It’s been a long time since the USA won the elite men’s road rainbow jersey, 33 years to be precise, so we can forgive the national cycling federation for their 16 Instagram posts in the seven hours after Brandon McNulty won in Montreal on Sunday.

If the eight riders who represented the USA in the men’s elite road race at the UCI Road World Championships didn’t put in a perfect performance, they weren’t far off it. Rarely out of position and making every ounce of effort count in some way towards the collective goal, they executed their plan to the letter, doing exactly what Matteo Jorgenson said they would do when he spoke to the media on the morning of the race.

"It is a big one today, we have a really strong team, we have eight riders that are all world-class level, and I think we’re going to try to have numbers in the final. That’s our main objective: to have the three of us, Brandon, Quinn and I, in the final and lay our cards from there," he told Eurosport before the start.

As the day's 16-rider breakaway established itself on the 110km opening loop, the British, Dutch, Belgians, Italians and even Isaac Del Toro’s Mexican team, on which he was the only WorldTour rider, all used their resources on the front of the he peloton, while the Americans were notable by their absence, sensibly saving themselves.

France were also notably hiding, but as the race reached its 12 closing laps of the Montreal circuit, they appeared in force, setting an infernal pace around in support of their favourite, Paul Seixas, the Swiss also lending a hand. All this time while other teams were using energy, USA bided their time, using their domestiques to do the donkey work, while their favourites stayed sheltered, close to, but never at the front.

They covered the French-led attacks at the start of the sixth lap, but Team USA would only be seen on the front the next time across the line, when, with 94km to go they moved up en masse. With Quinn Simmons now nestled safely on Larry Warbasse’s wheel, they were now ready to make their statement, however, it was here they made their only misstep.

They’d been there for Mathieu van der Poel’s first move halfway around the previous lap, but missed it when the Dutchman tagged on the back of Alex Baudin’s effort of the Voie Camillien-Houde. However, so did Wout van Aert, McNulty following the Belgian across the gap, and being joined by Simmons shortly afterwards.

From that moment on, Team USA were in control. Simmons managed – only just – to stay with Van der Poel, while in the favourites’ group the presence of McNulty and Jorgenson meant they always outnumbered the opposition.

When Simmons and Van der Poel were finally caught, the Americans deftly executed the next phase of their plan, Jorgenson attacking, before McNulty made the race-winning move. For the next 32.5km Simmons and, in particular, Jorgenson covered every threat, proving the capable anchor to others’ ambitions.

Throughout the regular season, we see such amazing rides by the likes of Tadej Pogačar, Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel, it’s perhaps sometimes easy to forget that road cycling is a team sport. On Sunday, the US team’s approach was a brilliant example of teamwork.

All for one and one for all

While the majority of the other teams included at least one out-and-out star, every American rider able to win on the Montreal course after such an attritional race is well used to working for others.

Jorgenson might have won Paris-Nice twice, but he spends much of his season as a domestique de luxe for either Van Aert or Jonas Vingegaard. Brandon McNulty has plenty of wins on his palmarès, but performs a similar role for Pogačar, and though Quinn Simmons is developing into a fine breakaway artist, he has accepted his role working for others.

So, perversely, the lack of that big-name winner was the Americans’ strength. Everyone who signed up to the strategy stuck to the script and played their part perfectly. Each had their chance, and one came out on top.

What’s more, the strategy of other nations played into their hands, all using their teams to make the race hard, while USA had the quality to play the perfect game of patience.

There’s no doubt that both Simmons and Jorgenson would have loved to have taken the jersey, but equally you get the feeling McNulty would have been delighted had they done so. There was certainly joy when they found McNulty among the throng of cameras and stars and stripes; "You fucking did it, you just won the Worlds, bro!" beamed Jorgenson.

"We made a plan last night, we set our egos aside a little bit and we decided OK, we just want an American to win this race," Jorgenson told Eurosport later.

"It might be my proudest victory," he continued, having finished in eighth place. "Right now it’s easy to say that, but I really believe I spent a long time thinking about this, I wrote a little bit of a document last week when I was training in Vermont to send to the guys with some analysis. I think we made a great plan and we were able to set our egos aside, which I think won us the race, and I’m proud to be a part of this team today, it’s really cool."

If you read the replies to those endless USA Cycling Instagram posts, the word proud comes up a lot, and the team’s performance was certainly something to be proud of.

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The 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal have come to an end after nine days of racing across 13 categories in the mixed team relay, individual time trials, and road races, showcasing the highest level of competition and crowning the new world champions who will proudly wear the rainbow jerseys next year.

It is the third time the marquee event has come to Canada after 1974, also held in Montreal, and 2003 in Hamilton, and it went off without a hitch, with the events largely taking place around the demanding Mont-Royal city circuits, but also venturing out to the Formula 1 venue at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, visiting Old Montreal, skirting along and crossing over the St. Lawrence River, with the elite road races starting in Brossard.

As the sport now turns its attention toward the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships 'Super Worlds' that will take place in the Haute-Savoie region of France from August 24 to September 5, the Cyclingnews team reflects on the biggest takeaways from Montreal.

The junior women deserve more kilometres

The organisers of the Montreal event made a pointed effort to offer the same distance for the elite women's and elite men's time trials at these World Championships, both racing at 39.2km and won by Marlen Reusser of Switzerland and Remco Evenepoel of Belgium.

It was then baffling to find out that the junior women's time trial was a rather short 10.7km, nearly half the distance of the junior men, and the shortest distance for this category in the event's history at the Road World Championships.

A look back at previous distances offered to the junior women for the time trial revealed that the only other edition that offered a comparably short distance was the junior women's time trial in Quito, Ecuador, in 1994, with the longest at 19.8km in Innsbruck in 2018, and last year's race was held over 18.3km in Kigali.

While it's healthy for race organisers and teams to avoid putting too much pressure on junior athletes, many of whom juggle their budding athletic careers with academic responsibilities, the junior women's field can certainly compete over longer time trial distances.

We need – and want – more racing in North America

Only a handful of this generation of pros will remember the vibrant top-tier racing scene across North America and races like the Tour of California, Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri, Tour of Alberta, Colorado Classic, Tour of Utah, Grand Prix de Montreal, the Montreal World Cup and Liberty Classic, among many other events that took place in the late 1990s and the early- to mid-2000s - events that left a lasting impression.

Today, the WorldTour scene includes the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal, but riders who competed at the World Championships made their sentiments clear: they want to see more high-level racing for WorldTour teams.

Newly crowned World Champion Brandon McNulty, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who secured the silver medal in the elite women's road race, and Elisa Longo Borghini, who took bronze in the elite women's road race and the world title in the mixed team relay, recalled their fond memories and racing experience in North America and would like to see more events take place there.

"I would love to race more over here," McNulty said. "As an American, I'm biased. Everyone loves racing at home; the Belgians love the Belgian races, the Italians love the Italian races, so I would love to. Most of the guys I know ask when California or Utah are coming back, so a lot of them like coming over here. The GPs in Montreal and Quebec are popular, and there's always a bit of a fight to get on the team, so I think there is a lot of interest. Obviously, there is a lot more to it than riders wanting the races. I don't know the logistics of promoting races, but I wish the pieces would come together to have a bit more of a scene here of WorldTour or Pro [Series] races."

Niewiadoma-Phinney said she would like to see a block of racing in North America where the teams could come over to an extended amount of time. "100%, I love coming over to North America. It's a great mental boost. You leave everything in Europe, you're in a different time zone, and you feel like you can refresh yourself. I would love more racing blocks in the US and, like here in Montreal, Philadelphia, or back to the Tour of California or Tour of Colorado."

Likewise, Longo Borghini said she welcomed the return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic and would also like to see the return of the former Montreal World Cup, held alongside the current Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.

"I would really like to see more races in North America. I've been riding in the past Philadelphia Classic, and I was actually happy to see that it came back this year because it was a nice race." Longo Borghini said. "And the cheering in North America is always cool, I have to say, because it's different from Europe. You guys are more excited and passionate and loud. It's actually thrilling to see so many people on the road and so much passion. And today I could feel the energy, and I would really like to see a Montreal [WorldTour] race for women."

Read more: GP Québec and Montréal organisers 'ready to have women's races' but there are still questions of funding

Yes, racing without radios makes Worlds so much better

Mathieu van der Poel said it right: racing without earpieces makes the races better. The Belgians tried to send messages in bottles, but the lack of readily available information during the road races really favoured smart racers and strong teams.

The Dutch women flawlessly executed their plan, and even winner Demi Vollering knew it was possible her long-range attack would be reeled in. She had a plan for it, and never needed the team car to tell her what to do.

It was the same in the men's race: the US team had the numbers at the front, and as long as you have a rider in the breakaway, there's nothing to worry about. They had a plan and it went exactly how sports director Mike Creed described to Cyclingnews.

Had there been radios, maybe the outcome would have been different. As it was, the final few laps of both elite races were some of the most chaotic, thrilling, unpredictable and exciting races on the calendar.

I agree that race radios are important for WorldTour races that are point-to-point for safety, but as a whole, road races do tend to become a bit formulaic. Their absence was a welcome change in Montreal.

Montreal roads are famously bad, even for Worlds

Because of the brutal winters in Montreal, snow removal and ice melting chemicals really take their toll on the surface of the roads. The courses in the city were full of potholes - most patched, but some not - especially in the time trials, and that really took a toll on riders.

After the mixed relay team time trial, ITT gold medalist Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) came through the mixed zone with her right arm heavily bandaged and explained she had suffered a deep bone bruise by going over the bumps with her arms in her TT arm rests. Fortunately it didn't seem to slow her down in the road race.

Filippo Ganna (Italy), second in the individual time trial and part of his country's gold medal effort in the mixed relay, commented on the poor conditions, too. "I think a World Championship should have the best tarmac. It's the same for everyone, but maybe new tarmac could be nice for everyone."

Hosting the world championships and the Grand Prix WorldTour race is a big ask for one city, but if the city or provincial officials could have laid down some fresh asphalt on the course, it would have provided some good will for the citizens who have had their lives disrupted by all of the road closures.

Super tough Worlds courses risk leaving out the top names in pro cycling

For the past decade, the Worlds road races have had climbs so tough that they've all but excluded sprinters from even starting. It hasn't been since Doha in 2016 that there was a completely flat course. Next year, there won't even be a much as a flat run-in to the circuits for any of the fields, and the elite men will have to race over a 2.5km climb a full 20 times.

Pro cycling in general has been moving toward tougher and tougher parcours and, as we've seen with the dominance of Tadej Pogačar, it's turned into a game of watts over wits. These hilly Worlds courses only add to that trend, and it's excluded so many talented riders. Thankfully, after 2027, that will change.

UCI President David Lappartient told Cyclingnews that it's not the edict for Worlds organisers to have hard courses, only that the road races be of a certain length, and take place on circuits to make it more fan-friendly.

"We want to have different types of circuits, 2028 will be in Abu Dhabi, [so it] will be flat, flat, flat. Copenhagen [2029] will be flat, but potentially windy, and Brussels [2030] is not flat, but it's not as difficult as we have here [in Montreal] so it's a little bit in the middle. So we try to have different types of circuits.

"It's good sometimes to have a very hard one because then the top GC riders or climbers can be World Champion. That could be the case for next year. It's also good when you have a pure sprinter as champion. When Mark Cavendish won in Copenhagen, I think it was great for cycling."

It's a shame not to have stand-out riders like Lorena Wiebes, Matthew Brennan, and Paul Magnier at Worlds, and fortunately in two years, they will get their shot.

The Dutch women showed full team commitment and were rewarded for it

When you have the world's number one rider on your squad, it would be foolish not to throw the team's collective weight behind them, and the women in orange did just that for Demi Vollering with a flawless team performance for the Netherlands in the elite women's road race.

From start to finish, the team patrolled the front of the peloton, never letting any dangerous move get too much time and keeping Vollering safe from the mass-crashes that took defending champion Magdeleine Vallieres (Canada) and Paula Blasi (Spain) out of the picture.

As the kilometres clicked down, the Dutch team slowly twisted the throttle, burning dangerous riders like two-time world champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (USA) out the back.

Then, in what seemed to be quite a premature move, Puck Pieterse lifted the pace on the Camilien-Houde climb just past the start of three laps to go and brought back solo leader Maeva Squiban (France) and shattered the peloton so that Vollering could make her winning move.

Seeing quality riders like 2024 Tour de France winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) appear helpless as Vollering disappeared up the road only proved that the Dutch had done their job. Pieterse was able to foil the chase a little bit, but time trial world champion Marlen Reusser proved to be the wildcard, though she couldn't hold on in the climbs after helping to nail back Vollering.

In the end, Vollering still had to deal with her Polish rival, but managed to prevail and could thank her teammates in orange.

North American fans know how to turn out for a bike race

What did the athletes think about the environment and the crowds around Montréal across a full week of competitions? Were the senses overwhelmed by the dominant Québécois cuisine, sights and sounds to make the atmosphere feel European? Did the host city meet expectations?

The short answer is 'yes', from 'loud' cheering in French and English, and from one winner's recognition of his dog in the crowd.

"In a race like the World Champs, the behavior of the bunch is more or less the same, it's high-level racing. We face the same guys all season. But in terms of environment, yeah, Montreal feels different and special," summed up Victor Langoletti of Monaco, who made his eighth appearance at a Road World Championships across four continents.

"The people from Montreal, they are just amazing. I mean, the atmosphere is just crazy on every climb, all around the circuit."

Montreal Worlds marked the 15th appearance at a Road World Championships for Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy, now covering five continents.She earned her first Road World Championships gold medal last Wednesday in the Team Time Trial and added a third bronze medal in her career in a spell-binding elite women's road race.

"The cheering in North America is always cool, I have to say, because it's different from Europe. You guys are more excited and passionate and loud. Said from an Italian, sounds crazy, but you guys are very loud. And it's actually thrilling to see so many people on the road and so much passion."

The riders from Canada and the United States agreed it felt like a home race, and maybe no one was a better case study than dual citizen Ashlin Barry. The Toronto resident competes for Team USA, and he gave both sides of the border something to cheer about on Friday, winning the under-23 men's road race.

"It was just unreal being out there, seeing so many friends, seeing my family. I could hear my dog barking on the side of the course," Barry said.

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Because the cycling world has a short memory, most of the talk over the next few days is going to be about the men's road race at the World Championships, and about how one of the most unpredictable races in years delivered a surprising but highly deserving winner in Brandon McNulty (USA).

The women's race got its own spotlight on Saturday, which is fantastic and the way it should be, but it did mean that attention quite quickly switched to the men's race, and the conversation moved on fast. Compound that with the fact that Sunday offered a surprise winner whilst Saturday's race was won by the favourite, and we run the risk of remembering this weekend as a thrilling men's race, and an as-predicted women's race.

But that would betray the fact that actually, both races over the weekend were gripping, unpredictable and highly competitive in their own way, and neither played out in a way that anyone could have scripted.

If you didn't watch the women's race, it would be easy to look at the results and think 'Oh, yeah, that's exactly what we all predicted would happen', and paint a picture in your mind of a straightforward race and a straightforward victory for Demi Vollering. She was the favourite, and she won. The podium was the exact same podium as the Tour de France Femmes. On paper, it all went as expected.

But of course, racing does not take place on paper, and the race itself will always tell you much, much more than the results sheet. In reality, this was a race that was not decided until the final few seconds, with all of the top four in the battle for victory until the final moments and – crucially – actually all trying to win, too.

There was a moment where it looked like Demi Vollering might Tadej Pogačar the race, that is to say, go long and win by brute force, riding everyone well off her wheel to take a solo victory. She capitalised on work from her teammate Puck Pieterse – which had dropped riders like Lotte Kopecky and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney – to attack solo with 38km to go, catch lone leader Maeva Squiban, and pull out a gap because no one followed her.

Except Vollering is not Pogačar, and so something happened that so rarely happens to her Slovenian peer; she was caught. It wasn't race over, no one was conceding their chances were over and racing for the medals. Niewiadoma-Phinney and Elisa Longo Borghini regrouped and went in pursuit of the Dutchwoman, joining her with 15km to go. Not long after the catch, Longo Borghini attacked on her own, but again, there was no marking each other out behind – Niewiadoma-Phinney and Vollering brought her back, and then dropped her.

In the finale, Niewiadoma-Phinney, who is so often derided for her tactical decisions, did everything right. She couldn't just sit on Vollering and do no work, because then Longo Borghini would almost certainly come back. But she also had to save enough energy to be able to try one of the only two things that would help her win: a late solo attack, or the sprint of her life at the line.

So that's what she did, she managed her efforts with Vollering, she put in one big attack on the penultimate climb, and then when that didn't work, she sat on to save herself for the sprint. She timed her sprint really well, too, going late on one of the steeper points, giving herself the best possible chance of winning. And no, it wasn't enough, because Vollering's acceleration was simply better, but Niewiadoma-Phinney gave herself every possible chance to win, racing for the victory and believing she could until the very last moment, which isn't something we can always say in cycling.

Elisa Longo Borghini, too, pushed all the way until the line, very nearly catching the leading pair on the finishing straight, and in contention to win herself until the last few metres.

The same is true for Marlen Reusser, who came from nowhere to appear round the final corner only a few seconds behind the leaders as they started the climb to the finish line, seeing rainbow within reach and going for it until the very end.

So yes, it was a race where the favourite won, but at no point did it feel like that was the only option, or a foregone conclusion, and Vollering's rivals made sure that nothing was over until it was over.

Racing for second?

Cycling, be it men's or women's, can often fall victim to what many have playfully dubbed 'group two syndrome'. It's a catch-all for those occasions when the chase group seems close enough to catch whoever is in the lead, but they look at each other and hesitate to chase, unwilling to bring each other to the front, and instead they all lose. It's frustrating to watch, and must be even more frustrating to be a part of.

It's what happened last year when Magdeleine Vallieres surprised the world with her win in Kigali. Not to take anything away from Vallieres' bold and strong ride – certainly no one 'let' her win – but behind her, the pre-race favourites just looked at each other, marked each other out, and ultimately all missed out on even a consolation medal.

It's not an unusual occurrence, and one that can really put a dampener on the race. On Sunday, whilst the top three were beaming on the podium with their medals, no one overly disappointed because they all seemed to finish the race with no regrets, fourth-placed Reusser made some striking comments.

"I had the feeling that I'm the only one racing for first place," she told Eurosport after finding herself in the chasing group behind the top three, having missed the decisive attack as she desperately needed to take a feed.

"I thought 'let's go for first' but I had the feeling that there were a lot of teammates around, everybody racing for second. It's short after the race, this is just what's in me now and I still need to watch it back, but my feeling is that we raced for second.

"If somebody like Demi is out, you cannot just pull a bit. You [either] pull, or the race is over. I think I showed full commitment to pull, and most of them didn't. If people are just sitting in and not really pulling then nothing is going, so then Demi just wins."

Except, I'm not sure that's really what happened. Reusser often has a really sharp, no-holds-barred take on racing, but this time, I don't think she got it quite right. It's hard to know exactly what was going on in the chasing group that Reusser found herself in, because we didn't see much of that in the finale, and equally it's hard for her to know what was happening up front.

Perhaps the group Reusser was in in the finale – which included Juliette Berthet, riding for France but Vollering's teammate usually – did not give it their all, but even if that's the case, they were riding for fourth at that point, not second. Maybe what she said was in the heat of the moment of frustration and disappointment, and once she has watched the race back she may think differently.

Reusser may have rued missing the key move, but up the road, no one was there settling or racing for silver – the three leaders were all there for the win, and Vollering certainly did not 'just win' as if she were unchallenged.

We absolutely do see days where riders race for second or third with a frustrating lack of ambition or risk-taking, but Saturday was not one of those days.

And in truth, the fact that every top rider was racing for the win until the very end is what made this race so special, so memorable, and far from a predestined Vollering win.

Because she's the Tour de France Femmes champion, and the winner of so many big Classics already this year, her win won't go down in the history books as a big surprise or underdog triumph like Brandon McNulty's will. But don't let that trick you into thinking Saturday wasn't also a very special race, with the best riders in the world all giving everything they had to go for the rainbow jersey.

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Africa's first Road World Championships, held last year in Kigali, Rwanda, was a breakthrough moment for professional cycling on the continent. However, the intention was not just to create an historic event, but to build a legacy extending far beyond one momentous week in the 'land of a thousand hills'.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, is seeking to globalise the sport, expanding beyond cycling's popularity in Europe to grow in new markets around the world. Kigali 2025 was seen as a key landmark in that effort.

"The organisation of the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Kigali was a historic milestone for our sport and for the African continent, being the first edition held in Africa," UCI President David Lappartient said recently in an interview with Peace & Sport.

"Our goal is to support the development of cycling on every continent by working with national federations, strengthening local capacities, and creating concrete opportunities for athletes, organisers, and younger generations," Lappartient continued. "Africa plays a crucial role in this regard, with considerable potential that we want to continue to develop."

The likes of Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) and Biniam Girmay (NSN) have broken the barriers of what's possible for African riders in recent years. However, despite their success in some of the world's biggest races, the numbers of African riders racing at the professional level has been in decline since its peak a decade ago when there were 16 Africans in the men's and women's WorldTours combined. In 2026 there were seven, and that number is set to decrease again next year.

Kigali 2025 was intended to catalyse a change to that reality. Africa's Worlds presented an unprecedented platform for young African talent to show themselves against the world's best, to inspire African nations not currently enchanted with pro cycling to invest in developing the sport and show that Africa is capable of hosting major cycling events.

But one year on from this historic World Championships, has any meaningful change taken effect? Was Kigali 2025 a one-off event, or is its legacy set to shape the future of African cycling and the UCI's wider push for globalisation?

Developing a generation of African talent

It's a story long been told that there is a wealth of talented cyclists in Africa waiting for opportunities to reveal themselves. Kigali 2025 provided the perfect opportunity to do just that, with its proximity to home, courses on familiar road-styles and the absence of visa restrictions.

It would still be a difficult challenge for the African racers to secure results among the world's best and on a course among the toughest in Worlds history. In the elite and under-23 categories, most struggled with the pace. However, two riders particularly impressed in the junior road races, signing contracts with European UCI teams directly off the back of their performances in Kigali.

Tsige Kahsay Kiros is thought of as Africa's brightest young talent. Even before the 2025 World Championships, the Ethiopian rider had impressed at the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, finishing 22nd overall as the only junior in the race. After her 7th place finish at the Worlds in the junior women's road race, Kiros signed a three-year deal with Canyon-SRAM Generation and has been building her experience in Europe this year - although she has also faced the reality of visa restrictions, and has been unable to race in Europe since May.

In the junior men's race, Eritrean youngster Nahom Efriem stayed with the best of the chasers behind British escapee Harry Hudson to finish in 11th place. Efriem did this despite being more naturally suited to flatter terrain and thriving in the sprints. Efriem signed for German continental outfit Bike Aid this season and has scored impressive results at races including the Tour of Hellas and Tour de l'Avenir.

Kiros and Efriem's stories tangibly demonstrate a legacy of African riders progressing in their careers as a result of Africa's first World Championships. However, the UCI and others involved with developing the sport on the continent want much more. They see Kigali 2025 as a first step towards not only highlighting Africa's talents, but building infrastructure and support that creates a pathway for young African riders to succeed at the very top levels.

Jean Hubert Nkurayija is one of the men tasked with capitalising on the success of the World Championships. A former cyclist and the nephew of Rwanda's best-ever rider, Adrien Niyonshuti, Nkurayija was appointed as the President of FERWACY, the Rwandan cycling federation, in May.

"When the World Championships came in, it became a different story," Nkurayija told Cyclingnews, reflecting on the impact of the Worlds. "Talking about cycling in Rwanda, it is now taking another level from the period of the World Championships."

Nkurayija, who previously worked as the race director of the Tour du Rwanda, looks back on the Worlds with pride, but also with a feeling that Rwandan cycling is not where it needs to be. Rwanda had just four finishers out of twenty-two starters across all six road races, with none cracking the top-40. His primary mission as federation President is to see the level of his athletes, and their results, improve.

"At one moment, it gave me pride. But at another point, we still have a long way to go to be able to have riders who can compete at a high level," he said.

"The vision for the next four years by 2030 is to have riders who can finish top-10 in the World Championships at the junior level. That is my North Star, if I may say. If all goes well, by 2030 we will be having riders again winning the Tour of Rwanda."

There has not been a Rwandan winner of the stage race since 2018, before it was upgraded to UCI 2.1 status.

'Changing the perspective'

FERWACY, in collaboration with the UCI, is putting a number of elements in place to develop the next generation of stars from Rwanda and beyond.

The UCI has agreed to set up a satellite site of the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Rwanda across three sites; Musanze, Bugesera and Rwamagana. This centre is intended as an elite training facility for riders from across Africa. Although the satellite was announced in February 2025, it is not yet operational.

A key building block in developing African cycling is to improve the racing calendar. There are very few UCI races in Africa, and many are of a poor standard. Following the World Championships, Nkurayija sees the potential for Rwanda to be a racing hub for African riders.

The Tour du Rwanda has taken place as a UCI race since 2009 and will continue as Africa's biggest race. Additionally, Nkurayija is planning on launching a women's UCI stage race in 2027 and a series of one-day UCI races over the coming seasons. FERWACY is also set to organise UCI races at junior level.

"[We want] a racing environment that equals to Europe," he said. "Europe is now the way to go for everyone. You can't count how many UCI races are there. To gain UCI points you have to be in Europe. Now we are changing the perspective. We want to make Rwanda a cycling destination for Africans.

"Rwanda is visa free. For example, in East Africa, to come to Rwanda from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, you just take a bus. We want to create more races at the level of the UCI so that Africans can also have equal opportunity without necessarily having to always ask for visas - which mostly they are being denied."

There is a confidence within FERWACY that Rwanda can now run a series of high-level races, and Nkurayija believes that external perspectives on what is possible in Africa are now shifting as a result of Kigali 2025, too.

Xylon van Eyck, a South African communications specialist who has spent more than a decade in the area of African cycling development, and is now working with Team Amani, agrees. "I think hopefully the World Championships have shown the capability of hosting events like that in Africa," he told Cyclingnews.

"There's less apprehension to come because you've seen that events can take place perfectly at a really good level in a safe environment. I think that's what we need."

While the progress since the championships has been encouraging, Van Eyck would have preferred to see a more strategic, thought-through approach.

"When we talk about legacy, things don't happen just by a one-off event happening. It actually takes infrastructure and planning," Van Eyck said. "I would have liked to see something at a very high level being like; this is a marquee event, this is setting us up for X, Y and Z in the future. I don't have details of those things, they might reveal themselves in the future."

Africa's ongoing barriers - can cycling ever overcome them?

The UCI wants to see more African riders participating in and winning the biggest races in the world. The current reality, however, is that fewer Africans are joining professional teams now than they were a decade ago.

The disadvantages that African riders are faced with are the same as they have always been. A lack of resources, racing opportunities and freedom of movement chief among them. One or two talented riders may be given a chance to race at a higher level each year, but they are the exceptions, rather than proof of an improving situation.

The question now becomes whether professional cycling can ever truly be a sport that facilitates a true and equal pathway for African riders to succeed at the highest levels. Hosting a World Championships in Rwanda was one step, but it did not solve all of African cycling's problems.

However, there are several independent initiatives and teams looking to address these challenges. Team Amani is an East African team which now includes UCI Continental squads for both men and women. The ambition for the women's team is to compete in the Tour de France Femmes in 2028, while the men's squad continues to develop with racing across Africa and Asia.

Amani has brought on a number of high profile sponsors over the past few years, including Factor, POC and Rapha. The investment from these sponsors and others has enabled the team to race in Europe this season. The cold truth, according to Van Eyck, is that although Africans face an uphill battle to reach the sport's higher levels, investment can overcome a great deal of things.

"Money and infrastructure fixes everything," he said, adding that Amani is actively seeking greater investment as they seek to build their women's team to a point in which they can compete in the Tour de France Femmes.

Significant levels of finance can provide world class equipment and nutrition, the ability to travel for racing and elite level coaching. Just like any other cycling team, attracting significant sponsorship is make or break.

Going global

"Africa is not a finish line; it's a starting point. This is part of our global strategy," David Lappartient said during last year's World Championships. While Kigali 2025 was a history-making event, the UCI wants to go further and faster in its efforts to globalise professional cycling. Those involved see the Worlds in Rwanda as a proof of concept, showing that major cycling events can take place across the globe.

The UCI has awarded the 2032 road World Championships to India, following the success of the inaugural Pune Grand Tour in January, where 2.5 million spectators lined the roadside to watch India's first-ever UCI stage race. There is also talk that Japan is preparing a bid for the 2035 'Super Worlds' and the UCI calendar gradually continues to become more international with each passing year.

More imminently, the UAE will host the road World Championships in 2028, with a likely sprinter-friendly course in Abu Dhabi. Ahead of that event, just the third of its kind ever to be held in Asia, the World Cycling Centre has launched its Global 2028 strategy, in which it hopes to develop a generation of stars from around the world.

As part of this initiative, the WCC has hosted riders from every continent in training camps in Brittany, where they are benefitting from coaching and getting local racing opportunities. The WCC is also working with several national federations from around the world in order to strengthen local race scenes, creating more effective development pathways - in the same vein as is being planned in Rwanda over the coming years.

The ambition is to improve the prospects for cyclists from what the WCC calls 'emerging' nations, shortening the gap between them and the professional level in Europe. "The ultimate goal is basically having them come through our programme and then move upward, move upward up the pathway," Jacques Landry, the World Cycling Centre's former director told Escape Collective in April (Landry recently left the position). "We're giving another rung in that ladder. Instead of having too much gap between the two rungs, we're an intermediate rung to help those athletes," he added.

The UCI, and many others within the sport, see globalisation as the future. For more than a century, professional cycling has been rooted in its rich western European culture. That will always be the case, but successful modern sports are global enterprises, reaching out to markets across the world.

The UCI has been trying for many years to do the same, and Kigali 2025 was an important step in that mission. It may not yet have borne fruit regarding the development of African cycling, but that, and professional cycling's broader internationalisation, is only in its very early stages.

When Toms Skujiņš lines up for the World Championships road race in Montreal this weekend., he can take confidence from a string of impressive results he’s achieved wearing the dark red and white national team kit of Latvia. Since 2023, he has finished 8th, 4th, and 5th in the World Championships, as well as 5th in the 2024 Olympic road race in Paris.

The 35-year-old has previous form on the Montreal circuit as well, placing 6th in the GP de Montréal for Lidl-Trek in 2024, and he hopes to race for another top result on Sunday.

For most of his career, Skujiņš has performed admirably as a strong and dependable domestique supporting his teammates’ ambitions, but occasionally he does get the nod as the supported rider himself. His biggest result is a second place in the 2024 Strade Bianche, finishing behind only an untouchable Tadej Pogačar but beating everyone else.

"It was the first and only time that I’ve had the full support of the team. And without that, I definitely wouldn’t have made it on the podium. It was the first year where I punctured, not just once but twice, and then I crashed, so I also had to change the bike. Without the guys supporting me, I definitely would have not made it back to the peloton [to fight for the podium]," Skujiņš looked back on his best trade team result when Cyclingnews spoke to him ahead of the GP Quebec earlier this month.

Racing Worlds or Olympics for the national team, Skujiņš can plan his preparation for that one big day well in advance, a luxury that he doesn’t have with Lidl-Trek where he isn’t among the out-and-out leaders.

"A lot of things in sport are not just physical preparation but the mental side as well. For these races, I know in advance that I will be the leader. With Lidl-Trek, it’s rare that I will know more than a week in advance that I will have a chance at a certain race," he explained.

"And even if I get a heads-up in the last week, you can’t change your training. A few years ago [in 2023], I was at home with my daughter, still very young at the time, just the two of us. I was dropping her off [at daycare], changed in the parking lot, went training, changed back in the parking lot, picked her up, went home, made dinner for both of us, and showered only after she went to bed. That was the week leading up to San Sebastián.

"A few days before the race, the team was like, you can be the leader. And I’m like, 'This is not the preparation I would have done if I knew this before!' But still, I finished sixth, my best San Sebastián that I’ve ever done. So of course, once I get the support, most of the time, the results also come."

'I’m not someone who will demand the team to ride for me'

Skujiņš’ own character also plays into it, as he isn’t the person to assert leadership ahead of a race, and he made clear he often prefers to ride for a teammate – which also increases his own chances.

"I’m not someone who will demand the team to ride for me. And a lot of times, it is to my advantage to have people look at my teammates as the leaders because then I can take the opportunity," he said.

"Realistically, I’m never going to be able to follow Tadej. For me to beat him, I need something interesting to happen. I need a situation that is out of the ordinary. And I don’t like racing for a sixth place or a top-10, that’s not why I race. I want to race for the win, and I’d rather race for the win with a teammate who can actually win than hope that I can make it into the top 10 myself."

In the Canadian WorldTour races, Skujiņš performed exactly that role and still finished with a respectable result himself. At the GP de Québec, he finished 20th in a selective race after supporting his Lidl-Trek teammates Quinn Simmons and Giulio Ciccone who placed 2nd and 5th. In the GP de Montréal, Ciccone and Simmons finished 4th and 7th while Skujiņš crossed the line in 29th place.

For the Worlds road race, however, Skujiņš will be the undisputed leader of the Latvian selection, and he wants to be at the pointy end of the race for the rainbow jersey once again.

"I am very good at reading a race, it’s definitely my strong suit. The harder the race, the better for me as well. And the races where it becomes man against man are the ones that suit me the most," he said.

Latvia is a small country with only three riders in the current men's professional peloton: Skujiņš himself, Emīls Liepiņš (Pinarello Q36.5), and Krists Neilands (NSN). Only Skujiņš and Liepiņš will line up in Montreal, though.

"Krists would have been a great asset to have, but unfortunately he’s injured, so I think his season is done. That’s a bit of a blow for us, especially on such a small team, but we’ll keep fighting on," Skujiņš said.

The four-rider team will be completed by two riders from the Continental ranks, the national road race champion Mārtiņš Pluto (Energus) and national ITT champion Kristiāns Belohvoščiks (Bike Aid), son of ex-pro Raivis Belohvoščiks.

"It is kind of a tactical choice to bring four riders. It’s for having our own car, because Worlds is an interesting situation. I remember my first years in Worlds, a lot of times we shared a car with the Slovaks when Sagan was winning all his world titles. It was actually super cool. But if you have control of the car, you can organise yourselves much better. With four riders, we will still have another nation with us, but they will be with us, not us with another nation," explained Skujiņš.

Opportunities for the taking in Montreal

The Montreal circuit with the 1.8km, 8% climb on the Voie Camillien-Houde through the Parc du Mont-Royal as well as the shorter climbs of the Chemin de Polytechnique and Avenue Pagnuelo and the rise towards the finish line on the Avenue du Parc is hardly ever flat, and this suits both Skujiņš himself and a smaller team well.

"In Montreal, you can wait, you don’t have to invest as much from a team perspective unless you have the big favourite and you’re controlling the race. You don’t have to invest as many people because in the end it’s the legs that decide," he said.

With Skujiņš having said he prefers to race for the win, the next question was obvious: Could he repeat the feat of Romāns Vainšteins who won the rainbow jersey in Plouay in 2000 and actually win the World Championships?

"I think if Tadej was here, it would have been better for me, honestly. But a lot of things need to go right for me to win Worlds," he said.

"You were saying, I’m an outsider. But honestly, if you’ll ask around in the cycling world, they will not think of me as an outsider. I think there’s only a few people that will have noticed my consistency in these races and think that I have a realistic chance. It’s good for me to be a bit of an underdog from a smaller nation because I need the big nations to fight against each other for me to use the opportunity. I’m very much looking forward to it. It’s probably my last Worlds that I go for it, so I’ve got to make it count."

And even if more people would consider him a real threat, his approach to the race wouldn’t change much.

"In the end, it’s going to be a really tough race either way. Even without Tadej, there’s plenty of strong nations and I’m sure everybody’s talking about how Belgium is going to race and look at them. I like that I’m flying under the radar and luckily plenty of cyclists still think about themselves more than anything else. It works for me."

Skujiņš will enter the Montreal Worlds as an outsider. But if things go his way and he finds an opportunity and can anticipate the big favourites’ moves, like Magdeleine Vallières did in the women’s elite road race in Kigali last year, another top result, even an improvement on his 4th place from 2024, is very much possible and would not be a surprise.

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Indoor training continues to grow in popularity. That’s in large part due to the sophistication of modern indoor apps, but also to the wide range of trainer hardware available.

Gone are the days of bolting your back wheel to your trainer and staring at your garage wall; modern indoor training is engaging and interactive and offers the chance to race and ride with others around the globe. If you can’t find any real people to ride with, you can co-opt a group of pacers to ride with you.

Allied to this is the increased affordability of the best smart trainers, which can work with an indoor cycling app to vary how hard the ride is, link to other hardware and record your stats to pour over post-ride. We’ll run through the indoor training hardware options and explain their pros and cons.

