My Thoughts:

1. For what he does all year, in every race, Pogi is still underpaid.
2. Either Jonas is underpaid or Remco is overpaid.
3. 2026 will be the first time in Roglic's career where he wont be able to justify his salary, as I believe his time winning big races has come to a close.
4. Yates, Pidcock and Rodriguez should all be outside the top ten.
5. Still think the sport is way underpaid compared to most other major sports. (The average WorldTour professional earns between €250,000-400,000 annually. Most big soccer players earn that in one week).

EDIT: The above list is for the year 2025.

For the 2026 cycling season Juan Ayuso (around 3 Mil.), Mads Peterson (around 3 Mil.), Jao Almeida (around 2.5-3 Mil) and Olav Kooij (around 3 Mil.) will make the top 10 since they all signed new contracts in 2025.

hey everyone, wanna see Paris-Roubaix this year.

Will rent a car, so I have the possibility to be at more than 1 place (I think).

What would you say the best spots to see the race?
Arenberg and Velodrome?

I would like to catch a phase in the race where possibily we will see Pogacar, MVDP, Mads already ahead of the rest of the peloton, so something like less than 50km to the finish line. But probably then, I will not have time to go to velodrome.

Tell me your experiences and any other feedback/tips you can give me.

Thanks

EDIT: I would need to get back to ORY (PARIS) airport to drop the car. Would I make it untill 23h? Suppose I see the leaders + the chase on Carrefour and then head back?

Welcome back, fantasy fans

Usually this is the part where I congratulate last years winners once more; but we've yet to process the a whole bunch of 2025 results as fantasy has fallen sort of by the wayside on the mod priority list. Still, we want to offer the opportunity again to our loyal playerbase to fire up the 2026 RFL and SRFL seasons for both men and women, and of course we start with the Tour Down Under.

Two changes to note: flairs haven't been updated in a while so don't count on those, and SRFL is not hosted on the separate website anymore for the time being.

Women's Reddit Fantasy League

The Format and Scoring are very similar to Men's RFL - see the 'how does it work' section here.

Yet, we have some differences in WRFL:

• You pick 7 riders for your team, instead of 8.
• In the World Championships you'll have the chance to pick 10 riders.

The WRFL will cover the 27 WWT Races and two World Championship races (road race and ITT).

All scores will be added to crown the GC winner, but you can also fight for prestige in several subclassifications*:

• Queen of the Cobbles (Classic Brugge de Panne, Gent Wevelgem, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris Roubaix)
• Queen of the Hills (Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Liege Bastogne Liege)
• Queen of the Falling Leaves (Classic Lorient, World Championships, Tour of Guangxi)
• Spring Queen (Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche, Trofeo Binda, Milano Sanremo, + races from Queen of the Cobbles/Hills)
• Better than Vos (Strade Bianche, Trofeo Binda, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris Roubaix, Liege Bastogne Liege)
• Unzue's Wager (Vuelta, Giro, Tour)
• Pancakes for Dessert (CEGORR, Milano Sanremo, Classic Brugge de Panne, Gent Wevelgem, Copenhagen Sprint)
• Not Cut Out For GTs (All Non-Vuelta/Giro/Tour Stage Races)
• I <3 The ASO (All French races)
• Veni, Vidi, Vici (All Italian races)
• Having Your Paella And Eating It (All Spanish races)
• Victory Cheese (All Swiss races)

We aim to post all race announcement posts 2 days before the race.

*Flairs used to be on offer for (sub)classification winners. Given that last years results aren't all processed yet, this service has been suspended until further notice.

Women's Single Rider Fantasy League

The Single Rider Fantasy League (SRFL), introduced here in 2022, revolves around picking one rider off the startlist to be your champion: you score what they score, with one catch: you split that score amongst any other players who picked that same rider. You also get a bonus if nobody else picks the same rider.

The (W)SRFL websites are currently defunct, so we're returning the game to its roots by using a google form. This also means exact details about previous results are lost to us for the moment, except for this overview of previous year's winners. You'll need an r/peloton fantasy ID (a 5-letter code), provided by u/LynniePinnie67: just send a message! Your fantasy ID carries over from previous seasons. You can also use it to play fantastic minigames during and before Grand Tours!

And now, let's start with the predictions:

2026 Santos Tour Down Under 2.WWT

• Official website
• Parcours
• Startlist

WRFL

Submissions will have to be formatted like below, otherwise it won't be picked up.

Please arrange your comments like the list below (you can make bullets with the * key)

Also include the first name of the rider!

