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Read the French media and you’ll surmise that next week’s Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Critérium du Dauphiné to everyone else in cycling) will be a coronation of Paul Seixas’s greatness. It’ll be the Decathlon CMA CGM rider's second successive WorldTour stage victory off the back of winning three stages and four jerseys at April’s Itzulia Basque Country, confirming his status as one of the big three favourites at next month’s Tour de France. João Almeida and Isaac Del Toro will be merely making up the numbers for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Apparently.⁠⁠But there is one other rider who ought to be attracting attention – the only rider other than Tadej Pogačar this year to have beaten Seixas: Juan Ayuso. In February’s Volta ao Algarve, Ayuso’s first race for Lidl-Trek after his reported €10m winter move from UAE, the Spaniard beat the French wonderkid by 14 seconds. ⁠⁠Since then progression hasn’t been linear. There have been notable victories among his 18 professional wins – 2025’s Tirreno-Adriatico and two stages of the same year’s Vuelta, for instance – but mostly frustrations in Grand Tours, the events he’s ultimately judged by. He abandoned his maiden Tour in 2024 after two weeks with Covid, and had to withdraw from the 2025 Giro d’Italia after a bee sting; two days before had been third overall.⁠⁠But Ayuso will be one of the favourites when one-week stage racing returns at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Beyond that, a bigger target awaits. Read more about Ayuso's Tour de France podium bid via the link in bio 🔗 ⁠⁠✍️ @cmbreports⁠📸 Getty Images by @rouleurmagazine

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Happy #WorldBicycleDay to all! ⁠⁠Become a subscriber to the world's greatest cycling magazine to access exclusive race articles, in-depth interviews, photography and all so much more from the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠📸 Getty / @swpix_cycling / A.S.O by @rouleurmagazine

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On the 4th of July 2023, Antonia Niedermaier came to the conclusion that she would be a professional cyclist. It took what happened that day, on the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia Donne, for her to make this choice.⁠⁠From Salassa to Ceres, the women’s peloton covered a gruelling 105-kilometres with 2500 metres of elevation gain through Italy's Emilia-Romagna region. Annemiek van Vleuten was the favourite to win that day – as she was in virtually every stage race of this era – and no one really knew what Canyon//SRAM’s plucky German climber could do. But Niedermaier was born to race in the mountains.⁠⁠The then 20-year-old made her winning attack on stage five ahead of the final climb, with just over 30 kilometres to go until the finish. Finessing curves and switchbacks through the dappled evening light cast on the tarmac beneath her, Niedermaier put her head down and rode. Behind, they chased furiously, but the Canyon//SRAM rider would stay away. After over an hour solo in her debut Giro d’Italia Donne, she eventually took victory on the biggest stage, beating the best at their own game. Professional cycling had met Antonia Niedermaier – and she decided she wanted to stay.⁠⁠With under-23 world titles and Giro d'Italia Women stage victories, Antonia Niedermaier's career in professional cycling has been a whirlwind success story. The former ski mountaineer tells Rouleur about her unconventional route to the top of the sport, and why her soul will always lie in the German Alps. Read more via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @racheljary⁠📸 Oskar Scarsbrook by @rouleurmagazine

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For the third time in four seasons, despite all their success, particularly at Grand Tours – their latest triumph has come through Jonas Vingegaard at the Giro d’Italia – and in spite of even a historic Paris-Roubaix title at long, long last for Wout van Aert, Visma-Lease a Bike find themselves in the position of having to find a new title sponsor for the following season. ⁠⁠This is the team that has defined this record-breaking era of cycling, second only to UAE Tadej Pogačar’s Team Emirates-XRG in list of achievements, yet still its future is insecure.⁠⁠It's both a damning indictment and inevitable outcome of the fragile business model of cycling and the current financial landscape. Success can't guarantee you longevity, it seems. ⁠⁠Visma bosses are projecting an optimism. Vingegaard even recently reminded everyone that he has a contract with the team until 2028, indicating no sign of internal stress or panic. “The title sponsor search is going really well,” Visma’s chief business officer Jasper Saeijs told Rouleur and The Athletic. ⁠⁠But how can it be that the world’s second best cycling team is without a main sponsor? Read our analysis via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @cmbreports ⁠📸 SWpix.com⁠⁠ by @rouleurmagazine

