The Philadelphia Cycling Classic returns after a decade off the North American calendar and Cyclingnews is on the ground for the refreshed edition.

Watch the elite women's race from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT and the men's from noon until approximately 4:45 p.m. EDT.

US champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) headline the start lists.

'Philly' was one of the most important races in North America from 1984 until its demise in 2016, serving as the US Pro National Championships for men until USA Cycling created a standalone event in 2006.

The Philadelphia Cycling Classic course runs from Logan Circle along Kelly Drive and the Schuylkill River to the 'Manayunk Wall' - a short but very steep climb kicking up to 16% gradients - before returning via the shorter Lemon Hill.

It's the same route that produced famous champions like Eric Heiden, Petra Rossner, Ina Teutenberg, André Greipel, the only men's two-time winner Kiel Reijnen and, in ancient times, Lance Armstrong.

Cyclingnews will have full coverage from the men's and women's races.

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Chad Haga has indicated that his cycling career is over after a heavy crash on his mountain bike left him with multiple injuries.

The 38-year-old US rider has carved out a successful secondary career in gravel since retiring from road cycling at the end of 2023, but recently revealed his plans to hang up his wheels at the end of this season.

That ending has now come prematurely, and without a fitting farewell, as Haga revealed in an emotional social media post on Thursday morning.

"Heartbroken," he wrote alongside a photo of himself in a hospital bed.

"This morning I gave a little mtb jump too much pop and ended my career early."

Haga then listed out the injuries he had sustained, which include damage to both forearms as well as two broken ribs, a collarbone injury, and a collapsed lung.

The radius and the ulna are the two bones that comprise the forearm, and while Haga does not specifically state as such, it is presumed that he suffered a fracture in the top of his left radius and a fracture to his right ulna.

Haga also indicated that he suffered a head impact.

"I'm thankful that my helmet did its job and saved my brain," he wrote, going on to thank the emergency medical technicians who treated him as well as his family and friends.

Haga spent a decade as a pro road racer and won a stage of the Giro d'Italia with the Sunweb team before following the wave of road pros heading into the burgeoning gravel scene in 2024. After a number of solo missions to 'prove that I belong', he bagged a ride with the PAS Racing set-up and went on to finish runner-up at that year's Unbound 200, the biggest race in gravel.

Towards the end of 2024, he suffered a very similar injury to this latest one, breaking the radius and ulna in his right arm in a training ride. At the end of a 2025 campaign in which he went full privateer as a gravel racer, he had surgery to remove a plate in that right forearm.

Haga has continued to race the world's biggest off-road events with a strong line-up of personal sponsors in 2026, but at the start of August he revealed that he would not race on in 2027.

"It was on a sledding day in January of this year when I realised I didn’t want to keep making the sacrifices it takes to perform at the highest level, so this year I’m doing the best I can with the time that I have to train, and I’m going to wrap it up and move onto new adventures," he said in a social media update.

"I’m excited about that. There are just a couple of months left so I’m going to make the most of my last few races."

Haga raced the Leadville Trail MTB event earlier this month, but had not publicly stated which races remained and where he planned to compete for the final time. In any case, that ending has now been taken away.

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This year's course for the Vuelta a España is sort of like an expanding helium balloon, as the peloton goes deeper into the three weeks and further south into Spain, the climbing continues to grow. However, stage 6 delivers a rush of intrigue with gravel making a return on the final climb of a mountain day in northern Valencia.

The Vuelta calls this 177.4km route on August 27 "ambush territory". Canadian climber and three-time Vuelta stage winner Michael Woods calls this "compelling, interesting, high drama", but those superlatives are more for race spectators and television viewers, not the pro riders.

"Like the 2022 Tour or 2024 Tour, with gravel sectors, or the Giro in the past, having a Strade Bianche-style stage [2021], it does introduce a lot more chaos. And from a spectator's perspective, it's awesome. These stages were amazing stages to watch, compelling, interesting, high drama. So I can see why Grand Tours are interested in putting them in," Woods told Cyclingnews.

"I think most riders would prefer them not to be there, particularly if you're in the GC position. Rarely, as a GC rider, are you looking to gain an advantage in those scenarios. You're more just trying not to lose."

Woods will line up for Team Canada at this year's Road World Championships in Montreal, but no longer competes with a full calendar of WorldTour events. Even though he admitted he had an offer to continue with a 16th pro road campaign this year, he instead found his own sponsors for the privateer path.

Two years ago, Woods won a Canadian road race title and a third career stage at the Vuelta a España. He won a stage across five appearances at the Tour de France, finishing the 2025 Tour with Israel-Premier Tech for his 13th Grand Tour appearance, and an injury later in the year led him to retire. But he's still up to speed on the pro peloton and what's coming with a very mountainous Vuelta this year, including a return with some gravel.

"For this route, it's the same when the Vuelta had a gravel section in the Andorra stage [in 2019], where you have to ride a couple of kilometres on it, and it makes it more interesting," he said.

"I actually think it could impact the race because it's a challenging section. But I don't think it will undo anybody because of the gravel. It's so short, and it's uphill.

"The only real thing that's going to change is just how the rider goes up. Technically, like for me, I always disliked it when that [gravel] was introduced because it disadvantaged someone who can stand [to climb]. It's easier to stay seated [to climb on gravel], and that way you don't lose traction with your rear wheel."

Woods has had a mixed bag of results and experiences at his bucket list of global events so far. He has had top 10s at two UCI Gravel World Series races, including second at OG Classique in Quebec. At his debut at Unbound Gravel 200, he suffered a number of crashes, flats and a scratched cornea, which saw him pull out after the 151-mile time check, though going deeper into the 204-mile race than other former WorldTour riders like Paul Voss, Romain Bardet and Thomas De Gendt.

He also crossed the finish line first among elite men at the Canadian Gravel Championships, but that race division, and several others on the longest course, were cancelled due to high temperatures, so he only has the memories that he "suffered like a dog for this" and not an official title.

Most recently, he finished 14th at Leadville Trail 100 MTB. At least he was able to get a Leadville mountain bike race in the books, though he was concerned he had travelled from his home in Andorra to North America for a second time, and his efforts would not count, or there would be no race at all.

"Leadville was such a cool event. I'm really glad I went," Woods said. In his debut at the mountain bike race, he was in the top 15, 111:46 behind winner Keegan Swenson, but also the third-best of the elite men not part of the Life Time Grand Prix.

"Powerline being gone took out some of the technicality of the race and made it a bit less demanding. So yeah, it would have been cool to do the original course, but it's just amazing that they were able to pull it off, considering all the wildfires."

The Vuelta a España introduced gravel for the first time in 2019. That year was notable not just for the gravel, but who won that stage - it was Tadej Pogačar's first Grant Tour victory. He wears the red leader's jersey for the first time in his career in the early days of this year's Vuelta. If he likes to climb while seated, the 3.5km of gravel will pose no obstacle just before the summit of the Cat.1 Puerto El Bartolo, with under 20km for the finish.

"Guys are going to obviously be aware of it. There's going to be for sure extra protocols around flats," Woods warned.

"It's really not going to impact the race that much. This one's going to be pretty insignificant in the sense of its location. It isn't the final."

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Three-time USPro road champion Megan Guarnier retired after 2018 but made a surprise return to racing earlier this year at USPro Road National Championships and finished 11th in the road race. She then continued director duties, staying stateside while Technical Director Tim Mitchell handled any international races for the CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Firm team.

The two planned to co-manage the next big UCI race in the US, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic on August 30. Now Guarnier has found her way from a seat in a team car to the saddle of a team bike, headed back to a race she won in 2016, which was the last year for the "Philly Classic". The race is back and so is Guarnier.

"We have a few riders that will be racing Giro della Toscana Femminile with the US National Team and unfortunately, one of our riders, who was racing incredibly strong in Europe, had a season ending injury. We feel that it is important to show our support of the return of the Philly Cycling Classic with full representation from our CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group team," Guarnier told Cyclingnews.

The four-day Giro della Toscana Femminile in Italy takes place August 27-30, and the roster was not confirmed yet for Team USA, but Guarnier had many fewer riders she could keep in the US for the Philadelphia contest.

What does that mean really? It's not a stunt, she wanted a full squad. And she said it was a unique way to help her young riders navigate the 14.4-mile circuit.

"It will be exciting for me to be back in the peloton, allowing a first-hand account of the race in real time, as opposed to being in the driver's seat and hearing it over the radio.

"In this scenario, we can make quick decisions and execute confidently, while drawing on my experience from my time in the peloton. As I'm working with our riders on the road, we will also have one of the team directors, Tim Mitchell, in the car who has a great feel for racing dynamics."

The US domestic elite squad brings USPro U23 silver medalist in the time trial and road race Jorja Bond and Ella Brenneman, who had top-10s in the same U23 races. There are also Lizzie Gunsalus, Sabrina Hayes and Elizabeth Grier, with the 41-year-old veteran Guarnier. It is a young squad, with the five teammates averaging half the age of their 'boss', most of them not even out of grade school when Guarnier took the victory in Philadelphia 10 years ago.

Absent from the CCB lineup is USPro women's U23 criterium silver medalist Lyllie Sonneman, who broke her elbow and wrist while racing on a block of Belgian kermesees. She finished runner-up in two races and won GP Désire Goossens-Drongen.

"She was having such a good Euro block! She's super tough though," Guarnier said.

At the pinnacle of her 10-year career in 2016, Guarnier won GC titles at the women's Giro d'Italia and Tour of California to secure the first-ever Women's WorldTour title, and in between she soared across 'Manayunk Wall' for the victory. That final year, the women's race and men's race both ended at the top of the tough 17% gradient in the Manayunk neighbourhood located eight miles away from downtown Philadelphia.

This year's course will take in the famous Manayunk climb again, but on the original course used from 1985 to 2012 for the men and the first 19 years for the women's race, known as The Liberty Classic. The route will begin and end near Logan Circle and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia with multiple passes of the hilly circuit.

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The chance to ride a UCI Road World Championships in front of a home crowd is alone a rare one, but the chance that Magdeleine Vallieres has to do it with race number one pinned on the back of her jersey takes the journey to a whole new level in Montréal.

"Just getting to do the World Championships at home is already a dream, but defending my title is an even bigger one," world champion Vallieres told reporters at a media conference as the build towards the September 20 to 27 event picked up pace. "So yeah, right after [the announcement] it’s been in my head from the start. From the beginning, even before the Worlds, I was already thinking about it."

Then in Kigali the Canadian fans were given a focal point and proven contender for the third visit of the Road World Championships to their shores, after Vallieres claimed the nation's first elite title in the road race in Kigali last year. It was a second career win and instantly shot the rider from a position as a relative unknown to a key draw for the crowds and cameras as she moved through the peloton in the rainbow jersey and her timing in doing it was perfect.

"It’s the kind of thing that happens once in a lifetime – to be able to defend your title at home," said Vallieres as she looked ahead to the return of the Road World Championships to Canada for the first time since 2003. "So I’m trying to take it more as energy than pressure, and just to go with how it comes, to go all‑in and give everything. That’s my goal."

"I think it's a lot more excitement than pressure at the moment. I mean, I feel insanely lucky. It's not only luck winning it last year, it's a lot of hard work. I mean, I'm feeling already quite lucky to have had the jersey for one year, so just being able to be at home to defend it is already like something quite big."

What's more, the 25-year-old, is setting forth to defend her title with a strong team on a course that could also suit her. She won on punchy terrain in 2025, and she will be presented with more in 2026 as the 180km race with 2,502m of elevation gain, facing the Camillien-Houde climb on the eight laps of the 13.4km finishing circuit.

"The climb isn’t too long, it’s a lot of repetitions of a punch. Normally with more and more fatigue, I usually fatigue a bit less than the others, so that can be good for me," said Vallieres.

"I mean, it always depends on how the race is ridden and the risks you take and everything. So we’ll make sure that the Canadian team rides it in a way that plays to our advantage."

Even though the course may hold some similarities to the one Vallieres won on, the circumstances certainly do not. The current world champion no longer has any chance of being able to fly under the radar.

"For sure, the strategy will be a bit different. I came in last year as an underdog, and this year, for sure I will be looked at a lot more," said Vallieres.

"I will still need to look at opportunities a bit like I did last year. I won't be let go as much. Last year it was a strong move, with a lot of strong riders in my group. I'm hoping for something a bit similar, getting away. And if not, just being aggressive is my goal. I want to give myself the best chance to defend the title."

Typically exuberant, with a fast pace on and off the bike, Lucas Bourgoyne (Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) was resting this week after an emergency appendectomy two weeks ago.

He had traveled to Florida to visit a sponsor for the elite men's team he founded this season and intended to travel to Omaha, Nebraska to race the ONE Cycling Series on August 8-9. Instead, he ended up in hospital having surgery.

"It happened the day I got into Naples, Florida, and then it went nuclear. I stayed in Naples for three days to kind of give my body some rest before I flew home to Texas. Yeah, I think my season's over," Bourgoyne told Cyclingnews by telephone 12 days after surgery.

The former USPro criterium national champion was set to join his team for two days of a new ONE Cycling Series of races in Omaha, Nebraska. He made a quick flight to Florida, but it turned into a five-day ordeal instead.

"It was Thursday. I had dinner, and I was sick that night. That same night it all kind of blew up. I couldn't fall asleep and I woke up groaning at four a.m., crawled my way over to the shower. I passed out for like an hour in the shower," he recounted.

"I crawled my way back to the bed, and then slept till 1 p.m. And then I wake up, my buddy's there, and I'm like 'I can't pick my leg up. I think we should go to the hospital just to check'. Sure enough, I have appendicitis and I had to go immediately into surgery that day.

"I'm at this two-week window now and by week four I should start being able to just put some miles in. So maybe Gateway Cup, maybe Bucks County [for racing], maybe it's a season wrap for me."

He'd like to make an appearance at both the Gateway Cup four-day series in St. Louis, Missouri and the Bucks County Classic in Doylestown, Pennsylvania as he won overall titles at both events last year. In fact, he won many of the top North American one-day races in 2025, including Gastown Grand Prix, Utah Crits, Tour of Somerville and the USPro elite men's Criterium National Championship.

He confirmed major investors and launched an innovative criterium crusade for the 2026 season, signing veteran riders to complement himself and Luke Fetzer, last year's USPro U23 criterium champion. Bourgoyne took a high-profile victory at this year's Athens Twilight Criterium, another Tour of Somerville and Capitol Cup in Washington, DC, but the wins have not been easy to come by as other teams have stepped up and his squad has been injury plagued.

"We've had a lot of injuries amongst our team this year, but it's turned out to be a pretty good year in spite of all those injuries and having to learn how to gel quickly. The boys really started to come on around Chicago, and it wasn't just me putting wins on the board. It makes it easier for the team to win when you have so many threats."

In July at the 10-day Chicago Grit, Cade Bickmore was healthy again and won the overall title. His teammate Fetzer was second overall. Team Cadence is currently second in the team standings and Danny Summerhill second in the sprint classification for the American Criterium Cup, which has one race to go at Gateway Cup on September 3.

Bourgoyne had been two points behind American Criterium Cup individual leader Justin Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) headed into the Salt Lake Criterium this past weekend, but Williams locked up the title with the victory and Bourgoyne can still finish the year in second place, even though sidelined.

The 25-year-old remained characteristically optimistic for a return for another big year. After all his, teammates took both race wins at ONE Cycling Series without him, Fetzer winning the Aksarben TIRC Criterium and then Bickmore winning Papillion Twilight Criterium the next day.

"We are still working on getting everything dialed and really create the show that I think that this sport can be. This year was a big year, bringing something new to the American road circuit," he said about kicking aside the team van for an 85-foot "mega rig".

The 45-foot recreational vehicle served to house athletes and as a promotional vehicle, while a 36-foot trailer was towed to store bikes and components as well as to serve as a mobile service course.

"People are taking notice and I think 2027 is shaping up to be a pretty spectacular year," said Bourgoyne.

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Early rider confirmations began to surface this week for the women's and men's elite fields at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic p/b AmeriGas on August 30, with reigning USPro road race champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and current Canadian road race champion Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health) were announced by race organisers to compete in the pair of UCI 1.1 races.

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) and three-time USPro criterium champion Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) also headline WorldTour team rosters.

Joining Simmons at Lidl-Trek are 2020 Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart of Great Britain and Canadian Derek Gee-West, who was fifth overall at this year's Giro d'Italia. Riding alongside Lamperti will be former USPro road race champion Sean Quinn.

In the men's field of 15 teams, there are a total of five WorldTour squads - EF Education EasyPost, Lidl-Trek, Lotto–Intermarché, NSN Cycling Team, Jayco AlUla - plus three ProTeams and seven Continental teams.

Canyon-SRAM joins EF Education-Oatly and Human Powered Health from the Women's WorldTour, with four Continental and 13 elite teams rounding out a 20-team lineup for the women's field.

Two notable members of US women's domestic squads will be Megan Guarnier, who won the last edition of the women's Philadelphia Cycling Classic 10 years ago, and former USPro road champion Lauren Stephens, who was seventh in 2013.

Cyclingnews confirmed Guarnier will return to the 'Philly' race with CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group, and has decided to make the switch from co-director to rider, as there have been recent injuries to members of the roster.

Stephens will line up alongside Emma Langley for the Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment squad. Langley won the USPro road title in 2022, a year after Stephens.

The women’s race begins at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Saturday, August 30, with riders taking on a 14.4-mile (23.1km) circuit four times for a total of 62 miles (100km). The men's race follows at 12:00 p.m. EDT, with the men completing eight circuits for nearly 120 miles (200km) of racing. Elite women and men will share a total prize purse of $150,000, split equally.

Beginning in 1985 for men and then adding a women's race nine years later called The Liberty Classic, the Philadelphia races became a staple for the US calendar. Both races featured the signature 500-metre climb in the Manayunk neighbourhood, the gradient reaching 17% and known as the Manayunk Wall. That climb, and the Lemon Hill section, return for the middle of the course, which begins and ends on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on a circuit that replicates the original route.

“We’re bringing the stadium to the streets, giving fans a chance to experience elite cycling up close and be part of the action in a way you simply can’t in most other sports," Carlos Rogers, a member of Race Street Partners, which owns the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, said in a recent press release.

Both races will be streamed live on 6abc.com, with special updates throughout the day for local television viewers in the Philadelphia market. Viewers across the US and internationally will also have access to the ABC coverage using paid subscriptions with Hulu and Disney+, according to organisers.

Philadelphia Cycling Classic 2026 women's teams

Women's WorldTour teams

• Canyon-SRAM (GER)
• EF Education-Oatly (USA)
• Human Powered Health (USA)

Continental teams

• Vini Fantini - BePink (ITA)
• PatoBike-BMC (MEX)
• Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28 (USA)
• XDS China (CHN)

Elite teams

• 1KFlips-FTP Racing Jakroo Mixed (USA)
• Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment (USA)
• AUTOMATIC Racing (USA)
• CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group (USA)
• Competitive Edge Racing (USA)
• Cyclery Racing - Abacus Data (CAN)
• Équipe Dynamiks Féminine (CAN)
• Fearless Femme Racing p/b The Beasley Firm (USA)
• HigherDOSE | Renova (USA)
• Kingdom Elite Racing (USA)
• Milton Revolution Women’s U23 Project (CAN)
• Team Winston Salem (USA)
• United Cycling (USA)

Philadelphia Cycling Classic 2026 men's teams

WorldTour teams

• EF Education EasyPost (USA)
• Lidl-Trek (GER)
• Lotto–Intermarché (BEL)
• NSN Cycling Team (SUI)
• Team Jayco AlUla (AUS)

Continental teams

• Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber (ITA)
• Modern Adventure Pro Cycling (USA)
• Team Novo Nordisk (USA)

Elite teams

• APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery (USA)
• Competitive Edge Racing (USA)
• L39ION of Los Angeles (USA)
• Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz (USA)
• Nu Colombia (COL)
• Project Echelon Racing (USA)
• Team Skyline (USA)

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Aline Seitz (HigherDOSE l Renova) and Justin Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) sprinted to their first victories in the American Criterium Cup this season, winning the fifth round in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday.

Seitz won with a well-timed move on the final corner of the final lap and held off Skylar Schneider (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Marlies Mejías (Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28). The Swiss rider had made the series podium twice before but both times came up short to series leader Schneider, who had won three of the first four events.

Racing solo for her squad, Seitz needed the victory to edge closer to Skylar Schneider in the overall standings, now trailing in second position by 26 points with one race to go. She predicted that positioning would pay off at the new course for the Mayer Brown Criterium, a short, four-corner course, coming in at just under one kilometre, in the Granary District of Salt Lake City. The race was the first of two days of 2026 Salt Lake Criterium.