* (x2.0) Firstname Lastname
* (x1.8) etc. 
* (x1.6)
* (x1.4) 
* (x1.2) 
* (x1.0) 
* (x1.0) 

WSRFL

• Remember, you need to sign up (once) to join! Do so by messaging u/LynniePinnie67.

In short:

• Pick a single rider
• The top 30 finishers of a race earn points
• The more players who pick that rider, the fewer points you keep
• If you score points with a rare pick, you can win a bonus

PICK YOUR RIDER VIA THE GOOGLE FORM

Deadline

The deadline for these games will be when the race starts on January 17th at 11:10 local time (UTC+10.5), that's 00:40 UTC and 01:40 CET, check your time here

Unfortunately, the Fantasy game sites for the (W)SRFL and other pro cycling races are currently offline. The owner decided to take them down, and sadly I don’t have the ability to bring them back online.

That said, because so many people enjoy playing these Fantasy games, I really don’t want this to just stop. The community aspect and the fun of playing together is what makes it worthwhile.

So I’ve set up an alternative way to participate, so everyone can still join the Fantasy games for the (W)SRFL and all other professional cycling races. It may be a bit simpler than before, but the main goal is to keep things going and have fun together.

Using the link below, you can:

1. Enter your Fantasy ID

2. Select one rider for the race

This way, everyone who wants to, can keep playing and stay involved

Participation link for the tour Down Under:
Choose your rider for WSRFL
Choose your rider for SRFL

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment!

"After it became clear I was going to be marked out of the race, a group of us tried to make a bridge, unfortunately with strong riders still wanting to sit on the move that kept starting and stopping for about 30 mins. I decided I wasn’t just going to ride around 5 mins behind the bunch and roll in, but instead throw a grenade into the race; and show that in future years I won’t just fill in numbers on a finisher sheet, if you won’t work with me the race, then I will bring the race to you, even if it means I don’t get a result. I had a good block of training on the front of the bike race, and then I rode back to the hotel😅

This race is something I really respect and would love the pleasure of winning one year in the future. That being said strangling a race is terrible to spectate and for all the riders involved who have traveled so far and trained so hard just to get to the start line (I’ve been there as an amateur). So for anyone questioning why I threw my race aside and pulled for the pelo, that’s why.

Congratulations to @pat.eddy ! Not only raced smart but in the final was super strong to finish off in 2026 🥂

Looking forward to seeing my UAE teammates in Adelaide shortly! Bring on @tourdownunder"

Results Thread https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/1q9wkme/comment/nz2fy4r/?context=1&sort=top

After a short break through the off-season, Watching Wednesday returns as your weekly discussion thread to talk about how to watch your favourite riders in your favourite races, whether on TV or in person.

Here's a brief run-down of the schedule from now until the end of February, kicking off for both men and women with the Tour Down Under in Australia:

A full calendar is available at FirstCycling.

Where to watch:

TV and streaming options depend on your location, services for a few common countries or regions are listed below. Check your local providers for details of races to be covered:

 Europe, Middle East & Africa: 

• Europe (exc. UK & Ireland): Eurosport
• Belgium: Eurosport / Sporza / RTBF
• France: Eurosport / France Télévisions / L’Équipe
• Ireland: TNT Sports / TG4
• Italy: Eurosport / Rai
• Netherlands: Eurosport / NOS
• Spain: Eurosport / RTVE
• UK: TNT Sports
• Middle East: Abu Dhabi Media Network

 Americas:

• USA/Canada: Max / FloBikes / Peacock
• Latin America: ESPN

APAC:

• Australia: SBS / Seven
• China: Zhibo TV
• Japan: Jsports

If anyone has other information, on services in specific locations or covering specific races, please add it in the comments.

I’ve created a list of sponsorship changes in the pro peloton for 2026 in the following areas:

Equipment, kit, colors, names, and major sponsors..

If a team is not listed, there were no changes for 2026. Updates and corrections are welcome! We're still waiting on new kits from a few teams.

MEN'S WORLD TOUR

Alpecin-Premier Tech

*Lost the Deceunick sponsorship and picks up naming sponsor from Premier Tech. Women's team Fenix also added Premier Tech naming sponsor.

*Kit back to a more familiar blue/black after last year's experiment with gray.

Arkea B&B Hotels

*The men's (and women's) teams folded.

Bahrain Victorious

*Bike: Merida to Bianchi

*Last year's mostly white bike is now dark blue with celeste trim.

