Oier Lazkano was one of Red Bull’s big signings for 2025. His spring classics campaign flopped but then so did the rest of the team. Then he vanished. He stopped racing, deleted social media accounts and the team were silent on what was happening.
Now we know better as he’s been provisionally suspended over his bio passport. It’s a point that gets stressed again below that he’s still innocent so here’s a look at the procedural elements of this case.
The best route so far? The Tour de France Femmes holds out the promise of surprise and the possibility that the yellow jersey could change several times along the way, including the final day in Nice.
It runs from Saturday 1 August to Sunday 9 August, so no overlap with the men’s race but it starts the weekend after the men’s race has finished.
The Tour de France routes for 2026 are out and here is a stage-by-stage look at the course for the men. It runs between Saturday 4 July and Sunday 26 July.
As tempting as it can be to bury past predictions that soured it’s healthy to revisit the piece from January to see what the thinking was, what has happened since and try to learn from it.
The official UCI rankings for 2026 are out and with them here are the final promotion and relegation standings. Uno-X, Lotto-Intermarché and Israel-PremierTech should move up to the World Tour while Cofidis get relegated… but it’s not yet as simple as that.
Here’s the pro cycling calendar for 2026, free to download for your diary or phone.
It’s packed with all the men’s and women’s pro road races. So whether you’re scouting for some points-rich 1.Pro race or want to plan some sofa time here are all the races in a user-friendly format.
The Lotto and Intermarché teams are supposed to be merging. Tomorrow is the deadline to submit registration papers to the UCI. It’s reported that Lotto plans to race on, with Intermarché coming over as co-sponsor and bringing some riders and management along too.
With this the Intermarché licence would wither and it’s here that some problems arise because the team has big debts. Can it drop these by swapping the licence over to another team?
Tadej Pogačar attacks on the Passo di Ganda. 12 pedal strokes to open a gap and he’s away with the rest unable to follow. It was the predicted scenario where the advance warning was little use to his rivals.
It’s this Saturday, it’ll be sunny and there’s live TV coverage from the start at 10.50 CEST to the finish at around 5.00pm. These things feel as easy to state as Pogačar is to win, he’s certainly the overwhelming pick for the race.
Cédric Vasseur has been sacked from his role as general manager of the Cofidis cycling team. In comes Raphaël Jeune to the role. We’ll see how long he lasts, because unlike rivals, this is one team that does change management if results are poor.
Jeune has his work cut out because running a team like this is the equivalent of playing Pro Cycling Manager on expert mode, and then more.