The 2026 Tour de France nomination of Lidl-Trek is the embodiment of the team's ambition for near future. Whilst main focus is on a positive GC impression with either Juan Ayuso or Mattias Skjelmose, Mads Pedersen will likewise have to carry out an important mission. Entering the race as points-clas...

Comment & Analysis: When officials told councillors about a plan to speed up the delivery of cycle routes, councillors were lukewarm because, after many false starts, the elected reps were sceptical that the councils active travel team could even deliver, and some were (rightly) openly hostile to the idea of lowering standards further to deliver cycle routes faster.But one thing that sparked the interest of many councillors was the quiet streets approach, but what is it? At the very basic level, its the type of cycling infrastructure that does not generally include cycle paths or even lanes (although some sections may be needed along longer routes).When these kinds of routes are mentioned, some readers get even more sceptical than the councillors recently did, but its worth remembering that these kinds of routes make up the majority of the cycling networks in most Dutch cities. At the same time, mixed results in places like London are a clear warning that care is needed in designing the route. The key is that the routes must be traffic calming and genuinely low traffic, or make that way with interventions. Without any mention of quiet streets, Dublin City Councils Mobility and Public Realm committee meeting in May 2026 would have been even frostier for Active Travel officials. You can watch all that was discussed in this video:In a briefing document to councillors, officials said:From a preliminary study, AcTPrO [Active Travel office] has identified a number of routes suitable for delivery in part or in their entirety, using a Quiet Streets approach. As noted in Section 2, Quiet Streets are a method of adapting side streets through traffic calming and wayfinding to provide a suitable environment for cyclists to share space with vehicles due to their low speed and volume.The case study route provided is what is termed the St Stephens Green to Thomas St Active Travel Route, it is described as follows: Preliminary analysis undertaken of one of the Active Travel routes which could be delivered using a Quiet Streets approach is the St Stephens Green to Thomas St Active Travel route. This route is 1.6km in length and runs in an east-west direction, intersecting with three BusConnects Core Bus Corridors. It also immediately abuts the future DCC headquarters at Camden Yard along Camden Row to the south and Liberty Lane to the east. Further information is provided in Figure 3 below:IMAGE: Potential Quiet Street approach on St Stephens Green to Thomas Street route.Its routed via Liberty Lane, Camden Row, Montague Street, Long Lane, Malpas Street, Blackpits, Mill Street, Newmarket, Ardee Street, and Pimlico, where it would link to the unfinished Kilmainham to Thomas Street Active Travel Scheme.This is the IrishCycle.com trace of the councils map:Getting from the route to the most popular corner of St Stephens Green is straightforward: But the return is convoluted: First up, we have Montague Street and Camden Row:At the Harcourt Street entrance to Montague Street, all thats needed is the except cyclists sign and the associated signs and markings for allowing contra-flow cycling with no cycle track:Besides some markings and signs, nothing else seems to be needed on Montague Street:Given the constraints of the main street here at the crossing of Wexford Street / Camden Street, Im not sure what could be done here except for full signalisation, which seems unlikely for this type of project in Dublin City to date:Even the BusConnects plans for the project leave little or no scope for a non-signage solution:On Camden Row, markings and signs to allow legal two-way cycling here is mostly what is needed for this section (looking back towards Wexford St):Before going back to the other end of Camden Row (yellow, with the last section circled in green), its worth looking at Liberty Lane (circled in red):Liberty Lane unless its resurfaced at one level is not suitable for contra-flow cycling: The rest of Camden Row is the width of street, where if you suggest contra-flow cycling, people say itd be unsafe. But like many low-traffic streets of the same size, its already two-way for all traffic this part of the route onwards should also be a cycle street:At the Junction of Camden Street and Long Lane, the route crosses the north-south New Bride Street and Heytesbury Street.The north-south route this route crosses here is part of the Grangegorman to Portobello Active Travel Route, which is also a candidate on the councils list of routes for possible quicker action. The section of the route from the Grand Canal to near Christchurch and Dublin Castle used to be a primary cycle route and was mentioned to me as a priority to be built as far back as the Grand Canal Cycleways opening in 2010. Because of that, Ive looked at the route a few times over the years.Unlike some other candidate routes, the Werburgh St/Bride St/New Bride St/Heytesbury St corridor