters entered the final kilometre with Philipsen’s lead-out squad at the front, led by van der Poel. I expected to see the winner of the race’s first bunch sprint, on stage 5, Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM), to be prominent again, but he was shuffled back in the chaos and never figured.

It looked like a sure win for Philipsen, as van der Poel ramped up the pace and pulled him toward the finish line. But he unexpectedly broke off his effort with 250 meters left to ride, too far for his sprinter, who was soon passed by several riders, last of all by Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), who showed no mercy and won going away over Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and 2024 Tour green jersey winner Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling)

“We had a meeting before [the stage 1] TTT on the bus, and the CEO, Jurgen Forë, put a bit too much pressure on my shoulders,” Merlier explained. “After the third place in the first sprint stage, I knew I only had four or five opportunities left, and once a rider wins, he normally takes a second one. You start to be scared because there aren’t a lot of opportunities, but I’m really happy I can take a win here.”

He then bemoaned the lack of chances the course offers to sprinters. “I remember when I was younger, there were a lot more opportunities,” he said. “And I also saw that this is the hardest Tour in years, so if you’re here, as a sprinter, you feel it will be a hard three weeks. Let’s hope for the rest of my career I can go to Grand Tours and have opportunities; otherwise, it would be just not possible for us any more in cycling.”

… and repeats

Merlier made himself a prophet on Saturday’s stage 8 when, after winning one sprint, he won a second, powering past about eight rivals in dominant style. As the peloton navigated the final corner onto the finish straight, the Soudal Quick-Step sprinter found himself shuffled back on the corner and seemed hopelessly adrift. As van der Poel started his lead-out for Philipsen, Merlier had to launch his sprint early and far from the finish. He picked off his rivals one by one as he headed for the line and was well in front when he crossed it.

“I needed to fight for my position all the time until the last minute,” he said after the stage. “Before the corner, I was a bit boxed in, and then they almost crashed, and I thought it was over. I gave it a try to come back on the guys who did the lead-out, and I was coming with so much speed. It was 250 [metresfrom the line] then. I gave it a try until the finish, but in the last 50 meters, I couldn’t push anymore.”

Merlier didn’t have to push anymore. He had built up enough speed to win easily. “Mostly, if you win one [stage], you can win a second,” he said again. “I’m happy that on three [sprint] stages, I claimed two of them.”

Girmay finished second and Kooij completed the podium. But it was another disappointing finish for Philipsen, who this time got a perfect lead-out from van der Poel, but just didn’t have the legs to compete and finished fourth. “We have no doubts about the preparation,” team co-owner Philip Roodhooft told journalists. “We have no doubts about the potential. Everybody has seen that the team, as a whole, the lead-out is strong enough, more than strong enough to bring him where he has to be, and we’re still very confident that it will lead to a stage win for Jasper in the end.”

Philipsen has won 10 Tour stages in his career, often late in the race, so it’s too early to write him off. But it’s very unlikely that he will compete for the green jersey, which he won in 2023. That competition is currently led by Mads Pedersen, with 268 points, to 223 for Girmay and 213 for Merlier. At least this competition is still very much undecided.

Results 2026 Tour de France Stage 9: Malemort to Ussel (154.6km)

1. Mathieu van der Poel, Alpecin–Premier Tech 3:27:51
2. Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility “
3. Tom Pidcock, Pinarello Q36.5 “
4. Alex Baudin, EF Education–EasyPost “
5. Filippo Ganna, Netcompay INEOS +0:06
6. Mads Pedersen, Lidl-Trek “
7. Michael Matthews, Jayco-AlUla “
8. Nicolas Breuillard, TotalEnergies “
9. Jordan Jegat, TotalEnergies “
10. Sean Quinn, EF Education–EasyPost “

2026 Tour de France GC Standings after Stage 9

• Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 32:17:04
• Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike                              +2:42
• Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +3:27
• Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +3:30
• Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek +3:34
• Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM +3:55
• Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:00
• Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +4:21
• Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek +4:57
• Egan Bernal, Netcompany INEOS +9:12

The post Merlier Wins Two Bunch Sprints, van der Poel Wins His Stage and Pogačar Still Leads the Tour appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

There should be a word in the English language for people like me – and there are many of us – who refuse to acknowledge Tadej Pogačar’s greatness. How about Pogiphobe? And the condition itself will be known as pogiphobia. It’s not that we don’t like him; on the contrary, he is a genuinely nice guy. It’s that he is so superior to everyone else in the sport that his dominance sucks the suspense out of many races, especially the Tour de France, our favourite sporting event.

I had no problems with other great athletes, like the boxer Muhammad Ali (aka The Greatest) or Lionel Messi, simply because they were/are active in sports in which their superiority did not diminish the sport’s pleasures. Sure, it was exhilarating to watch Pogačar destroy Jonas Vingegaard and the other pretenders to his throne on the slopes of the mighty Col du Tourmalet on Thursday’s stage 6. But with more than two weeks left in the Tour, the yellow jersey race is as good as over. As one team communications officer said when Pogačar crossed the line on Thursday: “Should we all go home?”

 

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Is the Tour already over?

Because with 15 stages left in the Tour, the UAE Team Emirates leader has a lead over Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) of 2:42. Pogačar’s young teammate Isaac del Toro sits third, at 3:27, while Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) is fourth, 3:30 adrift, and another now hopeless hopeful, Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), is fifth, 3:34 behind. Game, set and match.

The worrying thing for Vingegaard, who came into the race brimming with confidence, is that he is closer to third place than to first. “I’m disappointed, I have to be, but sometimes that’s life, and I cannot change it,” he said after the defeat.

It was del Toro, leading his leader up the slope, who began the lethal attack on the Beyond Category (HC) Col du Tourmalet (17.1 km @ 7.3%), 5 km from the summit and 43 km from the finish line. A gap immediately opened. Pogačar took over 500 metres later and extended the lead. Vingegaard stayed within 10 to 12 seconds of his rival for quite a while, but began to fade 2 km from the top of the climb, where the slopes were steepest.

When Pogačar crested the summit, his lead had ballooned to 30 seconds. It had grown to 1:11 when he began the long final climb to the finish (18.7 km @ 3.7%) and was at 2:38 when a tired-looking Vingegaard finally crossed the finish line.

“They put a big attack in on the Tourmalet, and I couldn’t follow,” the Dane said. “I had to settle into my own pace. Over the top, I was not that far away, but on a downhill like this, it’s not suited to me. It was a very tough day, not the day I wanted, but that’s how it is sometimes. I still believe in myself. I still believe my legs will get better throughout the race, so the fight is not over.”

Maybe the fight is not over, but – barring accident or illness – the race almost certainly is.

“It’s a really incredible victory, one of the sweetest, for sure,” Pogačar said afterwards. “Yesterday on the bus, when we were coming from the stage with the guys, there was a lot of hype already talking about today’s stage. Today I woke up at 7, and my mind was going crazy. I was really excited for today. All the guys were really hyped, so I knew it was going to be a good day. We just committed; we were going like nothing to lose – if we explode, we explode. In the end, we succeeded, and I’m super proud of everyone today.”

He noted that he was actually close to his limit on the decisive Tourmalet climb. “I think, for me, if the climb was one kilometre longer, I would also have exploded,” he said. “But I think for Jonas, it was also a little bit too long for his pace. He did his best, he did really good, but there was a little bit of a difference, that you go too much into the red.”

The soon-to-be five-time Tour de France champion came into the stage on the same time as Vingegaard but trailing race leader Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) by a whopping 7:53. Træen crashed on the descent from the Tourmalet and, though he finished the stage, he eventually dropped out of the race with a broken rib. At the time of the crash, he was already nearly 8 minutes behind Pogačar and would have lost the yellow jersey anyway.

A big yellow for rider and team

Træen took the yellow jersey on Tuesday’s stage 4, when he was part of a 34-rider  breakaway that was eventually whittled down to 10, with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) easily winning the sprint to the finish, 12:59 ahead of Pogačar and the peloton because neither the Slovenian nor his Danish rival wanted any part of the yellow jersey.

It was the first Tour yellow jersey for both Træen and the newly promoted Uno-X Mobility. “What can I say? I’m always happy to perform at the Tour, the biggest race in the world, and most of all I’m grateful that the team selected me,” said Træen, who survived cancer and led last year’s Vuelta a España for four days, when he was riding for Bahrain Victorious. He returned this year to the team that had developed him, and both parties are profiting.

Uno-X Mobility General Manager and former world champion Thor Hushovd was also delighted. “It’s a big moment for us,” he said. “We have a different project to others. We are a Scandinavian team with a Scandinavian identity, with riders only from Norway and Denmark. It makes the road more complicated because we cannot pick and choose riders from different countries, and we also have less budget. But if you do a good job and do things properly, then [you can] stand here today and lead the Tour de France.”

Pedersen was also delighted after the stage because this was his first victory in some 300 days and represents a comeback from injuries he suffered in a crash in February that disrupted his spring campaign.

“I would say this was a masterpiece in teamwork,” he said afterwards. “I was suffering a lot on the last climb, but with Quinn (Simmons) and (Mathias) Vacek there, it was a great day. They did incredible on the climbs to pace it well for me and make sure we didn’t lose too much time over the top. They were machines from there to the finish line. What a team effort and what a team win today.”

Kooij is back

Pedersen is not the only sprinter to have marked his return from infirmity with a victory on this Tour. Olav Kooij, whose first year with Decathlon CMA CGM was severely disrupted by a virus that sidelined him for months, powered to an easy victory on Wednesday’s stage 5, the first chance for sprinters to shine in the race.

“After a couple of hard days here already, we had to wait until this day to get this first chance to sprint in the Tour, and yeah, to immediately win is unbelievable,” said Kooij, who was making his debut on the Tour de France. “It means quite a lot. I think just in general, I had a pretty tough spring, and I think just to get back to this level and to keep believing in yourself, and just a few people who believe in you as well, is all you need.”

The 24-year-old Dutchman looked the picture of absolute cool in a chaotic sprint that was affected by a crash with 5 km left to ride, which deprived several teams, including Pedersen’s Lidl-Trek, of their lead-out riders and Vingegaard of his bike (he used that of Victor Campenaerts to finish the stage). Max Kanter (XDS Astana) came in second, with Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) finishing third.

