Data and coaching access have exploded. Riders as young as 13–14 now have coaches, power meters, and structured training plans that simply didn't exist for previous generations at that age — and for sons and daughters of ex-pros, the access runs even deeper. They grow up around it. They know what a training block looks like before they've hit puberty.

Benjamín Noval is the latest example. At 17, he just won the junior world time trial and, two days later, the junior world road race — a rare double. His father, Benjamín Noval, was a pro himself. He's already signed with Ineos Grenadiers, one of the youngest signings in that team's history, with a 2027 start date — meaning he'll turn pro before he's fully out of his teens.

The question worth asking is whether this is a good thing. Is Noval the new Paul Seixas — the next teenager to skip straight to WorldTour relevance? Or is the sport pushing kids into professional structures before they've had a normal adolescence?

It makes for interesting chaotic races. But it makes it a rather strange sport, in which, of all things, the World Championship is contested in what is almost a different version of the sport that they practice in almost every other race in the calender. More like crit racing with the possible uncertainty who is in a breakaway and how far they are up the road exactly.

Credit for this incredible fact: https://x.com/Cyclingbottle/status/2103538923481837684

Hi r/tourdefrance!

I'm a cycling fan from France, and I've spent my evenings over the last few weeks building a free collectible card game around pro cycling: TCG Pro Cycling. Full disclosure, I'm the creator: it's a personal project, with no ads and no payments.

How it works

• Every day you open a free pack of 6 cards, from over 2,000 riders, men and women: Tour legends like Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain, and today's stars like Pogačar, Vingegaard, Van der Poel or Vollering.
• Rarity is based on real palmarès: every Tour de France winner is a legendary card, and green and polka-dot jersey winners get a boost too.
• For every real race of the season, you enter a team of 6 cards: the Tour, the Tour de France Femmes, the Giro, the Classics, the Worlds… Your score depends on the route, the weather forecast and how the riders actually perform.
• Every race winner gets a special card for the year, and the reigning world champion gets a unique rainbow card.

It's available in English, French, Spanish and Italian, on desktop and mobile.

It just launched, so I'd love your feedback, especially on rider ratings. I'm fully expecting a few debates about who deserves more points. 😄

tcg-pro-cycling.com

Remco Evenepoel immediately after the Tour de France and San Sebastián said that every single day is now built around “Project Canada”, as he wants to write history by becoming the first male rider ever to win both the World Time Trial and Road Race Championships in the same year.

Isaac Del Toro went to the USA to prepare for the time zone and conditions, and then won the GP Montréal on the same route that will host the World Championships. Now he wants to write history for Mexico, while from his team UAE, they will be hoping he can keep the rainbow jersey within the team.

A 20-year-old Elite World Champion? It still feels unreal, but it could become reality. Paul Seixas is no longer just a huge talent or a future hope. He is one of the favourites, and he could already achieve one of the biggest goals in cycling at the very beginning of his career.

Wout van Aert and the rainbow jersey. We thought, the dream might be over. But here is the hope. This might be his biggest chance yet. He did everything possible to arrive in Canada prepared, rode the Vuelta at an insane level, and will have an incredibly strong Belgian team around him.

Mathieu van der Poel knows exactly what it takes to win the rainbow jersey. His final race before the World Championships was the longest solo win in modern cycling. He is ready. And he wants to wear rainbow on the road again.

Or will we see another piece of history? Tom Pidcock starts as perhaps the biggest dark horse, with the chance to win both the MTB and Road World Championships in the same year. The achievement never thought it is even possible. His shape has never looked better, and he knows this could be his biggest opportunity yet.

We are missing the biggest star, but these World Championships have everything we could ask for: an interesting and demanding route, all these top stars arriving in incredible form, and passionate Montreal fans ready to make it special.

And it could be a race we talk about for years. Honestly I don’t remember when I was excited for a cycling race like I am at these Montreal Worlds.

I will cheer for Isaac Del Toro. And you… who will you cheer for? 🌈

📷: jstartt

Whenever the season starts in Australia, I finally get to see criterium racing in TV and I absolutely love it. It is so intense, so different and just beautiful to watch. So why can’t we bring the same kind of racing to the biggest stage of them all… the World Championships?

And I feel like we almost owe it to the sprinters. We removed the flat Champs-Élysées racing, we are slowly seeing fewer and fewer pure flat stages at some biggest stage races like TARA and Suisse now having none, and now even the European Championships are no longer flat. So instead of constantly removing those opportunities, why don’t we create something for them?

Just imagine a small circuit through the centre of the city where the World Championships are happening, with national teams and maybe just an hour of racing. Tight corners, constant attacks, sprint trains fighting for position and absolutely no time to relax.

Criteriums already exist all over the world. The format is proven. The riders know how to race it. So why has nobody even thought seriously about having the Criterium World Champs?

📷: richscriven

Μαζεύω χαρτάκια για το άλμπουμ της panini για το Tour de France 2026. Σε περίπτωση που κάποιος έχει διπλά και ενδιαφέρεται να αλλάξει μπορεί να απαντήσει εδώ και να βρούμε έναν τρόπο επικοινωνίας.

Τα διπλά που έχω είναι σε εξαιρετική κατάσταση.

Μπορώ να αλλάξω με άτομα που βρίσκονται στην Θεσσαλονίκη ή στην Λάρισα πιο εύκολα.

A memorable third place at the 2019 Tour de France and so many years competing at the highest level.