is relatively unrestrained especially since bus routes will be removed from the northern section as part of BusConnects. Both north-south and east-west routes should be considered together here, even if they are not being progressed together.One solution here is a modal filter area to the south of the junction, shown here in a green box this would benefit the (1) the north-south by reducing the through traffic on New Bride Street and Heytesbury and allowing them to become cycle streets, and (2) making the junction safer and more attractive for people cycling east-west.The east-west route should continue as a two-way cycle street on Long Lane although it is clearly narrower:To allow for two-way cycling here, there needs to be an area to pull in around the centre of the parking area:The next section of Long Lane is within the kind of width for the arrangement for contra-flow cycling without lanes that can be found throughout Europe, without any removal of parking, but care needs to be taken here to confirm the drainage channel and the buildouts at the trees are not issues:Before the route crosses New Street (Clanbrassil Street Lower / Patrick Street) is the first place where a contra-flow cycle track would be justified: It should be possible for the route to cross over into Malpas Street with the current traffic signals or with some small changes, such as advanced green lights for people cycling in both directions: On Malpas Street, traffic calming should be looked at:The same goes for Blackpits:Its the same for much of the area around Newmarket with junction treatments also key to making the route safe, attractive, and legible as a route: Unlike the first part of the route, the possibility of modal filters along the route could be looked at here. But this raises the question mentioned by some councillors of traffic management at the district level.With that, below is the area here bound by main roads, which should be looked at. Putting in a network of modal filters may be out of the scope of the route project, but some filters around the route could be looked at in a way that does not make things worse for the rest of the area:Ardee Street on both sides of Cork Street and Pimlico, where it would link to the unfinished Kilmainham to Thomas Street Active Travel Scheme, would also require additional traffic calming and route markings:But traffic calming can only do so much if routes are left open to through traffic. Because of that, a more northern route between Pimlico and St Stephens Green seems more logical to me longer sections of low-traffic streets.There would be some issues in need of overcoming some som parts of these options, including reworking short sections of Francis St and Meath St public realm projects to allow for contra-flow routes across the two streets, but these are interventions of the type the city should be doing systematically, regardless.Im not saying dont take the route the council is proposing, but if they are making it a quiet street route, it really needs to be quiet otherwise, people will quickly sour on the whole concept.Thats why I would like to see the New Bride St/Heytesbury St north-south, which the council also wants to do fast, rolled out first or at the same time. It would be a quiet street route as part of a wider route, with segregated cycle path/s on Bridge Street, etc. Finishing some form of a route between Grangegorman and Portobello is probably one of the fastest and most high-impact cross-city-centre routes the council could roll out without interfering too much in BusConnects routes or other city centre projects, etc. I know some people baulk at the idea of putting in routes that might be seen as a bit out of the way, like the Bride Street route is, but it would offer the first significant cross-city centre route (including using Capel Street, etc, shown in green), and the city council really needs to make progress on network building. At the moment, it seems to be running away from (delaying or abandoning) projects each time it hits some opposition or issues, such as another part of the city council or NTA saying no or not yet. This is from the councils own map, while the Grangegorman and Portobello options are highlighted in yellow:

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe definitely aspire to take up a key role at the 2026 Tour de France, but what can they aim for? Realistically, a repeated podium finish for Florian Lipowitz is the expected maximum of what is possible for the German formation, even though the team has many interesting card...

Florian Vermeersch's long-term dream of winning a Grand Tour could come true this July. In his second year with UAE Team Emirates - XRG, the Belgian was selected as part of Tadej Pogacar's support team and that means he's already made a leap forward to fulfilling that dream of Paris podium. "It was...

After two seasons with INEOS, the British national title returns into the hands of Fred Wright. The 27-year-old rider of Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team came out on top after a 187-kilometer tactical race on a circuit inAberystwyth. The race was very open from the opening kilometers with parcours...

