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Friday, April 24, 2026
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Current racing:
- April 23 - 26: Vuelta Asturias
- April 20 - 24: Tour of the Alps
Upcoming racing:
- April 26: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 26 - May 3: Tour of Turkey
- April 26: Giro dell'Appennino
- April 28 - May 3: Tour de Romandie
- May 1: Eschborn-Frankfurt
Latest completed racing:
- April 22: La Flèche Wallonne
- April 19: Amstel Gold Race
- April 15 - 19: Tour of Hainan
- April 14 - 18: O Gran Camiño
- April 17: De Brabantse Pijl
- April 19:
Tour du Doubsrace cancelled - April 12: Paris-Roubaix
- April 6 - 11: Itzulia Basque Country (Tour of the Basque Country)
- April 7 - 10: Région Pays de la Loire Tour
Here's the news from UAE Team Emirates-XRG:
UAE Team Emirates-XRG announces its lineups for La Doyenne and the Tour de Romandie, with Pogačar looking for a fourth Liège title As he seeks to continue his fantastic season to date, Tadej Pogačar will lead UAE Team Emirates-XRG at both the upcoming Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de Romandie.
It is a pair of challenges that the Slovenian is relishing.
Pogačar: “The Ardennes campaign has been pretty solid for the team so far and I hope we can build on that for Liège. The guys worked really well in the other races and Benoît is flying too at the moment, so I think we are in a good place as a team to take a big result.
“I’m also looking forward to Tour de Romandie. It’s a new race for me, a new challenge, and that’s exciting. It will be my first stage race of the year too, so it’s a nice addition to the calendar. I’ve heard it’s a beautiful region to ride a bike in.”
First up will be Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, where the world champion will look to take his fourth title in six years.
At the 2021 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Pogačar triumphed to claim his very first Monument success. Some five years on, the Slovenian has since brought his Monument tally to 12 at the recent Ronde van Vlaanderen, moving him up to second in the all-time standings.
Tadej Pogacar wins the 2025 Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Sirotti photo
Should Pogačar defend his Liège-Bastogne-Liège title on Sunday afternoon, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader will move to joint-second in the list of all-time winners. Eddy Merckx ended his illustrious career with five wins at the race known as La Doyenne (‘The Old Lady’), whilst both Moreno Argentin and Alejandro Valverde count four wins to their names.
In his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammates, and Sports Directors Andrej Hauptman and Marco Marzano, Pogačar can count on the best possible support in his pursuit of a title defence.
Joining Pogačar in the 112th running of Liège-Bastogne-Liège will be Benoît Cosnefroy, Rune Herregodts, Vegard Stake Laengen, Domen Novak, Pavel Sivakov and the Belgian national champion, Tim Wellens.
Wellens has recently made a strong comeback to racing after a fractured collarbone suffered at the beginning of the spring. Showing his legs at De Brabantse Pijl, Wellens has since raced both the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne, and will be keen to show the Belgian tricolore on the roads of the oldest Monument in cycling.
First raced in 1892, La Doyenne has long been a mainstay of the cycling calendar, and a playground for those at home on the tough climbs of the Ardennes.
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One such rider is Cosnefroy of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, who heads into Liège-Bastogne-Liège fresh from his podium finishes at both De Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race. The Frenchman was part of Pogačar’s winning contingent at the Tour of Flanders, and will surely prove a key lieutenant once more.
The likes of Cosnefroy, Sivakov and Novak should come into their own on the punishing parcours of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with no less than 4,401m of climbing packed into the 259.3km-long route. Starting out in Liège, the only categorised climb on the route before the southernmost point of Bastogne is Côte de Saint-Roch.
Once the race hits Bastogne after 100km, the peloton will swing back north and begin its pilgramage to the post-industrial outskirts of Liège. The length of Liège-Bastogne-Liège is challenging alone, but throw in the series of climbs which litter the last 100km of racing, and it quickly becomes apparent why this race has remained of the utmost difficulty for more than a century.
Eight of the race’s 11 categorised climbs lay in the final 90km, including some of the most iconic climbs of the spring. The Côte de Wanne kicks off the lengthy finale, but the race soon hits the Côte de Stockeu, which was often used by Merckx to put his opponents under pressure year after year in his reign at the top.
From here to the finish, the riders will have to ascend the Côte de Haute-Levée, Col du Rosier (4.4km at 5.9%), Côte de Desnié, La Redoute (1.6km at 9.4%), and the Côte des Forges (1.3km at 7.8%), before the last categorised climb of the route.
La Redoute is where Pogačar has gone solo for UAE Team Emirates-XRG in his last two winning rides, but for the final bump in the road, one must look only to the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. Standing at 11% for 1.3km, this is the last climb of the day and tops out with 13.3km to ride to the finish.
A tricky plateau immediately follows the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, before a quick descent to the line in Liège.
Two days after Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Pogačar will head up UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s ambitions of defending its title at the Tour de Romandie. Won by João Almeida last season, the Swiss stage race has also seen Adam Yates triumph for the Emirati squad in the past.
As he was en route to taking the title in 2023, Yates and his then-teammate Juan Ayuso both claimed stage victories for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine following suit in the last two years. For Pogačar, the ambitions will be equally as high as he makes his Tour de Romandie debut.
Already a consistent winner across the cycling season, the Slovenian has taken victories at four of cycling’s ‘big seven’ week-long stage races. Outside of the Grand Tours, these races are widely considered to be the most prestigious for the stage racers of the peloton, and for Pogačar, only wins at Itzulia Basque Country, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de Romandie remain.
