Tadej Pogacar has undergone surgery earlier this week and has returned home after spending a few days in the northeast of Spain. The questions over whether he participates in the World Championships or not remain, but the Slovenian national team doctor is not positive that it is a realistic option....

The Governments decision has drawn widespread political and campaigning criticism, with the opposition and passenger groups saying it is not taking the cost of living or climate action seriously.The National Transport Authority used a fare determination process today to announce that many of the public transport fare reductions introduced in the last government are being rolled back. The increases are generally around 15% and will kick in 2027. The Taoiseach, Michel Martin, defended the move,reportedly saying the Governments not in a position to fund everything forever and that sustainable funding was needed. Ciaran Ahern, Labour TD and party transport spokesperson, said raising public transport fares while the Government spends 400m to keep diesel under 2 per litre beggars belief and highlights just how anti-climate and anti-worker this Government is.Deputy Ahern said: Fine Gael and Fianna Fil are doubling down on fossil fuels when they should be encouraging people to use public transport. Its anti-worker, and it proves this Governments failure to take any leadership on climate.These increases come in the wake of cost hikes for parents of children using the school transport scheme. Minister Chambers is robbing Peter to pay Paul while PAYE workers and their families are left squeezed, he said.Deputy Ahern said, This change will disproportionately hit people on lower incomes at a time when government is going out of its way to spend money to protect hauliers and those who can afford to drive. Those on lower incomes will be hit once again. Its an utterly regressive step.Keeping public transport affordable is key for commuters who are already facing spiralling costs from energy bills to food to housing. This is happening at a time when we need to keep fares low, and Labour wants to see a move towards free public transport, particularly for students and young people. This is the level of ambition needed if we are serious about meeting our climate goals and protecting peoples pockets, he said.Ahern added: If Fine Gael and Fianna Fil could find 400m to make diesel cheaper, they can and must find the money to make public transport commuting affordable.Cllr Feljin Jose, Green Party spokesperson for transport, said: With motorways full and congestion at record levels, we should be encouraging more people to use public transport, expanding services and reducing car usage. Instead, this Government has decided to make it more expensive to do the right thing in the midst of a cost of living crisis. This decision will cost us far more in congestion and emissions than it will raise in revenue.He added: In 2022, we brought in the first fare reduction in Ireland since 1947 with half-price fares for students and young people and a 20% reduction for everyone. This drove historic growth that saw record levels of public transport usage across all operators. This is now being jeopardised by the governments decision to make it more expensive.Meanwhile, the Galway, Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Drogheda Commuter Coalitions issued a joint statement calling the increases absolutely unacceptable.In recent days the government has extended cuts to excise duty on petrol and diesel. A measure which amounts to a cost of over two million euro a day. In effect, what is being asked is for those who use public transport to cover this astounding cost, the groups said.The groups said: Additionally, the government has lied about the correlation between growth in public transport usage vs population growth. Since 2019, our population has grown by about 11%, far outstripped by the about 21% increase in usage of public transport.Our message to the public across Ireland is clear. As you cram onto a crowded train or get passed by a full bus in the rain this winter, remember that the government is glad to raise your fares and to use the money they promised you for service improvements on the petrol that you dont burn, they said.The group added: The war in Iran has made it clearer than ever that Ireland must wean itself off its utter dependence on oil to help insulate its economy and standard of living. This announcement shows that the government intends to do the exact opposite, ensuring that we are more exposed than ever to the turbulence of the oil market.Rail passenger group, Rail Users Ireland, said: Disappointing news from NTA that fares will rise in January. The NTA is trying to claim its ok as we are cheaper than other cities. Other cities with world-class infrastructure and service are not exactly a fair comparison.The group also called the planned removal of open return intercity rail tickets a sneaky move.In its fare determination document, the National Transport Authority said: For this Fares Determination, Open Return fares will be discontinued as part of ongoing rail fare reforms to support the implementation of Next Generation Ticketing and