Why have smart trainers taken over?

The major advantage of a smart trainer over a ‘dumb’ trainer is that a smart trainer will connect to other devices and indoor training apps, whereas a dumb trainer acts essentially independently and requires you to change the resistance manually.

It can still be used with a training app, but the experience isn’t as smooth and won’t follow the contours of a route precisely.

A smart trainer will automatically vary the resistance that you pedal against, so when the app says you’re climbing, pedalling will get harder and when you go downhill, it will ease up – it’s a much more realistic experience.

A smart trainer will measure your power output and pedalling cadence too, so you’ll have stats on your performance during a workout.

Unlike a dumb trainer, a smart trainer can also vary resistance automatically as you ride, to ensure a consistent power output. Called ERG mode, this is great for ensuring that you stay in your desired training zone and for following intervals.

The price of smart trainers has dropped significantly too, so you can pick up a basic model for little more than the price you’d have paid for a non-smart trainer a few years ago.

And why are most trainers now wheel-off?

Alongside the shift to smart trainers, the majority of trainers are now wheel off, also called direct drive.

In a direct drive trainer, your bike’s rear dropouts are anchored to the trainer and the chain passes over a cassette mounted to the trainer. In contrast, while a wheel-on trainer is also clamped at its dropouts, the wheel engages with a roller on the trainer to turn the trainer’s flywheel and resistance unit.

A direct drive trainer avoids wear on your tyre – wheel-on trainers need a specific trainer tyre if used a lot, which is made of a harder-wearing rubber. It also avoids slippage under harder efforts and offers a more realistic ride feel.

Wheel-on dumb trainers do have their place though; in general, they’re more portable than direct drive trainers and so are good to take to events and races for warm-ups. Setting up is less messy than a direct drive trainer too, as you don’t have to fiddle with the chain and derailleur.

What other indoor training hardware options are there?

Another option to consider alongside a smart trainer is a set of rollers. They’re tricky to get used to, as your bike isn’t supported. That’s good for your balance – the risk of falling off the side is an incentive to pedal smoothly, although many rollers have a parabolic shape or a lip that helps keep you centred and lowers the risk of falling off.

Although many rollers don’t have smart features, the Elite Nero, for example, does offer automatic resistance variation and so can be used with indoor apps.

The Wahoo Kickr Rollr trainer avoids the falling off problem by holding your front wheel in place. It will vary resistance automatically and measures your approximate power output, although for more accuracy you’ll need a separate on-bike power meter.

Rollers have the additional advantage that they’re quick to set up, as you don’t need to clamp the frame or remove your rear wheel, again making them a good pre-race warm-up option. Feedback Sports’ Omnium rollers are even more compact and portable, but do require removal of the front wheel.

The deluxe option is a smart bike. This incorporates the smart trainer into a complete indoor exercise bike. If you have a dedicated indoor training space/gym, a smart bike avoids having to take your outdoor bike indoors and fiddle with the wheels before each ride. Smart bikes are, in general, large and heavy though, so you won’t want to move one around much. They’re also expensive.

The exception is the Zwift Ride smart frame. This is a dedicated indoor bike that hooks onto a standard smart trainer. It’s more affordable than other smart bikes, but ties you into the Zwift ecosystem, although it now works with Rouvy too. It can be bought with a Kickr Core 2 trainer for a complete indoor bike, or can be used with a range of other trainers, although not all trainers are compatible.

The Zwift Ride V2 was launched in Autumn 2026 and has more adjustability built in, including variable crank lengths.

What is Zwift Cog and Click?

Another option to consider is the Zwift Cog and Click system. Again, this works with Zwift and Rouvy only, but offers a simpler set-up, with a single sprocket in the orange cassette. This works with the Zwift Click controllers to provide virtual shifting, so there’s no need to use your bike’s derailleurs; it’s faster and quieter too.

The pair of Click controllers are fixed to your handlebars and allow you to control virtual shifting. They offer additional buttons that you can use to control the Zwift app from your bars too.

Zwift Cog and Click tie you into using the Zwift and Rouvy apps, but there’s a wide range of direct drive trainers that are now sold with the system or are marketed as Zwift Ready with an orange tag on packaging.

Twelve months ago, Mike Woods was done. WorldTour racing had become more like a job than a passion, he had spent his final year hampered by crashes and injuries, and to top it all off, a hernia meant he wouldn't get to bow out at his home race at the GP de Montréal like he had hoped.

The cycling career he'd changed paths for later in life, that saw him win four Grand Tour stages, wasn't going to end on a high. Most riders want to choose how, when and where they end their career, but for many, that simply doesn't work out. Woods looked set to join the latter camp.

Except, as it turns out, that wasn't the end. Woods' 'retirement' did not mean hanging his wheels up for good, as he took the end of his WorldTour contract as a chance to pick up his gravel bike, racing events like The Traka, the Sea Otter Classic and the Gravel World Series as he made a transition away from racing, rather than a hard stop.

And very quickly, an opportunity arose: with the points he'd accrued in his final year, he might be able to qualify for selection for the Road World Championships. Held in 2026 in Montreal, Canada, it was an almost perfect chance to do over the road swansong he'd been denied in 2025.

"It's been in the back of my head for most of this year," Woods told Cyclingnews last week in Quebec, lining up for Team Canada in the GPs de Québec and Montréal ahead of his Worlds finale.

"I really wanted to end my career in Montreal. Last year I couldn't do that because I had a hernia and I had to have surgery, and I was devastated. It was like such an anticlimactic ending to a career. Not that anyone deserves [the perfect ending], and not that I deserved it, but I wanted to finish things off in Canada.

"Then when I looked at the selection criteria, and realised that I still had scored enough points last year to be eligible, I thought that if I maintained a certain level of fitness and really felt like I could prove that, then, I wanted to go to these races. Then I did [Road] National Championships and it was good [he finished seventh] and I knew after that I could provide a lot of value to the team at Worlds, and here we are."

A hope and a plan nearly a year in the making, Woods only got the call for certain in August, with the GPs de Québec and Montréal thrown in as openers, but he's felt ready for this return to the highest level of road racing for several weeks.

"Only about a month ago, within the last month when we made the official selection. I wasn't informed before," he explained. "But after the National Championships, I finished seventh, but, with the way the course was – it wasn't a very hard course – I proved I was definitely the second strongest climber in the race. I wouldn't want to come here if I wasn't going to contribute to the national team, but after doing that race I felt like 'Oh, I definitely will be valuable'."

The initial plan was for Woods to work for Canada's chosen leader, Derek Gee-West, but with the Lidl-Trek rider withdrawing from Sunday's road race after a crash at the GP de Montréal, the door has perhaps opened for Woods to use his strength for something exciting.

"I really want to go as far into the race as I can, or even try and do something special," he said. "I just want the national team and the maple leaf to have success at this race."

From 'jaded' to rekindling his love of racing

In many ways, the year-long delay to Woods' Montreal farewell might be a blessing in disguise.

The 39-year-old who is preparing to line up for Sunday's road race is very different from the 38-year-old who stepped out of the peloton in 2025, and that time and space has given him a new-found appreciation for the sport – and perhaps even the ability to enjoy his final road races more than he would have 12 months ago.

"I was pretty jaded by the end of last year," he said. "Last year particularly, I had my hernia, I had crashed. I went to an altitude camp in Tenerife, got in amazing shape, really felt like I was going to have a good year, and then crashed taking a leg warmer off in Milano-Torino, broke my collarbone, woke up in an ambulance. After that, I was over it.

"But this year has rekindled my love for the sport, made me realise how much I love racing. Watching the races on TV makes me realise how beautiful the sport was, and makes me really proud of what I did. I haven't missed it at all, but it's been a great year."

Racing all across Europe, the United States and Canada this year, the headlines reading that Woods was 'coming out of retirement' for the World Championships didn't exactly ring true, given he's hardly stopped this year, but he was clear that this season has been nothing like the ones that came before it.

"I've definitely been retired from the WorldTour. The WorldTour is a different beast, 70 race days, it's not just performing once or twice every few weeks, it's just this grind. So I've been retired from that," he said.

"Doing what I did this year has been so fun. It has been, I'd say, a retirement. I'm doing exactly what I want to do whenever I want to, which has been sweet. So I've definitely retired. But fortunately, it's kept me in good enough shape to be competitive at a high level."

No more imposter syndrome

Coming back to road racing for the GPs de Quebec and Montreal – where he finished 66th and 18th respectively – Woods had a chance to reacclimatise with the WorldTour peloton before taking on the World Championships road race. Being back in the world he left

"It's weird. It's cool. It's super cool," he said. "It amazes me. I used to feel like such an imposter at these races because I came in so late. I didn't do years of racing junior and then U23, or accruing relationships. I just came into the WorldTour and knew nothing. It felt like I was just like playing – this is going to date me – but like Age of Empires when everything is just dark. I didn't know anything.

"And now I come here and I know everybody. I know guys on every single team. I'm chatting with everybody, staff included – there's directors that I used to race with – so it's weird to now realise that I'm not an imposter."

Riding with the national team in Quebec and Montreal also offered Woods a chance to act as the experienced head in a team of young riders, both sharing his expertise and affirming to himself that the future of the sport is in safe hands.

"It's been awesome. When I first started at these races I was in a similar position, just hungry, chasing a $10,000 contract, trying to move up, and, it's nice to be around that energy again," he said. "Everyone's like 20 years younger than me. I'm learning from these guys, like the way the sport is now. There's so much access to information and these guys are so switched on that even me, who's been doing it for quite a few years now, I'm learning from them."

"Now I feel like an imposter in a different way!" he laughed. "I'm like, I have a wife, I have kids, I have a house. I'm in a way different state or place than these guys, but it's a nice change of perspective."

After the World Championships, this chapter is over, Woods is certain. He's not going to get sucked into the ever more competitive and more professional world of gravel. He won't be jetting off to Australia for Gravel World Championships after Montreal, and swapping the road grind for the gravel one isn't his idea of fun.

"That's been my life for the last 15 years. It's just chasing contracts, chasing points, chasing results for a team, sponsorship pressure, and this year wasn't that, and it was really nice," he said. "It is hard, it's not like it's smooth sailing for a lot of the privateers, it's a lot of work."

But whilst he's sure that "that's it forever" as far as trying to be a professional, competitive athlete goes, nothing will ever stop Woods from riding, and if anything, this bonus year and serendipitous perfect ending has only reaffirmed that love.

"I'll race and ride my bike for the rest of my life. I love it," he said. "There's a reason why I did what I did this year. I'm an addict to exercise and physical activity. I'm a much worse person when I'm not doing them. I'm in love with it, I'm in love with the bike. I'll ride for the rest of my life, just a lot less competitively in the years to come."

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for comprehensive race coverage of both the UCI Road and Gravel World Championships, alongside the final Monument of the season, Il Lombardia. Subscribers get unlimited access to exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

The indoor cycling world is increasingly focused on a few large players, with Zwift dominating and shaping the landscape. That consolidation has advantages for riders looking for social and competitive interactions with other riders, but is progressively squeezing out alternatives.

At the same time, apps and the hardware on which they run are becoming increasingly integrated. This makes it easier to get started riding indoors but, in Zwift’s case, ties you into its environment. We’ll run through the current major forces in the world of indoor cycling apps.

App consolidation continues

The number of different options for indoor training has been reducing significantly over the past few years as larger names swallow up smaller competitors.

It’s already over three years since Wahoo closed down RGT, its virtual cycling app. In the past year Rouvy bought, then closed down Bkool, migrating the Spanish brand’s user base onto its platform.

In its turn, Zwift, the largest player in the indoor app space, bought Rouvy in April 2026. Rouvy continues to follow its own development priorities and to provide and enhance its real-world video based riding, while Zwift has its own work plan for its more gamified riding environment.

The two platforms are working more closely together though, with users being able to earn credits in one app by riding in the other. They still require separate subscriptions though.

Zwift now also owns Australian training app Fulgaz, which it acquired by its purchase of Rouvy, whose purchase of Fulgaz had in its turn preceded its own purchase by Zwift. Somewhat surprisingly, given the Bkool experience, Fulgaz continues to operate as a separate app within the Zwift/Rouvy family.

MyWhoosh remains free

The main alternative to the Zwift/Rouvy firmament remains MyWhoosh, which continues to offer free access to everyone, and claims a user base around 50% the size of Zwift's. It’s based in Abu Dhabi, but has broken out of its initial desert landscapes to offer virtual worlds based on other parts of the real world, akin to Zwift.

Not only is MyWhoosh free, but it also offers prize money for racing on the platform. Prize purses are as high as $1m for some competitions.

Natutrally, if you want to go after its cash prizes, there are some very strict anti-cheating rules to abide by to ensure fair competition, to the extremes that those at the very top of the platform’s Sunday Race League must use a $789 Favero power meter.

Peloton pushes its app offering

Although renowned for its Peloton Bike and that ad, Peloton’s main user base is its phone app users, without the hardware. The phone app allows you to follow Peloton’s workouts live or on-demand, although you need to subscribe to one of its more expensive tiers for access to the full library and progression recording. It covers rowing, pilates and a range of other indoor and outdoor activities too.

Minor players continue to offer alternatives

Although the indoor training space is now dominated by a few large players, there continue to be alternatives.

icTrainer, for example, offers a low priced training environment based on real-world video, while Golden Cheetah has free-to-use performance analysis and includes a workout builder.

If one of your motivations for using an indoor training app is the competitive or social aspect, then a larger player is a major draw, favouring Zwift/Rouvy and, to a lesser extent, MyWhoosh. If there’s a small user base, it may be hard to find other users on an app to ride with or compete against.

Wahoo consolidates its apps

Wahoo has followed a different path to Zwift and its peers, concentrating its offering on the Wahoo app. This has a free tier and two paid tiers, tied in closely to the brand’s hardware.

With the third generation Elemnt cycling computers, activity tracking both indoor and out is brought into the app. Pay for the Pro tier and Wahoo grants you access to its Systm workouts, structured training and extended content, although there’s limited interactivity. Its primary focus remains its hardware though.

Garmin’s approach is similar, with Garmin electronics and Tacx indoor training hardware its primary focus. Tacx does have its own app which includes structured workouts and real world route video content to ride, but it’s a minor player.

But Garmin has recently bought TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, adding to its structured training and performance analysis capabilities. TrainingPeaks was previously just a training prescription platform, but in October 2024, bought IndieVelo and launched TrainingPeaks Virtual. This is praised for its simulation of cornering, braking and other factors to add extra realism, and integrates into TrainingPeaks' calendar and workout building software, as well as WKO5 for deeper analysis. Integration into Garmin Connect could enhance that environment further, and Garmin's deep pockets could steer it toward becoming a serious challenger to the Zwift domination.

TrainerRoad is another app which is highly workout focused without visuals or interaction with other users to back up its extensive collection of workouts. It offers machine learning-based tailoring of its recommended workouts, based on your targets and progression, to help guide you toward your goals. It’s recently partnered with Zwift though, so you can follow its workouts on Zwift for a more engaging experience.

Indoor app companies continue to expand their hardware offering

It’s not just apps which are becoming increasingly integrated, indoor training platforms are offering linked hardware on which to run their apps too.

Wahoo has come from the hardware side, with its trailblazing Kickr smart trainer launched in 2012. Direct drive smart trainers have become the default hardware for training and Wahoo has expanded its options with the lower priced Kickr Core, the pricier Kickr Move, its smart bikes and the Kickr Rollr too.

After a turbulent first foray into hardware, Zwift has got into the realm again with its Zwift Ride smart frame. Linked to a standalone trainer, this offers a significantly cheaper and more portable alternative to a monolithic smart bike such as the Wahoo Kickr Bike. It still allows you to keep your outdoor bike setup for the outdoors though, and have a dedicated indoor set-up that can be shared between family members if needed.

In addition, Zwift Ride incorporates Zwift’s Cog and Click virtual shifting and controllers to interact with the Zwift app. You’re no longer locked into riding solely on Zwift either, with Rouvy now supporting Zwift’s virtual shifting, offering an alternative, less gamified ride environment.

It has been 725 days since Swiss junior rider Muriel Furrer died after crashing during her home 2024 UCI Road World Championships, having been unattended for a full 82 minutes because she was hidden in the brush. It has been 40 days since Finlay Tarling was killed when a van drove onto the course at the Volta a Portugal and hit him head-on. Pro cycling, as a workplace, has a massive safety problem.

A simple system of tracking riders using global positioning system (GPS) units might have prevented Furrer's death, but the only tracking system in use at the time was in the men's WorldTour for the commercialisation of rider power, speed and heart rate data.

After the tragedy, the UCI acknowledged the pressing need for a better safety net, and implemented their own tracking system in the World Championships in Rwanda last year.

It was anticipated that the UCI would introduce new regulations for GPS tracking at the Management Committee meeting in Montreal this week, but on Wednesday, the post-meeting announcement reiterated the pending nature, stating "The protocols, the relevant regulatory framework and the implementation timeline will be developed as quickly as possible."

For the President of the main riders' union (the CPA), Adam Hansen, more widespread tracking of riders cannot come soon enough, but there is a distinct lack of unity among teams on the details.

"It seems like it's becoming more important every day, especially after Finlay Tarling," Hansen tells Cyclingnews.

"Trackers would have avoided this because trackers will see when riders have no protection. For example, in his scenario, he was riding without a police motorbike or any organiser in front of him.

"If this had been seen on a screen that there was no police bike, this could have been very quickly relayed to the race regulator [who could have announced] 'Rider 81, three minutes back, no protection, send someone there.'"

The UCI has practically begged stakeholders to come to an agreement on a tracking system. In March, the UCI sent a letter to stakeholders that emphasised a sense of urgency for implementing GPS tracking.

They sought to reassure stakeholders that they aren't looking to impose any specific system, but would prioritise one "that allows for open access to providing such services". The letter stated: "Stakeholders can work on the development of a system or tool with the provider of their choice (organisers, teams, riders)."

After the death of Tarling, the UCI spent a large part of the Pro Cycling Council (PCC) meeting earlier this month on GPS tracking, and in a statement said that "the UCI stressed the urgent need" to put a tracking system in place in the men's and women's WorldTour, with phrases such as "in the absence of a joint proposal from the different stakeholder groups" and "stakeholders need to move past any disagreements on certain issues and act together" but rather alarmingly: "safety must never be sacrificed for commercial interests".

Why are stakeholders raising any objections to a system everyone agrees is badly needed? What commercial interest is sacrificing rider safety?

(To be clear, objections from teams have not stopped GPS tracking from being used, and the UCI regulations were never going to be agreed upon before this year. When teams pulled out of a trial at the women's Tour de Romandie in 2025, the trial still went ahead. This article highlights the finer points of implementing a tracking system.)

Cyclingnews attempted to speak to Brent Copeland, head of the AIGCP (teams organisation), to better understand the concerns leading to the lack of agreement the UCI mentions, but we were unable to receive comment before the publication of this article.

Hansen gave his perspective from what was discussed in the PCC meetings, which included representatives from the AIGCP, the race organisers' association (AIOCC) and the UCI, but is not a representative of the teams.

There are already at least three different tracking systems in use in the WorldTour: the Tour de France has one for their broadcast and live race centre, but it's only for commercial purposes. Teams obviously don't pay for that. The UCI built another in partnership with Swiss Timing for safety alone last year, and if they impose their system on teams, it might come at a cost to teams.

Then there's the Velon group, a business venture owned by eight men's WorldTour teams who built their entire business model around collecting and monetising live rider data. Those eight teams have invested heavily in developing and evolving their live data system over the course of a decade. In 2025, after the deaths of Gino Mäder and Furrer, Velon developed a safety module, 'SaVe', that sends riders' speed and location to a central monitoring station.

At first, Hansen says, there was a concern from teams that the UCI might try impose their system and then commercialise the data.

"The teams did think this at the start – they thought the UCI was going to monetise this," he says. "But the UCI President said in three PCC meetings that they would never do this; they just want safety trackers on the riders.

"I'm not 100% sure why the teams have not agreed to an open system, because that's what we all agreed we want."

An 'open system' means that the UCI would collect the data from whatever trackers teams use and be the ones keeping tabs on the riders. "It's like radios: every team has different radios, and two riders can have two different radios, but all work on the same frequency. We want the same thing for the GPS trackers, where two different teams having two different GPS trackers send the same information.

"The teams are being a little difficult about this because the Velon teams want to use their system," Hansen says. "We know that Velon wants every team to have their system – that's for sure. How this all started is the teams are very sensitive on who owns the data of the riders, like heart rate, cadence, and all that. Velon offers that, and they monetise this."

Ultimately, though, Hansen points to what he thinks is the reason for the disagreement – the idea of using the UCI's system over Velon's. "I think it's more of a bit of a distaste for the Velon teams that they've invested so much money into one system over the years, and that it can just be quickly replaced by a different system."

In 2025, the Tour de Suisse organisers paid Velon CHF 50,000 (£44,941/$60,965) to implement SaVe for the men's and women's races, and Velon has been expanding their reach this year to cover more men's races. They plan to add women's races next year, too. With the upcoming UCI regulations that will mandate GPS tracking, Velon will have an opportunity to expand further.

Velon CEO Graham Bartlett tells Cyclingnews that they may be charging race organisers for the safety module, but insists they're not out to make a profit off of it.

"The safety module itself was a reasonable amount of CapEx [capital expenditure – ed.] investment to develop that software," Bartlett says. "People think it's easy: 'OK, you can see where the rider is on a map, there you go, safety!' That's not how it works. How do you differentiate between a GPS signal just going off-track a little bit and a rider that's down a ravine? The software has to be really sophisticated to only throw up the right kind of alerts, and that takes time to develop and invest in.

"We've done that. We're not looking to make money out of that at all. If we charge costs to race organisers to use the system, it's to recover some costs of the operating staff on the ground."

When Velon's system is used for safety tracking, Bartlett says they send three or four people to monitor the system and the incoming data, which costs money.

"We have to pay people; we're not going to turn this over to a bunch of volunteers," he said. "The Premier League in the UK launched a monitoring drone system for crowd safety – they are paying somebody else to do it. So we will charge the race organisers for doing this at races, why wouldn't we? We have to pay people. But to the teams, it's free."

(Several teams invest in and fund Velon, but this system would be free to use by all teams in a given race, not just Velon members)

He emphasised that for their safety module, Velon just wants to "get it wide and out there to as many people as possible through the teams".

What Velon stand to lose if the UCI take away their ability to monitor the whole peloton's data for safety is the potential to sell their live data to race organisers. With Velon's GPS trackers already on riders' bikes, organisers might see the value in getting on board with their commercial venture, too.

"We offer a really good business model to race organisers where they actually end up making money out of the fan engagement data," Bartlett says.

"Safety we treat as separate. We're not asking them to repay us for the software investment or start making loads of money on the basis of that. We'd rather focus on making money on the fan engagement stuff, the sports promotion and race promotion, the sponsorships."

While Velon teams can commercialise riders' data, non-Velon teams can also work with the organisation, trading their riders' data for Velon's social media streams, in return for the team cars receiving live in-race data.

"Now, if a race organiser wants to enrich their broadcast or for us to promote their race with data, then yeah, they pay for that service in the same way they pay for a lot of services," Bartlett said.

"That's the essence of the model: free to the teams, free to use, and that's why we can roll it out now to so many more races, because we've got a lot more capacity."

Is the Velon system up to the task for safety?

By the end of this season, SaVe will have been used in 100 days of racing, Bartlett says, and it's been successful in detecting several incidents. Before it was fully implemented, the Velon trackers picked up on Alessio Martinelli's harrowing crash on stage 16 of the 2025 Giro d'Italia, for example.

"We knew exactly where he was," Bartlett said. "So we could pinpoint those coordinates back to their DSs, back to the team [VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè], and tell them that's where he is. The cameras picked him up as well, and there were people by the side of the road, so I'm not claiming any exquisite result in that. It's just an illustration that that's where the information goes, that's what we're using it for. Primarily, it goes back to the teams."

In stage 2 of this year's Giro d'Italia in Albania, the system identified riders who had gone down in a crash and sent that information immediately to the affected riders' teams. Again, on stage 8, when Fabio Christen (Pinarello-Q36.5) crashed and broke his collarbone, Velon's system sent an alert and relayed the information to his team.

However, there is no perfect system when it comes to transmitting live data, as cycling fans around the world have experienced when fog or rain interferes with the television signals on a critical climb and we're all left groaning that we're missing all of the action. That's because big races like the Tour de France use a radio frequency system to send data from the ground to aircraft that can then transmit live data to a central location. Sometimes aircraft cannot fly in certain conditions, or the signal can't get through.

Velon's system uses existing 4G and 5G cellular networks, but if you've ever stood on the side of a mountain in the wilderness, you know there are dead zones.

Hansen suggests that some teams might be concerned about these dead zones with Velon's system. "The UCI was looking into some type of mesh system, where every tracker has long-range WiFi, and they all connect to each other. Then you might have a drone flying over the top [to collect the data and transmit it to a monitor]."

Even if one device goes offline, it can talk to a nearby tracker and that one can relay the first's signal. "Once they go back in range, they can relay that 'Rider disappeared at this location'," Hansen says. "There might be a little delay when there's no service, but they'll definitely get a relay. Where with 4G without the mesh system, you have no idea where that rider went off in that period of time, which could be two minutes – 60kph downhill, that's two kilometres to look for a rider, which is difficult. With the mesh system, you'll know exactly where it is, but you'll find out afterwards exactly where it is.

"There are some teams saying that maybe the Velon system is not good enough, or trackers should have a mesh system. All this is on the table, and we are discussing it. We're just waiting for the teams to get together. From the four stakeholders, the teams are the least united, which is a problem."

Bartlett insists that Velon's system is robust enough.

"We've been doing this a long time, and mesh network... We looked at that a lot over the years, and continue to look at it because you can always improve.

"But for the particular environment of bike racing, trying to mesh 180-odd units together, you generate a level of additional complexity. So the way that we address the problem is buffering. The device will trigger as soon as it loses connection, and it will resend all the data that it stored as soon as it's connected again, which means you can iron out the black spots."

He adds that there aren't as many areas without coverage as most people think, because most mobile phones are dependent on a specific network, while Velon's system can access signal on any available cellular network.

"We have SIM-agnostic eSIMs that will just connect to anything that is available on priority network access, and that means that there's a lot less of what you would consider to be a black spot.

"That being said, there are, because if you go through a tunnel or the wrong side of a mountain with no masts, you can lose signal. But we know in advance where those positions are, so we pre-plan against it and know what we need to do in the software to smooth that out. But any system where you're transmitting any signal, whether it's satellite, RF, LTE, you can lose it at some point. You just have to accept that as a level of tolerance."

Cyclingnews also tried to speak with the UCI's sports strategy manager Matthew Knight about the effectiveness of the UCI tracking system but we were unable to do so before the publication of this article.

Riders feel left out of decision-making

What has become clear in the course of this inquiry is that rights to rider data is a very sticky issue. My colleague Matilda Price asked Michał Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos) at the GP de Montréal about the issue, and he highlighted the confusion.

He agreed that GPS tracking should be implemented, but added, "Who has the rights to actually have those devices? That's a little bit unknown. It would be great to have and share more data with people, but obviously there has to be common sense with actually who is owning it and who is getting the rights and that's a little bit unknown at the minute."

He didn't seem clear that the UCI and Velon are separating safety data from other rider data and that both insist they do not want to monetise safety data. But the Polish rider focused on the distribution of the proceeds from monetising riders' data, which gives a sense there could be a lack of trust that there is not a plan to do so in combination with the safety tracking.

"Between UCI, the race organisers and the teams, it should be a fair split. Safety is one thing, but you can add to it a lot of gains from TV rights etc., so it's a difficult subject."

At the same race, Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco AlUla) said he felt the riders have not been involved enough. "I suppose if it's a question of sharing your data, then that's always a bit of a touchy subject, depending on who you ask and whatnot. I suppose the diplomatic way of going about it would be to ask the riders first before implementing certain rules, which is not often the case.

"I think the rulemakers [the UCI] would get a lot more done in a positive way, with a positive result, if they actually included riders, because I don't think riders necessarily always just say no to everything, but obviously when you have the feeling that you're not involved in certain decisions, then you feel excluded.

"We've come a long way compared to years ago. There is inclusion, there is a dialogue, Adam Hansen is doing a very good job with the CPA, so I wouldn't as such be against it [GPS tracking] but you'd want to know what it's all about."

Riders are still the ones with their lives on the line, and Hansen was clear that all stakeholders want GPS tracking, but the teams can't agree on a solution.

"The crazy thing is we could all use the World System. It works; there's no reason not to. Velon doesn't want their teams to use it," Hansen says. "OK, then you've got to get your system ready."

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When I first spotted the new Factor Elara at The Traka this year, it left me quite taken aback. Road bike design in recent years has gone rather wild, with the likes of the now relatively conservative Ridley Noah giving way to the likes of the Colnago Y1Rs and Factor’s own ONE, but gravel bikes, even gravel race bikes, until very recently had remained ‘normal’, for want of a better word.

Enter the Elara, then, with that whopping fork clearly derived from the design principles of the Factor ONE. Our own wind tunnel testing concludes that it is the fastest gravel bike out there, at least of those that we've managed to lay our hands on, and having given it a thorough run out on everything from fast, flat, well graded gravel to what can be best described as ‘adventurous terrain’, I’m happy to report that chimes with my own experiences.

It is, like the ONE, an unapologetically race-oriented machine, with no concessions to non-race utility, but unlike the ONE it’s actually a lot easier to see it in use as a training machine if speed and performance on the rough stuff is your goal. It’s not necessarily the right bike for me, but I have very much enjoyed riding it.

Design and aesthetics

I have a feeling that if the ONE hadn’t paved the way already then the Elara would have received a much more frosty reception in the visual department. The front end is certainly arresting, but hold your thumb over that front end for a second and tell me it doesn’t look like a pretty standard gravel bike everywhere else.

I have actually really warmed to the aesthetics of it, in a way I haven’t with the ONE. I think the fact that gravel is free for the most part from the clutches of the UCI (not to suggest that this bike is illegal in any way - it isn’t) I’m happier to see machines that are very much non-traditional. The fork, with its gaping maw, looks evil in this raw carbon finish, and while it’s slightly at odds with the svelte build of the rest of the frame I think it balances out well once you slot in the massive Black Inc. Sixty Four Gravel wheels and some 50+mm rubber.

I do need to address the tyre clearance claims early on though. Factor claims a 57mm clearance, something which I decided to put to the test early on by fitting a set of 2.25” Maxxis Aspens. The rear swallowed this fine, and the stiffness is sufficient that it wouldn’t have caused me any worry, but the fork, while wide enough, wasn’t tall enough to cope with a tyre that measured 57.6mm on my calipers.

Factor says it’s all based around the Continental Dubnital (or Race King, as it was during development), and while a 57mm Dubnital might fit (I don’t have one to hand so cannot check), the fact a 57mm Maxxis doesn’t leads me to conclude that 57mm isn’t a true clearance for the bike. You'll get a 55 in, but you’ll have so little room for mud buildup I suggest you just run 50s as it comes and leave it at that, unless you swap to something very low profile like a Schwalbe G-One RS Pro.

I’ll delve into the geometry a little more in depth later, but as well as being the most aero gravel bike we’ve tested it’s also the most aggressive in terms of geometry. The designers wanted to keep that back end as short as possible, which they have achieved to their credit with a 423mm chainstay; quite something with the ability to cram a 57mm tyre in at the back. This, combined with a 72.3º head angle and a correspondingly steep 74.5º seat tube angle make it the most aggressively angled gravel machine I’ve personally come across. This, as you might expect, lends it quite a sporty handling.

Rather unusually, it retains the ability to run 2x, something very much against the grain. Factor says this is because it doesn’t want to limit its riders to one or other system, but I cannot remember the last time I saw anyone racing gravel on a 2x and I can’t help but feel this is something of a redundant feature. If you want to use it as a road bike, or an all-road bike perhaps, then I will admit I prefer 2x gearing, but it will limit your tyre capacity, which will then hamstring you on the proper gravel for which this bike was designed.

Given we know already that it is more aero than any other gravel bike I shan’t over egg the pudding. It’s clearly designed with aerodynamics in mind, with the fork being the most obvious example, and it’s worked. The fork, interestingly, was a late addition, added after full carbon prototypes had already been produced for wind tunnel validation and we saw these in testing in the real world, too. During testing with a more normal fork the designers crammed a fork from the ONE into the frame to see how it would affect the aero, found it was measurably faster, and had to redesign the front end to accommodate. It is, I am told, a different fork entirely to the ONE, despite looking the same. The latter has a bayonet fastening for one thing, but the lowers are different, designed to be optimal at the slightly slower gravel speeds.

Despite a fork that a child could easily play Hot Wheels on, the whole bike weighs not very much. My size 56 with SRAM Force tipped the scales at 8.76kg, with a single bottle cage, but no pedals; which was exactly the same as the Fara GR4 I tested just before it, which had the same tyres, too. In terms of spec you can have Force like me, Red if you’re feeling particularly flush, or the new Campagnolo Record. Sorry, Shimano, nothing here for you.

As is often a gold star in the Factor copy book, you can spec the Elara pretty well at point of sale. Two seatpost setback options (0mm or 20mm) are outdone by three crank lengths, and these both pale in comparison to the 21 cockpit options, spanning 36cmx80mm up to 40cmx140mm. 36 x 140 is about as aggressive as you’d probably want to go unless you’re going very much outside the norm, but the steerer is round so you're not completely restricted and aftermarket options may work.

Geometry

The Elara is about as aggressive as gravel bikes get from a geometry point of view. It’s not miles more so than the likes of the new Specialized Crux, but overlaying the two on Bikeinsights.com (a great site for sure) we can see that the Elara is steeper in the head tube and seat tube by 0.8º and 0.5º respectively. It’s 2mm shorter in the chainstays, 2mm lower in the bottom bracket, has a 4mm shorter wheelbase and a 7mm longer reach. It has a 3.6mm lower trail figure in the fork, too. These are all modest numbers in comparative terms but I back the Cyclingnews audience to understand the impact the aggregation of modest changes can make.

Now, I haven’t ridden the latest Crux, so for a little more context I also ran the numbers versus the Fara GR4, which I sent back a couple of days before the Factor arrived at the office. I very much enjoyed the GR4, but compared to the Elara the numbers are very different. The Elara is 1.1º steeper in the head tube, 0.8º in the seat tube, 10mm lower in stack, 2mm longer in reach, and a 19mm longer wheelbase that is primarily derived from a 4mm greater fork rake and the slacker head tube. Happily, to confirm the numbers do actually mean something, I can say they feel like very different bikes.

My colleague, Josh, is a vocal proponent of the fact the Crux would make a great do-everything machine with a set of road wheels. In theory I don’t doubt it, and in theory the Elara would be an even better candidate, with geometry a hair closer to road bikes and a superior aero package. I object to this on geometry grounds more than anything else; gravel bikes may be able to hack it on the road with the right tyres in terms of just going fast enough, but they don’t feel like a road bike. Looking at the difference, just visually, between the Elara and Factor’s Ostro VAM road bike it’s clear to see they’ll feel noticeably different on the tarmac. However, later on I’ll slap some road wheels in the Elara and report back as to whether my preconceptions have been shattered, as everyone loves a bit of low level tension in a bike review.

Performance

If you want the full deep dive into the aero numbers then I implore you to read Josh’s run down of our wind tunnel testing. The short version is that The Elara is the fastest gravel bike we tested as a bike only, and with the margins of error it could lay claim to being the fastest with a rider, too. It’s rapid, but with a rider it’s basically indistinguishable from the Crux and the Wilier Rave. Taking into account the fact it has much larger tyres, the fact that it’s only 10.45 watts more draggy as a bike only than the old Look Blade, a WorldTour level road race bike, is really quite impressive.

This is also borne out on the road; it’s wicked fast. Part of this is, I’m sure, down to the superior aerodynamics, but on that front it’s not necessarily faster than the Crux or Rave. It feels fast though, and I think that comes down to a combination of stiffness and geometry. That really tight, snappy rear end and steep front make it feel like a road bike when you’re off-road, and while the rear end is actually pretty comfy in relative terms, the front end is very stiff indeed, meaning you get plenty of feedback that makes you feel like you’re hammering along. On flat sections it’s sensational, and the systemic stiffness from the frame, wheels and cockpit means it gobbles up sprints with only the tyres protesting every now and then.

One thing I did notice was that the very short back end had a tendency to leave the ground when really going hard over dried out shallow puddle craters. Not to the point I’d have to back off, but enough to pick slightly different lines sometimes or lean into it and get a little airtime for the whole bike (a very little, this isn’t Red Bull Rampage). It’s something I notice sometimes when doing hill sprints on very tight road bikes, but not something I've ever come across in a gravel bike.

