Alpes Isére Tour
Elliot Rowe showed strong form in the opening three days of the five-stage Alpes Isére Tour (2.2). Two stage top tens had placed the Visma Lease A Bike – Development rider in ninth in the general classification heading into stage four.
The fourth stage covered 165 kilometers and featured numerous climbs along the route. Despite many attacks, no rider managed to establish a significant advantage.
In the peloton, Rowe’s Visma-Lease set the pace with the race finally bursting into life on the final climb; when, mostly down to Visma’s efforts, the peloton split apart.
Alongside Rowe, there were three other Visma riders in the front group including race leader Matisse Van Kerckhove. The lead group of around fifteen riders stayed clear and ultimately contested the stage win in a sprint. The Aberdeenshire rider launched from the right-hand side of the road, an acceleration that none could follow – lifting his hands aloft to take his first senior victory and first in the yellow and black of Visma-Lease A Bike.
Rowe told the press after the race:
“The racing was aggressive right from the start. There were many attacks, but no one managed to break away from the peloton. As a team, we wanted to make it a tough race, and we succeeded in doing that. On the final climb, we increased the pace, which caused the peloton to split apart. In the end, it created an ideal situation for us. After the perfect lead-out from Matisse, I was able to finish it off in the sprint. I’m very grateful to the guys for that.”
The win would see Rowe rise to third place in the general classification, heading into a mountainous final day. The Scot would lose time on the hillier parcours but finish eighth on the stage and eighth overall – rounding off another fantastic performance from the young Scotsman.
Bretagne Ladies Tour
From the South East to the North West of France now, with plenty of Scottish representation at the three-day Bretagne Ladies Tour (2.1).
The opening stage to Plouay saw a strong performance from Handsling-Alba, with Kate Richardson sprinting to fifth place. Erin Boothman (Liv-AlUla Jayco Conti) claimed a bonus second in one of the intermediate sprints, as well as finishing 11th on the opening 120km test. Saturday’s 24.7km time trial saw a strong ride from Boothman again to finish 13th on the stage.
Sunday’s 133km stage into Laval was a test for the fast sprinters again. Boothman rode well to set up teammate Heléne Hesters who would go on to finish fourth. Richardson would again impress – finishing in tenth for Handsling-Alba, in a very strong showing from the Scottish team in Brittany.
Giro d’Italia
From current to former Handsling-Alba riders now.
Lauren Dickson has made her Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia. The FDJ United-Suez rider finished safely in the peloton in the opening three stages and is still in general classification contention as the more pivotal general classification stages in the nine-day race progress.
Some TV planning for you, Tuesday sees a 12km Hill Climb, Wednesday is the first proper mountain test, while it will be a Super Saturday with the peloton cresting the infamous Colle delle Finestre.
Unfortunately for the other Scot on Giro duty it was a rotten end to his Roman adventure. Prior to the final stage of the men’s Giro, Sean Flynn (Picnic-PostNL Raisin) took unwell and was forced to abandon one stage from the finish in Rome.
UCI Mountain Bike World Series
Enduro
Scotland’s Ella Conolly sent a message to her rivals for this years’ Women’s Elite UCI Enduro World Cup with a dominant showing at the opening round in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes. The 27-year-old won three UCI Enduro World Cups last year and secured three further podium finishes.
Conolly showed her form on the opening 3.68-kilometre Nabias section and used her speed to gain an advantage of 6.6 seconds over Winnifred Goldsbury in second. After finishing third on the opening sector, home rider Mélanie Pugin (Speed Project) fought back on the following Privilege stage, which contained 83 metres of elevation gain. Conolly lost 3.5 seconds on the sector and had work to do, as Goldsbury lost vital time in the overall battle.
The duel continued on the shortest stage of the day as Pugin knocked another four tenths of a second off Conolly’s lead. The British rider responded on the technical Coumaou stage, which included tight wooded turns at high pace. Conolly won the 1.37-kilometre section and extended her lead by three seconds over Pugin, who placed third.
After seeing her winter training impacted by shoulder surgery Raphaela Richter expected a slower start to her campaign. However, she secured third place on the podium by winning the final stage – finishing less than a second ahead of Pugin and Conolly.
Conolly had done enough earlier in the day to clinch the overall victory, finishing five seconds ahead of her French opponent. “It went really well,” said Conolly. “I’ve had a bit of a rough lead-up to this race, so it wasn’t expected but I was always going to come and give it everything that I had, so I’m happy that it ended like this.
“The track was just so dry, with big piles of dust and not much support at the end of the corners. It was rough underneath all of the dust. There was a good load of sprints in there too on the fire-road and off-road, it had a bit of everything.”
At the Downhill World Cup in France, Phoebe Gale was the top Scottish finished in 12th in the women’s elite field.
SDA
Back at home, Ae Forest played host to the latest round of the Scottish Downhill Association Series.
Steampunk’s Jacob Dickson was the only man to break the 2 minute mark and win the elite open event, from Joe Connell in second, and Drew Carters in third.
Jess Stone won out in the elite female field with a 2:20.0, from Abbie Sloan and Lacey Homes. Katie Melville was the second fastest woman on course – and won the junior event – just two seconds behind Stone.
Esmie Carruthers (Hardie Bikes) won out in the Youth field from Steampunk’s Rosie McLaughlan, with Ellie Proctor in third place.
Millar Davidson impressed with a 2:03.525 to win the Youth open race, with Caleb Rigg in second and Ethan Morris in third.
Tomas McIntosh won the junior event with a 2:05.221 – from Haydn Fletcher and Jack Jenkins.
Youth and Juniors
It was a busy weekend of racing at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
Read our report from the 2026 Scottish National Youth and Junior Track Championships here.
Back on the road, Perth United’s Eddie Morgan Road Race was won by Eamon O’Keeffe by ten seconds from Christopher Reid, with Colin Dunlop rounding out the podium.
Friday night saw the latest West Lothian TCIF race. Dubbed “Night of Champions” Scottish Road Race Champion Sam Chisholm (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) managed to best British circuit race champion Cameron Mason (Alpecin Premier-Tech) as well as Finn Mason (Hubo-Scott) to take the win.
Finally, the very best of luck to Mark ‘Sparkles’ Anderson of Vanelli-Project Go, who is currently on course to break the John O’Groats to Lands End to John O’Groats record. You can see his progress here.