Welcome to Tuesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Cav and Bernie to Bahrain-Merida (and reunited with Ellingworth?); Hypocrite, much? Clarkson snapped riding bike on protected cycle lane; London kids in cargo bike cavalcade; Velolife crowdfunder smashes target + more on today’s live blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Tue, Aug 27, 2019 19:52
SUMMARY
27 August 2019, 19:52
Bank Holiday weekend catch-up
Hope you’ve all being enjoying the sun… if you’ve enjoyed it so much you’ve somehow not read road.cc for the last few days, here’s some of the stuff you may have missed…
Inventor of Rehook chain reseating tool heads into the Dragons’ Den next week
Team Wiggins Le Col to fold at end of season
Nairo Quintana wins Vuelta stage 2
Council refuses to clarify ‘absurd’ Velolife cycle café situation
27 August 2019, 19:52
LAPD appeal for information after shocking hit-and-run
Help us find the suspect responsible for this hit & run by retweeting this video.
It occurred August 22nd in Boyle Heights, on Whittier Blvd near Calzona St, and left a cyclist with severe injuries. Any info contact LAPD Central Traffic Division (213) 833-3713. pic.twitter.com/0qR6iVabOV
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) August 27, 2019
According to the LAPD the cyclist was left with severe injuries, and they are appealing for information. A similar incident occurred on Swain’s Lane in London earlier this year when 22-year-old Josh Dey was knocked off his bike by Sean Fagan, who was on the wrong side of the road when he crashed into Mr Dey in a BMW convertible. Fagan was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment.
27 August 2019, 19:52
Vuelta special edition green Oakley Jawbreakers apparently not so special...
They are nice. But also literally just left over from the Rio2016 Games. Not exactly ‘custom’
— Colin Lynch (@FormerTTchamp) August 26, 2019
We can’t officially verify this, but according to Paralympian Colin Lynch, Nairo Quintana’s green Jawbreakers to match his points jersey are in fact ‘leftovers’ from the 2016 Rio Olympics… Colin might know a bit better than most as he won a silver medal at the games.
27 August 2019, 19:52
Velolife fundraiser smashes crowdfunding target overnight
THANK YOU ALL so much for the overwhelming support so far!
And if @rbwm cease legal action & the threat there of, we’ll donate all funds not used to @WeAreCyclingUK & @Qhubeka #savevelolife https://t.co/QBzSj5tapK— Velolife Cafe (@thevelolife) August 26, 2019
This never-ending ludicrous saga now appears to be somewhat going the way of the beleaguered Berkshire cafe rather than the barmy Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead council they are in a legal wrangle with; as the ‘Save Velolife’ crowdfunder set up to raise funds for legal fees and to fight the council’s injunction has now topped the £15,000 target in a little over 36 hours. Velolife say they will donate any funds not used to Cycling UK and the Qhubeka charity.
789 people have donated at the time of writing, with the total currently standing at £15,851. As spotted by a road.cc reader Tinbob49, one of the donors shares a name with a certain Simon Dudley, the leader of RBWM who has come out in support of the cafe despite his own council’s injunction causing the furore…. coincidence?
27 August 2019, 19:52
Is this the future?
CeramicSpeed takes its radical Driven drive shaft concept into Specialized wind tunnel and finds it’s more aero than regular groupset. Now if they can just sort out the gear changing and get it into production…
And if you’re wondering what the heck it’s all about (where were you last year!) then you can watch our first look preview video here from the Eurobike show it was unveiled at.
27 August 2019, 19:52
Powerstrap X4 Gravel Shoe
Ride a gravel bike? Well in that case you definitely need gravel shoes (probably, anyway). The new Powerstrap X4 is the latest addition to Fizik’s Terra off-road lineup, and promise a shoe “purpose built for today’s gravel-orientated adventure cyclists”. Described as supportive, protective and tough yet light and comfortable, the Powerstrap features a ribbon that wraps round the foot rather than a traditional Velcro closures that just pulls together two sides of the shoe’s upper. In theory this should provide more secure containment using just two straps. The instep and the midfoot are also separately adjustable for customised fit and compression.
Available in black, anthracite/grape or mud/caramel colourways, you can get them now for £149.99 from Fizik and dealers worldwide.
27 August 2019, 19:52
A nice bit of business: Ineos add to sports portfolio by acquiring OGC Nice football club
We are absolutely delighted to have acquired OGC Nice #IssaNissa #AllezLeGym https://t.co/VcPAXPOdZs
— INEOS (@INEOS) August 26, 2019
After acquiring the cycling team formerly known as Team Sky earlier this year, Ineos have now completed the deal for the Ligue 1 football team OGC Nice, currently managed by former Arsenal and France midfielder Patrick Vieira. The deal is reported to be in the region of 100 million euros (about £90 million) according to the Financial Times, but Ineos declined to share the specifics.
Ineos CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe said: “We have looked at a lot of clubs in the manner we look at businesses in Ineos — for value and potential — and OGC Nice fulfils that criteria.
“With some sensible, measured investment, we want to establish OGC Nice as a team that competes in European club competition on a regular basis. And, importantly, sustain it.”
