Feeling those post-Tour blues (like Richard is in his video below)? Fear not! The wide-open Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins this week, and we’re covering it with the passion of the converted (because that’s what we are here at PEZ). Demi Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Kasia Niewiadoma are set for a Ventoux-decided showdown (fingers crossed; wildfires are threatening).
Meanwhile, Wout van Aert marks his return from a career-threatening elbow infection with a stage win at the Tour of Denmark; Milan-Sanremo’s Poggio summit unveils a new piazza honoring the race, with 1991 winner Claudio Chiappucci on hand; a column argues for charging spectators to help fix cycling’s crowd-safety and pay problems; Urška Žigart’s recovery from a Tour de Suisse crash gets a hopeful update; and Domen Prevc (whom we’d never heard of until writing this post) will fly Tadej Pogačar home by helicopter after his Pogi Challenge.
TOP STORY
- Want Your TDF Fix Back? The Women Are About To Deliver It
RACE NEWS
- Wout’s Back! Van Aert Storms to Stage 1 Win in Denmark
- Milan-Sanremo’s Poggio Gets a New Look
- A Modest Proposal for Solving the Tour’s Pressing Problem
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- No Distraction: Žigart’s Recovery, and Pogačar’s Tour
- Ski Flying Champion to Fly Pogačar to Finish of Pogi Challenge 2026
- The Coolest Post-Tour Celebration
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK
- Larsen’s Trail
VIDEO
- Richard Bids Au Revoir to the Tour
Want Your TDF Fix Back? The Women Are About To Deliver It
If you’re missing the Tour de France, or if, perchance, the men’s Tour left you feeling a little…short-changed – another chapter in the Pogačar procession, drama arriving mostly through misfortune rather than genuine combat – don’t rule out waking up early just yet. The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift rolls out of Lausanne on August 1st, and this fifth edition looks like it could be the most unpredictable Grand Tour of the entire season.
The Parcours
For the second time in race history, the Grand Départ leaves French soil altogether. TDFFAZ is up to nine stages; at 1,175 km the course will carry the peloton from Switzerland into France. Three of those stages are flat(ish), three are hilly, two are true mountain days, and a short but pivotal 21 km individual time trial from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon on stage 4 all comprise what should be a barn-burner of a race. The drama should announce itself early, with a puncheur-friendly loop around Lausanne on day one and a likely bunch sprint into Geneva on day two, before the terrain starts biting on the way into France.
Unlike in the men’s race, the GC fireworks will likely combust late. Stage 7 tips the riders onto the slopes of Mont Ventoux itself; the Giant of Provence is the race’s high point, and almost certainly its decision point. From there it’s on to Nice, with the final stage sending the bunch up the Col d’Èze four times before the curtain falls on the Promenade des Anglais. (Note: as of publication of this EuroTrash, the status of the Mt. Ventoux stage is uncertain, thanks to the widespread wildfires in France, and the need to concentrate resources on affected areas.)
- Stage 1: Lausanne > Lausanne 8/1/26 @ 8:14 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 2: Aigle > Geneva – 8/2/26 @ 8:20 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 3: Geneva > Poligny – 8/3/26 @ 7:25 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 4: Gevrey-Chambertin > Dijon – 8/4/26 @ 8:34 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 5: Mâcon > Belleville-en-Beaujolais – 8/5/26 @ 7:45 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 6: Montbrison > Tournon-sur-Rhône – 8/6/26 @ 7:35 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 7: La Voulte-sur-Rhône > Mont Ventoux – 8/7/26 @ 6:50 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 8: Sisteron > Nice – 8/8/26 @ 7:40 a.m. (ET) Peacock
- Stage 9: Nice > Nice – 8/9/26 @ 10:05 a.m. (ET) Peacock
The Contenders
This is where it gets delicious. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot arrives as defending champion, the first Frenchwoman to win her home Tour, and she’ll have a home crowd roaring her toward Ventoux — but we haven’t seen much from her this season, or at least not nearly as much as her chief rival: Demi Vollering.
This year’s top-ranked rider has finished runner-up in back-to-back years, by four seconds in 2024, then 3:42 last year, and rolls in off a Giro d’Italia win with arguably the best form in the peloton, and possibly of her stellar career. From there we turn to Kasia Niewiadoma, the 2024 champion still capable of ambushing anyone in the mountains; Marlen Reusser hunting time in Dijon; a resurgent Anna van der Breggen fresh off Giro and Vuelta podiums; and breakout star Paula Blasi, who’s already won the Vuelta Femenina this season.
Add sprint intrigue from Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky, and you have a start list as deep as anything the men produced.
