• Riders’ union expresses fury about Volta a Portugal

• Tarling died after collision with non-race vehicle

The professional cycling community has reacted with fury to the death of the teenage Welsh rider, Finlay Tarling, in the Volta a Portugal, with a leading former professional describing the race’s safety measures as “catastrophic”.

Tarling, the younger brother of the Netcompany Ineos professional Josh Tarling, was in collision with a non-race vehicle driving towards the peloton while he competed in the Portuguese race’s eighth stage. The 19-year-old’s death on Friday has led to a surge of anger, with the riders’ union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA), describing itself as “furious”.

• Teenager involved in an accident in Portugal

• Rider’s NSN Development Team ‘heartbroken’

Finlay Tarling, the younger brother of Netcompany Ineos rider, Josh Tarling, has been killed while racing in stage eight of the Volta a Portugal.

Although the details are yet to be confirmed, reports in the Portugese and French media suggest that the 19-year-old Welsh rider was hit by a non-race vehicle travelling on the course in the opposite direction to the peloton.

Overall winner was uncertain until final climb – a world away from Slovenian’s dominance of men’s event

Demi Vollering’s second overall win in the Tour de France Femmes in Nice on Sunday was achieved after a heated dispute with Kasia Niewiadoma, but by the time the sun was setting on the Promenade des Anglais, the sisterhood that has always characterised this race had kicked back in.

On a final stage of high drama, the Dutchwoman erased the lingering controversy with an attacking win of the highest quality, further boosting the prestige of the long-dormant native cycling scene in a gutsy performance from her French‑sponsored FDJ United-Suez team.

• Dutch cyclist finishes 1:18 clear of Kasia Niewiadoma

• ‘I know what’s right and what’s not,’ runner-up says

In the end, there was no debate. Demi Vollering went clear on the Col d’Èze, overlooking Nice, to win her second Tour de France Femmes from rival Kasia Niewiadoma, champion in 2024, by one minute and 18 seconds.

The decisive attacks came on the narrow snaking climb of the Chemin du Vinaigrier, past swimming pools and art deco villas, where breakaway rider Isabella Holmgren was finally overhauled and ­Vollering and Niewiadoma again went head-to-head.

• Victory on penultimate stage secures eight-second lead

• Previous leader claims she was blocked by rival’s team

Demi Vollering took the overall lead from Kasia Niewiadoma in the Tour de France Femmes with a vicious attack in the hills behind Nice to lead the race by eight seconds from the 2024 winner, with just one stage remaining.

“It’s very special to be back in yellow,” Vollering, leader of French team FDJ United-Suez said. “Tomorrow I start in yellow and I will do everything in my power to keep it. So much can happen – it’s still a big fight.”

• Pole leaves fellow contenders behind on iconic climb

• Demi Vollering trails by 15sec, Marlen Reusser by 39sec

Kasia Niewiadoma took a spectacular solo victory on the legendary Mont Ventoux, securing a slim overall lead in the Tour de France Femmes after leaving behind her fellow race favourites Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering.

“It’s hard to describe my feelings because I’m still blown away by what just happened,” Niewiadoma, who won the yellow jersey in 2024, said of the first Tour stage victory of her career.

• Mauritian rider outsprints Kerbaol and Pieterse

• ‘Winning a stage in a Tour de France is very special’

Marlen Reusser retained the overall lead in the Tour de France Femmes from rival Demi Vollering after another broiling stage through central France saw Kim Le Court take the second Tour stage win of her career in Tournon-sur-Rhone.

The Mauritian rider Le Court recovered from a mechanical problem earlier in the stage on the climb of the Col de Lalouvesc to join the day’s breakaway group and outsprint Cédrine Kerbaol of France, and Queen of the Mountains classification leader, Puck Pieterse.

• Three outstanding riders in race broke clear of peloton

• Padding row intensifies after footage of male inspection

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s defence of her Tour de France Femmes title unravelled among the Beaujolais vineyards as the French rider lost even more ground to rivals Demi Vollering, Marlen Reusser and Kasia Niewiadoma.

The three outstanding riders in this year’s race broke clear of the peloton over the final steep gradients of Mont Brouilly, with 2023 Tour winner Vollering outsprinting overall race leader Reusser to take the fourth Tour stage win of her career.

• Chest fairings could smooth airflow around the body

• Warning came before time-trial stage to Dijon

Riders in the Tour de France Femmes were examined for hidden aerodynamic enhancements, or chest fairings, before the race’s time trial stage to Dijon on Tuesday, in a clampdown on the latest attempts to circumnavigate cycling’s rules.

Changes to body morphology to improve aerodynamics are banned under International Cycling Union rules. The UCI’s commissaires were looking for padded chest fairings that would artificially improve airflow and reduce wind resistance.

• Norwegian breaks clear in stage three to take overall lead

• Haugset: ‘I never thought it was possible, it’s unreal’

Sigrid Haugset, the Norwegian national champion, shocked the established order in the Tour de France Femmes, breaking away alone for 90km, to take the overall lead after winning stage three to Poligny.

“I never thought it was possible,” she said, after realising she had taken the biggest success of her career and the overall lead in the sport’s biggest race. “It’s unreal. I was so dizzy at the end. I know my boyfriend would be so angry at me for not celebrating, but I couldn’t. I could not lift my arms off the bike. It was impossible.”

• Slovene great last rode in Vuelta in 2019

• ‘Time is right to go back,’ says five-time Tour winner

The Tour de France champion, Tadej Pogacar, has confirmed that he will race in the Vuelta a España, which starts in Monaco on 22 August. The five-time Tour winner will be ­seeking to match the rare achievement of long-term rival, Jonas Vingegaard, who completed a grand slam of all three Grand Tours, by winning the Giro d’Italia in May.

