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The many sides of cycling
If cycling was a shape, it would be a dodecahedron
Katy Madgwick
June 16, 2025
Hey there lovely cycling fans, how are you all doing? This is the newsletter that was in danger of never making it. As it is, I’m still piecing it together, and wondering what form it will take when I eventually hit ‘send’.
Let me explain… the past couple of weeks has seen us build up to the Domestique platform launch – and actual launch last week – and I’ve been involved in the final stages of the project which has brought me away from ‘other’ work, including keeping on top of everything that’s been going on in the world of cycling – oh the irony!
There were also school holidays to deal with, and the small matter of actually GOING to a bike race (the Tour of Britain Women) and as such, well – the wheels have fallen off a bit, if I’m honest.
Which leads me to the question – what do you enjoy about this newsletter? What keeps you opening it up every other week, and remaining a subscriber? In short – which bits can I jettison in times of extreme busy-ness (if any), and not lose you as a loyal supporter? This is a genuine question! Please drop me a message in reply to this email, or message me on social media, if you have any insight to share. I’ve always been a stickler for keeping you up to date with results, for example, but I know there are plenty of sites where you can just look the information up – I’d like to think, when it comes to races I’ve actually watched, I supplement the information with a bit more colour, on what went down in the race, but when there is so much going on at once (there were about five televised races on Sunday, for example!) it’s impossible for me to keep up with them all. Anyway, let’s see what’s survived this crazy month and made it into this edition, shall we? (Spoiler alert: it’s not Romain Bardet’s retirement. I need time to process that one, OK?!)
THINGS WHAT I WROTE
The section formerly known as ‘on the website’ is now just a collection of my words, from various platforms.
First up, my Giro recollections on the Substack - they are long, and not really race reports, and hopefully represent something a bit different. They are very much ‘me’. If you enjoy them, do sign up over there - I appreciate these are all a bit ‘old news’ now.
Also on the Giro d’Italia, I wrote this piece for Domestique, which I hope you’ll enjoy.
I have also written a two-part review of the first half of the Women’s World Tour season for Domestique, sizing up the teams who are looking to challenge the dominance of Team SD Worx-ProTime - and, in one case, actually doing so.
ON THE POD
The podcast is still going strong and there are recent episodes summarising the Giro d’Italia, and covering the Tour of Britain Women and the Dauphiné. Check it out, wherever you get your podcasts!
NEWS! Well, sort of…
As I alluded to in the introduction to today’s newsletter, in the juggling of work and life and all that stuff, some balls have dropped, so to speak. I had to let a section go, and the section I’ve sacrificed, is this one. It feels, to me, to be the least important, in the sense that you can get this stuff from any good cycling media outlet. Perhaps you value my summary of it - in which case I will listen to your feedback! But in the meantime, here are three headlines that caught my eye, and beyond that, I urge you to bookmark Domestique Cycling - I am a bit biased of course, but also, it’s startlingly up-to-date, and the editorial team is being headed up by the brilliant Barry Ryan, formerly of Cycling News - if that’s not a resounding endorsement, I don’t know what is. Here’s his excellent analysis of the recently concluded Dauphine and what it might mean for the Tour de France GC race - check out the rest of the latest news, while you’re there - and stay tuned for some of the most comprehensive and engaging Tour de France content anywhere!
A few headlines…
Swiss Depart for 2026 Femmes
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift confirmed that next year’s race would begin in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the race’s second foreign Grand Depart. They also announced a slight scheduling change, with the race beginning 5 days after the conclusion of the men’s race – currently the races overlap, with the men’s final weekend serving as the opening weekend for the women.
UCI announce 2026 calendar
The 2026 racing calendar for both the men’s and women’s WorldTours was announced last week, and it contains a few updates, the most notable being the shift of the Giro d’Italia Women from its horribly scheduled clash with the men’s Tour de France, to seamlessly following on from the men’s Giro - a positive step.
Dave Brailsford returns to INEOS
After departing the team for a job at Manchester United following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover in 2023, Brailsford will reduce his involvement there to return to INEOS Grenadiers as Director of Sport.
This just in: the Critérium du Dauphiné will change its name and become the "Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes from 2026.
OH HAPPY DAY!
Celebrating the lighter side of the sport…
Cute animals part 1… Thymen Arensman’s new pup!
Check out the INSANE skills on display in the snow at Uno-X’s team camp…
As for the funniest post where a rider mocks himself after disappearing into a ditch, you’ll have to go to the next section…
ROAD RACING RESULTS ROUND-UP
In the spirit of honesty, these results are up to date as of the close of play, Friday 13 June. I’ll pick up the rest in the next newsletter.
SOME MEN’S RACES HAPPENED!
