Comment & Analysis: From 11 years of my now secondary job of bringing study tours to the Netherlands, one of my favourite junctions in Utrecht is where Biltstraat and Karel Doormanlaan meet. Its a weird layout, at least to Irish eyes.The junction isnt the busiest or the prettiest, and its not going to get as much attention as an active travel bridge on a school. It wont even get as much attention as internationally recognised key elements of Dutch cycling infrastructure, including a cycling priority roundabout, or even the bear pit segregated roundabout (the Netherlands oldest example of such right beside the junction featured in this article).But its an example of something as important in Dutch cycling design as landmarks and those key elements its adaptive design. Adaptive to the space and adjusted in time.In the main, whats pictured is to the side and somewhat below a motor-vehicle-only roundabout, and the cycling and pedestrian access through the roundabout via the bear pit. If youre involved in cycle route design or if youre an advocate for better cycle routes in your home country, you dont look at this junction because you have exactly the same problem to solve. You look at it to understand how unique problems were solved and if theres anything you can take from it. The junction has changed over time; here it is back in 2017:And here it is in 2023 the local access road was narrowed, and the cycle path was widened with a central median added approaching the junction:To give a better idea of the wider picture this is an overview in text and map form:Biltstraat goes east-west here, with Utrecht city centre to the west, and the commuter town of De Bilt to the eastThe cycle path on Biltstraat is part of the Amersfoort Utrecht(F28), and Karel Doormanlaan The side street, Karel Doormanlaan, is shown below in purple its a cycle street where cars are guests.Were close to the edge of Utrechts urban area.The grade-separated roundabout and the north-south dual carragway here are part of the original ring road of the city. Theres now a motorway slightly further to the east here (right of the image).To the south-east is the Utrecht Science Park, including the university and hospital (the blue BRT busway goes there).A few more points on cycling:By its nature, this kind of area with dual carriageways meeting isnt usually the best for cycling, but cycling through here is good very good by international standards.As mentioned above, the east-west route is part of the high-quality inter-urban Doorfietsroute route.But its not all perfect for cycling. Even inside the old ring road in the south west (bottom left) of the map, there are some rubbish roads for cycling on, with some very old and narrow cycle lanes long in need of a better solution.There used to be a south west cycling connection to the bear pit, but the BRT route cut it off in the early 2000s.Its a busy junction with people cycling along the main route and coming in and out of the side (cycle) street this is probably one of the quieter shots I have of the junction it can get so busy here, Id nearly say that the central island could be wider to allow for safer crossing: Cargo bikes coming out from the side street:A view from the side street:An example of how sharks teeth yield markings are far neater and clearer in compact situations: Utrecht is not a cycling utopia. The last image below is of the rubbish area for cycling to the south west of the junction to feature in this article.But the point should not be whether any city is perfect, but whether it is pushing ahead with improvements where it can. And, in Utrecht, the rate of improvement is quite astonishing for a city already seen as a utopia by many visitors.

Thirsty? Todays stage starts in Evian-les-Bains to give it the full name, but as Evian its one of those places more famous as a consumer brand of than a town.Spring water is abundant in the Alps, there are many fountains supplied by abundant rain and snow melt. The handy website eau-cyclisme (water-cycling) lists over 7,000 places to get a free drink during your rides across France, itd be helpful to have a map or app that does this in more countries or unifies other attempts. Its been essential for the recon rides that inform the daily previews here. Some are dilapidated public toilets, others taps inside a cemetery. A few are more swanky. One such spot is in Evian where you can fill up your bidons with Evian for free.In the late 18th century Gabriel Cachat had a spring in his garden and this is the origin of the water which became celebrated for its light taste. People took a liking to it, he ended up fencing his garden and one thing led to another. It was in 1826 that the spring water got official approval to become a saleable product and the industrialisation begun. This year obviously marks the 200th anniversary and the Tour is here to play a part, last month the G7 summit in Evian did too.Visit Evian and the scale of the industry is not obvious. Its a tourist town and not a corporate one. The fountain is a steady trickle rather than a gushing torrent. However three big pipes which take water from the Cachat spring, or the geology that supplies it, a vast layer of glacial sand wedged between to layers of clay. The conduits go to bottling plant in Publier, another town to the west.Production estimates vary, take your pick of online sources, but at the low end of 1.5 billion bottles a year are said to leave the factory gates or two billion litres. Whatever their size, that works out as over four million bottles a day, most of which is taken away by train direct from the factory to different freight platforms where it is loaded onto more trains, trucks and also sent to shipping ports for export.Plenty ends up in countries with abundant water and whats