After five stages — and two HeroSashes — we already have four teams on the board with stage wins! We’re seeing old friends like Tadej and Mads, and new ones like Olav and Isaac. There’s already much to celebrate; in this EuroTrash we pop champagne corks for Mads Pedersen and Quinn Simmons — but also for a beautiful ride in Central Oregon, some smart thinking about riding in the heat — and
TOP STORY
- Pedersen Seizes Control of the Race for Green
RACE NEWS
- Stage 6 Preview: Finally, the Mountains Bite Back
- UCI Takes Measures to Protect Rider Health amid Rising Temperatures
- Nineteen Teams Set For Lloyds Tour of Britain Women’s Showdown
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- Neilson Powless Returns to Racing at Tour of Austria
- The EuroTrash HeroSash: Quinn Simmons
- Tadej Pogačar: He Makes It Tough to Resent Him!
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: THE CASCADE LAKES LOOP
VIDEO
- Richard’s Stage Five Video Review
Pedersen Seizes Control of the Race for Green
I have a faded mug that years ago my Trek-affiliated LBS gave me after the manager saw me eyeing it:
POP QUIZ: Of the riders illustrated here, who’s still active, and who’s still riding for a Trek Segafredo descendant?
You know that Richie Porte and The Shark are no longer racing. Neither is Lizzie Deignan, though she does have a new job as a director with GB Cycling.
Of the active riders, only two are the Trek team’s latest incarnation: Lidl-Trek. (I’m not counting Reijnen’s all-gravel Trek Driftless.)
- Toms Skujiņš
- Mads Pedersen
And that consistency, I say, is one reason so many of us are fans of Mads. Athletes who stick with one team are reliable. They’re knowable. You know what they’re wearing; you can keep track of them.
Not that a LeBron or a Jordan or a Brady’s legacy is tarnished for having switched teams — but a one-team career is remembered especially clearly. Witness baseball’s Cal Ripken.
But his one-team consistency is just one reason we’re mad for Mads.
Here’s the full list:
- Again, he’s a one-team guy. Consistency, loyalty, knowability.
- He has a great name. I’ve already made one pun in this post.
- Mads Pedersen — he’s proportioned just like us! (Or at least, at 5’10” and 155 pounds, closer to our proportions than his oddly scrawny fellow peloton members.)
- This season he’s achieving greatness after fracturing his wrist and collarbone in an early-season crash at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.
- He races with heart, and with guts. We vividly remember his unlikely 2019 Worlds victory at Harrogate in absolutely miserable conditions.
Finally, he also races smart, as was on display in Stage 4, when he waited patiently, depended on his team, dragged himself over the day’s climbs — but still sat tight, understanding the assignment: arrive at the final kilometer as fresh as possible, and then…decimate the remaining “competition.” He made it look easy.
Mads is now in the driver’s seat in the Green Jersey competition. We’re not yet a quarter of the way through this Tour, of course; much can still happen. But the key. to winning the “sprinter’s” jersey isn’t being the fastest in a bunch sprint; it’s versatility, and Pedersen oozes it. We hope to see him in Green in Paris!
Check out all of Pez’ Tour coverage, including…
- Pedersen’s Stage 4 Win
- Olav Kooij’s First Tour Victory on Stage 5
- An array of Tour-focused gear in GearBreak
- And — not Tour-related, but worth checking out if you want to go fast: my review of Hunt’s 44_46 Aerodynamicist wheelset
RACE NEWS
Stage 6 Preview: Finally, the Mountains Bite Back
After five days of racing that felt more like a rolling oven than a bike race, the Tour heads into the high Pyrenees on Thursday, and for once the riders might actually be grateful for the climbing. While the peloton has been cooking in triple-digit temps down in the valleys (known as the high-30s in the rest of the world), the forecast high in Gavarnie-Gèdre sits around 80°F. It should be a downright pleasant change of scenery, even with nearly 4,100 meters of vertical to grind through to get there.
This is the stage everyone’s circled: Pau to Gavarnie-Gèdre, 186.2 km, over the Col d’Aspin and the mighty Tourmalet before a long, draining 18.7 km haul to the line beneath the glacial cirque. It’s the race’s first true summit finish, its first hors catégorie climb, and the first properly hard mountain day of the entire Tour.
That last point matters more than it sounds. Through five stages, Tadej Pogačar has looked every bit the boss of this race, hoovering up seconds and daring anyone to respond. When it’s up to him (not him and his team, as on the Stage 1 team time trial), he’s so in control that he either wins, or he shepherds his teammate to victory. (With respect to Torstein Træen, we’re not considering him an actual GC threat.) But none of what we’ve seen so far has been the kind of long, rhythmic, 45-minutes-in-the-red climbing where Jonas Vingegaard has historically made his hay, or where Paul Seixas, still a teenager in his first Tour, may well shine brightest.
