Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
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2025 Tour de France | 2025 Giro d'Italia
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. - Elie Wiesel
Les Woodland's book Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story - All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Upcoming racing:
- January 28 - February 1: Challenge Ciclista Mallorca
- January 29: Surf Coast Classic
- February 1: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race
Latest completed racing:
- January 17 - 25: Tour Down Under
- January 25: Classica Comunitat Valenciana 1969-GP Valencia
- January 1: GP Sven Nys
- December 30: Superprestige Diegem
- December 29: Trofee Loenhout-Azencross
- December 26: World Cup Gavere
- December 23: Superprestige Heusden-Zolder
- 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
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The team sent me this:
Surf Coast Classic - Women - JAN 28
Matt Winston - Team Picnic PostNL coach:
"After a few days of no racing, our Women’s program are back in action at the Surf Coast Classic. Last year’s first edition of the race came down to a sprint and that’s the likely scenario again this time, but we will need to ride well and be sharp as a team for any potential danger. Josie showed good form last week so we will support her as our sprint finisher, and our aim is to be in control of what we can do, and bring her into the final in the best possible way."
Line-up
- Lucie Fityus (AUS)
- Ella Heremans (BEL)
- Juliana Londoño (COL)
- Gaia Masetti (ITA)
- Josie Nelson (GBR)
- Becky Storrie (GBR)
Juliana Londono will be at the Surf Coast Classic.
Surf Coast Classic - Men - JAN 29
Matt Winston- Team Picnic PostNL coach:
"Our Men’s program take on a race that we won last year in a sprint, and we expect it to end in a fast finale once more, but like the race name suggests - we need to be wary of any potential wind and echelons. After some bad luck during the Tour Down Under with crashes, we will aim to bounce back with Casper as our finisher here, and produce a strong team performance to set him up in a good position for the final sprint where we can compete for a good result."
Line-up
- Matt Dinham (AUS)
- Chris Hamilton (AUS)
- Henri-Francois Haquin (FRA)
- James Knox (GBR)
- Niklas Märkl (DEU)
- Oliver Peace (GBR)
- Casper van Uden (NLD)
Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Women - JAN 31
Matt Winston - Team Picnic PostNL coach:
"With the majority of climbing coming in the last third of the race, we often see a hard and aggressive style of racing in the women’s race as the bunch splits to pieces over the short but steep climbs. Once again after her good performance last week, we will support Josie as our finisher here, in an event that she came home in the first main chasing group just behind those battling for the win in last year’s edition."
Line-up:
- Lucie Fityus (AUS)
- Ella Heremans (BEL)
- Juliana Londoño (COL)
- Gaia Masetti (ITA)
- Josie Nelson (GBR)
- Becky Storrie (GBR)
Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - Men - FEB 1
Matt Winston- Team Picnic PostNL coach:
"Some rolling and hilly roads await the team before we get to the traditional finish circuit in Geelong, where we’ll take on four ascents of the steep Challambra climb. Our focus will be to ride smart as a team before the circuits, keeping our climbing block as calm as possible and save as much energy for the finale. From there, the race will open up like always and we will look to play our cards as well as we can, to go for the best result possible.”
Line-up
- Matt Dinham (AUS)
- Chris Hamilton (AUS)
- Henri-Francois Haquin (FRA)
- James Knox (GBR)
- Niklas Märkl (DEU)
- Oliver Peace (GBR)
- Casper van Uden (NLD)
Matt Dinham is scheduled to race the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Sirotti photo
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
It’s been a phenomenal 12 months for Axelle Dubau-Prévôt.
In addition to winning the first edition of France’s gravel national championship, she racked up four more wins, including the general classification at Gravel Burn where she won four of the six stages. And to cap it off, Axelle is joining EF Education-Oatly where she will race a mixed program of gravel and road races.
“This is my dream team,” Axelle said. “They think outside of the box at EF Education-Oatly. It’s the only team where I can see myself because I don’t have a traditional cycling background. I want to be serious and also to keep the joy and the fun in racing.”
Axelle Dubau-Prévôt
Axelle grew up in a cycling family. Both of her parents were avid riders, as were her siblings, so family rides were unavoidable. But Axelle did not immediately fall in love with the sport. It often felt like an obligation. As she grew up, she bounced between cycling and other activities, including dancing and ultra running. Still, she was strong enough on the bike to earn racing contracts, even if she wasn’t sure how much she enjoyed it. It was only when she met her partner that she saw cycling with fresh eyes. Training together, Axelle felt unencumbered, free of pressure for the first time. When an injury threatened to sideline her running career, someone suggested she switch to riding gravel and Axelle fell in love with cycling all over again.
In 2024 and 2025, Axelle raced an increasingly ambitious gravel program as she explored her strengths and improved her weaknesses. Winning Gravel Burn gave her a new level of confidence and she did something out of character: she reached out to EF Education-Oatly general manager Esra Tromp about joining the team in 2026.