Josh criticised the ONE for being too stiff in the front end, something I also knocked the Incolor SSR for, and while it’s hard to compare those to the Elara the front end stiffness here is moderated to a great degree by the 50mm tyre in the fork. I needed to dial the tyre pressures in more than usual here, and I estimate I was 5-7psi less than I’d normally run, but once it was all on-song it wasn’t an uncomfortable place to ride. It’s less comfy than the Fara GR4, and if I was personally doing a 7hr gravel event I think I’d be erring on the side of comfort, but if you want something that feels razor sharp and don’t mind a bit of fatigue at the end of the day you’ll be alright. In an ideal world I think I would run the tyre pressures lower still, but in order to do that comfortably where I live I’d need tyre inserts.

That tight geometry pays dividends in twisty sections, and it actually puts me more in mind of an old school cyclocross bike in many ways, except without the unstable high bottom bracket. It’s beautifully nimble, with a bottom bracket that’s low enough to not make it feel unbalanced. Like a cx bike it’s also a little twitchy when the going gets slippy, something gravel bikes with longer, more stable geometry don’t suffer with. If you’re happy playing fast and loose sometimes when things get slick then you’ll be absolutely fine, and it’s actually quite a lot of fun if you know what to expect, but it’s a different experience to many other gravel bikes in this regard.

Descending is exhilarating, again as a result of the geometry. It’s not necessarily what I’d call confidence inspiring, but if you’re already confident it’s very rewarding. The cockpit is a lovely place to lock into in the drops to slam down a gulley, and while it is a little twitchy it’s stable enough until you get to steep MTB-lite trails. For gravel racing courses it’ll be absolutely golden, which is what it was designed for after all.

In much the same way as I found the Ridley Noah to be a surprisingly good climber, I had the same experience here, though to say ‘surprisingly’ good is perhaps doing it a disservice. The steeper seat tube and position that’s more over the front of the bike mean rear end traction on steeper stuff is great as you can stay seated for longer. It also means there’s more traction on the front tyre in cornering, and if you get your tyres pressures right it’s really very good here, too.

While it’s a very good performer, I was actually struck by how un-extreme it felt in many situations. It looks wild, but I think I’d rather have this as a general use gravel bike than the Factor Aluto; it’s more capable on rough ground and so in my view is better as a gravel bike, it’s faster, and it feels less of an impediment on road, meaning it makes a better surrogate road bike if you must do that, but more importantly for me it makes the transition phases of a gravel ride that must be spent on tarmac feel engaging still, which is a huge bonus.

While I haven't had the opportunity to test the wheels independently they're certainly on-trend and bang up to date. Having smashed them about on some extremely rocky descents I can attest that they're pretty sure-footed, and considering the giant size of the forks in which they sit I didn't find them too blustery in crosswinds either. They're also the fastest wheels as per our latest wind tunnel test of gravel wheels, so it's very hard to fault them from a performance standpoint. We did use the Elara as the test rig, so there is the caveat that they may will have been designed in tandem with the frame, but still... fast wheels.

The Factor Elara as a road bike

Can you use an aero gravel bike as a road bike, freeing you from the burden of owning a beautiful racy road bike and allowing you the pleasure of constantly swapping wheels? You can, obviously. But should you?

Well, I slapped on a set of the Only SRAM wheels I had at my disposal, a pair of Zipp 202NSW climbing wheels (sub-optimal in terms of vibes I think it's fair to say) making the poor Elara look like it's skipped leg day in the gym. In an ideal world I'd have fit a set of 42mm road tyres to them from the latest crop, something I'm told Romain Bardet does with his Elara, but time is of the essence so 30mm GP5000s will have to do.

Does it work? Well, as with all good results the answer is a bit of yes and no. It feels fine, though perhaps a little low slung on such comparatively skinny tyres. It handles absolutely fine and you really do feel in many respects (especially along the flat and non-technical riding) that you could just be on an aero road bike, especially looking down at that fork crown. Sprints, too, are a delight. It's so stiff for a gravel bike that it just eats up high wattage efforts with ease, but isn't so stiff that its hugely uncomfortable on tarmac either.

The main drawbacks come in terms of handling. Having hopped back onto the Elara after a wonderful road ride aboard the new Look 795 Blade RS, a bike with a gorgeously sharp front end, riding the Elara on the road still feels really quite slack. The rear end helps keep things snappy but it still feels in many respects like being on a (admittedly very fast) endurance bike with quite leisurely geometry. This will afflict all gravel bikes used as road bikes in my view, and in fairness the Factor is the best of the bunch on the tarmac, but don't kid yourself that you'll be getting a proper road bike experience just by swapping the wheels.

Forget the 2x, but with 42mm slicks on it would be a pretty sensational all-road machine, able to stay fast and still get up to mischief.

Value

With SRAM Red the Elara is a full £1,400 (or $2,000) cheaper than an S-Works Crux, but £1,850 (or $1,500) dearer than a similarly equipped non-S-Works machine. In the guise I tested, with SRAM Force, it’s not really comparing like with like. The Elara with Force is basically the same as with Red, just with a different groupset, whereas the Force tier Crux has worse wheels to drop the price further still.

Comparing framesets the Factor is more expensive by £650 (or $800), but you get a cockpit here, so they’re roughly equivalent. My feeling is that the S-Works Crux is a little overpriced, but the standard Crux, in Red tier at least, is a slightly more compelling offering than the Elara, but there isn’t a great deal in it, and considering the options you can spec on the Elara vs the Crux it might actually tip the balance in favour of the Elara.

In this tier, with a Force groupset, it's a a slightly harder value proposition. You do get the superior aerodynamics, and you do get the fastest wheels, but is it $1,500 better than the Fara GR4, which weighs the same though has (presumably) worse aerodynamics, or $1k better than the Argon18 Anti Matter, that comes with a dedicated frame bag and a similar weight? I think if you're actually entering a series of gravel events and trying to do well in them then it might be, I'm less convinced, and I think most of that price differential is all in the wheels.

Verdict

If you want a gravel race bike then this absolutely has to be up for consideration. It is certainly not as fit for fast adventuring as the likes of the Fara GR4 in my view, but as a single minded machine it fulfils the brief exceptionally well without being so specialised in its purpose that it alienates a great proportion of the user base, as I suspect is the case with the ONE. It's actually a hell of a lot of fun to ride on the proviso you like your handling extremely sharp, and if ever there was a case for a gravel bike to be used also as a road bike it's probably this one, though I remain unconvinced on geometry grounds.

I do think if you aren't actually racing gravel, and are just after a gravel bike to smash about on very fast, then the Crux or GR4 might be a better generalist, depending on your choice of geometry. Comfort is a factor here, and over rough ground fatigue sets in earlier than with other machines, and if you're targeting particularly rough courses and you really want to max that tyre capacity out then you may want to look to something like the new Canyon Grail that can actually take a 57mm tyre in the front.

When Alfredo Binda led home an Italian 1-2-3 to win the first official men’s Road World Championships in Germany in 1927, it marked a brave new world for the sport. But that brave new world was one only for men, in a world where women’s sport was completely ignored rather than merely marginalised, there was no women’s race, and nor would there be for more than 30 years.

Of course there is a fair argument that World War Two delayed the appearance of a first women’s Worlds, but the counter to that is that hostilities had been over for 12 years before the UCI finally accepted the worthiness of a women’s race. And when finally it happened in Reims in 1958, Luxembourg rider Elsy Jacobs was ready to write her name in the history of women’s sport.

Born the youngest of nine children into a farming family in the tiny Luxembourgish village of Garnich, close to both the Belgian and French borders, Jacobs was used to competing with her siblings for everything, and she developed a fierce competitive nature and sharper sense of determination. If that alone was never enough to create a world-conquering athlete, helping out on the family’s farm certainly helped toughen her physically. According to Herbie Sykes’ feature in the sadly defunct Procycling magazine, legend has it that she once harvested 250kg of potatoes in one day, such was the strength of the young Elsy.

For Jacobs, cycling started as it does for many of us, a method of transport, and she’d borrow bikes from around the house, especially those of her brothers who were keen racers. And when she heard that women could race just across the border in France Belgium, she was sold.

However, with no support whatsoever for women’s racing from the Luxembourg federation, she was unable to get a race licence. So rather than be deterred, she’d arrive at races across the border, plead ignorance, tell organisers she’d ridden there from Luxembourg, then ride off and win the race.

In 1953, aged 20, Jacobs was riding under a French licence for a Parisian club, but with her brothers kicking up a storm on the Luxembourg scene, she returned to ride under the banner of the Luxembourgish club in Dippach, which provided her with a bike and a jersey, the club director recognising a star in the making.

Over the next few years, Jacobs established herself as one of the big names, as the women’s sport began to gain popularity. She finished 17th at the first ever women’s Tour de France in 1955, behind Millie Robinson, who led a dominant British team. With a coach now guiding her, Jacobs began to flourish.

Starting to understand that there was a way to realise her dream of riding professionally, Jacobs moved back to Paris, rejoining the CSM Puteaux club she’d represented a few years before. There she continued her progression, though despite the advice of her coach, she was never the greatest tactician, continuing to win races by simply riding the rest of the field off her wheel. And when that didn’t work she was still able to bag top results. This did wonders for her value, and as a canny negotiator she was able to demand excellent appearance fees.

On the back of her success and the general expansion in the women’s sport, in 1957 the Luxembourg federation finally recognised women’s racing, and she was finally able to obtain a home race licence. And just in time too.

Jacobs sparkles in Champagne

For a couple of years the federations of Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Soviet Union had been pressuring the UCI for a women's race at the World Championships. They nearly got it in 1956, but the following year the governing body finally gave in, agreeing to host the race at the 1958 Championships in Reims, France. And when it happened, Jacobs was ready.

The Champagne city of Reims is not much more than halfway between Jacobs’ home in Garnich and Paris, where she was based, and a month before the vines surrounding the city were finally ready, a cold, wet spring delaying the harvest, it hosted the Road World Championships.

On a scorchingly warm final weekend of August, just a few months after he won the Giro d'Italia, Italy's Ercole Baldini took his only professional world title, while the amateur event was taken by East German Täve Schur. But the day before, the women finally had their moment in the spotlight.

Run over 59km, the route consisted of just three laps of the circuit the men were to ride 14 times. It was short, but it was something – something the women's peloton had never had before.

The only rider from Luxembourg among the 29 starters, Jacobs was on her own against the might of the strong six-woman teams sent by those countries which had lobbied so hard for the race to happen in the first place.

On the first lap she was part of a seven-woman move. The second time round, knowing no other way, the diminutive Luxembourger attacked on the circuit’s main climb. And, as in so many races before and after, she was never seen again, crossing the line 2:51 ahead of the Soviet pair of Tamara Novikova and Mariya Lukshina.

She might have known only that way, but Elsy Jacobs was no one-trick pony. Just over two months later she headed to Milan where, on the Vigorelli Velodrome, she set a new hour record, her distance of 41km 347m beating the record set by Millie Robinson – the same woman who had won the Tour de France three years before. That record stood until Maria Crassari beat it in 1972.

It’s no surprise that when there was finally a Luxembourg National Championships the following year, Elsy Jacobs won it. Indeed she won it in all but one year until 1974. Between 1955 and 1978 when she eventually retired, she competed in 1,059 races, won 301 and was on the podium 339 times.

Though Elsy Jacobs died in 1998, her name lives on in the form of the Festival Elsy Jacobs, a recreational randonnée ride and a women’s professional race which bases itself in her hometown of Garnich.

Headstrong, ambitious but charming, Elsy Jacobs was a force of nature, and even had she not won the Worlds in 1958, she would have been a pioneer for women’s cycling, and for women’s sport in general. At home her achievements – not just her rainbow jersey – meant she was feted as a national hero, and in her, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg will forever have its Grande Duchesse.

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Domenico Pozzovivo deserved as many headlines as the Czech Tour winner after finishing third in a 2.Pro stage race at the age of 43. However, it was probably best he not look up to his right while standing on the final podium of the mid-August event, lest he be reminded of his advancing years.

The man on the top step, 20-year-old Andrew August (Netcompany-Ineos), was not even born when the Italian lined up for his first Giro d’Italia in 2005.

Pro cycling is youth-obsessed, and rightly so: finding, fine-tuning and holding on to the next big thing can transform a cycling team’s fortunes. The rise of teenager Paul Seixas might make those racers in their mid-30s feel like it’s time to pick up the pipe and slippers.

However, Pozzovivo is one of the old-timers showing that if you’re good enough, you’re still young enough to earn a place in the sport by merit.

Having bowed out of pro cycling at the end of 2024 as a VF Group-Bardiani racer, the little Italian with the big climbing pedigree returned to the professional scene in mid-April with second-tier Italian squad Solution Team Nippo Rail.

Right now, the numbers that matter are on his results sheet and his power profile, putting out the best figures of his life, not his passport. The pick of Pozzovivo’s seven top-three finishes so far this season include finishing second at the Tour of Hellas and third at the Giro dell’Appenino.

He is not the only one seemingly defying the ageing process after returning from retirement too. 35-year-old Anna van der Breggen came back in 2025 after three years of retirement and got up to speed quickly.

The former Olympic and two-time world champion has already finished second at the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Donne this year, losing the race lead on the final day in both. Still, the Dutchwoman has time on her side to avenge such defeats if her former rival Annemiek van Vleuten is anything to go by. She tasted victory in those prestigious stage races at the age of 40.

Alejandro Valverde is another who turned back the clock, taking the world title at 38 in 2018 and winning WorldTour stages into his early 40s. Sometimes, age, experience and a sense of mental liberation can go a long way.

But what drives veterans to come back or stay in the game, and how are they getting the best out of themselves as the wrinkles add up and their bodies change?

Racing with nothing to lose

Pozzovivo, who jointly holds the record for Giro participations with 18, has pedalled up umpteen Italian mountains, but he must have felt like he was staring up at the Stelvio making his comeback this spring.

Curiosity to see whether he could still compete at the highest level compelled him to return. "I prefer to have something that challenges me, to be focused on something that I have to overcome. It’s good for my state of mind," he told Cyclingnews at his first race, the mid-April Tour of the Alps.

Besides, Pozzovivo didn't stop training after his first retirement, and his power numbers are better than ever. "Last year, I started sharing my Strava data. I had really good values and the best ever from five minutes to 45 minutes than before, in general," he said.

The Italian is not naive about the impact of his age. "I will feel less strong gradually, for sure," he says. "It [my body] is less explosive, and that’s why I train a lot on that side."

"But 18 years ago, we didn’t train as well as we do now and taking care of what we eat was not at such a high level either. In this way, I can compensate a lot for the lack of performance that I’d normally see with this gap of years."

The pressure is also off for Pozzovivo: this unexpected return to action is a free hit, not the be-all-and-end-all it used to be. Bike racing is just one more ball in the air for a father and renaissance man with university degrees in economics and sports science who combines his sport with cycling TV commentary work.

Turning 44 in November, Pozzovivo is the oldest professional in the men’s sport’s top two divisions (which are obliged to pay a minimum wage), although stars of yesteryear Francisco Mancebo, 50, and Óscar Sevilla, 49, are still racing at UCI Continental level.

While almost a decade younger, Anna van der Breggen had a similar change of heart to Pozzivovo. Having won virtually every prestigious race there was to win, she stepped off the bike and into the role of directeur sportif at 31 years old in late 2021, wanting a break.

However, she could not quieten the voice inside wondering whether she could come back even better than before.

In the SD Worx-Protime kit again, it only took three months to get her arms in the air at the Vuelta Femenina, with a downhill attack into the Aragon town of Borja. Victory still felt the same, but her method of pursuing it has changed. Van der Breggen professed afterwards that she "races much more freely" and is "less afraid than before that it [an attack] won’t work."

Her way of racing has adjusted, listening to a body which is no longer as explosive as it used to be. "I can put a pace which is not too fast for me, but hopefully high enough to drop everybody," she told Cyclingnews in January 2026. "But if I am not doing that and the pace is really slow, everybody can follow, and the chance that I will be in the top three is less."

Muscle mass decline is a by-product of ageing, with humans losing up to 8% between the ages of 30 and 40. The number and size of fast-twitch muscle fibres also go down too, lending to a more diesel-like ability.

VO2 max, the chief physiological governor of aerobic capacity, also starts to decline slowly from 25 onwards. For men, testosterone drops by approximately one per cent a year from the age of 30; for women, oestrogen levels start to go down during perimenopause.

Yet, for all the slow reductions in physiological markers, the pleasure factor goes the other way. "I enjoy what I am doing now way more," Van der Breggen told Cyclingnews in early 2025 at the dawn of her comeback. "The long rides, the new teammates that we have and how they develop."

Former teammate Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio also postponed her retirement in 2022, realising she was still progressing and had a higher level than ever. Months after reversing her decision to quit, the South African won a stage and the overall of the Tour of Romandie, ending a career-long quest for a WorldTour win.

Acting as a mentor-leader for AG Insurance-Soudal since 2023 has given her motivation and renewed purpose. Noticing stigmas about her age has also strengthened the 40-year-old’s resolve.

"Who I am is not defined by a result," she wrote in a blog post on Rocacorba Collective after finishing fourth in Brabantse Pjil. "That perspective matters more than ever in a sport where, as you get older, the narrative so quickly becomes: you’re past it.

"Too old. Too injured. Not the same anymore. I’ve heard it. I’ve felt it. But I never truly believed it."

Moolman-Pasio is set to stop racing at the end of 2026 to become Team Amani’s general manager. 42-year-old Mavi Garcia – the oldest rider in the men's or women’s WorldTour - is still going strong, set to race into 2027 with UAE Team L’IMAD.

'Just do it now because life is short, man'

Leading ultra-cyclist Leah Goldstein makes Garcia and Moolman-Pasio look like fresh-faced whippersnappers.

The 57-year-old Canadian won the 2021 edition of Race Across America (RAAM) in just over 11 days, the first woman to beat the men. Burning through her jersey in temperatures of up to 55℃ in the 3,000-mile coast-to-coast race, only three solo competitors got to the endpoint. "I don’t know how I finished that race, but I’ll never forget it. I won because I can suffer," Goldstein tells Cyclingnews.

She has inevitably seen her power dip over the years, but a Eureka moment for her endurance capacities came after turning 40.

"I realised I could go forever," she says. "But most importantly, I could function with no sleep. I can push myself beyond my limits, and I’m really good at being comfortable being uncomfortable. Those three things I felt I was gifted at, excelling in ultra-endurance racing as opposed to the shorter stuff."

She started as a roadie who competed in leading European events for the Canadian national team before excelling in ultra-events like the Hoodoo 500 and Trans Am Bike Race.

Goldstein had wanted to challenge herself in 2026 by doing the principally off-road Tour Divide, a self-supported 2,700-mile epic between Canada and Mexico. It was much more technical than she had anticipated, forcing her to walk with her bike for several hours on occasional sections.

"I’ve got zero skill as a mountain biker. I should be dead," she says. "I should get an award for crashing the most times; on average twice a day for three weeks. It was insane, the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and probably the stupidest. I came in second [placed-woman], so I can’t complain." Former WorldTour pro Laurens Ten Dam, 45, was also second in the men’s category.

Goldstein cracked her rib on the second day and tore her rotator cuff 300 kilometres from the finish.

"I lost my balance and tumbled down a cliff," she says, matter-of-factly. "I banged up my knee pretty good. I fell on my left side, I was stopped by a tree and was pinned down by my bike, which weighs close to 55 pounds." It took 30 minutes in the dead of night to crawl back up the trail.

A doctor friend suggested that she quit. No way – not after 19 days of suffering and a maximum of three hours a night of sleep. "That last 300k, I was riding with one arm and thank God it was not too technical," she says. "I knew if I quit that race, I’d regret it for the rest of my life."

As if that wasn’t enough, Goldstein also encountered grizzly and black bears four times during the Tour Divide. One of them scarpered after hearing her bellow the Kiss hit I Was Made for Loving You: "I don’t even know all the words; I was just making it up. It didn’t like it, probably moved to a different state."

Goldstein’s age does not cross her mind. "People bring it up, right? It doesn’t bug me, even with recovery," she says. "I just feel it’s experience. I know myself so well – when to pull back, when to push further, what I can do, what my limits are. Look at my results: I’m still getting faster. How is that?"

"Even in the men's side, a lot of the really good [ultra cycling] guys are in their fifties, even early sixties. It’s more races like the Tour de France where you really have to be that young, because we lose that fast-twitch muscle as we age," she says. "With ultra endurance racing, it's almost more successful as you age because of the experience."

As a property investor, she also has the luxury of having more time to prepare. Her "easiest" ride ahead of the Tour Divide was 20 hours; the longest was 65 hours. "What young person has that time to train? It’s just not realistic; they have to work. You very rarely see 35-year-olds in Race Across America. It’s more suited to somebody who doesn’t have a nine-to-five job."

Goldstein staves off some ill effects of the ageing process by doing yoga since the age of 40 and using the exercise ball: "It’s more important to do core work. Yoga keeps you flexible. I roll my eyes and hate every minute of it, but it prevents injury, makes you more agile, a better rider."

Ultra-cycling is not a multi-million-dollar sport, but her longevity and past connections have helped to secure bike, sunglasses and wheel backers, including KHS and Vision.

Goldstein will not be slowing down any time soon. She is "obsessed" with cracking 10 days for RAAM, an arduous physical, logistical and financial undertaking. She estimates the cost of a nine-person crew, several vehicles, transport around the U.S., gas prices and accommodation to be $60,000.

A small price to pay for getting the most from her time on Earth. "We’re so conditioned to be comfortable, and we’re so afraid of failure … before you know it, you’re 75 years old, and you say ‘I wish I had done A, B, C, and D.’ Just do it now because life is short, man."

Feeling more human and leaning on experience

Given the repetitive and draining nature of cycling, it would be easy not to expect love for the sport to be a veteran’s biggest fuel, but that is what is keeping Rein Taaramäe going.

The 39-year-old Estonian has been racing in Asia with Japan-registered UCI Continental team Kinan Racing Team in 2025 and 2026. A stage winner at the Giro and Vuelta, racing for the likes of Cofidis, Katusha and Intermarché, he still enjoys the process.

"I feel like I’ve studied all my life to be a good cyclist and can’t just stop right now," he says. "I always wanted to be a cyclist, and I still want to do cycling so it's a mistake if I stop now … Stopping just because of age doesn't make sense. I’m happy, and I like to think that my life goal is to be happy."

Taaramäe thinks it could have been possible to carry on in the WorldTour. "But I felt in the last year [2024] that it’s quite boring. I did all the races more than 10 times. Doing one more Giro or Vuelta is not that exciting. I wanted to have some new races, a little bit of a different system."

He got that all right: his first team meeting with Kinan Racing Team in December 2024 had five people sleeping in a room in a Japanese house they cleaned before departing, akin to his old training camps with the Estonian national team. "It was quite a big change, but I really enjoyed it," he says.

There are differences galore: in Japan, they compete on circuits and race radios are not used. His team does not have a bus, a nutritionist or VeloViewer. Taaarmäe no longer has a coach and says his salary is about ten times smaller. "For me, it’s perfect because I don’t seek this kind of numbers and professional things. I just enjoy cycling and this life," he says.

"I’ve not seen a big change in performance," he adds, alluding to his age. "All my numbers are the same as when I was 23 or 24: threshold, climbing, TT."

On the lower-level Asia Tour, there are no altitude camps, fewer events and shorter races (the mean distance of his 28 road stages this season is 116km), which has finally allowed his body to catch a breath.

"When I was younger, I was often really exhausted: there were periods I was really good and others I was totally gone," Taaramäe reflects.

"But now, the body is so strong I can maintain a really good shape all season. It’s much easier because I don’t get such a big fatigue and burnout like before…I can feel much more human all year than before."

"But the biggest enemy of age – I think about Pogačar and Seixas, those guys in the future – is that all bodies change a lot. And they’re going to start to see the changes when they’re 30 or a few years older. The things that worked really well before don’t work anymore; you need to find a way to manage everything, like body weight, training."

Taaramäe weighs six kilos more than when he was 20, despite not changing his fundamental routine. "Nowadays, it’s so complicated because you need to starve yourself. I never did that when I was younger," he says.

A white jersey wearer in the Tour de France 15 years ago, Taarmäe can still mix it with his fastest rivals. In January, he crossed the line first on stage two of the 2.2-rated Tour of Sharjah after a 52-kilometre solo breakaway.

Acknowledging he was not the strongest in the race, he relied on "pure experience" and fearlessness. After moving into a well-represented break, he reckoned his rivals would argue over chasing responsibilities if he got a gap.

Taaramäe used the day’s uphill intermediate sprint as a ruse, doing it at 70% effort before launching a full-on attack. "I opened up the gap and behind there was a little bit of confusion," he says. He took 30 seconds quickly; his rivals didn't cooperate, and he ended up winning the race overall too.

There will be no stopping for the 39-year-old just yet. "I think there are two kinds of ages: the number in your passport and your body age; it’s genetic and how healthy you are," he says. "I think I can go on to 45. It’s all about the mental [side]; I don’t have a real limit. But it’s also hard to see me going until 50!"

He might even earn a finder’s fee for extending a few careers. "Some WorldTour riders still write to me on Instagram: ‘Rein, can you find me a team in Asia? I stopped last year, but I miss it so much, I’d like to do it like you’."

Whatever results come along now are all a happy bonus for Taaramäe. "I think cycling is a good addiction," he says. "Time goes so fast. When I was young, I thought I’d be done at 30 because it’s so hard.

"I never forgot that this is just a game and everybody is living their dream. Enjoy it and do it while you can."

There's a trifecta of rich rewards awaiting two Canadian teammates who are also twin sisters, Ava and Isabella 'Bella' Holmgren, as they compete at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal. They agreed that a home-country Worlds stacked the deck even before they reached a finish line - seeing and hearing family and friends nearby, competing side-by-side in the road race in unique Montréal-inspired national kits, and after it's all done, hunting down bagels from St-Viateur.

The 21-year-olds, who recently competed at Val di Sole at MTB Worlds, will compete next for Team Canada at Montréal Road Worlds. Ava is a contender for the U23 time trial on September 21 and both lead a strong group of five riders for the U23 road race on September 24.

"We're fraternal twins, but I think we're way more alike than any identical twins that I know. We're very different people, but our interests are very similar," said Isabella, the taller of the two.

Both grew up racing cyclo-cross and mountain bikes together, making history at the 2023 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships as the first Canadians to win medals of any colour, Isabella with gold and Ava with silver in the junior women's race. Ava had previously won a pair of Pan-American junior titles in 'cross.

They added hardware in the mountain bike discipline, Isabella sweeping U23 short track and XCO World Championship titles in 2024 and 2025, while Ava finished top 10 in both races in 2025.

In 2024, the pair signed their own contracts to race for Lidl-Trek to focus more on road racing; their contracts now extended through 2028.

Isabella won her first one-day race in 2025 at Durango-Durango and the GC at Tour de l'Avenir Femmes and ended the season with sixth in the U23 road race at Rwanda Worlds and fourth at Giro dell'Emilia. This year she finished seventh on GC at Giro d'Italia Women for a second consecutive season, confirming her abilities as an all-rounder. She also finished eighth overall at her first Tour de France Femmes.

Ava finished second on a stage at Tour de Normandie in 2024 to begin her Lidl-Trek tenure, then impressed with fourth in the U23 road race and 22nd in the elite women's road race at Road Worlds in Switzerland. She claimed her first road win at 2025 Canadian Road Nationals in the U23 time trial and this year had top 10s at the UCI 1.1 women's races in Gatineau prior to 2026 Road Worlds, including third at Tour de Gatineau.

The Holmgrens grew up in eastern Ontario and never seem to be far apart, in life and in work, so it seemed natural to let them interview each other about their newest journey and try to record more history for Canada. The duo shared their question and answer session with Cyclingnews, with an emphasis on the anticipation of racing for rainbow stripes not just for their home country, but also 'in' their home country.

Isabella Holmgren: So, you're doing the U23 time trial at Road World Championships in Montreal. Are you excited? And do you think the home crowd will be an advantage in a race like this?

Ava Holmgren: For sure, I'm really excited. It's a moment I've been looking forward to for a long time, and also the source of a lot of motivation in some hard trainings. And I think having familiar people saying my name on the sideline will give me all the extra boost that I need. If I'm having a good day or a bad day on the bike, it won't matter because I have some home supporters.

IH: Have you had any specific preparation going into the time trial, and what has the training looked like?

AH: I've been working on the time trial bike, and I'm looking forward to testing myself in this discipline again. After Mountain Bike Worlds, I just started training a lot more on the time trial bike and focused on some more efforts and staying in position, so that I'm more comfortable being uncomfortable, I guess.

IH: And the TT course, I know you haven't actually ridden it yourself yet, but do you think it suits you? And how do you see the course?

AH: I like the look of the course. I think with all of the turns, it breaks up the effort a little bit, and I really like that style of racing. I think I can try and corner as fast as possible, which could be an advantage. But I'll really need to use my technical abilities to the fullest to take the most advantage. So, looking forward to all the turns. I prefer a bit of a hillier time trial, but I think it'll be a nice mix.

AH: So, the men had the GP Montréal just a few days ago, and we watched it together. What was one of your main takeaways going into the World Championships, knowing that the course is similar?

IH: Yeah, it's nice that there's been other races, so you can kind of look back and have a reference on a similar course. It's also very similar to Rwanda, where it's a circuit and with some elevation. So, I think I can sort of learn from last year's race and see what I did well and see what I definitely needed to work on this year. It'll be super hard, especially because we only do laps of the circuit, unlike the women's race that goes out on a flat road. I think it'll be hard, but I like it hard.

AH: Our team for the U23 women's race has some riders that we've been racing with on national teams as juniors, and also against for a while, so we know each other pretty well. How do you think this could be an advantage?

IH: I think we have an extremely strong team, and we will definitely use it to our advantage. We have different riders that are good at different things, and I think it's a special feeling because we've raced with these girls in the past, and we're also just really good friends with them. All of the girls have been performing extremely well at the last races that they've done, and I'm really excited to see what we can do together. And I think when you have that relationship outside of the bike, it makes it even easier to work together.

Kiara Lylyk, I've known her for a really long time. We used to race cyclo-cross together. She did really well in a breakaway at a recent race in Europe.

And then there's Alex Volstad, I've done lots of national team project with her, like Avenir last year and she was second in Philadelphia Cycling Classic. She's very positive and happy and funny you just can't be in a bad mood when you're around her.

And then Sidney [Swierenga], I haven't actually raced with her in the past. She did extremely well in the recent Faun Tour Femmes. She's a really, really strong rider and I'm looking forward to racing with her.

AH: What else are you looking forward to, finally doing a home Worlds with some familiar faces?

IH: Just the fact that we're all Canadian and you're at your home Worlds is an extra little boost.

And it's also really special to race with you because you're my twin sister, and we're racing at home. We don't get to race together very often, or we haven't in the past. And I think just having you in a race is so nice. It makes me feel more comfortable and relaxed.

I know that you're very smart in race situations, and maybe that's something that I lack. So it's like you have the other half of your brain racing, which I guess people wouldn't understand unless they have a twin. So it's a unique feeling.

AH: (laughing) Yes. If you're at your max effort on the bike, you can't say any words because you need to breathe. You just give a look and then you know, right?

IH: (also laughing) We can have conversations without actually saying anything.

AH: What have you enjoyed the most this season on the road?

IH: I think I'm starting to learn a lot more of how to be positioned in the peloton and just racing with my teammates. Sometimes I lack a bit of confidence, and I get a bit nervous to be around my teammates, or in the bunch. So I think within the stage races that I've done, I've grown to be more confident and comfortable in that sort of environment throughout the year. I'm pretty proud of the step that I made versus last year.

IH: And what about you, Ava?

AH: For me, I'm most proud of being healthy on the start line. It's been a really big challenge the last few years and just having that good racing feeling again. Then I could really show the team what I'd learned, and I helped my teammates.

I think the race I'm most proud of was the GP Oetingen in Belgium in the spring. We had a really nice result with Fleur Moors, she was second and the only person to challenge Lorena [Wiebes] in the final. Everything just came together in the moment, and I felt fully focused the whole race, and I felt strong. I did my job really well, so it was a really exciting race.

IH: What are you looking forward to this next week at Worlds?

AH: Honestly, just being home in Canada. I'm really looking forward to spending some time here. The riding's been amazing. The staff on the Cycling Canada team have been super helpful, and it's great to see everyone, all categories, with a full team from Cycling Canada.

Even though it's a home Worlds, there's a lot of logistics, and not everyone is coming from Canada. A lot of people are coming from Europe, so it's a big challenge, and I'm really also looking forward to wearing this special edition kit. Yes, that's going to be hung up on the wall for a while.

AH: What besides racing are you excited about?

IH: That's a long list. We have a lot of family and friends that are gonna come and watch. They can always watch on TV, but it's so different when you see it in person, so I'm really excited for them to experience the atmosphere of a bike race. Because it's a circuit, I think that'll be even better because you get to see the riders so often.

And also, the first thing on the list after the road race is to go get bagels from St. Viateur in Montréal, a famous bagel place.

I also just think being in Canada is so nice, and having the Europeans come and experience our home, especially at this time of year when fall is starting, so I'm excited.

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for comprehensive race coverage of both the UCI Road and Gravel World Championships, alongside the final monument of the season, Il Lombardia. Subscribers get unlimited access to exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

Mount Royal returns to the centre stage of global cycling this week when Montréal hosts the UCI Road World Championships, September 20-27. It has been 52 years since Montréal made history as the first Road Worlds outside Europe and two years later notched another milestone as the first Canadian city to host summer competitions for the Olympic Games.

The signature incline through Parc du Mont-Royal on city circuits is Camillien-Houde, which provides postcard views of the east side of Montreal and the Olympic Stadium. For junior, under-23 and elite riders, the steep 1.7km boulevard, with pitches to 10%, poses challenges for legs, lungs and will power on the repetition of ascents.

Mount Royal took its name from a French explorer in the early 1500s and a park was formally created to preserve the forested land in 1876 by New York City's Central Park designer, Frederick Law Olmsted. Later carriage paths became roads and 100 years on the Olympic Games used 21 laps of a 12.5km loop to award a gold medal to Bernt Johansson of Sweden. It would be two Olympiads later before women contested their own road race.

The province of Québec has embraced cycling events ever since with 38 years of the Tour de Beauce for men and 36 years of international-level mountain bike races for men and women at Mont-Sainte-Anne. In the past 16 years races have been staged for women in Gatineau, while for 15 years men have WorldTour-level races in Montréal and Québec City.

"I have been dreaming of the UCI World Championships since 2013, 2014, when the Grands Prix cyclistes de Québec and de Montréal began to enjoy a some success," said Sébastien Arsenault, who leads the organisation for the two WorldTour races. Arsenault is also president of the organising committee for the 2026 UCI Road World Championships

"The success of the Grands Prix cyclistes de Québec and de Montréal is set to be multiplied tenfold. Cycling often comes to our region for just two days, two six-hour races, and then we wait a whole year. With the UCI World Championships, we’ll be offering what I call the Olympics of road cycling: the joy, the fun, the passion, the pace and the energy of the Grand Prix, but spread over eight days of competition."

What was in plain view this past decade to people in Montréal was a far cry from what Olmstead originally brought to life. His love for the outdoors, which included hiking and fishing, would lead to a love affair for the "city of saints" and cyclists.

Baiting the hooks in 1974 and earning accolades from spectators and media was the first step, then the stars from Belgium and France took over.

Instant appeal

Eddy Merckx dominated the monster 262.5km elite men's road course in high temperatures, 30°C, to earn a third rainbow jersey in 1974. It was also his shining moment to celebrate a cycling 'triple crown', adding the world title to GC wins at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in the same year.

Merckx stood on the podium alongside French riders Raymond Poulidor and Mariano Martinez, and only 15 other riders completed the course. But it was only until an all-day breakaway by Frenchman Bernard Thévenet was caught that Merckx could position for the win.

"It's an incredible memory. Initially, they said the course was for sprinters, but Mont Royal turned out to be something quite different," Merckx recounted in a UCI video recorded for organisers to announce the 2026 Road Worlds return to Montréal.

"I believe it was a very tough race, with [Bernard] Thévenet leading a long breakaway. I think the Belgian team worked well in my favour, allowing us to catch up on the final lap.

"By the time we caught up with Thévenet, of course, at that point, I was in a better position to become World Champion for the third time. I was able to attack, and only Poulidor was able to follow me, but I managed to beat him in the sprint. That's truly an exceptional memory.

"I also remember the car without a body that was next to us [to capture video]. It was really something special."

Live racing action was captured on stationary cameras that year in Montréal, with a camera secured to a cut-out automobile, not a motorcycle, following the leaders.

On the women's side, seven-time French road champion Geneviève Gambillon won the elite women's race in a two-up sprint as well.

She came into the race as the first French woman to win a world title on the road, doing so in 1972. With a solid career on the track, earning 15 national titles across a nine-year career, Gambillon welcomed another sprint finish two years later in Montréal.