The Mercan'Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes (26 May) was the next leg on the Coupe de France tour, and it was quite a different prospect to the sprinty, classics-y, punchy type racing that the Coupe de France mostly centres around. With long climbs, it was one for a different profile of rider to take his opportunity, and Arkéa-B&B Hotels’ Cristian Rodriguez did just that, soloing to victory from almost 50km out, with no-one able to mount a concerted effort to chase down the 30-year-old Spaniard, who won his first race on European soil, and only the second in his professional career, after the 2021 Tour du Rwanda.
At the four-stage Boucles de la Mayenne (29 May-1 Jun), Thibaud Gruel (Groupama-FDJ) won his first pro race in the Prologue ahead of Benoit Cosnefroy, to take the early race lead. On stage 1, veteran breakaway expert Pierre Latour was able to claim glory for TotalEnergies. Latour teamed with Aaron Gate (XDS-Astana) on stage two to attack the peloton and they got away, but the Frenchman was beaten by the Kiwi on the line – it was enough for Gate to go on to claim the overall victory, despite the solo victory of Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) on the final stage.
Over the same four days, the Tour of Norway saw some exciting battles, with Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s Matthew Brennan back in the scintillating form we have come to expect from him this season. Brennan won the GC having clinched two stage victories in the process, with the other two going to Storm Ingebrigtsen of Team Coop Repsol and Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).
The Tour of Slovenia (4-8 Jun) saw success for Uno-X Mobility, with the first GC victory of Anders Halland Johannessen, though he didn’t win a stage. Dylan Groenewegen was the top sprinter at the race, taking stages 1 and 3, while Fabio Christen (Q36.5) won stage 2 from a strong breakaway group that included Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek). Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) won the final stage, a small consolation for the team after his twin brother Rui was relegated from the win for a sprint deviation, on stage 2.
There were a series of Belgian one-day races to follow too, mostly with sprint-y finishes. Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) got back to winning ways at the Heijste Pijl (7 Jun), while his teammate, European champion Tim Merlier, triumphed at the Brussels Classic (8 Jun). Finally, Timo Kielich (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the Antwerp Port Epic (9 Jun) after breaking away with 30km remaining to race, and seeing his gap diminish to just 9 seconds a few hundred metres from the line as the remaining sprint teams bore down. Kielich was separated from second place Rasmus Wallin (Uno-X Mobility) by a tyre-length after the pair put in a gritty ride to stay away from the bunch.
More importantly though, this happened to Tibor Del Grosso…
As I write this newsletter the Critérium du Dauphiné (8-15 Jun) is underway, and it’s been thoroughly entertaining so far. Billed as a clash of the titans preview of the Tour de France, it features the top GC riders in the sport, and they didn’t waste any time going head-to-head, duking it out on stage 1, a stage that was meant to be for the sprinters, with Jonas Vingegaard rather uncharacteristically kicking it all off 5km from the finish, dragging a ridiculously talented group with him, that included his primary rivals Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, along with Mathieu van der Poel and Santiago Buitrago. They stayed away all the way to the line, where Pogacar was able to power clear to take the stage, with Vingegaard in his wheel.
Stage 2 really was a sprint, and it was unsurprising to see the mighty Jonathan Milan take the win, with a feisty elbows-out battle for second going on behind him. Stage 3 was a breakaway stage, and though van der Poel was among the riders in the escape, he was unable to hang on when Movistar’s Ivan Romeo launched a move late on. The talented young Spaniard went on to take his first WorldTour victory, ahead of the stage 4 individual time trial, in which Remco Evenepoel did Remco Evenepoel things, completely crushing the 17km course and putting almost 40 seconds into Tadej Pogacar, who was a bit off the boil, with Vingegaard 11 seconds behind him in second.
It was a different rider in the leader’s jersey every day for the first four stages, but the jersey was retained for the first time after stage 5, with Evenepoel hanging onto yellow despite crashing in the final kilometres. The stage went down to a bunch sprint which was won by Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech), with Milan off the pace back in 5th .
SOME WOMEN’S RACES HAPPENED!
Marlen Reusser was the overall victor at the Vuelta Burgos (22-25 May) following two stage victories. Reusser won stage three in her characteristic style, pushing solo ahead of the bunch and winning 40 seconds ahead of the next rider on the road Yara Kastelijn, with Elisa Longo Borghini in third. Lorena Wiebes won the sprint on stage 1, with Mie Bjørndal Ottestad (Uno-X Mobility) taking stage 2 ahead of Reusser after the two had broken away together.
Ottestad continued her strong run of form at her home race, the Tour of Norway (31 May-1 Jun). The national champion won the second stage, sealing the GC win, after AG Insurance-Soudal dominated the first stage, winning through Justine Ghekiere.
And in a series of one-day races, Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Mobility) won the Antwerp Port Epic (7 Jun), Valentina Cavellar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) won the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic (8 Jun), Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek) won the Dwars door de Westhoek (8 Jun) and her teammate Clara Copponi won the GP Mazda Schelkens (9 Jun).
