Innehållsförteckning för September 18, 2025 från Cycling Weekly

Two years after his last Grand Tour victory, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) stood atop a makeshift podium in a car park in Madrid on Sunday evening, as the first Dane to ever win the Vuelta a España. The 28-year-old, a two-time Tour de France winner, came to Spain as the man to beat, and proved as much over three weeks, triumphing by more than a minute over his nearest challenger, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). On the way, he took three stage wins, reasserting himself as the best GC rider in the world not called Tadej Pogačar. “It’s been three tough weeks,” Vingegaard said. “I felt very strong in the first week and managed to win twice. Afterwards I had a more difficult phase, but luckily I came back…

CHLOÉ DYGERT USA | 28 | Previous best: 1st, 2023, 2019 Already a two-time world champion against the clock – four years apart – the American ticked off a long-awaited career milestone last summer in winning an Olympic gold medal. That triumph came on the track, while in the time trial, she crashed and still came away with a bronze. Dygert’s story, her horror crash at the 2020 World Championships where she lacerated her thigh, has come to define her career. She still feels the pain of that injury, and even though she often needs help to get off her bike, it hasn’t stopped her pushing herself to her limits. CÉDRINE KERBAOL France | 24 | Previous best: 14th, 2024 France’s national time trial champion has morphed into one of…

MARION BUNEL France | 20 Runner-up at the recent Tour de l’Avenir, Visma-Lease a Bike’s Bunel is developing into one of the peloton’s climbers par excellence. The Frenchwoman may only be 20, but she played a key squad role in Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour de France Femmes success. The hilly parcours suits her to a tee. JARNO WIDAR Belgium | 19 For an indication of the sport’s most promising climbers, look no further than the results of Italy’s U23 Giro della Valle d’Aosta, a race whose last two editions were won by Widar. The Belgian 19-year-old, who is signed for Lotto until the end of 2027, also finished second at the recent Tour de l’Avenir. ZOE BACKSTEDT Great Britain | 20 The Welshwoman is focusing her energy on the time trial in Rwanda,…

Cara Rowlinson pressed her trusty road time trial bike into action for her first hill-climb.In head-turning metallic purple, it is fitted with a mix of Shimano 105 and Ultegra components, plus a 40t Rotor oval chainring. Wheels are by Hunt and fitted with Schwalbe Pro One tyres. A carbon-fibre seatpost adds a welcome lightweight touch. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…

Belgium’s Sylvère Maes quenches his thirst after winning an evidently rather wet stage 15 of the 1935 Tour de France, running from Perpignan to Luchon and over the Col de Portet d’Aspet. Riding as an ‘Individual’ entrant, Maes went on to finish fourth overall, with his younger, unrelated namesake Romain Maes taking the win for team Belgium. The Portet d’Aspet climb has appeared in the Tour de France many times since this picture was taken, and achieved notoriety in the 1995 race following the tragic death of Italian rider Fabio Casartelli, who crashed while descending the mountain on stage 15. The following day’s stage finish saw his Motorola team-mates cross the line together side-by-side at the front of the race, and on stage 18 the team’s Lance Armstrong won solo,…

Champagne in Spain Jonas Vingegaard, Tom Pidcock and João Almeida had to celebrate on a makeshift podium in a hotel car park after protests at the Vuelta a España cancelled the official event. Echelon day Stage six of the Tour de l’Ardèche is blown apart by high winds. Monica Trinca Colonel (Liv Jayco AlUla) took overall victory from Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the final day. Kiwi camaraderie Photographer Harry Talbot gives compatriot Finn Fisher-Black a helping hand on the Bola del Mundo, Vuelta a España stage 20, last weekend. The New Zealander finished 138th, so no doubt appreciated it. To me, to you World champion Tadej Pogačar points at his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Brandon McNulty as the latter wins the GP de Québec on Sunday. The…

In just her third ever gravel race, Lizzie Hermolle (DAS-Hutchinson) won her maiden national title on Sunday at the British National Gravel Champs in North Yorkshire. The event in Dalby Forest, held on a 113.6km course with more than 2,200m of elevation, also saw Ineos Grenadiers’ Connor Swift retain his crown, outsprinting his cousin and team-mate Ben Swift in the finale of the men’s race. An autumnal chill descended on the forest over the weekend, compounding an already attritional route. In the elite women’s race, the event’s curtain-closer, Olympic triathlete Georgia Taylor-Brown rode for 90km in a solo move, at one point gaining a four-minute lead, before she was tagged on the last of four laps by a surging Hermolle. “There were 16 climbs, and I was quietly confident I…

