Table of contents for January 22, 2026 in Cycling Weekly

As he sat down to address the media inside Leeds City Museum last Thursday, Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme used a phrase he had perhaps never said before. “Ee bah gum,” he said with a smile, rousing a chuckle from the local Yorkshire reporters. The moment signalled Prudhomme was in a playful mood. He knew, after all, that what he was about to announce would please people. And not just the locals. Oh no. The 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, he revealed, will not be contained within these county walls. Across six days next summer, they’ll span the length of Great Britain, visiting Scotland, England and Wales, stopping in big cities like Edinburgh, Manchester and London, but also smaller towns like Welshpool…

They are proposing two classifications of courses. The competition class effectively remains as current with national championships, and course records to be considered on these courses. Desmond Gayler L253 (course number) near Garstang had lights on it in the 1980s and always had a full field for evening events. I admit it was sometimes a lottery, but at least you could race. Spotters were there for any infringements. Dave Walker One challenge I see is having to get a dozen massive warning signs in a car and out on the course for a club TT for a dozen riders. Then take them all in again. It’s a lot of hassle for very little (if any) safety improvement. All for 12 single riders on quiet roads. Then at the weekend we…

Remco Evenepoel’s bike has been one of the most striking in the peloton, a rolling tribute to his Olympic double at the Paris 2024 road race and time trial. As tradition dictates, the Olympic champion’s bike will always feature a golden theme running throughout the design, and last year Evenpoel’s Soudal Quick-Step machine was a pure gold number. The bike he will ride for his new team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is a far more refined and subtle homage to his achievements. As has become the norm for Specialized-sponsored teams, Red Bull gave Remco’s bike to custom paintwork specialists Lumarcolors, and they’ve done an exquisite job. It still adheres to the team’s design DNA but uses gold more subtly than before. As a result, there’s some beautiful gold leaf applied to the…

While the outgoing model and the new Trenta 3K Carbon look pretty similar, there are a host of improvements that Met claims centre on the idea of form following function. The new Trenta uses 20 vents, one more than the outgoing model. These vents, coupled with what it calls the new Airframe (a carbon wing structure that removes EPS from the internal frame and features open-air channels), have delivered a 16% improvement in airflow. This has resulted in a continuous internal air channel running from front to back, with two pronounced exhaust ports located in the upper rear section. While the Airframe is functional, it’s also aesthetic, adding contrast to the outer shell, which is available in four colours. The new Trenta 3K Carbon is available in three sizes (small,…

With its gold carbon rims and stickeredup detailing, Tekkerz rider Benji Tuchner’s Canyon Aeroad CF SLX is unlikely to ever be mistaken for anyone else’s. A mix of Shimano Dura-Ace and Ultegra Di2 takes care of shifting duties, while those eye-catching rims are a Tune x Tekkerz collab and made of carbon. “It’s the fastest bike I’ve ridden, for sure,” says Tuchner. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…

Bay watching The peloton passes Aldinga Beach in South Australia on stage one of the Tour Down Under last weekend. Sadly for the riders, there was no time to paddle, as they had an appointment in Willunga. Wheely good Mathieu van der Poel has the time and space to wheelie across the finish line at the UCI World Cup Benidorm, as his rivals were half a minute behind him. It was the Dutchman’s 10th win of the season. Fab six Christian Prudhomme and Chris Boardman pose with a statue of The Beatles in Liverpool, as it was revealed the Tour would be coming to Merseyside in 2027. Ringo doesn’t get a scarf, for some reason. Power up Ally Wollaston, in orange, presses home her advantage over Noemi Rüegg in pink,…

In the final kilometre of stage three of the 2026 Tour Down Under, everything was still on the line. Noemi Rüegg of EF Education-Oatly, the defending champion, was present, but vastly outnumbered. She had fought to stay with three UAE Team ADQ riders – Mavi Garcia, Dominika Włodarczyk and Paula Blasi – over the final ascent of the Corkscrew climb, but there was still an imbalance. Rüegg, thanks to bonus seconds, only needed to finish with the group to win the race overall, but it was not an easy assignment, especially after a testing time in the kilometres leading up to this point. She had been distanced on the first time up the climb after Garcia and Włodarczyk went clear, along with Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike), but thanks…

Boyd Cycling has released a new US-made wheelset, called Podium 36mm Carbon Disc SL. The brand says it’s been created to provide riders with a genuine do-it-all option, blending the lightness of a climbing wheelset with the stiffness you’d associate with hoops designed for sprinting. The wheels weigh just 1,130g a pair, while their practical rim shape – 36mm deep and 24mm internal width – means they should be suitable for wider tyres and a range of terrain. Straight-pull steel Pillar Wing 20 spokes number 24 front and rear, which marries up nicely with Boyd’s claim that they are “the definition of modern versatility”. The rim is hooked and made from T1000-grade carbon, using a high-pressure resin-infusion technique for a better strength-toweight ratio. The company claims the resin mix means…

As my seven-year-old son turned his first ever laps at our nearby velodrome, it was immediately clear that he was a natural. It was even clear to some of the other coaches, timers and racers at the track, one of whom, a USA Cycling official, leaned in and said to me, “He really gets it, huh?” My lizard brain took over: immediately, I saw my son as a young man winning in velodromes around the world. I saw myself cheering him from the stands as he stood atop the podium as an Olympic medal was placed around his neck. Gold, of course. I urgently needed to remind myself that whatever became of his cycling future would be his story, subject to his motivations, not mine. On the long drive home,…

