Welcome to the first edition of Ask CN, a new AMA-style series on Cyclingnews where our readers get the chance to put their questions to us, our columnists, and more.

For the inaugural episode, we're shining a light on CN Labs, the longstanding series of wind tunnel tests, rolling resistance tests and other empirical inquisitions into bikes, gear and industry trends.

Over the course of the past week, subscribers, readers and followers have been submitting questions to Josh, Will and Tom - the CN tech team responsible for the aforementioned tests. Today, subscribers alone will get to read their answers.

So whether you're curious about the technical details of our wind tunnel protocol, want to know what future tests we have in mind, or even the bike we'd choose for Roubaix, you'll find it below.

And if you're not yet subscribed, then there's no better time to join our ever-growing community that gets unlimited access to all our industry-leading tests, expert tech insight, comprehensive race coverage, and plenty of subscriber-exclusive articles, like our AskCN Q&As! Click here to subscribe.

I trusted this was a solid theory, but we verified it in 2025 when we did our 12 aero bikes test. We not only took along the Emonda, but also the Scott Foil we'd also tested in 2024 as a second 'baseline'.

Using the same protocols, both bikes were around six watts faster than the previous year. If we didn't take a baseline at all, we'd have just concluded that everything tested in 2025 was a similar amount (six watts) faster than the bikes we tested in 2024, even if they were actually equivalent.

The difference between the two baselines (the Foil was around 35 watts faster) changed by just 0.65w across the two tests.

We found 18 watts between the fastest and slowest options, but perhaps most interesting was that there was as much variance between the different high end options as there was between cheap and expensive. This, we believe, is because when you get into the high-end options, fabric choice is tailored to speed.

How about a handlebar showdown? As this is a leading edge, what about exposed cables versus internal routing for the same bars / one piece vs. aero bar and stem etc. It seems like this could be a good place to find some speed without changing one's whole bike (older frames unite LOL) (btlrck)

Would a 35mm tyre fitted to a rim optimised for 35mm tyres be as aero as a 28mm tyre on a rim optimised for 28mm tyres? (tc_fair_weather_rides)

As tyre width grows, so does aero drag. A 32mm tyre on the Zipp 303 XPLR wheel is faster than a 28mm tyre on the Hunt CGR 40, but this will mostly be because the Zipp wheel is 14mm deeper.

Remember, though, speed isn't only made up of aerodynamics. I implore you to read our test on 40mm tyres, as we tackled this question fairly head-on. On rougher surfaces, a 35mm tyre is 13 watts faster (per tyre) than a 28mm tyre. When we swapped to a different rim optimised for wider tyres, that saving grew to around 55w per tyre.

However, on smooth tarmac, the benefit of going wider was actually negative. Rolling resistance didn't change with any significance, and the aero got marginally worse.

So the real trade-off is aero versus rolling resistance on the surface you ride, plus a little bit of weight, cornering and acceleration peppered into the equation too. And you'll probably find that the lower tyre pressure of wider tyres means more comfort, better grip, and less chance of a puncture too.

But even if the wind is coming at you from 90° to the right, the actual experienced yaw angle will be less than this, because you're creating your own headwind by moving through air.

There are a few mathematical models that have calculated - in extreme detail - the likelihood of experiencing any given wind angle at any given time, taking into account ambient wind conditions, average riding speeds and so on.

To solve for watts, we calculate a weighted average based on the weightings supplied by one of these mathematical models.

The models all create a bell curve that centres around 0°, and in all cases, the probability of experiencing anything beyond 15° on either side is so small that it doesn't make any difference to the results when we calculate that average, and thus it would be a waste of time to test it.

Next up is Will Jones, who has fronted the Cyclingnews Tech YouTube channel since its launch in Spring, during which time he's ridden and reviewed over two dozen flagship race bikes.

And finally, me (Josh Croxton).

That's all for today, folks. With so many questions still to answer, I've convinced my colleagues to let me do a second part in the coming weeks. Feel free to drop any new questions into the comments of this article, and I'll endeavour to get to them.

And with that, thanks for reading!

The world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving so fast that even WorldTour cycling teams are now using it to help understand and interpret riders' data to aid with training and racing.

For example, Netcompany-Ineos recently announced it would use an AI-based aero testing app next year.

AI use is commonplace now, and cyclists are using it to their advantage. Following suit, I decided to see what AI could do for me.

My end goal was for AI to generate a bespoke training plan that could return me to my peak level of fitness, whatever that was. Simple, or so I thought. I wanted to learn about customising an AI training plan based on my own historical data, and improve my skills along the way.

The first challenge was choosing a platform. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot were all AI assistants that I investigated.

Some AI engines or apps are free, some aren't. Free versions limit what you can do and, in this case, how many files you can upload to be analysed. I paid a subscription fee as I was always going to need to use my full training history. After researching the different platforms, I settled on Claude because it could read and analyse my CSV files directly.

With Claude chosen, I paid for a subscription and began to see what it could do.

I decided to ask it to build me a 12-week indoor training plan using this simple prompt:

"Build me a 12-week indoor cycling training plan of between 7 and 10 hours a week. I can ride 5 times a week, but not on Thursday."

Claude then produced the plan below for me:

The plan is perfectly acceptable, but it's limited. It offers nothing beyond what you can find in cycling training manuals or on hundreds of websites online.

The plan falls short because it is not based on my own data. Without access to my training data, asking AI to build me a plan will always result in something this generic.

Granted, you can input parameters such as how many rides you intend to do each week, how many hours you have available for training, and which days suit you best, but beyond that, the output will always be limited.

Data is key

To create a bespoke plan and something tailored to my requirements, I realised that I needed to provide AI with my training data. Only with this could AI produce a bespoke plan. And for that, I knew where to go:

My Strava account held almost all my training data, and with the functionality to download it, I could then take the relevant files and have AI analyse them and utilise my training and riding history.

[Ed. Since undertaking this project, but prior to publishing, Strava launched its MCP connector, allowing direct plugin to AI assistants, enabling the sharing of historic datam, plus future data in perpetuity].

A data side quest

However, I had to undertake a slight side quest first. Strava did not have all my data. My early years of training results were held on spreadsheets, so I had to get these uploaded into Strava using a third-party app.

I reformatted the spreadsheets got the data uploaded into Strava, using a third-party go between. I then requested my complete set of training data from Strava. An email link soon arrived with a 1.7 GB archive, though I only needed one file from it.

The summary file was called "activities.csv" and contained enough data to enable AI to produce a tailored plan for me.

To download your own data in Strava, go to Settings > My Account > Download or Delete Your Account, then select Request Your Archive. Strava then emails you a link to the data.

Only activities.csv is needed, so there's no need to upload the whole thing. If you have many years of riding and the file is too large to upload, delete the oldest rows, but keep your best season so the AI can compare against it.

A word of caution: activities.csv includes heart-rate data, which is personal health information. I recommend checking your AI platform's privacy and data settings before you upload it.

Power figures only appear in activities.csv files for rides recorded with a power meter or smart trainer. Without them, the AI's FTP estimates and power targets will be much less reliable, so bear this in mind too.

AI and prompts

The next challenge was writing the correct prompts to finesse my training programme. My first attempt was too simple. After some research, I learned that a good prompt needs four key components.

The first component is the persona, which assigns the AI a specific role, for example: "You are an elite cycling WorldTour coach."

The second component is the specific task, such as "Using my uploaded data, analyse and assess my current level and create me a 12-week training plan that gets me to and surpasses my previous best cycling fitness levels."

The third component is the context: including any important details, which in this case were the days I could train and for how many hours.

The fourth and final component is the format, or how I would like the answer to look.

The prompt I decided to use to build my specific training plan was as follows:

"You are an elite cycling WorldTour coach. Using my uploaded data in the spreadsheet only, analyse and assess my current level and create a 12-week training plan that gets me to and surpasses my previous best cycling fitness levels."

"I have 10 hours per week for training and can ride 5 times a week, with the exception of Thursday."

"Sessions in the week must not last longer than 90 minutes. I would like a detailed session plan, detailing how long each session should last, power output and heart rate."

I also find that going to a separate Claude chat window and asking it to suggest its own prompt is a good way to learn the phrasing and terminology that Claude itself understands. You can iterate on its suggestion more easily than create your own from scratch, and the wording is often less vague than anything I would generate myself.

I later refined these prompts into a shorter version that you can reuse:

"You are an elite WorldTour cycling coach. Using only the rides in my attached Strava activities.csv, assess my current level against my all-time best (estimated FTP, and best 20-minute and 60-minute power), then create a 12-week plan starting [date] to beat it."

"I have 10 hours a week over 5 rides. I can't ride on Thursday or [second rest day], and weekday rides must be 90 minutes or less. Give me my power and heart-rate zones, then a table for each week showing day, duration, session, target watts, and target heart rate. Include recovery weeks and FTP tests in weeks 1, 4, 8, and 12, and be honest about how realistic the goal is."

Before building the plan, the AI assessed my data. It estimated that my FTP had fallen from about 325–329 watts at my peak (December 2021 to February 2022) to about 260 watts, a drop of around 20%, and that my weekly riding had halved from 8–10 hours to about 4.5 hours. That told me straight away that this plan would be built around me, not a textbook.

The output, generated by the first of the two prompts above, was a very detailed plan with tailored power and heart-rate targets. The table below shows Week 1; the other 11 weeks are just as detailed.

The plan is not fixed. After each FTP test, I can give the AI the result and ask it to recalculate my zones and update the remaining weeks, so the plan keeps pace with my fitness. With the newly added MCP Connector, this could even be automated.

Example Block 1: Rebuild (FTP 260 W)

Prompts you may find useful

Goal Planning

This prompt gets the AI to act as your personal cycling coach and build a 12-week plan that fits around your life and moves you towards a goal, such as beating your best FTP. It is a fuller version of the short prompt above, giving you more control over the output.

"You are an elite WorldTour cycling coach who builds periodised, power-based plans for time-limited amateurs. Using the 'Ride' and 'Virtual Ride' activities in my attached Strava activities.csv, create a progressive 12-week plan to [goal, e.g., beat my previous best FTP]. I have [X] hours a week across [X] rides; I can't ride on [days], and weekday sessions are capped at [X] minutes.

Remember to be specific in your demands; a degree of nuance and experience is needed here, and if you choose to experiment, the more you do, the better you will get.

I asked the AI to give me:

• An assessment of my current level against my all-time best, with key numbers. Estimate FTP from Weighted Average Power in 20–60-minute rides, and include weekly hours, load, and consistency over the last 12 weeks.
• A zones table: % of FTP, watts, and heart rate.
• One table per week: day, duration, session (with intervals and recoveries), target watts, target heart rate, and weekly total hours. Include recovery weeks and FTP tests in weeks 1, 4, 8, and 12, with week 12 a taper that ends in the final test.
• Up to five rules on fuelling, adjusting when fatigued, and updating zones after each test.
• Be realistic about what 12 weeks can achieve.

