Week of October 16, 2026

Evening, Muckers! The leaves are properly falling now, the bib tights are out of the drawer and the turbo has quietly moved from “occasional” to “most nights”. Good news, then: the cycling world has given us plenty to chew on between intervals. A 20-year-old has rewritten the history books in Lombardy, the peloton stood still for a very good reason, Marianne Vos added another rainbow jersey on Australian dirt, Lachlan Morton beat a horse (well, lots of horses), Great Britain is busy hoovering up medals in Shanghai, and Rouvy has thrown a two-week party that we’re all invited to.

Here’s your weekly roundup.

1. Il Lombardia: Paul Seixas Becomes the Youngest Winner Ever, After the Peloton Takes a Stand

Before a pedal was turned in Bergamo on Saturday, the riders made a statement. The countdown finished, the flag dropped, and the peloton simply didn’t move. Remco Evenepoel took the microphone and told the crowd that “there are too many incidents happening with vehicles in the race”, remembering British rider Fin Tarling, who died after a collision with a vehicle at the Volta a Portugal in August. Earlier that same week, Thomas Gloag and Marcel Camprubí had been hit by a police motorbike at Tre Valli Varesine. The riders’ union, the CPA, put it plainly: “We want to race hard and put on a show for our fans. However most importantly we want to come home safe to our loved ones.” Five minutes later a second flag went down and the race got under way. As people who ride on public roads every week, we’re right behind them.

Then came the racing, and what a ride it was. With Tadej Pogačar sidelined after his Vuelta crash, the Race of the Falling Leaves was wide open after five straight wins for the Slovenian. France’s Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) attacked with around 19km to go, dropped Giulio Ciccone and Tom Pidcock, and time trialled his way to Como to win the 239km race in 5:49:28. Enric Mas was second at 48 seconds, Ciccone third at 1:05, and Evenepoel fourth.

Just two weeks after his 20th birthday, Seixas is the youngest winner in the race’s 120 editions, and the first Frenchman to win a Monument since Julian Alaphilippe at Milan-San Remo in 2019. “When I realised that the pace of the group of favourites wasn’t high enough, I decided to attack, and from that moment on it was like an individual time trial all the way to the finish,” he said. We’ve all had that thought on a Thursday night. Not many of us have had the legs to back it up.

Sources: Il Lombardia – Paul Seixas triumphs, the youngest winner ever | BBC Sport – Rider safety protest delays Giro di Lombardia | Cyclingnews – Seixas’s stunning solo ride

2. Gravel Worlds Down Under: Vos Makes History, Bak Klaris Takes the Rainbow Stripes

For the first time, the UCI Gravel World Championships left Europe, heading to Nannup in Western Australia, and the dirt roads delivered. In the elite women’s race (125.6km, 3,179m of climbing, 84% of it on gravel), Marianne Vos timed her move perfectly and rode clear to win in 4:30:04. Germany’s Rosa Klöser was 27 seconds back and the Netherlands’ Larissa Hartog took bronze. Vos, champion in 2024 and runner-up last year, is now the first rider to win more than one elite gravel world title. Is there anything that woman can’t win on a bike?

On Sunday, Denmark’s Magnus Bak Klaris won the men’s race in 4:09:05 from a four-up sprint, with Belgium’s Florian Vermeersch a frustrated second (again) and Great Britain’s Connor Swift taking a brilliant bronze after a last-ditch attack. Bak Klaris’s teammate Mads Würtz Schmidt was fourth, having been out front for much of the day. A proper gravel specialist winning a gravel worlds feels like the sport growing up a bit, and we’re here for it.

Sources: UCI – Vos repeats, Bak Klaris rises | Cycling Weekly – Bak Klaris wins with Swift in third | Velo – Marianne Vos wins UCI Gravel Worlds

3. Mission Accomplished: Lachlan Morton Beats the Pony Express by Almost 20 Hours

Last week we left Lachlan Morton camped out in Wyoming at the halfway mark. On Sunday night he rolled into Old Town Sacramento at 11:19pm local time, 3,217km after leaving St. Joseph, Missouri, in a total of six days, 21 hours and 15 minutes. That’s 19 hours and 45 minutes faster than the 1861 horseback relay that carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address west.

The last day was a tough one: bitter cold in the Sierra Nevada, a storm rolling in off the Pacific, and a wrong turn that he fixed by finding a gravel trail around Lake Tahoe. He swapped between a Cannondale Topstone gravel bike, a SuperSix road bike and a Scalpel mountain bike depending on the terrain, and finished with mail in his saddlebag, greeted by family, friends and dot-watchers. His verdict? “I had an amazing time. I wasn’t desperate for it to end, which was odd.” That’s the dream, isn’t it, Muckers? Chapeau, Lachy, and good luck with whatever comes after EF.

