The 2026 Giro d’Italia route has been unveiled. Here’s the stage by stage look at the course.
Never Say Never Cycling Team
Gerry Ryan has long been a benefactor of Australian sport and likes to joke he’s busy spending his children’s inheritance. Sponsoring the Jayco team since its inception in 2012 has cost him tens of millions of dollars. It might be fun but owning a pro cycling team is not lucrative.
So the arrival of Never Say Never and Stoneweg as partners to take over the Israel-Premiertech team looks unusual. They’re financial investors but how do they plan on getting a return? Maybe they don’t and it’s all for fun but that still makes it an interesting project as a World Tour team because if they don’t have pressing commercial imperative there’s space for rebranding and new ways to promote a team.
Riders To Watch Review
A look at how the ten riders to watch for 2025 fared, both for their riding and where they stood in relation to the predictions and expectations set in January.
Decathlon-Ag2r Mondiale Team Budget
2024 was a bumper year for the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale team. Sports retailer Decathlon joined as title sponsor: out went the brown shorts and in came new kit including bikes. The team had a roaring start to the season but fell short in the Tour de France and then finished with a podium at the Vuelta thanks to Ben O’Connor and finished sixth on the UCI rankings. Now we can see the budget for the year.
Oier Lazkano Suspended
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.
2026 Tour de France Femmes Route
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.
2026 Tour de France Route
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.
How the Predictions for 2025 Fared
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.
World Tour Promotion and Relegation
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.