Recovery Assessment

This prompt uses your data to check whether you've been riding too hard too often over the past month without enough easy days or rest between hard rides. The aim is to catch fatigue before it leads to poor performance, illness, or burnout.

"You are a cycling physiologist specialising in recovery and fatigue monitoring. Using the 'Ride' and 'Virtual Ride' activities in my attached Strava activities.csv file from the last 30 days, find the days where my recovery was probably not enough. My FTP is [X] W, and my threshold heart rate is [X] bpm. Classify each ride as hard (above 85% of FTP), moderate, or easy (below 70% of FTP), using Weighted Average Power, Relative Effort, and heart rate, and treat a heart rate of 0 as not recorded. Flag hard days back-to-back, more than three hard rides in any seven days, and heart rate out of line with power."

I also asked my AI coach to give me:

• A 30-day calendar table: date, ride, duration, Weighted Average Power, and Hard/Moderate/Easy/Rest.
• Each day where recovery was not enough, with a one-line reason.
• My hard-to-easy ratio compared with 80/20.
• Three changes to my weekly structure.

Event Preparation

This prompt checks whether your recent riding has prepared you for a specific event, such as a sportive, road race, or time trial, and tells you what to work on in the four weeks before it.

"You are an experienced cycling coach who prepares riders for races and sportives. Look at my rides from the last 12 weeks in the attached Strava activities.csv file. I'm riding [event, e.g., a 120 km sportive with 2,000 m of climbing] on [date]; my goal is [goal, e.g., finish under 4 hours], and my FTP is about [X] W. Tell me whether my training so far has prepared me for this event.

I also asked my AI coach to give me:

• A short summary of how fit I am now, in three or four sentences.
• A table of my last 12 weeks: hours ridden, longest ride, total climbing, and number of hard sessions (Weighted Average Power above 85% of FTP) each week.
• What's missing. Check whether I've done enough long rides, enough climbing, enough long steady, hard efforts, and enough short bursts for attacks. For each gap, show the evidence from my data and why it matters for this event.
• A four-week plan to fix those gaps, with the key sessions, the long ride for each week, and power and heart-rate targets.
• An honest one-line answer on whether my goal is realistic.

A word on agentic AI

Rather than building all of the above as a self-serve chat-based coach that you ask questions of and manually prompt when you want it to adjust or analyse your work, it could even be built agentically. An overarching AI Agent could be given the primary prompt, the database of Strava workouts uploaded as resources alongside your preferences, and improvements to your power duration curve or your FTP can be its reward signal.

The trio of prompts above - alongside others - could then be created as 'skills' - essentially tools that the LLM can call upon, and automations can be built to check your progress periodically, update the plan in real time, and flag whenever you're off track.

If you wanted, you could even connect it to your Whoop (if you use one), and your Calendar app of choice to slot the workout into your day.

There's a lot of potential here, and although the build essentially seeks to mimic much of what's already been achieved by TrainerRoad, Zwift Plus, Vekta, FasCat, Xert et al, there's a certain enjoyment and pride in building it yourself (even if Claude is doing the hard yards), and being able to tweak it to your liking.

Conclusion

AI can be a valuable tool for cyclists to understand their training and improve performance, and many are already experimenting with ways to use AI to improve their training.

The results are going to depend on the input. While generating a basic training plan is easy, creating a genuinely bespoke one is harder.

The real insights come when AI accesses your historical training data. It analyses past performances, assesses your current state, and builds a plan around your ambitions, time, and individual needs. This results in a more detailed and personalised approach.

For the plans and outputs to be relevant, the data must be accurate, prompts carefully constructed, and output critically evaluated. Training recommendations are only as useful as their underlying information and assumptions. AI should not replace professional coaching or understanding your body's response to training.

There's also a cost, both for AI platform subscriptions and the time to organise data and refine prompts. Yet, for cyclists willing to invest the initial effort, the reward is a plan built around their own numbers rather than a generic one.

I aimed to see if AI could help me regain peak fitness. I now have a structured, data-driven 12-week plan designed to do just that. Its success will ultimately be determined on the bike in the coming weeks.

The 2026/2027 cyclo-cross calendar is already rolling, and the winter campaign hits full throttle on Friday, November 27, 2026, with the opening round of the marquee UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Ostrava, Czechia.

The season culminates with the 2027 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships taking place from Friday, 29 January to Sunday, 31 January 2027.

Before we get to World Cup action, we have plenty of action to enjoy, including the Cyclo-cross European Championships this weekend, November 7-8, and the Pan American Cyclo-cross Championships on November 7.

The only way to guarantee uninterrupted viewing from anywhere is to use a VPN. It lets you stream your usual subscribed cycling coverage from wherever you are while keeping your online connection secure and private.

NordVPN have gone early with its Black Friday deals, which save you up to 78% and an extra three months for free on top.

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With star names including record-breaking eight-time World CX champion Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, and Tom Pidcock all likely to appear at some point in the full 12-round CX World Cup calendar, now is the ideal time to get your cyclo-cross streaming arrangements locked down.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a cyber-security tool that keeps you safe online and allows you to alter the digital location of your devices, thus bypassing the geo-restrictions you get on most streaming platforms.

Our tech colleagues at both TechRadar and T3 both recommend NordVPN as the best overall, and its blistering speed, robust threat protection, and consistently dependable global network are some of its standout features.

2026/27 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Schedule

How to watch cyclo-cross in the UK

TNT Sports and HBO Max are the UK’s go-to home for cycling, boasting another bumper broadcast lineup for the 2026/27 cyclo-cross campaign. Subscribers can catch every battle across the UCI World Cup and World Championships, alongside regular action from the Superprestige, X2O Badkamers Trofee, and Exact Cross circuits.

Access to TNT Sports starts at £25.99 a month, and TNT Sports plus HBO Max starts at £27.99. HBO Max also includes some of the best series and movies on top of the live sports coverage.

How to watch cyclo-cross in the US

Following the cyclo-cross season from the US can be a bit fragmented, with live rights largely split between FloBikes and HBO Max.

Dedicated cycling hub FloBikes carries a healthy slice of top-flight action, including select World Cup rounds. However, broadcast schedules can fluctuate and don't always cover the entire calendar, making it wise to monitor their upcoming listings closely. Membership is either $39.99 on a rolling monthly basis or $155.88 for an annual pass.

HBO Max holds a major share of US streaming rights across the winter calendar. To access the live sports feed, you'll need at least the Standard ad-free tier, which sits at $18.49 per month.

For occasional free-to-air viewing, the official UCI YouTube channel occasionally streams select races live, though those feeds are strictly geoblocked in regions where a domestic broadcaster holds exclusive distribution rights.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

The USA Cycling Foundation's annual auction goes live on Wednesday, with Tadej Pogačar's race-ridden Colnago, signed rainbow jerseys, and and rides with pros amongst the items up for sale to raise money for American cyclists.

Now in its fifth year, the online auction – which is open to anyone around the world – raises money to support US Olympic and Paralympic cyclists, with the upcoming Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 making fundraising especially important this year. In the US, Olympic athletes do not receive any government funding.

The first items will go live on Wednesday, November 4 with the auction running through to Monday, November 9, and 99 items up for auction in total.

Topping the list in terms of value and intrigue is undoubtedly Tadej Pogačar's world champion edition Colnago V5Rs which he rode to victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2025. Donated by Colnago, the bike is valued at $80,000 and will go live on Friday with a starting bid of $25,000.

If previous auctions of Pogačar's bikes are anything to go by, it could sell for a huge figure, with one of his Y1Rs bikes selling for $190,500 at auction last winter.

There's plenty of other pro memorabilia up for grabs, including signed rainbow jerseys from Brandon McNulty and Ashlin Barry, Tejay Van Garderen's white jersey from the 2012 Tour de France, and more from Demi Vollering, Enric Mas and Kate Courtney.

Courtney has donated the bike and jersey she used on her way to winning the US National Championships earlier this year, valued at $13,900 and already open to bids.

There are a number of money-can't-buy experiences included in the auction, such as rides with Keegan Swenson, Christopher Blevins and Alexey Vermeulen, plus several bikes, kit, helmets, and gift cards, as well as guaranteed entries to many of the biggest US gravel events, and even an entry to the Étape du Tour in 2027.

Supporters can also bid on plenty of non-cycling items, including sports and concert tickets, holidays and hotel stays, and food and drink.

Starting bids start at as little as a dollar with hopes of raising potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars for US cyclists.

"Our athletes are proof of what private support can do," said Molly Pickall, the USA Cycling Foundation's executive director.

"In Paris, American women won every one of Team USA's Olympic cycling medals. LA28 is the first Summer Games on home soil since 1996, and we want to arrive with the strongest team we've ever fielded. This auction gives every fan, anywhere in the country, a way to be part of the Foundation that supports USA Cycling."

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn't slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today.

Wahoo Fitness has returned to year on year growth following its recapitalisation in 2023, CEO Gareth Joyce has revealed.

Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews, Joyce opened up on a broad range of subjects, including why it took so long to update the Kickr Core despite growing the Kickr to its sixth iteration, why it launched a treadmill, the reasoning behind its partnership with Coros, and why 2038 is going to be a heck of a busy year.

He outlined a business very much with cycling still at its centre, but explained that running taking increasing amounts of importance. And he explained that there’s a busy product roadmap ahead, with "seven or eight" launches in the pipeline for 2027 following a year spent reorganising development

Joyce, an engineer and keen cyclist and runner who joined Wahoo in 2024, had never worked in the bike industry before and admits he wasn’t an obvious candidate for the CEO role, but that his then-recent experience talking a company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy made him perfectly qualified given Wahoo’s financial turbulence at the time.

He sees his role as bringing a sense of corporate structure to a startup business. He explained that Wahoo’s foundations were built on innovation, but its scale no longer supports that model of working.

"It’s no longer just a startup," he said. "We’ve got a large customer base that you have a responsibility to."

Asked whether the changes following Wahoo’s recapitalisation are working, Joyce’s answer was pretty conclusive.

"We’ve had very strong growth coming out of that," he said. "We have a great brand, great product, very committed customer base, and there were some things we needed to fix in the business which we paid attention to early on.

"We’ve seen growth year over year in all of the years since the recapitalisation, and I expect this year to be the same."

Naturally, he declined to provide any actual figures, so the extent of Wahoo’s profitability will have to remain unknown, but he affirmed that key "operational changes" are key to the business’s newfound momentum.

