Lidl-Trek are adding a women's development squad to their line-up of teams for 2027, launching Lidl-Trek Future Racing Women with a 10-rider roster packed full of talent.

Lidl-Trek launched their men's under-23 squad in 2024, and will now join the small number of teams to run a women's development squad with their new project for 2027. It will be registered at Continental level and is not strictly an under-23 squad, with some older riders in the roster.

The team will comprise 10 riders from eight different countries, including the USA's Katherine Sarkisov, Great Britain's Kate Richardson, and Austria's Tabea Huys, who has already been riding a stagiaire for Lidl-Trek's Women's WorldTour team this autumn.

Also in the line-up are the Italian pair Chantal Pegolo and Matilde Rossignoli, Liv Wenzel, from Luxembourg, Spain's Ane Zubeldia – daughter of retired pro Haimar – Olympia Norrid-Mortensen from Denmark, Messane Bräutigam from Germany, and Sarkisov's compatriot Ella Sabo.

The launch of the squad marks "an exciting new chapter in the team’s commitment to nurturing the next generation of talent in women’s cycling", the team said.

"Our aim is to give young riders the time, support and opportunities they need to develop," women's team manager Fränk Schleck said.

"The step up to the WorldTour is becoming more demanding, so we want to create a clear pathway where riders can learn, make mistakes and grow without the immediate pressure to deliver results."

Whilst U23 feeder teams are commonplace amongst men's WorldTour squads, it is still only a minority of women's teams that run such a programme, in part down to the fact that there is no dedicated U23 racing circuit for women.

Lidl-Trek will join Canyon-SRAM, AG Insurance-Soudal, Liv AlUla Jayco and Fenix-Premier Tech in having a development arm in 2027, though the total number of such teams will stay the same after UAE Team L'IMAD shuttered their development team this year.

"Now is the right time because women's cycling is growing, and our investment needs to extend beyond the WorldTour team. We also have a responsibility to help develop the next generation," Schleck continued.

"When selecting the riders, we looked beyond the results. Potential, attitude, a willingness to learn and what each rider could bring to the group were all important. We also want to support riders across different disciplines, because there is more than one route to becoming a successful road rider."

Whilst racing will of course be important for the team, Schleck also underlined the team's commitment to preparing riders for life as a professional in general, too.

"The goal is to prepare them for the demands of professional cycling, both on and off the bike. Winning is part of that learning process, but success will also mean seeing riders gain confidence, take responsibility and eventually earn their place in the WorldTour," he said.

Sarkisov, Rossignoli and Huys are the names that readers are most likely to recognise. Rossignoli finished second in the women's junior road race at the World Championships in Montreal last month, whilst Sarkisov has been racing stage races in Europe this year with the US national team, taking seventh in the U23 women's race at Worlds.

Huys, who is one of the older riders on the team at 21, has already been racing in the pro peloton at Continental level this year, taking some promising results that earned her a stagiaire ride with Lidl-Trek and now a place on the development team.

Ella Sabo comes over from the USA after racing for Virginia's Blue Ridge-Twenty28, with whom she took a highly impressive third place at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic, right up there with WorldTour riders.

The team have already joined the wider team gathering in Bad Wimpfen, Germany this autumn, with their debut on the road set for 2027.

Lidl-Trek Future Racing Women for 2027

• Chantal Pegolo, 19, Italy
• Tabea Huys, 21, Austria
• Ane Zubeldia, 18, Spain
• Matilde Rossignoli, 18, Italy
• Kate Richardson, 24, Great Britain
• Olympia Norrid-Mortensen, 21, Denmark
• Liv Wenzel, 22, Luxembourg
• Messane Bräutigam, 20, Germany
• Katherine Sarkisov, 22, United States
• Ella Sabo, 20, United States

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

Cofidis have announced the signing of two-time Esports World Championships runner-up Gabriela Guerra.

The Brazilian, who won the silver medal at the 2024 and 2025 Worlds, has joined the French ProTeam on a two-year deal.

In announcing the signing, Cofidis likened the 32-year-old's life to a TV series. A former skateboarder, she moved from Brazil to Germany and then took up mountain biking. In recent years, she took up e-cycling on Zwift, running a YouTube channel charting her racing career, and has become one of the world's top virtual racers.

Guerra took up road cycling last September and joined the German Continental team Wheel Divas. This year, she took part in several one-day races, including Binche-Chimay-Binche, the Women's GP Stuttgart, and the French 1.2 race, the Mirabelle Classic, which she won.

"I'm very curious and really excited about joining Cofidis. I want to find out whether I can transfer my strengths from e-cycling to the road," Guerra said.

"The few races I took part in towards the end of the season gave me confidence and caught Cofidis' attention. It's a challenge I'm really keen to take on. I don't have any particular apprehensions, just a huge amount of enthusiasm.

"I can't wait to start the season, give my very best, help the team and discover the very highest level of road racing. It's going to be a fantastic challenge!"

Guerra joins a growing list of top Esports racers to join the professional road ranks, including Jason Osborne, Jay Vine, Ella Harris, Neve Bradbury, Mattia Gaffuri, and the latest Zwift Academy winners, Emily Dixon and Noah Ramsay.

"We are very enthusiastic and excited to see how Gabriela will take on this incredible challenge," said Cofidis sport manager Raphael Jeune.

"Towards the end of the season, she demonstrated a real determination to succeed, as well as some very promising qualities on the road. Naturally, this makes us really keen to work with her ahead of next season.

"We will do everything we can to help her progress through the ranks and show us the same level of ability on the road as she has demonstrated in e-sport, where she is a world silver medallist. We can't wait to see her compete in her next races in the Cofidis jersey!"

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

An "exciting new chapter" for multi-talented Lucinda Brand has been sealed with a two-year contract and a dual rule with Canyon-SRAM Scalable Capital for 2027. She has spent nearly half of her 18 years in the pro peloton with Lidl-Trek and will continue on the Women's WorldTour level through 2028 at her new home.

"It was almost like a new fire had been lit inside me," she said in a press release about her decision being based on more than a change of team.

"I didn’t want this to be just one more year on the bike. I wanted it to be the beginning of a longer-term project, where I could keep contributing to the sport and build on what I’ve already done as a rider. I really feel that this team shares my passion, ambition and philosophy on cycling, which gives me a lot of energy and motivation for this next chapter, and for what we can create together."

The 37-year-old Dutch rider will join as a rider, targeting stage races and one-day races through to Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2028, where a finish in the velodrome is planned to be a career finale. Then she will transition to a staff role for the German-based WorldTour squad.

"When the opportunity came along to potentially finish my road cycling career at Paris-Roubaix, I knew straight away that it was a chance I had to grab with both hands," she said.

"Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that my role as a rider has become more than just racing. In a way, I’ve already been taking on the responsibilities that a sports director might have, and I’ve discovered how much I enjoy that side of the sport.

"I really love working with young, ambitious athletes, sharing my experience, and helping them grow. It’s something I’d love to explore further and develop myself in. That’s why it was important for me to find a team that recognised those qualities and was willing to give me an opportunity to grow in that direction."

Canyon-SRAM adds new title sponsor Scalable Capital next year and the roster features half of the riders at 24 years old or younger, including 19-year-old Emily DIxon moving up form the development team. The team's Director of Sport Rolf Aldag said Brand was an "obvious choice" as a veteran to help the team grow.

"There are a lot of changes happening to our roster, and we’ll have quite a few younger riders, so we need to create the right mix of potential versus experience and leadership," Aldag said.

"Having Lucinda is as much about leadership as it is mentorship. But, it’s not all about race results, it’s also how she also lives and pays attention to all the smaller details that are critical for reaching the very top.

"So, I think she can mentor our younger riders really well, and then bring a lot of stability to the classics team, which is a strong sporting focus for the next two years. We believe that the addition of Lucinda will be a real game-changer for us.”

Brand began her career as a 19-year-old with a Dutch squad and moved to the powerful Rabobank-Liv team from 2013 to 2016, racing during that time with compatriots Marianne Vos, Anna van der Breggen, and Annemiek van Vleuten. After winning the Dutch elite women's road race ahead of her teammates that first year then winning GP de Plouay-Bretagne in 2014, her road career ignited the next season with four stage podiums, including two victories, at Giro d'Italia for women and a second Dutch road title.

The team structure at Canyon-SRAM, with a singular focus on women's cycling, was one of the great appeals to make this transition.

"I’ve spent the last years in a very big organisation, with different teams all under one roof, and that has been a great experience. But, I’m really excited about coming into a smaller environment, where the lines are shorter, communication is more direct, and everyone is working towards the same goal. What I really like is that Canyon-SRAM still has a whole pathway – from development to the pro team – but within an organisation that is fully built for women’s cycling," she added.

On the road she has amassed 28 victories, including Baloise Ladies Tour, Tour de Suisse Women, and Thüringen Ladies Tour while at Lidl-Trek. This year she competed at the Giro d'Italia Women for a 15th time, challenging from a breakaway to go second on stage 2 into Salice Terme.

She's had podiums at the most challenging one-day races - Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Roubaix. And it was the cobbles of 'Hell of the North' where she wanted to leave her mark for road racing.

“I love the challenge, the way the race unfolds, and the toughness of the cobbles – riding over them is unique and not something everyone can do," she said about the 'Hell of the North', where she was third in 2022 and 10th in 2026.

"For me, Paris-Roubaix is the race where road cycling and cyclocross come together in a beautiful way. Every time I think about racing it, my heart beats just that little bit faster.”

This time of year Brand goes back to work on her highly-decorated cyclo-cross duties, where she begins a 10th season with a team directed by Sven Nys. On the volatile tracks that range from sand to dirt to mud, Brand has 77 career victories. She attributed Nys with helping her connect with Trek-Segafredo years ago to give her a renewed interest in top-level road racing.

"When I was losing my joy for cycling, Sven brought it back. His passion, energy and belief in me made me fall in love with the sport all over again," she wrote on Instagram, adding that she would "always look back on with a big smile and so much gratitude" as she moves on to her new chapter.

She recently extended her off-road commitment to Baloise Verzekeringen - Het Poetsbureau Lions squad for this season and the 2027-2028 CX campaign. She opened this season with five podiums, including wins on the first two rounds of HG Cross series and the Superprestige series opener in Overijse. Last year she won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships a second time and also won the UCI World Cup and X2O Badkamers Trofee series.

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

Movistar have confirmed that Basque company Etxeondo will once again be their apparel sponsor from 2027 onwards, reviving a collaboration that lasted through much of the historic Spanish team's 'golden age' of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Etxeondo last sponsored Movistar back when it was the Reynolds squad, beginning in 1983 through to the mid 1990s, by which time the team's main backer was the Spanish bank, Banesto.

During that time, Reynolds/Banesto became a pioneering force for Spanish cycling in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France as the country bounced back from its lacklustre era of the late 1970s. The team won the Tour with Pedro Delgado in 1988 and then Miguel Indurain from 1991 through to 1995, with Indurain also claiming the country's first-ever victories in the Giro in 1992 and 1993.

The return of Etxeondo as clothing sponsor for Movistar covers both the men's and women's teams, although the actual design of the new kit for both squads will likely only be revealed in early 2027.

"We are renewing a relationship that goes all the way back to the Reynolds years," Movistar said in a team press release. "It's a new phase which unites history with the development of race-competition apparel."

"Aerodynamics, comfort and protection in different kinds of weather will be the main focus points of our collaboration."

"The knowledge gained will have benefits beyond professional cycling. Etxeondo will transfer what is learned in the team to the development of its products to improve the experience of those who enjoy cycling every day."

Founded in the Basque Country in 1976, Etxeondo has spent the last five decades dedicated to the design and development of cycling clothing. It currently has two bases, in the towns of Irura (Gipuzkoa) and Castejón (Navarre).

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

The first 2027 Australian qualifier of the UCI Gravel World Series, Gravelista, crowned two very different first time series winners. The 19-year-old Ruby Taylor claimed the elite women's victory and an Olympic silver medallist in rowing, Great Britain's Harry Leask, won the elite men's category.

They both, however, crossed the line solo in muddy and wet conditions after the race, for a second year, was hit by a cool turn in the spring conditions. That resulted in a shortening of the original 135km course to 97.1km with 1,154m of elevation gain.

Taylor excelled in the conditions to take her first UCI Gravel World Series elite victory in dominating style. The young rider, who won the junior Australian gravel title two years ago, crossed the line after three hours, eight minutes and 36 seconds with a margin of nearly nine minutes to the closest women's competitor, Laura Tomlinson, who was riding in the 19-34 year old age-group category.

The 40-44 rider Belen Lopez Morales, who from 2011-13 claimed the Spanish time trial title on the road, was next over the line and it was then a group of six, including Great Britain's Hayley Simmonds, at nearly 11 minutes that fought for the next places in the overall and the remaining two spots on the elite women's podium.

The 35-39 category rider Philippa Birch won that sprint and then elite women's category riders Karoline Risager Schmidt – who finished in the top 30 at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup – and Amanda Poulsen took the next two positions. In the process, Risager Schmidt and Poulsen also came second and third in the elite category.

For Taylor the top step was the continuation of a year where she hasn't just been easing her way out of the junior ranks, but blasting into a new category with victories that have often left her older and more experienced rivals leagues behind.

The run of successes has crossed disciplines and includes two stage wins at the three-stage ProVelo Super League round of the Tour of Tasmania plus an U23 Australian XCO Mountain Bike title that not only saw her shed her category rivals but also make up the one minute deficit at the start line to nearly all the elite women out on the course, the only exception being elite victor Rebecca Henderson.

In the men's elite race at Gravelista, which started and finished in Seymour in Victoria, the field included former Australian gravel champions Mark O'Brien and Connor Sens as well as past UCI Gravel World Series race winner Tasman Nankervis but Leask had also marked himself out as a potential threat with second at Devils Cardigan earlier this year.

Leask, who after rowing also became a cyclor in the America's Cup, made a crucial early move with Nankervis and O'Brien.

"Another wet and muddy race. Managed to get away 3 up after the main climb at 30k, then was able to get a gap in the last 6/7k to come across the line solo," said Leask in a post on social media.

The British rider crossed the line in two hours, 31 minutes and 16 seconds, which was 23 seconds ahead of second-placed Nankervis. O'Brien, a further four seconds back, claimed third in the elite category. It was then more than three minutes later when a group of four riders crossed the line to fight for fourth place, with Oliver Johnston leading them over.

Gravelista is one of the early qualifying events for the 2027 UCI Gravel World Championships, which will take place in Châtel on August 26 and 27.

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

The route for the 2027 Tour de France Femmes has been revealed, and with it the speculation about how next summer's race will look has already begun.

We have already dissected the route and where the race will be won, reported all the key riders' reactions, and offered our opinions on the course, but the big question still stands: who will actually win the race?

Of course, we won't know the answer to that question until next August, but the route announcement marks the start of the long build-up to the Tour, and riders will already be starting their preparation in one way or another.

So now that we know the route, who does it suit? Who is already in good stead as a possible yellow jersey contender, and who has work to do? Who looks like the most likely winner at this point in time? Should anyone be worrying?

We'll revisit this ranking periodically throughout the year, tracking the movers and shakers right up until our final assessment before the race next summer, but for now, here is our early form ranking of the riders who will hope to win the Tour de France Femmes next August.

Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ)

Even 10 months away from the Grand Départ in Leeds, it's without question that Demi Vollering will start as the overall favourite, having emerged victorious ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney after a close-fought 2026 edition, and just put together the best season of her career.

Now the World Champion, too, Vollering will take the start next August in the rainbow jersey, looking to make more history and become the first rider to win three Tours de France Femmes. She'll also head into 2027 as the reigning winner at the European Championships, Giro d'Italia, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Flèche Wallonne, Tour of Flanders, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

With her incredibly-stacked FDJ United-SUEZ squad around her, Vollering reached new levels of dominance in the past 10 months to undeniably stand as the top rider in the women's peloton, and while she didn't win the queen stage to Mont Ventoux at the Tour – that honour went to Niewiadoma-Phinney – the key Puy de Dôme climb is arguably even more suited to her characteristics.

There's also nothing to suggest that the rest of the route - packed with a penultimate stage filled with climbs in the Massif Central, a team time trial in London, and several punchy days in hills - only favours the Ardennes specialist Vollering, who is also the top climber in the world, and her FDJ teammates.

Niewiadoma-Phinney almost upset the favourite with a stunning Ventoux ride and staunch defence into, but the final day proved that when it came to stage racing in 2026, the Dutch rider is a cut above, and her improved consistency only points to more incoming glory. (JM)

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Lidl-Trek)

Along with Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has been on the podium of every edition of the Tour de France Femmes, including one victory, and she'll be hoping to continue that streak with her next team next summer. Swapping Canyon-SRAM for Lidl-Trek, the Polish rider is embarking on a new chapter of her career in 2027, one that she hopes can propel her to the top step once again.

Whilst Niewiadoma-Phinney is yet to make her debut in Lidl-Trek colours, the early signs of the transfer point to her stepping into a team that has a bit more resource and climbing support than her old squad, which could be the boost she needs to contest the yellow jersey once again. The lack of a TT on the course suits her, and Lidl-Trek's strength in the TTT is an extra bonus, so it feels pretty likely that she'll be up there and fighting for yellow by the end of the week. The only question is whether she can find that extra percentage needed to turn the podium into the win – can Lidl-Trek be the change she needs? (MP)

Marlen Reusser (Movistar)

Marlen Reusser is one of the riders who will have looked at the Tour route and been dismayed at the lack of a time trial, as this is undoubtedly where she stands to gain the most against her rivals. But don't get it twisted, Reusser is also a fantastic climber on even the hardest of mountains, and whilst she's not always the instigator of early attacking racing, she's always alert and able to handle it when things get aggressive early.

The lack of a TT isn't any reason to count Reusser out, as she only gained 17 seconds on Vollering on the TT stage in 2026 and was still contending for the win until a crash on the final stage wiped out her chances. She will have to find another way to take time next summer, but with plenty of climbing and other chances to attack, there's no shortage of opportunities for Reusser to continue proving her worth as a GC rider.

The only question mark for the Swiss rider is where her new teammate Paula Blasi fits into Movistar's Grand Tour plans, and whether Reusser retains sole leadership here or focuses more on another Grand Tour. (MP)

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike)

2027 was originally the year Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was planning to target victory at the Tour when she made her full return to the road with Visma-Lease a Bike, but having already conquered the yellow jersey on her first attempt in 2025, she'll arrive at the 2027 race as a former champion looking to rediscover her best.

Her title defence didn't quite go to plan, coming majorly unstuck in the stage 4 individual time trial, and then fading towards a DNF after dropping more than 14 minutes behind the leaders on Mont Ventoux.

The lack of a solo race against the clock is of course a major benefit for Ferrand-Prévot, who will be 35 by the time the start of the Tour rolls round, and in theory, the crucial days to Clermont-Ferrand and the Puy de Dôme should suit her if she is back to her 2025 best level.

There were signs of that former best during the Classics, but by the time she raced the Vuelta and the Tour, she was way off the leading standard of Vollering and co. Big improvements will have to be made, but Ferrand-Prévot can sit comfortably knowing she's made similar comebacks before – whether that can be enough to stop Vollering's new peak, though, is a different question altogether. (JM)

Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L'IMAD)

Until 2026, Elisa Longo Borghini had a fairly unfortunate record with the Tour de France Femmes, mainly marred by DNFs, but this summer she conquered her demons and ascended to the podium on the final day, her best Grand Tour result of the year. Though a two-time Giro d'Italia winner, Longo Borghini has still sometimes been slightly undervalued as a Grand Tour rider, perhaps owing to her lack of a record in the big mountains of the Tour, but third has surely underlined her status as a consistent and genuine podium contender.

In terms of the course, next year's route with its even spread of climbing rather than one big mountain will probably play into Longo Borghini's abilities, a hardy, punchy climber who has sometimes slightly faded when the altitude breaks 1,750 metres of elevation. This course, then, that packs in the elevation but with more, smaller climbs is surely better for her, and poses fewer risks in terms of losing time to the purer climbers. Her attacking style is also obviously great for the earlier, punchier days, so there's no reason why the Italian shouldn't target the podium again, if not the yellow jersey. (MP)

Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM)

With the departure of Niewiadoma-Phinney after nine successful years, Canyon-SRAM will likely be spearheaded by their star home German rider Antonia Niedermaier in 2027, a consistent climber and elite time trialist.

