Tadej, why’d you have to go and do Primoz dirty like that?
Though that’s not even our lead story. Sigrid Haugset’s Odysssey of a breakaway inspired a deep dive into jersey-stealing, hours-long raids, all the way back to Thierry Marie in 1991.
That’s not to say there isn’t racing going on. We bring you up to speed on the Tour of Poland and Vuelta a Burgos, and look ahead to the Tour of Britain. All that, plus news from the peloton’s saddest story of a rider, Fabio Jakobsen — for whom things seem to be looking up! (knock, knock)
Oh, and the Vuelta has an official mango sponsor. Was the competition for the “official” designation tough?
TOP STORY
- Sigrid Haugset and the Art of the Ultra-Breakaway
RACE NEWS
- Pogačar Heading to the Vuelta, Dashes Roglič’s Dreams
- Top Teams Set for Lloyds Tour of Britain Men 2026
- Factor Bikes Collabs with Spongebob at Tour de France Femmes
- La Vuelta Gets Its Own Official…Mango
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- Surprise! Fabio Jakobsen Headed to Visma
- Bianchi Unveils New Officina Colors
VIDEO
- Richard Rides Spectacular West Vancouver
Sigrid Haugset and the Art of the Ultra-Breakaway
Watching Sigrid Haugset of Uno-X Mobility steal a Tour de France Femmes stage win with an absolutely epic slog of a nearly 89-kilometer so breakaway, I found myself wondering: How often does this happen? How often does a rider sneak away early, and then…stay away, far enough ahead that they end up donning the leader’s jersey?
I plumbed my memory and, yes, did a bit of searching online. Here’s a quick compendium of breakaway odysseys that landed the rider in yellow (or, in one case, pink).
1. Sigrid Haugset — Tour de France Femmes, Stage 3, 2026 (88.5km solo)
Haugset’s raid shouldn’t have been such a surprise: She previously won the Norwegian national road race with a similarly audacious and early effort. She lasted in yellow just a single day, but hers is now the longest winning solo breakaway in Tour de France Femmes history, surpassing Annemiek van Vleuten’s previous record of 62 kilometers to Le Markstein in 2022.
2. Annemiek van Vleuten — Tour de France Femmes, Stage 7, 2022 (62km solo)
Only Demi Vollering could stay with Van Vleuten on the first of three big climbs; Van Vleuten then powered away alone for a 62km solo victory, reminiscent of her 2019 Worlds ride, seizing the yellow jersey.
3. Chris Froome — Giro d’Italia, Stage 19, 2018 (80km solo)
As much as I didn’t love watching Froome ride, I sure enjoyed following this effort. Froome’s solo win is different from the others, at least among the men, because he should have been a marked man. He outsmarted the feeding rules to ensure that he’d have enough fuel without fattening his pockets, and then attacked from 80km out on the Colle delle Finestre, holding his chasers over three minutes back for the entire climb. He’d started the day fourth overall but finished with a 40-second lead over Tom Dumoulin, en route to winning the Giro overall.
4. Óscar Pereiro — Tour de France, Stage 13, 2006 (231km break, day-defining)
Not a solo theft, but quite a steal nonetheless: On the Tour’s longest, hottest stage in ’06 (Béziers–Montélimar), Pereiro went clear early in a five-man move, unmarked and nearly 30 minutes down on GC, but his group put those 30 minutes back into the field, landing Pereiro atop the leaderboard. You remember what followed: Floyd Landis countered with his own “remarkable” solo win, but was later disqualified, putting Pereiro back in yellow, and in the history books.
5. Thierry Marie — Tour de France, Stage 6, 1991 (234km solo)
A classic, truly epic old-school break. Marie soloed 234km to a stage win between Arras and Le Havre, attacking just 25 kilometers into the stage and riding alone almost the entire way to the Channel coast.
And, of course, Thomas Voeckler built a brand out of riding into the Maillot Jaune by himself into seeminigly innocent breaks. He only did it twice (2004 and 2011), but as went on to remain in yellow for ten days — both times — a brand was indeed established. (Mugging for the camera helped too.)
RACE NEWS
Pogačar Heading to the Vuelta, Dashes Roglič’s Dreams
The arc is as cruel as it is poetic: Almost precisely six years after Tadej Pogačar shattered his countryman Primoz Roglič’s plan to win the Tour de France, Pogi — now the undisputed best rider of his generation — will likely render Primoz’ project to win a fifth Vuelta a Espaňa a bitter disappointment.
The pictures of an ascendant Pogačar eradicating Roglič’s margin in 2020, the Pandemic Tour, held in the fall, remain vivid: the clock ticking down; Roglič’s helmet askew and his mouth agape; Tadej donning yellow only for the final stage in Paris (back when that stage was a true procession). Since then, both riders have notched multiple wins, but Pogačar’s palmarès runs kilometers longer than Roglič’s, now featuring five Tour wins, a Giro victory, and virtually every race of note, but for the elusive Paris-Roubaix.
