Welcome to Monday’s live blog on road.cc with Simon MacMichael, Jack Sexty and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Video revisits last year’s NorthCape 4000 ultracycling race, “Your bike is better than mine”, says wheelsucker, Deceuninck–Quick-Step will be using Bryton computers in 2019, are Vielo launching a road bike? + more
Is it ever ok to wheelsuck? One commuter believed he was perfectly within his rights to do so because his windblock was riding a better bike!
Mon, Jan 07, 2019 16:26
SUMMARY
7 January 2019, 16:26
Some stories you may have missed at the weekend
Team Wiggins-Le Col rider James Fouche wins New Zealand national road championship
Highway Code cycle helmet tweet branded ‘victim blaming’ by Cycling
Video: A Bridge Too Far? Astana’s Izagirre brothers in spectacular cyclo-cross crash
Major Italian city to pay people to commute by bike
Police seek cyclist who allegedly hit van driver over head with bike lock
7 January 2019, 16:26
London Cycling Campaign outlines what it sees as the dangerous junctions to be prioritised in 2019
The organisation says it needs to raise £15,000 to finance its campaigning this year. It says:
Unfortunately, many junctions long acknowledged by TfL as dangerous still await the action promised to make them safer. More still have no plans for improvement in place at all.
In some cases action is being blocked by anti-cycling councils. In other cases the delays stem from TfL itself. And to cap it all, where improvements have been made they are all too often inadequate.
This means public money is being spent without achieving the cycling safety standards needed to deliver London’s ‘Vision Zero’ action plan, to prevent all deaths and serious injuries on our roads by 2041.
#Westminster Council are blocking progress to make dangerous junctions across the borough safe for cycling. Find out about these and the other major junctions we must tackle this year, and donate to the Dangerous Junctions fundraising appeal at https://t.co/Wwbbyt9gNZ pic.twitter.com/Wx0ciDMCp2
— LdnCyclingCampaign (@london_cycling) January 6, 2019
7 January 2019, 16:26
Dutch UCI Pro Conti team Roompot-Charles have a new mascot
He’s called Koos Konijn (the latter being Dutch for ‘rabbit’).
Oh hi, Koos Konijn! #roompot #charles #ahoy #rotterdam @rotterdamahoy @zesdaagse @Roompot pic.twitter.com/yVRVuC7x2B
— Roompot – Charles Cycling Team (@roompot_charles) January 4, 2019
7 January 2019, 16:26
BackStage Pass Returns -Aussie Road Nats
Our favourite way to while away a few minutes, or even a few hours!
The start of the 2019 road season is well underway in Australia with the Men’s and Women’s National Road Race Championships. Mitchelton Scott are once again providing a behind the scenes look at the Pro cycling season and as you’d expect from the only Aussie World Tour team, they had a very good representation at the race.
7 January 2019, 16:26
DealClincher: 21% off Shimano 105 R7000 Carbon Pedals
If your pedals have become a bit tired with rough bearings and vague engagement, a great upgrade would be these 105 R7000 pedals. They’ve got a carbon pedal body that offers a very wide platform and the cleats last for ages and rarely squeak!
7 January 2019, 16:26
Vielo launching a road bike?
Vielo, makers of the V+1 allroad bike launched last year, look to have something new up their sleeves judging by the short video they’ve teased on Facebook over the weekend. What could it be? We’ve asked, they won’t tell, so we’ll have to wait and see.
What do you think it could be? We think the R+1 is the big giveaway, a suggestion we could be looking at a more road-focused bike than the all-terrain V+1.
7 January 2019, 16:26
This is great to see
Increasingly, seeing people in wheelchairs and using mobility aids on the cycle highways in London pic.twitter.com/xkhKNXmvQY
— cyclistsinthecity (@citycyclists) January 7, 2019
Another fine example of segregated lanes doing their job in the capital.
7 January 2019, 16:26
Deceuninck–Quick-Step will use Bryton GPS units in 2019
Taiwanese GPS brand Bryton have entered the peloton with a bang by partnering with the number 1 UCI-ranked team Deceuninck–Quick-Step. It’s likely riders will use their new Aero 60, as their 450 is more mtb-orientated. Bryton’s CEO Samuel Wang says: “we’ve been working with professional cyclists since we started Bryton, but we are working with the best cycling team in the world now. We could really look at Deceuninck – Quick-Step as an inspiration to the team to continue to push and provide the best products in the world.”
