Per Strand Hagenes wins the Sparkassen Münsterland Giro. Jumbo-Visma had three riders in the ten rider breakaway. Only Per Strand Hagenes rides for a separate team, Jumbo-Visma Development Team and had joined the World Tour team for the day. Of course there’s only a fine distinction between the two teams… and that’s the point.

More and more teams are changing their approach to talent identification and recruitment. Increasingly a team’s prime source of new talent is their development team and these squads are becoming structured and brought under direct control of the parent team.

Read more

He did it, hut he did it the hard way. Tadej Pogačar didn’t bank on his sprint in a small group but threw caution to the wind with a solo attack down the final descent.

Read more

Can Tadej Pogačar make it three in a row? This time it’s not a rhetorical question as he’s been beaten last weekend and hasn’t looked so incisive in several recent races. So we’ll see if Primož Roglič or Remco Evenepoel can dethrone him, or whether someone else surprises this Saturday to break the grip of the big teams. Here’s the usual preview with course details, TV timings and a note on whether any leaves will be falling.

Read more

There are many angles to the mooted merger of the Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quickstep teams, the first being that it’s really not a merger. Let’s explore some of these from the label to the knock-on effect of Tour de France wildcards.

Read more

Take two successful companies, merge them and the idea is that the enlarged business will be even better, with increased scale, more assets, cost-savings and the ability to take from the best of both sides. In theory one plus one will equal more than two.

In pro cycling things are very different. Merge two teams and you’ve got one team that’s no bigger than before, and several headaches. So the recent reports that the Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quickstep teams could merge are perplexing. Unless the Dutch team really can’t find a sponsor.

Read more

Vuelta Skelter, by Tim Moore

A raucous tale of re-riding the 1941 Vuelta a España that has plenty of comedy… and a darker side.

Read more

A look at the promotion and relegation standings for the World Tour. It’s early for the three year system but still matters as we see teams recruiting to remedy things and there’s the pressing issue of automatic invitations for the major races next year.

Read more

The Vuelta’s got off to a rotten start with rain, darkness, punctures caused by people throwing tacks on the course, trouble with the timing systems leading to delayed results, crashes galore and one of those rider semi-strikes. A leading Spanish journalist quipped all that’s missing is a plague of locusts. Of course by Madrid all this can be forgotten and hopefully today’s summit finish stage to Andorra should sort things out.

Read more

A look at the contenders for the Vuelta a España. The 2023 edition has plenty of star names, but a short list of genuine contenders. It’ll be fascinating to see how Remco Evenepoel copes with the Jumbo-Visma armada and where others find their opportunities.

Read more

A look at a the budget for a World Tour team, this time it’s Groupama-FDJ. The French team publishes detailed accounts with info all the way down to how much Lapierre and its parent company pay for bike sponsorship.

Read more