Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Very slightly weird cycling video; Lachlan Morton takes on Three Peaks; Tour de France time trials in decline; Froome says 2020 route is “brutal”; £27 million cash injection announced for cycling schemes in Scotland + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, Oct 16, 2019 16:47
SUMMARY
16 October 2019, 16:47
Recycling old jokes?
Cycles attached to these railings will be removed. pic.twitter.com/g5zAI4i7qA
— Prof Chris Oliver (@CyclingSurgeon) October 14, 2019
16 October 2019, 16:47
Copenhagen leading the way with cycling infra
A 10m wide bidirectional bike bridge was inaugurated yesterday in #Copenhagen – it will convey more than 20,000 cyclists every day pic.twitter.com/HhvTMWSh0M
— Cycling Embassy DK (@CyclingEmbassy) October 16, 2019
Once again we can only look on in envy as the Danes invest in quality cycling infrastructure left right and centre.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Nicola Sturgeon announces £27 million fund for cycling schemes
At the SNP conference in Aberdeen, Scotland’s First Minister says the cash injection will fund more than 200 schemes to make it easier for people to cycle and walk: “We want people to walk and cycle more too, reducing our carbon footprint and improving our health.
“So I can announce today new investment for local projects the length and breadth of our nation. From Ayr to Aberdeen, a fund of £27 million will support more than 200 schemes to make it easier for people to cycle and to walk.
“That is acting locally as we lead globally in making our contribution to tackling the climate emergency.”
16 October 2019, 16:47
Singer Lloyd Cole has bikes to thank for weight loss
Hard to get used to me with just the one chin again… Thanks @marinbikes #lloydscyclingadventure https://t.co/tU5FN7vAFh
— Lloyd Cole (@Lloyd_Cole) October 15, 2019
The singer songwriter thanked Marin Bikes for his recent transformation.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Froome says 2020 TDF route is "brutal"
“De nombreuses opportunités pour ceux qui visent le classement général.” Le quadruple vainqueur du Tour @chrisfroome s’attend à une course ouverte !
Chris Froome predicts a difficult but open #TDF2020. Here is what he had to say. pic.twitter.com/Aplx4zoqN8
— Tour de France (@LeTour) October 15, 2019
Speaing at the 2020 route unveiling, Froome said it’s “probably the hardest Tour route I’ve seen in the past five or six years”, with a lot of elevation but “plenty of opportunities for the general classification to play out.”
16 October 2019, 16:47
Decline of the time trial: TT kilometres decrease from a peak of 176.5 in 2002 to just 36km in 2020
The number of TT kms per editions over the last editions. pic.twitter.com/ghoua12Vnk
— ProCyclingStats.com (@ProCyclingStats) October 15, 2019
Pro Cycling Stats have reminded us how the time trial has been in steady decline since the turn of the century at the Tour De France, with the routes increasingly favouring big summit finishes and sprint stages with little in between. It means perhaps the days of a rider relying on their time trial performance and hanging on in the mountains are gone, yet on the other hand it means GC contenders are often fresher for the mountains so it’s harder for an individual to split the pack.
What do you reckon… are you glad to see the back of long time trials or should this purest form of racing a bike be more significant in the sport’s biggest race?
16 October 2019, 16:47
The world's most normal video
Absolutely perfectly 100 per cent normal throughout.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Video: ‘Alternative calendar’ sees Lachlan Morton take on the Three Peaks Cyclocross
The latest event on EF Education-First’s ‘alternative calendar’ was the Three Peaks Cyclocross.
Lachlan Morton, the Australian pro who has also raced World Tour events such as Strade Bianche and the Tour of California this season, was the lucky rider.
EF Education First-Drapac riders have been taking part in a number of off-road and ultra-endurance races this season, stemming from the team’s new Rapha sponsorship.
Earlier this year, Morton has won the inaugural GBDURO, a 1,960km four-stage self-supported bike-packing race from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
He described the experience as “unimaginably hard.”
16 October 2019, 16:47
Driver who killed Australian pro cyclist Jason Lowndes to be spared jail
Motorist attempted to send text message 68 seconds before hitting cyclist from behind.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Levenshulme Bee Network named ‘Community Project of the Year’
Levenshulme Bee Network has been handed the ‘Community Project of the Year’ award at the 2019 Healthy Streets Summit.
Residents in the Levenshulme Bee Network group have led proposals to reduce the amount of through-traffic and to encourage walking and cycling.
Greater Manchester Commissioner for Cycling and Walking, Chris Boardman said: “This project is an excellent example of what happens when residents lead the way and are given the opportunity to design their neighbourhood in a way that best serves their needs. With the support of the council, this project will enable local people to move around more easily and safely without cars, and that benefits everybody.”
There is a £2.5m budge for the project, chiefly provided through the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Challenge Fund, plus a £100,000 contribution from Manchester City Council.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Gust of wind foils 100-mile wheelie – but 56-year-old cyclist still manages to set new world record
Rich Flanagan rode 50.5 miles to set his third wheelie world record.
16 October 2019, 16:47
Dave Rayner Fund awarded charitable status – renamed The Rayner Foundation
The Dave Rayner Fund has been awarded charitable status by the Charity Commission and will now be known as The Rayner Foundation.
The Dave Rayner Fund supports young riders taking their first steps towards a professional career.
