“We’re here to ride bikes, not to be politicians”: Biniam Girmay “doesn’t care” about NSN Cycling’s history as Israeli team; “This isn’t a war on motorists”; Could Winter Olympics star switch to cycling?; Rapha’s RideLondon idea + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"We're here to ride bikes, not to be politicians": Biniam Girmay "doesn't care" about NSN Cycling's history as Israeli team
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Biniam Girmay’s move to NSN Cycling turned some heads this winter, not least because, when it was first rumoured, the team was facing protests and seeing invitations to races pulled over its Israeli identity.
Bike sponsor Factor exited their relationship, as did lead sponsor Premier-Tech. Controversial team boss Sylvan Adams took a step back, investment came in from Andrés Iniesta’s NSN, and the squad got a new look and fresh start.
With the team no longer Israeli-registered and no longer riding around effectively as a billboard for the country, the noise is expected to be quiet around NSN this campaign.
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But what does Biniam Girmay, the team’s new star who won his first race for NSN last week, think about the events of the past few months and the squad’s history?
“To be honest, I don’t care,” he told Marca. Tell us how you really feel, Biniam…
“All I care about is the people on the team and the family atmosphere we have. We’re here to ride bikes, not to be politicians. The name is always the name, but we want to compete. We have ambition, and I’m here to win.”
Comparing his new team to life at Intermarché–Wanty, Girmay said: “Completely different. Here we’re a more global and international team, with many nationalities. I like this atmosphere. It’s a very well-organised team, NSN has higher-quality cyclists and staff.”
No punches pulled in this one…
Nine of the cheapest* 2026 aero road bikes (according to Liam)
Transport for London "working urgently to restore service" on Santander Cycles
Transport for London has apologised for disruption to its Santander Cycles hire bikes, the service’s app currently down and affecting riders’ journeys across the city.
A spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry for the disruption caused to Santander Cycles customers. We’re working hard to investigate the issue and restore services as soon as possible. We will keep customers informed with the latest updates.”
A second statement shared at 1pm said the problem was linked to “a connectivity issue”.
“Lack of action means more people killed cycling”: Campaigners demand change as latest stats show cyclists seriously injured in London up 14%
All roads lead to Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix for Jasper Philipsen this spring
Jasper Philipsen will target a second Milan-San Remo this spring, as well as a return to Paris-Roubaix, where he has finished second behind teammate Mathieu van der Poel twice. Alpecin-Premier Tech outlined the Belgian sprinter’s spring campaign in a post on Instagram, Philipsen also taking in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and a few semi-classics and smaller races too.
Driver described as “otherwise decent individual” spared jail after ramming cyclist off the road
> Driver described as “otherwise decent individual” spared jail after ramming cyclist off the road
Some more of your reaction to RideLondon's demise
The comments rolled on into the night, here’s a few more on RideLondon being put on an “indefinite pause”…
jaymack: “While I must say that I enjoyed RideLondon I’ve enjoyed audax more. If you want to a cycle challenging distance over an interesting parcours you should give audax a go. There’s none of the bike snobbery I’ve encountered on a sportive; there’s no ‘good luck getting around on that’ and audax is all the better for it.”
Phil on Facebook: “Such a shame, as soon as the woeful Surrey County Council removed their backing it was inevitable.”
Graham on Bluesky: “They couldn’t even sell enough entries on the last running to need to run the ballot so everyone who wanted in, got in. The route was boring boring boring and only went to one ‘sight’. Miles of concrete dual carriageway, little support, roadworks galore. And a shit medal one year.”
The damp finale: Can I ride a 200km Audax 12 months in a row? Ride #12
> The damp finale: Can I ride a 200km Audax 12 months in a row? Ride #12
Looking for an event now RideLondon is gone? Rapha reckons it has got the answer
In the absence of RideLondon, Rapha wanted to shout-out its FARs, a series of big one-day rides available to its members.