Cross toasting is a strange ritual, which has its roots in the slightly strange history of the Clarion cycling clubs – a network of socialist cycling clubs that began in the late 19th century. Cross toasting was once universal at any club dinner. The procedure is simple. Anyone, anyone at all, bangs their spoon on the table, stands up, and makes a toast to the following formula: “I would like to take wine with members of the club who…” and they insert an in-joke of some sort: “Members of the club who got three punctures on one club run”, or “who broke their arm falling off a turbo trainer”. “Who once shook hands with Fidel Castro,” was one I liked, and which fitted with the socialist origins. Then anyone in…

An unnamed bike racer forges a lonely furrow up the south side of the Col de Vars in the 1927 Tour de France on the way to the stage finish at Briançon. The mountainous, 245km haul from Nice to Briançon was a staple in the Tours of the time, with this being the sixth consecutive year it had featured. Heading north from the resort city, the climbs got progressively tougher as the stage went on, with riders first tackling the Col d’Allos, then the Vars and finally the Col d’Izoard, before descending to the finish. It’s a classic stage that is no longer used, although all three climbs continue to feature. Search ‘intra bas’ on Google Maps to view the modern version of this scene, which is remarkably similar.…

The 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be hosted by 10 towns and cities across Great Britain during their historic Grands Départs next year, it was revealed last Thursday. It was announced last year that the men’s race would start in Edinburgh before heading south, while it was confirmed last week that the women’s race will start in Leeds before two more stages in England. It will be the first time both Tours have started in the same foreign country in the same year. Starting on Friday 2 July, the 2027 Tour de France will have stages from Edinburgh to Carlisle, Keswick to Liverpool and Welshpool to Cardiff, before the race returns to its home country. It will pass through the Lake District, Peak…

Recently, I saw a video clip of self-appointed sports guru Spencer Matthews, filmed off the back of his “fastest Ironman in Antarctica”, part of his attempt to set a new world record for completing an Ironman on each of the seven continents. One of his quotes was along the lines that someone who can run a 2:50 marathon and bench 110kg is an “apex athlete”, and that fewer than 50 people in the world can do this. While both are impressive in isolation, you are still talking about being nearly 50 minutes slower than the world record in a two-hour event. Making events weirder and less accessible does not make them better. While pro cycling is widely accepted by the general public as one of the world’s hardest sports, I…

Getting into competitive cycling has never been cheap. Bikes and kit are just the start; for the parents of ambitious youngsters who want to travel to high-quality junior or youth races, there is also fuel, accommodation, entry fees, time off work. It all adds up. For families supporting young riders, the financial strain can be relentless. Many manage only by making sacrifices, and for others the costs are prohibitive – they can’t even attempt it. The result, according to those at the grassroots, is a shrinking talent pool. Anecdotally, fewer children are racing, and cost is cited again and again as the decisive barrier. As another season approaches, Cycling Weekly spoke to three families to understand what youth cycle racing really costs – and what that means for the sport’s…

It’s easy to find yourself buying into the aero doctrine that governs the bicycle industry, and while much of what is preached is true, the speeds needed to unlock these watt savings are not always achievable for the average rider. For the most part, aero road bikes are heavier than their climbing equivalents, and while they do devour roads – especially rolling terrain – at a faster rate than lightweight bikes, there’s a sense of purity and feel that’s lacking. Scott is one of the brands bucking the aero trend and still offers a genuine climbing bike in its portfolio – the Addict RC, first released in 2008. For the latest iteration, Scott set out to rekindle all the values of the original, and result is a lightweight thoroughbred designed…

From 2023 to 2025 Cycling Weekly ran a series called ‘Meet the Maker’, speaking to the parents of pro cyclist offspring. The series’ interviewer Chris Marshall-Bell recalls some of the traits that helped nurture champions. Removing barriers and reducing stress: Olympic gold medallist Dani Rowe praised her biathlete father Trevor’s psychological support: “He would take all the stress away from me, and remove the barriers that might have got in the way. He’d put a mattress in the back of the car so I could sleep on the way to and from track league. If it was raining he’d come out on the bike for me, and when I was doing a turbo session in the garage he’d always be there supporting me, giving me extra motivation.” Trevor added: “I…

Junior ace Oscar Shaw powered to victory in the ninth round of the North West Cyclo-Cross League on Sunday, crossing the line 34 seconds clear of his nearest rival after six laps of the Cheshire Showground course near Tabley. Organised by Weaver Valley CC, the course was largely flat, but with muddy areas that caused some to hit the deck. Shaw, riding for The Grit Cartel, held off senior rival Ben Horrobin (360 cycling) for the win, while third over the line was legendary veteran Nick Craig (SCOTT Pioneer DJ), fresh from winning the over-50s category at the National Championships seven days before. It was a similar story in the women’s race, with Josephine Hurst taking the win for The Grit Cartel and proving again the strength of junior racing…

Ray Booty’s legendary time trial achievements – his RRA 100‑mile straight‑out record of 3h 28m 40s, to name just one of many – overshadow his prowess as a road racer, which is unjust. He was, in fact, a formidable competitor, winning hoards of silverware throughout the mid-to late-1950s. ‘Peak Booty’ was reached in 1958, when he claimed gold at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff aboard this splendid Raleigh ‘RP’ bike. Booty’s aggressive solo breakaway in wet conditions put three minutes into the eight-rider front group. Like his Raleigh RP time trial machine, which we featured a few months ago, it’s a ‘works’ bike, custom-built for Booty by either Billy Blackamore or Ted Silverstone, the British brand’s in-house master frame builders. “RP bikes were made in tiny numbers…