Closer racing, a genuine multi-rider GC battle, and a Ventoux finish built for fireworks. If the men’s race left you wanting more suspense, this is exactly where to find it.
The full Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift startlist can be found at www.procyclingstats.com.
RACE NEWS
Wout’s Back! Van Aert Storms to Stage 1 Win in Denmark
For those of you thinking Stage 21 of the Tour de France couldn’t be improved upon, I ask you: What if Wout had been there?
Because it seems that — life-threatening sepsis notwithstanding — Wout van Aert remains in top form.
The Belgian marked his long-awaited return to racing with a stage win on day one of the Tour of Denmark, and he didn’t take the easy route to get there. Van Aert survived a chaotic afternoon that included crosswinds, a major peloton crash, and a frantic late chase around Aalborg before taking the opening victory. The Belgian was involved in the crash himself but was able to get up quickly and continue without apparent consequences.
With the race splintered behind him, Van Aert bridged across to a select group inside the closing kilometres and launched his sprint from roughly 300 meters out to seal the win. He beat Lukáš Kubiš and Henrik Pedersen to the line.
It’s a fitting comeback for a rider who, just weeks ago, was fighting off a bacterial infection in his elbow that his own team said could have escalated into sepsis, forcing him out of the Tour de France entirely. This marked his third victory of the season, and it came with an instant claim on the race leader’s jersey.
“It’s always difficult to win, so to do it straight away on my return is really special,” Van Aert said after the finish. “It was a tough finale.”
Form, it turns out, doesn’t need to ask permission to show up.
Milan-Sanremo’s Poggio Gets a New Look
The newly redeveloped Piazza della Libertà, located at the summit of the iconic Poggio di Sanremo, was officially unveiled this week. On hand for the festivities was Claudio Chiappucci, winner of the Monument’s 1991 version.
Enhancing the square is a sculpture depicting three stylized bicycles, designed by students from the Academy of Fine Arts to celebrate the strong bond between the Poggio and the famous cycling race. At the base of the sculpture are the inscriptions “La Classicissima di Primavera” and “Sanremo Women presented by Crédit Agricole – Milano-Sanremo presented by Crédit Agricole”.
The square is located at the very top of the Poggio climb, a spot that has often proved decisive in determining the winner of the race. It was also once home to the famous telephone booth that served as a landmark for riders approaching the hairpin marking the start of the descent, while newspaper and radio correspondents used it to file live race updates.
Said Chiappucci, “Milano-Sanremo is one of the most special victories of my career, above all because I managed to defy the odds. It wasn’t a race that perfectly suited my characteristics, but with courage and determination I proved that I could win it. Returning here today, to the place that marked such an important chapter of my career, and seeing the Poggio enhanced with this new square dedicated to the Classicissima, is truly emotional.”
A Modest Proposal for Solving the Tour’s Pressing Problem
(That’s pressing, as in crowds pressing in on cyclists.)
I don’t know that this year’s crowds lining the sinuous road to Alpe d’Huez were any more invasive than they typically have been. In fact, maybe that’s the point: throngs always crowd the racers to an absurd degree, but at this point, we fans are simply used to it.
Meanwhile, cycling’s financial model is broken. Compared to other athletes who don’t risk their lives; who don’t go so deep that they collapse on the Champs Elysées; who don’t spend months in spare altitude camps, away from family, cyclists are paid very little. But there are only so many sponsorship dollars to go around, and broadcast fees typically go to organizing bodies.
I pose, then: Why don’t we charge to watch bike races?
Not every kilometer; not every race. But the difference-making climbs of the Tour and our sport’s A-list races?
We’ve just completed a World Cup bearing ticket prices in the several thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, I’ve given up on purchasing L.A. Olympics tickets; even seats at preliminary heats in the velodrome run in the hundreds. But you’re telling me we can’t charge…ten Euros to watch the most important stages of the greatest bike race in the world?
Ten Euros. That’s all. Enough that virtually any fan can afford to attend, but just enough to make those fans think twice before spending an entire day drinking, sweating — and then hurling themselves at our sport’s heroes. Ten Euros x 500,000 fans on Alpe d’Huez nets €10,000,000. Of course it wouldn’t work out that cleanly, but even €1M funneled thoughtfully to teams would prove meaningful.
Yes, some fans would find ways to evade the fees. Many would pay the ten Euros, but still act obnoxiously. But this is a perfect-is-the-enemy-of-the-good situation: We can address (if not solve) two of cycling’s most significant issues, one of them existential.
Maybe there are better ideas out there. We should entertain those too. Because my friends were right: This is appalling.