Results 2026 Tour de France Stage 6: Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre (186.2 km)

1. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 4:32:07
2. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +2:38
3. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +2:57
4. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe  “
5. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM “
6. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe “
7. Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek “
8. Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek         “
9. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +3:02
10. Sepp Kuss, Visma–Lease a Bike  +3:06

2026 Tour de France GC Standings after Stage 6

1. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 21:11:57
2. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike                              +2:42
3. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +3:27
4. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +3:30
5. Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek +3:34
6. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM +3:55
7. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +4:00
8. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious +4:21
9. Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek +4:57
10. Mathias Vacek, Lidl-Trek +7:10

The post Simply the Best: Pogačar Conquers the Col du Tourmalet and Vingegaard appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

In cycling, power is everything, but weight is its silent partner. The UCI Sports Nutrition Project shed light on one of the most critical yet misunderstood aspects of performance: the power-to-weight ratio. For climbers, GC contenders, and anyone who’s ever suffered on a steep gradient, this ratio is the difference between winning and watching the winners disappear up the road.

The breakthrough? Body mass management in cycling is no longer about extreme weight loss or risky dehydration tactics. Instead, it’s a science-backed, strategic approach to optimizing power while maintaining performance, health, and sustainability.

Why every gram counts

In cycling, power-to-weight ratio is the ultimate equalizer. On flat terrain, raw watts win races. But on steep climbs, the equation flips: lighter riders with the same power output will always have the edge.

The math is unforgiving:

• A 1kg reduction in body mass can save 1–2,5 seconds per kilometre on a 5-10% gradient (Lucía et al., 2000).
• In a Grand Tour mountain stage, that could mean minutes over the course of a climb, enough to decide who will be competing for the podium.

But here’s the catch: lower weight isn’t always better. The UCI project reveals that aggressive weight loss can backfire, leading to reduced power, muscle loss, and increased injury risk. The key? Smart, sustainable body mass management.

Health & Training

UCI’s Race Nutrition Project: The Hydration Science Evolution

The old school: risky tactics and short-term gains

For decades, cyclists turned to extreme measures to shed weight:

Dehydration: Riding in a deliberately dehydrated state to reduce body mass. But studies show this hurts performance, even in uphill time trials (Ebert et al., 2007).

Carb restriction: Cutting carbs to deplete glycogen stores (and the water they hold). But in a sport where carbs are the primary fuel, this is a recipe for disaster.

Crash diets: Rapid weight loss often leads to muscle loss, not just fat, sacrificing the very engine that produces power.

The UCI project makes it clear: these tactics are outdated, risky, and ineffective for sustained performance.

The new science: sustainable weight management

The modern approach to power-to-weight optimization is built on three pillars:

1. Periodized body composition goals

Seasonal targets: Instead of being “race weight” year-round, riders periodize their body composition, peaking for key events.

Moderate deficits: Small, sustainable calorie deficits (300–500 kcal/day) are used to gradually reduce fat mass while preserving muscle.

Avoid low energy availability: Chronic underfueling leads to hormonal disruptions, bone loss, and performance declines (Burke et al., 2025).

2. Acute body mass manipulation: the low-fibre trick

For short-term weight reduction (before a mountain stage or time trial), pros use low-fibre, low-residue diets to reduce gut content without sacrificing energy or performance.

How it works: Fiber holds water in the gut. A very low-fibre diet (<10g/day) for 2-4 days can reduce body mass by 0,4-1kg (Foo et al., 2022; Burke et al., 2019).

The trade-off: Low-fibre diets reduce food variety, potentially lowering micronutrient intake. They can also cause constipation and discomfort. They are used sparingly and strategically.

Foods to eat: White rice, peeled potatoes, ripe bananas, skinless chicken, and refined cereals.

Foods to avoid: Whole grains, raw vegetables, legumes, and high-fibre fruits.

3. Sodium manipulation

Another short-term tactic is reducing sodium intake to lower body water content. But this is risky:

• Pros: It can shed 0,5–1kg in a few days.
• Cons: It may reduce plasma volume, hurting performance. Not recommended for stage races, only for one-day events where the weight loss outweighs the risks.

Lighter isn’t always better

The UCI project emphasizes that there’s a limit to how light a rider should go. Too much weight loss can:

• Reduce muscle mass, lowering power output.
• Impair recovery, leading to cumulative fatigue in stage races.
• Increase injury risk, as low body fat percentages can weaken bones and joints.

The sweet spot? Body fat percentages in the 8–12% range for men and 12–16% for women (Kasper et al., 2021).

Key takeaways for competitive amateur cyclists

The pros’ approach to power-to-weight optimization offers clear lessons for amateurs:

• Prioritize power first: Increase your FTP before obsessing over weight. A stronger engine will always beat a lighter but weaker one.
• Avoid crash diets: Aim for gradual, sustainable weight loss (0,5-1kg per week max) to preserve muscle and power.
• Try low-fibre for short-term gains: Before a key climb or time trial, a 2-3 day low-fibre diet can help shed 0,5-1kg without sacrificing energy.
• Monitor performance, not just weight: If your power output drops, you’ve gone too far. Strength and endurance should never be sacrificed for weight.

The power-to-weight breakthrough proves that true climbing performance isn’t just about being light, it’s about being smart. For amateurs, the message is clear: optimize, don’t obsess. Find your ideal balance of power and weight, and you’ll climb faster, recover better, and race stronger.

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Chris Froome won the Tour de France four times, the Vuelta España twice, and the Giro d’Italia once. Between 2013 and 2018, he and his Team Sky dominated the sport perhaps to an even greater extent than UAE Team Emirates–XRG does today. But ask almost any cycling fan, and especially an aficionado of the Tour de France, what they remember most about the recently retired Froome, and they might just smile and utter one word: “Ventoux!”

An epic run

The reference is to the now iconic incident that occurred during stage 12 of the 2016 Tour de France on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, aka the “Giant of Provence”. A crash with a television motorbike due to the crush of the crowd destroyed Froome’s bike about 1 km from the finish. With only a 25-second lead over Adam Yates in the general classification, Froome started running up the mountain in search of a miracle or at least another bike.

Asked how he views the incident today, Froome told Škoda We Love Cycling, in an exclusive interview, that he had “mixed emotions” about it. “I can certainly have a bit more of a laugh about it now,” he said. “But in the moment, it wasn’t so funny. It was more a sheer moment of chaos. When that happened, and I realised my bike was broken, just a kilometre from the finish line, I knew I wouldn’t be getting a spare bike anytime soon because [the team car] would be behind all the riders we had just gapped. So I thought that I should be as close to the finish line as I can be when the bike arrives. And the only way that’s going to happen is if I run. I just couldn’t let the yellow jersey slip away from me.”

And it didn’t. He eventually got a bike and finished the stage, but more than two minutes behind Yates. However, the race jury intervened and, because the crash was due to outside forces, it decided to award Froome the same time as Bauke Mollema, who he had been riding with but who managed to avoid the worst in the incident. That decision reinstated him as the race leader, and he went on to win his third Tour yellow jersey.

Asked if that was his favourite Tour victory of the four, Froome said, “Every Tour had these moments that were special and stand out to me, but honestly, I think the first Tour victory back in 2013 was the most amazing experience because everything was new to me, everything was novel. Having made it my goal to win the Tour as a kid watching the race, and then achieving that, it was just such an amazing feeling. So, I don’t think anything really comes close to that first one.”

The unforgettable first yellow jersey

Froome went on to say that winning the Tour for the first time is a life-changer. “Certainly, as a professional cyclist, your life is different after winning the Tour de France,” he explained. “You’re seen in a different light, and I think people treat you differently because of it. There are more commitments,and you fall into this special category of a very short list of people who have ever won the Tour. And in the cycling world, that’s something very special, and it is a real privilege to be part of that list.”

That first Tour victory was special to Froome for other reasons, again involving Mont Ventoux. “It was Bastille Day 2013, and I was in the yellow jersey,” Froome recalled. “Of course, all the French teams were extra motivated to perform on that stage on July 14, and it was finishing on top of Mont Ventoux. I was able to win that stage [30 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana]. And to top it off, my wife was waiting for me at the finish. She didn’t normally come to many races at all. So that was really a special moment for me, being able to win in the yellow jersey on top of Mont Ventoux, with my wife there as well to share that experience.”

Froome has said in the past that the Tour was the “Holy Grail of cycling”, on which he elaborated, “I don’t want to take anything away from the other two Grand Tours, but the Tour de France really is the biggest one,” he said. “It’s where the teams want the best performance, so, generally, you’ve got the strongest lineup there. And if you ask any person on the street, ‘Do you know the Tour de France?’, even if they don’t watch it, they’d probably know it. Whereas I don’t think there’s any other race on the calendar that you can say the same for.”

“As a professional cyclist, if you could win one race, you would choose the Tour. It’s really such a privilege, such an honour, to be the one guy who, after three weeks of racing, can stand on the podium in Paris with your hands in the air as the overall winner of the race.”

Love the pain

To win a Tour de France, a rider needs to have a combination of physical ability, drive, and mental strength. “Being able to cope with the pressure is a huge element because once you get into a position ofwearing the yellow jersey, then you start the next stage with a target on your back,” Froome noted. “Basically, you’re the person to beat, you’re the benchmark. So, wearing that jersey is a huge honour, but it’s also a very heavy responsibility, and to keep it for the duration of the race is no easy accomplishment.”

During his career, Froome seemed to thrive in the brutality of the Tour, as if the severity of the challenge gave him wings, an impression he confirmed. “I definitely found that during the years that I was most successful, when I felt ready for the Tour de France, I almost wanted it to be harder,” he said. “I wanted it to be as brutal as possible because those were the parts of the race [in the mountains] that I could control and I could feel as if I had an advantage on my rivals.”

He said that the flatter stages scared him because “everyone was present, everyone could be there, and there was more chance of crashing, more chance of something going wrong. Whereas when I was up in the mountains in the really tough terrain, I knew there’s probably only a handful of guys who can realistically keep up and challenge me. So, I did feel more at ease when the race turned harder, if that makes sense.”

 

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An exemplary rider

Froome raced competitively until a training crash in southern France nearly cost him his life. On August 27, 2025, he hit a curb at high speed and slammed head-first into a road sign, suffering severe injuries, including a life-threatening tear of the fluid-filled sac protecting the heart, a lower back fracture, and five broken ribs. He was then 40 years old, had just raced in the Tour of Poland, and had intended to continue riding competitively.

Asked why he kept at the sport for so long, he said that one reason was that he had come to cycling very late. “I think I only turned professional at the age of 24 and I’d seen a few riders racing until their early 40s and I always thought, ‘Yep, I want to make 40 the goal.’ That’s one objective I set myself once I started racing professionally.

“Also, I think that once I had children – I have two children, a boy and a girl, Kellan and Katie – I felt that I wanted to set an example for them. I wanted to make them proud. I wanted to let them see me racing and share this experience with them.”

