This weeks jam-packed Debrief features the Rogue Panda ScatHat, new Surly Straggler, MSR FreeLite Stash, Camp and Go Slow top caps, a couple of events to follow live, and a whole lot more. Find it all hereThe post Friday Debrief: Rogue Panda ScatHat, New Straggler, MSR FreeLite Stash, and More appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Tadej Pogacars most damaging Tour de France attacks often come when everyone else should be running out of road, legs and oxygen. For UAE Team Emirates XRG, that ability is not being treated as mystery or instinct alone. Ahead of Pogacars bid for a fifth yellow jersey, UAE head of performance Je...

It won't have escaped your attention, I'm sure, but the Tour de France begins tomorrow. The real thing is here. Forget about the FIFA World Cup for a second, because the world's biggest bike race is here to take over your lives for the next three weeks.In April every year, I'm convinced that the Classics, the crescendo of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, are the best races of the year. In May, you find some hipsters suggesting that the Giro d'Italia is where it's at. The truth is, however, that nothing beats the Tour de France. July starts, and something changes. It's all I will care about until August, and then it's the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. My friends might not get much of me until after that.It's 10 years since I first saw the Tour in person; my Mum and I went on a trip to Cherbourg after I'd finished university to get a glimpse of the famous race. We only fitted in one stage, but we were blown away by the whole spectacle, after not really knowing what to expect I envy anyone who is going for the first time this year, and gets to see the madness. The caravan, the speed of the riders, the cavalcade, and just the sheer enormity of it all. I had to check, Peter Sagan won, but I think I was just as excited to see Mark Cavendish in yellow that day.This Tour will be my seventh as a cycling journalist, and the fifth consecutive race I've been to in person. Sometimes, sitting far from the action, cynicism about how exciting something is easily found, but up close, when you're there, there's nothing like it. Saying the Tour is the world's biggest bike race is an almost self-fulfilling prophecy, but it really is.This year's race is tantalising. Sure, Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the favourite for the race, and it would be a surprise were he not to win the race, but it's not at all implausible that Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) could mount a stern challenge. He's the only rider to ever beat Pogaar at the Tour, after all, and won the Giro d'Italia this year; his and Visma's contention is that he's better in the second Grand Tour of the year, and we will see if that's true, and enough to win. That's exciting enough, but the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe duo of Remco Evenepoel and Florian Lipowitz is intriguing, and might well provide some moments of entertainment, if nothing else. Then there's Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), the 19-year-old who is aiming to become the first Frenchman in 40 years to claim the yellow jersey. There's a lot in the GC race, and there's more that I haven't mentioned, but there's more to the Tour than that.This Tour route is back-loaded, but that doesn't make it any easier. There will be day-after-day of start-to-finish gripping action. This might well be the Tour of breakaways, with teams like Soudal Quick-Step, Netcompany-Ineos and EF Education-EasyPost seemingly fully built around maximising the most of those hard days. With Pogaar so far above most other riders, there will be such a fight to make the most of punchy days, those stages where things are up in the air. There's going to be racing from the gun that you won't want to miss. Even if things to end in a bunch sprint, it won't have been easy.All of this makes it even more heartbreaking, and frustrating, that this is the first Tour de France that won't be shown live on free-to-air television in the UK, after the demise of ITV's coverage, and live coverage moving to TNT Sports. People have found workarounds, whether that's through using VPNs, or watching it in Welsh for certain stages. There will also be highlights on 5, so all is not lost. However, I fear for the casual fan, the person who would switch on the Tour for hours every July, who is now lost. We can try and convey the action through words, but in 2026, it's not quite the same.I wish I could change this. Cycling on television is beautiful. A bike race like the Tour shows a whole country, in a way that no other sport barely any other thing can. That's enough moping, though. This Tour will be thrilling, I can feel it. Watch what you can, and follow along with Cycling Weekly for everything else. It's time.

Leah Goldstein and Torin Lackmann completed the 2026 Tour Divide as the second and third women to reach Antelope Wells, capping remarkable rides defined by resilience and determination. Their finishes came amid heartbreaking news that fellow racer Alyssa Secreto was critically injured in a collision just miles from the finish, casting a somber shadow over this year's event and rallying the bikepacking community around her recoveryThe post Leah Goldstein and Torin Lackmann Finish the Tour Divide appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Paul Seixas will start his first Tour de France with the French public already trying to work out how far the dream can go. At 19, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider has gone from teenage phenomenon to genuine GC storyline in a matter of months, carrying the kind of home expectation usually reserved f...

Alberto Contador made a career out of racing Grand Tours from the front foot. His long-range ambush at Fuente De in the 2012 Vuelta a Espana remains one of the clearest examples of what can happen when control is no longer enough and the race has to be broken open. Before the 2026 Tour de France, hi...

Alyssa Secreto, a 35-year-old endurance cyclist from Colorado Springs, is in the hospital after being hit by a car in the final stretch of the Tour Divide. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with medical bills and ease her long road to recovery. Learn more and support Alyssa hereThe post Help Alyssa Secreto Recover After Being Hit by a Car on the Tour Divide appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

The 2026 Tour de France will once again see Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard go head to head for the yellow jersey, but this time around with some added wildcards in the likes of Paul Seixas and Remco Evenepoel. How can they affect the expected fight for victory, and how do UAE Team Emirates - XRG...

Though 2026 is not the first Tour with an overwhelming favourite, it takes us a bit of imagination to look past Tadej Pogaar...

Photographer Eddie Clark wraps up his 2026 Tour Divide coverage with a handpicked selection of his favorite images, reflecting on the landscapes, riders, and fleeting moments that made this year's race unforgettable. From joyful victories to quiet encounters along the route, his gallery captures the spirit of the Divide, closing with a heartfelt tribute to Alyssa Secreto and a wish for her full recovery after a life-threatening collision near the end of her rideThe post 2026 Tour Divide: Photographers Choice appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.