"I knew if you win the last turn here, you probably win the race," Seitz said and managed to pull it off. The race was also without series contenders Paola Muñoz (Fearless Femme pb The Beasley Firm), Andre Cyr (HigherDOSE l Renova) and USPro crit champion Kendall Ryan (Caldera Medical x Aurea Racing), who did not make the trip to Utah.

Claudia Marcks (Pedla Racing Division), who won the ACC race at the Tour of America’s Dairyland, also came as a solo rider. She rounded the final corner on the outside and nearly crashed when her wheel skidded, but she reacted quickly and finished fourth, taking enough points to move into third in the overall standings.

L39ION riders hold both red leader's jerseys, with Justin Williams extending his lead with the Salt Lake victory and mathematically sealing the men's overall with any result at the final race in St. Louis, Missouri in three weeks.

His top rival and ACC current runner-up Lucas Bourgoyne (Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) underwent surgery to have his appendix removed, so Justin Williams piled on the points to hold the top spot, now by a 42-point margin.

Breakaways came and went throughout the men's race and the riders settled into one fast field with a dozen laps to go. Then Foundation Cycling New York came to the front for their leader, Jordan Parra, who had not competed at an ACC race since the opener at Tulsa Tough. L39ION took over on to begin the final lap, but the lead-out for Justin Williams was disrupted by a move in the middle by Preston Eye (Clif Family Drifters Cycling).

The ACC leader abruptly went into warp speed on the final corner and opened space to the front for the win. Eye finished second and Parra went third. Team Cadence riders Cade Bickmore and Luke Fetzer trailed in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Ian Williams (Stellina Racing) finished sixth and held on to third overall in the ACC standings, now just three points ahead of Eye.

The final race of the series takes place on September 6 at the Giro Della Montagna, which serves as the third day of racing in the Bommarito Audi West County Gateway Cup in Missouri.

Results

Six hours, 41 minutes and 39 seconds. That's how long it took me to finish the least predictable Leadville Trail 100 MTB in the race's 32-year history, on a course that, 10 days earlier, didn't officially exist.

Leadville has been the most predictable race on the calendar for the Life Time Grand Prix, which made its debut in 2022. The race starts at elevation, 10,152 feet above sea level in Leadville, Colorado, and collects more than 10,000 feet of climbing across an out-and-back 100-plus-mile route.

Riders obsess over the same details every year: when to arrive at altitude, how hard to ride the mid-point climb to Columbine Mine, which tires to run, and how to survive the Powerline climb (gradients reaching 26%) at mile 80 on the return.

This year, almost none of that was certain. The Willow Fire threatened the course and the race itself in early July. The wildfire was even more threatening to local businesses and homes, with evacuations made last month with more than 6,000 acres burned.

Going in it was the Leadville nobody knew. If we did race, we'd still climb Columbine, above the treeline to 12,500 feet, at least once.

10 days of guessing

With no official course, we became amateur course designers, studying fire maps, pouring over trail maps, regular maps, and building our own routes. My favorite, courtesy of Cecily Decker, who went on to finish the 2026 race as runner-up, was aptly named 'Pretendville'.

I also rode sections of the Colorado Trail with 2024 winner Melisa Rollins (now two-time winner), chasing rumors about what Life Time might add for enough elevation gain and distance. Or would the three-day Leadville Stage Race course become the 'new' 100-mile course?

The Leadville Stage Race (July 24-26) became our best substitute for reconnaissance. I wasn't officially entered, but I rode it anyway, one hour before the field, with former US marathon mountain bike champion Alexis Skarda.

The climbing was steep, loose, and unfamiliar enough that four miles into Stage 1, only Alexis and one other rider could clear the first steep section without putting a foot down. Cecily won the official elite women's race, finishing second overall, and set the all-time QOM up the Columbine climb.

Then on August 6, the Leadville 100 course was finally released. After weeks of guessing, we finally had a race to prepare for, at 102 miles and just under 10,000 feet of climbing, with the usual one ascent, and descent, of Columbine.

And Powerline was gone.

Tyres. Pressure. Gearing. Dropper or no dropper? For the first time, we could stop speculating and start dialing in the details.

Race day

The course stopped being theoretical as 6:10 a.m. MST arrived on August 15.

Above 10,000 feet, Leadville feels less tactical and like more of a fitness contest. No real strategy. You can’t fake it at the 'Race Across the Sky'.

There’s no hole shot at Leadville (think cyclo-cross). The field is relatively small, the first five miles are a fast road descent, and nobody wants to blow any matches with 10,000 feet of climbing still ahead. That lasted about five miles.

The first muddy dirt section hit, and the race immediately started to blow apart. Riders went down in the first corner, followed by a bigger pileup that took out several Life Time Grand Prix athletes, including the eventual women’s winner Rollins.

Then came St. Kevin’s, where the field split for good. With a 25% grade and groups forming all around me, being in the right group suddenly mattered more than almost anything else.

From there, we hit a major road descent and a long, flatter stretch toward Pipeline. There was an unexpected sense of camaraderie among the women I was riding with. We took equal turns on the front. At a race this grueling, nobody was attacking. The camaraderie amongst the women was a breath of oxygen-rich fresh air.

Then we hit Columbine. I’d saved a few matches for the climb and started moving up several spots. Every switchback felt like the last one.

Near the top, I saw Cecily coming down in first place. I cheered, sparing the little oxygen I had. It was worth it. I knew how hard she’d work for this race.

After Columbine, the course turned into a race against the clock. With so much pavement and relatively little climbing left, the pace never let up.

Goodbye Powerline

I wouldn't have predicted missing Powerline. I crossed the line in 6:41:39, more than an hour faster than my previous best at Leadville. And finishing an hour faster, with smiles instead of the usual blank stares, felt like it was missing the gut punch the race is supposed to have. I'll take the smiles. I'll still miss the collective trauma.

An hour faster is a number that won’t hold up in cycling court, however. With roughly 2,000 fewer feet of climbing and no Powerline, it wasn’t the same race. But 6:41 still felt pretty damn good.

The handlebar debate in action

This wasn't a personal equipment choice. It was a rule change being put to the test on a newly-designed course where, for the first time, there was a strong argument that drop bars would have been faster.

After last year's race, Life Time banned drop bars on mountain bikes to standardise equipment. The reasoning made sense. Flat bars and drop bars handle differently, especially on narrow descents with high-speed, two-way traffic.

Fast forward to this year. With the ultra-long paved sections, smoother 'hero' dirt, after a week of rain, and fewer rough Leadville features, the course was almost begging for drop bars. Even I had to admit it.

For years, I insisted that a mountain bike should be a mountain bike: flat bars, suspension, dropper post, the whole package. Now, after racing Leadville enough times, I've realised it races more like a gravel race with a few rougher sections and fast descents.

From a pure speed perspective, this was the Leadville course for drop bars.

Pro aid stations

Elite riders had four opportunities to see their crews: Pipeline at mile 26.1 outbound and 74.2 inbound, and Lost Canyon at mile 42.5 outbound and 58.7 inbound.

The course naturally split the field into smaller groups, and with the separation of amateur and elite feed zones, the race felt less chaotic, and more organised.

The biggest benefit was having to do less facial recognition; it becomes challenging, once race-brain takes over. Having designated aid stations meant fewer chances to fly past your people because you didn't see them.

Getting smarter about altitude

Leadville still asked something of the town, and the town still gave it.

The Leadville Trail 100 running race, started by Ken and Merilee Chlouber in 1983 following the closure of the Climax Mine, which cost roughly 3,250 people their jobs. The race was created to bring visitors and money into a community that had suddenly lost its economic backbone.

Lots of towns don’t want cyclists taking over their roads. Leadville welcomes us with open arms.

Going from sea level to 5,200 feet, compared to going from 5,200 to above 10,000 feet, is an entirely different game. Oxygen loss is exponential.

I've tried different strategies to acclimate. Last year, I spent three weeks in Leadville, which, in my opinion, did more harm than good. This year, after 10 days above 10,000 feet, I returned to Boulder and felt like I'd dropped down to sea level. My power surged while my heart rate slowed.

Maybe three weeks in Leadville isn't necessary. Maybe maximising my fitness at 5,200 feet and arriving closer to race day is smarter.

What I actually learned

For weeks, I tried to eliminate uncertainty: maps, wildfire updates, hypothetical courses, revised nutrition plans. On race day, the most useful thing I'd prepared was being OK with not knowing.

I still haven't found the perfect way to race Leadville. The course, bikes, and feed zones might change, and the altitude can humble you, no matter how much time you spend in Leadville.

One thing will always stay constant, Columbine. Eventually, you find yourself above the treeline again, climbing towards 12,500 feet, wondering if you've got one more switchback in you.

There are printed signs placed at nearly every switchback on upper Columbine, above the treeline. Some of them read "Dig deep" and "You paid for this". At the sign that read, "You can dig deeper than you think you can", I asked in reply, "Are you sure, sign?"

Columbine didn't change. It never does.

There may have been a sense of having been here before for Matthew Wilson (Scott Sports USA-Shimano) as he was out front in prime position for a top result in the final stages of the race at the Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB on Saturday. The rider from New Zealand had, after all, looked every bit a sure thing for the podium in Bentonville at Big Sugar last year, when he was out front with Matt Beers (Specialized Off-Road), only for a sliced sidewall to curtail his run.

On Saturday in Colorado, however, the Life Time Grand Prix podium result that he had been searching for finally came when the 24-year-old delivered a Leadville debut to remember. He took off from the four rider break with Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-Road) in the last three miles of the 102-mile race. This time Wilson stayed in the race for victory right to the line, coming second to six-time winner Swenson in a sprint finish.

"Finally had everything go to plan on race day and was able to get the result I knew I was capable of since Bentonville last year," said Wilson in an Instagram post ."Tough to come that close, but I can't complain about coming 2nd to the king of Leadville, Keegan Swenson, on my first time at the event."

What's more, the rider who first earned himself a wildcard spot at the Life Time Grand Prix last year and then backed it up with another in 2026, did it on the comeback from a broken hand, sustaining a fracture a fracture while pre-riding the course for SBT GRVL at the end of June.

His form in the run in to that race had been clear, and not just off-road where he had won Lost and Found just before heading to SBT GRVL. Wilson was third at the New Zealand Championships road race at the start of the year and also washed off his gravel bike after Unbound and rode it to victory at a Tulsa Tough criterium.

But it was in yet another discipline, mountain biking, that the versatile rider broke through to secure his first Life Time Grand Prix podium.

"I've known I've been able to do it for a while, but just to actually get it done, it feels pretty good," Wilson said in a post race interview on the livestream.

It means that he has not only proven that he can deliver at the top level in races this season, but gives him a better chance to do it next season as well as it also puts him in a far better position to secure a top ten place in the overall.

For 2027 a place in the first ten riders would mean avoiding uncertainty and getting automatic selection instead. Heading into the final three races of the season Wilson is sitting in sixth overall, equal with Cobe Freeburn.

Both the Leadville form and indications of what could have been last year, had mechanicals not intervened, bode well for what could unfold next if – and that's always a big if – everything runs to plan.

In 2025 Wilson was 11th at Chequamegon MTB and went into the Little Sugar MTB and Big Sugar Gravel with high hopes. After reaching the single-track near the front of the field at Little Sugar, a double flat and cracked rim ended that race and then it was the tantalisingly close run at Big Sugar, when the gash in his tyre ended his chances of a top placing.

This year, however, offers another opportunity as the proven series podium performer now goes in pursuit of another.

Chequamegon MTB Festival is the next race in the series, on September 19, then it is Little Sugar MTB on October 11 before the Big Sugar Gravel finale on October 17.

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Geerike Schreurs (Specialized-Off road) crushed the CORE4 race in Iowa City, going solo for most of the 120-mile (193km) gravel race while Tobias Kongstad (PAS Racing) sprinted to victory from a group of five in the men’s race at the penultimate event of the Gravel Earth Series. Each made it to the top step on Saturday after finishing second last year.

Schreurs, racing with a broken right shifter, finished with a time of 5:49:10 and claimed her third victory in the GES. Crossing the line 18:32 later, Emily Newson took second. Crystal Anthony (Flow Formulas, Kenda, The Black Bibs) was third, 5:51 later.

Launched in 2022, CORE4 calls itself “the next level in gravel racing.” Taking place around and within the metro of Iowa City, the dynamic course goes through champagne gravel, speedy pavement, singletrack, bike paths, remote and rugged B roads, and even river and waterfall crossings.

An early crash on a B road led to the first split in the elite women’s peloton with Schreurs and Newsom pulling away, building a gap of one minute after 10 miles of racing.

Behind the pair, a group of four, Anthony, Flavia Oliveira Parks, Peta Mullens and Gabrielle Trexler joined together in a chase group. The situation stayed the same until the challenging water crossing and hiking section where Schreurs found herself solo.

Schreurs put her head down, and powered on, growing her gap from three minutes after around 30 miles of racing to 10 minutes by the aid station at mile 77.

Behind, Traxler dropped out of the chase group, leaving the three to battle for the remaining podium spots.

In the men’s race, Kongstad claimed the victory with a time of 5:15:34, three seconds ahead of Cole Davis (SpeedStudio p/b Basso), who was second. Adam Roberge (Felt UN1TD) took third, one second further back.

The first split also happened early in the elite men’s race, with a group of 15 pulling away after a crash on a minimum maintenance road (MMR) in the first mile. Michael Garrison (SpeedStudio p/b Basso) took a solo flyer, but a broken wheel took him out of the equation.

The front group lost a few riders after hike a bike section following the waterfall crossing, leaving seven riders off the front after 20 miles in. Joining Kongstad, Davis and Roberge in the move were Daxton Mock (Trek Driftless), Chase Wark (Lunchbox Racing), Benjamin Perry (Guava x Castelli S.O.G), Hayden Christian (Trek / Maap Pro.fwd) and last year’s winner Julien Gagné (Lunchboxracing).

Cooperation was not perfect, as the group attacked each other for the rest of the race, with first Christian falling off the pace, and then Wark dropping out in the final 10 miles. The five riders sped to the finish line with Kongstad first around the corner and first across the line.

GES concludes in two weeks with a new event, The River by The Traka, which is run on a 160km route in Bouillon, Belgium.

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Results

Lining up at Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik less than a week after finishing the Tour de France Femmes, Rosa Klöser’s task was always going to be a difficult one.

But after battling with the effects of altitude early in the race, the multi-discipline star’s hopes of a strong result were definitively and brutally ended by a puncture inside the final 15km.

The Canyon-SRAM rider said the flat was so serious that she tried eight times to plug it and went through three Co2 canisters to try and re-inflate it, but to no avail. She had to abandon the race at that point and was listed as a DNF on the results.

“I flatted bad. 8 plugs, 3 Co2 - still no luck,” Klöser wrote in a social media post

“It‘s sad but I had to give up and call a ride home as it was too far and dangerous to ride on the rim. It is what it is!”

Klöser was in fifth position at the time, after chasing with Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road), itself an achievement given this was, she said, only her fifth ever mountain bike ride.

The German is a big name on the gravel scene but this was a baptism of fire on the flat bars, at altitudes above the 3000-metre mark, and with so little time to adapt after competing at the biggest road race in the sport.

“I’ve never been and for sure not have been riding an MTB above 3000hm,” Klöser wrote.

“Felt ok yesterday but today (altitude day 3) hit me and I was far off the pace of the first 4 girls. Eventually managed to come around & was sitting alone in P5 but with 14k to go I flatted.”

Despite the struggles and the disappointing end to her ride, Klöser was able to take heart from her ride and take some inspiration for the future.

“On a positive note, I was happy with my technical skills considering it was my 5th ever MTB ride,” she wrote.

“To perform here better preparation is needed but its definitely something I can see myself targeting in the future.”

Klöser drops out of the top 10 on the Life Time Grand Prix season-long series, into 11th place, with three events remaining.

“Not sure what’s next yet, as my body feels pretty empty post Tour & sickness.”

Villafañe finished seventh, behind winner Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) and held her overall lead in the Life Time Grand Prix standings.

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Though Pete Stetina bested his own time by 48 seconds set last year on the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb, he had to settle for second place again, with a time of 50:48. The pro road and gravel cycling rider had previously announced that he would retire after the 2026 season, calling his participation in a select few events a "farewell tour".

In 2025, Stetina went all in to try and set a new record on the climb, which his father, Dale Stetina, held for 17 years, but he was denied by his friend Ian Boswell, who took the win and the record.

But a new record was set on Saturday on the 53rd edition of the New Hampshire hillclimb. Gravel racer John Keller shattered the previous times, setting the all-time historical record with a time of 47:21, beating the fastest time by almost three minutes. On a beautiful sunny day, Keller tackled the climb on a 10.8-lbs bike on his maiden attempt of the iconic ascent.

Not only did Keller better the previous record of 50:15 set last year by Boswell but he also beat the 2020 time of 49:24 set by Tom Danielson. After the road was fully paved in 2022, records were reset, with Phil Gaimon briefly establishing the new benchmark at 50:38.

Known as “the toughest hillclimb in the US, if not the world,” the 7.6-mile (12.2km) ascent of Mount Washington in New Hampshire averages a brutal 12% gradient, with sections reaching 22%. The climb finishes at 6,288 feet (1,916 metres), the highest peak in the northeastern United States. The race is hosted by and benefits the Tin Mountain Conservation Center.

The evening before the climb, Stetina showed a screening of his 'Feeding the Rat' project, which follows his summer journey, made twice, to set a new record to conquer Mount Washington.

“I was saying it the night before during the film screening, but it was just a matter of time with the way cycling's progressing, and you know, I wanted to do it last year, but now the official all-time record. There's no old historical record, modern record. John Keller just broke the all-time record,” Stetina said on Instagram.

Keller has been on a roll, as he became a three-time record holder of the Broadmoor Cycle to the Summit hill climb up the 14,115-feet summit Pikes Peak in Colorado, a week earlier. Keller then clocked a time of 1:06:41, beating his 2023 course record by over one minute on the 12.42-mile climb, with its 156 turns.

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With the Tour de France Femmes in the rearview mirror along with many of the other big races of the Women's WorldTour season, it's no surprise that the focus of the women's peloton is now turning towards the UCI Road World Championships.

The Worlds, the last standout racing event of the season, heads back to North America for the first time since Richmond 2015 as Canada hosts the event for the third time, the country's first since Hamilton 2003.

Back then, Swedish racer Susanne Ljungskog defended her road race rainbow jersey, powering to a reduced sprint victory ahead of Dutchwoman Mirjam Melchers and Briton Nicole Cooke. In the time trial, it was Spain's Joane Somarriba who won, 10 seconds up on Judith Arndt.

In September, the Worlds return to Canada, heading to Montréal from September 20-27. The city has hosted once before – in 1974 – and this year, the likes of Demi Vollering (Netherlands), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), and Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) willl compete on the hilly city-centre circuit.

Meanwhile, the home nation will be hoping to retain the surprise rainbow jersey won by Québecois rider Magdeleine Vallieres Mill – Canada's first-ever Road Worlds triumph – last time out in Kigali, Rwanda.

She's expected to lead the women's squad again, while the men's elites will be led by Derek Gee-West and Michael Woods, who has surprisingly come out of road retirement.

Six Canadian riders took the start of the Tour de France Femmes in Lausanne earlier this month, so Cyclingnews tracked some of them down to get their thoughts and feelings on what will be a momentous event for them and for Canadian cycling.

Vallieres Mill was proud to race in rainbows at the biggest event of the calendar – "The atmosphere has been super good, so it's been nice to have some extra cheers because of the jersey," she said – and she's very much looking forward to a Canadian Worlds.

Canada doesn't host any top-level women's races, aside from September's 1.1 Tour de Gatineau and Chrono de Gatineau, so she and her compatriots rarely have a chance to compete on home roads.

"I'm super excited. I don't get to race home very much. To be racing Worlds to defend my title is going to be something incredible, so I'm really looking forward to it," Vallieres Mill said.

"We already know a bit about the team, but it's not super official. I have an idea because there are a lot of really strong Canadians at the moment, including at this race, so I think we will have a really strong team."

'I think for every Canadian this is the coolest thing to have everyone come to your country'

Canada took five riders to the road race as Vallieres Mill broke away for a last-gasp victory in Rwanda, though they're set for an increased roster of seven this time. Vallieres Mill was joined by Olivia Baril, Emilie Fortin, and Laury Milette in 2025, with 2023 Paris-Roubaix champion Alison Jackson also racing.

Jackson, from Alberta, said she was confident about taking part once more. Fourth place on stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia Women is a standout result which should see her make the cut according to Cycling Canada's selection criteria.

"I mean, the depth of the female racers in Canada right now is super high, but there's a lot of U23s and elites. So, yeah. I think my result at the Giro will put me in there," Jackson told Cyclingnews.