Chris Froome confirmed his retirement from competitive cycling a few hours after this interview was conducted. Looking back at his career, we can be sure that he has set an example not only for his children, but also for all young riders who want to excel in the sport.

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Something pretty weird is happening at the Tour de France (and I don’t mean the heat and the wildfires, which are, unfortunately, becoming less weird every year). It’s that some commentators have been saying, after Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates won stages 2 and 3, that the race is already as good as over and that they may as well already hand the Slovenian his record-tying fifth Tour victory.

That was the mood at TNT Sports on Sunday and Monday after Pogačar gifted the stage 2 victory to his UAE teammate Isaac del Toro, and especially after stage 3, after del Toro set up his leader for an easy winning sprint. There was talk among the TNT commentators that the four-time Tour winner would take five or six stages and that his rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike) was already “on his hands and knees.”

I’m no different than most people in that I tend to believe the “experts” when they sound convinced of their expertise, whether it’s about the best way to wash strawberries, what to eat to live to 100 or what a particular stage win means. But I took another look at the end of stages 2 and 3 just because I couldn’t believe that a rider as strong as Vingegaard could already be “on his hands and knees” on the second stage of a three-week race he has already won twice.

Far from being exhausted, Vingegaard was simply coasting at the end of those two stages, merely shadowing Pogačar to the finish line. And once over the line, he wasn’t winded but looked relaxed and untroubled by the fact that he’d finished fourth on stage 2 and had lost his yellow jersey to the Slovenian on stage 3.

Vingegaard himself said after stage 2 that “the final sprint was very explosive. That is an anaerobic effort and, honestly, that is not my strongest point. So, if I am really honest, I am quite satisfied with how it turned out.” And he went on to say, “I enjoy every day in yellow. Of course, at some point, it can be tactically beneficial to give the jersey away.”

Which is probably one reason he didn’t put much effort into his stage 3 sprint either. And then he praised his nemesis for letting del Toro win his first Tour stage. “I think Tadej is a great guy,” Vingegaard said. “It is very generous of him to give a stage victory to a teammate. But to be fair, that teammate really deserved it as well. He is a huge talent, and he is incredibly strong. It was an impressive ride from both of them.”

Does that sound like a worried cyclist? On the contrary, that sounds like someone full of confidence. His praise stands in stark contrast to the behaviour of del Toro and Pogačar, who, in celebrating the Mexican’s victory, mocked Visma’s exuberant celebrations after their win in the stage 1 team time trial.

Their hugs and leaps of triumph (which the UAE duo mimicked) were understandable as they had just taken their first Tour yellow jersey since Vingegaard last won the Tour in 2023. If the Tour de France is, as Chris Froome has said, the Holy Grail of cycling, you can understand the team’s rejoicing. So, I think that Pogačar’s reaction to it was a bit infantile.

But perhaps he and his team worked so hard to win two insignificant stages, which could (and should) have been taken by breakaways, because Pogačar was not at all happy about losing the team time trial to his strongest rival, and he took their exuberant celebrations as a challenge. But it’s uncharacteristic of him to let himself be provoked into wasting his and his team’s energy simply to show up a rival rider and team, especially as he held the yellow jersey for only a day, giving it up on Tuesday’s stage 4.

Or is he actually worried about winning the Tour and wanted to play mind games? It’s important to remember that Pogačar’s Tour dominance began after Vingegaard’s disastrous crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country, which meant that for two years he had no serious rival on the Tour. But the old Vingegaard is back, and better than ever, as he has claimed. And, of course, he and his team have a plan.

Because I also noticed that, though UAE had mobilised all its big hitters for stage 3, Vingegaard had only a few riders around him. Everyone except Sepp Kuss was missing from the front of the peloton when matters heated up on the stage. The other key riders, like Davide Piganzoli and Matteo Jorgenson, were mostly back in the peloton, taking it easy.

The Visma plan is the usual strategy for a difficult Grand Tour: don’t waste your time on meaningless contests and save your energy for the good stuff, for the big climbs to come. This is an unusually difficult Tour, with a total of 54,450 m of climbing, compared to 51,550 m last year and 52,230 m. Of that total, 9,000 m come on stages 19 and 20, the last two competitive stages of the race, with 5,450 m on stage 20 alone. Barring accident or illness, that’s where the GC will be decided, regardless of how many stages UAE or Visma win in the meantime.

If Vingegaard is back to his best self, as he has claimed, then this race is a toss-up until it isn’t anymore. The race is very far from over, so it’s foolish to make a three-week weather forecast based on two days of rain. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong. Because, as Mike Tyson put it, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

The post Does Vingegaard Have a Master Plan or Is Pogačar Already the Master? appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

The beauty of the Tour de France is that nobody really knows what’s going to happen. Every year, analysts make predictions, fans make predictions, riders make predictions, and by the second week, most of those predictions are lying abandoned in a ditch somewhere in the Alps. Still, some things are easier to imagine than others.

A sprint stage ending in a bunch sprint? Reasonable. Pogačar attacking on a mountain? Hardly shocking. The Tour route somehow finding new and inventive ways to make riders suffer? Practically a law of nature.

But every fan also has a private wishlist. Not predictions. Not even realistic expectations. Just gloriously unlikely scenarios that would instantly become part of Tour folklore. The kind of moments that would leave commentators speechless, team directors reaching for blood pressure medication, and cycling fans talking about them for the next twenty years. The sort of moments that definitely aren’t on our bingo cards.

And yet, we’d absolutely love to see them happen.

A fan fixes a rider’s mechanical before the team car arrives

Every fan along the road secretly believes they could save the Tour if given the opportunity. Most of the time, this belief is completely detached from reality. Yet somewhere between the folding chairs, coolers, and questionable camping equipment, there is almost certainly a spectator carrying enough tools to rebuild a small tractor. So, is it truly outlandish to believe that a fan could fix a mechanical on a narrow climb before the team or neutral service car arrives? Yes. Yes, it is.

Not because it has never happened, and not because they wouldn’t be able to. Simply because modern race support is frighteningly efficient. By the time the fan finds the right multitool, the rider will already be on a spare bike, getting pushed back toward the race at a speed that would qualify as assisted flight in most countries.

Still, it would be glorious. For one brief moment, a fan becomes the hero of the stage. And if the rider goes on to save their Tour because of it, that fan will never pay for another beer along the race route again.

 

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Marlen Reusser takes the yellow in Dijon and never gives it back

There are many ways to win a Grand Tour. Most of them involve climbing mountains faster than everybody else. This is why Marlen Reusser taking the yellow jersey in Dijon and then stubbornly refusing to hand it back would be so entertaining.

To be fair, the first part isn’t far-fetched at all. Reusser is one of the best time trialists in the world, and the 21-kilometre race against the clock has “yellow jersey opportunity” written all over it. The difficult part comes afterwards. Sitting on top of the standings is one thing. Defending that position against Demi Vollering on Mont Ventoux is something else entirely.

But can you imagine how legendary it would be if Reusser simply decimated the field in Dijon and then spent the rest of the race defending every second as if it were family heirlooms? The entire Tour would flip upside down. Instead of the climbers attacking yellow, yellow would be desperately trying to survive the climbers. And if Reusser somehow rolled into Nice still wearing the jersey, every prediction, every bet, and every carefully prepared bingo card would look like it had been written by an unimaginative, overanalytical… You can finish the sentence yourselves.

Kasia repeats the 2024 miracle

Sports fans love claiming they want fresh stories. What they actually want is a sequel that somehow turns out as good as the original.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma’s 2024 Tour de France Femmes victory had everything. Drama, tension, collapsing time gaps, redemption, and enough stress to lead to a major medical emergency for some fans. Recreating that kind of story is incredibly difficult. Lightning rarely strikes twice, especially when the rest of the peloton is actively trying to prevent it.

Yet that’s exactly why we’d love to see it. The 2026 route suits aggressive racing, and Kasia has built an entire career around refusing to follow the script. One perfectly timed attack, one inspired day in the mountains, one desperate defence of yellow, and suddenly we’re watching the sequel nobody thought was possible.

A rider wins from 100 kilometres out

Modern cycling is many things. Fast, scientific, highly optimised. What it generally isn’t is supportive of somebody deciding to attack with 100 kilometres still remaining and then stubbornly refusing to reconsider that decision.

In a one-day race, maybe. In the Tour de France, where riders must somehow do it all again tomorrow, such an effort borders on self-inflicted administrative error. The peloton is too organised, the radios are too effective, and the teams are too good at turning individual dreams into collective disappointment.

And yet, every cycling fan secretly wants to see it. Not a clever attack. Not a perfectly timed move. Just one rider disappearing up the road with the tactical sophistication of a medieval cavalry charge and somehow making it all the way to the finish.

Paul Seixas wins the Tour

French cycling has spent the better part of four decades searching for the next great Tour de France champion. Every few years, a promising youngster appears, and the nation collectively tries very hard not to get too excited. Paul Seixas is making that restraint increasingly difficult.

The talent is obvious. The problem is that so are the obstacles. Winning the Tour de France requires many things, but two of the most important happen to be named Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. Seixas may one day challenge riders of that calibre. The question is whether “one day” arrives several years ahead of schedule.

And that’s exactly why we’d love to see it. Imagine a teenager walking into the biggest cycling race on Earth and simply decimating the favourites. It’s one thing to surprise a great rider in a one-off race. It’s another to repeatedly outplay the two men who have spent the last few years treating the Tour like a private business arrangement. Yeah, it’s highly unlikely. But imagine the reaction in France. If PSG winning the Champions League turned Paris into a war zone, a French Tour winner might finally bring down the Fifth Republic.

The yellow jersey changes hands on the final Montmartre climb

The Tour de France has spent more than a century teaching us one simple rule: by the time the race reaches Paris, it’s usually over. The final stage is where riders celebrate, pose for photos, drink champagne, and try very hard not to crash before the Champs-Élysées. The introduction of Montmartre has complicated this arrangement considerably.

Now imagine the perfect storm: stage 20 ends with only a handful of seconds separating first and second overall. The race enters Paris unresolved. No neutralisation. No gentleman’s agreement. Just one final climb, standing between two riders and cycling immortality.

Could it happen? Technically, yes. Will it happen? Almost certainly not. The margins required are microscopic, and modern Tours rarely remain that close for three weeks.

But if it does, we may witness the greatest Tour finale since LeMond stole victory from Fignon by eight seconds in 1989. The difference is that this time, instead of a time trial, we’d get a street fight on the slopes of Montmartre. And if that happens, every bingo card can be thrown directly into the Seine.

That’s why they’re not on the bingo card

The Tour de France has a habit of producing moments nobody expects. Every year, something happens that sends commentators scrambling for superlatives and fans rushing to explain to non-cycling friends why this is the greatest sport on Earth.

