Mads Pedersens fourth place at Milano-Sanremo 2026 was one of the standout rides of the race, not just for the result itself but for what it represented. Less than two months on from a heavy crash and only six weeks after surgery, the Dane returned to racing and immediately mixed it with the very b...

What unfolded on the Cipressa at Milano-Sanremo 2026 was already chaotic on the road. In the aftermath, it has also triggered a far sharper debate about Mathieu van der Poels level, with Thijs Zonneveld delivering a stark assessment of what it could mean for the weeks ahead. Speaking on the In de W...

Kasia Niewiadoma has shared a calm and reflective update in the aftermath of the heavy Cipressa crash that disrupted Milano-Sanremo Women 2026, confirming she escaped without serious injury despite the severity of the incident. The Polish rider was one of the key figures caught up in the crash on th...

Tadej Pogacars Milano-Sanremo win has already been dissected from every angle, from the crash before the Cipressa to the relentless pace that followed and the sprint on Via Roma. Most readings land in the same place: chaos survived, brilliance delivered. Tom Danielson sees it differently. The cras...

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back follows Cynthia Carsons tumultuous journey to the 2025 Transcontinental Race and attempts to unpack the meaning of the unanticipated obstacles we all face at one point or another. It also serves as a reminder that progress, in sport and in life, is rarely a straight line. Watch the film and read a reflection from Cynthia here...The post Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (Film) appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

The 2026 Tour of Bruges will be taking place on the 25th of March and is the first of the World Tour Belgian spring classics from the main block. The race formerly known as the Classsic Brugge-De Panne is suited to the sprinters, however usually in a route where the wind also causes chaos. We take a...

Tadej Pogaar launches his sprint with 200m to go. Tom Pidcock looks to the right but theres no room and he moves to the left and almost gets on terms but hes half a length short as they throw their bikes to the line. After 289km theres half a wheel it in.Embed from Getty ImagesThe early breakaway formed quickly, only for the lead vehicles to go off-course, taking the riders into parked traffic. Anecdotal, yes but a copycat move was allowed to go clear moments later which was notable because it showed how it suited everyone.Like previous editions this was another Noahs Ark breakaway with team mates going in two by two: two each from Movistar, Bardiani, Novo Nordisk and Polti-Malta, plus a lonely Picnic-PostNL rider in Alexey Faure-Prost.Embed from Getty ImagesBehind Orluis Aular of Movistar and UAEs Jan Christen crashed after about 30km, the latter breaking his collarbone. Given UAE were without Tim Wellens and Jhonatan Narvaez because of injury did losing a key rider early give Pogaar thoughts it might not be his day? The gods were out to test him already.Embed from Getty ImagesAlpecin-PremierTechs Silvan Dillier led the chase with 285km to go and the Swiss Stakhanovite was seemingly on the front for the next 200km. Perhaps he looked back one or twice but there were no flicking elbows or other body language despite other teams getting a free ride. His work was solid but he was one against nine riders. The escapees began to gain time and they doubled their lead from three minutes to six on the Via Aurelia coastal road. UAEs Domen Novak took over with just over 80km left.Soon teams were riding in train formation to hold their leaders in position. Ineos had a collective crash but Filippo Ganna just avoided the trouble before the Capo Mele.With the capes cleared, the breakaway was down to four as they passed the fountain in Imperia. Moments later on the way out of Oneglia Pogaar crashed. Well put the blame and inquisition aside as nobody seemed to make a grave fault. Pogaar was first to go down, sliding across the road and taking out others like a scythe through grass.Normally a fall in Sanremo means game over. However if this was a disaster it wasnt a catastrophe. Pogaar had the good fortune not to be injured and his bike was still rideable, unlike Wout van Aerts machine. Up in seconds he had team mates ready to lead the chase. Plus if his clothing was ripped leaving his white shorts halfway to a sumo mawashi when viewed from the left he retained enough dignity to continue as the tail of the peloton rode away.Van der Poel was also caught in the crash but lost less time and was in the first chase group. Pogaar was in the next group behind with Domen Nowak, Felix Groschartner and Florian Vermeersch burning themselves up to chase back through the convoy.The breakaway was caught