Is this a first — a PEZ EuroTrash led with a women’s cycling article?
You ask me (and Jonathan Milan; see below), the women’s Giro is worth leading off with – far more competitive than the men’s Giro.
But this edition of EuroTrash serves up plenty of men’s racing news, kicking off with a reader poll about the upcoming(!) Tour de France, plus a run-through of some fun midweek races, like the Tour de Wallonie and the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes (get that punctuation right!).
And on that punctuation point, an editor’s note: having earned my literature degree reading Faulkner and Joyce, I’ve been employing em-dashes since Sam Altman was a toddler, but now, thanks to AI’s convention of scattering them like grains of rice at a wedding, I’m supposed to steer clear. Harrumph.
TOP STORY
- Vollering Chipping Away, but van der Breggen Holds Commanding Giro Lead
RACE NEWS
- Reader Poll: NOW Who’s Going to Win the Tour?
-
Wallonie Dispatch: Sprinters Rule, Until They Don’t
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- Not Yet Watching Women’s Cycling?
- Niermann Heads to Lidl-Trek in Major Management Shake-Up
- Wiebes — and her Agent — Are Fed Up
- Vinokourov Pops in on the Pope
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: KINGS MOUNTAIN
VIDEO
- Meet The PEZ Crew: Andy Rohrer – Gear Break Editor
Vollering Chipping Away, but van der Breggen Holds Commanding Giro Lead
We’ve already had our say on the Wiebes bike-weight fiasco; in fact, below we give it a few more pixels. It was a bizarre curtain-raiser that handed Elisa Balsamo the maglia rosa before she’d so much as turned a pedal in anger. Moving on.
Because the real story of this Giro Donne is happening higher up the road, and it’s a good one.
After three consecutive stage “wins” for Balsamo, Stage 4’s uphill time trial to Nevegal finally handed the race over to the GC contenders, and nobody was ready for just how emphatic that handover would be. Anna van der Breggen stopped the clock in 31:38, finishing over a minute clear of world time trial champion Marlen Reusser and 1:10 up on Demi Vollering. Not a statement. A declaration.
Twenty-four hours later, Vollering bounced back to win Stage 5, the first direct confrontation between the pink jersey hopefuls, and with it claimed her first-ever stage win at the Giro. She threw everything at it too, attacking several times across four tough categorized climbs, but van der Breggen sat on her wheel like she had a GPS tracker fitted. Vollering took the sprint and grabbed ten crucial bonus seconds, with van der Breggen taking six. The overall gap has been narrowed to exactly one minute, but that’s trimming, not clawing back.
Here’s the problem for Vollering: van der Breggen isn’t cracking. She’s marked, she’s measured, and she’s got SD Worx riding like they own the mountains. Five stages remain, including the savage Colle delle Finestre queen stage on Saturday, but unless van der Breggen has a genuine bad day – unless she “pulls a del Toro” – a minute is a very long way to come back.
And if she does hold on? Let’s not skip past what that means. Van der Breggen has already won this race four times, but she stepped away from racing, and a return Giro title would be – let’s just say it – one of the most remarkable comebacks women’s cycling has ever seen. The “Lioness” isn’t just back; she’s in pink and she’s purring.
Giro d’Italia Women General Classification Top Ten after Stage 5 — Courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
RACE NEWS
Reader Poll: NOW Who’s Going to Win the Tour?
We’ve just witnessed a Giro d’Italia in which Jonas Vingegaard dominated his rivals and put up some of the most impressive sustained power numbers in an already-impressive career.
Meanwhile, Paul Seixas has been prepping for the Tour Auvergne Rhône-Alpes with a monster block, mounting over 37,000 meters of climbing in two weeks — and setting Strava KOMs up ascents that the Tour de France has covered dozens of times.
But Tadej Pogačar is still the overwhelming favorite…Right?
Right?
Thinking there may be small cracks forming in Pog’s armor, I thought I’d put it to you: Might someone else have a shot at winning this year’s Tour de France?
Record your response below, but better yet, share your thinking at mike@pezcyclingnews.com. I’d love to include your thoughts in next week’s EuroTrash!
