Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, September 25, 2026
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When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realize that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives. - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
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Current racing:
- September 20 - 27: World Road Championships
Upcoming racing:
- Sept 27 - Oct 4: Le Tour de Langkawi
Latest completed racing:
- September 16 - 20: Tour de Luxembourg
- September 19: Flandrian 0.0 Classic
- September 18: Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
- September 15 - 18: Giro d'Abruzzo
- September 16: GP de Wallonie
- August 22 - Sept 13: Vuelta a España
- September 13: GP de Montréal
- September 13: GP de Fourmies
- September 13: Trofeo Matteotti
- September 12: Memorial Marco Pantani
- September 11: GP de Québec
- September 10: Coppa Sabatini
Here’s the team's update:
The Road World Championships in Canada are just around the corner. Several Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders will represent their countries across the different World Championship events. Below is an overview of who will be racing and when.
Wout van Aert racing in the 2022 World Championship Road Race. Sirotti photo
U23 women (September 24)
- Marion Bunel (France)
- Viktória Chladoňová (Slovakia)
- Rosita Reijnhout (The Netherlands)
- Imogen Wolff (Great Britain)
U23 men (September 25)
- Ashlin Barry (USA)
- Matisse van Kerckhove (Belgium)
- Patryk Goszczurny (Poland)
- Jonas Høydahl (Norway)
- Elliot Rowe (Great Britain)
- Will Smith (Great Britain)
- Sven Mernik (Slovenia)
Elite women (September 26)
- Sarah van Dam (Canada)
- Femke de Vries (The Netherlands)
- Lieke Nooijen (The Netherlands)
- Katharina Sadnik (Austria)
Elite men (September 27)
- Bruno Armirail (France)
- Wout van Aert (Belgium)
- Bart Lemmen (The Netherlands)
- Menno Huising (The Netherlands)
- Davide Piganzoli (Italy)
- Matteo Jorgenson (USA)
- Jørgen Nordhagen (Norway)
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Here’s the team’s update:
Laengen, Grossschartner, Johansen, Oliveira brothers and Novak commit their futures to the Emirati squad
UAE Team Emirates-XRG is pleased to announce a raft of rider contract renewals, with six members of the squad extending their journey with the team for the coming seasons.
Vegard Stake Laengen will continue through to the end of 2027, Felix Grossschartner and Julius Johansen have signed until 2028, while Ivo Oliveira, Rui Oliveira and Domen Novak have all committed their futures to the team through to the end of 2029.
The renewals underline the team’s commitment to maintaining a strong and trusted core within the squad, combining experience and leadership with riders who continue to develop.
Few riders have been part of the UAE Team Emirates project for as long as Vegard Stake Laengen. The Norwegian has been with the team since its foundation in 2017 and has become one of the most trusted and respected figures within the group. A hugely experienced road captain, Laengen has played his part in some of the biggest victories in the team’s history, with his work often coming away from the spotlight. His extension through 2027 will take his association with the team beyond a decad
Felix Grossschartner has established himself as a key member of the team since arriving in 2023. The Austrian’s climbing ability, strength against the clock and consistency have made him a valuable presence across Grand Tours and stage races, where he has regularly played an important supporting role for the team’s leaders. At the same time, he has continued to deliver individually, including adding another Austrian national time trial title in 2026. His new deal will see him remain with the squad through 2028.
Felix Grossschartner wins stage one of the 2025 Tour of Austria. Sirotti photo
For Julius Johansen, the extension comes after a period of steady progression since joining UAE Team Emirates-XRG in 2025. The powerful Dane quickly found his place within the team as a dependable all-rounder, but his 2026 season has also seen him take a major step forward individually. Johansen has translated his strength against the clock into a string of victories, while continuing to provide valuable horsepower for his teammates across a wide range of races. His new contract runs until the end of 2028.
Portuguese twins Ivo and Rui Oliveira have grown alongside the team since joining in 2019. Both have developed into versatile and selfless members of the squad, bringing speed, strength and their track-honed racing instincts to everything from the Classics and sprint lead-outs to stage races.
Ivo has increasingly combined his work for the team with opportunities of his own, developing into a proven winner on the road particularly in the short TT and prologue disciplines. While Rui celebrated a particularly special milestone in 2026 with his first professional road victory at the Volta a Portugal. The brothers will remain in UAE Team Emirates-XRG colours through 2029.
Domen Novak has also left his mark in the team since joining in 2023. The Slovenian climber has consistently demonstrated his strength in the mountains and his willingness to work for the team, becoming a dependable presence in some of the toughest stage races on the calendar. A former Slovenian national champion, Novak’s experience and climbing pedigree have made him an important asset in the team’s Grand Tour and stage-racing groups, and his extension will keep him with UAE Team Emirates-XRG until 2029.
Together, the six renewals represent an important element of the team’s planning for the seasons ahead.
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Here’s the team’s news:
Lidl-Trek is delighted to announce the signing of Ally Wollaston, with the current New Zealand national champion set to join the team from the 2027 season on a contract through the end of 2029.
One of the most versatile riders in the women’s peloton, Wollaston brings an impressive combination of speed, endurance and tactical ability to Lidl-Trek. The 25-year-old has established herself as a major force on both the road and track, with a palmarès that include Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games medals, alongside victories at the highest level of road racing.
Her biggest successes include overall wins at the Tour of Britain and Festival Elsy Jacobs, as well as back-to-back Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race titles. In 2024, she became a double world champion on the track and won both silver and bronze medals at the Paris Olympic Games.
