It’s your cycling news roundup, featuring riding in the desert sun as the Winter Olympics take place on Italy’s snow and ice. (Heard this week during a figure skating competition: “He spins faster than sprinting in the Tour de France.”) We give you a full rundown of the Tour of Oman — our last Arab Peninsula race before UAE kicks off Monday — and look ahead to racing in Spain, Canada and on the UK’s gravel. (Who knew?) AND we ask you to provide your thoughts on…the new Lance Armstrong movie. Not kidding. (Send your sentiments to mike@pezcyclingnews.com — inquiring minds (and PEZ’ writers) want to know!)
TOP STORY
- Oh, Man! Scaroni, XDS Astana Clean Up at Tour of Oman
RACE NEWS
- More Astana! Fedorov Takes Asian RR Championships
- Vollering Headlines Star-Studded Setmana Valenciana
- The Roving Sponsor: Premier Tech to Back Montreal Worlds
- Announcing…The First-Ever British Gravel Championships
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
- UCI Delegates Anti-Doping Prosecution to ITA
- And…Sigh…There’s a New Lance Biopic Coming. How Do You Feel About It?
Oh, Man! Scaroni, XDS Astana Clean Up at Tour of Oman
In this week’s chapter of Biding Our Time Until the Season Actually Starts, the Tour of Oman concluded with a rather remarkable victory for Christian Scaroni and XDS Astana Team. The five-day race through Oman’s desert mountains saw a team and several riders we once considered all but finished at the top of the stage and general standings.
Stage 1 opened with a sprint finish at Bimmah Sink Hole, where Juan Sebastián Molano of UAE Emirates-XRG powered to victory after the peloton absorbed an early three-rider break with 22 kilometers remaining. Narrowly missing out on the win? One Fernando Gaviria, still riding, now with Caja Rural.
Stage 2 saw Baptiste Veistroffer claim a solo victory at Yitti Hills after launching a decisive attack with 12 kilometers to go, leaving his breakaway companions behind and taking the overall lead.
Stage 3’s summit finish at Eastern Mountain brought drama when Mauro Schmid escaped with Scaroni in the closing meters, edging the Italian in the sprint to claim both the stage and the race lead after a late crash disrupted the finale.
Stage 4 delivered another sprint spectacle as Norway’s Erlend Blikra timed his effort perfectly in Sohar, denying favorite Molano in a chaotic bunch finish that averaged over 46 kilometers per hour.
The decisive Stage 5 climbed the brutal Green Mountain, featuring a punishing 5.5-kilometer ascent averaging 9.9%. After 45 kilometers of attacks, Scaroni launched a devastating late surge, claiming the stage and overall victory ahead of teammate Cristián Rodríguez, with 2024 and 2025 winner Adam Yates third.
The Christian/Cristian 1-2 punch from XDS Astana is a promising sign for a team that was once considered moribund, and the success of Scaroni, who is quietly, steadily evolving into a real hitter, suggests that more Astana wins may be in the offing.
In all likelihood this is the last time we’ll write the word “Oman” until next February; this ain’t the Tour de France, or the Tour de Suisse, or Paris-Nice or even the UAE Tour. But it’s provided a bit of intrigue for us fans as we wait for the season proper to kick off.
RACE NEWS
More Astana! Fedorov Takes Asian RR Championships
Another early-season Arabian Peninsula race, another XDS Astana victory: Yevgeniy Fedorov, representing Kazakhstan, won the gold medal in the road race at the Asian Road Championships. Fedorov attacked together with fellow XDS Astana Team rider Haoyu Su, who was racing for China, and claimed victory in the final sprint. Su finished second, a career best result.
Another XDS Astana Team rider representing Kazakhstan, Nicolas Vinokurov (Hey, we know that name!), took fourth place in the road race.
“We started the race as the main favorites and understood that it wouldn’t be easy…But my teammates did a fantastic job, and in the final part of the race I managed to get into the leading group together with Nicolas Vinokurov and Haoyu Su. After a series of attacks, Su and I went clear, and in the final I gave 100% to take the win and bring the gold medal to my national team and my country. I’m happy that I was able to win today and reclaim the Asian champion title in the road race. It’s an important achievement both for me personally and for the team”, – said Fedorov.
Vollering Headlines Star-Studded Setmana Valenciana
European champion Demi Vollering will make her 2026 season debut at the Setmana Valenciana — and is the favorite for the Spanish stage race. The FDJ United-SUEZ leader’s primary competition comes from Cedrine Kerbaol, Liane Lippert, and Antonia Niedermaier.
The four-stage UCI 2.Pro event begins with a challenging opener around Gandia featuring a hilly finish that demands immediate sharpness from contenders. Stage two to Vila-Real offers sprinters their best opportunity on flatter terrain.
Day three delivers the queen stage, featuring the Alto Tudons and Alto Confrides climbs in the final 50 kilometers, with over 2,600 meters of total elevation gain testing Vollering’s climbing prowess. The final stage to Valencia includes hills before a flat finish.
Last year, Vollering dominated by winning the opening stage, ultimately taking overall victory ahead of Marlen Reusser and Anna van der Breggen. Mischa Bredewold and Elisa Balsamo claimed subsequent stage wins.
