Lesser known races 2026 edition

[Dazed and Confused]

Great, unpredictable and open racing in turkey. Current GC standing:

1	2	▲1	Berwick Sebastian	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	5	12″	21:03:03
2	1	▼1	Sosa Iván Ramiro	Equipo Kern Pharma		10″	0:05
3	5	▲2	Bonneu Kamiel	Solution Tech NIPPO Rali			0:59
4	9	▲5	Jegat Jordan	TotalEnergies		5″	1:05
5	3	▼2	Breuillard Nicolas	TotalEnergies		4″	1:14
6	4	▼2	Fancellu Alessandro	MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort		2″	1:20
7	11	▲4	Bizkarra Mikel	Euskaltel - Euskadi			1:47
8	7	▼1	Mulubrhan Henok	XDS Astana Team		3″	1:53
9	13	▲4	Ruiz Ibon	Equipo Kern Pharma			2:17
10	10	-	Parra José Félix	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA			2:37

Tight. The next two stages:

Barring an incident, the first one of these won't make a difference, but the second one, with the uphill finish, the top spot in the GC is in play. All this translates to a must see stage on Sunday or at least part of it .

 

[search]

Barring an incident, the first one of these won't make a difference, but the second one, with the uphill finish, the top spot in the GC is in play. All this translates to a must see stage on Sunday or at least part of it .

the roadbook has the finish at 870m altitude (instead of 900m here), so honestly not sure a climb this steep even exists. It seems to be a rather new, four-wide road up to the presidential palace, which may have caused a bit of a glitch on la-flamme-rouge. Usually stages like this are for the sprinters.

 

[Mayomaniac]

the roadbook has the finish at 870m altitude (instead of 900m here), so honestly not sure a climb this steep even exists. It seems to be a rather new, four-wide road up to the presidential palace, which may have caused a bit of a glitch on la-flamme-rouge. Usually stages like this are for the sprinters.

Ankara is rather hilly, tbf.

 

[search]

Ankara is rather hilly, tbf.

okay, well, we will see, I guess. That part of the city is not on street view, and the Tour of Turkey hasn't come here for almost 30 years.

This is the finish (from the bottom right corner to the palace), but hard to estimate the steepness from a photo, of course.

 

[search]

early start in Turkey today, with Munton, Ridolfo, Ozkalbim, Pomorski and Killy a minute up the road. Stage will finish in around 2 hours.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpimdUpnlO8

 

[search]

due to slippery roads, the bad weather protocol has been applied. Times will be taken before the finish (3k if it's dry, 15k if it's wet), and there's no bonus. As far as I understandd, the stage win will still be contested, unless it starts to rain again.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Very bad decision to suddenly make these types of changes because it is raining imo.
Anyway we have about 15kms to the bunch sprint, where Crabbe can take his third win in this race.

 

[search]

it's wet and slippery indeed now, so no idea what will happen

 

[Tim Cahill]

We have been denied the spectacle of Ivan Sosa trying to take bonus seconds

 

[Dazed and Confused]

it's wet and slippery indeed now, so no idea what will happen

which is why its a very bad idea to tinker with the competitive rules in these situations, unless we severe weather situations.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Stage:

1	Ballerini Davide	XDS Astana Team	25	30		3:19:41
2	Bogusławski Marceli	ATT Investments	15	18		,,
3	Crabbe Tom	Team Flanders - Baloise	10	12		,,
4	Tarakcı Mustafa	Konya Büyükşehir Belediye Spor	5	7		,,
5	Gaviria Fernando	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	3	4		,,
6	Oldani Stefano	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA		3		,,
7	Pickrell Riley	Modern Adventure Pro Cycling		2		,,
8	Nencini Tommaso	Solution Tech NIPPO Rali		1		,,
9	Flynn Sean	Team Picnic PostNL				,,
10	Manenti Marco	Bardiani CSF 7 Saber				,,

Ballerini takes it, and the local Konya rider almost made it on the podium for the stage.

 

[AlfaLum]

Crabbe starts his sprint from too far back too often. Has a difficulty fighting for positions and looses a lot in the corner.

Shake for him because he is way faster than the others here.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

BALLERINI!!!

 

[yaco]

Crabbe starts his sprint from too far back too often. Has a difficulty fighting for positions and looses a lot in the corner.

Shake for him because he is way faster than the others here.

Crabbe and Ballerini were together well down in the peleton when the final sprint began.

 

[AlfaLum]

Crabbe and Ballerini were together well down in the peleton when the final sprint began.

Ballerini moved through a gap that closed before Crabbe could move through it.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Interesting approach to aerodynamics by Tarakci, sprinting with his elbows perpendicular to his body.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

In addition to the last stage in Turkey, which will finish early in the day, we have the Famenne Ardenne Classic (1.1) race:

Startlist: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/famenne-ardenne-classic/2026/startlist

De Lie is back after a dreadful sprint campaign and Del Grosso with team mate Verstrynge lines up for Alpecin, but I don't think this will be a walk in the park. Scheduled to finish 30mins after TdR and it will be broadcasted.

 

[tobydawq]

Interesting approach to aerodynamics by Tarakci, sprinting with his elbows perpendicular to his body.

That must be the ugliest sprinting style I have ever seen.

He almost took up the whole road, so maybe a smart move.

 

[tobydawq]

In addition to the last stage in Turkey, which will finish early in the day, we have the Famenne Ardenne Classic (1.1) race:

Startlist: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/famenne-ardenne-classic/2026/startlist

De Lie is back after a dreadful sprint campaign and Del Grosso with team mate Verstrynge lines up for Alpecin, but I don't think this will be a walk in the park. Scheduled to finish 30mins after TdR and it will be broadcasted.

De Lie usually wins this with one leg.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

In addition to the last stage in Turkey, which will finish early in the day, we have the Famenne Ardenne Classic (1.1) race:

Startlist: https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/famenne-ardenne-classic/2026/startlist

De Lie is back after a dreadful sprint campaign and Del Grosso with team mate Verstrynge lines up for Alpecin, but I don't think this will be a walk in the park. Scheduled to finish 30mins after TdR and it will be broadcasted.

Edgar chuky is racing! Vamos!!!

 

[Rob5091]

De Lie usually wins this with one leg.

Hopefully he makes it to the finish as he's had a dreadful year.

 

[Rob5091]

How come a race like the Tour of Turkey can do full race coverage and signing in but more prestigious races have like two hours?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

How come a race like the Tour of Turkey can do full race coverage and signing in but more prestigious races have like two hours?

Government sponsered most likely.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

The tube channel for the last stage in Turkey:

View: https://youtu.be/34_dBzSfubI