Welcome the start of a week’s worth of race previews and daily analysis from Paris-Nice.
Today’s stage will work the derailleurs of many a rider thanks to a hilly finishing circuit and the postcard celebrates the lost art of gearing.
Paris-Nice Preview
Paris-Nice starts this Sunday. Here’s a look at the GC contenders with Jonas Vingegaard and Juan Ayuso at the top of the bill but can their teams control things once the race heads into the hills?
The Moment The Omloop Nieuwsblad Was Won
Mathieu van der Poel rides away on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. His breakaway companions are out of the picture and from here on the result felt inevitable.
Cobbled Classics Preview
This Saturday’s openingsweekend is always a hard one to preview, the season opens with a race that is open to many too. Here’s a wider look at things ahead of the cobbled classics season…
The Race For Survival
Having looked at the financial fortunes and prospects for teams last year, the topic keeps coming up already in 2026 so here’s a fresh review of pitfalls ahead.
Brittle Teams
Sponsorship has flooded in, team budgets expanded, rider pay soared and real gains have been made in safety, ethics and institutions. Today riders enjoy longer contracts while teams have become multi-decade franchises, some are even outlasting their founders. And yet…
Pro teams are brittle, what looks strong today could snap tomorrow. First EF the other day and now Visma-Lease A Bike are reportedly looking for new sponsors. Others are having doing the same in private.
The 2026 Points Race
We’ve started the first year of a three year promotion and relegation cycle. As a result the urgency and desperation is gone. Keep an eye on two things instead: financial health of the World Tour teams and the jostling teams in the second division.
UCI Women’s Points And Rankings Tables
Here the the UCI points tables for the women and like the men’s tables, their tucked inside a PDF on the UCI’s website so this blog post isn’t a gripping read but just puts all the scales on one page for reference.
The women’s rankings system changes for 2026 and copies the same scales as the men but with fewer races on the calendar and stage races that often have shorter durations, there are less points on offer during the season.
UCI Men’s Points And Rankings Tables
Do rankings and points matter in cycling? Demonstrably not as they’re hard to find. You need to get to the regulations page on the UCI website then scroll to road races and find the right PDF to download. Manage that and 87 pages into a 400 page document come the badly-formatted tables.
Anyway this blog post is just to put the UCI points scales all on one page for handy reference during the year. So if you want something to read today… try something else.
Tour de France Wildcards
Caja Rural get the last wildcard invite to the Tour de France and the Unibet Rose Rockets are left out. It’s a surprise but once you look at the trend it shouldn’t be a shock.