Week of October 12, 2026

Right then, Muckers! Kettle on, feet up (briefly – you’ve a hill climb on Sunday). The clocks haven’t gone back yet, but the evenings are drawing in, the leaves are coming down and the pain cave is starting to look rather inviting. Luckily, the cycling world has served up a cracking week to read about between sessions: a European title decided by a few millimetres, a home-roads fairytale, a 3,164km ride through the old American West, a mountain bike season finale full of firsts, a gravel bike that actually admits gravel isn’t road – and, yes, a certain community of Rouvy racers getting a proper shout-out.

Here’s your weekly roundup.

1. European Championships: Remco’s Photo-Finish and Roglič’s Home-Road Fairytale

The European Road Championships in Slovenia were short on Pogačar but certainly not short on drama. In the elite men’s road race around Šenčur – 196.3km with almost 2,500m of climbing, including five trips up the Možjanca climb (2.1km at 10.3%) – Remco Evenepoel attacked with 32km to go and only Italy’s Giulio Ciccone could follow. Evenepoel slid out on a corner after an earlier move, dusted himself off, went again, and then did most of the work in the two-man break while (by Cyclingnews’ account) shaking his head at Ciccone’s reluctance to take a turn. Ciccone opened the sprint on the inside line and looked to have it won, but Evenepoel came back and the pair threw their bikes at the line. The photo finish went to the Belgian, with Christian Scaroni taking bronze 59 seconds back.

It’s the one elite championship jersey Evenepoel was still missing. “It’s a big relief to be back on a good level today and to complete my Championship jerseys,” he said. Ciccone, understandably, wasn’t quite so chuffed – he’s since questioned the photo-finish technology, and the UEC has defended its accuracy. Margins don’t come much finer than that.

Three days later it was the home crowd’s turn. With Evenepoel skipping the time trial to focus on Il Lombardia, 36-year-old Primož Roglič won the 21.8km elite men’s TT in 28:16, beating France’s Bruno Armirail by seven seconds and Maxime Decomble by 28. Better still, he did it after losing radio contact just 1km in. “I kind of ran the whole race on feelings,” he said. “I haven’t won at home many times. I’ll definitely remember this for the rest of my life.” Asked about the key moment, he offered the finest race analysis we’ve heard all year: “I tried to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible.” Muckers, take note – that’s essentially our Thursday night race plan.

In the women’s TT, Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser beat Demi Vollering by 23 seconds to become the first woman to win five European time trial titles, with Britain’s Lauren Dickson in eighth.

Sources: Cyclingnews – Evenepoel snatches photo finish victory | Cyclingnews – UEC defends photo finish | We Love Cycling – Roglič wins Euro TT, Reusser keeps rolling

2. Lachlan Morton Takes On the Pony Express Route

If you ever needed a reminder that endurance riding is as much about curiosity as watts, here it is. On Monday 5 October, Lachlan Morton set off from St. Joseph, Missouri, to ride the 3,164km (1,966-mile) route of the old Pony Express to Sacramento, California – the horseback mail service of the early 1860s. The target is the fastest run on record: seven days and 17 hours, set in 1861 when a relay of riders carried Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address west. Morton himself admitted before the start that he wasn’t sure it was achievable.

Just as the original riders swapped horses, Morton is swapping bikes depending on the terrain – gravel, road and mountain bike – with support from the team around him. By Thursday he’d passed the midway point, camping for a few hours in Wyoming after herds of cattle, deep sand and leg-scratching brush on an “almost-forgotten” double-track. “There’s just very desolate landscapes… all very remote and harsh,” he told Cyclingnews. “Piecing them all together in this way, it’s pretty mind-blowing.” The crux, by his own reckoning, is still to come: the remote, exposed Nevada stretch between Salt Lake City and Carson City.

It’s also his final outing in EF Education-EasyPost colours, and true to the spirit of the route, he’s delivering letters along the way. Our favourite line: “It’s fun to do, but it’s also nice to see people have something to follow for the sake of following and be excited about.” We couldn’t agree more – go and follow along.

Sources: Cyclingnews – Morton’s mid-point assessment | EF Pro Cycling – Lachlan Morton’s Pony Express

3. MTB World Series Wraps Up: Rissveds Makes History, Martin Takes the Double

The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series closed out its season at Lake Placid, USA, and it was a weekend of firsts. Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds came into the finale with a 220-point cushion over Sina Frei, finished 11th on the day, and that was enough to clinch her first XCO World Cup overall – and to become the first Swedish rider ever to do so. “The level is incredibly high at the moment,” she said. “The racing is a lot tighter.” Frei had the consolation of winning the race in a two-up sprint against Martina Berta, plus the XCC overall.

On the men’s side, 24-year-old Frenchman Luca Martin sealed both the XCO and XCC overall titles – the latter, remarkably, without winning a single XCC round. Consistency, Muckers. It pays. There was bittersweet emotion too: his Cannondale Factory Racing team is set to disband at the end of the season. “It’s the last day for this team and we finished on such a high,” Martin said – and Britain’s Charlie Aldridge made sure of that by winning the final XCO in a tight sprint against Filippo Colombo.