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Speaking to Rouleur in February, Cat Ferguson couldn’t quite believe the Giro d’Italia Women was part of her race calendar: ⁠⁠“I’m super excited. To say the words ‘the Giro is one of my main goals this season’ – it’s crazy that a race like that is something I can target now.” ⁠⁠The British phenom was ecstatic, and deservedly so, having worked hard in her first season with Movistar to prove herself as a rider to be taken seriously at senior level. That she did in bucketloads. After her first WorldTour podium at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, more results followed, including second at the Tour of Britain and a late season win at Vuelta Ciclista Andalucia. The same year, Ferguson had her first Grand Tour experience at the Vuelta. ⁠⁠With those experiences came learnings abound, and the Giro this year was sure to provide plenty more. Unfortunately for Ferguson, it was to be that sport can be cruel and unforgiving, even for the most talented of riders. She was forced to abandon the race after crashing on the hectic first stage to Ravenna. ⁠⁠It’s a heartbreaking lesson in perseverance for the 20-year-old, and one that is familiar to her older teammates, including the vastly experienced Liane Lippert. As they compared notes on life inside the women’s peloton, Lippert offered her teammate and friend her best advice: ⁠⁠“You are still so young, you have so many races ahead of you. That’s a really cool thing.” ⁠⁠Subscribe to the world's greatest cycling magazine to access the full conversation between Ferguson and Lippert in Issue 143, in the Rouleur app, or online via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @alice.jacksonn⁠📸 Luc Claessen⁠⁠_______________________________⁠⁠Not a member? Subscribe today to receive the new issue first, with memberships from only £4/$5.50 per month.⁠_______________________________⁠⁠⁠ by @rouleurmagazine

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As always, there are winners and losers. The 2026 Giro d'Italia was a tale of domination by Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates, with Soudal-Quick Step, XDS Astana and Bahrain-Victorious also flying home happy.⁠⁠Read our analysis of what went down over the last three weeks via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @cmbreports⁠📸 Getty by @rouleurmagazine

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After finishing fifth on stage two at this year's Giro d’Italia Women, SD Worx-Protime’s Barbara Guarischi seemed low. Less than 24 hours ago, she had led out her teammate Lorena Wiebes to victory in Ravenna – the perfect start to the nine-day race for her team, who were expecting their top sprinter to hold onto the maglia rosa for at least another day. But within just hours of the finish, Wiebes had been disqualified not only from the stage, but from the entire race after it was found that her bike breached the UCI’s minimum weight requirements. ⁠⁠“Today it was hard for us to take the start. We decided that I would sprint today, and honestly this morning I didn’t feel like doing it, I didn’t feel like it’s my role anymore to think about the sprint, I usually think about Lorena behind. [We feel] a bit sad. We’ve been crying a lot,” said Guarischi, her throat catching before the cameras. ⁠⁠The magic of SD Worx’s stage one triumph came to an abrupt and unforeseen end when, approximately three hours after Wiebes’s victory, a statement from RCS sport ruled that “following a breach of article 2.12.007 – 2.2: use of a bicycle not in compliance with the regulations, specifically failing to meet the minimum weight requirements.” Wiebes’s bike weighed in at 6.78kg after the first stage – 0.02kg under the requirement of 6.8kg.⁠⁠Lidl-Trek’s Elisa Balsamo received the maglia rosa immediately after Wiebes was pulled from the race. The Italian expressed sportswomanly condolences at her rival’s misfortune that lay behind the automatic transfer of the GC lead, but was clearly determined to prove herself worthy of pink: she prevailed in the sprint of day two in Caorle to retain pink. ⁠⁠ It's not the start that SD Worx - nor anyone - were expecting. What does Wiebes's disqualification mean for the rest of the race? Read our analysis of the weekend via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @alice.jacksonn⁠📸 Getty images (1,3), @thomas_maheux /SWpix.com (2) by @rouleurmagazine

