A lot can happen in 24 hours. Even more can happen in two weeks of Christmas break: tiramisu-fuelled group rides and rare sightings of mid-winter Visma-Lease a Bike training sessions – the festive period continues to deliver.
It’s the final few weeks of the cyclo-cross season. On Sunday, the British National Cyclo-Cross Championships will pit overall lead Ffion Drake against reigning champion Xan Crees, and see Thomas Mein face down Cameron Mason. On the continent, the drama continued, with a snowstorm show-down between Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert during Exact Cross at Mol and a sand pit take victims at the World Cup.
1. What is it in our psychology that makes us love watching other people fall off their bikes? Schadenfreude? The satisfaction of a short story resolved (cycle, fall, get back on bike)? We ended the year with a cyclo-cross rider flipping over the barriers and into the canal, and we’re entering 2026 with another.
2. Puck Pieterse goes OTB on the first lap in Zonhoven at the Cyclo-cross World Cup: ‘It was quite funny, I had to laugh!’ she told TNT Sports after.
3. Lucinda Brand too has a complicated relationship with Zonhoven’s tricky course. ‘You can break my nose… but not my heart,’ the 2021 Cyclo-cross world champion joked post-race.
4. The song of the summer? XDS Astana celebrate their 20th professional season with an original song, rapped and played by the team in full kit. Enjoy.
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5. Elinor Barker completes a casual 16 kilometre ride the day her second baby, Dylan, was due to be delivered. “I’m very excited to be back racing with @unoxteam once I’ve recovered,” Barker wrote in an Instagram post after giving birth. “I found the postpartum return to be one of the most motivating periods of my career the first time around and I’m both thrilled and daunted by the prospect of getting to start again from the bottom. Aiming for a return to racing around August.”
6. Mark Cavendish wasn’t waiting for the British sun to roll around, and headed to Hong Kong to experience the myriad delights orchestrated by its tourist board.
7. Geraint Thomas has taken a different route post-retirement, and headed to Alpe d’Huez not by bike, but by ski. “Isn’t it better to go up hills on a lift?” One commenter asked.
8. It’s a big week for Ineos Grenadiers. After revealing their new kit to mixed response before Christmas, they’ve launched into the new year with freshly confirmed riders for the upcoming season. Here is the team’s French trio: Kevin Vauquelin, Dorian Godon and Axel Laurance.
9. The kit in question, described by Cycling Weekly’s News Editor as “pretty terrible.” While Adam confesses he’s no fashion expert, 62% of our readers agree with him – sorry, Ineos.
10. As kit launches feed Cycling Weekly with valuable content fodder, St. Michel–Preference Home–Auber93 take the long view on the design of the team’s new Canada kit. The maple leaf at its heart calls back to the kit of Ethel Catherwood, the first Canadian woman to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games – with the team’s own funky twist. “This jersey represents the amazing female athletes that come from Canada.”
11. Perfectly manicured fingernails fan around Lotte Kopecky as she prepares for the upcoming 2026 season. “Together, Team SD Worx-Protime ride for victory.” I’m a bit spooked.
12. A rare sighting of Visma-Lease a Bike training through a city – or was that the Christmas booze playing tricks on us again? “Go, go, go, go!”
13. An educational interlude from *real life* Visma-Lease a Bike.
14. It wouldn’t be a social media round-up without Jonas Abrahamsen making an appearance. The Norwegian rider takes a coffee break during an indoor training session.
15. Here’s hoping that Abrahamsen’s next coffee break turns into a homemade tiramisu bottle stop instead? Delicious…?
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