"Just eight days before, I had a bad crash in Gap, resulting in a fractured collarbone and a displaced acromion. So I started the race with my arm in a sling. I had to grab my arm and place it on the handlebars," she recounted in the UCI video.

"Given how demanding the course was, we ended up with just two of us in the breakaway, which made things a bit easier. I was confident I could beat her in the sprint as well.

"It was a really beautiful championship. It was a championship with various twists and turns, the atmosphere was incredible."

After Canada opened the doors to the world's best road cyclists for Road World Championships 52 years ago, the races were held on other continents away from Europe 10 times, including three more editions in North America, USA hosting twice (1986, 2015) and Hamilton, Ontario taking the honours for a second Canadian visit in 2003.

Subscribe to Cyclingnews for comprehensive race coverage of both the UCI Road and Gravel World Championships, alongside the final monument of the season, Il Lombardia. Subscribers get unlimited access to exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

Cast your minds back a decade and you'll be met with a world in which gravel bikes were barely out of diapers/nappies (delete as appropriate).

Gravel racing was nothing more than a flannel-coated subsection of cyclo-cross with a side order of IPA, and the concept of 'optimisation' was derided by all involved, for it was "against the 'spirit of gravel'".

Returning to the present time, the only spirit is the ghost of that former sport, which has been killed off in favour of aero tubes, deep wheels, wide tyres, skinsuits and maximised carb intakes.

Money talks, so as prize money has grown, competition has become more intense, average speeds have rocketed, and the sport's laissez-faire approach has all but been replaced with a performance engineering mindset.

Nothing evidences modern gravel racing as clearly as the cohort of aero gravel wheels that have launched in the past few years.

It's well known that wider tyres roll more smoothly over rough terrain, but chunky tyres are naturally less aerodynamic; largely by dint of simply being bigger. So designers face the paradox of making gravel wheels that can house as wide a tyre as possible, while also trying to make them as aerodynamic as possible. Oh, and don't make them too heavy either! I don't envy their task.

The result is wheels like Zipp's 303 XPLR SW, Enve's G SES 6.7 and Black Inc's Sixty Four Gravel. All are as deep as their roadgoing counterparts, but designed to house what are essentially - and often literally - mountain bike tyres.

But which of those – and the others listed below – is winning the technical arms race? To find out, we headed to our second home: the wind tunnel.

Wheelsets tested

We tested eight of the most race-focussed wheelsets we could get our hands on, all of which centre around wide internal rim beds, optimisation for wider tyres, and deep profiles.

The list, and accompanying gallery, is as follows:

• Black Inc Sixty Four Gravel
• Cadex Max GXR
• Enve G SES Pro 6.7
• Gulo Composites GGA 44
• Hunt 5AM Gravel
• Roval Terra Aero CLX
• Scribe Gravel Ultra Berd
• Zipp 303 XPLR SW

Protocols and standardisations

As with our previous aero testing, we used the renowned cycling wind tunnel at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub. Alongside aerodynamic drag calculations, we also weighed each wheelset, and measured the tyre widths to complement the aero data.

For the aero testing, every wheelset was mounted to the exact same gravel bike: the new, slightly wild-looking Factor Elara. We selected the Elara for two reasons: Firstly, the simple one is that we were already taking the bike with us on the day to test its own aero credentials. You can see how it did in our Factor Elara wind tunnel results write-up. Secondly, it made sense as it is the most unashamedly high-performance aero gravel race bike to launch this year. If any bike was a fitting mule for these hyper aero wheels, it was this. And no, Factor didn't pay me to say any of that.

To keep our data as precise as possible, we opted for a bike-only configuration rather than using a live rider. The variance in human body movement during a test sweep introduces a margin of error larger than the wattage differences expected between top-tier wheelsets. Removing the rider from the equation allows us to confidently attribute any performance deltas strictly to the wheels themselves.

To quantify our error margin on the day, which was also spent testing road and gravel bikes against our baseline Trek Emonda, we ran said baseline through a series of repeated runs, some at the start of the day, then more at the end.

In this case, the confidence margin we found was a CdA of 0.0004, or 0.2 watts at 35km/h.

To explain this with an example: If two tests of an identical setup measure differently, and said delta is 0.2 watts, then our confidence in the accuracy of any of the other tests cannot be any better than +/- 0.2 watts. And thus, if one wheelset measures at 99.8 watts, and another is 100.2 watts, they are statistically equal.

Testing was conducted at a wind speed of 35km/h, with the tunnel’s powered rollers spinning the wheels at the same speed. The crankset was fixed in a horizontal position with the driveside arm forward for all tests, with a small velcro strap holding the non-driveside crank arm in place on the nearby chainstay.

Every wheelset was fitted with the exact same pair of Vittoria Terreno Dry 55mm (2.2in) tyres, and we were careful to maintain the same front and rear orientation when swapping from wheelset to wheelset, to eliminate differences in manufacturing tolerances between individual tyres.

Brake rotors were removed and a SRAM Red cassette were transferred between wheelsets too, to avoid any potential unwanted interference on the results there.

All other things were kept identical, including the gear the bike was put into, the bottles on the bike, and even the pressure in the tyres (which was set to the recommendation provided by the SRAM Tyre Pressure calculator, which fluctuated slightly based on the internal width of the wheel).

Yaw sweeps and data capture

We tested each wheelset across seven distinct yaw angles: -15°, -10°, -5°, 0°, +5°, +10°, and +15°. For an idea of what that looks like, check out my High School Art Project above, aka the GIF of a bike transitioning between each yaw point.

Data was measured using 15-second static captures at each yaw point, and the sweep was always done in the same direction (negative to positive yaw) to maintain maximum repeatability.

Caveats

There are a few caveats to throw into the mix before we get into the results.

Firstly, Black Inc. is owned by Factor, and so there's a possibility they were advantaged by our decision to test using the Factor Elara bike, as the two may have been designed in conjunction with each another. There's no knowing to what extent, if at all, this affected the results, and it is an issue we would have run into had we used a Crux (with Rovals) or a Revolt (with Cadex wheels).

Secondly, by testing without a rider on the bike, we aren't giving an accurate real-world representation of how the wheels will be challenged in their actual use. Both Specialized and Giant, for example, design and validate their with a pedalling-leg mannequin, and that when the turbulent air of a rider's legs is introduced, it's likely that their comparative performances will improve. The performance of the Tarmac SL8 in our road bike wind tunnel testing adds weight to this claim; without a rider it's mid-table, but with a rider aboard, it climbs to a much higher place in our rankings.

Thirdly, aero data should only be a small part of your buying decision when it comes to choosing the right wheels for you. Weight, price, build quality, customer service and many other factors are important too.

Results

To get the results below, for each bike I averaged out the datapoints from each of the seven yaw angles.

In calculating those averages, I applied weightings in line with the 2018 research paper by Nathan Barry - A New Method for Analysing the Effect of Environmental Wind on Real World Aerodynamic Performance in Cycling - which weights each yaw angles to better reflect how often you'll experience it in real-world riding scenarios.

That average is then used to calculate the power required to overcome the aerodynamic drag.

Given we're measuring a bike without a rider, the actual wattages shown will be lower than you'll be used to seeing on your head unit, but remember it's the differences between each wheelset that we're interested in here, not the absolute values.

Ahead of publishing this writeup, I shared the data with each brand and gave them the opportunity to comment on the results. I will stitch in their comments below as naturally as I can.

Getting straight into the results, the fastest wheels on test were the Black Inc. Sixty Four Gravel, which come in at $2,399.00 / £2,199.00. They boast a 30mm internal width, a 40.25mm external width, a hooked bead, and as the name suggests, a 64mm deep rim profile.

This is followed closely by the Enve G SES Pro 6.7, which boasts the widest internal diameter here at 35mm. They use a hookless bead, like the Zipp and Hunt wheels below, and claim an external width of 42.6mm. The rear wheel is the deepest on test at 67mm, although the front is a smidge shallower at 60mm. At $3,100.00 / £3,500.00 for a pair, they're among the spendiest here too.

In third place is a product that's yet to be released from British brand Hunt, but which we were given exclusive early access to test, and I've been given explicit pre-embargo permission to tell the Cyclingnews subscribers about. They're called the Hunt 5AM Gravel, or 5AMG for short. They are a 'reverse mullet' wheelset, with a 54mm front wheel and 49mm rear. They offer a 27mm internal width, with a hookless bead, and the front wheel boasts a chunky 45mm external width to help the airflow off the front tyre. I don't yet have prices on these.

Hunt's aero expert, Paddy Brown, who kindly loaned both their own wheels and the Zipp wheels to us for the test, said "we’re incredibly proud of how the 5AMG Ti_UD performed in this test. To come out near the top aerodynamically while also being one of the lightest wheelsets tested is a strong validation of the development work that has gone into this platform. The very wide front rim profile delivers real aerodynamic efficiency, while the Aero Mullet concept continues to prove its value beyond the road and into gravel."

Speaking of aero mullets, interestingly, Hunt and Roval – the Terra Aero CLX – landed the exact same result. They were separated by just one one-thousandth of a watt, but given our error margin is two-tenths, they're all but equal.

The Terra Aero CLX also offers a 27mm internal width with this reverse mullet concept, but Specialized introduces a 'chopped aero' design which squares off the trailing edge of the front rim, claiming equal aero performance to a deeper wheel, but with much less weight. The external width is also much smaller, at 38.5mm (38.4mm for the rear). Priced at $3,398.00 / £2,998.00, these are up there with the Enve and Cadex on price.

Below this comes Zipp, still only 1.9 watts behind the Black Inc wheels, with the the 303 XPLR SW – the wheelset that I think it's safe to say kicked off this whole aero wide gravel wheel game – with their 54mm depth, 32mm internal rim width (hookless), and 40mm external width. At $2,200.00 / £1,600.00, their price is relatively good in this company, and given they're a couple of years old now, it's not too difficult to find them on offer either.

Next up comes Cadex, with the Max GXR, which aren't quite as deep as the above counterparts, but still peddle the aero and wide marketing speak, despite a comparatively narrow 25mm internal width and 35mm external width. Their weight is impressive, as we'll get to below, but their $4,000.00 / £3,500.00 price tag is the spiciest here.

Bringing up the rear are a couple of wheels that have a different purpose. Their marketing isn't centred on being aero, but vibration absorbent.

First up, the Scribe Gravel Ultras are laced with Berd's polymer spokes, which are essentially string but possess an insane strength to weight ratio, while remaining flexy enough to swallow some of the bumps you feel on the road. Their 30mm internal width is among the widest even here, but the use of a hooked bead will perhaps swing the odds in their favour among some buyers. At $1,999.00 / £1,449.00, they're also the most affordable on test.

And finally, the Gulo GGA 44 also offers a hooked 30mm internal rim, but rather than using third-party Berd spokes, they come with a proprietary carbon spoke designed by Gulo itself. At $2,345.00 (approx £1,750.00, based on a currency conversion, but they're not sold in the UK), they're reasonably priced in this company, but neither their wind tunnel result nor their weight (seen below) will win them any custom.

Weight

Looking at the comparative weights of each wheelset, there's a fairly clear inversion of the results above. The more aero a wheelset is, the heavier it tends to be. Zipp and Gulo are slight outliers here, with their aero deficits not being made up on the scales.

Elsewhere, choosing between Roval and Hunt remains a difficult task, and Cadex shines as the potential hillclimber's wheelset.

Width

Despite our Terreno Dry tyres being labeled as 55mm, on all of the wheels here, they blew up to less than 55mm when measured on our calipers.

A slight admission to this section is that we didn't remember to measure all of them (no conspiracy here, just a busy day and things sometimes get missed). I almost didn't include it as a result, but I decided to just share what we had, so those we did get are listed below. The widest was the Enve wheel, at 54.9mm, whereas the narrowest was 51.0mm, courtesy of the Cadex wheels. Naturally, there's a bit of correlation between the rim width and the tyre width.

Conclusions and takeaways

My first takeaway here is that there are definitely aero savings to be had in gravel, as we found in our gravel bike aero test, even with chunky 55mm rubber. That big tyre isn't ruining all the aerodynamic intentions of the wheels, and there's a strong correlation between wheel depth and aero performance. It's always reassuring to know these brands know what they're doing!

I'm aware not all of us will be riding at average speeds of 35km/h (I know I won't be at my current fitness), but for the points in races that matter, such as chasing back onto a group after a crash (ask me how I know), or bridging up to a breakaway where speeds are likely above your all-day average, there are aero savings to be taken advantage of.

But weight is still important. The way Specialized marketed the Crux 5 was notable – and logical to my mind. It said that aero is important, but given rolling resistance matters significantly more in gravel than it does on the road, and that rolling resistance scales with mass, weight should factor more heavily in a consumer's buying decisions for gravel than it does on the road.

Also… I don't know about your local gravel races but all of the ones I've done have been really damn hilly!

As a result, although the big hitters from Black Inc and Enve sit at the top of the table as the most aero on test, don't discount the Roval and Hunt wheels. They sit in a nice sweetspot that trades a watt of aero drag for around 350g of mass. How that equates to speed depends on the course you're riding, and your power output (because more power = more speed = a higher relative importance of aerodynamics).

One of the biggest takeaways for me, though, is that the gap between the aero wheels and the two 'comfort' focussed wheels is only around five watts. If you're racing flat gravel time trials, go all-in on aero, but if your usual gravel routes or race courses are bumpier, slower, and/or you'll spend your time riding in the relative shelter of a group, the lack of a big aero deficit in this dataset could actually sway you away from the Enve or Black Inc wheels in favour of the bump-smoothing comfort of Gulo or Scribe.

The one datapoint we don't have, however, is rolling resistance. Would a Berd spoke actually save more than five watts over rough ground or not? Or would the wider measured width of the tyre on the Enve wheels offset this? These are all things a wind tunnel won't tell you.

Still, I hope the data the wind tunnel can tell you – i.e., all that's written above – is useful. Thanks as ever for reading.

Read more from Cyclingnews Labs

• Wind tunnel tested: The Enve Melee v2 ditches versatility in pursuit of race-day speed, but has it worked?
• Fastest frame, fastest wheels, and a potential 22-watt upgrade: The Factor Elara wind tunnel tested
• What are the fastest UCI-legal road wheels? Wind tunnel testing the big-name brands and Chinese contenders

The UCI Road World Championships are a goal for every rider, a breeze for some (if your name is Tadej Pogačar), but a bar-banging frustration for so many top riders.

While every major one-day race takes careful planning to reach peak form, uninterrupted focus, keen strategy, loyal teammates and skilled sports directors and staff, Worlds takes riders out of the comfort zone of their trade teams and thrusts them into unfamiliar clothing, surrounded by different teammates and helpers.

To thrive in that environment takes a special type of rider: an unflappable, focused and flexible athlete who can take a few hits and continue to believe in their chances.

Even with those qualities, luck and the strange dynamics of the Championships can deny even the best riders in the world. Take Marianne Vos, for example. After winning her first elite women's road race at the 2006 Worlds at the age of 18, she then was second five times in a row, finally getting back onto the top step in 2012 and then again in 2013.

Alejandro Valverde was one of the best one-day riders of his generation, with four victories in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but finished on the podium six times from 2003 until he finally won in 2018. Riders like Sean Kelly, Raymond Poulidor, Jacques Anquetil, Roger De Vlaeminck and Erik Zabel never won Worlds despite being at the top of the sport.

Cyclingnews looks at the top active riders who haven't won a world title - yet. The Worlds in Montreal could be the turning point for a few!

Wout van Aert (Belgium)

For a rider as talented and with such deep palmarès as Wout van Aert, a road world title is a gaping hole for the 31-year-old. But as we saw in April when Van Aert finally won Paris-Roubaix, and when he reversed his misfortunes of 2024 in the Vuelta a España, winning two stages and the points classification, one can never count out Wout.

Van Aert doesn't have a long history at the Road Worlds, since he focused on cyclo-cross for the first half of his career, but since 2020, he's been second twice: in 2020, when Julian Alaphilippe got away solo, and again in Glasgow in 2023.

The dynamics of the Belgian team have hampered Van Aert's efforts to win Worlds, with the rise of his younger compatriot Remco Evenepoel causing consternation for Van Aert.

After a "total flop" at their home Worlds in 2021, Evenepoel said he had the legs to win and had asked the team coaches for the chance but was turned down. The fractures in the team lit up the Belgian media for months, but the next year, the two had come to an accord, and Evenepoel soloed to victory in the 2022 Worlds in Wollongong.

The Glasgow Worlds in 2023 was Van Aert's closest shot at the rainbow bands. When Mathieu van der Poel attacked, Van Aert was in the right place, had timed everything perfectly, but just didn't have the power to match the Dutchman. Even as Van der Poel crashed on the final lap and had to finish with a broken shoe, Van Aert had already lost over a minute and had to settle for silver.

Then, Tadej Pogačar came along and swept up the last two rainbow jerseys.

The dynamic will be quite different since Pogačar won't be racing in Montreal, having sadly crashed in the Vuelta and ended his season due to his injuries. It will be up to the Belgian sports directors to decide who is the better bet for Belgium on Mont-Royal, as the pair have not gone head-to-head in the Grand Prix de Montréal.

Van Aert was second to Pogačar there in 2022, and Evenepoel's best result was fifth this weekend behind Isaac del Toro.

There are only 12 local circuits in Worlds after a 112-kilometre approach from Brossard, compared with the 16 ascents of Mont-Royal that come in the GP, so that swings the race into Van Aert's favour.

That, coupled with his sparkling form at the Vuelta and the confidence he gained by breaking his Paris-Roubaix duck, could point to 2026 as the year of Wout van Aert finally winning Worlds.

Demi Vollering (Netherlands)

For a rider who has won the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta Femenina, European Championships and most of the top one-day Classics, Demi Vollering hasn't had much luck when it comes to the Road World Championships.

The strength of the Dutch women's team meant Vollering ended up as a back-up plan rather than the go-to rider. She didn't make her debut until 2019, when Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen went 1-2.

In 2020, those two reversed places on the podium. In 2021, it was Marianne Vos who sprinted to silver behind Elisa Balsamo.

When Vollering was set to lead the Dutch team in Australia in 2022, she tested positive for COVID-19 and did not start. Luckily for the Netherlands, Van Vleuten still won despite racing with a fractured elbow.

Then, in 2023, Vollering was the Netherlands' top rider and made all of the right moves, but didn't react as Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) disappeared up the road in Glasgow. She managed to chase down Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Denmark) at the line but had to settle for silver. Had she not been trade teammates with Kopecky that year, one has to wonder if the outcome would have been different.

In the rainy Zürich Worlds the following year, Vollering again made the winning breakaway but didn't have the sprint to go up against Kopecky and finished fifth.

In 2025, a suitably mountainous Worlds in Kigali could have been one for Vollering, but the Dutch team stalled in the pursuit of the breakaway because they had Riejanne Markus in the move, and Vollering ended up seventh.

This year, Vollering has had a nearly perfect season, winning Omloop Nieuwsblad, the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France and, at the start of the year, the Volta Valenciana.

Now, as the senior member of the Dutch team for Worlds, Vollering should have the full support of the orange team and her best chance yet to finally claim the rainbow jerseys on the uphill finish on Mont-Royal.

Michael Matthews (Australia)

Michael Matthews has come frustratingly close to a world title in the men's road race but, as a past winner of the Grand Prix de Montréal, he could have his best chance in years this September.

Technically, Matthews is a two-time world champion in the Mixed Relay after Australia's winning performances in 2024 and 2025, and he won the now-defunct team time trial with Sunweb in 2017, but having a rainbow jersey to wear all year long is a much different honour.

The Australian's near-misses include a heartbreaking Richmond Worlds in 2015 where Peter Sagan (Slovakia) got away on the final 23rd Street climb and left Matthews wondering 'what if' when he won the reduced sprint for second place.

In the sprinters' Worlds in Doha the next year, Matthews had a strong team that put him into the winning split, but he got boxed in during the sprint and landed off the podium behind Sagan, Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and Tom Boonen (Belgium).

After a series of minor placings, Matthews came into his home Worlds in Wollongong as the country's best hope, but Evenepoel soloed away, and Matthews finished third behind Christophe Laporte (France). Since then, he had a life-threatening pulmonary embolism last year, and broke both of his arms in a training crash earlier this year.

Matthews showed a spark of form in the GP de Québec after finishing a solid Tour de France where he went into the breakaway on five different stages. Although he's a definite dark horse for a world title, there will be no other rider on the elite men's road race start line with more top-10s at Worlds.

Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)

Like Matthews, Elisa Longo Borghini will head into the elite women's road race in Montreal with the most top-10s of any active rider who hasn't yet won with seven.

The Italian finished third three times - in 2012 behind Vos, in 2020 behind Van der Breggen and in 2024 behind Kopecky.

Like Van Aert and Vollering, at times she has been in a supporting role, racing selflessly for Elisa Balsamo in 2021 - but her lack of a rainbow jersey mostly comes down to a long period of utter dominance by the Dutch women's team.

Longo Borghini is such a strong and aggressive rider that she is often marked out of winning moves. She might not have the flat-line speed of Kopecky or be able to match Vollering on longer climbs, but Mont-Royal falls perfectly in the Italian's strengths.

The 34-year-old leads a young team in this year's Worlds and is coming off an evergreen season with wins in the UAE Tour overall, a stage there and in the Giro and Tour de Suisse and third overall in the Tour de France.

The one thing that is an advantage for Longo Borghini in Worlds compared with the rest of the season is the loyalty and selflessness of the Italian team, who always seem to rise to the occasion.

Stefan Küng (Switzerland)

Switzerland's Stefan Küng has rarely finished outside the top 10 in any time trial, and even beat the likes of Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Evenepoel in the European Championships time trial in 2021, but he's come heartbreakingly short in the World Championships so far.

But after a brilliant stage 18 time trial victory in the Vuelta a España, that could all change this weekend as Küng goes into the race as one of the top favourites for the elite men's time trial.

In 2015, Küng was part of the BMC team's world title in the team time trial and powered the Swiss team to back-to-back titles in the mixed relay TTT in 2021 and 2022, but individual success has so far eluded him.

In 2019, he was part of the winning move in a miserable, cold and wet Worlds road race in Yorkshire and landed a bronze medal behind Mads Pedersen (Denmark).

His closest call came in the time trial in Wollongong, where he beat Evenepoel but finished just three seconds shy of Tobias Foss (Norway), who was already occupying the hot seat. Küng led at both of the time checks but faded ever so slightly compared with Foss in the final leg.

With a third place in Imola in 2020 behind Ganna and Van Aert, this year could be the moment when Küng completes his podium collection in Montreal.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland)

Much like Matthews and Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has a long history with the World Championships, having started the elite women's road race for 13 years in a row but never landing that coveted rainbow jersey.

Niewiadoma's attacking style often puts her in contention for the victory at Worlds, but so far, she has not been able to find the right moment to translate her talent into the gold medal.

For years, she and the rest of the peloton have been at the mercy of the dominant Dutch team, and Poland has not had the depth to match them. That's left her isolated against stronger teams most years.

Niewiadoma attacked numerous times in the 2021 Worlds in Flanders but Italy stuck to their plan, having Longo Borghini lead out Elisa Balsamo, who handily beat Vos. Niewiadoma won the sprint for third, but one wonders where she could have ended up if she'd saved some matches for the sprint.

Like Longo Borghini, she's strong enough to be a danger in any breakaway but not often quick enough to match the likes of Kopecky in a sprint. For Niewiadoma to win in Montreal, she will need a whole lot of luck, perfect timing and sparkling form to do what she needs to: get away solo.

It's well within her capabilities, as witnessed by her 2019 victory in the Amstel Gold Race, where she not only distanced Marianne Vos on the Cauberg, but also held off a pursuit from Van Vleuten that fell just metres short.

Poland also has a strong team for Montreal, with climber Dominika Włodarczyk, and the irrepressible Marta Lach her top allies.

At 31, and with a Tour de France victory on her palmarès, Niewiadoma is getting stronger and, perhaps more importantly, racing smarter than ever before, and 2026 could be her year to shine at Worlds.

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What a year it has been. It flew by. I still feel like yesterday was the day I was heading to the start line in Kigali with a mission. Since winning the UCI Road World Championship last September, my life has changed a lot.

The win was a surprise for me, and I think for the majority of the world. The question "How did your life change since becoming World Champion?" is probably the question I get asked the most.

Well, actually it's the question I get asked in 99% of interviews. The truth is, yes, my life has changed a lot. I have gotten a lot more attention than I used to, which took me a while to get used to, and it is still a work in progress.

Some days, I feel completely overwhelmed; some days I enjoy it a lot; some days it is insanely hard; and some days I am scared of the moment it will be gone.

My role in a lot of the races with my team, EF Education-Oatly, has changed, and I am still learning.

It has been nice to see what I can do in the finals. I am grateful to my team for not making me skip all the steps and for teaching me step by step how to get where I want to be. In the end, what changed the most for me is that winning the rainbow jersey has made me work a lot on myself.

I worked a lot to become more confident and to believe in myself more. I learned how to perform a different role in the races with my team. But in the end, I am not much different. I am the same person I was, just with new life experiences and new skills.

It is crazy how all the stars aligned last year in Kigali. I won the title, becoming the first elite world champion on the road for Canada, the year before we host Worlds in Montreal.

Of course, being the defending champion on home ground comes with its load of pressure. But also, this is the chance of a lifetime. Wearing the number one in front of my family, friends, and so many people who helped me get where I am feels very full circle.

It is such a cool course where so many riders can shine, which will make it such an interesting race. What I am most excited about racing Worlds in Montreal is racing in front of the Canadian-Quebec crowd.

I have received so many nice messages wishing me good luck and also telling me that they would be there to cheer. I can just feel the excitement of everyone, and I am so excited to share this moment with the community. I know that whatever happens, we are all in it together, and it gives me that extra motivation and fire.

The coolest thing from this year for me is receiving messages from clubs in Quebec telling me they have more riders this year, or messages telling me I inspired someone to go out on the bike or made someone believe in going for their dreams. If I could only do this for one person, then I feel incredibly proud.

Wearing this jersey has been an honour. I hope I have made this iconic rainbow jersey proud.

I can't explain that feeling of putting the rainbow on, riding a custom rainbow bike, even getting a custom POC helmet and getting rainbow shoes, and a rainbow Wahoo Kickr trainer.

Even a year later, every time I see it or wear it, it still feels extremely special. And I want to say thanks to everyone who made me feel special this year. I am really grateful for the wonderful time I got in the rainbow. Whatever happens on race day, I can say that I enjoyed every moment of it.

The UCI Road World Championships are invariably compelling, from the opening countdown of the individual time trials all the way through to the final riders crossing the line at the end of the gruelling road races. Across age categories, the men and women at the top of the sport battle for 13 rainbow jerseys, this year in Montreal, Canada.

As the event approaches, you'll certainly read a host of articles assessing the favourites for victory but, let’s be honest, when it comes to sport, we all love an underdog story. A side quest if you will, shooting off from the main narratives, with characters who will bring the races to life, even if they may not ultimately be the victors.

With trade team loyalties set aside, and national pride coming to the fore, there’s even more at stake, and though the headline acts will undoubtedly have their say, there’s always space for unexpected heroes to add their names to the history books.

Before the Worlds kick off this weekend, here are some of the side quests, storylines and subplots you should be following this year on the streets of Montreal.

United nations

The beauty of a World Championships is not just in the necessary shift from trade team tactics to national allegiances, but the impact that your nationality has on your chances in the race.

While the likes of Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Spain have an embarrassment of riches to select from, for those riders representing smaller nations, opportunism must take over.

Take last year’s breakaway story Red Walters, the sole representative for Granada, shooting his shot in the biggest race in the world, or the solo riders from Monaco and Malta, Victor Langelotti and Andrea Mifsud, mixing it with the big guns in the lead group in the European Championships road race last autumn. Minor characters making sure the story is all about them, even if only for a brief while.

When it comes to an outsider who could make it all the way, look no further than five-time Latvian national champion Toms Skujiņš, who has an uncanny knack for not only choosing the right moves to go in, but having the legs to back it up. Skujiņš has finished in the top 10 in the past three elite road races at the World Championships – twice in the top five – and fourth at the Olympics in Paris. He is overdue a big win, and if he can engineer his way into the lead group, the course is perfectly suited to his capabilities.

On the women’s side, the lone representative from Luxembourg could well be this year’s tip for an upset; their in-form national champion Nina Berton will hope to fly the flag for her country in the elite women’s road race, and like her EF Education-Oatly teammate Magdeleine Vallieres last year, perhaps she could spring the most audacious of surprises.

The lesser-known race against the clock

The increasing prevalence of mixed relays across various sports seems to be more than just a passing fad. There is something truly compelling about mixing the best from both genders within a competitive environment, and athletics, swimming and para-cycling have all produced excellent events featuring mixed competitors.

Cycling’s mixed time trial relay has been running in its current format since 2019 and has developed into one of the most underrated events of the World Championships programme – the ultimate side quest of rainbow jerseys.

Michael Matthews gritting his teeth up the final climb and Amanda Spratt clawing her way back to the wheel of Brodie Chapman at the climax of last year’s event to bring home a hard-fought victory for Australia over France and Switzerland made for fantastic viewing – the top three teams were separated by a margin of just 10 seconds in the end. For the nations who put together strong teams, the rare chance to win a rainbow jersey is not one to be taken lightly.

Watch this race – you will not be disappointed.

Big dreams, golden opportunities

Michael Matthews may be a two-time world champion in the mixed time trial relay, but he has made no secret of his desire to achieve one of the biggest goals in cycling – to win the men’s elite road race. Matthews is no stranger to success; with 10 Grand Tour stages to his name he is a master of managing tough courses, and has previous in Canada, having won both WorldTour one-day races on Canadian soil.

The Montréal course may appear too challenging for a green jersey winner, with over 3,800m of elevation, but Matthews’ most recent Tour de France stage win in 2022 included a similar amount of climbing over a shorter distance.

Pogačar’s absence leaves the men’s road race wide open, and Matthews will relish the golden opportunity afforded by the absence of the reigning world champion, who he also calls a friend. Matthews affirms his ability to tap into a greater resource and dig deep when he pulls on his national kit, and with the support of a strong Australian squad, he will be ready to shoot his shot.

Africa rising

Biniam Girmay and Kim Le Court-Pienaar have raised the profile of African cycling over the past few seasons, but there’s still a great deal of work to be done to bring talented riders to the mainstream cycling calendar, though teams such as BikeAID and Canyon-SRAM Generation are doing their best to offer space to allow riders from less well represented nations to develop.

This year, look out for two big talents from Africa in the under-23 categories. For the women, reigning Ethiopian time trial champion Tsige Kahsay Kiros made a big impression in last year’s women’s junior road race, finishing seventh in a race won by Movistar’s Paula Ostiz. This year she will move up to the ultra-competitive women’s U23 category, but don’t count her out.

In the men’s U23, Nahom Efriem of Eritrea will seek to make a similar impact, following his impressive 11th place finish in the men’s junior road race last year – the best result for any male African rider at the event. Riding for BikeAID, Efriem has recorded some strong results in Europe this season.

In a one-day race, anything can happen, and riders who rarely have the opportunity to shine at the top level will seize the chance to elevate themselves, their home nations, and African cycling, in the eyes of the cycling world.

Dutch TT understudies

It may seem somewhat ridiculous to consider a Dutch woman as a supporting character, but hear me out. By far the most successful and populous nation in the women’s peloton, Dutch riders have been responsible for a remarkable 47% of the total victories at the top level of women’s cycling so far in 2026.

In the elite time trial, however, there is one stand-out favourite, Switzerland's Marlen Reusser. Overcoming the experienced powerhouse looking to defend a title she first won in Kigali last year will be a tall order, but if any nation can hope to challenge her, it will be the Netherlands, who boast a strong pedigree riding against the clock.

While this season’s double Grand Tour winner Demi Vollering will garner the most headlines heading into the event, the Dutch also have an under-the-radar rider in the form of Visma-Lease a Bike’s Lieke Nooijen. The 25-year-old put in a stunning ride at the Tour de France Femmes to finish just four seconds behind time trial victor Reusser, so to challenge Switzerland, the Netherlands have been wise to look to Nooijen for the solution.

The future is now

Though the elite road races are often the domain of the more experienced riders in the peloton, on occasion young riders can make waves at a higher level – case in point, Paul Seixas’ debut in Kigali, in which he finished as France’s highest placed finisher. Seixas skipped the U23 category to head straight to the elites, and this year, a future potential rival takes the same step, albeit with one major difference.

Italian 19-year-old Lorenzo Finn is only three months younger than Seixas, and he opted to ride his first year at U23 level in 2025, winning at the first possible opportunity. The U23 world champion went on to win the two bellwether development races in 2026 – the Giro Next Gen and the Tour de l’Avenir – giving new Italian head coach Roberto Amadio the evidence he needed to promote Finn to the elite squad for the Montréal road race.

It could prove an inspired move, and keeping an eye on the way both Seixas and Finn race will offer a precious window into the future of men’s cycling. Like Seixas, Finn’s youth and relative inexperience won’t hold him back from giving his all for Italy, and while France will pile the pressure onto Seixas as team leader, Finn can enjoy his first year as part of a stacked Italian line-up, with the outside chance that he could be the real outsider to watch out for, should the race go his way.

Unlikely winners

A completely different prospect to the men’s racing, which invariably sees the best rider rise to the top, women’s road races are often far less predictable, and this was never more in evidence than in the 2025 elite road race, when against the odds, Canada’s Magdeleine Vallieres used her tactical acumen and strong form to overcome Grand Tour winners, Olympic medallists, and legends of the sport on a tough Kigali course.

It was the surprise of last year’s event and with women’s cycling continuing to develop strength in depth, there’s every possibility it could happen again. With a smaller bunch and less control within the peloton, the rider with the best legs on the day can legitimately break through and upset the favourites.

There is no fear in women’s cycling, and this has been proven in recent Grand Tours, with lesser-known riders such as Petra Stiasny and Sigrid Haugset rising above the best in the business to claim memorable stage wins. The women’s elite road race is far from a side quest – it’s the main event – but there’s every chance the rider who pulls on the rainbow jersey won’t be a main character.

Home advantage

Competing on home soil in any sport gives athletes wings, an extra boost of energy that derives from national pride and the loyal support of a partisan crowd. With that in mind, could a Canadian rider deliver a surprise and delight the home fans in 2026?

Despite her valiant triumph in 2025, seeing Vallieres defend her title after a relatively quiet year would once again be a major surprise. Canada may look to Sarah Van Dam for success in the women’s elite road race, while Nadia Gontova may hope to upset the favourites in the individual time trial. Derek Gee-West must struggle against the might of Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel in both the time trial and the road race, but he would be a popular winner, if not a major upset.

Perhaps Canada’s greatest hope for success comes in the shape of Isabella Holmgren in the women’s U23 road race. A victory for the rider from Lidl-Trek would be far from an upset given her quality, but look out for the maple leaf jersey in the other races to see how the home riders perform.

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If there is one person who has the most riding on a top finish at the Sea Otter Europe gravel race in Girona this weekend, it is Declan Irvine, the Australian multi-discipline rider now based in the cycling-centric Spanish city. He's targeting a podium, but a finish in the top 25% will guarantee him a spot in his third UCI Gravel World Championships, which is a month away in his home country.

This could be a fairytale ending to his remarkable 2026, an eighth season as a pro with Team Novo Nordisk. But in fact, the voyage to even ride this year has been more of a nightmare. Last year, one word changed his life - cancer.

Until 2025, type 1 diabetes was his health concern, but he said it was "not a barrier". He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 12 and turned to sports, racing as a junior in triathlons, then represented Australia at the World Duathlon Championships and later on the road, winning the New South Wales road race and criterium state titles. He joined Novo Nordisk for road cycling full-time in 2019.

He added gravel to his road programme in 2022 and two years later saw bigger results with a top 10 on a Tour of Hainan stage plus 10th at Gravelista, a UCI Gravel World Series event in Australia, 21st at Big Sugar Gravel and 24th at Unbound Gravel 200, even after a mechanical.

"Last year I put all my energy into doing Unbound well and then got my catastrophic failure that kind of ruined my race. I was really salty because I just put so much energy into it, and then for it to all be like just taken away in two seconds, it was a bit shit.

"Then my whole perspective kind of changed."

Life changed one month after this disappointment in Kansas. He went on to finish the Baloise Belgium Tour and was at elevation camp with his team when he "felt a weird sensation in my groin" and scheduled a visit with his doctor. A scrotal ultrasound was next, but at a medical office in Girona, a non-English-speaking technician wasn't subtle with the news.

"He's saying 'no good' and then 'cancer'. I start bawling my eyes out, because I lost my mind," said Irvine.

"The next minute he's bringing in this young receptionist, and I've got like my pants around my ankles, and she's just kind of looking at the ceiling, embarrassed. 'He says that you've got cancer'. I'm just sitting there crying.

