In this post-classics, pre-Giro roundup, Tadej Pogačar extended his dominant 2026 spring campaign with overall victory at the Tour de Romandie, while Jonas Vingegaard continues his disciplined buildup toward the Tour de France via the Giro. Elsewhere, Georg Zimmermann sprinted to victory at Eschborn-Frankfurt, Noemi Rüegg won Stage 1 of La Vuelta Femenina, Sebastian Berwick claimed the Tour of Turkey, and Arnaud De Lie returned from injury to win the Famenne Ardenne Classic. Off the bike: Harry Sweeney undergoes knee surgery, Zwift acquires Rouvy, and Bianchi signs MotoGP star Marco Bezzecchi as brand ambassador.
TOP STORY
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Pogačar, Vingegaard Take Divergent Paths to the Tour
RACE NEWS
- Vuelta Feminina: Rüegg Rules Stage 1 On The Atlantic Coast
- Zimmermann Wins Eschborn-Frankfurt in Dramatic Sprint Finish
- Berwick Bags the Bosphorus: Tour de Turkey’s Final Act
- No Looking Back as De Lie Delivers Again in Famenne Ardenne Classic
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- Harry Sweeny Undergoes Knee Surgery
- Bianchi Announces Partnership with MotoGP Star Marco Bezzecchi
- Zwift Acquires Rouvy: Indoor Cycling’s Biggest Shake-Up in Years
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK
- KGB & Kent’s Trails in Bend, Oregon
VIDEO
- PEZ Rides the Civiglio on Lake Como
Pogačar, Vingegaard Take Divergent Paths to the Tour
With the Tour de France still two months away, the sport’s two dominant stage racers have spent the spring in characteristically different fashions — one seemingly incapable of losing, almost irrespective of terrain, the other picking his spots with cold, tactical precision.
Tadej Pogačar’s 2026 season began in dominant fashion with victories at Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo, and the Tour of Flanders. Paris-Roubaix once again slipped through his fingers, yet nonetheless illustrated his versatility and near-total dominance. The Milan-Sanremo win was particularly sweet — the race had been a white whale for the Slovenian — but he finally slayed it, recovering from his crash, rallying over the Cipressa, and outdueling Tom Pidock. Three monuments won, one barely lost, a near-monument taken easily: overall a hell of a spring.
Then last week Pogačar sealed the Tour de Romandie title in style, winning his fourth stage on the final day. Heading into the final stage with a 35-second lead, Pogačar knew he would simply have to remain consistent on the only summit finish of the week. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) pushed him all the way — the German gutsily attacking first on the Leysin climb and forcing a genuine sprint at altitude — but Pogačar topped the final general classification by 42 seconds over Lipowitz. Business as usual, even if it appeared briefly uncomfortable.
Jonas Vingegaard, by contrast, has followed a far more concentrated script. His confirmed programme lists just four blocks, all of them stage races: UAE Tour, Volta a Catalunya, Giro d’Italia, and Tour de France. That economy of racing, however, has come with emphatic returns. Vingegaard won Paris-Nice with a staggering margin — the largest winning gap in the race since 1939 — after two devastating solo attacks. He then backed it up by securing a second major overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya.
Pogačar will, of course, start the Tour de France as the overwhelming favorite. But these very different approaches — one of which practically prioritizes Grand Tour racing as a subordinate priority to winning the spring’s major one-day races — may serve to balance those odds.
Final General Classification Results, 79th Tour de Romandie, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
RACE NEWS
Vuelta Feminina: Rüegg Rules Stage 1 On The Atlantic Coast
EF Education cycling can’t win for losing on the men’s side these days — see last week’s article about Ben Healy’s surgery, and the update below on Hary Sweeny — but the women continue to pull out solid results.
The latest such result came in Stage 1 of La Vuelta Femenina, which rolled out of Marín on Sunday with a stage that had teeth — 1,866 meters of climbing, rain-slicked roads, and a finish that demanded respect. No beach parade here; just proper racing from the gun.
Not that the breakaway got the memo. The early move never really materialized, and when the peloton hit the Alto de Cruceiro as one big happy family, it was clear the climbers’ jerseys would be doing the real work. Maëva Squiban snapped up the KOM points on the first climb; Biriukova got revenge on the second. The polka-dot question would go unanswered until the finish.
At the intermediate sprint, Franziska Koch showed she came to race — six bonus seconds pocketed cleanly. The peloton was humming. Then, nine kilometers out, chaos. A crash at the front of the bunch swept up Marianne Vos and sent six riders scattering off the front: Koch, Berthet, Van Agt, Vigilia, Ferrand-Prévot, and Alessia Vigilia among them. FDJ had been winding things up and kept the pressure on — but EF and SD Worx eventually dragged the bunch back with four K to go.