"I think for every Canadian this is the coolest thing to have everyone come to your country. I think this will be a once-in-a-career kind of thing."

Nadia Gontova, hailing from Richmond, B.C., close to Vancouver, flew the Canadian flag as newly crowned national champion in the Tour's Dijon time trial. She was forced to miss what would've been her Worlds debut last year after undergoing iliac artery surgery at the season's end.

She told Cyclingnews earlier this year that making this year's Canada squad is "definitely a big goal" and said in France that she's still got her fingers crossed.

"I was super bummed to miss out last year. I think it was a pretty last-minute decision to skip Worlds, so I think I'm even more motivated to go and have a good race this year, especially with the defending World Champion being Canadian. It's even more motivation behind it," Gontova said.

"I hope to race. We don't have the selection out yet, but I definitely really hope to be there. I'm not sure, but I hope so."

Alongside last year's team and Gontova, riders including Sarah Van Dam (seventh at Amstel Gold Race and the Tour de Suisse) and national road champion Maggie Coles-Lyster are also in the mix for selection for the elite squad.

With such a strong list of riders to choose from, it's no surprise that Canadian women's cycling is on the rise. Three years ago in Glasgow, Ontarian Isabella Holmgren scored their only top result with eighth in the under-23 road race.

A year later in Zürich, her twin sister Ava was fourth in the same race. 2025 saw several other big results alongside Vallieres Mill's rainbow jersey, as Sidney Swierenga raced to fourth in the junior road race and sixth in the junior time trial, while Isabella improved two places on her Glasgow result.

'I would love to be in my best shape to help Isabella, because I think we could win'

Still just 21, Isabella Holmgren led Canada's charge for a medal in the same race this time around, having already won two under-23 rainbow jerseys on the mountain bike.

Holmgren will head to Canada after filling her season with a score of big results at the highest level – including top 10s at La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Giro d'Italia Women, and the Tour de France Femmes.

She's racing both road and mountain bike this year, heading to Italy for the MTB Worlds, which run from August 26-30 in Val di Sole.

Holmgren will race Elite MTB Worlds this time around, having taken both short track and cross-country under-23 titles last year, beating Carla Hahn of Germany by 20 seconds in the shorter event before putting in a dominant ride to beat US racer Vida Lopez de San Roman by 2:16 in the cross-country race.

A month later on home ground, she'll be back among the under-23s for the 123km race in Montréal.

Ava will be aiming for a spot too, as will Canadian under-23 time trial champion Alexandra Volstad and 19-year-old Swierenga, third at the Volta a Catalunya this year. Kiara Lylyk, like the Holmgren twins, another Ontarian, is feeling confident about making her Worlds debut, too.

The 22-year-old has overcome RED-S this year, and raced the Tour de France Femmes for a second time in what will be her final year racing at under-23 level.

"I've thought about it a lot since like two years ago. It's been marked as my last year under-23. I had to miss Worlds last year because of my last year of university, so it would be really special to do an under-23 Worlds.

"To have a favourite like Isabella, I would love to be in my best shape to help her, because I think we could win. So, it would be so special – it's so close to my home," she told Cyclingnews.

"I feel I'm pretty certain, because the way our criteria works – if you become top five in a UCI .1 or higher, that's a first priority. In Catalunya I did that, so it should be me, Isabella, Sydney for sure, and then the other spots are still to be decided."

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Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) launched a late attack against Cecily Decker (PAS Racing) to win a second time at Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik. The 2024 champion returned to the top step of the podium in a time of 5:58:43 in the modified 102-mile mountain bike endurance race.

Decker had to stop twice in the final 12 miles to deal with a flat tyre, but was able to finish in second place, 4:47 back. Lauren Stephens (Aegis x LOE) accelerated away from chase partner Sarah Lange to claim third place, 11:31 off the fast time of Rollins.

Stephens had joined Lange on the descent of the Columbine climb and the two rode together for nearly 45 miles, Lange relinquishing in the final miles and finishing 27 back for fourth.

A runner-up last year, Rollins won her second Leadville title, this time wearing the stars-and-stripes jersey as the US marathon mountain bike national champion. She chased from an early crash to catch Decker with 37 miles to go. 'Diesel Decker', who held the race lead for more than 55 miles, was the most aggressive rider on the day to build on an early solo lead using an attack at the St. Kevin's climb. The same area came back with a big sting later with a flat rear tyre to end hopes of a victory.

"It's really hard to just put into words. We all work really, really hard and I just put so much into this one race, and it sucks. Yeah, it's hard to just have it all go in one instant. It would have been really cool to just be able to fight with Melissa to the line," Decker said to organisers at the finish.

"I really wanted to push the pace on [St.] Kevin's [outbound], see who else wanted to go fast. I think if Melisa didn't have that crash, she would have been right up there right away.

"But she ended up coming back, obviously super strong. Yeah, we had a pretty epic battle towards the end. I ended up puncturing right at the bottom of St. Kevin's."

Rollins has competed at Leadville with her family for over a decade now, taking her first elite win two years ago and then going runner-up last year. This time Rollins won wearing the stars-and-stripes jersey as the US marathon mountain bike national champion.

"This race is so special to me, so I wasn't willing to give in," she said at the finish on the live broadcast provided by Life Time.

"I mean, this race is super important to me, it's super important to my family. It's super important to everybody who lines up, people who train for a year for this race. They try multiple times to get in. And the fact that we even got to have a race, I felt it like it was my duty to really put it out there, because a month ago, I really truly did not believe it was going to happen."

Rollins referred to a massive wildfire, the Willow Fire, that burned from July into August, destroying thousands of acres of land, including businesses and homes in Lake County to the west of Leadville. By mid-August, a large area which the original route had passed for three decades had been severely impacted and evacuated, with organisers having to search for a revised route and secure permits. The revised route was confirmed just two weeks ago.

Villafañe, who won Leadville in 2023, finished seventh and held her overall lead in the Life Time Grand Prix standings. Leadville served as the third race in the six-race off-road series. Rollins, who was injured in the spring, did not race Sea Otter and did not complete Unbound Gravel 200 so came into Leadville in last place, but soared up to 16th place overall.

Decker remains second overall and Stephens is now third overall. Lange moved to sixth place.

Columbine creates separations but St. Kevin's decisive

The elite men were first on the course at 6:00 a.m. local time, with the elite women taking off 10 minutes later, as sunshine broke the darkness of a cloudless sky above the Rocky Mountain town of Leadville, the highest incorporated city in North America at 10,152 feet above sea level.

The modified 102-mile route brought a total of 9,897 feet (3,016 metres) of elevation gain, with cool temperatures of 41°F (5°C) for the early miles.

A large number of the women's peloton went down in a crash after just six miles, with Rollins one of the last riders to pick herself up, all riders back on their bikes and no major issues noticed on the broadcast cameras.

Another four miles later, on the early sections around the new eastbound direction around Turquoise Lake, Decker was the first rider to make a move, charging to the front and opening a five-second gap to Lange. A group of four formed a solid group behind the duo a few more seconds back - Rollins, Stephens, Hayley Preen (Factor Racing) and Alexis Skarda (Q36.5 Off Road Racing).

Samara Sheppard of New Zealand was then 20 seconds back riding solo between that foursome and a twosome of Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road) and Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM). Other early favourites now chasing early were Paige Onweller (Trek Driftless) and former Leadville winner Hannah Otto (Scott Sports USA) to round out the top 10.

Once at the 38-mile time check at Twin Lakes, with the climb to Columbine Mine approaching, Decker continued a fierce pace to open nearly one minute to Lange. A full two minutes behind Lange, the quartet of Rollins, Stephens, Preen and Skarda continued together. Moves had been made by Onweller to connect with Villafañe and Klöser as Sheppard dropped back slightly and a second foursome gave chase another two minutes back.

Decker pushed solo at the front on the roughest part of the Columbine climb, the 'goat trail', while behind Rollins made the pass of Lange to ride in second place, 1:30 behind the lone leader. Lange filled the third spot on the climb, one minute behind Rollins while Stephens was fourth, another 1:35 back.

Shortly after making the turnaround atop Columbine, Decker had no one for company at the front, but once on the journey back to Leadville she saw Rollins in pursuit, the gap 1:01. Next on the two-way traffic, Decker saw Lange and Stephens, with larger time gaps building at 5 minutes to third place and 5:25 to fourth place.

On a paved section on the inbound beyond Twin Lakes, Rollins could see Decker. The catch was made with 37.5 miles to go. The gap behind to Lange and Stephens, still together, had grown to 7 minutes, with Lange doing the bulk of the work.

With 11 miles to go, the two carried on, with Decker trying to accelerate away at the base of St Kevin's, but a counter move was made by Rollins and she began to pull away.

Rollins was able to extend her gap on the descent, and once Decker reached the rocky base behind, she suffered a flat tyre, shown on the live broadcast off her bike, not once but twice, and working to seal a leak.

Rollins knew she was alone, looking back a few times, but was not aware that Decker had stopped. Going for a second win, Rollins pounded out the miles next to the railroad tracks headed into Leadville and once on the tarmac of Sixth Street could celebrate.

Results

Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-road) won a hard-fought sixth consecutive title at Life Time Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik, having to come around New Zealand's Matt Wilson (Scott Sports USA-Shimano) in a two-rider sprint. The pair, who moved away from a four-rider breakaway in the final three miles of the 102-mile race, finished in 5:20:26 on a revised course.

The sprint for third went to Bradyn Lange (Canyon x DT Swiss All-Terrain Racing) ahead of John Gaston (STRAFE-Specialized), the US Gravel National Champion finishing 24 seconds back for the final podium spot.

Swenson and Gaston, who have gone one-two in the race three times before, grabbed a late lead across Carter Summit with 14 miles to go. A few miles later Lange and Wilson closed a 21-second gap to form the front quartet of elite men.

With three miles to go, Wilson got out of the saddle on a wide dirt road for an attack. Swenson reacted, grabbing his wheel as the two struck out together. A steady grind from Gaston and Lange kept the gap to around 10 seconds, but they never got closer.

Back on the pavement in Leadville, Wilson had a half-wheel lead on the marathon mountain bike World Champion as they rode side by side. On the final stretch of Sixth Street, Swenson kicked late to the front and won Leadville for a sixth time, which now ties the record for wins set by US rider David Wiens (2003-2008).

Swenson's last five victories came in dominant fashion, and the 2026 race was the first time the Specialized rider needed a sprint finish to win.

"It was a hard one today. Physically, it wasn't like the hardest Leadville, until the very end when we started really ripping. But just such a different race, very tactical," Swenson said on the Life Time Grand Prix livestream at the finish.

"I wasn't quite sure how big the group would be after Columbine on the way back. I had a small gap, but it wasn't enough to stay away. So I figured it was best to wait for those guys and then just roll with them and try and figure it out at the finish."

Swenson extended his lead in the Life Time Grand Prix with his victory, his first in the three races held so far in the off-road series. Lange moved up to second in the elite men's series standings while Wilson moved into the top 10.

“I’m super happy. This is one of my biggest goals of the season every year and I’ve never really put together a good race here so it feels really good," Lange said about third place at Leadville.

Gaston, who has finished on the podium each of the last four years, missed by just one spot this time. He is not part of the Grand Prix. Another early contender outside the Grand Prix was Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), who was second overall in his only other appearance in 2019, and he finished ninth, 8:50 off the pace.

Chasers close down Swenson

Riders lined up in the dark before the sun cast any light into the Rocky Mountain town of Leadville and set off at 6:00 a.m. local time with cool temperatures, 41°F (5°C). The rains from earlier in the week had packed down dirt roads, and with light winds and sunny skies, the conditions were near perfect.

The modified 102-mile route brought a total of 9,897 feet (3,016 metres) of elevation gain, starting from the highest incorporated city in North America at 10,152 feet above sea level.

A large group of 20 riders pushed to the front on the early St Kevin's double-track dirt. Another 18 riders bunched together 30 seconds back.

At the third time check, 38 miles in, the two groups reformed as one pack of 38 riders, with no major moves launched yet.

Passing the Twin Lakes Dam time check, with 38 miles covered, Drew Dillman rode at the front, with a group of 32 riders lined behind by 15-30 seconds. Another three miles as the road crept closer to the official base of Columbine, young New Zealander Matt Wilson, John Gaston, Keegan Swenson, Quinn Simmons, Bradyn Lange, Australian Brendan Johnston and Canadian Andrew L'Esperance picked up the pace, creating a small gap to a dozen other riders.

As the clock clicked past two and a half hours, Swenson and Wilson had the dirt road to Columbine Mine all to themselves, for the time being. Making the right-hand bend onto the 'goat trail' section where the rocks get chunkier, and the doubletrack narrows, Swenson had a few bike lengths on Wilson, and slowly began to take more seconds. By the crest of Columbine and reversing direction for the return trip to Leadville, the World Champion had 20 seconds on Wilson.

Behind, Pellaud was the third rider to begin the return trip, with Gaston and Andreas Seewald along for company one minute behind Swenson. Cole Paton chased 10 seconds behind that trio, with Lange and Johnston forming a duo two minutes from the leader. Toby Røed and Simmons were next in line in the chase, 1:50 behind the five-time champion, with Payson McElveen a minute behind them.

On the rough descent back on the goat trail section of Columbine, Swenson blasted along the trail all alone, only seeing a few riders pass to his left as they began their ascent.

However, at the base of Columbine, passing the Lost Canyon area with less than 45 miles to go, five riders had come together for the chase and were within 30 seconds of the leader - Lange, Wilson, Seewald, Paton and Gaston. Pellaud chased that group and had 14 seconds to wipe away his gap. Johnston rode in eighth place, 1:30 behind Pellaud, and it was another 2:45 to Røed and Simmons.

The catch of Swenson was made at the Twin Lakes area with under 37 miles to go, now a front group of seven, which included Pellaud.

Another 10 miles further, at a feed zone, Seewald slowed down to take his bottle and had to catch back into the lead group. The seven then went into action taking turns at the front, though Swenson seemed to be at the front with longer pulls.

With 15 miles to go on a pavement section, Swenson made an acceleration and only Gaston was able to match the pace, gaining a quick 10 seconds on Wilson, Lange, Pellaud and Seewald, with Paton fading. Pellaud then suffered a flat tyre and struggled to finish.

Across Carter Summit, the duo held a gap of 21 seconds to the group of four chasers, with less than 14 miles to go. A few miles on, after passing the former return on Powerline, a 12% gradient on the wooded section had the two headed to St. Kevin's on the top side of Turquoise Lake.

The deal was not done, though, as Wilson and Lange drilled the chase on the St. Kevin's dirt road and made a connection to the two leaders with just under 7 miles to go. Three US riders and one Kiwi then settled in for the battle for three podium spots.

Results

Canada have unveiled their men's squad for the upcoming UCI Road World Championships on home soil, and there's plenty of quality, but one name stands out.

Michael Woods, the 39-year-old who retired from road racing at the end of 2025, is on the list of six names.

Woods, a former distance runner who came late to cycling but earned considerable success, including a stage win at the Tour de France and the silver medal at the 2018 Road Worlds, has joined the gravel circuit in 2026 amid his road racing retirement.

He's even branching into mountain biking, lining up in his first flat-bar race at Leadville Trail 100 MTB on Saturday. However, he'll soon be back on the road after being selected for one of the very biggest races in the world, the elite men's road race at the UCI Road World Championships, taking place in Montreal.

"Michael Woods, a Tour de France stage winner, three‑time Vuelta a España stage winner, double La Route d’Occitanie GC champion, and former World Championships podium finisher, joins the team with world-class experience and leadership," read a statement from Cycling Canada announcing their elite men's squad.

Canada will be led by Lidl-Trek's Derek Gee-West, with support coming from fellow WorldTour pros Hugo Houle, Michael Leonard, and Pier-André Côté, while the squad is rounded out by Nickolas Zukowsky, who rides for the second-tier Pinarello Q36.5 team.

Woods, then, is an outlier. But this unusual arrangement will scratch an itch, allowing him a farewell on home soil after his planned swan song at last year's GP de Montréal failed to materialise due to a hernia injury.

"I really wanted to end my career in Montreal. I didn’t do that last year due to a hernia. I ended up getting surgery for that and it wasn’t the ending to my career that I wanted," Woods told Canadian Cycling Magazine.

"Also, I really wanted to do Road Worlds in Montreal but couldn’t wrap my head around doing a full WorldTour calendar. I’m just really glad I got the opportunity to do this alternative calendar. It’s kept me in great shape. I feel really fortunate to have been selected. But I also think I did some really good racing over the course of the year to prove that I’m still in good form. I think I’ll still be a valuable asset to the team at Worlds."

Woods did race the national championships road race in June, but this push for Worlds comes as a more sustained spell on the road, which will include the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal WorldTour races in September in the build-up to Worlds.

Canada is fielding a national squad for GPs de Québec and Montréal, which will act as a springboard towards Worlds for most of the sport's biggest stars, so Woods will be able to test himself against a world-class peloton of his former contemporaries.

"I’m really looking forward to riding with the younger guys and hopefully I can provide some leadership to them, but selfishly, I need those races to prepare for Worlds. I feel like, if I don’t don’t do those races, it’ll be like merging onto the freeway with a moped," Woods added.

"I actually think being here at Leadville is going to be really nice preparation. It’ll cap off a nice altitude block for me. I think coming out of Leadville I will be way better aerobically and then I can just focus on putting some more intensity into my training.

"I’m hoping that after those two races [Québec and Montréal] and a small training block in the Eastern Townships with my coach, I should be ready for Worlds."

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You won't find Lauren Stephen's name in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB results from 2025, though she did cross the finish line with a third-best time for women, for a brief time. Her effort in the mountain bike race was wiped away by a disqualification for accepting aid from a crew member outside an approved elite rider feed zone.

She admitted the mistake and took the hit, confirming to Cyclingnews hours after the race that she had "misunderstood the rules" for elite riders and took a bottle at an aid station for non-elites, adding, "I'm not proud of my mistake but I am proud of my performance."

A three-time US Gravel National Champion with former road race titles at USPro and Pan American championships, Stephens enjoys riding any bike on any terrain. This year she returns for 'another' debut at Leadville and aims for the podium. She said it was a race she's wanted to win for more than 15 years, but with a busy road calendar that paid the bills didn't have room for it until recently.

In 2026, she's committed to the Life Time Grand Prix. For her, Leadville isn't just a race in the series, it's the one she wants to win.

"Leadville's always kind of been a dream race of mine. So to get to race it last year was just so special. I'd always said I would race it when I stopped racing full time, and I know I still race full time, but I'm not racing professionally over in Europe, so it's just a current chapter in my career," Stephens explained to Cyclingnews from her high-elevation training base near Telluride, Colorado last week.

"It was a big goal of mine last year to win it, and finishing third was amazing. And yeah, this year I'm back to try to win."

It was in 2009 that Lauren Stephens awakened a desire to race, and win, Leadville Trail 100 MTB. She had just watched a documentary, 'Race Across the Sky: the Leadville Trail 100', and was captivated by the film that featured incredible climbing, a dominant women's winner Rebecca Rusch and the men's showdown between Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens.

"Before I was racing and just getting interested in cycling, I remember going to the theatres to watch the movie about Leadville, and just being like, wow, I want to do that one day. Gosh, that was almost 20 years ago," she said.

She is fifth overall in the Life Time Grand Prix going into Leadville this year, with a large spread of 18 points to leader Sofia Gomez Villafañe. The Colorado race begins the back half of the series with ample opportunities to move higher in the standings. She opened the year with a runner-up to Villafañe in the sprint at Sea Otter Classic on dirt, and on the road won GC titles at Redlands Bicycle Classic, Tour of the Gila and won The Growler at Levi's Gran Fondo.

After finishing 15th at Unbound Gravel 200, her first time at that distance after winning the 100-mile event previously, Stephens went second to Kate Courtney at the USPro road race championship. Now it's Courtney's turn to race on the road in Europe and Stephens stays in the US for off-road endurance.

"When you look at Unbound being 200 miles, it's a different animal. A seven-hour race is much more in my wheelhouse, and being such a climbing race as well," she said, noting that her expansive time with road riding has been a solid base, as well as six weeks at elevation.

After USPro Nationals in mid-June, she went straight to Colorado rather than her home in Dallas, Texas, a notable difference of nearly 8,000 feet (2,430 metres). She raced Foco Fondo, winning for a third time, and trained around Telluride. The smoke from wildfires was not as noticeable in that area, and she was glad Life Time could make Leadville happen, even with the elimination of some climbing.

"It's unfortunate about the fires. The new course was pretty much what we expected they would come up with, and so I wasn't really surprised by it. We still have Columbine, so it's still a climbing race, Stephens said.

