Hungry parrot eats owner’s wheel; Anti-cyclist clickbait alive and well; Sagan visits Boca Juniors; Froome meets giant alligator; New 100 miles out the saddle attempt; Two broken ribs for Cavendish; The end of cycling in Sheffield? + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
'The end of cycling in Sheffield'?
The jury is still out on whether shared cycle and pedestrian paths are a good idea but @CyclingInASkirt certainly seemed to be having a hard time of it in Sheffield over the weekend trying to weave her way through the pre-Christmas crowds:
Shared cycle and pedestrian paths are absolutely bloody awful. The end. #cycling in #Sheffield pic.twitter.com/4eBgjt7VWd
— CyclingInASkirt (@CyclingInASkirt) November 20, 2021
What are thoughts on them? A safer alternative to using traffic-filled roads or an equally hazardous way of traversing our busy city streets?
Froome comes face to face with gigantic alligator
Having grown up in Kenya, Chris Froome is no stranger to exotic wildlife and owned a whole host of weird and wonderful pets as a child. No wonder then, he showed absolutely no signs of fear when encountering a massive alligator whilst out on a training ride in Florida over the weekend.
While the vast majority of us would have got the hell out of there at the earliest opportunity, Chris pulled over, popped off his shoes and went for a paddle with this fearsome beast, posting this resulting video to his Instagram story:
If and when you decide to retire Chris, we’re sure you could forge a career as the British Steve Irwin (hopefully without the same unfortunate ending) 🐊.
Scans reveal Cavendish has two broken ribs
Deceuninck – Quick-Step have confirmed Mark Cavendish suffered two broken ribs in his crash at the Ghent Six Day track cycling event on Sunday.
The 36 year old hit the deck after some water on the track caused a rider in front of him to slip and several other competitors were also caught up in the tumble.
Cavendish was able to stand immediately after the crash and wave to fans but was then escorted from the track on a stretcher and taken to the Ghent University Hospital, where he stayed overnight.
As well as those two broken ribs, the Manxman also suffered a ‘small pneumothorax’ (collapsed lung), but is likely to discharged later today or tomorrow morning where he’ll then take time off to rest and recover.
Everyone at road.cc wishes Mark a speedy recovery.
'100 miles out the saddle guy' unsaddles up for new virtual attempt
The man they call Cycle Jockey is attempting to ride 100 miles on rollers today, standing up the entire time!
Cycle Jockey – AKA Chad Taverna – claims he completed the ‘No Saddle Century Ride’ on open roads last July but faced a cacophony of doubters after making the attempt public on Zwift. We covered the original story here.
In order to silence those critics, Chad will be screening this latest attempt – which begins at 6pm GMT (1pm EST) today – live on his Facebook page.
Make no mistake, this challenge is as tough as it sounds, especially as he’ll totally unaided and barely be able to eat or drink anything during his 4+ hours (not) in the saddle!
Chad, we wish you the very best of luck, and if you’re not able to follow it in person, be sure to visit road.cc again tomorrow to see how he got on.
An oldie but a goodie
We caught a bit of flack on Friday for posting a few items which eagle-eyed readers might have seen before so we thought we’d drop another sneaky one in today which will hopefully raise the spirits on a cold Monday afternoon 😆:
Taxi for Atlantic Recycling please as their skip obscures cycle lane
This poorly thought out piece of skip placement could easily propt a few Near Miss of the Day videos this week if drivers in Cardiff don’t have their wits about them…
@cardiffcouncil @CdffCycleCity
This skip was deposited at 8.20am today by 2 men in blue truck – with logo & name same as skip – across the Fairoak Rd cycle lane along which my 11yo daughter & I were cycling.
Cyclists’ safety yet again treated with total disregard#CardiffCycling pic.twitter.com/hIGGPw60Ws— darklysailing (@darklysailing) November 22, 2021
Let’s hope motorists are paying attention as people are forced into the middle of the road to avoid this sizable obstacle which is totally obscuring the cycle lane.
It runs against Section 139 of the Highways Act 1980, which Cardiff Council have a duty to uphold, to control skips placed on the highway
New lights incoming from Syncros!
Syncros has developed a completely new range of lights for 2022 with the focus on integration, intelligent burn time and design.
The new Nanaimo 1200 front light is designed to integrate seamlessly with Syncros’ Creston integrated cockpit and can also be mounted to regular bars, while the rear Campbell 100 is a minimalist integrated light for use on Syncros saddles, with a saddle bag, mudguard, both or mounted on it’s own.
Syncros says the power output of the Nanaimo is designed to be steady and remain at full power for longer burn times without a dip in power.
“Many competitors make claims about lumen power but actually the biggest issue with lights is overheating and the subsequent drop in output,” Syncros says. “Our engineers focused on cooling the LEDs and providing constant current at the upper ranges; our 1200 lumen mode will stay at the 1200 lumen range and not dip after a few minutes.”
Multiple modes are available, including a light sensitive mode that automatically adapts to the ambient light to prolong battery life and give maximum visibility to other road users.
If any of this takes your fancy, you can take a closer look here.
