This Monday’s cycling news roundup covers the cyclocross triumphs and tribulations of Thibau Nys, plus Jonathan Milan’s sprint victory at the Singapore Criterium, and Portuguese legend Rui Costa’s retirement at 39. Transfer news includes Biniam Girmay’s uncertain future, while Rory Townsend joins Unibet Rose Rockets. All that and more — as we already start counting the days to Strade Bianche.
TOP STORY:
EuroCross this Weekend: Dual-Threat Nys Saturday, Cross Purist Nieuwenhuis Sunday
RACE NEWS
Milan Sprints to Victory at Tour de France EFGH Singapore Criterium
RIDER & TEAM NEWS
2013 World Champ Costa Retires from Cycling
Girmay’s Future Unclear
ADAC Cyclassics Winner Townsend Signs with Unibet Rose Rockets
New Movistar Partnership Seeks to Develop Singaporean Cyclists
Another UCI Suspension
EuroCross this Weekend: Dual-Threat Nys Saturday, Cross Purist Nieuwenhuis Sunday
The PEZ team’s plan Saturday afternoon was to trumpet Thibau Nys as cyclocross’ next talent rocket — a potential solution to Mathieu van der Poel’s domination. Like MVDP, Nys leverages a year-round approach, and after a breakout road season that included a fifth-place finish at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, he was perched to vie for cross’ top step — as evidenced by his van der Poel-like win at Koppenbergcross, where he pulled away early and soloed to a seemingly easy win.
Nys’ performance Sunday, however, foiled that plan.
Not that one race replete with mechanical issues and subsequent crashes has us doubting Nys entirely; such mishaps happen to the best of them. But when they do happen to the best — to van der Poel — he recovers, almost every time.
Instead of Nys, who rides for Lidl-Trek in the spring and summer but Baloise Glowi Lions in ‘cross season, Sunday’s winner was Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ridley Racing Team), who has earned limited palmares on the road.
The Dutch rider outlasted rivals including Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauces – Altez Industrial Construction), Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team) and Emiel Verstrynge (Crelan – Corendon), avoiding all but the slightest slide of the wheels.
Vanthourenhout stayed upright and finished second Sunday.
But Nieuwenhuis didn’t just manage to remain upright: He rode away from his rivals powerfully, much like Nys did Saturday. A few weeks into the cyclocross season, then, no rider has assumed a position of dominance. Unless someone does begin to ride at a new level by the entry of van Aert and van der Poel — sometime around Christmas, in all likelihood — we can expect more of the same.
RACE NEWS
Milan Sprints to Victory at Tour de France EFGH Singapore Criterium
Italy’s Jonathan Milan capped his breakout season with a powerful sprint victory at the Tour de France EFGH Singapore Criterium, outsprinting Biniam Girmay and Jasper Philipsen along the Marina Bay waterfront. The Italian, winner of this year’s Tour de France points classification, proved once again why he’s among cycling’s elite finishers.
The day began in festive fashion, with amateur riders testing their mettle on the same downtown circuit used by the pros. Men’s, women’s, duo, and even folding-bike races set the tone under steamy tropical skies. A sudden storm forced organizers to cancel the planned team time trial, but the criterium went ahead as scheduled.
Once the pro race began, a series of attacks animated the hour-long event. Ben Healy launched the day’s most daring move, joined by Primož Roglič and Tim Wellens, but the peloton caught them on the final laps. Milan timed his effort perfectly in the long sprint through Esplanade Park, claiming victory ahead of Girmay and Philipsen.
“It was my penultimate race of the season, and I’m happy to finish on a high note,” Milan said, praising teammates Carlos Verona, Hector Alvarez, and Edward Theuns for their support.
RIDER & TEAM NEWS
2013 World Champ Costa Retires from Cycling
Portuguese cycling legend Rui Costa has announced his retirement from professional cycling at age 39, bringing to a close a remarkable career spanning nearly two decades. The announcement came Friday through a heartfelt message on social media, where Costa reflected on a journey that made him Portugal’s most decorated road cyclist.
Costa’s crowning achievement came in 2013 when he became the first Portuguese rider to win the UCI Road World Championships, claiming the rainbow jersey in Florence. His palmares also includes three consecutive Tour de Suisse titles from 2012 to 2014, three Tour de France stage victories, and a Vuelta a España stage win in 2023.
Throughout his career, Costa amassed 33 professional victories, with 16 coming at World Tour level. Starting at Benfica in 2007, he raced for prestigious teams including Movistar, Lampre-Merida, UAE Team Emirates, Intermarché, and most recently EF Education-EasyPost.