Next year’s Tour de France of course starts in Nice – a chance for some cross-sports promotion for Ineos, then?
27 August 2019, 19:52
James Hayden describes Silk Road Mountain Race as "hardest challenge I've faced"
(1/3) The #SRMR2019 was the hardest challenge I’ve faced. It was a complete test, not just about physical strength but mental resolve. From scorching plains to sub zero nights, snow storms to little water. I took all I’ve learned over the previous years racing and applied it. pic.twitter.com/RZ2BL37Gyu
— James Hayden (@JamesMarkHayden) August 27, 2019
The two-time Transcontinental Race winner battled on even after fleeing from an attempted robbery, and was forced to dig deep into his mental reserves to finish in a highly impressive fourth place despite the adversities. After the above tweet Hayden thanked his bike sponsor Canyon and continued in a thread: “I reset mentally after the attempted robbery and pushed on to the finish. I set out with the aim to finish and anything in the top 5 being lofty. Finishing in 4th place after what happened is exceptional and I am ecstatic.
“And yes, I’ll see you back here in 2020, I’ve got a point to make.”
27 August 2019, 19:52
Owner sought of bike found abandoned in Edinburgh
Anyone know this bike? Abandoned in Canonmills @edfoc @SpokesLothian Taken in for safe keeping, police aware pic.twitter.com/g36wlPPwx5
— Jeanette Stevenson (@JnetKS) August 25, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
Bike stolen from Green Party London Assembly Member Caroline Russell
Keep ‘m peeled …
This glorious electric Gazelle stolen from Highbury Park last night. Let me know if anyone tries to sell it to you. Meanwhile has anyone got a bike I can borrow. pic.twitter.com/NEbDiMa1XM
— Caroline Russell (@CarolineRussell) August 27, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
Ineos field strong squad for Tour of Germany
We’re excited to line up at #DeineTour with a strong squad later this week. Meet our team for the German stage race:@kwiato @NarvaezJho @LukeRowe1990 @PavelSivakov @swiftybswift @GeraintThomas86 pic.twitter.com/PJUMq74QEb
— Team INEOS (@TeamINEOS) August 27, 2019
Most of the Ineos Tour-winning team minus Egan Bernal will race in the four-stage Tour that starts on the 29th August, including Geraint Thomas and Michał Kwiatkowski.
27 August 2019, 19:52
There's a pedicab service to ferry people across Hammersmith Bridge - currently closed to motor vehicles
This is enterprising – Hammersmith Bridge is currently closed to motor vehicles due to safety concerns over the structure, and now there is a pedicab service to ferry people across.
It runs from outside Hammersmith Apollo to Castlenau on the Barnes side of the river.
This is awesome. Please use it if you want to connect to buses on the other side of #hammersmith bridge. pic.twitter.com/j7eQqfkmEM
— Andrew Pendleton (@AJPendleton) August 27, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
London's Cycleway 4 is taking shape nicely ...
Great morning visit to see the transformation of Rotherhithe Roundabout. Our Cycleway 4 work is making it safer for people walking & cycling – with @MayorofLondon & @Heidi_LDN. Construction is ahead of schedule @TfL @lb_southwark @kiergroup @southwarkcycle pic.twitter.com/plCmpKKY01
— Will Norman (@willnorman) August 27, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
Reports that Mark Cavendish and Wout Poels are set to join Bahrain-Merida for 2020
The usually very well-informed Italian sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport is reporting that Mark Cavendish, Wout Poels, Eros Capecchi and Bernhard Eisel could be set to join Bahrain-Merida for 2020.
The team unofficially has a new team principal in Rod Ellingworth from the 1st January, who was one of the founding members of Team Sky; it therefore makes some sense that he would sign two riders he’s worked with in the past (Cavendish and Poels) while Bernhard Eisel (also a former Sky man) would be following Cavendish out the door from Dimension Data. Capecchi would end his two-year association with Deceuninck–Quick-Step by switching to Bahrain Merida.
Do you think Cav will get a new lease of life at Bahrain-Merida, and could Poels become a GC force?
27 August 2019, 19:52
Vuelta latest: Steven Kruijswijk abandons due to knee injury
@s_kruijswijk abandona #LaVuelta19 con problemas físicos. ¡Mucho ánimo! / Kruijswijk is forced to abandon La Vuelta, suffering a sore knee according to @JumboVismaRoad. Get well soon, Steven!
: @PhotoGomezSport pic.twitter.com/XFCjaTU4OX
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 27, 2019
The Dutchman’s knee injury has apparently worsened to the point where he felt unable to complete today’s stage, and he’s now abandoned the race.
Meanwhile, there was also a crash involving multiple riders, with Aritz Bagües (Euskadi-Murias) required medical assistance.
27 August 2019, 19:52
Top prosecutor for England and Wales urges dockless hire bike users to park them consderately
Max Hill, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has urged dockless hire bike users to park them considerately after having to move one out of the way of a blind woman.
