Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Today’s crazy Vuelta stage the fastest 200km+ bike race in history (+ highlights); US firm in a “Spin” over its claim to have trademarked the word; Doping – a Viz reader writes; Watchdog bans Deliveroo bike delivery + more on the live blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, Sep 11, 2019 18:50
11 September 2019, 18:50
Essential advice as ever from the Viz letters page
11 September 2019, 18:50
At 219.6km, today’s Stage 17 of the Vuelta was the longest of this year’s race – and at an average speed of 50.63kph is thought to have been ridden at a faster pace than any 200km-plus road stage or one-day race in the history of professional cycling.
It’s also the fastest stage in the Vuelta during the past 15 years, eclipsed only by Stage 9 of the 2001 Vuelta as shown in this list provided by Procycling Stats in their excellent livefeed of today’s stage.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/vuelta-a-espana/2019/stage-17/today/situation
As you’ll see from the list, stages ridden when EPO use was at its peak in the peloton dominate; there’s only one other stage from the past decade, from Andorra La Vella to Lleida in 2010, when there was a drop of 830 metres in altitude. Certainly, it’s well documented that the average speed of Grand Tours has dropped noticeably since the early 2000s.
A number of factors combined to make today’s stage so quick. As in that 2001 stage, there was a split in the peloton due to crosswinds and today that was followed by a tailwind.
With seven riders in the 45-strong front group, Deceuninck-Quick Step rode hard – and saw Philippe Gilbert take the win in Guadalajara and James Knox jump from 11th to 8th overall. Other teams in the front group had numbers too and an interest in distancing the other GC contenders – not least Movistar, whose quartet of riders included Nairo Quintana who leaps from sixth to second overall.
What we can say with certainty is that today’s stage was quicker than the fastest road stage ever at the Tour de France, which also came around the turn of the millennium, when Mario Cipollini won a 194.5km stage from Laval to Blois at an average speed of 50.4kph.
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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
Rian_constant 31 minutes ago
After 2 weeks of use I am not very impressed. Yes it’s beautifully built but the beam pattern and spread of light is not good for road riding. It doesn’t reach for enough but spread LOADS of light wide and right infront of the bike. On the road with speeds over 30km/h I want a light that reaches far and not spreads a carpet of light to the left and right. Some cheaper options with cut off beams throw the light further while still having a wide enough beam to see everything. Aktiv works but in constant traffic the beam just stays permanently dipped. I think the future is a cut off beam rather than a generic wide spread. At this price not recommended, even though it’s beautifully built. The GoPro style mount is nice but doesn’t work for all cockpits upaide down (too short so the release button blocks angling it up high enough) - eg black inc and cervelo need the reverse mount to ensure you can use it properly and that costs another 25£
mdavidford 1 hour ago
@grOg That's not why it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work because it would involve government agencies and a big tech/data sharing project. It would be bound to go tits up within a couple of weeks.
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
@grOg I suppose this idiotic trope about "vigilantes" ought to be confronted whenever it arises: a vigilante is someone who acts outside the law in trying to prevent crime and/or to punish it. Legitimately recording criminal behaviour and then passing said recording on to the appropriate authorities for action is not vigilantism.
qwerty360 1 hour ago
I wonder what proportion of large council project consultations have responses missed. I suspect the answer is very, very high because you get 100s of very similar claims (a good chunk of which are probably mixed in with rants that have nothing to do with the consultation process). See article implying the main issue is safety at night. Which they have considered given changes (additional lighting), so regardless of whether they responded to a specific submission, they have responded to the issue...
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
@grOg this one's an outlier for several reasons. But if you look at his previous criminal career (folks have dug that up now) in part it's motornormativity writ large (the other themes being drugs and alcohol, plus some violent behaviour IIRC). ... and "motornormativity" - and the sliding scale of acceptance of "it's not really crime ... everyone does it" certainly does help explain eg. endemic illegal phone use while driving (yeah, of course people only do that when they're stationary...) and the lack of interest in sanctioning it. And why we read many stories about... er ... "vigilantes" harassing people for "minor" or "purely technical offenses".
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@slc Stolen licences would be cancelled and replaced just as you do with stolen bankcards. We have a wealth of means of identification that could be employed, e.g. fingerprint recognition. Of course it wouldn't be foolproof but the more awkward and complex you make it for banned drivers to obtain the means of driving the less likely they are to bother.
slc 2 hours ago
@grOg Or just know how to obtain borrowed/stolen driving license cards. Many years ago, when bank card theft was a cause celebre, a banking official was asked on UK TV if photo cards would help. He thought not, because scrutiny of photographs at tills is tricky.
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@grOg Cycling does not "lead to bone loss", lack of any other type of weight-bearing exercise in conjunction leads to bone loss. Blaming cycling for osteoporosis is like blaming sausages for getting scurvy, it wasn't the sausages that gave you scurvy but the fact that you didn't eat any vegetables with them. If you drive everywhere instead of walking and spend all your time at home sitting in front of the TV that will significantly contribute to osteoporosis, does that mean that driving and watching TV leads to osteoporosis as well?
