Pogacar rules cycling world with total pedal power after brushing off mid-season blues

A fifth successive Il Lombardia triumph completed another dominant season for the Slovenian, while on the women’s tour Pauline Ferrand-Prévot divided opinion

Tadej Pogacar’s command of world cycling now seems limitless. The Slovenian ended 2025 as he began it, dominating a coveted Italian classic, Il Lombardia, to win the “race of the falling leaves” for the fifth time straight.

The 27-year-old had started his European season by winning the Tuscan gravel race, Strade Bianche. He closed it having matched Italian icon Fausto Coppi’s record of five Lombardy wins and Eddy Merckx’s achievement of winning three “monument” races, the Tour de France and the world road race title in the same year.

Continue reading...

Former Israel-Premier Tech cyclist faces €30m damages claim after ending contract over ‘personal belief’

  • Derek Gee: ‘Decision weighed heavily on conscience’

  • Team says case will go before arbitral board of UCI

Canadian cyclist Derek Gee says he is facing a damages claim of €30m from his former team Israel-Premier Tech after ending his contract over what he described as “personal beliefs”.

The 28-year-old finished fourth overall at this year’s Giro d’Italia, but left Israel-Premier Tech shortly before September’s Vuelta a España, a race which was subject to pro-Palestinian protests linked to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Continue reading...

‘I’m the total opposite to Cav and Brad’: Geraint Thomas on how a normal bloke won the Tour de France

The two-time Olympic gold medallist details the grit and sacrifice needed to succeed and says Ineos are held to a different standard than other teams

“I’m pretty laidback and don’t take myself too seriously off the bike,” Geraint Thomas says as, in retirement, the 2018 Tour de France winner reflects on the contrast between his relaxed public persona and his real self. “I think people assume I’m like that in every aspect of my life. But when it came to training and racing I took it really seriously. I did everything I could to reach my very best and always go as deep as possible. I had that determination to perform.”

The 39-year-old Welshman pauses as he thinks of his old contemporaries Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins: “Cav was obviously a lot more outspoken. I didn’t tend to tell people what I was hoping to do. And Brad’s spoken recently about how he had troubles in the past while he portrayed the whole rock-star image.

Continue reading...

Unstoppable Tadej Pogacar defends men’s road race world title in Rwanda

  • Pogacar reclaims rainbow jersey he won last year

  • Remco Evenepoel second, Ireland’s Ben Healy third

Tadej Pogacar lit up Kigali’s climbs with a trademark long-range attack to claim a second consecutive men’s road race world title on Sunday.

There was an air of inevitability surrounding the event in Rwanda as the Slovenian cemented his legacy among cycling’s all-time greats. Pogacar triumphed as the world championships were staged in Africa for the first time, with hundreds of thousands cheering from the roadside.

Continue reading...

Magdeleine Vallieres hits heights to win Canada’s first world road race title

  • Unfancied Vallieres breaks clear on final climb

  • Fisher-Black and García complete podium

Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres took a surprise gold in the women’s road race at the Road World Championships after a decisive attack on the final climb on Saturday in Kigali. The 24-year-old was in a lead group with New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black and Spain’s Mavi García near the end of the 164km slog on a hilly circuit in the Rwandan capital when she burst clear.

Powering up the ascent towards the finish line, Vallieres stayed clear of Fisher-Black, who came home second with García third. Vallieres won by 23sec to become Canada’s first road champion. Fisher-Black was second with Garcia, trying to become the oldest road world champion at 41, third, 26sec back. Switzerland’s Elise Chabbey was fourth at 41sec. The favourites trailed home in the chasing group after being caught out and leaving their response too late.

Continue reading...

Marlen Reusser and Remco Evenepoel take world time trial titles in Rwanda

  • Swiss Reusser beats Kigali field by 51.89sec to take gold

  • Belgium’s Evenepoel passes Pogacar on way to victory

Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser overcame illness this year to win the women’s individual time trial at the cycling Road World Championships in Kigali on Sunday, while Remco Evenepoel of Belgium won a third successive men’s individual time trial title.

Reusser finished 51.89sec quicker than the rest of the field for a dominant victory, taking the rainbow jersey in a time of 43min 09.34sec around the 31.2km course in Rwanda’s capital on the opening day of the week-long championships, being hosted in Africa for the first time.

