Number of motorbikes among the riders in the women's World's RR is astonishing. There's at least 8 or 9 among the first three on the final climb.

Nerd cycling news update -- UCI has backed down a few mm on handlebar width for next hear -- 400 mm outside-to-outside, rather than centre to centre. And hoods can be 280, in from 320mm. New helmet rules from Jan for road races -- no helmets, no ear covering, minimum vent requirements.

When did championship winners stop being "The 2025 Champion" and start being 'Your 2025 Champion"? It's not a hill I'd want to die on, but "your" always sounds weird. It's not like I'm going to give them a hanky and send them off to joust for me in a tournament.

Name a pro cyclist who looks more like a Victorian strongman than Alexander Salby.

Road.cc review of "Further". They liked it. Includes phrases like "Wonderfully written" and 'Thoroughly entertaining." And who would I be to argue? road.cc/content/revi...

Final 4 K of today's @TourofBritain stage. Me and Michael Hutchinson bringing it home on TNT Sports youtu.be/JKyKOSsFm3M?...

Can Remco do it on a wet afternoon in Bedford? We get to find out, weather permitting.

Vine's Vuelta win in fog so thick you couldn't see him cross the line is, perversely, one of my all-time favourite cycling moments.

So, the cat has made friends with a pigeon. I think perhaps they solve crimes together.

What larks.

Looking forward to this -- Charlie's got a great skillset for an hour. The Ganna record is a bit of a mountain, but good to see someone taking it on.

Worrying development if you're a TT rider -- race engineer Dan Bigham at Red Bull has a shiny new time triallist to play with.

My Edinburgh Book Festival event next week -- and if I'm not enough (and I'm probably not) the host will be the estimable Emily Chappell. www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

The "Further" audiobook is out! Read by me, in a hot and sweaty cupboard in North London during the spring heatwave. www.amazon.co.uk/Further-Seek...

I was the question-setter for Midnight Mastermind on OJ Borg's BBC Radio 2 show last night. The specialist subject was.... The Land's End to John O'Groats cycling records. From about 29 minutes in. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

At the Visma party tonight: "I dunno, Jonas. He didn't seem that hard to drop to me." #tdf2025

And with that, Van Aert ensures that the Montmartre circuit becomes a fixture, and every sprinter in the peloton dies a little inside. #tdf2025

"Like this, Jonas" #tdf2025

In the wake of bottle-gate, I'd like to push once again my idea for a giant drinks bladder with eight hoses. One rider wears it, and goes back to the car for re-fuelling. Then, back in the bunch, the whole team gathers round him, takes a hose each, and suckles.

Lenny Martinez sticky-bottle-gate -- problem here is that the UCI accepts the idea you can "cheat" as long as you don't cheat too much. In addition, the penalties are highly inconsistent. It's a mess. If they just banned any sort of sticky bottle it would be pretty simple.

We saw more of Steve Cummings during that stage than we did on some stages that he won as a rider.... Great ride from O'Connor. And a great ride from Onley. Shows what patience can do for you. #tdf2025

Suspect Vingegaard was just on a mediocre day -- would explain a lot of Visma's riding. #tdf2025

Visma play book is getting thin on options. Next, I think, is plan x -- hope Pogacar gets struck by lightning. #tdf2025

I consult my leaked script for this year's Tour de France, and I see that today Vingegaard will attack and gap Pogacar, but Pogacar will chase back, drop Vingegaard and put 20s into him by the finish. I won't tell you who's going to win from the break, just to avoid too much of a spoiler.

There was a period in the 1890s when bicycle drive-trains swapped sides almost every year, to keep fashion moving and drive sales. Aero-bikes vs one-bike-to-rule-them-all-bikes vs climbing-bikes feels very much the same.

I was expecting a slightly dull day -- flat, flat, flat, Pog rides off. It was anything but. The full Tour experience -- two races going off at once, nutcase fans, and the weirdest-looking mountain in Europe. #tdf2025

I love that Julian Alaphilippe is going to spend the rest of his career with people waving bits of cardboard at him. #tdf2025

It's another normal day on nutter mountain. #tdf2025

A triumphant return to the Edinburgh Festivals. Well, I hope it's triumphant. I'll be talking about the art of the long bike ride (or the long anything, really) on 13th August, and to make things even better, my host will be the marvellous Emily Chappell. www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

Maybe I should post publicly when I think a race is going to be fairly dull for the first few km, so that you all know to watch avidly from the very beginning? #tdf2025

Who had "Evenepoel gets caught for two minutes in a time trial" on their bingo card? #tdf2025

Pogacar might be on the wrong bike.... but I suspect he's going to win anyway. Be grateful he didn't pick an even faster set-up. #tdf2025

Vingegaard, waiting with a time trial bike after 160-something guys rode on road bikes, has to have some confidence in whoever does his mathematics. #tdf2025

Time limit today is 33%. So I reckon over 5 w/kg to be confident of making it. There will be sprintery types having a hard day out there. #tdf2025

A read of the roadbook for today's uphill time trial stage reveals two things. There's a cable car directly from the start to the finish. And the route for vehicles returning from the finish to the start (team cars etc.) is 115 km. So swings and roundabouts.

First the drama. Then the comedy.

Uphill time trial tomorrow. Anyone care to make a prediction? #tdf2025

Extraordinary thing about this is that if Pogacar wasn't here, we'd be stunned by the minute Vingegaard has put into the Roglic group. #tdf2025

Pogacar still on his 'aero' bike -- and it's probably faster given the speeds he's going on this climb. #tdf2025

Also, where has this version of Bruno Armirail been all our lives? #tdf2025

Huge credit to Evenepoel for plugging along at his own pace for 20 km (?)and getting more or less back to the group. Just in time to get dropped up Hautacam, obviously, but still, fine effort. #tdf2025

Roglic trolling the UCI. Incidentally, I once got told off by a commissaire for having socks that were too short. Some evil empires are never happy.

Tour de France stage finish in Hautacam will be only the 7th visit. First was in 1994, when the stage was 263 km long, and Luc Leblanc's winning time was seven hours.

Also, Tour de France finish line security guys don't dick about.

What a big heap of bike racing. #tdf2025

This is a terrible Tour de France stage to half-watch while you try to do something else. Seriously -- do they stop every 10 km and just shuffle the race?

Irish Yellow. That's the best sort of Yellow. What a stage, and what a ride from Ben Healy. #tdf2025

Places I am glad not to be: on Ben Healy's wheel. #tdf2025

I predicted Ben Healy would wear the yellow jersey during this Tour de France. Unfortunately I didn't tell anyone about this.