"Yeah, that kind of put a lot into perspective last year, like racing took a back step, and I just wanted to get healthy."

Catching it 'super early'

Irvine had said that his diabetes was not a barrier, but a cancer diagnosis was a whole new challenge. He was a student of how to take care of his body, and that knowledge helped him with a shorter recovery time, one that avoided chemotherapy.

His medical team ran tests to confirm the testicular cancer diagnosis and reviewed findings from results using three key indicators to determine the best treatment. While two of the markers were "fine", the CK level, or Creatine Kinase biomarker for muscle damage, was "really, really high". Chemotherapy was announced as the only treatment.

"I was like, 'Oh, look, I have this test really often because it's a test we do with the UCI and the team. This marker is also for muscle damage, and because I'm an athlete and I train really hard, this could be inflated, not because of the cancer, but because of the muscle damage.

"They were adamant that I was going to have to do chemo, and I said, 'Look, let's repeat the test in a week'. I'll have one week completely off the bike, and I won't do anything. I'll lay on the lounge, and I'll try and get this level down with no exercise'. I wanted to prove my point that it's exercise-induced, not cancer-induced."

A week later, the CK level was back to normal. That meant he would have surgery, but no chemo.

He was bed-bound for two weeks after surgery, his partner Courtney Wevers at his side in Girona for physical and emotional support. After taking three months off, Irvine was back on the bike at the UCI Gravel World Championships in the Netherlands, finishing 26 minutes off the winning pace of Florian Vermeersch (Belgium), yet ahead of 100 other riders.

"This race wasn’t about a result. My goal was only to put on the green and gold kit and get back on the start line, doing what I love, and I’m so happy to have done that," he said on social media after the Worlds.

The 2026 season had him back to routine business, on the road with Novo Nordisk at La Roue Tourangelle, where he was named most aggressive rider, as well as Tour of Turkey and Tour of Denmark. In between, he mixed in another Unbound Gravel 200.

"My doctor, she said, the biggest problem with testicular cancer is that when boys feel something's wrong, we just don't do anything about it. We caught it super early, that was what saved me."

There's no place like home

When Cyclingnews caught up with Irvine at this year's Unbound Gravel, he had unfinished business in Kansas, eager to avoid major mechanicals like the last two times and get through the mud in Kansas, cleanly. This time he competed in the open category to see how he'd do, rather than the elite division, and finished third.

He did not have any expectations to qualify for the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup this spring, as he had road races on his calendar for the rest of the year. But he was proud that Australia had a "proper gravel" course for the competition.

"I think it's going to be the best world championship so far, because it's like 100% on gravel. It's a real race [for gravel]. Last year in the Netherlands it was kind of a Classics race, and also the previous year in Belgium. This world championship is going to be a real world championship [for gravel].

"It could be a good year for the diehard gravel guys to win the Worlds, because the last few years, it's been won by WorldTour riders. Three years ago in Italy, when America put a really good team together, Keegan Swenson still did well.

"I don't think a lot of the WorldTour guys will go, only the diehard gravel people. I think they're all freaking good guys, and the WorldTour guys do rock up to gravel races. It does kind of put in perspective the level that they're at."

His last stage race was the 2.Pro-level Tour of Denmark, where he helped team leader Filippo Ridolfo to a top-25 on GC, despite several crashes. He took some time off, and the team gave him the green light for more gravel. Now the Newcastle native has qualification, or at least a wildcard entry, to earn in order to make the long trip to Western Australia for the Gravel World Championships.

"My family's in Australia, my mum and dad and all the rest of my family. It's hard to reach, like the complete opposite side of the country where I come from," Irvine admitted.

"I'm just grateful that I'm still here and able to do it. I still like to race, and I want to push myself."

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Ominous cloud formations gather over the Cumbrian market town of Penrith in late August, where the FDJ United-SUEZ team are staying ahead of the 2026 Tour of Britain Women. Temperatures are more than twenty degrees cooler here than the peloton has experienced throughout the summer while racing in mainland Europe as autumn draws nearer in northern England.

There is a sense of transition in the air in more ways than one as Cyclingnews sits down with the team’s new signing, Kate Courtney, on the eve of her WorldTour debut. The American has been thrust into a new world, having left behind the XCO mountain bike circuit, and is about to find out for the first time whether she can match some of the best road racers on the planet on Britain’s rolling terrain.

"So many things have happened in such a short period of time that it actually makes it feel like it's been longer than it has been," Courtney says, reflecting on a whirlwind few months. "But looking back, it really has been quite accelerated, and I'm just really excited to be here."

"There were a lot of quick moves and decisions that had to be made in order to get me to the start line. Knowing that I get to line up this week, it's all worth that."

Courtney is one of the USA’s best-known racers and has been among the world’s top mountain bikers for almost a decade, winning the XCO world title in 2018. Just 97 days before the Tour of Britain, she lined up in her first UCI road race in Czechia in a bid to test out a possible career switch from fat tyres to thin ones.

Her potential was immediately confirmed, winning a hilly final stage at the UCI 2.2 level Tour de Feminin in Krásná Lípa. Even before that achievement, Courtney reveals that she had already been negotiating a full-time switch to road racing, with a home Olympic Games in Los Angeles a particular target in two years’ time.

After winning again at the US National Championships in Charleston, Courtney’s move to FDJ United-SUEZ until at least 2028 was confirmed, just before the French team also announced a sponsorship deal with Red Bull, who have been a personal sponsor of Courtney since 2017.

"I'd had a lot of conversations prior even to that race in Czechia - which is a bit crazy that even before racing I knew that that's a jump that I wanted to make - and started to explore the opportunities," Courtney says.

"The FDJ opportunity actually came about before Nationals and was a really exciting opportunity that was a bit non-standard, I would say, but was one that just seemed like the perfect fit and was worth doing a lot to pursue."

"A lot of things are changing very quickly and all at once, but it's also a long process, and it's really nice to have what I would call a head start this year to start to dial in everything from bike fit to where I might base next season in Europe, and to have a bit of a head start in knowing what I'm going to need to be both successful but also happy in a whole new environment and world chasing this new dream."

From the mud to the road

The multi-disciplinary phenomenon in professional cycling is becoming more and more common, with many riders now encouraged to take up different disciplines from a young age. More seldom is Courtney’s case, as a rider who has excelled in one discipline transitioning into another where she has almost zero experience.

Ahead of May’s Tour de Feminin in Czechia, Courtney had only raced a few times on the road among the amateur peloton. Road racing in UCI events, and certainly in the WorldTour, was entirely new.

"When I was racing in Czechia, the goal was to really experience the European peloton and see how I felt within that environment and determine whether I loved learning in that environment," she says.

"When I knew I loved the racing and most of all I loved learning all the intricacies of road, I felt really confident committing to this path. What I'm committing to really is a long process of learning and experimentation and being thrown in the deep end and figuring it out."

There is a great deal that sets road racing apart from the mountain bike scene. The speed, racing tactics and bumping shoulders with competitors are elements that Courtney needs to excel in if she is to succeed. Racing in Czechia was an eye-opener.

"It was really overwhelming at first for me," Courtney says, describing her first UCI road racing experience. "I think for anyone who jumps into a 170-person bunch for the first time, it's just so many new stimuli that it's hard to relax a bit.

"I think for me a lot of this has been about finding the places that my skill set transfers, so I think once I got through that first day I started to realise that my bike handling transfers; positioning is not all that different than in a short track or in a super competitive World Cup mountain bike race, and I've been doing that since I was a kid.

"So finding the confidence that I can bridge the gap where my skill set is lacking, but also rely on a decade of racing experience. I think that's part of the process right now, just getting comfortable and getting confident with that skill set and applying it to an entirely new sport."

At the Tour of Britain, Courtney’s education took another leap. Her 11th-place finish in the overall classification and fourth on the penultimate stage to Hay-on-Wye revealed without doubt that she has the legs to compete at this level.

She would, however, be involved in an unusual uphill crash on stage 4, crossing wheels with her teammate Lauren Dickson as she led the peloton on a steep ascent. Described as "an unfortunate touch of wheels" by Dickson afterwards, whether it was just bad luck or inexperience showing through, the incident can be notched as another lesson learned.

"I'm totally not afraid of her bike handling skills or her feeling of riding in the bunch. I think it will be fine. For her, it's just getting to learn the peloton, the level," FDJ United-SUEZ sports director Lars Boom told Cyclingnews ahead of the race. "It's a WorldTour race. There's some really strong riders. And it's just a quest for her to see what she can do."

No 'unrealistic expectations, or unnecessary limitations'

Now 30, Courtney signed off her mountain biking career – at least for now – as cross-country marathon world champion, a title she won in Verbier last year.

The San Francisco native devoted more than two decades of her life to mountain biking, so one might assume the transition away from that community, which has given her so much, would be a wrench for Courtney. However, she takes an entirely different perspective, retaining a fondness for mountain biking but choosing to look at what’s ahead, rather than what’s gone before.

"My husband has often given me the advice that in life you want to move towards things, not away from them. So moving towards something that's really exciting or motivating or where you have a lot to learn is always how I try to make decisions and how I try to structure what I'm working for, and that was certainly the case with the road."

"It's not about leaving mountain biking. I love the discipline. I grew up racing mountain bikes; I've raced mountain bikes my entire life. It's more about following the curiosity and the excitement for something new, which obviously comes with some sacrifices both personally and professionally, making big changes in order to take these next steps in my career."

Managing extreme change can be an even greater mental challenge than a technical one. Courtney comes across as highly confident and self-assured, as though none of this fazes her one bit.

But what if road racing doesn’t work out? Does Courtney’s new set of wheels come with a hint of doubt?

"Being in the team with FDJ, with the performance team we have, with the other riders we have, I really don't feel pressure, and I feel really insulated from that outside doubt," she says.

"For me it's about being in the right environment where I have the opportunity to learn and push myself and test myself, but also be realistic about where I am in the process."

"Inside, I know this is what I want to do. I'm confident in my abilities as an athlete, and I will learn, so there's really no reason to have either unrealistic expectations or unnecessary limitations on what I can achieve."

"I think that the mental side of the sport takes a lot of work and it's a lot of the game, but one of the things that's really fun for me in this period is that it's clear I'm trying something new, it's clear this is my first WorldTour race, and so I feel the freedom to go out and experiment and see where I am, but also know that that's not the final answer, that's actually the starting point."

Riding with purpose for She Sends

Beyond racing, Courtney is a firm believer in the power of cycling and its ability to empower women. She set up the She Sends Foundation in 2023, providing grants and exposure to projects across the USA to promote female participation in mountain biking.

Courtney went a step further in 2025, racing under the She Sends banner with the foundation’s logo emblazoned on her kit. The foundation continues to be a driver for her, but her FDJ United-SUEZ contract means that she can no longer have the logo on show at races. However, her road switch could open up opportunities for the foundation to branch out to the discipline in the future.

"The foundation is still operating in the same way as before, just not on my jersey," Courtney explains.

"I think that there's a huge opportunity to expand the mission and step outside of just off-road racing for the foundation, and in my mind women's cycling is niche enough and being able to be a bit more cross-disciplinary in our initiatives would be really exciting. I also just think it's an amazing moment in women's cycling and I'm hoping that this change will only increase my ability to contribute in the future."

The Foundations gives Courtney a purpose in her racing beyond mere results. Her push for Olympic success is about more than just herself.

"I think having a mission and a purpose behind what you do makes it harder to give up. It makes it a lot more meaningful when it pays off, and I think it also gives you the opportunity to live your values in any moment in sport."

"I think at the end of the day we have a huge opportunity to inspire the next generation, and a responsibility to do so as well."

After several months of Europe ended at the Tour of Britain, Courtney headed home for three weeks for a period of consistent training ahead of the next major step in her road racing experiment.

That next step is a first-time ride at the Road World Championships, her Nationals win earning her automatic selection to the US team and an accelerated chance to take on one of the biggest events of the year. The fast-approaching Worlds in Montreal, Canada, will provide Courtney with yet another 'first' in a year in which everything has changed.

So much happened at this year's Vuelta a España, and it was such a race that it's hard to know where to start this week's column. But I suppose it should be at the top step of the podium with Enric Mas. The way he rode La Vuelta was unbelievable; he seemed to strike the best vein of form in his life. The Mallorcan looked incredibly controlled on the mountaintop finishes, taking time when he needed to across the second half of the race. We always talk about Movistar and that they can be a disaster of a team at times, but my God, once they got the red jersey within their ranks, the whole team stepped up and performed differently.

I think Mas' victory will definitely give them a kick up the backside as a team. The sports directors will be saying, 'this is what we should have been doing for the last couple of years' – they've been in a bit of a drought since Alejandro Valverde left, and although they have the riders, they just haven't been getting the results they should have been. Of course, Mas himself has had tricky periods, with his injury and operation, but when you see what they're capable of at this Vuelta, then you have to ask, where was that before?

Of course, the one caveat there is Tadej Pogačar. Had he not crashed out at the end of the first week, he would have likely won, considering the lead he'd already built up. Yet, given the way the final stages were ridden, and factoring in potential fatigue towards the end of the Slovenian's second consecutive Grand Tour, I feel like it might have been more open than we anticipated. It's worth remembering too that Pogačar struggled during the final week of last year's Tour; his team said he was sick, but how unwell actually was he? UAE Team Emirates-XRG know rival teams will analyse his performances for any weaknesses, so perhaps illness is an easy way to cover up any repeated Grand Tour fatigue that might plague Pogačar in the final days of a three-week race.

Nonetheless, I think for cycling, and for the real cycling followers that know about bike racing, La Vuelta was easily the best Grand Tour of the season by far – there were so many days where we had no idea what the outcome of the stage would be.

Another top performer in this La Vuelta was hands down Matthew Brennan, not just because he won five stages, but because of how he rode this Grand Tour, the first of his professional career. He was without a doubt the fastest rider at this year's race, with an honourable mention for XDS Astana's Alessandro Romele, who looks like a rider who's going to do a lot in the future. It was an absolute dream Vuelta for Visma-Lease a Bike's young British talent, though, and the question is: what will he target next year?

It will be fascinating when he comes up against the likes of Tim Merlier and other real fast men like Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen. He can get over a lot of small climbs, and given how crazy organisers are with stage routes now, Brennan will chalk up plenty of stage race wins. I know he's open to racing the Tour next year, especially because it starts in the UK. Naturally, though, competition is incredibly high for Visma-Lease a Bike's Tour de France squad, especially when you consider their yellow jersey ambitions and the multi-faceted role that Wout van Aert plays in the squad.

A wide-open World Championships

Speaking of the Belgian, he was equally impressive at this year's La Vuelta, serving as a lead-out man for Brennan, but also scoring two victories of his own and the green jersey. Of course, he didn't race the Tour, so he's getting into form later in the season, and has a level of freshness that should give him and his Belgian World Championships squad a very good chance in Canada. They just need to get organised and avoid any tactical problems between Van Aert and Evenepoel.

It's going to be a very interesting Road World Championships because with no Pogačar, there's a void that needs to be filled. When Pogačar is in a one-day Classic like the Worlds, it's like watching spaghetti boil. You know what's about to happen; you just have to be ready when the moment arrives. In the past, the Slovenian would just use his team to put everybody on the limit and then attack at a certain point, be it 40km or 50km to go, leaving the rest of the field in indecision as they question whether to chase him down or turn their attention to the podium places.

I think Remco Evenepoel will think about using the same tactic, but will he be good enough to make it stick? If he doesn't, then it could well be Wout van Aert who finds himself in a move, and the Belgian squad's strategy changes. It's going to be fascinating to see who can capitalise on the Pogačar-shaped hole in Montréal at the end of this month.

One hour. That's how long it took for a bid for the 2026 UCI Road World Championships to arrive on the mayor of Montreal's desk after city officials confirmed they wouldn't be bidding to be a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

That was back in 2021. The bid was ready – it had been for years – and all the organisers needed was the green light to get the ball rolling for the first North American World Championships in 11 years.

Fast forward to now, and the long-anticipated Montréal World Championships are very nearly here, but it's an event that's been in the works for much, much longer than the five years since the bid. In fact, the organisers have been dreaming about this since the very start of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal.

"The idea about the Worlds started maybe two or three years after [the first editions], at the third edition of the Grands Prix Cyclistes," explained the GPCQM and Worlds general manager, Joseph Limare, tracing this event's roots all the way back to 2012.

"It was a big challenge to have WorldTour races outside of Europe. The first year was, for all the cycling community – the WorldTour, UCI – a test. At the first edition, the teams went for maybe a kind of holiday in Canada, but after the first edition, they saw how we take care of the organisation, how we take care of the teams, about the quality of the race, and they also discovered at that time how hard the two Grands Prix Cyclistes of Québec and Montréal were. So after the first or second edition, the mindset changed.

"The feedback that we had after two editions was 'OK, you are in the top 10 of organisations'. And with the originality to be on a circuit, it's like the World Championships, the direction where the UCI wants to have the World Championships always finish on a circuit. So the idea came."

From the seed of an idea, the planning slowly began. An early decision to make was which city might host. The World Championships had come to Montreal before in 1974, and then Hamilton in Ontario in 2003, though Montréal quite quickly became the obvious choice and they started to work out the details.

"It's not the same thing [as the Grands Prix]. It's 10 times bigger than a WorldTour [race] to organise the World Championships. So after that, it was a long work about which year, where in Quebec or in Canada. We had the last edition in 2003 in Hamilton, so we needed to focus on where and when," Limare explained.

"The work began at that time, and when the city of Montreal took the decision not to go with FIFA in 2021, the bid was ready on our side ... So maybe one hour after the decision of the city of Montreal not to go with FIFA, the bid was on the desk of the mayor. And after that [it was], 'OK, go', so we decided to put the bid in for 2026."

Designing a distinct route

Already WorldTour hosts for a decade, the GPCQM organisers had the confidence and backing of the UCI from very early on, who knew they could deliver a good race in Montreal. But from the start, Limare knew they didn't want to just run the Grand Prix de Montréal version 2.0 for the World Championships.

Both organisationally and in terms of the sporting challenge, it needed to be different.

"When we jumped into the first discussion with operational people in Montreal four years ago, the first discussion was, 'OK, it's like the Grand Prix Cyclistes.' No, no, no, no, no. We had to convince them that it's not like the Grand Prix Cyclistes. It's eight days; it's 13 events."

They also had certain requests from the UCI, who wanted the 2026 courses to fit into the variation of Worlds courses over the years: "The UCI asked us to have a race less difficult than last year in Kigali and less difficult than next year in Sallanches."

So what they came up with was a revamped course, finishing in the iconic natural stadium that is the hilly Mount Royal park in the centre of Montreal, but with tweaked laps, and a loop out of the city that will show off parts of Montreal that the Grand Prix has never visited.

"We did not want 100% on the circuit, because we want to show Montréal, not just on the circuit, and involve the population," Limare said. "Cycling is a sport that is going to the population. For us, it's already easy to have people coming downtown with subways or buses and everything to come to the event, but we wanted to have more people involved because it's cycling."

There's a sporting benefit to expanding outside of the circuit, too, with Limare hoping that the 12 laps, compared to the Grand Prix's 16, will change the shape of the racing.

"They have 16 laps for the Grand Prix Cyclistes, [which is] easier for Pogačar, for example, or that kind of rider," he said, speaking before the news that Pogačar would miss the World Championships. "But we 'only' have 12 laps for the Worlds, so it won't be as easy as it could be for Pogačar to win, because with less laps, it will open the race."

New challenges

Of course, as well as designing a route that was distinctive and different from the Grand Prix, Limare and his team have faced brand new challenges in organising an event as big as the World Championships.

Even the matter of going beyond the main centre of Montréal is a prime example of how the challenge quickly multiplied.

The main city of Montréal is an island, so to take the race off it, they obviously need to use bridges. And in Canada, bridges are under the domain of not the local government, but the federal government, so they had to work with the Canadian government from day one. Whilst some questions were an easy yes, Limare explains, other people - like the police forces outside the city who would help with security - took longer to convince.

What's more, in Montréal they will host not just two road races like for the Grands Prix, but six, plus six time trials, and the mixed relay, as well as the UCI Congress. Hundreds more riders, hundreds more dignitaries, and hopefully thousands more fans. Roads need to be closed for over a week. In fact, the main finish area will be closed for more than a fortnight, straight through from the Grand Prix to the end of the Championships.

In total, 36km of roads will be closed for the duration of the event - excluding the trip outside of the city - which Limare underlines as an achievement to 'only' close that many kilometres, minimising what will be a lot of disruption in the city.

It's a logistical challenge ramped up to the max, and Limare points to the addition of time trials as a particular puzzle to solve, and something his organising team had never done before.

"We had the mountain, we had the finish, but for us, the new thing is the time trials, because with the Grand Prix Cyclistes, we don't have that kind of event," he explained. "For us, it was natural to have the time trial around the river, so we will have the time trials there, to have less elevation.

"Also, we have no European culture of cycling here, and we never had a time trial, for example. So for people here, it will be a new event, a time trial, they don't know, so we need to explain."

Five years of official planning done, and almost 10 before that, Limare and his team have done the outreach and promotion in Europe, they've done the work in the local community, they've done the work with the city, and now all that's left is the actual event. Given how long this has been in the works, the organisers seem more than ready.

"So far, so good," as Limare put it.

A Canadian team so good it feels planned

The cherry on top of all of the organisers' planning is that this year will mark the first time ever that a Canadian rider comes into the World Championships as the defending champion in the road race.

Magdeleine Vallieres Mill won the country's first elite road race title this time last year, putting Canadian cycling on the map in a big way and kicking off a year of hype for her home World Championships.

For a plan over a decade in the making, the timing couldn't be much better.

"You think it was the plan?" Limare joked. "It's really good timing, the best marketing plan that we could have with Magdeleine's victory last year. The girl power is awesome, and not only in the elite team, but for under-23 too, we know Isabella [Holmgren] will perform in under-23 too – our best chance of medals is maybe in the under-23, not elite.

"Magdeleine is focused on the 26th of September; she will be at home, she will have all the support and recognition from the Montréal citizens, and all who come for the Worlds. So the timing is perfect for us."

Whilst Canadian road cycling is looking the healthiest it has in a long time right now, Limare also hopes that the Worlds can contribute to that growth, as well as shining a light on what has already been achieved.

"We have more and more young riders, men and women, involved in cycling, more and more riders who are going to Europe for training camp or races, and this is part of what we want to celebrate with the Worlds," he said.

"We managed to be able to fund Cycling Canada and the Fédération Québécoise with a donation after the Worlds to be able to have more and more training camps and programmes for juniors to be able to bring them to Europe and to let them perform and understand cycling more than they can here, with more races and being more and more involved in the highest level."

Considering Canada's men's football team exited the FIFA World Cup in the round of 16 earlier this summer, but their cycling stars are genuine medal contenders in multiple races next week, it certainly feels like the city of Montreal made the right call on that all-important day five years ago.

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After years of trying, the final week of the season's last Grand Tour has finally delivered satisfaction to three different riders in remarkably similar circumstances. Not that they could have been entirely certain at the start of the third week that by the end of this Vuelta a España they would be on the podium at all.

The most likely of the trio to predict success was always going to be Enric Mas, who since the exit of Tadej Pogačar on stage 8 had stepped into the role of race leader with remarkable maturity. Having finished runner-up on three other occasions, it no doubt gave him insight into how the race could be won, but having come so close before, there would have been some doubts that misfortune might rear its ugly head in the remaining days.

Movistar have a track record of messing up tactics, neglecting inter-team relationships and stifling ambitions to satisfy others’ egos – these issues were certainly in my mind while watching along.

Surprisingly, there were no tantrums or drama as the days ticked by and the pressure mounted; this remained a Movistar squad in complete agreement that the mission was to have Enric Mas in the maillot rojo at the conclusion of stage 21. Not by chance or good fortune or anything random, but by hard work, good tactical moves and believing that this was the year the Mallorcan, so often the plucky challenger, was the most complete of the GC riders.

Having watched previous editions of La Vuelta where the Spanish squad managed to remove all confidence from their best riders, it has been refreshing to see them learn from past errors and actually solidify around their team leader.

Already being the strongest climber of the GC group helped, but Mas producing a time trial performance that probably surprised even himself made the task of deciphering the two remaining mountain days so much easier. It also put more pressure on Primož Roglič and Felix Gall's shoulders, as they weren’t really fighting for the overall victory anymore; instead, they had to focus on each other.

A Grand Tour of learning for several GC contenders

For sure, Primož Roglič was going to try; the four-time champion knew how to win the overall, but the problem was the legs weren’t where he needed them to be for a spectacular reversal. However, the Slovenian has to be happy with his return from the injury that hampered his preparation in the run-up to the start in Monaco.

He showed, despite his 36 years, that he still is a force to be reckoned with and didn’t put a foot wrong in the three weeks of racing. Still ambitious, still competitive and a presence not to be dismissed.

Felix Gall, on the other hand, finished La Vuelta seemingly content with his lot, which you can’t argue with if you look at just the result. However, the manner in which Decathlon CMA CGM operated does raise several questions. Before the start, they would have immediately signed up for a podium place, understandably so, but when Pogačar left the race, the French squad didn’t seem to realise that they were competing for the overall title.

Gall lacked race craft, attacking at the wrong moments, missing moves when he ought to have been vigilant and generally accepting that he was doing rather well and that was good enough. The killer instinct Mas and Roglič possessed was absent from the Austrian. Already this season, at the Giro d’Italia, he had the opportunity to learn from Jonas Vingegaard about the art of dispatching rivals. But the lesson didn’t seem to have sunk in between the two events.

His and Decathlon’s Vuelta is a case of what might have been if they had a bit more ambition and clarity in the crucial moments. The final mountain-top finish was an example of what might have been if only Gall had committed earlier, and had he spent decent time on his TT bike, then he wouldn’t have lost so much time so needlessly.

He has the power but not the position to guarantee an acceptable performance. It might seem a harsh judgement, but all the riders he is competing with are better than him because, as he has said, he doesn’t like the discomfort of time trialling. A strange observation, considering there’s no such thing as a comfortable TT.

Richard Carapaz had a similarly average individual TT, but he countered that by being aggressive and using his experience to exploit the close marking between the top three. A bigger contrast in race craft and tactics you’ll rarely see from two teams closely matched – EF Education-EasyPost were always looking for and aware of opportunities whilst Decathlon CMA CGM retreated to defensive racing and, in the process, did a lot of the work they could have passed on to Movistar.

The French squad always blinked first when there were any hesitations, and as the race went on, everyone knew they would. Conversely, Movistar never really put a foot wrong.

For a long time it looked like Netcompany-Ineos had a rider capable of following Mas and company when they lit up the race, but ultimately Oscar Onley lacked last season's form from mid-race onwards. His TT was where it was expected to be, at just under a minute behind Roglič. However, the last two mountain stages were fatal to his podium chances. Whether it was too many setbacks, lingering effects of his early illness or a level of climbing that was a little bit too fast for him, Onley wasn’t where we thought he might be. The Vuelta demanded a degree of explosiveness, and the young Scot just didn’t have enough left by the end.

In contrast, Sepp Kuss never really entered the GC equation until the penultimate day and then jumped six places after slumbering outside the top-10 for most of the last week. This wasn’t vintage Kuss on spectacular form, though; he used his experience, tenacity and the collective strength of Visma-Lease a Bike to drag himself into the top five. This season is the second time he’s ridden all three Grand Tours, so you can excuse him for taking longer to get going and, unlike in 2023 when he won, the Dutch team were here with Wout Van Aert and Matthew Brennan to look after too.

The GC was always going to be an extra cherry on top of their sprint ambitions. They won’t be complaining after five stage wins for the young Brit and two victories and the points classification for the Belgian. Both of them were in epic form throughout.

Another Slovenian talent shines at La Vuelta

Also epic was Santiago Buitrago, who sought out the mountains classification and saw off the challenge of Van Aert but didn’t get his stage win despite being in all the right breaks. Done over by Marco Brenner in the second week and again by Eddie Dunbar in the third, at least it all turned out okay in the end, which wasn’t the case for Dunbar, who crashed on the dangerous approach to the final big climb of the race.

Tudor had a valid excuse for losing a rider in those circumstances, unlike Stefan Küng, who bailed out the day after winning the time trial. In the past, certain sprinters would do the same before the mountains. However, at least they pretended to have a bad knee or dodgy back.

The race organisers will have noted the lack of respect. The Swiss TT specialist beating Callum Thornley was almost forgivable until he packed his bags and scarpered.

Someone who did need to leave early was Mattias Skjelmose. He ought to have followed Mads Pedersen’s example and gone home to recover instead of flogging himself for a GC position he never looked likely to reach. Lidl-Trek had a below-par race by their standards.

As ever, there were some surprises. Cofidis and Bryan Coquard were competitive, and it’s been a while since that happened, and Groupama-FDJ United, not to be left out, also won a bunch sprint with Bastien Tronchon – a mini French revival in a race where they are often bystanders.

Jakob Omrzel appeared on our radar, looking very much like the next Slovenian youngster to amaze everyone. Only two riders in the overall top-10 won a stage: Enric Mas and Omrzel, who finished sixth overall, pushing Onley for the white jersey. He was decidedly nonplussed by his performances – quite remarkable and reminiscent of a certain Pogacar who first showed at the Spanish Grand Tour.

Uno-X Mobility did what they always do – organised, aggressive, but it hasn’t always paid off as well as it did at this Vuelta, with Andreas Leknessund outlasting Wout van Aert in the opening week after a ridiculously hard day out, and Tobias Johannessen finishing things off in Granada whole holding off another of the new names to watch, Alessandro Romele.

That last stage was a bizarre affair, neutralised for the final lap because it was too dangerous but fine for the previous three circuits. It didn’t really make much sense as a compromise.

And finally, to go with the feeling that this edition was a Spanish fiesta, Mikel Landa won the big mountain stage, easily the hardest day and raced until everyone finished on their knees. Landa is heading back to his roots at Euskaltel next season – tears of joy and relief in equal measure.

From being a Tadej Pogačar benefit race, the 81st Vuelta a España turned into a properly entertaining contest between riders not that far apart in ability. Enric Mas won because he had the best team, good tactics and a level of calm that let him exploit his return to top form.

The barricades from the Vuelta a España's final stage have been cleared away in Granada now, and the water in the fountain in the Paseo del Salón boulevard where the final victory celebrations took place is no longer tinged with red dye to reflect the colour of the Vuelta leader's jersey.

But the consequences of a race won by Enric Mas in the least expected circumstances - following a crash-out by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - has brought a fresh Grand Tour triumph to Movistar, and will take much longer to be fully absorbed.

The 2026 Vuelta is the fifth in the history of the team co-created by Eusebio Unzué back in 1980, and its first since 2016 with Nairo Quintana. It's also Spain's first victory in its home race since 2014. Enric Mas made the podium four times, but never the top place until now.

That all changed on Sunday, when Mas, who had suffered thrombophlebitis a year ago in July and endured a miserable debut in the 2026 Giro d'Italia, was able to turn the tables on his season and his entire career by claiming his first-ever Grand Tour.

All this at 31, too. After inheriting the jersey from Pogačar on stage 8, and winning on the Alto de Aitana on stage 9, he continued outgunning or equalling his rivals on every summit finish that followed, keeping the opposition at a safe distance when riding the time trial of his life on stage 18.

The triumph for Movistar represents a massive boost for Mas, the Movistar team and Spanish cycling. As Unzué, the sport's longstanding team manager, told Cyclingnews, the full consequences will take quite a while to sink in.

Cyclingnews (CN): Given the strength of the lineup in Monaco, when this year's Vuelta a España began on August 22, did you feel it would be very complicated to try and win it?

Eusebio Unzué (EU): No doubt about it. Anywhere where our friend Pogačar is racing, in the best of cases, a second place is what's possible. But at the same time, bad luck causes things to happen to us.

It's also true that on the stage to Castelló, [where Mas caught Pogačar at the top of the main climb and they reached the finish together], that's where he showed us the first sign that he was in really great shape. Then the bad luck Tadej suffered meant Enric was converted into the overall leader, and from that day onwards, he knew how to keep the jersey all the way to here.

CN: And the fact that Mas had such a tough time in the Giro and then kicked off again from scratch, how much did that help him?

EU: We're never going to know how much that did, but we do know that after what happened to him in the 2025 Tour, he was almost four or five months without riding the bike. He had to start all over again this season, he went to the Giro and he was feeling great when he started, he was very optimistic. But probably his underlying physical condition was not in the right place where he wanted it to be, and he wasn't able to do the Giro how he wanted or expected.

But he kept on training, and then you all saw that in Burgos he was already going well, and then here he was faultless. He followed the same progress curve as in other years, too, where the Vuelta and the months of August and September were his best months and then the end of the season, which is where he has his best results.

That's what we're focused on now, and we don't know how the operation that he had because of the thrombophlebitis last year has helped him, too, in the long term. The important thing is that he feels very good and I think this series of results is helping him feel more and more confident and this is the final consequence. That's also come thanks to the team, who, despite the absence of Cian [Uijtdebroeks abandoned on stage 3 - Ed.] has done a great Vuelta.

CN: Quite a few people have been surprised that Enric has been able to handle the pressure of being the race leader, because we're talking about somebody who has had some issues with questions like descending and so on. Were you surprised as well?

EU: Yes. I was surprised as well. He was a rider who had a really promising start to his career and, when he was very young, even making second in the 2018 Vuelta, and the expectations that surrounded him were very high. He, too, was convinced that he could handle them, but in fact, he never could.

I don't know that calendar we had for him of Tour-Vuelta-Tour-Vuelta-Tour-Vuelta etc. was … sometimes the Tour is really positive for a rider and sometimes it's a real burden of responsibility which some riders have problems overcoming and sometimes they never do. And he started to feel uncomfortable with that.

But it's also true that he's a rider with a great future ahead of him, at least two or three years and above all, I think this Vuelta and the way he's raced through it will help consolidate his feelings of self-confidence.

Old Rock'n'Rollers Never Die

CN: Was stage 20 maybe the most complicated of all to handle, with those early attacks that led to crosswinds, your support riders ahead of the GC group in breaks and Enric isolated in the main group for a large part of the toughest day of the race?

EU: Rather than being alone on the stage, we had riders ahead of him which we could use in the race when we thought it was necessary. He was alone for a while, but as I say, the directors played their cards very well strategically and when he needed riders, the team had them ready. And in that sense, I'm very, very satisfied with how teammates of his, who'd never had a chance to fight for a leader's jersey in a Grand Tour, rose to the occasion.

CN: What does this mean for a team and a country with a huge tradition in Grand Tours but which has struggled to get to the very top in the last few years. Is it a timely reminder that, as the Spanish song puts it, los viejos rockeros nunca mueren - old rock'n'rollers never die?

EU: Exactly. As you know very well, we're a team that has always had the concept of grandes corredores para las grandes vueltas - top-name riders for the biggest Tours - as one of our trademarks. That's been our reference point, ever since we started in 1980 but what has happened in the last few years, three riders - Roglič, Vingegaard and Pogačar - have won almost everything in the last six years. There's been virtually no space for anybody else. There've been a few isolated exceptions, but that's been it.

What's happened is that with the internationalisation of cycling, we've got top-name riders from all over the world. But now we're benefiting from that expansion too, as a sport that's getting more and more popular across the globe. But I always think that the countries that have always been the cycling heartlands in Europe - Belgium, Spain, Italy and France - are always going to have top-name riders for Grand Tours, too.

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A day on from the end of an historic 81st edition of the Vuelta a España brings the perfect chance to reflect on the drama, emotions, and great racing we saw over three weeks from Monaco all the way to Granada.

Much has changed since the riders rolled away from the iconic casino in Monaco, where anything but Tadej Pogačar winning the overall title 21 stages later was going to be a huge surprise. But that is precisely what happened.

An innocuous piece of road on stage 8 is where the Slovenian crashed out of the race, the first Grand Tour he hasn't finished in his career. And it completely changed how the remaining stages and the race for the red jersey would unfold, with an unlikely home winner stepping into the spotlight.

Enric Mas and Movistar finally delivered on the high potential which was bestowed upon him years ago, but after three second places and a third and years of failing to beat Primož Roglič, it was a result for the 31-year-old that seemed like it would never happen. Finally, though, it did.

There are several moments from this race that will be remembered, but so too will the weather, with blistering heat in southern Spain forcing an unprecedented stage shortening in Cordoba, and completely battering much of the peloton as they scrambled to stay cool and hydrated.

With the final Grand Tour of the season behind us, the focus will now turn to the World Championships in Canada for many riders who have raced in Spain, and then the Italian Classics, building into the Autumn and end of the 2026 racing calendar.

Before moving on from the Vuelta, though, here are our six key conclusions from this historic Vuelta a España.

Enric Mas' (and Mikel Landa's) victories finally give Spain and 'traditional' Grand Tour GC countries something to cheer about again

If you wanted an image that summed up the Vuelta a España after Tadej Pogačar was forced to abandon, rather than Enric Mas in red, you could do worse than remember the sight of Mikel Landa ploughing his way up the Collado del Alguacil on Saturday.