The scenarios in this article didn’t make it onto our bingo cards for one simple reason: they’re just too unlikely. A fan repairing a rider’s bike. Paul Seixas winning the Tour. Yellow changing hands on the final climb in Paris. These aren’t the moments you bet on. They’re the moments you daydream about while pretending to work.

Then again, cycling occasionally ignores probability altogether. That’s why we watch. And that’s why, even though these moments didn’t make the card, a small part of us will still be hoping to witness at least one of them over the next three weeks.

Because the fastest way for something to become Tour folklore is for everybody to agree it probably won’t happen.

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Jonas Vingegaard and Visma–Lease a Bike drew first blood in the 113th Tour de France by winning a thrilling team time trial on Saturday’s stage 1 with an impressive team performance and a powerful closing ride by the Dane. As a result, the two-time Tour winner won his first yellow jersey since last winning the race in 2023 and became the first rider since Miguel Induráin in 1992 to win the first stage of the Tour after winning the Giro d’Italia.

The Spaniard went on to win the Tour that year and complete the rare Giro-Tour double, a feat Vingegaard is trying to replicate. Four-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar – who accomplished the Giro-Tour double in 2024 – and his UAE Team Emirates–XRG will be disappointed after finishing third, 12 seconds behind the winners and 4 seconds behind second-place Netcompany INEOS, who were carried to the podium by the ultra-rapid Filippo Ganna.

As opposed to traditional team time trials, no minimum number of team members needed to cross the finish line and the first team member to cross the line gave the team it’s time. In addition, times were taken for all the finishers and made part of their GC ranking, which meant that the general classification contenders were able to go all out on the final climbs without having to worry about their teammates.

Welcoming an old friend, the yellow jersey

Wearing the yellow jersey again was “a dream come true,” Vingegaard said, and added: “Being back in the yellow jersey is for me the most important. I’m just extremely happy, it’s something I dreamt of for the last three years.”

Recalling the horror crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country that derailed his career for nearly two years, he said, “I’ve struggled at times in the last few years, [but] now I feel like I can close this chapter in the book. Of course, it will always be a part of my book, laying there on the ground, believing that I’m going to die. And then coming from that to this point is also for me a bit emotional.”

Another disappointed rider was triple time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel, whose Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe team was not quite up to the level of the podium teams and finished fifth, 19 seconds adrift, with Juan Ayuso and his Lidl-Trek squad coming fourth, at 16 seconds. Still, four of the main five GC contenders ended the stage within 19 seconds of each other, with Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) trailing Vingegaard by 39 seconds in sixth place. But the teenager rode a strong solo over the final 2.5km to keep himself in the running.

The 19.3km Barcelona course with its two punchy climbs – 900m @ 5.5% and 700m @ 7.3% – in the last 3km called for specific strategies of how and when to use its riders. Visma and UAE had similar plans, with both teams sparing their leaders from exertions on the flat portion of the course. In the end, both Vingegaard and Pogačar were dropped off on the final climb by their fastest mountain domestique, Davide Piganzoli and Isaac del Toro, respectively. By contrast, Evenepoel and Ganna did most of the heavy lifting for their teams on the flats and on the climbss.

Vingegaard and Piganzoli started that final ascent with a 15-second lead over Pogačar and del Toro, and the Dane managed to keep most of that gap with a strong finishing ride. But Pogačar could take comfort from the fact that he climbed the 860m ascent three seconds quicker than Vingegaard, so that he led the mountains classification and wore the polka dot jersey on stage two.

“Good news: I have climbing legs!” he said, with a laugh. “But it was quite short, the climb. The legs are good, the sensations are really good, so the shape should be here. I hope I can continue like this. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next few days.”

Pogi’s revenge shifts the momentum

Sunday’s stage 2 was a surprisingly tough climbing day so early in the Tour. The Category 2 Côte de Begue climb (6.1km @ 6.5%) midway on the 168.5km course from Tarragon to Barcelona was not long or steep enough to worry any riders but the sprinters. But the three climbs of the Côte du Château de Montjuïc (1.6km @ 9.3km) were a different story, especially with the final 400m averaging nearly 14%. That steep ramp came about 2.5km from the finish line and seemed the perfect spot for someone like Pogačar to attack.

But nobody did. The GC favorites were all together as what remained of the peloton crested the summit. When the attack came, it came in an unexpected place, on the descent, and from an unexpected rider, Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose, riding for Ayuso. He was brought back by del Toro, with Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel close behind.

 

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The two UAE riders then headed for the finish line, and as Vingegaard broke off the follow Pogačar, del Toro dashed for the finish line. He was soon caught by his team leader as Vingegaard faltered and Evenepoel made a last, futile sprint. The 22-year-old Mexican was then invited by Pogačar to cross the line first and take his first Tour de France stage in his first appearance in the race. Pogačar finished second, with Evenepoel third and a tired Vingegaard coming fourth, all four given the same time.

As a result, the Dane’s lead over Pogačar was cut in half, to 6 seconds, with Evenepoel now in third, 15 seconds adrift and del Toro up to fourth place, at 16 seconds. Ayuso slipped to fifth, 19 seconds behind, while Seixas – who suffered a mechanical late in the stage – is now up to sixth, but 42 seconds behind.

If the UAE post-stage celebrations looked familiar, that was because they were aping those of Visma–Lease a Bike after their stage 1 win. The battle lines have now been clearly drawn – and we still have three weeks left. But the day belonged to the super-talented del Toro, who had to overcome a mechanical issue that set him back about 2 minutes because there was some confusion in the UAE team cars about his replacement bike. That he was able to win the stage after expending all that recovery energy on a day temperatures soared to 38° Celsius speaks volumes about the young man’s strength and resilience. His victory was only the second Tour stage win by a Mexican at the Tour.

His first Tour stage win “means really everything,” del Toro said afterwards. “As I’ve already said, I’m a very fortunate guy. You wouldn’t believe how hard we’ve worked to be here. The whole team had faith – this is everyone’s achievement, including my family and friends. I can’t believe it; it’s insane.”

Asked to describe how the win came about, he said, “I tried to catch up to Skjelmose. We made a plan with Tadej, and I carried it out. But in the end, the gap was even bigger, so I was just able to win.” And of course he thanked Pogačar for giving him the victory. “You don’t know what this means to me. . . . To have the best rider in the world supporting me like that at the end is something I will never forget. Tadej is amazing.”

As good as the Visma team was on stage 1, UAE was at least as good on stage 2, with Brandon McNulty taking charge of the three loops of the 12.1km circuit that ended the stage. His pace up the three climbs of the Côte du Château de Montjuïc sapped everyone’s legs, apparently including Vingegaard’s. Visma now has to find a way to get its Tour de France mojo back, after having it for only one day.

2026 Tour de France Stage 2 Results: Tarragona to Barcelona, 168.5km

1. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG   3:40:01
2. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG              ”
3. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe     ”
4. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike                   ”
5. Mattias Skjelmose, Lidl-Trek                                +0:03
6. Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility         ”
7. Romain Grégoire, Groupama–FDJ United               ”
8. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious                        ”
9. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM                         ”
10. Tom Pidcock, Pinarello Q36.5                                ”

2026 Tour de France General Classification after Stage 2

1. Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 4:01:48
2. Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +0:06
3. Remco Evenepoel, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe    +0:15
4. Isaac del Toro, UAE Team Emirates–XRG             +0:16
5. Juan Ayuso, Lidl-Trek                                             +0:19
6. Paul Seixas, Decathlon CMA CGM                        +0:42
7. Romain Grégoire, Groupama–FDJ United              +0:44
8. Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe      +0:45
9. Lenny Martinez, Bahrain Victorious                        +0:53
10. Tom Pidcock, Pinarello Q36.5                                +1’00”

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Jonas Vingegaard does not sound like a man limping into the Tour de France after a brutal Giro d’Italia. He sounds refreshed, reset, and quietly dangerous.

The Visma-Lease a Bike leader arrives at the Tour having already won the Giro, Paris-Nice and Volta a Catalunya this season, but rather than presenting the Giro-Tour double as an act of survival, Vingegaard is framing it as something closer to a renewal. The Giro, he insists, did not empty him. It sharpened him.

“Without taking anything away from anyone at the Giro, it is true that I did not have to completely kill myself. I didn’t come out of the Giro completely on my knees,” Vingegaard said.

That may be the most important detail of his entire Tour build-up. The Giro-Tour double has long been cycling’s most treacherous balancing act. Win too hard in May, and July punishes you; hold too much back, and Italy slips away. Vingegaard believes he found the narrow path between the two.

“That means you can recover faster afterwards and start your training and get into a good rhythm quicker. If you are on your knees after the Giro, you need two weeks, maybe even more, to recover,” Vingegaard added.

“Then it is hard to start building towards the Tour because then the Tour is already coming. For me at least, I came out of the Giro in a good way and pretty quickly I could start building towards the Tour de France.”

 

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It is a typically Vingegaard explanation: calm, logical, understated. But beneath the measured language is a serious warning to the rest of the field. This is not a Giro winner hoping the legs come around in week two. This is a rider who believes the transition has already happened.

There is also a deeper change at play. Vingegaard and Visma did not simply add the Giro to the calendar for the sake of history. They changed the structure of the season because the old rhythm had started to feel stale.

“We tried something new, which was also the plan, because I think we realised after last year that it was not really so enjoyable to do what we did every year,” Vingegaard said.

“So now we tried to mix it up with the preparation for the Tour, and it has been going really well this year.

“I think I’m ready for this race and I am really looking forward to it. It has been an amazing year for me so far and I am looking forward to it hopefully continuing.”

That word enjoyable stands out. Grand Tour contenders do not often talk like that, least of all before the Tour, where every answer tends to be filtered through pressure, expectation and tactical camouflage. But Vingegaard is presenting this season as something different: not just a campaign of results, but a campaign that has restored his appetite.

Then came the clearest statement of all.

“I’m both better and stronger,” he said. “I would even say I’m happier in a mental state also. I’m in a very good place. I’ve had a very good year so far. I’ve enjoyed riding a bit more this year than I did last year.”

For his rivals, that is the alarming part. A stronger Vingegaard is one thing. A happier Vingegaard, with three major stage-race victories already in the bank and the Giro in his palmarès, is something else entirely. This is a rider who no longer needs to prove that his season has been a success. He already has. And that, paradoxically, may make him even more dangerous.

“I’ve had a very good season so far already with the three races I’ve done and of course it takes some pressure off me and off the team.