Their respective runups to the Vuelta are even more divergent: Whereas Pogačar has taken on virtually every significant even on the UCI calendar — and won almost all of them — Roglič has picked and chosen, steering his preparation solely towards the Vuelta.
Nonetheless, Pogačar will line up as the heavy favorite — and by heavy, I mean gorillaesque. I haven’t checked odds, but I assume it’s practically even money on the G.O.A.T.
Anything can happen, of course; this is cycling, after all. But barring some catastrophic event between now and stage 21 of the Vuelta, we can only assume that Roglič will ultimately retire not as Mr. Vuelta, but as the co-record holder, alongside Roberto Heras.
In fact, even catastrophe might not keep Pogačar from stealing that title: the best rider will show up with the best team, the kind that can insulate their leader from mishaps, or soften their effects.
It’s really all just terribly cruel.
Factor Bikes Collabs with Spongebob Squarepants at Tour de France Femmes
Collabs these days are all the rage, and this one might rank among the most unexpected. Factor Bikes has paired up with the Spongebob Squarepants franchises bikes to debut at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, raced by riders from Human Powered Health and Ma Petite Entreprise. The idea has been to connect the eternal optimism of Spongebob with the unusual frame designs of Factors’ eye-catching ONE XXRAY PLUS road
Brand director David Millar explains the collab in detail below, and full details are on PEZ here.
Milan Makes It Three: Lidl-Trek Sprinter Rules Poland’s Flatlands
Some riders get lucky in a bunch sprint. Jonathan Milan is making a habit of it. The Italian rocket completed a hat-trick of stage wins at the 83rd Tour de Pologne on Wednesday, out-punching the field again after 193.5 hilly-but-manageable kilometers from Gorzów Wielkopolski to Zielona Góra.
It was another day where the finish looked harder on paper than it played out on the road. A category 3 climb at Przytok, just 12 kilometers from the line, was billed as a launchpad for the puncheurs, and for a while it looked like it might blow the race apart, with Fabio Christen and Sjoerd Bax slipping clear before Matteo Sobrero jumped across. The trio held close to 90 seconds at one point, enough to make the sprinters’ teams sweat.
But sweat is all it was. Lidl-Trek and the other fast-finisher squads reeled the move back in with the kind of ruthless efficiency that’s become the theme of this Tour de Pologne, setting up a straightforward bunch gallop into Zielona Góra. Milan timed his effort perfectly, holding off Noah Hobbs (EF Education-EasyPost) and Alessandro Romele (XDS Astana) for a third consecutive victory.
Three stages, three Milan wins; it’s the kind of dominance that turns a bike race into a formality, at least until the terrain stops cooperating. Milan now heads the GC with a healthier cushion over the chasers, but the comfortable part of this Tour de Pologne is over. Thursday’s Stage 4 finishes atop the Orlinek climb in Karpacz, the first real GC test of the week, and it’s there that Milan’s grip on yellow will actually be tested.
For now, though, it’s Milan’s race to lose.
Onley Takes the Reins as Visma and Q36.5 Trade Blows in Burgos
The Vuelta a España warm-up act is underway in northern Spain, and the opening two stages of the Vuelta a Burgos have already delivered a changing of the guard atop the GC.
Stage 1 belonged to Visma-Lease a Bike in a rout. On the finishing slopes of the Alto del Castillo above Burgos (900 meters at nearly 7% to close out 165 hilly kilometers) the Dutch squad put on a clinic. Ben Tulett drilled the pace to shred the group, then handed off to teenage phenom Matthew Brennan, who timed his sprint out of the final corner to perfection for the stage and the first yellow jersey. Tulett rolled in second, completing a Visma one-two, with Laurence Pithie salvaging third for the chasers. An early four-man breakaway had no chance once the GC teams decided the finale was worth fighting for.
Stage 2 flipped the script. The 178-kilometer trek from Arcos de la Llana to the Valle del Sol summit at Pineda de la Sierra (3.4 kilometers at 7.7%) was always going to hurt more than the opener, and it thinned the group down to the genuine climbers. Oscar Onley, back from missing out on the Tour de France, proved strongest of the lot, out-kicking Giulio Ciccone and Enric Mas to snatch both the stage and the overall lead from Brennan’s shoulders.
Two days in, and the picture is already familiar: a big, punchy finish for the fast men, followed immediately by a proper summit test to sort out who’s actually built for the mountains ahead. With INEOS, Q36.5, and Movistar all still lurking, Onley’s grip on the jersey is thin, and Burgos still has its harder days in reserve.