Among those changes was burying the hatchet with Zwift, with whom Wahoo was in a year-long lawsuit, after Wahoo claimed the Zwift Hub smart trainer infringed on its patents.

"If we work together, we can grow the industry," he said. "That was what Eric [Min, Zwift co-founder and CEO] and I set out to achieve."

The ball had already begun rolling on this before Joyce’s appointment. The lawsuit was settled in September 2023, the Kickr Core Zwift One launched in March 2024, and Joyce was appointed in April. But he says working with Zwift - and other brands - is now central to how Wahoo should expand. An example of this includes Wahoo’s partnership with competitor brand Coros.

Product plans and clearer priorities

Joyce argued that Wahoo’s innovation and its ability to come up with good ideas can make it difficult to decide which to pursue.

"You tend to become a little chaotic with your product strategy because every idea is a good idea," he said. "When you try and make every product that you think is a good idea, you end up distributing your resources and a distributed focus."

His solution to this was to revisit the company’s mission of "building the better athlete in all of us" and judge product ideas against it. Cycling remained – and still remains – the foundation, with indoor trainers, GPS computers and surrounding accessories supplying the data an athlete needs, but this is underpinned by software. The new Wahoo app was quietly rolled out this year, after a long period of beta testing.

The revised strategy also meant an overhaul of its product launch cycles, which explains some of the recent quiet on the launch front.

"This year was a pretty lean year of releases for us, which was by design," Joyce explained. "Last year, when we kind of reset the product strategy, we then had to reset the engineering program."

He expects the results to become more visible in 2027.

"Next year we have a pretty healthy set of product launches. I think we have seven or eight in the pipeline," he says. "I’m currently testing three of them as we speak. In fact, some of them are lying on my desk."

Unfortunately he turned down my invite for a game of show and tell, despite me awkwardly presenting the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt 2 that was lying on my desk.

Iterative development

Alongside that reset is a longer-term change to Wahoo’s product cycles and release cadence.

I asked why the Kickr Core went from 2018 to 2025 without any update, while the flagship Kickr trainer grew to its sixth iteration – seven if you count the Kickr Move.

"There was no rational reason for that replacement cadence," Joyce conceded. "The market was not demanding changes that quickly."

Wahoo is now working around different cycles for different categories: roughly three years for bike computers, four for indoor trainers, and six for heart rate monitors and treadmills.

I joked that he’s going to have a busy 2038 when those cycles overlap in their 12th year, to which he was keen to re-emphasise the use of the word "roughly" and affirmed that those are loose assumptions, rather than a fixed calendar.

The slowed approach also reflects his view on indoor cycling, and the slowing nature of the technology’s innovation.

"I think it’s now entering that phase of iterative development rather than disruptive technology," he said. "That’s not to say it’ll never happen, but just right now, there’s not something that we see on the horizon of, let’s say, five years, that would be disruptive in nature."

He immediately qualified that by adding "that doesn’t mean we’ve thought of everything."

A move into running

Wahoo didn’t cut its teeth in running, but in 2024, Wahoo launched a treadmill known as the Kickr Run. As Joyce explains, the plan was to take the formula that saw Wahoo transform indoor cycling, and apply it to another sport.

It’s not quite had the same uptake in the 2.5 years since it launched as the smart trainer, but nevertheless Joyce sees it as an important growth category, and one where there’s plenty of opportunity for innovation and disruption.

"Treadmills, for a very long time, have been terrible products," he says.

And to that end, the Coros partnership adds weight to Wahoo’s move into running, but also demonstrates where Joyce believes Wahoo should avoid spreading itself thin.

The Elemnt Rival smartwatch can’t hold a candle to the quality of launches from market leader Garmin, nor can Wahoo keep up with their annual release cycle. Instead, rather than invest in a complete watch range to compete directly, it chose to work with Coros.

"To develop multiple SKUs is a very big investment, takes a lot of time, and would distract our attention from the rest of the strategy," he explained.

The goal is to provide access to products for cycling and running, indoors and outdoors, developing those products in house where possible, and partnering with others where not.

Connecting indoor and outdoor training

Joyce recognises that many of its customers aren’t exclusively doing one sport, nor are they only doing it indoors or out.

"That boundary is no longer in and out of your house. It’s just cycling," he explained.

And that’s where the Wahoo software offering comes into play. Wahoo has had multiple apps running concurrently for years, one controlling hardware and another providing training solutions, and Joyce is relieved at the recent consolidation.

"If our mission is building the better athlete in all of us, and I can’t tell you whether you’re becoming a better athlete or not, then it’s kind of hard to make that brand play."

If he can reduce the number of apps, or streamline the way in which the heart rate monitor, GPS computer and smart trainer all talk to third party suppliers, efficiencies can be found.

Two approaches to artificial intelligence

When asked about AI, Joyce separated Wahoo’s use of the fast-growing tech into two buckets: internally, how the brand uses it day to day, and externally, i.e. what AI integration might offer customers. Within the business, AI is already used extensively across software, firmware and hardware engineering.

"We’ve seen significant acceleration in our development cycles of products, particularly software," he said, pointing to faster app updates as one example.

He also said AI is being leveraged to help his Customer Service team resolve issues more quickly, while remaining entirely human.

However, for consumer-facing features, such as the AI Coach revealed by Zwift this week, or the AI-based adaptive training used by TrainerRoad, Joyce is more cautious. He believes customers may prefer to use AI services they already pay for, whether that’s the aforementioned, or a direct account with Claude or Chat GPT.

Voicing that customer’s perspective, he said: "I don’t want five licences for AI accounts. I want you to be able to pass me the data where I want it."

That helps explain why Wahoo has yet to commit to a consumer AI offering, despite the fast pace of the industry. Where Joyce does see an opportunity, however, is in Wahoo’s enormous database of accumulated workout data.

"We have records of workout data that goes back over a decade. We have the capability to translate that data into meaning, which is the next big opportunity we see, which we’re now starting to work on using machine learning and AI."

And for that database of workout data, Joyce’s data is as prevalent as any others.

"I love cycling. I love my running. To be able to go out on a Saturday and do a long ride and test stuff... yes, you could technically say that’s work, but for me it’s not."

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn't slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today.

After a long road season, the 2026-27 cyclo-cross season is getting underway as the major competitions begin and the big winter stars take to the mud.

This season, there are four big competitions to follow, headed up by the UCI World Cup and including the Superprestige, X2O Trofee, and HG Cross, with the winter's action culminating with the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Oostende, Belgium (January 29-31, 2027).

A host of storylines will run through this season, including the 'will they/won't they race?' question hanging over the sport's two biggest stars – Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert.

Elsewhere, Fem van Empel is back after stepping away from racing earlier this year. She and the likes of Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Puck Pieterse, and Amandine Fouquenet will be looking to challenge world champion Lucinda Brand in the world champion's final season.

Away from the men's 'big two', look out for other top competitors such as Michael Vanthourenhout, Thibau Nys, Tibor Del Grosso, Felipe Orts, and Joris Nieuwenhuis.

We have all the broadcast information so you can watch all the action on TV or via live stream. Read on for where you can watch all the major races this winter.

Live cyclo-cross on TV this week

🇧🇪 Jaarmarktcross — Wednesday, November 11
No free broadcasts
Taking place on Armistice Day, the Jaarmarktcross is round three of the Telenet Superprestige, with the likes of Aniek van Alphen, Lucinda Brand, Niels Vandeputte and Laurens Sweeck competing across the women's and men's categories. Unfortunately, there are no confirmed free-to-air broadcasts of the race.

🇧🇪 Aardbeiencross — Saturday, November 14
No free broadcasts
Directly translated as the Strawberry Cross, the Aardbeiencross takes place in Merksplas, a region known for its strawberry cultivation. It serves as the second race of the week and round four of the Telenet Superprestige. Unfortunately, there are no confirmed free-to-air broadcasts of this race either.

🇧🇪 Bollekescross— Sunday, November 15
Stream free on Sporza / VRT Max (Belgium)
The biggest race of the week takes place on Sunday as the Bollekescross returns for the first time in 13 years. Returning to Zogge, the revival will still retain approximately 95% of the original course. Thibau Nys, Joris Nieuwenhuis and Lucinda Brand are among those contending.

Cyclo-cross free streams

Good news for cycling fans: you can watch cyclo-cross for free in many parts of the world.

The sport's governing body, the UCI, hosts free streams for its UCI World Cup series and UCI World Championships on its own UCI YouTube channel. Coverage is geo-restricted and is only available in countries where a TV deal hasn't been struck with an external broadcaster.

Cyclo-cross' roots in Belgium mean that races from all the major series are shown on free-to-air public broadcasters. That means you can watch the action on VRT / Sporza in Flanders and RTBF in Wallonia. In the Netherlands, free live streams are often available on public broadcaster NOS' platform NPO Start.

Away from home? You can still access your usual streams by using a VPN – more on that below.

How to watch the 2026-27 cyclo-cross season from anywhere

If you're outside your usual country while a race is on this winter, you might think you can't watch the race, but you'd be wrong. A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that lets you tune into your streaming services from abroad and allows you to do so with complete confidence.

There are loads of great VPN options out there, but for a VPN that's brilliant at streaming and is also TechRadar's pick for the overall best VPN in the world, we'd recommend NordVPN.

Watch 2026-27 cyclo-cross season live streams in the US

Cyclo-cross coverage in the USA is a little patchy, with coverage split between FloBikes and HBO Max for the European races.

FloBikes is a cycling-specific streaming platform that offers cyclo-cross action from various series, including the World Cups. However, its schedule does not cover the entire series and is prone to changes, so it's worth keeping an eye on what they have coming up. A subscription to FloBikes will set you back $155.88 for the year or $39.99 on a monthly basis.

HBO Max, meanwhile, also has a large chunk of the US cyclo-cross coverage. To watch live racing you'll need the HBO Max 'standard' plan, which now costs $18.49 per month.

The UCI YouTube channel may also showcase select cyclo-cross events, although that is only if other broadcasters haven't picked it up.

Watch cyclo-cross in Canada

FloBikes also operates in Canada and will be carrying the majority of cyclo-cross coverage.

A FloBikes subscription will set you back CA$203.88 for the year or CA$49.99 on a monthly basis.

Some UCI World Cup events will also be aired in Canada for free on the UCI Youtube page.

Watch cyclo-cross live streams in the UK & Ireland

TNT Sports and HBO Max bill themselves as the 'home of cycling' in the UK, and they once again have a packed programme for the 2026-27 cyclo-cross season. You can watch all the UCI World Cup rounds, the UCI World Championships, and action from the Superprestige, X2O Trofee, and HG Cross series, as well.

Not all the action will make it to TNT Sports' TV channels for linear viewers, but HBO Max is the online streaming platform where you'll find all the cyclo-cross racing more consistently available. A TNT Sports-only subscription costs £25.99 per month.