7 January 2019, 16:26
Is this fair game?
Fellow cyclists ,I overtook a guy today. I said hi, he didn’t respond. For 5km he then sat on my wheel, im ok with that. at the next set of traffic lights I asked did he want to take a turn,his reply was as I’m on a better bike than him why should he? Is that weird? @UKCycleChat
— MYBIKEANDI (@mybikeandi) January 6, 2019
Is this just never on, or does it depend on just how good blokey’s bike was? Either way, saying hello back wouldn’t hurt!
7 January 2019, 16:26
Tan Lines: Good or bad?
This snap from Luke Rowe suggests that Lotto Soudal riders Adam Blythe, Thomas De Gent and Tomasz Marczyński aren’t fans of getting tan lines.
So, are you proud of your tan lines or do you do everything to prevent them?
Answers (and any funny stories/pictures) below, please!
7 January 2019, 16:26
Terrific video of last year's North Cape 4000
We really enjoyed last year’s North Cape 4000 – and not only because it was won by Dr Ian Walker from road.cc’s home city of Bath, and a sometime reviewer on the site.
130 riders began the 4,300km ultracycling race from Lake Garda in Italy to the North Cape in Norway, crossing 11 countries en route, and this film is a tribute to them all.
The race will return in 2019, and we’ll have more on that on road.cc tomorrow.
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
wtjs 26 minutes ago
I'm in the happy position of agreeing with everybody here! I've never considered a bike with a stand, yet I'm impressed by the ingenuity and adaptability of this axle. I tow a Yak Bob with a Robert Axle, employing my El Cheapo Vitus gravel bike and I just have to be very careful where I stop. Hedges are generally a dead loss, and I seek walls, telegraph poles and signposts and generally lean the widest part of the Bob against it. One very awkward task is removing the two steel pins which lock the trailer arms onto the special mounting slots on the Robert axle, and when you have one out, the sodding weight in the trailer can twist the whole caboodle and bend the Bob fitting before you can get the other out and unhitch. I doubt if a stand would help with that. You can imagine that this combo is a real pain when you have to get it over the bridge at railway stations, and it nearly resulted in Merseyrail nearly parting me and the trailer on the platform from the bike on the train. It's a long story for another time. Another axle example recently featured on here, with a 12mm front axle bearing the Herculean weight limit of a monster American front rack.
HoarseMann 2 hours ago
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
AidanR 3 hours ago
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
Sredlums 3 hours ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 4 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 4 hours ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 4 hours ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 4 hours ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
Jakrayan 5 hours ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 6 hours ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
18 thoughts on “Live blog: Video revisits last year’s NorthCape 4000 ultracycling race, “Your bike is better than mine”, says wheelsucker, Deceuninck–Quick-Step will be using Bryton computers in 2019, are Vielo launching a road bike? + more”
If you want to wheel suck,
If you want to wheel suck, ask first. I get really annoyed when people try to do it on my commute. It’s all well and good on a club run and fine on the track, but pretty stupid and dangerous on a busy road.
OldRidgeback wrote:
I came to a stop before and had a go at the person, but they still did to me a month later!
I don’t mind a little wheel
I don’t mind a little wheel sucking. However, as above, not doing your turn is just rude!
My bike is not better than anyone’s. But, that doesn’t stop people sitting on my wheel. If they help out, fine. If not, I will get shirty – to the point of swinging right out, slowing and sitting right on their wheel (possibly with added glaring or sarcastic comment).
Actually though, as a fixie rider, the thing that really gets my goat is those on lightweight, geary (it’s a word!) bikes sitting on my wheel. Then, when either I “let” them go (see above) or they decide to come past, they just whack it up a gear or two so I have no way of keeping their pace (max sustainable speed is 20-25 mph with my gearing). Thanks!
Not acceptable unless they
Not acceptable unless they keep a decent distance or have asked first. How do they know they can brake in time? Are they aware of all the hazards on a typical commute and alive to them? Or will they go headlong into the wheelsucked rider the first time they have to do some unexpected braking?
Just stop pedalling for 30
Just stop pedalling for 30 seconds and see if they come past.
I tend to ride quite upright
I tend to ride quite upright on my old hybrid, and I’ve often (well, a few times) had other cyclists – even ‘proper’ roadies – sitting behind me using my somewhat overweight and upright form as a windbreak. Is that wheelsucking too?
