“Sad we can’t afford to watch you anymore”: Tom Pidcock unveils classics schedule... prompting fan complaints about TNT’s cycling price hike; “Give children the choice and they will cycle to school”; French race fine plans slammed + more on the live blog

After getting his Q36.5 career off to a dominantly victorious start at the AlUla Tour a few weeks ago, Tom Pidcock has finally confirmed his schedule for the classics season – and, despite the drop down to ProTour level, it’s a packed one.

 

 

 

 

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The 25-year-old is set to return to racing next week at the Ruta del Sol, his final stage racing tune-up before Opening Weekend of the classics and his first stint on the cobbles at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

A week later, the double Olympic mountain champion will head to Tuscany, where he’ll be aiming to secure his second career triumph at Strade Bianche. Pidcock will stay in Itay for Tirreno-Adriatico, the traditional preparation race for the first monument of the season, Milan-Sanremo.

There will be no Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix this year for Pidcock, however, in a programe that skews towards the hillier side of his skillsket.

While Van der Poel and Van Aert will be rampaging over the cobbles and Flemish bergs, the British star will have almost a month off, as he builds towards two races he’s won in the past: Brabantse Pijl and Amstel Gold, at which he’ll be the defending champion.

 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Finally, he’ll round off his classics campaign in the Ardennes with Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the relentlessly hilly monument he finished second at, behind Remco Evenepoel, in 2023.

As is customary for a second-tier squad reliant on wildcard invites to the sport’s biggest races, the rest of Pidcock’s season currently remains up in the air. The Tour de France is off the table for this year, but invites to the other grand tours, the Giro and the Vuelta, remain a possibility, with an Italian debut (and therefore a very busy first half of the season) looking most likely at the moment.

Trafford Council’s school streets scheme was featured on BBC Breakfast this morning, with young Salford-based cyclist Kofi extolling the virtues on national televison of “having the fresh air around me, instead of being in a car” every morning, as well as the environmental benefits of riding a bike.

“I feel like I’ve achieved something, because I’ve cycled all the way to school,” Kofi told the BBC reporter, while Khadijah said that cycling to school “brightens up my mood”.

“I don’t know how, but it feels so nice to me,” she said.

There's a lot of talk about growth but rarely any discussion on how we enable our children to live prosperous, happy and productive lives. It will have benefits both now and in the future. The school run is the epitome of inefficiency. These kids know there's a much better way.

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— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 10:14 AM

The segment – a rare bike-friendly one on BBC Breakfast (where’s the “vigilante” remarks?) – has been praised by cycling campaigners, who argue it demonstrated that if you “give children the choice, they will cycle to school”.

“There’s a lot of talk about growth but rarely any discussion on how we enable our children to live prosperous, happy, and productive lives,” former West Midlands walking and cycling commissioner Adam Tranter said in response to the clip on BlueSky.

“It will have benefits both now and in the future. The school run is the epitome of inefficiency. These kids know there’s a much better way.”

“100 per cent,” replied Alice Ferguson. “And what will enable this is safer, less car dominated streets.”

> “We can’t wait for some horrible accident outside the school before we do anything”: No funding for safety schemes at school where driver hit child on bike, as council vows to “deal with fallout” from scrapping of controversial LTN

“I really would recommend to everyone the experience of setting off every morning as a convoy of bikes on the way to school, then work, shouting greetings to neighbours and school mates as we pass them on the street. A few miles on a bike is nothing,” added Adam Brown.

While Trafford Council’s local active travel campaign group, Walk Ride GM, wrote: “Give children the choice, and they will cycle to school.

“The only thing stopping them are adults who make our cities dangerous to be a kid!”

Reports this week that the UCI could be set to impose hefty fines and sanctions on the Étoile de Bessèges, over the safety chaos that marred the French stage race and saw most teams leave early, have been met with derision by cycling fans and pundits, who have accused the governing body of hypocrisy and of simply attempting to “boost their own coffers”.

Last week, the Étoile de Bessèges – the annual early season stage race in the Gard department of southern France – descended into chaos following a series of safety incidents involving members of the public driving on the race route, one of which caused a crash, and which led to over half of the teams quitting the race in protest.

During Wednesday’s opening stage, riders were forced to avoid a lorry and several cars that were lined along the road in the final 10km.

And the following day, another motorist strayed onto the route and drove towards the bunch – after reportedly being told twice to leave the course by race officials – before rapidly reversing off the road.

The driver’s actions led to a crash in the peloton as the riders slowed to avoid the motorist, resulting in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Maxim van Gils abandoning the race with injury.

That incident appears to have sparked a ‘make the race safer or we’ll go home’ narrative from the teams towards the organisers, one that was unfortunately enacted almost immediately the next day, when another seemingly unsuspecting motorist made their way onto the circuit just 12km into the third stage, driving in the opposite direction to the race at a roundabout and almost colliding with the bunch.

The peloton immediately stopped for over an hour as union representative discussed the seemingly never-ending safety issues with the organisers, eventually leading to a number of teams – including the Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and EF Education-EasyPost – to head back to their buses and quit the race.

> Ineos Grenadiers and other teams refuse to continue French stage race after motorist almost drives into cyclists at roundabout – day after another driver strayed onto course and caused crash

“The safety of our riders is paramount and we felt not enough was being done,” Lidl-Trek said announcing their withdrawal.