Peter Sagan visits Boca Juniors before being fined for police fracas
It’s been a turbulent few days for Peter Sagan. The three-time world road race champion is currently in Argentina for the presentation of the Vuelta a San Juan race and took a trip to see iconic football team Boca Juniors at the weekend.
Sagan received a rapturous reception from fans inside La Bombonera, as these photos on his official Instagram page show:
Whilst that trip proved a day to remember, the 31 year old claims he has no recollection however, of injuring a police officer after violating a COVID curfew in Monaco last April.
Sagan has been fined €5,000 today for his part in the fracas and you can read more about it here 👇.
Trade in your old computer to save up to £125 on a Karoo 2
Fancy a new cycling computer? Our tech team are busy putting together tasty dealz for Black Friday as demanded by our corporate overlords, and this one from Hammerhead stood out as a particularly good one even if you usually stick two fingers up to good old consumerism.
The company has just launched its Trade In Trade Up recycling programme that offers up to £125 off the purchase price of a new Karoo 2 for anyone who sends in their old cycling computer to be recycled.
Trade in a Garmin Edge 500 for example and you’ll save £45, Wahoo’s Elemnt will be £80 off and the first iteration of Hammerhead’s Karoo (1) will get you that maximum £125 deal.
Given the Karoo 2 made it into our crème de la crème road.cc recommends selection – having really impressed with its navigation and training capabilities combined – this sounds like a rather good deal to us.
This offer is running through to 30th November, that’s next Tuesday. More information on how it works and a full list of eligible devices can be found here.
What's the problem?
Can anybody else not see a problem with this? Maybe that last rider on the right’s saddle is slightly too low??
Let us know in the comments section below. We make sure to read every one.
I’m sorry but cyclists should not be able to ride like this. So dangerous pic.twitter.com/mo8PBvCMZI
— Northern grin (@northerngrin) November 20, 2021
Anti-cyclist clickbait remains alive and well
Some road.cc readers have happened across this story on a certain national newspaper’s website today and don’t appear to be amused…
Check out the forum, which provides a link to this somewhat sensationalist story and some great reaction from our readers here.
Fundraiser set up after peckish pet parrot eats owner's front wheel
This pet parrot went viral over the weekend after making a meal out of a pricy carbon bike wheel, and her owner has now tried to make the most of the exposure by setting up a fundraiser in order to replace it.
Australian cyclist Vanessa Wallace was understandably shocked to discover her female exclectus parrot Gypsy gnawing away on the front wheel of her BMCTM01 and posted on a local bike forum to see if anyone knew where to source a new Mavic CXR 60 Elite Exalith from.
The post quickly took flight (we love a good pun!) and the photos of the destruction have since appeared on numerous websites around the world.
Vanessa has found that particular Mavic model is no longer in production though, and with old stock proving incredibly difficult to source, she is now appealing for donors to help out as she, in her own words, “is poor AF…”
You can find the fundraising page here.
Cav update: "In a bit of pain"
Just want to say how overwhelmed & thankful I am for all the support and well-wishes.
So @zesdaagseGent didn’t end the way we’d have preferred, I think it’s fair to say 😅 Some water on the track, a high speed crash and a few barrel rolls later, I’m being treated for some pic.twitter.com/Alvhn1Jnjk— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) November 22, 2021
In our updated story, we established that Cavendish had broken ribs and has a small pneumothorax after his team Deceuninck-Quick Step issued a statement. Now the man himself has taken to social media to thank well-wishers and give a few more details.
He said: “Just want to say how overwhelmed & thankful I am for all the support and well-wishes.
“So @zesdaagseGent didn’t end the way we’d have preferred, I think it’s fair to say. Some water on the track, a high speed crash and a few barrel rolls later, I’m being treated for some broken ribs & a pneumothorax. In a bit of pain, but a couple of nights with the incredible staff here at Ghent by University Hospital @uzgent should sort me out.”
Monday motivation: a 99-year-old covered 2,348 miles in 26 days on a stationary bike to take Road Worlds For Seniors silver medal
Let this story brighten your Monday! 🤩❤️️
Introducing Kenneth Judd, world silver medallist at 99 years old…
📰 @BBCNews https://t.co/3QnUCyAt3y
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) November 22, 2021
Ok, so it’s nearly 6.30pm making this more like Tuesday morning motivation… but as mdavidford pointed out in the comments, this feat by Kenneth Judd definitely deserves an airing on this here live blog. The event actually finished last month, but the BBC has caught up with Kenneth to get some more info on the Road Worlds For Seniors event.
Essentially, all entrants compete remotely and use stationary bikes made by the Norwegian tech firm Motitech, with virtual scenery shown on a screen to keep things, erm, interesting. It’s open to the elderly and those with dementia, and it’s Kenneth’s second year of competing, improving on his seventh position in 2020 to take silver this time around.
He said: “I wanted to do better than last year, and so I worked out how many kilometres and hours I’d have to do each day.
“And I did the cycling when no one else was around, late at night, or early in the morning. The night staff were good at bringing me drinks, although my tea would end up being cold as I focused on cycling.
