“It’s my town too, and I want a cycle lane”: Campaigner calls for “de-normalisation of cars” and slams anti-cycling opposition over “a handful of parking spaces” – but ex-racing cyclist says “I never liked bike lanes”; Froome 2026? + more on the live blog

There must be something in the water at the Exact Cross.

Almost four months after Eli Iserbyt was disqualified at the series’ opening event in Beringen, way back in October, for angrily stamping on Ryan Kamp’s rear mech after a coming together on a corner, tempers flared once again at today’s race in Maldegem, and led to both Jinse Peeters and Manon Bakker being chucked out mid-race.

On the fourth lap of the Belgian race, won by Luxembourg champion Marie Schreiber, Peeters and Bakker were challenging for a place in the top ten when they appeared to get tangled up while battling to enter a corner.

In the footage, Dutch rider Bakker can be seen shoving Peeters – seemingly to break free from the entanglement and move her out of the way – causing the Belgian to lash out and slap her rival around the back of the head, a reaction 10-time British champion Helen Wyman tactfully described in commentary as “not necessary”.

 

 

 

 

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Ultimately, both riders were disqualified by the race jury for the unsavoury incident, though it’s fair to say neither of them looked overly pleased crossing the line after being informed of the decision, with Peeters visibly showing her frustration in the direction of the officials.

And while the exact (excuse the pun) cause of the incident is still unclear, one viewer – commenting, rather pointedly, under Eurosport’s Instagram clip of the incident – reckons they know what prompted the spot of mid-race argy-bargy.

“What’s happening is that they’re disputing about Eurosport going to TNT Sports in the UK and hiking the price up, because everyone else has so why shouldn’t we,” wrote Christian.

Classic.

Norfolk County Council has been accused by cycling campaigners of “knowingly proposing to build something which is not safe”, after work started this week on a new cycle and walking route on the edge of Norwich – which will force cyclists to dismount to cross a “dangerous” narrow bridge next to the busy A47.

The scheme was first proposed almost a decade ago, after Persimmon Homes and Taylor Wimpey agreed to fund the active travel project in exchange for planning permission to build new homes in Easton.

But Norwich Cycling Campaign says the scheme – originally intended to provide an alternative to driving for people living in the new homes, as well as Easton College students and visitors to the Norfolk Showground – is not safe, as it requires cyclists to walk for 200 metres along a two-metre-wide footpath over the A47 bridge.

“What’s being built fails to comply with the current design standards for building cycling infrastructure, is dangerously deficient, and fails to provide a convenient and attractive route,” Peter Silburn, chairman of Norwich Cycling Campaign, said this week.

“There are issues like the 200-metre-long section where cyclists are expected to get off and push, the slip road crossings being only pedestrian crossings, rather than toucan crossings for both pedestrians and cyclists, and the lack of a safety barrier on the bridge to prevent lorries mounting the pavement or pedestrians and cyclists falling into the road.”

Focusing on the narrow footpath in particular, the campaign said: “As no-one will want to walk or cycle close to the passing traffic this means only about 1.5m of usable pavement will be available. Because of this narrow width, it will be difficult for two pedestrians to pass without one having to walk close to the traffic.

“It will be even more difficult for two people pushing bicycles to pass. There is a serious risk that people will step into the road in order to get past each other, or may perhaps fall or slip into the road.”

> “What is being built is not fit for purpose”: NHS workers join cyclists in slamming “last-minute changes” to roadworks plan which severs popular cycling route at busy roundabout, instead adding more lanes to encourage “more and faster” motor traffic

After corresponding with the local authority, the campaign also noted that the council acknowledged that, despite plans to install signs advising people on bikes to get off and push, “at least some cyclists will not dismount, and it is not reasonable to expect they will”.

“In accepting that some people will cycle across the bridge – which is clearly going to happen – Norfolk County Council is knowingly proposing to build something which is not safe,” the group said.

Meanwhile, spokesperson for Norfolk County Council said it was “unfortunate” a cycle lane could not be built over the bridge and even admitted that design standards had changed since 2016, rendering the plans hopelessly out of date, but that the local authority could only require the scheme to be built in accordance with planning permission granted at that time.

“The width across the existing bridge physically constrains the highway space available to the scheme, and, in the absence of the substantial funding required to replace the bridge with a wider deck, those wanting to cycle across the bridge are asked to dismount for this short section,” the spokesperson said.

“We acknowledge current guidance would be for those walking and cycling to have sufficient space to cross the bridge together, but this simply isn’t possible within the space constraints and availability of funding and was not a requirement of planning permission.”

Road racing! Narrow roads! Brutal uphill sprints! We’re back, baby.

While the Mallorcan warm-ups, Aussie scorchers, and Middle East sportswashing exercises all have their merits, certainly, for many fans this week marks the start of the ‘real’ cycling season (until, of course, the other ‘real’ start of the season at Opening Weekend).

And for Soudal-Quick Step’s hotshot young sprinter Paul Magnier has started with a bang, as the 20-year-old Frenchman demonstrated his staying power, speed, and timing to win the opening stage of the Étoile de Bessèges, on its traditional brutal uphill sprint finish in Bellegarde.