After all, this isn’t just a 2026 problem. Remember chip-throwing guy a couple of years ago?
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
No Distraction: Žigart’s Recovery, and Pogačar’s Tour
Soon after confirmation of Tadej Pogačar’s General Classification win, his partner Urška Žigart appeared at the finish line, seemingly healthy, and it struck me: The last we heard, the effects of her crash were concerning enough that Pogačar might be distracted heading into the Tour — distracted enough that it could prove detrimental to his performance.
As we all know now, that certainly wasn’t the case.
Since her crash at the Tour de Suisse Women back in June, a heavy fall over an ill-placed speed bump in the closing kilometer of Stage 2, Žigart’s recovery has been a quieter storyline running alongside Pogačar’s dominant July. The initial diagnosis was a fractured jaw, though later accounts suggested the incident was more serious in the moment than first reported, with Žigart briefly losing consciousness before being taken to hospital.
The best news came when her team, AG Insurance-Soudal, confirmed that surgery wouldn’t be required, opening the door to a more straightforward rehab process. She was soon back on the bike, training gradually under medical supervision, and has since been working at altitude to rebuild form.
But “straightforward” hasn’t meant easy. As of the most recent update, Žigart still can’t manage solid food, with meals limited to liquid or pureed form. I once fractured my jaw and was on a similar diet; I can tell you that I got very skinny — and I didn’t start as thin as she is.
Žigart has continued taking part in Tour de France Femmes preparation camps, but with no start-line guarantee. My assumption is she won’t be on the line in Lausanne come August 1, as this recovery still looks like one measured in careful steps, not race calendars.
Note: after writing this, I learned that — rather remarkably — Žigart will start the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Ski Flying Champion to Fly Pogačar to Finish of Pogi Challenge 2026
Domen Prevc, the reigning World Champion and world record holder in ski flying, will fly Tadej Pogačar from Krvavec to Komenda by helicopter on Sunday, August 2, as part of the closing events of Pogi Challenge 2026.
The flight follows the “S Klanca v klanc” recreational climb, which Pogačar will complete before meeting Prevc at the summit of Krvavec. The two will then travel by helicopter, operated in partnership with FLYCOM Aviation and Wucher Helicopter, to the Pogi Challenge grounds in Komenda, with arrival expected around 2:00 p.m.
The event caps a multi-day program that began Friday with the 8th Tadej Pogačar Criterium, which included a field of professional cyclists and a formal recognition of Pogačar’s fifth Tour de France title.
Organizers said the climb will be shown live on a large screen at the event’s main stage for attendees ahead of the helicopter’s arrival.
The pairing brings together two of Slovenia’s most prominent current athletes: Pogačar, who has established himself as one of the sport’s dominant Grand Tour riders, and Prevc, who holds the current world record in ski flying distance and heads into the event as reigning world champion in the discipline.
Pogi Challenge organizers are asking attendees to be in Komenda by 2:00 p.m. for the arrival.
The Coolest Post-Tour Celebration
We’ve seen riders pedaling down the Champs Elysées with tears in their eyes, while others collapse, or dance, or hug their families. But this post-Tour “celebration” is easily the smoothest one we’ve seen.
Cracking open a beer with your bike right after finishing the Tour de France. (gotta figure out how to do this w/ zwift hub)
by
u/AudioPi in
Zwift
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: LARSEN’S TRAIL
For my last ride of the summer before leaving Bend, Oregon, for Davis, California, I decided to pay tribute to Steve Larsen by riding the trail named for him.
In case you don’t know about Steve: He is the only American to have ridden in the world championships in 5 different cycling disciplines (road, mountain bike, track, triathlon and cyclo-cross). From what I know of him, he was also a really good dude.
Steve grew up in Davis; long-time riders there still talk of his utter command over group rides, and of receiving generous treatment at his shop, Steve Larsen’s Wheelworks. Soon after retiring from cycling he moved with his family to Bend. He died tragically at just 39 years-old, in 2009. Despite spending time in both of his towns, I was never fortunate enough to meet him.
There’s much, much more to write about Steve than this small space has room for; you can learn more about him by checking out his U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame entry.
His trail outside of Bend is a short one, a connector, but it’s beautiful, and heavily forested, and a lot of fun. I only devote ROTWs to trail rides when they’re well worth making an exception for; this one surely qualified.
VIDEO: Richard Bids Au Revoir to the Tour
We’re confident that the Tour Femmes will lift your spirits — but we’re all feeling those post-Tour blues…including Richard.
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The post EUROTRASH: Next Up: Tour de France Femmes! appeared first on PezCycling News.