“But the Tour de France is still the biggest race. It is still the race you really want to win. I’m not saying that I’m not happy with what I’ve already won this year because I am extremely happy, especially also winning the Giro d’Italia title and now having won all three Grand Tours.

“But again, the Tour de France is just the biggest race of the year and I’m here to go for the victory.”

There it is. No ambiguity, no hedging, no soft landing. Vingegaard is not here to celebrate the Giro. He is not here to complete an elegant summer victory lap. He is here to win the Tour de France.

And if he is right. If the Giro left him not exhausted but better, stronger and happier, then this Tour may begin with the rest of the peloton facing the most uncomfortable version of Jonas Vingegaard yet: one with pink already won, yellow still desired, and no intention of treating July as a bonus.

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The wait is finally over. The 2026 Tour de France began this Saturday, and the race is not exactly tiptoeing into the room. It starts in Barcelona with a 19.6 km team time trial, which means we are getting tension, speed and carefully managed panic from the very first day.

And whether you are watching from home, riding your own local loop, or lucky enough to be there on the roadside, this Tour is going to be properly Epiq. Škoda We Love Cycling’s Tour de France 2026 hub brings the race closer with Epiq Moments Bingo, real-time POV content from the route, race updates, analysis and on-site experiences for fans heading to the stages. In other words, whether your Tour position is “pressed against a barrier on a mountain” or “on the sofa with snacks and very strong opinions,” you are covered.

Instead of a gentle opening stage for the sprinters, the Tour begins with one of cycling’s most elegant and unforgiving disciplines. A good team time trial looks beautifully smooth: riders rotating at high speed, holding perfect formation, slicing through the city as if they have rehearsed it for months. A bad one looks like a group project where everyone has a different deadline.

The Barcelona route should make for a spectacular start. The finish toward Montjuïc adds just enough difficulty to make things interesting, especially for the general classification riders. This is not the kind of opening stage where the favourites can hide at the back and politely wait for the race to begin properly. The race begins immediately, stopwatch included.

This year’s team time trial format also adds another layer of pressure because individual rider times count. That makes the day more than just a test of team strength. It is also a test of timing, positioning and judgment. Go too hard too early, and someone important may start looking very lonely. Hold too much back, and the yellow jersey may already be riding away.

 

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For the overall contenders, Saturday is an important first checkpoint. Tadej Pogačar starts as the defending champion and the rider everyone will be watching. Jonas Vingegaard is once again expected to be his main rival, while Remco Evenepoel brings the kind of time-trial power that can make even small gaps feel significant.

Of course, the Tour will not be won on day one. Cycling people say this every year, usually right before spending three hours analysing a seven-second difference. But the opening stage can still shape the mood of the race. A strong performance gives confidence. A poor one creates questions. And in the Tour de France, questions have a habit of becoming storylines very quickly.

The first week is not exactly designed for a soft landing. After Barcelona, the race keeps the pressure on, with stages that should reward sharp positioning, disciplined teams and riders who can stay switched on when the road refuses to behave. The early mountain touch at Les Angles means we may not need to wait long to see who has arrived with real depth and who is still hoping to ride into form.

From there, the race has the kind of structure that invites control but rarely allows it for long. There are days for the sprint trains, certainly, but also enough broken terrain and awkward transitions to tempt the opportunists, punish hesitation and force the GC teams to make decisions before they would ideally like to. The final week in the Alps, with Alpe d’Huez appearing twice, gives the route a suitably heavyweight finish without needing to overpromise drama. The road will take care of that.

The bigger question is how long the race stays tactically open. If Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel are all within range after the first mountain tests, we could be looking at a Tour shaped less by one decisive ambush and more by repeated pressure: seconds here, fatigue there, teammates disappearing at inconvenient moments, and the sort of small weaknesses that only become obvious once everyone is already deep in the red.

That is usually where the Tour does its best work. Not in the neat pre-race predictions, but in the slow collapse of certainty. A team that looked untouchable in week one can start counting domestiques by week three. A rider who seemed limited can suddenly become dangerous if the race opens in the right place. And every calm post-stage interview should probably be translated as: “We survived today. Please do not ask about tomorrow.”

So here we go. Barcelona gets the first word, the stopwatch gets the first argument, and the yellow jersey gets its first temporary owner. The 2026 Tour de France is finally here. And as ever, the real story will begin somewhere between the plan, the legs, and the moment the race stops listening to anyone.

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This year’s Tour de France holds the promise of being one of the best editions of all time, with four superstar riders and another handful of just plain stars with outside podium chances.

Consider the principals: Tadej Pogačar has won the race four times and is universally considered one of the, if not the, best cyclists of all time. Jonas Vingegaard has won the Tour de France twice, both times beating Pogačar. Remco Evenepoel is the world and Olympic time trial champion who moved to Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe this year to win the Tour. And, last but not least, 19-year-old Paul Seixas has shown such brilliance on the WorldTour this year that everyone regards him as a future Tour winner.

All things being equal, and with no accident or illness to weaken the principals, the course is set up in such a way that all four could still be in contention by the end of the third week, when the riders hit the Alps. Wouldn’t that make for a brilliant climax? On the other hand, there are so many unknowns going into the race that anything, including what the smart money says, is still possible.

The smart money says that Evenepoel will falter on one of the early mountain stages, stage 6, for example, with its 4,100 meters of elevation, including the Tourmalet (17.1 km @ 7.3%), and is never in contention again; that Seixas makes another young rider’s mistake on a curve or descent and crashes out late in week 2; and that Pogačar and Vingegaard come to stage 19, and the summit finish on Alpe d’Huez (13.8 km @ 8.1%), neck and neck, with the Slovenian pulling ahead to register his fifth Tour victory.

Here are the four favorites, in order of expected (by me) finish:

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG)

The 27-year-old Slovenian is in his prime and, apparently, in the form of his life, which is saying a whole lot. He has already won 13 races this year, including Strade Bianche, Milan–San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour de Romandie and, most recently, the Tour de Suisse. And his motivation is high because he is going for his fifth Tour victory, which would make him a member of the most elite club in the sport, along with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin. I think he wants to join that club more than anything else.

And I think he will, if only because he is the strongest rider in the sport, able to produce powerful accelerations that no one can match. In his only major loss this year, when he lost Paris-Roubaix to Wout van Aert, he suffered a few mechanical issues, even being forced to ride a service bike for a while, and was a little short in the final sprint. The rider we will see in this Tour will be the ideal Pogačar, as finely tuned as an F1 race car before the Monaco Grand Prix.

Also, despite the damage to the squad suffered in the stage 2 crash of the Giro d’Italia, which caused Marc Soler to drop out of the Tour, he will have another team of super-domestiques at his side, led by the excellent Isaac del Toro, who would be considered a co-favorite for the title if he were leading the team. Should something happen to Pogačar, the young Mexican would make a formidable contender for the yellow jersey.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease a Bike)

Vingegaard’s dominant, Pogačar-like victory at the Giro showed that he is back to his best, after 18 months of slow form recovery from his 2024 Itzulia Basque Country crash, and he may be, as he has claimed, better than ever. Until proven otherwise, the 29-year-old Dane is at least the second-best Grand Tour rider in the world and at least the second-best climber. Whether he can be the best this year is one of the delicious unknowns in this race.

The question is whether he has the team to match that of his rival. The squad that supported him in the Giro certainly seemed to be, with young Davide Piganzoli a revelation in the mountains and the entire squad clicking like clockwork for the entire three weeks. However, Wout van Aert had to bow out of the Tour after suffering an infected elbow, and Edoardo Affini crashed last week in the Italian time trial championship. That he has been declared fit to ride relieved a lot of anxiety in the Visma camp.

Piganzoli replaced van Aert and will be an added plus on the critical mountain stages, with the indomitable Sepp Kuss heading the climbing support in this race. But both van Aert and Affini will be missed in the flats, on the hills and in the important stage 1 team time trial, which Visma has targeted. “It’s something where we can already make a difference as a team in the GC for Jonas,” said Lead Sports Director and soon-to-be Head of Racing Marc Reef.

In addition, with 23-year-old Piganzoli and 22-year-old Per Strand Hagenes making their Tour de France debuts, this is a young and relatively inexperienced squad, which may not hold up under the intensity and pressure of the race. But if the Giro experience was a sign, they’ll hold up just fine.

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM)

Seixas is still a young diamond in the rough and therefore prone to rash decisions and panic, such as his bonehead move in the final stage of Itzulia Basque Country, when he took off on his own from the group he was riding with and found himself alone in no man’s land for far too long because he was afraid that a breakaway would steal his race lead; or when he crashed out of his last race, the Tour Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes, because he took a corner too quickly, admitting afterwards, “I took too many risks.”

The other question is whether he already has the chops to win a three-week Grand Tour. No one knows. Just as no one knows if he will be able to pace himself responsibly for three weeks, so that he won’t come onto Alpe d’Huez and discover he has no legs left.

Personally, I’d love to see him finish in the top 5 or even 10, which would be quite a feat for a rider of his age. He won’t win, but he might surprise. It’s important to remember that Pogačar was 21 when he won the Tour for the first time. That sounds about right.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe)

Yes, I’m putting Evenepoel at the bottom of this list because I have always believed that he simply doesn’t have the right body to be a good enough climber to win a Tour de France in which Pogačar and/or Vingegaard are riding. The body that makes him the best time trial rider in the world makes him unfit for the Tour’s massive climbs. Which is why he and Red Bull resorted to the radical training strategy of no racing for two months before the Tour.

The emphasis was on losing weight to increase his power output, measured in watts produced per kilogram, the idea being that fewer kilograms on the body will make it easier to produce more power on a climb. In other words, they are trying to turn him into somebody he is probably not.

What effect this strategy will have on Evenepoel’s climbing and what not racing competitively for more than two months will do to his in-race decision-making and reactions are more unknowns. Clearly, the feeling underpinning this strategy was desperation. And I’m not really sure that Red Bull actually believes in its prize recruit because they were reportedly trying to sign up Seixas for next year.

The other question is what effect the weight loss will have on his and the team’s time trialing. It would be grievously ironic if he were to lose 30 seconds, say, or more to his rivals in that stage 1 TTT.

The others

If he falters, Red Bull have a very good alternative in the 25-year-old German Florian Lipowitz, who finished third in last year’s Tour and recently won the Tour of Slovenia. Lipowitz is not about to challenge Pogačar or Vingegaard, but if Seixas also disappoints, he’s a strong candidate for the podium. As are Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek). Ayuso especially will want to show his old team, UAE Team Emirates–XRG, that it made a mistake by not believing more in his Grand Tour ability.

