“Le Tour de C***s”: Cyclists accuse Scottish satirist of “spreading hate” with parody Tour de France Edinburgh Grand Départ poster, “making it more dangerous to ride a bike”; Pogačar Paris-Roubaix debut confirmed – is he “wise”? + more on the live blog

It’s happening…

After months of speculation, sent into overdrive last month by his teaser video on the infamous Arenberg cobbles, it has been confirmed this morning that Tadej Pogačar will make his long-awaited debut at Paris-Roubaix.

After his scintillating, but ultimately unsuccessful, long-range attack at Milan-Sanremo on Saturday, the world champion was scheduled to take on Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday, before racing Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, as his final tune-up races before the following week’s Tour of Flanders.

(SWpix/Zac Williams)

However, UAE Team Emirates have said this morning that Pogačar will now skip this week’s Belgian cobbled races to focus on a historic tilt at a Flanders-Roubaix double.

“It was initially planned for Tadej Pogačar to participate in both the E3 Saxo Classic and Gent-Wevelgem,” the team said in a statement.

“However, after discussions with the team, it has been decided that he will adjust his calendar to focus on the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix instead, aiming for peak form in those iconic races.”

> Tadej Pogačar tests himself on the jagged cobbles of the infamous Arenberg Forest during Paris-Roubaix-themed training ride… Is the world champion finally ready to tackle the Hell of the North? 

As the only monument the three-time Tour de France winner is yet to race, speculation surrounding the prospect of Pogačar finally racing Paris-Roubaix – which over the past four decades has been almost completely off-limit for grand tour contenders – has grown steadily in recent years.

Last month, the Slovenian superstar set tongues wagging by posting a video of himself training on the jagged cobbles of the Arenberg Forest, the Hell of the North’s most infamous sector, during a surprise recon with domestique deluxe Tim Wellens.

After his high-speed crash at Strade Bianche a few weeks ago (which didn’t stop him winning, of course), Pogačar’s team boss Mauro Gianetti warned his rider against taking to the start line in Compiègne, arguing that Paris-Roubaix “can be too dangerous” and that a bad crash on the cobbles could “jeopardise” his bid for a fourth Tour de France.

(SWpix/Zac Williams)

However, speaking after Pogačar’s dramatic third-place finish in Sanremo, Gianetti was a little more receptive to the idea of a Hell of the North debut and another showdown with Mathieu van der Poel, as the team admitted (accurately, as it turned out) that a decision would be made in a matter of days.

And speaking to Daniel Benson yesterday, UAE Team Emirates sports director Fabio Baldato confirmed that any change to Pogačar’s schedule to fit in Paris-Roubaix would mean axing at least one of the pre-Flanders races, especially as the world champion is also set to take on a full hilly classics campaign later in the spring.

“At the moment for Flanders, we come to do the Tour of Flanders for sure, E3 no. For news, you need to call my boss. It’s not so much about having a break; it’s about not doing too much because then he does Amstel, Fleche, and Liege,” Baldato told Benson.

When asked about Paris-Roubaix, the Italian continued: “For me, he can do it. But maybe it’s too much after Amstel, Fleche and Liege. Everyone has a different opinion. It’s also on Tadej, the last call comes from him.”

(SWpix/Zac Williams)

And that has certainly proved the case this morning, with the news that Pogačar will finally take on arguably cycling’s most brutal, uncompromising race, in what could the third instalment of a sparking spring trilogy with Sanremo victor Mathieu van der Poel.

If – and it’s a big if – he manages to cross the line first in Roubaix’s famous old velodrome, he’ll become the first Tour de France winner to triumph at the Hell of the North since Bernard Hinault in 1981.

What’s more, with E3 and Gent-Wevelgem now crossed off his schedule, the world champion will line up in Bruges for the start of the Tour of Flanders on 6 April – and what could prove a career and era-defining week – having raced his last cobbled classic… at the 2023 Tour of Flanders (which he won, of course).

But if there’s anyone who can pull off the unthinkable, it’s Tadej Pogačar. This classics season could be one for the ages.

It’s the style of a new generation, apparently…

> New 3D-printed cycling helmet could be ‘safer, lighter, and more comfortable’, but researchers admit design still needs more comprehensive testing

UAE Team Emirates’ almost perfect start to 2025 continued this afternoon, coming out on top in two very different photo finishes to take the squad’s tally of wins for the season to a staggering 21.

As the Volta a Catalunya entered the mountains with an uphill sprint finish at La Molina, on-fire Juan Ayuso usurped the master of the uphill sprint finish, Primož Roglič, the Spaniard forcing his way past the Red Bull-Bora rider to take the win and the race lead, after a late attack by Sepp Kuss, Marc Soler, and Lorenzo Fortunato was snuffed out.

 

 

 

 

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Meanwhile, up in Belgium, a horrendous, crash-fest finale at the Classic Brugge-De Panne saw a number of big names, including Tim Merlier and Arnaud De Lie, hit the deck, leaving just a small group to contest the finish.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by TNT Sports Cycling (@tntsportscycling)

And it was UAE’s Juan Sebastian Molano who took advantage of all the chaos, launching his sprint early with over 3500m to go and holding off the fast-finishing Jonathan Milan by a whisker to take his first win of the season.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by TNT Sports Cycling (@tntsportscycling)

Oh, it’s tight!

I wonder how many times Mathieu van der Poel has voted?

Let’s face it, it’s a Pogi kind of day today on the live blog…

> Has Tadej Pogačar been spotted riding Colnago’s new V5Rs?

