Your Monday Briefing

Liane Lippert has extended her contract with Movistar Team through the end of the 2028 season, reaffirming her commitment to the Spanish squad where she has become a cornerstone of success in recent years. The German rider, who joined the team in 2023, cited a strong sense of belonging and shared ambition as key reasons for her decision.

Jade Wiel has signed a contract extension with FDJ-SUEZ through 2028. At just 25 years old, she reaffirms her commitment to a team that will mark its tenth anniversary next season. Since joining FDJ–SUEZ in 2019, Wiel has grown steadily within the team. Crowned national champion at only 19, she has since ridden the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Giro d’Italia Donne, and represented France at multiple UCI Road World Championship events. Throughout her career, she has achieved over 20 top-10 finishes and played a key support role in several major team victories.

On 31 May, the elite men’s and women’s 200-mile Unbound Gravel races in the Flint Hills will be broadcast live and in full to a global audience with no paywalls or geo-restrictions.  Now in its 19th year, the event’s organiser, Life Time, has announced it will stream seven continuous hours of live coverage of the 2025 event on the Life Time Grand Prix YouTube channel. Coverage begins at 10am CT on Saturday, 31 May, with a pre-show, followed by uninterrupted race action and post-race interviews. Defending women’s champion Rosa Klöser of Germany returns to defend her title, promising an exciting showdown in this iconic gravel race.

Sarah Ruggins broke the overall record for cycling the length of the UK and back – John o’ Groats to Land’s End to John o’ Groats –  completing the challenge in five days, 11 hours, and 14 minutes. Over the course of the ride, Ruggins covered 2,700 km, climbed nearly 20,000 metres, and slept for just eight hours in total. A 37-year-old PhD graduate from Canada, now working in finance, she spent five months meticulously planning the record attempt. Her support team included eight crew members operating from two vehicles that accompanied her along the route. Ruggins’ athletic journey began on the track, where she broke national running records as a child. But at age 15, her life was dramatically altered when she was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune condition that left her bedridden and requiring 24-hour care. It would take a decade before she regained the strength and confidence to return to sport. As part of her record-breaking feat, Ruggins also raised funds for two cycling charities, adding a powerful cause to an already extraordinary achievement.

Double junior world champion Cat Ferguson is expected to lead Movistar on home roads at the four-day Tour of Britain in June. Visma | Lease a Bike’s Imogen Wolff will also be at the start. British Cycling also confirmed that Lidl-Trek’s Lizzie Deignan will line up for one final outing at her home race before her retirement later this year.  Deignan will be joined by her Lidl-Trek teammate Anna Henderson, who finished second last year. Sisters Zoe and Elynor Bäckstedt are also set to race for Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto and UAE Team ADQ respectively. Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) is also set to race.

Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) claimed the UCI Gravel World Championship title back in October, but she has yet to debut her rainbow stripes in competition. The multi-discipline rider, who has claimed world titles in road, cyclocross, gravel, and track, will make her first appearance in the gravel world champion’s jersey at 3RIDES Aachen, which takes place at the end of this month. Vos is set to line up against a strong field of competitors from various disciplines. Among them is Lucinda Brand (Lidl–Trek), a former winner of the event, as well as German WorldTour rider Romy Kasper (Human Powered Health), who finished fifth at last year’s Gravel World Championships in Leuven. The 122km race will unfold on a 61km loop, completed twice, featuring 65% gravel and approximately 790m of elevation gain per lap. The event coincides with Unbound Gravel in the United States, making for a landmark weekend in elite gravel racing.