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
Wallonie Dispatch: Sprinters Rule, Until They Don’t
Three stages into the 2026 Ethias-Tour de Wallonie, and the race has served up exactly the kind of punchy, unpredictable Belgian racing we come here for.
Stage 1 set the template: 180.7 kilometres from Manage to Lobbes, and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) doing what Jordi Meeus does: winning bunch sprints. The Red Bull train rolled through at an average of 42.7 km/h, with Meeus pipping Anders Foldager and Kim Heiduk to the line. Textbook stuff, if you’re into that sort of thing. The Belgian roads had other ideas for what came next.
Stage 2 is where it got interesting. The 192-kilometer run from Jodoigne to Libramont-Chevigny was supposed to be another sprinters’ playground, and Red Bull-BORA certainly planned for it that way. Van Poppel was dutifully shepherding Meeus through the final kilometre when the script got binned. Ben Oliver of Modern Adventure Pro Cycling came around everyone to take the win, the team’s first-ever victory on European soil. Nobody saw that one coming. Oliver certainly earns a beer.
Then Stage 3 delivered the drama nobody asked for but everyone needed. A massive crash ripped through the peloton inside the final two kilometers, decimating the bunch on the road to Vaux-sur-Sûre. Out of the chaos, Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) took the stage win, with Kim Heiduk coming home second and Krists Neilands in third. More significantly, Heiduk pulled on the leader’s jersey, taking over at the top of the general classification.
Two stages to go. Heiduk leads, Pithie is dangerous, and Wallonie hasn’t finished misbehaving yet.
Mercan’Tour Classic: Kern Pharma Mugs the Frenchman
The sixth edition of the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes delivered everything the race’s billing promises: big mountains, a brutal finale, and a result nobody quite saw coming until 500 metres from the line.
The 152-kilometre route from Puget-Théniers to Valberg stacked up around 4,300 metres of climbing, sending the peloton over the Colmiane, the fearsome Col de la Couillole, and the final haul up to Valberg — the kind of menu that separates the genuine climbers from the day-trippers pretty efficiently.
An early five-man break formed in the flat valley section but was hauled back with 65 kilometres to go. The race proper ignited on the Couillole, where Decathlon CMA CGM set a fierce pace that whittled the lead group down to around 20 riders. Among those still in contention was 43-year-old Domenico Pozzovivo — a Gray Jersey contender if there ever was one — still making mountains hurt for people half his age.
At the foot of the Valberg finale, Léo Bisiaux launched off the front and opened a gap that looked, for a long time, entirely decisive. Decathlon had fired him into the attack a full 12 kilometers from the line. Brave. Perhaps a touch too brave.
With Sosa driving hard on the front for his Kern Pharma teammate, the Spanish duo reeled in Bisiaux and swept past him. Ibon Ruiz crossed the line first to claim his maiden professional victory, with Sosa second and Bisiaux holding on for third, 11 seconds back. Pozzovivo rolled home fourth.
Magnificent scenery. Magnificent suffering. Mercan’Tour delivers.
Top Ten — 6th Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Not Yet Watching Women’s Cycling?
What? Even after that TOP STORY you’re still not following women’s cycling?
How about this argument: If it’s good enough for last year’s Green Jersey winner — the day after he won the final Giro stage — surely it’s good enough for you!
Niermann Heads to Lidl-Trek in Major Management Shake-Up
Grischa Niermann is departing Visma | Lease a Bike to join Lidl-Trek as Head of Racing, ending an association with the team stretching back to its Rabobank days. The German ex-pro spent fourteen years racing for Rabobank before returning post-career to lead their development team, eventually stepping up to the WorldTour setup — then racing as LottoNL-Jumbo — in 2017.
Niermann succeeded Merijn Zeeman just eighteen months ago and leaves a remarkable legacy. Under his watch, the team claimed two Giro d’Italia titles, the Vuelta a España, and Paris-Roubaix. His meticulous race preparation became something of a trademark.
Visma | Lease a Bike is again promoting from within, handing the Head of Cycling role to Marc Reef. A former staffer at Iwan Spekenbrink’s operation, where he worked alongside Dumoulin, Kittel, and Barguil, Reef joined Visma in 2022 and has steadily risen through the ranks — most recently serving as sporting director at both this year’s and last year’s Giro-winning squads.