When former pro cyclist and Olympic team pursuit medallist Casper Folsach checked the clock as he crossed the line at the Port Talbot Wheelers 25 last Sunday, he was delighted to see that he had broken a time trial record that had stood for 47 years. And not just any old record. Alf Engers’s 49.24, set in 1978, was the first 30mph-plus ride over the distance and remains one of the most celebrated marks ever set in the sport. Until last Sunday, it also remained the fastest official ‘25’ time on a road bike. For Folsach, though, the only catch was that the Engers record had already been broken, just a few minutes before – 150 miles away in Hampshire. Paceline RT rider Paul Burton, a 44-year-old company director, had…

Iremember him sacrificing his young rider’s jersey at the Tour in 2011 as he stayed with Bradley Wiggins, who’d crashed and broken his collarbone. Ultimate team player who, when given opportunities, took them. A big hole is left in British and Welsh cycling. A truly great sportsman, but more importantly, person. Martin Woolcott My favourite memory of G is when he came off the road and head-butted a concrete post. Got up and carried on! Kritika KS Alpe d’Huez. Somebody needs to paint a dragon on the summit. Paul Lear I remember well the day he took the E3 from the Belgians, the look on their faces when he took it and Allan Jones and myself cheering like never before. “We were there,” as one says. He would have won…

Elite women: 164.6km Saturday, 27 September Elite men: 267.5km Sunday, 28 September If you thought that Zürich’s 2024 World Championships road race was hilly, think again. As Africa hosts the event for the first time, Kigali brings an incredibly climbheavy course to the table. With 5,475m of elevation over 267.5km in the elite men’s parcours, it is the hilliest road race since Sallanches, France, in 1980, and the only time over 5,000m of climbing has been tackled in a Worlds in the 21st century. It’s akin to a Giro d’Italia epic mountain day. Similarly, the elite women’s race officially has 3,350m of elevation, the most of any Worlds road race in the professional era. All of this will be done at altitude, too, with Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, sitting…

Individual TT, elite women: 31.2km Sunday 21 September Individual TT, elite men: 40.6km Sunday 21 September Mixed relay TTT: 41.8km Wednesday 24 September The first race at the first African Road World Championships is the elite women’s time trial, which takes place on the morning of Sunday, 21 September, followed by the elite men that afternoon. Both start at the BK Arena, which is ordinarily used for basketball and volleyball. The routes are being referred to, euphemistically, as sporting courses. With 460m of climbing across 31.2km for the women, and 680m in 40.6km for the men, this is not a pure time trial specialist’s terrain. Filippo Ganna and Chloé Dygert won’t be able to outpower their way to victory. Unusually for a time trial route, this one includes a cobbled…

ERIN BOOTHMAN Great Britain | 18 Already this season 18-year-old Boothman has won two world titles and broken three world records on the track. Her engine makes her a powerful rider on the road too, winning the junior Ghent-Wevelgem in May. Look out for her in the time trial, and in the colours of Liv AlUla Jayco next season. ASHLIN BARRY USA | 17 Seventeen-year-old Barry’s most impressive results this year have come in time trials, placing on the podium in every one he has raced, including winning the junior US title. The American came second at Paris-Roubaix Juniors in spring, and will join Visma-Lease a Bike’s development squad next year. PAULA OSTIZ Spain | 18 Second in the road race last year to Cat Ferguson, Ostiz is now the world champion’s…

First introduced in 1999, the SLR is now an icon, popular both within the pro peloton and among wider cycling world. This fourth-generation model is heavily performance-oriented, with several updates designed with the racing cyclist in mind. As has become a trend in road-race saddles, the total length has been trimmed down somewhat, primarily at the nose, to reduce pressure on soft tissues when tucked into an aerodynamic position. In this 3D-printed version, the lattice has been updated in both the pattern and degree of vibration damping to provide what Selle Italia calls the best weight-to-vibration absorption ratio. Further back, under the ischial tuberosities (sit bones), the padding is firmer, while further forward, it becomes less dense for comfort. However, the neutral shape of the saddle remains. It’s flat across…

It’s almost inconceivable that in the late 1950s, Ray Booty covered 100-mile distances on this bike in times that most modern riders, aero-optimised to the nth degree, can only dream of. The bike looks so ordinary, you could imagine commuting to work on it, which apparently is what Booty did – hence the tape protecting the rear stays from saddlebag rub. On Bank Holiday Monday, 6 August 1956, Booty broke the RTTA 100-mile time trial record with an 84in fixed gear, posting a time of 3h 58m 28s. He was the first person to ride a sub-four-hour ‘out and back’ century. Weeks later, he surpassed the RRA 100-mile ‘straightout’ record, switching from the fixed gear to a close ratio, three-speed Sturmey Archer AC51 hub, as pictured here. His time was…

