• Welsh rider endures brutal conditions to win on Mur de Huy
• Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma comes first in women’s race

Stephen Williams timed his finish to perfection to become the first British winner of the men’s La Flèche Wallonne.

The Israel-Premier Tech rider endured brutal conditions over 198.6km in Belgium – including torrential rain and even snow – before powering up the Mur de Huy for a fourth time to cross the finish line narrowly ahead of Kévin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny).

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Lucy Fraser calls on sporting officials to draw up ‘unambiguous’ guidelines on gender identity

The culture secretary has called for transgender athletes to be banned from competing in female-only events as she urged sporting officials to draw up fresh guidelines to clarify the rules governing gender identity.

Lucy Frazer wrote in the Mail that sports governing bodies needed to set out an “unambiguous position” on the issue, amid rows over trans athletes participating in female only events including such as cycling, swimming and darts.

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• Condensed four-stage race begins in Welshpool on 6 June
• Lizzie Deignan: ‘I’m grateful to the people who have pulled it off’

British Cycling has named the host towns for this summer’s Tour of Britain Women after what has been described as “monumental effort” to make sure the race goes ahead.

Ten weeks after the Guardian reported the governing body would organise the race in-house following the collapse of SweetSpot group, the outline of the route has been unveiled, with an opening stage starting in Welshpool and finishing in Llandudno on 6 June.

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• British Ineos rider wins an Ardennes Classic for the first time
• Vos pips Lorena Wiebes on the line after early celebration error

Tom Pidcock claimed victory in the men’s Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, while in the women’s race Marianne Vos took a frenetic sprint on the line but only after Lorena Wiebes celebrated too early.

Pidcock, who finished second in the race in 2021 when losing out in a sprint to winner Wout van Aert, this time proved the strongest in the final metres, holding off Marc Hirschi and Tiesj Benoot to claim victory in the Dutch town of Valkenburg.

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My first rideout back in 2011 was liberating – and this Sunday, the monthly demonstration celebrates a big milestone

Thirteen years ago, riding through central London on my way to meet a friend one evening, I found myself surrounded by hundreds of cyclists, some blaring horns, one popping wheelies, and even someone covered in lights, thundering out drum’n’bass from a mobile sound system.

In spite of being overdressed in a shirt and my best trousers, I was taken by the spontaneous solidarity of this diverse group, who I later found was mostly made up of strangers.

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• Belgian wins six-rider sprint in fourth edition of the race
• Elisa Balsamo finishes second and Pfeiffer Georgi third

The world champion Lotte Kopecky delivered a devastating final sprint to claim the Paris-Roubaix Femmes title in a thrilling finish.

Belgium’s Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) was in a lead group of six when the 148.5km race arrived at the famous Roubaix velodrome and had enough in the tank to outpace her rivals. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) finished second while Britain’s Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) pipped Marianne Vos (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) to third place.

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Once a way to save money on a bike to work, the scheme is now a ‘life hack’ to lessen a tax bill or to qualify for free childcare

No, it’s not a delayed April fool: putting in a request to have your wages cut may actually result in you being better-off at the end of the month.

Salary sacrifice, sometimes known as salary exchange, is a great, if counterintuitive, “life hack”, according to Alice Guy, the head of pensions and savings at the investment platform interactive investor.

It has long been associated with initiatives such as the government’s cycle-to-work scheme , where you give up some of your earnings in exchange for a heavily discounted bike for your commute.

But with hundreds of thousands more people being dragged into higher tax brackets from this month, financial experts are highlighting it as a way of bringing down your personal tax bill, too.

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• Jonas Vingegaard taken to hospital after crash on Thursday
• Dutchman aiming to successfully defend Paris-Roubaix title

Mathieu van der Poel, who aims to retain his Paris-Roubaix title this weekend, says riders are the main danger when it comes to race safety.

Thursday’s stage four in the Tour of the Basque Country was marred by a horrific crash in which Jonas Vingegaard broke a collarbone and several ribs and also sustained pulmonary contusion and a pneumothorax. The crash happened at a turn on a high-speed descent, and race leader Primoz Roglic was forced to abandon the race, while Remco Evenepoel suffered a fracture to his right collarbone and his right shoulder blade.

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• The 2022 and 2023 winner fractured collarbone and scapula
• Incident saw 12 riders crash on fourth stage of Basque tour

Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone after a serious crash on stage four of Itzulia Basque Country.

Vingegaard also suffered several broken ribs from the high-speed accident that also included Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic among a group of 12 affected riders.

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