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While the early editions were more of a sprinters’ race, the Tour Down Under has morphed into a well-rounded event allowing climbers to showcase their talents for the general classification during the more challenging stages.

Race director Stuart O’Grady and his organization did a fantastic job honoring the 25-year history of the event’s classic routes and finishes, while also including some new roads that tested the riders’ early season condition with almost 10,000m of climbing over six stages surrounding Adelaide.

The general classification was won by Ecuadorian rider Jhonatan Narváez of the mighty UAE Team Emirates-XRG in front of Javier Romo of Movistar and Finn Fisher-Black of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. But for me, there were many more takeaways than just the overall result.

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The UAE Tour Women 2025 starts on Thursday, with three flat stages and a summit finish atop Jebel Hafeet. There is always a risk of crosswinds and echelon racing in the UAE but the flat stages will surely see some of the biggest sprinters in the women's peloton go head to head.

Twenty teams will race on the fast flat and wide roads of the UAE, with warm temperatures and crosswinds likely in the next few days.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) will be fighting for the stage victories.

"It's the first time for me racing here and it's the sprinting world championship," said Balsamo. "We have a good team and we are ready to fight."

Kool won two stages in the 2023 edition but missed last year's race because of sickness. Her winter has been affected by the consequences of her broken collarbone at the Tour de France Femmes.

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Swiss Champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) has won Cadel’s Race, capping a solid team effort and securing Jayco-AlUla’s men’s squad’s first victory in its home one-day race.

Schmid opened a small gap at around 7 km remaining, soloing in to the finish where he finished three seconds ahead of a select chasing group. Veteran Kiwi Aaron Gate (XdS-Astana) took second, with fellow New Zealander and defending champion Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) rounding out the podium.

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Marlen Reusser (Movistar) beat Mavi García (Team Spain) to win the Trofeo Palma Femina, the second race of the women's Challenge Mallorca, after a head-to-head battle in the hilly final kilometres.

The two surged away from a front group on the late Coll de Sa Creu climb near Palma, descended to the coast together and then fought for victory on the ascent to the Castell de Bellver.

Reusser led García on the climb to the finish and led out the sprint, simply powering away from García.

Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) won the close sprint for third place, beating Thalita de Jong (Human Powered Health).

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After weeks of speculation, Australian Caleb Ewan has signed a late single-year deal with Ineos Grenadiers for 2025.

Ewan was set to be part of home WorldTour team Jayco-AIUIa this season for a second year, but his name did not appear on the squad's line-up for 2025, sparking rumours that he could be moving on, for reasons that remain unclear. There was talk about a possible deal with Astana, but the idea never gained real traction.

After Italian fast man Elia Viviani and Ineos Grenadiers parted ways in 2025, the British team were lacking firepower for the sprints, with Ewan now set to strengthen their options in that area.

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The cobble-bashing Dutch bulldozer fractured his collarbone Tuesday at the Santos Tour Down Under to continue a long sufferfest of sickness, injury, and case of “superglue face.”

According to Pro Cycling Stats, injuries alone will have robbed Van Baarle of around 24 weeks of racing in the 25 months since his high-profile move to Jumbo-Visma (now Visma-Lease a Bike).

And that’s not accounting for a spate of non-selections and non-starts due to sickness.

Sure, Van Baarle hasn’t suffered singular career-threatening crashes like his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert.

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As early as March of this season it was clear that the transfer market would be unlike anything women’s cycling had ever seen. For a few seasons, there had been talk of growing salaries, especially with the implementation of the UCI’s WorldTour minimum wage in 2020, but it wasn’t until Demi Vollering’s departure from SD Worx-Protime was confirmed that the number €1 million was thrown around. The report that UAE Team ADQ had approached the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner with that number was ultimately debunked, but it set off a chain reaction that saw salaries rise even more ahead of the 2025 season.

Unfortunately, this increase in pay is only available to those at the top of the sport. While the top women are earning in the mid-six figures, women on Continental teams who line up against those same top riders are still barely surviving on €10,000 a year.

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The first WorldTour race of the year would be decided on the iconic Old Willunga Hill during Stage 2 of the 2025 Santos Women’s Tour Down Under. 23-year-old Swiss rider Noemi Rüegg surprised everyone by winning the stage after a tactical battle played out from the very first repetition of the famous Adelaide climb.

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On the day of the race, Reto and Christine stood waiting in central Zurich, holding their handmade cardboard signs. “Hopp Muriel.” “Go Muriel.” They began to worry when she did not pass them at the end of the course’s first lap. They contacted Swiss Cycling’s team car, but nobody could tell them any news.

Muriel never finished the World Championships. She had crashed, on a descent leading towards Kusnacht, a suburb on the shores of Lake Zurich, with 45km remaining. The area is heavily wooded, and having left the road, she disappeared from view.

It was only after the race ended that a track marshal found Muriel unconscious in the woods.

At one of the world’s biggest cycling races, just a 10-minute drive from her front door, she had been lying alone and injured for about an hour and a half.

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Private insurance companies have earned the public’s distrust. They routinely put profitability above their policyholders’ well-being. And a system of private health insurance provision also has higher administrative costs than a single-payer system, in which the government is the sole insurer.

But the avarice and inefficiencies of private insurers are not the sole — or even primary — reasons why vital medical services are often unaffordable and inaccessible in the United States. The bigger issue is that America’s health care providers — hospitals, physicians, and drug companies — charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations.

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Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel says he will "come back stronger" from surgery after breaking multiple bones in a crash.

The 24-year-old Belgian sustained rib, shoulder blade and hand fractures in a crash during training in Belgium on Tuesday.

He also suffered lung contusions, dislocated his right clavicle and tore several ligaments after colliding with the open door of a postal vehicle.

"After a scary accident on training yesterday, I underwent surgery last night and everything went well," Evenepoel wrote on Instagram on Wednesday alongside a photo of him with his right arm in a sling.

"It's going to be a long journey but I'm fully focused on my recovery and I’m determined to come back stronger, step by step.

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