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- Not with a bang but a whimper
Greetings fine fans of the cyclo-verse, hope you’re all doing well as autumn continues its march in the northern hemisphere, and with it, the dying embers of the road cycling season fizzle out. They do take their time these days though; it seems as though we are watching ‘almost the last race of the season’ for a good two or three weeks now, and with cyclocross sort of starting but sort of not-quite-starting properly, there’s a sense of hanging on, of not quite being done, and honestly of wanting to clonk cycling on the head with a hammer and just put it out of its misery, you know?
I am joking of course, it’s simply the fatigue of the waning days and of feeling the constant need to stay up to date with everything that’s going on in the sport, while equally desiring a clean break, before the winter off-roading activity gets going in earnest. I have drifted away from watching the races a bit, keeping up at a distance and just catching up with any that sounded like they might be quite interesting - lucky I’ve trimmed this newsletter down to just a highlights version of its previous format then, really, isn’t it? On we go…
3 THINGS FROM ME
Thing 1.
As time goes on, and Tadej Pogacar continues his buoyant assault on the history books, the conversation surrounding him rumbles on. In this Substack post, I consider some of the reasons behind why so many fans of the sport are becoming somewhat jaded by his seemingly endless feats of incomparable brilliance - it’s my most read post on Substack to date, which is probably a good thing as I did agonise over it. Check it out, if you like.
Thing 2.
Also on Substack, I review the breath of fresh air that was Paris-Tours, one of a handful of gravel-based races on the road calendar, and consider why it was a total treat for the neutral viewer.
Thing 3.
We’ve enjoyed returning to the weekly format with the podcast, and our most recent episode features an extended chat on the Pogacar ‘problem’ (if you consider it as such), featuring comments from cycling media guests, and our own rumination over whether or not his dominance is ‘ruining cycling’ (blame Sanny for the clickbait title - I assure you there is plenty of interesting, nuanced discussion within the episode!).
Please do consider signing up for the Substack if you want to hear from me more regularly, and if you have enjoyed the pod, a five-star rating and review if you have time to leave one would mean the world to us.
6 BITESIZE CHUNKS OF NEWS - YUM!
Arkéa-B&B Hotels fold
The biggest news this week is that of the sad demise of Breton team, Arkéa-B&B Hotels, after team manager Emmanuel Hubert was unable to find a new sponsor in time to meet the UCI deadline for financial assurance on 15 October. The team have been in existence for 20 years, and first raced the Tour de France in 2014. The loss is a sad one for all the riders and staff left without jobs, and for the sport as a whole, as once again, the financial stability of cycling comes under scrutiny.
End of an era following raft of retirements
Following the high profile departures of the likes of Romain Bardet, Lizzie Deignan, Ellen van Dijk and Geraint Thomas, 2025 has already been a big year for riders stepping away from the sport. In the past week or two though, they’ve been dropping like flies. We’ve seen Arnaud Démare, Giacomo Nizzolo, Elia Viviani, Dan McClay and Omar Fraile announce they are not continuing on, to add to the likes of Alexander Kristoff, Louis Meintjes and Tim Declercq. And so many more besides. Class of 2025, we salute you.
First kit reveal of 2026!
Hot off the press, the first kit of 2026 has already dropped and it’s a banger. Not content to do things traditionally, the Unibet Tietema Rockets continue to break the mould by releasing - and racing in - their new jersey this week. A great way to build recognition and momentum heading into the new season.
Bulgaria to host the Giro!
Yes, Giro d’Italia organisers RCS confirmed this week that following a successful start in Albania this year, the Grande Partenza would take place in another of the Balkan states, Bulgaria, in 2026.
Uijtdebroeks breaks contract, again!
One of the most unexpected transfer stories of the season so far, Cian Uijtdebroeks has broken his contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, two years after breaking one with BORA-hansgrohe, to move to Movistar. The young Belgian is looking for leadership opportunities that Visma aren’t able to grant him, and the shock news broke two weeks ago, as his agent Alex Carera negotiated the move.
Vauquelin to INEOS, and other transfer stories!
One of those that we’ve known is on the cards for some time now, the move of Kévin Vauquelin to INEOS Grenadiers was confirmed this week. He joins fellow Frenchmen Axel Laurance and Dorian Godon at the team for 2026, where he will continue to develop as a GC leader. There’s plenty more from the transfer market, with UAE Team ADQ making big waves already, signing Megan Jastrab from Team Picnic-PostNL, Pauliena Rooijakkers from Fenix-Deceuninck and Mavi Garcia from Liv-AlUla-Jayco in the past week. For more transfer updates, sign up to Daniel Benson’s Substack and keep up with the latest headlines at Domestique Cycling.
4 BITES OF FUN
Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…
Down it, down it!
Full marks to the Sparkassen Munsterland Giro for the size of their post-race beers… I did wonder if the victor, Jasper Philipsen, might try to reinforce his dominance by chugging the entire thing, but I’m quite glad he didn’t.
Superstar bike mechanic
If you have a flat tyre on a training ride, it’s not often that the national champion of France is on hand to help you out - Kasia Niewiadoma won the bike mechanic lottery while out training recently, as Dorian Godon arrived to assist!
