The route of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes has been announced this morning in Paris, and it features a very difficult route that differs quite a lot from this year's. Taking place from Saturday, 1 August to Sunday, 9 August 2026, the time trials are back at this year's edition, and we will have a m...

Users of the Great Western Greenway have been pushed out onto the N59, a national secondary road with a 100km/h speed limit, for around a 200-metre section of the greenway between Westport and Newport after a farmer closed a shorter section outside of his farm.The section closed by the farmer amounts to around 40 or 50 metres, but because of fences and greenery in the way, detouring around the closed section involves using the main road for 200 metres. The greenway was built using permissive access, a system where landowners such as farmers retain ownership of the land. Over the years since the route was opened, similar closures have happened when landowners have had issues with the council, sometimes totally unrelated to the greenway. In this case, the farmer has reported an increase in conflicts with greenway users where the route crosses his driveway and farm access gate.This increase in conflicts came after the council installed new barrierssee the video below, which was taken by IrishCycle.com at the start of the year, focusing on the barriers being placed in locations where they are not recommended. Cllr Peter Flynn (Fine Gael), a Westport-based councillor, said before this latest closure over the weekend that the landowner contacted him and said that hes sick and tired of it, referring to incidents at the entrances to his house and farm.This is always the risk with permissive access, with the landowner fully entitled to close off his/her land without any need to notify the Council or anyone else, said Cllr Flynn. Ironically, every time this happens is with a stretch of greenway alongside the road where the farmer is trying to get their car, farm machinery or livestock across the greenway; it is a headache, unlike sections which are well away from the main road, he said.IMAGE: Video taken earlier this year before the closure. Cllr Flynn has been making the point about the risks of permissive access in relation to the planned Westport to Murrisk/Louisburgh greenway. This planned greenway on the other side of the bay has been delayed because of objections from some residents to the project. Cllr Flynn supports a route inland, while other councillors and some residents who are objecting to the route want the greenway built along the main road in the area.The new route is planned to be State-owned by agreement of sale with the landowners or via compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) where such is not possible. Issues like the current one and the ongoing resourcing costs of maintaining permission access agreements are why State bodies have said that there must be public ownership of any new regional and national greenways.Would you build a house or shed on someone elses land? That is what happens with permissive access when you are investing in infrastructure that can be shut down legitimately with no recourse, said Cllr Flynn.He added: The other side of permissive access is that the landowner misses out on any compensation, which is a shame when there is very generous compensation under the new TII approach. For farmers over 55, this compensation is generally tax-free. Yet some farming organisations, who are supposed to be represent small farmers, are against this approach; go figure that!

Across nine stages from Lausanne to Nice, the Tour de France Femmes can change quickly through crashes, illness and the accumulated strain of a compact route. With little recovery time between sprint finales, hilly stages, the Dijon time trial and the decisive mountain tests, one incident can remove...