That's because, with all due respect to Landa, at 36, his victory was something of a throwback to the previous golden era of Spanish stage cycling. After all, his previous Vuelta stage win in 2015 in Andorra came just a few months after Alberto Contador had claimed Spain's previous Grand Tour in the Giro d'Italia that year. And it was just a year, too, after Contador had won the Vuelta (in which Landa finished 28th), Spain's previous victory in its home Grand Tour to Mas in 2026.

It's true that Mas was once considered the successor to Alberto Contador, and the Spaniard's run of Vuelta podium finishes, ironically enough, only served to remind us of that 'nearly status', as they always kept Movistar in the GC picture, but never in the middle. But Mas turned pro in 2017, with his first big gesture in a Grand Tour helping Contador win his last-ever Vuelta stage on the Angliru. By that point, Landa was an already established figure, with his third place in Contador's 2015 Giro setting him up as the rider who would carry the torch for Spain once Contador had quit.

That historic status means that Landa was (and is) one of the few remaining links to an era which Mas has now provided the strongest reminder of in over a decade. That was the time when Spain, Italy, whose last winner was Vincenzo Nibali in the Giro of 2016, and France, whose last Grand Tour winner was also in the Vuelta, back in 1995, were leading figures in three-week stage racing and when their teams like Liquigas and Movistar were amongst those that counted the most in Grand Tours.

By 2011, Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins with Sky (for whom Landa also raced, and was considered a GC favourite in the Giro) had already set the scene for other countries with less Grand Tour success in their collective palmares to make the running and so - if we all know the outcome - had Lance Armstrong in the noughties for the USA.

But thanks to Contador and Nibali, Spain (and Italy) remained reference points all the same. While Mas' victory is a major reminder of that era, racing for a team like Movistar with an enormous heritage of Grand Tour success, it's Landa who provides one of the last direct historical links.

Looking ahead, quite how long this scenario will last or what the implications are for Spanish cycling in general remains to be seen. Landa will likely have a tough time racing a Grand Tour again, barring a wildcard invitation for Euskaltel-Euskadi in the years to come to the Vuelta or (at a stretch) another Grand Tour.

Mas, at 31, can't be seen as a long-term guarantee of Grand Tour success, although Movistar are hopeful that he will continue at the same level for at least a couple more years, which will allow more young talent (take a bow, Juan Ayuso) to fill the vacuum.

But in the meantime, the success of Landa and Mas matters a great deal. It is hoped that Mas' victory will help generate some much-needed new sponsorship interest in a country which is already at risk of losing one of its flagship ProTeams, Kern Pharma, this winter. It could also help generate or revive much greater interest in the sport across all generations in Spain.

Whatever the long-term consequences, Mas' overall victory is a timely reminder that just because traditional Grand Tour countries like Italy and Spain, have been sleeping giants, they still have a lot to say in three-week stage racing.

France are already pinning their hopes on Paul Seixas to do that in the future, but Mas' success is in the here and now, and in a sport with notoriously short memory. So even if - at 31 - he does prove to be a one-GT wonder, the occasion of a lifetime was there for Mas to seize, and he took it with both hands. Hopefully Spanish cycling in general can benefit big time from its first Grand Tour success in 10 years as a result. (AF)

The Grand Tours battle against climate change continues to hang large over the sport

Gianni Vermeersch told Het Nieuwsblad that the hailstorms of the first week that caused one Vuelta stage to be suspended were easier to handle than the extreme heat of weeks two and three. Regardless of which was worse, both of these phenomena arguably carried the same message.

After a brutally hot Tour de France, the hailstones and rising temperatures day after day in the Vuelta, put the effects of climate change back in the narrative of a Grand Tour, yet again.

The organisers and UCI have taken what measures they can, from cancelling one stage because of the hail to shortening another because of the heat, or being much more flexible about handing over bidons of water. But there will almost certainly come a time when these solutions are insufficient.

You could already argue that these solutions are already proving inadequate. We've reached a point where riders were abandoning the Vuelta because of heat stroke, like Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Arthur Kluckers (Tudor). Entire teams, like Uno-X Mobility, were being told not to get into breakaways and to simply concentrate on surviving. Even two years ago, en route to Seville in extreme heat again, riders expressed their lack of enthusiasm by staging a lengthy go-slow in the first part of the course.

If we have reached the point where riders are opting not to race, you have to ask how is it possible for organisers to justify continuing holding their events in prime-time TV slots in the mid-afternoon. Even if the health question isn't critical (which it should be), at some point viewers will become frustrated that they're not actually watching a race at times, just a procession, and the viewing figures will drop as a result. That in turn could affect the whole sponsorship model of a commercially-driven sport.

The much bigger question, though, is how this will affect riders' health, rather than (in the long-term) their wallets. The consequences of going outside and engaging in full-on exercise at times when the general population is being told to stay indoors and avoid the heat are clearly not positive.

A change of timetable doesn't have to be all year round, either, only in the summer months. And it wouldn't need to be for an entire route, either, only for stages in those most affected by or at risk of hotter weather. But given the way finishes of Grand Tours seem to be happening later and later in the day, the Vuelta was a reminder that the need to review this situation is becoming critical. (AF)

A race without Tadej Pogačar isn't necessarily more compelling, but this one was

Nothing affected this year's Vuelta as much as Tadej Pogačar crashing out on stage 8 while already leading the GC by a huge margin. It completely changed the complexion of how the stages after, and the race for the red jersey, played out on the road to Granada.

With no Pogačar, it meant UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the men's peloton's top team, were reduced to more of a background role, often the first team signing on at the stage starts, and fighting for breakaways to try and win another stage after their great leader had departed. While the likes of Kevin Vermaerke and last year's Vuelta runner-up João Almeida were active throughout, they were unable to take a victory, feeling the presence of a lack of Pogačar almost as much as their competitors.

While no one would wish it on him, with the Slovenian gone, it meant an almost certain race for the podium at a maximum suddenly turned into a race for the overall victory, with Enric Mas inheriting the jersey.

Now the theory for much of the cycling world is not having the sport's best rider immediately means a better race: without him dominating, the level of everyone else should, on paper, be much closer, making for a close fought GC battle and potentially more compelling race for the overall title.

That wasn't strictly how it played out on the road, with Mas – although facing several accelerations from his rivals – never really in trouble after stage 9, when he conquered Alto de Aitana to really earn his place at the top of the standings.

Felix Gall and Decathlon CMA CGM tried, but never really looked like distancing the Spaniard, and while the presence of four-time winner Primož Roglič meant that Mas' victory was not to be called certain until the end of the last mountain stage, the Slovenian never really make significant inroads, only gaining time during the stage 18 time trial. And even on that day, Red Bull were probably hoping to gain a minute more than the 33 seconds they did in Jerez.

While, yes, it was exciting in many ways to see someone new at the top, and a home Spanish rider to electrify the crowd, the racing wasn't necessarily more compelling just because the pre-race favourite wasn't there.

However, where you could massively see the benefits of a race without Pogačar was on stage 20. The crazy breakaway fight that unfolded en route to the Collado del Alguacil, where all of the top riders in the GC had at least three guys up the road as satellite riders, is a day where you easily could've seen UAE Team Emirates-XRG controlling the race for a Pogačar long-range solo.

Did any major GC changes happen to the podium? No, but the way Richard Carapaz approached the finale was some of the most thrilling racing of the season, completely lighting up almost all of the brutal climbs in Andalucia and threatening to undo the work of Mas, Roglič, and Gall to be in the positions they were.

It's hard to imagine a world where that stage plays out again as it did if the Slovenian and his usually all-consuming team were there to "ruin" it. That said, while the previous mountain days to Calar Alto and Peñas Blancas did provide similarly exciting breakaway wins to that of Mikel Landa on stage 20, the lack of GC action in those finales really points to where no Pogačar doesn't equally equal a better GC race to watch.

But again, it's likely he would have won all of the mountain days on offer in the final 13 stages, if not at least half of them, and would this have been such a great edition without the coming-of-age for his compatriot Jakob Omrzel, Eddie Dunbar's emotional comeback victory, and maybe the most popular Grand Tour win in the 2020s with Landa conquering the queen stage after the worst year of his career? The answer is clear on this occasion. (JM)

Matthew Brennan has made a breakthrough to remember

From the times of Miguel Indurain and Tony Rominger all the way through to Tadej Pogačar the Vuelta a España is often seen as the blast-off point for contenders for Grand Tour overall success. But the long line of top fast men and all-rounders who have also made Spain a major milestone prior to heading for greater things in France and Italy in Grand Tours and beyond is also a long one, and the most recent names to do that include Jasper Philipsen, Michael Matthews, Kaden Groves, John Degenkolb and Caleb Ewan.

We can now, very definitely, add Matthew Brennan to that list. His debut Grand Tour netted the Briton a staggering total of five stage victories, at 21, the youngest ever rider to do so in a single three-week stage race.

All of this creates a considerable amount of hype, but perhaps what justifies it the most is not the total number of triumphs in itself but how Brennan won those stages and on what kind of terrain.

One was uphill (stage 2), others pan-flat (stage 11 and 17), others after hard days racing through hilly terrain (stage 5). That he could win this way over three weeks is also hugely encouraging, given he'd never raced so far in his career and on such a variety of terrain. To go the distance in the toughest Vuelta on record only lends even more credibility to his bid to earn a place in the Visma line-up for the Tour de France for 2027.

His versatility further adds to that possible presence at the Edinburgh Grand Départ next July, not his fast finishes in all kinds of terrain. Brennan also proved himself a huge asset in Wout van Aert's stage wins and in the breakaways. He fought a superb two-hander with the Belgian en route to his first Vuelta stage win in Loja, and provided an extra card to play in tricky Classics-style finishes like Granada.

That clear chemistry with Van Aert and Christophe Laporte could prove invaluable in all sorts of scenarios in the Tour, be it fighting for a win or helping Jonas Vingegaard in the more technical finales. And that adaptable approach could be what tips the scales in his favour for next summer. But either way, what Brennan achieved in this year's Vuelta is one hell of a calling card. (AF)

Primož Roglič is still good enough to go with the best, him racing in 2027 would only be a plus for the peloton

Primož Roglič was spotted waving goodbye to several people at the finish of this year's Vuelta a España, so of course, one of the first questions he was asked in his press conference was whether he would ever be coming back to the Vuelta. Within that lies also the question marks over whether he will retire before 2027, or indeed continue his career on a new team, of which no concrete information has really come out as of yet.

Roglič gave an answer in his typical fashion: "Yeah, I mean maybe, you don't know in what kind of condition or shape I come to the Vuelta, just to watch or whatever a place, but we will see. It's still anyway then one year till the next Vuelta where the future will bring us."

So it remains that while the door on his career appears to be nearing closure, it is still ajar and there is a side of him that wants to continue on, in some capacity. But what this Vuelta has confirmed is that it would be a great shame if he were to stop – aside from the humour and humility he brings to the racing, Roglič is still right up there as a Grand Tour contender.

Yes, he wasn't able to overturn Enric Mas' lead and take a record fifth red jersey home, but second place after the preparation he had is quite stunning. Knocked off his bike by a driver in training on July 31, Roglič went 10 days completely off the bike and admitted that he only really took the start because it was in his adopted home of Monaco.

But as the first two weeks unfolded, it became clear that signs of the veteran's best were still in there, and while he lacked the ruthlessness and legs to take multiple stage wins and have a strong hold on the red jersey, he still played a vital role in what developed into a fascinating GC race.

When you consider the injuries he suffered and suboptimal approach into the race, it suggests that Roglič with a clean run-in to his big targets still has the capacity to perform as an elite climber and time triallist, but he will hope with everything that he can avoid another setback.

Losing Roglič to retirement would be a great loss for cycling, and for whatever team he ends up at for 2027, hopefully they can turn his final few Grand Tours into events where we see the former dominant Slovenian delivering a deserved final hurrah on the biggest stage. (JM)

Beware anyone who isn't Belgian, because it looks like Wout van Aert is coming for the World Championship title in Montreal

Wout van Aert has long been a rider for the Grand Tours; he is also an elite one-day Classics racer, but with his versatility and three weeks to apply his talents to the Vuelta a España, we got to see the very best of the Belgian once again in Spain.

Not only did he win two stages, both from all-out brawls in the breakaway, Van Aert also played a key role in delivering Matthew Brennan to his five stage wins on debut as star lead-out rider and in chasing down any attacks that tried to catch out the young Brit.

Van Aert finished in the top 10 of nine stages this edition, and his constant efforts to get in the breakaway saw him win the green jersey, redeeming the disappointment he had suffered two years prior when wearing the exact same jersey and having crashed out of the 2024 Vuelta, but also taking home the supercombativity prize.

It's not to say Van Aert hasn't been impressive in recent Grand Tours, winning incredible stages to Siena at the Giro last year, and dropping Tadej Pogačar to win in Paris at the 2025 Tour de France, but this level of leaving his mark on almost every day throughout the race is a return the Van Aert of old between 2020 and 2023.

And it's come at the perfect time with the World Championships just around the corner. With this type of form and set to join up with Remco Evenepoel on a star-studded Belgium team, rivals of Van Aert should be worried.

Not only was he riding well in the sprints, but Van Aert delivered another epic ride from the breakaway on stage 20 to almost chase down Santiago Buitrago in the Kind of the Mountains classification, but mostly help Sepp Kuss jump from 11th to 5th overall as Visma pulled off an elite raid.

September 27 will bring his first appearance at the Worlds road race since 2023, where he was second behind Mathieu van der Poel. With an ominous showing of form and the liberation of his Paris-Roubaix win earlier in the season, it looks like the best chance for Van Aert to try and claim the rainbow jersey he has long wanted and several times already come close to capturing. (JM)

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The 2026 Road World Championships are nearly upon us, and before we crown another round of world champions and rainbow jerseys, the Cyclingnews team has been reflecting on the Worlds moments we just can't get out of our heads.

From surprise winners to shocking twists, there have been innumerable unforgettable moments at the World Championships over the decades. Rainbow jersey races are always something, where absolutely anything can – and will – happen, and just because the winner is always the strongest rider on the day, that doesn't mean that these races are ever predictable or straightforward. Far from it, in fact.

Between the team, we've been to countless World Championships over the years, be it reporting as journalists or watching as fans, and we all have moments that we hold dear, for different reasons – some moments are emotional, some are exhilarating, and some are just cold and wet.

Ranging from the 1980s to the 2020s, here are our picks for some of our most memorable World Championships moments over the year.

Lizzie Deignan's rainbow jersey sprint in Richmond

Back in the heady days of 2015, I was only 17 and still very much a fan that was wrapped up in the British cycling fever, and I've written before about how Lizzie Deignan and Geraint Thomas were the most important people in getting me into cycling.

Only a year or two into watching cycling properly, I didn't really know much about the World Championships going into 2015, except that they were – obviously – really important. I had no idea of Team GB's history at Worlds, Project Cavendish from 2010, Nicole Cooke's victory in 2009, nothing. I just knew I was looking out for GB jerseys, and I wanted Lizzie Deignan to win.

I don't remember the full race in all that much detail, but the final few hundred metres are seared into my memory as one of the most thrilling and exciting races I'd seen at that moment in time. Deignan came around the sprinting orange figure of Anna van der Breggen early, possibly too early, and when the camera switched to the head-on angle, it felt like the win would never come. The seconds felt like hours, honestly, so hard was I willing Lizzie to hold Anna off, and even when they crossed the line you couldn't quite tell who had won.

But then, Lizzie had her hand clasped over her mouth in a now-iconic image of shock and disbelief at the fact she had just won world champion, and I was as thrilled and elated as she was. My favourite rider had just pulled off a huge win in a nailbiting finish, and got to pull on the rainbow jersey in Richmond that afternoon. It was a dream come true for her, and honestly, a bit of a dream for me too.

Cadel Evans' attempted defence at his home 2010 World Championships

There is nothing like a home World Championships, particularly one where the host nation has a defending elite champion, just like Canada does in Magdeleine Vallieres this year. That's a situation Australia faced back in 2010, after Cadel Evans managed to carve out his name as the first Australian winner of the elite road race title in Mendrisio a year earlier.

At that time, I wasn't working in cycling but was just an avid fan who had actually been drawn into road cycling via an interest in the off-road disciplines, with Evans' crossover from mountain biking to the road no small contributor to that process. That made a pilgrimage roadside to Geelong – only a couple of hours away from home – to watch the racing unfold a no-brainer. Our extended family group, including my young children and nephews, trekked up Challambra Crescent, with the help of prams and piggy backs, so we could absorb the excitement of the race as it unfolded on that short but sharp climb that delivered a pivotal point on the finishing circuit.

As a result we got to witness an incredibly spirited defense by Evans, with the roaring crowd delivering an electric atmosphere as he once again gritted his teeth and set off in pursuit of a charging Philippe Gilbert on the ascent near the end of the race. It was not a moment that resulted in a win, for either, but it is still is happily burnt into the memory as one of my favourite experiences as a spectator. The sheer scale and intensity of that collective excitement and anticipation is something rarely associated with a sport that usually lives in the shadows in Australia and it helped feed and consolidate a growing passion for the sport.

So, regardless of the outcome of the racing in Montréal, now I'm hoping that the Canadians roadside as Vallieres launches her defence get to experience their own World Championships moment that will end up seared into memory.

Abraham Olano punctures but hangs on for 1995 title

Hosted at the highest ever altitude (2,500 metres above sea level) and mostly in a torrential rain storm, the 1995 World Championships men's road race in Colombia was one of the hardest in history, with just 20 finishers. The crunch moment came when Abraham Olano jumped away late on for Spain, whilst Miguel Indurain, clearly the strongest rider present, and Fernando Escartin kept the opposition under control behind.

However, there was a colossal twist in the tail when Olano punctured late on and, not having enough of a margin to stop, continued on a totally deflated back wheel for nearly two kilometres. He made it to the finish line upright, but it was touch and go all the way.

Olano's victory, despite being so hard-earned, sparked uproar in Spain because it was considered by many non-cycling fans that Indurain, a five-time Tour de France winner and the big favourite for Spain, should have gone for the win. But in fact the Spanish national squad pulled off a strategic masterpiece, and the way Indurain punched the air to celebrate Olano's win when he crossed the line for silver amply confirmed Indurain's delight at a teammate's victory.

Mathieu van der Poel's crash in Glasgow 2023

The World Championships road race in Glasgow was the last race I went to before starting my job with Cyclingnews, still viewing it through the eyes of a fan instead of a journalist. Setting up in the early morning on Montrose Street in Glasgow with my Dad, we watched the opening half of the race hunched over my phone, power banks and sustenance for the day at the ready, before enjoying 10 laps of criterium racing heaven on one of the hardest parts of the course.

As the top riders in the world came to the fore, nothing stuck with me as much as the moment when eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel crashed, having dropped Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert, and Mads Pedersen to go solo. We'd been standing on the roadside between a set of Belgian fans and Danish fans, who both cheered when the Dutchman came down in the rain, having almost lost faith when their respective heroes were unable to match him.

Watching this all unfold on a time lag, 5G stream, meant that when Van der Poel came around the corner at the foot of Montrose Street, skinsuit ripped, shoe broken, and met by a roar of the Scottish faithful, many were expecting the chasers to be right on his tail. But the expectation soon turned to a collective groan around us as the Belgian's realised the Dutchman had enough in the bank to still win solo, capturing the rainbow jersey after an epic race that I won't forget being there to see.

A 19-year-old Marianne Vos wins in Salzburg

It is so, so, so hard to choose one World Championships victory because so many have evoked emotion, sparked inspiration, and led to endless storytelling during my career in sports journalism.

I've been lucky enough to watch and report in person on a handful of road World Championships from Hamilton in 2003, Salzburg in 2006, Richmond in 2015, Innsbruck in 2018, Yorkshire in 2019, and Kigali in 2025.

However, I have to choose 2006 because it was an important year for women's pro racing, marking the start of Marianne Vos' elite road racing career with her victory at the Salzburg World Championships, where she beat Trixi Worrack and Nicole Cooke.

Still a teenager, she had already won the elite cyclo-cross world title earlier that year, and it was clear she was the future of the sport. Her win in Salzburg ignited a career that embodied nearly everything cycling has to offer.

And so, 14 multi-discipline World Championship titles later, Vos has taken us all on a two-decade-long journey that showcases herself as an extraordinary athlete, fierce competitor, and adaptable and humble leader, and figurehead for progress and change, who is now widely regarded as the greatest cyclist of all time.

The second of Julian Alaphilippe's two wins

Julian Alaphilippe’s second World Championship victory is my most memorable Worlds moment.

When I think of Alaphilippe’s win back in 2021, the word that springs to mind is 'brave'. The Frenchman produced a fearless title defence in Leuven. Racing with number 1 on his back, his multiple searing attacks had fans on the edge of their seats and resulted in a popular solo victory.

Alaphilippe began attacking with just under 50 kilometres to go and simply refused to admit defeat. In the final kilometres, the gap to the chasers hung in the balance for a while, a mere handful of seconds, before the elastic finally snapped and the gap went out.

More victories followed, but apart from a Giro stage in 2024, it was Alaphilippe’s last major win. His efforts represented something of a changing of the guard; it was a win for cotton cycling socks, two-piece handlebars and stems, and he-who-dares, attacking panache.

Lotte Kopecky's super win at the Super Worlds

Lotte Kopecky’s first World Championships win in the 2023 Glasgow 'Super Worlds’ was peak Kopecky.

In her second season with SD Worx, she was winning regularly for the first time in her career, a second Tour of Flanders and five days in the Tour de France Femmes yellow jersey after winning the opening stage the highlights. She eventually finished second overall in France and there was plenty more success.

With rainbow jerseys in the Elimination and Points races already neatly packed away, confidence was high when she took the start at Loch Lomond, and she rode like the rider she was: the best in the world. Already at the front of the race, her race winning move on the fearsomely steep Montrose Street was devastating.

I was working elsewhere in the sport, a company outing placing me on the barrier on the finish line, and I’ll never forget the emotion from Kopecky and the crowd. It was overwhelming.

Nils Eekhoff and the world title that never was

There was something in the air at the 2019 Worlds in Yorkshire. It was pure drama from start to finish. We had Johan Price-Pejtersen splashing into a puddle of water so deep it fully submerged him. We had a Colombian junior crying at the roadside after mechanical support drove past him. We had Rohan Dennis coming back after his Tour de France walk-out and winning the TT on a blacked-out bike. We had Annemiek van Vleuten deciding to do basically the whole road race solo. And we had Mathieu van der Poel bonking out of a winning hand.

But what sticks out most vividly in my mind is Nils Eekhoff and the world title that never was. The Dutchman thought he’d won the U23 road race, only to be later informed that he was being disqualified for drafting hours earlier.

Reporting on this was chaos, as we tried to make sense of what was happening. The podium ceremony was delayed, UCI officials criss-crossed the mixed zone, and Tom Pidcock, who finished fourth, was still hanging around for reasons that eventually became clear. I remember Pidcock going over to remonstrate with an angry Dutch fan who was looking for someone to blame and was shouting ‘F*** you, Pidcock!’. I then skipped the press conference and ran to the Dutch team’s hotel, where the press officer agreed to bring Eekhoff down for an interview with myself and two other journalists. He sat there in tears and quietly explained the confusion and devastation he was feeling.

I don’t want this whole entry to sound like I enjoy watching young people cry, but it was quite something to witness that raw unfiltered emotion from a metre away, and to try and convey it. It was a good get journalistically, and it was a reminder of just how much the Worlds mean and how much they matter to these youngsters who dream of becoming professional cyclists.

Greg LeMond brings the jersey home to the US in 1989

Greg LeMond's 1989 World Championships victory should never have happened. He had been shot two years earlier, and was still carrying around lead pellets in his body even as he defeated Laurent Fignon in the final time trial to win the Tour de France by eight seconds. It was one of the most incredible comebacks in sporting history, and one that pushed cycling technology into the future.

In a stormy Worlds road race in Chambéry, Fignon looked as if he'd exact revenge, darting away on the final climb - but LeMond waited and then surged up to the Frenchman, who attacked again, only for LeMond to shut it down. The race came down to a sprint LeMond should never have won against the likes of Sean Kelly, but LeMond started the sprint from the front and with a much bigger gear, the American held everyone off to celebrate his second rainbow jersey. Again, his choice of equipment - the first carbon fibre frame and a huge gear - along with his talent proved to be the winning element.

An honorable mention: Matej Mohoric's no-brakes descent in Florence to win the U23 road race.

The 2019 finish line freeze

My first World Championships for Cyclingnews and a home Worlds no less, I was in Harrogate on tech duty, and I headed to the finish line as the elite men's road race came to a close. I wasn't the only one surprised by Mads Pedersen's win, but impressive as that was, it's not what sticks in my mind. The memorable moment for me was seeing some of the world's best athletes absolutely cracked by the British weather; dozens of riders with barely any body fat, shivering at the roadside, no doubt questioning their career choice.

The above photo of Matteo Trentin's thousand-yard stare lives in my mind – and my camera roll – rent free. As does the look of helplessness as Chad Haga looked to me – or anyone – for assistance as his frozen fingers couldn't operate the zipper on his wet-through rain jacket.

That race has gone down as one of the most brutal World Champs in recent history, and I got to witness it first-hand.

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He was famously on the wrong end of one in the Tour de France six years ago, but there was to be no final twist for Primož Roglič on the final mountain stage of this year's Vuelta a España. Even for the four-time winner, Enric Mas and Movistar's lead of 1:37 was just too much to overhaul, and away from his best form, the Slovenian's last real attempt to try and snatch the jersey at the last actually came a day earlier, when he tried, and failed, to distance Mas in the final 2km to Peñas Blancas.

A raid was what was needed, and while stage 20 provided the perfect route to do it, with ideal chaotic conditions developing on the road towards Collado del Alguacil on Saturday, as his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates stepped up, Roglič could not turn this one around.

In fact, he couldn't even attack Mas on the final ascent, watching the red jersey that's been on his shoulders at the finale of the Vuelta more times than it hasn't, ride away one last time. There was no complex answer, though, he simply didn't have it.

With 1:37 to make up on his long-term Spanish rival, Roglič made it to the Collado del Alguacil summit finish after an epic day of racing with the GC favourites, but when Mas' final teammate Pablo Castillo pulled off, and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) attacked, it was only the red jersey who went with him.

Eventually losing a minute to the Austrian at the line, Roglič did hold onto his position in second, but only saw his deficit to Mas extended, looking set to finish tomorrow's Granada finale with a gap of 2:15. It's been a top performance, especially considering that on July 31, he was struck by a driver in training and forced to miss most of his preparation.

A day of complete chaos

When stage designers for cycling's Grand Tours come together to design the most cruel routes, stage 20 is an ideal example of the kind of thing they are looking for. Just under 5,000 metres of elevation gain, a double ascent of an 8km at 8% brute, and a final ascent up an, until today, unused road in professional racing are the factors which would be ideal to check off, and Saturday's route had them all.

While they can guarantee suffering in difficulty, what they can't ensure is that the racing will match the epic prospect of a full day in the mountains. With Sierra Nevada as its host, madness of some sort was what everyone was expecting to unfold on the 186.8km road from La Calahorra, and that's exactly what the organisers got.

Crosswinds with 175km to go saw racing threatened to open up, allowing a 12-rider move to join the two early escapees and form a solid breakaway, led by six riders from Uno-X Mobility in search of the stage win.

However, Roglič's Red Bull had two riders in the group, Finn Fisher-Black and Gianni Vermeersch, prompting a response from Movistar, with Ivan Romeo getting on the charge. What he wouldn't have expected was more than 50 riders joining him in this first chasing group on the road, leaving all the big GC names with satellite riders up the road, opening the door to raids.

When the favourites reached the first of the four major climbs, Puerto de el Purche, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) decided to light things up, attacking across to Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and trying to anticipate. Gall chased them down by exhausting all of his remaining teammates who weren't in the break, with only Roglič and Mas also in the wheel.

As satellite rider after satellite rider dropped back, the balance swung in favour of Decathlon, with Sander De Pestel doing top work for Gall, Movistar, as Raul Garcia Pierna and Ivan Romeo were caught and put to work, and Red Bull, as Callum Thornley and Vermeersch were reached. With no one obviously in a better position, the chaos continued to the final ascent.

Collado del Alguacil reared its ugly head, and it was Fisher-Black who put in an impressive final turn for Roglič – his team had delivered; all he had to hope for was the legs to try and put Mas behind. But they weren't there, and instead, Mas' final satellite, Pablo Castrillo, got on the front and started to set a strong tempo.

Roglič had already looked like he was struggling at times on the penultimate ascent to Puerto el Duque, and those feelings were confirmed as Gall attacked, as mentioned, and Mas moved away from the rival who has long been doing the same thing to him at Vueltas a España gone by.

Masterful Movistar 

When an emotional Mas spoke at the finish and tried to take in all that he had just done – should he finish tomorrow's punchy day in Granada – it was rightly the team whom he thanked most.

While he has been the figurehead of a career-defining performance that looked like it would never come, as he passed what was assumed to be his peak and saw three runner-up finishes but no victory at the Vuelta added to his palmarès over the years, Mas was guided to each of the last mountain stages by a mountain of tactically astute work from his teammates.

"To be honest, I was counting the kilometres down, and my feeling was super, so the team did again, super good job," said Mas. "If I won, it's because of the team; they did everything for me, so thank you."

The reality is that from the moment he responded to and caught Tadej Pogačar on stage 6, exciting everyone to a version of Mas unseen for years, the Spanish rider confirmed he had rediscovered that former best.

As he inherited the jersey and respected the Slovenian, who crashed out, by not wearing it on the podium of stage 8, Mas went on to only earn it more and more, conquering the Alto de Aitana a day later and going on – alongside some incredible team performances – to extend his lead at every opportunity, except the time trial.

His whole team have been vital to pulling this off, Spain's first male winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014, but the performances of Garcia Pierna, Castrillo, and Romeo in particular have been out of this world when it comes to domestique work.

The race itself felt like it was transported back to 2019 on stage 20, as Spanish compatriot Mikel Landa scorched up the road to take a legendary breakaway win, but also as Mas moved towards his first WorldTour GC title since the Tour of Guangxi from that very season.

12 years, Spain waited in the dark for a new star to step up – perhaps when everyone least expected it, and when one of their nearly men seemed to have run his last great races – as Thrombophlebitis (a varicose vein) forced him to cancel his season and miss the Vuelta just over a year ago, Mas has emerged as the unlikely winner of the 2026 Vuelta a España. A historic edition that will long be remembered for several things: Pogačar's shell-shocking crash, Matthew Brennan's five stage wins on debut, but also as the year of Enric Mas.

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23-0. After beating Enric Mas by 33 seconds in the Jerez de la Frontera time trial in the Vuelta a España, Primož Roglič remains undefeated against the Spaniard against the clock, and has now surpassed the Movistar man in a TT on no fewer than 23 consecutive occasions.

Unfortunately for Roglič, though, as impressive as this total sounds (and is), he knows perfectly well that this latest boost to his track record against Mas is essentially irrelevant, a soon-to-be-forgotten footnote in the bigger Vuelta history.

That's because win or lose in Jerez, the Vuelta's stage 18 individual time trial was never about a 16th stage victory for Roglič, or even his position in the stage ranking: rather it was all about gaining as much time as possible on Mas.

Roglič sought to either rattle the Spaniard's morale so severely he might fall apart in the two stages to come, or at best, move into the red jersey and force the Movistar man to fight to get back on terms.

None of this happened. Instead of a predicted 90 seconds, Roglič could only manage a 33-second advantage on Mas. With only three stages left, the Vuelta's GC battle is all but over in favour of Mas.

If history was anything to go by, the stage 18 time trial had everything Roglič needed for one of his famous last-minute rises to victory to begin. After all, in the 2023 Giro d'Italia, Rogličs's triumph over Geraint Thomas came thanks to a stunning third-week uphill TT victory against the Briton, overcoming even a mechanical issue mid-climb to clinch his only Grand Tour victory to date outside the Vuelta a España.

And in Spain, he began his pathway to his first Vuelta triumph in 2019 with a knockout victory in the race's sole time trial in Pau against another Movistar race leader, Nairo Quintana.

But credit where credit is due, Roglič's time trial was anything but poor on Thursday. Mas delivered the time trial of his life to keep well within touch of the Slovenian and simultaneously slam the door shut on all those stories about his potential to crumble under pressure.

It seemingly didn't matter that Mas has virtually no experience of leading a stage race - he's only done it twice since turning pro - let alone one of the calibre of the Vuelta. But rather than things falling apart, like they did when he punctured while leading the 2021 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in the final kilometre of the final TT - coincidentally also won by Stefan Küng - in Jerez de la Frontera, there were no such mishaps or faltering at the last fence.

In addition to keeping Roglič on a short leash, Mas also put nearly a minute into Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), possibly the more dangerous climber of the two. Put it all together, and the road to overall victory in the Vuelta a España could hardly be clearer.

In every summit finish stage since Tadej Pogačar was forced to abandon, and even one day in the mountains before that on the Puerto de El Bartolo stage, Mas has proved superior to all his remaining rivals. It therefore seems highly unlikely that even if he only has a 1:37 advantage on Roglič, the tables can turn so dramatically in the last two crunch stages before the finish in Granada on Sunday.

"You can never have enough time on rivals as dangerous as Roglič, Gall, or Carapaz," Mas said after his time trial. In a Grand Tour like the Vuelta, third-week ambushes and last-minute changes of fortune are always possible, as race leader Tom Dumoulin found out in 2015 thanks to Fabio Aru or as Joaquim Rodríguez discovered in 2012 at the hands of Alberto Contador.

However, Aru's success in 2015 in the sierras of Madrid and Contador's triumph in 2012 in Fuente De were as dependent on strong teamwork, at least to get the ball rolling, as they were on individual audacity once the groundwork had been laid.

If Mas' time-trialling ability and newfound aggression in the high mountains have been a remarkable discovery of the 2026 Vuelta, Movistar's domination and coordinated teamwork defending his top spot overall is another. At the very least, it harkens back to the years when Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde were fighting for the Vuelta.

For Spain, their first Grand Tour win since Alberto Contador won the Giro d'Italia and for their home WorldTour team, too, is now very much on the table.

It goes without saying this isn't the same scenario as when Tadej Pogačar, the arch-favourite, was sweeping all before him before his untimely exit on stage 8 of the race. But for the first time in this year's Vuelta since then, we're in a Pogačar-like situation of one overwhelmingly likely outcome in the GC battle, and virtually no reasons to argue the opposite.

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When was the last time a new bike launched with less tyre clearance than its predecessor? That's one of today's headlines with the launch of the new Enve Melee.

Previously a race bike for the masses, with a focus on versatility, clearance for 35mm rubber and a reasonably relaxed geometry, the updated Melee v2 is a complete shift in mindset for the American brand, one that signals a clear intent to sponsor a WorldTour team.

Enve says it focused on improving "the two things that matter most in modern road racing – weight and aerodynamics."

So it's not all in on aero at the expense of other things like weight, and you'd still call it an aero all-rounder, but it's definitely spent more than a token few minutes in the wind tunnel during its development.

In fact, the shape of the tubes put me in mind of the last two Specialized Tarmacs, with deep sections up front for aero, and skinny tubes out back for weight.

That shrunken maximum tyre clearance is now 33 mm, so still in line with many of its go-faster competitors, and Enve's claim that a 56cm SRAM Red model will hit 6.8kg seems legit, since our test bike was exactly that model and size in the Ultralight Black colourway, and weighed just 6.73kg.

But what about Enve's other claims of 'benchmark-setting aerodynamics'? Well, this is Cyclingnews, so you can bet we've had it in the wind tunnel, so let's find out.

The protocol

To make the comparisons as fair and accurate as possible, we followed the same protocols used in all of our other road bike wind tunnel tests.

These are best explained in our aero bike shootout in 2025, for those who want to understand it in full. Here, though, I'll outline the topline points.

We test every bike in three ways:

1. Bike only:

Firstly, we test the bike on its own, with its stock wheelset. We swap the front tyre so that every bike is tested with the same tyre, and we ensure bikes are set up in the same position, with the same saddle, no pedals, and the same two bottles.

This lets us compare each bike against the others with maximum accuracy, offering a really good comparison of how the bike interacts with the airflow before we introduce the movement of pedalling legs.

2. With a rider:

Since no bike is ever ridden without a cyclist, we then put a cyclist (me) onto the bike.

This lets us see how aero the bike is under a more realistic set of conditions, with the movement of the pedalling legs and the interaction therein, as well as with the airflow moving past the handlebars and onto the rider's body.

This is more realistic, but less accurate. The error margin was 3.7 watts on the day of testing the Melee, which is greater than the difference between some bikes, so we always ensure to test in both ways to help our readers make fair comparisons.

