The Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada saw teams from North America, Japan and France battle it out, while the Slovakian Medzinárodné dni cyklistiky Dubnica nad Váhom saw the home side celebrate at the end of a great battle.

The 2023 Nations Cup series continued in Canada from 11 to 16 July. At the end of the six-stage event, the crowd cheered an American victory as Alejandro Che won the overall ahead of Japan’s Satoaki Nagashima and France’s Paul Picard. Che won two stages in the race, as did Canadian Matthew Ney, who lost the yellow jersey on the final stage.

A slightly more serious peloton gathered in Slovakia for the Medzinárodné dni cyklistiky Dubnica nad Váhom from 14-16 July, where an individual time trial and two road stages awaited the cyclists. The chrono was won by Czech Pavel Sumpik, followed by a celebration at the end of the first road stage by one of the home team’s greatest talents, Matthias Schwarzbacher, who took the overall lead. The seventeen-year-old cyclist retained the jersey on the final day, although the Italian did his best to take it off. Behind Schwarzbacher, Italy’s Enea Sambinello finished second, while Slovenia’s Erazem Valjavec was third. The Hungarian national team was also in the peloton, with Bálint Feldhoffer finishing in the best position, 46th.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) national ranking is currently led by France, Norway is second and Denmark third.

The Nations’ Cup series continues with the Watersley Junior Challenge in the Netherlands, which takes place from 28 to 30 July.

Of course, there will also be a home Nations’ Cup Youth World Cup race in 2023, which was originally scheduled to be the ninth stop of the ten-round series on 16-17 August.