“We were looking for a rider who could be competitive in gravel as well as be an asset with our road team so Axelle is a great fit,” Esra said. “On the road, she’s something of an all-rounder and on gravel, she has the endurance for stage races and the speed to go for one-day races. Axelle’s background isn’t that of a typical cyclist and I like that. I think it gives her a healthy perspective on racing and on life knowing that she has chosen to step away from the sport at times. This kind of maturity says a lot about her character.”
Axelle knows what her goals are for both the short-term and long-term.
“This coming season, I want to keep my French gravel national champion’s jersey and I want to race the Traka again,” she said. “And on the road, I want to be a strong teammate so everyone can depend on me.”
Looking ahead a few years, it’s no surprise that the Tour de France Femmes figures prominently in Axelle’s goals.
“When I heard a few years ago that the Tour was coming back, I was out of the cycling world and I felt a bit sad to think that I would never take part in it. I’m French and if someone asks me what I do and I say I’m a cyclist, they immediately ask if I race the Tour de France. It’s the reference. Now after watching the race and seeing that EF Education-Oatly really wants to do something big at the Tour, I would love to make the Tour squad one year,” Axelle said.
The 29-year-old has a degree in dietetics and has worked as a dietician. Apart from cycling, Axelle loves to go on adventures with her partner and their three dogs. They have a van that’s ideal for camping and road trip
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Here’s the team’s post:
New year, new cycling season, new team. In our Get to Know series, you get to know our new riders a bit better. Today, we get to know: Bruno Armirail.
Bruno Armirail is what you would call a late bloomer in the sport of cycling. The new Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider only started cycling at the age of 15. For Armirail, his early teenage years were spent trying out a wide range of sports. Rugby was probably the discipline he enjoyed the most and played the longest, until one day at school he started doing duathlons, a mix of running and cycling. The young Frenchman particularly enjoyed the cycling part, and that’s where it all began.
Bruno Armirail in pink after stage 14 of the 2023 Giro d'Italia. Sirotti photo
“One of my friends took me down to the local club in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, where I really tried cycling for the first time. I fell in love with the sport and quickly stopped playing rugby to continue cycling. Before that, I had no interest in cycling. I didn’t even watch the Tour de France,” Armirail says.
Despite picking up cycling quite late, Armirail gradually began to show more and more signs of his great physical potential. At 19 years of age, he finished second at the French national U23 time trial championships, which he went on to win the following year. His results against the clock were not enough on their own, however, as Armirail had to wait to turn professional until 2018, when he was almost 24 years old.
At that point, he was picked up by Groupama-FDJ, who gave him a platform to continue delivering strong performances on the time trial bike. As Armirail became more accustomed to the speed of the WorldTour, he also developed into a trusted domestique for the French team when one of his captains was racing. He found himself enjoying exactly those two aspects of cycling.
“The team spirit of cycling is very important to me. I love helping my leaders perform at their best and achieve the highest possible result. But I also still have a passion for time trialing. The meticulous pursuit of performance in a discipline where every detail counts is very interesting.”
In 2021, Armirail finally got to race the event he didn’t even watch as a youngster, but had started dreaming of from the moment he got into cycling: the Tour de France. His favorite race on the entire calendar. The atmosphere is unlike anything else, the homegrown rider explains, although the biggest moment of his career so far didn’t come there. “Seeing my friends among all the fans at the Tour de France is amazing, but the best moment of my career came at the Giro d’Italia in 2023, when I took the leader’s jersey and held it for a few days. That is a very fond memory,” Armirail says.
After his memorable Giro in 2023, Armirail continued to impress in 2024 and 2025 with Decathlon AG2R, before making the switch to Team Visma | Lease a Bike this winter. His first real impression of the team came in November and December and fortunately, it was a positive one. “Everyone is relaxed and very friendly. Despite my difficulties with English, everyone approaches me and helps me integrate, trying to support me as much as possible. Learning English is completely new to me, and it isn’t easy to learn from scratch, but it’s going well.”
And while English may still be a work in progress for Armirail, no one doubts his abilities on the bike. Already looking ahead to the season to come, the new Bee is excited to put his skills to use in new colors and for new teammates. “I’m not the best climber, but I can handle many climbs, and even though I don’t win many time trials, I’m quite often well placed. I think I can be a very versatile teammate,” Armirail concludes.
Quick-fire questions with Bruno Armirail
Favorite dish: "Le Gateau a la Broche"
Favorite climb: "Col d'Aspin"
Idol in cycling: "Alberto Contador"
What do people not know about you yet: "My friends and I have a bike shop/café called Chez Octave, where we sell bikes and lunch. We've just opened a new one on the top of Col du Tourmalet."
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