At just 23, Niewiadoma has one of the highest ceilings among the current peloton, and having already finished fourth overall and won the best young rider's white jersey at this year's Tour, alongside taking second behind Vollering at the Giro, she's more than shown she is ready for leadership at the big occasion.

When it comes to the course, any climb suits Niedermaier, but she isn't the punchiest rider in the bunch, so she may be looking to either anticipate or stay in contact in preparation for the Puy de Dôme finale. What does work in her and Canyon's favour is the team time trial, which, despite only being 18km in length, should be a chance to gain some time with the likes of Niedermaier and Zoe Bäckstedt powering their team. (JM)

Paula Blasi (Movistar)

Paula Blasi was the Grand Tour revelation of 2026, winning La Vuelta Femenina in exciting fashion, but she hasn't fully turned her hand to the Tour yet, riding in a controversial co-leader role with UAE this summer. Complications over her role within the team and impending departure aside, though, Blasi put together a great week of racing to finish fifth overall, and underlined that her Vuelta win was not a fluke or surprise.

Considering she took fifth as a co-leader, with teammate Longo Borghini taking third, the next question is how she could perform as sole leader, but it's not immediately clear whether that question will be answered next year.

Heading to Movistar this winter, Blasi will link up with established Grand Tour leader Marlen Reusser, and the pair are expected to balance GC leadership opportunities, but it's not clear yet what that may look like. It seems likely that the two of them could both race the Tour, and therefore it might mean another year of waiting for sole leadership for Blasi. But, as this year proved, she can achieve a top result even when sharing the limelight, so it seems very possible that she could still take home a solid top 10 even if Movistar nominate Reusser as leader. (MP)

Cédrine Kerbaol (SD Worx-ProTime)

Cédrine Kerbaol is not only the best descender in the women's peloton, but also one of the top operators when the road goes uphill, landing her career-best GC finish at this year's Tour de France in sixth.

Making the move from EF Education-Oatly to SD Worx-ProTime, Kerbaol joins one of the top teams in the sport as a potential leader for the Tour, with likely combinations alongside Anna van der Breggen, Nienke Vinke, and Lotte Kopecky.

A team time trial is less favourable to the French rider than an ITT, but the Dutch team should still put up one of the strongest outfits for the race against the clock, with the punchy stages in France and route down to the Massif Central suiting Kerbaol's versatility.

She may be outclimbed on the Puy de Dôme even by teammate Vinke, but will have wanted to attack in prior stages to try and arrive at that finale with time to defend. The constant ups and downs of stages 5 and 8 are right in her wheelhouse, with several chances to attack away on a descent, then stay away on the climbs – with a less brutal climbing route, Kerbaol comes more into play. (JM)

Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal)

AG Insurance-Soudal's Kim Le Court-Pienaar is another rider who will potentially benefit from the lack of a major Alpine or Pyrenean ascent when it comes to the 2027 route.

Her characteristics as a Classics star who can also climb well make it likely that she arrives at the final duo of stages with a lead over some of the purer climbers. And after the rotten luck she has had for much of 2026, the Mauritian will hope to come to the UK Grand Depart without as many bumps in the road as she had in the most recent campaign.

Winner of the stage of the Tour this year, the former yellow jersey winner also won the Tour of Britain, finished ninth on GC at the Tour, and finished fourth at the Tour de Suisse and UAE Tour.

Now established as one of the top riders in the world, Le Court is a marked rider in the bunch, but with a hopefully full-strength Sarah Gigante and Justine Ghekiere among her supporters in 2027, she could put together a result that propels her much higher than ninth in the race for yellow, over a route which is much more suited to her on paper.

Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek)

Isabella Holmgren proved herself as a future GC leader in 2026 with standout results at both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France Femmes, finishing seventh and eighth overall, respectively, but she may have found herself bumped down the leadership hierarchy at Lidl-Trek with the arrival of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. It's no slight on Holmgren's ability, but just the reality of having a former Tour winner join the team.

It does mean, though, that we don't know quite what role Holmgren might have in the Tour next year, or even if she goes at all – perhaps a sole leadership bid at the Giro d'Italia will be the focus of her summer. But if she does return to the Tour, something she has more than earned, she'll be a valuable domestique for Niewiadoma-Phinney and strong enough to grab a spot in the top 10 herself. The lack of big, high mountains is probably a disadvantage for the lightweight Canadian climber, meaning her stocks probably aren't quite as high as they were for this year's race. (MP)

Honourable mentions

Her lack of racing in 2026 makes it hard to judge her level, but if Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) can put together an illness- and injury-free run-in to the Tour de France Femmes, then she is always a formidable contender, though she'll rue the lack of an ultra-big climb. With Urška Žigart too, AG Insurance have a wealth of options for this race.

Ninke Vienke is one of SD Worx-Protime's next Grand Tour leaders, but has probably shifted down the hierarchy slightly with the arrival of Cédrine Kerbaol, who will likely claim leadership at her home Tour. Vienke can still provide important climbing support and perhaps a solid result of her own.

Dominika Włodarczyk was the third part of UAE Team L'Imad's three-pronged attack in 2026, and delivered with a seventh to go with her fourth from 2025, proving herself as one of the peloton's most underrated GC riders. She'll step up a level with Blasi gone, but will likely still play second fiddle to Longo Borghini, which may place a ceiling on what she can achieve.

While likely to become a domestique for Niewiadome-Phinney in 2027 at Lidl-Trek, 10th place on GC at the Tour and fifth place overall at the Giro this year, Niamh Fisher-Black should be in the game for the top spots, but the lack of pure high-mountain climbing puts her further down the pecking order.

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

Paula Blasi has spoken out about her time at UAE Team L'IMAD, saying that problems with the team management's decision-making left her frustrated at races and that she "found it a bit hard to find [her] place" in the team following her rapid development.

The 23-year-old Spanish racer has recently completed a long-rumoured switch to Movistar on a three-year deal, finalising a transfer saga that had run since the summer.

Blasi, who won La Vuelta Femenina in May, appeared to head to the start of the Tour de France Femmes as part of a leadership triumvirate before later settling into a super-domestique role for Elisa Longo Borghini, who expressed annoyance and frustration with the way the press had covered the team. The Italian said at the time that the press were "making it up so big, bigger than it is."

In the end, Longo Borghini raced to a long-awaited podium finish as Blasi took fifth in Nice. But as Blasi told Spanish journalist Laura Alvarez, she and her teammates faced challenges caused by UAE's management style.

"I joined the UAE project when I was very, very young and when you arrive as a girl who barely knew how to ride a bike, your teammates help you learn almost from scratch, to grow so quickly – it’s hard for me to believe it, for people to believe it, but sometimes it’s also hard for the team to believe it," she said.

"I found it a bit hard, I think, to find my place. I think it was also evident in the Tour. There’s a lot of potential at UAE, and I really do think the girls are very, very strong, but I think the problem lay more at the top – perhaps with the team directors and the team management – who didn’t know how to make the decisions I would have liked, and things weren’t made clear enough.

"So at the end of the day, it’s only natural that if three, four or five of us can win and nobody sets the pace or leads the way, it’s going to be more of a battle than a team race, isn’t it? So, to be honest, I didn’t really like that."

In August, Blasi said the speculation around the team was taking its toll, saying, "It just became a massive ball of stress." At the end of the Tour, she said the team had come together, with directeur sportif Cherie Pridham telling Cyclingnews that UAE had stuck to their plan throughout the race.

But Blasi's switch to Movistar was already in the works by then, having already been the subject of rumours before the Tour. She explained it was right to move on for 2027, stating that management decisions contributed to her decision to leave after a year of racing in which she attributed UAE's success largely to the riders.

"I think there were already a lot of things promised within the team; in the contracts, there were already a lot of leadership roles that had been promised. That’s also one of the reasons I didn’t like it very much – it’s just what I’m saying: I think a leader has to earn their position through their performance, not through negotiation," she said.

"I think the luck we’ve had as the UAE team this year is down to the girls. I’m really very grateful for the professionalism, for instance, of Elisa, who, well, I’d say is one of the race leaders, and I think I learnt a great deal from her too.

"During the Tour, we were really honest with each other, especially Elisa and I, because if in the end we had to decide, to choose one of us. I trusted Elisa more than I trusted myself because it was my first Tour. And I think it was crystal clear, wasn’t it?

"It was a time for everyone, not just for me, and it’s true she was able to put things into perspective, and I’d say she was the one who brought a bit more calm."

Movistar move difficulties and linking up with Marlen Reusser

Movistar announced Blasi's arrival last Wednesday, almost three months into cycling's transfer season. Given the move has seemed a done deal for even longer, it's been a long and "complicated" process that has taken its toll, according to Blasi.

"It's been a long process that I don't think any athlete wants to go through. I’d actually made the decision quite a while ago, but there are so many other things that you don’t see from the outside, and people just think, ‘Oh, they’re not announcing anything’, but it’s not because we don’t want to; it’s just that things have turned out to be more difficult than we thought, and it hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for us either," she said.

"Today I can breathe a sigh of relief; everything’s official, everything’s finalised, everything’s signed, and everything’s been approved by the UCI. So, wow, I’m really excited. I think the most important thing for an athlete is to have that peace of mind that I have right now, and with that, it’s simply the easy part for me: focusing on training, isn’t it? So, well, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next."

Blasi can look forward to linking up with Marlen Reusser at her new team. The pair look set to be clear GC leaders at the Grand Tours and major stage races next season.

Reusser, 12 years Blasi's senior, has already expressed her enthusiasm about teaming up, also noting that she's edging closer to retirement and passing the team leadership baton over for good. There shouldn't be any friction as Blasi moves to her "home" team, as she called it, then.

"Being able to ride for a Spanish team – they’ve thrown the door wide open for me. There’s Marlen, and I’m going to learn a lot from her, but I think I’ll have my own space too. I think sometimes the strength lies in having two clearly defined leaders who understand each other, don’t you think?" she said.

"I saw things more clearly here at Movistar. It’s a lot of things coming together and, in the end, home calls and if the door can be opened, it opens.

"I think our age difference perhaps allows me to be a bit more ambitious in terms of the calendar and to want to race more. This year, Marlen has actually asked to race a bit less, so that’s fine by me. I’ll be starting a bit earlier, as early as January. And well, it’ll come as no surprise that I’ll probably be aiming for La Vuelta and she for the Giro. And from there, well, as for the Ardennes."

As for leadership at the season's biggest race – the Tour de France Femmes – Blasi also stated that any questions over that will be handled differently at her new team.

"The Tour is the Tour, and I think the important thing is to see how we both turn out," she said.

"If we both arrive in good shape, my aim would be to go for both of us, because I think that’s where we can do the most damage; but obviously, if one of us arrives stronger than the other, I wouldn’t have any problem going for her. She’s already said she wouldn’t have any problem going for me either if that’s the case."

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

Rosa Klöser (Canyon-SRAM-MAAP) defended her title at Alentejo Gravel in Portugal on Sunday while Filipe Francisco (Aviludo-Lauletano-Loulé) out-sprinted two Belgian rivals to win the elite men's division at the 2027 UCI Gravel World Series event.

A silver medallist at this year's UCI Gravel World Championships in Nannup two weeks ago, Klöser went back to work and won her third UCI Gravel World Series race of the year, this one counting towards qualification for next year's rainbow jersey race.

The German was part of a small group of six riders who chased two escapees across the first half of the 119km course in southern Portugal and then she rode away solo for the win in a time of 3:42:32, a full 11 minutes ahead of Sarah Lange. Émilie Morier (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) of France was third, another 6:39 behind the US rider.

Ester Maqueda set the pace with a solo charge and opened a three-minute advantage on Celina Carpinteiro (CDASJ) with 61km to go. As the bulk of the 1,750 metres of climbing took place in the Algarve hills, it was on these southern-most dusty trails through Santa Clara A Nova where Klöser and Lange made their moves.

"The course did not have any long climbs so I figured my best move would be to use the 'climb-y' section of the course starting at mile 30 to try to break things up. I pushed the pace on the longest climb (which was still less than 4 minutes) and Rosa and I were able to get a gap on the rest of the ladies," Lange, who was eighth a week ago at Big Sugar Gravel, explained in an Instagram post.

"We worked together for the next 10 miles until the elite men came rolling by us. Rosa had the legs to hop on their train but I didn’t have that gear."

Klöser had planned to race Gravel Burn in South Africa this week, but changed her plans for the GWS event to stay closer to home, where her partner Paul Sandmann was recovering from "a freak accident with a car". She did not explain the details, as Sandmann also competed at Alentejo Gravel and finished ninth in the elite men's division.

"With a large gravel race calendar, choices are never easy. While I was really looking forward to race Gravel Burn, a last-minute change of plans (amongst others Paul [Sandmann] getting hit by a car) meant I was happy to return here again. Now it’s time for off-season!"

Alentejo Gravel debuted last year, with Lukas Malezsewski (GVA Gold Gravel) taking the elite men's victory. His bid to repeat fell short as he finished one spot off the podium, 2:22 away from a three-rider sprint.

Francesco, who earned the silver medal last month in a photo finish at Portugal's Gravel Nationals, was part of a three-rider breakaway that rode at the front with last year's runner-up Daan Grosemans and Olivier Godfroid (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions).

Riding on home roads in southern Portugal, Francesco edged Godfroid for the win with the same time of 3:18:00, and Grosemans another one second back for third.

The wrap-around calendar for qualification events in the UCI Gravel World Series had two races on two continents on Sunday, with a wet and muddy Gravelista contended in Seymour, Victoria, Australia. The next races take place in Thailand for Dustman Gravel on November 14 and Greece for The Gravel of Marathon on November 15.

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

The Giro d'Italia looks set for a return to its roots next year, with multiple media outlets currently reporting a wealth of full-blown, third-week mountain stages across classic climbs like the Mortirolo, Zoncolan and Gavia, as well as its first Grande Partenza on Italian soil since Turin in 2024.

The full 2027 route presentation is due on November 3 in Rome, unusually early for the Giro, as last year's equivalent event was in early December. But that fast-approaching date hasn't stopped media outlets, including Tuttosport and Tuttobiciweb, from already revealing a considerable amount of detail about next year's men's race.

In striking contrast, little to no information has yet emerged about the 2027 Giro d'Italia Women's possible route for next year, also due to be revealed in Rome on the same date as the men's event. Almost all that is known so far is the Giro d'Italia Women's calendar dates: May 29 to June 6.

Regarding the men's race, perhaps the most notable development - if predictions are correct – could be its very traditional format, starting with that first 'home' Grande Partenza in three years.

As has been widely rumoured, the Giro is expected to kick off in the north-eastern city of Trieste on Saturday, May 8, with – like last year – a mass start stage and another chance, 12 months on, for the sprinters to take the first maglia rosa.

The first week likely will conclude with a bunch sprint, too. After weaving its way through the easterly Friuli region and then on down through the Romagna and Abruzzo, the 2027 route brings the Giro to its most southerly point with a mass dash to the line on Naples seafront on stage 9. In between, there is expected to be room for an uphill time trial, possibly taking place on the slopes of Gran Sasso, the Apennines ascent often used for a first major sortout in the Giro. Then it would be anything but surprising for there to be at least one other hilly stage through the Abruzzo region, too.

Having reached Naples, the Giro should then head northwards. The second week is predicted to include a stage on the Mugello motor racing circuit, another very hilly one through the Emilia-Romagna region, and a possible summit finish stage in northern Tuscany on the previously unused 23km ascent to Zum Zeri.

If Zum Zeri could be one crunch moment of the second week, another will likely be on Saturday, May 22, thanks to a summit finish at the Piani di Bobbio ski station, just a stone's throw away from the Il Lombardia start/finish town of Bergamo. A third key moment could well be the time trial at the Monza motor racing circuit, 24 hours later, the last chance for the TT specialists to make an impact prior to a third week of ultra-hard climbing.

Following the 2026 edition, where almost all of the classic Alpine and Dolomite mountains went missing from the Giro route, a significant number are back on the menu for 2027. Following a second rest day, the opening stage of the third week from Sondrio to Aprica could well be the toughest of the entire 2027 Giro, featuring a staggering total of nearly 6,000 metres of vertical climbing.

Starting with one of the Giro's best-known ascents, the Passo del Mortirolo, for the first time of two, stage 16's climbing challenges are then expected to continue with the Passo Gavia – peaking at 2,618 metres above sea level, the high point or Cima Coppi of the race and where organisers and fans will be holding their breath to see if the often unpredictable May weather doesn't force a last-minute cancellation.

As if that wasn't enough, another ascent of the Mortirolo on its steeper side, the Mazzo Valtellina, follows, and to finish off an already brutally hard stage, there will be a final climb to Aprica. This gentler third-category climb was last used by the Giro in 2015, on a day when Mikel Landa won the stage and overall winner Alberto Contador came within a whisker of losing the race thanks to an untimely mechanical on a descent, but then battled back to destroy the opposition and sew up the GC for good.

By this point, the battle for the maglia rosa will be in full swing, but there will be more to come. The last three mountain days of the race, probably starting on stage 18 to Madonna di Campiglio on Thursday, May 27 – yet another historic ascent for the Giro – are sure to see more climbing sparks fly, then another stage through the Dolomites is thought to be taking the race into Austria for its one night on foreign soil.

The last showdown, though, is expected to come on the mighty Monte Zoncolan on stage 20, last tackled in 2018, when Chris Froome laid a key foundation of his overall victory, battling back from injuries to take an unexpected stage win.

All that will be left will be another 'classic' feature of the modern-day Giro, an enormous transfer south to Rome for a last day of evening racing in the shadow of the Capitol. As in Trieste three weeks beforehand, stage 21 is expected to end in a bunch sprint, but by then the maglia rosa will be far out of reach of the fastmen.

If all is confirmed, the news of the difficulty of next year's route, particularly in the third week, may serve as something of a deterrent to those hoping to make their mark in the time trials. However, the most important ingredient that could tempt the likes of specialists like Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) to take part in the Giro has yet to become public.

The total number of kilometres for the Giro's two time trials remains unknown, and it may only be on November 3 in Rome that that pivotal piece of information eventually emerges. After which and just like in the 2027 Tour de France presentation last week, the time trial distance and its implications regarding exactly who will take part will likely dominate many of the headlines and debates that follow.

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

The fastest time of the day at the British Hill Climb Championships on Sunday was set not by the elite champion, but by 16-year-old Decathlon CMA CGM junior Ezra Bateman, who blasted up the 6.6km climb in Somerset faster than anyone else.

Bateman, who rides for Decathlon's U19 team, stopped the clock at 14:31.9, fractions of a second faster than the fastest elite rider, Ed Laverack, who completed the climb in 14:32.1, as well as prolific hill climber Andrew Feather.

Second-placed junior Oliver Swinburn also set a searingly fast time, faster than all the elite riders except Laverack and Feather for the fourth-best time of the day.

However, despite being the fastest rider of the day, Bateman will not take home the elite national champion's jersey, as the Road Time Trials Council (RTTC) rules are clear that riders are only eligible for the title in the category they entered into.

Though all riders in all categories across age groups, para-cycling, women and open (races in the UK do not have a men's category but an 'open' one) raced on the same climb, the races were not exactly the same, with the weather changing dramatically across the several hours of racing. The juniors raced in the dry whilst Laverack and Feather faced rain, for example.

"To be honest, no, because it’s a different category," Bateman told The British Continental when asked if he felt he should have taken home the open title.

"Even if I set the fastest time, the two categories are different," he continued, though he was personally very pleased to have beaten renowned hill climber Ed Laverack.

"It feels crazy. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it, so I’m not really sure what to say. I did not see that one coming. I was expecting [Laverack] to beat me here. But I’m pretty happy."

There are some Championships that have exceptions to this ruling, such as the British Downhill Mountain Bike Championships, which rule that the fastest rider on the day, whether junior or elite, will be awarded the overall national title.

No such ruling exists in RTTC events, however, where riders are only eligible for the title in the category they are placed in.

This issue is avoided in most other Championships, such as on the road, where junior riders almost always complete a shorter course than the elite field.

Former junior world champion Harry Hudson has previously set junior times that would have seen him on the elite podium, sparking some debate about how the categories work – with under-23s, for example, competing with elites – and Bateman taking the fastest time will surely feed that debate.