at the foot of the Cipressa just as Pogaar made it to the back. Back but a long way back, the TV caption had him at 17 seconds. There was no time to lose and Brandon McNulty led him through the group, the pair passing rivals like they were hobbyists in the Pogi Challenge. In just a kilometre they made it to the front. Suddenly the plan was back on. McNulty used up his last reserves and soon Isaac Del Toro appeared and accelerated hard to stretch out the group.Pogaar attacked. Pidcock was right on his wheel. One wheel behind Filippo Ganna was in trouble, his head dipping and elbows jutting out like he was pushing an overloaded wheelbarrow as Van der Poel came around him. Mads Pedersen stomped on the pedals to stay in contact but blew in seconds.In the space of 25 pedal strokes Pogaar was clear with Pidcock and Van der Poel. The rest were left repaying their oxygen debts and by Cipressa church tower the chasers were 25 seconds down.There were strange moments of calm now. The Cipressa attack as theory was working in practice again and the trio began to collaborate, but the alliance was tentative. The tension rose as Lidl-Trek had numbers and Visma-LABs Victor Campenaerts joined in the pursuit and gap fell. The trio started to look back, often the prelude to surrender. The half minute cushion was reduced to a threadbare eight seconds at the foot of the Poggio.The gap closed further. Excuse the low-fi graphics above but inside the red circle you can just see a speck of white casting shadow on the wall: Pogaar. In the blue circle is the front of the bunch and theres about six seconds in it here, even less than the TV graphic suggests.Pogaar rose up and accelerated. Pidcock followed but Van der Poel stayed seated and was now beaten. At least six motos were within 50 metres of the two leaders here which helped but behind who was left to chase? At the top of the Poggio the pair had 15 seconds on the 40 or so peloton with Van der Poel still in between. By the foot of the descent the two had 20 seconds. Pogaar was doing most of the work, Pidcock seemingly all in for the win rather than guaranteeing second place by sharing the work.Andrea Bagioli did a final pull in the streets of Sanremo for the peloton which helped catch Van der Poel. By now there was almost nobody left to chase. Sensing this Wout van Aert attacked with 1.5km to go and started to close in.Pidcock flicked his elbow before the flamme rouge and a Pogaar came through to ensure they stayed away and Pidcock sat on. Van Aert was closing in and each time Pogaar glanced back he seemed to check the incoming Belgian more than Pidcock on his wheel.With 200m to go Pogaar looked over his left shoulder one last time then launched his sprint. Pidcock seemed to point his front wheel right but there was little room by the barriers. He began to get on terms with Pogaar with 50m to go but his front wheel was weaving in a ragged sprint while Pogaar was powering straight and as both lunged it was Pogaar who won by half a wheel.The VerdictThis time the action came even earlier than the Cipressa with Pogaars crash and chase. Milan-Sanremo was this blogs first pick among the highlights of last season and 2026 topped it, a thriller with added layers of tension and drama.Milan-Sanremo is famous for the trance-like finish. It may never reach boiling point from the start like a golden Tour stage could, nor even with 100km to go like a vintage Paris-Roubaix. But the intensity of the final 35km was as good as it gets because so much was happening, much of it with the most slender of margins.Pogaar as the strongest rider on the day and winning may not sound like news. This was different, a frenetic finale. Replay the final kilometre in a simulation and Pidcock could have won and his distant stare on the podium seemed to suggest he knew it. This gave suspense all the way to the line, especially as Pidcock was not sharing the work 50-50 and so might have something left. The 30 second advantage on the Cipressa was reduced to less than ten seconds by the Poggio and Van Aert was just four seconds behind by the finish.Pogaars crash defined the day. Without it maybe he could have gone solo over the Cipressa? However strong that would have been too easy. Philippe Brunel wrote for LEquipe for 40 years, becoming the lead cycling writer. Having seen Merckx, Hinault et al he often honed his definition of a champion and it someone who can win against the odds, able to turn an unfavourable situation to their advantage and win from it.Pogaars crash wasnt ruinous in a race where the smallest mishaps and hesitations often define the outcome but his chances did look cooked. Is it his greatest win? Thats subjective, the Zrich Worlds of 2024 was audacious for attacking with 100km to go; he monopolised the 2024 Tour de France; a Liege-Bastogne-Liege win was dedicated