“I’m excited to say I’m going back to La Vuelta,” Pogacar said. “It was my first-ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience. Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.

• David Lappartient says selective night testing is justified

• ‘We always have suspicion in cycling, due to our past’

The UCI president, David Lappartient, has said there will “always be suspicion in cycling” and insisted this year’s men’s Tour de France was clean. Lappartient, speaking at the start of stage two of the Tour de France Femmes in Aigle, also said he supported night-time testing during races in “exceptional cases”.

Lappartient added that the absence of any positive test announcements by the International Testing Agency (ITA) indicated that last month’s men’s Tour was drug free. “The ITA never make a press release about negative results, only about positive results,” said Lappartient. “We didn’t see any press release in the Tour de France, so it seems there was nothing in the Tour.”

• Dutch sprinter makes it two from two in Geneva

• Her team still intend to sue UCI over Giro disqualification

The Dutch sprinter Lorena Wiebes took her second win in this year’s Tour de France Femmes in Geneva, further extending her overall lead in the nine-day race. Wiebes is proving untouchable in the sprint finishes and her turn of speed in the final 250 metres, on the lakeside finish of the Quai du Mont-Blanc, reduced her rivals to onlookers.

Lone breakaway Riejanne Markus had led by more than half a minute on the flat approach to Geneva and maintained that advantage into the final 5km, even with the whole peloton giving chase. But as the kilometres clicked down, the peloton clawed its way back, eclipsing Markus in the last 500 metres, before Wiebes made her inevitable surge to take yet another sprint win.

• Wiebes’ turn of speed too much for 2023 winner Vollering

• ‘It was a long sprint, but I’m super happy’

Lorena Wiebes took the first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes after climbing the Côte Saint-François and outsprinting race favourites Kim Le Court and 2023 champion, Demi Vollering.

“The team worked super hard today,” Wiebes said. “When Demi attacked, I knew I had to follow. It was a long sprint, but I’m super happy.”

• Authorities want stage altered if risk is ‘extreme’

• 2025 champion Ferrand-Prévot faces sterner challenge

The Tour de France Femmes is facing pressure to reroute part of its key stage to the summit of Mont Ventoux next Friday because of the wildfires threat in Provence.

The women’s Tour, which begins in Lausanne on Saturday, is expected to keep the famous climb to the top of the “Giant of Provence”, but the current routing of the stage through the Ventoux’s foothills could be affected.

Dutch rider completed the set of Grand Tours by winning the Giro and is set on claiming a second title in France

French pulses were set racing by Pauline-Ferrand Prévot’s win in the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, but the pragmatic choice of favourite for this year’s race, which begins in Lausanne on Saturday, is Demi Vollering.

The 29-year old Dutch rider, leader of the FDJ United-Suez team and the first €1m athlete in women’s racing, combines outstanding results – this year she completed a grand slam of all three of Europe’s Grand Tours – with an outspoken personality.

Oscar Onley’s pre-race injury presaged three bleak weeks and new director of racing knows he has his work cut out

Crashes, punctures and injuries ensured that the 2026 Tour de France campaign was one of the worst for the beleaguered Netcompany Ineos team. From the first stage, when Dave Brailsford’s team came close to winning the team time trial in Montjuic, the 2026 Tour was, in the words of their director of racing, Geraint Thomas, “tough going”.

Thomas, who has taken Brailsford’s place as the team’s frontman, said: “I’m happy to not be racing any more, because I suffered way too much. But it’s good to still be involved in the nitty‑gritty of it.”

• Slovene has quickly drawn level with the greats

• Paul Seixas acknowledges Pogacar’s dominance

Tadej Pogacar woke up in Paris on Monday as the fastest and the youngest cyclist to win five Tours de France. The 27-year-old Slovene took his fifth overall victory on the Champs Élysées on Sunday evening in a thrilling final stage won by Mathieu van der Poel.

Pogacar is level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin and he is expected to continue racing in pursuit of a record-breaking sixth win.

• Slovene becomes fifth rider to win five Tours

• Eddy Merckx: ‘He’ll soon break our record’

Tadej Pogacar took a record-equalling fifth win in the Tour de France on Sunday, joining Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin in the canon of the Tour’s most successful cyclists. In a thrilling finale to the Tour, Mathieu van der Poel took his second stage win of the race on the Champs-Élysées, fending off the pursuing pack of sprinters by a tyre’s width, after breaking clear with Pogacar on the final climb of the Butte de Montmartre.

Merckx, widely considered the greatest-ever cyclist because of the breadth of his achievements beyond the Tour itself, believes that Pogacar will now go on to win a sixth Tour. “I don’t think he’ll be content just to draw level with me and the other ­champions,” the 81-year-old Belgian said. “He’ll soon break our record for Tour victories.”

• Four-time victor holds huge lead after Alpe d’Huez

• Final stage to be shortened due to wildfires elsewhere

Tadej Pogacar’s likely victory parade on the streets of Paris will come sooner on Sunday after the final stage of the Tour de France was shortened due to wildfires elsewhere in France. The stage will now be only 89km long and will start on the Champs-Élysées, where two laps of the avenue will be followed by the now traditional circuits of the Butte Montmartre.

In a joint statement with the prefecture police, the Tour organiser, ASO, said: “The ministry of the interior has decided to redeploy a portion of the internal security forces initially mobilised for the final stage of the Tour de France, in order to reinforce the response efforts in the areas affected by the wildfires.”