"But not having Powerline at the end definitely changes the race quite a bit. I think it makes Columbine even more important. In general, the way the race was raced before, Columbine caused attrition, caused splits, just by the nature of it being such a long, hard climb and at such high elevation. Powerline was the place where you could make your final attack; now, not having Powerline, I think makes Columbine harder."

She said wind is also a factor on some of the wide-open parts of the route between Turquoise Lake to the north and the Twin Lakes to the south at the base of Columbine. And with 20 miles to go at the end, fatigue came into play on the 20% gradients of the 3.4-mile stretch of Powerline, where she tried to get away from runner-up Melisa Rollins, though Courtney was long gone.

"Powerline was basically a wall. Now, there's nothing crazy, but after such a long day, everything's hard. I mean, we're still at almost 10,000 feet of climbing."

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The Rad Dirt Festival is back in the Life Time Grand Prix series in 2027, returning the off-road competition to a seven-race event, and there will also be an adjusted athlete selection process for the year ahead.

The September event in Trinidad, Colorado was last included as part of the series in 2024, and there have been six events in the season the past three years following the cancellation of the Crusher in the Tushar race due to wildfires two seasons ago.

For the year ahead, riders in the series must start a minimum of six of the seven events, which in 2027 will be Sea Otter Classic Gravel, Unbound Gravel 200, Leadville Trail 100 MTB, Chequamegon Mountain Bike Festival, Rad Dirt Fest, Little Sugar MTB and Big Sugar Gravel.

The process for deciding the 25 athletes in the men's and women's competition is also changing in 2027, with the aim being to "create a performance-driven-path" that also improves the abilities of athletes to plan for what's ahead.

"The Grand Prix is about identifying the best all-around off-road racers, and competing across gravel and mountain bike racing reflects that," said Kimo Seymour, President of Events and Media at Life Time. "Establishing the field earlier also gives athletes greater certainty as they plan their seasons and partnerships.”

Automatic selection for this season only applied to the top five and the top overall Under 23 rider from 2025. Then there were 16 selected athletes, and three wild card entries – with more added in the case of selected athletes dropping out. Places were confirmed after the second event, Unbound, in late May.

For 2027, the rules will be adjusted so the top ten athletes from 2026 gain automatic selection, along with the top U23 rider. The remaining 14 spots will then be decided based on the results from among the Pro category at the mid-April Sea Otter Classic Gravel and Sea Otter Classic Fuego XL.

“Our goal is to continue raising the competitive standard of the Grand Prix while creating a clear pathway into the Series for athletes to pursue,” said Seymour.

“The top athletes from this season will earn their opportunity to return, the next group will have the chance to race their way in at Sea Otter, and from there we’ll have 25 women and 25 men taking on seven of the most demanding off-road races in the country.”

The leaning toward performance-based, rather than discretionary, selection, is also not where the changes end. A new Pro category vetting procedure is also set to be introduced for 2027. Riders will have to apply for access to race in the Pro category at Life Time events, as part of a process which will be introduced in September.

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Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik returns for a 32nd edition and, for the first time, has a modified route. Organisers Life Time were able to continue with planning for this year's mountain bike endurance race after Colorado wildfires caused a large swath of the area in Lake County to be evacuated and then closed through the end of September. By early August, just two weeks before the race, Life Time was able to confirm a 102-mile route, or 101.3 miles on the Strava map, reduced by less than three miles from previous years.

The climb to Columbine Mine, elevation 12,424 feet above sea level, remains the main pinnacle on the out-and-back course, as it has since the first race in 1994. This year, this climb, and the tricky descent with rough double-track dirt and two-way traffic, will be even more pivotal as the finishing climbs were removed. With no Powerline climb with 20 miles to go, and its menacing sections above 20% gradient, the new return to Leadville will be about positioning and proper hydration once at the bottom of Columbine with 43 miles to go.

The opening half of the race is where riders face 60% of the total 9,897 feet of elevation gain, thanks to the nearly seven-mile ascent of Columbine. There's still St. Kevin's climb, which is gravel on the outbound direction, but in total nearly 4,500 vertical feet of climbing is gone.

The route goes on the east side of Turquoise Lake this year, so it takes out Hagerman Pass Road, Sugarloaf Mountain and the leg-burning Powerline final climb. The reroute now has more pavement in this area for a reconnection with St. Kevin's, a gravel climb on the way out and a paved climb on the return side.

There is still room for drama on three miles of uphill gravel on County Road 36 leading to the sharp right turn on pavement for the finish in downtown Leadville, at 10,152 feet.

Elite riders will have two designated Feed Zones this year, completely separate from age-group riders. Each can be accessed twice, from outbound and then inbound directions.

These Elite Feed Zones were established by Life Time for safety, and a parking pass is required for access. All riders must take feeds from the right side, for both outbound and inbound feeds, meaning the crews will have to transition to the opposite side of the area for the second half of the race.

Feed Zones at 2026 Leadville Trail 100 MTB for elite riders

• Pipeline at mile 26.1 outbound, mile 742. Inbound
• Lost Canyon at mile 42.5 outbound and mile 58.7 inbound

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As a collective, North America took 13 riders to this year's Tour de France Femmes, including six from Canada, five from the US and one each from Mexico and Cuba.

They were spread across nine teams in the peloton, with debutants and veterans among the crowd, along with a world champion and a GC contender.

The 13 North Americans at the Tour is a high watermark for the continent in five editions of the race, up from 11 at the Tours of 2022 and 2023. Three South American racers also took the start, another record. That meant a total of 16 from the 147 starters hailed from the Americas.

We tracked down several of the North American racers at the Tour to find out about their seasons and check in on how their races were going. Here are their stories.

Returning to the Tour after overcoming RED-S

First up was Canadian racer Kiara Lylyk. The 22-year-old raced the Tour, her second, for small French outfit Mayenne Monbana My Pie, alongside US rider Natalie Quinn. However, her campaign came to a premature end ahead of the Mont Ventoux stage after suffering from back pain during the week.

When Cyclingnews spoke to her ahead of stage 2, Lylyk said that she was happy to make the start in Lausanne, having spent much of 2026 recovering from RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport).

The syndrome occurs when athletes fail to take in enough energy to support what they expend during exercise, disrupting hormone production and causing a range of negative impacts, including fatigue, reduced immunity, early osteoporosis, and menstrual disorders.

"I had very last-minute notice of the race, so I just did the best with what I had. It's been a really rough year for me, coming back from RED-S. Just to be here and start is a big accomplishment. I'm just happy to be here," Lylyk said.

"I got my period back for the first time in three years, so that was the win of the year for me. Just getting better in training. I didn't think that was going to happen this year, so I'm just happy."

Conversations about RED-S took centre stage at last year's Tour, with several riders talking about the importance of menstruating and having open and positive conversations about rider weight and health.

Cédrine Kerbaol, Kim Le Court-Pienaar, and Emma Norsgaard were among those to broach the subject last summer. A host of other riders, including Cat Ferguson, Kaia Schmid, Veronica Ewers and Chloé Dygert, have also discussed their battle with RED-S.

"I think the team is much more aware of it. We've had a couple of cases of girls losing their periods and having RED-S. I think someone like Chloé Dygert talking about it is really important because she said, 'Yeah, you can be doing all the things right, and you don't even realise if it's not intentional'.

"It's important to recognise, and sometimes you can't focus on winning the bike race – it's just about being healthy."

Tour de France Femmes debutant turned GC star

Lylyk was joined at the race by five other Canadians, including 21-year-old Isabella Holmgren, who raced to a very impressive eighth place with Lidl-Trek. Holmgren, now in her third year as a pro, is the reigning Tour de l'Avenir champion and finished as best young rider with a seventh-place finish at the Giro d'Italia.

Highlights of her race included a fifth place in the hills to Belleville-en-Beaujolais and a sixth place in the Nice finale, not bad for someone who treated the Tour as a learning experience.

"The main goal was just to learn. It's my first Tour, and I've never experienced something like this before. We have the best team, and it's so nice to learn from all of the girls and have them there to support," Holmgren said after the race.

"I think stage 5 is probably one of the best stages that I had, but also for the team. We had three girls in the breakaway, and we were racing super aggressively. I was disappointed with Ventoux [she finished 10th – Ed.] but on that day it was everything that I had, so I need to be happy.

"It makes me really hungry. I know that the level is really, really high, but I want to be there in the future, so I'm definitely very motivated."

Other Canadians at the Tour included EF Education-Oatly's Magdeleine Vallieres Mill, the surprise World Champion still looking for her first win in the rainbow stripes. She raced to a solid 18th place overall, with 16th place on the final day her personal highlight.

"I think we've been in the mix every day, and we've had a really good team and strong team every day doing really good work together," she told Cyclingnews ahead of the final stage. "It's been nice to have some extra cheers because of the jersey, super special, and the atmosphere has been super good."

National time trial champion Nadia Gontova, racing for Liv-AlUla-Jayco, was thrilled to show off the Canadian colours in the Dijon time trial, meanwhile.

"It's been super cool and really special getting to ride in the National Champs kit and on my new bike here at the Tour," she told Cyclingnews.

"I don't think I quite had the legs I was hoping for, but it was still super cool, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. It's really nice to get to debut it at the Tour. Super cool."

Elsewhere, Cuba was represented by veteran racer Arlenis Sierra, who was part of Movistar's effort to score overall victory with Marlen Reusser. The team took their first yellow jersey since Annemiek van Vleuten's 2022 win, but the Swiss racer sadly dropped off the podium with a final-day crash on the Col d'Eze.

A self-coded training app already yielding results

Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner came to the Tour equipped with a special black-and-gold Cannondale SuperSix EVO with EF Education-Oatly, and a home-built training plan, too.

The 33-year-old US rider, a Harvard comp-sci graduate, spent a chunk of last off-season designing her own training app with the help of artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, she said that "The research I needed about my body did not exist. So I built it with AI."

The app collected a smorgasbord of biometric data, including heart rate, power numbers, sleep and menstrual cycle tracking, and bloodwork, and she credited it with her trio of triumphant rides, one on the road and two on the track, at the Pan American Championships.

Faulkner's top result in France was a strong sixth place in the mid-race time trial, while she ended the Tour in 26th overall, a career high.

"It was a really fun project for me. I feel like it's helped me a lot to understand my body better, understand how I'm performing and adapting, what works, and what doesn't. It's something that I still tune into a lot and find a lot of value from," she told Cyclingnews, before noting that she hasn't had a lot of time to put into the app since the season began.

"It may be something I return to in the off-season again. At this point, I'm trying to figure out what I do with this because I built something really valuable, but I'm still a full-time athlete. That's kind of an open-ended question for myself."

So far, it's been a personal project, and Faulkner hasn't been able to set aside the time to make the app available to others, including any teammates that may have expressed their interest in it.

"I think there are definitely opportunities to bring it to the team; I have nothing against that at all. I don't want to create something that other people are relying on me for when I can't be available during race season," she said.

Clearly, what Faulkner has created is working well for her so far, and it'll be interesting to see the returns in 2027 after another off-season of coding and tweaking.

Inspiring a nation on a historic Tour debut

The Tour de France Femmes welcomed its first-ever rider from Mexico this year as Romina Hinojosa made history for Lotto-Intermarché.

The 23-year-old, who made her Grand Tour debut at last year's Vuelta, battled to the end of the Tour after her team lost four of their seven riders in the opening three days of the race. Hinojosa herself was almost an OTL on stage 2, only narrowly beating the time cut by 1:41 in Geneva.

She improved as the race went on, though, making the breakaway along with one of her two remaining teammates, Sandrine Tas, on the road to Mont Ventoux. Her Tour drew to a close in Nice with a visit from her boyfriend, a certain Isaac del Toro, who waited in the team bus paddock for her to cross the line.

A day earlier in Sisteron, Hinojosa told Cyclingnews of her pride at representing her nation on cycling's biggest stage.

"I'm definitely very proud of it. I think I could go back and be like, 'Wow, I’m shit'. But no, actually I’m really proud," she said.

"This is the highest level, and seeing my progress, my personal ups and downs that I’ve had in the past years, I think I should be really proud of myself right now. So yeah, definitely going to work harder, but for now I’m really happy."

The Tour had taken its toll on both her and her Lotto teammates, but they kept on battling and smiling, Hinojosa said. Highlights for the team, the Ventoux breakaway aside, included Linda Riedmann's 10th place in Geneva and former speedskater Tas racing to 16th in the time trial.

"It’s definitely been a hard Tour de France. My first one, but it’s been hard. Every day I keep going on with a smile, and I really think it has made a difference in how I approach every day," Hinojosa said.

"I have been getting stronger day by day, so definitely next time I’m here I will be better prepared, but for now I’m really happy with everything."

American riders and teams racing aggressively and scoring GC results

Alongside EF Education-Oatly, Human Powered Health were the second US squad present at the Tour. They brought one US rider with them this time around as Lily Williams headed to France for the fourth time in her career.

This year, the 32-year-old has chased down some big results, including second places on stages of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de Suisse. Last week, she was part of a stage-hunting-turned-GC-focused team as Dutch racers Thalita de Jong and Nina Buijsman excelled in the hills and mountains. Their reward in Nice was 13th and 16th in the final standings, a top result considering that hadn't been their target in Lausanne.

"I think it’s impossible to plan for top results here. It’s just the biggest, hardest race of the year," Williams told Cyclingnews ahead of the penultimate stage.

"So I think we’ve kind of gotten better and better as the week goes. Thalita is 11th in GC, and we’ve had people in the finales on multiple days playing for the stage, so we’re just going to keep trying the last stage."

Williams had a major role to play for De Jong in the finale, too, after the Dutchwoman went over the limit on the opening climb, putting her GC spot at risk.

"Lily did an amazing job in the downhill to bring me back to the first group, but I also knew I gave so much that the climb would be really hard," she said.

"Luckily, we had a nice group; we did not go full because all the leaders were in front. We managed well to get to the finish line, but it was tough."

Elsewhere, a trio of North American battlers could be found aboard French squad St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. The team has ambitions following Premier Tech's arrival as a sponsor late last year and the team's upcoming decision to go all-in on women's racing.

Former Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson of Canada was joined in the team by American duo Caroline Wreszin and Heidi Franz, the latter making their Tour debut.

Jackson and Franz wouldn't make the finish of the race, but they and the team were frequently seen attacking along the way.

"For us, the breakaways are so important. This year especially, we've really tried to establish a more aggressive tactic in the team, and I think that's gone really well so far this season. Especially here on the world's biggest stage, we need to be present in those moves," Franz said.

"Visibility is super important. We might have a little bit less pressure. We can race a bit more instinctively because we don't have an out-and-out GC favourite. I think that gives us some freedom to race instinctively and aggressively without feeling like we have a lot to lose. We have more to gain by being aggressive and trying things rather than being conservative and holding back just in case. That's our mentality."

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2024 Leadville Trail 100 MTB winner Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective) relocated in early August to the two-mile-high Colorado town to acclimate and train for Saturday's race. The trip had been in doubt with wildfires still burning in the region and organisers scrambling to solidify permits for a modified route in time for the August 15 start.

"They could probably get creative [with a harder new route], but I just think it would be too challenging. I mean, this race is too big," Rollins told Cyclingnews about losing key sections at Powerline as well as Sugarloaf Mountain and Hagerman Pass Road.

"I mean, the iconic Powerline not being part of the race is devastating, but it's even more devastating that the mountain is on fire. One of my friends lives at the base of Powerline and their family was evacuated, away for the last month and a half.

"I could probably make a course that would be sick and usually close to 14,000 feet and 100 miles, but it just isn't realistic. I think we all were worried if Leadville would be able to happen. They have to do what they can to make it possible. So I'm happy that they were able to put out a course in general."

Last year Rollins broke the 7-hour mark in the 104-mile race, however, that still left her over 10 minutes behind winner Kate Courtney (She Sends Racing), who set a new women's record in 6 hours, 48 minutes, 54 seconds. Rollins' time of 6:59:15 also broke Annika Langvad's 10-year marker. Her runner-up spot overall had an asterisk, as she was the top rider in the Life Time Grand Prix field.

The top step at Leadville is open as last year's winner opted to pursue a pro road career, Courtney signing a pro contract with FDJ United-SUEZ and jumping into the European fray in mid-July, already winning two of five races.

For Rollins, a return to the top step at Leadville would be epic, as she has only completed two races since March. And the points she earns at Leadville would also mount her return in the Grand Prix.

Poor air quality comes and goes each day as winds blow wildfire smoke across the western US, but Rollins adjusts her rides accordingly. What the smoke can't conceal is her eagerness to recapture a Leadville title and show off her first-ever US national championship jersey, and a decked-out Liv Pique ride.

"The smoke has a cycle of blowing in and out every day. I have a pretty good wind prediction app that gives pretty good windows to ride. So it hasn't actually affected me at all," she told Cyclingnews about recent training.

"The only disruption to my training was having a broken limb. There were a few breaks in the elbow, one main break now with a plate, and then a partially torn triceps a few weeks later. That has kind of been the lingering problem for me. And my left arm is two pounds lighter than my right arm, so I'm still weak on the left side."

In March, Rollins injured her left elbow and right wrist just days before starting with Courtney in a two-rider team at Absa Cape Epic in South Africa. The US rider travelled home to Utah for surgery. A month later, she partially tore a triceps muscle on one of her first rides back outside, and another month later was delayed when she was sideswiped by a car on another attempt to ride outside.

She was able to make the trip to Emporia, Kansas at the end of May, but only pedalled for a few hundred metres before pulling out. The start at Unbound Gravel 200 allowed her to stay in the exclusive invitation-only field of the Grand Prix, with the last four races required.

She completed SBT GRVL in June in a return to racing after 156 days away, though "it wasn't the comeback I wanted" with the 2025 champion finishing in 20th place. She did not find the podium, but confidence in group riding again and good health.

From a string of injuries, Rollins now hopes to go on a string of success. In July, she went to Roanoke, Virginia for the USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike Nationals and came away with the stars-and-stripes jersey as the elite women's cross-country marathon winner.

"I'm actually really, really proud of winning it because it was one of my big goals for this year," Rollins said. "Everybody sets goals every year, and whether or not they go the way you want them, it doesn't always happen. So I'm really proud of this one, and getting to wear the jersey and ride the bike at Leadville."

Leadville is the third race in the Life Time Grand Prix, and the first of three consecutive mountain bike events in the series. Rollins used her win in Leadville two years ago to finish second overall in the series, and last year she was third overall to three-time series champion Sofia Gomez Villafañe (Specialized Off-road). This year is a lot different.

After two rounds this season, Villafañe has a solid lead over Cecily Decker (PAS Racing) and Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM), and Rollins has to climb out of last place among the field of 25 riders. The top four of six races count in the LTGP standings, so Leadville is the start of her series, and the climb for Rollins is to get back on the Leadville podium.

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Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) has big plans for his first race after the Tour de France, lining up for Leadville Trail 100 MTB on Saturday.

It has been seven years since he last competed at the 100-mile mountain bike endurance race in his home state of Colorado, when at 18 years of age he finished second to three-time winner Howard Grotts. That race was eventful, as Simmons started well back in the field, overcame a flat tyre and crossed the finish line ahead of then-WorldTour riders Lachlan Morton (EF Education) and Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo).

Prior to the 2019 debut at Leadville, Simmons had won the US time trial title and was the first US rider to win the Junior Gent-Wevelgem, riding for the Lux Cycling development programme. He would go on to win the men's junior road race at Road Worlds in Harrogate to signal his arrival on the global stage.

On Saturday, Simmons will again face Morton, as well as recent WorldTour competitors Michael Woods and Chad Haga, who have transitioned to off-road and alternative endurance racing.

The rider to mark will be Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-road), who targets a sixth consecutive Leadville victory, which would tie the mark held by David Wiens.

Simmons last climbed on a podium at the Tour de France, where he was part of the Lidl-Trek squad that won Best Team honours at the Grand Tour. He was also recognised for the second year in a row as Best Teammate of the Tour by the race jury.

During the three weeks, he exhibited his characteristic aggressive riding style, getting into several breakaways and going runner-up on stage 4 into Foix.

That aggressive style that is a trademark for the three-time USPro road race national champion was on full display at his Leadville debut seven years ago. He was in a lead group of elite men after the Powerline descent early in the race, but then flatted and had to ride his rim to an aid station.

At the Twin Lakes area before the Columbine climb, Simmons was more than 10 minutes behind the leaders. He clipped away three minutes on the climb and then another two on the return trip.

“To be honest, down at Columbine when I was about 10 minutes behind, I was about to pull out and call it a day," he told The Durango Herald after the race.

He would reconnect with a group of contenders once on the return on the Powerline climb, with its 26% gradient on the lower section, and fight in the sprint for second. Grotts was uncatchable with his third win, more than three minutes ahead, in a time of 6 hours, 19 minutes and 18 seconds.

