1w ago

Races thread of the week: Poland, Burgos, Ain, Arctic, Portugal 2025, August

So, not counting a race in Himalaya, there are 4, no 5! overlapping races this week in Europe, dividing the start lists.

Tour of Poland 🇵🇱* WT, Aug 4 to 8

For the second year in a row, this tour as changed from a flat race into a hilly / medium-altitude mountain race to address criticism and safety concerns. However teams are still considering and turning it into a sprinters' race (punchers' race at best).

Official website: https://www.tourdepologne.pl/en/

PCS page: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-pologne/2025

Vuelta a Burgos 🇪🇸* class .Pro, Aug 5 to 9

A balanced tour (meant as a preparation for the Tour of Spain) whose winner is however determined by one or two mountain stages.

Official website (in Spanish): https://www.vueltaburgos.com/es/

PCS page: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/vuelta-a-burgos/2025

Watchable on the website of the local Spanish TV: https://www.cyltv.es/live/La8Burgos (try after 3 PM)

Tour de l'Ain 🇫🇷* class .1, Aug 6 to 8

A 3 days mountain race.

Official website (in French): https://tourdelain.com/la-course/

PCS page: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tour-de-l-ain/2025

Arctic race of Norway 🇳🇴* class .Pro, Aug 7 to 10

Depending on the year, this race tales in different areas in Norway, not necessarily above the Arctic circle. This year it is between the Lofoten islands and Tromsø. The winner is usually determined by one or two punchy final climbs.

Official website: https://www.arctic-race-of-norway.com/en/

PCS page: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/arctic-race-of-norway/2025

The first part of the Tour of Portugal 🇵🇹* class .1, Aug 6 to 17

A race for mopeds.

Official website: https://volta-portugal.com/

PCS page: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/volta-a-portugal/2025

3 comments

There was also the Tour of Guadeloupe (French island in West Indies), a farcical 2.2.
In this video https://x.com/LeGruppetto/status/1952995645058388165 , the 2^nd in GC has a puncture and stops. Then he realises he's fucked, because his car has gone ahead of the peloton. A teammate rides backwards, which is completely forbidden, to give him his wheel. But they can't remove the wheels because of the bloody disc brakes wheels without fast locks, and they haven't got a key either. So the leader takes the bike of his teammate and goes. But there's something he doesn't like, or perhaps he was radioed that someone came with a key,and now he's riding backwards too! That's even better than Vingegaard and Visma's mess. Epilogue not on video: he magically caught up with the peloton. The magic (the help of a car) owed him a 1 minute penalty.
In this one, https://x.com/CyclingLegend_/status/1952290921707655271 , one rider is pulled by his car. Very classical. A couple of riders received a 5 minutes penalty! (I didn't know it was possible to give such large time penalties.)
More original, https://la1ere.franceinfo.fr/guadeloupe/tour-cycliste-de-guadeloupe-2025-c-est-tres-grave-2-coureurs-exclus-pour-avoir-rejoint-le-peloton-sans-faire-tout-le-parcours-de-la-2e-etape-sous-les-yeux-du-commissaire-1610574.html : 2 Dutch riders (Niels Tenniglo and Huub Van Kapel) have taken a shortcut (or most likely stopped in a place where the course will come back after making a 30 km loop), and are hiding behind a car on the roadside, waiting for the peloton to arrive and attempt to blend in. They have been disqualified.
One day, ahead of the race, 4 publicity cars crashed into each other. It created a massive traffic jam, and when the riders came, there were cars parked on both side of the motorway, as not all of the traffic could have been evacuated yet.
Tour de l’Ain 🇫🇷: class .1, Aug 6 to 8
Gaudu's return to competition is as bad as his departure after the Giro. On the 1^st stage, don't let the final result fool you, he and his team came back because it was a long descent + flat finish, and because Uijtdebroeks, his teammate and Prodhomme who had broken away in the climb without being followed at all, refused to cooperate. On the 2^ndstage, today, Gaudu was dropped in a 6% climb 50 km from the finish line, while there were still 40 to 50 riders in the peloton, including several riders from small Contis; he arrived over 20 minutes behind the winners.
While Gaudu and FDJ are well below their rank (despite being the team with the lightest program at the moment), 2 guys are clearly above the rest of the peloton: Uijtdebroeks (Visma) and Prodhomme (Decathlon), the latter looking stronger than the former. However, because of their bad cooperation (the Belgian attacked Prodhomme multiple times, Prodhomme is reluctant to relay), after 2 days they are less than 1 minute ahead of 6 other riders.
- It looks like Steff Cras (🇧🇪 Total) shan't start the 3^rd and last stage, after finishing 12 minutes behind the winners yesterday. This was his return to racing after withdrawing from the Tour of France in the Pyrénées.
  Strangely, Prodhomme went into an early breakaway.
  Situation went back to normal (a breakaway without the leader) after Visma's chase, perhaps a bit before the intermediate sprint.
  Then climbs started and the distribution of riders went as on previous days.
  Bouchard (🇫🇷 Décathlon) was dropped in the descent after the penultimate climb. Visma's Nordhagen pulled the tiny front group on the flat section so that he couldn't come and left Prodhomme alone. Tulett pulled the first part of that steep 15 km pass, then Cian U. accelerated and after a fair while managed to drop Prodhomme more surely than with attacks.
  The gaps gradually grew between the Belgian and the Frenchman, and between the Frenchman and the small group behind (Moniquet for Cofidis and Rouland for Arkéa having caught up with Tulett). In the descent Jegat (Total) came back from nowhere and joined this group.
  The long descent (where Cian U. and Prodhomme exhibited the exact same level) and then the final part on small hilly roads in the countryside seemed to never end, as the situation was set with about 2 minutes (and growing) between riders.
  Despite Prodhomme losing the tour, it was pleasant to see Cian U. finally regaining a truly good level, as his previous comebacks were not so successful (and his pains still present).
  FDJ is once again today the only World Team with nobody in the first or second group. Their first rider only crossed the line 13 minutes behind the winner! All Pro Teams and most Conti teams did better. Their leader Gaudu came after 23 minutes, same as the day before; this was supposed to be a preparation for the Vuelta...
  Disappointment for the famous Mehmet Şampiyonbisiklet 🤪 who couldn't finish this stage.
  1^st Pro Team riders on GC: Jegat (🇫🇷 Total) 6^{th, and the old **Brambilla** (🇮🇹 Q36.5) 7}th^,
  1^st Conti riders on GC: Axel Mariaut (🇫🇷 Nantes) 10^th, and the constant Oliver Mattheis (🇩🇪 Bike Aid) 15^th.