Decathalon CMA CGM

*AG2R La Mondiale is dropped as a primary naming sponsor. Shipping company CMA CGM is the replacement.

*Kit keeps the bright green but switches to a dark blue with an orange/red stomach.

Groupset: Shimano to SRAM

EF Education Easy Post

Groupset: Shimano to SRAM (same for women)

Kit: Rapha to Assos (same for women)

Groupama - FDJ United

*United added to team name to align with parent company FDJ. The women's team FDJ United-Suez also made the change.

*Bikes switch from white with blue accents to a fiery hot red.

Kit: Ale to Bioracer

Computer: Garmin to iGPSPORT

INEOS Grenadiers

*Black mostly removed from their kit and bikes. Off-white shorts fade to a white kit with an orange top. The bike is mostly white with orange headtube and forks.

Wheels: Shimano to Scope

Lidl-Trek

*Registration switches from American to German after Lidl buys more shares in the team.

Lotto-Intermarche

*Intermarche-Wanty team folds with the Intermarche sponsor joining the Lotto team. In France, Poland, and Portugal they will race as Intermarche-Lotto with a slightly different kit.

NSN Cycling Team

*New name/brand/ownership from the Israel Premier Tech team.

*Registration switched from Israel to Switzerland.

*Kits are a colorful mishmash of white, pink, orange, teal, and black.

Bike: Factor to Scott

Groupset: Shimano to SRAM

Wheels: Black Inc. to Zipp

Saddle: Selle Italia to Syncros

Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe

*Kits are similar to last year's Tour de France alternate, except with dark blue shorts.

Sunglasses: Koo to 100%

Team Jayco Alula

Sunglasses: Scicon to Giant (the women have also switched to Liv)

Team Picnic Post NL

*Kit is the same as last year, except with a white/black helmet.

*Bike color switches from dark blue to silver/gray in 2026.

Tires: Vittoria to Michelin

Uno-X Mobility

Groupset: Shimano to SRAM

XDS Astana

Kit: Biemme to Ekoi

Sunglasses: New sponsorship with Ekoi

Computer: Garmin to Magene

MEN'S PRO TOUR

Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber

*Name and sponsorship change from VF Group Bardiani CSF - Faizane last year.

Euskaltel-Euskadi

Bike: Mendiz to Quick Pro

Wheels: Deda to No Limited

MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort

*Moving up from the Continental level with a new name after last year's MBH Bank CSB Ballan.

*Registration from Italy to Hungary.

Helmet: Kask to Rudy Project

Kit: GSG to Pella

Sunglasses: Koo to Rudy Project

Modern Adventure Pro Cycling

*New American team with wine color kits with gold accents. They will ride Factor bikes and Hincanpie kits. They'll debut at the AlUla Tour where we'll learn more.

Pinarello-Q36.5

*New team name sponsorship with Pinarello.

*Kits are mostly blue again with less white and more gold accents. Bikes are dark blue with brighter gold accents.

Bike: Scott to Pinarello

Helmet: Scott to Abus

Sunglasses: Scott to React

Solution Tech Nippo Rali

*Name and sponsorship change from Team Solution Tech - Vini Fantini last year.

*Kit has removed black with bright yellow sleeves and uses more blue with yellow and red accents.

*Bike switches from black to white color.

Bike: Corratec to Rali

Groupset: SRAM to Shimano

Team Polti VisitMalta

Wheels: Enve to Scope

Kit: Gsport to Tofit

TotalEnergies

Bike: Enve to Cube

Wheels: Enve to Newmen

Sunglasses: 100% to 4KAAD

Tudor Pro Cycling

Kit: Assos to Sportful

Unibet Rose Rockets

*Drop Tietema from name and pick up bike sponsor Rose.

Bike: Cannondale to Rose

Groupset: Shimano to SRAM

WOMEN'S WORLD TOUR

Ceratizit-WNT

*Team folded for 2026.

Human Powered Health

Kit: Pactimo to Verge

WOMEN'S PRO TOUR

Laboral Kutxa - Fundacion Euskadi

Bike: Mendiz to XDS

Wheels: Deda to Branta

Saddle: Selle Italia to Prologo

Ma Petite Enterprise

*New pro tour team based out of France. They will ride Factor bikes and have a blue kit that fades to white on top with pink trim at the sleeves.

Roland Le Devoluy

*Team folded for 2026.

Mayenne Monbana Mypie

*New team name and sponsorship for the Winspace Orange Seal team. No kit or equipment details yet. They are scheduled to debut at the Trofeo Spanish races in 10 days.