Though he won't take home the open jersey, taking the junior title and the fastest time is still a hugely impressive result for Bateman, who is on the Decathlon development pathway but has not confirmed where he will be racing in 2027.

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

In Penistone, South Yorkshire, there are still signs.

Cutouts of bikes, spray-painted yellow, hung on the sides of buildings. They've withstood the Yorkshire winters – 12 of them – relatively well. The paint is peeling slightly, the yellow a shade paler, but for those that know, they're unmistakable reminders of that day in 2014.

A few miles southwest of Penistone is Langsett Reservoir, and near it, Bank View Café. Twelve years ago, the café became an icon of the Tour de France after owner Pete Sparks painted the exterior in red polka dots to match the King of the Mountains jersey.

Reminiscing on the Tour passing through Yorkshire, Sparks says: "The atmosphere on the day was fantastic. I'd had a really exciting build-up to the event, with a lot of media interest around my celebration, so by the day itself it was feeling like a party. We hosted an evening at the cafe the night before, then were open from dawn. Crowds quickly grew to a throng of excited people by 2pm. We had a bar, TV coverage, BBQ. Then whoosh – past they swept!"

And the positivity didn't end when the riders had left. Sparks says the Tour passing has had a lasting impact.

"I have been lucky, being an actual established cyclists' cafe right on the route, I have been able to genuinely honour the event. I have a lovely room decorated out with artwork from then [there was an outpouring of artistic expression locally]. We experienced an immediate 10 per cent uplift in turnover, which we managed to sustain for many years."

But whilst memories of the 2014 Tour de France live on in pockets of the country, when you look beyond the spray-painted bicycles and polka-dot cafes, did the Tour really have the legacy amateur riders hoped it would? And with the Grand Départ once again coming to British shores in 2027, how can we make sure the event leaves a legacy in road-racing hearts, as well as on buildings?

Looking back on 2014 and beyond

Two days of racing. 2.5 million roadside spectators. A £128 million boost to the local economy. Perhaps most impressively, 22,000 hand-knitted miniature yellow jerseys were sent to Harrogate for bunting displays. The numbers don't lie. It was incredible.

And it isn't just the Tour de France the UK has been treated to over recent years. Its legacy events, the Tour de Yorkshire and the UCI World Championships in Yorkshire in 2019 and Glasgow in 2023, brought huge audiences and economic boosts.

In the midst of the events, and in the days and weeks following, it's hard to label these races as anything other than a massive success. In the aftermath of the Tour de France, participation across British Cycling's recreational programmes rose by 64% in 2014, with Yorkshire gaining around 18,000 more cyclists by 2015. Councils including Leeds City, East Riding and Wakefield invested millions into cycling infrastructure. The Tour inspired more people to cycle, and more authorities to help facilitate this.

But amongst the joy and celebration, there is always talk of a 'lasting legacy', and one would assume this refers to a legacy lasting years or decades. With the organisers of the 2027 Grand Départ already talking about what mark they want next summer's events to leave, did the lasting legacy of these 2014 events actually help boost the grassroots cycling culture many dreamed of? That's slightly less clear.

The golden era has definitively ended

When the Tour visited the UK in 2014, British cycling was at a peak. Brits were basking in the glory of the London 2012 Olympics – a Games which saw British Cycling take home 12 Olympic medals – and were well into a period of Tour de France dominance thanks to Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and, later, Geraint Thomas. Ironically, 2014 was the only year from 2012 to 2018 that a Brit didn’t win the Tour de France – an incredible run, considering Wiggins' 2012 performance was the first-ever British win.

Cycling had become inherently British, Wiggins' sideburns a cultural icon, and Team Sky a respected household name.

But by 2017, Britain's so-called Golden Era of cycling had arguably become tainted. Bullying and sexism accusations from elite British cyclists such as Jess Varnish came amongst doping investigations into Team Sky, which would ultimately rule that an ethical line was crossed through Sir Bradley Wiggins' use of triamcinolone.

Whilst these revelations arguably needn't affect the average person on a club ride, they did little for Brits' faith in cycling – a sport already globally questioned in the wake of Lance Armstrong's confessions – and perhaps even less in terms of inspiring young riders, or their parents, to get involved with road racing.

And then there was the Tour de Yorkshire. At its peak, an incredible event. But through the resignation of Sir Gary Verity from Welcome to Yorkshire, postponement during COVID and financial issues, it came to an end. Little did we know it at the time, but 2019 was the final edition of the Tour de Yorkshire, which was, perhaps, the 2014 Tour's greatest legacy.

Outside of the pro ranks, perhaps the most honest metric of legacy is participation in cycling. Despite a significant rise in the late 2010s, the upward curve of Brits riding bikes has since ground to a halt.

Data from Cycling UK shows the average annual mileage travelled by bike in the UK during 2015-2019 was 3.5 billion. This rose to around 4.5 billion during COVID, but by 2024, it had returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Sport England produced a report saying that by the end of 2025, there were roughly 286,000 fewer adults cycling for leisure or sport than eight years ago. British Cycling membership peaked at 150,000 in 2019 but had dropped to 117,500 by 2025. This, perhaps, is the point to note. Cycling commuting, especially in London, has increased over recent years, but, bar a brief rise during lockdown, cycling for leisure or sport has gone down.

The next generation of competitive road cyclists

Gone is the Golden Era of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Sir Mark Cavendish, Lizzie Deignan, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome. But on a global stage, British road cycling is well represented by the likes of Tom Pidcock, Pfeiffer Georgi, Zoe Bäckstedt and the recently retired Simon Yates, who brought a Grand Tour home for Great Britain as recently as 2025.

Yet where the elite field is stacked, many say grassroots racing is showing sizeable cracks. Event cancellations have become the norm, with field sizes shrinking.

Is the cost-of-living to blame? Cycling isn't cheap, and with a typical road race entry costing around £40 (and that's before we get onto travel and kit), it's unsurprising many deem it too expensive. Riders may have 30+ race days a year, pulling on both finances and time.

Although there is logic here, cycling seems to fare notably worse than other endurance sports. Ironman triathlon is seeing huge growth, with a 27% year-on-year increase. And at an entry cost of around £800, these things are much more costly than a local road race, although admittedly athletes would have much fewer races per year.

The London Marathon is set to host a two-day event next year following record-breaking application numbers. London Marathon Events also run Swim Serpentine, which attracted around 6,000 swimmers this year. Entries to these events cost around £80 and £180 (for the longest distance), respectively, and are organised by the same company as the canned RideLondon. Is this not quite conclusive? People just don't want to pay to ride a bike?

Hugh Brasher, CEO of London Marathon Events, says while they continue to organise cycling events such as closed-road Etape Loch Ness and open-road Tour de Mon, "organisers face an important trade off." Closed road events are safer and a better experience, but much costlier and logistically challenging.

"This is at the heart of the challenge facing mass-participation cycling events in the UK: developing event models that are safe, attractive to participants and financially sustainable, while ensuring that the impact of road closures and traffic management on host communities remains proportionate," Brasher says.

So perhaps it is less a question of the cyclist's wallet, but the race organisers'.

'I can confirm the scene is not dead.'

Thomas Hutchison began organising cycling events whilst at university, and over the past few years has gone on to run races such as the Ronde van Wymeswold and other events in the UK.

"I can confirm the scene is not dead," he says, adding that the grassroots race scene "is well and thriving, but does need significant reform and investment to continue producing opportunities for riders to develop and thrive."

By significant reform, he is referring to a rethink on how organisers work with traffic control to deliver races safely and conveniently.

Delivering a good race, in Hutchison's words, also "just takes time and effort".

"When I first started organising the East Midlands Road race, we struggled to get 20 riders to enter, but I hosted the race anyway when other organisers might have cancelled the event," he says. "I thought about what encourages women to race, even just basic things such as tampons in toilets, more information on female changing and female-only sessions. The following year, we had 40 entries; the year after, 60."

The grassroots scene may not be dead, but it is a long way from thriving.

Where is cycling in the UK heading, and where does the Grand Départ fit in?

Cycling culture looks very different today to 2014, when gravel riding, e-bikes and indoor riding platforms such as Zwift were yet to cement their place. Those that are cycling are different, too. 2025 Strava data shows cycling activities logged by women has grown by 20% since 2019, and a staggering 80% amongst Gen-Z and millennials.

But in the UK, races are being cancelled at an almost constant rate, and other signs of struggle in the bike industry point to a scene that is no longer booming in the way we thought it was in the early-mid 2010s.

In terms of exposing people to cycling, hosting the Grand Départs of both the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes – the first time one country has ever done this – seems a very promising way to get more eyes on the sport.

The races will be broadcast live and, we have been promised, without a paywall in the UK, at least for the stages held here. But of course, the best place to be will be up close to the action. 10 million people are expected to line the route, hopefully making it the largest free-to-attend sporting event ever held in the UK.

Wide-ranging social impact is also fundamental to the legacy discussion. This starts with JOY Makers, a programme aiming to recruit 9,000 volunteers to assist with the smooth running of the event. Paul Bush OBE, Managing Director of Grand Départ GB 2027, says the scheme is "at the heart of everything we are doing", and has already seen 17,000 people apply.

"Opportunity, well-being and pride are the three key pillars of JOY, and so we want people in ten years to be looking back not only with happy memories, but also with examples of how we contributed to change and inspired people in their communities, whether that is to get physically active, ride their bikes, or to give back and get involved in events," Bush says.

The broader JOY initiative also has a Readiness to Work employability section aimed at 18 to 25-year-olds, a schools engagement programme, and efforts to encourage more girls to become active through cycling.

A letter written by cycling leaders and local authority representatives to Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling for £30 million government investment into safe cycling spaces across Britain to help cement a lasting legacy. This would build on the original Places to Ride programme, which was backed by £15 million government funding between 2019 and 2024, and generated almost £268 million in social value and an estimated £32.9 million in NHS savings. A huge focus of that programme – and one would assume of the 2027 Grand Départ equivalent – was on reaching underserved communities such as children, women, people on lower incomes and disabled people.

But what about grassroots racing?

"Grand Départ GB has the full involvement and support of British Cycling, Scottish Cycling and Beicio Cymru," Bush says, "which means that all three organisations will be doing a lot of work ahead of, and following the Grands Départs to encourage people to connect with cycling – whether by riding, supporting locally, or engaging through culture and community activity – and breaking down barriers to open the sport up for people where they are."

But if 'where you are' is a local amateur road racer hoping the Tour will reinvigorate the scene, you may feel little of the legacy statement speaks directly to you, with more of the conversation focused on participation and travel than pathways to the pro peloton.

'Directly' may be the key word here. If more people are inspired to ride on the road, it feels logical that a proportion of these will want to race, thus increasing demand for road races. Or perhaps it will encourage organisers and authorities to come together and figure out a race model that works for all? The details of what the proposed investment will be used for have yet to be finalised, so perhaps a proportion may be used to improve the amateur race scene.

2027 has the chance to be different

Sat here in 2026 and with the benefit of hindsight, it's debatable whether the legacy of the 2014 Tour de France is still felt as strongly as organisers had hoped at the time. The bullying allegations within British Cycling, doping investigations at Team Sky, the collapse of the Tour de Yorkshire and the pressures of lockdown all did their best to erode the 2014 legacy.

So where 2014 failed, why should we believe that the 2027 Grand Départ should be different? Well, there are reasons to be hopeful.

With both the men's and women's races passing through Scotland, England and Wales, and the depth of potential social impact and investment programmes, there is scope for next year's Tours to reach more people than ever before. This really does seem to be what sets it apart from previous races.

And if more people find happiness in cycling, and Brits become bigger embracers of bike culture, isn't it inevitable that a greater thriving race scene will follow?

The route for the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes route were announced on Thursday, and fans and commentators, Cyclingnews included, have spent the last 36 hours dissecting the stages and analysing what it all might mean next summer.

From the abundance of TT kilometres and how they might help Remco Evenepoel, to the lack of big mountains in the women's race, there's been a lot to talk about and speculate on as we try to imagine what the race will look like and how it compares to recent years.

But how about a more scientific approach? The Tour de France route reveals can be a bit of an info dump of numbers – this many total kilometres, that many metres of elevation gain – and the raw numbers can tell us something, but not everything.

So to try and understand what all those facts and figures actually mean, and how they compare to the last decade or so of the race, we put our data-crunching hat on to process some of the key figures, and visualise what it all means.

From the women's race featuring the lowest high point since 2022, to a remarkably low amount of summit finishes in the men's race, crunching the numbers threw up some really interesting results. So here are all the key stats about both of next summer's Tours de France.

Tour de France Hommes

One of the headline stories of the men's route reveal is that the 21-day race will feature the most individual time trial kilometres we've seen since 2012, when Bradley Wiggins took the victory on a course that features just over 100km against the clock.

The following year also featured 90km of TTing, though 25 of that was in the team time trial discipline, but since then the amount of kilometres against the clock has been trending somewhat down, hitting a low in 2023 with a mere 22km of TTing.

This year was nearly as low, with just one 26km effort against the clock, but the organisers have done a 180-degree turn for 2027, upping the total to 71km across two 30+ kilometre TTs.

See more: Could 71km of time trialing actually help Remco Evenepoel win the Tour de France? A closer look at exactly what the Belgian could gain against Pogačar

Whilst the amount of TT kilometres in the Tour have fluctuated fairly wildly over the last 15 years, there are some things that have stayed remarkably consistent.

The total length, for example, has varied by less than 200km over the last decade, with the organisers settling on a reasonable total distance of around 3,400km for the modern era – a far-cry from the 5,000km+ of the early Tours.

So instead of looking at the raw length of the race to determine difficulty, then, we have to pick out some different stats to determine just how hard the 2027 Tour

As with any excercise in statistics, you can get a different answer depending on what set of numbers you look at.

Take the total elevation gain, for example. The 2027 Tour de France will feature a total of 53,450m of climbing over the three weeks, which is slight increase on this year's tally, and quite a jump up from the figure for 2025.

Its by no means an outlier for the decade, with previous editions featuring almost 59,000m of climbing, but it's an upwards trend when looking at the last four editions, and certainly makes it sound like a climb-packed route.

More climbing than the last three editions, so it's got to be harder, right? Well, not necessarily.

Whilst the grand total of vertical metres is higher in 2027 than we've seen recently, it's the way that climbing is spread out and accounted for which is interesting. The 2027 route has packed in more climbing overall, but it's more evenly spread across the three weeks rather than on certain ultra-tough stages, and it largely doesn't come in the form of big climbs, as the next graph shows, but rather

Some recent editions of the Tour have seen the peloton tackle 10 climbs that peak out over 1,750m altitude, so just two this year – the Col du Tourmalet and Col du Portet, both coming on stage 18 – feels remarkably low. The peloton will only face high altitude on one singular day next July.

It's a similar story in terms of summit finishes, with just three of the 21 stages featuring a true summit finish – stage 9 to the Grand Colombier, stage 11 to Les Saisies, and stage 18 finishing atop the Col du Portet.

A few editions of the last decade have seen a number that low, but in the Pogačar era, we have generally been used to five or six summit finishes, even as high as seven if you go back a few years.

So most of the real difficulty of next year's Tour de France route comes on stage 18 with it's double helping of 2,000m+ climbs, but even the Queen stage is something of a downgrade on recent years.

Packing in 5,400m of climbing, it's by no means anything less than an epic stage, and features more elevation gain than the hardest stages of many of the last 10 editions, but it is fewer than the hardest stages from 2025 and 2026.

2025's Queen stage to the Col de la Loze and 2026's to Alpe d'Huez both featured over 5,600m of climbing and, actually, were not the decisive GC stages. Perhaps ASO felt that more hasn't always equalled more, and those gargantuan numbers weren't needed this year, but it's interesting to note nonetheless.

Tour de France Femmes

Whilst it takes a little bit of digging to work out how the 2027 men's route compares to previous years, the discrepancies between next year's women's race and editions gone by were a bit clearer to see when the route was unveiled on Thursday.

For the first time since the inaugural edition in 2022, the women's Tour isn't visiting either the Pyrenees or Alps, focusing on the Massif Central instead. By heading to the third-biggest mountain range in France, the organisers are of course limited in the size of climbs and mountains they can include, and the race is missing one big mountain – the Puy de Dôme is the headliner – but actually, the dip in difficulty isn't as much as you might imagine.

The 2027 edition features fewer metres of elevation gain than 2026, yes, but more than every other edition, including the ones that visited the Col du Tourmalet and Alpe d'Huez, with an extra stage and more climbs per stage really packing in the total elevation gain.

Perhaps the most striking stat of all, then, is how the highest point and biggest climb of next year's Tour de France Femmes compares to the last five editions. Hint: not well.

With visits to the Alps, Pyrenees and Mont Ventoux, we've routinely seen the women's race climb over 1,900m and some truly high mountains, but this year, the race won't even clear 1,500m.

The highest point of the race will come on stage 8 with the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert peaking out at 1,451m, just a little higher than the climactic Puy de Dôme summit finish on stage 9 (1,415m). The Col de la Croix Saint-Robert comes mid-stage, rather than being a summit finish.

Whilst that's one way to look at it – and it is a shame to see the lowest mountains since this race began – it doesn't necessarily mean that the climbing stages are 'easier', just because the individual climbs may be.

When you combine everything together, stage 9 of next year's Tour de France Femmes will actually have the most total elevation gain of any stage since the race began, with 3,840m of climbing beating the previous record that stage 8 to Alpe d'Huez set in 2024.

Whilst ASO only have the sub-1,500m climbs of the Massif Central to play with, they've packed a whopping seven climbs in the run-in to the Puy de Dôme on stage 9, which will undoubtedly make the 11km climb feel a lot longer and harder than it is.

So just because no single climb breaks the 1,500m doesn't mean the climbing is any less – it's just going to be spread out in a different way across the Queen stage.

In terms of overall distance, the women's race has stayed very consistent since it upped its length from eight stages to nine in 2025, and the average stage length of around 130km feels about right, with most editions throwing in a 160km+ stage, too.

Finally, the TT question. With only five previous editions to compare to, two of which featured no time trialling of any kind, there isn't too much statistically analysis we can do on the TTing kilometres in the women's race.

In truth, it seems like the race organisers really can't settle on what they want to do about the discipline. Include a real challenge against the clock, as they did in 2023 and 2026? Squeeze in what is essentially a prologue? Or skip it all together?

Well, in 2027, they're doing none of those things, and trying out something new entirely: a team time trial around London on stage 3. It will be a novel event for the women's race, and ticks the box to give the riders some time on a TT bike, but it's a different ask from an ITT, and will certainly yield very different results.

If the Tour de France Femmes wants to be a Grand Tour, that means a rounded, balanced route, which should almost certainly always include an ITT. They can play around with the format and length, as we've seen the men's race do, but zero TT kilometres would never fly for the men's race, and it probably shouldn't for the women, either.

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

Although Célia Gery, racing for the new cyclo-cross team Specialized TMRW, won the Coupe de France cross in Nommay on Sunday, it was not easy. The 20-year-old French cyclo-cross and road champion has been struggling with leg pain for months.  

“It’s difficult to deal with. I’ve been having pain in my leg since August; I have an issue with my iliac artery.” Gery told Direct Velo after her victory. 

“I managed to handle the end of my road season well enough to make it all the way to the finish. I wanted to try taking part in the beginning of this cyclocross season, even though I knew it would be very challenging, given the nature of the efforts involved.”

In 2026, Gery won Brabantse Pijl, claimed her first national elite road title, and helped her FDJ United-Suez team leader Demi Vollering win the Tour de France Femmes.

Gery knows that she will need surgery.

"I know this happens to many riders in the cycling world. It’s tough, because I was really looking forward to this cyclo-cross season, especially after a strong road season that I was quite happy with. I was also excited to wear my new team’s jersey and to complete a full season at the top of my game. But it is what it is; you don’t get to choose. You just have to deal with it. That’s life.”

Gery will be wearing the blue, blanc, rouge jersey in two more ‘cross races this year, at the Koppenbergcross on November 1 and at the European Championships in Zeddam, on November 8.

Then she will wait for surgery, which will take place "sometime this winter", and she hopes "to return at full strength next year.”

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

Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez) lived up to his pre-race favourite billing to take a solo victory at the Druivencross in Overijse, the first event of the Telenet Superprestige on Sunday.