A tip: Keep an eye on the stage 1 team time trial. Everybody wants to come out of that wearing the yellow jersey, if only for a day, because it is a tone-setter and a message-bringer, saying, “We mean business and are loaded for bear.”

The Škoda Green Jersey contenders

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Premier Tech) is coming into the Tour in great form, after wins in the Copenhagen Sprint and Baloise Belgium Tour, in which he won the GC and the points classification. He has won 10 Tour stages but only one green jersey, in 2023. He crashed out last year and was beaten in 2024 by Biniam Girmay (now NSN Cycling). He will again have the best lead-out rider in the sport, Mathieu van der Poel, bringing him into position, which should give him an advantage.

He may need it. Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen is coming into the Tour after a disappointing spring season marked by a high-speed crash at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in February, which left him with a fractured wrist and a fractured collarbone on opposite sides of his body. Though he made an astonishingly quick recovery, his form did not. He has yet to win a race this year, but something tells me he was riding in preparation for the Tour.

Other potential green jersey winners include Seixas’s teammate Olav Kooij, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and 2024 Škoda Green Jersey winner Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling).

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Bread has been a dietary staple for centuries, but as obesity rates rise, researchers are questioning whether our reliance on carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, rice, and pasta might be playing a role. A new study from Osaka Metropolitan University shows how carbohydrates may influence weight gain and metabolism in unexpected ways, even when we’re not eating more calories overall.

Weight gain without increasing calorie intake

The research team investigated how mice responded to diets supplemented with bread, wheat flour, or rice flour. Surprisingly, the mice strongly preferred these carbohydrate-rich foods over their standard chow, often abandoning it entirely. Despite no significant increase in total calorie intake, both body weight and fat mass rose in the carb-supplemented groups.

“These findings suggest that weight gain may not be due to wheat-specific effects, but rather to a strong preference for carbohydrates and the associated metabolic changes,” said lead author, Shigenobu Professor Matsumura.

Even more intriguing: the weight gain wasn’t driven by overeating. Instead, the mice’s energy expenditure decreased. Blood tests revealed higher levels of fatty acids and lower levels of essential amino acids, while liver analysis showed increased fat accumulation and activity in genes linked to fatty acid production.

When wheat flour was removed from the diet, body weight and metabolic abnormalities improved rapidly. As Matsumura noted, “We plan to shift our research focus to humans to verify the extent to which the metabolic changes identified in this study apply to actual dietary habits.”

Key findings

• Preference over calories: Mice chose carb-rich foods over standard chow, even without eating more total calories.
• Slower metabolism: Weight gain was linked to reduced energy expenditure, not excess intake.
• Fat accumulation:Liver fat and fatty acid production increased, while essential amino acids dropped.
• Reversible effects: Stopping wheat flour intake quickly normalized body weight and metabolic markers.

Practical takeaways

This study was conducted in mice, so its findings can’t be directly applied to humans. However, it raises thought-provoking questions about how refined carbohydrates might affect our metabolism and appetite. Let’s assume for a minute that these findings would be proven true in humas as well. In that case it would make sense to do the following.

Reconsider your carb sources: If you’re consuming a lot of refined carbs (like white bread or rice), consider switching some of them with fibre-rich whole grains, proteins, and healthy fats to support metabolism and satiety.

Monitor portions: Even if you’re not eating more calories, the type of carbs you choose might influence how your body stores fat.

Prioritize nutrient density: Refined carbs often lack essential amino acids and fibre. Go for whole foods to avoid potential nutrient gaps.

As Matsumura’s team plans to explore these effects in humans, the study serves as a reminder that the relationship between diet and weight is complex, and not just about calories in versus calories out. And as always, real minimally-processed foods seem like the best bet.

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While the peloton’s carb revolution has stolen the spotlight, a quieter evolution has been unfolding in how riders manage fluids. Gone are the days of rigid ‘drink to thirst’ rules as the sole guideline for hydration in cycling. Today, hydration in cycling is science-driven, context-dependent, and finely tuned to the demands of the sport.

Hydration in cycling has long been a contentious topic. Some argue that dehydration is overstated, pointing to studies showing that fluid deficits up to 4% of body mass may not significantly impair performance in lab-based time trials (Goulet, 2011). Others insist that even small fluid losses can compromise cognitive function, decision-making, and power output in the chaotic, high-stakes environment of professional racing.

The UCI project cuts through the noise by focusing on what matters most for cyclists: practical, performance-driven hydration strategies that account for the unique demands of the sport.

Sweat rates

Cyclists face some of the highest sweat rates in endurance sports, often losing 0,6-2 l per hour even in temperate conditions (Ross et al., 2014). In hot weather, total body mass losses of 2-4,5kg in a single race are not uncommon (Atkinson et al., 2003; Ebert et al., 2007).

But here’s the catch: sweat rates are highly individual. They depend on:

• Intensity (higher power = more heat production).
• Environment (temperature, humidity, wind).
• Clothing and positioning (aero positions reduce convective cooling, increasing sweat rates).

The problem? Opportunities to drink are limited. Unlike runners, cyclists can hydrate on the move, but feed zones, race rules, and tactical moments (e.g., attacks, descents) often restrict access to fluids. This creates a unique challenge: balancing fluid needs with practical constraints.

Health & Training

UCI’s Race Nutrition Project: The Carb Periodisation Shift

The sodium question: is less more?

For years, athletes were told to replace every drop of sweat with electrolytes, lest they risk cramps or hyponatremia. But the UCI project reveals a more nuanced truth:

• Sweat sodium losses vary widely and aggressive sodium replacement isn’t always necessary.
• Hyponatremia (low blood sodium) is rare in cycling and is more likely caused by overdrinking than sodium loss (Hew-Butler et al., 2006).
• Performance benefits of sodium supplementation are unclear (Cosgrove & Black, 2013; Earhart et al., 2015). Most riders can replenish sodium after exercise rather than during.

The takeaway? Sodium needs are highly individual and context-dependent. For most riders, standard sports drinks or carb mixes (which already contain electrolytes) are sufficient, no need for extra salt tablets unless you’re a heavy/salty sweater.

Hydration strategies

The UCI project highlights that effective hydration in cycling isn’t just about fluid intake, it’s about strategy, timing, and adaptation. Here’s how the pros do it:

1. Pre-race hydration as a buffer against early deficits

Hyperhydration (drinking extra fluid before a race) can provide a small but valuable buffer, especially in hot conditions or short, high-intensity events (Jardine et al., 2023).

Sodium or glycerol loading may help retain fluid, but practice is key because these strategies can cause GI distress if not tested in training.

2. In-race hydration

Drink to a plan, not just to thirst: While thirst is a useful cue, relying on it alone can lead to underhydration in long or intense races.

Use every opportunity: Feed zones, team cars, and domestiques carrying bottles are all part of the hydration toolkit.

Cold weather is no excuse: Even in cool conditions, sweat losses can be significant and cold reduces the urge to drink, increasing dehydration risk.

3. Post-race hydration to accelerate recovery

Rehydration starts immediately: After a race, fluid + electrolytes help restore balance and kickstart recovery.

Monitor body mass changes: Weighing yourself before and after rides can reveal your sweat rate and help fine-tune your hydration strategy.

Hydration is key for quick decision making

One of the most fascinating insights from the UCI project is the role of hydration in decision-making. While lab studies focus on physical performance, real-world racing is as much mental as it is physical.

Dehydration can impair cognitive function, affecting tactical awareness, reaction time, and judgment. All of these are critical in a peloton where split-second decisions can make or break a race.

Thirst itself can be distracting, pulling focus away from racing. Small, regular sips can help maintain mental clarity.

Key takeaways for competitive amateur cyclists

The pros’ approach to hydration offers clear lessons for amateurs:

• Know your sweat rate: Weigh yourself before and after a ride to estimate fluid losses. Aim to replace 50–80% of sweat losses during exercise.
• Start hydrated: Begin races euhydrated (not over- or under-hydrated). A 500 ml bolus 1-2 hours before can help.
• Drink early and often: Don’t wait until you’re thirsty. Sip regularly (every 15-20 minutes) to stay ahead of fluid deficits.
• Match fluid to carb intake: If you’re fuelling at 60–90g/h, pair it with 500–750ml/h to aid absorption and prevent GI distress.
• Don’t overcomplicate sodium: For most riders, standard sports drinks are sufficient. Only consider extra electrolytes if you’re a heavy sweater or racing in extreme heat.

The hydration science evolution proves that staying on top of fluids isn’t just about avoiding dehydration, it’s about optimizing performance, recovery, and mental sharpness. For amateurs, the message is clear, staying on top of hydration is a must. Master it, and you’ll ride stronger, smarter, and longer.

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Preparing for L’Étape Poland and The Unseen Stage was never going to be straightforward for Ewa Zwolska. Between running a mountain hut high in the mountains, fitting training around long workdays, and travelling to suitable roads for structured sessions, logistics often felt as challenging as the cycling itself.

That is where the Škoda Kodiaq quietly became an important part of the journey. According to Ewa, adapting to the car took almost no time at all. “Life with this car was simply fabulous,” she says. Living in a mountain environment, she immediately appreciated its ability to handle steep roads and changing conditions. “I didn’t worry about the weather when driving up to the mountain hut where I live.”

For a cyclist, practicality often matters more than luxury, and the Kodiaq delivered where it counted. Transporting a bike was effortless. “I easily fit my bike inside the Škoda,” she explains, a feature that simplified training days considerably. The generous interior space proved useful beyond transport as well. “I used the car’s space as a changing room for training,” she says, turning the vehicle into a mobile base camp between rides.

That versatility became especially valuable during the unpredictable spring weather in the mountains. While storage and accessibility were major advantages, comfort quickly became another favourite feature. Zwolska particularly highlights the heated seats and massage function, not only after a demanding training session. “The massage option for the driver and passenger – that’s great,” she laughs. More importantly, the heated seats proved invaluable during cold mountain mornings and family trips alike. “I drove my freezing mother from the station to my place, and the heated seats were a real plus.”

 

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The Kodiaq also impressed when conditions became more demanding. Determined to test its capabilities, Ewa took it onto roads that were far from ideal for ordinary passenger vehicles. “One time for training, I drove up a mountain on a road that wasn’t designed for city cars or low-end SUVs,” she recalls. “The Kodiaq handled it without a problem.” After months of living, working, and training alongside the vehicle, Ewa sees a natural connection between Škoda and cycling culture. “Škoda meets the many needs of the cycling enthusiast,” she says. “It’s ready to meet challenges, ready to travel, transport bikes, and visit beautiful, sometimes difficult-to-reach places.”