contactless payment due to limitations in the reading of outdated magnetic stripe tickets.It added: Passengers are encouraged to avail of web fares, which continue to offer excellent value for single and return journeys, particularly when booked in advance. This also helps support the prediction of train loadings and best use of available rail capacity on the intercity network.Anne Shaw, CEO of the National Transport Authority, said: Our priority is to deliver the best possible public transport system for passengers. Demand is at record levels, and people rightly expect more frequent, reliable and better-connected services.This is the first general increase in PSO fares in eight years and is an important step in supporting continued investment in expanded services, increased capacity and enhanced connectivity across the country, she said.Shaw added: At the same time, almost 1.5 million people will continue to benefit from free travel or fare concessions, including children under nine, people aged 66 and over, and those eligible under the Free Travel Scheme, while the 50% Young Adult and Student Discount is being maintained. These changes strike a careful balance between keeping public transport affordable and ensuring we can continue building a larger, more accessible and better-connected network for communities across Ireland.On the fare determination page, the NTA said: Since 2022, the cost of operating public transport services has increased, the fare levels have decreased, and public policy has extended free travel to new cohorts of passengers, narrowing the fare revenue base.The shift in economic landscape following the COVID pandemic led to a sharp increase in price inflation of 20.8% between January 2022 and May 2026 in Ireland1. This price inflation also extends to the cost of operating subsidised public transport services, such as the cost for purchase/maintenance of vehicles, fuel and staff costs. The post-pandemic increase in patronage requires additional vehicles, which incurs additional staff costs to drive and maintain the fleet, which puts further pressure on the PSO public transport budget, the authority said. It added: In the same time period as the 20.8% price inflation, public transport fares decreased through various measures, including the 20% cost of living discount which was applied to all subsidised public transport fares and the Young Adult / Student discount of 50% on equivalent adult leap fares applied in 2022. In 2025, free travel was extended to include children under 9 and for companions of those over 70 as part of the Free Travel Scheme.NTA overview of fares determinationThis is a summary of the fares determination by the NTA:Dublin City Zone: Bus Services operated by Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland, Luas light rail services and DART heavy rail services operated by Iarnrd ireann Irish Rail.Cash / Leap fares and products to increase by an average of 15%Short fare to increase by 33% to 2Dublin Commuter Zone:Bus services operated by Bus ireann, Go-Ahead Ireland, J.J. Kavanagh & Sons, and commuter rail services operated by Iarnrd ireann.Most fares and current products to increase by an average of 15%A new reduced child rate priced at 33% of the equivalent adult fare for all ticket typesRetention of interim fare measures introduced as part of the Dublin Commuter Zone rolloutRegional City: Bus services in Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford.No change to the Cork City Bus Leap, Cash and Daily / Weekly cap ratesA new flat fare replacing the standard and higher zone fares in Galway, Limerick and WaterfordAdult Leap fare to increase by 10% to 1.70, with a 15% increase in period productsStandardisation of the 50% Young Adult discount across all ticket types in the regional citiesA new reduced child rate priced at 33% of the equivalent adult fareTown: Athlone, Balbriggan, Carlow, Clonmel, Drogheda, Dundalk, Kilkenny (city) , Mullingar, Navan, Portlaoise and SligoTown fares to increase by 10% for Leap Adult to 1.65 and 15% for Cash to 2.30Student / Young Adult fares and products to be priced at 50% of the equivalent adult fareA new reduced child rate priced at 33% of the equivalent adult fare of 0.50 cent Leap / 0.80 cent cashNational:Bus ireann stage carriage and Intercity rail services operated by Iarnrd ireann Irish Rail.Bus stage carriage fares and products to increase by an average of 15%Intercity rail Open Return tickets to be discontinued (see Section 4.3 for further details)Intercity rail Express fares to increase by 10% and Economy fares by up to 20%Review of rail promotional faresTFI Local Link: Regular Rural ServicesAn average 15% increase in single faresRetention of the 50% Student / Young Adult discount and child fares priced at 33% of the equivalent adult fareStandardisation of period product rates in line with fare policy

Felix Gall, after the departure of Tadej Pogacar from the Vuelta a Espaa, became perhaps the biggest favourite to win the overall classification. However, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team hasn't been able to make the difference in the mountains as he hoped for, and might have hinted that the podium is th...