Forget the bike, it’s Tadej’s long flowing locks in the pic on the left I’m more concerned about… Oh, wait.

Also, based on the photo on the right, I might start a petition for cycling to introduce more mascots – each team could have one, handing out bottles and roaring on their riders while dressed as a giant fake Land Rover or a massive anthropomorphic fruit.

Anyone got One Cycling’s number? I have something I want to pitch to them…

Over the past few years, as I’m sure you all know by now, the British domestic cycling scene has been hit hard by a series of economic, logistical, and safety pressures, leading to the demise of a number of historic races and teams.

So you know luck isn’t on your side when you’re forced to cancel a race because a tree fell across the course, blocking the road. On Sunday, that was the cruel fate that struck the Wally Gimber Trophy, the historic Dulwich Paragon CC-organised National B race that’s been won in the past by the likes of Bradley Wiggins and Tony Gibb.

A few hours before the race was due to start at 11am, as the 80 riders and 50 volunteers descended on Surrey, the organisers discovered that a set of emergency traffic lights had appeared on the course and that a large tree had fallen, pulling down a phone line and closing the road.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Dulwich Paragon CC (@dulwich_paragon_cc)

While the traffic lights were swiftly removed, the organisers were forced to postpone the race by two hours as they waited for a contractor to arrive to remove the tree. But with no sign of the tree surgeons by 11am, the organisers, after speaking to the local council, finally decided to pull the plug, a decision they say will cost them around £1,000.

“While the tree was scheduled for emergency clearance, work had still not commenced after a two-hour postponement of the event’s timetable, and – given the uncertainty – there was no option but to cancel,” Dulwich Paragon said on Instagram.

“We were bitterly disappointed to cancel,” added race organiser Patrick Hawkins.

“Approximately 50 volunteers had given up their Sundays, not to mention the 80 or so riders who’d come from all over the country, in some cases at great expense. It’s a terrible shame but we’ll be back next year.”

A Belgian mountain biker has died after suffering heat stroke during last week’s Cape Epic, the race’s organisers confirmed on Monday night.

Ronny Raeymakers, a joiner from Essen, in the north of Belgium, was taking part in his third edition of the week-long South African mountain bike stage race alongside teammate Ben Elst in the over-50s Masters category when he fell ill during stage three last Wednesday, one of the hottest riding days in the event’s history.

With temperatures nudging 50 degrees during stage three, a loop around Paarl’s iconic granite rock mountain, forcing the organisers to first shorten and then cancel the stage, 51-year-old Raeymakers pressed the emergency button on his bike and was taken to hospital by helicopter.

He was treated in hospital for five days, but died due to complications caused by heat stroke on Monday morning, leaving behind a wife and two stepdaughters.

“This morning, we learned the devastating news of the passing of a member of our MTB community,” the Cape Epic organisers said in a statement.

"During stage three of the race, the rider’s SOS button was initiated, and the emergency medical team was deployed to initiate medical care, extract the rider from the course, and transport them to the hospital.

“Despite best medical efforts over the last few days, the rider’s condition worsened. We share our greatest sympathies with the family and friends of the rider. We thank our onsite medical personnel who provided the rider with medical support before they were transported to hospital care.”

And now for something completely different…

On Sunday, families cycled through central London en masse to protest that children, cyclists, and pedestrians are being “crowded out of space on our streets by supervised SUVs”.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by IBikeLondon (@ibikelondon)

The ride, organised by grassroots groups such as IBikeLondon, Streets for Kids, and Solve the School Run, which all form part of the Kidical Mass movement, aimed to highlight recent research showing the average weight of SUVs has increased by 400kg over the last seven years, in turn increasing the risks for pedestrians and cyclists.

According to a recent study conducted by the Belgian Road Safety Institute, which analysed 300,000 car passengers and vulnerable road users across the UK and Europe over four years, when vehicles are 300kg heavier, the risk of fatal injuries is 30 per cent higher for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Vulnerable road users are also 30 per cent more likely to be killed if they’re hit by a car with a bonnet that’s 10cm higher than average. 

As part of Sunday’s ride through London, the groups also called for fairer parking charges and taxes on new cars that reflect their size and the danger they pose.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Solve The School Run (@solveschoolrun)

“Children hit by bigger cars are far less likely to survive. As a parent-led charity, this is terrifying to us,” Solve the School Run’s Nicola Pastrore posted on Instagram this morning.

“As SUVs get bigger, our children’s worlds get smaller. We loved joining in the Kidical Mass London ride, with the Clean Cities Campaign, Mums for Lungs, and hundreds of concerned families to urge local authorities to put an end to car-spreading.”

“We know that SUVs lead to more fatal crashes, cause more potholes, and crowd out parking spaces,” added the UK head of Clean Cities Oliver Lord.

“No one would want to buy a car thinking it would be more dangerous for a child. We’re calling for central and local government to work on a plan that would save taxpayer money and generate revenue that can be invested in public transport, walking and cycling.

“For local councils that can be a system of parking charges where bigger or heavier SUVs pay a fairer share, or a review of vehicle tax to account for the damage that oversized SUVs do. We also need the car industry to step up. It doesn’t suit anyone – least of all car drivers – to have vehicles that are too big to park in our towns and cities.”

 

 

 

 

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Not going to lie, this is cycling Christmas. If Christmas only came along every 40 years and involved a skinny stage racer barging shoulders with big Belgian brutes over the worst roads you’ve ever seen…