Despite being just 21 kilometres long, the Stage 4 individual time trial at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift delivered the first major shake-up in the general classification. As anticipated, world time trial champion Marlen Reusser (Movistar) powered to victory, while the rest of the GC contenders spent the day trying to limit their losses.Riders like Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) emerged from the day in strong positions, now sitting fifth and second overall respectively. Defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prvot (Visma | Lease a Bike), however, endured a nightmare, conceding more than two minutes and tumbling to 14th in the general classification.For Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM), the day went exactly as planned. The 2024 Tour de France Femmes champion finished 13th on the stage, 1:08 behind Reusser, but successfully limited her losses to the other GC favourites and, crucially, finished ahead of Ferrand-Prvot before the race reaches the high mountains."The goal for today was to minimise losses to riders like Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini and Marlen Reusser," Niewiadoma-Phinney said after the stage. "Of course it's nice to be in front of Pauline ahead of Mont Ventoux and the other hard stages."Heading into the Tour's first major climbing test, Niewiadoma-Phinney sits sixth overall, with just 1:09 separating the top six riders.The Polish rider revealed she had invested heavily in improving her time trialling, fully aware of how important the stage could be in shaping this year's Tour."I felt that I found my flow. I spent huge amounts of time working on my TT skills, because as everyone knows, I wasn't the best at it," she said. "As you can see, if you believe in something and you put a good amount of work in, anything is possible."Niewiadoma-Phinney was delighted with her performance and admitted she would have gladly accepted the result before rolling down the start ramp."One hundred percent. I'm super grateful for all the people that were with me on the journey to get to this place. The Tour de France is such a big goal for myself and the team. We want to come here to bring the yellow jersey home again. That result puts us closer to that dream."She credited the ride to a collective effort that included technical work on her position, equipment and coaching, while jokingly acknowledging some advice from her husband, former American time trial specialist Taylor Phinney."I'm married to a TT specialist so, for once, I listened to his advice," she laughed. "I'm very lucky to be surrounded by professional people, my team looking for details to improve my position, Canyon taking me to a wind tunnel, my coach working on me physically. I think it was a combination of massive teamwork."With the race now turning towards the mountains, Niewiadoma-Phinney said the Tour would now "properly start." Relieved to have the time trial behind her, she is eager to return to terrain that better suits her strengths."I was looking forward to this particular moment to be done with and focus on the climbs to come. Tomorrow is going to be a super hard stage. We're here to be aggressive, we have a strong team, and we want to do our best. We're in great shape, so what else can you do other than race your bike now?"

The time trial at the Tour de France Femmes was known to be a key day for the overall classification contenders. Despite the months of preparation, defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prvot struggled and has lost minutes to her direct rivals over a short distance, raising doubts over her ability to...

Stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes delivered a lot of action and gaps in the race's sole individual time trial. In the 21 kilometers Demi Vollering lost time to Marlen Reusser; but may have been the biggest winner of the day after learning that she had won almost two minutes to Pauline Ferrand-Pr...

Pauline Ferrand-Prvot knew she wouldnt win stage fours time trial at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, but she maybe didnt expect to tumble more than two minutes down the general classification. Thirty-fourth on the day, the Frenchwoman finished 2:13 adrift of the stage winner, and new yellow jersey wearer, Marlen Reusser (Movistar), and 1:55 off last years runner-up, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), her big GC rival. As a result, the defending champion is now 14th overall, and will need to claw back time over the next five stages if shes to retain her yellow jersey. I did my best and I pushed as hard as I could. Now theres nothing I can do, Ferrand-Prvot told the media beyond the finish line. It was quite a lot of stress. Even though I finished far off, I still prepared a lot. Im glad this day is over. The 21km course between Gevrey-Chambertin and Dijon always suited the pelotons mightiest specialists against the clock. Ferrand-Prvot, by contrast, a diminutive climber, hadnt raced a time trial in more than five years, having switched her ambitions to mountain biking.Asked ahead of the race if she felt she was starting from zero in her time trial preparation, she laughed that it was more minus 10 [but] I did my homework quite well. That preparation included wind tunnel testing and positional work to relieve pressure from the two surgeries she had had to treat iliac artery endofibrosis. This meant that she sat quite high in the saddle. It wasnt the prettiest sight, it wasnt the fastest for everyone else in the peloton, but it was the fastest for me, she said. Attention will now turn at Visma-Lease a Bike to how Ferrand-Prvot can recover her GC position before Sunday's finale in Nice. This year is not lost, her sports director Jos van Emden said. This is some kind of starting point. Wednesdays fifth stage is expected to be raced like a one-day Classic, with eight categorised climbs on the route to Belleville-en-Beaujolais. Theres also the races queen stage still to come: a 21km climb to Mont Ventoux on day seven.Last year, on the Col de la Madeleine, I took quite a lot of time [ed 3:03 to Vollering]. This year, we have Ventoux, which is a long climb, too, Ferrand-Prvot said. And in the face of disappointment, she picked herself up, and made sure to stay optimistic: Its also good now to not be the favourite. Its like, Ok, I need to catch them. Its also something I like.