The first one of 2026 is coming up on 30 May and, who knows, there might even be a bit of sunshine by then… optimistic thinking, I know…
In essence, Rapha plots a route, you ride it. One of last year’s included a 162km day out with 1,936m of climbing. Members can choose between riding solo, with friends or as part of one of a RCC Ride Leader-led groups.
Doing the maths, Rapha points out to access the rides you’ll need to be a member (£70 for the year), whereas RideLondon famously used to cost up to £99, so unsurprisingly the iconic cycling clothing brand reckons you should become an RCC member, do a couple of its rides a year, and enjoy the rest of the benefits too.
Rapha also tells us it is bringing back RCC insurance later this month and will have a new club kit out at the end of the month too.
Could this Winter Olympics star switch to pro cycling?
Two golds in the current Olympics, XC skier Johannes Klæbo likes his cycling and has hinted at switching to road racing at some point. He is already sponsored by Uno-X. But for now he’s got more medals to win this week
— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 11 February 2026 at 08:07
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo vs Primož Roglič in the winter sports x cycling royal rumble? Or is this all just a repeat of the Kristian Blummenfelt saga from the last Summer Olympics?
Yep, we were all quite excited when one of the world’s best triathletes was outspoken about his belief he could win the Tour de France within a few years. Blummenfelt ended up disappointing in Paris and the rumours quickly died down, the word from his camp that he didn’t want to give up all the money in triathlon for a lowly pro cycling contract.
What do you say, Klæbo?
For the uninitiated, the Norwegian cross-country skiing legend yesterday won his second gold of the Winter Olympics, the seventh of his career. Last year he won all six world championship events. At 29, any sport swap would need to come soon, but we’re down if he is…
"This isn't a war on motorists at all... this is about a safe, viable choice to travel in a different way"
Let’s kick off Wednesday with some comments from the West Midlands’ Active Travel Commissioner, Beccy Marston, who has been in the local press spreading the word about walking and cycling, shutting down some common misconceptions, and generally doing a good job of promoting active travel.
While projects to boost walking, cycling and wheeling usually see local newspaper headlines and social media discussion about space being taken from motorists and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being involved, Marston was straight to the point when talking to the Express and Star about her role.
“This isn’t a war on motorists at all. This is about giving you safe, viable choice to travel in a different way,” she said.
“It’s got to be the right tool for the job. Don’t see it as an attack on motorists, see it as a way to improve your health, the air that you breathe. Sat in traffic you are breathing in more pollution and the air you breathe on the side of the road walking is cleaner.
“People get in a car to drive to the gym to do exercise. If you cycle to your office, there is your exercise done for the day. You’ve got an hour back – it’s quicker, it’s reliable and you do more stuff, see nature. It’s worth trying it in the summer.
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Take a step back, and this looks like a rather silly episode of men with competing agendas and self-appointed positions slinging mud over a strip of green paint with some naff plastic wands. WalkRideBath- lead by a man who apparently knows best on women's safety Dave Dixon- overwhelmed with concerns about heritage in the same park where he had a massive concrete skate park built Bike Mayor/BCC- nice effort lads, but do you not have some women in your ranks who have a voice? And I don't remember the Bike Mayor vote... All bickering over a project lead by a woman who is also the local councillor. Surely in a representative democracy we should give a bit more credit to people who have stood for election, rather than the bunch of self-appointed 'representatives' above?
@wtjs "Nothing changes if we don't want it to. I love you", (oops a quote from GEN V). I didn't need to put that last bit in, but hey you write so passionately and so long and obviously have an emotional attraction to cycling. "If you don't have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true"
@eburtthebike Most of the people cycling mikey confronts with his vigilante behaviour are using their phone while stationary in traffic; while illegal, conflating those offences with the murderous actions of this deviant person is patently ridiculous.
@Rendel Harris Of course it wouldn't work; the sort of person that would be banned would have plenty of mates that would fill jerry cans for him so he could fuel his car at home.
@BroomBroomBroom I cycle commuted for 30 years, with a number of close passes and a few crashes that gave me pause to consider the risks of cycling on public roads, but what made me give up was a diagnosis of osteoporosis because cycling was my exercise activity and because cycling is not weight bearing exercise, it leads to bone loss; I now mix walking and jogging to commute and have introduced a program of weight-lifting to try and reverse the osteoporosis.
