Lesser known races 2026 edition

[RedheadDane]

Quickstep with the old "guy attacks, when he's caught, sprinter wins" move over in Hungary.

Also, Sweden with a pro win two days in a row... when was the last time that happened?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Final GC in Hungary:

1	1	-	Söderqvist Jakob	Lidl - Trek	250	150	15″	16:57:21
2	2	-	Cosnefroy Benoît	UAE Team Emirates - XRG	170	110	14″	0:40
3	3	-	Plapp Luke	Team Jayco AlUla	140	90	7″	0:49
4	4	-	Lecerf Junior	Soudal Quick-Step	120	80		0:56
5	5	-	Fancellu Alessandro	MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort	100	70		1:14
6	6	-	Calzoni Walter	Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team	80	60		,,
7	7	-	Pericas Adrià	UAE Team Emirates - XRG	70	55		1:21
8	8	-	Omrzel Jakob	Bahrain - Victorious	60	50		1:25
9	9	-	Valter Attila	Bahrain - Victorious	50	45		1:34
10	10	-	Fofonov Artëm	XDS Astana Team	40	40		1:38

 

[RedheadDane]

Barrenetxea winning for the second day in a row in France.

 

[yaco]

Lidl Trek treated Hungary as a training race as they placed riders in the break every day and on one day they had a 2 rider break away. then due to freak circumstances they win the GC. A strange race

 

[PetPaima]

Barrenetxea winning for the second day in a row in France.

Barrenetxea climbed those violent walls very strongly for a big guy. Impressive.

 

[RedheadDane]

Don't forget that today is the Classique Dunkerque, the one-day race that got added last year, when Four days of Dunkirk was shortened to five stages.

Will be live on MAX/whatever you call it.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Just going to chime in and agree with the notion that "the streets won't forget" Tour of Hongrie 2026.

Imo, the best stage race this year even with Tim Merlier winning three out of the five stages (!).

A wild ride in Magyarország!

 

[Samamba]

Potential breakthrough win for Shmidt incoming in Dunkerque. Attacked with 1 lap to go out of the peloton. Now 45s ahead with 5k to go. Pretty impressive.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not the kind of weather I would have opted for white shorts in...

 

[RedheadDane]

He held on.
Crash in the finish, but I don't think it made much of a difference (apart from for the riders who went down).

 

[Faserr]

Nice win.

At this rate Red Bull might swap Meeus with Magagnotti for next year. He even seems quite good hilly sprints and a lot of teams want Meeus.

 

[yaco]

Nice win.

At this rate Red Bull might swap Meeus with Magagnotti for next year. He even seems quite good hilly sprints and a lot of teams want Meeus.

Magagnotti is seriously good. Could even win a WT race in 2027.

 

[primoz]

I read a rumor somewhere that Magagnotti is already faster than Meeus in training. In his first senior race (Trofeo Palma) he had 2 decent sprinters (Marit and Donati) doing lead out for him. Eventually Marit won in a chaotic sprint, but that wasn't the plan.

 

[tobydawq]

That was a pretty astonishing ride by Shmidt. He seemed two levels above the rest and just destroyed the peloton on the final lap even though they seemed to put in a rather concerted effort.

Where did that level come from??

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Over today and some random number of days moving forward we have the 4 Jours de Dunkerque (2.Pro) race:

startlist: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/4-jours-de-dunkerque/2026/startlist

Streams will be available.

 

[SafeBet]

Nice win.

At this rate Red Bull might swap Meeus with Magagnotti for next year. He even seems quite good hilly sprints and a lot of teams want Meeus.

Magagnotti is more of a Brennan type of sprinter. He lacks the endurance to survive hilly parcours at the moment (and it's not a given he will improve honestly) but he's closer to 70 kgs than to 80 in race shape. His power numbers are through the roof.

 

[RedheadDane]

Pithie won the first stage in Dunkirk.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Yep, Pithie continues the very good form:

1	Pithie Laurence	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe	25	30	10″	3:54:20
2	Coquard Bryan	Cofidis	15	18	6″	,,
3	Askey Lewis	NSN Cycling Team	10	12	4″	,,
4	Gruel Thibaud	Groupama - FDJ United	5	7		,,
5	L'Hote Antoine	Decathlon CMA CGM Team	3	4		,,
6	Izquierdo Clément	Cofidis		3		,,
7	van den Berg Marijn	EF Education - EasyPost		2		,,
8	Canal Carlos	Movistar Team		1		,,
9	Tiller Rasmus	Uno-X Mobility				,,
10	Grisel Matys	Lotto Intermarché				,,

 

[RedheadDane]

That was some finish!

 

[Samamba]

Was definitely antoher typical Dunkerque big crash in the peloton cause they came over the finish in pieces

 

[yaco]

The Conti have done well in 2026 in winning stages against WT teams. Chapeau!

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stage two i France:

1	Papon Victor	Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur	25	30		4:13:36
2	Guégan Maël	CIC Pro Cycling Academy	15	18		,,
3	Avoine Kévin	Van Rysel Roubaix	10	12		,,
4	Årnes Daniel	Van Rysel Roubaix	5	7		,,
5	Pithie Laurence	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe	3	4		0:07
6	Meeus Jordi	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe		3		,,
7	Fredheim Stian	Uno-X Mobility		2		,,
8	van Poppel Danny	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe		1		,,
9	Müller Tobias	Unibet Rose Rockets				,,
10	Askey Lewis	NSN Cycling Team				,,

Yep, winner from a break full of CT riders. Nice surprise.
Pithie leads race.

 

[RedheadDane]

Tiller wins the stage in Dunkirk.

Huh... looks like Tiller sitting up to celebrate might have cost him the lead.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stage, France:

1	Tiller Rasmus	Uno-X Mobility	25	30	10″	3:25:43
2	Pithie Laurence	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe	15	18	6″	0:04
3	Tesson Jason	TotalEnergies	10	12	4″	,,
4	Shmidt Artem	Netcompany INEOS	5	7		,,
5	Heremans Joppe	Van Rysel Roubaix	3	4		,,
6	Slock Liam	Lotto Intermarché		3		,,
7	Kelemen Petr	Tudor Pro Cycling Team		2		,,
8	Chamberlain Oscar	Decathlon CMA CGM Team		1		,,
9	Serrano Gonzalo	Movistar Team				,,
10	Thomas Benjamin	Cofidis				,,

Yep, the 4 seconds plus bonus not enough to take race lead. Pithie still leads, now by 2 secs.

 

[tobydawq]

Insane that Pithie managed to bridge that gap single-handedly on the penultimate lap. What kind of black magic was that?