Every July, the Tour de France explodes on to the sporting calendar with three weeks of wall-to-wall coverage, iconic mountain battles and drama that keeps even casual fans glued to the screen. And then… August rolls around. For many, the weeks after the Tour feel like the sport has hit the brakes. Yes, there are brilliant races like San Sebastián and the build-up to the Vuelta a España, but the post-Tour period still feels oddly flat. Other sports have natural crescendos such as league titles, cup finals, relegation battles. Cycling does have the World Championships, but rather than feeling like the grand finale, they are more of a one-off spark of excitement. The season does not build towards them in the same way. And it is not as if the…

UAE Team Emirates-XRG dominated the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, with Tadej Pogačar and Brandon McNulty finishing second and first at the Canadian WorldTour race. The latter crossed the line first after the pair had time to chat about the result on the run-in, such was their dominance, with Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) following over a minute later in third. “When you go one-two with a team-mate, and he’s world champion and the best guy in the world, it’s super special. That’s one of the most memorable days of my career,” McNulty said post-race. The pair had emerged from a group of four, which was whittled down after Pogačar attacked on the penultimate lap around Montréal. Simmons said that the peloton “got killed a bit by UAE” after finishing third. Two…

Juan Ayuso, Jai Hindley and Egan Bernal will all go into the Worlds off the back of the Vuelta, having all shown some form in the mountains, while others return from longer out of the spotlight; Thymen Arensman and Quinn Simmons following star turns at the Tour, Richard Carapaz seeking to find the form that saw him place third at the Giro, and Amstel Gold winner Mattias Skjelmose, hoping to put fitness problems behind him. Non-climbers are lacking, with even African headliner Biniam Girmay skipping the race; Australia’s Michael Mathews is an exception. Another star name missing will be two-time defending champion Lotte Kopecky, citing the need for a rest; in her absence, Justine Ghekiere looks like Belgium’s best hope. Superb form that has seen her win Liège-Bastogne-Liège and wear…

FILIPPO GANNA Italy | 29 | Previous best: 1st, 2020, 2021 The tall Italian has for some years now been the rider fans look to when a time trial is in town. His immense ability has helped him accumulate an extensive palmarès that includes Grand Tour and Worlds TT wins, as well as track medals and, in 2022, a World Hour record of 56.792km, which still stands. Ganna may have already won three times on his TT bike this year, including at this month’s Vuelta a España, but the very lumpy Rwanda course doesn’t play to his strengths. All the same, if he’s on a good day he is likely to be up there in the results. MAGNUS SHEFFIELD USA | 23 | Previous best: 10th (U23s) The Ineos Grenadiers…

1 Even lighter While creating a sub-6kg road bike isn’t UCI-legal, it is an impressive feat of engineering. To improve on the R5, Cervélo’s designers have taken what was already a well-balanced climbing bike and managed to shave 100g off the frameset. According to the company, this was achieved without compromising the stiffness that makes it a legitimate choice at WorldTour level – Wout van Aert famously rode an R5 to victory atop Mont Ventoux, while Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rode this latest edition to victory at this year’s Tour de France Femmes, albeit with enough additions to see it hit the required 6.8kg mark. The claimed weight for the frame in a size 56 is 650g, with the forks adding just 298g. Combined with some suitably lightweight components, including either SRAM Red…

Andrew Feather continues to be the man to beat in hillclimbs so far this season, after powering to victory in Saturday’s Team Lifting Gear Products event at Grindleford, Derbyshire. The HuntBikeWheels.com rider was over six seconds quicker than his nearest rival up the 1.3-mile Sir William Hill, with Kieran Wynne-Cattanach settling for second. Brother UK-Team OnForm’s Rosie Simmons was quickest of the women, with Bronwen Jenkinson (Clwb Beicio Egni Eryri) less than one second behind. Stormy weather meant Feather chose not to ride on Sunday, leaving Wynne-Cattanach to win the Birdwell Wheelers climb of Green Moor near Stocksbridge, with Bronwen Jenkinson also stepping up to victory in the women’s category. Elsewhere, Spencer Corder led a one-two for ROTOR Race Team at the second round of the West Midlands Cyclo-Cross League,…

In the beginning, bicycles were raced by whoever showed up and fancied it. There were no categories to separate different groups of competitors from each other. This was because the first bike races happened in France, which in that era was a nation of madness generally. When bike racing arrived in Britain, on the other hand, order was established. There were amateurs, professionals and ladies. That was one category more than the officials cared for, so they put a line through ‘ladies’ and that was the end of that for several decades. The idea of categorising riders has continued to the present. The main idea these days is to ensure everyone gets fair competition by allowing riders of similar ability to compete with each other. One of the pleasures of…