Watch cyclo-cross around the world

For Belgian commentary and coverage of all of the top cyclo-cross series from the country that knows cyclo-cross best, head to Sporza or RTBF – for free. Just over in the Netherlands, it's on NPO Start.

For a full list of international broadcasters for the World Cup events, the UCI publishes a list each round on the UCI website.

Don't forget, cyclo-cross is available for free in the countries that don't have a broadcaster, hosted on the UCI YouTube channel. And you can tune in from anywhere if you're on the move by using a VPN.

2026-27 cyclo-cross schedule

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

As indoor trainer season starts gathering momentum faster than an avatar down a virtual mountain, product updates and new launches are coming thick and fast.

MyWhoosh came with zombie chases, Tacx dropped the Nera smart trainer, and Zwift teased a few more Californian routes, but today’s announcement is one that’s sure to shake things up good and proper.

It comes in the form of Zwift Plus, a new higher-priced premium subscription tier that, certainly at first glance, appears to borrow features from a number of its competitors, no doubt closing the feature gap in a bid to capture a greater share of the market.

The first part is the integration of adaptive training and an artificial intelligence ‘Zwift Coach’ that can help you set a goal, analyse workouts, and adapt as time passes in line with progress.

The second part is the unveiling of new real-world video-based routes, as opposed to the virtual worlds – or digital recreations thereof – which Zwift has committed to and relied upon thus far.

Adaptive training and Zwift Coach

AI is the buzzword of the year, and it’s no surprise to see Zwift, whose headquarters lie just a stone's throw from Silicon Valley, lean into the technology.

Zwift says there’s a strong correlation between consistency and fitness gains, including three main claims:

1. Those who ride twice a week are 2.8x fitter than those who ride once every two weeks
2. Those with a 12-week streak see an increase of up to 12% in their FTP.
3. Riders on a training plan see their FTP grow by 4.15%, versus 1.97% for those without one.

The Zwift Coach, therefore, aims to get more of those people onto a plan and riding consistently, setting a plan that aligns with goals set from the outset, and then “adapts to life” in real time, as sessions are completed, failed, or skipped.

The integration of video is the second major upgrade exclusive to Plus subscribers, and despite some of Zwift’s competitors – and indeed its new subsidiary, Rouvy – offering footage filmed by users, Zwift will use footage obtained exclusively by an in-house team of videographers.

The feature will launch with 21 routes across the following destinations:

1. The French Alps: Col du Galibier, Cime de la Bonnette
2. Mallorca: Sa Calobra, Coll de Femenia
3. Tenerife: Teide Plateau
4. Western Cape: Chapman's Peak, Bains Kloof
5. Lofoten Islands: The Midnight Sun Road
6. Southern Utah: The Hogsback, Arches NP
7. The Scottish Highlands: Glen Etive

The routes will include digitally created finish line banners and blimps in the sky, bringing a touch of the familiar Zwift gameplay to users, but will ultimately bring more destinations to the Zwift world.

Pricing

The new subscription tier will be priced at a £9 / €10 / $10 / AU$15 upcharge over the current price, meaning a monthly subscription will be £26.99 / €29.99 / $29.99 / AU$44.99.

Annual subscriptions allow users to get 12 months for (almost) the price of 10. These are charged at £269.99 / $299.99 / €299.99 / $449.99.

The existing Zwift tier is still available, and the prices for that remain unchanged.

A full table of the monthly and annual prices for both Zwift subscription tiers, in ten different currencies, is outlined below.

Indoor cycling is more than simply attaching a bike to a trainer. You need to create the right training environment to help you stay cool, comfortable, motivated, and focused.

It's indoor cycling week at Cyclingnews this week, and we will be publishing a wide and varied range of indoor-themed content to give you lots of great ideas for this winter.

You've invested in one of the best smart trainers, but what next? There are some other things to consider when getting ready to ride regularly indoors.

Maybe you're setting up your training area for a winter of structured training and group rides, or are building the ultimate e-racing rig.

Perhaps you’ve purchased a new smart trainer with the Zwift Cog and Click pre-installed and have activated your trial membership included with your purchase;

This checklist covers the essential items and practical tips that will help you start strong, avoid common beginner mistakes, and get the most from your training from day one.

1. Choose your location

Indoor cycling is a sweaty business, so you will need to think carefully about where you set up your bike and smart trainer. A gruelling interval session in the living room while the rest of the family is trying to watch television may not go down too well!

Ideally, choose a space where you can train without disturbing others and have enough room for your accessories, especially your cooling equipment.

Ventilation is equally important. A room with an open window, good airflow or air conditioning can make a significant difference to your comfort. A dedicated basement setup might seem ideal, but without adequate airflow, it can quickly become an uncomfortable place to train.

2. Invest in a fan

A fan is one of the most important accessories for indoor cycling. Without the airflow you experience when riding outdoors, you can struggle to keep cool, and it's generally a more uncomfortable experience. Having a fan is a good idea and helps prevent overheating.

Choose a fan that is optimal for your training space. There are dedicated indoor cycling fans with remote controls and adjustable settings, but a suitable household fan can also perform the necessary function.

3. Floor protection

A protective mat beneath your bike and trainer is a worthwhile investment. It helps protect your flooring from sweat, dirt, grease and other grime that can accumulate during indoor sessions. This is particularly important if you are using your outdoor bike on the trainer, and especially if the drivetrain is oily.

Replacing an inexpensive mat is much easier than dealing with a stained carpet or damaged floor, and I wouldn't even attempt a session unless you have a mat.

4. Grab a towel

A towel is essential, and if you are doing a long session, you may need two. Even if you have the most optimal bike position and the best fan, you still will find yourself sweating quite a lot, especially during longer rides and high-intensity intervals.

Keep a towel within easy reach to wipe your face and hands, helping you maintain a comfortable grip on the handlebars. For longer sessions, having a second towel available can be useful.

5. Prepare at least one drink bottle

Staying hydrated is important, and you will lose a lot of fluid through sweating when riding indoors. You may find yourself drinking substantially more than you do on a ride outside, so ensure you have full bottles within easy reach.

For longer or harder sessions, consider whether you also need to replace electrolytes, particularly sodium, lost through sweat.

6. Clothing

Don't overdress; less is more. As we have established, you are going to get hot. Wearing your normal bib shorts and jersey may be too much. A pair of cycling shorts without the straps and a simple vest or breathable top can be a good idea.

The key is to choose breathable clothing that helps you stay comfortable as your body temperature rises; it won't take many rides to learn what works for you.

7. Ready your phone and chosen companion app

Many indoor cycling platforms offer companion apps that provide additional functionality and make the experience more interactive.

For example, Zwift Companion allows you to interact with other riders, join events, send messages and access additional in-game controls. Depending on the platform, a companion app may also make it easier to manage workouts, view activity information, or interact with the virtual environment.

Keep your phone charged and somewhere convenient, such as on a nearby table or handlebar mount, so you can access the features you need without interrupting your ride.

8. Be Patient

Indoor cycling is a discipline in its own right, and there is a learning curve when you first get started.

Each platform has its own strengths, features and quirks. Some focus on structured training, while others place emphasis on virtual worlds, realistic simulations or social riding.

Take advantage of the different free trials that are on offer and be patient as you learn the different nuances of each platform. Be patient and enjoy the journey as you immerse yourself in this new discipline.

9. Connect your training platform to your activity log

Make sure your rides are logged so you can keep track of training and record your progress. If you work with a cycling coach, this will also help them see your sessions and make life easier.

Depending on the platforms you use, you may be able to connect your indoor cycling account to services such as Strava, Garmin Connect, TrainingPeaks or Vekta. This can help you consolidate your activities, analyse your training and monitor your progress over time.

Check which integrations are supported by your chosen platform and make sure your accounts are connected correctly. It’s also worth checking that activities aren’t being uploaded twice if multiple devices or services are recording the same ride.

Indoor training counts just as much as outdoor riding, so make sure your efforts are captured.

10. Join a club and find your community

One of the great things about indoor cycling is that platforms such as Zwift, TrainingPeaks Virtual, MyWhoosh, and ROUVY connect you with a global community of cyclists.

Each platform offers a wide range of clubs and communities you can join, making it easy to meet like-minded riders, take part in group rides, and share your passion for cycling.

Being part of a community can also help you stay motivated, establish a routine and make indoor cycling a more social and enjoyable experience.

Ready to ride?

Getting your indoor cycling setup right can make a real difference to your comfort, motivation and enjoyment. With good ventilation, a fan, floor protection, plenty of fluids and the right apps connected, you'll be well prepared for your first session.

Take the time to explore your chosen platform, find a community that suits you and, most importantly, enjoy the ride.

Indoor training week has arrived here at Cyclingnews. It's getting colder in the Northern Hemisphere, and if your thoughts are beginning to turn or have already turned, to warmer indoor riding, this week we are here to help.

The advantages of indoor training in winter hardly need listing, but if it's too wet or cold, your time is crunched, or you simply fancy a change. Riding indoors and using an indoor training platform can be a welcome change of pace, not to mention highly effective training; there's no freewheeling or braking for red lights indoors!

We will be publishing a wide range of pieces on indoor training this week, from in-depth explainers on indoor training tech to buying guides on the best smart trainers and indoor cycling accesories.

We've spoken to pro mechanics on the nuances of trainer maintenance, and have interviewed CEO's on the latest tech developments.

Everything is easy to find on site, but you can also use this hub as a navigation page to find all of our best indoor content.

Indoor training can be fun, exciting and rewarding, and remember the old saying: (virtual) winter miles mean summer smiles.

Buying Advice

• Indoor cycling: Everything you need to know
• Best smart trainers - All the hardware you need to get set up riding indoors
• Best indoor cycling apps - Zwift, MyWhoosh, Rouvy et al.
• Best smart bikes - dedicated indoor training bikes
• Best heart rate monitors - track your heart rate accurately
• Best exercise bikes - Integrated smart bikes to home spin class setups
• Cheapest Zwift setup - Get going for less
• Zwift vs MyWhoosh - Do you get more for your money with a paid subscription?
• Best indoor accessories for under $50 / £50 - Improve your indoor setup.

Features

• Indoor cycling hacks - Tips and tricks to make the experience better
• Zwift alternatives - The best alternative apps and platforms
• Smart trainer maintenance - Protect your trainer and keep it running smoothly
• Do you really need indoor cycling clothing? - Mesh fabrics and special shoes
• How realistic are Zwift climbs? - We compare the virtual KOMs to the real thing
• Cycling in a flat or apartment: Eight tips for maximising your space.
• Indoor cycling checklist: Optimise your indoor training area.