This year's out-and-back course has been reconfigured due to recent wildfires, and the Powerline outbound descent and inbound climb had to be diverted. The climb for the turnaround of the 102-mile race remains at Columbine, but the often-decisive finishing climb at Powerline, as well as rough roads over Hagerman Pass Road and Sugarloaf Mountain, will not come into play.

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Leadville Trail 100 MTB Overview

Leadville Trail 100 MTB 2026 Information

Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetik returns for a 32nd edition in 2026, and a fifth appearance in the Life Time Grand Prix off-road series (LTGP). The 100-plus-mile mountain bike endurance contest, which begins and ends at high elevation in the Rocky Mountains at 10,152 feet (3,094 metres) above sea level, takes place on Saturday, August 15.

While wildfires in central Colorado threatened to cancel the race in late June, organisers were given a green light after the US Forest Service began to contain the burn area by mid July. The race will proceed for elite riders and amateurs, now at 102.1 miles (164.3km) in length and 9,916 feet (3,022) of elevation gain. This is only two miles shorter than previous years

The last five editions of the elite men's Leadville race have been dominated by one rider, Keegan Swenson (now Specialized Off-road), who set a course record in 2023 at 5:43:29. Last year he came within two minutes of that mark. Mountain bike specialist Kate Courtney (now FDJ United-SUEZ) shattered the women's record in 2025 with a time of 6:59:48.

This year Swenson will be the favourite to win again in a packed men's field with LTGP points on offer. In July, Courtney signed a contract with FDJ United-SUEZ to refocus on road racing so will not be at the start in Leadville. Melisa Rollins (Liv Cycling Collective), who finished second last year, returns as the women's favourite to reclaim her title from 2024.

Elite races will be broadcast by Life Time, live from start to finish. Last year was a first for this coverage, provided by Orange Seal. Cameras located on the ground, in all-terrain vehicles and in the air will provide coverage of the elite races, again this year available for no charge on the Life Time YouTube channel.

Updated regulations for 2026

Life Time has implemented a new application process for the elite fields, to verify category eligibility for fair and safe competition. Of note is that the prize purse for this year's race was doubled from a year ago, now $60,000 on offer for elite men and women, split evenly among the top five in each category. Like Unbound Gravel 200, this increase in the one-day payouts does not require a top-five rider to be in the Life Time Grand Prix.

The LTGP offers a record-high $590,000 prize purse across six events and the invitation-only series, with the top 10 in the series sharing in $350,000 after Big Sugar Gravel in October. Two gravel races started off the 2026 series - Sea Otter Gravel and Unbound Gravel 200, while Leadville Trail 100 MTB the first of the three mountain bike races, followed by Chequamegon MTB Fest and Little Sugar MTB.

There are also new rules regarding equipment and feed zones for this year. Drop bars became popular on mountain bike setups after Swenson used them two years ago, and these have now been banned for safety reasons, requiring all elite and age-group riders to use traditional flat bars.

While there are seven aid stations throughout the course for age-group riders, elite riders have two separate, designated Feed Zones which can be accessed twice each - Pipeline at mile 16.2 outbound/ mile 74.2 inbound, and Lost Canyon at mile 42.5 outbound/ 58.7 inbound. At these locations, elite riders may receive nutrition, hydration and equipment from crew support, opt for limited neutral aid and access drop bags (no wheels or large equipment).

Leadville Trail 100 MTB 2026 Route

Wildfires in central Colorado near Leadville impacted the race in the weeks leading up to final preparations in 2026. The Willow Fire in Lake County, where Leadville is located, caused a large area to be evacuated in early July, which included sections of the course. Modifications and permits were secured by Life Time over the next several weeks with a new route announced on August 6.

The modified route for 2026 now excludes the signature Powerline section for the first time. Also not featured will be Hagerman Pass Road and Sugarloaf Mountain, both that had elevation and technical sections in the opening and closing 23 miles of the out-and-back course.

The race is now just two miles shorter than previous years, at 102.1 miles (164.3km) in length. There is also a reduction in total climbing, now 9,916 feet (3,022) of elevation gain. This reduction in total climbing, by close to 4,000 feet, is due to a new path on the east side of Turquoise Lake.

There is still the Columbine climb at Twin Lakes at the mid-point of the race for the major feature of the route. The seven-mile ascent, and then ensuing descent, averages 8.6% of gnarly washed-out doubletrack with multiple sections in double digits, up to 15.5%.

Leadville Trail 100 MTB 2026 Schedule

An updated course for this year's Leadville Trail 100 MTB presented by Kenetic was revealed today by event owners and organisers Life Time, with most of the route intact and coming in at 102.1 miles, just two miles shorter than previous editions.

The show will go on as the third stop in the Life Time Grand Prix off-road series, elite riders beginning at 6:00 a.m. MDT on Saturday, August 15.

The reroute bypasses the 'Powerline' section of the course used for four decades, this area damaged by a massive wildfire in late June and was under a 'red zone' evacuation. The US Forest Service noted this area would be closed from July 7 to September 30, 2026, "for the protection of public health and safety".

The main trails at Hagerman Pass Road and Sugarloaf Mountain next to Turquoise Lake were impacted, as well as the signature 'Powerline' section where riders had a final chance to make moves to the finish.

The adjusted route "closely follows the traditional course", organisers stated in a press release. The distance is just two miles shorter than previous editions and the total elevation gain comes in at 9,916 feet, which is close to 4,500 fewer feet of climbing than before. That difference comes from the omission of Hagerman Pass Road and Sugarloaf Mountain, ridden before in the opening and closing 23 miles on an out-and-back course.

Still prominent on the course is the climb and descent of Columbine, with eight miles in each direction of technical singletrack, washouts and consistent gradients of 8%-15%. This is the section where moves are made, last year Keegan Swenson (Specialized Off-road) winning a fifth consecutive time. Kate Courtney (She Sends Racing) won the women's race in record time, while the top Life Time competitor was runner-up Melisa Rollins (Liv Racing Collective), who won Leadville in 2024.

"Athletes will head west from Harrison Ave as normal, first taking on St. Kevin's climb before heading back east around Turquoise Lake to avoid the areas affected by the Willow Fire," a press release from Life Time read.

"Athletes will rejoin the original course at the bottom of the Powerline Descent, before heading into the Outward Bound aid station at mile 22.7. Riders will then ascend the iconic Columbine climb before heading back to town on the famous out-and-back course."

As of August 2, the Willow Fire had burned 7,196 acres and was 67% contained, according to the official fire information Facebook page managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The wildfire is now being managed locally by the Lake County Office of Emergency Management.

In mid-July, organisers announced they had a 'green light' to continue with plans to hold the Leadville endurance mountain bike race for a 32nd edition. They have spent several weeks securing permits to reroute the course, and also secure official aid stations for elite riders, as well as age-group divisions, those details to be announced next week.

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Just a year ago, while still a teenager, Kylee Hanel was learning the ropes for road racing at kermesses in Belgium and stage races in the US. She proved to be a fast learner.

She competed in competitions at the Tucson Bicycle Classic and the Redlands Bicycle Classic with a club team based near her home in Oregon, showing consistent top-20 results. Then she moved to Aegis Cycling, founded by former USPro road champion Lauren Stephens, for her first UCI races at the Tour of the Gila and the Tour de Bloom, with consistent results on climbing stages and in time trials.

At the one-day Zottegem-Strijpen, Hanel finished in the lead group of six, which was won by Sandrine Tas, who is now with Lotto-Intermarché. She may have been sixth out of the six, but it showed she belonged.

It was in one-day races on home soil, be it dirt or tarmac, that summer where Hanel's name became more familiar to her competitors, as well as future sponsors and racing fans. She finished 10th in the U23 women's road race at USPro Road Nationals, her first appearance at a championships event. Her next championship event was four months later, and she went eighth on the elite stage at US Gravel Nationals.

Now 20 years old, Hanel earned a roster spot with Stephen's road team for 2026, Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment, and jumped into a gravel privateer path with Cervélo. How's her breakout year going, you ask? Perhaps better than planned.

Hanel is leading the women's U23 standings in the Life Time Grand Prix, taking top points at both the Sea Otter Classic Gravel and Unbound Gravel 100. On the road, she was the best rider on the Gila Monster queen stage and finished fourth on GC at Tour of the Gila, with Stephens winning the overall. She capped her first half of the season with the gold medal at the USPro U23 time trial, and took seventh at the U23 road race for good measure.

It's a fast upward trajectory on multiple surfaces for Hanel, but she still speaks with a bit of caution in her voice. She told Cyclingnews ahead of her debut at Leadville Trail 100 MTB about her interest in cycling, what she has learned so far and where she would like her career on a bike to lead.

Cyclingnews: Tell us about growing up in Portland, Oregon. How did you get involved in cycling?

Kylee Hanel: Growing up in Portland honestly gave me a lot of opportunities. There's a huge cycling culture here, and even though it's more commuter-style riding, it's still a cycling culture. I grew up going on short rides with my mom Shelley, dad Chris, and sister Caelyn, but when I was 13 I started riding with just my dad. We would do really short rides, like a three-mile ride that would take 25 minutes. But I loved it because I wanted to spend time with him.

For high school, I went to Central Catholic in Northeast Portland, and now I go to Oregon State University, and I'm part of their eCampus program. I am majoring in business with a minor in sports management. I actually decided to do online school because of cycling.

CN: Road racing and some cyclocross in the Pacific Northwest is where you raced the most, but in the past three years you've added gravel racing, so which is your favourite discipline?

KH: If you asked me to choose between gravel and road, I honestly could not tell you which one I prefer more. They are both very different, yet similar. I really like the team aspect of road, but I like the long, gruelling races of gravel.

CN: On the road, you ride now for AEGIS x LOE. How did you connect with her and what have you learned from this experience so far?

KH: I race for Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment right now, and I race under Lauren Stephens. She's definitely a leader, but she's also a teammate. I have learned so much from her. I've not only learned positioning, bike handling skills, and teamwork from her, but the most important thing I learned from her is humility. She knows it's a blessing to be racing and is appreciative of the fact that she gets to go out and race. She doesn't look at the world like it owes her something, which I admire a lot about her.

CN: For gravel, you have a different setup for equipment and your team. Tell us about that.

KH: On the gravel side, I am a privateer. I ride for Cervélo. I got introduced to them through Michael Engleman, who is one of my greatest mentors and my current coach and friend. I didn't have a whole lot of results last year, so Cervélo just saw my power numbers and decided to take a chance on me, which I could not be more grateful for.

Pretty much this year I have just been supported by equipment, which makes sense considering that I really didn't have much of a name for myself until this year. But next year I'm learning about signing contracts where I'll get bonuses and be salaried.

This year Cervélo have provided me with bikes, while PEARL iZUMi is sponsoring me with clothing and shoes, Giro is sponsoring me with helmets, Oakley with glasses, LOOK gave me pedals, Prologo gave me saddles, Reserves and Maxxis are supporting me with tires/wheels.

CN: In 2025 you finished 12th among elite women at SBT GRVL and in the top 10 at US Gravel Nationals, won a third time by Stephens. Did you feel these races proved you were an 'elite' rider off-road?

KH: No, I really didn't feel like an elite road or off-road rider last year. My dad is always telling me that I need to have more confidence in myself, and I am learning that when I line up and race, I have to know that I deserve to be there and that I can win because a lot of cycling is mental. While it was super cool to be racing with what I like to call the "big kids", I would usually assume that if I beat them, it was just because they had a bad race. Now that I'm actually racing with them and performing well alongside them, I still think I view it differently than they view each other, just because I am 10 years younger than most of them. I admire them and look up to them in a way that a middle schooler would look up to somebody in college.

CN: So far in 2026 you've won some big races, including Unbound Gravel 100 and USPro U23 ITT national championship. Tell us what made each of those events special and challenging.

KH: Unbound Gravel 100 and the ITT National Championships were surprisingly similar in terms of mindset. Unbound was such a hard year because of the mud. It was my first year doing it, so I really didn't have any expectations, but from what I've heard from people who have been doing it for two decades, it was a very difficult year. I had to be mentally strong for both. The only difference was that the TT was shorter, and obviously they were on different bikes.

CN: You are at the top of the leaderboard in the women's U23 competition of the Life Time Grand Prix. Which event remaining on the schedule in the LTGP suits you best?

KH: Going into this year, I had no idea and no expectations of what the Life Time Grand Prix U23 was going to be. I have been pleasantly surprised by these events and the amazing people who run them. It is an awesome culture, and I really love being able to race with people who care about racing as much as I do.

I also really like the structure. It's nice because if you have a bad race, you still have other chances to prove that you can perform and be the best. It was an honour to be chosen to be part of the Life Time U23 field, and I hope to race in the elite field next year. The next race that I think will suit me best is probably the last gravel race of the series, Big Sugar. I haven't mountain biked a whole lot, but I started out mountain biking, so I have some high hopes for doing well there, too.

CN: Speaking of mountain biking, next on the calendar in the LTGP series is Leadville Trail 100 MTB. What do you see as most challenging for this event, and what part of the race are you eager to take on?

KH: No, I have not done Leadville yet. This will be my first year. I think the most challenging part of it will be the elevation. I live at sea level, so I'm going two and a half weeks early to train and get used to the elevation, so hopefully there are no major problems while racing. I think I'm most eager to take on this long, seven-plus-hour course because one thing I know about myself is that I persevere.

CN: Living in Oregon, are you able to train with any of the other U23 riders, or elite riders? Who do you tend to train with, or do you just ride solo?

KH: I have become friends with some of the U23 riders in the LTGP series. If I lived in Colorado, I'd probably train with Lauren Aggeler, but we are hours and hours apart. So I train with my friends in Portland, and I train a lot with my dad, who is the one who got me into cycling. I am just now finally able to beat him, haha. However, I do really like to train solo and listen to podcasts and music.

CN: In the next few years, what are the top races you look forward to racing the most? And where would you just like to travel?

KH: I think the race I'm most looking forward to next year is Road Nationals again because I'm always wanting to do better than I did the previous year, and the course stays the same [in Charleston, West Virginia], so it's a good chance for me to see my progress. I also really want to travel to Switzerland and Italy just because of how pretty I've heard the riding is.

CN: Name a few racing goals you would like to achieve this year, and in the coming years.

KH: This year I would really like to do well at the TT and Road World Championships and win the Life Time Grand Prix U23 series. I also really want to place well among the elite LTGP field in the coming years. By the time I am 25, I hope to be living in Europe.

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She may be only a few weeks into her contract with FDJ United-SUEZ, but Kate Courtney wants to learn and experience as much as she can, as soon as she can, including getting a feel for the biggest race in the world.

The American was a special addition to the team entourage on stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes, making an appearance to celebrate the arrival of Red Bull as a new sponsor, but also getting embedded in the team bubble.

A top-level athlete for over a decade, Courtney is far from a stranger to these big events, but she knows how much she has to learn when it comes to road racing and the WorldTour, and is keen to soak up as much as possible in her 2026 half-season that she describes as "a head start" before 2027.

"We obviously had some big news to share today, so that was my primary motivation to give these girls some wings as they take on the hardest race in the world," she told Cyclingnews on Saturday.

"But also, I think for me, being here for a couple days – I'll just be here for stage 1 and 2 – is a huge learning opportunity. I can see not only what's happening in the race, but also everything behind the scenes, and learn a bit about what it would take to make a team someday."

To say Courtney has got stuck in straight away since signing for FDJ United-Suez would be something of an understatement. She made her debut just a matter of days after her arrival was announced, taking 15th and 13th at a pair of one-day races in France, and then headed to Belgium to tackle some kermesses, of which she won two.

"It's been quite a whirlwind," she said. "I have a lot of room for growth, a lot of opportunity to learn from the best in the world, and I think I'm just really excited we were able to get started. I'm also really grateful that the team is investing in such long-term progression and really helping make sure that when I'm put in at the highest level, I have the skills to compete. That's obviously a long-term project, but something that's really exciting, and I feel really well supported in."

Whilst the goals are long term, with Courtney's contract running through 2027 and 2028 with the LA Olympics likely a big ambition, she and the team were keen to squeeze some high-level racing into the remainder of 2026.

After a few weeks of racing and training in Europe, Courtney is heading home to the US to train – she won't be racing Leadville – before the Tour of Britain Women. Her win at the National Championships should have earned her a spot on the USA team for the World Championships in Montréal, and the current plan is to return home after the Tour of Britain to prepare for that.

Whilst her ambitions for this year are certainly high, there is also a bit of a sense that 2026 is something of a bonus year, and a few months to get prepared before hitting the ground running in 2027.

"The season schedule is still kind of coming together, but after Tour of Britain, I'll have a good break to train for the second half of my season, and then obviously we'll be starting to work on next year," she said. "So really, this half-year contract was about getting a head start and starting to identify what we need to do in the off-season to really make a difference in my performance for next year."

Adjusting to the road

At the Tour de France Femmes, Courtney is obviously seeing the very extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to road races and performance, but racing regularly on the road at all is still new to the American.

Whilst she's not coming at this from nowhere, and her road ability is undoubted – even this year, before joining FDJ, she won a race in Europe and the US national title – there are still small details she wants to work on to feel truly at home in the peloton.

"It's the small things, right? I've been a professional athlete for 10 years on the mountain bike side, so I know how to train. I'm sure we can always make adjustments and improvements. But it's really less about finding a few more watts and more about understanding the strategy, the tactics, how to ride in a team, how to listen on the radio, how to take a feed, all these things that you know come as second nature if you've come up through the road peloton, but for me, are new and different.

"It will just take a little bit of getting used to and understanding, so that I can make good decisions and hopefully get myself into some big races."

Where does she look to for advice and lesions in doing all of these things? Well, everyone, really.

"That's why you come to FDJ, right? It's to ride amongst the best riders in the world, but also to work with the best people. From our CEO to our media team to our staff support to our mechanics to our coaches to our DSs, there's really an insane team behind the team, and I have something to learn from all of them."

The way Courtney has been welcomed into the team, be it in her races so far or in the team car at the Tour de France Femmes, is also something new, and a new dynamic for her to get used to.

"It's interesting. I mean, mountain biking is not a team sport. I think we organise in teams, and support can be arranged through teams. But at the end of the day, it's an individual sport," she said. "So it's really special for me at this stage of my career to be part of a real team, where on any given day, all of the riders are part of the finishing result. That's a really unique thing and something I'm looking forward to being a part of in races coming up."

Long term, Courtney is definitely dreaming of returning to the Tour de France Femmes as a rider, not just an onlooker, but at this stage, practically every new experience is a bucket list item for the 30-year-old.

"I think one of the exciting things is that I haven't raced in any of these big races, so whether it's one of the spring classics, whether it's one of the Grand Tours, all of these events are new to me and huge goals on the horizon," she said.

"But obviously, the Tour de France Femmes is top of the list there, and something completely different when it comes to media, reach and impact, and obviously the level of the racing. This is where people are the best. This is where the teams show up ready to compete all-out, and of course, my goal is to compete at the pinnacle of the sport, and that would be a big long term goal.

"But I've come to the team that is the hardest to make, so I've got some work to do. We love a challenge!"

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The biggest theatre for women's pro cycling raises the curtain on Saturday for nine days of racing at the Tour de France Femmes avec Swift. The pageantry of international riders and swirl of new team colours will blend quickly during the Grand Départ in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the first yellow jersey will be awarded after a climb above Lake Geneva.

There are 13 riders from North America on nine teams in the field, representing Canada, Cuba, Mexico and the United States. Five of those competitors make their debut at this Grand Tour.

World champion Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly) is still just 24 years old and has competed in all four previous editions of the modern Tour de France for women, the most appearances of any in this continental contingent. Her teammate and USPro road champion Kristen Faulkner returns for a third time. The same goes for USA's Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Canadian Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), who have each raced three times at the Tour.

What eludes these Grand Tour veterans is a first-time stage win at the world's biggest stage race. It's hard to believe many of these accomplished riders have yet to post a result from the Tour.

Here is a look at the abundance of talent from across North America who will compete over the next nine days, August 1-9, to support team leaders and grab opportunities for stage wins at the Tour de France Femmes.

Canada

Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly)

World champion Magdeleine Vallieres has her eyes focused and legs primed for the mountains at this hilly Tour de France. The abundance of climbing is suited to her attacking style, and she said recently: "I'm mostly excited about stage five and the stage in Nice, but any stages where I can try to be aggressive, I am looking forward to".

The Canadian climber has started in all four of the previous editions of the revived Tour de France Femmes, last year finishing eighth across hilly terrain into Ambert on stage 6, and then helping French teammate Cédrine Kerbaol to eighth overall in the GC after the final three mountain stages. She'll support Kerbaol again, but this time has the jersey as World Champion for added inspiration.

