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Hey there lovely friends and readers, welcome to what is likely to be the last newsletter of 2025 – I actually can’t believe it. Although I say that a lot. You’d have thought at the age of [redacted] I might finally have made my peace with the relentless passage of time. But alas.
Once again, more time has elapsed since the last edition of the newsletter than I would ideally have liked, and rather inconveniently, it turns out that in that time, ALL THE THINGS AND ALL THE STUFF has happened in the world of cycling. I’m not even kidding. New kits! New riders! New routes! New bikes! New season programmes! New news! SO MUCH NEWS!
Yes it’s been go go go in the cycling world this past couple of weeks, as riders transition from holiday mode to training camp mode, and as has become customary, we begin to get a sense of the shape of the new season, courtesy of the various press conferences, what teams are actually going to look like, courtesy of new kit reveals, we get a look at the new machines some of them will be riding, and if that wasn’t enough, two of the three Grand Tours have made route announcements since I was last with you. Yes I know, it’s a LOT. I’ll divide it up into subsections and it will be VERY bitesize, but hopefully still contain everything you need to know – or at least, a tasting menu of the best bits.
3 THINGS FROM ME
Thing 1.
I didn’t put together a full 2025 season review as there are lots of those types of things knocking around in the mainstream cycling media, but I did write a piece about some of the odd, memorable moments from the season that reads a bit more like a list of ‘things that went wrong in cycling in 2025. It begins with some musing over the way cycling’s oddities are an implicit part of the sport, rather than unusual one-offs, the way they are in other sports. Read it here.
Thing 2.
Back interviewing riders, my favourite thing to do, I had a great chat with Floortje Mackaij for Cyclist Magazine about her role at Movistar, speed skating, Dutch drama, and why recovering her period after a number of years without is so important to her. Check it out!
Thing 3.
My latest ‘Under the Radar’ newsletter for paid subscribers on Substack looks at 9 riders who didn’t put together a great 2025 season, who will be looking for a big comeback in 2026. If you fancy joining in the fun, it will only cost you around the same as it costs to buy lunch, each month, or even less if you sign up for the year. You can read the first part of the post, here.
6 BITESIZE CHUNKS OF NEWS
Grouped into categories and necessarily kept to the barest of headlines, here is the vague outline of a mountain of cycling news!
Grand Tour news!
Routes have been revealed for the Giro d’Italia men and women and the men’s La Vuelta in the past couple of weeks, and there is plenty to dive into, which I probably will in future posts on the Substack, but for now it’s safe to say we’re in for an exciting 2026. The Giro starts on May 8th in Bulgaria, and hits the first high mountain stage on stage 7 when the peloton will face Blockhaus. There’s just one time trial but it’s a long one at 40.2km. The cima coppi comes on the Passo Giau on the Queen stage, stage 19. The women tackle 9 stages, including an ITT in the Dolomites and a huge Queen stage that replicates the finish of the men’s 2025 Queen stage, including the Colle delle Finestre and finishing in Sestriere.
As for La Vuelta, it’s quite a departure from the usual style of the race. It begins in Monaco in a blatant attempt to lure Tadej Pogačar out to play on his own doorstep, before taking in a tour of the east and south of the country. There are two time trials, plenty of flat stages offering much more for the sprinters than usual, and with no Basque Country or Asturias on the menu, there are less - how can I put this? - ‘Vuelta-y’ stages, resulting in quite a balanced Grand Tour overall.
Rider programme news!
Teams have begun to outline their plans for 2026, with certain riders already announcing their programmes, including the world’s best, Tadej Pogačar. It’s confirmed that he will once again aim for the two Monuments that continue to elude him - Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix - before heading to the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse ahead of a Tour de France defence. There’s no confirmation yet but it looks highly possible that he will head to the Vuelta, depending on how the season goes. Now the confirmed second top GC rider at the team, Joao Almeida - who has also extended his contract - will take on the Giro and La Vuelta.
Decathlon announced Paul Seixas’ programme before they even had their team presentation day – it seems fitting that the rider whose name is on everybody’s lips in 2025 became the first to officially announce his race programme, for the first part of 2026. The main news is that Seixas will target Strade Bianche, Itzulia Basque Country and the Ardennes Classics, before making a late decision on Tour de France, though it’s clear the team are not putting any pressure on him to debut next year, unless he wants to - instead they will focus on leading with Olav Kooij, in an attempt to win the green jersey.
Another team targeting green in July will be Lidl-Trek, seeking to defend the jersey for the third year in a row with Mads Pedersen the co-leader of the team alongside Juan Ayuso, who will go for the GC in his first Grand Tour for the team.
