Date
16·09·26
Caught
And
Uncatchable
Mathieu van der Poel's idea of World Championships preparation is to attack a five-day stage race from 11 kilometres out, get hauled back with four to go, and then win the sprint anyway. Stage 1 of the Tour de Luxembourg looped 157 km around the capital's climbs to a finish at the Fëschmaart, and the Dutchman treated it as a dress rehearsal with the volume all the way up: the long raid with Eike Behrens bridging, the catch, Bagioli's late flyer — and a 500-metre counter that nobody held. Gautherat and Van den Berg completed the podium; Van der Poel took the jersey. Montréal has been warned.
Race
Tour de Luxembourg · Stage 1
Winner
Mathieu van der Poel
Stage 0303
From the peloton,
this week
Race ReportCover · Iss. 47
Caught and Uncatchable Anyway: Van der Poel Opens the Tour de Luxembourg
Mathieu van der Poel's idea of World Championships preparation is to attack a five-day stage race from 11 kilometres out, get hauled back with four to go, and then win the sprint anyway. Stage 1 of the Tour de Luxembourg looped 157 km around the capital's climbs to a finish at the Fëschmaart, and the Dutchman treated it as a dress rehearsal with the volume all the way up: the long raid with Eike Behrens bridging, the catch, Bagioli's late flyer — and a 500-metre counter that nobody held. Gautherat and Van den Berg completed the podium; Van der Poel took the jersey. Montréal has been warned.
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Race Report
16·09·26 · Race Report
Twenty Years Old on the Citadelle: Sparfel Stuns Namur
The Grand Prix de Wallonie always ends the same way — everyone together at the foot of the Citadelle de Namur, and three cobbled kilometres to sort the brave from the strong. This year the strong included Tim Wellens, Romain Grégoire and Paul Lapeira, and the winner was none of them: Aubin Sparfel, 20 years old, surged past Grégoire's sprint in the final metres to take the biggest win of his young career for Decathlon CMA CGM. For Grégoire, second on the wall a week after leading out the wrong man in Pescara, the autumn is being cruel with its margins. For French cycling, the production line just shipped another one.
Race Report
14·09·26 · Race Report
The Dress Rehearsal Has a Star: Del Toro Beats Seixas on the Worlds Circuit
Two weeks before the World Championships race the very same roads, the GP de Montréal told everyone what to fear. Sixteen laps of the new 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit — 4,300 metres of Camillien-Houde, Polytechnique and Pagnuelo — came down to a final-lap duel between two of cycling's youngest heavyweights: Paul Seixas attacked, Isaac del Toro bridged, and the pair put thirty seconds into everyone with a Worlds jersey on their minds. Seixas dug again at four to go; Del Toro sat, waited, and won the 800-metre uphill sprint with something close to ease. McNulty was third at half a minute, and Evenepoel — dropped, then heroic in the chase — fifth. See you back here on the 27th.
Race Report
13·09·26 · Race Report
Twelve Years, Ended Under the Alhambra: Mas Wins the Vuelta as Johannessen Takes Granada
No processional this year. The Vuelta's finale threw four ascents of the cobbled climb below the Alhambra at a race that refused to coast, and it produced both endings at once: Tobias Halland Johannessen outkicking Alessandro Romele for the stage after Ramses Debruyne split the front group inside 2 km — and Enric Mas, three times a runner-up, crossing the line as the first Spanish winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014. He inherited red the day Pogačar crashed out and defended it on every summit the race could find. By 2:15 over Roglič, after 21 stages and one very long twelve years: campeón.