The 24-year-old Canadian hasn't won a race yet in the rainbow stripes, though she's had top 10s at Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina and Giro d'Italia stage races. At the Giro, she had the best placement in the GC for EF Education-EasyPost in 12th, so she can provide leadership if needed.

Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)

Isabella Holmgren makes her debut at the Tour de France Femmes and is expected to excel with her climbing skills on seven of the nine stages. The best young rider from this year's Giro d'Italia Women, the 21-year-old Canadian headlines the 26 riders expected to make up the under-23 youth competition at the Tour, and will be a favourite for the white jersey.

Lidl-Trek is counting on her all-around skills as a one-two punch with Niamh Fisher-Black for both stage and GC performances.

"Mont Ventoux will show the best climbers of the Tour, and we have good chances there with Bella and Niamh on the start line," said Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Lidl-Trek's lead sports director. "We start the race with a first priority for stage wins, and then we see where we can end up on GC with Bella and Niamh both being co-leaders."

The Lidl-Trek team hopes she will invigorate a roster of veterans who, surprisingly, have yet to capture a stage win at the Tour over the last five years.

Sarah van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Visma-Lease a Bike has set up its squad to support the Tour de France Femmes title defense for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but also given freedom to riders like 24-year-old Canadian Sarah van Dam to go for stage wins, Team Manager Rutger Tijssen saying, "if you're racing at the front, you're always in contention for victory".

This is Van Dam's second consecutive appearance at the French Grand Tour, returning with strong performances across the Spring Classics and into Vuelta España and Tour de Suisse Women.

In the two stage races she landed six top 10s on stages, including seventh overall in Switzerland. While the massive mountain climb to Mont Ventoux may not be her ideal ascent, she can help launch team leader Ferrand-Prevot there and look to thrive across other hilly terrain during the week.

Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)

Former Canadian road champion Alison Jackson comes to her fourth Tour de France Femmes, this time leading the hunt for stage wins for French ProTeam St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93. Her speciality comes in one-day races, no matter the distance or the surface, having taken her signature Classics victory in 2023 at Paris-Roubaix Femmes. But she's also won a stage at the Vuelta España and taken several podiums at international gravel races.

She is a dangerous rider if allowed to steal away in a breakaway, which almost landed her a win on stage 7 at this year's Giro d'Italia, ending one spot off the podium in a four-rider sprint, but with the consolation prize as most combative rider. After a handful of races at home in Canada, where she went fourth this time at road nationals, the 37-year-old spent three weeks in Colorado training at elevation with her teammates in preparation for the Tour de France.

Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne Monbana MyPie)

Another rider who should vye for the white best young rider's jersey is 22-year-old Kiara Lylyk. She made her first appearance at the Tour last year when the Mayenne Monbana MyPie squad flew under the branding of Winspace Orange Seal.

Lylyk has a gold medal from Team Pursuit from the 2023 Pan American Track Championships, and that same year earned her first UCI top five as an elite rider at Tour de Gatineau.

She comes into the race in good form with a fifth place on the hilly opening stage at Volta Catalunya and followed with four stage top 10s at Volta a Portugal.

Nadia Gontova (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)

The reigning Canadian time trial champion is Nadia Gontova, makes her second appearance at the Tour but this time with Liv-AlUla-Jayco. Riding last year she as the top performer on the ProTeam Winspace Orange Seal squad, Gontova finished 10th on the final stage and went 23rd overall.

She's proven that climbing is her forte, earning second on GC at last year's Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées just a year after taking the same GC position at UCI stage races Tour of the Gila and Vuelta a Colombia.

While her only victory this year has been in the ITT at nationals, she's had top 20 results on GC at Giro d'Italia Women and Tour de Suisse.

United States

Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly)

Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner has won stages at the Giro and Vuelta but her quest to complete the set at all three Grand Tours remains unfinished business. Her EF Education-Oatly team remains winless as well at the Tour de France, so taking each stage as a one-day race could have a double effect.

The 21km ITT on stage 4 is a prime day for the 33-year-old who won the Pan-American time trial to begin her season. Like her teammate Vallieres, Faulkner can also take advantage of breakaway opportunities on hilly terrain.

"As a team, I know we want to win a few stages, and I'd love to win a stage myself. It will be very hot so I'm really trying to acclimate to heat as much as possible. But I think it's going to be difficult, no matter what," Faulkner said in a team statement.

The 33-year-old US rider won't be wearing the familiar stars-and-stripes jersey she's held for two consecutive years, travel issues keeping her away USPro Nationals this year, and instead she focused on a European summer campaign at the Vuelta and Giro. After the last few weeks back in the US for altitude camp, Faulkner is one to watch each day at the Tour.

Lily Williams (Human Powered Health)

An Olympic Champion on the track, Lily Williams is on another track this year, which is a pathway to a UCI road victory. She has two runner-up results at her last stage races - Tour de Suisse Women and Giro d'Italia Women, and this year's Tour de France has a handful of finishes suited to her ability to cover some climbing and save a kick at the end.

"I think the harder sprint definitely suits me more," she said after her stage 3 at the Giro, where she launched early and managed to gap the field with eventual winner Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek). There are a number of stages at the Tour that have similar terrain with rolling hills, a couple of late categorised climbs and then a punchy finish, including stage 1 in Switzerland with a 2.5km uphill finale. An eighth Grand Tour has lots of opportunities for Williams.

Natalie Quinn (Mayenne Monbana MyPie)

This French team features two North Americans on the Tour roster and Natalie Quinn is the US representative alongside Canadian Kiara Lylyk. Last month at the Volta a Portugal, both landed in the top 15 on GC, with Quinn the better of the duo in 11th overall

Quinn is a Tour debutant at age 24 and looks to make an impact on the favoured hilly terrain. She won the mountains classification at the 2025 Volta a Portugal. At the end of last season she earned sixth in a stacked field at Maryland Cycling Classic. Most recently, she finished ninth at a hilly La Périgord Ladies in France.

Heidi Franz and Caroline Wreszin (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)

When French road team St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 committed three weeks to a training camp for the Tour de France Femmes, they went in the unlikely direction of the US for high elevation in Colorado. With team sponsors in the Boulder area and several team members from North America, it was a welcome experience for US riders Heidi Franz and Caroline Wreszin.

Both Franz and Wreszin make their Tour debuts this year, and for 10-year veteran Franz it is a welcome opportunity to showcase her all-around skills. While most of her success had been in the US, with GC win at Redlands Bicycle Classic and podiums at Joe Martin Stage Race, she's built endurance on gravel with podiums at RADL GRVL, Nordic Gravel Series, then going 13th overall at UCI Gravel World Championships. Last year she won the mountains classification at Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées and was third overall at Volta a Portugal.

The 25-year-old Wreszin has a powerful engine for the time trial, finishing in the top 10 the last two years at USPro ITT nationals. The challenging mid-stage ascent will suit her climbing ability.

Look for both US riders to get in the action to help Alison Jackson get into late breaks, and to look for their own strikes.

Cuba

Arlenis Sierra (Movistar)

All-rounder Arlenis Sierra has a growing medal count of Cuban national championships, winning both the road race and time trial titles in the same year four times. She then stopped racing after the double wins in 2024 to focus on growing her family and had a son, Marck, in March 2025. The 33-year-old is back in a big way for Movistar this year, coming second at Clasica de Almeria, riding to ninth at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and taking top 10s on stages at Vuelta España and Giro d'Italia.

The versatile Cuban rider will support Movistar team leader Marlen Reusser at this Tour, a second for Sierra. If Reusser falters in the the GC standings, look for Sierra to have a green light for an abundance of opportunities across hilly terrain where she thrives.

Mexico

Romina Hinojosa (Lotto-Intermarché)

Another debutant at this year's Tour is Romina Hinojosa of Lotto-Intermarché, who makes just a second Grand Tour start in her burgeoning career after riding Vuelta España last season when the Lotto team was on the Continental level.

She's a solid climber who has finished with two silver medals at Mexican Road Nationals and now gets a chance to improve on the ProTeam level. The 23-year-old took on the Classics in Belgium this spring for the first time, calling it "a dream come true", and had modest results, then improved after with fifth at the Internazionale cycling Festival, a time trial in Italy, and top 20 in GC at Volta a Portugal. Her main goal will be to support team leader Sandrine Tas at the Tour.

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Reigning champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Demi Vollering's superteam FDJ United-SUEZ will be top of the list for home fans at the Tour de France Femmes this August, but beyond the biggest names at the top of the startlist, there's plenty more for France to get excited about.

St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 are one of the five French squads lining up for Saturday's opener, with the team contributing three of the 25 French riders who will start the race.

Last summer, the team, one of the smallest in the race, made headlines as two of their riders, Alison Avoine and Elyne Roussel, tearfully battled against the time cut on stage 6. At the other end of the race, meanwhile, their top result was a ninth place with Spanish sprinter Alicia González.

For this season, its seventh in the pro peloton, the team have set their sights ever higher with new sponsorship on board in the form of Premier Tech and a new leader, former Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Alison Jackson.

The Canadian racer is a figurehead of the team's new direction, having joined from US squad EF Education-Oatly in a surprise move last winter. Ahead of her fourth Tour start, she explained their outlook for the race.

"I think that the Tour is really hard. It's a very climbing-focussed Tour, so it's not made for me. But I think there are a lot of days to get in the action or take a chance," Jackson told Cyclingnews at the pre-race media day in Lausanne.

"The girls are really quite young, and I think we need to have more experience before we do a full GC ride, so we're just going to be stage hunting, trying to be a part of the race and in the action ahead of the race.

"Day one always is interesting because I think to be bold early, you don't know what's going to happen behind. But I mean, it's a 'risk it to win it all' sort of thing, as waiting for a sprint isn't a good play for me.

"Then stages 2 and 3 could be interesting if it comes down to a sprint. Otherwise, we'll suffer through all the climbs to make it to stage 8 and try to make something happen."

A stage victory would be a dream outcome for the squad, and for Jackson, who already has one Grand Tour stage under her belt, having sprinted to glory in Moncófar at La Vuelta Femenina two years ago.

This spring, she came close to another, finishing fourth in the breakaway behind Célia Gery. At the Tour, she'll be the team's best shot at a similar result, even if she hasn't yet scored a victory in 2026. Her teammates, meanwhile, have a trio of podiums to their name this season, so any win here would be a first for the squad.

"I would have liked to have won another Classic," Jackson said of her season.

"I've raced a lot of races and part of that is just to help set the tone for the team. So, we've been a part of a good part of the races, but we still have to win a race before the year ends.

"So maybe we do that here, or we have to leave it to World Championships, and we do."

Jackson and her teammates head to France off the back of a training camp in Boulder, Colorado. On the face of it, heading all the way to the USA may seem a strange decision for a French squad, but the camp, put on by team partner Skratch Labs, was all part of the future-facing outlook, Jackson said.

"The structure is different [to EF], but the resources are good. I've been riding Cannondale for a few years now, so to keep the same bike and sponsor has been super good.

"Then we've had so much support actually from Premier Tech coming into the team, and also from Skratch Labs, who hosted our camp. I think this team is where you can be experimental, and I think that's a really interesting thing at this time of my career – to have a bit more freedom to try some different training techniques or really explore different science.

"Some of it is just like equipment stuff. We're not so tied to a particular sponsor with the team, so we can test out and try some other bits of equipment. Also, as we choose to lead up for what races we want to target, we have a bit more say in how we want to do a training block before races, how we want to prepare more specifically."

We'll find out over the coming nine days whether Jackson and St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 can upset the bigger names at the Tour and come away with a big result.

Beyond that, the women's programme will be the team's sole focus as the men's squad stops at the end of the season. With big goals for the team, they should be one to watch for the future.

"That's also what attracted me to the team – being a part of a project that they really want to grow into being a WorldTour team. I think we saw FDJ go from a club team to a pro team to a WorldTour to being an exceptionally good WorldTour team.

"The team's ambition is to grow, and they see me as having a good experience or a good say in helping the team accomplish that. I think in my last years in my career, it's nice to be part of a project."

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As he paused on the Champs-Élysées after finishing his sixth Tour de France and spent some time with the media, Sepp Kuss was repeatedly reminded of the previous afternoon. Time stretches out on the Tour and it seemed like a long while ago, but just over 24 hours previously he had spurned a glorious shot at a stage victory atop Alpe d'Huez.

"The more I think about it, the more regrets I have," the Durango climber said of his double crash while leading the race inside the final 10km.

But that still doesn't add up to many regrets at all. Just as he had maturely dismissed any notion of crushing disappointment or embarrassment atop Alpe d'Huez, Kuss was in Paris with his sense of perspective still operating at 20/20.

"The nice moments in cycling, the victories, they are pretty fleeting, you know, they pass by really fast. What sticks with me most is the process of getting ready for those big moments, the emotions I feel in the stage, the good feelings I feel in the stage. That's what I have to remember the most, more than the victories or almost victories.

In that respect, Kuss, despite not being on the team of the overall winner, and despite not winning a stage himself, had one of his best ever Tours.

"For me this was one of the more enjoyable Tours. Sometimes I have it where I'm like 'I don't like the Tour de France', because it's so unforgiving, so fast, the stakes are so high, that if you're just missing a few percentage points, it's hard to enjoy, to be honest.

"But this year I felt really good, really solid, and I enjoyed it more."

Kuss echoed the general sentiment that this was one of the hardest races he has ever done, with the heat combining with frenetic racing to break yet more records in this ever-quickening modern generation of professional cycling.

"For me it was one of the toughest," said the 31-year-old. "The course itself was maybe not the hardest, but the way we raced every stage made it really tough, also with the heat in the first half of he race, but he level is so high in the peloton now that everyone wants to win a stage and every stage then becomes crazy fast.

"It's always hard to keep up with the speed that everyone is going at now, but I just enjoy it so much and I think that helps me get the best out of myself."

Kuss believes the Giro d'Italia put him in good shape for this Tour. Ironically, he says he felt much better in this Tour compared to the Giro, which on the face of it was more of a success as he guided Jonas Vingegaard to overall victory before winning a stage for himself.

"Sometimes I need a big race in the legs to feel at my best," he added.

With two Grand Tours in the legs already this season, could Kuss be about to add a third? The Vuelta a España starts on August 22 and, with Visma lacking a clear leader, we could even see 'GC Kuss' back in action.

"I hope so," he said when asked directly about riding the Vuelta. "We'll see how the body recovers after this one, but why not?"

Sepp Kuss has only once before ridden all three Grand Tours in the same season. That was 2023, and how did it end? On the top step of the Vuelta podium.

Two-time mountain bike world champion Henrique da Silva Avancini was confirmed for the elite men's start list at the 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup, Australia. He won the inaugural Brazilian Gravel Championships two weeks ago and qualified for Worlds by winning the UCI Gravel World Series race Gravel Brazil in March.

The 36-year-old won his first marathon mountain bike world title in 2018 and a second five years later, then retiring from MTB competitions. He has moved into gravel and road racing, finding success this year in both disciplines, winning the GC at the Tour of the Gila in the spring and then two medals at his home road nationals, including the gold medal in the time trial.

Organisers for the UCI Gravel Worlds in Western Australia have begun to announce on social media posts some of the elite riders and country rosters. Petr Vakoč of Czechia and Paul Voss of Germany were also noted as heading to Western Australia for the elite men's battle in two months.

Australians Tiffany Cromwell and Nicole Frain are among the early confirmations to battle for the elite women's rainbow stripes alongside Tessa Neefjes of the Netherlands and Haley Smith of Canada.

Elite women will race 125km on Saturday, October 10, with elite men taking on 143km on Sunday, October 11. Age group categories will also use the medium or short courses with the same start/finish, departing 20 minutes after the elites each day.

On the spectator side, camping registrations are now open, which will be the closest overnight accommodations to the courses. The Nannup Recreation Centre Precinct is less than one kilometre from the start/finish line, with direct access to the training course via the Munda Biddi Trail.

Tent/Car or Caravan/Car options are available for three-night, four-night and five-night stays, with the campground opening Wednesday, October 5 for first arrivals.

For those new to Western Australia, the Busselton Margaret River Airport is the closest airport for domestic flights, located 35 minutes from Nannup. International flights are based at the Perth Airport, which is a three-and-a-half-hour drive by car or bus.

Lauren Stephens wins third consecutive FoCo Fondo while breakaway men's winner disqualified

Lauren Stephens (Aegis x LOE) won a third consecutive FoCo Fondo gravel race on Sunday, using a late attack to pull away and ride solo across the line in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The elite men's race was not so straightforward, with Caleb Bottcher (ENVE/Shimano/Neversecond) sprinting just ahead of Matthew Saldana (Cyclesport.com) for second and third places. However, they moved up one step each after breakaway rider Kade Kreikemeier (Meridian Racing), who crossed the finish nearly a minute ahead, was disqualified.

The 21-year-old Colorado racer won the USPro U23 men's time trial last month in West Virginia, and used those time trial skills to make up a three-minute gap to early leaders Michael Garrison (SpeedStudio p/b Basso) and Connor Pulvidente. He then rode solo for more than 75 miles at the front that carried him across the line with no one in sight.

However, during Kreikemeier's march, he encountered problems securing water bottles as the temperature soared to 95°F (35°C). A livestream race moto operator following Kreikemeier, with the camera rolling, offered the rider a bottle, which was accepted. Organisers acknowledged this was a rules violation for a rider to accept outside aid, so when Kreikemeier completed the ride, he was told he was DQ'd.

Bottcher's time of 5:26:46 landed him in first place, with Saldana runner-up by one second and Benjamin Perry (Guava x Castelli S.O.G.) third a minute later, and 7:40 ahead of former WorldTour pro Gavin Mannion.

Stephens made it into the lead group of five riders as they made a separation 20 miles into the 118-mile race. The US gravel champion opened a gap on the first big climb over Alexis Skarda (Scott Bicycles/Q36.5/Shimano), Courtney Sherwell (Santa Cruz SRAM Kenda Tires), Cecile Lejeune (Trek Driftless), Charlotte Clarke (Ventum, NZL) and Hannah Shell (Goodlife Brands, Pirelli). Then Skarda clawed her way back, and the two rode together until Stephens gave it a big kick with under 15 miles to go.

Stephens crossed the line first in 6:11:43, with Lejeune going second five minutes later and Shell in third. Skarda finished fourth, and Sherwell rounded out the top five.

Defending nin-binary/gender expansive champion Robin Cummings (Nine Lives Cycling Collective) finished in 6:30:35 for another victory.

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2025 UCI MTB World Series winner Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) reclaimed the elite men’s cross-country Olympic (XCO) national title at the USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike Nationals in Roanoke on Saturday, while Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing) took her third elite women's XCO title.

It was a second title of the week for Blunk, adding to the cross-country short track crown she secured on Thursday. She crossed the line in Roanoke comfortably ahead of Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek-Unbroken) and Crystal Anthony (Flow Formulas/Kenda/The Black Bibs).

In the race, which ran over four laps of the main course with a prologue, Blunk and Gibson were together through the opener but as soon as the main laps were underway Blunk carved out a gap of 50 seconds and then built that to the end.

“This concludes a five-week back-to-back block of racing,” said Blunk. “I was in Europe for two months, then came straight here. It was a big push to race here on Thursday and today, but it means so much to race in front of a home crowd; it makes it so worth it.

"I’m ready for some rest now, but really proud to wear the jersey in short track and cross-country for the next year.”

In the elite men's race Blevins, who last won the title in 2023, crossed the line ahead of short track title winner Bjorn Riley (Scott-SRAM MTB) while Riley Amos (Trek-Unbroken) claimed third, stepping up one spot from the short track.

It was a tighter battle at the start of the men's race, with eight riders heading out of the prologue and into the first of five main laps, but then defending champion Riley and Blevins quickly got away. Blevins didn't wait long to make his move, delivering an attack that stuck in the second lap.

Once away, Blevins maintained control, building his advantage and riding solo to the line.

“It was a super hard race, I knew I would have to go super deep to beat Bjorn [Riley] and Riley [Amos], who are two of the top ten riders in the World Cup field, along with myself last weekend in Andorra.” said Blevins.

“I think the level of U.S. Men’s mountain biking is just going to skyrocket these next two years up until the LA Olympics, with the Durango World Champs after that. So, I’m just really excited to be finding my form at this point after an injury earlier this season.”

Riley comfortably held firm for second while Amos broke away from Ivan Sippy (Team Segment 28 p/b Baird) on lap four to secure the podium spot.

Dan English (Trinity Racing) and Greta Kilburn (Bicycle Express Racing) won the U23 titles, while in the Junior 17-18 category Scout Wellmeier (Bear National Team) and Noah Scholnick (Bear National Team) claimed the victories.

Bjorn Riley (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) and Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing) successfully defended their elite titles on Thursday in the cross-country short track races at the USA Cycling Endurance Mountain Bike Nationals.

