Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
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2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. - Henry Ford
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Current racing:
- December 23: Superprestige Heusden-Zolder
Upcoming racing:
- December 26: World Cup Gavere
- December 29: Trofee Loenhout-Azencross
- December 30: Superprestige Diegem
- January 1: GP Sven Nys
Latest completed racing:
- December 14: World Cup Namur
- November 16: Trofee Hamme-Flandriencross
- November 1: Trofee Oudenaarde-Koppenbergcross
- October 26: Superprestige Overijse-Vlaamse Druivencross
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Guangxi
- October 14 - 19: Tour of Holland
- October 19: Veneto Classic
- October 19: Japan Cup
- October 19: Chrono des Nations
- October 15: Giro del Veneto
- October 12: Paris-Tours
Here's the report on the men's race from second-place Wout van Aert's Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
Wout van Aert secured his first podium finish of the cyclocross season. The 31-year-old rider from Team Visma | Lease a Bike crowned a strong performance with a second place in the X2O Trophy in Hofstade. Mathieu van der Poel took the victory once again.
Mathieu van der Poel solos across the line nearly a minute ahead of second-place Wout van Aert.
Two days after his first cyclocross race in Antwerp, Van Aert lined up at the start in Hofstade, where he was aiming for nothing less than a podium spot. After a strong start, the Belgian entered the field in fifth place, but a slip in the second lap cost him a few places. Van Aert showed resilience and, thanks to a strong effort, moved up to second place in the race.
Van der Poel had already flown away by that point, but in the battle for second place, Van Aert continued to pull away from his competitors. After just under an hour, the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider crossed the finish line in second place. "I can be satisfied with my performance. Technically, I rode much better than in Antwerp", said Van Aert.
"I didn't hit the wall quite as hard, but that's also because I didn't have to go all out in the last three laps. That was what I was hoping for." Van Aert looks back on his race with a good feeling. "I had a good start. I chose the right side of the field and immediately managed to overtake several people. In the first lap, I had to get into the rhythm. Halfway through, I found the legs that allowed me to put in a considerable effort."
Van Aert says he enjoyed the atmosphere in Hofstade. "With three laps to go, I knew I wasn't going to catch Mathieu. In some places, I was able to really enjoy the encouragement. I'm 31, but it's still amazing to experience this." Tomorrow, Van Aert will be at the start of the Superprestige in Heusden-Zolder. "I have fond memories of this cross. I'm really looking forward to riding there."
Results:
Men:
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 58min 53sec
- Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) @ 48sec
- Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) @ 1min 2sec
- Thibau Nys (Baloise Glowi Lions) @ 1min 8sec
- Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) @ 1min 5sec
Women:
- Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi Lions) 45min 47sec
- Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Glowi lions) @ 22sec
- Manon Bakker (Crelan Corendon) @ 25sec
- Laura Verdonschot (De Ceuster-Bouwpunt) @ 2min 42sec
- Julie Brouwers (Charles Liégeois Rostery CX) @ 1min 59sec
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Here’s the team’s update:
Tour de France stage winner Ben O’Connor will lead Team Jayco AlUla on home soil as the Australian outfit kicks-off the WorldTour calendar at the Santos Tour Down Under.
It will be the first time the 30-year-old has raced his ‘home’ tour since 2023, and the man from Perth will head up a strong Australian contingent in Adeliade in January.
Ben O'Connor at the start of the second stage of the 2025 Vuelta a España. Sirotti photo
Backing up O’Connor will be the last two Australian road race champions, Giro d’Italia stage winner Luke Plapp and team stalwart Luke Durbridge. New recruit Hamish McKenzie and the returning Rudy Porter add to the Aussie flavour alongside the powerful presence of Kell O’Brien.