That spirit of adventure resonates strongly with her own approach to cycling. Long before structured training and race preparation entered the picture, Ewa rode simply to explore. In that sense, the Kodiaq became more than just a support vehicle during The Unseen Stage. It was a tool that made those adventures easier to reach. And perhaps the strongest endorsement came when the project ended. “Parting with it was sad,” she admits. For a cyclist whose life revolves around movement, discovery, and the mountains, there may be no better review than that.

Ewa’s The Unseen Stage might be over, but you can still cheer on for three more Challengers! See how they are doing so far, vote on their success and win a high-end Superior bicycle or a year-long subscription to TrainingPeaks!

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A few years ago, saying that women’s cycling produced the most entertaining racing in the sport might have sounded like a provocative take. Today, it feels increasingly difficult to argue otherwise.

The growth of women’s cycling over the last decade has been remarkable, to say the least. From better salaries, expanded calendars, live television coverage to dedicated development pathways and the return of major races like the Tour de France Femmes, the sport has been transformed. Not to mention, women’s racing has also become genuinely addictive to watch.

The racing is aggressive, attacks come from far out, favourites are willing to take risks, and races frequently remain undecided until the final kilometres. While men’s cycling still delivers spectacular moments, women’s racing often feels less scripted and more open to chaos.

So how did women’s cycling become the most exciting racing in the sport?

The races are shorter, but the action isn’t

One of the most notable differences between men’s and women’s racing is distance. Women’s races are generally shorter, whether we’re talking about one-day classics or stage races. Critics once used that fact to diminish women’s cycling, but somewhat ironically, it is partially responsible for why the racing is so entertaining.

Shorter race distances compress the action as riders have less time to wait, fewer opportunities to recover from mistakes, and less room for teams to control the race through sheer attrition. The result is full on intensity from the moment the flag drops. You can see it in the classics every spring: attacks start earlier, teams are forced to make decisions sooner, and riders who might sit patiently in a men’s race often have to commit much earlier in a women’s event.

The 2026 season has provided plenty of examples. Whether it was the relentless aggression of the cobbled classics, the tactical fireworks of the Ardennes, or the constant attacks that animated the Giro d’Italia Women, races frequently exploded long before conventional wisdom suggested they should.

Dominance exists, but not in the way it used to

For years, one criticism of women’s cycling was that a handful of teams appeared unbeatable. Yet as the sport has professionalised, the opposite has happened. More teams have gained resources, more riders have developed into leaders, and the talent pool has deepened dramatically.

You just need to took at the current WorldTour landscape for proff. Demi Vollering may be the strongest stage racer in the world, but Anna van der Breggen’s remarkable comeback has added another layer to every stage race she enters. Puck Pieterse continues to blur the lines between disciplines, bringing her mountain-bike explosiveness to the road. Elisa Longo Borghini remains one of the peloton’s smartest and most versatile racers. At the same time, riders like Marlen Reusser, Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney, Lotte Kopecky, and Lorena Wiebes can win races in entirely different ways.

The recent Giro d’Italia Women was a perfect example. Vollering arrived as the favourite but entered the final stage trailing Van der Breggen. Rather than waiting for a safer opportunity, she launched a decisive attack nearly 40 kilometres from the finish and overturned the race on the final day. The Giro remained uncertain until the very last mountain stage, exactly the kind of drama fans crave.

The rivalries feel personal

Rivalries have defined every great era of cycling. Merckx and Ocana. Hinault and Fignon. Van der Poel and Van Aert. Women’s cycling is currently producing rivalries that feel equally compelling but often more accessible.

Part of this stems from the Peloton’s size and the relative youth of the professional scene. Fans have been able to watch many of today’s stars grow from promising juniors into champions. The relationship between Vollering and Van der Breggen may be one of the defining storylines of 2026, but it’s far from the only one. Fans have watched Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering trade blows in the biggest stage races for years. Kopecky and Pieterse have produced some of the most explosive battles in the Classics, while Longo Borghini continues to insert herself into races through tactical savvy and sheer determination.

Even riders who aren’t direct rivals often shape each other’s careers. Marianne Vos remains a benchmark against which generations of riders have measured themselves and young stars entering the peloton are racing against athletes they grew up watching.

Tactical chaos is often rewarded

Perhaps the biggest reason women’s racing is so enjoyable is that unpredictability remains a feature, not a bug. In men’s cycling, the strongest teams can often control races with astonishing precision. Years of optimisation, larger budgets, and immense squad depth sometimes produce races where fans can accurately predict the outcome hours before the finish.

Watch almost any major women’s race, and you’ll see situations that would never survive the tactical discipline of the men’s WorldTour. Breakaways gain more freedom, underdogs undeniably have more opportunities, and race favourites are often forced to improvise.

Puck Pieterse has become one of the best examples of this dynamic. Her willingness to attack from unexpected distances or force selections on terrain that doesn’t appear decisive often creates races that feel impossible to script. Riders like Longo Borghini have built entire careers on exploiting these moments of uncertainty.

Fans can still connect with the athletes

Professional cycling’s growth has brought many benefits, but it has also created distance between athletes and fans. Women’s cycling, though, has managed to grow without completely losing its accessibility.

At races, riders are often more approachable. Social media interactions feel less heavily managed, and fans can still develop genuine connections with athletes rather than viewing them as distant celebrities.

The success of riders like Uttrup Ludwig, Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Kopecky, Longo Borghini, Vos, and Pieterse has been shared in a more personal way, and fans feel invested in their journeys. They know the setbacks, the comebacks, the near misses, and the personalities behind the performances.

The future looks even better

The most exciting part may be that women’s cycling still feels like it’s really only getting started.

The Women’s WorldTour calendar is deeper than ever, and teams across the board are investing more heavily in development. Junior pathways are becoming more structured, and the talent pipeline is extraordinary.

Zoe Bäckstedt continues to develop into one of the sport’s most versatile young talents, Isabella Holmgren has already shown she can compete with the world’s best climbers despite her age, and riders like Cat Ferguson represent another wave of athletes arriving through increasingly sophisticated development systems. That means the next generation won’t simply replace today’s champions, but will be ready in time to challenge them.

The sweet spot

Every sport goes through phases, and women’s cycling currently occupies a rare sweet spot.

The sport is professional enough that the performances are extraordinary, and the athletes are among the most complete and talented cyclists the world has ever seen. Yet it remains open enough that races still feel unpredictable, emotional, and genuinely exciting.

Perhaps that’s why so many cycling fans who start watching women’s racing quickly become devoted followers. They are after the feeling that absolutely anything could happen, and quite often, it does.

The post How Women’s Road Cycling Became the Most Exciting Racing in the Sport appeared first on Škoda We Love Cycling.

Probably the biggest news to come out of last week’s orgy of national championships was that Visma–Lease a Bike’s Edoardo Affini crashed heavily on a descent in Friday’s Italian National Time Trial Championship, making his participation at the Tour de France far from certain.

Another blow to Visma’s Tour ambitions?

If he fails to become fit for the Tour, it would be another blow to Jonas Vingegaard’s ambition to beat arch-nemesis Tadej Pogačar and complete the rare Giro-Tour double, which the Slovenian accomplished in 2024. The crash occurred 6 km into the 40.3 km race from Santuario di Vicoforte to Barolo, when a tyre reportedly blew off the rim, causing the bike to hit a guardrail at high speed.

Affini was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Mondovì. A statement by Visma later said that hospital X-rays and CT scans showed no broken bones, which was a major relief considering the violence of the crash and the fact that it would have ruled him out from riding the Tour. However, he did sustain a deep gash in his groin, which required internal and external stitches to close. As a result, the team kept Bart Lemmen out of Sunday’s Dutch Road Race Championships in Nijmegen in case he had to replace Affini in the Tour.

Last year, in his first Tour de France with Visma, Affini played an important role in positioning Vingegaard in the peloton while riding through potentially hazardous situations and keeping him safe during the chaotic final kilometres of a bunch sprint. He is meant to play the same role this year and would also be an essential part of the team’s time trial squad for the important stage 1 TTT on July 4 in Barcelona.

If Affini is unable to ride, it would be the team’s third major loss from the Tour squad after the loss due to injury of Christophe Laporte earlier in the year and Wout van Aert during the recent Tour Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes.

Ganna and Milan win national titles

In actual racing news, to no one’s astonishment, Filippo Ganna (Netcompany INEOS) won the Italian National Time Trial Championship by more than 2 minutes. It was the seventh national ITT title of his career. Luca Giaimi (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) finished second, at 2:07, with Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) coming third, 2:36 adrift.

Lidl-Trek’s powerful sprinter Jonathan Milan won Saturday’s Italian National Road Race Championship, beating Tommaso Dati (Team UKYO) and Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) with a typical powerful, long-range burst of speed. It was a welcome change of fortune for the 25-year-old Milan, who had a disappointing Giro d’Italia, where he was soundly beaten in the points classification by 22-year-old Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) and did not win a stage in his home Grand Tour until the final day in Rome. This was Milan’s first national championship win.

Groupama rules France

The French National Road Race Championships were a clean sweep for Groupama–FDJ United, with 23-year-old Romain Grégoire winning the road race, for his first national title, and Rémi Cavagna taking the time trial. In 2025, Grégoire had finished second in the event, outkicked at the line by sprinter Dorion Godon, then racing for Decathlon Ag2R La Mondiale (now Netcompany INEOS). But Sunday’s 225.5 km course, which began and ended in La Tour-du-Pin, was a puncheur’s delight consisting of 14½ circuits and 29 short, punchy climbs.

Grégoire broke away from a six-rider lead group on the last of those ascents, with 3.2 km left to ride, and soon had an irresistible gap. He beat Paul Lapeira (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 13 seconds, with Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies) coming third, at 14 seconds.

In Thursday’s time trial, Cavagna beat defending and three-time champion Bruno Amirail (Visma–Lease a Bike) by a whopping 48 seconds, with his 23-year-old Groupama teammate Ewen Costiou finishing third, at 1:03. It was the fourth national championship title for Cavagna, as he won the ITT in 2020 and 2023 and the road race championships in 2021.

Lots of no-shows in Belgium 

Sunday’s Belgian National Road Race Championship suffered from its proximity in time to the Tour de France, with numerous riders, including Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe), reportedlypulling out with certified medical excuses. Participation at the Belgian national championships is mandatory, hence the need for a doctor’s note. In addition to Evenepoel, the missing included Wout van Aert (Visma–Lease a Bike), who is actually injured, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar), Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM), and Evenepoel’s teammate Maxim Van Gils.