The elite men's XCC race came down to a pair of head-to-head sprints to decide the medals, with Riley using an extra kick on the finish straight to dispatch last year's UCI World Cup champion Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing). The battle for the bronze medal also came down to the wire, Ivan Sippy (Team Segment 28 p/b Baird), the reigning 2025 Collegiate Mountain Bike XCO and XCC Varsity national champion, edging out Riley Amos (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) at the line.

Last year Riley needed a final surge of speed to outduel Amos for his first XCC national championship.

"I just went back-to-back in the XCC, battling Riley and Chris," Riley told USA Cycling at the finish. "It was hot, it was wild, really happy to be able to back it all up.

"I will say, for Nationals, this crowd is massive. This course is super fun, it’s super flowy, every single corner is super loose, so you really have to be on your game. But maybe that’s what makes it fun, you really have to be fully locked in and there’s no time where you can zone out."

Riley made his move with two laps remaining in the 11-lap circuit at Elmwood Park in downtown Roanoke, Virginia. He opened a gap on Blevins, who fought back for the bell lap showdown.

Blevins, who had been sidelined for more than two months because of a broken collarbone, suffered at the start of the World Cup campaign in South Korea. He proved he was back in form last weekend in Andorra where he finished third in the XCC race, which was won by Riley for his first World Cup race victory, and then backed it up with fourth in the XCO.

Blunk used an acceleration in the rock garden with five laps to go to nullify a dangerous move by Crystal Anthony (Flow Formulas/Kenda/The Black Bibs) and only Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek - Unbroken) was able to react and follow for the next circuit. Blunk used the final three laps to extend her lead, winning by 26 seconds over Gibson, who earned the silver medal. Anthony followed another 38 seconds later for bronze.

Twice a double national champion in XCC and XCO, Blunk now has seven national titles in mountain biking, her first wins in 2021 as an U23 rider. She is currently ranked fifth overall among UCI elite women in both the World Cup XCC and XCO standings.

"I kind of attacked in the middle of the race in the technical parts and just committed from there. We had four laps to go still, so it was a bit far out," she told USA Cycling after crossing the line solo.

"It was really nice to have my mechanic and my fiancée on course just telling me to commit one hundred percent. It’s a really nice welcome home after two months in Europe."

The men's U23 race came down to a photo finish, Nicholas Konecny (Lexware Mountain Bike Team) just clipping the finish line for the gold medal and leaving Dan English (Trinity Racing) in second place.

Greta Kilburn (Bicycle Express Racing) attacked on the final lap of the women's U23 contest to outdistance Bear National Team riders Alice Hoskins and Elisabeth Knight for the national title.

The cross-country Olympic races will be held on Saturday for elite riders, as well as junior 17-18 and under-23 divisions for men and women. Those races shift to Roanoke County's Explore Park.

The drought of individual victories at the Tour de France for US riders reached 101 stages on Thursday, though it wasn't for lack of effort by the six Americans working across five teams in this year's race.

The last US rider to savour victory at the Tour was Sepp Kuss five years ago. In 2021, he soloed to the win on a climbing day in Andorra la Vella on stage 15. Will Visma let him light the ignition switch to do that again, with most of the mountain stages still to come?

"We've been going full gas on every stage, so there's quite a bit of fatigue - from speed, the heat. We're doing well as a team. It's never easy trying to beat a rival like Pogačar, but we're still in the mix. The toughest stages are still to come. We'll see," Kuss told Spanish outlet Marca TV on Wednesday.

"There are also many stages that might be better suited for a breakaway, where we could put Matteo [Jorgenson], a rider who's good in breakaways."

Jorgenson and Kuss are versatile, and either could launch team leader Jonas Vingegaard on a mountain assault, though the second-placed Dane will not escape the UAE Team Emirates-XRG radar to counter for Tadej Pogačar. So this could be an opportunity for Jorgenson, should he recover from an illness to start the second week of racing, or Kuss, who with his stage win at the Giro d'Italia in May, now has won stages in all three Grand Tours.

Recently, the US has not had big numbers at the world's largest stage race. The year Kuss won, he was just one of three US riders. In 2023, there were double that number. And this year there are six in the mix again - Kuss and Jorgenson for Visma-Lease a Bike, Quinn Simmons for Lidl-Trek, Sean Quinn for EF Education-EasyPost, Matthew Riccitello with Decathlon CMA CGM and Brandon McNulty with UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

There have been glimmers of success among the US riders to quench the appetite for fans in the first half of this year's Tour, including a stage 4 podium by reigning USPro road champion Simmons and a pair of top 10s for former USPro champion Quinn. However, the winless streak remained as the Tour headed for the preferred terrain of climbing for most of the contingency.

Granted, several of the riders have been active each day, mainly Simmons, with a breakaway skirmish to lead out teammate Mads Pedersen to the win in Foix on stage 4 and then making multiple attacks on stage 12.

"I know I can win a stage in this race, but I also know everything needs to go right for it to happen," he told Cyclingnews after the first few days of racing at the Tour with a national jersey on his shoulders.

The roles of these riders are first and foremost to support their team's GC and other classification leaders, such as Simmons for points classification leader Mads Pedersen and McNulty for race leader Pogačar.

With Pogaćar holding a firm grip on the yellow jersey for nine of the first 11 days of this Tour, look for many teams to loosen the leash on these American riders for stage wins. McNulty is quite versatile, but may just target stage 16, a compelling 26.1km stage 16 with a climb that suits his skill set.

The swell of prosperity for a pair of top 10s in the opening week could go to Quinn. He has a personal dry spell of two seasons without a victory, mainly due to recovery from a career-threatening knee injury, last winning the 2024 USPro road title. Mountains are his favourite territory, and there are plenty left for him to make a statement, especially since he is now the best-placed GC rider of the EF squad, 15th overall and 2:35 ahead of teammate Richard Carapaz, who is 18th overall.

Riccitello came in with the GC win at Tour de la Provence, and the 24-year-old rides this stage race to support French phenom Paul Seixas, now fifth on GC 5:35 behind Pogačar. The youngest of the six Americans at 24, he crashed on stage 3 but told Cyclingnews before stage 11: "I'm feeling better and better every day. I fully intend to be there to support Paul in the coming days".

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Matthew Riccitello couldn't be happier than to be at his first ever Tour de France – as the American climber puts it, "it's lived up to the hype" – but he also knows he is in his own race against time to be in absolute top condition for the mountain stages to come.

Early on stage 3, Riccitello was one of the victims of a mass crash involving a lot of different riders including Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) and double 2025 Tour stage winner Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos).

Like Arensman last year, the Decathlon CMA CGM racer will be looking to shine on the mountain stages, but with the sole goal of helping team leader and GC contender Paul Seixas. And as Riccitello told Cyclingnews before stage 11, following his fall even before the race had left Catalunya, the top priority right now is to get back to top condition before the major mountain stages of this coming weekend.

"I haven't felt quite like myself since the fall on the third stage, but I'm feeling better and better, and yesterday I started to have some positive feelings, so hopefully it just continues this way," Riccitello said.

"I knew I was feeling good coming into the race and that form doesn't just disappear, so, I think for sure that I had a little bit of percentage taken off.

"But it's not like it's gone and will never come back, so I just have to be patient and wait and but yeah, already I was feeling better yesterday" – on stage 10 through the Massif Central – "so it should be all good and I'll be able to be there for Paul in the high mountains."

The good news for Riccitello is that on stages 11 and 12, the sprinters are coming to the fore, with Olav Kooij already securing a victory at Pau for the team, easing the collective pressure of expectations, and taking second in Nevers. On Thursday in Chalon-sur-Saône, there may be more to come on that front.

Riccitello's responsibilities in such stages is minimal. "There's not much I can do in the leadout for Olav," he says with a slight grin given his out-and-out climber's physique, "it's not in my characteristics, so for sure I can just look forward to the coming days." And in the meantime, try to recover some more for the challenges to come.

Be it mountains or flat, Riccitello is purely in a team role this July, with his second Grand Tour in September in Spain offering a much more individual set of targets. He'll be returning to the Vuelta a España, where last year the 24-year-old won the best young rider classification and took fifth place overall.

"The Tour was always for Paul, to be there in the high mountains for Paul," he explains.

"So right now, it's full focus on the Tour, but the plan is to go to the Vuelta and ride for GC there. But yeah, let's get this out of the way first."

When Riccitello does come back to Spain, it'll be with over 12 months of breakthrough results in his palmarès. Last summer he won his first professional stage race in Europe, the Sibiu Tour, and then followed that up with his BYR jersey and Grand Tour top five in the Vuelta last September, a first overall win on the team's home soil in France at the Tour de la Provence this February and then a debut one-day victory in the Tour du Jura in April.

Crowning all of that, of course, is taking part in the Tour de France, where he says the atmosphere is very special, particularly racing for a homegrown star like Seixas.

"It's lived up to the hype. I mean, everyone before the race talked about how big it is compared to other races and it's lived up to that, but it's been a super cool experience," he says, of a race where he is making his debut along Seixas and others in the squad.

"It's the first Tour for Olav and for Daan [Hoole], too, so it's something new for all of us, we're all kind of going through the same experience together. It's super special, something to try to enjoy as much as we can."

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It was a clean sweep of wins for L39ION of Los Angeles at the third round of the American Criterium Cup, with Tyler Williams and Justin Williams going 1-2 in the pro men's race and Skylar Schneider speeding to victory in the women's race at the Bailey & Glasser LLP Twilight Criterium in Boise, Idaho on Saturday night.

The flat, four-corner course became a race of attrition for the elite women, with L39ION dictating the high pace and 16 riders jockeying for position on the final lap. Aline Seitz (HigherDOSE-Renova) took the lead headed to the line, but Skylar Schneider blasted by her for the victory. Kimberly Lucie (Team S&M CX) could not overtake the duo and finished third.

The win by Skylar Schneider, who came into the Idaho race from a victory in Vancouver at Gastown Grand Prix on Wednesday, kept her in the series individual lead of the American Criterium Cup, which was her second win in three races.

The men's contest saw WorldTour rider Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost) riding aggressively in a solo effort, the field dominated by full squads from L39ION of Los Angeles, Chaney Windows and Doors Big Shark pb Pastaria and Velovit Elite.

Tyler Williams would accelerate from the front group on the final handful of laps and gain a 12-second advantage. He would hold on for an uncontested victory, five seconds ahead of a group of seven chasers. Teammate Justin Williams took second and Preston Eye (Clif Family Drifters Cycling) third while Lamperti settled for fourth.

Absent from the race were ACC men's leader Lucas Bourgoyne and the Team Cadence Cyclery pb Waldo Racing, shaking up the leaderboard with Justin Williams moved into the top spot.

The next round of the ACC will take place at Chicago GRIT at the Fulton Market Grand Prix on July 26.

Results

Geerike Schreurs (Specialized-Off road) led from start to finish in the women's overall at the five-stage Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder while Cameron Jones (Scott Sports USA) unseated Ian Boswell (Wahoo Specialized) from the top men's spot on the final stage for the men's title.

This was the seventh edition of the US gravel stage race, which is part of the Gravel Earth Series for elite riders, who stacked up 334 miles (537km) and 31,200 feet (9,500m) of climbing across five days in the Cascade mountains. The race features completely different terrain on each stage, including volcanic landscapes in the Pacific north-west of the United States.

Oregon Trail was the second victory of the Gravel Earth Series for Schreurs, who won Gravel Desert and finished third at The Traka 360. She won four of the five days of racing in Oregon, setting the tone on the 82.3-mile opening stage. Karolina Migoń (PAS Racing) then moved into first place overall with the win on the 73-mile stage 2. Schreurs returned to the top on the middle stage, with the best time on the 10-mile timed climb on the 27-mile route.

Schreurs' total time of 17:04:24 was 20 minutes, 10 seconds faster than Migoń. Third overall was secured by USA's Jen Tavé (SpeedBlock-Terun), the only other rider to complete the event in under 18 hours, 45:31 behind Schreurs.

"I’m proud of how I raced, but mostly on my positive mindset and belief throughout the week. Karolina Migoń challenged me from the first day on and she definitely got the best out of me," Schreurs posted to Instagram in her race recap.

All three riders came in, a race elites call 'gravel camp', with recent success - Schreurs going second at Unbound Gravel 200, Migoń winning Grand Tour 3 Cime Lavaredo, part of the UCI Gravel World Series, and Tavé winning Truckee Tahoe Gravel.

Oceania gravel champion Jones opened the men's competition with a decisive stage 1 solo victory before a parade of different stage winners kept the GC open until Sunday. Boswell responded on day two with the win, and then Hayden Christian (Trek-MAAP), the recent BWR Quad-Tripel Crown of Gravel series winner, took the victory in the stage 3 time trial.

Boswell moved into the overall lead by winning the queen stage, 84.5 miles across 10,890 feet of climbing from Oakridge to Gilchrist, but it was only a seven-second advantage to Jones. The New Zealander would take his second consecutive overall title riding in the five-rider front group, Tobias Mørch Kongstad (PAS Racing) winning the stage 5 sprint back to Bend after 66.5 miles.

Jones' accumulated GC time was 14:56:23. The men's GC podium had Boswell in second, 6:55 back, and Peter Stetina (Canyon), who won Oregon Trail in 2021, in third, 14:17 back. Piotr Havik (Colnago x Castelli SOG), last year's runner-up in the Gravel Earth Series, finished 10th overall in Oregon.

August features two events for Gravel Earth Series, with Megre Gravel in Lithuania on the first Saturday of the month and CORE4 in Iowa two weeks later.

Results

In a surprise move, FDJ United-SUEZ announced the addition of multi-discipline US rider Kate Courtney to their Women's WorldTour squad. The reigning MTB World Champion in cross-country marathon will join the squad this week, with the 30-month contract effective immediately and running through the end of 2028.

"So freaking excited about this," Courtney confirmed to Cyclingnews.

Courtney's last victory came on a surprising start in the road race at USA Cycling Pro Road Nationals, where she outsprinted former USPro road champion Lauren Stephens (Aegis x Leaders of Enchantment) for her own first USPro road title.

The California native will make her WorldTour road debut as the USPro champion at La Périgord Ladies on July 18. She has committed to line up with her new WoldTour road team at Tour of Britain Women, August 19-23, which begins just four days following Leadville Trail 100 MTB, a race she won last year, and it was not confirmed if she would defend her off-road title in Colorado.

"It is hard to put into words what this opportunity means to me. I never expected to be able to make the jump to the WorldTour level so quickly and I am so motivated to rise to this huge challenge and really find out what I am capable of as an athlete and person in this final chapter of my career," Courtney said in a press release on Monday.

A stranger to road racing

Seven years before she won the XCM world championship last summer, Courtney earned her first rainbow jersey at MTB Worlds in the cross-country discipline. She followed that in 2019 by winning the overall UCI Cross-country World Cup title.

The 30-year-old caught added attention in May with a surprise start at Tour de Feminin in the Czech Republic for Team USA, her first road race since the age of 16, and won stage 4. Riding a second season with She Sends Racing as an off-road privateer, Courtney finished fifth at the Life Time Sea Otter Classic gravel and then third at Levi's GrandFondo The Growler in April.

"Kate is a magnificent athlete whose profile shows great potential on short to mid-range climbs and demanding efforts. We are excited to support her as she discovers European road racing," said Stephen Delcourt, general manager of FDJ United-SUEZ.

"FDJ UNITED-SUEZ has always embraced athletes who have thrived in disciplines beyond road cycling. This diversity of backgrounds and cultures will continue to elevate our team as we pursue the highest levels of performance in women's sport."

The day she won her first US road championship, Courtney noted on social media that it marked one year that she rode a bike outdoors for the first time since fracturing the scaphoid bone in her wrist at a short track MTB World Cup round in Nové Město. Shortly thereafter, she raced and won in her debut at Leadville Trail 100 MTB.

The return to form last summer led to freedom to ride for her new non-profit, She Sends Racing, which led her to Switzerland for MTB Worlds, then South Africa for Cape Epic and eventually USPro Road Nationals.

"It’s crazy to think how much has changed in a year," she noted on Instagram recently. "That injury somehow gave me the mental freedom to reimagine what racing could look like. In the process I’ve found that extra little bit that was missing for so long."

The Red Bull connection and a new direction

Courtney was eager to jump into the European road scene on the weekend with her new team, one common thread being a connection with Red Bull.

"I am so grateful to Stephen and the entire team for seeing the potential and giving me this chance to chase a huge dream.

"It is not hard to see from the outside that FDJ UNITED-SUEZ is building something really special. The way the team races - aggressively, fearlessly and with complete belief in one another - has been inspiring to me as a fan. And now it is even more inspiring to me as a rider.

"It feels like the team environment I have been searching for my entire career - and I could not be more excited to start learning and chasing one of the biggest and most challenging goals I have ever spoken out loud.”

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USA's Bjorn Riley (Scott-SRAM MTB Race Team) claimed his first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup victory on Friday, making a late pass of hot-handed French rider Adrien Boichis (Specialized Factory Racing) in a two-up sprint to decide the elite men's cross-country short track race at Pal Arinsal.

On the elite women's side, Jenny Rissveds (Canyon XC Racing) pulled out a thrilling sprint victory from a lead group of five riders, with Laura Stigger (Specialized Factory Racing) and Ronja Blöchlinger (Liv Factory Racing) finishing two-three and all on the same time.

Pal Arinsal hosted the sixth stop for this year's global cross-country competitions, the trails above the town of La Massana in Andorra confirmed as the highest altitude for races on the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series.

Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Riley is no stranger to high elevation. He had racked up 12 medals at US mountain bike nationals since beginning as a junior in 2018, including holding the stars-and-stripes jersey since 2024 in the XCC discipline. But he had never won on the international circuit, until Friday.

“Every race feels like the fulfilment of a dream. Winning is something you dream about your whole life, so actually doing it feels surreal. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet. Maybe later tonight, when I’m trying to sleep, it’ll hit me and I’ll end up lying awake thinking about it. Right now, it just feels incredible," Riley said in a UCI press release.

"So many people had been telling me they wanted to see me win. It’s amazing that people believe in me like that. Race by race, I’ve felt myself improving. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road recently, and now that I’m back fighting at the front, my confidence is growing."

French riders had everyone's attention when the race started Friday, Boichis coming off back-to-back XCC wins and compatriot Mathis Azzaro (Origine Racing Division) leading the World Cup standings. Great Britain's Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) got the party started by leading the first three laps, with Azzaro and Dario Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road) behind him, and then Boichis tagging along.

Azzaro would crash before the mid-point of the race, and was forced to depart. Then USA's Christopher Blevins joined his Specialized teammate Boichis at the front on the next lap as they battled Aldridge and Martin. It wasn't until lap seven that Riley bridged to the front four.

As the final lap began, Boichis kicked on the climb and only Aldridge held his back wheel while Riley reacted to stay in third place. Then Aldridge skidded and collided with a tree as he tried a different line in the woods, taking him down, though he'd finish but in 30th place. Riley went all-out on with two corners to go, and the risk worked.

"We all know each other’s strengths, and heading into the final climb I knew Boichis has an explosive kick. I could tell he didn’t quite have it on the climb today, and that’s something I’d been thinking about over the last couple of days," the 24-year-old America recounted.

"Normally, I don’t take big risks on the final lap because I’m already happy with a podium but today felt different. I did get a bit nervous because when I looked back on the finishing straight, he was right there behind me. I’m not used to having to sprint for the win, so that was a little scary."

Boichis relented for second place, with Blevins in third. Boichis moved into first place in the season standings with his runner-up finish. He now holds with more than 100 points to his advantage over two other French riders, Azzaro in second and Martin in third.

Last lap decides elite women's race

The women's race had an even tighter finish. Switzerland's Sina Frei (Specialized Factory Racing) came in the favourite as the XCC World Cup series leader. Only Rissveds could catch the Swiss star, but had 170 points between them in the standings. Rissveds had the momentum, coming off the XCC win at La Thuile a week ago.

Rissveds led the field on the opening lap with company from Jolanda Neff (Cannondale Factory Racing) as thunder roared and rain fell. Across the next handful of laps, Martina Berta (Origine Racing Division) and Stigger took Neff's place at the front with the Swede.

Reigning UCI XCC world champion Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) then tagged along at the mid-point of the race. She made a surge on lap seven, which saw Berta and Frei fall off the pace.

Keller slipped out of her line on the penultimate lap, which allowed Stigger to move into second place, the pair chasing Rissveds. On the bell lap, Rissveds went clear with a long-range attack. The fight for podium spots ensued between Stigger, Blöchlinger, Keller and Nicole Koller (Lapierre PXR Racing).

Rissveds rode easily across the line in the European champion's jersey, as the chase played out just behind her, Stigger sprinting ahead of Blöchlinger on the line for second.