The Belgian put in a massive acceleration on the penultimate lap, clocking the fastest lap time of 6:47 to pull away from a five-rider lead group. He had enough time to smile at his team in the pit and high-five fans before raising his arms in victory, for the second consecutive year.

Crossing the line 15 seconds later, Witse Meeussen (Crelan-Corendon) outpowered Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech)to take second.

After a slow start, Vanthourenhout patiently picked his way through riders to make it to the front 13-rider lead group by the end of the third lap. He then applied pressure to shell riders off the back of the group, before setting back into the group. Attacks continued at the front, but Vanthourenhout waited, took a fresh bike and went to the front at the end of the seventh lap.

No other rider could match his acceleration, as the chase group of four with Meeussen, Vandeputte, British champion Cameron Mason and Swiss champion Kevin Kuhn (Heizomat-Cube) quickly switched their focus to battle for the podium places. Mason finished fourth ahead of Kuhn, who clipped in the final dash to the line.

Taking the holeshot, British National champion Cameron Mason (777) led the pack onto the cobblestones and pulled away with Gerben Kuypers (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez), Witse Meeussen (Crelan-Corendon) and Swiss champion Kevin Kuhn (Heizomat-Cube). Behind, first Felipe Orts (Euskatel-Euskadi), then Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech) set the pace, closing the seven-second gap by the end of the second lap of nine. 

By the fourth lap, a reshuffle at the front created a lead group of 13, which included Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez), who had made his way to the front after a slow start. 

One lap later, the group had dwindled down to seven riders, after first Vanthourenhout, then Kuhn applied pressure at the front to reduce numbers. Keeping up with the pace were Mason Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon), Kuypers, Meussen, Mason and Vandeputte.

Victor Van de Putte (Charles Liégeois CX Team) and Orts would yo-yo off the back for the rest of the race.

Kuhn spent a lot of energy at the front, setting a hard pace on one of the toughest courses with grass, off-camber sections with tree roots, and lots of running. This year, the sunny and blustery conditions meant that mud was not a factor for the “Mother of All Crosses”

On lap seven, after a quick look from his teammate Vanthourenhout, Kuypers went to the front and put in an attack on the climb. But after getting air at the bottom of the descent, he landed hard on the compressed ditch transition going into a cobbled section. He had to stop to fix his chain as Wyseure also crashed in the same spot, and both were out of contention.

Soon after, Vanthourenhout went to the front, with Kuhn on his wheel, but the Swiss rider was not able to stay with the Belgian, who took off solo. Vanthourenhout built his gap from six seconds to 27 seconds in one lap as he got the bell for the final round. 

Behind, the battle for second place raged, as Meussen attacked, putting Mason and Kuhn into difficulty. 

After getting a new bike, Wyseure battled his way back into the top 10, getting nine points. But Kuypers finished 16th, and only the top 15 riders garner valuable series points.

Results

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

Reigning world champion Lucinda Brand (Baloise Verzekeringen - Het Poetsbureau Lions) executed an almost flawless race to take victory in round one of the Telenet Superprestige Series in Overijse on Sunday.

Brand pulled clear of the rest of the field on lap 3 of 6 and never looked back, sealing her third victory of the season in confident style ahead of Aniek van Alphen (777TV CX Team) who put in a strong effort in the chase to limit the gap over the line to just 17 seconds. European champion Inge van der Heijden (Crelan-Corendon) rounded out the podium, finishing third.

Speaking after the race, Brand said: "I'm really happy with this victory. I really like this course, and it was much drier than I expected today after all the rain, but I had good legs and it was enough for a nice victory."

How it unfolded

The first round of the Telenet Superprestige series saw a strong field take to a dry course in Overijse, with sunny, blustery conditions and relatively firm ground for the riders to contend with.

Riding in her first cross of the 2025-2026 season, it was the Frenchwoman Amandine Fouquenet (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw) who used her fast start to catapult herself to the front of the pack on lap 1, with European champion Van der Heijden close behind her. Brand was also able to stay with the leading riders, and with Denise Betsema also able to keep pace, a leading group of four crossed the line heading into lap 2 with a small advantage over the chasing riders. That group included last year’s overall winner of the Superprestige series Van Alphen, and yesterday’s Heerderstrand winner, Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Premier Tech).

Van Alphen was the first to be able to bridge to the group, catching them and moving straight to the front on lap 2. The group swelled to six strong with the addition of Czech national champion Kristyna Zemanová, with Van Alphen content to continue the pace-setting at the head of the lead group. Heading into lap 3, she pushed the pace, pulling clear of the rest with van der Heijden.

The group stretched out on lap 3 as Brand put in a dig to bridge to the leaders, with Fouquenet still in contention just behind her. Brand forged clear for the first time on lap 3, and from there she began to exert her authority, carving out an ever-increasing lead second by second as van Alphen and van der Heijden worked together behind her to try and keep her in sight.

Van Alphen looked increasingly secure in second place heading into lap 5, as she began to distance Van der Heijden, but at the front of the race there was no doubt as to the strongest rider. Brand remained error-free aside from one brief slip of the foot that she was able to retrieve, and the veteran maintained her cushion over the chasers heading into the final lap. Further back in the field, yesterday’s winner Alvarado was faring less well, potentially feeling the effort from that victory in the legs.

Brand remained clear to the finish line and had time to enjoy her victory, sitting up and waving as she crossed the line to record her third win in five races and taking the lead in the Superprestige overall standings.

Results

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

The reigning Belgian women's elite national champion in cyclo-cross, Marion Norbert Riberolle, has been forced to cut her season short following a diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmia.

The 27-year-old, born in Troyes, France, and representing France until she changed her nationality to Belgian in 2021, shared an emotional post on her Instagram page on Saturday, including an image of her smiling in her hospital bed.

"Life had other plans for me, and I didn’t see it coming," Norbert Riberolle posted. "Weeks full of training, getting ready for the new cyclocross season, and making memories with my favourite people. I was so excited for the new season coming, but suddenly, everything had to come to a stop."

According to Wielerflits, the team responded quickly to the Crelan-Corendon rider's health concerns. The team doctors ordered medical tests after a disappointing start to the 2026-2027 cyclo-cross season, which saw her finish 8th in Ardooie ten days ago, having previously been unable to finish the race in Dendermonde.

Norbert Riberolle was subsequently diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia, for which she has since undergone surgery. No further complications were revealed, and it is hoped that the former under-23 world champion, who won three races in the 2025-2026 season, can return to training within the coming weeks under the supervision of her team's medical staff. No return date has been set yet.

Norbert Riberolle described the event as "An unexpected pause and a lot to process. Not the start to the season I had hoped for, but right now, my health comes first." She went on to conclude she is "Taking it one day at a time and looking forward to getting back on my bike."

The back-to-back Belgian national champion holds the somewhat unique honour of having been national champion for two different nations; first for France, in 2020, in the same year she took glory in the under-23 women's race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Dübendorf, Switzerland, before she changed her nationality to compete under the Belgian flag.

She has also ridden on the road for Fenix-Deceuninck's development squad since 2024, and achieved a top-20 finish at the Antwerp Port Epic Ladies classic in 2026, finishing 18th. In 2025, she finished 7th at the Dwars Door het Hageland among elite company, including that day's winner, SDWorx-ProTime's Lorena Wiebes.

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

Elisa Longo Borghini wrapped up her season by claiming her eighth Italian individual time trial title in Piasco, following the postponement of the event originally scheduled for June. The UAE Team ADQ rider reclaimed the tricolore jersey after finishing runner-up to Vittoria Guazzini (FDJ United-Suez) in each of the past two years. Longo Borghini previously won the title in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

The 34-year-old rider averaged 50.839 km/h on the 19.7km flat and fast course, stopping the clock with a time of 23:15. Alessia Vigilia (Uno-X Mobility) took second, 54 seconds in arrears, while Letizia Borghesi (AG Insurance-Soudal) rounded out the podium.

The out-and-back route with 102 metres of climbing headed towards Costigliole Saluzzo before tackling two laps of a 6.7km circuit.

“I’m very happy to have won another Italian National Championship because I believe it’s a race that should always be honoured, even though this year it came at the end of a very long season," Longo Borghini said in a team release.

"It was a title I really wanted, because wearing the Italian champion’s jersey is always an honour. I’ll be happy to wear it next year in some of the biggest races on the WorldTour calendar."

The U23 title went to Giada Silo (UAE Development Team), who also claimed the Italian Road Race title in the Under-23 category back in June.

The Italian Cycling Federation postponed the junior, U23 and elite women’s time trial championships until late October, relocating the races to Piasco. The new date and location in the province of Cuneo were announced on October 8. The elite men’s event, won by Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos), had gone ahead as scheduled in June in Barolo.

Guazzini did not defend her title, with just five riders lining up for the elite women’s time trial, down sharply from the 21 who contested last year’s event in June.

This season, Longo Borghini finished fourth in the ITT at both the World Championships and European Championships, and helped Italy win gold in the mixed relay at the Worlds. She also soloed to her seventh Italian road race title in June before finishing third at Tour de France Femmes and taking bronze in the road race at the World Championships.

Results

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

Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon) claimed his first win of the cyclo-cross season on the lake-side course at the HG Cross Heerderstrand in the Netherlands.

In a final-lap duel with defending champion Joris Nieuwenhuis (Heizomat-Cube), the Belgian used his power to full effect in the sand section, taking the longer line close to the water to find traction on the wet sand. The move gave him a few seconds of breathing room, which he steadily extended to seven seconds by the finish line.

Defending champion Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Premier Tech) took third, crossing the line, 16 seconds later ahead of Felipe Orts and 18-year-old Giel Lejeune (Alpecin-Premier Tech).

“It means a lot for me. I think every win is special, and it's a nice circuit here. I think it was a nice battle also with Joran and Niels, and I'm really happy I could make it off,” Wyseure said.

As the light changed quickly from red to green, riders on the left-hand side, including Wyseure, Orts, Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) and Pim Ronhaart (Baloise Verzekeringer-Het Poetsbureau Lions), seemed not to be paying attention and had a slow start, and only Wyseure and Orts were able to recover to make it to the front of the race.

In the opening rounds of the nine-lap race. The front of the race shuffled and re-shuffled until six riders escaped at the end of the fourth lap, with Nieuwenhuis, Vandeputte, Orts, Mees Hendrikx (Bomba-Join), Lejeune and Wyseure making the front group.

With the sunny and slightly windy conditions drying out the course, riders were taking and testing the two different lines on the deep sand sections, with a shorter inside line and the more compacted sand on the outside, longer line.

At the end of the seventh lap, Wyseure powered to the front and applied pressure, with Hendrixx falling off the pace. He stayed at the front for the next lap, stretching out the group with his high pace until the elastic broke.

With one lap to go, Wyseure and Nieuwenhuis were locked in a duel until Wyseure broke away, giving a final look over his shoulder before speeding down the finishing straight.

Results

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

Dutch national champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Premier Tech) scored her first victory of the fledgling 2026-2027 cyclo-cross season with a patient yet dominant display on the banks of the Heerderstrand in the Netherlands this Saturday.

A powerful attack on the final lap saw the former world champion distance Denise Betsema (De Ceuster Bouwkranen) and Manon Bakker, after the three battled for supremacy throughout the second half of the race. A spirited comeback from Aniek van Alphen saw the 777TV rider take third place behind Betsema after she caught and passed Bakker in the final straight.

Prior to the race, it was the official launch of Fem van Empel's new team, Specialized TMRW, that took centre stage, following van Empel's return to the field last weekend in Meulebeke. The former world champion immediately imposed herself on the race, taking the lead within the first minute of racing, with Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez-Industriebouw) hot on her heels.

The two leading riders took two very different approaches on the long sand section, with van Empel dismounting and running close to the barriers, while Bentveld stayed on her bike and rode along the lakefront. It wasn't enough to separate them, but van Empel appeared to be in ominous form, carving out a small gap as lap 1 wore on, but by the time they crossed the finish line for the first time, a group of five riders had joined her, with 777TV’s Hélène Clauzel taking up the front position heading into lap 2. The group stayed together through the first part of the second lap, but Betsema rode aggressively, striking out into the lead and opening up a gap to the chase group, with Clauzel taking the initiative and leading the chase.

Betsema’s lead continued to grow heading into the third lap of six, and she continued her dogged progress, with the shape of the chase group changing behind her. Alvarado and Bakker were the two riders who eventually clawed Betsema back to form a leading trio on lap 4, with Van Alphen in solo pursuit in fourth, and both Van Empel and Clauzel fading.

Alvarado's strength through the sand section may have struck an ominous warning on lap 4, with Betsema briefly faltering in her wake, but a mistake for the Dutch champion as her foot slipped out meant that they were all back together as a trio again heading into lap 5.

They remained that way until Bakker began to exert her authority, using her power to begin to test Betsema, who was the first to lose touch, struggling to hang onto the lead pair under the continued pressure by the bullish Bakker, who was opening her European season following 6 victories from 8 races in the USA.

Heading into the final lap, however, Betsema dug deep to bring herself back into contention, and with the podium finishers all but decided it was down to the three riders who had proven they were strongest on the day to battle it out to decide their finishing positions. Bakker appeared to pay for her big effort on lap 5 as she began to slip away on the final lap, and Alvarado powered her way into the final long sand section, controlling her bike well and then running confidently to stretch out her lead over the pair of chasers.

It was a decisive strike by Alvarado, with both Bakker and Betsema fading on the final lap while behind them, van Alphen enjoyed a spirited late surge to throw her hat in the ring for a podium spot. Her dogged pursuit paid off, as she closed down Bakker in the final section of the course to set up a two-up sprint for second with Betsema. Her efforts proved costly, however, with Betsema able to hold her off to seal second spot.

Results

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

Former time trial world champion and Tour de France podium finisher Tom Dumoulin believes that the 2027 parcours heavily favours Remco Evenepoel, going as far as to state that “The only way to beat Pogačar is through time trial kilometres."

Speaking to NOS, Dumoulin outlined his reaction to the 2027 route after organisers ASO officially presented it in Paris on Thursday. "I personally think it’s great that they’re starting in Great Britain. I started there myself back in 2014,” he said of the 2027 Grand Départ.

“It was absolutely brilliant – an incredible experience. So, it’s wonderful that they’re heading back there. But, of course, that was already known. What hadn’t been revealed yet was that this Tour includes a massive number of time-trial kilometres. That is, without a doubt, the most striking feature of this route, especially considering the trend we’ve seen in recent years, where Grand Tour courses have featured very few time-trial kilometres."

The former Visma-Lease a Bike rider, who won the 2017 World Championships in the discipline, would undoubtedly have benefited from such a course during his time competing at the Tour, between 2013 and 2020. His debut participation in 2013 featured the longest distance raced against the clock (90km) prior to next year's 71km, across three time trials - one team time trial and two individual efforts. He finished in second place in 2018, behind overall winner Geraint Thomas, in a year with 66.5km of time trials.

Dumoulin, along with Remco Evenepoel and other specialists, may feel as if they are children of a bygone era, as historically, the Tour has featured far more in the way of time trial kilometres, not just in its early years, but all the way through to the 1980s and even early 2000s.

The modern trend away from long time trials arguably began in 2008, the first year to feature less than 100 kilometres against the clock since 1975. In fact, the last time there were more than 100 kilometres of time trials within one edition was in 2012, the year before Dumoulin made his Tour debut - all of them individual time trials, making that the last year to feature more ITT kilometres than 2027.

In 2027, the longest ITT stage - stage 7 from Blois to Chambord - still only clocks in at 38km, with a second time trial around Toulouse on stage 16 coming in at a marginally shorter 33km; but with a total of 71 kilometres against the clock, it’s the most friendly parcours to the ITT specialists since 2013.

Dumoulin doesn’t underestimate the significance of this shift to Evenepoel.

"Now, they’ve completely changed course, with roughly 70 kilometres of individual time trials in total. That certainly gets my heart racing - and I imagine it does the same for Remco Evenepoel," Dumoulin said.

He goes on to suggest that despite a lack of summit finishes, it may actually produce a more exciting race overall, particularly in the face of the daunting challenge presented by five-time winner Tadej Pogačar and his all-conquering UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad.

"In the last Tour, the outcome was effectively decided quite early on,” Dumoulin said. “I think the Tour organisers are clearly keen to find some way to keep the dominance of UAE and Pogačar in check. By designing a route that keeps things competitive until quite late in the Tour. The only way to beat Pogačar is through time trial kilometres."

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

The 2027 Tour de France route was presented on Thursday, and the race looks markedly different from the 2026 parcours, with an increase in time trial kilometres and fewer big mountain stages lying between the British Grand Départ and the grand finale in Paris.

Nevertheless, we expect a familiar cast of contenders to line up in Edinburgh on July 2, including the five-time champion Tadej Pogačar, his longtime rival, Jonas Vingegaard, and France's great GC hope, Paul Seixas.

We're a long way from the start of the action, and most of the big Tour contenders haven't turned a wheel in anger in a while, but which riders are shaping up as the main favourites at this early stage?

We've looked through the big names to put together our first speculative 'power ranking' ahead of the 2027 Tour de France.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme may have questioned whether Tadej Pogačar will be the same rider following his Vuelta a España crash and injuries, drawing a comparison with Eddy Merckx's 1969 crash.

But unlike Prudhomme, who has a vested interest in generating attention for his race, we have no reason to doubt that the Slovenian will recover and be back to his best next season.

As such, Pogačar remains the overwhelming favourite to win Tour title number six next July. The route may feature an increase in time trial kilometres, which will favour the next man on our list, but Pogačar has won the last three Tours by an average of 5:42.

We're hoping that the new route means there's more suspense than this summer, when the race for yellow was over after six days. But Pogačar is the favourite until proven otherwise.

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

World and European time trial champion Remco Evenepoel looks to be the big winner from the 2027 Tour de France route reveal. 71 time trial kilometres is the most on any Tour route since 2012, and 12km more than the 2024 Tour.

That, combined with the sparse number of tough summit finishes (just two – the Grand Colombier and Col du Portet), means the route is the best-suited to Evenepoel's abilities of any Grand Tour he's raced.

At the moment, a shot at Tadej Pogačar still looks well out of reach, but Evenepoel's dominant time trial – he won his fourth world title by almost a minute from Filippo Ganna last month – means he may well take minutes on everyone else. That may be enough to have the beating of Jonas Vingegaard and climb onto the second step of the podium in Paris once more.

There has been talk of Evenepoel returning to the Giro d'Italia next May, but surely he won't turn down the chance to take on a Tour so well-suited to his style?

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard looks to be the biggest loser from the route reveal, with the 2027 parcours very much veering away from his favoured terrain. The Dane prefers longer multi-mountain stages, days which are in short supply here, and then there are the two flat time trials which will hardly have sparked any excitement when they were unveiled on Thursday.

A host of punchier and mid-mountain stages such as those to Le Creusot, Sallanches, Les Saisies, and Mende all favour the more explosive Pogačar. Both the Slovenian and Remco Evenepoel will gain time on Vingegaard in the 71km of time trials, too (remember in Caen at the 2025 Tour, where he lost over a minute to both in just 33km).

Could Vingegaard make up the time lost in the time trials in the mountains, on the Grand Colombier and the Col du Portet? That's likely several minutes to make up on Evenepoel across those combined 33.4km of summit finishes.

"Compared to last year, I count fewer summit finishes, and in my opinion, there could have been more," said Visma head of racing Marc Reef. Is the route enough of a turn-off for Vingegaard to instead focus on a Giro title defence? Probably not, but he's certainly far from the favourite.

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM)

The 2027 Tour de France route isn't exactly built for France's new GC hope Paul Seixas, though he won't necessarily dislike it. Sure, there aren't many mountain stages for him to attack, but that's true of everyone else here.

The 20-year-old showed in his debut Tour de France this year that he's already strong enough to battle with the very biggest names, even if he's not quite on the level of Pogačar, Evenepoel, Vingegaard, and Isaac del Toro just yet. Next year, though? He should be stronger still.

He's proven that he's strong in the mountains, he can compete with the best in the punchy hills, and (see his third place in the Worlds time trial) that he's very capable in flat time trials, even if he should shed a chunk of time to Evenepoel in them.

For now, we'll slot him in fourth place on our list, assuming some level of progression year on year, and with Del Toro working for Pogačar. Could a podium place be in his sights, though?