Wheel sucking – does it
Wheel sucking – does it matter? It’s not affecting me if you suck my wheel but you would need to put up with my occasional snot rockets.
bikeman01 wrote:
it will affect you if they ride into the back of you because they arent paying attention properly as you do something they didnt expect, even pro riders manage to muck it up sometimes, Id rate most riders at a skill level way below that.
at the very least the wheel sucker needs to announce they are there not just ghost upto you.
but its also maybe not something that you consider that often but certainly I had an experience last year on a commute home in the dark with someone who began wheelsucking/overlapping wheels on me, who I wasnt sure what their ulterior motive or intention was, it didnt feel like they were merely saving energy for sure.
Awavey wrote:
Do you carry a D-lock?
bikeman01 wrote:
It really doesn’t matter to me. If it annoys you just ride slower and suck his wheel.
If I am having fun and he is having fun, who really cares.
As far as I know there is even a slight aerodynamic advantage for the leader as the wheelsucker avoids the turbulences behind a single rider.
bikeman01 wrote:
How would you feel about being tailgated by a motorvehicle, either as a driver or as a cyclist?
I don’t want somebody I don’t know up my trumpet, I don’t know how they perceive safe cycling, I don’t know their reactions, their attention span, I also don’t know how their road skills are and how their braking is.
Unless in an organised group I just wouldn’t consider it, if I’m invited or feel that the amount of road space/my speed means it would be natural for me to be just behind then I’d do it but not right up behind. I’d call out to let them know I’m behind, if they were other than okay, I’d just drop off a few more metres.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
This.
A few years ago, I was cycling to work, minding my own business, when I became aware that someone was sitting on my wheel. Tried to drop them 3 times and each time I looked back to find they couldn’t take a hint and they’d crept up again. When I slowed to force them to pass me, they’d once again crept up so close they had no room to brake and crashed into my back wheel and fell off. They then had the cheek to accuse me of not being an experienced group rider – I’m not in a group, I’m cycling to work, you pillock!
If I’m in an organised group or with friends, then fine. If I don’t know you from Adam, then you don’t know where I’m going, where I’m going to slow down, turn or whatever, so either make your presence known and ask if I mind or bugger off – and don’t be offended if I say no.
I once had a ghost rider get really shirty with me when I asked him to get off my wheel!
Appreciate that commuting and
Appreciate that commuting and out for a ride ( I no longer train) are different but I occasionally get wheel suckers, you know the type, you catch and pass them before they decide to blow their arses and stay on your wheel. They don’t bother me for the above snot rocket comment and I hope that they explain to everyone that their unusually quick Strava segment was assisted.
I don’t really mind those that sit on you wheel and jump out in the last 150m like a true sprinter. But there’s a couple of points here that I’d like to make:
1: I wasn’t racing (so who have you beaten?).
2: I was riding for myself and am happy to give max effort. How was your “training” session while chilling out at 70% effort?
3: If you want to make something of it, and can, pop round for a chat or do some work at the front (I’m only a twat on here).
4: Do give a quick shout to let me know that you’re there (I generally know and will still send the snot until until you announce your presence). Don’t be surprised if I stop to admire the scenery either.
Just make sure your diet
Just make sure your diet includes good quantities of beans and cabbage. The inevitable result of that lot will put off wheelsuckers for a good while.
Pretty weak excuse; “Sorry, I
Pretty weak excuse; “Sorry, I could barely keep up let alone pass you” would be more flattering.
Was on a solo blast a couple
Was on a solo blast a couple of weeks ago and had a guy pull out from a side road and sit on my wheel – not commuting, both weekend warriors.
I just assumed i was better than i was and that i’d drop him, 2 miles later he’s still there, another mile and I’m struggling a little, he’s still there. At the next junction i took an incorrect left and he took a right to a local climb (pretty long and steep), so i had to turn around and lost about a minute.
Considering the energy he’d saved he wasn’t progressing much so i picked a moment and had to pass him pretty damn quickly to stop him holding the wheel again. If nothing else it motivated me to a PR up that climb 🙂
I had a wheelsucker last
I had a wheelsucker last night as I commuted home along Green Lanes. I sat up; so did he. We were doing 15km/h at one point, so I tried to drop him. Nope, still on my wheel at 35km/h approaching traffic. I pulled into a side road so that he’d have to ride past, then continued my journey. Soon caught up with him and overtook, at which point he jumped on my wheel again. Just… why?!
srchar wrote:
So that they can get a pb without the effort? So that they can kid themselves they are as fit as you? Because they are cretins?