“I hope fewer people see it than Melania”: Austin Butler to play Lance Armstrong in new film… and cycling fans aren’t happy as “rehabilitation continues”; Remco’s on fire – but is Pogačar terrified?; Simon Yates “not feeling it” + more on the live blog

It’s the sporting franchise that just won’t stop, no matter how many lifetime bans you throw at it.

Yes, that’s right, Lance Armstrong – over 13 years on from that Oprah interview – is set to hit the bright lights of Hollywood once again, thanks to a new biopic recounting the life and times of cycling’s most infamous doping cheat.

And according to Deadline, Tinseltown is rolling out the big guns for this one, with Armstrong set to be played by Oscar-nominated ‘Elvis’ star Austin Butler (from the King to… well, I’ll let you finish that one).

Edward Berger, the man at the helm of ‘Conclave’, is also pencilled in to direct, while ‘King Richard’ screenwriter Zach Baylin will be behind the script, which apparently was the subject of a “frenzied” bidding war in Hollywood. The big movie execs, Deadline says, reckon the film could be a cross between F1, Raging Bull, and the Wolf of Wall Street. So, sport, drugs, and terrible people. Got it.

And before you start fretting about that overwhelming sense of déjà vu sweeping over you, the controversial Texan has already been the subject of a big-screen picture (as well as countless documentaries, books, podcasts).

In 2015, The Program, starring Ben Foster as Big Tex, was released, a kind-of okay/workmanlike/neither fish nor fowl account of Armstrong’s rise and fall, which received mixed reviews and a shoddy box office showing.

The Program was based on David Walsh’s book Seven Deadly Sins – itself based on 2003’s revelatory LA Confidential – with the Irish journalist played by Chris O’Dowd (I still think they missed a trick by not calling it ‘The EPO Crowd’).

However, this time, the former seven-time Tour de France winner has personally signed off on his life rights, after agreeing a deal with producer Scott Stuber, the man behind 2025’s Bruce Springsteen biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’. Armstrong, crucially, will be involved in the making of the movie, but will not be given a producing credit (those UCI bans stretch far, eh?).

Deadline also reported that Stuber told Armstrong that he would only make the film – pitched as a “character study” – if it covered ‘everything’. What ‘everything’ means remains to be seen, of course.

> Lance Armstrong becomes reality TV villain after clashing with Modern Family star over trans athletes

And while there is no word yet of a release date or even filming schedule, it’s fair to say ‘Lance: The Motion Picture’ has already succeeded in doing what cycling’s biggest pariah does best: riling up people on the internet.

“I hope fewer people see it than Melania. F*** that asshole,” wrote Otto on Reddit, referencing the less than stellar performance of the US First Lady’s big-screen documentary.

“And the rehabilitation continues,” noted Janne, while another user said: “Hard pass.”

“God, as if there isn’t enough media about him already,” added LordWhale.

“I guess Ben Foster in ‘The Program’ wasn’t enough…? Why is this necessary?” asked one fan.

However, not everyone was up in arms about the prospect of a film about a cocky, brash American wonderkid aiming to make his mark on the tough classics of northern Europe in the mid-1990s.

“For f***’s sake, this is not the film I want to see. Make the Badger film instead, please,” said another Reddit user, speaking for Bernard Hinault fans everywhere.

“Great to see a biopic planned about the 1996 Flèche Wallonne winner,” said cuccir, who – for their sake – luckily stopped watching professional cycling in 1997.

“And the road world champion. Also Laigueglia, San Sebastián, and a Tour of Sweden stage. Movie-worthy career,” added Saltefanden.

“Let’s just hope he isn’t also some kind of meanie.”

Now, that would be a horrible twist.

It’s fair to say Remco Evenepoel is enjoying life at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

The Belgian hit the ground running at his new team last month in Mallorca, powering them to a team time trial victory before blowing the field apart for two solo wins of his own.

And at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana – where he faced a much sterner test, including UAE’s João Almeida, Evenepoel didn’t flinch, doing Remco things by winning the race’s wind-affected time trial and then dropping everyone on Saturday on the Cumbre del Sol to seal an emphatic GC triumph.

The 26-year-old’s scorecard for 2026 makes for ominous reading: eight race days, five wins, one team time trial success, and one stage race overall victory. Remco’s back. And it looks like he’s better than ever.

And with the Tour de France five months away – and the well-worn cliché of ‘peaking too soon’ fading into cycling history – should Tadej Pogačar be concerned about this latest challenge to his yellow reign?

Not just yet, says Sean Kelly.

“I don’t think Pogačar will be worried. For the moment, no,” the classics legend told Shane Stokes for Velo at the weekend.

“Evenepoel is definitely off to a great start, but the opposition he has is not the opposition he is going to come up against when he is going to the big races like the Classics.

