Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
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Upcoming racing:
- Nov 7 & 8 European Cyclocross Championships
- Nov 15: Flandriencross
- Dec 6: Superpresitge Ruddervoorde
- Dec 19: Scheldecross
- Dec 23: Azencross-Loenhout
- Dec 25: Heusden Zolder Cross
- Dec 26: Gavere Cyclocross
- Dec 27: Namur Cross
- Dec 30: Diegem Cyclocross
- Jan 1: GP Sven Nys
- Jan 16 - 24: Tour Down Under
Latest completed racing:
- Nov 1: Trofee Oudenaarde - Koppenbergcross
- Oct 25: Superpresitge Overijse - Vlamse Druivencross
- 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
The rest of the year's completed races are here.
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Here’s the team’s post:
The route for the upcoming Giro d’Italia has been unveiled. The 110th edition features plenty of high mountains, offering the climbers plenty of opportunities to shine. Marc Reef, Head of Racing at Team Visma | Lease a Bike, is already looking forward to next year’s first Grand Tour with great enthusiasm.
Team Visma | Lease a Bike enjoyed a historic Giro d’Italia this season. With six stage victories and Jonas Vingegaard claiming the overall victory, completing the unique Grand Tour trilogy, the team added another chapter to its history. According to Reef, next year will once again offer plenty of opportunities to build on the team’s successful Giro history.
Jonas Vingegaard won the 2026 Giro d'Italia. Sirotti photo
“It is a beautiful route, offering opportunities for all types of riders,” Reef says in his initial reaction. “To win this Giro d’Italia, you need to have a wide range of qualities. That makes it a really exciting challenge.”
The Giro d’Italia will start on 8 May in Trieste with a hilly opening weekend, before the peloton makes a trip across the border into Slovenia on the second day. The first uphill finish comes in stage five, followed by a mountain time trial of almost twenty kilometers in stage seven. The first week concludes with a mountain stage finishing towards Monte Livata.
The Head of Racing at Team Visma | Lease a Bike sees plenty to look forward to in the opening week. “The opening weekend offers opportunities for several types of riders to make their mark, followed shortly afterwards by the first real mountain stage. However, the mountain time trial is the stage I am particularly looking forward to. It is a discipline we do not get to see very often, but it always provides plenty of excitement.”
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The second week begins with an opportunity for the sprinters, followed by a mountain stage in Tuscany. Attention will then turn primarily to the final weekend, with a key stage on Saturday featuring no fewer than 4,900 meters of climbing. On Sunday, the week concludes with a 37.3-kilometer time trial finishing in Milan. It was there that Jos van Emden, then a rider for the team and now a sports director with the women's team, claimed the time trial victory in 2017.
“The toughest part of the race comes in the final week, with an extremely demanding mountain stage and a long time trial,” Reef continues. “The great thing about this route is the mix of different types of stages. It adds another dimension to the race. I am also really looking forward to the mountain stage in Tuscany, finishing at Zum Zeri. It is always great to tackle climbs that are less familiar to us.”
The queen stage follows immediately after the second rest day, featuring no fewer than 5,700 meters of climbing. The peloton will tackle the famous Mortirolo twice, among other climbs. If the battle for the overall victory is still undecided, a gruelling mountain stage awaits on Saturday, as the Giro d’Italia returns to the Monte Zoncolan. The race will then conclude in Rome, where Vingegaard claimed the overall victory last year.
The final week promises to be the absolute highlight. Reef sees a spectacular but extremely demanding route ahead. “The queen stage featuring the Mortirolo and the Gavia is, of course, a fantastic stage with a great deal of history. To then head to the Monte Zoncolan in the final weekend as well is really special. It makes for a spectacular conclusion to the Giro.”
“The Giro d’Italia always has an element of surprise, and this year the organisers have once again put together a great route. Alongside the well-known climbs, they are once again exploring less familiar terrain. We will study the route carefully before putting together the best possible plan,” Reef concludes.
