Future uncertain for Drone Hopper, riders told to search out new contracts

Transfer Analysis: In part two, Spencer Martin looks at Lidl-Trek, who steps up in the transfer market, as INEOS Grenadiers continues to loose talent. The scrappy overachievers significantly upgrade their roster while INEOS sees five major talents head for the door without any obvious replacements. Tao Geoghegan Hart - From INEOS to Lidl-Trek To…

If there's one squad in the 2023 WorldTour with a focus on youth, it's Team DSM, who employ 22 riders aged 25 or under at the start of the new season. The philosophy of developing their own riders from promising youngsters to stars has served the German team well in the past, with a long list of riders including Marcel Kittel, Tom Dumoulin, John…

A lot has changed in Jay Vine's life since the Tour Down Under was last held in 2020. Back then he was a 24-year-old rookie still pursuing, seemingly against the odds, a pro contract, and missed out on selection by the Australian national squad. This year, he entered the race leading one of the biggest teams in the WorldTour as a top pre-race…

Is it pro road racing season already? It seems like only the other day that we were watching Annemiek van Vleuten take the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, or Remco Evenepoel's joyful World Championships win. Heck, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel are still racing cyclocross. But along with English Premier League and NASCAR, the 10-month…

As the professional cycling transfer window has begun to draw to a close, one rider is notably currently short of a ride for the 2023 season. Mark Cavendish. There has been stacks of reports as to where the joint Tour de France stage win's record holder may find himself next season. He had been heavily linked to the French Proteam B & B Hotels-KTM…

He has already written himself into the history books, but Biniam Girmay has barely finished his first chapter Words Andy McGrath Photography Mike Massaro The beatific smile on the face of Biniam Girmay as he crossed the finish line to win at Wevelgem and Jesi were the moments of the cycling year. So much had precipitated those wins, so many…

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana-Qazaqstan), a member of cycling's elite "grand tour triple crown," and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) bowed out Saturday at Il Lombardia. Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), the last Belgian world champion until Remco Evenepoel and the rider who came closest to the "monument sweep" in the modern era, said au revoir at…

A busy weekend of racing all-but booked Arkéa-Samsic into next year's WorldTour and left Lotto-Soudal doomed to relegation. A slate of top-10s at Paris-Tours and Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen scored the French team a stack more UCI points and winched it further into the WorldTour window as this year's crucial promotion-relegation season comes to a…

Following a year of firsts for the women's peloton, the 2022 Women's WorldTour calendar will close out with another first, the inaugural edition of the Tour de Romandie Féminin. The three-day race, which takes place from October 7 to 9, will be the last big hurrah of this season for most riders and teams with the Chrono des Nations the only other…

Israel-Premier Tech sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo before the Sparkassen Giro The light is fading on the 2022 road season and with the falling of the leaves, the hopes of at least two teams are being stripped bare as Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal appear to be stuck in the relegation zone in the UCI's 2023 WorldTour sporting criteria. We have…

It's fair to say that 2022 has been a year of significant progress as well as a small degree of stagnation for American rider Brandon McNulty. Those two positions might be at odds with each other but in a campaign defined by both expectations and results, it's hard to pinpoint where the UAE rider stands in terms of the team's stage racing pecking…

Italy and Spain, two perennial favorites in any edition of the elite men's road race, will be outsiders in Sunday's race at this year's UCI Road World Championships. Why? Generational change, the inevitable toll of crashes and illness, the rise of other nations, and the UCI's relegation battle all are contributing factors. It's Belgium, the…

The path from WorldTour road racing to gravel is heavily trodden, even cliché. Few riders travel in the other direction. Keegan Swenson, the best gravel racer in the discipline's American homeland, is shoving his way upstream this weekend, making a late debut at the very pinnacle of road racing. The multi-time US National Cross Country champion and…

What's the next step for a Vuelta a España champion? The Tour de France, of course. At least, that's according to Tadej Pogačar. The two-time yellow jersey wants to see Remco Evenepoel toeing the Basque start of the Tour de France next summer after being impressed by the Belgian's barnstormer grand tour victory this month. "I followed almost the…

Tadej Pogačar often finds himself outnumbered in races but the Slovenian loves a fight and likes nothing more than to overturn the odds. It's no surprise he has made the UCI Road World Championships in Australia his major goal for the final part of the 2022 season. Pogačar lost out to the combined strength of Jumbo-Visma at the Tour de France in…

Don't miss a moment from Paris-Roubaix and Unbound Gravel, to the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and everything in between when you join Outside+ . Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) finished her stint in the rainbow jersey in perfect style with a dominant win on the Paseo del Prado in Madrid on the final stage of the Ceratizit…

As we head into September, the end of the season comes sharper into view and with every passing week, the fight for the 2023 WorldTour places becomes increasingly important. This week sees Israel-Premier Tech fall further into peril of relegation, while Lotto Soudal inch closer to safety and things tighten dramatically in the cluster of teams just…

Part 1 of Stranger Things Season 4 was wild, to say the least. This season has taken everything that was so good about the first three and amplified them. It's also way more "adult" than the other seasons, so be sure to watch this season when the kiddos are asleep and avoid eating during it. This is one of the best shows in the world right now, and…

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the second stage of the UAE Tour, another pan flat stage and likely to be another sprint showdown. We're already underway on stage 2 with 40 kilometres of racing done. 2:50 between the breakaway and peloton at the moment. The pace is high - almost 60kph at the back of the peloton - and it looks windy. The…

Don't miss a moment from Paris-Roubaix and Unbound Gravel, to the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and everything in between when you join Outside+ . Could Nairo Quintana return to Movistar at the end of 2022? Never say never. The Colombian superstar is out of contract at the end of this season after what will be three years with…

Don't miss a moment from Paris-Roubaix and Unbound Gravel, to the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and everything in between when you join Outside+ . MORGAN HILL, California (VN) - A decade ago, the Amgen Tour of California provided a rare proving ground for North America's domestic pro cyclists. Underdog riders from smaller UCI…

On Sunday, the best cyclists in the sport will race Liège-Bastogne-Liège, cycling's oldest classic and one of its five Monuments. There are no American favorites to win the hilly Belgian race, but in the years to come, that may change. Last weekend, 21-year-old American Logan Owen soloed to victory in the rain at the under-23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège…

2014 Lampre-Merida report card WorldTour ranking: 14th (same as last year) Win count: 28 (up from 16 last year) Top riders: Costa (4th), Ulissi (42nd), Niemiec (76th) Lampre-Merida team manager Giuseppe Saronni recently gave his team a score of 6.5 out of 10 for the 2014 season, claiming the team had done well but insisting his boys could have done…