Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Sunday, April 5, 2026
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Current racing:
- April 5: Ronde van Vlaanderen
Upcoming racing:
- April 6 - 11: Itzulia Basque Country (Tour of the Basque Country)
- April 7 - 10: Région Pays de la Loire Tour
- April 8: Scheldeprijs
- April 12: Paris-Roubaix
Latest completed racing:
- April 4: GP Miguel Indurain
- April 4: NXT Classic
- April 3: Classic Adélie de Vitré
- April 1: Dwars door Vlaanderen
- March 31: Paris-Camembert
- March 23 - 29: Volta a Catalunya
- March 25 - 29: Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
- March 29: Gent-Wevelgem
- March 29: La Roue Tourangelle
- March 28: Classic Loire Atlantique
- March 27: E3 Saxo Classic
- March 25: Ronde Van Brugge - Tour of Bruges
- March 21: Milano-Sanremo
- March 20: Bredene Koksijde Classic
We posted the report from second-place Mauro Schmid's Team Jayco-AlUla with the results.
Here's the report from third-place Casper Pedersen's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Casper Pedersen notched up his first podium of the season, and the team’s 15th, at the 51st edition of the NXT Classic. The Dane, who last month had an impressive outing at Paris-Nice, where he spent five days in the polka dot jersey, was one of the strongest riders Saturday afternoon, and his third place confirmed this.
The race had an elevation gain of 2400 meters, but the many short hills sprinkled over the 196.3km course made it impossible to be controlled by the few teams targeting a bunch sprint at the end of the day. Instead, attacks came left and right from the very first kilometer, when four men jumped and formed a breakaway, whose chances of making it were doomed from the beginning. Their adventure at the front of the race came to an end with more than 80 kilometers to go, when they were caught by a strong group featuring Casper.
It was a dangerous move for the peloton, who had to chase hard in order to make the catch and keep things together, although that effort proved to be for nothing in the end, as the bunch splintered again following a series of attacks that came again on the climbs. This time around, Soudal Quick-Step was represented by three riders at the front: Pedersen, Stan Van Tricht and Pascal Eenkhoorn, a two-time podium finisher at this race.
When two men broke clear and built a gap on the others, the Wolfpack remained prominent and worked hard in order to reduce that margin. A few kilometers from the finish, after a sensational job of Stan, Casper sneaked away and rode himself onto the podium, just a couple of seconds behind the riders who fought for the win. Joining him in the top ten from the chasing group was Pascal, who finished seventh.
The NXT Classic podium, from left: Mauro Schmid (2nd), Tibor Del Grosso (1st), & Casper Pedersen (3rd).
“It was important to be in a good position and race as a team. We took the initiative and tried to make things hard from 100 kilometers to go. We were in every group and covered all the moves. Two guys were just better in the finale and went away, but we continued to believe in our chances. Stan pulled hard and in the closing kilometers I attacked, got a small gap and could hold it until the line. It’s a nice result and a good day of racing from the whole squad”, said Casper after his sixth top-three finish in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey.
And here's The NXT Classic report from Team Picnic-PostNL:
Team Picnic PostNL lined up at the NXT Classic, a 196-kilometre race through the Zuid-Limburg hills, close to the team’s Keep Challenging Center. The team started with a mixed line-up of Men’s and Development Program riders for the demanding day on home roads. Throughout the race, the combination of terrain and wind caused repeated splits in the peloton. Frits Biesterbos rode attentively all day, consistently positioning himself in the front groups as the race became increasingly selective.
With 27 kilometres to go, Tibor Del Grosso and Mauro Schmid launched an attack and quickly built a gap of around 30 seconds. Behind, Biesterbos was part of a chasing group of around 20 riders trying to bring the duo back. On the local finishing circuit, the two leaders worked well together and managed to hold off the chasers, with Del Grosso eventually taking the win. Behind, the reduced chasing group sprinted for the remaining places, where Biesterbos led Team Picnic PostNL across the line in 11th.
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Here’s the team’s post:
The Tour of Flanders, the second cycling Monument of the season, is scheduled for Sunday. For Team Visma | Lease a Bike, the Tour of Flanders is one of the season’s key events. Wout van Aert and sports director Grischa Niermann preview the race.