Completing the squad will be the lone non-Australian, Mauro Schmid. Despite not being a native, the double Swiss champion endeared himself to the locals in 2025 with his stunning solo victory at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Ben O’Connor:
“Heading back to Perth for the summer has been an enormous pleasure. I love Australia, I miss its beaches and friendly, laid-back atmosphere. Training here is brutal and unforgiving sometimes, but it always gives big rewards. I can’t wait to get stuck in for the Aussie summer of racing and do our jersey proud.
"Around the world we try to perform, showcase our talents and aim to throw the hands up in the air with a victory, but coming into Tour Down Under with Team Jayco AlUla will truly mean racing in our home race, bringing that extra dimension of significance. It’ll be great fun and honestly, it is one of the best times of the year.”
Mat Hayman (Sport Director):
“We’re returning to the Tour Down Under with a very strong team for what is a hard course next year. We have Ben O’Connor coming back who hasn’t raced here since 2023, Luke Plapp, who was right up there this year, and we’ve got Mauro Schmid, who won Cadel’s Great Ocean Road Race this year and he’s coming back to have a crack at Tour Down Under.
"Those guys will be supported by Luke Durbridge, a stalwart of the team. It’s always great to have his knowledge and strength as road captain and a key rider for the team. We’ve pretty much got a full Australian line-up with couple of young guys, Rudy Porter returns to the team and I’m sure he’ll be ready to impress straight away, Hamish McKenzie steps up from the development team and right in the middle there you have Kell O’Brien, who must be eyeing up that prologue around the streets of Adelaide. We have a super strong squad, and we’re excited to take this them to Tour Down Under and with a team like that we’ve got to be expecting to get some results.”
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Here’s the team’s news:
World champion Magdeleine Vallieres will race for victories with EF Education-Oatly through 2028.
After her stunning rainbow jersey win in Kigali, Mags extended her contract with our squad so she can continue to chase her cycling dreams alongside teammates such as Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner, Tour Down Under winner Noemi Rüegg, and Tour de France stage winner Cédrine Kerbaol.
Magdeleine Vallieres wins the 2025 World Road Championships. Sirotti photo
Mags has big ambitions for the coming years. Her heart is set on trying to win one of the Ardennes classics, testing her limits as a GC racer, and defending her rainbow jersey at her home world championships this fall in Montréal. The 24-year-old Québécoise trusts the squad that has nurtured her talent from her first day in pink and is excited to make the most of every chance she gets to lead her EF Education-Oatly friends and teammates at some of the greatest races in the world.
“I’ve been with the team forever and it is like my family now,” Mags said. “I grew up on this team and I think I can continue to develop here. Signing a long-term contract felt like the right move for me and for the next steps in my career. I get along really well with the girls and I think we're in a place where we can keep growing together. We know how to race together and how to get the best out of each other. We're a lot stronger because we get along so well.”
EF Education-Oatly General Manager Esra Tromp is proud of the progress that Mags has made as a bike racer and as a leader during her time on our team so far. Mags’ world championship win was a just reward for her work ethic and dedication and her courage to back herself. Esra knows that Mags will continue to be an exemplar for her teammates, as she races into a greater leadership role with our squad.
“Daring to race and have confidence in herself and finally get that world championship win was really inspirational for all of our riders,” Esra said. “Mags leads by example. For the other girls now, seeing her rainbow jersey there in the group when they are out training or at dinner will make them think, ‘Okay, now we need to step up, because we have the world champion in our team and we need to show that in the races. We need to be able to help her.’ That is going to give a big push to all of the riders. Mags will draw a lot of confidence from the jersey and will get more confidence from the team to go out and race a lot of finales and find more wins.”
Mags’s confidence is also rooted in the relationships she has developed with EF Pro Cycling’s performance staff, who were key to her decision to extend her contract.
“We have excellent nutritionists and super good mechanics,” Mags said. “The team has built a lab in Girona for testing and bike fits. Our sports directors do a really good job of looking at the big picture and figuring out which steps we need to take to get to where we want to go. They think of us not only as riders, but also as humans, which is really important for me.”
