Table of contents for August 28, 2025 in Cycling Weekly

British Continental women’s team Hess Cycling announced it was ceasing operations this week, citing the pressures of increasing budgets in the sport. The collapse follows a turbulent year for the team which started with a late registration with the UCI, a fraud investigation and allegations of missed payments to riders. Founded in 2023 under a licence from the Luxembourg cycling federation, Hess registered as a British squad one year later and vowed to become “Britain’s leading professional women’s team” with the aim of competing in the Tour de France Femmes. In a joint statement, team owner Rolf Hess alongside managers Norbert Stocker and Pirmin Lang said: “In the past years cycle sport has become increasingly competitive with huge increases in annual budgets. “During this year it became clear that a…

Great Britain returned from the Junior Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, with five gold medals in their hand luggage, and five more of bronze and silver. The young squad had a successful time in Europe, with young stars Henry Hobbs and Erin Boothman, in particular, having golden weeks. Both came home with two rainbow jerseys. Boothman won the Madison, with Phoebe Taylor, and the team pursuit with Abi Miller, Arabella Blackburn, Evie Smith and Phoebe Taylor. Meanwhile, Hobbs won in the omnium and in the 1km time trial. The 18-year-old also won silver in the team pursuit with Rory Gravelle, Max Hinds, Dan Thompson and Albie Jones, after they were pipped by Italy in the final. GB’s other gold came in the men’s team sprint, for Kristian Larigo,…

It is dangerous; I don’t blame him. Especially when your body gets older and it’s hard to recover from crashes. Bunch sprints are like a death trap. Jamaal O. Kemp Compounding the risk of crashes is the risk from hostile, distracted, or incompetent motorists. Road cycling is a dying sport. If the manufacturers want to keep selling product they need to better support safe cycling advocacy programs. Alan Canfield These guys are so tough in crashes; it awes me. I remember when I raced two to three decades ago, a couple of the crashes really, really hurt! Not to mention trying to clean up fresh road rash with soap! David Duquette Also, the average pro rider gets paid peanuts compared with other sports such as golf, tennis or football. How…

The race stays in the east of England for stage two, the first time the men’s ToB has started or finished in the mid-Suffolk area (Stowmarket hosted a stage finish of the Women’s Tour in 2019). Stage two is even flatter than the previous day, with a scant 1,075m of ascent, but even so features a brace of climbs in the final kilometres, including the first classified climb of the race at Semer Hill. Around half a mile long, with the main part of the climb at a gradient of 7-8%, Semer Hill comes with around 20km to go, and is followed 10km later by another, non-classified ascent at Cross Green. It’s a double-whammy that could tip the deck in favour of the punchiest attackers over the pure sprinters. This…

Rapha has revealed an eye-catching, limited-edition collection to celebrate a decade of the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC), designed in collaboration with graphic designer David Carson. As part of the collaboration, it has also teamed up with Factor Bikes to release an exclusive Factor Monza. Rapha runs weekly ride programmes from its 22 clubhouses in cities around the world. Last year, Rapha conducted more than 4,000 rides worldwide. A fleet of RCC-branded Factor Bikes has been available for members to hire at Rapha Clubhouses for some time, but this will be the first time a Rapha + Factor bike will be available for the public to buy. Rob Gitelis, Founder of Factor Bikes, said: “As an avid admirer and collector of contemporary art, I’ve long been a fan of David Carson’s…

Circuit of Charfield Date: 14 September Where: Gloucestershire The final race of the South League for 2025, the Circuit of Charfield takes place on the edge of the Cotswolds. Promoted by VC Bristol, this Regional A is 84km long, and costs £30 to enter. Roads are reportedly in good condition. Watership Down Hill Climb Date: 7 September Where: Hampshire Hill-climbing season is upon us, and why not start off with this one-mile effort in North Hampshire. Organised by Cycle Club Basingstoke, it takes place on the HHC009 course, and packs in 66.32 metres of elevation. Entry is £12 for adults, £5 for juniors.…

After three days of the Vuelta a España, the pre-race favourite, Jonas Vingegaard, already had a stage win and was wearing the red jersey. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, a two-time Tour de France winner, finished on the podium of the Vuelta in 2023, but never wore red. That changed on Sunday’s stage two, when the Dane won on the summit of Limone Piemonte, his third stage victory at the Vuelta, and seized the leader’s red jersey as a result. It was a performance redolent of his great rival Tadej Pogačar, not present at this race, who took the pink jersey on stage two of the Giro d’Italia last year and did not give it up. However, this is unlikely to happen at this race, with Vingegaard’s lead over stage…

The Tour of Britain moves to central England for stage three’s meandering parcours between Milton Keynes and Ampthill. It includes two loops of a circuit near the finish that twice takes riders over the same cat-three climb. It’s the shortest stage yet, and at 994m of vertical ascent, the flattest too. However, the double ascent of Hillfoot Hill, at 700m long and a 5.2% average gradient, should test the riders’ legs, especially if they find themselves out of position coming into it. With the second of these coming 15 lumpy kilometres from the finish, there’s a small chance it could provide the springboard for a break and ensuing chase to the line. The stage marks the first time the race has visited Milton Keynes since 2008, when the town hosted…