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Mexican racer Isaac del Toro finished in third place last year in the white jersey of best young rider while supporting Tadej Pogačar to yet another Tour victory. He was the Slovenian's key lieutenant while also benefiting from his support to ride into that eventual podium spot.

Will they reform the same partnership next summer? Or will Del Toro instead prioritise going for a Grand Tour victory of his own at the Giro or Vuelta?

That remains to be seen, with the calendars of him and João Almeida yet to be determined. If he's back at the Tour, then Del Toro should slot back in somewhere among the third- to fifth- strongest GC riders on the startlist.

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Will Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe continue with their two-pronged leadership approach at next year's Tour de France? Maybe not, if some media rumours are to be believed. Given the route of next year's race, that might make sense, given it clearly favours time trial specialist Remco Evenepoel over German racer Florian Lipowitz.

Lipowitz is hardly a weak time triallist himself, and he has of course finished on the Tour's final podium before, but perhaps a shot at overall victory at the Giro d'Italia might be in order.

If Lipowitz does head to the Tour, though, he slots in well inside our top 10 here, even if there are fewer high mountain stages where he excels in comparison to previous years.

Enric Mas (Movistar)

When Tadej Pogačar crashed out of the Vuelta a España in August, Movistar leader Enric Mas showed another dimension to his racing as he took over the red jersey of race leader and defended it for the final two weeks of the race to take overall victory.

Mas had previously finished on the podium of the Spanish Grand Tour four times in his career but had never managed to break through to that next level. Will his triumph, and the rare show of attacking riding we saw, have unlocked another level in the 31-year-old?

Mas has raced seven Tours de France, finishing fifth and sixth at the 2020 and 2021 races. In a crowded GC field, he might slot in around there again, with his Vuelta win and the confidence gained from that lifting him in our ranking above a host of other strong competitors.

Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)

Dane Mattias Skjelmose might head to the Tour de France as part of a three-pronged GC lineup at Lidl-Trek next year, though surely one of him, Felix Gall, and Juan Ayuso will instead prioritise the Giro d'Italia.

Regardless of the German team's plans for the 2027 Grand Tours, it's he who figures to be their strongest option for Tour de France leadership next summer. He finished sixth overall in July, and had the better of Ayuso, who seemed to struggle this season, while Gall's lack of time trial strength will surely hold him back.

Skjelmose is the best of the three against the clock, as evidenced by his third place in Thonon-les-Bains at the Tour. Barring any surprise, he looks the favourite to be Lidl-Trek leader next July. Can he raise his level again and challenge for the podium? It seems a bit of a reach right now, but contention for a top-five place could be on the cards.

Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos)

The last time the Tour de France had this many time trial kilometres, Netcompany Ineos were certainly a very different team. Back then, in 2021, Bradley Wiggins raced to overall victory. This time around, the odds are stacked against the British squad, and even a podium spot would be a miracle result.

The team has a few options for leadership next July, including Oscar Onley (more below), and Carlos Rodríguez, should the Spaniard rediscover his form. The best option, given the route, may well be Dutch rider Thymen Arensman.

Should he head to the Tour, Arensman would line up as one of the very strongest time trial riders among the GC contenders, and the 71km of TTs on offer represent significant time gains. He has four Grand Tour top-10 finishes to his name, including a fourth at this year's Giro, and took 12th at the 2025 Tour. He'd be more than capable of scoring a top 10 in Paris, given next year's route.

Felix Gall (Lidl-Trek)

Like several others on our list, we'll have to wait and see what Felix Gall is planning for 2027. The Austrian climber will be on a new team next year, having swapped Decathlon CMA CGM for Lidl-Trek and a potential leadership trio at the Tour.

Surely one of the three - Skjelmose, Gall, and Juan Ayuso – will instead head to the Giro as a sole leader, though. It depends on the Italian race's route, but could it be Gall? After all, two long time trials are hardly his forte (though the Giro also looks set to feature heavy time trial kilometres).

Gall is a rider who is at his best in the high mountains, tackling long ascents on multi-mountain stages. As we have seen, they are in short supply in this Tour de France. There's still plenty of opportunity to gain time in the climbs, but the route isn't best-suited to Gall.

Best of the rest

Reigning mountain classification champion Richard Carapaz will be with a new team next year, having joined NSN. The team doesn't have a great record of hiring big-name riders in their 30s, but there's little in the Ecuadorian's riding style that suggests he's heading there to ride around cashing cheques.

While Thymen Arensman may be better suited to the route, Netcompany Ineos also has Oscar Onley – a fourth-place finisher here in 2025 – on board as a Tour co-leadership option. A repeat of that result looks challenging, but both he and Arensman should be well in the mix for a top-10 finish.

As noted earlier, Juan Ayuso currently looks the third-strongest of Lidl-Trek's GC options at the Tour. His new team expected more than seventh place out of him, and perhaps he'll do that in 2027. For now, though, he has slid down our list.

A year on from his Vuelta podium, Tom Pidcock raced to ninth overall this summer. It was his best result to date at the Tour, but will he continue to target the general classification?

Both Tobias Halland Johanessen and Lenny Martinez have raced into the top 10 in the past two seasons. Neither are top favourites for a high placing next summer, but they've been there and done that, and so should be in consideration for a top-10 spot again.

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

Marlen Reusser has given her strongest hint yet that her racing days may soon be numbered when the Swiss time trialling star was asked at the Tour de France Femmes presentation about the imminent arrival of Spanish up-and-coming racer Paula Blasi at her Movistar squad.

Blasi had a breakthrough season in 2026 while racing for UAE Team L'IMAD, winning La Vuelta Femenina and Amstel Gold Race, before taking fifth at her debut Tour de France Femmes.

Reusser also had a highly successful Tour, winning the mid-race TT and holding the lead for three days before losing the yellow jersey on Mont Ventoux, before dropping to 14th overall after crashing on the final day in Nice.

Speaking at the Tour de France Femmes route presentation, Reusser also said that it was a pity there was no individual time trial in 2027 but praised the inclusion of the team time trial on stage 3 in London and the Ardennes-like stages 2 and 8.

Whilst pointing out that the Tour is often decided, at least in part, on less mountainous stages, she also said that she was confident of her chances of handling the critical Puy de Dôme climb and its ultra-steep finale.

"I think the Puy de Dôme is closed off to riders right now" – the road is usually shut because the entire volcano is an ecologically sensitive site – "but I remember watching the Tour go up it in 2023; it's a cool climb to finish the Tour," Reusser said.

"I think I can manage the slopes [of 12%] well. I have no idea if it's possible to recon, but if so I'll do it."

Regarding the absence of an individual time trial, reigning world and European champion Reusser confirmed she would have liked that "because that does something very different with the GC. It's not the same. But in any case I love the discipline [of team time trialling], and I think that's very cool."

The very hilly stages could, in any case, be as important for the GC as the setpiece mountain days, of which there is really only the last, as Reusser pointed out, to the point where they might actually decide the race overall. Stage 4 of last year's Tour was a good example of this, where it played a major part in sorting out the GC, with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot showing significant signs of weakness that day.

"Sometimes it's like this, we look at the big mountain stages, but often these [hilly] stages are actually the more important," Reusser said.

"I was just asked if next year's Tour is not as hard as this year. Ok, the big mountains are there, they sound hard, but these hilly stages are even harder in a way, so they can be very crucial for the GC. We saw it last year."

As for whether there would be another 'Project Dijon' for Reusser, similar to the one she built around the time trial last July in the Tour de France Femmes, Reusser smiled but said it was too early to target specific stages.

"I am sure my DS is waiting in the back there; we'll make plans, we have a lot of time to think about what we're going to do with this race, and we'll have some projects for sure," she said..

The question of how long Reusser will continue racing, though, emerged when she was asked how she felt about the arrival of Blasi on the team. Under contract until the end of 2027, Reusser said that she would retire "soon" and pointed out that at 35, she was no longer as young as she once was.

Reusser also said that having a rider like Blasi on the squad offered Movistar an excellent opportunity to plan for a double assault on the Tour GC, given the Spaniard's proven ability to attack in hilly terrain as she did to win Amstel Gold Race last year.

"For Paula, I think this Tour route is perfect because when you see the Ardennes-like stages, I think it's good to have good riders because you can make good tactics," she reasoned.

"And I think she will want to win the Tour in the future, and I think that's a nice thing. I will retire soon. I'm not the youngest anymore, so I think it makes sense to have her on the team; she's a very big talent. It is the Spanish team, too, so that's nice."

Reusser's career has seen her take multiple top time trial titles, including the World Championships as well as holding the leader's jersey in the Tour last summer.

But if she is now thinking that she may be hanging up her wheels in the shorter rather than the longer term, whilst clearly with plans to shine next summer in the Tour again, then Blasi may well be the ideal way for Movistar to keep battling for Grand Tours in the future.

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

The Specialized TMRW cycling project is now official, as FDJ United-SUEZ and Specialized confirmed Friday the roster and plans for a new multi-disciplinary approach for a long-term progression to develop talent on the road.

Four core riders will comprise the squad for the 2026-2027 cyclo-cross season, led by three-time cyclo-cross world champion Fem van Empel, who has already provided a sneak preview of the red team kits with her fourth-place finish last weekend at Berencross in Meulebeke, Belgium.

She'll be joined for off-road racing by Anja Grossmann, Amandine Muller and Célia Gery, the trio all U23 riders on the road with FDJ United-SUEZ. Last year, Gery earned the women's U23 bronze medal at Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hulst, while Muller was fifth, both racing for France. Grossman, an 18-year-old talent from Switzerland, went fourth in the women's junior race at CX Worlds last season.

The TMRW brand was created by Tomorrow Group, the owner of FDJ United-SUEZ, to broaden racing into new disciplines. Cyclo-cross was noted as the first step in "strengthening its international presence and nurturing outstanding young talent" as the discipline was seen as a way for riders to develop technical skills and earn racing experience throughout the year.

Stephen Delcourt, the general manager for the Women's WorldTour squad, will serve in the same capacity for the French cyclo-cross team, with Nicolas Maire serving dual roles as well as the sports director.

“What we are building today is rooted in the project developed with FDJ UNITED and SUEZ. Their commitment allows us to look further ahead and prepare for the next stages of our development. Together with Specialized, we share the conviction that giving young athletes the opportunity to grow across disciplines can help them become more complete road riders," Del Court said in a team statement.

"Specialized TMRW brings that ambition to life: to open new pathways for the next generation, explore new sporting opportunities and continue expanding internationally.

"Cyclo-cross has played an important role in the development of some of cycling’s greatest athletes. It provides a demanding environment in which to build technical skills, confidence and racing instinct. We want to give our riders who share that passion the best possible conditions to develop and perform, in full alignment with their goals on the road."

The creation of Specialized TMRW aligns with the road team’s 2030 strategic plan, which management said strived for "excellence in both disciplines".

Van Empel joined FDJ United-SUEZ in mid-September, having taken nearly a year off from racing and securing a release from her multi-year contract with Visma-Lease a Bike. She won a bronze medal in the women's junior road race at European Road Championships in 2023, then impressed the next year on the WorldTour stage with 11th overall at Giro d'Italia and a stage win and points classification title at Tour de l'Avenir Femmes.

Gery, the reigning French elite women's road national champion, won De Brabantse Pijl and a stage at the Giro d'Italia this past season. A dual road and time trial junior champion of Switzerland for two consecutive years, Grossmann impressed at the Road World Championships with fourth in the ITT and a bronze medal in the road race.

Muller, who just turned 20 in mid-October, raced for the AG Insurance Soudal development team the past two seasons, winning the French U23 time trial title twice and the women's elite ITT at the Mediterranean Games.

The Dutch rider's new contract for CX and road goes through 2027, while Gery and Grossman are signed through 2028, Muller through 2029.

"Specialized TMRW builds on the long-term project developed with FDJ UNITED SUEZ, whose commitment remains central to the team’s development," management of the new team said in a statement.

In addition to support from Specialized for the cyclo-cross campaign, the project was also supported by 100%, Shimano and Gobik.

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

Two summers ago, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot soared to a historic home victory at the Tour de France Femmes, dominating the closing Alpine stages to deliver a first French Tour win in decades and the biggest win of her career.

She beat Demi Vollering by almost four minutes in Châtel, but this year the tables turned as Ferrand-Prévot endured a disastrous title defence, losing minutes in the Dijon time trial before falling out of contention in the Ardèche hills and conceding defeat on Mont Ventoux.

Clearly, a rider of Ferrand-Prévot's calibre is better than her early-August performance, and the Visma-Lease a Bike star will aim to bounce back next year. But is the 2027 Tour de France Femmes route one where she can thrive and take back the yellow jersey from Vollering?

Well, race director Marion Rousse delivered both good and bad news for the 34-year-old and her team in the Palais des Congrès in Paris on Thursday afternoon.

For a start, there's no individual time trial on next year's route. That will be music to Ferrand-Prévot's ears after she lost two minutes to Vollering and Marlen Reusser over just 21km on the road to Dijon in August.

Ferrand-Prévot was always expected to shed time against the clock, even as her team protested how much she had trained on the TT bike, so for a start, she's already looking at several minutes saved. Coming in place of an individual time trial, however, is a team test in the form of a flat 18km tour of central London.

Team time trials are rare in women's cycling, with next year's stage a first in Tour de France Femmes history. The other Grand Tours have featured a TTT in recent history, though, with the Giro featuring one in 2021 and the Vuelta doing so between 2022 and 2025.

Do Visma have the personnel to succeed in such a test? Time will tell, and it's impossible to make any predictions this far out, but in former time trial specialist Jos van Emden, they have a directeur sportif well-placed to guide them in London.

"The team time trial is a notable feature. It’s an event we haven't seen before in the Tour de France Femmes," Van Emden said after the route unveiling.

"I'm a fan of team time trials. We haven't raced many of them as a team, so it's difficult to make any immediate predictions about our collective strength or the course in London. You have to master every discipline if you want to win the Tour. This will be another new challenge.

"That decision shows that women's cycling is continuing to evolve and grow in importance. A team time trial is part of what makes the Tour the Tour, as it’s the biggest stage in cycling."

Is there enough climbing for PFP?

The goal will likely be to limit losses and keep Ferrand-Prévot close to her main yellow jersey rivals as the race hits France, with the opening two stages in the north of England unlikely to have produced much in the way of GC gaps.

On the mainland, it will all be about surviving the pitfalls of the sprint stages and then overcoming the tricky, punchy hills on the road to Magnanville on stage 5.

The big time differences, however, should be made in the final three days as the race reaches the Massif Central, though there are no long Alpine climbs on the menu here like the Madeleine, where Ferrand-Prévot built her 2025 Tour victory with that dominant solo ride.

Will that be a problem for the lightweight climber?

"The first thing that stands out to me is how different this Tour is from the editions in recent years. The high mountains are missing. That was certainly different in previous editions," Van Emden said.

Stage 7 features a closing climb to La Loge des Gardes (6.7km at 7.1%), while the mid-mountain stage 8 to Clermont-Ferrand features the Côte de Charade (6km at 5.9%) before a descent to the finish. The showpiece final stage concludes atop the Puy de Dôme, which measures 11.3km at an average gradient of 7.8%.

Van Emden said that the Tour is no easier than the recent editions, even if the Puy de Dôme stage doesn't quite measure up to the recent queen stages of the Glandon-Alpe d'Huez in 2024, the Madeleine last year, or the Ventoux in August.

"The longest climb in this Tour is 11km. That was different in recent years. But that doesn’t mean this will be an easier Tour," he said.

"Quite the opposite: the race will be wide open, and the general classification contenders will be fighting for every second in every stage.

"That’s a very special way to finish. In cycling, this climb may not be as well known as Mont Ventoux or the Col de la Madeleine, which featured in recent editions, but that’s also because it’s a protected natural area. I’m really looking forward to finishing atop the volcano."

As is the case for the men's race, there's clearly one standout favourite for next year's Tour de France Femmes – the defending champion. This Tour route certainly isn't built with Ferrand-Prévot in mind, but success isn't out of reach, and if she's back on form, next August could well host the Ferrand-Prévot vs Vollering battle we've been waiting for.

Between now and then, there's plenty of time for training, planning, and recon rides. The planning will get underway soon, said Van Emden.

"We’ll draw up our plans this winter. With Pauline, we have the 2025 Tour winner on our team, although she would normally be better suited to the longer climbs.

"But we have several cards to play. I think this route suits us very well. It’s going to be an explosive Tour."

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

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme delved deep into the race's own history books to explain exactly why organisers have opted in 2027 to make the biggest increase in time trialling in the route in 15 years

Speaking to reporters after the route was revealed on Thursday, Prudhomme insisted that the idea of pushing the number of kilometres against the clock up to a combined total of 71 kilometres was not an anti-Tadej Pogačar measure.

Instead, Prudhomme cited time trialling star Bradley Wiggins, who conquered Britain's first Tour de France in 2012, and the rider voted the race's greatest ever climber, 1959 winner Federico Martín Bahamontes, to explain the TT increase.

Rather than looking back at just the last three editions of the race, where Tadej Pogačar has effectively made the battle for the yellow jersey a one-man show, Prudhomme used a much bigger context to explain what provides the chance – though it's far from guaranteed – for a radical switch in the balance of power between TT specialists and climbers

"The reason is simple, although we should put things into perspective, given we're in a world where people don't put things into perspective anymore," Prudhomme told reporters at the presentation, which revealed there'll be a 38-kilometre time trial on stage 7 and a 33-kilometre TT on stage 11.

"It's been 15 years since we've had so much time trialling, during the Tour won by Bradley Wiggins, and this is done with that in mind.

"Since then the riders who won in the time trials have also won in the mountains so it made no sense to extend the TT distances because the same people won, anyway.

"But now that's not the case, we've got different kinds of riders. It's just like back in the very distant era when Federico Bahamontes took time [in the mountains] on Jacques Anquetil," a renowned time trialling specialist.

"Now it's Remco Evenepoel who gains time against the clock, which he may lose in the mountains."

"It's not anti-Tadej Pogačar"

Prudhomme's comments about Bahamontes and Anquetil regarding balance could also have referred to the 1959 Tour, won by the Eagle of Toledo in part thanks to his crushing domination in a mountain time trial on the Puy de Dôme, where riders like Anquetil were pushed to nearly four minutes back. That said, Anquetil then regained more than five on Bahamontes in the race's final TT to Dijon, a massive 69 kilometres long. But there was some kind of balance, even if Bahamontes had done more than enough to win the Tour outright by that point.

In either case, Prudhomme argued, if Evenepoel was an example for now, it wasn't simply designed to favour one rider in particular. Rather, the question of having a much higher number of time trialling kilometres in 2027 was mainly to ensure that rather than any rider gaining too much of an advantage early on, the suspense could be maintained as long as possible.

"It's a question of resetting the balance, not for the organisers but all the fans who want there to be a fight right the way to the end," Prudhomme explained.

"It's not anti-Tadej Pogačar, you put pavé or time trials or climbs in front of him, he can take time and then he gains even more time on his rivals on the descents," he added, in reference to what Pogačar did on the descent of the Tourmalet on stage 6 last July, doubling his advantage over Jonas Vingegaard after dropping him close to the summit and all but winning the Tour in the process.

"If he [Pogačar] is stronger, he's stronger," Prudhomme added. "But there is a will to rebalance things, not for a single rider in particular, just like a few years ago we tried to make the route have a more punchy kind of course to try to boost the chances of a spectacular race.

"But in any case," Prudhomme concluded, making a wordplay on an old proverb, "the organisers propose and the riders dispose. That's always true."

"There are a lot of really tough unknown or semi-unknown climbs in this Tour"

While the increase in time trialling kilometres represented one big change in route trends, Prudhomme argued that the fans should not take it for granted that the mountains in the 2027 race would be a straightforward re-run of other years.

"I hope that people will be surprised, first on paper, then after being surprised on paper, in reality. Because there are a lot of really tough unknown or semi-unknown climbs in this Tour, and others which have been around but which don't have as fearsome a reputation as they deserve," he told reporters.

"So it's true we've got some classic climbs like the Tourmalet. But I'm thinking especially of the return of the Col de Burdincurutcheta, which is one of the hardest in the French Basque Country," he said of the early climb on stage 19, 8.7km long with average gradients of 9.3%.