If you abandon a hire bike in the middle of the pavement, you create an obstacle for the blind. I cleared the way for a blind lady this morning, whose dog sensed danger and would not let her pass. And swerving to walk in the road doesn’t work for the blind. Wise up, bike users.
— Max Hill (@MaxHillQC) August 22, 2019
His appeal comes as London Councils, the body that represents the capital’s local authority, is considering a by-law that would require operators of such schemes in the city to ensure users to return bikes to designated locations, with a potential £500 fine for any infraction.
[scald=562141:sdl_editor_representation].
27 August 2019, 19:52
Vuelta: Fabio Jakobsen wins stage 4
Etapa 4 | Stage 4
¿Qué quieres preguntarle? / Questions for him?#LaVuelta19 pic.twitter.com/NM3iPbRM6Y
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 27, 2019
The Quick-Step man clinched the victory in a sprint finish, with Sam Bennett in second.
Clasificación tras la etapa 4 | GC after stage 4 #LaVuelta19
Top 10
+ info https://t.co/7s84I3FjHm pic.twitter.com/1GezmwTgKe
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 27, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
A nice little quiz from our friends at The Peloton Brief
How many of these climbs can you get?
QUIZ TIME: can you name the climb from one photo? https://t.co/bQQeeTWHPh
— The Peloton Brief (@pelotonbrief) August 22, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
Ooh, look ... Jeremy Clarkson enjoying riding his bike in a protected cycle lane
Hypocrite much?
Except it is just a load of rubbish. pic.twitter.com/C7bgLZhIcy
— Dublin Pedaller (@DublinPedaller) August 27, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
Went a bit OCD rearranging the rainbow straws down the pub the other night
Tweet includes bonus typo, but it was late.
You don't eant to know how much kickback I got from customers and staff alike arranging the straws *just so*#yorkshire2019 pic.twitter.com/mcCHehJxfo
— Simon MacMichael (@simonmacmichael) August 25, 2019
27 August 2019, 19:52
London cargo bike kids cavalcade
This is lovely
from Insta minilondoners: pic.twitter.com/V10qqKzrka
— Drew White (@drewsonix) August 27, 2019
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
chrisonabike 7 hours ago
"All that's required is an to roads policing" - that's a big all... Although no doubt the "idiots just keep coming" aspect does apply: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9lel2wz93o "Man charged after car crashes through bowling alley" - luckily they only skittled over skittles.
chrisonabike 7 hours ago
Almost any change to roads and streets is accompanied by a period of heightened danger, and in the UK "look out for cyclists" will need to be learned... practically. And over the time it takes for cyclists to become a regular feature. OTOH once (if...) good designs are in and frequent enough such that drivers encounter them AND the cyclists on them regularly (another big if) I don't think they should be much more difficult than a footway to deal with. These things are all over NL - don't have the collision stats but they should. (NL isn't perfect but collecting info on the safety of designs to feed back into better designs as required is part of the "sustainable safety" philosophy - if they're really a killer I think they'd be altering these.)
wtjs 8 hours 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 10 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 10 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 11 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 11 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 12 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 12 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 12 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.
11 thoughts on “Cav and Bernie to Bahrain-Merida (and reunited with Ellingworth?); Hypocrite, much? Clarkson snapped riding bike on protected cycle lane; London kids in cargo bike cavalcade; Velolife crowdfunder smashes target + more on today’s live blog”
To think Bury were / are
To think Bury were / are looking for a buyer, although with all the fracking up north, I suspect Ineos would have be on shaky ground.
… shaky ground. Hur hur.
… shaky ground. Hur hur.
Can’t believe anyone is
Can’t believe anyone is signing up Cav based on performance form the last few years. Perhaps he is offering his services for free?
“Top prosecutor for England
“Top prosecutor for England and Wales urges dockless hire bike users to park them consderately” (sic)
That’s funny, I don’t remember him telling drivers not to park on the footpath or in cycle lanes. I wonder if he drives a car? Or has ridden a bike in the last fifty years.
Ineos should be using their
Ineos should be using their enormous wealth to invest in a transition to clean energy, and preventing climate breakdown.
Vanity projects, greenwashing, and jollies for the boss just don’t cut it.
HarrogateSpa wrote:
Well we do still need energy whilst we build renewabale capacity. Perhaps the Government should tax Ineos on their ‘enormous wealth’ and use that money to support transition, however unfortunately they seem preoccupied with other things, shame.
HarrogateSpa wrote:
What a load of rubbish. Ineos should use their wealth however they wish to. If you feel that strongly about clean energy and the climate invest your own money.
Have you invested any of your
Have you invested any of your wealth in such endeavours, HS? It’s easy enough to do if you buy the right shares or invest in the right funds.
Great news on Velolife’s
Great news on Velolife’s crowd funder. Please bung in a fiver if you can and haven’t already.
That, and the owner and 2 of
That, and the owner and 2 of his key leutenants are now resident in Monaco, so pay shockingly little tax here.
Well we do still need energy
Well we do still need energy whilst we build renewabale capacity.
We need the big energy companies to invest in the transition and build the renewable capacity – not invest in expanding their fossil fuel production.