More on the "e-bike scourge" from the beeb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn068ywr9e1o OTOH well, yeah - stuff that facilitates crime (and is cheaper / easier to get than cars / ICE motorbikes) is gonna be used by criminals. Plus: Well... I'm not happy either with the lack of interest in doing something about the mass sale of things which almost all aren't going to be used legally. But ... like guns? Don't think that's a helpful analogy there.
@Rendel Harris It should be simpler. In this case, and other cases where individuals drive while banned, there will be many people who know there is a banned driver behind the wheel and turned a blind eye. If we could find a way to make it culturally unacceptable the cases would drop. The change it attitudes around drink driving made a huge difference and it wasn't just the punishment. Unfortunately, we see the media run campaigns on the 'war on motorists' rather than try and change societal attitudes. The sequestration of vehicles as a punishment I think is an opportunity. Car removal, for many motoring offences and if you let a banned driver drive your vehicle I would include vehicles from employers and associates of a banned driver.
"Over the course of the evening, your friend made Gabrielle Debotte write a note on her phone with a false account that she had not seen you on the day of the collision at all." I sincerely hope that friend is in police custody awaiting trial for aiding and abetting and perverting the course of justice. And I hope he gets the same judge.
@rbrtribble All accidents including eg: a touch of a bumper should be reported to the police and an interview with a traffic cop before driving away from the scene What sort of dream world is this?! None of these fanciful wishes will happen in the car-crazed 'we'll give you a subsidy so you can drive and park everywhere with no thought to sensible fuel-conserving driving' UK. Sadly, the succession of dreadful Tory nonentity transport ministers has been followed by a succession of equally dreadful Labour ones, all desperate to avoid being accused of the 'war on the motorist'. Lilian Greenwood was charged with implementing the January 26 Government Road Safety Strategy until she was moved to be replaced by another deadbeat intent on doing nothing for fear of upsetting drivers. Labour could fight the established police strategy of ignoring and actively opposing any legislation to the benefit of cyclists, but they won't. The police are intent on protecting motorists from VED evasion, MOT offences, mobile phone offences, white line offences and most importantly cyclist-close-passing offences. I ask yet again for the evidence of effective police action against this latter offence (not the joke advice letter or joke driving course), but this evidence never appears. The obvious conclusion is that this police action does not exist.
@kingleo They aren't the only ones!
4 thoughts on ““We’re here to ride bikes, not to be politicians”: Biniam Girmay “doesn’t care” about NSN Cycling’s history as Israeli team; “This isn’t a war on motorists”; Could Winter Olympics star switch to cycling?; Rapha’s RideLondon idea + more on the live blog”
A keyboard-bothering match-up that our live blogger is presumably hoping doesn’t come about.
RE: the active travel commissioner’s comments: “This isn’t a war on motorists at all. This is about giving you safe, viable choice to travel in a different way”.
Very restrained. She could have gone with:
“This isn’t a war on motorists at all. Never was. It’s been a war on people’s ability to travel safely and conveniently in the public realm, their health in general and the provision of access to pleasant spaces and amenities … all at the service of the motor industries, related trades and their political sponsors. Since before the leaded petrol scam, before the invention of ‘jaywalking’ …”
Biniam Girmaye is a cycling professional who is paid to win races, which he already did with his new team. He may or may not have opinions about Israel but he isn’t willing to express them publicly. The NSN Team PR & Comms manager did a good job. Useless controversy averted.
So… basically an audax then?
Not trying to bash Rapha too hard, but if you just want someone else to plot out a nice long ride, that you can do either by yourself or with friends, then that’s what an audax is.
I guess the RCC Leader-led groups might be nice for someone with less confidence, or if you’ve signed up to the event by yourself and want to be sure of having a group to ride with (with an audax, you’re relying on the kindness of strangers in that situation – not that that is often in short supply).