At the end of 159km during which the wind threatened but ultimately failed to wreak havoc on the bunch along the narrow country roads of southern France’s Gard region, a chaotic final kilometre saw Lotto’s Lionel Taminiaux put in a blistering lead-out for Arnaud De Lie.

 

 

 

 

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But as the gradient eased towards the line, Belgian champion De Lie’s legs exploded just as Red Bull-Bora’s Jordi Meeus hit the front. But the German’s effort only served to tee things up perfectly for Magnier, who came around him in the final few metres to make it one from one for 2025, and secure the sixth victory of his fledgling pro career.

Magnier, who dominated the sprints at last year’s Tour of Britain, winning three stages, has been talking in the French press this week about improving his punch on the climbs, and possibly targeting Milan-Sanremo.

Judging by today’s evidence, you’d be a fool to write the kid off.

Paris may only seem like yesterday, but the countdown to LA ’28 has already begun – at least in the track cycling world – as Wednesday marks the start of the 2025 European track championships in Zolder, Belgium.

And with Great Britain looking to give their up-and-coming academy prospects some healthy international experience three years out from the next Olympics, one rider to keep an eye out for is 2021 Olympic omnium champion Matt Walls, who will be making his long-awaited comeback to the boards, two-and-a-half years on from his horrific crash into the crowd at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Walls, one of just three former Olympians in GB’s Euros squad, suffered serious concussion when he was catapulted over the barriers and into the spectators during qualifying for the Commonwealth Games scratch race in the Lee Valley velodrome in July 2022, an incident which sparked calls to increase safety measures at velodromes and led to the installation of taller Perspex barriers around the London track.

(Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)

Since the crash, which curtailed his 2022 season, Walls – a three-time European champion on the track, as well a gold and silver medal winner in Tokyo in the omnium and madison, respectively – has focused on life on the road.

The 26-year-old has started the 2025 season, his second with Groupama-FDJ since moving from Bora, positively, taking third in the sprint on stage one of the Tour Down Under.

Walls will be joined in GB’s men’s endurance squad for the championships by former scratch race world champion Will Tidball, Rhys Britton, Josh Charlton, Michael Gill, Noah Hobbs, his new madison partner Will Perrett.

Olympic silver medallist Neah Evans and Anna Morris, a bronze medallist from Paris, will lead the women’s endurance squad, alongside Sophie Lewis, Maddie Leech, and Grace Lister.

On the sprinting side, 2023 European team sprint silver medallist Lauren Bell will race with debutants and under-23 team sprint European champions Rhian Edmunds, Iona Moir, and Rhianna Parris-Smith.

Up-and-coming sprinter Harry Ledingham-Horn will also be leading teammates Lyall Craig, Hayden Norris, and Harry Radford in their maiden European championship appearance.

> Velodrome owners promise to “explore” ways to improve rider and fan safety after “unsettling” crash which saw Olympic champion Katy Marchant catapult over new barriers and into crowd

 “Having had some fantastic results on the track at last summer’s Olympic Games, it will be exciting to see our Olympians back in track competition competing for European titles,” GB’s performance director Stephen Park said.

“This event is also a fantastic chance for some of our up-and-coming riders, who have been inspired by the Games to make themselves known as ones to watch for LA. 

“As a team LA 2028 is already firmly front of mind, and this competition gives us an exciting opportunity to try out some new line ups and new strategies and see how we stack up against the rest of Europe.”

> School headteacher backs “very exciting” cycle lane to keep children safe... but councillors claim “barking mad” scheme will “shrink” space for cars

Ah, Arenberg Forest chicane, we hardly knew ye.

After just one edition of Paris-Roubaix, the controversial ‘F1-style’ entrance to the Hell of the North’s most famous stretch of jagged cobbles – which sparked plenty of pre-race discussion but ended up relatively uneventful – is no more, to be replaced by a “small detour” around Arenberg’s mining site, the classic’s organisers confirmed this morning.

Last year, ASO decided, at the last minute, to introduce a series of sharp bends just before the start of the Trouée d’Arenberg, forming a motor racing-style “chicane”, after the CPA pro riders’ union urged the organisers to introduce to slow down the riders, and therefore increase their safety, as they approached the infamous sector.

> “Is this a joke?” Mathieu van der Poel slams Paris-Roubaix organiser’s decision to add hairpin ‘chicane’ at Arenberg Forest entrance – but will it make cycling’s most notorious cobbled road safer?

For those unfamiliar with the legendary Arenberg, the 2.3km stretch of jagged, unruly cobbles – even by the misshapen standards of the Hell of the North – forms one of the pivotal moments in the men’s Paris-Roubaix, coming with around 100km to go as the action starts to heat up (it’s yet to be featured in the women’s version, despite the protests of the sport’s leading riders).

It is often marked both by the crash-filled chaos contained within the forest, and the fight for position that precedes it, with the bunch barrelling towards its gloomy entrance at speeds of over 60kph – hence last year’s attempt to slow things down on the approach.

The introduction of the chicane, however, divided fans and pundits, with eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel describing it as a “joke”, and former British champion Brian Smith predicting that “most will be walking round this dogleg”.