The route presentation of the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes will take place in Paris at 11am CET on Thursday, October 22, and you can watch it live with all the information following in our comprehensive guide.

The 2026 road cycling season is drawing to a close, but preparations for next year are already getting underway, with the unveiling of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes routes a major event of the offseason.

There have been plenty of Tour de France route rumours circulating ahead of the presentation ceremony this week. British Grand Départs are already confirmed for both races, too.

The women's race looks set to then traverse across France, including a visit to the famous Puy de Dôme climb as a race centrepiece. The men's Tour looks set to feature the Grand Colombier and the Col du Tourmalet, with the famous final day Montmartre stage also set to be revisited.

SEE MORE Everything we expect from the Tour de France 2027 route reveal

The route presentation of the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes will be available to watch on several platforms across the world, with free coverage in some countries, so read on for all the details on how to watch the route presentation online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Where to watch the Tour de France route presentation for FREE

You can watch the Tour de France route presentation for free in many countries.

In Australia, coverage will be aired live on SBS, which requires registration but no payment to access.

Numerous European countries will also air the presentation for free, such as France via L'Equipe TV, Spain via RTVE, Italy via RAI, and Belgium via Sporza.

The route presentations will also be aired in full by the Tour de France on its website - you need to be a 'Tour de France club' member (no payment required) to access the live stream. Streams will also be available on the Tour de France's various social media accounts.

Away from home right now? Unblock your home stream from anywhere with a VPN – more on that below.

How to watch the Tour de France route presentation from anywhere

If you're outside your usual country when the Tour route presentations are on, you might think you can't watch the race, but you'd be wrong. A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that lets you tune into your streaming services from abroad and allows you to do so with complete confidence.

There are loads of great VPN options out there, but for a VPN that's brilliant at streaming and is also TechRadar's pick for the overall best VPN in the world, we'd recommend NordVPN.

How to watch the Tour de France route presentation in the UK

The Tour de France route presentation will be broadcast on TNT Sports and HBO Max in the UK.

TNT Sports is your linear option, while live streaming is available on HBO Max. Plans start at £25.99/month, with month-to-month terms available at £30.99.

How to watch the Tour de France route presentation in the USA

The Tour de France route presentation will have live coverage in the USA on Peacock.

Peacock is the streaming service of US broadcaster NBC, to access live sports programming you need the Premium package which comes in at $12.99/month,

How to watch the Tour de France route presentation in Canada

In Canada, the Tour de France route presentations will be shown live on the cycling streaming service FloBikes.

A subscription to FloBikes, which has pretty much every race you could wish to want for Canadian viewers, costs CA$49.99 a month or $203.88 for the year.

How to watch the Tour de France route presentation in Australia

Fans in Australia can watch the Tour de France route presentation via cycling's major broadcaster in the country, SBS.

The presentation will be aired live online on their streaming platform, SBS On Demand. SBS is a free-to-air broadcaster, and SBS On Demand is free to use with registration.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

It was back in 2013 that Lachlan Morton, a young WorldTour professional with Garmin Sharp, set out on an adventure with his brother that spawned the Thereabouts series. That series set the Australian on a path that would eventually send him wildly deviating from the life as a professional cyclist he had once envisaged for himself and fully embracing the opportunity to run an alternate calendar at EF Pro Cycling.

Now, after eight years pushing the pedals in the pink kit of the team from the United States, the rider who has won Unbound 200, set a record time around Australia and captured the imagination with his Alt Tour of the Tour de France is branching out on his own. He confirmed his departure to Cycling Weekly earlier this month.

Morton's last race with the team was the brutally tough 61km Three Peaks Cyclo-cross in the United Kingdom – which he won – at the end of September and then he quickly set off on his final adventure with the squad. That was his effort to beat the 160-year-old 1,998-mile (3,217-kilometre) horseback record across the American West with his own set of steel steeds, and it was a feat he well and truly pulled off as he eclipsed the six-day 21 hours and 15 minute mark by 19 hours and 45 minutes.

It wasn't exactly a pre-mediated plan to deliver such a jam-packed final send-off to the EF colours,

"It just worked out like that," said Morton of piling the two very different efforts into a narrow window. "But I'm glad it did because it kind of felt like those two events sum up my time with the team pretty nicely.

"Combining a three-hour race with a week-long push, is like it's been in my time with the team. I've combined a lot of different disciplines and elements of racing, and I've always enjoyed that kind of challenge."

It also harked back to the time when Morton's adventures were his own, not under the guise of a team but in the case of the Thereabouts enterprises, a shared endeavour with his brother Angus.

It was important to Morton that he was there to capture this pivotal career moment too, in fact that was reason for the late-season position of the ride dubbed the 'Pony Express'. The timeline needed to be pushed a little later than originally envisaged because his filmmaker brother had welcomed a daughter into the world a couple of months ago, in what is proving to be an era of new beginnings for the siblings.

Early deviations – 'I'm sure that they were not stoked'

It's a little hard to imagine Morton as anything but the multidiscipline adventurer now, but there was a time when he couldn't even conceive of the path that he ended up following with EF Pro Cycling. After all, what was on show at the time he was starting out was a far narrower version of what you had to deliver to be able to ride your bike every day and call it a job.

"I was very much a road racer, and all my my goals were to succeed and win races and do as much as I could in the WorldTour, and then that sort of started to shift," Morton told Cyclingnews. "The more I was exposed to it, I guess I started to gradually follow the other passions in cycling and that was sort of happening outside of racing.

"But I never dreamed that I'd be able to race and follow those kind of passions, simultaneously or under one banner. Initially, it was definitely just kind of like a hobby, it was not very closely in line with with what I was doing for a job. I didn't think that the kind of set-up I've had at EF would ever be something that that I could actually do."

It certainly wasn't the norm for a WorldTour professional to go and spend his off season riding 2,500km to Uluru and filming the adventure along the way. But back then, a young Morton didn't really care to do the expected, and that was probably a good thing.

"I was pretty stubborn, and I would just do the things I was going to do anyway," said Morton when asked what the Garmin Sharp team thought when he embarked on the first of three Thereabouts adventures in 2013, with the next two in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and Colombia in the following three years. "So I don't think I really took notice of what people thought, you know. I think the film led reassessing a little bit what I was doing racing."

"I think around that period of time, in my second year with the team, I wasn't racing particularly well, I wasn't particularly happy, and I think in that time I was definitely pretty self-absorbed," said a frank Morton, who isn't afraid to lean into a bit of typical Aussie self deprecation.

"So I don't think I really cared too much what anyone thought, just like a typical like 20-year-old, 21-year-old who is trying to work things out. So yeah, I actually haven't really thought about what they thought. I'm sure that they were not stoked. Maybe, I remember my coach wasn't super happy about it."

Fast forward a few years to the EF Pro Cycling team that formed out of the shell of that original squad, and there was a wholly different attitude. In 2019 Morton, after his sojourn with Jelly Belly and Dimension Data – decided to head back to a set up which was now far more enthused about embracing the unconventional.

It was, in fact, a move he made even though at that point he was quite content in the WorldTour.

"With Dimension Data, I found that as a professional. I was like, 'OK, I found a nice groove here where I can be happy in my life, training and doing this thing and accept the level that'll get me," said Morton.

But the lure of alternative plan was too hard to pass up.

"I remember speaking with some friends of mine at Rapha at the time, and they sort of mentioned the possibility of this idea," said Morton. "Initially, there wasn't any team really attached to it, and still I committed to doing it, which at the time felt sort of risky because it didn't really exist at that time, and cycling, I think, was even more traditional at that time.

"So there was a slight worry about if I was able to do this thing. And then if it doesn't work, if it could be hard to be taken seriously after that. I also didn't know physically, when I started to do longer distance stuff, how that would affect my ability to race. I don't think anyone really knew at that time, but it was just too good of an opportunity, and there were too many things that I realised that I wanted to do other than just road racing, so I was like, 'OK, let's go for it'."

All in on the alternative calendar

Initially while at EF Pro Cycling, Morton combined his alternative calendar with stints of racing with the WorldTour team "as needed". However, as time progressed and Covid came and went, dropping that made more and more sense, particularly with the build in level that meant ducking into the pro road peloton less than ideally prepared was a huge challenge.

"As a rider, I've never had biggest engine, so I need to show up really prepared generally, especially in in that kind of racing," said Morton, who didn't have the room for the type of preparation required given the alternate schedule commitments.

"It was very hard to do the job I needed to do at the race, but also mentally to just like show up and get your head kicked in. So yeah, it just no longer made sense to me to be doing that, especially when it's like there's 18-year-olds who are knocking on the door that deserved that spot more than I did."

By that time, however, there was no doubt of the value of the alternative calendar with the 'Alt Tour' in 2021 a validating experience that capture the public's imagination and showed that "if you do things a little bit outside the box, there's still space for it, it still exists alongside the traditional path," explained Morton.

That and his latest adventure, inspired by an affinity for the courage and tradition of the Pony Express riders that delivered mail through the harsh terrain, were two of the memorable moments he picked out from his time with the team when we spoke to him in the days following the conclusion of his last adventure under its umbrella.

"That was really, really satisfying, from the the group of people I had there and then the route itself, and then the way I was able to ride it. That was a dream one for me, and also to be so removed from cycling in a way, the route itself, it's not one that's been ridden a lot," said Morton.

"It was also cool to get to a point where you could say to the team, 'Hey, I want to do this', and there wasn't a huge amount of questioning about it. There was a trust."

'It's just time'

That trust, and evident satisfaction that comes through from Morton when discussing his time with the team raises on big question. Why is he leaving?

"Above everything, I think it's just time is probably the biggest reason," said Morton. "I also don't want to be just going through the motions, knowing I can just do this thing that that works for everyone and just kind of be comfortable in doing that.

"The sport has changed very dramatically, I would say, in the last seven years that I've been with the team, and the the focus that is needed on performance I think is pretty drastic. I just don't see myself fitting in with that really anymore."

So where does he see himself fitting and what are his plans now?

"I think there's some even longer rides I would like to do, and being able to have complete flexibility in my calendar, there's space to be like, 'OK, yes I can go on a ride for like six weeks here' which I'm really excited for," he said.

"I'm also excited to have time to go to specific places and dive into the cycling culture that exists there and learn in a way. Without going into the specifics of routes and places, I think there's a lot of learning I know I'm going to have to do and I'm excited for that."

Still, many things will also be similar, as while Morton says he is well aware of the benefits of the support he gets from the squad, he has put together a good group to fill some of those gaps. Plus the plan is to continue on the path of chasing a mix of races – with Leadville among his goals – and challenges that motivate him. There will, however, perhaps be more of an emphasis on the travel and exploration side of riding, much like where it all began with Thereabouts.