to the memorial of Urska Zigarts mother. Sanremo seemed to mean plenty and despite 110 career wins with five grand tours and now an 11th Monument for once he looked stunned and even tearful.Many a rider living on the Cte dAzur has been lured to the Poggio hundreds of times, condemned to climb it like Sisyphus while their dreams up its slopes. Most think of Peter Sagan, Caleb Ewan or Michael Matthews try and never win. This is a deliverance for Pogaar who no longer has to go back; even if he was that vindictive theres no realistic way to overhaul Merckxs seven wins. This brings a touch of melancholy here for who else is willing to plunge the detonator on the Cipressa next year?Pro cycling has the habit of asking what a rider can do next. Win, and usually before the finish arch has been dismantled, the triumph is banked and questions tun to what can you do next?. A fifth Tour de France awaits and one day theres the Vuelta and Olympics to collect, goals that no matter how special feel expected. The only question left is whether he can really win Paris-Roubaix?The post The Moment Milan-Sanremo Was Won first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Dylan Groenewegen of Unibet Rose Rockets has taken yet another victory this season, a very prestigious one at the GP Jean-Pierre Monser has he battled a World Tour peloton packed with sprinters. The race was flat and included a circuit with a few cobbled sectors, not too selective but enough to ma...

Trialling the new layout will give the city an idea of how workable it is. Comment & Analysis: Whats in the above headline might seem like a strange thing to claim. But is it? The strategic thinking for public transport is already (mostly) finalised as part of BusConnects. But while walking followed by cycling will have the main access to the proposed plaza area, there are few signs of strategic thinking for pedestrian and cycling routes around and through the area.Of course, College Green is mainly being designed as a destination. Theres no doubt about that. However, for a destination to be sucessful movement to/from and around it needs to be planned.The point is not that motorised access will be more dominant than pedestrians (its not), but rather that the movement of pedestrians and people cycling is not being strategically thought about enough.The most likely answer as to why this is happening is that the project team has been forced to think strategically about motor access (with presure from retailers, pubs, hotels, business grous and disabled groups focused on disabled car access, etc), but theres no equivalent pressure to, for example, improve access routes from bus stops on the quays via Temple Bar, or mark out routes with guidance strips for people who are visually impaired, or to provide high permeability for cycling.Compare and contrast the following images: First, the outlined access routes for cycling as part of the College Green/Dame Street plaza plan. Cycling is limited and, as reported, a link in a Greater Dublin Area Cycle Network route is not even included:Then look at the far more comprehensive plan for deliveries and services (first image below), and the 24/7 access routes (second image below)Its worth saying that this drawing may descriptively downplay the amount of access here nearly every street in the project area is covered. Direct access is only not available from the main bus and tram route (north-south on College Green) and Church Lane. Thats it.After the morning, this will become more restrictive, but these routes will be 24/7 for all traffic, and not just delivery traffic. So, taxis, people doing unusual drop-offs by car, etc.For access into AIB on College Green, it notes: Controlled access, using automated bollards, will be put in place to facilitate restricted local access/servicing and loading within the project area. But there are no details of how limited or not this will be. Its also worth saying that there are no access route drawings for pedestrians. Some people might laugh at the idea that such a thing is even needed, but wheelchair users as just one example have looked for accessible routes in and around Temple Bar for years.Its possible to do this with sensitive treatments showing a balance between disabled access and the historic built environment. Parliament Square, the main courtyard of Trinity College Dublin, shows that this is the case. But the 24/7 motorist access route is likely to permanently hinder wheelchair access.And the key thing is that this 24/7 motoring access route has a high potential to mess things up for people walking and cycling at the corner of Dame Street and Georges Street:Whats being proposed here is a very pedestrian-priority-looking space to the right of point 10 in the image below. But how will it work with taxis and others accessing Temple Lane 