For Lidl-Trek, Niermann’s appointment signals serious intent. Since acquiring a majority stake in October 2025, the German supermarket chain has been reshaping the team around grand tour ambitions — and Niermann knows exactly how to win those.
Vinokurov Pops In on the Pope
Alexandr Vinokurov, Olympic champion and General Manager of XDS Astana Team, took time out of his busy schedule to present Pope Leo XIV with a Kazakh team jersey. His Holiness, apparently well-briefed on UCI World Team Rankings, duly congratulated the squad on its Giro d’Italia performance and wished the riders further success.
The timing was, as the team’s press release notes, “symbolic” — the Giro having just wrapped up in Rome the previous day. XDS Astana did have a decent race, taking three stage victories and spending some time in the pink jersey, which is indeed the famous pink jersey, the main symbol of the Giro.
Vinokurov called the papal audience “a great honor and additional motivation.” One imagines it was.
Off the back of 1,565 Giro points, the team sits fifth in the UCI World Team Rankings with 8,318.71 points — a figure delivered with the confidence of a team that knows exactly where it stands.
Meanwhile, the development squad is third in the Continental Rankings and leads among WorldTour development teams by over 300 points, with 50% Kazakh riders, a statistic XDS Astana would very much like you to remember.
Wiebes — and her Agent — Are Fed Up
As Pez reported earlier this week (and as I mention above) Lorena Wiebes was disqualified from the 2026 Giro d’Italia Donne after her bike was found to be marginally underweight — just 20 grams below the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum. Her agent André Boskamp has spoken out, calling the decision deeply unprofessional.
“That is so absurd… It is the same bike with the same components. She used the exact same bike in the Vuelta a Burgos,” Boskamp told Wielerflits. “Someone from the team management who was present saw that the inspectors were really fumbling with the scales. By doing so, they bring cycling into disrepute.”
The disqualification didn’t come until 9:00 PM, leaving no opportunity to appeal. Boskamp was particularly critical of how the process was handled: “The difference fluctuated during the weigh-ins, with a margin of fifty grams — one above, the other below. Then I really wonder what they are doing. Is this professional?”
He argued a lesser sanction would have been more appropriate. “The jury could have said: ‘This is questionable and you are getting a warning. But tomorrow before the start, we will come and check your bike again.’ It is just a slice of cheese. That is all it is.”
The consequences extend beyond Wiebes herself. “You also miss out on all kinds of bonuses, UCI points, and exposure for the sponsors. It is quite serious how many severe consequences the exclusion has.”
Wiebes, who had won the opening stage before the disqualification, has since retreated to a campsite in Italy to recover. Boskamp is confident she will bounce back: “Knowing her, she will only come out of this stronger. So, brace yourself for that Copenhagen Sprint on June 13th.”
SD Worx-Protime is expected to file a claim with the UCI, with the case likely heading to the CAS.
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: KINGS MOUNTAIN (WOODSIDE, CA)
I’m getting some mileage (as it were) out of my long weekend on the San Francisco Peninsula. Last week it was Spectrum, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest and fastest group rides; this week it’s my solo trip up Kings Mountain, one of the area’s iconic climbs.
Kings rises from the moneyed town of Woodside to Skyline drive, a smooth road twisting through dense forest that occasionally gives way to views of the Bay.
As I snapped photos at the top of Skyline, a small group rode through; I recognized them from Spectrum. We plunged down together until we reached the crossroads of 84 and Skyline drive, until we reached Alice’s Restaurant. It’s not the subject of the famous Arlo Guthrie protest song, but it does have hippie roots. Today, though, there are lines out the door — and tricked out Porsches in the parking lot.
Kings is a climb worth finding your way to if you’re ever near San Francisco. Strong endorsement.
PEZ VIDEO
Here’s a new feature – a video interview with the PEZ Crew to add a little depth, context, and “je ne Pez quoi” about our small but mighty band of buds who bring PEZ to your screen each day… Let’s get started with a short chat with Andy Rohrer –
Gotta Comment, thought or suggestion? Drop us a line at Content@PezCyclingNews.com
The post EUROTRASH: Van der Breggen in Command at Giro Women appeared first on PezCycling News.