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe confirmed that despite the meagre amount of time trialling on the menu, that Remco Evenepoel would lead the team at the Tour de France, with Florian Lipowitz also slated to return to the Tour. Primoz Roglič will skip the Tour to go for his fifth Vuelta victory. Speaking of Red Bull, Dan Bigham only had them trying to launch a plane on their training camp?! See video proof below if you don’t believe me…
Signing news!
Exciting young Ethiopian talent Tsige Kahsay Kiros signs for Canyon//SRAM Generations. Nienke Vinke heads from Picnic-PostNL to SD Worx, Arne Marit is the final rider confirmed for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
Bianchi and Bahrain Victorious confirm partnership
Rolf Aldag (formerly of BORA hansgrohe) joins Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto
Alpecin confirm Premier Tech as their new title sponsor and announce their full roster, which includes a number of new arrivals, most notably Florian Sénéchal, Gerben Thijssens and Hugo Houle
Lidl-Trek extend the contract of Matthias Skjelmose, while Red Bull lock down Florian Lipowitz
New kit news!
SD Worx, NSN, Decathlon, INEOS, Groupama-FDJ, Canyon//SRAM, Red Bull, TotalEnergies and Lidl-Trek are the teams I can think of who’ve unveiled new kits, they’re a mixed bag with the two women’s kits I’ve seen so far the stand-out offerings - here’s a few of them for you to have a look at, if you haven’t seen them yet.
INEOS news!
So much INEOS news, the British team gets its own subsection! The headline news isn’t quite news just yet, but is set to be – Oscar Onley looks set to break contract with Picnic-PostNL to seal a move to INEOS which would see him become the team’s new hope for GC success, arguably their best heading into 2026. It’s not a done deal yet, but watch this space.
Outside of that, there’s an Aussie influx as Jack Haig and Sam Welsford sign for the team! The new kit is horrific – seriously, the shorts look like they were once white but were washed with the dark wash! Elia Viviani joins INEOS Grenadiers as Sports Director, as does Daryl Impey, who moves on from Israel-Premier Tech. And just yesterday, they have confirmed their own development team for 2026, the INEOS Racing Academy, announcing 12 riders including Brits Josh Charlton, Max Hinds, Mattie Dodds and Dylan Sage joined by a host of international talent.
Cyclocross news! The rivals return…
Heading into the weekend, there’s one story that’s on everyone’s minds – the first battle between the two men who are still the biggest draws in cyclocross, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert. The two announced their programmes within a few days of one another a week or two ago, and currently they are set to clash just five times, with the first of those coming at the Antwerp world cup on Saturday, and the second two days later in Hofstade. MVDP will race 12 times, all things being well, and Van Aert eight, but though currently the reigning world champion is planning on defending his title in Hulst in February, it is yet to be decided whether Van Aert will challenge him.
The return of the rivals is always hotly anticipated, even though last winter proved a bit of a damp squib in a competitive sense, as van der Poel was imperious and Van Aert was still recovering from a series of injuries. This year, it’s hard to say whether they will be more well-matched or not, but Van Aert is certainly in better shape, and it’s going to be exciting to see how things unfold over the kerstperiode.
In more disappointing news, just today Visma-Lease a Bike have confirmed that reigning three-time? World Champion Fem van Empel has called time on her professional cycling career. Van Empel withdrew from the road season citing mental health concerns, and did return to the cyclocross field earlier in the season, but has since decided to step away from the bike – good luck to her in the future, she will be a big miss from the cross field.
To build up to this weekend’s action, here’s the latest action from the UCI World Cup’s latest three rounds, so you can work out who’s in form and who to keep an eye on if you’re just tuning in for the return of the kings.
CX Dispatches
The race reports section brings you up to date with the UCI Cyclocross World Cup. The first three fixtures took place outside of the Low Countries, but unlike the opener in Tabor, the following two weeks in France and Sardinia saw the fields somewhat diminished, as a number of riders were taking part in team camps with their road teams – as always, World Cups are hotly contested and worth catching up regardless of who is in the field…
UCI World Cup Flamanville (30 Nov)
Aniek van Alphen followed up on her great run of form to take the win. She led the race solo for a long while with the home talent of Amandine Fouquenet putting in the race of the season to follow her in second, with the returning Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado following her – the French champion was gritty and managed to hold on for the best result of her career, a fantastic second place ahead of Alvarado, while van Alphen took the overall lead in the world cup standings.