Continue reading...

Cycling world heads for Rwanda under a cloud of controversy after Vuelta chaos

First road world championships in Africa should be cause for celebration – instead the sport is mired in controversy

Africa’s first hosting of the road world championships should be a moment of celebration for cycling and the continent but Rwanda instead finds itself the backdrop to a sport mired in infighting and controversy.

The Vuelta a España ended on Sunday after three weeks of racing characterised by mass pro-Palestinian demonstrations against the presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team.

Continue reading...

Vuelta chaos shows selling sport as a tool for peace can create its own battlefield | Jonathan Liew

Once teams promote a country, are owned by states or have to reflect government policy, sport becomes a playground for power

High fives all round at Hamas high command. The triumphant clink of Gaza Cola tins pings across the bunker. It’s been a tough week for the lads, what with five of their members being killed in the Doha airstrike, but you’ve got to celebrate the little victories, yeah? And as they use what remains of their fragile satellite internet connection to refresh the Cyclingnews live blog for the final time, the Hamas Grand Tour Disruption Division (Vuelta Branch) can toast an operation executed to perfection: the successful mobilisation of more than 100,000 members of the Madrid battalion to force the curtailment of stage 21 of the Tour of Spain.

“They asked us to quit the Vuelta, but we did not surrender to the terrorists,” said Sylvan Adams, co‑owner of the Israel-Premier Tech team targeted by mass protests that disrupted several stages. On Sunday, huge crowds of protesters in Madrid forced the race to conclude 27 miles short of the finish. And if the rancorous and chaotic last three weeks have taught us anything, it is the sheer number of terrorists that appear to have been operating within pro cycling, albeit many armed with nothing more lethal than energy gels.

Continue reading...

Cycling teams could boycott races involving Israel-Premier Tech after Vuelta chaos

World Tour cycling teams may refuse to race against Israel-Premier Tech following the multiple protests ­during the Vuelta a España that exploded into street violence in central Madrid on Sunday.

Sources within rival teams have expressed their dismay to the Guardian at the refusal of the team to ­withdraw from the Vuelta and the lack of protection from the International Cycling Union (UCI) for its own commercial and sporting interests.

Continue reading...

Vingegaard wins Vuelta after final stage cancelled amid pro-Palestinian protests in Madrid

  • Organisers cancel stage and declare Vingegaard winner

  • Protesters threw barricades into the street on Gran Vía

The final stage of the Vuelta a España was abandoned in chaotic and violent scenes, after groups of pro-Palestine protesters swamped the finish line area and presentation podium in central Madrid on Sunday.

As huge crowds engulfed the finish area, the race leader Jonas Vingegaard, his Visma Lease-a-bike team and the rest of the peloton were forced to turn back from the city centre, with more than 55km still to race on stage 21. In an official statement, the Vuelta organisers said: “For security reasons, stage 21 of La Vuelta has been ended early. There will be no podium ceremony.”

Continue reading...

Pidcock ready for podium as Vingegaard all but guarantees Vuelta triumph with stage win

  • Pidcock: ‘It’s the biggest performance of my career’

  • Leader takes 1:16 advantage into Sunday’s final stage

Tom Pidcock stands to finish on the podium of the Vuelta a España on Sunday after surviving the final mountain test as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to take a stage 20 win that all but seals his overall victory.

Pidcock, defending an advantage of 39sec over Jai Hindley, wrestled his bike up gradients in excess of 20% to the summit of the Bola del Mundo – the last 3km of which were ridden on broken concrete in a brutal test of stamina at the end of three weeks.

Continue reading...

Jasper Philipsen sprints to victory on stage 19 to complete Vuelta hat-trick

  • Belgian rider wins his third stage of 2025 race

  • Jonas Vingegaard adds four seconds to overall lead

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen sprinted clear at the end of stage 19 to seal his third win at this year’s Vuelta a España on Friday while Jonas Vingegaard added four seconds to his overall advantage over Joño Almeida.

After 160km of relatively flat riding in west central Spain, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Philipsen burst to the front near the finish and never looked like being caught. Denmark’s Mads Pedersen was the first to make his move but could not hold off Philipsen and he crossed the line in second place with Venezuela’s Orluis Aular third.

Continue reading...