The Étoile de Bessèges stuttered on to Sunday’s cold and rainy finish at L’Hermitage, with only 52 of the original 146 riders completing the race, won by Arkéa-B&B’s Kévin Vauquelin.

And now, it appears that the UCI could be set to impose a heavy fine and sanctions on the longstanding French stage race, which is largely run by volunteers.

According to the governing body’s rules, 2.1-level races like the Étoile de Bessèges are not required to have full road closures, but should at least have rolling closures for when the race passes (a situation not helped in this case by the relatively low number of marshals on hand to stop drivers from entering the course), while also preventing any vehicles from being parked on the route.

“Measures are being taken to prevent a recurrence of the problems that occurred during these stages, even though some teams have chosen to withdraw from the race,” the UCI said in a statement confirming that it is investigating the issues at Bessèges.

“The UCI will thoroughly investigate the problems with the road closures and take the necessary action. We will do this bearing in mind the sanctions set out in article 2.12.011.”

Het Nieuwsblad reports that the governing body – which has taken a stronger public stance on race safety with its new SafeR organisation introducing a number of initiatives over the past year – is aiming to make it clear that it “will no longer tolerate races that cannot guarantee the safety of the cyclists” and does not want to let the incidents at the Étoile de Bessèges “go unpunished”.

According to the Belgian paper, that means almost certainly a fine (probably between €4,000 and €10,000, as stipulated in the UCI’s rules). It also means that the race could be placed under “supervision” by external technical experts, who will oversee its running next year – at the event’s expense, of course.

This apparent desire to clamp down on one of the sport’s smaller, family-run races has attracted criticism from cycling fans and pundits who – despite agreeing that ensuring the safety of the peloton is key – believe any sanctions would simply be a money-making exercise for the UCI.

“This is total BS. This race has lots of goodwill, volunteers, and enthusiasm. What it doesn’t have are pots of money. This just reads like a way of boosting the UCI’s coffers,” cycling writer Peter Cossins said on BlueSky.

“As if losing half of the teams and a good bit of reputation wasn’t punishment enough for a small race like that,” added Luerikerin.

And Ninoukovitch said: “Did the UCI sanction the Tour of Lombardy in 2020 when there were cars going the wrong way in the final? Hypocrisy.”

“Sheriff of the UCI taxing the poor again. And we wonder why small races are disappearing,” wrote Sean.

> Oblivious motorist forced to reverse off road after driving towards charging pro peloton at Étoile de Bessèges stage race, causing crash and injuring rider

“The driver who was at fault was twice warned to get off the course, but ignored the organisers who didn’t have the legal authority to force him off,” Win pointed out.

“This has been a problem for ages,” noted journalist Owen Rogers. “Remember the huge speed bump in the final of a Spanish sprint stage three years back?

“The UCI can’t sanction offending races because it needs organisers to organise races, but if it doesn't sanction organisers they can break regulations and riders are at risk.”

And Raoul concluded: “We all want races to be safe… The issue is how to let small races thrive without pricing them out of existence?

“Losing events like the Étoile de Bessèges can’t be a thing that anyone can condone.”

 

 

 

 

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Soudal-Quick Step may have to come up with something better than a flimsy card, a teddy bear, and dinner at Frankie & Benny’s for their latest star this week, as new recruit Valentin Paret-Peintre fulfilled the wishes of pun-loving headline writers everywhere by soaring to his first victory for the Belgian squad on the steep slopes of Green Mountain at the Tour of Oman this morning.

But it was Adam Yates, two seconds behind the fast-finishing Frenchman at the line, who secured his second consecutive overall title at the five-day race, after piling the pressure on, and ultimately cracking, race leader David Gaudu on the Green Mountain’s steep and decisive final slopes.

The always reserved and calm Yates – who I imagine is not prone to the teenage, commercialised excesses of Valentines (and I say that as a massive compliment) – started the stage six seconds down on mercurial Groupama-FDJ climber Gaudu, after their thrilling head-to-head on Eastern Mountain on Monday.

As defending champion and previous winner atop Green Mountain, the 32-year-old set his UAE Team Emirates’ colleagues to work on the 6km climb, as Jay Vine hunted down the chasers and ripped apart the lead group, from which Q36.5’s Damien Howson crashed, leading to a desperate chase to eventually finish seventh on the day and fourth overall.

 

 

 

 

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And as the lead group entered the extremely steep final two kilometres, red jersey Gaudu finally began to wilt under the UAE pressure, setting the scene for Yates’ first big move. Paret-Peintre, in only his second race in Soudal-Quick Step colours since his move from Decathlon-AG2R over the winter, was alert and sharp, however, latching onto the British rider’s wheel before attacking over the top.

Yates soon clawed his way back, and a brief slowing enabled the battling Gaudu to regain contact. But with the race up in the air in the closing kilometre, Yates took his chance and piled on the pressure, cracking Gaudu for good, putting 37 seconds into him by the finish.

Paret-Peintre, while also appearing to struggle to match Yates’ pace, had enough left in the tank to surge past the 32-year-old in the closing few metres, nabbing a debut win for his team, and only the second victory of his career, after his breakthrough ride to Bocca della Selva at last year’s Giro d’Italia.

And while Valentin’s day came earlier than expected for the spindly 24-year-old French climber, Yates easily kept him within reach to secure another Tour of Oman and yet another stage race win, continuing his recent run of sensational early season results. I reckon that deserves at least a card.