Ally Wollaston wins stage two of the 2026 Tour Down Under. Sirotti photo
Wollaston has continued to develop into one of the peloton’s most consistent all-rounders, capable of competing for victories in sprints, one-day races and fast, technical finales, while also playing an important role in support of her teammates. Now, she will take the next step in her career with Lidl-Trek, joining a team with ambitions across every type of race and a strong track record of developing riders into leaders.
“This is a really exciting new chapter in my career, and I can’t wait to join Lidl-Trek for the next three years. I’m looking forward to learning from such experienced riders and staff as I continue to develop on the road.
“I think change is really important and I'm really looking forward to discovering new ways of doing things, learning from other people, and challenging myself in being in a new environment. There is an amazing framework of support and expertise within the team that I am really excited about. I think this environment can really help me in reaching my potential, and I am really looking forward to seeing where that can take me.
“It’s also clear that Lidl-Trek is a team that is genuinely investing in and empowering women, and that really excites me. There’s a strong sense of ambition around the women’s programme, and being a part of a team that’s pushing the sport forward is something I’m really looking forward to growing with and contributing to.
“Lidl-Trek has been home to so many experienced and incredible cyclists that I have looked up to for years, and being a part of that over the next 3 years is really exciting. There are a lot of familiar faces in the team and even another fellow Kiwi which is always an added bonus. Most importantly from the outside you can see this team simply loves bike racing, and have fun on and off the bike.” – Ally Wollston
For Lidl-Trek, Wollaston’s arrival adds another dimension to an already versatile roster, with her ability to deliver results herself while also contributing to the Team’s collective objectives.
“Ally is one of the riders we were particularly excited about bringing into our program,” Women’s Team Manager Frank Schleck commented.
“Her combination of speed, power and race instinct makes her extremely interesting. She has the ability to win from a sprint, but she is much more than a pure sprinter. That versatility gives us additional tactical possibilities and makes her a rider who can be dangerous in many different race situations. She is still young, but she already knows how to win at the highest level. Our ambition is to give Ally the structure and support to succeed.”
With a contract running through 2029, Wollaston will have the opportunity to build for the long term with Lidl-Trek and pursue ambitious goals across both the Classics and stage-racing calendar.
“Lidl-Trek has a very strong sprint and Classics team that I am really hoping to contribute to over the next three years,” she said.
“There is so much that I can learn in this space, and confidence I can gain from having the support around me. I’m really looking forward to being a part of this team’s success over the coming years, and taking opportunities as they come along the way.”
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This is from Healy’s EF Education-EasyPost web site:
Ben Healy took off deep in the finale of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, launching one of his trademark solo attacks around the brutal circuit of Mount Royal.
Although he was caught on the final ascent of the Côte de Camillien-Houde and ended the race eighth, Ben's Grand Prix performance bodes well for this weekend's world championship road race, which will be held on the same circuit in Montréal. Ben's coach, EF Pro Cycling technical innovation strategist Jacob Tipper, gleaned key insights from Ben's TrainingPeaks data that will inform their approach to the world championships. Ben's file from the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal is an excellent barometer for worlds.
Ben Healy finishes third in the 2025 World Championships. Sirotti photo
“Worlds is normally a durability race, which is why it tends to favor certain riders so well,” Jacob said. “It will be interesting to see what the influence of the increased length with less climbing at worlds is going to be. Ben should be in a better place. He’ll be less affected by jet lag with some more good training in his legs.”
At the Grand Prix, Ben's normalized power was 334 watts over five hours and 13 minutes, with a total of one hour and 10 minutes spent above his functional threshold power over the whole day.
Sunday's world championship road race will be almost 60 kilometers longer — at 273.7 kilometers versus 214.4 kilometers at the Grand Prix — though the worlds course includes less total climbing, since it starts out in Brossard and winds through the countryside of Montérégie for 112 kilometers, before crossing the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge and racing onto the same Montréal circuit used in the Grand Prix Cycliste.
At worlds, the peloton will complete 12 laps up and around Mount Royal, with 3,803 vertical meters of climbing in total. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal packs 4,304 vertical meters into 16 laps. It's a more explosive, punchier effort. The extra distance at the world championships should suit Ben, whose great strength is his endurance – his ability to attack after thousands and thousands of kilojoules of work.
The good news is that Ben set personal durability records at the Grand Prix Cycliste. The race in Montréal was his best and hardest ride since the Tour de France.
After over 5,000 kilojoules of work, Ben attacked, holding 601 watts for a minute. He then did five minutes at 443 watts and 20 minutes at 338 watts. Deep in the race, he could still accelerate at his best, with a 984-watt peak.
Those are the kind of numbers that won Ben his Tour stage and Giro stage and put him on the podium at last year's world championships and at races like Amstel Gold and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
At the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, Ben was racing against most of the top favorites for this year's world championship road race. He came within a few seconds of going over the top of Camillien-Houde with the best of them when the race exploded the last time up, even though he'd been solo for most of a lap going into the climb. He hopes that balance will shift after over an hour more racing at the world championships. Most riders lose their snap as they get deeper and deeper into a race. Their peak numbers after 200 kilometers are very different from their peak numbers after 260 kilometers. When he is at his best, Ben's are much the same.
That's why he is going into worlds full of confidence. TrainingPeaks data don't lie. The Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal proved that Ben is close to his best form. He has spent the time since honing his shape in the Green Mountains of Vermont and can't wait to have another crack in Montréal.