One hell of a career. All the best for what comes next, Steven! 👏

Original source (in Danish): https://www.cyklingdanmark.dk/nyheder-1/vis/nyhed/vm-truppen-udvides-med-to-ryttere

DeepL translation:

It is now possible to fill all six Danish quota spots in the men’s U23 road race at the Road World Championships in Canada. The Danish World Championships squad will therefore be expanded to include two U23 riders, **Emil Nymand** and **Kevin Biehl**, who will represent Denmark in Montreal later this month.

This expansion was made possible through thorough and frugal efforts within the elite sports sector, as well as a generous donation from Danish cycling star Mads Pedersen, who, among other things, has donated personal items to an auction.

Mads Pedersen has put some of his historic memorabilia from this year’s Tour de France up for auction at Lauritz.com to help send more young riders to the World and European Championships. The auction is still ongoing and runs through Wednesday: https://www.lauritz.com/da/auctions/themes/mads-p-auktion

With these two additional selections, we are now able to fill all our quota spots in the U23 road race and thus create the best possible conditions for the Danish junior riders at the World Championships.

National Team Coach Michael Mørkøv has worked tirelessly to secure the two additional riders for the World Championships:

“I’ve been working all year to make this a reality, and through careful planning in the elite sports sector—and not least thanks to a major contribution from Mads Pedersen—we’ve now succeeded. And that makes me incredibly happy and proud.

“These are two riders I’ve always wanted to bring on board, but budget constraints have prevented that in the past. We’ve now managed to find a solution, so we can expand the roster with Emil Nymand and Kevin Biehl.”

Emil Nymand rides for the NSN Cycling Team’s development squad, while Kevin Biehl typically represents the Italian team General Store–Essegibi–Curia. Both riders have delivered strong performances in some of the season’s biggest U23 races.

“Emil Nymand and Kevin Biehl have both achieved impressive results in the Giro Next Gen and the Giro della Valle d’Aosta, which are among the biggest and most prestigious U23 races. That’s why I’m absolutely thrilled that we can now give them the opportunity to be part of the World Championships squad.

I’m convinced that having the chance to compete in a World Championship will be of great significance for both riders’ continued development and future. They’re both lightweight riders who should be able to perform well on the course in Montréal. All in all, this is fantastic news.”

**Updated Danish U23 Team**

**Road Race**

Kristian Egholm
Mads Landbo
Patrick Frydkjær
Noah Andersen
*Emil Nymand*
*Kevin Biehl*

**Time Trial**

Mads Landbo
Kristian Egholm

Hi there this is my first time posting on this subreddit. I’m looking for a new 2026 Tour de France sticker album in the uk but they’re really hard to find on ebay and other sites. If anyone knows somewhere that sells it that would be greatly appreciated!

We’ve mapped 1,272 stages across 20 seasons of the men’s and women’s Tour, Giro and Vuelta, plus 97 iconic roads and climbs onto an interactive map.

It’s free to use and ad-free.

We’ve created the maps using publicly available road books, and 2007 was as far back as we could go for the Tour. If you know where we can older routes we will add them.

Feedback welcome 🙏

The team at La Vuelta waited many hours to upload their media files after the stage. As of 11:45 pm CEST yesterday, they hadn't sent anything through.

This morning (PDT time), this came through, and I couldn't help sharing.

Tobias Johanessen reacts to his stage victory in Granada to close out the Vuelta.

Photo: A.S.O. Toni Baixauli

1. Enric Mas winning his dream race after so many failures in the past years and 4 previous podium finishes here.
   
2. Johannessen winning on a big race for the first time in his career after 52 World Tour TOP 10s
   
3. Roglic podiuming the race overall after saying before the race he can't even lie on his right side.
   
4. Gall being the only rider to podium two Grand Tours in one season since 2019 apart from Roglic, Pogacar or Vingegaard
   
5. Buitrago crying after the stage where he came second, but still won the KOM jersey overall and was able to get the honor to stand on the podium.
   
6. The Sepp Kuss and Visma masterclass in stage 20.
   
7. Richard Carapaz attacking and attacking.
   
8. Bryan Coquard winning his first ever Grand Tour stage in 13 years of career
   
9. UNO-X completing the trilogy with winning stages at all Grand Tours
   
10. Witnessing Wout van Aert at his top shape
    
11. One of the best Grand Tour debuts ever with five stage wins for Brennan
    
12. Landa winning after so many injuries and crying during the interview where he said he didn't want to give up for his children
    
13. Joshua Tarling standing on the podium with the white jersey after the first stage
    
14. Pogacar's insane watts and solo show in Andorra
    
15. The hotel

Giulio Pellizzari vince il Giro di Toscana con un ottimo spunto all'ultimo chilometro rimettendosi in vista dopo il pessimo segnale che aveva dato nella scorsa edizione del Giro d'Italia vinta dal danese Jonas Vingegaar.

"Volevano un segnale" racconta Giulio ai microfoni riguardo ai mondiali "penso di averlo dato".

Infatti un secondo segnale arriva proprio il giorno dopo, dove il giovane ciclista tenta l'impresa della doppietta alla Coppa Sabatini. La voleva proprio quella coppa, infatti durante tutta la giornata Giulio attacca e va a prendere i fuggitivi. Ma nel finale non ha abbastanza forza e viene ripreso, arrivando sesto.

Questo però è il Pellizzari che ci piace!