Watching the peloton - Professional Road Racing thread 2026

[Rás Cnoic]

He's doing it. Paul Seixas & Decathlon have announced he will be riding the Tour this year at the tender age of 19.

 

[stompandgo]

Jonas has never ridden the Giro, so if he wins he will be only the 8th cyclist to win all 3 Grand Tours.

Jonas also wants to win both in the same year. Tadej isn't the only Grand Tour rider that has goals.

 

[stompandgo]

He's doing it. Paul Seixas & Decathlon have announced he will be riding the Tour this year at the tender age of 19.

While I agree that it may be too early, it will be great fun to watch. My take is that it will come down to team strength. UAE has that in spades, Visma is up in the air, and Decathlon needs help.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

While I agree that it may be too early, it will be great fun to watch. My take is that it will come down to team strength. UAE has that in spades, Visma is up in the air, and Decathlon needs help.

Agreed. And he can't lose - if he does well, top 3, it's great, if he's outside top ten, then maybe he grabs a stage and the white jersey, still a win for him at 19. I've come around to the idea!

I think Bora will be worried now, could be very close 2nd to 5th...

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.

Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity

British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8

www.cyclingnews.com

So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.

Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity

British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8

www.cyclingnews.com

So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!

Too bad about that drab, nondescript new kit. As a TV fan, I really like kits — like the Visma yellow or UAE black on white — that stand out from the crowd.

 

[mschwett]

Here's a better view of the grey/green INEOS kit. Grey/Green rather than Netcompany (Danish AI company!) because their green colour matches the TdF Green points jersey too closely.

Green or grey? Why Ineos had to tone down the colour scheme for their first jersey under new Netcompany identity

British team to debut new look during Giro d'Italia on May 8

www.cyclingnews.com

So INEOS; multinational chemicals, Netcompany; AI and Total Energies; a petroleum company. All in a sport with no motors which for about a 150 years has been naturally green. Madness. I miss the days when most sponsors were household white goods, flooring, clothes soft drinks and sweets, for the bored housewives at home with the telly on!

i have to say … as an american, i simply do not understand the “teams.”

countries, i understand, olympics, world cup
companies that make the equipment and sell related equipment in the world, i get, e.g. f1
universities, colleges, i get
franchises associated with a city or state, i get

a “team” from germany that rides specialized bikes and names itself after an energy drink company and two kitchen equipment manufacturers? wtf

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

i have to say … as an american, i simply do not understand the “teams.”

countries, i understand, olympics, world cup
companies that make the equipment and sell related equipment in the world, i get, e.g. f1
universities, colleges, i get
franchises associated with a city or state, i get

a “team” from germany that rides specialized bikes and names itself after an energy drink company and two kitchen equipment manufacturers? wtf

Then you're really not going to understand the new Charmin Ex-Lax Preparation H team just announced.
;^}

 

[Rás Cnoic]

i have to say … as an american, i simply do not understand the “teams.”

countries, i understand, olympics, world cup
companies that make the equipment and sell related equipment in the world, i get, e.g. f1
universities, colleges, i get
franchises associated with a city or state, i get

a “team” from germany that rides specialized bikes and names itself after an energy drink company and two kitchen equipment manufacturers? wtf

Think it goes back to the 50s and mimicked car and motorbike racing with sponsors blazoned on every bit of kit. The big problem for cycling that always makes it a poor relation is the lack of gate receipts. Football clubs growing up around a stadium and town and the club identity forever stamped. You get a million people on the roads watching TdF but zero income so teams grab any sponsor they can get.

I think locally in cycling mad countries and areas they know their local cycling outfit even when the sponsor changes, but yeah, I agree that having the club name first, permanently and the changeable sponsor after it would geo locate clubs better. We lose just how old some of these teams are and all the history swirling around. Its also a weird one in that it's a team sport but also an individual sport and so we remember the cyclist Merckx etc but details about the teams he rode for have faded into obscurity.