3. Bike only, control wheels

We then fit a 'control' wheelset to the bike and re-test it without a rider. This lets us compare the aero credentials of the frame, fork, cockpit and so on, rather than letting the results be skewed by the wheels that come with each of the bikes.

Some aerodynamic frames are sold with really 'slow' wheels, which many riders might then choose to upgrade. Whereas some slow frames are sold with 'fast' wheels. Understanding this helps our readers make better buying decisions, especially when coupled with our separate wind tunnel road bike wheel tests.

As a bonus, this test also allows us to understand how each bike's stock wheelset compares to the others by comparing their respective differences to the control wheelset.

Each of the above three tests is made up of seven different sub-tests, whereby we measure at seven different wind angles, technically known as 'Yaw Angles'. These are -15°, -10°, -5°, 0°, 5°, 10° and 15°. See my wonderfully curated gif below if you're confused.

For every test, the wind is blown at 40km/h (a smidge shy of 25mph). We measure for 10 seconds for the bike-only tests, and 30 seconds for the rider-on-bike tests.

We normalise everything else as closely to the real-world application of each bike as possible, within sensible reason. That means the fit of each bike is set up the same, with the same front tyre, and we always put the bike in the same gear.

We also ensure that all bikes are tested with two bottle cages, and we use the same Elite Vico cages with Elite Fly bottles. However, if a bike comes with aero cages and/or aero bottles, we use them.

My reason for this is that if you buy a bike that comes with aero cages, you're unlikely to remove them in favour of less aero cages. We have done a separate test comparing standard round bottles and traditional cages versus aero bottles to understand the differences.

So if you are planning to swap to round bottles, that piece should help you understand how much there is to be gained or lost.

And most importantly, every time we go to the wind tunnel, we start and end the day by testing an old Trek Emonda ALR – my old winter training bike – as a 'baseline' to compare against. This bike remains completely unchanged between tests, and thus lets us make fair comparisons between the new bikes tested on different days, even if the ambient conditions change.

The results

Bike only

It's a pretty impressive start for Enve, with the 2026 Melee tracking pretty close to the fastest bike we've ever tested, the Factor One.

By the way the line is almost 'seagull'-shaped, rather than V-shaped, we can see how the bike utilises the sail effect to harness the wind as it comes from wider angles, rather than simply adding drag.

Once we've processed that raw data and then compared it to the drag of the baseline bike, we can see that the new Melee is 36.56 watts more aerodynamically efficient. That puts it in the ballpark of some dedicated aero bikes and ahead of a lot of its aero-all-rounder competition.

Given the Melee tipped our scales at 6.73kg (with no pedals, two empty cages), that's pretty impressive. However, when you add a rider into the mix, things get even more impressive.

With rider

This is a really impressive-looking performance for Enve. The way the graph tracks closely to the Factor One but then dips when it gets to the wider yaw angles of +/ -15°, shows a bike that is really able to harness the wind, even with a rider on the bike.

However, It's important to remember that we are comparing against the Trek Emonda on each given day of testing, and as we can see in the graph above, the testing conditions in 2026 were slightly faster than in 2025. This could be due to the air pressure or the temperature on each testing day, or simply due to fluctuations in my weight.

So even though the Enve's raw CdA figures are slightly lower than the Factor's, when we compare against the baseline bike on the respective testing days, the Factor still comes out marginally better, as we will see below.

A genuinely impressive performance here for Enve, coming in at 25.91W better than our baseline Trek Emonda. That's just 1.66 watts slower than the Cervélo S5, which edged ahead of the Factor to become the fastest of all time, after we apply the appropriate weightings and average out the seven yaw angles.

With our error margin taken into account, the Melee can even lay claim to victory, but given it weighs around a kilogram lighter than the two dedicated aero machines ahead of it, Enve will be calling this a win even without that technicality.

Control wheels

Given our 'control' wheels are a pair of Enve SES 4.5s, and the 2026 Melee comes with a pair of the newer Enve wheels (which haven't yet been released, but have been all over our TV screens all summer underneath Tadej Pogačar), it's no surprise to see the bike get slower when we swapped them over.

I've left the result of the newer stock wheel in the graph to make for easier comparisons, but the biggest takeaway is that they are both faster across all wind angles, and that they start to sail between 10 and 15°.

Comparing all of the bikes we've tested with the control wheel against the baseline bike, the top of the table is a who's who of dedicated aero machines, transitioning down to the aero-all-rounders.

The Factor One still wins out, followed closely by the Incolor SSR (a new bike to the list, which we'll be doing a deeper dive into in a few weeks).

The 2026 Melee sits mid-table, which might seem like an average result, but for a sub-6.8 kg bike to hold its own against some dedicated aero bikes like the Cube Litening Aero and Felt Nexar is a strong showing. And it's nigh-on seven watts better than its predecessor, just from the frame, fork and cockpit (remember, this is with the same wheelset).

To reiterate the point made earlier, it's hardly surprising that the new Enve wheels that come with the bike are faster than the older Enve wheels that we use as our 'control', but to put a number on 'how much faster', the graph above compares the two bike-only tests.

It shows a 2.68w deficit. Only beaten by the Vision Metron wheels on the Felt Nexar and the Scope Artech 6 wheels on the latest Look Blade 795 RS.

The conclusions

Enve says the Melee is "engineered for riders who demand the absolute best in lightweight performance and speed," and that it "builds on the foundation" of the original, versatile Melee, to "deliver a truly world-class, benchmark WorldTour-level race bike."

That's obviously marketing speak 101, but based on our data, it's not far-fetched to conclude – or at least believe – that Enve has achieved what it set out to achieve.

The Melee v2 not only sits third in our with-rider leaderboard, but it does so while also tipping the scales at under 6.8kg. The bike only tests push it a little further down the order, but still within the error margin of true go-fast bikes like the Y1Rs and the S5.

It's a very strong showing for the brand, especially for its second-ever road bike (ignoring the Fray all-road bike).

The only unanswered question that remains is which WorldTour team the brand is hoping to work with. Its deal with the not-actually-WorldTour Team TotalEnergies ended a couple of years ago, so Enve's foray into the pro peloton was a short-lived one, but this launch is a clear signal of its intent to return.

With both Merida and Factor missing from the WorldTour too, competition looks fierce for the few teams not locked into long-term partnerships.

We are all used to professional road cycling, where marginal gains still mean shaving grams, chasing aero numbers in a wind tunnel, and hoping a new skinsuit saves half a watt. Don't get me wrong, as a lifelong bike nerd, I love all the latest WorldTour tech, but for me there's another branch of bike racing that trumps it.

If you want to see real bike tech, where cycling actually starts to resemble a motorsport paddock with things like tuned mass dampers, data acquisition rigs, chassis compliance, advanced suspension and more, you really need to check out the gravity disciplines in mountain bike racing.

Downhill, since its roots in the mid '90s, has always been a hotbed of innovation. Many of the things we take for granted on modern mountain bikes, like disc brakes, full suspension and progressive geometry, all started in the pursuit of speed down a hillside.

The tracks are three to five minutes of controlled violence over rock gardens, roots, and braking bumps that would shake a normal bike and rider to pieces. To survive that, let alone win it, teams have to optimise bikes to not only be fast, tuned to the trail, and adaptable to rider preferences, but also make it to the bottom of the hill in one piece.

This has created an atmosphere of constant development and testing, with a broader scope for improvement than in the WorldTour, much like motorsports.

Now, granted, the amount of money a cycling team has to spend is pennies compared to their Formula 1 cousins, but that has only furthered the innovation, as teams, mechanics, and engineers have relied on ingenuity and clever solutions to tricky technical problems.

Weight in the wrong place, on purpose

Santa Cruz Syndicate are one of the leading teams in modern downhill, with all of their riders in the top 5 at the recent Val Di Sole World Championships, and lead rider Jackson Goldstone grabbed his second rainbow jersey too.

I was lucky enough to be shown around their team truck by team manager Rob Copeland to see how they optimise their V10 bikes for race weekend.

Start with something that sounds like it shouldn't work: adding weight to make a bike faster. In the WorldTour, mass has long been the enemy of speed. Riders and teams go to extraordinary lengths and spend a lot to drop a few grams. In downhill, some of the world's fastest riders do the opposite, deliberately adding weight to their bikes.

The Syndicate team has three different ways to add weight, all in and around the bottom bracket area. By positioning the mass low and central, suspended between the axles, it gives the bike a "planted" feeling under load. That's not an accident of language, it's the same principle a chassis engineer uses when deciding where to hang a fuel tank or battery pack in a race car.

The aim is to keep mass as close to the centre of the wheelbase as possible, keep the polar moment of inertia low, and keep handling calm and predictable.

It's in how you add weight that shows the level of development at the top of the MTB World Cup scene. Some teams simply stick adhesive-backed lead weights to the downtube, but they have much neater options. The first is by G-Project and mounts inside the 24mm axle of the Shimano Saint crank axle, a neat system designed and made by team mechanic Gio.

The second option is a custom-machined box that mounts around the BB shell and lets mechanics adjust the ballast based on feel and data from repeated track runs. And for riders like Goldstone who want even more, they use a simple Peatys Holdwrap, meant to store tools and spares on a normal bike, but its super-secure wide Velcro strap makes it work perfectly here too.

Downhill bikes also have a mind-boggling range of frame adjustments, which, depending on the rider, can be changed drastically for each track. Things like wheelbase, head angle, reach and bottom bracket heights can be tweaked accordingly, but that's only half the story. They can also make pretty drastic changes to suspension feel by moving the rear shock or linkage attached to it, adjusting the main pivot location or even adding a floating arm for the rear brake, which can change the bike's kinematics and let the mechanics and riders play around with things like the amount of travel, shock progression and even things like anti-squat and anti-rise or brake jack.

Data acquisition, not guesswork

How do they know whether their suspension and frame geometry setups are working? Like Formula 1, they look at data from bike-mounted systems that record suspension and braking movements, plus GPS, so they can see what the bike is doing on the track. I had a good chat with the Santa Cruz Syndicate mechanic, Gio, who not only makes the axle-based weights shown above, but also has a background in MotoGP and is an expert in data acquisition.

Some riders like to go on feel and validate with the data, whereas others like to follow it more closely. Either way, it's an important area for the team and one they put a lot of effort into.

This also has a big impact on suspension set-up, which, alongside the wide range of frame adjustments, also has a huge range of options. Riders and mechanics can tune things like spring rate, high- and low-speed compression and rebound damping, and for some teams even electronically-controlled damping. Not a lockout like you'd find on the XC circuit, since theres no climbing here, but different modes to make sure the rider has the optimum setup at different points on the track.

For a downhill bike, this matters because the margins are brutal and the conditions change constantly. A track that's tacky and grippy during Saturday practice can be dry, dusty and skittish by Sunday's final run. A suspension setup that felt perfect twelve hours earlier can work against the rider by race time.

Data acquisition turns that guesswork into an engineering problem: mechanics can see, objectively, whether the fork is using its last 20mm of travel on the biggest hits of a track, whether the shock is packing down over repeated braking bumps, or whether a rider is consistently under-using travel because the spring rate is too firm for the terrain. It's the difference between tuning by feel and tuning by evidence, and it's precisely the discipline F1 teams apply to ride-height and damper mapping.

Brands like RockShox, Fox, and Ohlins invest a lot of time and money in top-tier suspension and have their own mechanics and workshops on site at every race to make sure everything's running optimally.

They also hold multiple off-season meetings and test sessions, like the best motorsport teams do, to test new designs and get feedback from riders and mechanics alike to help design new products. That not only benefits teams like the Santa Cruz Syndicate but also trickles down to riders like you and me.

Tuned mass dampers: Borrowed physics, different frequency

If one piece of technology captures the F1 comparison most directly, it's the tuned mass damper, and the Commencal Muc-Off team has been at the forefront of adopting it.

Commencal riders Amaury Pierron and Myriam Nicole have run TMD units on their Supreme DH bikes for a couple of seasons now, most visibly units developed under the CounterShox/CounterCycle programme, mounted to reduce vibration and keep the tyre in more consistent contact with the ground.

The concept is a direct import from motorsport. Renault's Formula 1 team famously ran a tuned mass damper in 2005–06; a spring-mounted weight tucked in the nose of the car that oscillated out of phase with chassis movement to damp pitch and improve mechanical grip over kerbs and bumps, until the FIA banned it in 2006, ruling it a moveable aerodynamic device.

The underlying physics is straightforward: a mass mounted on a spring and damper absorbs energy at a specific resonant frequency, cancelling unwanted vibration in the main structure rather than letting it transmit through to the rest of the system.

Where it gets interesting is the difference in application. F1's mass damper was tuned to a narrow, specific frequency band, specifically the pitch and heave frequencies of a car's chassis under load, a relatively predictable and repeatable set of inputs given a smooth and repeatable circuit surface.

A downhill bike doesn't get that luxury. A rider is being hit with an enormous spread of vibration frequencies simultaneously. High-frequency chatter off small roots and rock, mid-frequency braking bumps, and massive compressions through berms and jumps often happen within the same second, on terrain that never repeats exactly the same way twice.

So the units teams like Commencal Muc-Off are running have to be tuned to work across a much broader frequency range than their motorsport ancestor, sacrificing some of the pinpoint efficiency of an F1 damper (tuned to one dominant frequency) for a system that takes the edge off a wider, messier spread of inputs.

It would be easy to write it off as a placebo for riders, but everyone I spoke to said riders could tell the difference in blind off-season testing, so they’ve stuck with it.

Frame compliance as a tuning variable

Another piece of this puzzle is one road cycling flirts with during the Spring Classics and on endurance and gravel bikes, but largely ignores for the WorldTour: tuning frame material and layup specifically for compliance, rather than pure stiffness.

For years, bike marketing in every discipline chased stiffness numbers as an unambiguous good: stiffer meant more efficient, more precise, faster.

Downhill has pushed back against that orthodoxy, because a completely rigid frame transmits all impacts and trail chatter back to the rider, and it also doesn't hold a line on rough terrain as well.

MotoGP and World Superbike know this too, which is why teams build flex and compliance into frames. That movement helps the bike flow with the ground instead of fighting it, which may seem counterintuitive at first.

Teams and manufacturers now treat compliance - how much a frame is allowed to flex, twist and absorb energy through its front triangle, chainstays and seatstays - as a deliberately engineered characteristic, and no longer just a manufacturing tolerance to be eliminated.

This can be done with carbon layups, but that is an expensive route and doesn't offer as much adjustability. Instead, teams like Commencal Muc-Off have been experimenting with different materials and inserts between the seatstays that can be swapped out. In the past, they used alloy, carbon, and even chromoly steel sections to find the ideal mix, but now they stick with alloy and use different composites in various thicknesses mounted between the stays to get the same effect.

This gives them lots of options they can swap out quickly between race runs to help the rider find their optimum setting.

When flying down a mountain, brakes matter

It sounds unglamorous next to tuned mass dampers and fancy frame tuning, but brakes and brake setup are among the most crucial parts of a bike designed to plummet down a mountainside.

Like everything else on a downhill bike, there are a range of options. Riders can pick different compounds, rotor sizes, and some even offer varying numbers of pistons (or pots).

It's an area where lots of off-season testing happens to make sure the products work well together and do what they are supposed to. The World Cup is also the prime proving ground for brands to test their new designs; if you want to see what the likes of Shimano or SRAM are doing next year, then have a close look around the pits at any race, and you'll find plenty of prototypes floating around.

Why this matters more than it gets credit for

None of this shows up on a start list or a results sheet. Nobody's writing "500g of lead, data-logged suspension, and a tuned mass damper" into a race report, but it all weaves into the fabric of the racing and something I find endlessly intriguing.

If you get the chance, you should check out World Cup downhill run closely, really closely. Watching what the bikes do under immense loads isn't only impressive; it also helps you understand why and how they set up bikes the way they do, and that can carry over to your own trail time too.

The WorldTour still, for the most part, treats the bike as a largely finished technology, with only marginal aerodynamic and weight gains left to chase. Downhill, however, has a much broader field of improvements to go at. The fact that they treat the bike as an active, tunable system - weight distribution, suspension damping, braking, thermal management, structural compliance and so on - has more in common with the top tiers of motorsport than most bike races.

Every one of which is being approached with the same rigour a motorsport engineer would bring to a car setup sheet, albeit with far less money to spend. And it's not a comparison I make merely for clickbait either, as a lifelong bike nerd who is as obsessed with the latest aero bike as he is with a suspension damper, and having been at both the start of the Tour de France in Barcelona, and at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole in the past two months alone, I must say I find the downhill paddocks endlessly more interesting; a near-limitless pool of tech gems.

Downhill is where cycling's engineering ambition and ingenuity live, just not with the same budgets as its motorised cousins.

As soon as UAE Team Emirates-XRG confirmed that even Tadej Pogačar was going to be unable to come back from his crash at the Vuelta a España in time for the World Championships and the rest of the 2026 season, the entire complexion of the next two months of racing changed completely.

Ask anyone to predict how the remainder of the Vuelta, Worlds, the European Championships, and the final Monument of the year at Il Lombardia were going to go before August 29, and no one would have said anything but a clean sweep from Pogačar.

It means Peter Sagan won't be matched when it comes to winning the elite men's road race rainbow jersey three times in a row, and Fausto Coppi's record of five Lombardy titles won't be surpassed by Pogačar, who equalled the feat last October. In a flash, one high-speed crash on a nondescript section of road in stage 8 of the Tour of Spain has made victory at several of cycling's most prestigious races a genuine possibility for more than just one rider.

After surely originally planning to work out how they were going to anticipate or dream of just following the Slovenian when he made his inevitable move on the Mount Royal course in Canada, national coaches of the biggest teams will have had to completely change their strategies.

Pogačar taking victory was by no means guaranteed – look at how predicting that same fate for the Vuelta went – but his rivals would have been planning their tactics for him being there, and this shift could mean a significantly more competitive, and more compelling, battle for the rainbow jersey, perhaps unseen since Glasgow 2023 when the Slovenian last didn't win.

Who steps up into the void?

It's fair to say Belgium have moved into the spot of favourites, Remco Evenepoel and a red-hot Wout van Aert being their co-leaders, with Paul Seixas (France), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Isaac del Toro (Mexico), Mads Pedersen (Denmark), and Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) also projected as main contenders.

Evenepoel was second to Pogačar at all three of the Worlds, Europeans, and Lombardy 12 months ago, making him the logical next best option on the start line. On each of those occasions, he was the closest to following the winning move, and while still forced to concede defeat each time to the superior rider, the next finisher behind him in third was 48 seconds back in Kigali (Ben Healy), 2:10 back in Guilherand-Granges (Paul Seixas), and 1:26 down in Bergamo (Michael Storer).

By those metrics, it's easy to assume Evenepoel will rise to his status as the favourite and scorch away solo on the roads of Montreal, with the 273.2 kilometres, 3,800 metres of elevation gain, and 12 laps of the punchy 13.4km finishing circuit giving him ample opportunities to attack away on the climbs or the flat. And if he gets up the road as he did four years ago in Australia, he will be nigh on impossible to bring back.

But can the Belgian team do what the Slovenians did in Zurich two years ago, Rwanda last season, and what they were likely planning on doing again come September 27? Blowing up the race early and attacking from long-range distances unseen since the days of Coppi or Eddy Merckx has become somewhat normalised in the era of Pogačar, but it's forgivable to forget just how he is often making the long-thought impossible in today's cycling seem easy.

In theory, yes, the Belgian's could, of course, with Gianni Vermeersch, Maxim Van Gils, Thibau Nys, Tiesj Benoot, Quinten Hermans, and Alec Segaert making up a versatile team with great options for decimating the peloton and positioning their leaders. But with Van Aert also among their ranks, it makes things more complicated for the Belgians.

One of the greatest strengths of having Pogačar on your team, aside from the obvious complete superiority when it comes to power and race-winning ruthlessness, is how tactically simple he makes races for his teammates.

Yes, they still have to be strong enough to execute the plan, position him, and the word simple isn't apt for the kind of effort it requires to launch someone into 50km, 75km, or even 100km solo attacks. But what he does guarantee, though, is clarity, both of leadership and everyone else's roles in support of him. And it's here where the new favourites for the Montreal road race in Pogačar's absence could come unstuck.

Fielding two leaders in Evenepoel and Van Aert is a combination that has both succeeded and failed in the past, with the former benefiting most, en route to the rainbow jersey in Wollongong 2022 and an Olympic Gold medal in Paris 2024. But it's also seen them fail to capitalise on having the strongest team before, such as Leuven in 2021, with the stardom and versatility of both making it impossible to force one to ride in aid of the other, hampering their chances.

Should Van Aert sacrifice his hopes in pursuit of the best chance of an Evenepoel solo win? No, he shouldn't, nor will he, especially when you consider the possibility that someone like Seixas or Del Toro will be able to live with him when he makes his move.

Belgium will likely need both of their leaders to be in play in the finale to get the balance right, with the threat of either winning solo or from a sprint allowing the other some breathing room when it comes to how the tactics unfold on the road.

What's safe to say, though, is that an early destruction of the whole race, one as early as the Slovenian surely would have tried, and a pure test of who has the best legs on the day – as Pogačar has made the past two Worlds road races – looks unlikely.

Tactics will be king, and in a race without race radios, that becomes even more complicated

No Pogačar brings the likes of Van der Poel and Van Aert more into play

When the course was unveiled as the third climbing-heavy Worlds course in a row, Pogačar was always going to be starting as the heavy favourite, but with the way he races, it also pushed top one-day racers like Van der Poel and Van Aert down the pecking order.

If the double reigning champion made the race as hard as he did in Zurich and Rwanda, the cumulative effect of all the attritional climbing would surely do for the heavier, more punchy Classics specialists, leaning the race in favour of the climbers like Seixas and Evenepoel.

But the route in Montreal is, on paper, not going to be as difficult for the likes of the 2023 rainbow jersey winner, Van der Poel. In Rwanda, the riders had almost 5,500 metres of elevation gain, but the laps around Mount Royal Park in Canada only take the total up to 3,800m. That's still 700 fewer than that of Zurich in 2024, where, yes, Pogačar was still far and away the strongest and attacked audaciously far out from the finish, but Van der Poel was probably the second strongest rider on the course that day, despite eventually finishing third.

Again, considering this, can Belgium do the same kind of damage Slovenia and a likely early Pogačar onslaught was going to? It seems somewhat impossible to expect as much, as keeping Van Aert in the game should prove incredibly valuable.

Liberated by his first Monument victory for six years at Paris-Roubaix, and in flying form at the Vuelta, it could be the best chance for the twice runner-up at Worlds to finally have his moment. On his very best, he's more than capable of matching the biggest moves on the key uphill sections – the Camillien-Houde climbs (2.3km at 6.2%) and gradients pushing 11% maximum on the Polytechnique climb – and he can win from a solo move, bunch sprint, or small breakaway sprint.

The last time he raced at the GP Montreal WorldTour one-day race, which shares several route features with Worlds, he failed to finish, but that came at the end of a long comeback season from injury, where he was already fatigued. His only other appearance saw him finish second from a reduced group sprint, losing out only to a certain Pogačar.

Evenepoel having the threat of Van Aert behind allows him to get away and stay away, as he did in Paris, after the latter had marked his long-term rival Van der Poel on the Montmartre climb – a situation which could unfold in a remarkably similar fashion in Montreal.

Can Seixas and Del Toro follow Evenepoel if and when he does go?

Evenepoel, Van Aert and Van der Poel performing well and being in contention for victory is somewhat guaranteed, barring incident or injury during or before the race, but a bigger question lies in what the young superstars of the sport can do on the brutal course.

Seixas and Del Toro are not only protagonists for the future but also the present, both improving at a rapid rate since turning professional in the past two seasons to already be aptly described as among the top 10 riders in the world.

Both impressed on debut at the Tour de France in July, finishing third and fourth as the next best behind Pogačar and Evenepoel, but both are also top one-day racers already, shown in their finishing on the podium with the Slovenian at Strade Bianche.

If Evenepoel does opt to go early on the climbs and win with brute force, it's not out of the question that one of these two could follow; just look at what Seixas did at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, pushing Pogačar right to the limit before finally succumbing to the pressure on Roche aux Faucons.

Tearing a muscle in his thigh meant Del Toro wasn't present at the Ardennes Classics, but he's got serious experience as a top one-day racer and ruthless winner. Milano-Torino, Gran Piemonte, and the Giro dell'Emilia are already on his palmarès, and while he was seventh at Worlds last year and fifth at Lombardy, he's only becoming more accustomed to those longer distances as he gets older.

His team is the obvious question mark, likely to be isolated once the key selections are made, but Del Toro is a savvy finisher, and as Pogačar's likely heir at UAE, will be looking to emulate his team leader and bring Mexico its first rainbow jersey. In contrast, for France and Seixas, they should have one of the strongest eight-man outfits riding in support of their teenage talisman, who turns 20 three days before the road race.

All of those mentioned above will be chomping at the bit to get stuck into the road race, especially knowing that this may be their last chance at a rainbow jersey until perhaps 2029, with Pogačar sure to come back to Haute-Savoie 2027 looking for a spectacular comeback, and the 2028 race likely to be on the flatter roads of Abu Dhabi.

It won't be the race everyone was expecting it to be before that crash at the Vuelta, but it should be one to remember.

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That’s the middle week done at the 59th La Vuelta a España, and the signs are lighting up more clearly for the movers and shakers still involved in the daily and overall battles.

Firstly, Enric Mas and Movistar look comfortably in control of the GC situation despite the best efforts of Felix Gall to gain a few seconds back. Decathlon CMA CGM losing Gregor Muhlberger on stage 13 has drastically reduced their firepower when the road heads uphill. It has left Gall in the awkward position of trying to distance his main rivals, Primož Roglič and Mas, but not possessing a long enough acceleration to put either of them in real difficulty at the beginning of the mountain top finishes. After a few attempts, the Austrian needs some recovery time, and that’s when Movistar’s better race craft has paid off: either Mas places his own attack and extends his lead or the Spanish squad has a teammate that they’ve placed in the day’s escape drop back to help.

I can barely believe I’m writing that, but after the last few years of internal squabbling and incomprehensible tactics, suddenly Movistar are the ones with the right tactics, and they are delivering the helpers that the maillot rojo wearer needs at the right times too. Of course, Decathlon CMA CGM and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have made things easier for them by not placing the same number of satellite riders in the large breakaway groups we’ve seen in the second week, which has turned out to be rather costly for them. Stage 12 was the perfect example of teamwork for Movistar, with Mas countering the accelerations of Gall just outside of 10km to go. Picking up Pablo Castrillo, who sat up in the breakaway almost immediately; he had time to recover, then another push to the 5km point, where Raúl García Pierna did the same on the flatter section where drafting matters.

Meanwhile, Gall could only rely on a broken Léo Bisiaux to attempt something similar as he struggled with a non-cooperative Roglič on his wheel and Richard Carapaz attacking him if he slowed to force Roglič to the front. The case of Bisiaux on this day was indicative of Decathlon missing the bigger picture.

At first the Frenchman looked to be racing for the stage with Jakob Omrzel, but when his lights went out the young Slovenian dropped him. Instead of reassessing his utility to the team, someone made the decision that he keep riding, presumably for a stage placing, so when Gall finally caught up with him he was cooked and not as useful as he could have been on the flatter section of Calar Alto. If it hadn’t been for Luke Tuckwell riding for Roglič and the return of Muhlberger, things would have been catastrophic for Gall. As it was, the Austrian lost only 20 seconds or so due to a good final 1.5 km, but psychologically he had been schooled by Movistar and Enric Mas.

Then Movistar did the same thing again two days later on Sierra de la Pandera, Castrillo and García Pierna in the big escape; they waited for Mas at the strategic points on the final climb, and that’s another day when Felix Gall might have gained some seconds neutralised. For the race leader, it was probably his most feared day since the time he’d been dropped by Roglič in 2022 and in an ironic twist of fate, it was the four-time winner Roglič who couldn’t follow his rivals this time around. Same spot, similar loss, but a huge boost for the confidence of the Movistar leader.

The general consensus is that Mas needs two minutes on Roglič heading into the stage 18 time trial, and now he has more than that. More importantly, he knows he can out-climb all the other GC challengers, so even if Roglič does a super ITT and takes the red jersey, it won’t be by much, and with the remaining summit finishes there’s ample opportunity to distance the Slovenian.

The overall victory isn’t in the bag yet; however, it’s looking increasingly good for Mas, and it’ll be down to the excellent use of the team's riders by the management as much as it is to the great form the man from Mallorca is holding.

The heat encountered now that the race is in the southern part of Spain has produced a few noticeable trends. The day’s breakaway group has to be large to survive, not the usual 15-20 riders, but double that has become the norm. It’s a situation usually only seen in the final week of the Grand Tours, so the constant sun beating of over 30℃ – even 40℃℃ at times – is taking its toll on the peloton. When it’s an escape of 40-plus riders, though, it might seem quite complicated tactically; it’s also quite clear that on each occasion half of them are damaged by the process of making the split.

Then there’s the added problem of trying to outride Wout van Aert and Matthew Brennan as Visma-Lease a Bike continue to dominate the stage hunting days. WVA is blowing the escape apart with displays of power, and the young Brit is the fastest if the group comes back together in any numbers. The surprise of Bastien Tronchon winning a bunch sprint for Groupama-FDJ United hasn’t been allowed to repeat itself, but Cofidis still believe in Bryan Coquard, which is why they’ve been working with Visma to ensure a sprint of sorts. On paper, they have three more chances before the end; however, those stages could be for the 40-plus escapees too.

In the King of the Mountains classification, Santiago Buitrago is doing what he needs to do to make sure the blue polka dot jersey is his, but he wants a stage win too. That has complicated things when he’s come up against some of the rising stars. Being outmanoeuvred by Marco Brenner after being outlasted by Jakob Omrzel a couple of days earlier was frustrating. The latter did a remarkable ride to move back into contention for the white jersey, and with Oscar Onley’s crash on stage 12 affecting his race, then we might have another Slovenian heading home with a classification. There’s only 30 seconds between them at the moment, and given the TT and then the two mountain days afterwards, recovery, or lack of it, is going to be crucial.

Still, Movistar and Enric Mas are in control, looking confident, making the right decisions, and there are no dramas to be seen anywhere. It’s hardly believable, but it’s happening, and it’s enjoyable.

Spain has waited 12 years for a next home winner of the men's Vuelta a España. Not since Alberto Contador took control of the red jersey on stage 10 of the 2014 edition and carried it all the way to the Santiago de Compostela finale have they played the Marcha Real when presenting the maillot rojo on the final podium.

But after 14 stages of the 2026 race, Spain is continuing to believe in Enric Mas, who, yes, inherited the jersey rather than specifically earning it, but has more than proved a worthy leader since he refused to wear it on the podium in Xeraco after Tadej Pogačar crashed out on stage 8.

Three big GC days of racing have come since – the kind of days where in the past you would expect Mas to underperform on at least one of, where a rival would scorch ahead of him as he folded back into the role of deuteragonist – but on each occasion, Mas hasn't just passed the test and survived; he's been the strongest.

Try as Felix Gall might continue to do, rated as the second-strongest climber before the race having finished runner-up in the Giro d'Italia behind Jonas Vingegaard, the Austrian has had no answer for Mas.

At the Alto de Aitana, Gall's Decathlon team set a violent tempo to bring the race back to the overall contenders, only for Mas to leave him behind. Last Thursday at Calar Alto, it was very much a case of déjà vu: Decathlon whittled things down with their strength in numbers, but Mas countered and gained more time.

Assured, punchy, superior, and in control are words which, in Vueltas gone by, you would associate best with four-time winner, Primoz Roglic, but even he – the rider who has long been a thorn in Mas' side when it comes to pursuing red – is losing time at every opportunity.

Mas has taken ownership of those adjectives and is doing to Roglič what seemed unthinkable. For years, the finales of many of the Vuelta's hardest climbs would witness a 'Roglification', a term coined by journalist Daniel Friebe for when the Slovenian would get his team to control the race before he ruthlessly burned his rivals, including Mas on several occasions, away on the final ramps of a climb.

But there has been no latest example of the like to talk about yet at this ongoing Vuelta; Mas is far and away the punchiest of the top GC favourites, which his surprising bridge across to Pogačar on stage 6 highlighted best, and he backed up on stage 14.

After his Movistar team had controlled the day well and the GC fight started to unfold up to Sierra de La Pandera, Mas opted to mark the moves that came from Richard Carapaz and Gall, who tried only a few big attacks instead of trying to slowly grind down his competitors as he had in previous days.

But even his most well-timed acceleration was easily responded to by Mas, who expeditiously closed the gap. Gall had fired his best shot, but the race leader was never in trouble; in fact, the situation was about to get better for him.

For the second GC day running, Movistar had got their tactics perfect when it came to breakaway formation, with the same characters who got up the road and provided the ideal assist en route to Calar Alto also finding themselves with a big role to play to Pandera: Pablo Castrillo and Raul Garcia Pierna.

Movistar didn't arrive at this Vuelta with a star-studded team by any means, but there can be no questions asked of the riders who are supporting Mas. The other standout has been 23-year-old former national champion Ivan Romeo, who has got through a mountain of work on the front, seemingly leading Mas onto the climbs and having enough in the tank to control the lower slopes.

With the break several minutes up the road on stage 14, Castrillo was the first to be caught up by Mas in the group of favourites, upping the pace for his leader and providing sustenance, but it was Garcia Pierna who played a starring role in support. Caught by Mas, Gall, Roglič, and Carapaz in the final 2km, he got on the front and put in one last pull to distance the four-time winner and his Ecuadorian former teammate.

Gall pushed on to overtake Roglič overall and jump into second, taking Mas with him as he moved further ahead in the lead as the second week nears its conclusion. What was a 1:00 lead from second place when he inherited it ahead of stage 10 has grown out to 2:06 in the five stages since.

History not on Mas' side

Three more guaranteed GC showdowns remain in the third week for the leader to navigate, and while anything but him extending his lead seems unlikely given how the second week has played out, it's the business end of things where Mas has long failed to deliver in his career.

A top climber throughout his career, he's only ever won one WorldTour GC title, at the Tour of Guangxi in 2019. And in the 13 stage races both he and Roglič have finished, Mas has never beaten the Slovenian.

History says Mas won't win this Vuelta, but thankfully for him, it's not the palmarès of his long-term rival that he is racing. But that doesn't mean you can, nor should, count out the wily Red Bull racer.

On paper, a more than two-minute lead should feel more comfortable than it does for Spain's hopes, but the stage 18 time trial remains the factor causing concern. It's a discipline which Mas has long been inferior at, especially compared to Roglič, but he can count on the fact that Gall similarly doesn't excel against the clock, so it will be his old rival he has to keep an eye on.

It's been the question posed to both of them ever since Mas went into red. Does he have enough time? Is 1:18 enough? Is 1:45 enough? And now, is 2:10 enough to hold off red being snatched from him before the final mountain stages?

The record books again point to Roglič definitely having the upper hand next Thursday. 22 times they have raced time trials against each other as professionals, and on 22 occasions Mas has lost out.

But what can't be underestimated is that last 25 seconds he gained on yesterday's stage, pulling his advantage out past the two-minute mark, a huge psychological win for Mas, who even on his worst day on the TT bike, should be able to hold onto red heading into the brutal final weekend.

Roglič and Mas last raced over a time trial of similar distance at last year's Tour de France into Caen, and the time gap between the two was 1:38, but the Slovenian's form does remain a bit of an unknown, having been hit by a driver and crashed amid his preparation for the Vuelta.

And even in his absolute pomp as a TT rider in 2021, when he became the Olympic Champion in Tokyo, Roglič's destruction of the final Vuelta time trial into Santiago de Compostela saw him beat Mas – who had second place secured and only had to survive the final day – by 2:04.

So in reality this current version of the pair looks set to have the distance between them narrowed, yes, but likely with Mas holding onto the jersey and psychological edge before Peñas Blancas on stage 19 and Collado del Alguacil on the penultimate day.

And even if Roglič was able to produce a vintage performance in the time trial to wrest back red, Mas could be confident in having the advantage once again when the road heads uphill, but keeping his head would perhaps be the most essential ingredient.

This Vuelta is far from done, and Mas still has three big tests to pass, alongside the threat of coming unstuck at any moment, highlighted all too well by Pogačar's crash, but for now, as the blazing heat continues to beat down on the riders in Spain, it's the home veteran who's in the driving seat to take it home.

It will take something really special to beat him, but as has proven true several times in the past decade, there's few things more dangerous to a rider's race leader than an underestimated Primož Roglič with nothing to lose

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You'll get comprehensive race coverage of La Vuelta a España, subscriber-exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

Any Slovenian prospect who emerges as a top climber will naturally be compared to the two modern greats still operating in the peloton, five-time Grand Tour winner Primož Roglič and five-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar, but for Jakob Omrzel, who announced himself with a victory at the Vuelta a España on Thursday, he's more interested in forging his own path.

