Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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Upcoming racing:
Latest completed racing:
- Oct 13 - 18: Tour of Guangxi
- Oct 13 - 18: Tour of Holland
- Oct 18: Chrono des Nations
- Oct 18: Veneto Classic
- Oct 18: Japan Cup road Race
- Oct 14: Giro del Veneto
- Oct 11: Paris-Tours
- Oct 10: Il Lombardia
- Oct 8: Gran Piemonte
- Oct 3 - 7: Elite European Road Championships
- Oct 6: Tre Valli Varesine
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
The London-born Giro winner will join EF Education-EasyPost in 2027. After a difficult journey on the road back from injury, Tao is healthy and excited to get stuck into the work that made him a grand tour champion. He and his teammates are going to light up the WorldTour next season. Tao will fit right in with our squad.
“It started with a very interesting, personal conversation with EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO Jonathan Vaughters – talking one-to-one about the difficulties I’ve had since the injury three years ago, ideas around that, and opportunities for the future,” Tao said. “There are a lot of people on this team I’ve known for a long time, and also quite a few young riders I’ve got to know recently whom I’m excited to work alongside. On a personal level, it’s really about trying to refind the condition I had in my best years – the ceiling of that, the journey towards it, and the end results themselves. It’s an exciting prospect to come into a new environment with new ideas, new perspectives, and different people.”
Tao Geoghegan Hart before the start of 2024 Vuelta a España stage five. Sirotti photo
Jonathan Vaughters thinks Tao’s best years could still be ahead of him.
“Tao is an incredibly gifted rider with the perseverance and stubbornness to come back from a horrific crash injury,” Vaughters said. “While the fruits of his work to come back from injury have not blossomed yet, we are taking the bet that 2027 will be the year that this happens.”
Tao is a born winner and natural captain. He is not one to dwell on the past or bask in his former glories. He is more interested in getting the best out of himself day in and day out and helping the people around him succeed.
“I have a framed ticket stub on my wall – an Eric Cantona one – that says ‘nostalgia is poison,’” he said. “I’m much more interested in looking forward in the moment. A good leader, in sport or beyond, is really aware of individual qualities, promotes those qualities in the people around them, respects them, and equally has empathy and understanding for all our inadequacies – what we each bring and can contribute. It’s about finding a way to make all those individual instruments line up and occasionally play a tune – sometimes it sounds a bit cranky, but you still get the job done and steadily build towards something.”
Tao’s comeback followed a similar score. In 2023, after winning the Tour of the Alps and finishing third at Tirreno-Adriatico, he went down on a wet descent at the Giro d’Italia and fractured his femur. It’s taken years of rehab and grit for Tao to get back to his old self on the bike. Now he is healthy, he is full of optimism for the coming seasons.
“In a split second in bike racing, so much can change,” he said, “but in the end, nothing changes you. You might have different goals for the six to 12 months after a crash like that, a different experience coming back and different challenges, but in the end it’s always, from my experience, the same mentality and approach. It’s an extrapolation of what a lot of riders enjoy day to day: finding the pieces of the puzzle, working out your individual response and physiology and changing needs as an athlete, and maximizing the talent, genetics, and environment you have. One clear motivation for me is to really feel like I’m beyond it – in some ways I do, and in other ways I don’t, which is always an interesting thing to encounter. Three and a half years is a long time, but it also went by very quickly, and you don’t necessarily feel quite back to where you were before. It’s a big experience to undergo as an athlete. You take it as it comes and try to do your best each day.”
If Tao keeps doing that, there are no bounds to what he might achieve. Tao is going into his 13th professional season and looking forward to being a captain on our squad.
“I love being part of a really well-connected collective – being part of a team,” he said. “I grew up playing team sports until I started racing at about 14, and I was lucky it wasn’t long before I was racing as part of teams at national level, at 15 or 16. Having grown up riding on the track especially – the team pursuit, the Madison, proper team events – that’s always been what interested me most in cycling. I was on a really international under-23 team, with guys from all over the world, racing all over the world, and still being in contact with friends from those years is one of the things about sport I really love – that multicultural, multinational, geographical, historical element. The fundamental thing is just loving riding your bike and not feeling like it’s something difficult to do, and then the wider enjoyment is in being part of something bigger than yourself and your own little adventure.”
