Category: Cycling

• Visma-Lease a Bike rider left bloodied by spill in the rain

• Dane recovers to pip Ciccone on mountain finish

Jonas Vingegaard finished strongly to win the mountainous second stage of the Vuelta a España on Sunday, emphasising his status as the general classification favourite in the absence of Tadej Pogacar by outsprinting Giulio Ciccone on the slopes of Limone Piemonte in northern Italy.

Vingegaard had to get off the tarmac to get his hands on the red jersey after being involved in a big crash that included a number of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates, but he was able to rejoin the peloton with just a bloodied left elbow. The Danish rider went on to triumph in a mass sprint featuring a number of GC rivals on the climb to the town near the Italian border with France.

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• Belgian claims red jersey after sprint finish

• Opening stage starts in Italy for the first time

Jasper Philipsen, of Alpecin-Deceuninck, won stage one of the Vuelta a España in a sprint finish on Saturday to take the red jersey in a repeat of his heroics in the first stage of the Tour de France where he registered his last Grand Tour stage win.

Philipsen had also taken the yellow jersey at last month’s Tour before a serious crash, where he fractured his collarbone and needed surgery, ruled him out of the rest of the race two days later.

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Dane hopes to end two-year Grand Tour drought at the Vuelta a España, with the Tour de France winner and Remco Evenepoel absent

Jonas Vingegaard’s latest bid to escape the constant shadow of Tadej Pogacar and reboot his status as a Grand Tour winner kicks off this Saturday at the Vuelta a España.

The Dane’s two-year Grand Tour drought – his last success was in the 2023 Tour de France – has been marked by a near-fatal crash and some occasionally unseemly jostling for leadership within his Visma–Lease a Bike team.

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• Richardson completes 200m flying start in 8.941sec

• Tanfield falls short in attempt to break hour record

Britain’s Matt Richardson and Will Bjergfelt set world records at a ­special event backed by British Cycling in Turkey on Thursday.

Richardson became the first man to go under nine seconds in the 200m flying start, recording a time of 8.941sec in Konya. The 26-year-old, who switched allegiance from Australia to Britain last year, surpassed the mark set by Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands.

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The fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes has come to an end with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot taking the yellow jersey after nine gruelling stages. We take a look at the best images from the last two weeks

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• Australian finishes sixth on general classification after tough finale

• Long Joux-Plane descent proves Gigante’s undoing on stage 9

Australia’s Sarah Gigante was forced to settle for sixth place in the women’s Tour de France as Pauline Ferrand-Prevot claimed victory for the hosts. Starting the day second in the GC, Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) lost ground on the Joux-Plane descent and finally finished the stage seventh.

“It was two hours of pain, heartbreak and hope all in one,” she said at the finish.

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Kim Le Court became the first African rider to win a TdF Femmes stage thanks to a clinical sprint finish in Guéret

152km to go: “We’ll have to see how the day will go,” said the race leader Marianne Vos before today’s stage. “It’s the longest stage and there is more climbing in the final. Every rider, the whole bunch wants to be in the breakaway today. So it’s going to be an especially tough start.”

Regarding the points classification battle with Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) –the green-jersey wearer Wiebes leads Vos by 40pts – she said: “Lorena has a good advantage, and as we said up front, that’s not the main target. With Lorena as competition you know that’s going to be hard.”

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• Wiebes holds off Marianne Vos to triumph in Poitiers

• Demi Vollering continues after Monday’s heavy crash

Lorena Wiebes stormed to her second consecutive stage victory at the Tour de France Femmes on Tuesday, winning the fourth leg after denying Marianne Vos in a sprint finish at Poitiers.

Dutch rider Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) made her move around 250m from the line on a short uphill finish, with compatriot and overall leader Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) unable to overhaul her. Ireland’s Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) was third across the line in the bunch sprint.

Jeremy Whittle’s full report will follow

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The green jersey leader Lorena Wiebes proved too strong for the second day running on a classic sprinters’ stage

110km to go: There are lots of attacks, lots of riders looking to get in the break. But they’ve all been shut down.

115km to go: The peloton, 145 in number, is all together.

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Dave Brailsford was hailed as a ‘not-so-secret-weapon’ on his return to the Tour de France but an investigation into a staff member has overshadowed the team’s modest successes

As Tadej Pojacar stood on the Champs-Élysées podium, celebrating his fourth victory in the Tour de France, the man who led British cyclists to multiple yellow jerseys and numerous Olympic gold medals had already flown home to Monaco.

Not that long ago, a Dave Brailsford-led success in the Tour de France was almost routine. From 2012 to 2019 when riders from Team Sky, and later Ineos, won seven titles in eight years, Brailsford was at the heart of it all.

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After 21 stages and 3,338km, this year’s Tour came to an end in Paris. Here are our favourite images from the last three weeks

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If ever a cyclist was suited to the intensity of the modern, made-for-TV format of the Tour, it is Tadej Pogacar

Fourth Tour wins are, I once wrote, “more for the record books than the heart … the penultimate step to cycling greatness, [they] often do little to warm the soul at the time”. The past three weeks suggests that nothing has changed. It’s far from the four stages of grief, but you could argue that a first Tour victory is met with surprise and delight, a second admiration, the third respect, the fourth resignation.

As Tadej Pogacar’s fourth Tour win approached with the inevitability of a steamroller this week the chief cycling writer at l’Equipe, Alex Roos, grumbled about the Slovene’s lack of joie de vivre. “For the last few days, his sulks, his grumbles, his bad mood have blurred and eaten away at the ambience of the end of this Tour, because how can you get enthusiastic if the Yellow Jersey himself gives the impression of being bored and going through something painful …?”

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• Mavi García breaks clear with 10km left and clings on

• Kim Le Court Pienaar takes yellow from Marianne Vos

The veteran Spanish rider Mavi García claimed victory in a demanding second stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, attacking solo in the closing kilometres to secure a dramatic win in Quimper after a 110.4km ride from Brest.

The 41-year-old Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider launched her decisive move with 10km remaining, opening a gap of about 20 seconds on the chasing pack. She held on through the explosive final climb, crossing the line three seconds ahead of her pursuers.

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