24/7, as well as delivery drivers going straight on along Dame Street at this point eastwards (right in the image)? Ireland does not have many examples of this kind of space where a delicate balance is needed, and in the countries that do, I dont think many design them like this. But one bit of experience Dublin has is that fully signalled pedestrian crossings do not work in areas that are mainly pedestrian spaces.Having a fully signalled pedestrian crossing at point 10 in the image below would leave us in a situation of removing all buses, taxis and most access traffic on a large section of Dame Street for pedestrian priority, but then requiring pedestrians to use a crossing on one side of the plaza (within the plaza area).With the draft drawings provided, motorists entering this route would likely only see a green light before entering from the west end of Dame Street towards Temple Lanethats very problematic, given how many drivers treat green lights as an excuse to keep driving at anyone in their way.And for motorised access and cycling, there are many conflict points, with the main ones shown in the image below, where taxi drivers, etc., will cross the path of people cycling straight on the main traffic route from the west end of Dame Street to Georges Street or from the west end of Dame Street towards College Green.All of these examples combined are the reason I think that pedestrian and cycling movements have not been looked at strategically.And, as previously covered, the Dame Street part of the project does not appear to comply with national guidelines for the space required for pedestrians moving through an area. This is an image from the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets:With five metres on each side of the greening area and the access route on Dame Street, it might sound like a lot, but it does not seem to leave enough space for movement. The five metres will include tables and chairs, trees, benches, bicycle stands, lamp posts, etc, as well as people hanging around, possible areas buskers will use, etc.As an aside: A number of people have, in my view, strangely claimed that there is not enough greening in this project, but along the Dame Street section of the project, the greening elements take up a large percentage of the space.In many places along Dame Street, therell be only around 2-3 metres of active walking space when there should be more than 4. And, again, its worth noting that the need for walking space on Dame Street will increase as more people have to walk farther to catch buses or get to car parks.Heres all of the locations where a combination of tables and chairs, benches, trees, etc, is likely to narrow the usable space for pedestrians too much and this does not even account for the likelihood of there being greater demand for outdoor seating over timeAgain, it seems the only movement the design team have examined strategically is motor access (including deliveries, car parks, taxis, etc). I dont think they are doing this because they are anti-pedestrian or anything; I think they have been forced to think strategically about motoring access (and have gone overboard).In designing streets and public space, theres often a conflict where designing streets for movement takes over designing for place, or, in other words, for all other activities people stopping to chat, people hanging about, children playing, places for sitting, outdoor dining, etc. But for pedestrian and cycle routes on this project, I think the project team may be looking at place so much that they are forgetting about pedestrian movement.Theres clearly some disregard for cycling its worth saying two things: (1) such a disregard for cycling happens even with designers who are cyclists, and (2) the designers of projects can only do so much when choices are being made at a higher level.Just think in terms of how they are providing 24/7 motorist access via parts of Temple Bar now, but they dont yet have any plans to improve access for wheelchair or blind pedestrians, who may have to go further to reach buses. The problem with leaving this to the detail design stage is that youll end up like some of the streets off Grafton Street, where tactile paving has been put under long-established outdoor seating. Tactile paving is hard to fix after all the work is finished. Major junctions and changes in the street provide is even harder. A solution to all of this and other possible problems is not to go ahead with a total redesign of the space without trialling it first. Remove buses and other traffic as it is now, and temporarily mark out the routes the council plans for deliveries, people cycling, etc, but be ready to change things when its clear that something is not working out. IMAGES: Tactile paving has been put under long-established outdoor seating on Duke Street.