(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

And while these gloomy predictions didn’t come to fruition, the organisers have opted for a different approach (pardon the pun) for this year’s race.

“This year, we have found an alternative that allows us to slow down the riders in a more fluid manner, via a small detour that runs alongside the mining site in Arenberg,” race director Thierry Gouvenou said in a statement today.

“With this introduction, there will be four right angle corners in the kilometre before the Trouée d’Arenberg.”

This year’s men’s Paris-Roubaix, which will take place on 13 April, will also include two brand-new sectors of 1.3km and 1.2km respectively, around 30km from the Arenberg.

“They are not especially difficult portions, but by introducing them here, it provides us with a sequence of five sectors without virtually any tarmac,” Gouvenou said, adding that one of the race’s early sectors has been removed, bringing the total number of cobbled stretches this year to 30.

The Arenberg-less women’s edition of Paris-Roubaix, meanwhile, remains unchanged, and will feature 29.2km of cobbles over 148.5km on 12 April.

This May will mark seven years since four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome’s 46th and, as it stands, last victory as a professional cyclist, at the 2018 Giro d’Italia.

Remarkably, that winless drought has lasted longer than the period between Froome’s first pro victory, his breakthrough stage win and (eventually successful) GC challenge at the 2011 Vuelta a España, and that epic, come-from-behind triumph in Italy, his seventh grand tour victory.

The speed with which this era of cycling has left Froome, the dominant stage racer of the 2010s, behind – especially since his career-threatening training crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné – has meant that retirement has been a constant theme for the Israel-Premier Tech rider throughout the 2020s.

> “It’s a fantastic pension scheme”: Chris Froome branded “the worst signing in cycling history” and a “half-time clown” by former pro after “undignified, meagre” season; Froome admits “I’m not looking for victories”

The 39-year-old’s best result in 2024 was a 21st on stage six of the Tour du Rwanda, while his brief forays into elite European stage racing (what used to be his bread and butter during the glory years at Sky), at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Arctic Race of Norway yielded nothing higher than 70th.

In October, when a 142km stint in the morning breakaway at the Tour of Guangxi in China saw him abruptly dropped as the race hotted up with 40km to go on a Cat 3 climb, Froome was branded the “worst signing in history” and a “part-time clown” by former Rabobank climber and whereabouts deceiver Michael Rasmussen.

 (Alex Broadway/ASO/SWpix.com)

“It is undignified to look at,” Rasmussen, who was kicked off the 2007 Tour de France while on the cusp of winning the race after he was found to have lied about his whereabouts for testing, said.

“The wild thing is that it is his own decision. You can say that for five million euros a year you can probably take a few defeats along the way. Sportingly, it’s pretty meagre. It is an undignified end to a career like his.”

Of course, Rasmussen wasn’t the first to question Froome’s position at Israel-Premier Tech, the squad he joined in 2021 after his hugely successful decade-long spell at Team Sky/Ineos.

Even IPT’s co-owner Sylvan Adams publicly stated that Froome did not represent “value for money” for his team, after the British rider claimed he felt “let down” due to being omitted from the squad’s 2023 Tour de France line-up, and that his form had suffered from “frustrating” equipment issues.

But in December, it all looked like it was finally coming to an end anyway, after Froome hinted that this year’s Vuelta a España could be his swansong in the pro peloton.

 (ARN/Aurelien Vialatte)

“This is the race for me where it all began in 2011,” he said at the route unveiling in Madrid. “Next year would potentially be my last season racing and to finish at the Vuelta could be a really nice way to close the circle, having started at the Vuelta, to finish at the Vuelta as well. That could be very special.

“I think it’s time. Next year I'm going to be 40. It was always my goal to be racing until the age of 40, so I’m getting closer to that goal. I can be very happy with everything that I’ve been lucky to achieve in the sport.”

> "I'm not saying junior gears, but maybe 56 or 54 needs to be the limit": Chris Froome backs Wout van Aert's call to limit gearing in road races, with big chainrings blamed for "more serious crashes"

However, while that admission was enough for Pro Cycling Stats to stick the dreaded ‘will retire on 2025-12-31’ on Froome’s page, the four-time Tour winner – still a couple years off the 42 that Alejandro Valverde, cycling’s own Dorian Gray, was when he retired at the end of 2022 – suggested this week that it’s not beyond the possibility that he could still be pinning a number on in 2026.

Speaking to Ned Boulting and David Millar for their Never Strays Far podcast, Froome said: “I haven’t 100 per cent decided that I’ll be retiring at the end of this year.

“Chances are, yes, I’ll be calling it a day, but I’m just keeping the door open. [I’ll] see how this year goes, see how I’m feeling towards the end of it.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Froome even admitted that, after 17 years in the bunch, he still wasn’t sick of the pro cycling lifestyle.

“Once you’re into it, you’re into it!” he said.

So… you’re saying there’s a chance I’ll still be writing these ‘Will Froome retire?’ blog stories next February?

> Olympic cyclist’s home raided by burglars, with doorbell recording suggesting they “had very specific information”