Joe Whittingham met me from the future over a virtual call. It was 9am for him in Xiamen, China, 9pm for me in Philadelphia, USA. He had a head start on the day, and in many ways, so do the brands he works with. Whittingham is the founder of Panda Podium, an English-language retail platform for Chinese cycling brands. A former teacher who moved to China 17 years ago, he stayed, learned Mandarin, and found himself living within driving distance of most of the factories he now sells for. From those factories come bikes with lighter frames, better-value specifications and greater customisation options than comparable offerings from familiar Western brands. Chinese bike and component brands have crept from the corners of weight-weenie forums and AliExpress rabbit holes into World Tour races and the shopping lists of riders who, not long ago, would have sniffed at them. The question for real-world road riders is no longer whether Chinese bikes are any good, but whether the trust, service and warranty infrastructure has caught up with the product. That is before you even consider the industry's open secret: many of the Western bikes riders already own were quietly built in those exact same factories. Whittingham offers a sharp insight into why weight, not aerodynamics, has shifted perceptions. "Every brand claims to have the fastest bike in the wind tunnel," he says. "They can't all be right." Weight, by contrast, is easily measured. Chinese manufacturers chased grams with a single-mindedness that appealed directly to the riders who cared most: the weight obsessives, the people drilling holes in their carbon handlebars at midnight. By satisfying those extreme early adopters, the brands built real credibility. Now the mainstream is catching up. It's an "open secret" that many top-tier models from western brands are made in the same factories as their Chinese counterparts (Image credit: Getty Images)Economical elitism That cultural shift has produced its own status economy. For decades, cyclists bought expensive brands the way drivers bought German cars - for social status. These days, that logic is being turned on its head: boasting rights come from finding a product of comparable quality at a much lower price. "If your friend buys Enve wheels, you buy Farsports," Whittingham picks up the thread. "It's not to show you have more money. It's to show you've spent half what they spent and your wheels are lighter." The bike, in other words, has begun to signal something other than wealth. It signals attention, research, critical thinking and the willingness to look past the down-tube logo. Quick Pro, Magene, Tavelo: names that mean nothing to a casual rider and everything to the trend-setter at the top of the pyramid, whose opinion the level below is quietly watching. At last month's Sea Otter Classic, the largest consumer cycling expo in North America, the asymmetry was hard to miss. In a field of over 900 exhibitors, one mainland Chinese brand was making its road debut: X-Lab, the consumer-facing arm of manufacturer XDS, whose premier aero road bike, the AD9, developed with input from former pro Alex Dowsett, retails at about 6,000, or 9,900 for the Astana spec, undercutting comparable halo models - many of which are made in the XDS factory - from established names by around 40%. Panda Podium was also at Sea Otter for the first time, its booth a few places down from Specialized and across from Shimano, drawing a near-constant queue of interested riders. Among the bikes on display was the Quick Pro AR:One that Harry Hudson rode to a junior world title. Trek did not exhibit. Specialized, Giant, Pinarello and Canyon were all there - but, for once, they didn't own the spotlight. The X-Lab AD9, as used by XDS-Astana, is about half the price of top-line offerings from western brands (Image credit: X-Lab)Unbeatable value To understand why brands like X-Lab, Winspace, Yoeleo, and Farsports are unsettling the established order, it helps to remember how that established order works. Most Western bike brands do not own their factories. Typically, carbon frames are contracted to one manufacturing partner, alloy frames to another, wheels to a third. Each link in the chain adds margin. A frame with an actual cost of a few hundred dollars can end up retailing for thousands by the time it reaches a shop floor. XDS, by contrast, owns its entire process, as CW discovered when we became the first western media brand to visit its factory in Shenzen this year. XDS produces its pre-preg carbon fabrics from dry fibre, cuts its own multi-piece steel clamshell moulds, and hydroforms its aluminium tubing in-house using proprietary alloy blends. Robot-welding, painting, testing and assembly all happen under the same roof. The company claims to produce around eight million bikes a year as a contract manufacturer: more than 20,000 frames a day, including weekends. When XDS launched X-Lab as its own consumer-facing brand, it did so with three decades of refined infrastructure already behind it. "They're kind of holding all the cards in