On Geraint Thomas’s final day as a pro cyclist, the Tour of Britain has pulled out all the stops. In tribute to the Welshman, today’s stage passes a number of important milestones from his life and career. The first comes at the stage start – Newport’s Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales, whose entrance bears a giant photo of the Ineos Grenadiers rider wearing the Tour de France’s yellow jersey he won in 2018. From there, the route zigzags north, up to the edge of, but not quite dipping into, the Brecon Beacons National Park. The road here tilts constantly up and down, with no real let-up on the flat. Stage six may be the event’s shortest, at 112km, but it’s unlikely to be its easiest. The race’s final categorised…

Guy Butterworth uses his Neil Pryde Bura chiefly for hill-climbs, and likes the fact that it’s not a machine seen often out on the road. It uses a slightly unusual mix of groupsets, with Shimano Dura-Ace and GRX, plus SRAM Force, all in the mix. Wheels are Ursus Miura C50, shod with a Continental Grand Prix tyre combo. The whole package weighs in at 7.6kg. Want us to feature your race bike? Send a pic and information to cycling@futurenet.com…

Forty-one years before the cycling world converged on Glasgow for the 2023 Super Worlds, the UK was the global centre of bike racing when it hosted the 1982 Road Worlds at Goodwood and the Track Worlds at Leicester. This shot, taken at the Saffron Lane stadium, features action from the latter, showing clearly the wooden boards that ultimately succumbed to the British weather, sealing the fate of the facility. Closed in 1999, it was demolished in 2008, although the athletics track next door survives to this day. Of the 13 events, only two were for women, with Connie Carpenter and Jeannie Longo featuring among the medallists. The overall medal table was topped by East Germany – while Britain was absent from it altogether.…

A winning start to the Vuelta a España for Visma-Lease a Bike was almost derailed by the team suffering a mass theft of bikes on the evening of stage two. Up to 18 bikes were stolen from the team’s equipment truck outside a hotel in Milan, and while three were recovered from a nearby park, the Dutch squad were left without many of their race bikes. On social media on Monday, the team confirmed they had suffered a robbery and said the police had launched an investigation. They did not confirm how many bikes had been stolen, saying only that “several” of them had gone missing. Matteo Jorgenson later told reporters that three of his bikes had been stolen, while Axel Zingle reportedly had all of his bikes taken. Team…

This year’s race begins where last year’s left off, in east Suffolk, and marks the first time since 2012 that the Tour of Britain Men has started in the area. The stage will begin in the picturesque riverside town of Woodbridge, not far north of Ipswich, and make its way north to finish at Southwold on the coast. This part of the world has grown used to welcoming some of the UK’s biggest bike races, with the Women’s Tour – which has now become the Tour of Britain Women – a regular visitor. The 100-mile stage darts east, west, north and south, out to the coast to Aldeburgh and Thorpeness and then back inland as it winds its way towards the Southwold finish. East Anglia does not have a reputation…

The race’s longest stage is contained within the winding roads of Warwickshire, the county that gave the world William Shakespeare and the sport of rugby. The start town of Atherstone, however, is famous for its own ball game, played every February, in which the winner is the person who is holding the ball after two hours – there is only one rule: players are not allowed to kill each other. For the riders on stage four, the first bit of argy-bargy will come in Cubbington, the site of the day’s only intermediate sprint. The second half of the stage brings a smattering of climbs that tot up quickly. They’ll come as welcome launchpads for the GC hopefuls, not so much for the sprinters, who by this point will have already…

Look unveiled the Keo Blade platform in 2011, pioneering a system that eschewed a metal spring in favour of a carbon blade to retain the cleat interface. But just how far has Look pushed the design and performance envelope with the new Look Keo Blade Ceramic Ti? Construction You’ll be hard-pressed to tell the new Look Keo Blade apart from its predecessor, but there are clues such as the ever-so-slightly bigger platform. The new pedal body profile has been redesigned for enhanced aerodynamic efficiency, featuring a lower frontal surface and a reprofiled leading edge, which is claimed to reduce drag by 2% compared to the previous model. Look’s claimed weight of 95g per pedal matches perfectly with the weight recorded on our scales: a total figure of 190g for the…

National 100-mile champion Jake Sargent completed his preparations for this weekend’s National 10-Mile Championships by breaking the course record at the VC Bristol 10 in Gloucestershire and leading a 1-2-3 for Team Bottrill. Sargent clocked 18.45, while teammate Rob Francis – who also briefly held the course record until Sargent lowered it further, was second in 19.02. “Today was one of those exceptional days where everything went right,” said Sargent. “I had great legs and a clear run with very favourable weather conditions. “It’s shaping up to be a great battle at the National 10-mile Championships next weekend!” Another National 10 entrant, Michelle Lee (Royal Dean Forest CC), won the women’s event in 23.23. Elsewhere, Thomas Lee (Team Bottrill) set a new personal best on his way to victory at…

Polished to perfection, Karl Barton’s all-chrome Carlton Flyer blazed around Japan’s Hachioji Velodrome at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. At 5ft 4in (167cm), Barton was a diminutive rider yet a giant of the track. “I watched him race at Butts Stadium in Coventry,” recalls current owner, Dave Marsh, of the Universal Cycle Centre, Rotherham. “He’s a short guy, but very punchy – a dominant force on the UK track scene in the mid-1960s.” The Carlton Flyer was immensely popular among Barton and his peers, not least because it was a formidable race weapon on both track and road. As Carlton’s hero product, Gerald O’Donovan, the brand’s manager, was quick to realise its marketing potential too. “It’s amazing how many pros were on Carlton Flyers,” says Marsh. The scarlet head tube…