Remarkably, no rider, not even Eddy Merckx, has ever won all seven of these stage races. As such, the Tour de Romandie would take a valuable place in the palmarès of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader.
In his pursuit of the crown, Pogačar can count on the support of teammates Felix Großschartner, Vegard Stake Laengen, Domen Novak, Ivo Oliveira, Pavel Sivakov and Kevin Vermaerke. From the team car, Sports Directors Tomas Gil and Fabrizio Guidi will direct proceedings, alongside their colleague and Swiss native, Simone Pedrazzini.
With a prologue and five road stages, the 79th edition of the Tour de Romandie will take the riders through the French-speaking region of Switzerland and include the usual plethora of climbs. The prologue itself, taking place on Tuesday, 28 April, will stretch for only 3.2km between Villaars and Glâne, before the tough racing truly gets underway on Wednesday.
Stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de Romandie presents an out-and-back route from Martigny, which winds around the Rhône River before hitting the first major climb of the race. The Ovronnaz ascent stands at 9.5% for 9km, with its summit laying just 33km from the finish line.
Despite the last 20km of the stage being completely flat, the difficulty of the climb will surely draw the general classification contenders into their first skirmish of the week.
With over 3,000m of climbing between Rue and Vucherens, stage 2 is relentlessly undulating, before stage 3 delivers a series of circuits around the medieval town of Orbe. The Col Mollendruz is the toughest climb of the day, stretching out for some 17km. The final 8.8km of this ascent average 6.2%, before the last 32km from the summit will all prove downhil to the finish line.
There will be a pair of category two climbs on stage 4, as well as a pair of category one challenges. The last major obstacle of the stage from Broc will be a second ascent of the Jaunpass (8.3km at 8%), before a 16.5km stretch to the line in Charmey. This will be the shortest road stage of the week but still include over 3,000m of climbing.
To end the six-day Tour de Romandie, stage 5 will bring the one and only mountaintop finish on Sunday, 3 May. From Lucens to Leysin, the final stage extends for 178.1km, and packs in 3,475m of elevation gain.
Overlooking both the Rhône Valley and Lake Geneva, the summit finish at Leysin will come at the end of a 15-km long climb. The average gradient of this test is 6%, but the maximum pitches ramp up to 14%, and will certainly prove a fitting way to end the 79th edition of this historic race.
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Here’s the team’s news:
EF Pro Cycling is rolling into Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a fresh burst of speed after excellent team efforts at La Flèche Wallonne.
Alex Baudin and Magdeleine Vallieres closed out their teammates’ work with strong sprints up the Mur de Huy. Alex finished sixth in the men’s race. Mags matched Alex’s result in the women’s event. The way both of our squads rode makes our whole team even more excited for this Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Alex Baudin after stage three of the 2025 Tour de Romandie. Sirotti photo
La Flèche Wallonne is a brutal race of attrition that concludes with an explosive contest up the steep slopes of the Mur de Huy. Roving through the wooded hills of Wallonie, it is the traditional prelude for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, cycling’s oldest Monument, which has been raced through the Ardennes since 1892.
After a massive chase from Stina Kagevi to bring back the break, Axelle Dubau-Prévôt opened the finale of the women’s race with a powerful solo attack up the Mur with one 37.5 -km lap to go. Axelle pushed on by herself and was then joined by one other rider. The pair held out until the second-to-last climb, the Côte de Cherave, where an elite selection of contenders, including Axelle’s teammates, Mags and Noemi Rüegg, caught them. Axelle hung tough over the top and then made a great effort with Noemi to lead Mags into the bottom of the Mur.
“The girls did so, so good today,” Mags said, after hugging her teammates. “Once we got into the circuit, Axelle just put a really hard pace and made the first selection. She just kept attacking and from there the race was on. She attacked the first time up the Mur and then in the peloton Noemi and Alice just kept positioning, so I was always in a good spot, and then in the end Axelle and Noemi did a super crazy lead-out. I gave it all I had. I blew up in the last meters, but the team did so, so good. Upwards and onwards!”
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In the men’s race, Mikkel Honoré, Michael Leonard, Lukas Nerurkar, Jardi van der Lee, James Shaw, and Max Walker did huge turns of work to set up Alex Baudin for the final ascent. Jardi broke away early in the race and hung on until the final lap, so his teammates did not have to chase. Leading the breakaway up the Mur de Huy was a highlight of his young career. The rest of Alex’s teammates guarded him in the pack, keeping him out of the wind and near the front of the peloton. Alex gave his all on the Mur and crossed the finish line in a very solid sixth place.
“It is a nice result,” Alex said. “I really felt good all day. The boys did an amazing job. I am not an easy leader to help in the bunch. Positioning is a bit of my weakness, but they really came to me in the back and brought me to the front, so thanks boys!”
On Sunday, Alex will aim to go even better at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After Ben Healy was ruled out of the Ardennes Classics due to a fractured sacrum, Alex really stepped up with solid rides at the Amstel Gold Race, where he finished 11th, and La Flèche Wallonne. The longer distance and more sustained climbs at Liège-Bastogne-Liège should suit Alex even better.
They suit women’s captain Cédrine Kerbaol too. Cédrine finished fourth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège last year and is raring to go this time around.
“When you've had so much fun and gotten good results, then you want to go back the year after and just smash it even more,” Cédrine said. “We will see what this year will give us. It is going to be fun and when you’re having fun, the best results will come. It’s so hard, but because it's so hard for everyone, it is really fun.”