"I've had a lot of a lot of freedom," said Morton of his time with EF. "There hasn't been a lot of compromise on what I would like to do but I just think I'm interested to see where I end up with it, and the things I can do without that kind of attachment and also without the safety net.

"As a 34-year-old man, that has grown up in teams since I was 18 years old, I think it's time for me to get out there by myself."

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn't slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today.

TNT Sports and Eurosport will continue showing the Tour de France for at least the next six years after extending their broadcast deal with the European Broadcast Union (EBU) through 2032.

The EBU itself announced an extension with Tour de France organisers ASO to distribute rights to the Tour, Vuelta, and other races, with a largely unchanged cast of broadcasters now in place for an extra two years compared to the previous deal cycle.

The extended broadcast deal with the EBU will cover all ASO and Unipublic’s races, comprising 93 race days over 18 events, and will apply to viewers in the UK and Ireland for TNT Sports, and Eurosport in Europe, though there will be some specific national exemptions for the latter.

The announcement comes only two years after TNT Sports revealed they had negotiated rights to exclusively show the Tour de France 2030 and at least provides fans with relative clarity over their future viewing decisions. However, it does mean that the absence of the Tour de France from free-to-air UK television – one of the most controversial developments of the previous rights deal – will remain in place for even longer.

Rights to show pro cycling races have been a hot potato in recent years. Just under three years ago Warner Brothers Discovery closed viewing platform GCN+, switching the service to TNT Sports and hiking the price exponentially. Soon after, TNT Sports and its new streaming home of HBO Max became the exclusive Tour de France broadcaster in the UK, where live free-to-air coverage ended in 2025 when ITV withdrew.

That free-to-air coverage was replaced this year when UK TV channel 5 began showing highlights packages of the Grand Tours, and this will remain unchanged, until 2028 for the Tour and Vuelta, with the deal to show the Giro d’Italia currently set to end a year later. 5 will also have live coverage of the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes Grand Départs, which will take place in the UK.

As well as the men’s and women’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España, other races included are as big as Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and as diverse as the ADAC Cyclassics and Tro Bro Leon, all of which will form part of TNT Sports' and Eurosport’s wider coverage of the sport.

While it will be shown on TNT Sports in the UK and on Eurosport in some territories, the Lidl Deutschland Tour is not included in the EBU deal, with the Tour of Oman, Arctic Race of Norway and Asian criteriums also excluded. "We have separate agreements around those races with ASO," a TNT spokesperson told Cyclingnews.

“It is a privilege to act as the custodian of the biggest events in cycling including the Tour de France and La Vuelta and we welcome the opportunity to continue working in partnership with the EBU and ASO to showcase the very best of our sport," added Trojan Paillot, Eurosport and TNT’s Senior Vice President for Sports Rights Acquisitions and Syndication.

"Over four decades, we have built a proven record of bringing fans quality cycling coverage and stories and have relentlessly pursued new ways to grow the sport.

"Our commitment to innovation, passion for the sport, and unmatched scale makes us the perfect partner to continue advancing cycling coverage for many years to come.” innovation, passion for the sport, and unmatched scale makes us the perfect partner to continue advancing cycling coverage for many years to come.”

Races included in the EBU deal

• ADAC Cyclassics Hamburg
• Clásica San Sebastián
• Eschborn-Frankfurt
• Flèche Wallonne
• Flèche Wallonne Femmes
• La Vuelta Ciclista a España
• La Vuelta Femenina
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège
• Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes
• Paris-Nice
• Paris-Roubaix Hauts-de-France
• Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift
• Paris-Tours
• Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (formerly the Critérium du Dauphiné)
• Tour de France
• Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
• Tro Bro Leon
• Volta a Catalunya

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn't slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today.

Watch the 2026 UCI Track World Championships for the biggest event of the track racing season as the top stars of multiple events come together to battle for a host of rainbow jerseys in Shanghai, China, from October 14-18.

The Track Worlds are the highlight of the track racing calendar following a season of action.

Riders will compete across a host of events, including the individual and team pursuits and sprints, keirin, madison, omnium, 1km time trial, and the scratch, elimination and points races. 22 rainbow jerseys will be up for grabs throughout the week.

A host of defending champions are among the riders set to battle for the top prizes this week, including notable names Mina Sato, Hetty van de Wouw, Lorena Wiebes, Lara Gillespie, Harry Lavreysen, Lindsay De Vylder, and Tobias Hansen.

Other top riders heading to China to take part include Elisa Balsamo, Amalie Dideriksen, Kristen Faulkner, Lotte Kopecky, Filippo Ganna, Roger Kluge, Jonathan Milan, and Taylor Phinney.

The Track World Championships are being broadcast all over the world, with TV coverage and live streaming options in Australia, the UK, the USA, and Canada, so read on for all the details on how to watch the race wherever you are.

How to watch UCI Track World Championships for free

The Track World Championships are free to watch in select regions around the world.

You can watch the action for free live on the UCI Youtube channel. The stream will be geo-blocked in nations showing the racing on subscription streaming services (such as HBO Max and Flobikes), however.

The Track Worlds will also be aired live on BBC Sport in the UK for free.

RTBF and VRT will have free coverage across the week in Belgium.

Abroad? You will need NordVPN (75% off) to unlock your free stream wherever you are in the world.

How to watch the Track World Championships from anywhere in the world

If you're outside your usual country when the Track World Championships is on, you might think you can't watch the race, but you'd be wrong. A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that lets you tune into your streaming services from abroad and allows you to do so with complete confidence.

There are loads of great VPN options out there, but for a VPN that's brilliant at streaming and is also TechRadar's pick for the overall best VPN in the world, we'd recommend NordVPN.

How to watch UCI Track World Championships in the UK

The Track World Championships will be broadcast on TNT Sports and HBO Max in the UK.

TNT Sports is your linear option, while live streaming is available on HBO Max. Plans start at £25.99/month, with month-by-month terms available at £30.99.

A free option is also available for British fans in the form of BBC Sport. Live coverage will be available on the website, on iPlayer, and on BBC Two. The coverage on BBC Two is as follows:

▶︎ Women's Madison and 1km Time Trial (Saturday, 17 October - 10:15am)
▶︎ Women's Keirin and Men's Sprint (Sunday, 18 October - 04:00am)
▶︎ Women’s Keirin, Men’s Sprint, Men’s Elimination and Women’s Points Race (Sunday, 18 October - 06:30am)

How to watch UCI Track World Championships in the USA

FloBikes will show full coverage of the UCI Track World Championships in the USA.

FloBikes carries coverage of a whole host of the UCI cycling calendar. Prices start at $155.88 for one year, or $39.99 per month, with both races available on the platform.

How to watch UCI Track World Championships in Canada

For Canadian viewers, FloBikes is also the place to watch the Track World Championships.

A subscription will set you back CAN$215.88 for the year or CAN$49.99 on a monthly basis.

How to watch the Track World Championships in Australia

Cycling fans in Australia can watch the Track World Championships via Stan Sport.

The streaming service starts at $29.99 for a basic package, running up to the premium package of $49.99, which features up to 4K streaming across four screens.

UCI Track World Championships - Schedule

CST = local time

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch Il Lombardia 2026 for the final men's Monument of the season. On Saturday, the peloton will tackle a 239km route between Bergamo and Como for the Race of the Falling Leaves in Italy.

It's the last big one-day race of the season, with 4,600 metres of elevation between the start and finish, where the winner of the fifth Monument of the year will be crowned.

Along the way, riders will tackle the likes of the Selvino, Valpianna, Madonna del Ghisallo, Civiglio, and San Fermo della Battaglia climbs.

World champion Brandon McNulty heads the startlist along with his UAE teammate Isaac del Toro. Look out, too, for Paul Seixas, Richard Carapaz, Remco Evenepoel, Enric Mas, Tom Pidcock, Mikel Landa, and Giulio Ciccone on the list of favourites.

Ciccone will be particularly keen to win this one after feeling aggrieved by his photo-finish second place to Evenepoel at the European Championships last weekend.

Il Lombardia is being broadcast all over the world, with TV coverage and live streaming options in the UK, US, and Canada, so read on for all the details on how to watch the race wherever you are in the world.

How to watch Il Lombardia for free

Il Lombardia is free to watch in Australia, Italy and Belgium:

• SBS (Australia, English Commentary)
• RAI (Italy)
• RTBF and VRT (Belgium)

Abroad? You will need NordVPN (75% off) to unlock your free stream wherever you are in the world.

How to watch Il Lombardia from anywhere in the world

If you're outside your usual country when Il Lombardia is on, you might think you can't watch the race, but you'd be wrong. A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that lets you tune into your streaming services from abroad, and allows you to do so with complete confidence.

There are loads of great VPN options out there, but for a VPN that's brilliant at streaming and is also TechRadar's pick for overall best VPN in the world, we'd recommend NordVPN.

How to watch Il Lombardia in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch Il Lombardia through TNT Sports and HBO Max.

TNT Sports is your linear option while live streaming is available on the home of cycling in the UK, HBO Max. Plans start at £25.99/month, with month-by-month terms available at £30.99.

TNT Sports 3 is the linear channel you will be looking for.

How to watch Il Lombardia in the USA

Il Lombardia is being aired by HBO Max in the United States. Plans start from $18.49 per month for a package that includes live cycling.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, you might find it easier to sign up to HBO Max via Prime.

How to watch Il Lombardia in Canada

For Canadian viewers, it is the usual FloBikes to watch Il Lombardia.

A subscription will set you back CAN$215.88 for the year or CAN$49.99 on a monthly basis.

FloBikes customers in the US will be blocked from this one - they only have the rights in Canada.

How to watch Il Lombardia in Australia

As alluded to above, cycling fans in Australia can watch Il Lombardia for free through SBS.

It will also be live streamed free on the SBS On Demand platform, which is a free service for those in Australia. If you are looking for linear coverage, the race will be available on SBS Viceland.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships for one of the biggest gravel racing events of the season as new women's and men's world champions are crowned in Nannup, Australia.

The gravel action heads to Nannup, Western Australia, this year following last year's Championships in the Netherlands.

A host of top riders in the men's and women's peloton will be taking on the races this weekend.

In the women's race, look for Marianne Vos and Riejanne Markus (Netherlands), Rosa Klöser (Germany), Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Aregentina), and Nicole Frain (Australia). In the men's race, Florian Vermeersch (Belgium) defends his title against the likes of Lukas Pöstlberger (Austria), Matt Beers (South Africa), Keegan Swenson (USA), and Petr Vakoč (Czechia).

The Gravel World Championships is being broadcast all over the world, with TV coverage and live streaming options in Australia, UK, US, and Canada, so read on for all the details on how to watch the race wherever you are in the world.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships for free

The Gravel World Championships are free to watch in Australia and select regions around the world.