Chinese bicycle brands had a seminal year in 2025. More Chinese brands began to appear in Western countries and they bagged major sponsorship deals. XDS teamed up with Astana, while IGSport joined GroupamaFDJ United. Meanwhile, Britains Harry Hudson won the Junior World Road title at the Rwanda UCI Worlds on a Quick Pro road bike. But whats behind the surge in Chinese cycling brands? One person who is well placed to explain their newfound success is British expat Joe Whittingham. Whittingham started out reporting on Chinese bikes, components and kit in 2016 through his YouTube channel China Cycling. He then co-founded Panda Podium, a website that curates the best of Chinas home-grown products for sale overseas, and sponsors Hudson. So we sat down with Whittingham for his take on the rapid development of Chinese brands and where he sees the future of this rapidly growing market. You may like: Made in China: why the country's cycling revolution should have Western brands worried BikeRadar: For a long time in the West, the perception of Chinese products and brands has been one of very low quality, both in manufacturing and design. How do you think todays Chinese products and brand design compares to when you first started to report on the industry? Joe: The difference between Chinese products and brands now and 10 years ago is night-and-day. But first, we have to define what we mean when we say 'Chinese bike'. If it's just something that's 'Made in China', then around half the pro peloton is riding Chinese bikes, as the mainstream western brands have been using China and its factories for production for many years. However, when most people say 'Chinese bike', they mean a bike from a Chinese brand. Western brands originally moved carbon fibre manufacturing to China, attracted by cheap labour and relatively lax environmental laws (carbon fibre production is a pretty messy business). A Cybrei Carbon power meter crankset with carbon ring, just one of the more interesting brands coming out of China. Cybrei In the early days, Western faces were a common sight in the factories as they worked on setting up the production lines and training the local engineers. As more and more brands moved production to mainland China, the local expertise and supply chain grew rapidly. It's not only the carbon fibre factories. It's the factories that make the moulds, the EPS inserts, the paint factories, the water-transfer decal factories and even the pre-preg carbon fibre itself. Most high-end frames use Japanese Toray carbon fibre, but the raw carbon fibre is imported into China and turned into prepreg a 'ready to bake' mixture of resin and carbon fibre in Chinese factories. The SpeedX Leopard promised a great deal, but proved a letdown. Chinese bikes have come a long way since then. Oliver Woodman / Immediate Media Why do you think Chinese brands got such a poor reputation early on? In the early days, there was the odd hiccup. Western brands would prototype a product in their own lab in their head office. It would work no problem and pass all the testing. However, due to small differences in the actual manufacturing, the same products being produced out of Chinese factories would encounter issues. Many product recalls can be traced to issues during the manufacturing process. A difference in temperature or humidity in the factory compared to the headquarters, or even just inexperienced staff, would lead to critical differences in the composite. These are differences that are invisible to the naked eye and only rear their head when frames start cracking or failing in the field. These examples were few and far between as most Western brands had 'boots on the ground' with employees overseeing the factory's production, but they definitely happened. As the local expertise and experience grew, the Western brands enjoyed reaping the seeds of their hard work. The Chinese expertise and knowledge had grown to the point that many Western brands simply had to send a 3D drawing of a frame to the factory. The details of the layup and the tooling were all being handled by the Chinese factories. Less back-and-forth communication, less expensive business class tickets to Asia, and fewer product recalls. Some of the larger brands put protection in place. They had agreements with factories that, in return for training them on the knowledge to produce the frames, these factories would exclusively produce for that Western brand. To this day, many of those agreements are still in place. But the key engineers who were trained at those factories have since left to start their own factories or brands. These new brands and factories also started producing for Western brands, offering a full service from frame design through to delivery. For smaller brands, they offered a catalogue of 'open mould' frames. These are frames that a factory would design and manufacture in-house, and smaller Western brands could order with their own paintjobs and logos applied. This removed the need for the Western brands to do their own R&D. At the same time, these new factories started