Frei would finish eighth in the race, and Rissveds edged closer to her XCC lead, now just a 30-point margin at the top of the standings after the Andorra race.

XC racing continues on Sunday in Pal Arinsal with the UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup rounds for U23 and elite riders.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) confirmed he was back to form and in good health as he won stage 3 of the Tour of Austria on Friday, holding off Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in a two-up sprint after the pair spent the day in a larger breakaway.

Powless punched the air after crossing the line for the victory, while Arrieta kept his arms on his handlebars, raising his front wheel to pound the pavement in frustration.

It was Powless' first victory in 13 months after his last win in the GP Gippingen in June last year. More significant to the 29-year-old US rider was vanquishing the last four months of non-competition after recovering from knee surgery.

"I feel like I can finally put this nasty chapter behind me with surgery and rehab that was really complicated. I just feel so incredible, and I just wanted to say thank you to my teammates, as well for helping me today," Powless said in a team statement.

“I'm very, very satisfied, very happy. I came here with the ambition of winning a stage, and I knew it was going to be 50/50 if I was good enough after such a long time without racing, but my knee is holding up and I feel really strong."

He started his season at Tour de Provence in February but had to abandon the final stage due to knee pain. That led to surgery and the recovery process before a charge on Friday.

“I told my coach that I just really wanted to win a bike race this year. I didn't care where it was or how it happened, but it just feels really good to already achieve that goal," he added.

"I had two in the breakaway with me, Samuele [Battistella] and Vincenzo [Albanese], and they just did an incredible job helping me save energy. It's always a team effort, so I'm really happy to win."

The original breakaway of 21 riders formed 53km into the 188km stage, after back-to-back category 3 climbs. Powless and Arrieta separated from the main breakaway with 40km remaining to the uphill finish in Alpendorf.

On a category 2 ascent of Buchberg, Arrieta attacked at the front and only Powless followed. The lead pair moved away at the front, but saw the gap fading to 40 seconds as they hit the final climb to the ski town of St. Johann Alpendorf, less than 3km to the finish at an average gradient of 6.5%.

The EF Education rider then led out the duo on the top section of the 2.6km climb and saved enough in the tank for a final acceleration to keep the 23-year-old Spaniard from passing.

"It's really nice to be winning bike races again. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen at all this year. But here I am, the first win, so it feels really nice.”

Arrieta was looking to replicate a similar two-rider raid which landed him the stage 5 victory at this year's Giro d'Italia, that day a slippery affair in the rain against Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), as the two survived separate crashes into the Potenza and Arrieta even overcame a wrong turn on course to take the victory in a sprint.

Like Powless, Arrieta had two teammates with him in the early breakaway, Jan Christen and António Morgado. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider said after the race that a sprint scenario would have better suited for one of his teammates, but was glad to have the opportunity to go for the win.

"I think I wasn’t the best person to have the finish decided in a two-up sprint. I knew Jan [Christen] was coming from behind, so I tried to save as much as possible, to make Powless do the work. But in the end, I was not able to escape, and he beat me in the sprint. Sometimes, it is like this, he was better than me," Arrieta said in a team press release.

The leader of the Tour of Austria going into the final two days of racing is Gregor Mühlberger (Team Austria) with 1:31 over US rider Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and another 10 seconds on third-placed Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek). The best-placed EF Education-EasyPost rider on GC is James Shaw, 2:31 back in seventh position.

Skylar Schneider (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Marcos Mendez (Foundation Cycling New York) won midweek elite races at Global Relay Gastown Grand Prix in Vancouver, British Columbia.

US sprinter Schneider last competed at Gastown two years ago, when she also took victory. The victory by Mendez, from Argentina, marks the first win for a South American rider in the 53rd edition of the Canadian one-day race.

One day after hosting a World Cup round of 16 between Switzerland and Colombia, Vancouver's downtown streets were filled with spectators to watch as elite riders competed for a share in a $50,000 CAD prize purse, each winner receiving a check for $12,000.

The non-traditional four-corner race, with the first turn off Water Street a sharp left-hander at more than 110-degree change of direction, was held on Wednesday evening. The women's race featured 40 laps and the men's 50 laps.

L39ION of LA teammates Samantha Schneider and Holly Breck shut down a series of attacks which whittled the 70 starters down to 35. Skylar Schneider later blasted across through the front of the field on the approach to the line, holding off Kiwi Bryony Botha (Fearless Femme Racing), who came in fresh off the overall title in the Tour of America's Dairyland.

Former Mexican champion Yarely Salazar (Caldera Medical x Aurea Racing) led the reduced bunch through the final turn on the long straightaway but only served as a carrot for Schneider. The 27-year-old US rider blasted past Salazar with 100 yards to go for the win. Salazar then saw Botha go by and then finished third.

A past winner of the Vancouver race in 2024, Schneider came in as one of the women's favourites, having won the omnium title at Saint Francis Tulsa Tough and earning one win and three other podiums at the Tour of America's Dairyland series in her home state of Wisconsin. She said that was easily one of the hardest races of the year, with every team bringing their “A-game” for the prize money on offer.

Mendez controlled the run-in for the victory, Cade Bickmore (Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) and Canadian criterium national champion Jayden McMullen (TaG Cycling), completing the podium in second and third, respectively.

After a late sprint prime contested by Luke Fetzer (Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) and Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost), the duo dangled at the front of the race for the penultimate lap. Tyler Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) then went to the front for the first part of the final circuit, with Team Cadence Cyclery taking over with three riders.

Mendez then hit the front after the final corner and hammered to the front without allowing anyone to get close. The Argentinian, who has won this year at Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic and Sunny King Criterium, surprised the men's race favourites, with reigning US criterium champion Luke Elphingstone (Project Echelon Racing) going fifth behind Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles).

Last year's winner Lucas Bourgoyne (Team Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) served as a leadout for Bickmore and himself, going sixth. Lamperti, who was third last year, finished seventh.

Full results are available at the Gastown Grand Prix website.

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The Maryland Cycling Classic hit the brakes again and has been officially cancelled for 2026. The Baltimore, Maryland UCI event was held three times for men since its creation in 2021, while the women's race only made a debut last year.

This season the men's race was sanctioned by the UCI as the only ProTour race on the US calendar. Both events had been scheduled for early September as three-day contests, though organisers called this a "miscommunication" with plans to continue as one-day races.

"The one-day race, scheduled for September 6 on Labor Day Weekend, has been cancelled," read part of a press release distributed late Thursday.

One of the red flags was raised in the winter when both men's and women's races were listed on the UCI calendar as three-day events. Members of event leadership, hired by ownership group Sport and Entertainment Corporation of Maryland (Sport Corp), said both races were supposed to be just one-day events with three days of ancillary activities. Teams contacted by Cyclingnews all said they expected to race for three days.

The cancellation is an especially difficult blow to women's racing in North America, which also saw the Tour de Bloom downgrade from a UCI 2.2-level, leaving just one internationally-sactioned event for the first half of the season.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Cycling Classic makes a return for men and women as a UCI-ranked race on August 30. With the disappearance of the Maryland race the next week, there is now a multi-week gap to the two WorldTour events for men in Canada - the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and Montréal - on September 11 and 13, as well as Chrono Féminin de Gatineau and Tour de Gatineau for women, Sept 16 and 17. The 2026 UCI Road World Championships then return to Canada at the end of September.

While other indicators of the race's demise arose in January related to funding, long-time supporters of Maryland Cycling Classic have vowed to "pick up the charge" and reboot the event for 2027.

Maryland businessman John Kelly, who served as the event chairman from 2022-2025, and KOM Sports Marketing president Steve Brunner, who was the race executive director, are leading an independent group to rejuvenate the races, and are "currently working with city and state leaders to secure funding and sponsorship".

"Steve Brunner and I have been working for the past several months with key stakeholders, including existing sponsors, state and Baltimore city leaders, to pave a positive path forward," Kelly, president of Kelly Benefits Strategies, told Cyclingnews on Friday.

"World-class events like the Maryland Cycling Classic are complicated and expensive endeavours, but worth the effort to showcase cycling and this beautiful state and city to the world."

An estimated 85,000 roadside spectators attended the men’s and women’s races in 2025, according to the news release, and there was an estimated $11 million in direct economic impact.

"As a collective, we have produced great results for the 2022, 2023 and 2025 events. We feel indebted to those partners to keep pushing forward for American cycling and participating athletes," Brunner told Cyclingnews.

"this has been America's top-ranked one day race and we'll continue to work to keep it alive. And, Baltimore and the state of Maryland have been phenomenal hosts."

Bumpy road

In January uncertainty of the race's status surfaced when the Baltimore Banner reported that all six staff members for Sport Corp, had vacated positions. This included Terry Hasseltine, who had served as the president of the non-profit since its creation in 2019.

State leaders approved a bill that provided emergency funding, more than $94,000, to cover missed payroll for Sport Corp employees, according to The Baltimore Sun in January. Though not directly affiliated with Sport Corp, the Maryland Stadium Authority was actively identifying vendors that were eligible for missed payments for two of the non-profit's managed events, the global equestrian event Maryland 5 Star and Maryland Cycling Classic.

Cyclingnews reached out to Sport Corp by telephone and email in January, but no response was provided. The corporation, which was not affiliated with the Maryland Stadium Authority, was still listed by the Internal Revenue Service this year as a public charity.

The Maryland Cycling Classic men's one-day race was initially announced for 2021 but event owners Sport Corp postponed the debut until the next year. After back-to-back seasons, the men's race was cancelled in 2024 due to the fatal collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge crossing the outer Baltimore Harbor.

Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) won the inaugural women's title in a photo finish against Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly). Sandy Dujardin (Team TotalEnergies) took the last edition of the men's race in 2025.

Former US professional cyclist Tyler Hamilton will cover the Tour de France this month for Denmark's national television network, TV2. It is a second consecutive year the former CSC rider has provided post-race analysis.

Hamilton is recognised by Danish sports viewers for his two years at the CSC team, led by Bjarne Riis, and his overall victory at Tour of Denmark in 1999.

"Denmark has a special place in my heart. It was super special for me last year," he said to Sports.tv2.dk, which will air his reports.

Hamilton, now 55 and living in Missoula, Montana, began his race career in 1994 and went on to win stages at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, as well as finishing third overall at the Giro in 2002. He raced all three Grand Tours, last competing at an eighth Tour de France in 2004.

His career was derailed when he failed doping tests in 2004 from the Olympic Games and the Vuelta a Espana, resulting in a two-year suspension. He returned to racing from 2007 to 2009, and was subsequently retired a final time when he failed another test for banned substances.

"His past is well known and should not be ignored. At the same time, he is one of the former riders who has chosen to come forward and speak openly about that period," said Kristian Bech Josefsen, editor-in-chief at TV 2 Sport.

"He has experienced both the sport's greatest triumphs and its most controversial chapters. This gives him a unique experience and insight into the Tour de France. Our job is to gather the strongest voices, and he adds another dimension to our coverage – as we saw last year."

Crusher in the Tushar cancelled due to concerns related to ravaging Utah fires

July 11 would have been the 15th edition of the climbing-heavy 69.9-mile gravel race, starting and ending in Beaver, Utah. Instead, event owners and operators, Life Time, cancelled the event two weeks prior to race weekend over safety concerns and limited resources related to a large wildfire in that region of southern Utah.

The Cottonwood Fire had destroyed more than 70,000 acres at the time of the cancellation, and by July 1 had grown to be the state's largest wildfire with only 5% containment, according to local media reports, including ABC4 in Utah.

"After closely monitoring the Cottonwood Fire and its impact on Beaver, Eagle Point, local emergency resources, and the surrounding community, we have made the difficult decision that Crusher in the Tushar will not take place as planned this year," organisers posted to Instagram on June 25.

"This is not the outcome any of us wanted, but given the ongoing impact of the fire, the strain on local resources and emergency response, and the safety considerations for athletes, volunteers, staff, partners, and the Beaver community, we are confident this is the right decision."

Two years ago Crusher in the Tushar was cancelled because of a similar situation, two wildfires situated across Piute County where the race course passed. The race had been part of the Life Time Grand Prix from 2022-2024.

Organisers were communicating with registered athletes via email. Days after the announcement, the event web site provided a link to an online fundraising campaign, created by the Chamber of Commerce serving Beaver, Iron and Garfield counties, to provide assistance to families and businesses impacted by the disaster.

Comp Edge Racing line up for first-ever international UCI stage race appearance at Sibiu Cycling Tour

Comp Edge Racing makes its first-ever international UCI stage race appearance at the 2026 Sibiu Cycling Tour, July 4-7. The Continental team will be led by Marcis Shelton, silver medalist in the U23 road race at USPro Road Nationals.

The six-rider roster will be filled by US riders Ryan Drummond, Andrew Frank, Luke Walter and Dylan Zakrajsek plus Bermuda's dual road champion Nic Narroway.

Among the competition are two WorldTour squads - UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe - as well as five ProTeams, 13 other Continental teams and national teams representing Hungary and Romania.

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling brings a lineup with Canadian Riley Pickrell, who won stage 1 last year at the stage race with Israel-Premier Tech, and Briton Leo Hayter, while Continental-level APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cycling features US riders Ethan Dunham and Patrick Welch.

The four-day race across Romania includes five stages, with Saturday's double billing starting in the centre of the country in Sibiu with a 110.5km road stage followed by a 32.km individual time trial.

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New Zealand riders Bryony Botha (Fearless Femme pb the Beasley Firm) and George Jackson (Whoosh–NZ Cycling Project) won tight sprints in the Downer Classic on Saturday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Elite riders scored points in Saturday's contest, officially called Café Hollander Otto Wenz Downer Classic p/b ISCorp, the second round of the American Criterium Cup national series and the 11-day Tour of America's Dairyland (ToAD).

Botha surprised current ACC women's leader Skylar Schneider (L39ION of Los Angeles) with a strong final surge to earn the race victory. Another Kiwi, Kyra Marett (1Kflips Racing), the country's national criterium champion, secured third. With her runner-up finish on home Wisconsin turf, Schneider continued as the women's individual leader in the ACC standings.

"I didn't realise it was one lap to go. I saw my teammate Kiera at the front; I told her to just drill it. She did a great job with that. It was a great, spectacular, surprise attack by the New Zealand criterium champ, which set me up well. I don’t think my dad’s gonna believe me when I tell him I won a sprint," Botha told race organisers.

All the attacks in the women's race were controlled by the HigherDOSE RenovaPoints, which went on the hunt for mid-race sprint points. They took all the spoils with Andrea Cyr retaining the women's ACC sprint competition.

Botha also won the women's title across the 11 days of ToAD one-day races in various cities in Wisconsin. She collected 271 points with Claudia Marcks (Pedla Race Division) and Aline Seitz (HigherDOSE-Renova) timed for second with 249 points.

The men's field that started with a robust 145 riders was all together for the final circuit. Jackson came into the ACC matchup with four wins in the nine previous days of ToAD, and he wasn't close to being done. He carried momentum at the front of the field through the last corner and held off a late charge from former USPro crit winner Lucas Bourgouyne (Team Cadence Cyclery pb Waldo Racing) and current USPro crit champion Luke Elphingston (Project Echelon Racing), who went second and third, respectively.

“We thought it would probably come down to a field sprint; we knew there was so much cash on the line, so we knew it was going to be a hard one," Jackson said about the cash prizes at intermediate sprints causing chaos early on.

"The team has been coming here for 18-19 years, and we’re getting better and better each year. New Zealand is a small country, and we’re far away, so we don’t have races like this…We love coming here, the crowds were insane, everyone’s insane…it’s so much fun.”

With his runner-up finish, despite an early crash and cut to his knee from a collision into a chainring, Bourgoyne held his individual lead in the men's ACC standings. All of the significant sprint points were collected by Chaney Windows and Doors Big Shark p/b Pastaria riders, with Owen Gillot holding the ACC lead in that classification.

The five ToAD victories gave Jackson the overall title for the regional series with a total of 248 points, while his teammate James Wilson finished second with 271 points. Bourgoyne took third overall.

The next stop for the ACC will be July 11 in Boise, Idaho, for the Bailey & Glasser LLP Boise Twilight Criterium. That marks the midpoint of the series with three races to complete the schedule.

Results

Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Keegan Swenson (both Specialized Off-road) returned to the top step at SBT GRVL on Sunday in Colorado, both launching solo attacks on the later segments of a refreshed 108-mile 'black' course. It was Swenson's fourth elite men's title while Villafañe won the elite women's race for a second time.

This year's Steamboat Springs long 'black' course featured one single-loop circuit through Routt County, with an out-and-back, washed-out gravel road, Cow Creek, featured as the first climb after the start from Yampa Street and again as a decisive technical descent in the final 12 miles.

Three elite men exited the Cow Creek climb at the front of the race - Nathan Spratt (Ventum + Voler), Adam Roberge (Felt UN1TD) and John Borstelmann (Ventum) - and set a marker of four minutes. Across the next 24 miles, two-thirds of that the longest ascent of the day with uneven pitches reaching 7%-9%, the leaders were caught by six riders - Swenson, Henry Nelson (Lunchbox Racing), Cobe Freeburn (Trek Driftless), Alexey Vermeulen (ENVE), Pete Stetina (Canyon) and John Keller.

By the mid-point of the race, Swenson was part of the new lead group as Freeburn, Roberge and Nelson, with Spratt, Vermeulen, Stetina and Keller giving chase, and Borstelmann dropping off the pace.

A long paved descent led to the second longest climb on the route, approximately nine miles of gravel, passing to the south of Hayden and from the crest leaving 35.5 miles for a return to Steamboat Springs. On the descent from this climb, Swenson launched his attack on a paved section and by the time he hit the return ascent to Cow Creek had a two-and-a-half minute gap.

Swenson completed his ride in 4:36:20, with Vermeulen second and Freeburn third in a four-rider chase who were five minutes back. Nelson finished fourth and Roberge fifth. Stetina had worked with Keller for a second chase group, Keller going one second better than the Canyon veteran at the line, just 47 and 48 seconds behind Vermeulen

Swenson finished second last year, outsprinting Freeburn and Vermeulen. This year Vermeulen's runner-up spot was his third podium at SBT GRVL, having gone third to Swenson in 2024 and 2023.

"The king reigns on here at SBT GRVL," Vermeulen said about his rival Swenson. "Got dropped, but managed to finagle my way back into the sprint for second by the end thanks to a great chase group with John Keller and Peter Stetina."

The elite women started five minutes after the men, with the field staying mainly compact for the opening 15 miles. On the 17-mile dirt ascent known as Wahooligan Pass, Sarah Lange (Velocio-Kenda Bicycle) set the tempo with Cecily Decker (PAS Racing) and 2023 winner Villafañe.

The trio were joined on the descent by Danni Shrosbree (Rapha-Argon 18), Kylee Hanel (Cervélo-Maxxis), Paige Onweller (Trek Driftless), two-time winner Lauren De Crescenzo (The Feed-Argonaut-Castelli-Maxxis) and 2024 winner Lauren Stephens (Aegis x LOE), which created the decisive split of the race.

The riders traded attacks, but none took hold until Lange broke away on a gravel descent south of Hayden at mile 80. She carried her momentum into the technical section at Cow Creek, where Villafañe began to close the gap, and Stephens trailed 30 seconds behind with Onweller another 30 seconds back.

"I tried to attack a few times earlier in the race but nothing stuck and our group of 8 kept coming back together. So when I found myself off the front during a lull with 25-30 miles to go, I went for it," Lange said on Instagram.

"When I exited Cow Creek and had 7 miles of pavement back into town, I was told Sofia was solo 30 seconds back. I kept pushing but knew she was gaining on me. I heard someone yell her name and knew I was caught with about 2 miles to go."

Villafañe caught and passed Lange on the tarmac just outside Steamboat Springs and cranked out a six-second gap to ride across the line uncontested in 5:25:01. Stephens finished 42 seconds behind Lange for third, her fifth time on the podium spot at SBT GRVL.

"The last 45 minutes of the race was spicy as we worked hard to chase down Sarah Lange who was on a ripper of a day. I pushed HARD on cow creek, separated myself from the chasers and made contact in the last two miles of the race," the new two-time winner said on her Instagram account.

Women’s defending champ Melisa Rollins, who has been away from racing for several months due to arm and wrist injuries, finished 20th. 2025 men’s winner Brendan Wertz did not line up as he was still recovering from a crash at Lost & Found gravel in California two weeks ago.

Last year SBT GRVL had separate race days for elites and amateurs, with the elite fields starting and finishing in Hayden. All race routes returned to downtown Steamboat Springs this year, featuring safety enclosures for elite categories and a black course team support and nutrition aid station at mile 63 at the Hayden Gun Range, which also served as a spectator zone.

Results