Christophe Laporte will remain with Team Visma | Lease a Bike until 2029. The Dutch outfit has announced the Frenchmans extension through the end of the 2029 season, keeping a key piece of one of the pelotons strongest teams. A significant move in the transfer market. Laporte joined the team in 2...

Matthew Brennan stunned the peloton again on stage 11 of La Vuelta a Espaa 2026. The 21-year-old Briton took his third win on his Grand Tour debut and confirmed that his sprint dominance at this race is no fluke. That was the view of Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin on the The Move podcast, where...

Richard Carapaz once again played his cards from range on stage 12 of the Vuelta a Espaa 2026. The Ecuadorian from EF Education-EasyPost launched an attack on the penultimate climb of the day, aiming to catch the other contenders off guard and see who would respond. The move did not yield the resu...

Ahead of Stage 4 of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes last month, riders encountered an addition to the familiar pre-time-trial ritual of bike measurements and equipment checks: officials were paying particular attention to their chests.Several Women's WorldTour teams had reportedly complained that riders appeared to have greater chest volume in time trials than in road stages. The suspicion was that some competitors were using padding, ice or other material underneath their skinsuits to effectively create a "chest fairing" for an aerodynamic advantage.The UCI regulations, specifically Article 1.3.032, state that clothing and accessories may not modify a rider's morphology and prohibit non-essential elements added to, placed beneath or integrated into clothing. The UCI's technical guidance for Article 1.3.032 also prohibits products or substances applied to the body or clothing to improve aerodynamics.However, neither document establishes how much padding a sports bra may contain. They also do not provide a specific protocol for examining one, and the sudden bra checks drew a lot of critique as well as questions around the exam's invasiveness, bra structure, breast shape and size, and, of course, whether a padded bra can actually make a rider faster. While initial chest fairing studies found drag reductions of up to 3.6 percent, new CFD modelling from AiRO suggests that sports-bra-sized marginal gains may be negligible. At least in AiRO's test, a push-up bra is more likely to lift expectations than speed.What the studies sayWind tunnel testing (Image credit: Andy Jones)Much of the understanding of chest fairings comes from a 2024 peer-reviewed paper by Bert Blocken, Fabio Malizia and Thijs van Druenen in the Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.The researchers used computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, to examine seven chest fairing configurations on a male cyclist in a time trial position. The simulations were then validated through wind-tunnel testing. Their best-performing configuration reduced drag by 3.6 percent, which is a potentially significant advantage in a race decided by fractions of a second.However, not every fairing was beneficial. Some configurations increased drag, and the researchers concluded that a rider would need dedicated wind-tunnel tests or CFD simulations to determine whether a particular shape would provide an advantage. The study found that a chest fairing can be effective, though it did not conclude that additional chest volume is inherently faster.The size of the fairing matters greatly. The study's largest drag reduction came from a substantial, purpose-built form modelled on the chest fairings used by some triathletes, far from the shape or padding amount of a conventional sports bra.AiRO, a company that provides CFD-based aerodynamic modelling to bike fitters, has now tested a narrower question: whether comparatively small changes in chest volume can produce the same effect. That is, changes small enough to be hidden inside a bra. What AiRO testedAiRO CFD modelling testing various chest volumes using a female rider model wearing a Specialized Evade helmet. (Image credit: AiRO)AiRO created a digital female rider in a fixed cycling position and modelled three chest volumes: small, medium and large. The company tested each version with two helmets, the Specialized Evade and the Ekoi Pureaero, because aerodynamicist Ingmar Jungnickel argues that changes around the chest could affect airflow reaching the rider's