In quite stunning fashion and with the help of Bahrain Victorious teammates Pello Bilbao and Santiago Buitrago, Omrzel stormed to his maiden Grand Tour win on debut in Calar Alto, conquering the summit finish and breaking Pogačar's benchmark to become the youngest Slovenian GT stage winner in history.

In reality, anyone following the under-23 ranks would have known Omrzel's name already, a winner of Paris-Roubaix juniors and the Giro d'Italia Next Gen just last season, but a win at the Vuelta, only his second pro victory after claiming the elite Slovenian road race title in 2025, propels him into new ground.

Not only this, but his success from the breakaway has jumped him right up into the top six overall at the Vuelta a España, and with more high mountains to come, he could well hold on for a top GC finish at the first attempt.

Omrzel's path to the WorldTour wasn't completely plain sailing, suffering a life-threatening crash at the Giro della Lunigiana in September 2024 before he joined Bahrain Victorious' development team and really found his feet.

Already mixing it with the seniors last year at 19, Omrzel has gone from strength to strength in 2026 as a 20-year-old, and he looks set to be a name to follow closely in the coming years, alongside the likes of Paul Seixas and Lorenzo Finn.

Cyclingnews sat down with him back in the off-season ahead of the Grand Canaria 365 Gran Fondo last year to find out more about how he came to be a top climbing prospect, and why it's important that he forges his own story, instead of one already written by Pogačar – who he trained with that week – and Roglič.

A lot can happen in 10 months though, with his confidence, assuredness, and maturity as a rider shining through on stage 12 of the Vuelta, and back when we spoke, he wasn't even thinking about Grand Tours, let alone winning a stage of one. But the path to this recent success was clear even then, as a talent rapidly on the rise, and from one of the nations we've come to see dominate modern cycling.

Jakob Omrzel Q&A

Cyclingnews: How did you get into cycling in Slovenia when you were younger? Where did that start for you?

Jakob Omrzel: It started in fifth grade for me because my brother was cycling at the time, and for me I was always looking at my brother and wanting to do things that he was doing at the time. So yeah, sure, he dragged me into cycling, and the story continues from that on.

CN: And was that only on the road straight away, or did you try other disciplines like mountain biking?

JO: No, no, no, road. It was always road because in Slovenia it's more like road. I mean, it was developed more for road, but now OK, MTB is also getting bigger. But still, it was for sure always the love for road for me.

CN: You're one of the rising young stars of the peloton and would have grown up watching Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar; were these guys your icons already growing up?

JO: Yeah, of course. I mean, it's really nice because not long ago, like three, four years, I was just like looking at them and, really, these guys are incredible, and now I'm finding myself in this position that I can be with them, train with them and race with them; it's just incredible. For sure, the dream's coming true.

CN: With Tadej, you've spent some time training and riding with him. What's that been like for you? Maybe strange, but also exciting?

JO: Exactly this. It's really strange because you're with the best guy in the world that you always watch on TV. But in the end, OK, now here we are, and for sure we also need to be competitive – maybe not on that level. It's just incredible to be with these guys and to learn from them.

CN: How would you describe yourself as a rider?

JO: I would say I'm more of an endurance guy. If the race is longer, for me, it's better. Also, on the bike, sometimes I can get nervous, but I think this is totally normal because of adrenaline and everything. I would say otherwise I'm a pretty calm guy, but yeah, sometimes it's stressful.

CN: I think you've made a point of saying you're not trying to be the next Tadej or the next Primož; you want to be yourself. Why was that important for you as a GC prospect to just be you?

JO: Because you get all this pressure from the media or from other people who are saying, 'Oh, you're a new Pogačar, you're a new Roglič,' and for me, I mean, I don't like this because I am what I am, and I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'm still young. I'm 19 [now 20]. Everything can change, but it's all OK if you are going in the right direction and if you have the people around you who are supporting you and are just leading you in the right way. I think that I want to write my own story. So we'll see how Jakob's story will end. But for sure, I just want to be myself. I will build this up for myself, and that's it.

CN: How did you know you were ready for the WorldTour after just one year on Bahrain Victorious' development team?

JO: When I started at U23 level, I was always feeling confident, and basically, in my first year, I achieved a lot, and together with the team, we thought 'OK, it's now time to go up a level and try there'. Also, already [in 2025] I was introduced to it, and you have all the benefits of the highest level. cyclist. I think this was just the right step forward, but sure, we'll see.

CN: How have you found the transition into the WorldTour squad?

JO: The change is very big. You can feel it because there are a lot more people that are involved in this than in devo; it's just a different level. I wouldn't say different mentality because we're still the same guys, but everything is more serious. You need to be 100% in everything, but in devo, I was nowhere near it. Now everything is a bit more specific, and we're doing things that are just different, but for me, this is something incredible, something to learn each day.

CN: There's a big Slovenian influence on this team, but also throughout the peloton now. What's the best advice you've had from guys like Matej Mohorič or even Tadej Pogačar on a different team?

JO: For sure, that I'm young, and I still need to be calm and just work, work, and work my way up. Sometimes be quieter and just listen to other people and learn, learn, learn, and eventually, for sure, if you learn enough, you'll get the result you want. Just this: be smart.

CN: Do you feel that there is pressure for you to win immediately in the WorldTour as one of these top talents, or has the team allowed room for you to be patient?

JO: I can feel that in my team there was no pressure because it was not planned that I would go in the WorldTour [this year]. It was just a natural process that I went up; no one was really pushing me.

I put pressure on myself for results because I could see that I have the potential to win, and that's it. But also now for WorldTour, it's nothing like 'you need to win'. We will develop, and we'll try as much as we can, but without harming my body and just go with the flow.

CN: There's loads to pick from, but what's the one race you dream of winning?

JO: For sure, the Tour de France; that is the dream.

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It's not difficult to work out how the Factor Elara came into existence. Its super-wide fork is uncannily similar to the brand's aero road hotshot, the ONE, and from that point backwards through the frame, it's a clear shot at the best gravel race bikes on the market, with the design straight out of the modern gravel race bike playbook as a combination of aero, big tyre clearance, and racy geometry.

Ahead of the bike's launch, my colleague Will has been testing it for an upcoming review. That'll come once he's back from his late-summer holiday trudging around the Scottish Highlands, but through a stroke of good timing, we were booked in at the wind tunnel last week, so we couldn't resist seeing how it stacked up against the likes of the S-Works Crux 5 and the Wilier Rave SLR we tested earlier in the year, plus the new race-ready Giant Revolt too.

We were also keen to see how the new super-deep Black Inc gravel wheels fared against the new Enve G SES 6.7 Pro, Zipp 303 XPLR and more. More on that later.

Despite our local van hire company's best attempts at blocking us by sending the smallest van in their fleet, I put my childhood Tetris obsession to good use, loaded it up to the hilt, and headed east from Cyclingnews HQ to the Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub.

Protocol

To ensure a fair and comparable test against the bikes we tested back in May, we matched the protocol from that test.

I'll outline some of the important bits below, but to save going over the details of (and reasons for) the protocol and sending you half to sleep, I'd suggest heading over to that gravel bike wind tunnel group test, where the details are outlined in full for those who want to get nerdy.

What's important to know here is that everything was tested in exactly the same way as before, against the same baseline bike on each day to get an accurate comparison of how aerodynamic each gravel bike is relative to the others.

This meant testing at a wind speed of 35km/h, and at seven different yaw angles (the angle at which the wind hits the bike): -15°, -10°, -5°, 0°, 5°, 10° and 15°.

It also meant using the same position as all other gravel bikes we've tested, as well as using the same tyres (45mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RH), bottles (Elite Fly), saddle (Ergon SR AllRoad), and anything else that can be controlled.

And as ever, we tested each bike in three ways:

• With a rider, with the stock wheelset
• Without a rider, with the stock wheelset
• Without a rider, with a pair of 'control' wheels (Enve G-SES 6.7 shod with 50mm Vittoria Terreno Dry tyres)

A few quick caveats and disclaimers

Like many of today's gravel race bikes, the Factor Elara is designed around tyres wider than the 45mm and 50mm tyres we tested with here, and this could adversely affect the results in comparison to a bike designed around narrower tyres. We don't know for sure by how much, if at all, but it's a caveat worth mentioning. Unfortunately, our time in the wind tunnel is limited, so we can't test every bike with every tyre size.

In time, we will likely adjust our gravel testing protocol to focus more on these wide-tyred race bikes. I think anyone interested in the aero data of gravel bikes is going to primarily be interested in 'gravel race' bikes, which as a category is converging towards wide tyres as the norm.

And with all that said, we're aware that aero data is only one piece of the puzzle of defining whether a bike is good or bad. Weight, tyre clearance, comfort, price, serviceability, reliability, and brand aftercare are just some of the other factors (no pun intended) to consider when buying, all coupled with the purpose and type of riding you plan on doing.

Results

I'll get stuck right in with the headline result: The Factor Elara is the most aerodynamic gravel bike we've ever tested, by a pretty significant margin, in both of our bike only tests, and it's on the podium in our 'with rider' test too.

The coefficient of drag at each of the seven yaw angles, for the three tests, looks like this:

I appreciate that's not the most visually useful graph, since the with-rider test and the two bike-only tests are quite far apart, but if you're nerdy enough to care about the specific values, you can hover over and you'll get to see the exact CdA at each yaw point. Otherwise, keep scrollin', as I've already done the calculations that help to show what that means.

Using an average of those seven points, weighted according to the methods set out by Nathan Barry's 2018 paper – A New Method for Analysing the Effect of Environmental Wind on Real World Aerodynamic Performance in Cycling – I have solved for watts using the following equation.

I did this at two speeds. Firstly at 35km/h, as this is the wind speed we tested at. Then again at 40km/h, so we can compare it against the road bikes we've tested too.

The point of this is to see how much energy (in watts) is required to overcome the aerodynamic drag (aka, the wind) in an average real-world riding scenario. If Bike A requires less energy than Bike B, we can deduce that assuming all else is equal (tyre drag, weight, drivetrain friction, etc), then you will be faster on Bike A for the same amount of effort.

And for context, when comparing aerodynamic drag in watts, the differences between bikes will shrink at slower speeds; if there's five watts between bikes at 35km/h, it'll be around three watts at 30km/h, and two watts at 25km/h. This is because power grows to the cube of speed (as shown in the equation above).

It goes the other way too. For a fun example, if something is a mere two watts better off at 25km/h, it's not 20 watts better at 250km/h, it's actually 2000 watts better! This is because you're increasing the speed by 10x, so you need to increase the watts by 10 to the power of three, or 1000! Good luck riding a bike at 250km/h though.

Sorry, I promised not to bore you half to sleep… shall we look at the results in detail?

With its stock wheelset - the Black Inc Sixty Four Gravel - shod with the 45mm Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RH tyre, and in the 'bike only' test, the Factor Elara is 9.64 watts more aerodynamic than our baseline bike (an old Trek Emonda ALR road bike that stays unchanged between all tests).

As a more useful comparison, that's 2.97 watts better (at 35km/h) than the next most aero gravel bike we've tested, Argon 18's Anti Matter. And compared to the least aerodynamic gravel bike we've tested, the Lauf Seigla (with round bars and external cables), it offers a huge 22.38 watt gain.

The results with a rider (me) atop the bike place the Elara in third place behind the S-Works Crux 5 and the Wilier Rave SLR ID2.

It's important to note that adding a rider into the equation reduces the accuracy of the test (since the rider can't hold a perfectly still position). We've calculated an error margin of 2.8 watts on the day, and with that taken into account, the Elara can still lay claim to top spot, even if it wasn't the outright most aerodynamic in the raw data.

It's also worth adding that the Elara is a heavier bike than the Crux 5, but I've intentionally not quoted the weights because the Elara we tested here was a SRAM Force-equipped model, versus the SRAM Red equipped Crux.

And in our third test, which swaps out the Black Inc wheels for a pair of 'control' wheels that lets us see how the frames alone compare, the Elara is on top once again. This time with a slightly smaller margin. This essentially tells us that the frame alone is the fastest of all that we've tested, but that the Black Inc wheels are pulling their weight in making the bike faster too.

In fact, when you look at how each bike tests with their own wheels against the Enve wheels, the Factor Elara was affected the least. There was a 1.79 watt improvement when switching wheels (and, remember, we've swapped tyres too) which is the smallest gain of all the bikes we've tested.

Compared to road bikes

Since we test all bikes against our baseline Trek Emonda, we can also see how the Factor Elara stands up against the road bikes we've tested too, including the mega-aero Factor One, which is the fastest bike we've ever tested.

It won't be that fast, let's not get excited, but it's an interesting comparison nonetheless. Given the Elara's aggressive position, we can gauge if it could hold its own as a one-bike-does-everything solution.

Out of context, the graph above makes the Elara look quite poor, but remember, it's the fastest gravel bike we've tested, and we've tested a lot more road bikes than gravel bikes to date.

Importantly, it comes in just 10.45w slower than the Look Blade 795 RS we tested in 2024. That's really impressive considering the Elara was tested with 45mm knobbly gravel tyres, versus the Look's 25mm road tyres.

If we were to test both with a 32mm road tyre (which, to prevent lawyers coming after me, wouldn't be ETRTO compliant given the width of the Black Inc wheels), I imagine that deficit would mostly (if not entirely) disappear. Next time we're at the tunnel, I'll figure out a way to test this theory.

And finally, with the rider on the bike, that deficit grows to 20.06w between the Elara and the slowest modern road bike – the Cinelli Aeroscoop. However, this is because the position of the gravel bikes is different to the road bikes, putting the rider in a more upright (and thus, less aerodynamic) position, so there's more rider drag in the equation.

Compared to Factor's ONE aero bike, we're looking at a deficit of 33.99 watts. However, if we were to roadify the position of the Elara to match that of the ONE as closely as possible, we'd be able to reduce that gap. Exactly how much by, though, is unknown.

Conclusion

Based on the spec sheet and our wind tunnel test results, it's safe to conclude that the Factor Elara is a best-in-class gravel race bike at the time of its launch. It's the most aerodynamic gravel bike we've tested in both bike only tests, and can lay claim to top spot with a rider, too. Meanwhile, the clearance is rated for 57mm tyres (according to the brand) and the wheels are bang up to date with the gravel race trend, thanks to their 64mm depth and 30mm internal width.

As mentioned up top, my colleagye Will has the bike in for testing. He's penned his early impressions in our Factor Elara launch story, but will wrap up the review in the next couple of weeks, so we can see how the aero data translates to the real world, and get his perspective on stiffness, comfort, and what it's like to live with. You can expect his in-depth write up, followed shortly thereafter by a video review, which will go live for Cyclingnews subscribers ahead for early access, before later going onto the new Cyclingnews Tech YouTube channel.

Give that a follow, if you're not already, and we'll see you next Thursday for more wind tunnel test results of another new bike that I'm afraid I can't name right now.

In years gone by, the words Movistar and tactical masterclass were incompatible, polar opposites, an oxymoron even. Rightly questioned on several occasions for how they approached the biggest races and utilised their multiple leaders, on today's stage 12 of the Vuelta a España, the Spanish team completely flipped the script, executing a perfect plan with their figurehead Enric Mas gaining time on all of his rivals and strengthening his hold on the GC leader's red jersey.

And for Mas too, this 2026 race has been a complete reversal of his previous outcomes and experiences from the Vuelta. Always the bridesmaid, Mas is a three-time runner-up and has finished in the top six on six occasions at the Vuelta, but before this ongoing edition, he had never really looked like he would win his home race.

Even in the years when he was second best, the closest Mas ever got to the top step of the podium was in 2018, finishing 1:46 behind Simon Yates. Primož Roglič was almost five minutes ahead of him in 2021, and Remco Evenepoel too was two minutes ahead by the time they reached Madrid in 2022.

Fittingly, Mas' lead is now one second off his narrowest losing margin, and that is to Roglič, the rider who for years has had his number at the Vuelta.

With nine stages to go, he is in the driving seat, and 2026 becoming the year of Enric Mas is looking more and more like a reality every time the race summits a tough climb; such is his superiority going uphill as it stands.

Powered partially by the maillot rojo on his shoulders, Mas looked every bit the assured race leader he's long threatened to become, but never quite managed, on stage 12. When the moment came on the final climb to Calar Alto to get his tactics just right, he and Movistar made no mistake, but the seeds were sown much earlier in the day.

Four climbs of increasing difficulty lining the 166km route before the finale allowed ample time for a breakaway to form on Thursday, with 30 riders eventually getting up the road after around 40km of attacking.

With the irregularity of the gradients on the finale climb to Calar Alto, having satellite riders up the road was the best tactic for all of those hoping to make their mark in the GC, and the makeup of the 30 riders highlighted that.

Luke Tuckwell represented Roglič's Red Bull team. Decathlon CMA CGM had Léo Bisiaux up the road to potentially help third-place Felix Gall later on, while Netcompany Ineos had two riders in Jack Haig and Axel Laurance as possible options for Oscar Onley to bridge across to and improve his fourth position. Race leader Mas' Movistar team hadn't missed out either, putting Pablo Castrillo and Raúl García Pierna in the move.

From here, Movistar settled into controlling the gap, which ballooned out to more than seven minutes with two of their riders unable to help, but even as the stage win went up the road, they never lost control.

Onto the second-to-last climb, they were hit with a surprise attack from former teammate Richard Carapaz towards the top of the Alto de Velefique, and with only one teammate left for Mas in the peloton.

Ivan Romeo toiled away at the front to bring him back before the summit, and by the time the descent and the final climb arrived, Castrillo was on his way back to provide sustenance and support for Mas and his only remaining domestique.

Decathlon soon took over to pace for Gall, but this is where Mas came into his own, never looking uncomfortable under the pressure applied by the French team, who have consistently looked stronger as a climbing outfit throughout this Vuelta.

Once Gall made his move, as was the case at Alto de Aitana on stage 9, Mas was more than up to the task, sitting in his wheel with Roglič the only other rider able to follow. Once again, he was in control, but there was still work to do.

The need to attack

Speaking to Cyclingnews on Wednesday, Roglič's lead sports director at this Vuelta, Sven Vanthourenhout, had said that Mas making a move was exactly what he was expecting. And with the stage 18 time trial a week from today making the 1:18 lead he started stage 12 with seem much smaller in reality, venturing out of his comfort zone is necessary for Mas.

Having been labelled boring or perhaps been guilty of not believing he can win the biggest races in the past for his lack of attacking bravery, on this occasion, while defence of red is his main aim, the best form of that must be attack.

"Mas knows that even if it is still a nice 1:00 to 1:30 advantage on his contenders, it's still not enough to win the Vuelta," said Vanthourenhout. "So for sure he's also going to try it now in that second week to take some seconds or do some moves."

Attack he did, and with that second satellite rider García Pierna still up the road to give Mas a final assist, by the time they reached the finish line, Mas had gained 27 seconds, now with a 1:45 lead over Roglič and a 2:06 gap to Gall.

While the flat 32km race against the clock on stage 18 remains very much in favour of Roglič, those extra almost 30 seconds could prove vital before the duo of final climbing stages.

Realistically, a top-form Roglič could still bring that back, but having been hit by a driver and crashed before the race, coming good in the third is by no means certain for the four-time winner, and if anything, the opposite – a collapse – is more likely.

For Gall, who is similarly a poor time trialist, Mas won't have much to worry about if he can maintain his climbing superiority, but it is his long-term rival who remains the biggest threat. But he has another chance to extend his lead in two days to Sierra de la Frontera, and the Mas and Movistar we saw today look almost guaranteed to try and capitalise on their current authority.

Mas may have inherited red after the misfortune of Pogačar, but he's only done everything in his power to make it his since, and it looks like he might just win it after all. Rewind 12 months from now, and Mas at 30 seemed like he had run out of chances to put on a performance like he's currently in the midst of – having just abandoned the Tour, severe varicose vein formations and thrombophlebitis in his left leg left him requiring surgery.

He missed last year's Vuelta, the first since 2019 he hadn't been a part of, but he's returned as an Enric Mas we haven't seen before. Perhaps he too is starting to believe, even if there's a long way and three brutal summit finishes still to contend with, but for the moment, Mas looks more like he'll conquer them than see his incredible run come to an end.

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For Megan Guarnier, holding a top position in the peloton while powering up the 16% gradients of the Manayunk Wall five times in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic was the easy part. She had already spent the last five years scaling a mountain of loss and grief while raising two young boys.

"Momming to two boys is a full-time, exhausting position! So actually coming to a bike race like this is a bit of a vacation," Guarnier tells Cyclingnews after the race.

"Waking up at 5:00 a.m. to go race our bikes – that's easy!"

Ten years ago, Guarnier was on top of the cycling world, having won prestigious events like the Giro d'Italia and Tour of California. She landed podiums in La Flèche Wallonne and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, narrowly missing one in the Tour of Flanders, and was the first overall winner of the UCI Women's WorldTour.

She was the US national champion and represented her country in the Olympic Games. And, of course, she won a somewhat different edition of the Philly Classic, too. At each step, her husband Billy Crane was her biggest supporter. She credited him for convincing her to quit her day job and pursue cycling full time.

In 2018, Guarnier announced she was going to retire, go back to school and start a family. She planned to keep a toe in the sport as a mentor for the Tibco women's team. However, those ambitions fell away when Crane was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

"Yeah, so directly after I retired, we welcomed my little boy. And directly when he was born, my husband was diagnosed terminal," Guarnier tells Cyclingnews after finishing 10th in the Philadelphia Cycling Classic.

"We only got about a year with him after that. So there was the grief process, and then we had my second little boy."

Cancer took Crane in May of 2021, leaving Guarnier to raise her son Ned and his little brother Theodore while navigating the unimaginable. Eventually, her old rim-brake bike became a vehicle for finding a way through it.

"My friend got me back out on the bike. I wasn't riding at all through that whole process, just staying fit," Guarnier said. "I got back out on the bike and found another part of myself that I had been missing for quite a bit of time."

Soon, Guarnier was back in the sport, working with the CCB Kenetik women's development team.

"Then when [team manager] Tim [Mitchell] called me up and asked me to work for the team, I was like, 'I don't know, Tim, I haven't been in bike racing, haven't really been on bikes'," she explained.

Even so, her knowledge and deep insights proved to be valuable for the young team. She planned to be in the team car for Philly and not on the start line, but having just been with them for their training camp in Spain, Guarnier decided to fill an open spot on the team.

"The spot opened up, and I'm like, Tim's in the car, and I'm a little bit extra in the car, so why not get on the bike if I can help them?", she said.

"I can help them be a little more insightful - just the mentality of how to tackle each lap. Because I've done it, I know how it feels, and I know where the important points are and how to mentally handle that.

"Sometimes [it's better] being able to directly show them on the bike - because the car is in the caravan, in the back, and they don't really know what's happening."

Guarnier showed no signs that she's been away from competition for the better part of eight years, and was right near the front on the first ascent of the Manayunk Wall - the very place she won the last edition of this race.

"A lot has changed!" she said when asked how it felt to be back. "The equipment's changed – everybody makes fun of me for my rim brakes! It's of a different era, as am I.

"It was super fun. The crowds out there were unbelievable," Guarnier said. "I was really excited to see how much this has grown. All along the course, there were people going up the Wall. Just the energy out there was awesome. And it wasn't even the finish line this year. So to have that many people on all of the hills, yeah, it was a lot of fun."

Whether or not the thrill was enough for Guarnier to come out of retirement and race full time remains to be seen.

"One day at a time!" she says. "Being a mom of the best two little boys and having this opportunity to work with this team, again, it's all about having fun and passing my knowledge on to these girls. Because that's the goal with CCB, is to develop these women so they can be the future of the world for the US.

"I'm really excited with the whole thing - we were talking about the ebbs and flows of a race. Somebody says, 'Oh, I'm not feeling good,' and then how you change their mindset so they can feel better, or just focus directly on the next thing that's coming.

"So it's just been a fun process and kind of finding myself again after all the loss and all the change."

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Hello and welcome to the first in a new series for Cyclingnews, our monthly under-23 racing wrap-up!

As the pros get younger and younger and talent spotting gets more and more important for WorldTour teams, under-23 and even junior racing is more important than ever, so we wanted to start giving you a monthly overview of all the main stories, riders and races.

We'll mainly focus on road racing, and mainly the under-23 categories, but we'll throw in some junior races and some off-road stories too – multidisciplinary stars are the future, after all, and the junior ranks are the new under-23 when it comes to talent spotting.

We will include a revolving mix of sections, including obviously all the main results and transfers, but also dedicated sections on riders from Australia, New Zealand, North and South America and around the world, calling on expertise from our Australian and North American Editors.

We'd also love to know what you'd like to see in this round-up. Rider Q&As? Agent insights? More analysis? Let me know in the comments below; I'd love to hear your thoughts.

For now, though, let's get into all the main stories and action from August.

Racing and results

The biggest under-23 race in August was undoubtedly the Tour de l'Avenir, the long-standing race touted as the mini Tour de France and indeed often a very strong indicator of who will do well in the professional Grand Tours. This year's edition was a little bit different, as for the first time the event was raced primarily in trade development teams rather than national squads, which arguably made for a more professionalised dynamic.

Unfortunately, there was no women's race this year, after the organisers scrapped the race for 2026 citing costs and lack of development teams. They say they want to replace it with a women's junior race, but no word on that yet.

So, for the racing we did get: 23-year-old world champion and Giro d'Italia Next Gen winner Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies) went into the race as a huge favourite and duly delivered, winning the TT and the final road stage to secure the GC with a 2:34 gap.

Niels Driesen (Lotto-Groupe Wanty) finished second, with Picnic PostNL Development rider Matteo Vanhuffel third. The other stage winners were Driesen, Keije Solen (Lotto-Groupe Wanty), Davide Stella (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z), Kasper Borremans (Bahrain Victorious Development Team), and a name you probably already know, Aubin Sparfel (Decathlon CMA CGM Development Team).

The most interesting thing about the race was perhaps that it actually wasn't that surprising at all, and I think this comes down to the change to trade teams. With national teams, such a diverse range of riders got a chance to ride l'Avenir, and there were chances for riders to announce themselves there. Now, with the proliferation of development teams and indeed the growing professionalisation of the under-23 level, l'Avenir is less a career-launching race and more a career-confirming one.

Every stage winner this year, and indeed last year, was on a WorldTour development squad, and most already have their spot in the WorldTour secured for 2027. This is no longer the race to spot talent at – if riders are winning here, they've already proved themselves well before the Tour de l'Avenir.

All that said, it is still a really good and important race, and Finn's victory just confirms even more what a talent he is, and that he will be a force to be reckoned with when he steps up to Red Bull's WorldTour programme in January.

Other results:

• Nicolas Milesi (Ineos Grenadiers Racing Academy) won the Gran Premio Sportivi di Poggiana - Trofeo Bonin Costruzioni (1.2U)
• Jan Michal Jackowiak (Bahrain Victorious Development Team) won the GP Capodarco Comunita di Capodarco (1.2U)
• Václav Ježek (Kasper crypto4me) won the West Bohemia Tour (2.2U)

Talent radar

Down under digest

The biggest Aussie news of August came in mountain biking, rather than the road, when Connor Wright won the junior XCO race at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole. Coming from Australia, a nation with relatively little support for MTB riders, especially compared to the riders he was up against, this was a huge win for Wright and Australia in general.

But make no mistake, this isn't just an off-road story – Wright is a huge road talent, too. After winning the final stage of the Tour of Tasmania, he's been racing in Europe since April, partly for the Australian national squad and partly for a Dutch club team, and he's secured wins in France and Slovakia, plus third overall at the Junioren Rundfahrt.

He's off to Tudor Pro Cycling's under-23 development squad for 2027, so his talent has definitely been spotted, and he should be on your radar, too.

Australian riders had a pretty low-key Tour de l'Avenir – there were no New Zealand starters – with Jack Ward the best performer, 12th twice and 38th overall for Lidl-Trek Future Racing. Nations like Australia and New Zealand are definitely among the more heavily affected by the move to trade teams, which naturally favour more European riders and mean we'll see fewer riders from nations like these in the race. It places much more pressure on these riders to get spots on trade teams, and takes away the chance to race via their national federation, which is unfortunate to see.

The big question going forward regarding New Zealand is whether we're going to see any under-23 or junior riders at the World Championships. Riders often get fairly minimal support from Cycling New Zealand, often having to self-fund at least part of their trip, so participation is sometimes low. Redmond Connolly and Nate Pringle were the only under-23 representatives, men or women, to race in Kigali, with Pringle scoring silver in the TT, so he'll be hopeful of racing in Montreal. Connolly could also be a good shout as he has been racing in the US this summer.

All about the Americas

The best-performing riders from North and South America in Tour de l'Avenir were Mateo Ramírez (UAE Team Emirates Gen Z) in fourth and Henrique Bravo (Soudal Quick-Step Devo) in fifth. For Ramírez, fourth may have felt like a bit of a disappointment given he was second at the Giro Next Gen, and perhaps similar for Bravo as he won the Giro delle Valle d'Aosta and came third at the Giro Next Gen.

However, both results were really big ones, especially for Bravo from a really under-represented cycling nation in Brazil. He's been impressing all season, and will surely be flying the Brazilian flag in the WorldTour peloton soon, though Pinarello-Q36.5 are interested in his signature, too. We interviewed him earlier this year if you want to find out more about him.

Over in North America, the highlight of August was definitely the return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, where under-23 riders from teams like Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz, Competitive Edge Racing and Virginia's Blue Ridge-TWENTY28 got to rub shoulders with WorldTour riders. 20-year-old Ella Sabo hugely impressed with third in the women's race, a result which – paired with her solid ride for Team USA at the Tour de Pologne – surely will have put her on some big teams' radars.

Transfers

Here are some of the most notable under-23 transfers you should know about this month:

• Anja Grossmann → FDJ United-Suez – The French team snaps up the newly-crowned junior XCO world champion
• Niels Driesen → Pinarello-Q36.5 – Quite a coup, ProTeam Pinarello have lured Driesen away from the Lotto development team and a spot on a WorldTour team
• Héctor Alvarez → Lidl-Trek (development team graduate)
• Seth Dunwoody → Bahrain Victorious (development team graduate)
• Gavin Sherry → EF Education-EasyPost (development team graduate)

Visit our transfer index for all the latest moves.

Up next

There are a couple of road races coming up on the men's under-23 circuit – the Giro della Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia stage race kicks off on Thursday, and the Flanders Tomorrow Tour on Friday – but the main focus now will be on the Road World Championships and the age category road races and TTs in Montréal.

Because he's still only 19, Lorenzo Finn will be a pretty big favourite to repeat his title in the under-23 men's road race, and possibly the time trial as well, although the race against the clock is likely a lot more open. Fresh off of eighth overall in the Tour de France Femmes, home favourite Isabella Holmgren will be aiming big in the women's under-23 events, and could bring home a big win – or two – for Canada.

We'll have full previews of the contenders for the under-23 and junior races throughout the World Championships, plus news and interviews from our team on the ground, so stick around for more under-23 coverage in September.

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Our Senior Tech Writer and Cyclingnews Tech YouTube channel presenter Will Jones describes the Cannondale CAAD14 as a serious contender for ‘first proper road bike’ for a great many customers at this price point, and a surefire contender for a spot in our guide to the best aluminium road bikes. But how did it actually fare in his comprehensive bike review?

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I fear that Tadej Pogačar's abandonment of La Vuelta a España on Saturday could mark the end of his season. We know he underwent an operation on his collarbone yesterday. However, the fracture to his vertebrae could make it a more complicated recovery than just a straightforward collarbone fracture – which is a two-week job for professional cyclists.

We won't know for certain until the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider is out of hospital and we get a clearer picture of his condition, but from what people are saying and what I've been looking at, it could be several weeks.

It might therefore be too difficult for him to get back into shape for his end-of-season goals, notably the World Championships in Montréal, the Europeans on his home roads of Slovenia, and a tilt at a record-breaking sixth Il Lombardia. Saturday could well have been the end of his season.

I suspect there'll be a lot of his fellow riders with a keen interest in the outcome of Pogačar's operation, thinking to themselves, 'I have a much better chance of winning a rainbow jersey now.'

Perhaps more disappointing for Pogačar than potentially missing out on the chance to make it three world championship titles in a row, or break the record in Lombardy, is the fact that La Vuelta's red jersey still eludes him. He was going to tick it off this year, and then that would be done, but now he's going to have to think about when he will return to the Spanish Grand Tour, because that's the type of champion he is; he doesn't want any races missing from his palmarès. It certainly complicates matters further for next season.

Not bad bike handling, just bad luck

Looking at the crash more closely, it appears to have been just one loose stone, and he had no idea what was on the road ahead. I suspect his hands slipped off the handlebars because of the way he went over the bike and banged off the Visma-Lease a Bike riders – it's just a bit of bad luck, unfortunately. And in fairness to Pogačar, one of his many great attributes is his bike handling. You can only really count a handful of occasions where he's come unstuck. And he's only suffered serious fractures on this occasion and at the 2023 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, when he fractured his wrist in a similar incident.

While those are both unlucky, his avoidance of crashes isn't down to luck; it's because he's a naturally strong bike handler. Going downhill in the bunch, in windy conditions or in echelons on the flat stages, we've seen it so many times, and that's what makes him so difficult to challenge in these Grand Tours. I've said that many times before; there's no weak point.

Even on those occasions where he's had dicey moments, like at Paris-Roubaix or Strade Bianche last year when he went too hot into a corner, he managed to get away unscathed. While Milan-San Remo this year was purely a crash I put down to bike racing – it's nothing to do with bike handling.

So Saturday's incident is something he'll probably be sat in hospital thinking about, and cursing, because there was nothing he could do.

One silver lining is that this incident came at this point in the season, rather than at or in the build-up to the Tour de France. For a rider targeting a spot in the general classification at this race, maybe a top-three or top-five, it wouldn't be the end of the world to bow out early. But when you're in a position like Pogačar's, in the maillot rojo and riding towards Granada at a canter, with a really favourable World Championships course on the horizon too, it's going to be a disappointment. It could be a whole lot worse, though.

Six or seven riders could still win La Vuelta

Reflecting on the now Pogačar-less La Vuelta, when you look at Sunday's stage, in particular the final mountain, the racing was great. It was on all the way until the final two kilometres, with plenty of suspense. Who will win the stage? Who will gain time on who? Who could lose time? I hate to say it, but if we had Pogačar there, he'd probably have ridden away from the rest of the bunch and arrived 40 seconds ahead of his closest rival, essentially killing off any suspense with four or five kilometres, maybe even more, still to race.

So the stage had a lot more suspense in the final. Of course, you can't deny or lament what Pogačar does on these occasions; it's amazing stuff. But the racing isn't typically as exciting as it was on Sunday, or as it will be throughout the mountaintop finishes coming up this week.

Which rider comes to the fore over the days to come and fills that Pogačar-shaped hole remains to be seen. You could make an argument for each of the top six or seven riders in the GC for why they could win La Vuelta.

The current leader, Enric Mas, looks to be riding the wave of the red jersey, and he's been impressive. I've always marked the Movistar man as a 'follower', following moves but rarely ever attacking himself, so I wondered how he would ride now, with the leader's jersey on his back and all eyes on him, but he did so magnificently.

However, there's no shortage of riders to knock Mas off his perch. Richard Carapaz is one man who has come into this race carrying good form from the Tour de France and is a dangerous fox in the high mountains, but will fatigue catch up with him come the final week?

If four-time winner Primož Roglič stays where he is in the standings for the individual time trial, then he's going to be dangerous too. The Slovenian had ridden fewer than 30 racedays before La Vuelta, and I've heard grumblings that he's not proving great value for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's money, but another Grand Tour title will surely change all that.

Oscar Onley, like Roglič, has also had his injury issues this campaign, and the Netcompany-Ineos rider has shifted his focus to a La Vuelta GC bid as a result. He's clearly got some good form to be up there on Sunday, and perhaps will only get stronger as the race goes on.

It's crazy to think we've still got two more full weeks of racing to come, considering the drama that La Vuelta has already delivered. With several serious mountain days in both weeks, it's going to be a difficult and tactically interesting battle, that's for certain.

Cyclingnews subscribers will be familiar with our popular tech galleries from big races such as the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and Paris Roubaix, and now it's time to take that same formula off road.

As a result, tech reporter Neal Hunt was in Val di Sole at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, on the hunt for the latest tech that riders and teams were using to help get their riders into the famous rainbow stripes.

Here's what he had to say:

It's been a hot and sunny Mountain Bike World Championships here in Trentino, Italy, although given it took place in Val di Sole (Valley of the Sun), shouldn't really be a surprise.

All year, the talk has been about the incoming (32-inch) new wheel size and how it will become the new norm, but on the ground in Italy, that wasn't being evidenced just yet. Despite all of the chat from previous events like Eurobike, I expected to see more here.

A lot of bike brands have been talking about it taking over their ranges next year, and plenty of products looked production-ready, but strangely, only one or two riders were using them in XC practice.

Regardless, after several days poking and nosing around the pits, here's what I managed to find.