The coming season is going to be an extra special one for Mags. She is set to make her 2026 debut in her fresh rainbow jersey at the Tour Down Under. She then wants to focus on the Ardennes classics, the Giro d’Italia, and the Tour de France, before travelling home to Québec to defend her world title. Racing such events in the rainbow jersey will be a huge honor. Mags is still getting used to all of the attention that comes from being world champion, but is confident that she can handle the pressure. She has already beaten the best bike racers in the world once and knows exactly what she will need to do to ride into the form that will give her opportunities to beat them again and again.
Her goal this year is to be strong throughout the season. When she was a helper, our team could always count on Mags to pull during the hardest moments of the hardest races. Now, we’ll count on her to go on the attack.
“I learned a lot from helping others,” Mags said. “I won the worlds because of it. Now, I am looking forward to taking a different approach and trying to bring everything I learned to race more as a leader. I also know that I still have a lot to learn to be consistent at the top and I'm looking forward to taking this as an opportunity to continue learning in this new role and learn together with my teammates. We’re a young team, but I think we can really develop all together.”
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I received this email:
The MPCC is becoming increasingly concerned about an excessive use of medicine in the sport and calls upon its governing body to take action against the expansion of the so-called grey area.
This grey area includes substances and medical treatments not yet banned by WADA, but which raise serious ethical questions when used by healthy athletes, rather than the sick patients they were developed to treat. Cycling needs the UCI to act quickly and decisively to protect both the sport’s credibility and the health of the peloton - so that no athlete feels forced to take questionable products merely to keep up.
The lengthy timelines of anti-doping processes without quick and concrete action leave space for various substances to be debated each year, allowing athletes to continue using them despite the unanswered questions surrounding their health or performance enhancing effects. Is a safer approach to ban a product during its investigation and then when it’s safe, allow it’s use?
The most recent example is the topic of ketones, which has been a part of cycling’s credibility debate since 2017 when the first scientific research on the subject was published. The MPCC brought a clear position that their members would not use the product and then nearly two years later, the UCI issued a “notice of non-recommendation” until further analysis was completed. Many teams and riders ignored this advice, with some even forming partnerships with ketone suppliers.
On October 25th, 2025 the UCI published a press release reaffirming its position of not recommending ketone use. This remains a recommendation, rather than the introduction of a formal medical rule or anti-doping regulation to ban (or permit) this specific product, which unfortunately does not close the debate or discussion.
The so-called “Finishing Bottle” rumours are back writhe in the peloton, with multiple borderline substances said to be mixed and passed into the peloton to prepare riders ready for the final. Next to this, we face other potential substance abuse with medicine such as but not limited to Tapendatol, which is up to ten times stronger than Tramadol (banned in competition by WADA after 12 years of lobbying from MPCC). The UCI now has this specific substance under monitoring, but must we wait for the result of another lengthy analysis while riders’ health is at risk and crashes are becoming even more prominent?
The authorities are clearly able to move quickly in decision-making: take the example of non-diagnostic use of carbon monoxide (CO), which after coming to light during the 2024 Tour de France will be listed by World Anti‑Doping Agency (WADA) as a prohibited method from 2026.
The MPCC's position has not changed: the endless medicalization of riders is a major problem and requires action. The MPCC urges the UCI to establish a clear and regulated position on a range of (medical) products in the grey area or other specific products (such as ketones). Next to this, it’s crucial that the products and substances that are within this grey area are proactively and clearly identified: so that teams and athletes are aware where they operate ethically. The MPCC stands ready to work closely with the UCI and support progress in this crucial area for the future of our sport.
As far as ketones are concerned, the position of the MPCC members, shared by the majority at its Annual General Meeting in Paris on October 22nd, is that the debate on this product must now be brought to an end. MPCC members will echo UCI’s recommendation to not use ketones and MPCC members will not accept sponsorship in this region.
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