“He will be doing Liège and Amstel and those ones, and he will come up against the big talented riders there and in some other races as well before that.

“But certainly he has a big motivation with [Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe], starting out the way he has.”

 

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A post shared by Remco Evenepoel Rayane (@remco.ev)

While Evenepoel has hit the ground running in 2026 – helped by the fact he wasn’t doored by a delivery driver this winter – Kelly reckons the Belgian has shown similarly imperious early-season form in the past.

“I don’t think we can say it is a new level because two or three years ago he started down in Algarve and he was very dominant as well, winning the one day classic they have there,” he said.

“And winning quite a bit in the earlier part of that season. So I don’t think he is in the best form we have seen him in at this time of year.

“I think it is a bit early to say before we get into more races that are contested more by bigger guys, the guys he will be coming up against later in the year.”

Alright, Sean, stop it with all the pragmatism and let us get excited, okay?

Speaking of strong starts to 2026, Jayco-AlUla’s Mauro Schmid continued his rich vein of early-season form at the Tour of Oman this morning, the Swiss champion outgunning XDS Astana’s Christian Scaroni in a two-up sprint at the top of Eastern Mountain:

#Replay 🎥 / #TourofOman 🇴🇲
C’est l’homme fort de ce début de saison : 🇨🇭 Mauro Schmid (JAY) s’impose en devançant 🇮🇹 Christian Scaroni (XAT). Le Suisse prend la tête du général. pic.twitter.com/8GSel7KPP7

— Renaud Breban (@RenaudB31) February 9, 2026

That victory makes it two for the season so far for Schmid, who opened his account on Friday at the Muscat Classic after finishing second overall at the Tour Down Under and fourth at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. Someone’s certainly had a good winter.

The first GC test of the Tour of Oman also saw Schmid’s British teammate Paul Double take ninth, 11 seconds down, while Adam Yates finished 12^th, just behind Nairo Quintana.

Simon Yates’ decision to suddenly retire from professional cycling last month – despite having a contract with Visma-Lease a Bike for 2026 – may have come as a shock to most onlookers, even catching his own team off guard.

But it didn’t surprise Simon’s twin brother Adam. Which isn’t much of a surprise, if we’re honest.

“He spoke to me a couple of times,” Adam told the press at the Tour of Oman, where he’s aiming for his third straight GC win, when asked if the Yates twins has discussed Simon’s plan to quit the sport.

> You can keep your yellow jerseys, SPOTY prizes, and podcasts – Simon Yates was a proper old-school British bike racer

“Obviously I was in Australia and he was in Europe so with the time zone it was quite tricky to talk. But he was saying not [he wasn’t] feeling it, not motivated, and that’s it.

“If you’re not happy doing something, then it’s better to stop than to prolong the suffering. We’ve been in this sport for a long time, I turned pro in 2014, so it’s 11 or 12 years now, that’s a long time, but actually we’ve been riding our bikes since I was eight or nine.

“Eventually you get tired of something and you need to change and do normal life.”

Asked whether it would be weird in the peloton without his brother, the UAE Team Emirates rider said: “No, not really. We’ve been on different teams for a long time now. He’s enjoying life actually.”

And is Adam also thinking about following in his Giro-winning twin’s footsteps and putting the feet up anytime soon?

“Me? No, I enjoy riding the bike and I’m here for the next three years at least. I think if you enjoy it, you keep going for as long as you can,” he said.

“He was not enjoying it, so he decided to stop, and that’s how it is. I think if you’re happy with what you’ve achieved and you’re at peace with what you did in your career then you can stop and enjoy the rest of your life, enjoy normal life.”

Time for another trip to Edinburgh’s Leith Walk ‘protected cycle lane’, and example 302,981 of why cyclists don’t always use the cycle lane provided:

Yay! Cycle lanes.

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— Cornelius Beer & Wine (@corneliusbeers.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 11:02 AM

The ominous sight of two lorries blocking both the pavement and bike lane on Leith Walk also raised the spectre of that ever-present pedestrian safety debate in Edinburgh and elsewhere: floating bus stops.

“Not to downplay anyone’s feelings or concerns, but surely HGVs mounting the pavement are an order of magnitude more dangerous than a cycle track at a bus stop?” asked Eric Lesley.

“Odd how groups claiming to represent pedestrians and those with disabilities don’t seem to be vocally exercised by this kind of thing, eh?”

“It’s hugely ironic isn’t it?” added Lawrence Davies. “But very telling of how some things can become completely normalised, whereas changes in behaviour seem to attract resistance as much because they’re a *change* than because of any actual objective measure of danger.”

I regret to inform everyone that Roger De Vlaeminck’s been near a microphone again.