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@grOg So if nothing else it would make it much more awkward and time consuming for the banned driver and probably more expensive as one can't imagine his "plenty of mates" being prepared to make constant trips the garage for him without recompense. He wouldn't be able to refill on the move therefore his ability to travel distances would be severely limited. Most petrol stations have a limit on the amount of petrol that can be purchased in jerry cans, further constraining his activities, and this could be lowered. Just as it's an offence knowingly to lend your car to someone who is banned it could be made an offence to procure petrol for a banned driver. So there's no "of course it wouldn't work" about it, with your attitude we shouldn't have any ban on selling alcohol, cigarettes or knives to children because if they are determined enough they will be able to obtain them anyway. Of course if someone is absolutely set on disobeying the law it's almost impossible to stop them but the more awkward you make it for them the less likely they are to try.
bathcycleguy 3 hours ago
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?
16 thoughts on “Today’s crazy Vuelta stage the fastest 200km+ bike race in history (+ highlights); US firm in a “Spin” over its claim to have trademarked the word; Doping – a Viz reader writes; Watchdog bans Deliveroo bike delivery + more on the live blog”
I wonder if the cyclist being
I wonder if the cyclist being deliberately run over with life changing injuries will generate the same level of outrage as the cyclist head butting the pedestrian?
burtthebike wrote:
It definitely won’t. And it’ll be more to do with gang warfare than hatred for cyclists.
Obligatory call for cars to be fitted with number plates to allow them to be traced when they leave the scene of an acc… oh wait! Not that having number plates is a requirement for car drivers anymore. I often see cars driving around London without plates fitted.
srchar wrote:
My first thought, too.
Hey – maybe we’re looking at ‘headbutting cyclist’ incident all wrong… Maybe there was a previous conflict at a bridge club or something, rather than their being total strangers
brooksby wrote:
My thought too. There was clearly a close passing of the cyclist & pedestrian. Did the cyclist have right of way? Did the pedestrian say something highly offensive to the cyclist? I have no idea but there is more to this than the video shows.
burtthebike wrote:
Tricky one, it might because it was a 17 year-old, but then maybe not because it was only a cyclist… or maybe it will because perpertrator was a yoof… or maybe not because he was in a car… or maybe it will because he fled the scene.
Or the 4×4/little shit story
Or the 4×4/little shit story from yesterday.
So an American corporation
So an American corporation “owns” the rights to an English word? What’s next, no more spin cycle for washing machines?
Philh68 wrote:
the whole , spinning, is only ‘spinning’ if you are ‘spinning’ with a trainer, trained in ‘spinning’ who’s paying the American corporation, for the privellege of calling his ‘spin class’ a ‘spin class’ thing, has been going on for many years. It’s nuts, but that seems to be the way of the world now. Soon, you won’t be able to go for a ‘shit’ without someone claiming a copyright infringement, if this carries on.
Judge dreadful wrote:
they could market a toilet under the brand name Pooloton which bland beautiful people could sit on in their vast apartments in front of the landscape windows, laying some massive cable without even their t-shirt getting sweaty.
Philh68 wrote:
No, in broad terms an American corporation has the right to use an English word to sell goods or services in specified classes in a particular geography for a limited period of time. I assume their registration doesn’t cover washing machines. What I don’t understand is why the owner of the “spinning” trademark is taking action for use of the word “spin”, which they don’t appear to have a registration for. Maybe this will turn out like the Roubaix debacle, where Specialized got heavy handed over a cafe using the name until Fuji bikes pointed out that actually Specialized didn’t own that, they did.
I’m not sure what I think
I’m not sure what I think about the Deliveroo judgement.
I never actually believed that a kid on a MTB could deliver to a fleeing bank robber or to the ISS – I’d assumed it’s what used to be called “artistic licence” – so I wouldn’t have taken on face value that they could deliver “anywhere”…
I mean – Domino’s don’t deliver to my village even though there’s a branch in the next town 4 miles away, so I wouldn’t imagine Deliveroo would either.
brooksby wrote:
Dont assume anything with advertising… Red Bull lost a case based on someone who said that he was not given wings as promised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29550003/so-red-bull-doesnt-actually-give-you-wings.
Oh, and the rolling bib shorts into the jersey video… genius!
PRSboy wrote:
+1 on that!
CygnusX1 wrote:
That’s the way I’ve been doing my t-shirts when I go on holiday for the last few years, takes up less space than folding and gives a nice tight bundle. I bought a couple of t-shirts when I was away recently and folded them like this on the shop counter.
Redvee wrote:
I’ve recently started using fold and roll for most of my tshirts etc that go away into a drawer, avoids getting creases that get compressed by the weight of others above, and it’s much easier to find the one you want when they’re layed out visibly rather than in a stack. Keeping the bib shorts inside the jersey is a minor stroke of genius though.
I’d be most happy if they
I’d be most happy if they change their name to “America corporate fitness giants are a bunch of c*nts”