"Then the Col du Pré, which is really daunting, too," he added of the Alpine climb, measuring 12.6km at 7.8%, which appears before the final ascent of Saisies on stage 11.

"Then there is the stage across the Massif Central with more than 3,800 metres of vertical climbing through beautiful but tough landscapes.

"Don't forget, too, that in the first week we're in Wales, there are climbs that are really hard, right from the gun on stage 3. I know the local people there are very proud of what will be on show in their part of the world that day."

One unusual feature of the Tour de France is its mini-homage to the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships, the so-called 'Super Worlds', which will take place on the road in the northern Alps in late August and on the track in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome near Paris.

Stage 10 will feature the circuit of the Côte de Domancy and finishes in Sallanches, where the road World Championships also took place in 1980 and will do again in 2027, whilst stage 21 starts in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and will go past the velodrome en route to the Champs-Élysées.

"We weren't going ever to do the World Championships before the World Championships actually took place, which is why there will only be two ascents of the Domancy and not 20," Prudhomme explained, "but that's where Bernard Hinault, a legend of the Tour, won the Worlds in 1980, so it's also to honour him."

"The climbs there aren't very high up, but the slopes are something special: short but really, really tough. So there will be lots to see that day, too."

And perhaps, too, in the time trials as well.

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

You might have seen the 2027 Tour de France route described as an 'anti-Pogačar' exercise, and, with a return to time trialling doses of old and a relatively meagre helping of high mountains, you can certainly see why.

In truth, there is no such thing as an 'anti-Pogačar' route. It simply does not exist within the realms of plausible conception. It would have to be 21 flat stages, half of them against the clock, and even then he’d still probably find a way to win.

And yet, the route that was unveiled in Paris on Thursday did signal a growing discomfort, on the part of the Tour de France organisers, with Tadej Pogačar’s dominance. Jonas Vingegaard’s epic takedowns of the Slovenian are three years in the past now, and Pogačar has since rattled off a trio of yellow jerseys, each more convincing than the last, to take his tally to a record-equalling five.

He has done so with the sort of panache the race directors can only dream of, but he has also done it with a level of ease that is becoming a bit of a nightmare. So utterly superior, Pogačar spent the second half of this year’s Tour essentially riding as a domestique for his third-placed teammate, Isaac del Toro. In some ways, the yellow jersey selflessly repaying favours is a nice image for the race. In others ways, it’s really not such a great look – not one you’d want to make a habit of, anyway.

The irony was that the 2026 Tour de France had been billed as a 'Tour of Suspense'. The route had been constructed in such a way, we were told, that the battle for yellow would only be decided in the final days on Alpe d’Huez. As it turned out, Pogačar had the jersey all but sewn up by stage 6.

I wrote a piece on this at the time – about how the attempt to tone down the early Col du Tourmalet only toned it up – so I won’t rehash it all here, but it was a bit of an own goal, I felt. Granted, Pogačar’s dominance would have told anyway, but in any case, it was revealing in the broader context of ASO’s intentions.

Put simply, they badly want a yellow jersey contest that remains open until the last few days, and it didn’t work last time.

Not a good year to be a polka-dot fan

And so here we are, not going above 1,750 metres of altitude until stage 18 of 21 next July.

The route for that stage is a Pyrenean beast – going over the Soulor, Tourmlaet, and Hourquette d’Ancizan before the final climb to the Col du Portet – but it makes everything else look pretty tame in comparison. In fact, it’s only the second of two true mountain-top finishes in the entire race.

The Alps have had it pretty good in recent years but what did they do to deserve this? Even if the World Champs-inspired stage 10 looks like a thriller and the stage 11 combo of the Col du Pré and Montée de Bisanne looks tough enough, the lack of big-name high-altitude Alpine passes is really quite shocking.

And the Pyrenees may have the upper hand this time but they too only have two stages. Elsewhere, it’s over to the Jura to provide the first summit finish on the Grand Colombier on stage 9, and the Massif Central on a stage 14 that is harder than it looks but still very much sloggy medium mountain stuff. All in all, then, not a good year to be a die-hard polka-dot fan.

And then there’s the time trialling, with 71km against the clock constituting the most ITT-heavy Tour de France since the former world TT champion Bradley Wiggins won the race in 2012. This itself is remarkable, a complete laying down of arms in the battle ASO has waged on time trialling over the past decade. This was, of course, inspired by the dominance of Team Sky – first through Wiggins and then through Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas – but the trend has remained even in the Pogačar and Vingegaard era.

Until now. It’s no coincidence that the runner-up this year is also the best time triallist in the world, by a country mile. Remco Evenepoel may well wear the yellow jersey in next year’s Tour, and he may well take a minute or two on Pogačar, though it’s worth remembering he was beaten by more than six this summer (with Pogačar taking his foot off the gas at times).

So you can’t Pogačar-proof a Tour de France route, but in completely upending the balance between mountains and time trials, the organisers have certainly taken a new, much bolder, step in attempting to prevent him completely running away with it.

Pro-Pogačar, anti-Vingegaard?

At this point, it’s worth circling back to ASO’s relationship with Pogačar, which we might describe as 'love-hate'. They hate the suspense he takes away from the race as a whole, but they absolutely love just about everything else about him.

Race director Christian Prudhomme and co barely made any attempt to hide their distaste of the so-called Skybots, and what an antidote they’ve since struck upon with Pogačar, an all-action figure who will light up the race given even the slightest invitation, or even the slightest hint of boredom. For two years in a row now he has been in the thick of the action on the remodelled final stage over the Montmartre climb in Paris, carrying the Classics torch that has seen him win Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and twice podium Paris-Roubaix.

In that respect, this is actually quite a pro-Pogačar route. The entire first week is peppered with punchy climbs and Classics-flavoured stages that aren’t critical GC flashpoints but may well tempt Pogačar out to play. The first of the two Alpine stages, based on the route for World Championships past and future, looks like the sort of circuit-based, short-but-hard-climb affair Pogačar would draw up in his dreams.

The marquee high-mountain stages have been toned down only because the terrain dictates that this is where his superiority stretches into big time differences. But for all Pogačar is the best climber in the world, he’s not a pure climber, and he has famously come unstuck on some of the Tour’s most brutal mountain stages. Vingegaard was the man to crack him in both 2022 and 2023, and while the Dane hasn’t come close in recent years, he has mitigating circumstances, not least the fact that he didn’t get to finish this year’s race.

For many years now, Vingegaard has banged out the same old refrain – that he can only try and live with Pogačar on the punchier climbing days, and that he needs the bigger, heavier, multi-col mountain days to truly take the fight to him.

In that light, the 2027 Tour de France route only reduces the room for manouevre for the greatest rival of Pogačar’s career. Of course, with Paul Seixas coming through, that title could change hands at some point, and it’s worth noting that the French prodigy – already a winner at Il Lombardia and runner-up at Liège and Strade Bianche – is cut from very much the same cloth as Pogačar.

But no, if this route is anti-anyone, it’s anti-Vingegaard. And if you were the Dane, seeing your favored terrain neglected as Evenepoel’s is pandered to – by people who want a closer challenge to Pogačar – you might just take that personally.

As for main man himself, we return to the point we made at the start of this piece; you could devise 100 different Tour de France routes, and the Tadej Pogačar of the past three years would win every single time, provided he stays upright.

And here again Prudhomme made a revealing comment. "There are certainly questions lingering after his crash," the race director said of Pogačar’s season-ending Vuelta fall, even going as far as to reference Eddy Merckx’s famous (and much more severe) 1969 crash, after which he was supposedly never the same rider (but still won four more Tours). Prudhomme seems excited by that prospect of a slightly-less-than-perfect Pogačar, or at least relishing the doubt, the intrigue, the… suspense.

Whether we actually get any of the stuff next July remains to be seen. The Tour de France organisers love Tadej Pogačar, but they hate him too, and it seems even clearer now that they want the best of best worlds – to encourage his firework-lighting instincts while at the same time trying to rein him in to some degree.

In that respect, the 2027 Tour de France route is one of the most radical we’ve seen in years – it simply might not make a blind bit of difference.

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

The 2027 Tour de France ventures into the United Kingdom for the Grand Départ in Scotland on July 2, and two long stages - to Liverpool and through Wales - before the race lands on home soil.

There are two individual time trials, two major summit finishes, six stages for the sprinters and a load of opportunities for attacks through the Alps, Massif Central and Pyrenees before the race concludes in Paris on July 25 after almost 3,500 kilometres of racing.

Tadej Pogačar will be vying for a record sixth Tour title, but will be challenged by Remco Evenepoel over the 71 kilometres of time trials and by Jonas Vingegaard in the high mountains.

See also: Tour de France 2027 route unveiled with British start, 71km of time trials, and a brutal queen stage as highlights

Stage 1: Friday, July 2, 2027 - Edinburgh > Carlisle, 185 km - Flat

A relatively flat start to the Tour de France could see the first sprinter in the maillot jaune in years, but it's a long and complicated road that's not entirely flat, with some punchy climbs and wind that could foil the sprinters.

Climbs:

• Côte de Melrose (2.2km at 6.7%), km. 65

Stage 2: Saturday, July 3, 2027 - Keswick > Liverpool, 223 km - Hilly

This stage is quite long at 223 kilometres and riddled with small climbs that will hamper the sprinters' ability to enjoy the relatively flat finish in Liverpool.

Climbs:

• Côte de Jubilee Tower (3.8km at 6.1%), km. 88
• Côte de Trough of Bowland (1.9km at 5.2%), km. 98.5
• Côte de Waddington Fell (3.4km at 6.4%), km. 112
• Côte de Belmont (2km at 4%), km. 152.5
• Côte de Parbold (1.8km at 5.6%), km. 183

Stage 3: Sunday, July 4, 2027 - Welshpool > Cardiff, 223 km - Hilly

Someone should make a one-day Classic out of this 223-kilometre stage from Welshpool to Cardiff. With seven named climbs and a couple of real stingers like the 11% Hengoed climb in the late stages, this one could get very interesting for the GC contenders if they haven't studied up on the style of racing.

Climbs:

• Côte d'Epynt (3.7km at 7.9%), km. 85.5
• Côte de Bannau Brycheiniog (6.6km at 3.5%), km. 121.5
• Côte de Rhigos (4.6km at 5.8%), km. 145.5
• Côte de Penrhys (1.3km at 10.1%), km. 160.5
• Côte de Maerdy (1.5km at 8.7%), km. 169
• Côte de Hengoed (700 m at 11%), km. 197.5
• Côte de Caerphilly (2km at 8.1%), km. 210.5

Stage 4: Tuesday, July 6, 2027 - Cherbourg-en-Cotentin > Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, 171 km - Hilly

Stage 5: Wednesday, July 7, 2027 - Pontorson > Plumelec, 178 km - Hilly

A punchy stage to Plumelec is one for the powerful sprinters like Mads Pedersen or Matthew Brennan. The Côte de Cadoudal (1.7km at 6.2%) is climbed twice at the end.

Stage 6: Thursday, July 8, 2027 - Vannes > Angers, 193 km - Hilly

Stage 7: Friday, July 9, 2027 - Blois > Chambord, 38 km - Individual time-trial

Stage 8: Saturday, July 10, 2027 - Bourges > Le Creusot, 224 km - Hilly

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de la Croix de la Libération (4.6km at 5.3%), km. 189
• Signal d'Uchon (5.7km at 5.7%), km. 206.5

Stage 9: Sunday, July 11, 2027 - Villars-les-Dombes Parc des Oiseaux > Grand Colombier, 162 km - Mountain

One of just two high-altitude summit finishes, the stage to Grand Colombier on stage 9 will be one of the key moments of the 2027 Tour de France.

Categorised climbs:

• Col du Berthiand (6.3km at 7.5%), km. 57.5
• Côte des Neyrolles (3.6km at 7.7%), km. 77
• Col de Richemond (7.7km at 6%), km. 115
• Grand Colombier (17.4km at 7.1%), km. 162

Stage 10: Tuesday, July 13, 2027 - Annecy > Sallanches, 171 km - Mountain

A preview of the combined 2027 UCI World Championships, stage 10 features the Côte de Domancy twice out of six climbs, making for a tough stage that could well bring some surprises.

Categorised climbs:

• Col du Plan du Salève (9.6km at 5.4%), km. 26
• Montée de Brison (5km at 10.2%), km. 74
• Côte de Domancy (2.5km at 9.4%), km. 111.5
• Montée du Bettex (5.5km at 8%), km. 126.5
• Côte du Plateau d'Assy (5.1km at 7.5%), km. 147.5
• Côte de Domancy (2.5km at 9.4%), km. 162

Stage 11: Wednesday, July 14, 2027 - Cluses > Les Saisies, 150 km - Mountain

The third of a difficult string of stages, the finish at le Saisies is just past the summit of the Montée de Bisanne - a fairly steep 12.5km ascent averaging 8.3%. This one has Pogačar written all over it.

Categorised climbs:

• Col de la Colombière (15.9 km at 7%), km. 16
• Col de la Croix Fry (7.2 km at 5.5%), km. 40
• Col de la Forclaz de Queige (5.1 km at 8.2%), km. 85
• Col du Pré (12.6 km at 7.8%), km. 113
• Montée de Bisanne (12.4 km at 8.3%), km. 146

Stage 12: Thursday, July 15, 2027 - Chambéry > Valence, 162 km - Hilly

Stage 13: Friday, July 16, 2027 - Aubenas > Montpellier, 164 km - Flat

Stage 14: Saturday, July 17, 2027 - Montpellier > Mende, 199 km - Mountain

The finish in Mende on the Côte de la Croix Neuve a.k.a. Montée Jalabert has produced memorable finishes, starting with Laurent's victory in 1995. It was the place where Joaquim Rodriguez managed to get the better of Alberto Contador in 2010, and where Steve Cummings gave the African team MTN-Qhubeka their first Tour stage win in 2015. Michael Matthews was the last winner here in 2022, but the approach is far more difficult in 2027.

Categorised climbs:

• Col du Vent (8.4 km at 5.8%), km. 40.5
• Col de la Lusette (11.6 km at 7.3%), km. 108.5
• Côte de l'Estrade (5.7 km at 8.3%), km. 175
• Côte de la Croix Neuve (3 km at 10.1%), km. 197.5

Stage 15: Sunday, July 18, 2027 - Rodez > Albi, 169 km - Hilly

Stage 16: Tuesday, July 20, 2027 - Toulouse > Toulouse, 33 km - Individual time-trial

The second individual time trial of the Tour on stage 16 is 33km long and mostly flat, except for a single categorised climb, the Côte de Pech David - a short but steep ascent - in the second half of the race. It only climbs 100m but it does so over just 800m of tarmac.

• Côte de Pech David (800 m at 12.4%), km. 24

Stage 17: Wednesday, July 21, 2027 - Muret > Pau, 186 km - Flat

Stage 18: Thursday, July 22, 2027 - Pau > Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet, 174 km - Mountain

The queen stage of the 2027 Tour de France, stage 18 from Pau to the Col du Portet takes riders over 2000 metres in altitude twice - the first time over the Col du Tourmalet midway through the 174km stage, and then at the finish, with two other medium mountains for good measure.

Categorised climbs:

• Col du Soulor (11.8 km at 7.3%), km. 50
• Col du Tourmalet (19 km at 7.4%), km. 106.5
• Hourquette d'Ancizan (8.2 km at 5.1%), km. 140.5
• Saint-lary-soulan Col du Portet (16 km at 8.7%), km. 174

Stage 19: Friday, July 23, 2027 - Hasparren > Laruns, 160 km - Mountain

The climbing continues on stage 19 with four major ascents including the last chance for glory on the Col de Marie Blanque with 18.5km to go. It's the last major mountain of the Tour since the penultimate stage has been given to the sprinters.

Categorised climbs:

• Col de Burdincurutcheta (8.7 km at 9.3%), km. 44.5
• Col de Bagargui (4.8 km at 6.4%), km. 52.5
• Col de Soudet (15.1 km at 7.2%), km. 95.5
• Col de Marie Blanque (7.7 km at 8.6%), km. 141.5

Stage 20: Saturday, July 24, 2027 - Maubourguet > Libourne, 198 km - Flat

Stage 21: Sunday, July 25, 2027 - Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines > Paris Champs-Élysées, 116 km - Flat

After much debate, the Montmartre climb ended up in the final stage of the Tour de France in Paris, with riders tackling the hill, that made its debut in pro cycling during the Olympic Games in 2024, three times. In 2026, the sprinters very nearly caught Mathieu van der Poel, but he held on just long enough to win the stage over teammate Jasper Philipsen.

• Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1 km à 6.5 %), 74
• Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1 km à 6.5 %), 90
• Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1 km à 6.5 %), 106

For the sixth year in a row, Tadej Pogačar has ended the season as the number one rider in the UCI World Rankings, and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad were at the top of the Team Rankings for the fourth straight year.

On the women's side, FDJ United-SUEZ topped the UCI Team Rankings for women for the second year in a row, with World Champion and Tour de France winner Demi Vollering crushing the competition in the individual rankings.

Pogačar and Vollering were nearly tied on points accumulated through the season, with 9,331.75 and 9,330 points, respectively, after both had equally dominant seasons with victories in the Tour de France, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Flanders.

While Vollering had a nearly flawless season, with wins in the Giro d'Italia, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, La Flèche Wallonne and the World and European Championships road races, Pogačar's season was cut short due to a crash in the Vuelta a España, which meant he gained no points in the World and European Championships.

Still, Pogačar amassed far more points than second-placed Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who ended the year with the World and European time trial titles, second place in the Tour de France and 7,191.61 points. Next in line were Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) with 5,606 and 5,580 points, respectively.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were the second-best team, but were over 5,000 points shy of Pogačar's squad, with Visma-Lease a Bike, Decathlon CMA CGM and Lidl-Trek rounding out the top five on the men's side.

Behind Vollering in the women's rankings was Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) with 5,660 points, mirroring her results in the Tour de France and World Championships. Paula Blasi and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team l'IMAD) were third and fourth, and helped their team finish second overall to FDJ by 263 points. SD Worx-Protime, Canyon-SRAM and Visma-Lease a Bike completed the top five. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) was fifth.

In the minor rankings, Pogačar continued his dominance in the UCI Stage Race Rankings, beating Giro d'Italia winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Del Toro, but his three-year winning streak in the UCI One-Day Race Rankings ended because of his crash, and Evenepoel took home that prize for 2026 with Pogačar second and Seixas third.

Pogačar continued to lead the European Tour rankings over Evenepoel and Seixas, but Pinarello-Q36.5 came in as the top team ahead of Tudor and Cofidis. Belgium led the nations rankings.

Biniam Girmay (NSN) led the Africa Tour Rankings ahead of fellow Eritreans Natnael Tesfasion (Movistar) and Henok Mulueberhan (XDS Astana). The Algerian team Madar Pro Cycling led the African team rankings, while Eritrea topped the nations.

In the Americas Tour, Del Toro led the individual rankings ahead of Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), with World Champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) third and, thanks to his rainbow jersey-winning effort, the USA led the nations rankings. Modern Adventure led the team rankings.

Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS Astana) finished out the year atop the Asia Tour rankings as did his native Kazakhstan, while the Chinese team Li Ning Star led the teams. In Oceania, it was Laurence Pithe, Jai Hindley and Michael Matthews atop the individual rankings, Australia as top nation and CCache X Bodywrap the number one team.

There are no Continental tours for women.

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

Tour de France contender Oscar Onley says he is counting the days to the race's start in Scotland, where the GC specialist will be looking forward to what he calls a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to race cycling's biggest professional event on home soil.

In the meantime, too, he's got every intention highlighting some specialities in the local diet to Tour de France followers who may be unfamiliar with Scottish culinary traditions.

Asked at the Tour de France presentation in Paris on Thursday what people can expect as a Scottish welcome, Onley said - half-jokingly - "Some haggis and a deep-fried Mars Bar, that'd be the go-to.

"It'll be really special, I think, particularly because of the crowds, they always get behind the big sporting events and I expect the same thing next year as well.

"It's something I couldn't even have dreamed of, normally the Tour de France is in France, so it's a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. I really want to hopefully be there, and that's my first goal."

Fourth in the 2025 Tour de France was a breakthrough result for Onley, but then injuries incurred in a major crash on a descent on stage 7 of the Critérium du Dauphiné put paid to his chances of racing it this summer.