For the record, Rune Herregodts (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) was the surprise winner of the road race title, outsprinting Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin–Premier Tech) and Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal Quick-Step) to take the biggest win of his career. Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) won Friday’s ITT championship race, beating last year’s Belgian road race champion, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates–XRG), by 6 seconds, with Segaert’s teammate Vlad Van Mechelen coming third, 14 seconds adrift. The course had been shortened to 20.7 km due to the intense heat.

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When Ewa Zwolska joined The Unseen Stage, she never saw herself as a cyclist chasing a result. She was the mountain hut manager who squeezed training between exhausting workdays, the adventurer who loved long journeys more than structured workouts, and, perhaps most importantly, the Challenger who openly doubted whether she would even make it to the finish line. Months later, standing on the other side of L’Étape Poland, her story is not one of perfect preparation or flawless execution. It is something much more relatable: the story of someone who achieved a goal she was never fully convinced was possible.

From the very beginning, Zwolska’s expectations were modest. “The goal was to finish the race,” she says. “Finishing itself seemed difficult and unattainable.” So uncertain was she about the outcome that she often joked about being last. “I kept saying I wanted to finish last because someone has to be the last, but at the same time, I simply dreamed of reaching the finish line.”

That dream carried her through months of training that often felt impossible to balance with the realities of running a mountain hut. Looking back now, there are things she would change. More climbing-specific preparation tops the list. “If I were to prepare again, I would do more uphill runs during training,” she says, recognising that her demanding work schedule left little room for additional cycling. Yet when race day finally arrived, something unexpected happened.

“I surprised myself,” she admits. For much of the event, she was riding stronger than she had imagined. “I was doing very well until the 60-kilometre mark.” On the famous climb through Ząb, she found herself overtaking other riders and maintaining a solid pace afterwards. For someone who had spent months questioning her fitness and worrying about whether she belonged on the start line, it was a powerful moment of validation. The race eventually delivered the suffering she had anticipated. “The last 40 kilometres against the wind took their toll,” she says. Fatigue accumulated and every kilometre became harder. But she kept moving.

 

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That determination was perhaps most remarkable given how she felt before the start. “I was very stressed,” she recalls. Surrounded by riders discussing expected times and results, she struggled to believe she was capable of completing the challenge herself. “I didn’t believe it was possible for me.” Then came the finish line. Not euphoria. Not triumph. Relief. “It’s great that it’s over,” she laughs. “The last few climbs were brutal.” It is an answer that perfectly captures the honesty that defined Zwolska’s journey from the beginning. For Ewa, The Unseen Stage was never about becoming a different person. It was about discovering what was already there.

Now, as she returns to everyday life, some things remain unchanged. She still views cycling as freedom, exploration, and discovery. “I’m returning to romantic cycling,” she says, joking about the contrast between adventure riding and training by watts and power zones. Yet something has shifted. She now finds herself wanting to revisit climbs, compare efforts, and see how she measures up against her previous self. The rider who once doubted she belonged at L’Étape has started thinking like an athlete.

Most importantly, she no longer questions whether accepting the challenge was the right decision. “It was a beautiful adventure,” she says. “It showed me what preparation for training looks like, what cycling is in a sense, and I’m glad I took up this challenge.” And if the opportunity came once more? “If you asked me again,” she says, “I would do it.” For someone who once feared she would fail before she even started, that may be the greatest finish-line victory of all.

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When Markko Karu joined The Unseen Stage, he already knew what L’Étape could demand. The Estonian rider had experienced the event three times before, built years of endurance through mountain biking and long-distance riding, and approached this year’s challenge with quiet determination. But structured training, which includes discipline, recovery protocols, nutrition tracking, and constant attention to detail, has revealed something different: not just stronger legs, but a deeper understanding of himself.

The most noticeable thing about Karu’s approach is that motivation is rarely dramatic. There are no elaborate rituals, rewards or self-persuasion tricks before training sessions. “I am generally good at following plans and being disciplined,” he says simply. Consistency, rather than bursts of excitement, is what carries him forward. Yet the past few weeks have still forced him to think about balance. “What is challenging about endurance sports is justifying the hobby against other aspects of life,” he reflects. “Your family, work, and social life should not be sacrificed just because you become obsessed with training.”

That awareness may be one of the most important strengths he has discovered during this process. The challenge is not only physical – it is learning how to pursue ambitious goals without losing perspective. And still, there have been moments that surprised even him. “During the first race of the season last Sunday, I felt light and capable the whole time,” he says. “My power output still has room for improvement, but I already feel much more capable than I used to.”

It is a subtle but meaningful shift. Not the sudden transformation often romanticised in sport, but the gradual realisation that consistent work is changing something fundamental. Weeks earlier, many of the demands of structured training felt unfamiliar: riding to precise power targets, carefully fuelling sessions, getting used to a new bike fit, learning recovery routines, and staying mentally engaged throughout every ride. Now, those habits are becoming second nature – and the results are beginning to show.

 

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Interestingly, Karu believes the greatest obstacle for him is not mental, but physical. When asked what gets in the way most, he mentions his body. “I need to give it enough time to recover in order to avoid injuries and fatigue.” That answer says a lot about where he is in the process. For many riders, motivation fades before the body does. Karu’s challenge is the opposite: learning when not to push.

Behind the scenes, support from home has also become a crucial part of the journey. He credits much of that stability to his wife, particularly when it comes to nutrition and recovery.

“She is an excellent cook, so for her, food is never just ingredients,” he says. “She puts real effort into creating delicious dishes that also meet my nutritional needs.” More than that, she understands the time and energy the challenge requires. “Of course, she also tolerates my absence because of training,” he adds with a smile.

As the workload builds and L’Étape draws closer, Karu is becoming increasingly aware of just how demanding this process truly is. Asked whether he could maintain this level of preparation year-round, his answer is immediate. “No. At the moment, this clearly goes beyond the boundaries of a hobby.”

And perhaps that is exactly what The Unseen Stage is meant to uncover: the moment when an ordinary rider realises they are capable of far more than they originally imagined, even if only for a single season, a single goal or a single start line.

Don’t forget to vote on Markko’s success on The Unseen Stage website. Answering the question, Will Markko become “the best version of himself”, or will everyday life catch up to him?, will get you entered in a draw for a high-end Superior bike or a one-year TrainingPeaks subscription!

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Visma–Lease a Bike has named two young riders to the squad that will accompany Jonas Vingegaard in his quest to win his third Tour de France title and achieve the rare Giro-Tour double, following his dominant victory in the Giro d’Italia a month ago.

Davide Piganzoli, 23, and 22-year-old Per Strand Hagenes will be making their Tour debuts, Lead Sports Director and soon-to-be Head of Racing Marc Reef said via a YouTube “Reveal” posted on Visma’s website this week. This will be the first Grand Tour Hagenes has ridden, while Piganzoli made his Grand Tour debut in 2023, when he tackled the Giro for the Pro-level Polti Kometa team.

He also rode the Giro in 2025 and again this year, his first with Visma, when he was Vingegaard’s primary mountain domestique as the Dane won five stages and the Giro GC. However, Piganzoli had not been expected to ride in the Tour until Wout van Aert was ruled out due to a serious elbow infection. The young Italian was as surprised as anyone when he was named to the squad.

“Marco [Reef] called me a few days ago,” he said. “My answer was like ‘What?’ It’s amazing!” Piganzoli will come into the Tour in fine form, after dominating last week’s three-stage La Route d’Occitanie, winning the mountainous final stage by nearly 2 minutes.

“We believe he’s ready to do the double and be an added value for the Tour de France,” Reef said, while also regretting van Aert’s absence. “Of course it’s a big blow that Wout cannot go [to the Tour]. And it’s also difficult to replace such a rider. In the last couple of years he has been making such a big difference on many occasions.”

Hagenes is the first rider from Visma’s development team to take part in the Tour. In addition to providing power in the flats, he will be aiding 30-year-old Edoardo Affini with the task of keeping Vingegaard safe and riding where he needs to be in the peloton. He has had a strong year, coming second in the E3 Saxo Classic behind Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Premier Tech) and winning the Antwerp Port Epic. He was also a member of the Visma squad that won the team time trial at the Tour Auverne–Rhône-Alpes.

Affini joined Visma in 2024 and will be riding in his second Tour for the team. He is its “pilot fish” and can ride lead-out in a bunch sprint or bring Vingegaard to safety in the chaotic final kilometers of a stage. “He’s a big guy with a lot of horsepower,” Reef noted.

The other members of Vingegaard’s Tour support team are veteran mountain domestique and Vuelta a España winner Sepp Kuss, the indefatigable all-terrain rider Victor Campenaerts, the 26-year-old two-time Paris-Nice winner Matteo Jorgenson and 32-year-old team newcomer Bruno Amirail.

Amirail is a three-time French time trial champion and will be expected to play a major role in the team time trial that kicks off the Tour on July 4 in Barcelona. Reef said that the stage 1 TTT was a crucial part of the team’s strategy. “It shows how strong you are as a team, not only the riders, but also the whole organization behind. We [have taken] this seriously for a long time; since 2019 we invested a lot of time and energy in this part of cycling. . . . It’s something where we can already make a difference as a team in the GC for Jonas.”

As for Jorgenson, he is not only an important part of the team’s mountains strategy, but also invaluable as a road leader, Reef said. “He is always in the race. He has the overview of what’s going on in the race . . . and because he has the overview, he can make decisions.”

But Piganzoli may be the team’s unexpected ace in the hole because of his strength as a climber. For Reef, the two most important parts of this year’s Tour de France are the beginning and the end, the stage 1 TTT (as already cited above) and the two big mountain stages that come before the race’s final day. “The hardest stages or where the biggest difference is going to be made is towards the end, for example, the two times [climbing] the Alpe d’Huez,” Reef said.

Actually, the second ascent of the Alpe d’Huez, on stage 20, isn’t what it sounds like. It comes right after not much of a descent from the brutal Col de Sarenne (12.9km @ 7.3%), and consists of an uncategorized climb of only 3.8km at only 6.1%. Chances are good that the stage and the race will have been decided before that final challenge, perhaps on the Sarenne or even the previous day, on the foot-to-summit climb of the Alpe (13.8km @ 8.1%).

With Piganzoli joining Kuss and Jorgenson, Vingegaard now has a deep climbing group capable of matching UAE Team Emirates–XRG on those steep alpine ascents, whether on the Alpe or the Sarenne. And the Dane is confident again after taking nearly two years to recover his best form after that brutal crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country.

“It gave me confidence for the Tour de France, coming out of the Giro in a good way, [by] winning five stages,” he said on the reveal. “I have a lot of belief in myself, and that gives the other guys belief, belief in the plan we have, and belief that it’s possible to win the Tour de France again… I feel like I’m a stronger version of who I was back then,” when he last won the Tour, in 2023.

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