In Australia, the races are free with English commentary thanks to SBS.

You can also watch the action for free live on the UCI Youtube channel. The stream will be geo-blocked in nations showing the racing on subscription streaming services (such as HBO Max, Eurosport, and Flobikes), however.

Abroad? You will need NordVPN (75% off) to unlock your free stream wherever you are in the world.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships from anywhere in the world

If you're outside your usual country when the Gravel World Championships is on, you might think you can't watch the race, but you'd be wrong. A VPN is a nifty piece of internet security software that lets you tune into your streaming services from abroad, and allows you to do so with complete confidence.

There are loads of great VPN options out there, but for a VPN that's brilliant at streaming and is also TechRadar's pick for overall best VPN in the world, we'd recommend NordVPN.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch the Gravel World Championships through TNT Sports and HBO Max.

TNT Sports is your linear option with TNT Sports 3 and 4 showing the action while live streaming is available on HBO Max. Plans start at £25.99/month, with month-by-month terms available at £30.99.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships in the USA

FloBikes will show full coverage of the UCI Gravel World Championships in the USA.

FloBikes carries coverage of a whole host of the UCI cycling calendar. Prices start at $155.88 for one year, or $39.99 per month, with both races available on the platform.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships in Canada

For Canadian viewers, FloBikes is also the place to watch the Gravel World Championships.

A subscription will set you back CAN$215.88 for the year or CAN$49.99 on a monthly basis.

How to watch the Gravel World Championships in Australia

As alluded to above, cycling fans in Australia can watch the Gravel World Championships for free through SBS.

The races are being live-streamed on the SBS On Demand platform, which is a free service for those in Australia.

UCI Gravel World Championships: Need to Know

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days end at midnight tonight, October 7th. One limited-time deal I spotted is the Lego Icons Road Bike set, which has dropped in price for the third consecutive week to just £78.79.

Lego launched its first-ever road bike set back in May, with a launch price of £109.99, so this Amazon Lego deal is an incredible saving on that.

Shop the Lego Icons Road Bike set for just £78.79 on Amazon.

The spec sheet is impressive and includes a functional drivetrain and more. The 1,015-piece build certainly doesn't disappoint, and it looks like a shrunken version of one of the best aero bikes. It's a perfect gift for the cyclist in your life, even if that's yourself, and is a perfect display piece in the cycling pain cave or office

You can sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime membership and cancel anytime before the £8.99 / $14.99 per month fee kicks in.

The Lego Icons Road Bike (11380) is impressive in stature, measuring over 14 in. (36 cm) high, 23.5 in. (60 cm) long and 7.5 in. (19 cm) wide.

The final build comes with a stand, which is reminiscent of some of the best smart trainers, making it a brilliant display piece in the pain cave.

It's also a fully functioning road bike Lego build with front-wheel steering and a fully working drivetrain. The drivetrain features a functional chain made of individual Lego 'links' that rotate when you turn the cranks, and even more impressively, it features a fully working freewheel, allowing the rear wheel to spin independently for that satisfying real-world coasting effect.

There are no discounts on the Lego Icons Road Bike in the US, it remains at full price of £129.99 on Amazon US.

Here at Cyclingnews, we're continually striving to improve our subscribers' experience, whether it's early access to our in-depth video reviews or more expert columnists sharing their insight on the latest racing. But sometimes, when we're focused on what's next, it's easy to overlook the major improvements we've already made – like the Cyclingnews app.

Many of our loyal paying readers already access the latest news and features from the world of cycling via our app, but plenty still aren't getting the full value out of their subscription.

The Cyclingnews app gives subscribers the same unlimited access to our comprehensive race coverage, in-depth analysis and features, expert tech reviews, and CN Labs tests that they're used to on our website, in an ad-free environment you can read anywhere. For our subscribers, the sport's most passionate fans, the app is the perfect companion for your every need.

We've also made some recent updates to the app too, including a personalised newsfeed to follow the topics and authors that matter to you, and a video feed that means you can watch all of Cyclingnews' in-depth reviews at the tap of a button.

How to download the Cyclingnews app

You can download the Cyclingnews app via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to get started.

For existing Cyclingnews subscribers, it's as simple as entering your login details when prompted, and then you can begin browsing our mobile app.

If you're yet to join the Cyclingnews community, then you can subscribe via the button below. You'll unlock unlimited access to not just our app, but also all the latest news, analysis, features, and tech coverage on the Cyclingnews website, plus our subscriber-only newsletter too. Once subscribed, download the app to your phone and log in to enjoy on-the-go access.

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Watch the UEC Road European Championships 2026 as a week of racing sees the best male and female cyclists around the continent compete for the blue-striped European champion's jerseys in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Cyclingnews brings you all the information you need to watch, with TV coverage and official broadcasters provided, as well as free streaming information.

After a thrillingly entertaining week of racing at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, Canada, a host of the top European racers are heading to Slovenia for the final major championship of the year – the UEC Road European Championships in Ljubljana.

Racing gets underway on Friday, October 2, with the under-23 men's and women's road races, with the elite women's road race coming up on Saturday, and the elite men's road race on Sunday. Time trials, including the mixed relay TTT, fall midweek on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 6-7.

Top riders including Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), Primož Roglič (Slovenia), and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) will all be heading to Ljubljana to do battle for the title of European champion.

Want to know how you can tune in from wherever you are? Cyclingnews has all the information you need on how to watch or stream the UEC Road European Championships 2026 from the UK, USA, and Canada, as well as how you can watch for free, plus how to use a VPN to get your usual coverage from anywhere in the world.

How to watch UEC Road European Championships from anywhere in the world

Away from home during the UEC Road European Championships? A VPN can help you keep up with the action.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can change your device’s location, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions on streaming services and access your usual coverage from anywhere. They also add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi.

NordVPN is recommended by our office-mates at TechRadar for its strong stream unblocking:

How to watch UEC Road European Championships in the UK

Select events of the UEC Road European Championships are being shown on TNT Sports, which is available via HBO Max.

How to watch UEC Road European Championships in the USA, Canada and Australia

Eurovision Sport will broadcast the UEC European Road Championships in the US, Canada, Australia and everywhere else outside Europe.

UEC Road European Championships Schedule

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You'll get comprehensive race coverage of the UCI Road World Championships, 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.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch the road races at the UCI Road World Championships 2026 as the women and men take on the 180.1 and 273.4km routes respectively in Montreal.

CyclingNews brings you all the information you need to watch, with free TV coverage and official broadcasters provided, as well as the all-important start times of the riders.

The road races are the crown jewels of the Road World Championships, with the two elite races on the final weekend of the event bringing the cream of the crop of the men's and women's pelotons together to compete for the rainbow jersey.

On the men's side, riders including Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), Isaac del Toro (Mexico), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), and Paul Seixas (France) will be competing for glory.

They'll do battle over a 273.4km course featuring 12 laps of the hilly Mount Royal circuit in Montreal, with the Camilien-Houde climb (1.6km at 7.7%) set to prove decisive.

Yesterday, we saw Demi Vollering take the rainbow jersey as she continued her brilliant season with a victory in Montreal. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney came second while Elisa Longo Borghini came home in third.

Want to know how you can tune in from wherever you are? Cyclingnews has all the information you need on how to watch the time trial below.

Can I watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships for free?

The road races at the UCI World Championships will be available to watch for free on multiple platforms across the world:

• BBC iPlayer (UK)
• CBC Gem (Canada)
• VRT / RTBF (Belgium)
• France TV (France)
• RAI (Italy)
• NOS (Netherlands)
• RTVE (Spain)
• UCI YouTube (Countries with no broadcaster)

Abroad? Use a VPN to unlock your free stream — find out more below.

How to watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships from anywhere in the world

Away from home during the Road World Championships? A VPN can help you keep up with the action.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can change your device’s location, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions on streaming services and access your usual coverage from anywhere. They also add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi.

NordVPN is recommended by our office-mates at TechRadar for its strong stream unblocking:

How to watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships in the UK

BBC iPlayer will show coverage of the road races at the UCI World Championships.

Alternatively, TNT Sports will broadcast the action with plans starting at £25.99/month on OTT streamer HBO Max.

How to watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships in the USA

FloBikes will show full coverage of the elite road races in the USA.

Prices start at $39.99 per month, although there is an annual option for $155.88 — that's the equivalent of $12.99 per month.

How to watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships in Canada

In Canada, CBC Gem will have full and free coverage of the elite road races at the UCI Road World Championships.

How to watch the road races at UCI Road World Championships in Australia

In Australia, you will need Stan Sport to watch the road races at the UCI Road World Championships.

Stan Sport plans start from AU$29.99/month with a base Stan plan (AU$9.99) and the Sport add-on included (AU$20)

Road Races – Schedule

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You'll get comprehensive race coverage of the UCI Road World Championships, 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.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

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.

The 2026 UCI Road World Championships are in full swing in Montreal, Canada. The 99th edition of the event has already delivered plenty of excitement. The opening day saw history made, as Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel became the first man ever to win four consecutive elite time trial victories.

Cyclingnews' how to watch UCI Road World Championships 2026 has all the information on viewing the remaining events, which conclude on Sunday with the Men's Elite Road Race.

If you find yourself travelling abroad during the World Championships, you are likely to find yourself blocked out of your subscribed services. The best way to continue your services, and ensure you don't miss any of the action, including the UCI Gravel World Championships 2026 in October, is to use a VPN.

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UCI World Championship 2026 schedule

24 September

09:00 EDT (13:00 BST): Women Under 23 Road Race

13:30 EDT (17:30 BST): Men Junior Road Race

25 September

09:00 EDT (13:00 BST): Men Under 23 Road Race

14:15 EDT (18:15 BST): Women Junior Road Race

26 September

09:00 EDT (14:00 BST): Women Elite Road Race

27 September

09:00 EDT (14:00 BST): Men Elite Road Race

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We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch the UCI Road World Championships 2026 as a week of racing sees the best male and female cyclists compete for the rainbow jerseys in Montreal, Canada.

CyclingNews brings you all the information you need to watch, with TV coverage and official broadcasters provided, as well as free streaming information.

Having opted not to host the FIFA World Cup, Montreal swiftly chose to take on the UCI Road World Championships instead back in 2021, and a huge week of racing gets underway from Sunday.

It all begins with the Women's and Men's Elite Time Trials before a host of age-graded events and the Mixed Team Time-Trial Relay fill the midweek gaps. Finally, the week concludes with Road Race with the women racing on Saturday before the men take to the course on Sunday. Find our full preview of the time trials and road races below.

