Cycling

Ineos Grenadiers confirms that Tom Pidcock, two-time Olympic MTB champion and winner of Amstel Gold Race and Strade Bianche, is leaving the team. The British rider is expected to sign with the second-tier Q36.5 ProTeam for 2025.

Olympic road and TT champion Remco Evenepoel sustained fractures to his rib, right shoulder blade, and right hand in a training accident Tuesday when he collided with the opening door of a Bpost van.

The 2024 Vuelta a España will start in Lisbon, Portugal, on August 17 and finish in Madrid on September 8. The route delivers nine high-altitude finishes, two individual time trials, five mid-mountain stages, eight mountain stages, and six flat or undulating stages.

The 2024 Giro d'Italia Women will start in Brescia on July 7 and finish in L'Aquila on July 14. The route delivers 12,000m of elevation gain, one individual time trial, two flat stages, three medium-mountain stages and two high-mountain stages, with two uphill finishes.

Strava Appoints Google Executive, Michael Martin as CEO New CEO announcement

Strava has appointed Michael Martin, general manager of YouTube Shopping, as its new CEO as of January 2, 2024. While at Nike, Martin's responsibilities included the connected fitness portfolio: Nike Run Club, Nike Training Club, Nike Adapt and the Apple Watch Nike+. press.strava.com/articles/str...

Jumbo-Visma has signed promising 20yr old Cian Uijtdebroeks to a four-year contract. In 2022, he won the Tour de l'Avenir for Belgium. In 2023, riding for BORA-hansgrohe, he finished in the top 10 at Tour de Romandie, Tour de Suisse, and the Vuelta a España, his Grand Tour debut.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) will target the general classification at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, skipping the Tour de France to focus on the Olympic Games. The 2024 Giro route has two time-trial stages and "20% less climbing" than recent editions.

Colombian Nairo Quintana will return to Movistar in 2024. The two-time Grand Tour winner has not raced for a trade team since the 2022 Tour de France, where he delivered a positive sample for prohibited painkiller Tramadol while racing for Arkéa-Samsic. Quintana rode for Movistar from 2012-2019.

The third edition of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins on August 12 in Rotterdam. August 13 delivers two stages; Stage 3 is a 6.3km TT in Rotterdam. Stage 4 covers the roads used at Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Stage 8 features the Col du Glandon and finishes atop Alpe d'Huez.

The 2024 Tour de France begins on June 29 in Florence and ends on July 21 with a 34km time trial between Monaco and Nice. The route tackles the Col du Galibier on stage 4, a 25km time trial in Burgundy on Stage 7, 32km of white roads on Stage 9, and seven mountain stages with four summit finishes.

Kasia Niewiadoma and Torbjørn Røed took victories at Big Sugar Gravel in Bentonville, Arkansas, the final event in the seven-race Life Time Grand Prix. Niewiadoma won by over 9min ahead of Lauren De Crescenzo, while Røed won a five-rider sprint ahead of Brendan Johnston and Alexey Vermeulen.

19yr old British rider Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) won the 45km Chrono des Nations time trial, 13sec ahead of world TT champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step). Swiss rider Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) was third, 1:10 off Tarling's time.

Dutch rider Milan Vader (Jumbo-Vismna) won the 163km queen stage of the Gree-Tour of Guangxi in China, taking the leader's jersey. It was the first professional victory of the 27yr old's career — and an emotional one given his near-fatal crash at the 2022 Itzulia Basque Country tour.

Kazakh champ Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) won the overall at the Tour of Turkey, taking the leader's jersey on Stage 3 atop Babadag and protecting it during the five days that followed. Ben Zwiehoff (BORA-hansgrohe) was 2nd on GC, 26sec down, with Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) 3rd, at 0:51.

American Cam Zink, 37, won Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, Utah, 13 years after his first Rampage victory. Zink was the only rider to drop into the steep "Grandfather drop" and then then stick a 55-foot jump leading into a huge backflip on a 63-foot step down, earning him an untouchable 95 points.

The 2024 Giro d'Italia route has been unveiled, featuring six sprint stages, five mountain stages (with four summit finishes), and two time trials totaling 68km. The race will run May 4-26, starting in Venaria Reale and finishing in Rome, delivering 42,900m in elevation gain over a total of 3,321km.