After his second-place finish in Dwars door Vlaanderen, Van Aert heads to the Grote Markt in Antwerp with confidence. The 31-year-old Belgian was very active on Wednesday and seemed to be heading for victory with a 10-kilometer solo breakaway. In the final meters, however, he was overtaken by Filippo Ganna, who relegated Van Aert to second place.
Wout van Aert checking out the 2026 Tour of Flanders course. Sirotti photo
"I look back on my last two races with a good feeling", Van Aert begins. "In both In Flanders Fields and Dwars door Vlaanderen, I raced aggressively and had strong finishes. It’s a shame it hasn’t led to a victory yet, but it is the way of racing I love. That makes me happy."
With the start in Antwerp and the traditional finish in Oudenaarde, the 110th edition of Vlaanderens Mooiste promises to be another grueling battle. The 278-kilometer route is littered with iconic climbs and vicious cobblestone sections. The crux of the race lies in the final 55 kilometers as the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, and Koppenberg loom ahead.
"Of course it’s stressful, but for me, the Tour of Flanders is one of the highlights of the year", Van Aert continues. "Being at the center of one of the biggest cycling events in the world feels very special. Especially as a Belgian, there’s nothing better than being able to ride a Monument in my own country. I get goosebumps every year when I’m doing the reconnaissance. It’s just really cool."
According to the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader, there’s not much point in discussing all possible scenarios. "The Tour of Flanders is a race in a class of its own and is chaotic every year. It’s almost impossible to predict how the race will unfold.” What Van Aert does know for sure is that his form is on the rise. After the setback earlier this year, he can tell from everything that he’s back in the mix with the best riders."
"Am I surprised by where I am now? No, not really. I’ve worked incredibly hard for this over the past few months. After my crash in the Mol cyclocross, we stayed calm and knew there was plenty of time to get back to a high level. Of course, I had hoped to be a bit better at Strade Bianche, but now you can see that I needed the past few races to take that final step."
Niermann makes no secret of the fact that Team Visma | Lease a Bike is starting the race with high ambitions. "We have a very strong team at the starting line. Wout has shown in recent races that he is among the strongest riders in the peloton, but Christophe Laporte and Per Strand Hagenes have also already posted impressive results. In the ideal scenario, we’ll have several cards to play in the final, but that will depend on how the last fifty kilometers unfold. I expect the strongest riders to be the ones left standing."
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Here's the team's news:
"It feels as if I’m building up to a cyclo-cross World Championship: I want to train and train, but I also need enough rest. Balancing on that tightrope, that tension is what I feel now." It’s clear that Toon Aerts is looking forward to the Tour of Flanders. On Sunday, he will ride his very first edition.
"The week before such a World Championship is the most important of the year. That’s exactly how I feel now," Aerts explains. "You still want to do everything, your thoughts tell you ‘go for it’, while you also shouldn’t overdo it. I find it really exciting. This is not only my very first classic, it’s immediately also my first Monument."
Toon Aerts finishing the 2018 Koppenberg Cyclocross race.
Aerts had known for quite some time that he was on the longlist for the race. The final decision that he would indeed be among the seven riders heading to Antwerp on Sunday morning only came this week. "If it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have blamed myself. I’ve done everything I could. Literally everything has gone perfectly in recent weeks. I didn’t expect to be back at this level so quickly after the cyclo-cross season. I went on a training camp in Girona, performed very well in the GP de Denain, and survived the mountain stages well in Catalonia. The fact that I still had enough freshness after those long stages to go for the sprint (Aerts finished fourth in stage 3, ed.) has given me a lot of confidence. That week in Catalonia was the perfect ‘training week’ for what’s coming now."
Until now, what lies ahead was something Toon Aerts could only dream of. "As a kid, I sometimes rode the Tour of Flanders as a tourist. Or during a long weekend. Occasionally races pass over those roads- the Tour of Belgium, Dwars door de Vlaamse Ardennen back in the day… The Koppenberg holds no secrets for a cyclo-cross rider. So I do know those roads, but in recent weeks I’ve still taken a closer look at their order. It’s also the first time I’ll ride such a long race. I’m not afraid, but I don’t underestimate it either. The recon went well. On that slippery Koppenberg, I managed to reach the top nicely (laughs). On the Paterberg, I pushed hard once and that felt really good. The Tour has a course that suits me, for sure."
"My task will be to support the team perfectly. Key moments for me will be the early sectors and climbs, where I want to position the team well. I want to fully execute what is asked of me. If that works, I’ll be satisfied with my race on Sunday evening."