a lot of ways," tech journalist James Huang told me. "Their OEM clients aren't going to find it easy to leave." The result is pricing that puts a smile on the face of the budget-conscious modern consumer. Compared to Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, which costs from around 12,000, X-Lab's AD9 is literally half the price; a Trek Madone SLR lists at 10,000. At the entry point, X-Lab's RS5 - an alloy road bike with a dual-sided power meter and a one-piece cockpit - retails at 1,050. Patrick Pan, X-Lab's head of international growth, frames this keen pricing not as undercutting but as correction. "Prices have been inflated artificially," he told me. We put questions to the biggest brands. Specialized, Trek, and Giant all formally declined to comment. Ribble and Canyon did not respond, nor did several of the Chinese brands we approached, including Quick Pro, Farsports, and Light Bicycle. Strict non-disclosure agreements and guarded trade secrets mean neither the mega-factories nor the legacy brands will officially confirm whose frames are made in whose plants. Manufacturing expertise "Ninety per cent of the leap forward in carbon frames is manufacturing," says Shawn Small of Ruckus Composites, a US carbon-fibre repair specialist. "The material itself hasn't changed that much in 30 years. It's how we're using it that's smarter." The Asian workforce that has spent two decades making frames for Western brands has, in the process, become extremely good at it. In the book Apple in China, journalist Patrick McGee argues that Western companies did not simply exploit Chinese factories: they educated them. Apple deployed its own engineers on factory floors, transferred precision techniques at scale, and in doing so built the very capabilities that now power its domestic competitors. The cycling industry has been running a quieter version of the same experiment for 30 years. Every spec sheet sent to a contract manufacturer, every quality rejection, every technical back-and-forth is a transfer of expertise. XDS did not arrive at World Tour-quality carbon manufacturing by accident. The brands currently declining to comment helped get it there. Phil Gaimon, a former World Tour professional now sponsored by Panda Podium, takes a pragmatic approach to Chinese tech. His own set-up is a mix: Chinese wheels and accessories sourced through Panda Podium, a Shimano drivetrain, and a State Bicycle frame - an Arizona brand whose carbon is made in Taiwan. Partial trust, in his telling, is not a contradiction. It is a rational position built over years of sampling - he trusts what he has found to be dependable. What marketing researchers call country-of-origin bias, or the instinct to judge a product by where it was made rather than how it performs, is fading in cycling, and may soon disappear entirely. Former pro Phil Gaimon has no qualms about using Chinese components (Image credit: Getty Images)Aftermarket qualms None of this means the question of trust is settled. Distribution hubs, warranty turnaround, replacement parts, crash replacement, after-sales service: this is the unglamorous infrastructure that established brands have built over decades and that newer Chinese brands are still constructing. "Local support is going to be really important," says Huang, drawing a comparison that will sting for some: even SRAM, one of the largest component manufacturers in the world, once left Canyon owners unable to source UDH derailleur hangers for a period. Some, like Light Bicycle, now hold stock in American and European warehouses. Others do not. A Western rider buying direct is buying performance and pricing, but accepting a different relationship with what happens after the sale. A Farsports client who recently destroyed a rear wheel on a pothole received a 35% crash discount within days. That is not the same as walking a cracked rim into your local shop, but it is arguably no less convenient. Safety testing sits in the same grey area. ISO 4210, the global benchmark, was largely designed around steel and aluminium in the late 1990s and has notable gaps - carbon steerer tubes carry no required test at all. Dan Chabanov, a tech editor at Bicycling who tests wheels professionally, has spoken to engineers at multiple major Western brands who describe the standard as inadequate: a product can pass it and still fall short of what the industry would consider genuinely safe. The question worth asking any brand, Western or otherwise, is whether they test beyond the minimum. Zipp and Roval, for instance, say they do, but many brands do not advertise this information. For UK riders buying direct, there is a further consideration: pursuing a claim against an overseas company with no domestic presence is a different legal proposition from a dispute with a brand that has a British importer behind it. Among enthusiasts, the wheels argument is largely settled. When Chabanov recently received a set of 55mm Light Bicycle wheels for review, Zipp had just released a new lightweight 35mm wheelset. The Zipp came in at around 