really being sold is convenience and standardisation. Its big business for parent company Danone, Evian has been a tenth of its sales.This makes it a delicate day for the Tour de Frances sponsorship staff. Since 2008 the race has been sponsored by Vittel, another brand of water that belongs to Nestl Waters, arch rival of Danone.Vittel is an important customer for the the Tour as an official partner, the label used for the second tier of sponsors below those that sponsor the jerseys like LCL or Skoda. So how much can the race visit Evian and not trigger talk of Danones produce? Perhaps starting in Evian helps as the finish tends to get more attention.The Tour has a good reason to visit now. As well as the 200th anniversary of the water as a commercial venture, a century ago in 1926 the race started in Evian. This was the first time it did not begin in Paris, a literal departure from its established format.Nevertheless the race was determined to stick to its tour-of-France. 1926 was truly the year of the grande boucle, the big loop as the race fastidiously returned to Evian to complete a full lap around France before making the journey to Paris for the remaining two stages. This made it the longest ever Tour de France with 5,745km compared to 3,200km today. But back then things were obviously slower. The 1926 Tour took 238 hours to complete for the winner Lucien Buysse, and the lanterne rouge was a full 24 hours down on GC, compared to last years race taking 76 hours for the winner with the last rider only six hours slower. Thirsty work either way.The post Postcard from Evian first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Pub pundits and sports scientists agree that the Tour de France is the ultimate test of human endurance, but compared with the pioneers of a century ago, today's riders have it easy. In 1926, La Grande Boucle was more than a nickname; that year's Tour took the peloton on a 5,745km ordeal around the perimeter of France. One hundred years on, that edition remains the longest, most brutal route in the race's history - a battle of attrition as much as it was a bike race. The average length of the 17 stages was 338km. Yes, the average. One, stage 12, from Perpignan to Toulon, was 427km. But it's stage 10 from Bayonne to Luchon, through the Pyrenees, that's gone down in cycling folklore. Contested in apocalyptic, literally life-threatening weather conditions, this race-defining leg was won by the Belgian Lucien Buysse - in a time of 17 hours, 12 minutes. He went on to take the overall victory, and frankly, he'd earned it. The 1926 Tour transcended sport. It took place in the long shadow of the First World War, a conflict many of the competitors had fought in - four editions of the race were missed between 1915 and 1918. Amid a feverish atmosphere of instability in central Europe, the 1926 event was riven with political tensions and dominated by strong personalities. At one political pole was the staunchly nationalist Tour director Henri Desgrange; at the other were members of the French Communist Party, with its newspaper, L'Humanit, campaigning for better conditions and pay for independent riders. It was also a catalyst for change and became a key event in the evolution of the modern Tour, a point of inflection when the conflicting desires of everyone involved - riders, route-setters, teams, bicycle manufacturers and spectators - collided spectacularly. Arguably, 1926 was the year the Tour de France came of age. The 1926 race covered the entire perimeter of the country the longest edition ever (Image credit: Archive material )National showcaseIn 1926, for the first time since the Tour de France began in 1903, the race started outside Paris, in Evian, the Alpine town near the Franco-Swiss border. The route headed north, skirting the frontiers of Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, then hugged the coast of Normandy and Brittany, tracing the seaboard to the Spanish border before swerving south, crossing the Pyrenees, wending east along the Cte d'Azur and heading north along the land border with Italy and Switzerland. Having cycled an anticlockwise loop of the country, competitors then had to pass back through Evian and re-ascend mountain passes they'd previously climbed before riding through Burgundy and central France to the finish line in Paris. It was, quite literally, epic. From a modern perspective, the route looks nuts. And it was. But for Desgrange, the founding father of the Tour, who was still the route-setter and organiser in 1926, the event had never been simply about bike racing. Nor was it merely a vehicle for selling copies of his newspaper, L'Auto. He had a bigger vision, and for the Tour's 20th iteration, he pushed that to its limits. A child during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War, Desgrange was part of a generation that lived in fear of German invasion. Concerned that his fellow countrymen were more interested in smoking and drinking than sport, leaving them weak and defenceless against the newly formed superpower on France's eastern flank, he became obsessed with health and national pride. After becoming a successful - and world-record-setting - cyclist, Desgrange published a book, La Tte et les Jambes (The Head and the Legs), a training manual for Frenchmen to get fighting fit through bike riding and running. The routes he designed embodied his vision for France. "For Desgrange, the Tour was a way to promote 'France' as an idea and to build belief in nationhood," says Gareth Cartman, author of We Rode All Night, a historical novel about the 1926 race, "and that's why they went right around the outside of the country. It's a way of reinforcing the French border." Cartman says the same rationale had led Desgrange to route the 1919 race