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Part one of the mission is complete. Now the countdown truly begins to the part two of the mission. In truth, only illness or injury was ever going to get in the way of Jonas Vingegaard winning the 2026 Giro d’Italia. His qualities, even when operating at a presumed 90 or 95% of his capacity, have been far, far superior to the rest of the Giro’s peloton – like we knew they would be.⁠⁠The Tour de France, where Vingegaard can become the ninth man in history to complete the Giro-Tour double in the same year, will be a far, far tougher challenge. Tadej Pogačar, his eternal rival and the last man to complete the Giro-Tour mission, allied to the unknown prospect of Paul Seixas, represents an entirely different proposition to facing and convincingly defeating the likes of Felix Gall and Jai Hindley.⁠⁠On stage 20 of this year’s Giro, the final day in the Dolomites and in essence the final day of racing, Vingegaard took his tally to stage victories to five. Total domination. Head and shoulders above everyone else. Had he had not been the ultimate gentleman and permitted Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Sepp Kuss to win stage 19’s queen stage, it would have been six. The number of stages Pogačar walked away with in 2024.⁠⁠Vingegaard hasn’t matched his adversary on that count, but he is about to do something that Pogačar has not (yet): win all three Grand Tours. ⁠⁠History beckons for Jonas Vingegaard. Read more via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @cmbreports⁠📸 @z_w_photography by @rouleurmagazine

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Before the Giro d’Italia had even reached Italy, Bahrain-Victorious had already lost their most important card. Santiago Buitrago, their GC leader, went down in a crash in Bulgaria on stage two. The race hadn't started in earnest and the team's ambitions, it seemed, had already ended.⁠⁠What followed over the next three weeks was one of the more remarkable team performances of this year's race.⁠⁠Read how the young and the old defined the Bahrain-Victorious's defiant Corsa Rosa, via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @tristanreesjournalist⁠📸 @dariobelingheri (1) & @tdwsport (2) / Getty Images by @rouleurmagazine

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Let’s be honest, it would have been a travesty and deeply unjust had Sepp Kuss ended his career without completing the Grand Tour trilogy. America’s best climber for a generation, the hardest working and selfless domestique around, and probably the nicest man in the peloton, everyone wants Seppy on their team - and everyone wants to see a Kuss win from time to time.⁠⁠Justice is served: ultimate servant Sepp Kuss completes the Grand Tour trilogy - read more via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @cmbreports⁠📸 @z_w_photography / @swpix_cycling by @rouleurmagazine

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The Giro d’Italia Women is the longest-running stage race in women’s professional cycling, and returns in all its magenta-hued glory on Saturday for what promises to be a scintillating 37th edition. First held in 1988, the women’s Giro – in all its various forms – is a race steeped in cycling history, and while it has had to endure periods of instability over the years, its prestige as a true test of the best on the demanding roads of Italy remains a constant.⁠⁠There are a number of factors that makes this year’s race a particularly momentous occasion: a shiny new date lifts it from the shadows of the men’s Tour de France; an additional ninth stage puts it back on par with the Tour de Femmes avec Zwift; and the iconic Colle delle Finestre is making its debut as a decisive route feature.⁠⁠Nine days of epic battle across the Italian alps, as the cream of the crop vie for the maglia rosa. What more could you want? Andiamo!⁠⁠Read all about the 2026 Giro d'Italia Women, including route details and maglia rosa contender analysis, via the link in bio 🔗⁠⁠✍️ @alice.jacksonn ⁠📸 SWpix.com by @rouleurmagazine

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