Onley subsequently bounced back to take fourth overall in the Vuelta a España, but he denied that there was any extra pressure on him to perform as Ineos have such a significant series of past success in the Tour de France.

"I don't think so. As riders we all put a lot of pressure on ourselves, it's more the team do a good job in managing that and making sure we do everything we need to. But they don't add pressure to what we do."

That said, the goal of winning a Grand Tour remains the main objective for Netcompany Ineos, he argued and "the Tour de France is the biggest one, every team has these big ambitions and we're no different.

"I think from what I've seen in the team this year, we're definitely going in the right direction, we have all the resources to make something like this happen."

Nor are the past Grand Tour victories a distant memory of glories past, he argues, for Netcompany Ineos, with riders who remain in the current lineup also part of the former success in those races.

"Kwiato [Michal Kwiatkowski] is still in the team, he's also been part of a lot of these Tour-winning teams. He's always got lots of stories of training camps and races as well, and it's quite inspiring when he says these things over dinner to us."

The route for 2027 is now out, in any case, and Onley is convinced that having that knowledge so soon, nearly seven months before the event actually starts in Edinburgh next July 2, can only be a good thing. He hasn't yet pinpointed one stage as one that suits him particularly well - although he's certain that'll happen. Rather the idea is to stay in the action in the race from start to finish.

"There are opportunities everywhere, everyone's got weaknesses and strengths and it's better to know the course now, you can really prepare for what's ahead," he reasoned.

"It's not like no-one knows the parcours. There are no excuses for July."

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

2026 Tour de France Femmes leader and stage winner Marlen Reusser has made a call to step up the fight for parity between men's and women's cycling, arguing that a great deal has been done but that there are still steps to be taken.

The Movistar leader said she had enjoyed the race presentation in Paris, but argued that there was a greater level of protagonism for the men's event during it than the women's. She also asked why the men's event was not called the Tour de France Hommes to balance it out with the Tour de France Femmes.

ASO organiser Marion Rousse responded to her comments by saying that the race had taken major steps towards a much greater level of equality - something which Reusser had already underlined - but that both the races had to evolve at the same rate as the sport in general. She also pointed out that the Tour de France Femmes presentation was shorter, that was connected to the different length of the events.

Reusser said that she had felt inspired by the route presentation, recalling the time when she had been to a similar kind of event for the Olympics and it had considerably boosted her interest in the event.

"The presentation was really cool, I remember doing after only I was a very short time in cycling, doing the Olympic Games and it was never something I was dreaming about or something, but then I had to go to the kick-off, it was kind of this event in Switzerland for the Olympic Games and I was so infected by the Olympic spirit," she explained.

"So I wanted to come here to see if I get infected and I think that they managed well. It's a nice event."

At the same time, she said, it would be good if things continued to develop in term of the fight for equality between the two events, starting off with their name.

"But I'm a bit disappointed still that it's Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes, where is the Tour de France Hommes? This is weird to me, this I don't understand. Also like we have two nice directors, but I don't feel like it's them on the same level, it's more the men's director that is [on stage] then also having next to him the women's, " she said.

"So I think the Tour is doing so great showing that there is not only men's sport, but then we speak a lot about it but we just should do it more. I wish these little steps to come when we speak about the presentation and the whole thing."

Asked about Reusser's comments, Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse argued categorically that there had been a great deal of progress, but warned against taking decisions too fast that could potentially do more harm than good in the long run. She also pointed to the Tour de France Grand Départ in the UK as being a key balancing act between the two races.

"It's already a big first to start in the same country outside the Tour de France, and the United Kingdom is a natural step, because they have already done a lot of work developing with women's sport, with things like the Rugby World Cup in 2025 or the Women's Tour of Britain," Rousse argued. "We're doing exactly the same thing in the UK, three days for the men, three days for the women - it's magnificent.

"We also will continue the work, but there's also the question of continuing to develop the race at the same pace as women's sport. If we suddenly do 15 days of racing tomorrow" - as opposed to the nine in the race as is the case for 2027 - "of course the women are able to do that, but certain teams would find that hard.

"We want to show what women's cycling is capable of doing and that's done, the sponsors are investing and the tv exposure is happening, that's all done. We are going to go on evolving, but we have to be careful, because once a step is taken you can't go back. Each decision is important."

Regarding any perceived imbalance between the men's and the women's presentation, she argued that that was "not really the case, because obviously the men's presentation is going to be longer because there are 21 stages against nine.

"But if not the work is exactly the same and besides we are doing the same thing, it's just there are fewer stages."

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

In 2026, the Tour de France Femmes seemed to get everything right. After four years of experimentation, the route felt like ASO had pulled together everything they'd learnt into a beautifully balanced course, featuring a bit of everything: a foreign Grand Départ, an iconic mountain stage, a time trial, and a big-city finale.

The result was a truly thrilling race, delivering six different stage winners, five different riders in the yellow jersey, and a GC battle that went down to the wire on the very last day.

There were limitations, of course, for example the geographical footprint of the race was small, with much of France not getting a chance to Watch The Femmes by the roadside. But with what ASO and race director Marion Rousse can do with nine days of racing, they seemed to get it pretty spot on.

Fast forward to this year, then, and the expectation around the route reveal was high. How could they build upon perhaps the best edition of the Tour de France Femmes yet? How would they raise the bar again this time, as they have in every other edition? We were surely in for another cracking route.

But when Marion Rousse was done presenting the nine stages that will make up next year's Tour to the Palais de Congrès audience and fans around the world, I was left feeling a bit flat.

My initial reaction to the stage featuring the iconic Puy de Dôme climb was excitement – 'Wow, they're really doing it' – but as the screen faded to black to confirm that was the final stage, my feeling shifted more to 'Oh, is that it?'.

Though not an icon of the 21st century – it was only reintroduced in full to the Tour in 2023 after a 35-year absence – the Puy de Dôme occupies an important place in Tour history, the site of some truly memorable battles, not least when Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor went literally shoulder to shoulder on the ascent in 1964. Its iconic shape, rising up above Clermont-Ferrand, and the railway following the riders up its slopes gives it a clear and looming identity.

But it's also only 11.3km, only climbs up to 1,415m, and isn't on the level of fame nor difficulty of some of the iconic Pyrenean or Alpine passes. In fact, no climb on the whole 2027 Tour de France Femmes route surpasses 1,500m elevation, let alone the benchmark 2,000m, something you can only get in the Alps and Pyrenees.

It's not that the final three stages aren't packed full of climbing – they are – but there's only so much you can do in France's third biggest mountain range.

Of course, there is a reason to skip the Pyrenees and Alps: the organisers like to change things up each year, and they are also slightly hamstrung by the UK Grand Départ, making the Massif Central much more reasonable to journey to in only a week, compared to going all the way south to either bigger mountain range.

But having seen the true mountain battles we've been treated to for the last few years, the Massif Central – literally and figuratively – just doesn't reach those heights.

In this day and age, 1,400m cannot be the ceiling of how high the Tour de France Femmes can climb. We've known since this race was launched that big, iconic mountains are what make it special, and what deliver the truly showpiece days, like Mont Ventoux earlier this summer.

I have no doubt that this Massif Central-focused course will be challenging, engaging and thrilling, and we'll see another brilliant battle for the yellow jersey – I just wish we were doing it on some bigger, better climbs, more akin to what we've seen before.

No time trial – again

It's also an undeniable shame that this race is missing an individual time trial, opting for a team time trial in London as part of the Grand Départ instead. As I wrote in my route explainer, the Tour is limited in time and they can't do everything – at least not in the sense that the men's race can, with a whole 21 stages to play with – so something always has to be dropped.

But is a team time trial really preferable to an individual time trial? It's novel, sure, having never been done in the Tour de France Femmes before, and it's perhaps slightly more fun for casual fans for watch. It also shortens the amount of time that the race will have to close roads in central London for. But is it good for the race?

The results of a TTT will naturally be very different from an ITT, arguably levelling out the playing field between the top riders – they are all both supported and limited by their teammates, so we're unlikely to see a Reusser for example take a bit chunk of time here – but at the same time disproportionately disadvantaging those on smaller teams.

We haven't often seen underdogs come to the fore in the Tour, and including a TTT – which the better-resourced teams always do better in – basically ensures we definitely won't in 2027.

But really, the main issue is that I just think the Tour should have a TT, always. The concept of a men's Tour de France without a time trial is basically unconscionable, and whilst the women's race in only nine stages, it purports to be a Grand Tour, and that should mean the winner has to face a bit of everything: time trialing, sprints, hills and mountains – that's what makes a Grand Tour and a Grand Tour winner.

Riders and teams have long been in agreement on that fact, and have complained when other women's Grand Tours have missed a TT, so for the Tour to go back to a TT-less form feels like a downgrade on last year. A team time trial just isn't the same.

No fans?

The other really concerning element of the Femmes route reveal is the question over whether fans will be allowed on the Puy de Dôme summit finish.

When the men's race last visited, in 2023, fans were not allowed on the final 4km due to ecological protections, and also the difficulty in getting up the climb that only has one road up, which is flanked on one side by an in-use railway line. That meant the finale of the climb was raced in an eerie absence of spectators, with even very few media at the top to capture the moment, something that perhaps doesn't feel befitting of the biggest race on earth.

Of course, these ecological concerns need to be taken into account, and Marion Rousse said on Thursday that nothing has been decided – the local authorities will make a call on whether spectators will be permitted closer to the time.

But even the risk of having no fans on the final, decisive climb of the race feels fundamentally antithetical to everything the Tour de France Femmes has been building for the last five years. The whole project has been based around Watch The Femmes, bringing fans out, making the event as big and as accessible as possible to show just how much appetite there is for women's racing.

Mont Ventoux this year was a spectacular example of that, with fans lining every kilometre of the Bald Mountain, making the long journey up to its moon-like peak. The fans are what have made this race so special and successful, and has always been at the heart of the event.

So to not have fans present to cheer on the sport's best athletes on the decisive, climactic climb of next year's race would not just be disappointing, it would be a failure in organisation. We'll all be keeping our fingers crossed that ASO and the local authorities find a solution, but if they don't, and we have a fan-free finale to the biggest race on earth next summer, serious questions will have to be asked over the decisionmaking around going to this particular climb.

I thought that ASO finally cracked the formula on how to do it all within nine days in 2026, but 2027's route has shown us that truly doing a little bit of everything, including a TT, and going to one of the big two mountain ranges, is still a stretch for this race. Which is understandable, but when we've seen how good it can be, it's hard to not feel a little shortchanged.

I know the race will deliver, it always does, but on paper, it's left a lot to be desired.

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

Former mountain bike world and Olympic champion Jolanda Neff will ride on the Fenix-Premier Tech squad for two years from 2027, the Belgian team have announced.

At 33-years-old, the Swiss rider is experienced across road and cyclo-cross, but she is best known for her exploits on the mountain bike, a discipline where she has gained a wealth of success.

Not only did she win Olympic gold in Tokyo, she was cross-country World Champion in 2017 and the cross-country MTB Marathon rainbow jersey winner the year before that. She also boasts 16 elite World Cup race victories in her career.

While Neff might not have been quite as successful on the cyclo-cross field, she has a total of 11 wins, with two last season when she was competitive in every race she rode.

On the road, Neff has never won above .2 level, but as long ago as 2014 she bagged third place at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, then a top-level World Cup race, and was fourth and fifth on general classification at the UCI Women’s WorldTour stage race, Tour de Suisse, in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Neff has raced the last two mountain bike campaigns for the Cannondale Factory Racing outfit, but that team’s demise, which coincides with the company’s move to the Netherlands, has forced her to seek a team elsewhere, and Fenix-Premier Tech seems a good fit.

"I’m really excited to join Fenix-Premier Tech, a team that unites mountain biking, cyclocross and road racing at a world-class level," Neff said in a team statement.

"I will pour my heart and soul into becoming a better rider in every aspect, as well as sharing all my experience with other riders. I have always admired how this team puts a strong focus on women and on creating professional structures for them, as well as developing young riders with a long-term vision. I hope to make a great contribution to Fenix-Premier Tech and can’t wait to get racing!"

Fenix-Premier Tech and their brother team Alpecin-Premier Tech, are a true multi-discipline outfit with a number of riders throughout the roster riding both on and off-road. On the women’s side alone, the team boasts cyclo-cross World Cup race winners Aniek van Alphen and Puck Pieterse, as well as former World Champion Ceylin de Carmen Alvarado. Pieterse is also a past mountain bike World Champion, and has won the best young rider and mountains classifications at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, along with a handful of top Classics.

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

Race organisers ASO have said that they will follow the lead of local authorities regarding the possible presence of spectators on the Puy de Dôme for the final stage of the 2027 Tour de France Femmes.

In the equivalent 2023 men's event, spectators were prohibited by the authorities on the entirety of the same climb because the site is of special ecological interest.

While the 2023 stage itself saw a thrilling duel unfold on the climb between top favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, the absence of fans made for a bizarre spectacle, reminiscent of the 2020 Tour de France, where spectators were also banned from many climbs and much of the route because of COVID-19.

The question is arguably even more relevant for the 2027 Tour de France Femmes as the Puy de Dôme is the final climb of the final stage of the race, wheras in 2023, the men's Tour then continued for another 10 days before its final showdown in the Alps and Vosges.

Tour de France Femmes race director Marion Rousse told reporters at the race presentation that local authorities would decide on the question of spectators, but insisted, too, that the organisers were merely "tenants of the course" - in other words, they were not permanently attached to it - and as such were very aware of the need to take care of it as well as possible.

"I am sure we're going to take good note of what happened in the Tour finish with [Tadej] Pogačar and [Jonas] Vingegaard; that was very special," Rousse told reporters after the presentation.

In 2023, she recalled, "We went from a race atmosphere at the foot of the col which was full of people, an enormous crowd and suddenly there was absolutely nothing. It was something that both riders and TV commentators really noticed."

Without going into any detail, Rousse promised that "it will be different" this time around.

"An announcement will be made this evening at Puy de Dôme by the regional department because we have done a second race presentation there.

"But we're very conscious about the fact we are simply tenants of the route, and we definitely want this mountain to be preserved as it always has been. So what happens there will be under the direction of the local authorities."

As for the start of the Tour de France Femmes in Scotland and the two stages through England and Wales, Rousse described it as a "historic event".

"It's the first Grand Départ outside France where both the men's and women's Tours start in the same country, and that is already exceptional.

"We really feel that Great Britain wants to develop the women's sport at the same level as men's sport, so there will be equality for men and women in the Grand Départ, three days for both in the same country. That's wonderful."

Rousse said that she had first been inspired by the idea of racing in Great Britain for the Tour De France Femmes by watching the equivalent men's race in 2014 on TV and seeing just how large the crowds were that year. She had, she said, never seen so many people watching the race.

Taking that year's event as inspiration for a Tour de France Femmes Grand Départ in the UK, she said that "I've had this idea in my head for years.

"So when you're telling me that it's time for our race to be there in a few months time, that's marvellous, we're really looking forward to it.

"I truly think the Grand Départ in Great Britain will mark a 'before' and 'after' for the Tour de France Femmes."

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

Mark Cavendish was one of the many stars of the Tour de France route presentation in Paris on Thursday morning and is looking forward to the opening three stages in Britain next year.

Despite its lumpy start, the 185km first stage between the Scottish capital Edinburgh and the English city of Carlisle may well be one which suits the punchy sprinters, as it flattens out before crossing the border with around 40km to go. And should a sprinter win, they will wear yellow for at least one day.

Cavendish did just that in 2016, winning the opening stage at Utah Beach in Normandy when racing for the Dimension Data squad, and he’s backing another sprinter to repeat that performance at next year’s race.

After winning five stages of the recent Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour, British star Matthew Brennan has certainly put his hand up as one to do that, and even spoke about the prospect of wearing yellow when in Spain. And while he didn’t mention Brennan by name, when asked, Cavendish acknowledged the chance is a real one.

"I always like when there's an opportunity for the sprinters to pull on a yellow jersey in the first stage of the Tour de France," he said after the presentation.

"I was very fortunate to have that opportunity a couple of times and then pull on the yellow jersey once in my career, and it's really nice to see that on the first stage in the UK.

"Hopefully we can have a winner that'll make a nice story for what will be an incredible weekend."

Cavendish experienced two British Grands Départs during his long career, first in London in 2007 when he raced his maiden Tour, then again in 2014, when he crashed out of contention late in the opening stage in Harrogate. But he believes the British people have a real affinity with the race.

"I think people still talk about it today, 12, 13 years later. Unfortunately, that stage didn't finish as well as I'd hoped, but it was incredible to experience it, and to see the Tour de France go back there," he said.

"I think there's an incredible relationship between France and the UK, and Great Britain really appreciates the Tour de France for being the greatest sporting event on the planet, and you really see that when it goes there.

"To be able to see it in not even just a small portion of the UK, but in Scotland, in England, in Wales, it's very, very spectacular.

"The second stage to Liverpool, actually, if it's a clear day, we'll see my home in the Isle of Man from across the sea, and a lot of the roads I know very well, and I'm really excited to see the excitement for the Tour de France there always is when the Grand Départ is in the UK."

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

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome believes we may see a closer contest for the yellow jersey, as he offered his initial take on the 2027 route that was unveiled in Paris on Thursday.

The route features the heaviest dose of time trialling since 2012, when Froome was the runner-up behind his teammate and compatriot Bradley Wiggins, a podium that would preface four Tour titles in the space of five years.

The 71 kilometres of time trialling are not exactly balanced out by a huge dose of mountains, with two stages in the Alps and two in the Pyrenees, and plenty of punchier terrain in between.

For Froome, Tadej Pogačar remains the favourite to win a record sixth title, but might not run away with it in the same way he has in the past three years.

"It is, as usual, a brutal Tour de France. There is really a bit of everything," said Froome, who was in attendance in the Palais des Congrès in Paris and gave his take to the gathered media, including Cyclingnews, behind the stage.

"There are more time trial kilometres, that’s also interesting. We have seen the difference Tadej has made in the mountains so maybe with the time trials we’re going to see a bit of a closer race between the favourites. That will change the approach to the race."

Still, it might not change the favourite, with Pogačar already surpassing Froome's four titles with his record-equalling fifth this summer.

"It's just incredible what Tadej has been doing these past few years," Froome said. "I imagine that next year he’ll be lining up as the main favourite for the Tour de France and no doubt going in to challenge for number six."

Froome was also asked about the Grand Départ, which takes place in his home nation of Great Britain, starting in Edinburgh, Scotland and making its way through England and into the Welsh capital of Cardiff before the hop over to France.

"If it’s anything like it was in 2014, the start over in Scotland is going to be amazing," said Froome, who rode as the defending champion the last time the Tour started in Britain, in Yorkshire, 12 years ago.

"The first three stages on UK soil is going to be be something really special. If it’s anything like 2014 it will just be millions and millions of people who come out.

"I never saw a Grand Départ of a Tour de France that was bigger than 2014 so I imagine next year is going to be similar. A lot of colour, a lot of people will really take the opportunity to come out and experience the Tour de France – people who've never been to France to watch the race. I expect millions of people will be on the roads."

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

The 2027 Tour de France Femmes route takes the peloton from Leeds, England, to the summit of the Puy de Dôme in France's Massif Central, over nine days of racing between July 30 and August 7.

The race opens with a lightly hilly route from Leeds to Manchester that could still finish in a bunch sprint, before a punchy stage 2 from Manchester to Sheffield that should spark fireworks. The British Grand Départ concludes with a stage that will certainly shape the general classification: an 18km team time trial in the English capital of London.

There is no rest day, and the race picks up the following day on French soil with a lightly hilly stage 4 to Calais, followed by a punchy stage 5 to Magnanville, where a series of short climbs in the finale will draw the yellow jersey favourites into battle.

Stage 6 into Bourges is a flat track for the sprinters, but stage 7 is anything but, signalling the first of two mountain summit finishes at La Loge des Gardes, which measures 6.7km at an average gradient of 7.1%.

Stage 8 is net downhill and features a descent to the line, but it's another tough stage through the rugged medium mountains of the Massif Central, where the favourites will be exposed against one another.

Finally, the race will come down to a showdown on the Puy de Dôme, the iconic climb of this volcanic region of central France. Measuring 11.3km on irregular gradients averaging 7.8%, it's a huge test that will decide the yellow jersey at the panoramic summit.

