Longo Borghini in Piasco and cyclocross is back: the pro weekend

Monday at the Giornale is usually full of jerseys and sprints. Not today, and we will say so up front: in the reports we read, the weekend of 24 and 25 October had no WorldTour or ProSeries race, and we found no professional mountain bike event that we could confirm with two sources. We would rather publish a small true issue than a padded one. What did happen still says a lot about late October: the Italian time trial championships in Piasco and the Superprestige cyclocross series starting again in Belgium.

Piasco, national titles in late October

On Saturday 24 October, in Piasco (province of Cuneo), Elisa Longo Borghini won the Italian time trial title in the women's elite category, ahead of Alessia Vigilia and Letizia Borghesi. TuttoBiciWeb reports it and the honour roll on Wikipedia confirms it, listing eight titles in the discipline for her: 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020 to 2023 and now 2026. Eight, and the latest in October.

Among the U23 men, Nicolas Milesi won, with Davide Basso second and Davide Frigo third (same two sources). For the elite men the national jersey had already been decided in June: Filippo Ganna won the Vicoforte-Barolo course on 25 June, ahead of Luca Giaimi and Mattia Cattaneo, according to the reports of those days and again the Wikipedia honour roll.

Why the women raced for their title in October we have not worked out, and we will not invent an explanation. If you know, tell us in the comments.

A national title out of season: do we like it?

Our view, as fans and not as insiders: a national championship in late October loses some of its magic. A national jersey makes sense when you see it in the bunch in spring, not when you wear it for November rides. That said, a title won in Piedmont, in a small town where the race is a party for everyone, has a charm that a big-city setting lacks. Village cycling still exists, and for one Saturday it makes the news.

If you were in Piasco, tell us what it was like: it is the kind of detail no result sheet records.

On Sunday 25 October, in Overijse, Belgium, the first round of the 2026-27 Superprestige was run. Michael Vanthourenhout won the men's race and Lucinda Brand the women's: TuttoBiciWeb and the Druivencross honour roll on Wikipedia both say so, and Wikipedia also lists the teams, Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw for him and Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions for her. We do not report gaps or placings behind the winners, because we found them in only one source.

The Superprestige calendar, according to the organisers at Flanders Classics, has eight rounds, from Overijse on 25 October to Gullegem on 2 January 2027. One detail made us smile: the second round, in Middelkerke, is on Thursday 5 November, the third, in Niel, on Wednesday 11 November. Two midweek cross races in a row. With our jobs we would struggle to get to a Wednesday race: how would you manage?

From the mud to the World Cup

The real step up comes at the end of November. The 2026-27 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup has twelve rounds: it opens on Friday 27 November in Ostrava, Czech Republic, continues on Sunday 29 in Tábor, then Glasgow on 13 December, Antwerp on the 19th, Koksijde on the 20th, and so on to Hoogerheide, in the Netherlands, on 24 January 2027, via Benidorm on 17 January. The dates are those published by the German magazine Tour and by BrujulaBike. On Glasgow, one of the two sources still marked the venue as to be confirmed and the other treats it as certain: we are keeping a small caution and suggest checking the UCI site before booking a trip.

If you have never tried cyclocross, our guide on what cyclocross is and how to try it with the bike you have starts from the kit you probably already have in the garage. You do not need a high-end race bike, you need a meadow and a bit of courage.

What to watch in the coming days

On the road we have not checked what remains on the calendar for the next two weeks and prefer not to guess. Cyclocross, instead, has a firm date: the Superprestige in Middelkerke on Thursday 5 November is the next appointment according to Flanders Classics. Meanwhile, remember that our 2027 calendar lists next season's races, and that yesterday we wrote about why contracts in cycling are now being broken, with Ganna among the protagonists.

Back to the question we care about. The Italian championship in October: a late party or a wasted chance? And cyclocross, do you follow it or have you ever tried it? Tell us in the comments: it helps us decide what to cover on Mondays when there are few races.