In downhill, 19-year-old American Asa Vermette claimed the overall in his debut elite season – only the second rider to do that, after Nicolas Vouilloz – while Austria’s Valentina Höll had wrapped up the women’s title with two rounds to spare. And a nod north of the border: Scotland’s Ella Conolly had already defended her Enduro World Cup crown back in August.

Sources: UCI – Lake Placid completes a memorable season | Pinkbike – Who are the 2026 XC World Cup series winners?

4. Colnago’s G5-X: A Gravel Bike That Doesn’t Pretend to Be a Road Bike

Gear chat now, and Colnago has launched the G5-X gravel race bike, successor to the G4-X. The headline quote is one plenty of us gravel-curious roadies should pin above the workbench: “You can’t simply borrow road metrics – weight, stiffness, aerodynamics – and apply them just as easily to a gravel bike.”

The practical bits: tyre clearance goes up 8mm to 53mm, and every model ships with 50mm tyres fitted. There’s integrated downtube storage (tube, CO₂, tools and a plug kit), six mounting points including extra fork mounts for bikepacking and ultra-distance types, a round 27.2mm seatpost for comfort and dropper options, and a flared CC.01 Wide cockpit. Geometry gets longer chainstays, a longer wheelbase, a slightly slacker head angle and a lower bottom bracket for more stability at speed.

Prices start at £5,299.99 for the SRAM Rival XPLR build, rising to £9,999.99 for SRAM Red XPLR AXS with Zipp 303 XPLR wheels. Not exactly pocket change – but, as Cyclingnews points out, still less than the flagship S-Works Crux. Start dropping hints now; Christmas is only eleven weeks away.

Source: Cyclingnews – Colnago launches new G5-X gravel bike

5. Indoor Worlds Get Tactical: Surprise Checkpoints and Route Choices

For those of us who do most of our racing on a trainer, this one’s worth a read. The UCI and its esports partner MyWhoosh have overhauled the format of the 2026 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, with the Final now moved forward a week to 5 December in Copenhagen. The big change: crossing the line first won’t be enough – the rainbow jersey goes to whoever scores the most points across two stages.

Stage 1 is a 7.6km points race with five “surge checkpoints” whose locations aren’t revealed in advance – riders get just 500m of warning, and the first ten across each line score. Stage 2 is four 5km laps where, 400m before a fork, every rider picks either a flatter route worth fewer points or a hillier one worth more. The routes then merge for a common sprint, and the final sprint pays double points. Don’t choose, and you’re automatically sent the flat way.

“We wanted this year’s format to ask more of riders than simply producing the biggest numbers,” said MyWhoosh’s Matt Smithson. As anyone who’s ever burned every match chasing a Thursday-night attack will tell you – reading the race really does matter.

Sources: UCI – Surprise surge checkpoints and route choices | Cyclingnews – Tactics over watts?

6. Muckers in the Spotlight: Rouvy’s Guide to Communities

And finally, a bit of news a little closer to home. Rouvy’s blog has published a guide to how its social features work – In-Ride Chat, Clubs and Communities – and how to build a group riders actually come back to. In short: Clubs are private groups of up to 30 riders with a weekly leaderboard (and you can only be in one at a time), while Communities are open, unlimited and built around a shared interest or event. To start your own you’ll need Rider Level 10 and 5,000 coins.

The bit that made us spill our tea? Muckers Worldwide is the first rider-led group they feature. Rouvy describes our three weekly formats – Sunday’s Hill Climb Championship scored on elevation rather than speed, Tuesday’s weekly watts-per-kilogram target, and Thursday’s flat-out race night – with monthly competitions feeding into an annual world championship table, plus our yearly attempt to meet up outdoors. The quote they picked sums us up nicely: “We’ve been consistent over the years… I think people just trust we will have a race when we say we do.” Matthias Heil – a familiar name on our own leaderboards – gets a mention too, for his rvy_racing Club.

Their best tips for any group – “three active riders are worth more than 30 silent names” and “consistency beats enthusiasm that runs out after three weeks” – are pretty much the Muckers rulebook. Thank you to every one of you who turns up, races hard, transmits your heart rate (please!) and makes this community what it is.

Source: Rouvy Blog – How ROUVY Communities work and how to start your own

Weekend Watch & This Sunday on Rouvy

Il Lombardia rolls out on Saturday 10 October (239km from Bergamo to Como, live in the UK on TNT Sports and HBO Max), and the UCI Gravel World Championships take place in Nannup, Western Australia, on 10–11 October – so there’s plenty to keep you company on the turbo this weekend.

Then on Sunday 11 October it’s our AM & PM Hill Climbs (09:15 & 16:15 GMT+1) on Going to the Sun West, Montana – 49.74 miles and 4,088ft from West Glacier up to Logan Pass. Pace it like Morton, not like a Thursday race night.

Whether you’re chasing championship points or just spinning the 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: Cyclingnews – How to watch Il Lombardia 2026 | Cyclingnews – 2026 UCI Gravel World Championships