Preview the stage-by-stage details below.

2026 Tour de France Femmes - Stages, Locations and Distances

Tour de France Femmes 2025 - Stage by stage guide

Stage 1: Leeds – Manchester, 86km

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de Kirkheaton, 1.7km at 7.5%
• Côte de Meltham, 3.2km at 8.4%
• Côte de Delph, 2.1km at 6.3%

Stage 2: Manchester – Sheffield, 154km

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de Calton, 1.6km at 6.3%
• Winnats Pass, 1.4km at 12.3%
• Côte de Chunal, 1.4km at 7.1%
• Snake Pass, 5.4km at 4.6%
• Côte de Bradfield, 1km at 8.8%
• Côte d'Oughtibridge, 1.5km at 9.1%
• Côte de Jenkin Road, 0.8kkm at 10.8%

Stage 3: London – London, 18km (TTT)

The Tour de France Femmes will feature a first-ever team time trial on an 18km course in the heart of London on the third day of racing.

Landmarks:

• Palace of Westminster, 0.5km
• Tower of London, 4.3km
• London Bridge, 7km
• St. Paul's Cathedral, 8km
• Trafalgar Square, 11km
• Picadilly Circus, 11.5km
• Queen Elizabeth Gate, 13km
• Aspley Arch, 17km
• Buckingham Palace 17.5km

Stage 4: Le Touquet Paris-Plage – Calais, 123km

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de Harlettes, 1.1km at 6.9%
• Côte du Ventus, 1.1km at 6.8%
• Côte de Bazinghen, 0.9km at 7.5%
• Côte du Cap Blanc, 0.9km at 7.7%

Stage 5: Neufchâtel-en-Bray – Magnaville, 161km

The fifth day will be a more challenging day featuring eight short, punchy climbs on a 161km race from Neufchâtel-en-Bray to Magnanville. Tour organisers classify the stage as 'flat'.

Categorised climbs:

• Côte d'Osmoy, 1.6km at 5.2%
• Côte d'Eawy, 1.8km at 4.5%
• Côte de Molincourt, 1.6km at 4.4%
• Côte de Dampsmesnil, 1.5km at 6%
• Côte de Valcorbon, 1.3km at 5.8%
• Côte de Baudemont, 1km at 10.2%
• Côte d'Amenucourt, 1km at 10%
• Côte de Follainville, 1.1km at 6%

Stage 6: Orléans-Bourges, 138km

Also classified as a flat stage on the sixth day of racing, the peloton will embark on a 138km from Orléans to Bourges. It is a day for pure sprinters, with no categorised climbs on this stage, but it will also offer some reprieve for the overall contenders before the final three days in the mountains.

Stage 7: Nevers – La Loge des Gardes, 155km

The peloton will reach the northern foothills of the Massif Central on the seventh day of racing with a hilly 155km from Nevers to La Loge des Gardes. There are only two categorised ascents on tap, both at the very end, which will surely set the stage for the GC battle on the last two days of racing.

Categorised climbs:

• Côte du Point du Jour, 2.1km at 8.6%
• La Loge des Gardes, 6.7km at 7.1%

Stage 8: La Bourboule – Clermont-Ferrand, 151km

The Tour de France Femmes will visit Clermont-Ferrand for a third time with a 151km route from La Bourboule to Clermont-Ferrand. It is the first official mountain day of racing in the nine-day race, with six categorised climbs and 3,000m of elevation gain.

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de la Stele, 5.4km at 5%
• Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, 5.2km at 6.4%
• Col de la Croix Morand, 6.8km at 5%
• Côte de Murol, 3.3km at 5.3%
• Côte de Rouillas, 2.3km at 6.1%
• Côte de Charade, 6km at 5.9%

Stage 9: Clermont-Ferrand – Puy-de-Dôme, 170km

The final day of racing will begin in Clermont-Ferrand and take the peloton on a 170km GC battle over eight climbs and 3,800m of elevation gain to the summit of the Puy de Dôme, where the overall winner will be crowned.

Categorised climbs:

• Côte de Ternant, 5.1km at 6.3%
• Côte de L'étang des Ouches, 4.7km at 5.1%
• Côte des Fades, 4.2km at 4.6%
• Côte du Bouchet, 1.9km at 7%
• Côte de Boisse, 1.3km at 7.3%
• Côte de Saint-Jacques-d'Ambur, 2.6km at 5.9%
• Côte de La Mouteyre, 5.3km at 6.2%
• Puy de Dôme, 11.3km at 7.8%

The route for the 2027 Tour de France has been unveiled, with a testing British Grand Départ, two individual time trials, and a brutal Pyrenean queen stage among the highlight obstacles that reigning champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and his challengers will have to face come July.

Race Director Christian Prudhomme revealed the route on Thursday at the Palais de Congrès in Paris, with the most ITT kilometres since 2012, when Bradley Wiggins took victory, totalling 71km across two key days against the clock.

Action kicks off from the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, on Friday, July 2, and 21 stages over 3,479km will stand in the way of whether or not Pogačar can win his fourth yellow jersey in a row and a record-breaking sixth overall crown in Paris.

The Pyrenees are set to star as the defining mountain range of the 114th Tour, arriving in the final week with a brutal duo of stages, including the hardest day on paper to the Col du Portet on stage 18, but the Alps and Massif Central will still play a major role in the race for the maillot jaune.

Even nine months ahead of the Scottish start, Pogačar is the benchmark that two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), this year's runner-up Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and rising French superstar Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) will all be chasing.

If he is to take a sixth overall victory, the Slovenian would move him ahead of Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Induráin for the all-time record of titles.

In an era of the race for yellow essentially being decided as early as stage 6 at the past edition of the Tour – where Pogačar was already 2:42 in front of his nearest rival Vingegaard after just one high mountain stage – it's no surprise to see the first week packed with opportunities for the puncheurs and sprinters.

After likely battling out the race for the first yellow jersey on stage 1 in Carlisle, there are six probably flat stages in total where the sprinters and lead-out trains will want to come to the fore, with plenty on offer also for the rouleurs and Classics specialists as the race traverses south from the UK.

There would have been seven clear chances for the fast men, but the drama-producing Butte Montmartre climb has returned for a third year in a row in 2027 on the final day, making the run to the Champs-Élysées anything but a guarantee for those eyeing a sprint on stage 21 in Paris.

Organisers ASO want the GC race to be on for as long as possible, with a crescendo building towards the most difficult day on stage 18, where a back-loaded route will all but reach its denouement atop the Col du Portet summit finish, if someone isn't already out of sight.

Twenty years after the Tour started in London, and 13 years after mass crowds delighted the Tour in Yorkshire, the start in Great Britain is characterised by an opening flatter day, and two hilly stages to Liverpool and Cardiff, the second of which should bring the first major GC action.

Where the race will be won

Stage 3 to Cardiff in the tricky Welsh hills has five punchy climbs packed into the last 80km of a 223km day. The GC hopefuls will have to be at their best while the Classics specialists – including Pogačar – will surely be on all-out attack.

With more than 3,000m of elevation gain, it is a likely place for a signature Pogačar attack ahead of the first rest day, which is more of a travel day down to Normandy from the UK's south coast.

The first of two individual time trials comes on stage 7, where four-time ITT World Champion Evenepoel will be expected to take control over a flat 38km race against the clock in Chambord. The tension will be building over punchy finishes into the first few stages in France ahead of this important test.

Evenepoel has already won three time trials at the Tour, but without a major mountain stage in the first week, this could bring the Belgian his first stint in the yellow jersey, 51 years after the last Belgian winner of the Tour, Lucien Van Impe, unless Pogačar launched an early campaign of destruction on stages like the one to Cardiff.

If not, then he will have been keeping his powder dry for the Jura and the first trip up to the high mountains on stage 9, where a climb he has won before rears its head again: Grand Colombier.

Pogačar took the second of his 26 Tour stage wins on the Grand Colombier on stage 15 of the 2020 race before winning his first yellow jersey, and now the 17.4-kilometre climb and its 7.1% average gradient represent the first opportunity to land a blow against your GC rivals. It arrives via the Col du Berthiand (6.3km at 7.5%), Côte de Neyrolles (3.6 at 7.7%), and Col de Richemond (7.7km at 6%), as the first of three mountain stages in a row.

As racing resumes after the first true rest day in Haute-Savoie, the host of the World Championships in 2027 will get a dress rehearsal for the rainbow jersey race on stage 10, a brutally difficult 171km route from Annecy to Sallanches.

The key climb of Worlds road races, the Côte de Domancy, will feature on the route as one of six tough climbs in the Alps. It's an ascent Vingegaard knows and loves, having demolished Pogačar there at the 2023 Tour en route to a second overall title.

But as we know, the Slovenian often likes to take revenge on the climbs where he has been burned in the past, and after missing out on defending his rainbow jersey this September, he will be hungry to make a statement.

The Tour will depart the Alps after just one more day of racing there, but it doesn't waste that opportunity, with the second hardest day on paper arriving on stage 11 to Les Saisies.

• Time trials
  • Stage 7 to Angers
  • Stage 16 in Toulouse
• Mountain stages
  • Stage 10 to Sallanches
  • Stage 11 to Les Saisies
  • Stage 14 to Mende
  • Stage 19 to Laruns
• Summit finishes
  • Stage 9 to Grand Colombier
  • Stage 18 to Col du Portet

More than 4,700m of elevation gain across four massive climbs feature, heading onto the Col de la Colombière (15.9km at 7%) straight out of neutral, and never really dropping in difficulty as it passes over the Col de la Croix Fry (7.2km at 5.5%), Col de la Forclaz de Queige (5.1km at 8.2%), Col du Pré (12.6km at 7.8%), and Montée de Bisanne (12.4km at 8.3%), before the final push to Les Saisies.

After that complete reshuffle of the GC standings, the race settles into two sprint stages, but there won't be overly long for the riders to catch their breath, as they then reach the Massif Central, where 4,300 metres of elevation gain are tucked into a quite tough day to Mende on stage 14.

The last time Mende appeared as a stage finish in 2022, there weren't major gaps between the GC favourites, as Michael Matthews won from the breakaway, but the approach to the finish in 2027 is over tougher terrain and steeper climbs, making the viciously steep Côte de la Croix Neuve (3km at 10.1%) more threatening than before.

One of the big favourites will likely be in control by the time the second week reaches a close, but there can be no room for complacency heading into the final six-stage run towards Paris, with plenty of opportunities to lose and gain major time.

The second individual time trial on stage 16 kicks this off, bringing the total kilometres against the clock to 71, returning the Tour to a stage closer to that of the Team Sky years, where Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas utilised the ITTs to their advantage, sometimes against the stronger climbers.

This lands massively in favour of 2026 runner-up Evenepoel, who will likely have already won stage 7 and be looking to double up and further his chances of a repeat podium, or even higher. Staying with Pogačar atop Grand Colombier and in the Alps is far from a given, though, so for Evenepoel to even be within striking distance before stage 16 in Toulouse will be a tall order.

What the 33km stage could do is potentially close the gap down before the Pyrenees, and this stage should also work in favour of home star Seixas, but Pogačar and Vingegaard are still not to be sniffed at – especially this far into a Grand Tour.

The queen stage

What's certain is that the hardest stage of the race will come on stage 18: 174km, 5,400m of elevation gain, and four of the hardest climbs in the race and France packed into one day of Pyrenean fireworks, set to really separate the wheat from the chaff at the 144th Tour.

Pogačar once again will return to favourable ground on a climb he has previously conquered, the Col du Portet (16km at 8.7%), which will serve as the summit finish and the Souvenir Henri Desgrange – the prize honouring the former director at the highest peak of the race.

To get there, the GC favourites will have to survive the Col du Soulor (11.8km at 7.3%), Col du Tourmalet (19km at 7.4%), and Hourquette d'Ancizan (8.2km at 5.1%), with the Tourmalet's iconic slopes arriving with 70km still to go and offering up the chance for more daring, long range raids.

Portet hasn't been seen in the Tour since 2021, when Pogačar defeated Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz en route to a dominant second yellow jersey title, but it will now headline the 2027 edition, as the likely penultimate major GC day.

If yellow isn't all but decided by this point, which would be a major shock, then a second day in the Pyrenees will become the decider on stage 19, from Hasparren to Laruns, where the final climb to the Col de Marie Blanque (7.7km at 8.6%) presents the final chance for a long-range move, cresting 19km from the downhill run to the line.

For now, Pogačar looks the most likely to be in yellow again at this point, but who knows what eight more months of development for Seixas and Evenepoel could look like – and Vingegaard isn't to be counted out with such brutal stages either.

In theory, there could be a final day for major GC splits on the final day into Paris, with the triple ascent of the Côte de la Butte Montmartre again punctuating the final day, but GC times actually being taken and not neutralised as they have been the past two years looks unlikely.

Non-GC opportunities

The Tour isn't just for climbers, even if yellow is the main prize, with plenty on offer over 12 potential non-GC days.

With many of the best and most popular riders in the world being puncheurs or Classics specialists, it is in ASO's best interest to have days that suit the likes of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) on the route.

They've got them in abundance in 2027, especially in the first week, with stage 2 to Liverpool and stage 3 to Cardiff resembling profiles of Classics, with up-and-down tight roads in the UK set to bring the most explosive riders to the fore.

Van der Poel and Van Aert have lit up hilly finishes in recent years, as have Pogačar and his newest lieutenant Isaac del Toro, so the GC riders likely won't be counted out of any of the short but steep uphill finales, such as on stage 4 to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, the first day in France, or the following stage to Plumelec.

• Punchy uphill finishes
  • Stage 4 to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin
  • Stage 5 to Plumelec
• Classics-style stages:
  • Stage 2 to Liverpool
  • Stage 3 to Cardiff
  • Stage 15 to Albi
  • Stage 21 to Paris
• Sprint stages
  • Stage 1 to Carlisle
  • Stage 6 to Angers
  • Stage 12 to Valence
  • Stage 13 to Montpellier
  • Stage 17 to Pau
  • Stage 20 to Libourne

Stage 8 to Le Creusot also brings the same riders into play, but also represents a great opportunity for the breakaway, ahead of the first mountain stage. It's also the longest stage of the 2027 edition, with two tough climbs – the Col de la Croix de la Libération (4.6km at 5.3%) and Signal d'Uchon (5.7km at 5.7%) – preceding the uphill run to the line.

Rodez to Albi at the close of the second week on stage 15 represents the likely final chance for the explosive Classics riders, until the last day in Paris, where Van der Poel's inspired win from a breakaway with Pogačar – just surviving ahead of the sprinters – should serve as inspiration for anyone with any punch left to get on the attack.

At least six of the 12 non-GC days should be for the sprinters, including the opening day from Edinburgh to Carlisle, and flat finishes into Angers, Valence, Montpellier, Pau, and Libourne, with stage 21 to Paris also potentially going the way of the fast men depending on how it is raced.

While the race for yellow has mostly been a dictatorship – or at most a duopoly if you go back from 2020 onwards – in recent years, sprinting has been more of a democracy, with the likes of Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), and Biniam Girmay (NSN) among those sharing the spoils in recent seasons.

Merlier stands above as the best for the moment, but that balance of power changes quickly. However, all of the quick men will be thinking most about how they navigate the road from Edinburgh down to Carlisle, with a rare shot at yellow.

2027 Tour de France stages

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

The route for the 2027 Tour de France Femmes has been unveiled, featuring a Grand Départ in the UK, a traverse across northern and central France, and a challenging finale with back-to-back mountain stages in the Auvergne.

Kicking off on Friday, July 30, 2027, the sixth edition of the race will be nine stages long, the same as in 2026, with the final stage on Saturday, August 7.

Starting with three stages in Great Britain – two hilly stages around Manchester and the Pennines and then the race's first-ever team time trial in London – the race then returns to France via Calais.

The showpiece climb of the race will be the Puy de Dôme, a deeply historic Tour climb that returned to the route in 2023 after a long absence, and will be the climax of the race on stage 9.

Like last year, the course looks like one where practically every day could invoke GC action, with hills and tough roads from stage 1 and the TTT ensuring a GC hierarchy will be forming before the race even returns to France. From there, the journey across France is peppered with hills before the climax in the Massif Central.

2026 winner and world champion Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) will be seeking a third title, but will face tough competition from some familiar faces, including Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (soon-to-be Lidl-Trek), Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), plus up-and-coming stars Paula Blasi (soon-to-be Movistar) and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM).

Where the race will be won

As we saw from this year's edition of the Tour de France Femmes, the yellow jersey isn't won on one or two big stages, it's a week-long battle with the favourites taking shots at each other wherever they can, including on the more innocuous stages. While there are still 'only' nine days of racing, and plenty of challenges on practically every day, we're expecting a similar pattern next August.

The final weekend with its back-to-back mountain stages will certainly be decisive, and will be where this race is officially won with the biggest time gaps here, but the GC action will have been brewing for several days already by the time the peloton hit the volcanic climbs.

Whilst the first two stages in the north feature plenty of spicy Pennine climbs, and the tension of the Grand Départ always throws up some twists, the flat finishes – and short length of stage 1, at only 87.5km – will likely mean we don't see huge gaps after those first stages. Some intention-laying attacks, sure, but the favourites should be on pretty even standings as the race heads to London.

The TTT around the capital will be the first guarantee of time gaps, then, with 18km of racing set around The Mall built by design to shake up the GC standings. Relatively short at 18km, the gaps again won't be huge, but they will be there. The team element is an interesting factor, though, as the specialists like Reusser and Vollering won't be able to just take chunks out of their rivals, they'll be limited by their teams, but on the other hand, riders like Ferrand-Prévot will be able to lean on their teammates more than they can in individual efforts. The yellow jersey won't be won or lost on the streets of London, but it will mean the riders return to France with an early idea of who is where on GC.

On returning to l'Hexagone, stage 4 won't offer up much of a break in hostilities, with the punchy finale into Calais sure to tempt the favourites into action, and the same could be said for stage 5 with its uphill finish into Manganville. The action here will mainly be feeling each other out, maybe grabbing a few seconds here or there rather than a race-winning gap, but with how close the favourites were matched this year, we know that every second counts.

This means that by the time we reach stages 7, 8 and 9 and their big climbing challenges, the GC tension will have been building for a good week, and we'll have a decent idea of who is sitting near the top of the standings, but there will still be a massive test to come.

It's hard to say which of the triple-header in the Massif Central will decide the winner of the Tour. Of course, a winner won't officially be crowned until the riders cross the line on stage 9 atop the Puy de Dôme, but could someone take enough time on stage 7 or 8 to put themselves well in the lead already? It's very possible.

The first summit finish of the race comes on stage 7, which is relatively late, atop La Loge des Gardes, a wooded ski station climb that's featured in Paris-Nice in recent years. The 6.7km climb is preceded by 30km of gradual, uncategorised climbing, which will sap the legs and could make it harder than its profile suggests, with big time gaps possible here. No one wants to leave it late, but equally, no one wants to play all their cards too early.

Stage 8 ramps up a level with no fewer than six climbs and 3,000m of elevation with a stage that could really rip the race apart on some of the hardest climbs in the Massif Central, but even after that, the Puy de Dôme will still be looming. A rider would have to have probably more than three minutes of a lead to feel comfortable going into stage 9.

Not only is the final stage packed full of climbing with a mountaintop finish atop the volcano, but it's long, too, at 170km. It's easy to imagine a scenario where a rider comes into this stage in yellow with a solid lead, but unless that lead is really huge, all will still be to play for on the 11.3km ascent up the Puy de Dôme. It's a lonely, testing climb, where gaps can open up quickly, and a final-day raid is far from impossible.

Whilst previous editions of the Tour haven't concluded on the showpiece climb – there's often been one last day to shake things out – 2027 will do just that, so expect everyone to throw absolutely everything at stage 9. And that could have some dramatic results.

The non-GC opportunities

As we saw in this year's Tour de France Femmes, opportunities for riders not aiming at the GC can be hard to come by. In 2026, practically every stage except the pan-flat openers ended up a GC race of some sorts, with the relatively short length of the women's race meaning the favourites wanted to take every opportunity they could to take time and shake up the standings.

In 2027, a similar story is expected. The backloading of the truly big climbs could swing the earlier stages slightly more in favour of the non-GC riders, but if history has told us anything about this race, it's that the favourites will go to battle as early as they can.