Police say 14 locations across six countries have been searched as they investigate possible doping offences in cycling.

 

Officers from France, Belgium, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Poland and Slovenia were involved in the raids which took place between 27-30 June.

 

They were co-ordinated by European crime agencies Europol and Eurojust.

 

The searches came just days before Friday's start of the Tour de France, which begins in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/62009223

Marianne Vos claimed victory - and the leader's yellow jersey - on the second stage of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes.

 

The Dutch rider won a three-way sprint finish against Silvia Persico and Katarzyna Niewiadoma on the 136.4km stage from Meaux to Provins.

 

Vos, 35, took the yellow jersey from compatriot Lorena Wiebes, who finished 29 seconds behind her in sixth place.

A real shame the Tour de France Femmes isn't on Freeview - guess I'll have to live with the GCN highlights clips on Youtube!

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won the third stage of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes while Marianne Vos finished second and retained the yellow jersey.

 

Denmark's Ludwig, 26, finished two seconds ahead of the Dutch rider.

 

Ludwig managed to pull away from a six-strong breakaway coming into the finish line after the 133.6km ride from Reims to Eperney.

 

"I just kept fighting - this is for my team, they kept believing in me," said Ludwig.

 

 

Ethan Hayter won the Tour of Poland after Arnaud Demare claimed the seventh and final stage on Friday.

 

Ineos Grenadiers' Hayter, 23, had taken the leader's yellow jersey on Thursday's penultimate stage.

 

Frenchman Demare, of Groupama-FDJ, finished with a superb late burst to win the sprint into Krakow.

 

Dutchman Olav Kooij finished second and Phil Bauhaus of Germany came third, while Hayter finished tucked inside the peloton to win by 11 seconds overall.

 

The win is the first WorldTour overall victory of Hayter's career, as he becomes the sixth active British rider to have won general classifications at this level, joining Tao Geoghegan Hart, Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Adam Yates and Simon Yates.

 

Dutchman Thymen Arensman finished second in the general classification and Spain's Pello Bilbao third, 18 seconds behind the Briton.

 

Hayter's compatriot and Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Ben Tulett, 20, finished fifth overall.

Colombian rider Nairo Quintana has been disqualified from the 2022 Tour de France for an in-competition drug infringement, the UCI has announced.

 

Analysis of two blood samples from the 32-year-old showed the presence of banned drug tramadol.

 

Quintana has now been stripped of his overall sixth-place finish, but has 10 days to appeal against the decision.

 

As it is a first offence by Quintana, he is still eligible to participate in competition

That's a shock - he was going very well in the Tour so would be a shame for him to lose out on such a high finish (and would be a blow to Arkea-Samsic given they're looking at being prommoted to WorldTour level). Hopefully it is just a mistake.

Britain's Dan Bigham smashed the Hour record with a distance of 55.548km around the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland on Friday.

 

Bigham, an aerodynamics specialist and race engineer for British cycling team Ineos Grenadiers, beat the previous record of 55.089km set by Belgium's Victor Campenaerts in 2019.

 

The Hour record is the longest distance cycled in one hour on a bicycle.

Colombian rider Nairo Quintana has denied using a banned substance after he was retrospectively disqualified from the 2022 Tour de France.

 

Analysis of two blood samples from the 32-year-old showed the presence of banned drug tramadol.

 

Quintana has now been stripped of his overall sixth-place finish, but has 10 days to appeal against the decision.

 

"I am totally unaware of the use of this substance, and I deny having used it in my career," Quintana said.

 

"With my team of lawyers, we are exhausting all the processes for my defence."

The Tour of Britain has cancelled its final three stages as a mark of respect after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

 

Spain's Gonzalo Serrano has been given the race victory after keeping his overall lead on Thursday's fifth stage.

 

The eight-stage race was due to travel to Gloucester on Friday, Dorset on Saturday before ending on the Isle of Wight on Sunday.

 

Britain's Tom Pidcock, who was second in the general classification, wins the points competition.

Norway's Tobias Foss won a surprise gold in the time trial at the Road World Championships in Australia as Britain's Ethan Hayter finished fourth.

 

Foss' strong finish proved crucial as he beat Switzerland's Stefan Kung by 2.95 seconds in Wollongong.

 

Hayter had to swap bikes after a mechanical problem on his run, finishing nearly 36 seconds behind the winner and 30 seconds from the podium.

 

In the women's race, the Netherlands' Ellen van Dijk defended her title.

Whoops, had no idea it was already happening! I've seen the result now anyway so well done to Foss. Hopefully I'll be able to watch a bit more of the road race!

The women's road race was massively exciting - so many attacks and breakaways, and definitely wasn't expecting Van Vleuten to come out of the woodwork for the win at the end!

Five Scots have been named in the Great Britain squad for next week's UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Saint Quentin en Yvelines, France.

 

Katie Archibald, Neah Evans, Jack Carlin, Ali Fielding and Lauren Bell make up a quarter of the team.

Exciting! Something else to look forward to.

 

The Men's Road Race a week or so back was also stunning - Remco winning by such a large margin was amazing to watch, and no idea how the reast of the bunch managed to get back together for the sprint for silver!

Great Britain won men's gold and women's silver in the team pursuit finals on day two of the Track Cycling World Championships in France.

 

In the men's event, British quartet Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, Ethan Vernon and Daniel Bigham edged out Olympic champions Italy in a thrilling race to cause an upset.

 

In the women's race, GB fell just short of matching their male team-mates' achievement as they finished second.

 

Italy were crowned as world champions.

 

Double Olympic champion Katie Archibald, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Neah Evans, Anna Morris and Josie Knight delivered a strong performance but were unable to compete with the pace of the Italian riders.

 

France took bronze in the women's event to the delight of the home crowd at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines near Paris, while Denmark were third in the men's race.

British Cycling's partnership with Shell is "controversial" but could help persuade the oil giant to look at its environmental policies, says Sir Chris Hoy.

 

British Cycling announced the eight-year sponsorship deal on Monday but received widespread criticism.

 

Hoy said it could allow British Cycling to "have a voice in an organisation".

 

He added: "If you can get them to change their policy even slightly, than that's a positive thing."

 

The deal with Shell comes after British Cycling's partnership with bank HSBC finished at the end of 2021 and includes initiatives to make cycling more accessible for disabled people and target a 'net-zero' status.

Britain's Neah Evans claimed her first major individual title in the women's points race at the Track Cycling World Championships.

 

Ethan Hayter and Ollie Wood took men's madison silver, with bronze for Ethan Vernon in the men's elimination race.

 

Evans won gold in France with 60 points, ahead of Denmark's Julie Leth and American Jennifer Valente.

 

The Scot, 32, adds the gold medal to the silver she won in the women's team pursuit earlier in the championships.

Nairo Quintana's appeal against his disqualification from the 2022 Tour de France has been dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

 

The Colombian rider was stripped of his overall sixth-place finish at this year's Tour after analysis of two blood samples from the 32-year-old showed the presence of banned drug tramadol.

 

He has denied using a banned substance.

Just looked at the final standings in the WorldTour relegation race - looks like Lotto Soudal and Israel have lost their WorldTour licenses whilst Arkea and Alpecin-Fenix have gained theirs.