Meanwhile, two stage races were occurring simultaneously, in Britain and Spain, and FDJ SUEZ were busy crushing it on both fronts.
At the Volta Catalunya (5-8 Jun), the French team were completely dominant, winning all three stages, through Elise Chabbey, Demi Vollering and Loes Adegeest respectively. Unsurprisingly, after she soloed to victory on the queen stage, winning by 31 seconds over Marion Bunel in second and more than two minutes over the rest of the field, Vollering claimed yet another GC crown at the end of the race.
At the Tour of Britain Women (5-8 Jun), by contrast, the team didn’t win a single stage, and the overall victory wasn’t confirmed until the moment Ally Wollaston crossed the line in Glasgow, following a down-to-the-wire battle with Movistar’s Cat Ferguson on the city crit on the fourth and final stage. More on that, below.
Currently, the Tour de Suisse (12-14 Jun) is underway, and stage 1 saw the GC blow apart, with Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser going clear over a minute-and-a-half ahead of the rest of the race favourites. Reusser claimed the stage victory and bonus seconds after Vollering launched her sprint too early. It’s a head-to-head fight for the GC win there.
FINAL THOUGHT – Tour of Britain epitomises the rollercoaster of cycling
Four days of WorldTour level racing in Britain – the only four we have left. British Cycling pulled together a parcours that was interesting, varied and possibly wouldn’t end in four bunch sprints, and executed a pretty flawless product, in terms of the organisation, in any case. From the opening stage sign on, on the decking of a visitor centre in the middle of a massive forest in Yorkshire, through to a crazy city criterium on the final stage, the race had a bit of everything. It was Britain, in miniature. Hills and sheep. Beaches and cities. Rain and sunshine. Cobbles and roundabouts.
Four different riders wore the leaders’ jersey, and each day had its own unique personality. Stage 1 was so short it barely got started before it was finished, with Kim Le Court and Kirsten Faulkner going head-to-head in the breakaway to defy the odds, with Lorena Wiebes isolated behind. Stage 2 started, improbably, in front of a large boat in the rain, before the day erupted into glorious sunshine, and the familiar territory for many of the home riders at least, of Saltburn Bank, provided the steep but sun-drenched backdrop to a hard-fought breakaway win for Picnic-PostNL’s young Canadian Mara Roldan.
Stage 3 was everything everywhere all at once. And not all of them were good things. The longest stage saw the worst weather, and as the rain poured, the dangers increased, with a couple of severe crashes which left us reeling, and soured what should have been a thrilling day of racing. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig instigated the move that went all the way to the line, but it was the Dane who missed out on the chance to fight for victory as she suffered a mechanical, later pictured heartbroken, though it can only spell good things for her form. Cat Ferguson went on to win the stage and take the jersey, the second young rider to take her first WorldTour win in as many days, though the previous day’s winner was sadly one of two to end up in hospital following the crash, Roldan with a broken femur, Barbara Guarischi with a fractured pelvis.
The final stage was cagey at first, as the peloton got used to the corners and turns of the Glasgow city circuit, but full gas from a few laps in, a frenetic pace set by FDJ SUEZ at the head of the bunch as they set up Ally Wollaston to snatch bonus seconds on the various intermediate sprints – three times she had the better of Ferguson, adding to her total and ensuring that if she could beat her on the line, the race was hers. Wiebes had not had the week she came for, but it came together in Glasgow – the European champion got her stage win, and with Wollaston finishing on the podium, the French team took home the GC.
The stark contrasts between the joy of the victories and the pain of the crashes somehow felt more visceral for me at this race. Probably because I was there for some of the race, and spoke to some of the riders, and forging that connection, however brief, makes it harder to see them go down. The race was a brilliant advert for women’s cycling for the most part, and even for cycling in Britain, but the visceral memory of the screams of the injured has stayed with me since the race finished. ‘Crashes are part of cycling’ is the line regularly trotted out by the more pragmatic among us, but I cannot and will not ever get used to that experience – wanting to get back on a bike after going through that just goes to show how unique, incredible and probably a little bit unhinged most of these pro athletes are. Made of different stuff.
Get well soon to Mara, Barbara and to Gladys Verhulst-Wild, who also suffered a horrific crash at the race – one I didn’t witness, as it was on stage 1, and I was busy dashing from the North York Moors to Redcar to try and beat the race to the finish. Proving that watching a bike race live, ensures you don’t see any of a bike race, live. For the best, in this instance.
THE LAST WORD
Thanks as ever for reading and apologies for the wait – I fear it may become more erratic over the coming months as I am gainfully employed for the duration of the Tour and Tour Femmes and away in France myself during August – but I’ll do my best to keep you up to date.
For those of you who are paid members of the website, you will receive a separate update, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, if you’d like to support the continued production of this free newsletter with ALL THE STUFF* about cycling, it would be amazing if you decided to buy me a coffee.
*most of it, anyway
Until next time,
Cheers,
Katy