Vos, meanwhile, had to chase. Alone. Half a minute in arrears. Her teammates waited, she regrouped, and with less than two kilometers left she clawed her way back to the front group — just in time to watch Noemi Rüegg blow the doors off the sprint. The Swiss rider timed her run to perfection, opening a gap Kopecky simply couldn’t close. Vos finished seventh. Gutsy, but the Swiss star took the day.
General Classification after Stage 1, La Vuelta Feminina – courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
Zimmermann Wins Eschborn-Frankfurt in Dramatic Sprint Finish
Georg Zimmermann claimed victory at the 63rd edition of Eschborn-Frankfurt on Friday, outsprinting Tom Pidcock and Ben Tulett in a chaotic finale to claim the biggest German WorldTour race.
The 211-kilometer course featured a demanding 3,300 meters of elevation gain, with the Mammolshain climb tackled twice in the final stretch. An early five-rider breakaway built a lead of over five minutes, but a coalition of teams kept the gap manageable throughout.
Late attacks from Tim Wellens and Emiel Verstrynge animated the race, with Wellens eventually launching a solo bid before being caught on the Mammolshain. With the climbing done, twelve riders formed an elite group heading into Frankfurt, including Pidcock, Tulett, Pello Bilbao, and Zimmermann.
The drama intensified in the final kilometers as a chasing peloton closed to within twenty seconds with five kilometers remaining. Michael Valgren sacrificed his own chances to drive the pace for teammate Alex Baudin, giving the lead group just enough of a buffer to hold off the sprinters behind.
In the end, it was Zimmermann who proved strongest, winning emphatically in front of his home crowd to take a deserved victory.
Top Ten – 63rd Eschborn-Frankfurt, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
Berwick Bags the Bosphorus: Tour de Turkey’s Final Act
Three stages. One jersey. A young Australian who refused to be rattled.
Going into Stage 6’s brutal queen stage, Berwick sat just 13 seconds off the lead held by Iván Sosa — a knife-edge deficit on a day that would demand everything. The climb to Feslikan — 21 kilometres at 8.4%, topping out at a lung-busting 1,900 metres — was always going to be where the race cracked open. CyclingnewsCyclingflash
It did. Breakaway rider Christian Bagatin attacked solo with 18 km remaining and, with late chases coming too late, held on for his first professional victory — a fairy-tale moment for the young Italian. Behind him, Berwick surged past a fading Sosa to seize the turquoise jersey. Procyclingstats
Stage 7 in Antalya went to Davide Ballerini amid a neutralisation in slippery, wet conditions — nervy racing for any GC contender with a slim lead. Cyclingnews
Then came the finale. A short, punchy 105km circuit around Ankara tackled six times, with a brutal uphill drag inside the final kilometre. Tom Crabbe timed his effort to perfection, raising his arms for a remarkable third stage win of the race. Cyclingnews
Berwick, cool as a mountain spring, came home safely. The 2026 Tour of Turkey belonged to Sebastian Berwick of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA. A deserved winner. Class act. PEZ approved.
Top Ten, 61st Presidential Tour of Türkiye, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats
No Looking Back as De Lie Delivers Again in Famenne Ardenne Classic
Arnaud De Lie of Lotto-Intermarché claimed his first victory of 2026 with a powerful sprint finish at the Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic on Sunday. The 24-year-old Belgian had been struggling for form all season but produced one of his characteristic uphill-drag sprint finishes to claim his third victory in the past four editions of the Belgian one-day race.
De Lie’s season had been disrupted by injury, and his last appearance in the peloton had been at Paris-Roubaix, where he was unable to finish. The race came down to a nail-biting finale, with a late breakaway group caught in the very final straight before the sprinters took over.
Jens Verbrugghe of NSN Development finished second, with Matteo Moschetti of Pinarello-Q36.5 rounding out the podium. The 186.4-kilometre race started and finished in Marche-en-Famenne.
The victory comes just days before De Lie is set to make his debut at the Giro d’Italia. “This is a confidence boost,” De Lie said after the race.
Top Ten, 8th Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic, courtesy of Pro Cycling Stats.
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
Harry Sweeny Undergoes Knee Surgery
On Monday, 2025 Tour de France revelation Harry Sweeny underwent a successful operation to remove an inflamed plica in his left knee.
