Cycling news

• Tour de France 2026 – Merlier goes back-to-back with stage eight win in Bergerac – as it happened

  11-07-2026 18:17
  Tim Merlier again proved he is the fastest sprinter in the race after a heroic effort by Liam Slock was foiled at the lastOn the telly, they’re discussing the dynamics of the sprint finishes: we’ve had two bunch kicks and two different winners, Olav Kooij and Tim Merlier. I fancy we’ll see a different winner today, and the pressure is on Philipsen to deliver, likewise Biniam Girmay.“Hello!” writes Bill. Continue reading...
  
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• Heatwave forces Tour de France organisers to shorten Sunday’s stage nine

  11-07-2026 18:09
  Stage eight: Tadej Pogacar untroubled in overall leadMerlier produces superb sprint win for second day
  Sunday’s ninth stage of the Tour de France has been shortened by 30km due to a red heatwave alert in the Corrèze département of central France. The stage from Malemort to Ussel will now be raced over 155.5km instead of the scheduled 185.5.In a statement the Tour said: “This decision aims to ensure that the race can take place under conditions compatible with the red he
  
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• Days of salted codfish and cabbage leaves are over: how climate crisis is shaping Tour de France’s future

  11-07-2026 09:00
  Heatwaves have long been part of the Tour but temperatures now are pushing the riders to limit of human enduranceThe Tour de France and the heat of the midday sun are old bedfellows, going back long before an era when the biggest catastrophe of the Tour’s opening week was a major fault in the Visma team bus’s air conditioning. Flip back 50 years to my favourite Tour read, the late Geoffrey Nicholson’s The Great Bike Race, and we find the doyen of cycling writers discussing a To
  
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