In terms of being poor relation, over the weekend the top tennis players protested they are not getting a fair share of the huge TV & streaming cash in the French Open and want the prize money to increase more:

The French Open last month announced a 9.5% increase in the prize money at Roland Garros to €61.7m (£52.6m), with the men’s and women’s winners to receive €2.8m, but the players remain unhappy.
The increase is significantly less than the 20% rise at the US Open last year, while the players claim that, as a percentage of revenues, the prize fund is being reduced.
“Roland Garros generated €395m in revenue in 2025, a 14% year-on-year increase, yet prize money rose by only 5.4%, reducing players’ share of revenue to 14.3%,” they said in a statement.

That is just one Tennis Open and yet it dwarfs the income from the TdF, the only 'big' race the sport has!

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Great final 15km in the womens Vuelta on a gorgeous rolling coastal road.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Shoddy Dave in Girona at The Traka '26 (now bigger than Unbound?) checking out all the bike tech. If you watch closely you'll catch glimpses of a couple of cycling legends (retired) in Bardet and Valverde. It seems gravel racing has become the main WT retirement scheme/pension fund!! They're all at it.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

more Traka footage. Ultra rider Josh Reid has made a name for himself by filming the long distance races he competes in, chatting to the other (crazy) ultra riders on the rough roads as they face the 28 hour non stop conditions.

Here on The Traka 560km, the scenery of the high Pyrenees is just stunning and the night time riding is magical. Riding into the dawn on ancient paths along the clifftops of the Med.

Fills the gap before the start of the Big Pink One on Friday! First grand tour of the year, can't wait.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Can't wait for tomorrow's Giro Stage 1! Jonas sounds ready. And he hinted that some new tactics involving Campanaerts may come into play.

Not so eager for the sleep deprivation, though. As a lifelong nightowl, I can force myself to get up at 0600 to catch the last 50-100 km of each stage live. But forcing myself to go to bed earlier isn't so easy.

Also looking forward to the weeks-long case of the zoomies I’ll get from watching these guys gobble up pavement day after day. For a while, average speed, rider power, and perceived exertion will all go up on my fitness segments — and most importantly, it'll be fun. Cranking the SL up to SPORT will trigger the carrot effect, amping up speed, rider power, and exertion even more.

It's a fun way to ride for a while but requires a pulse of motivation that only the grand tours seem to provide. Of course, I'll still be way slower than even the back of the peloton. But fun to get just the tiniest taste of the sense of power and speed these guys must feel.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Is there no way you can catch each stage on playback later in day? Rather then live at a crazy early time. Let's face it CNN or Fox are unlikely to spoil the result with NEWSFLASH ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY DAY's RACING IN ITALY, WHOLE COUNTRY WATCHING!

Also grab some sleep tomorrow, I think it starts Friday the 8th- unless I'm wrong...

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Is there no way you can catch each stage on playback later in day? Rather then live at a crazy early time. Let's face it CNN or Fox are unlikely to spoil the result with NEWSFLASH ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY DAY's RACING IN ITALY, WHOLE COUNTRY WATCHING!

Also grab some sleep tomorrow, I think it starts Friday the 8th- unless I'm wrong...

Yes, Friday! I do watch the full replays every evening but still enjoy the live racing and result that morning. Helps my relatively inexperienced race-fan brain process the stage as a whole.

Do these races have any effect on the way you ride at the time?

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Yes, Friday! I do watch the full replays every evening but still enjoy the live racing and result that morning. Helps my relatively inexperienced race-fan brain process the stage as a whole.

Do these races have any effect on the way you ride at the time?

Not for me. I don't seem to connect the two, never crossed my mind! There should be the teams presentation today, a long and a bit tedious presentation as the teams line up on the stage with some techno music, a bad MC making jokes with a sprinkling of coloured lights. I'll see if there are any YT clips.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Always a whiff of EuroVision about these presentations.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Always a whiff of EuroVision about these presentations.

I suppose one nice thing is to get to see all the actual riders on stage, team by team, to see faces for once in a calm manner not with oakleys on flying past. It is adding an excitement.

The music choice is... fascinating!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

OK, their evil scheme is working. I'm STOKED!

I think there should be a brief exhibition stage where all the riders wear traditional Bulgarian garb.