Cycling

The Tour de France Femmes officially returns to cycling for the first time in 33 years on Sunday. The eight-stage race begins on Paris’ Champs-Elysees on 24 July, the same day as the men’s race concludes in the French capital. While various races equivalent to the women’s Tour were held across France until as late

Tadej Pogacar edged out Jonas Vingegaard to win stage 17 of the Tour de France – but was unable to break the race leader on an epic mountain stage. Defending champion Pogacar won the uphill sprint but only cut Vingegaard’s overall lead by four bonus seconds. The Dane now leads by two minutes and 18

Canada’s Hugo Houle produced a brilliant display to secure a dominant win in stage 16 of the Tour de France. It is his first Tour stage victory and he is the first Canadian to win on the Tour since Steve Bauer in 1988. A late sprint secured second place for France’s Valentin Madouas, with Houle’s

Record-equalling Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish says he has no plans to retire, despite his absence from this year’s event. But he missed out on selection for 2022 after his Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl team favoured Dutch sprinter Fabio Jakobsen. However, the Manxman says he still has ambitions to ride the event in future,

Former champion Geraint Thomas has played down his chances of winning the Tour de France again, but says “it can all change” heading into the Pyrenees during the final week of the race. Before Tuesday’s 16th stage the Welshman is third overall, 2min 43sec behind leader Jonas Vingegaard and 21 seconds behind Tadej Pogacar. “We

Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen sprinted to win stage 15 of the Tour de France as race leader Jonas Vingegaard survived a crash but lost two key team-mates. Primoz Roglic abandoned through injury before the stage began, and another Jumbo-Visma rider Steven Kruijswijk crashed out with 65km to go. Vingegaard came off his bike in a pile-up

Australian Michael Matthews produced a brilliant ride to win a tough and hilly stage 14 of the Tour de France from Saint-Etienne to Mende. Matthews went on a solo attack from the breakaway with about 50km of the 192.5km stage left before Felix Grossschartner, Luis Leon Sanchez and Andreas Kron joined him. He shook them

Mads Pedersen produced a powerful final burst to claim victory on stage 13 of the Tour de France. The Dane won a three-way sprint against Britain’s Fred Wright and Canada’s Hugo Houle, who were all part of a seven-man breakaway at the start of the day. It is a first Tour stage win for Pedersen,

Tom Pidcock won his maiden Tour de France stage in style with a solo victory atop the iconic Alpe d’Huez. Four-time winner Chris Froome and fellow Briton Pidcock were part of a five-man breakaway during stage 12. And Pidcock, making his Tour debut aged 22 for Ineos Grenadiers, became the youngest winner on the Alpe

Jonas Vingegaard launched a stunning attack on the final climb of stage 11 to claim the Tour de France lead from defending champion Tadej Pogacar. The 152km mountain stage from Albertville was set to be Pogacar’s biggest test yet in this year’s race. And Jumbo-Visma’s Vingegaard, who was 39 seconds adrift of Pogacar in third,

Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald has announced she will not ride at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as she recovers from a series of injuries. The 28-year-old Scot won the madison with Laura Kenny in Tokyo last year, along with silver in the team pursuit. Archibald won gold and silver medals at Gold Coast 2018

Climate activists forced a 10-minute delay during the 10th stage of the Tour de France after trying to stop riders on the road. The race was paused 36km from the finish as the protestors sat on the road, with one of them wearing a t-shirt saying “We have 989 days left”. The activists were eventually

Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels claimed his first Tour de France stage win on stage nine on Sunday. The AG2R Citroen rider went solo off the penultimate categorised climb and stayed in front for the remaining 60km. He held off a late counter-attack from France’s Thibaut Pinot, who ended up finishing fourth behind Spaniards Jonathan Castroviejo and

Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten has won her third Giro d’Italia Donne title after the final stage was claimed by Italy’s Chiara Consonni. Van Vleuten, 39, who rides for Movistar and was Giro champion in 2018 and 2019, won two stages in this year’s race. She finished one minute and 52 seconds ahead of Italy’s

Belgium’s Wout van Aert sprinted to his second stage victory of this year’s Tour de France as Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar extended his overall lead on stage eight. Jumbo-Visma’s Van Aert hung on up a category three climb to the finish to edge out Australia’s Michael Matthews. Pogacar finished third to extend his yellow jersey lead

Tadej Pogacar edged out Jonas Vingegaard to win a hugely exciting stage seven and extend his overall lead at the Tour de France. The two-time defending champion pipped the Dane in the last 20 metres to take his second consecutive stage victory. Pogacar and Vingegaard broke away from Lennard Kamna, who succumbed to the punishing

Tadej Pogacar sprinted away at the finish to win stage six and move into the overall lead at the Tour de France. The defending champion attacked at the top of the short climb into Longwy, pulling away from the peloton to finish ahead of Michael Matthews and David Gaudu. Britain’s Tour debutant Tom Pidcock finished

Australia’s Simon Clarke claimed his first victory at the Tour de France by triumphing on stage five. Clarke, 35, beat Dutchman Taco Van der Hoorn with a lunge on the line in a thrilling sprint finish which featured 20km of cobbles in the closing stages. Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen finished in third place, two seconds