through Alsace-Lorraine, a region previously absorbed by Germany, which had just been returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles. "He uses the race to say 'this is our country', but also to inspire Frenchmen to take up cycling and become stronger," Cartman explains, "and that's why he keeps making the Tours tougher. Every time riders conquer the test, he makes it harder... until we get to 1926." Lucien Buysse proved to be the sport's ultimate hard-man (Image credit: Getty Images)One for allAs a Cycling Weekly (then known as Cycling) reporter covering the 1926 race wrote: "With leisure and the right machine many could manage the mileage comfortably. But this is a struggle with time, when the rider who wins must keep to his machine although the roads are not worthy of the name, although he is lashed with rain and bespattered by mud and his limbs tremble with fatigue." These words would prove to be prophetic. At 2am on Sunday, 20 June 1926, the peloton set off from Evian on a 373km 'plain stage' to Mlhausen. It was won by the Belgian Jules Buysse - no, not the eventual winner, but his younger brother. Jules, the youngest of three Buysse brothers competing in the race, also won the second stage, a 334km leg to Metz, but even early on, competitors were falling fast. "Of the 126 riders who started the Tour, 15 fell out on the first day and seven on the second," reported Cycling on 2 July. Desgrange, who always intended the Tour to be a test of individual skill, strength and endurance, discouraged teams, and 82 of the riders who started the race were 'touriste-routiers', competing individually and without sponsorship. The remaining riders began working together, as a survival strategy. "On many stages, especially in Brittany and Normandy, riders effectively agreed not to race," says Cartman. "The route was so hard and long, they knew that, just to get to the Pyrenees in one piece, they should basically ride together. If people wanted to ride off the front, then fine. There was a kind of tacit agreement to not attack too hard." However, each time they arrived en masse into finish towns, Desgrange responded furiously. "I think the best one was in Brest," chuckles Cartman. "After a 405km stage, he met them with folded arms and said, words to the effect of, 'You bloody bastards! You are now going to do sprints of the velodrome for this crowd because they've all come here to watch you and you can't be bothered to race each other.'" Cartman sympathises with the riders. "They knew they had three consecutive days coming up [amounting to] 900km, from Brittany to the Pyrenees, with no rest and in the middle of a heatwave. So of course they weren't going to ride hard. That's why Van Slembrouck kept the yellow jersey so long. And then came the big stage to Luchon, when the weather turned and the race started falling apart." Atrocious conditionsOnce the race entered the Pyrenees, everything changed. Stage 10 started pre-dawn, in dreadful conditions, and the weather got progressively worse. Tourists in their cars stirred up the mud and made it even harder for the riders to get through. Marcel Bidot - future coach of the French team - broke a crank and tried to continue, pedalling one-footed. The judges ultimately allowed him to borrow a bike from a spectator - it was far too small, but he managed to get to Luchon. Of the 76 riders who started the stage, 22 were forced to abort, including the favourite and defending champion Ottavio Bottecchia. As the elements turned vicious, the tough, working-class Italian Bottecchia - a bricklayer who'd served in a cycling battalion on the frontline of WWI, and had won the two previous Tours - retired from the race "weeping like a child", according to a later report in L'quipe. Meanwhile Lucien Buysse, a man who had very recently lost his young daughter and was already riding through waves of grief, pedalled grimly onwards, through the storm-strafed peaks, mounting an attack on the Col d'Aspin that earned him an unassailable lead and control of the race. "After his ride from Bayonne to Luchon, Lucien Buysse seemed the least exhausted of the survivors," reads the report in the 23 July, 1926 edition of Cycling. "On this stage he rode one of the most brilliant races in the history of the Tour de France. Some motorcars that should have followed him broke down on the crazy roads. The cold on the hilltops so gripped the hands of one or two riders they were unable to change a tyre after a puncture." Tour turning pointThe middle Buysse brother was an Automoto team-mate of Bottecchia, and he'd helped the Italian secure victory in 1925, acting as the first domestique in Tour history. With a 30-minute lead in the general classification after stage 10, Buysse consolidated his lead with a consecutive win on the 323km mountain stage to Perpignan. He remained in the maillot jaune for the rest of the race. Unsurprisingly, given his performance in the Pyrenees, Buysse was also named by L'Auto as meilleur grimpeur (best climber), an unofficial equivalent to the present-day King of the Mountains title. "It was an extraordinary Tour," concludes Cartman. "It was a pivotal point, which shaped the future of the race. Desgrange wanted to rip everything up and change it for the next year. He hated the flat stages, so he made them all time trials. He wanted it to be an individual competition, rather than teams and manufacturers using strategies to win." Somewhat ironically, not a single stage in 1926 - Desgrange's toughest test and biggest national statement - was won by a French rider. That had never happened before and has occurred only once since, in 1999. This July, as French fans excitedly welcome to the race the nation's brightest prospect in decades, Paul Seixas, they will be desperately hoping the centenary of the 1926 edition doesn't come with a repeat performance. The French organiser of the Tour de France Henri Desgrange (left) alongside Italian rider Amerigo Caccioni before the start of stage 8 of the 1932 Tour (Image credit: Getty Images)1926 Tour in numbers5,745km: The total distance - the longest route in the race's history. 427km: The length of the longest single stage. 126/41: The ratio of starters to finishers. 17:12.04: The time it took Lucien Buysse to win the brutal 326km Stage 10. 238:44.25: Buysse's total winning time. 1:22.25: The time gap between the winner, Lucien Buysse, and second-placed Nicolas Frantz.This feature was originally published in the 2 July 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.