Seixas has talked the talk since his transfer saga dominated headlines all spring. Thursday is where he has to start walking it, on the biggest stage of his young career, against the two best climbers on the planet. The Tourmalet won’t care about storylines. Neither will Pogačar.
Cooler air, bigger mountains, and the first real test of who’s actually racing for yellow. Let the Tour begin!
UCI Takes Measures to Protect Rider Health amid Rising Temperatures
The following is an official announcement from the UCI (complete with European spellings).
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in agreement with the President of the Commissaires’ Panel, who holds sporting authority over the event, and the organiser, who bears organisational responsibility for its running, has decided to soften the provisions governing rider feeding in light of the extreme heat forecast over the coming stages of the Tour de France.
In this regard, it has been decided to exceptionally authorise the use of feeding bags in zones initially defined for the provision of bottles only (‘water bottle zones) located within listed climbs. This measure is intended to facilitate the simultaneous distribution of multiple bottles to each rider, so as to ensure optimal hydration in the forecast weather conditions.
This measure is being implemented on a trial basis and will be reviewed in light of weather conditions, its effectiveness, and its impact on the smooth running of the event.
Nineteen Teams Set For Lloyds Tour of Britain Women’s Showdown
Nineteen teams will chase the green jersey at this year’s Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, a five-stage battle running August 19-23, 2026, with a record-equaling thirteen UCI Women’s WorldTour squads headlining the start list in Cockermouth.
Defending champions FDJ United-Suez arrive as the number-one ranked team in the world (as of July 6), looking to repeat after Ally Wollaston’s overall win last year. Nine of the top ten ranked teams globally will line up, including Movistar’s Cat Ferguson (2025 runner-up), two-time overall winners Lidl-Trek, and CANYON//SRAM, fresh off Zoe Backstedt’s national road race title.
Fenix-Premier Tech, home to Brits Millie Couzens and Flora Perkins, makes its Tour of Britain debut, while Liv AlUla Jayco and Team SD Worx – Protime keep their perfect streak alive, having raced every edition since 2014. SD Worx – Protime remain the race’s most decorated squad, with 15 stage wins and three overall titles.
Four British Continental teams round out the field — DAS-Hutchinson, Handsling Alba, Smurfit Westrock, and O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes — each stacked with rising talent ready to shake things up against the WorldTour’s best.
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Neilson Powless Returns to Racing at Tour of Austria
Neilson Powless makes his long-awaited return to racing this week at the Tour of Austria (July 8-12). The American rider has been sidelined since the spring with a knee injury, but following surgery and a steady rehabilitation program, the 29-year-old has been cleared to race and is eager to make the most of the second half of the season.
“I’ve been out of racing since the Tour de la Provence in February, but that month I had surgery, and it’s been a pretty long process. I was off the bike for five weeks initially, and when I restarted, we kept the recovery conservative. That basically meant doing 20 to thirty minutes a day on the bike for about two weeks. Slowly we built things up, and for the last eight or nine weeks I’ve been riding pain-free, and it seems like the injury is completely in the past.” Neilson said.
While Neilson is eager to jump back into action and make up for lost time, he’s also realistic about his ambitions for his first race back. The five-day Tour of Austria has several stages that suit the American rider, but he heads into the event with no pressure in terms of the GC. It will be a case of taking the race day-by-day and picking opportunities as they arise.
“The team have been super supportive throughout this whole process. The only pressure that I’ve felt is the pressure that I’ve put on myself to get back to racing. The team have been really thoughtful when it’s come to creating a plan of action and looking at what I’ve needed,” he said.
The EuroTrash HeroSash: Quinn Simmons
That caption above…the one about Mads Pedersen tolerating Quinn Simmons? Well, maybe he actually owes his American teammate: Simmons did him a solid on stage four, riding selflessly and determined, never straying far from his team leader. (Or at least, his non-GC leader.)
Simmons is a controversial character, but he rides fearlessly, and he’s evidently established himself comfortably in a support role (though I suspect he craves being let off the leash). I look forward to seeing what he’ll do later this Tour, and later this season.
And for now, he’s awarded the EuroTrash HeroSash — Thursday version!
Tadej Pogačar: He Makes It Tough to Resent Him!
You’ll remember Monday’s EuroTrash, and my waxing patriotic about Mexico’s big win (in the Tour, not on the pitch). Well, leave it to Tadej Pogačar to get the zeitgeist — and to seize it. This guy’s making it difficult not to like him.
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: THE CASCADE LAKES LOOP
The lollipop-shaped ride west and south from Bend heads up towards Mt. Bachelor, and then around the renowned Cascade Lakes loop.
A smooth road runs past a series of lakes…
…and over a few river crossings.
And more views are opening up — thanks to fire suppression efforts.
From Bend it’s about 85 miles, but extendable to a full century with a lap around Bend.
PEZ VIDEO
Are you following Richard’s video stage shorts? Check out the Stage 5 review (and a look-back at 2003) below — and all the shorts at https://www.instagram.com/pezcyclingnews.
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