Going into 2027, Tao is more motivated than ever to get back to where he belongs: the front of the biggest races. He is ready to paint the front of the peloton pink.
“I’m already really looking forward to November and December, and getting under way,” he said. “When I spoke to head sports director Charly Wegelius a few weeks ago, I said one thing I really love about cycling is the feeling of turning up to a race hotel with fire in your belly – knowing you did really great preparation in the weeks or months leading in, with your eyes on the prize, whatever that prize may be. I look forward to chasing that feeling.”
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Here’s the team’s announcement:
Netcompany INEOS is delighted to announce the signing of Spanish rider Javier Romo on a two-year contract from 2027.
The 27-year-old has cemented himself as a strong and versatile performer in the WorldTour. He enjoyed an excellent 2025 season, claiming victory on stage three of the Tour Down Under, where he went on to finish second overall.
Javier Romo said: “I’m really excited to be joining Netcompany INEOS and starting this new chapter in my career. I’m grateful for the trust the team has placed in me, and I’m determined to make the most of this opportunity.
“I’m ready to work hard, give everything I have and play my part in helping the team achieve its goals. I can’t wait to get started.”
Javier Romo descending in stage 12 of the 2025 Vuelta a España. Sirotti photo
Geraint Thomas, Director of Racing, said: “Javier is a really strong rider who’s impressed us ever since he came onto the scene. He’s proven himself at WorldTour level and developed into an experienced all-rounder who can make a real difference across a range of races.
“He brings a lot of quality to the group, gives us more options across the calendar and we’re really looking forward to working with him.”
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Here's the team's post:
Yesterday, October 18, the 2026 professional cycling season came to an end. For XDS Astana Team, the final races of the season were the Veneto Classic in Italy and the Tour of Guangxi in China.
“Without any doubt, we can be proud of the season we have just completed, in which we proved that last year was not a coincidence, but the result of a great deal of hard work, dedication and a detailed strategy. Overall, we managed to almost completely replicate last year’s success, while in a number of areas we made significant steps forward, which I hope will help us maintain this momentum in the future. After several difficult years, we have found our path. It requires commitment and hard work, which ultimately translate into strong results and the development of our project. I would like to thank all the riders and the entire staff of both our teams, both those who continue to work within the project and those who are moving on to new horizons, for this bright and memorable season. And, of course, I would like to express my enormous gratitude to all our sponsors and partners, especially Samruk-Kazyna, the SportQory Sports Support Fund and XDS, whose support continues to drive and develop a project that is one of the leaders in world cycling”, – said Alexandr Vinokurov, General Manager of XDS Astana Team.
Following the 2025 season, when XDS Astana Team became a true sensation, finishing the year fourth in the UCI World Team Ranking and confirming its place in the UCI WorldTour, many were interested to see what the team would be able to achieve in 2026, the start of a new three-year WorldTour cycle.
In the end, XDS Astana Team delivered another season at the highest level, cementing its status as one of the strongest teams in the world. The team finished sixth in the UCI World Team Ranking with 16 416 points, almost matching its 2025 result of 16 716 points. In 2026, XDS Astana Team recorded 32 victories, along with 30 second places and 36 third places (in 2025, the figures were almost identical: 32 victories, 33 second places and 40 third places).
Among the most notable victories of the season were three stage wins at the Giro d’Italia, two stage victories at Paris-Nice, and overall victories at the Tour of Oman, Arctic Race of Norway, Tour of Hainan and Tour of Taihu Lake.
Harold Tejada wins stage six of the 2026 Paris-Nice.
Among the other most significant WorldTour results, it is also worth highlighting podium finishes at the Hamburg Cyclassics (2nd place) and Ronde van Brugge (3rd place), fourth place at the Clásica San Sebastián, fourth place in the overall classifications of the Renewi Tour and the UAE Tour, fifth place in the overall classification of the Itzulia Basque Country, and a return to the Grand Tour Top 10, with ninth and 10th places at La Vuelta a España.
Significant progress was also made by the continental XDS Astana Development Team, which finished 2026 in fourth place in the continental team ranking, compared with 20th place at the end of 2025. The team scored 1 511 points, more than doubling its 2025 total of 754 points, and recorded seven victories, 10 second places and seven third places.