With only nine stages at the Tour de France Femmes, a relegation, time penalty or yellow card can carry consequences far beyond the immediate result. Sprint deviations, sticky bottles, feeding breaches and littering offences can all affect stage placings, jersey battles and the shape of a riders ra...

Marlen Reusser enjoyed an unforgettable day at the Tour de France Femmes 2026. The Swiss rider from Movistar Team won stage 4, a 21-kilometre time trial with a fast run-in, and pulled on the yellow jersey, sealing a plan the team had been shaping even before the race began. After stepping off the b...

A post-Tour look at the team standings to see who is up and who is down.Two changes at the top. First the UAE team is still in the lead but theyve pulled out a big lead after only having less than two thousand points on RedBull going into the Tour, now theyre over five thousand clear and with Pogaar racing the Vuelta likely to pull further ahead. The other movement is Lidl-Trek overtaking XDS-Astana, the German team enjoyed a successful team while the Kazakh squad found it hard to get a look in.The grey line on the chart represents the border between 18th and 19th place. Notionally this is the relegation point at the end of the 2026-2027-2028 cycle. Its far away, and also conditional on there being 18 teams in the World Tour. Pinarello-Q36.5 already look like a competitive World Tour team and signing the likes of Mauro Schmid only bolsters this. Movistar and Lotto-Intermarch might be where theyre expected to be but its not a comfortable place.Thanks to a good Tour EF went into the Tour below the grey line, now theyre well above it with Richard Carapaz scoring over 1,300 points. Cofidis are just above the line but Tudor are close, the Swiss team had a discreet Tour de France but have signed Arnaud De Lie who ought to score big for them next year, the team need this. Marc Hirschi for example only has 308 points this season.A poor Tour for Groupama-FDJ, around 300 points of which two thirds came from Clment Russos stealthy top-10s. They will be worried about relegation, especially as theyre still highly reliant on Romain Grgoire. Hes extended his contract with the team which helps but injury or illness could be ruinous for the team. Valentin Madouas is leaving and you can understand why, hes only got 120 points this season when hes been second in the Olympics and the Ronde alike and notionally one of the leaders; the same for David Gaudu with 98 points this season with talk of a breakdown in relations and the team wanting to unload him but hes got a valid and lucrative contract so in no hurry to leave. Having seen Stefan Kng leave and now Madouas there ought to be some budget for some scorers. House sprinter Paul Penhot is leaving too.Picnic-PostNL are in a catastrophic position. Only one win this season is poor but its the absence from podiums, placings and other results that is proving so damaging. Theyre really missing Max Poole, their stage racing talent, but only three riders in Pavel Bittner, Frits Biesterbos and Bjorn Koerdt have a points score in triple digits, with Bittner the top scorer on 580 points. Theyre 4,339 short of Cofidis, to avoid relegation theyre going to need to score at a rate like Soudal-Quickstep just to get back on terms. Fabio Jakobsen could be leaving the team in the coming daysOne year rankingsEverything else being equal* the best two ProTeams this season get automatic invites to the biggest races for next year, so Pinarello-Q36.5 and Cofidis right now but with Tudor jostling for this prize so watch for this during the rest of the season.To be eligible for a grand tour a ProTeam has to be inside the Top-30 at the end of the season so plenty of familiar names including Bardiani which has climbed up. But the rule means the likes of Euskaltel-Euskadi and Modern Adventure Cycling are out of the picture now so new Euskaltel signing Mikel Landa may not have the romantic farewell at the Vuelta.As written before the top-30 rule is based of the rankings at the end of the year which will include teams like Kern Pharma and TotalEnergies and only the first has said its stopping and the second is probably going to stop too but no announcement yet so if they wont exist next year it doesnt make sense to include them.* an open question with an uncertain future for several teams, see Julys Race for Survival postThe post UCI Team Rankings first appeared on The Inner Ring.