Category: Cycling

• Briton’s last race is Tour de France Criterium in Singapore
• ‘I have achieved everything that I can on the bike’

Mark Cavendish has confirmed he will retire on Sundaytoday, ending a career that includes the all-time record for most stage victories at the Tour de France and four world titles on the track and road.

The 39-year-old, who announced his retirement last May before reversing that decision five months later, revealed his decision with a post on Instagram, which showed his greatest victories before ending with a simple message: “My racing career … completed it.”

Continue reading...

Former world champion appears in Adelaide court 10 months after partner, a fellow worlds winner and Olympian, died outside their family home

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The former world champion cyclist Rohan Dennis has delayed pleading to charges over the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins, so negotiations with prosecutors can continue.

Dennis, 34, was arrested after Hoskins, 32, was struck by his vehicle in front of their home at Medindie in Adelaide’s inner north on 30 December last year.

Continue reading...

• Race begins in Lille on 5 July and returns to Paris finale
• Tour de France Femmes begins in Brittany on 26 July

Mountains, crosswinds, cobbles and time trials: none of the hazards of the 2025 Tour de France route, unveiled in Paris on Tuesday, are likely to derail the seemingly unstoppable Tadej Pogacar, winner of almost every race worth winning in 2024.

Next summer the Slovenian – once a cheeky prodigy but now a ruthless terminator – will be back at the Tour’s Grand Départ, for a race that starts in Lille on 5 July and returns to the traditional finale, after a one-year absence because of the Paris Olympics, on the Champs-Élysées in the capital on 27 July.

Continue reading...

The courage with which he faces his diagnosis is typical of a man who engages with life in his own way, with perspective

At a certain age, joked Sir Chris Hoy in October 2011, you don’t even buy green bananas. The throwaway remark was intended to underline the complexities and unpredictabilities of being a “senior” athlete – Hoy was then 35, seemingly blessed with eternal youth – but it seems grimly apposite in the light of the Scot’s announcement that he has terminal cancer and may have only between two and four years to live.

There has been universal warmth and admiration for the way Hoy has dealt with his diagnosis, revealed publicly in an interview with the Sunday Times. An upcoming memoir, All That Matters, will go into further detail, along with relating the multiple sclerosis diagnosis of Hoy’s wife, Sarra. The unflinching courage shown by Hoy, the acknowledgment of the tremendous difficulty of processing and communicating what has happened to their family, underlines that here is a remarkable human being, who engages with life – and death – in his own way, with a humbling degree of perspective.

Continue reading...

After Hoy’s announcement that he has terminal cancer, we look back at some of the career highlights that made him a household name

Continue reading...

• Rider helps Great Britain defend team pursuit title
• Archibald missed Paris Olympics with serious leg injuries

Katie Archibald struck gold on her return from serious leg injuries as Great Britain successfully defended the women’s team pursuit title at the Cycling World Championships in Denmark.

Archibald’s hopes of more Olympic success in Paris were dashed when she suffered a fractured tibia and fibula, dislocated ankle and ligament damage in a freak accident when stumbling over a step in her garden in June.

Continue reading...

Katie Archibald, who returns to racing for GB at the worlds in Denmark, is eyeing the LA Olympics despite being upended by the death of her partner and a horrific injury

Katie Archibald reflects on the differences between sport, life and death with such moving insight that I have to look away. So much raw ­feeling is etched into her face, as her eyes fill with tears, that it seems intrusive to just sit and see such pain. I touch her arm lightly in attempted reassurance and then try to turn ­discreetly to the gleaming pine track where the GB men’s team pursuit squad race past at blurring speed.

The soft hiss of their bikes makes an eerie sound at the Manchester Velodrome as they prepare for the track world championships, which begin in Ballerup, Denmark on Wednesday. Archibald, a five-time world champion who won gold at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, will compete in the women’s team pursuit and Madison. Even being on the track will be an incredible achievement.

Continue reading...