The continued adventures of Léon
You may remember the cute little piglet that Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ won as the highest ranked Breton at Tro Bro Léon in May, as he’s featured in this segment on at least two previous occasions. Valentin has provided an update this week, and it’s great to see Léon thriving - he’s a big lad now!
Is someone chopping onions in here?
This segment is for funny stuff and cute stuff, but also wholesome stuff. This sport is full of examples of heart-warming moments, and this one is one of the best. EF Education-Oatly’s Letizia Borghesi’s tribute to her teammate Magdeleine Vallieres, following her recent win at the World Championships, is so heartfelt, I just had to include it, as an example of what team bonding really means (the picture is cute but there are several slides of words to go with it, over at the post, if you are able to check it out it’s worth your time).
3 RACES TO WATCH
I’ve tried to keep up with the end of season races but it’s somewhat fatiguing, especially in the case of the Italian Classics which have been completely steamrollered by UAE Team Emirates - there have been a few stand-out races over the past couple of weeks though, here are my highlights - they will be brief, because the news was not!
For everything else, there’s FirstCycling.
European road race (5 Oct)
It’s a weird one, because it produced the exact same results as the Worlds road race a week earlier, but the competitive part that led up to the expected finale was quite compelling, and the race for third place also proved to be pretty exciting. Shout out to two riders from two very small nations from hanging onto the group of favourites having been out in the early break - Victor Langelotti of Monaco, and Andrea Mifsud of Malta - and a huge chapeau to Paul Seixas, who followed up on his excellent performance in Kigali to win the battle for bronze. A major result for the young Frenchman who continues to impress.
Tre Valli Varesine Women (7 Oct)
Full of big hitters, the women’s edition of this race brought the fireworks, with Elisa Longo Borghini attacking with around 30km remaining, taking the newly minted European champion Demi Vollering with her. Niamh Fisher-Black of Lidl-Trek was also equal to the Italian champion, but the trio were closed down by a select group shortly after and counter attacks flew in, with world champ Vallieres breaking away after that with Karlijn Swinkels. This was far from the end of the story though. Go ahead and catch up with the rest if you can - it comes down to a striking head-to-head battle for the win, but between who?
Paris-Tours (12 Oct)
It was dusty, it was fast and frantic, and UAE did not play a serious role in the race. What’s not to like? I wrote about this one in more depth on the Substack but this gravel-based classic is definitely worth your time for a catch-up.
Fun in the dust at Paris-Tours
3 FINAL THOUGHTS
Dutch disharmony denies Van Anrooij
If you haven’t seen this story yet, prepare to be… not all that shocked. It’s nothing new to find out that the Dutch women have turned on one another, following years of internal politics that have seen them fail to cohere as a team on a number of big occasions - the most memorable of these was of course the Tokyo Olympics when they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, failing to close down the solo breakaway rider Anna Kiesenhofer despite having a stacked side.
At the UCI Gravel World Championships this past weekend, Shirin van Anrooij was the target of her own team’s betrayal, as a group including eventual winner Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos closed her down following a late solo breakaway effort. The group was driven in part by Belgian Lotte Kopecky, on behalf of her trade teammate Wiebes, but also by van Anrooij’s roommate in Kigali, Yara Kastelijn. She was caught agonisingly close to the line and spoke out after the race, clearly devastated by her compatriots depriving her of a chance to be a world champion for the first time in her career.
UAE close in a century
Another two weeks have gone by and UAE Team Emirates’ season of plenty continues apace, with the team ticking up to 95 victories, having won almost every race in Italy in this autumn classics season, mostly as a result of Isaac Del Toro (though that lad Pogacar has won a couple himself). It’s pretty tough to take as a fan, seeing one team hoover up over half the wins available in a season - the next closest team are Lidl-Trek, and they have less than half the number of wins. The worst part about it for me is the fact that the bottom half of the World Tour table have less than the number of wins between them, that UAE have amassed themselves. That’s nine teams.
Off-season approaches
There are still races going on - the Tour of Holland, Tour of Guangxi and Tour of Chongming Island are currently unfolding and I’m trying to care although as I alluded to at the top of the newsletter, it’s tough to stay focused this late in the day. We all just need a nap now, I feel. Anyway, there’s one more twist in the tale with a new ‘champion of champions’ style masters event in Andorra this weekend, which will bring together Pogačar, Vingegaard, Roglič and Del Toro. Featuring a short, uphill time trial and a circuit-based road race, the unique format combines two disciplines in one day, and will offer fans one last tantalising clash of the titans before we finally sign off on 2025. I think it’s one of those fake criterium type races, and it isn’t UCI sanctioned so won’t count for anything really, but even so, there’s no hiding from an uphill time trial so safe to say, I’m intrigued (no idea if you can actually watch it anywhere yet).
THE LAST WORD
Thanks as always for choosing to subscribe to the newsletter - I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition. If you’d like to support this free publication, you can buy me a coffee, or sign up to the Substack.
Until next time,
Cheers,
Katy