Want to know how you can tune in from wherever you are? Cyclingnews has all the information you need on how to watch or stream the UCI Road World Championships 2026 from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, as well as how you can watch for free, plus how to use a VPN to get your usual coverage from anywhere in the world.

Watch UCI Road World Championships for free

The UCI Road World Championships are free-to-air in a number of countries across the world, here are some of our favourites:

• BBC iPlayer (UK)
• CBC Gem (Canada) - Will show every event
• VRT / RTBF (Belgium)
• France TV (France)
• RAI (Italy)
• NOS (Netherlands)
• RTVE (Spain)
• UCI YouTube (Countries with no broadcaster)

Please note that these channels will not show every race, but you can expect live coverage of the Elite time-trial and road race.

Abroad? Use a VPN to unlock your free stream of the Road World Championships — find out more below.

Today at UCI Road World Championships

Today, we have the men's elite road race with Remco Evenepoel looking for his second rainbow jersey of the week in Montreal. Competition comes from the likes of Tom Pidcockl, Paul Seixas, Isaac Del Toro and Mathieu van der Poel.

Men's Road Race Schedule: 09:00–15:40 (ET, local time) | 14:00–20:40 (BST) | 15:00–21:40 (CEST)

How to watch UCI Road World Championships from anywhere in the world

Away from home during the Road World Championships? A VPN can help you keep up with the action.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can change your device’s location, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions on streaming services and access your usual coverage from anywhere. They also add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi.

NordVPN is recommended by our office-mates at TechRadar for its strong stream unblocking:

How to watch UCI Road World Championships in the UK

As alluded to above, you can watch select coverage of the UCI Road World Championships for free in the UK on BBC iPlayer.

BBC Two and BBC Three will also provide linear coverage, with the Women’s Elite and Men’s Elite time trials and road races broadcast on the platforms.

If you are looking for comprehensive coverage of every race of the week, TNT Sports is what you'll need.

How to watch UCI Road World Championships in the USA

FloBikes will show full coverage of the UCI Road World Championships in the USA.

How to watch UCI Road World Championships 2026 in Canada

In Canada, CBC Gem will have full and free coverage of the UCI Road World Championships 2026.

How to watch UCI Road World Championships 2026 in Australia

In Australia, you will need Stan Sport to watch the UCI Road World Championships.

UCI Road World Championships 2026 – Schedule

Time-Trial and Road Race: Preview

Beginning with the Women's and Men's Elite Time Trials, there is little doubt over who the two favourites will be to take the opening rainbow jerseys. Marlen Reusser is back to defend her 2025 title and, having taken the ITT at the Tour de France, her form is there for all to see. On the men's side, Remco Evenepoel needs little introduction when it comes to his time-trial prowess, with the Belgian eyeing a fourth successive World Championship in Canada. Both will have targets on their backs, though, with Great Britain's Zoe Bäckstedt looking to run Reusser close, while Evenepoel can expect competition from Filippo Ganna, with Jay Vine and Josh Tarling unable to compete.

On Saturday and Sunday, we have the showpiece road races. They will follow very similar routes to that of the Montreal GP, with the women taking on 180km and the men 273km, featuring 2,570m and 3,808m of climbing respectively.

With no Tadej Pogačar, the big favourites for the men's race come in the form of Wout van Aert, Paul Seixas, Isaac Del Toro, the aforementioned Evenepoel and GB's Tom Pidcock.

On the women's side, Magdeleine Vallières Mill will be defending her rainbow jersey on home soil, but will have plenty of competition. Demi Vollering is in search of a first world title, Elisa Longo Borghini has placed third on three occasions previously, and of course there is Belgium's Lotte Kopecky, who won the race in both 2023 and 2024.

For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You'll get comprehensive race coverage of the UCI Road World Championships, 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.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Watch the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal this week as the men's WorldTour heads to Canada for two late-season one-day Classics, with all the details on live streams and TV broadcasts right here.

The action kicks off with the GP de Québec on Friday, September 11, followed two days later by the GP de Montréal on Sunday, September 13, with both events producing thrilling circuit-based racing on hilly courses.

There is a big absentee in the form of former Montréal winner, Tadej Pogačar, who is injured, but that should open the door to a number of other contenders, including the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Tom Pidcock, Isaac Del Toro, and Paul Seixas.

With the World Championships taking place in Montréal later this month, these two races are a key stepping stone for many rainbow jersey contenders.

The races will be available to watch on several platforms across the world, with free coverage in Canada, so read on for all the details on how to watch the GPs of Québec and Montréal online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Watch GP Québec & Montréal for FREE in Canada

Our readers in Canada will be glad to know they can watch the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal for free.

CBC Gem is streaming both races live on its free streaming platform and its website player. Additionally, French speakers will be able to stream both races free via TVA+.

There is also paid-for coverage for on Flobikes.

Away from Canada right now? Geo-restrictions apply, but you can still access your usual streaming services using a VPN - more on that below.

How to watch GP Québec & Montréal from anywhere

Away from home this week? A VPN can help you keep up with the action at the GPs de Québec and Montréal.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can change your device’s location, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions on streaming services and access your usual coverage from anywhere. They also add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi.

NordVPN is recommended by our office-mates at TechRadar for its strong stream unblocking.

How to watch GP Québec & Montréal in the USA

Cycling fans in the USA can watch the GP Québec and GP de Montréal via HBO Max.

HBO Max – formerly Max – is the broadcaster with the most cycling rights for US viewers. Prices start from $16.99 for plans that include live cycling.

How to watch GP Québec & Montréal in the UK

As will be familiar to UK cycling fans, TNT Sports and HBO Max hold the rights to the Grand Prix de Québec and the Grand Prix de Montréal.

The easiest way to access TNT Sports is through the HBO Max streaming platform (£25.99 per month), while it can also be added to selected Sky, EE and Virgin Media TV packages.

Can I watch GP Québec & Montréal in Australia?

Fans in Australia can watch both the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal on Flobikes.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Lego dropped its first-ever road bike set back in May. If you watched the UCI Road World Championships over the weekend, this ultra-detailed replica mirrors the drool-worthy bikes seen in Montreal. The 1,015-piece set comes packed with technical, real-life details that we cyclists love to obsess over.

Right now you can pick up the Lego Icons Road bike set on Amazon for under £89.99.

This latest discount drops this brand-new Lego set to it's lowest ever price and is a £20 saving on the launch price of £109.99. Having covered loads of Lego deals on our sister sites, it's very rare to see any Lego sets discounted.

So if you fancy grabbing this road bike set, either for yourself or as an early Christmas gift for the cyclist in your life, then now's the time. Unfortunately, this Lego deal is UK-only, and the Icons Road Bike set remains at the full price of $129.99 on Amazon US.

The Lego Icons Road Bike (11380) is impressive in stature, measuring over 14 in. (36 cm) high, 23.5 in. (60 cm) long and 7.5 in. (19 cm) wide.

The final build comes with a stand, which is reminiscent of some of the best smart trainers, making it a brilliant display piece in the pain cave.

It's also a fully functioning road bike Lego build with front-wheel steering and a fully working drivetrain. The drivetrain features a functional chain made of individual Lego 'links' that rotate when you turn the cranks, and even more impressively, it features a fully working freewheel, allowing the rear wheel to spin independently for that satisfying real-world coasting effect.

Some notable details are the wheels, with more than a nod to some of the best road bike wheels like the Scope Artech 6.A, the fastest aero wheelset we tested in our recent wind tunnel wheel tests.

I particularly love the addition of a bidon and the rear light, which immediately reminded me of my favourite rear light of all time, the Magicshine SEEMEE300; sadly, as good as the Lego designers are, there's no brake light function or exceptional 300 lumens of brightness built in here.

Lego hasn’t said which road bike the set is based on, but our cycling tech experts reckon it leans heavily on some early Factor bikes with the familiar 'chunky' bayonet head tube design. Now where is that my credit card...

Watch the Tour of Britain 2026 as the biggest race in the UK takes place this week.

The race runs from September 2 to September 6, with five stages across the eastern parts of Britain.

Beginning with a hilly stage starting and finishing in Lincoln on Wednesday, we have two real stages that should decide the general classification: Wednesday's opener and the penultimate stage from Helmsley to Leyburn on Saturday. The latter should be the overall decider, with around 2,700m of climbing and key ascents of Kidstones Pass (2.9km at 6.3%) and Greenhow Bank (4km at 7.2%).

Outside of that, we have three other stages, with Stage 2 taking us from Boston to Skegness, Stage 3 from Hull to Beverley and Stage 5 in Scotland, with a circuit around Earlston. All three are expected to be sprint stages, with Olav Kooij and Tim Merlier two of the headline sprinters involved.

Tim Wellens, Ilan van Wilder, Felix Großschartner, Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Filippo Ganna all feature.

Keep reading as we show you how to watch the Tour of Britain 2026 online and for free from anywhere in the world.

Can I watch the Tour of Britain for free?

The Tour of Britain will be free-to-air in the UK on ITV4 with each stage shown live on the channel. This is also accessible via streaming service ITVX.

In Australia you can watch at for free on SBS On Demand, while those across the world will be able to stream all five stages at no cost on the Tour of Britain YouTube channel.

Those outside their country for the Tour of Britain can still access their free stream using a VPN — find out more below.

How to watch Tour of Britain 2026 from anywhere in the world

Away from home during the Tour of Britain? A VPN can help you keep up with the action.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) can change your device’s location, allowing you to bypass geo-restrictions on streaming services and access your usual coverage from anywhere. They also add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi.

NordVPN is recommended by our office-mates at TechRadar for its strong stream unblocking:

How to watch Tour of Britain in the UK

The Tour of Britain has a multitude of viewing options for 2026 in the UK.

TNT Sports and HBO Max once again continue their coverage, while ITV4 will broadcast every stage free on terrestrial television. You also have the option of streaming the action live via the Tour of Britain YouTube channel.

The easiest way to access TNT Sports is through HBO Max (£25.99 per month), while it can also be added to selected Sky, EE and Virgin Media TV packages.

ITV4 is available via your aerial or through the ITVX streaming service. Note that you will need an account to watch live television on ITVX.

How to watch Tour of Britain in the USA

In the USA, every stage of the Tour of Britain will be available to live stream for free via the Tour of Britain YouTube channel.

You won't even require an account.

How to watch Tour of Britain in Canada

It is the exact same deal in the Canada as in the US with the Tour of Britain YouTube channel broadcasting every stage of the race.

This is one of the few occasions FloBikes will not be the main broadcaster.

How to watch Tour of Britain in Australia

Australian cycling fans can stream the Tour of Britain 2026 live and free on SBS On Demand, the Australian broadcaster's free streaming service.

It is also available to view via the Tour of Britain YouTube channel if you are searching for alternative coverage

Tour of Britain 2026 – Schedule