Vollering’s FDJ squad includes Amber Kraak, Elise Chabbey, and Evita Muzic. Other contenders include Antonia Niedermaier, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, and world champion Magdeleine Vallieres.
With Lorena Wiebes absent, sprint opportunities favor Elisa Balsamo, Nienke Veenhoven, Cat Ferguson, and Eleonora Gasparrini—though each stage’s 1,000+ meters of climbing presents a significant challenge the fast finishers.
The Roving Sponsor: Premier Tech to Back Montréal Worlds
Having moved on from its support of WorldTour team Israel-Premier Tech, Canadian company Premier Tech now sponsors a different men’s team, a women’s team — and the World Championships in Montréal.
Premier Tech has signed on as a “Main Partner” of the event, taking place from September 20 to 27, 2026. The Championships will bring together the world’s best road cycling athletes in Montréal.
The UCI Road World Championships Montréal 2026 marks the return of a major international sporting event to Canada. Over eight days, the city will host 13 separate events, welcoming more than 1,000 male and female athletes from over 80 countries, in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators and nearly 200 million television viewers worldwide. It will be the largest sporting event held in Montréal since the 1976 Olympic Games.
Involved in cycling for more than 30 years, Premier Tech is active at a range of levels of cycling, from development teams to the highest levels of professional competition for both men and women. As part of this partnership, Premier Tech will serve as presenting partner of the Championships’ volunteer force, a key piece of the event’s success that will require the mobilization of nearly 2,000 volunteers.
“We have been driven by a passion for cycling for more than 30 years. It was only natural that such a historic event as the UCI Road World Championships Montréal 2026 would take place with the support of Premier Tech. By becoming a Main Partner of the event, we are once again affirming our desire to inspire the next generation, strengthen cycling culture in Québec, and build bridges to help athletes from here and around the world shine,” said Jean Bélanger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Premier Tech.
Announcing…The First-Ever British Gravel Championships
Coming to Scotland this August: the inaugural Lloyds National Gravel Championships.
Building on the growth, popularity and success of Gravel racing in recent years, gravel will now have an official British Cycling sanctioned national championship event, aiming to further grow its reach and awareness.
The Lloyds National Gravel Championships will take place in Ae Forest in Scotland on 22nd and 23rd August, in what looks to be a thrilling weekend of action. Elite open and elite female races will take place on Sunday 23rd with youth, junior and masters’ races also on offer throughout the weekend, allowing riders to enter the history books in the chance to secure the first striped jersey in gravel.
Speaking on the announcement, Joe Malik, Head of Talent Development and Sport at British Cycling said: “We are incredibly excited to welcome gravel to the growing list of British Cycling events. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the devoted community in its formative years, we know that there is already a strong foundation from which we can help grow the discipline to further heights.”
TEAM, RIDER AND CYCLING NEWS
UCI Delegates Anti-Doping Prosecution to ITA
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the International Testing Agency (ITA) have announced that the UCI has delegated its prosecution of anti-doping violations to the ITA. This delegation to the independent international anti-doping organization follows the transfer of operational anti-doping activities to the ITA in 2021.
Going forward, the ITA will assume responsibility for legal proceedings pertaining to anti-doping matters in cycling, including the handling of potential anti-doping rule violations and whereabouts failures. This major step follows a structured pathway pursued by the UCI over many years to further strengthen the independence, credibility and robustness of its anti-doping program.
UCI President David Lappartient said: “The delegation of results management to the ITA represents another major step in a process initiated with the creation of the CADF to ensure the independence of the fight against doping in cycling, in order to make it as effective and deterrent as possible. Since the delegation of the operational aspects of its anti-doping program to the ITA in 2021, the UCI and the cycling community have been able to fully appreciate the professionalism of the independent international anti-doping organization.”
And…Sigh…There’s a New Lance Biopic Coming. How Do You Feel About It?
Is this the…third Lance Armstrong documentary? The fourth?
It depends whether you’re counting Tour de Pharmacy.
But this is a big-budget treatment, starring none other but The King himself — Austin Butler, who played Elvis in the eponymous 2022 biopic. (He was also in a movie called Caught Stealing — which, if you ask me, would be a perfect title for the new Lance film.)
Here at PEZ, we’re trying to figure out how to cover this. Ignore it? Likely not: like it or not, Lance Armstrong remains the biggest name in cycling (here in the U.S., that is). But we’re probably also not going to write fawningly (about Armstrong; if the movie’s well made, we’ll write as much).
So we’ll ask you, dear readers: How are you feeling about Lance Armstrong? Despise him? Still believe that his story, however sordid, is one worth telling?
A flawed hero who wielded necessary means to the end of overcoming obstacles that would prove overwhelming to most of us?
Let us know! Send your thoughts about Lance Armstrong and this imminent biopic to mike@pezcyclingnews.com.
(We’ll decide which curse words are appropriate to post.)
Meanwhile – a trip to ride your bike in Italy this year could be the best way to escape – whether your madness is local or national – and great place worth considering is OXYGEN Lifestyle Bike Hotel in Rimini – watch the PEZ review below…
• Gotta Comment, thought or suggestion? Drop us a line at Content@PezCyclingNews.com
Follow PEZ INSTAGRAM here
The post EUROTRASH: Look Who’s Back! XDS Astana Dominates in Oman appeared first on PezCycling News.