Étape 04Race Report13·09·26
Race Report
Norway's First Matteotti: Løland Surprises Them All in Pescara
While one Uno-X rider was winning under the Alhambra, another was making different history in Abruzzo. The 78th Trofeo Matteotti spent its afternoon shredding attack after attack — Cosnefroy's group, Ponomar's solo, Grégoire's late trio — and when everything came back together on Pescara's seafront, it was Sakarias Koller Løland who proved fastest, beating home hope Ludovico Crescioli and Benoît Cosnefroy in the sprint. The second win of the Norwegian's career, both of them on Italian roads, and the first Norwegian name on the Matteotti's 78-edition roll of honour. Somewhere in Oslo, a very good Sunday.
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Étape 05Race Report12·09·26
Race Report
Landismo, One Last Time: Landa Takes the Queen Stage as Mas Seals the Vuelta
The Sierra Nevada queen stage — 5,000 metres of climbing, Hazallanas twice, and the 22% ramps of the Collado del Alguacil — gave this Vuelta the finale its script demanded and one it never saw coming. Mikel Landa, 36 years old, winless all season and bound for Euskaltel next year, dropped his last breakaway companions 7 km from the summit and soloed to the queen stage by 47 seconds. Sepp Kuss raided from long range to vault six places into the top five. And Enric Mas answered every question Roglič and Gall could ask: barring disaster in Granada, Spain has its first Vuelta champion since Contador in 2014.
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Étape 06Race Report12·09·26
Race Report
Twenty, and Out: Izagirre Wins the Memorial Pantani in His Farewell Season
On the roads to Marco Pantani's hometown, the race that carries his name came down to four riders and forty flat kilometres of defiance. Michael Storer, Giulio Pellizzari, Mikkel Honoré and Ion Izagirre went clear over the San Lorenzo in Scanno climb, held a charging peloton at forty seconds, and settled it among themselves on the Cesenatico seafront — where the 37-year-old Izagirre, retiring at the end of this season, opened his sprint at 200 metres and took the 20th and perhaps sweetest win of his career. Pellizzari, three days after winning the Toscana, was second again. Some careers end with a fade. This one is ending with a lap of honour.
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Étape 07Race Report11·09·26
Race Report
Seventy-Five Metres of Patience: Evenepoel Outlasts Ciccone in Québec
After 41 days without racing, Remco Evenepoel returned at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and rode the finale like a man who had spent the layoff studying everyone else's tells. Twenty laps of the redesigned Québec City circuit whittled the field to half; Evenepoel bridged to the decisive group with 40 km to go, countered Alberto Bettiol at 28, dropped Anthon Charmig on the last Côte de la Montagne — and then, with Giulio Ciccone glued to his wheel and refusing a single turn, led out the sprint himself and won it anyway. A masterclass in doing all the work and keeping the win.
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Étape 08Race Report10·09·26
Race Report
Caught at the Last: Dunbar Runs Down Buitrago on Peñas Blancas
The first half of the Vuelta's climactic mountain double-header went to the breakaway, and to the most patient man in it. Santiago Buitrago attacked with two kilometres of Peñas Blancas left and looked gone; Eddie Dunbar, who had animated the escape all day, paced the 19 km climb like a time trial and swept past inside the final kilometre to win by 14 seconds, with his 24-year-old team-mate Thomas Gloag third. Behind, the GC held its breath: Enric Mas covered everything, Roglič sits at 1:37, and the red jersey that fell to Mas the day Pogačar crashed out is one summit from Granada.
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Étape 09Race Report09·09·26
Race Report
The Race of Truth Tells the Truth: Küng Wins in Jerez, Mas Bends but Holds
The Vuelta's second race of truth ran 32 flat kilometres through sherry country from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez, and it told everyone exactly what they suspected. Stefan Küng, beaten to the hot seat all season, took it back at 54.4 km/h — three seconds ahead of 21-year-old Callum Thornley, denied by a whisker in a Grand Tour time trial for the second time this race. Primož Roglič rode an inspired fourth and took 33 seconds out of Enric Mas; Mas rode a limiter's time trial and kept 1:37 of red jersey. Two mountains left. The Vuelta knows its question now — it just doesn't know the answer.
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March 12, 2026
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