La Vuelta Gets Its Own Official…Mango
*sigh*
And here you thought that Pogi’s involvement was the week’s big Vuelta news: Turns out it’s actually that La Vuelta 26 has a new marquee sponsor — a tropical one. Mango de España by Intertropic has been crowned the race’s Official Mango, because apparently every Grand Tour now needs an official fruit alongside the official bank, official tire, and official energy drink; considering the temps, we should soon see an official ice sock.
For 21 stages, the mango brand will occupy the signature podium, flood the daily livestream, and staff the fan zones with smoothies, skewers and tastings. The final three stages get the full treatment, complete with a mascot presumably costumed as a giant mango, waddling around Parque Vuelta high-fiving children and mildly startling GC contenders.
Intertropic’s director framed the tie-up as a chance to spotlight Spanish growers and link the fruit to hard work and active living, while La Vuelta’s Javier Guillén called the podium the perfect stage to bring the product closer to fans.
Look, mangoes are delicious, Spanish agriculture deserves the shoutout, and podium girls — er, podium people deserve better sponsors than whatever cologne brand usually shows up. But “Official Mango of a bike race” is peak modern cycling sponsorship inflation.
Of course, until we start charging to crowd roadsides, we’ll take whatever funding we can get.
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Surprise! Fabio Jakobsen Headed to Visma
Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen is set to make one of the summer’s more eyebrow-raising moves: a switch to Visma | Lease a Bike. Last month Jakobsen and Picnic PostNL agreed to part ways, with his contract ending July 31, and the man of the rather sad saga could be racing in Visma’s colors as soon as this month.
The Dutch WorldTeam wasn’t alone in circling him. EF Education-EasyPost and Alpecin-Deceuninck also showed serious interest. But sources close to Visma | Lease a Bike say the move was no impulse buy; it was carefully weighed. Jakobsen lives near Head of Performance Mathieu Heijboer, and the two have logged plenty of training miles together over the years, giving the team an inside track.
Visma had been quietly hunting a flat-stage sprinter for 2027 anyway, so when Jakobsen’s PostNL exit accelerated, talks about grabbing him quickly kicked into gear. A short-term deal could land any day.
It hasn’t been an easy few years. Since his horror crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland, Jakobsen clawed back to a Tour de France stage win in 2022, but 2025 brought major surgery for a pinched pelvic artery on both sides, then a five-way collarbone fracture at the Renewi Tour. His last win dates back to April 2024, at the Presidential Tour of Turkiye.
Still just 29, Jakobsen has time on his side: Visma point to Cavendish and Kittel as proof that sprinters can rediscover top form after setbacks. The plan: ease him back with a lighter program and a fresh training approach. A tough climb back, but a fresh jersey might be exactly the reset he needs.
Bianchi Unveils New Officina Colors
No other bicycle is known for its distinct color like Bianchi. But the Italian icon isn’t only about the Celeste; it has launched its new Officina collection in an array of aesthetics.
The Officina Bianchi customization program provides “exclusive experiences for riders looking to add a flourish of individuality to their bikes”. Each piece is hand-painted by Bianchi’s craftspeople.
The expanded range introduces six new custom designs, one of which is a highly limited-edition run, and three returning best-sellers.
New additions include:
- Anima Celeste: A marbled metallic celeste base like veins in muscle tissue. This flagship creation is strictly limited, with an annual production of just 50 pieces worldwide.
- Alba: “Mirroring the phases of sunrise, with midnight blue transitioning into the warm, red glow of the sun”
- Archivio Celeste: An “archeo-style” homage to Bianchi’s heritage, featuring three complementary shades of its iconic celeste
- Nebulosa: A cosmic blend of blue, purple, celeste and orange hues
- Tempesta Solare: A dynamic shade inspired by the night skies of Northern Europe.
- Venere: Inspired by the planet Venus, pairing an earthy yellow base with subtle, mottled reddish hues.
Traditional colors that are still available include:
- Blue Marine Drip: High-gloss, vibrant tones of blue and green
- Canova: A homage to legendary Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, replicating the appearance of carved, polished marble
- Miami Drip: A fusion of intermingling purple and pink hues, with white frame detailing.
All nine designs are available in frame-only or full-bike options. For more information and local pricing options, visit bianchi.com and contact your nearest official dealer.
VIDEO: Richard Rides Spectacular West Vancouver
I (Mike) am fortunate enough to ride in some pretty cycling-conducive places, but I’m not the only one…Richard’s home of Vancouver, BC is a beautiful spot with plenty of well-managed roads and spectacular views. Great riding — in summer, at least!
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The post EUROTRASH: Tadej Disses Primoz — Yet Again appeared first on PezCycling News.