Sweeny’s injury first flared up at Milano-Sanremo, and has hampered his training and prevented him from racing ever since. In consultation with the EF medical team, he decided to have surgery now in order to give himself enough time to recover from the operation and prepare for the Tour de France.
“I’ve been struggling since Sanremo,” Harry said. “It’s been quite off and on. I wasn’t able to race. I’ve been able to do a few days of good training, but then it would come back, and then I would be good for a few more days…The rehab should be one week to 10 days off the bike, and then we expect that I should be able to start training again with a lot of physiotherapy and hopefully still make the back end of the Tour camp with the team. I love the Tour de France. It is such a special race. So, it’s a good motivation, to get the rehab on track now the surgery is done. “
Please follow Pez for updates on Sweeny’s recovery.
Bianchi Announces Partnership with MotoGP Star Marco Bezzecchi
Bianchi has unveiled MotoGP star Marco Bezzecchi as a global ambassador for the brand.
The partnership with Bezzecchi — who currently tops the MotoGP standings, having won the opening three races of the 2026 season for Aprilla Racing — brings together two Italian sporting giants.
To officially welcome him into the fold, Bianchi presented Bezzecchi with a unique Impulso RC at the Spanish Grand Prix last weekend, where he secured a solid second position at the Circuito de Jerez.
The gravel bike was engineered by Bianchi’s Reparto Corse, and its unique livery was personally prepared by the exclusive Officina Bianchi customization program, which provides bespoke experiences for riders looking to add a flourish of personalization to their bikes.
The 27-year-old Aprilla Racing pilot will utilize the Impulso RC, and a custom Specialissima RC, as essential training tools on both gravel and road, as well as for track reconnaissance rides at all upcoming races.
Marco Bezzecchi said: “I am proud to join forces with Bianchi and receive this beautiful Impulso RC bike, which features some incredible, personalized touches. Bianchi is one of Italy’s most historic sporting brands, forever linked to great cycling champions like Coppi and Pantani, but they are also consistently innovating as well.”
The Impulso RC is Bianchi’s flagship gravel race bike, developed to suit the needs of competitive racers who demand the holy trinity of aerodynamic performance, low weight, and off-road capability. Full details on the Impulso RC can be found by clicking HERE.
Despite being known nowadays as a premium cycling brand, Bianchi also has proud roots in motorcycling and enjoyed huge success on the track with the legendary Tazio Nuvolari in the 1920s.
Zwift Acquires Rouvy: Indoor Cycling’s Biggest Shake-Up in Years
The indoor cycling world was rocked this week when Zwift, the dominant gamified training platform, announced it had completed the acquisition of Rouvy, its Czech-based rival. The two companies had long been positioned at opposite ends of the market — Zwift describing itself as the “fitness company born from gaming,” while Rouvy combined real-world footage with virtual racing and training.
The acquisition aims to accelerate the growth of indoor cycling through strategic cooperation between the two companies, while maintaining their independent operations. Both platforms will feature different roadmaps and subscription packages.
The deal also brings hardware benefits: Zwift-ready smart trainers and Zwift Ride smart frames will now work with Rouvy. Financial terms were not disclosed.
By the time of the acquisition, Rouvy had grown to more than 300,000 subscribers, having seen more than 50% year-on-year growth. The platform had itself been an active acquirer, having previously acquired both FulGaz and Bkool, though Bkool was ultimately folded into Rouvy and shut down.
Rouvy CEO Petr Samek called the deal “a strong validation of what we’ve built with our team and community,” reassuring users that Rouvy would continue operating with the same team and focus. Some in the cycling community, however, have raised concerns about reduced competition and the prospect of future price increases.
MIKE’S RIDE OF THE WEEK: KGB & KENT’S TRAILS IN BEND, OREGON
A chill in the air and fatigue in my legs kept my rides last week short and easy, but Bend’s vast network of mountain bike trails is perfect for that.
This is a roadies’ site, yes, but these are roadies’ trails: Smooth, forgiving, and endless.
At least, the trails I ride, like last week’s KGB and Kent’s: mostly green, a touch of blue. But the more adventurous do have their outlets; I don’t touch these, not with my hardtail (or my lack of skill and confidence).
I try desperately to steer clear of schlocky terms like “happy place” but…these trails are my happy place. Again: please let me know (mike@pezcyclingnews.com) if you’re ever in Central Oregon.
PEZ VIDEO
If your summer holiday’s haven’t already been booked – consider a cycling trip to Italy and riding around the Lakes – here’s a Top Ride I highly recommend around Lake Como, taking in the Madonna del Ghisallo, Civiglio climb and descent into Como, plus a look at the Hotel Il Perlo.
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