1,090g and retailed at 3,150. The Light Bicycle set was 20mm deeper, weighed 20g more, and cost around 1,180. "If you're shopping on price, weight, and depth," Chabanov says, "you have to ask, what am I missing with the Light Bicycle that I would get with the Zipp?" One rider on Trainer Road's forum bought a Light Bicycle set three years ago, put 12,000 miles on them, and immediately ordered an identical second set. Frames are a different conversation. UK-based experts offer a more nuanced view. Alex Thomas at Peak Torque, an engineer who has tested Yoeleo and Winspace, remains measured; his reservations focus less on build quality and more on geometry. "The Chinese brands care more about the aesthetic than actual biomechanics," he says, pointing to short head tubes as an area of concern. Reviewer Dan Chabanov found the Silverstone-validated Seka a "genuinely strong alternative" to the Tarmac, at half the price, with a finish that gave no cause for concern. Cyclingnews has tested an X-Lab AD9, saying it sets the stall out for Chinese bikes being more than a match for western brands. Whittingham is careful to qualify his position. "Not all Chinese stuff is good," he says. "Everyone's gone from 'it's all dangerous' to 'it's all fine.' Neither is true." Brands like Farsports and Light Bicycle have review histories, race provenance and established customer bases. The unreviewed product on a marketplace platform, with no accountable brand behind it, is a different proposition entirely. The challenge is on Imagine walking into your local bike shop and seeing the usual line-up of Specialized, Giant and Trek carbon alongside a carbon road bike from X-Lab and a hand-built steel or titanium frame from a boutique maker, British or otherwise. Three price points, three philosophies, three different types of road bike buyers served. Today this looks unlikely, but it may be the reality within a few years. Most of us are not looking for a revolution. We're looking for a bike we can afford and that looks good, from a brand we know we can trust. A fresh-looking carbon frame at an affordable price tag may not reflect a "Chinese takeover". It may simply be the correction the industry has been postponing for years. The irony worth sitting with is this: the very brands democratising the market today could be the ones that monopolise it tomorrow. "If no one else is going to compete with them," Huang asks, "why wouldn't they want to make more money?" If manufacturing giants like XDS drive enough mid-tier Western brands to extinction, the resulting market won't be a paradise of consumer choice. Instead, we could be left with a hollowed-out industry - a handful of global mega-brands, a thin layer of ultra-premium niche makers, and not much in between. Aaron Stinner, whose Stinner Frameworks operation has grown from 30 titanium and steel frames a year to around 3,000, with a team of 12, is not panicking. But he is paying attention. "The big brands are going to have to be on their toes," he told me. "They're going to change the game." He means it as a compliment to the disruptor and a warning to the incumbents, more or less simultaneously. For now, the riders are the ones already adjusting. They scroll the forums, watch the YouTube reviews, click through to Light Bicycle, and compare the savings against the weight. The established brands will catch up, or they will not. Many riders have already decided not to wait and find out. Farsports carbon wheels are praised for their performance and value (Image credit: Farsports)FIVE CHINESE PRODUCTS WORTH A LOOK Quick Pro ER:One frameset (from 1,200): A race-focused carbon road frameset developed alongside a UCI Continental team. The ER:One has drawn comparisons to frames costing three times as much. CRW CS5060 wheelset (from 1,250): The wheelset Harry Hudson rode to a UCI Junior World Championship title in 2025. Not cheap, but about half the price of a comparable set from a Western brand. Tavelo Avro handlebar (from 220): An integrated carbon handlebar in a wide range of sizes and fits. The Avro is compatible with most current road bikes and has drawn widespread acclaim. Overfast carbon thru-axles (from 170): Overfast's carbon thru-axles faced scepticism when they launched. Three years and several Tour pelotons later, the argument is largely settled. Farsports carbon wheelsets (from 700): The brand that started the credibility conversation for direct-from-China wheels over a decade ago. Now a standard recommendation among reviewers.This feature was originally published in the 21 May 2026 print edition of Cycling Weekly magazine available to buy on the newsstand every Thursday (UK only) while digital versions are available on Apple News and Readly. Subscriptions through Magazine's Direct.

Eli Iserbyt's career came to a wrap last winter. The former European cyclocross champion had been dealing with persistent health issues since the 2024/25, and ultimately stopped entirely a year later. But that doesn't mean the 28-year-old fully disappeared from the world of cycling - quite the contr...