For Lotto-Intermarché, the Tour of Flanders selection alongside Toon Aerts consists of Jenno Berckmoes, Cedric Beullens, Vito Braet, Sébastien Grignard, Jonas Rutsch and Luca Van Boven. For the women, Dina Boels, Annelies Nijssen, Marieke Meert, Sterre Vervloet, Anna Van Wersch and Linda Riedmann will start.
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Here’s the team’s news:
Mexican national champion looks to continue his fine season, which has already yielded wins at the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico
Already a winner of two prestigious stage races in 2026, Isaac del Toro will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at Itzulia Basque Country from Monday, 6 April, through to Saturday, 11 April.
Isaac del Toro on the podium after winning the 2025 Tirreno-Adriatico. Sirotti photo
There, the Emirati squad will look to defend the title it has taken in the past two years, through Juan Ayuso and João Almeida, respectively. The six-day stage race will begin in Bilbao, and packs a whole host of climbs and challenges before it comes to an end in Bergara.
The mountainous terrain will be a welcome sight for Del Toro, who won both the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico earlier in the season. Across each WorldTour stage race, the Mexican national champion claimed a stage victory before going on to seal the title.
It takes the 22-year-old into Itzulia Basque Country with a 100% winning record at stage races to date in the 2026 campaign. With that confidence, Del Toro is relishing his return to the Basque Country.
Del Toro: “This will be my third time at La Itzulia, and I’m excited for it. It’s a place with great cycling heritage – the fans are very passionate about cycling, and that makes it special.
“The first part of the season has gone very well, I’m happy with my results and hope that we can build on our strong start to the season this week.”
In the Basque Country, Del Toro will be joined by a collection of some of UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s strongest climbers. All built for this terrain, the seven-man squad comprises Del Toro, Igor Arrieta, Felix Großschartner, Brandon McNulty, Domen Novak, Adrià Pericas, and Marc Soler.
Together, the team will be guided from the car by Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman and Simone Pedrazzini. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad will be determined to add to the team’s strong recent history at this race.
En route to overall victory last season, João Almeida picked off two stage wins, with Tadej Pogačar also a stage winner here back in 2021.
The 65th edition of Itzulia Basque Country packs in the usual host of challenging climbs, but also the additional excitement of bonus seconds at various parts along the route. In this part of the world, even the individual time trial poses an uphill test for the riders on the opening day.
Stage 1 will see the riders contest a 13.8km ITT, with a 2.4km-long climb coming almost right off the starting ramp. With an average of 7.3%, this is no easy ascent, and if that were not enough to blow the cobwebs off the riders, ramps of up to 20% await in the uphill drag to the finish line. This ITT will immediately set the tone amongst the general classification contenders.
From here to the finish on Saturday, 11 April, the challenges keep coming.
Stage 2 between Iruña and Lekunberri will feature 3,303m of climbing across a 164.9km-long route. The last of four categorised climbs will be the first category one ascent of the race, and it tops out with less than 20km to ride. That 9.5km-long climb averages 7.7%, and precedes an uphill drag to the line in Mendukilo Kobazuloa.
Stage 3 will start and end in Basauri, and may suit the puncheurs of the peloton, before stage 4 offers up a whole host of climbs around the start/finish town of Galdakao.
Uphill from the gun, there are no fewer than seven categorised climbs on stage 4, the last of which is 3.2km at 7.7%. From here to the finish is just 10km, where an uncategorised but steep rise to the line beckons.
With that tough day in the legs, the race organisers have opted to make stage 5 the toughest of the race, where any fatigue will be brutally exposed across the 3,815m of elevation gain. Starting and finishing in Eibar, stage 5 has eight categorised climbs, with each of them spread across the 176.2km-long parcours. Once more, there is no summit finish, but the accumulation of climbing metres will make for an attritional affair.
To end the race, the peloton will head from Antzuola to Bergara on stage 6. It is the shortest road stage of the race, at just 135.3km, but with almost 3,000m of climbing, this is no simple finale for whoever holds the leader’s jersey. Rather, they will have to hold their nerve across six categorised climbs, the last of which stands at 5.2% for 7.2km. From the summit of this Asentzio climb, there is a quick 9km descent to the finish line.
It is here, in Bergara, that the winner of the 2026 Itzulia Basque Country will be crowned.