offering some of their products for sale directly to consumers. Whittingham and his team test out all of the bikes and components before they get approved for a Panda Podium listing. Panda Podium The mainstream still viewed Chinese products as 'too risky'. This was perhaps partly due to earlier mishaps, but maybe also due to a constant propaganda campaign of the established brands or the elitist mindset of many road bike riders. They couldn't accept that someone on an $800 frame had gotten the same (or close) to the same quality as their $4,000 frame. But at this point, the Chinese brands were still limited. They knew there was no way any Western consumer was going to pay over $1,000 for a Chinese frame or Chinese wheelset. This meant they were limited to producing relatively low-end frames. So, China had a whole bunch of factories capable of making top-tier frames, but Western consumers weren't willing to pay anything but low prices because the Chinese brands were missing one thing: branding. Euskaltel-Euskadi Quick Pro ER One aero road bike Euskaltel-Euskadi How do you think the balance has shifted when it comes to the balance of design and branding? Many consumers will claim they don't care about branding: they want the fastest bike or the lightest bike, and they don't care what brand it's from but for most people, that's just not true. The clothes we wear, the car we drive and the bike we ride are all an expression of our personality. So, what did riding a Chinese bike say about you? The same old-school mentality that means if your neighbour brought a new Audi, you had to buy a new Mercedes was alive and well. But then a shift started to take place. Instead of consumers wanting to show how rich they were, some consumers wanted to start showing how smart they were. If your neighbour brought an Audi, you didn't buy a Mercedes; you bought a Tesla. It showed that you were smart with your money. This was before Elon [Musk] went crazy and before EVs had to pay road tax, but you were getting supercar acceleration, not paying road tax, and you could take the kids to school. The same consumer-thinking shift started to happen in bikes, too. Suddenly riding a pair of Farsports wheels, for example, showed you were smart with your money, and you understood bikes. The smarter Chinese brands leaned into this. But it wasn't just marketing. This change in thinking meant that Western consumers were now willing to pay more for the Chinese brands. Farsports offer lightweight wheel builds. Farsports This removed the previous restrictions on them, and they could finally start selling their own high-end models using high-end raw materials. Of course, not all the Chinese brands took this approach. Many brands just saw the mainstream adoption of Chinese brands as an excuse to raise their prices without improving their product at all. While all this was happening, another perfect storm brewed. Covid. This is another long story, but here's the short version. Before Covid, many Chinese factories were happy just producing for Western brands. They paid their bills on time, and for the factories, it was a low-stress, reliable income. Then Covid hit and demand for bikes in the West skyrocketed. Western brands were throwing money at the factories to increase production. Production lines were added and new factories were built. Capacity in many factories doubled or tripled within the space of a year. Then, as quickly as the demand rose, it disappeared. Western brands quickly realised they were overstocked and started cancelling orders. Factories that had spent millions developing new production lines found the whole factory empty. At the same time that the market went downhill in the West (2023-2024) road cycling in China had its own boom. So, there was the perfect storm. The factories had this almost endless supply due to their increased production capacity, and an almost endless demand as a country of 1.4 billion people suddenly became obsessed with road bikes. Tavelo's Arow Race with CRW wheels. Tavelo Many of the factories that had been too scared to start their own brands for fear of angering their Western customers found themselves with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Their western customers were all cancelling orders anyway; there was nothing to lose from angering them. So, they started their own brands, and the local markets ate it up. Don't get me wrong, there's still huge demand for Western brands in China, but the low prices and the 'patriotic' edge of buying a local brand skyrocketed sales. With that in mind, how do you see the situation today? 