Thibau Nys continued his no-nonsense season, leading from the front once the race had hit its stride, and looking controlled and calm, sharing the lead with Joris Nieuwenhuis, and his teammate Lars van der Haar, who stuck with Nys and Nieuwenhuis and did his best to make life difficult for Nieuwenhuis, and by lap 6 the trio had become a quartet as Cameron Mason dug deep following an early pedal slip to make it across to the lead group. Nieuwenhuis suffered terrible luck on lap 7, a dropped chain forcing him to come to a standstill, and it was down to three, with Nys leading solow, despite a slip on the penultimate lap, and Mason and van der haar chasing just behind. It stayed that way until the finish, with Mason securing his first World Cup podium.
UCI World Cup, Terralba (7 Dec)
Lucinda Brand took the win in the women’s race, on a sunny day in Sardinia, and with blue skies, bluer water and sand, it didn’t look a lot like your regular cross race. Brand was understandably emotional as she crossed the line following the death of her mother, for whom she had been a carer for some time. She launched solo early on in the race and was never caught, pursued by the second and third strongest riders in the race, the in-form Aniek van Alphen and Brand’s teammate Shirin van Anrooij who has been riding herself steadily back into form over the past couple of weeks since her return to the field. Van Alphen proved the stronger of the two to take second place.
The men’s race missed some key names, including winner of the first two rounds of the World Cup, Thibau Nys, but a relatively flat, muddy course paved the way for Joris Nieuwenhuis and Michael Vantourenhout to take the reins, and they led the race for a while, before a strong lead group formed around them, including the resurgent Laurens Sweeck following a quiet start to the season by his standards. There were ten riders in with a chance with three laps left to race, but the three aforementioned men were looking the strongest on the day, beginning to distance the rest of the leaders heading into the final lap. In the end, Vantourenhout was able to strike heading for the finish line, and hold on to take a victory for a rather subdued Pauwels-Sauzen team who are really missing the bite of Eli Iserbyt this season.
UCI World Cup Namur (14 Dec)
The final of our trio of World Cup races, it was my favourite cross course of all, the hill, muddy, tree root-riddled course in Namur, as the world cup returned to the low countries for the first time this season.
Lucinda Brand took a commanding lead in the women’s race, with some interesting riders returning to the field including Puck Pieterse, who moved into second place by the third lap, and her MTB colleague Jolanda Neff, who returned to CX after a four year absence, and was by far the most accomplished at riding the fiendish steep off-camber section of basically anyone I saw across both men’s and women’s races. Brand had a solid lead despite suffering a front wheel puncture, with world cup leader van Alphen battling behind her, and Amandine Fouquenet and Pieterse also in contention for podium spots.
The tough course separated the field out into individuals and the time gaps were quite exaggerated by the time the finish line arrived, with Brand taking the win, van Alphen second 43 seconds behind, and Fouquenet taking her second world cup podium of the season in third.
The men’s race saw the return of Mathieu van der Poel, but it took a long while for him to make his presence felt, as the race was fought between a large number of riders from the front, and it took almost three full laps to shake out, with a quartet of riders separating themselves off from the rest. It included van der Poel, but it was the Baloise Glowi Lions who were on the offensive and instigating the attack that saw the group break away, with Lars van der Haar and Thibau Nys both lively early on, and Michael Vantourenhout going along for the ride.
The four stayed together until lap 7 of 9 when the cream rose to the top, van der Poel pulling clear and only Nys was able to go with him. It came down to the former king of cross vying for supremacy with the rising star, but yet again the other two were able to rejoin them, and only on the final lap did Nys make the error that cost him the chance to go for the win, leaving van der Poel able to out-power the other two and strike out for his first win of the season.
3 BITES OF FUN
Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…
Two bits of Alpecin-Deceuninck fun to start with. First up, Tibor Del Grosso, who just always looks like he’s having the best time.
Meanwhile, his Alpecin teammate MVDP – normally just as good at bike handling as Tibor – is having trouble winding up his sprint…
This one well… I don’t even really know what’s going on here, I’ll just let the Picnic-PostNL lot speak for themselves. Ahem. Yes, well…
THE LAST WORD
Thanks for your support and for sticking with me through 2025 - it’s been a busy year, and 2026 doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down. There’s plenty to look forward to so I’m off to take some much-needed downtime over the Christmas period, and I’ll be glued to the cyclocross and gearing up for the new season.
If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter this year, you can buy me a coffee to let me know, and heading into 2026, why not sign up for the Substack - it’s going to be picking up speed and will feature original writing and cycling chat from me every week of the season, and a growing community of lovely cycling fans chatting about various issues within the sport.
Anyway, until next time, thanks for reading - sending you all the warmest wishes for the festive season wherever you are in the world.
Cheers,
Katy