Jonas Vingegaard enters the 2026 Tour de France with a Giro dItalia title already in his legs, a completed set of Grand Tour victories on his palmares and the familiar challenge of trying to beat Tadej Pogacar in July. CyclingUpToDate were present at the Danes pre-Tour press conference to document...

Just a year after establishing the OCVA FKT benchmark, Jan Heine of Rene Herse has bettered his time on the 400+ mile route. With over 31,000 feet of elevation gain, a missing bridge, and plenty of other obstacles, Jan's latest FKT might be his most impressive yet. Learn more about his monster ride below...The post Jan Heine Sets New OCVA FKT appeared first on BIKEPACKING.com.

Youth and experience will collide at the 2026 Tour de France as some of professional cycling's newest sensations do battle with some grizzled veterans reaching the end of glittering careers. From teenage sensation Paul Seixas to the eternal Damiano Carruso, the Tour de France is no longer a race for...

Brimming with energy and sporting a blonde-dyed buzzcut that will put paid to any ideas of tufty hair protruding from helmet vents, Tadej Pogaar addressed a packed press room in Barcelona for a look ahead to the race.Last in a series of big GC players to subject themselves to media questioning in the sumptuous surrounds of the city's Recinto Modernista, with the Sagrada Familia looking on just a block away, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had his 'Pogaar' dialled up to 11 as he began by offering his smiley thanks to the media for turning up, flanked by team-mate Isaac Del Toro.The questions went this way and that, with those asking them perhaps aware that the usual 'what are your hopes for the race?' and 'how's your form?' were somewhat redundant ('winning' and 'pretty amazing, thanks', presumably being the answers).Asked about his rivals and in particular Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pogaar took the first of more than one opportunity to big up the young team-mate sitting beside him."I don't think [Vingegaard] is the only one that can come close. I think there's quite a few guys here that could push for the victory this guy next to me" he said, nodding towards a slightly embarrassed looking Del Toro."But competition between me and Jonas the last four years was spectacular, I would say. I think we push further to new heights every year," he said.A certain amount was also made of his scant 2026 racing calendar he has only raced 16 days up to now, but he said he was feeling, "pretty good. Only 16 days of racing, but the training kilometres also count, and there's been a lot."Was racing fewer days helping him to enjoy it more, he was asked."I've enjoyed racing all my lifetime," he responded, batting the question away, "but I must say that maybe I even enjoy it more every year because I've stayed in the same team with the same riders and people around me, so every race I feel like I look forward to coming back with the teammates and staff. The race is also there, but mainly I enjoy just seeing the team and being around the guys."The 27-year-old, who is gunning for a landmark fifth Tour de France win this year, was asked, too, about his pro cyclist girlfriend Urka igart, who broke her jaw in a crash in the recent Tour de Suisse. "Thank you for the thought," he offered, before explaining that she was healing fast and already riding outside, even if the doctors had advised against it. And he addressed, too, the 100,000 he donated to his home village of Komenda, which was hit by a storm last month, with roofs ripped off houses. "I think it's quite important to have a roof over your head," he said. "While I was growing up in Komenda, for me everything was perfect, all the neighbours, all the people there It's my time to give back."The Tour de France begins on Saturday with a team time trial, around a city that is already thrumming to the beat of the race, dripping in Tour de France Yellow. Pogaar will hope to be sporting that yellow too come Saturday night, and he left no doubt as to how much he was looking forward to it, giving local journalists the top line they had perhaps turned up for."I really like Barcelona. It's one of the coolest cities ever," he gushed, before quipping, "It would be better to be here for vacation. But yeah, I'm really looking forward to the Grand Dpart here, and really excited to race around here and similar roads as in [the Volta a] Catalunya. I think we are in the same hotel as we were on stage one in Catalunya, so it's quite familiar."And Pogaar in the race lead on Saturday? That might be more familiar still.

Chris Horner has warned Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike that beating Tadej Pogacar at the 2026 Tour de France will require more than just another huge climbing performance. With Pogacar chasing a fifth yellow jersey, Horner says Visma must avoid burning their own race in ways that mak...

The 2026 Tour de France will not only put the yellow jersey on the line. The youth classification will again bring together some of the sports brightest talents, shaping one of the races most compelling duels: Paul Seixas and Isaac del Toro Juan Ayuso also features as a big contender among a field...

Lenny Martinez will begin his third Tour de France with clear ambitions of winning stages and the polka dot jersey after narrowly missing out on the mountains classification last year. The Bahrain - Victorious climber arrives in strong form despite crashing at the Tour de Suisse and will hunt for st...

Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome has confirmed his retirement from professional cycling. The 41-year-old, who has not raced since last August, confirmed the news on Thursday at an event in Barcelona for koda, the car brand for whom he is an ambassador. According to a report in Sporza, Froome was asked directly if he had retired, to which he responded: Yes. Unfortunately, there was that fall last summer. That wasn't the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over, he said. In August last year, Froome was airlifted to hospital after a training crash in which he suffered five broken ribs, a spine fracture, a collapsed lung, and a pericardial rupture, a life-threatening tear to the sac that surrounds the heart. His last race came two weeks before the crash, at the Tour de Pologne, where he finished 68th overall. Froome's contract at Israel-Premier Tech was not renewed at the end of 2026. He has been without a team for the past six months. The announcement of his retirement comes days before the start of the 113th edition of the Tour de France in Barcelona, Spain. Perhaps the most famous of Froome's 46 career wins came over the Colle delle Finestre at the 2018 Giro d'Italia. (Image credit: Getty Images)Froomes legacy will last as the greatest Grand Tour racer of his generation. During his 19-year-career, he won four Tours de France, two Vueltas a Espaa, and a Giro dItalia, holding all three titles at the same time in 2018. He is best known for being the leader of Team Sky, for whom he rode for 11 seasons between 2010 and 2020. It was during this time that he claimed all of his 46 professional victories, including his remarkable Giro d'Italia comeback in 2018, when he overhauled a more than three-minute gap with a solo attack over the Colle delle Finestre. His Giro title that year remains his last victory. The following year, 2019, he crashed into a wall in a time trial recon at the Critrium du Dauphin, suffering fractures to his sternum, neck, femur, elbow and ribs, and losing four pints of blood. He joined Israel-Premier Tech on a five-year deal in 2021, but struggled to regain his form. The last Grand Tour he rode was the 2022 Vuelta a Espaa, where he finished 113th overall, and scored a stage best of 71st. Since leaving the team at the start of this year, he has taken on new rolas, as chief innovation officer of AI training platform Vekta, and a cycling ambassador for koda.