head and equipment farther downstream.Jungnickel told Cycling Weekly that the virtual athlete was based on a rider measuring 175cm (5'9") and weighing 60kg (132lbs). With the Ekoi helmet, AiRO reported drag differences of 0.1%, +0.2% and +0.3% percent across the three chest configurations. Plus means more drag; minus means diminished drag. Jungnickel described the differences as "nothing at all," writing that "not one configuration produced a measurable gain."With the Specialized Evade, all three chest configurations were approximately 2.2% slower than its reference, while changing from the smallest to the largest volume barely altered the result."Small chest volume changes, as they could be hidden in a sports bra, do not seem to make riders faster," Jungnickel concluded. AiRO also modelled what it called a "proper fairing," akin to a water bottle stuffed down a jersey as has been seen by some male riders in the past. This model featured a rider with the Giro Aerohead and the Specialized Evade.The drag reductions were 0.7% on the Giro Aerohead, 0.1% on the Specialized Evade. "The best case is a possible small advantage that is within measurement uncertainty. That is with an object under the suit, on a male rider, in a full time trial position," AiRO concluded. "Changing chest volume by the amount a padded sports bra can change it did nothing on either helmet, for either sign, at any of three sizes," AiRO concluded.AiRO acknowledged the limitations to its findings. For one, the company tested only one rider model per sex, and Jungnickel said the effect could vary with "bust volume, torso length, shoulder width and how closed the riders position already is.""A single athlete tells you the mechanism exists and roughly how big it is for that rider, but it doesnt give a universal number," he said.AiRO also used a parametric human model fitted to images rather than a 3D body scan. Jungnickel said that approach allowed the company to preserve the same underlying geometry between tests, avoiding variations caused by scanning artefacts.That consistency may improve comparisons within AiROs test, but the analysis remains a company-authored demonstration rather than a peer-reviewed study. AiRO has not published the full solver settings, mesh-independence analysis or numerical uncertainty calculations that would allow outside researchers to evaluate its results in detail.Even with those limitations, Jungnickel said the central finding was clear: "Bra stuffing is at least not clearly a benefit."So what to believe?(Image credit: Getty Images)Jungnickel argues that AiROs results do not necessarily contradict Blocken and his co-authors. The disagreement, in his view, lies in the interpretation of the data.According to AiRO's reading of the Blocken paper, the three smallest fairings changed drag by +0.54, +0.39 and 0.68 percent. Under that convention, two made the rider marginally slower and one produced a small improvement. The widely reported 3.6-percent reduction came from a much larger, solid fairing measuring 313mm wide and 87mm tall.Jungnickel argued that sub-one-percent effects may fall within the practical uncertainty of CFD, wind-tunnel or velodrome testing and may vary from rider to rider. "At differences that small, most serious fit changes offer a larger benefit," he said.The two analyses therefore point to a more nuanced conclusion: a large, carefully shaped fairing can reduce drag, but small changes in chest volume do not appear to provide a consistent or readily measurable advantage.So, before you start stuffing socks into your sports bra, the evidence calls for restraint. A large, carefully shaped fairing can reduce drag, but modelling suggests that bra-sized changes offer no reliable shortcut to speed. It appears that for most cyclists, a better position and fit remain safer and legal places to find free watts.

The return of the Philadelphia Cycling Classic has brought top-level action back into the United States of America, but a dark shadow is currently cast upon the race. 19-year old Ezra Caudell has been placed in an induced coma after suffering a serious crash. An update was provided following the ra...

The2026 Vuelta a Espaawill be the third and final Grand Tour of the men's calendar and will take place from the 22nd of August to the 13th of September. Starting in Monaco, the World Tour peloton will travel through the eastern and southern half of Spain for a mountain-packed edition. We preview...