French rider Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV) overcame a crash and puncture to win the final UCI MTB World Cup XCO race of 2023 in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada, 15sec ahead of Jenny Rissveds. Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished third, 1:03 back, cinching the World Cup series title ahead of Lecomte.

World champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos) took the final UCI MTB XCO World Cup race of 2023 in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada, winning 26sec ahead of Mathias Fluckiger (Thömus maxon), who overcame two flat tires. Swiss star Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) clinched the World Cup series title, the ninth of his career.

Austrian Valentina Höll and Canadian Jackson Goldstone took victories at the final UCI MTB Downhill World Cup event of 2023, held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada. Höll, the World Cup series winner, beat German Nina Hoffmann by over 13sec while Goldstone beat men's series champ Loïc Bruni by 5.758sec.

Slovenian Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) soloed to victory at the UCI Gravel World Championship in Veneto, Italy, 42sec ahead of Belgian Florian Vermeersch (Lotto–Dstny) and 3:39 ahead of British rider Connor Swift (Ineos). Alejandro Valverde and Keegan Swenson finished fourth and fifth.

Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) won the UCI Gravel World Championship, going solo for almost 50km to win her first gravel race by 33sec ahead of Italian Silvia Persico (UAE ADQ) and Dutch pro Demi Vollering (SD Worx). It is the first rainbow jersey of Niewiadoma's career.

American Riley Sheehan, a 23yr old stagiaire with Israel-Premier Tech, took a surprise victory at Paris-Tours, out-sprinting his three breakaway companions. British rider Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) and Norwegian Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) rounded out the podium.

Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar (UAE) soloed to victory at Lombardia, 51sec ahead of Andrea Bagioli (Soudal-Quick Step) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma). It was Pogacar's third consecutive win at Lombardia, and he becomes only the third rider to win Ronde van Vlaanderen and Lombardia in the same season.

Toch geen fusie? Huwelijk Soudal-Quick Step en Jumbo-Visma lijkt van de baan: Bakala en Lefevere gaa... Er lijkt een einde gekomen aan de fusiesoap tussen Jumbo-Visma en Soudal-Quick Step. Vanuit Nederland komt overgewaaid dat de fusie niet doorgaat. Patrick Lefevere en geldschieter Zdenek Bakala zouden...

Belgian media outlet Sporza reports that the rumored merger between Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick Step will not happen; team owners Patrick Lefevere and Zdenek Bakala will continue together until 2025. Also: "It is not yet clear what this means for Remco Evenepoel." sporza.be/nl/2023/10/0...

BORA-hansgrohe confirms that Slovenian Primoz Roglic —  four-time Grand Tour winner and 2021 Olympic time-trial champion — will join the team in 2024. It will be Roglic's first change in teams at WorldTour level since he turned professional with LottoNL-Jumbo in 2016.

For the second time in three days, a Soudal Quick-Step rider has won an Italian semi-classic: This time it was Andrea Bagioli winning Gran Piemonte on home soil from a four-man sprint ahead of Marc Hirschi (Team ), with Alex Aranburu (Movistar) in third ahead of Guillaume Martin (Cofidis).

Among the stars of men's cycling competing at this weekend's UCI Gravel World Championship in Treviso, Italy: Wout Van Aert, Alejandro Valverde, Matej Mohorič, Jan Bakelants, Sacha Modolo, Laurens Ten Dam, Nathan Haas, Nicholas Roche, Petr Vakoc, and 2022 Gravel World Champion Gianni Vermeersch.

Among the stars of women's cycling competing at this weekend's UCI Gravel World Championship in Treviso, Italy: European gravel champion Lorena Wiebes, 2022 world gravel champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, UCI Women's WorldTour leader Demi Vollering, and Tour de France podium finisher Kasia Niewiadoma

It's official: Mark Cavendish, 38, will delay his retirement for one more season, remaining with the Astana Qazaqstan managed by Alexandr Vinokurov. Cavendish will be supported by two new signings for Astana — his former lead-out man, Michael Mørkøv, as well as former trainer, Vasilis Anastopoulos.

In his winner's interview, Belgian Ilan Van Wilder spoke against rumored merger of Soudal-Quick Step with Jumbo-Visma: "This victory is for my teammates and our staff, to show we don't agree with all this shit. We want to continue Soudal-Quick Step. We are strong enough. I hope it will be like this"