Lesser known races 2026 edition

[Samamba]

Took some risks today but very easy in the end. Big favorite and he does it.

Sad for Hagenes, insane ride

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Solid sprint by Meeus. Good finish. Pretty hard race.

 

[Cycling111]

Did Laurenz Rex fracture his vertebrae at Alula? Narvaez fractured them earlier and still hasn't appeared

 

[Rob5091]

They left it late but Red Bull's Meeus got the win - Hagenes caught in the last km so Visma came up empty.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

they can

indeed.

 

[Samamba]

Grisel also really strong race. Was the guy behind Hagenes and still top 10

 

[search]

good to see Rex this strong again already after the injury. Hofstetter with his usual top 3, but not really having the speed it needs anymore to win

 

[Samamba]

good to see Rex this strong again already after the injury. Hofstetter with his usual top 3, but not really having the speed it needs anymore to win

They must have exaggerated Rex his injury right cause how...

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Result, Samyn:

1	Meeus Jordi	Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe	125	75	4:24:42
2	Rex Laurenz	Soudal Quick-Step	85	55	,,
3	Hofstetter Hugo	NSN Cycling Team	70	40	,,
4	Biermans Jenthe	Cofidis	60	32	,,
5	Kubiš Lukáš	Unibet Rose Rockets	50	28	,,
6	Grisel Matys	Lotto Intermarché	40	24	,,
7	Govekar Matevž	Bahrain - Victorious	35	20	,,
8	Sénéchal Florian	Alpecin-Premier Tech	30	18	,,
9	Dauphin Florian	TotalEnergies	25	16	,,
10	De Schuyteneer Steffen	Lotto Intermarché	20	14	,,

Avg pace: 46.2 km/h. Properly raced one day event (assuming neutral winds).

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Tomorrow we have the 63rd Trofeo Laigueglia:

Startlist: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/trofeo-laigueglia/2026/startlist
No live pics apparently (boo).

 

[KoopaCycling]

Van aert is just one unlucky cyclist

 

[Cycling111]

It seems they're only going to offer a summary after the race.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028748022977384699

View: https://x.com/laflammerouge16/status/2028748022977384699

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028859229293920326

View: https://x.com/i/status/2028859229293920326

 

[search]

but there's live radio coverage!

View this content on Instagram

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View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVbm4GUjq31/?hl=de

 

[Tim Cahill]

Families across Europe will be huddled round listening to Christian Scaroni win Trofeo Laigueglia on the radio tomorrow.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Will there actually be a race to talk about or are they just gonna read from a script?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Already got a sick note ready for my Slovenian son to skip school tomorrow.

 

[Samamba]

A .Pro race without live broadcast in 2026 is ridiculous. Should be demoted to .2 race as a punishment. If a junior race can broadcast races live without big production, they can too.

 

[tobydawq]

A .Pro race without live broadcast in 2026 is ridiculous. Should be demoted to .2 race as a punishment. If a junior race can broadcast races live without big production, they can too.

Indeed. Absolutely embarrassing (and against UCI rules).

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Extragiro are a sh*tshow and Italian cycling would probably be better off without them. That's how many races now that they have either failed to get off the ground, failed to keep going, or (as in this case) ruined for the fans?

 

[Red Rick]

Yes. Cycling needs fewer races. That'll help.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Yes. Cycling needs fewer races. That'll help.

Are you even reading the posts above you?

The rights to Trofeo Laigueglia are held by the municipality, and for years they've outsourced the organisation to another party. So if Extragiro disappeared, it would be highly unlikely for Laigueglia to disappear too as the municipality would simply look for another party (most probably GS Emilia who ran the race the past few years).

 

[search]

The municipality may be part of it as well, to be fair. The current arrangement with ExtraGiro was also only announced at the end of January.

Before, GS Emilia organised the race until 2022, then ExtraGiro did in 2023, before GS Emilia took over again in 2024 and 2025. It's probably not something which would happen if things were going smoothly.

But obviously, the ExtraGiro races are not going great, and adding three more to the portfolio this year always looked a bit too optimistic.

 

[RedheadDane]

According to the UCI rules any event in the UCI ProSeries calendar must have live international TV coverage of the event in at least ten countries and live TV coverage of the event in the organiser's country.

Quite an update from when it was apparently okay for Tour de Pologne - a WT race - to only have live coverage in, like... 5 countries.

 

[search]

it's not a rule, but one of the points the UCI takes into account when up- or downgrading the category. Oman never had live TV coverage either, for example, and still is a . pro race. Quinghai Lake sometimes has, most of the time not.

On paper, Poland always had enough of it, I think, just not in countries that mattered.

 

[Red Rick]

Are you even reading the posts above you?

The rights to Trofeo Laigueglia are held by the municipality, and for years they've outsourced the organisation to another party. So if Extragiro disappeared, it would be highly unlikely for Laigueglia to disappear too as the municipality would simply look for another party (most probably GS Emilia who ran the race the past few years).

It's commonly understood that I can't read.