Sources: Cyclingnews – Morton eclipses the 160-year-old record | EF Pro Cycling – Lachlan Morton’s Pony Express | Escape Collective – Morton sets Pony Express FKT

4. Track Worlds: Great Britain Top the Table in Shanghai

Three days into the five-day UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai, Great Britain sit top of the medal table. The women’s team pursuit squad won their title back on day two, and Matthew Bostock took a solo win in the scratch race. Day three brought two more golds: Mark Stewart won a cracking 40km points race, finishing seven points clear of France’s Benjamin Thomas, and Anna Morris took the women’s omnium, her first bunch race rainbow jersey after her pursuit titles. Emma Finucane picked up silver in the sprint, and Joseph Truman a bronze in the kilo.

Elsewhere, Jonathan Milan smashed the individual pursuit world record in qualifying (3:58.850) before taking the gold, Jeffrey Hoogland won a fifth kilo title and Harrie Lavreysen equalled the record with a fourth keirin crown. There was a scare too: a big crash in the omnium scratch race put defending champion Lorena Wiebes out of the event. The championships run until Sunday, so there’s more to come.

Sources: Cyclingnews – Great Britain adds two more golds on day 3 | Cyclingnews – GB reclaim the team pursuit title

5. Equal Effort, Equal Pay: The Eneco Tour Closes the Gap Mid-Race

Here’s a story with a happy ending. At the Eneco Tour, where the men’s and women’s races run side by side, Lidl-Trek’s Jakob Söderqvist earned €1,490 for winning the opening prologue, while Lieke Nooijen got just €220 for winning the women’s prologue. Same start time, same distance. Dutch sprinter Charlotte Kool called it out on Instagram: “I’m curious if women get a discount at @eneco for energy? Prologue: Same start time, same distance, same energy.”

Credit to the organisers, who didn’t hide behind the UCI’s different prize scales. Four days into the race, they raised the women’s total prize money from €17,205 to match the men’s €63,465, starting with this edition. “This is top class,” said Kool. “It shows that the Eneco Tour really considers the women just as important as the men.” Raise a bidon to that.

Sources: Cyclingnews – Eneco Tour equalises prize money | Cyclingnews – Kool calls out the unequal prize list

6. Gear Corner: Cannondale’s Topstone CAAD Brings Aluminium Back to Gravel

If the Colnago we featured last week was a bit rich for your blood, this one’s more down to earth. Cannondale has launched a fully redesigned Topstone CAAD, an aluminium gravel platform built on its SmartForm C1 CAAD frame with OutFront geometry (a slack head angle with more fork offset, for stability without losing agility). It takes tyres up to 52mm, has mounts for bottles, bags, racks and mudguards, is dynamo-ready, uses the UDH derailleur hanger standard, and works with Cannondale’s Lefty Oliver suspension fork.

There are seven models, from the £1,099 flat-bar CUES build up to the £2,399 Topstone CAAD Lefty with 40mm of front suspension and Shimano GRX 1×12. There’s even an EQ version with lights, mudguards and a Tubus rack that would make a very handy winter commuter. A sensibly priced bike you can race, bikepack and ride to work on? That’s very Muckers.

Source: The Cycling Crew – Cannondale refreshes the Topstone CAAD line-up

7. ROUVY FEST: Two Weeks of Group Rides, Pros and Double Coins

And finally, closer to home. ROUVY FEST runs from 12 to 25 October: two weeks of curated group rides, a mass-start race on real-world routes, a route of the day where most riders gather, and a “Beat the CEO” challenge against Rouvy boss Petr Samek. If you fancy a real test, you can also take on British hill climb star Andrew Feather on Mallorca’s Cap de Formentor. There’s no extra fee: if you’ve got a Rouvy subscription, you’ve already got a Fest pass, and that means double coins on any route, double XP on Fest challenges and a special in-app kit.

The opening ride with Amy and Kyle Hudson drew over 500 riders, and Luke Rowe and Manon Lloyd of the Watts Occurring podcast have already been out. Still to come are Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose and Derek Gee-West (19 October), a livestreamed ride with Wout van Aert and Victor Campenaerts (20 October), triathlete Kat Matthews’ Big IRONMAN Ride (21 October), Julia Schuler (22 October) and Petr Samek himself (24 October). We’ll see you in the Rouvy Café. First round of virtual coffees is on whoever gets dropped first.

Source: Cyclingnews – ROUVY FEST kicks off the indoor season

Coming Up

The Track World Championships wrap up in Shanghai this weekend, finishing with the men’s Madison on Sunday 18 October. Then on Thursday 22 October, from 11am in Paris, the 2027 Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes routes are revealed live, so start guessing which mountains we’ll be riding on Rouvy next summer. And closer to home, next Thursday is the fourth and final race of our October Championship. After Race 3 in Montreal, you’ll know exactly what you need to do. Please, please send your heart rate data, because hitting the DSQ button hurts us more than it hurts you.

Whether you’re chasing championship points or just spinning your legs with a cracking bunch of people, everyone is welcome to grab a wheel and muck in. Until next week, keep the rubber side down and the pedals turning!

Sources: Tour de France – 2027 route revealed live on 22 October | TNT Sports – Track World Championships schedule