La Pola Llaviana/Pola de Laviana > L’Angliru 133km The final stage of the Vuelta and a trip up one of the most mythical climbs in cycling, L’Angliru. An absolute monster, one of the hardest climbs in the sport. 

Burgas > Veliko Tarnovo 221km After the fun of the opening sprint, the 2nd stage looks significantly harder. It’s one of those days which should end in a reduced sprint, but the size of the group is up for debate. 

Nessebar > Burgas 147km The 109th edition of the Giro kicks off in Bulgaria. Are you ready for 3 weeks of intense racing? As usual, everyone starts the opening stage full of hope and expectation, it can often be a crushing experience for some, but one rider will walk away with a pink jersey, a life changing moment. Opening stages can be tense affairs, GC teams will be twitchy, everyone just needs to calm down a bit, let’s get through Bulgaria without big crashes.

Gijón/Xixón > Les Praeres. Nava 107km Goodbye sprinters, hello GC riders, the battle for red starts now.

León > Astorga 120km The easiest stage of the race. Lotte Kopecky got her win today in what was a well-judged chase by SD Worx. I bet most people thought they’d fucked it up, but you need to remember that gaps can disappear in women’s cycling, the 1 minute per 10km does not apply. Now that Kopecky has her win, I wonder if Bredewold will get a chance to have a go at stage success.

The first grand tour of the season has arrived, there’s something lovely and comforting about grand tour racing. You know you can kick back and settle into 3 weeks of solid cycling watching, what’s not to love. This is the 109th Giro d’Italia, it’s going to kick off over in Bulgaria before heading back to Italy for most of the race. That means it’s going to start on Friday, with Monday the first rest day, allowing everyone an early travel day. It’s a flat start to the race, the sprinters will be fighting for the first pink jersey, which is something...

Monforte de Lemos > Antas de Ulla 115km I swear that the profile of each stage has looked the same! Kerbaol upset the sprinters today, flying off the front in the final 2km and taking a brilliant win. Kopecky was 2nd (again), I sense epic levels of frustration from her, but this is a good opportunity to put things right.

Padrón > A Coruña 121km Another day of carnage at the Vuelta, Vos was DNS and race leader Rüegg was DNF. In the final sprint, Bossuyt took a brilliant win, but Kopecky wasn’t best pleased with her, but I don’t think there was anything to complain about. Will the chaos continue in stage 3?

Lobios > San Cibrao das Viñas 110km After the chaos of the 1st stage, hopefully things will settle down a little from now on, but I doubt it. Stage 2 starts with a lot of unclassified climbs, but I can’t see a strong break getting away from the peloton. It should be a sprint finish, but the climb in the final 5km will test the legs.

Lucens > Leysin 183km The final stage in Romandie and a chance for Pogačar to win his 4th stage of the week, he’s won 7 out of 10 races this year, a quite staggering statistic. Lipowitz did really well today to limit his losses, he looks secure in 2nd place, 3rd place is where the fight should be.