Ever since Mathieu van der Poel’s record-breaking eighth world cyclocross title last weekend in Hulst – taking him past Roger’s brother Eric’s seven rainbow jerseys on the all-time list – debate has raged on about whether the flying Dutchman can now be classed as the greatest male ‘crosser ever.

> Mathieu Van Der Poel: The greatest male cyclocross racer of all time? It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make a case for anyone else in history

Except in the De Vlaeminck household, of course.

“Bloody hell, no. Not by a long shot,” Roger said, when asked if Van der Poel was now the cyclocross GOAT by Het Nieuwsblad.

“With Erik it was over at 28, worn out by his foolishness. How many more titles could he not have won. And may I list them. Renato Longo, Rolf Wolfshohl, Albert Van Damme, Peter Frischknecht, Erik, me. Those were different men than now.”

> “Tadej Pogačar couldn’t lace Eddy Merckx’s shoes!” Cycling legend claims four-time Tour de France winner is overrated, brands Remco Evenepoel “arrogant”, and says Mathieu van der Poel “can’t time trial, climb, or sprint”

Of course, this isn’t the first time Mr Paris-Roubaix has unflatteringly compared today’s golden generation to his star-studded era (back in November, he claimed that “Tadej Pogačar couldn’t lace Merckx’s shoes!”).

And the 78-year-old certainly wasn’t going to miss another opportunity to claim the kids of the 2020s just aren’t up to scratch.

“Of course Van der Poel, Evenepoel, and Pogačar are good riders, but when I watch them I cannot enjoy it,” he said.

“I want to ride, to race against those guys, beat them the way I sometimes could beat Merckx. Merckx, man, he was such a strong person. Do you know I was sometimes afraid of him. It hurt, just sitting in his wheel.

“And still I won 512 races. 512. Do you want me to list them all?” he laughed.

No, you’re fine Roger, just keep ranting away, we’re listening…

First Jonas Vingegaard, and now Enric Mas… the UAE Tour start list is dropping like flies.

In a brief statement issued this morning, Movistar revealed that Spanish stage racer Mas has been forced to pull out of the early-season form tester after injuring his hand in a training crash.

 

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“During a training session, following a crash, Enric Mas required hospital assistance due to an injury to his right hand,” the team said.

“The injury required stitches and, following the relevant complementary tests and diagnostic examinations, no other issues have been detected so far.

“Further medical evaluations are scheduled in the coming days. As a result, his participation in the UAE Tour has been ruled out.”

> “He got angry with me for staying on his wheel”: Jonas Vingegaard crashes on descent while being followed by amateur, as team urges fans to “give riders space and peace”

Mas’s withdrawal from the UAE Tour comes just days after Visma-Lease a Bike leader Vingegaard also decided not to start the seven-day race, which begins next week, with Remco Evenepoel and Isaac del Toro set to headline.

The two-time Tour de France winner is delaying the start to his season in order to recover from a highly-publicised training crash – seemingly caused by an overkeen amateur following him too closely on a descent – and a subsequent bout of illness.

Vingegaard’s first race of the 2026 campaign will now be at the Volta a Catalunya at the end of March, where Mas is also expected to start following his latest unplanned break from racing.

 

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A post shared by Niklas Behrens (@niklasbehrens)

No wonder Simon Yates didn’t fancy another year of that…

Copenhagen’s bike lane snowplough doing its thing here, making sure the Danish capital’s cycling infrastructure is cleared each morning for the commute (it’s the law over there, you know).

In Kopenhagen gibt es die Vorschrift, dass alle wichtigen Radwege bei Schneefall bis spätestens 08:00 Uhr morgens geräumt sein müssen, damit die Menschen sicher mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit fahren können. So sieht dass dann aus❤️😀

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— Ingwar Perowanowitsch (@ingwarpero.bsky.social) February 9, 2026 at 9:16 AM

One to keep saved for the next time a British politician brings up a weather-related argument against cycle lanes.

> Minimum passing distance laws don’t (really) work, new study shows

Coming up this week, I’ll be chatting on the podcast to Emily Brammeier, the new president of the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC), about the future of the anti-doping movement and what’s currently being done to ensure our sport is as clean as it can be. So, make sure you keep an eye out for that.

And on that note, this afternoon the UCI has announced that it is delegating the handling of results of anti-doping violations and whereabouts failures to the independent International Testing Agency (ITA), a move the governing body says “further reinforces the independence and integrity” of its anti-doping programme.

The move, which was agreed at a recent meeting of the UCI’s management committee, essentially means that the ITA now assumes all responsibility for legal proceedings related to anti-doping in cycling, including how positive tests and whereabouts matters are prosecuted, a “decisive step”, the governing body says, “for the promotion of good governance in the global fight against doping”.