The 2026 Tour de France will be entering its third week on Tuesday with some of its fiercest battles yet to take place. But before riders head to this year's key venue Alpe d'Huez, let's grab the opportunity to look back at which teams have enjoyed the greatest success - in financial terms. Although...

The final week of the 2026 Tour de France gets underway with stage 16, the 26.1km Individual Time-Trial from Evian-Les-Bains to Thonon-Les-Bains. After a well-deserved rest yesterday, the riders get back in the saddle to begin the final push towards Paris.Stage 16 at a glanceUK: TNT Sports / HBO Max (30.99/mon) US: Peacock ($10.99/mon)Canada: Flobikes ($49.99/mon)Australia: SBS (Free)Free Streams: SBS (Australia), France TV (France), RAI (Italy) RTBF (Belgium), RTVE (Spain), NOS (Netherlands)Watch Anywhere: Unlock your free stream with NordVPN (75% off)The first time-trial rider will set off at 13:00 CEST, with the last expected to finish around 17:50. You can find full time-trial start time right here.Defending champion Tadej Pogaar remains in control of the race, although perhaps not in the way he would have liked. The four-time winner's closest challenger was arch-rival Jonas Vingegaard, but the Dane crashed and broke his collarbone on Stage 15 on Sunday, ruling him out of the rest of the Tour.Remco Evenepoel went on to win that stage atop Plateau de Solaison and is now second in the general classification, albeit five minutes behind Pogaar. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider is the favourite to win today's stage, but it would take something remarkable for him to overhaul the man in the Yellow Jersey.With this the first of six successive stages, this week could well turn into a coronation for UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Pogaar, 27, who is aiming to equal Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurin's joint-record tally of five Tour wins.Can I watch stage 16 of the Tour de France for free?You can stream stage 16 of the Tour de France for free in Australia, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands: Australia: SBS (English comms) France: France TV (Host broadcaster) Italy: RAI Play Belgium: RTB Spain: RTVE Netherlands: NOS Those outside their usual country for stage 16 will need a VPN to get your usual coverage while abroad more on that below.How to watch the Tour de France stage 16 from anywhereMost streaming platforms have geo-restrictions these days, which means they only work in certain countries. But being locked out of the races is a thing of the past thanks to a VPN.A Virtual Private Network is a piece of internet security software that can alter your device's location, so you can unblock your usual streaming services, even when you're abroad. Unlock your Tour de France stream with NordVPNWith super fast connections, multi-device support and able to unlock any platform, NordVPN is our favourite for streaming. 30-day money back guarantee 3 months extra free 75% offGet NordVPN today and unlock your streaming service from anywhere in the world.View DealWant to know more? We have an explainer on the benefits, costs, and considerations of using a VPN... Should I use a VPN to watch cycling?Watch stage 16 of the Tour de France in the UKIn the UK, stage 16 will be shown live across TNT Sports and HBO Max. Live streaming is available on HBO Max, with linear viewing on TNT Sports 1. Plans start at 25.99 per month, with rolling subscriptions available at 30.99.However, if you just want to watch highlights, these will be on free-to-air Channel 5 at 7pm BST on Tuesday.Watch stage 16 of the Tour de France in the US and CanadaFor US viewers, this year's coverage of stage 16 of the Tour de France will be on NBC and PeacockBoth outlets come from the same NBCUniversal stable, with NBC available on many cable packages and Peacock which is showing all 21 stages live on a pay per month basis. It'll cost you $10.99/month.In Canada, Flobikes is in charge of broadcasting stage 16 of the Tour de France. Subscriptions cost CA$49.99 a month, with big savings for long-term plans. The Flobikes TV app is available on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast and Apple TV, as well as on iOS and Android.Watch Tour de France stage 16 in AustraliaIn Australia, you can watch every stage of the Tour de France for free via SBS On Demand, including stage 16.All you will need is an account with a valid Australian postcode (e.g. 2002).We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Todays edition of your favourite cycling live blog is coming at you from the shores of Lake Geneva, where Ryan Mallon will be spending the day gawping at fancy TT bikes and keeping you entertained when he finds some time

Jonathan Vaughters admits that he owes Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard an apology as he weighed-in on the overnight doping tests of the riders at the Tour de France. Vaughters, who has admitted to doping during his career, says that the actions of riders in the past may have placed an added burde...