In his retirement message, Costa expressed gratitude for living his dream and looked forward to spending more time with family, though he emphasized his passion for cycling will never end.
Girmay’s Future Unclear
Biniam Girmay has broken his silence about his future with Intermarché-Wanty, revealing that his departure from the team appears increasingly likely. Speaking before the start of the EFGH Singapore Criterium, the Eritrean sprinter suggested he will not be racing for the merged Lotto-Intermarché squad next season.
“The chance that I’ll stay with the team was initially 50-50, but now I’m almost certain that won’t happen,” Girmay said.
The situation stems from Intermarché-Wanty’s absence from the provisional UCI list of WorldTour license applications for the upcoming season. While Lotto submitted the necessary documents on time — apparently as a joint application with their Belgian counterparts — Intermarché-Wanty failed to register.
Under UCI regulations, this failure to register means riders are permitted to terminate their contracts early, potentially clearing the path for the team’s star sprinter to move elsewhere. However, Girmay’s contract is governed by Belgian labor law, which presents a different legal perspective on early termination.
Girmay has been linked to Premier-Tech for some time, with reports suggesting a verbal agreement between the two parties already exists.
Despite the speculation, the 2024 Green Jersey winner emphasized that his situation remains unresolved. “It’s not the right time to talk about it, as it’s not solely my decision,” he explained, referencing his impending departure from Intermarché-Wanty.
“We’re still talking to some good teams, but for now it’s just talk. I can’t do anything without knowing what my current team is planning. I also don’t know at this point whether I’m free to sign for another team. Nothing has been signed yet, nothing is on paper,” Girmay conclude. (Copy credit for this article to Wielerflits.)
ADAC Cyclassics Winner Townsend Signs with Unibet Rose Rockets
Upstart team Unibet Rose Rockets has signed its third World Tour race winner, ADAC Cyclassics victor Rory Townsend.
Following the additions of sprinter Dylan Groenewegen and grimpeur Wout Poels, the Dutch team has added the Irish “hard man”, who bested Arnaud De Lie and Paul Magnier at Cyclassics last spring.
The two-time Irish road champion has ridden for New Zealand’s Bolton Equities Black Spoke Pro Cycling in 2023, moving up to Q36.5 in 2024. Unibet Rose Rockets has explicitly stated their hope of nabbing a Grand Tour invitation in 2026; Townsend’s signing should add fodder to their campaign.
eTrashMike sez: Is anyone else noticing an Irish cycling renaissance? Ben Healy, of course, but Eddie Dunbar rode exceptionally well last year; Townsend beat some of the world’s top one-day riders at a second-tier classic — even Sam Bennett just signed with Q36.5. Éirinn go Brách!
New Movistar Partnership Seeks to Develop Singaporean Cyclists
Movistar Team has launched a new partnership to recruit and train top cyclists from Singapore at the team’s high-performance center based in Spain.
Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) and the Singapore Cycling Federation (SCF) have entered into the partnership agreement to launch the EPS–SCF Spanish Training Camp. Some of Singapore’s most promising cyclists will train alongside the UCI WorldTour Movistar Team in Spain from 13 January to 3 February 2026.
Supported by EPS through its partnership with Movistar Team, the program aims to elevate Singapore’s competitive cycling by providing national athletes and coaches with exposure to world-class training, facilities, and mentorship.
The camp will include junior, U23, and elite riders, along with national coaches Adrian Ng and Mark Chadwick. The initiative supports SCF’s long-term pathway toward major competitions including the 2026 Asian Road Cycling Championships, SEA Games, and future Olympic cycles.
Another UCI Suspension
It looks like the Biological Passport approach is working -? The UCI has suspended Spanish rider Oier Lazkano Lopez, in accordance with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, due to unexplained abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
For those who need a refresher — or who missed the development of the the Athlete Biological Passport protocol in the first place — the ABP is an anti-doping program that monitors selected biological variables in athletes over time to detect doping indirectly, rather than looking for specific banned substances. Instead of just testing for drugs, it creates an individualized biological profile for each athlete and flags unusual variations that may indicate doping.
Launched by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2009, the ABP’s development was driven by the need to combat increasingly sophisticated doping methods, particularly EPO and blood transfusions, which were difficult to detect directly but left measurable biological footprints. The program represented a paradigm shift from reactive to longitudinal monitoring in anti-doping efforts.
Thus far, the ABP is considered by most observers to be marginally successful in actually identifying doping cases, but a key element of a broad anti-doping effort that is implemented in concert with robust testing measures.
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