'Chinese bikes' is now a term that encompasses a huge range of products. Frames, for example, probably range fromroughly $600 for a no-brand, open mould frame to more than $4,000 for something like the Incolor SSR, which is an aero frame that weighs just 750g, but tests faster than a Cervlo S5 in the Silverstone wind tunnel. The Incolor SSR is an aero bike that's tested faster than an S5 at the Silverstone wind tunnel. Incolor There really is something for everyone and every budget, but it can be a bit of a minefield for the uninitiated. That was the whole premise of Panda Podium: trying to simplify the process of buying directly from China. Part of that is the testing and product vetting. A bunch of us in the office are avid cyclists. We train, race and have even Everested on the products we sell. Every brand that wants us to sell its product has to first undergo strict testing. We visit their factories, inspect their production lines and give the bikes a good thrashing on the road. There are plenty of products that we get sent that never make it to the website; rejected for bad quality, bad design or just blatantly copying existing products. The other aspect of simplifying the experience is the actual purchasing process itself. Our team is able to offer advice on what's compatible, what's best for the roads you ride, or what length stem you should get to best replicate your current fit. By making Chinese brands more mainstream, more Chinese brands will emerge with more products and more choice for consumers. The rise of the Chinese brands will hopefully also put pressure on Western brands to lower their prices. So, even if you don't plan on riding a Chinese bike, it's a win-win for everyone. Gravel is becoming more and more popular in China. Panda Podium When it comes to the emergence of this new generation of bikes and components that are getting more exposure in the West, how long do you think itll be before we see the larger brands arriving in Western retailers under their own names? I think Chinese brands are going more mainstream, but a part of that process is appearing in brick-and-mortar stores. Many consumers don't have the time, patience or knowledge to build their own bike, so having the option to just walk into a bike shop and buy with local support is a prerequisite of becoming fully mainstream. The biggest thing preventing this at the moment is profit margins. As most of the Chinese brands have built their reputation on being value-for-money brands, it means there simply isn't enough room for a decent profit margin for distributors and dealers. There are a few solutions for this. Either the Chinese brands can open their own retail locations in the West (popular Chinese brand RockBros has already started doing this with stores in the USA and Germany). Another approach is that Chinese brands will have to raise prices to the point that there's enough profit margin for offline stores. Finally, the brands can continue to operate as direct-to-consumer brands, but with warehouses and distribution in the West. Canyon thrives with its direct-to-consumer model, and there's no reason a Chinese brand couldn't replicate that. It will be interesting to see which brand chooses which approach. Davide Ballerini's X-Lab AD9 at the 2025 Tour de France. Simon von Bromley / Our Media With the likes of X-Lab sponsoring a WorldTour team, not to mention Harry Hudsons junior worlds win on a Quick Pro, do you think a Tour de France podium is within the reach of one of the brands coming out of China? Is a Chinese bike good enough to win in the Tour de France? Of course. But winning Grand Tours is less about the performance of the bike and more about the economics of it all. Sponsoring a men's WorldTour team is a huge investment. And unless you're sponsoring Jumbo or UAE, the chances of a victory are slim. If I were a brand, I probably wouldn't sponsor a WorldTour team. I believe the average age for a viewer of the Tour is over 60. A consumer like that already has their brand loyalty. You're not going to change their mind. But the younger generation is on social media. TikTok, Instagram, etc. You can sponsor a lot of influencers for 2 million. The Incolor SSR in a complete China-based brand build looks every inch the superbike. Incolor Finally, do you think were now approaching an era of Chinese expertise stepping out of the shadowy world of being vendors for the larger, well-known brands and becoming not just a challenger technically but also a challenger in desirability? Technically, no problem. They're already there. But for desirability, that's a tough one. What we ride is still an expression of ourselves. For many consumers, the bike you ride is still in the realm of fashion. I think you can look at the NBA for a good example. Chinese footwear brands like Li-Ning and Anta make great shoes and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars sponsoring athletes such as Dwyane Wade and Klay Thompson, but if you walk around the streets of America, you're not seeing anyone walking around in Li-Ning or Anta T-shirts. And for what it's worth, you see plenty of people wearing those T-shirts in China. I think it might happen, but it will be a long-term change. Twenty to thirty years ago, many people thought of Skoda as an uncool brand. Now they're sponsoring the Tour, and people drive them with pride. So, give it a few decades and let's see. You may like Elves Vanyar Pro Disc review 11 Chinese cycling brands you dont know about, but should DJIs new ebike provides whopping power, but how does it perform?