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Here’s the team’s news:
Tomos Pattinson will be stepping up from EF Education-Aevolo and joining our WorldTour team, EF Education-EasyPost, next season.
The 20-year-old, who grew up in Dudley in the United Kingdom, only joined our development team at the start of the current year, but his progression and future promise made it an easy decision to reward Tomos with his first pro contract.
“Of course, I’m excited. This is a dream, and it’s something that I’ve wanted to do since the start of my U23 career,” Tomos said.
Tomos Pattinson
“I’m looking forward to getting started with EF Education-EasyPost next season. Since I was a kid, I’ve been watching cycling, and being a pro cyclist, being able to call yourself a pro cyclist, is really cool. I like the Cannondale bikes, too. I’ve raced on them when I was a junior, and this was definitely the place that I wanted to be when it came to joining the WorldTour,” he added.
A strong all-rounder, Tomos has had a varied year of racing experience, racing with EF Education-Aevolo in some of the most prestigious U23 races before enjoying several call-ups to the WorldTour team in races like the Tour de la Provence, Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, and the Tour of Austria. During all three of those outings, he displayed several impressive qualities, from his ability to learn to utilizing his natural power on the bike when it came to riding in support of his teammates. He has also enjoyed a string of top-10 results of his own this year, including eighth overall at the Circuit des Ardennes and sixth at the Visit South Aegean GP.
“I’ve had a good season, and I’ve learned a lot from the experiences. I’ve raced a lot with the WorldTour team throughout the year, so I’ve gained a lot from that and become more mature. I’m happy with my results in races like the Ardennes and in Greece at the start of the year. I did a number of stage races this year with the WorldTour riders, so when it came to learning how to race with a radio, or just feeding off what the older riders were telling me, it was great to be part of that environment. I had great legs in Austria when I was called up, too, which obviously made the experience more enjoyable, but I was happy with how I was able to help the team when called up,” Tomos said.
As well as impressing with the WorldTour, Tomos has enjoyed passing on his knowledge and experience to the younger riders on EF Education-Aevolo.
“I feel like I was one of the older riders on the development team, so when I could, I tried to share that knowledge with some of the younger riders coming through when it came to reading the race. At Avenir and Kreiz Breizh Elites, I was able to say that we needed to organize ourselves at different points, and I wasn’t really doing that last year when I was on another team. I’ve enjoyed having that responsibility. I really enjoyed the year on EF Education-Aevolo. We obviously want to race well, but it was a laid-back environment, and I felt relaxed with all the riders and the staff. It was all new to me, but I felt like I was able to settle quickly, and that made a big difference,” he added.
Tomos will link up with his teammates over the winter, when he’ll also sit down with his coach, Jacob Tipper, who also coaches Ben Healy. At that point, Tomos will also have his first discussions over his 2027 race calendar, before he begins the next phase of his exciting career.
“I’m just aiming to improve generally and in as many areas as possible. I’m looking forward to making the right steps in my progression over the winter, and then kick off with the WorldTour team,” he said.
For our head of scouting, Sebastian Langeveld, signing Tomos to the WorldTour is a massive moment for the rider and the team. Langeveld has been keeping tabs on Tomos for years and has seen the young rider take gradual but important steps in that time.
“Tomos is a really interesting rider. We looked at him as a junior, but we didn’t have a development team at that point. He signed for another team, and he stood out at all levels, but from what I’ve seen and what I believe, he’s a rider with enormous talent,” Langeveld said.
“We got in touch again in 2025, and he had a really good meeting. This season, he came back from a small injury, but when he’s going well, he’s a super strong addition for the team. I think we can develop a lot of his skills over the coming years, and he can go long in breaks and be a strong all-rounder who can help the team. We’re really pleased to have him on board for the future. We’ve not seen the best of him yet, so it’s a really exciting move for him and the team,” Langeveld added.