It’s the all-new-format Thursday EuroTrash, Pez-friends!
You’ll still find a week’s worth of race, racer and racing news fresh on your digital doorstep on Monday mornings (here in North America, at least), but Thursdays are about tapping the collective cycling zeitgeist; we spend a week listening so you can spend a morning reading, considering — and maybe responding.
This launch version of the Thursday Three dishes on your responses to our Worlds-prediction survey; the lingering, ever-justified fretting about racers’ safety; and Matthew Brennan’s rather remarkable winning ways at the Vuelta. Plus a case for Worlds as a pre-eminent one-day — and a flyover view of the spectacular Gran Fondo Whistler course.
THE THURSDAY THREE
- With Tadej out, Who’s your Pick for Worlds?
- Fin Tarling, Pogačar, and Rider Safety
- Brennan Mania!
AND…WHAT’S ON MIKE’S MIND
- The Rise of Worlds
VIDEO
- PEZ Flys Over the RBC Gran Fondo Whistler Course on Race Day
What’s the pro cycling world talking about this week? Here’s what we’re hearing from our perch in PEZ-land!
Topic #1: Your Pick for Montréal Worlds
You let us know what’s on your minds by answering our poll and sharing your prediction for the Worlds Road Race.
Who came out in front? One Wout van Aert — going away, with nearly twice as many votes as the runner-up, Mathieu van der Poel.
Seems that WVA’s performance at the Vuelta, where he’s doubled as strongest of the strongmen and super-duper domestique/Matt Brennan leadout, combined with your sentimental preference for the Nicest Guy Ever to Win Paris-Roubaix. Wout emerged ahead of perennial rival Mathieu van der Poel, plus Remco, Pidcock and all the rest.
My prognostication? MVDP will once again leave Wout wanting. We’ll check back in a few weeks!
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Topic #2: Fin Tarling, Pogačar, and Rider Safety
We continue to talk about crashing, and with good reason: Our dangerous sport is only becoming more dangerous.
One crash involved a relatively little-known rider, but was horrific; the other was relatively minor, but took out the greatest rider our sport has ever known (IMO): Between Fin Tarling’s death and Tadej Pogačar’s fractured vertebra and collarbone, the safety discussion has gotten considerably louder in recent weeks.
We know that cycling fans are talking about this, because we’ve heard from you. Here’s what one reader had to say: Getting the finishes out of the middle of cities with untold roundabouts, twists and turns, curbs, and probably a 100 more hazards. Thats goring the tradition and heart of what European bike racing has always been, but when is enough enough?
Even before Pogačar’s crash, the UCI used the Professional Cycling Council’s September 1-2 gathering in Aigle to push for real-time GPS tracking of riders and vehicles at every WorldTour and Women’s WorldTour race, building on the system already trialled at the 2025 Worlds in Kigali. Finish-line barriers meeting new safety standards will also become mandatory from 2027.
Will these measures make any difference at all? If so, likely a very small one. This seems like a try-everything moment; young athletes dying during competition should ring even louder alarm bells than the ones we’re hearing, and should trigger innovation and creativity.
The Tour of Britain paid tribute to Fin Tarling.
Topic #3: Brennan Mania
Sorry, Enric Mas; the Vuelta rider we’re all discussing (in addition to Wout van Aert; see above) is Visma’s Matthew Brennan.
The 21 year-old Brit has won five stages thus far; heck, by the time you read this, he may have added a sixth. Brennan showed tantalizing promise very early in his career, yet somehow seems to have taken a while to live up to expectations: Now — granted, in the absence of the sport’s elite sprinting corps — he has turned his Grand Tour debut into a personal exhibition, winning the most stages in a single Grand Tour since Marcel Kittel in 2017, enough to make him the youngest man in history to reach five Grand Tour stage victories.
It hasn’t been entirely friction-free: Hugo Hofstetter took a public swipe at Brennan’s sprint etiquette after stage 16, and comment sections have been split between hailing a generational talent and cautioning that Vuelta sprints are a different beast to a battle against Philipsen or Merlier at the Tour. Brennan himself has been unbothered, already talking up a possible 2027 Tour de France start on home roads in Britain. Noting not just the number of wins, but the open pavement between him and his rivals as he typically crosses the line, he may well yet live up to that potential.
AND…WHAT’S ON MIKE’S MIND: THE RISE OF WORLDS
The World Championship Road Race has always been prestigious. But in a sport that runs on tradition — mostly European tradition — it’s the age-old Monuments that have typically garnered the most awe.
This is shifting, from my perspective, with Worlds trailing just a couple of races in the esteem of both riders and fans: Paris-Roubaix and Flanders top the list, but Worlds trails, and not too far behind.
What’s my evidence? Vibes, mostly. But you read accounts of Pogačar’s early season’s end, and it’s all about missing out on Montréal, not Il Lombardia. The parcours and host nation variations are a better fit for an era when we’re all looking for something new, and the typical circuit format makes for thrilling viewing.
Here’s my ranking of one-day races (individual stages but not stage races included), in order of prestige. Share your own rankings — and tell me why I’m crazy — at mike@pezcyclingnews.com.
- Paris-Roubaix — Its esteem only rises as Pogačar continues to chase a velodrome win.
- Tour of Flanders —The history and backdrop are second to none, but thanks to Pogačar, it’s become predictable.
- World Championship Road Race
- Iconic Tour de France Stage — A win atop Alpe d’Huez or Mt. Ventoux or on the Champs Elysées beats just about everything else — just ask Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel.
- Milan-Sanremo — Every year’s winner feels almost random (though less so now that Pogačar has partially “solved” this race).
- Other Tour de France stage — There are 21 of these a year, not just one, but the Tour is the Tour, and a single stage can make a career.
- Olympic Road Race — I’ll get significant push-back on this one, but its quadrennial nature — and the fact that the winner evidently gets to sport gold kit and bike — boosts this one.
- Strade Bianche — The newest race on this list has risen rapidly in prestige.
- Liège–Bastogne–Liège — The purists hold this one in high regard; outside of the aficionado core, though, LBL isn’t well known.
- Il Lombardia — The Race of the Falling Leaves tends to get lost in the post-Worlds, end-of-season discussion, but retains prestige among riders (and will attract attention this year, with five-time winner Pogačar out).
VIDEO: PEZ Flys Over the RBC Gran Fondo Whistler Course on Race Day
PEZ SEz: Happening again this weekend – one of the truly great rides I’ve done is the 122km from Vancouver to Whistler along the world famous Sea to Sky Highway, on closed roads alongside 5000 other hearty cyclists. I’ve ridden it three times, and flown it once – here’s how it looks from the helicopter…
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The post EUROTRASH — The Thursday Three: Wout at Worlds, Crashing in Cycling, and Brennan Mania appeared first on PezCycling News.