> The Gran Fondo doping curse strikes again: 41-year-old amateur cyclist tests positive for steroids after Masters world championship win

Today’s step comes four years after the UCI handed over its anti-doping operation – such as testing, planning, TUE reviews, biological passport monitoring, intelligence-gathering, and investigations – to the ITA, placing cycling within the framework of an independent, international, and multi-sport anti-doping programme.

Moving prosecutions to the ITA’s Cycling Unit now means the UCI has now say over who gets tested, when and why they get tested, and how these cases are handled, ridding it of the potential conflict of interest that has always hung over cycling’s anti-doping efforts (a certain Texan and his cosy relationship with the UCI springs to mind here).

“The delegation of results management to the ITA represents another major step in a process initiated with the creation of the CADF to ensure the independence of the fight against doping in cycling, in order to make it as effective and deterrent as possible,” UCI President David Lappartient said in a statement today.

“Since the delegation of the operational aspects of its anti-doping programme to the ITA in 2021, the UCI and the cycling community have been able to fully appreciate the professionalism of the independent international anti-doping organisation.

“It is therefore with full confidence that we are now entrusting results management to the ITA. In doing so, we continue to move towards even greater integrity in our sport.”

> “I never want anyone else to go through the same thing”: Former pro cyclist details “psychological torture” of challenging positive doping test, as ban upheld despite UK Anti-Doping ruling “no fault or negligence”

The ITA’s Director General Benjamin Cohen added: “This decision is a powerful signal of trust from the UCI, and one that we take with great responsibility. Cycling has the largest anti-doping programme delivered for an International Federation anywhere in the world, and the UCI’s choice to fully entrust its results management to the ITA reflects both the depth of expertise within our legal and operational teams and the maturity of our partnership.

“Beyond governance structures, what truly matters is what athletes experience on the ground: a system that is independent, consistent and able to act with authority and speed.

“Through this delegation, the UCI is demonstrating a clear and long-term commitment to providing its riders with the strongest possible anti-doping programme. We warmly congratulate the UCI for the clarity and consistency of its path towards independence and for its continued leadership in protecting clean sport.”

For most of the 2010s and early 2020s, the Kennys – Laura and Jason – reigned supreme as British cycling’s golden couple, racking up 12 Olympic golds between them.

So it’s no surprise that BC were keen to hold on to a winning formula, even raiding the Australian team to secure another super-fast romance within their track cycling ranks.

And that track succession plan has gone off without a hitch (unless you ask the Aussies, of course), thanks to the world-beating exploits of Emma Finucane and Matt Richardson.

 

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A post shared by Emma Finucane MBE (@emmafinucane_)

The duo bagged three golds (sprint for Emma and sprint and keirin for Matt) at last week’s European track championships in Turkey, while Finucane broke the women’s flying 200m world record in the process, posting a staggeringly swift time of 9.759 seconds during sprint qualifying.

That means the couple now hold both the men’s and women’s flying 200 world records, following Richardson’s 8.857-second assault back last October.

“9.7+8.8 = World’s fastest household,” Finucane posted on Instagram over the weekend. It’s hard to argue with those maths.

A few members of the team are currently up at IceBike in Manchester, and have spotted some interesting developments in the Genesis section:

>“It’s a proportion thing”: Genesis unveils prototype 32″ gravel bike alongside two other unreleased gravel and allroad models

The Tour de France may be a long way down the road yet, but that means it’s the perfect time to start testing and tweaking all that shiny new equipment that could – could – prove crucial to determining the outcome of this year’s yellow jersey.

Which is why Tadej Pogačar was spotted this week riding what appears to be a new slimmed-down Colnago time trial bike in training.

Leaked images of the blacked-out bike, and of the four-time Tour winner riding it, were posted on social media last night.

And while his current Colnago TT1 machine is all about speed and aero efficiency on the flat, Pogačar’s secret new bike seems to have weight in mind, its simplified frame and slimmer tube shapes bearing more resemblance to a modern aero road bike than the out-there dimensions of the TT1.

That balance between aerodynamics and weight makes sense, considering this year’s Tour features two lumpy time trial efforts – the opening TTT in Barcelona and a 26km solo effort on stage 16, which kicks off with a 9.7km climb, featuring a 4.3 per cent average gradient. The perfect test, then, for a relatively lightweight time trial bike.

We’ll keep an eye out for more details on Pogi’s new aero machine and keep you posted.

Come on Brad, a handy AI-assisted moneymaker is one thing, but promoting it via a silly ChatGPT portrait? That’s where I draw the line…

> Bradley Wiggins launches AI coaching app (complete with AI-generated portrait), allowing cyclists to “learn from legends”… kind of

And don’t get me started on Dame Sarah Storey’s weird floaty walking video. It turns out Dylan was right, not much is really sacred.

(I promise that’ll be my only anti-AI rant of the week… Actually, I can’t promise anything.)