It is named in memory of Dave Rayner, a professional cyclist who was one of the few British cyclists in the late 1980s and the early 1990s to flourish in a cycling team outside the UK.
Rayner rode for the Dutch Buckler team for two years competing in most of the major races on the international cycling calendar, only injury preventing him from a ride in the Tour de France.
During a night out in Bradford in 1994 with friends and his wife Serena, whom he had married just five weeks earlier, Rayner was the victim of an assault that led to his death four days later.
The Dave Rayner fund was set up in 1995 by his teammates and friends. Through its annual dinner and other activities, the fund has so far raised over £1,000,000 to provide financial support for young riders to travel abroad, set up home and safely function on a day-to-day basis.
Riders to have benefited in the past include David Millar, Adam Yates, Owain Doull, Hannah Barnes and Tao Geoghegan Hart.
Speaking on behalf of the Rayner Fund Committee, founder member (and current team manager for the British U23 team) Keith Lambert said:
“Being awarded charitable status has been a brilliant achievement and will ensure we can further enable riders to progress in the sport of competitive cycling, whether that is on the bike or off it.
“The assistance we are able to provide is financial, but it also takes the form of advice, mentoring and mental support to inspire, empower and support the next generation of athletes so they can achieve to the best of their ability.
“We hope this fantastic boost for the fund will help us to encourage more women and riders from underrepresented groups to engage in the sport.”
16 October 2019, 16:47
Cycle lane kerb intended to stop Southend drivers cutting corner removed for safety reasons
Locals say pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are all hitting raised kerb intended to protect cyclists.
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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 14 minutes ago
Hope Barcelona keep the transport improvements (they've been making for a while) coming! Better streets, more infra to help active travel where necessary. And while it's a major investment (though can be lower operating cost than busses) maybe more trams where they can. That may be more effective in making places active travel friendly and replacing taxis than mass public bike hire. They've a good start with 6 lines already.
chrisonabike 21 minutes ago
I think this is a positive story. They're not getting rid of public hire bikes - they're expanding their in-house one. They're merely kicking out cowboys who've shown they've a lack of interest in the game they claim to be playing. It seems logical that companies whose business model is to extract (venture capital) money by invading public space are even less likely to make the efforts to keep things in order than a local "in house" scheme. (After all the "bikes and riding" part of these schemes always *costs* money, they don't generate it.) So not surprising their experience shows those firms are not particularly motivated to follow the rules - especially when scrapping for "market share". It's nice the European Cyclists’ Federation is thinking about tourists also (i hesitate to say "follow the money...") - as they note, where it's safe to cycle locals will largely get their own bikes. Tourists aren't going to stop coming because lack of public bike share - I think this is mostly a "nice to have" ("hey - why don't we go on one of those bikes there? ").
chrisonabike 46 minutes ago
Harm minimization - at least they're not driving...
Gm_Crop 9 hours ago
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
IanGlasgow 9 hours ago
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
Rendel Harris 11 hours ago
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Bill H 11 hours ago
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
pbunyon 11 hours ago
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
chrisonabike 11 hours ago
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
belugabob 11 hours ago
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
9 thoughts on “Live blog: Very slightly weird cycling video; Lachlan Morton takes on Three Peaks; Tour de France time trials in decline; Froome says 2020 route is “brutal”; £27 million cash injection announced for cycling schemes in Scotland + more”
I like a TT in a grand tour,
I like a TT in a grand tour, I think an hour and a half at max effort should be included, anything less misses the point.
I hope that the route being brutal doesn’t neutralise the contenders racing too much.
Bring back TT’s else grand
Bring back TT’s else grand tours will be won only by people with the physique of children or normal sized people with a serious danger of developing eating disorders only. Not good for the health of riders, not good for variety or the principle of a grand tour being won by the best all round rider. Bring back some balance!!
But…maybe consider replacing the TT tech with ‘normal’ kit. Let the riders ride on their normal bikes and use their normal helmets etc. Let it be more a test of strength than a test of who has practiced to hold an unnatural position the longest.
Personally I prefer a TT stage to a long, boring flat stage tbh. The best riders start last and so there is a constant build up of anticipation and pressure as the times keep falling and so on.
So next year’s Tour is
So next year’s Tour is designed for a grimpeur who can’t time-trial that well?
My tenner is on Bardet.
I would love to see a proper
I would love to see a proper 50km time trial in the tour again. When the stages become too brutal it does tend to neutralise the racing or turn it into a war of attrition with little attacking
France must have a TDF winner
France must have a TDF winner! This is the latest attempt.
I thought Nicola Sturgeon
I thought Nicola Sturgeon despised Westminster, but she doesn’t seem above adopting their imbecilic tactics. Just like them, she announces a massive investment into cycling, £27m over the whole of Scotland; 200 schemes. I think we can safely assume that £27m divided by 200 is sweet fa, and all the schemes are a few dabs of white paint and a sign or two.
Add a couple of zeros Nicola and stop pissing about.
burtthebike wrote:
It’s a fair point, 27m won’t go far, literally, that’s about 12miles of dedicated cycleway..
As a biologist I particularly
As a biologist I particularly enjoyed the Krebs cycle gag. Never learned it though.
At long last, that video of
At long last, that video of my commute has found a wider audience…