Its been a few years now since EF Education debuted POC time trial helmets with duck graphics at the Giro dItalia. Now HJC has got into the novel time trial helmet game with a design inspired by Marvel Comics' Iron Man for TotalEnergies riders in the 26.1km stage 16 time trial today.Time trial helmets are fertile ground for the creatives. While road helmets are encumbered by boring stuff such as vents to stop the riders head from boiling, thats not a problem with many TT helmets.Plus theyre BIG, so theres lots of real estate to work on. The Adwatt 1.0 has plenty of room for novel graphics. HJC has got to work on its Adwatt 1.0 helmet, a design it launched in 2019. But it claims its fast enough that another, unnamed, unsponsored team has also chosen it, minus the Iron Man graphics and is buying its TT helmets with its own cash. TotalEnergies riders should stand out in their Adwatt TT helmets. Why Iron Man? HJCs main business is motorcycle helmets and its been working with Marvel on these for years. It reckons the design will bring a touch of fun to the po-faced, data-obsessed, supersized world of grand tour time trials.

Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of EF Education-EasyPost, has defended the controversial night-time anti-doping tests that have taken place at the Tour de France, describing them as very effective in detecting micro-dosing.Defending champion Tadej Pogaar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, as well as Visma-Lease a Bikes Jonas Vingegaard, were woken up in the early hours of Sunday morning by doping control officers (DCOs) and made to provide an anti-doping sample. Only in exceptional circumstances, and when approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and a judge, can an athlete be tested between 11pm and 6am. According to UCI rules, permission will only be granted by authorities if there is "serious and specific suspicion that the rider may be engaged in doping."Cycling Weekly then revealed on Monday afternoon that at least two other teams in the race have had riders woken up before 6am, with some sources suggesting as many as eight teams may have been subject to night-time tests. The International Testing Agency (ITA), the body that is responsible for cyclings anti-doping program, confirmed to CW that Pogaar and Vingegaard havent been the only cyclists tested outside of the usual hours.In a further update, just before the start of stage 16, one team who cannot be named for legal reasons unless they consent to being identified informed CW that all of their riders were tested by DCOs at 10pm on Monday night. It is unusual for an entire teams roster to be mass tested.Vaughters admitted to taking EPO in his own racing career, including when riding at US Postal with Lance Armstrong. Since admitting to his past record, Vaughters has become one of sports staunchest anti-doping campaigners.In a post on X on Monday night, the American said: I dont post here much. But Ill roll this grenade down the aisle: 2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptides (EPO, hGH Human Growth Hormone) and testosterone micro dosing. If [the] UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? Wed all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.Its unfortunate that Tadej and Jonas have to atone for the sh*t we did. However, Id take some lost sleep for some gained credibility. I should apologize to both of them, honestly.Night-time testing is highly unusual at the Tour, but it is not without precedent. What is uncommon and disturbing, depending on how these flurry of cases are perceived is how many riders and teams appear to have been targeted at night during this years race. CW also knows of a number of 7am anti-doping controls.Just ahead of the race, the ITA outlined its strategy for testing, stating that around 600 in-competition samples will be collected; that figure is on par with the number of tears conducted in recent Tours.But the ITA added that the final number [will be] determined based on the testing strategy, intelligence and investigations priorities and operational requirements.