“You’ve got to concentrate on your speed and how far you’re going. Sometimes I watched Yorkshire, and others – areas of the Lakes.
“I won’t look at the bikes again for now. But I shall consider taking it up again in early spring and having another go in next year’s competition.”
22 November 2021, 09:36
22 November 2021, 09:36
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Nick has been entrenched in the world professional cycling since 2010. He spent six and a half years with Team Sky before becoming Communications Manager for both the Tour de Yorkshire and Yorkshire 2019 UCI Road World Championships. Since then he has worked for Velon and Rouleur and is now part of the team at road.cc. Still based in Yorkshire, he rides his road bike as much as he can, although those opportunities have been significantly diminished since becoming a father three years ago.
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@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.
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.
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").
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.)
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
Obree had some actual talent in his legs though, in addition to his bike/aero engineering talent.
Малко като опит за доказване е излязло... Никой няма нужда от толкова голям въртящ момент и мощност на шосеен велосипед с тънки гуми, които дори трудно ще предават тази мощност върху пътя. А ако има и ограничение от 25 км/час е още по-безмислено.
39 thoughts on “Hungry parrot eats owner’s wheel; Anti-cyclist clickbait alive and well; Sagan visits Boca Juniors; Froome meets giant alligator; New 100 miles out the saddle attempt; Two broken ribs for Cavendish; The end of cycling in Sheffield? + more on the live blog”
In and of themselves, I don’t
In and of themselves, I don’t see any issue with zones like that where cycles are permitted as guests and pedestrians have priority.
The problem comes when that’s used as an excuse for not providing alternative routes for through cycle traffic because “we’ve given them a cycle route already”.
mdavidford wrote:
Agreed. Or where you get abused by drivers for not using them.
I agree that I do hate shared
I agree that I do hate shared paths but sometimes you just have to make exceptions.
I know Sheffield quite well and the road that was not being used on her right had no cars drive down it for the entireity of the video. Also, this weekend was the first weekend of the Christmas market and Christmas light switch on so you’ve got to expect it to be busy, especially when half of the pavements pedestrians could used are now taken up by market stalls
The road lane to the right is
The road lane to the right is one way (uphill) and is so narrow due to construction hoardings on the far side and the large kerb that if you were to ride down it and meet a vehicle coming up it would be fairly unpleasant.
For me, the bigger issues are:
This stretch of road would have benefited from this pedestrianisation years ago. I’m unsure of the timescales but it seems like this has been done coinciding with the closure of John Lewis (Cole Brothers for proper old Sheffielders). So now, rather than “taking” road space from motorists, it’s just “available” as there is no reason be driving in that specific part of the city.
As a cyclist, the worst bit for me is that the crossing shown at the end of the clip, used to be a sweeping left hander and was used as part of the Sheffield Grand Prix course. The GP was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 for other obvious reasons but I wonder where the new course will run, unless they want to create a hybrid crit / cyclo-cross race and have the riders hop off and run and jump over the kerbs and infra.
The problem with these shared
The problem with these shared cycle paths is that a large number of the pedestrians actually got into the city centre by car, but then don’t understand the hypocrisy of using a facility designed to enable cycling as an additional pavement, yet will be frothing at the mouth when encountering cyclists using the road rather than these worthless cycles lanes.
Owd Big ‘Ead wrote:
Right sentiment – wrong target. They are using it exactly as the council has chosen to (poorly) mark it. Not the drivists fault in this case.
Agreed.
Agreed.
However, many of the pedestrians/motorists know exactly what they are doing by walking in the shared space.
Then people wonder why their is potential conflict betweens cyclists/pedestrians/motorists.
Crap infrastructure achieves nothing apart from raising more issues than it solves.
Owd Big ‘Ead wrote:
Disagree. Pedestrians are utterly indifferent to cyclists until one impinges on their awareness, and tbf on well designed infrastructure they shouldn’t have to. Expecting informed behaviour from a bunch of mindless weebles wandering about doing their shopping is asking for trouble. We’ve all been there ourselves.
They’re walking from shop to
They’re walking from shop to shop rather than driving; this is a step in the right direction for active travel, so I have to applaud it even if the sheer volume of people-not-in-cars sometimes makes life harder for cyclists. If we start haranguing people who were trying to do the right thing…
I was watching that Sheffield
I was watching that Sheffield video thinking how awful it looked, and then we get to the end where there’s a clear marking that it is intended to be shared-use between pedestrians and cyclists.
I think after the first thirty seconds I would have said, “Sod this for a game of soldiers!” and moved over onto the road.
And yet the council thinks that they’ve done something good for active travel, I bet…
and worse when it comes to
and worse when it comes to building more infra, they copy and repeat the same mistakes because none of their surveys or tracking tools show you went “sod this it doesnt work” and moved a few metres across onto a road, it just shows a cyclist went between two points that coincided with some bad shared paths.
Froomie trying to loose some
Froomie trying to loose some weight…!?
I’m generally not a fan of
I’m generally not a fan of shared paths. If I go cycling with my wife we use them, as she’s not very experienced at riding on the road. I think the ones near me just about work as very few people use them, they’d be a lot better if they were two or three times as wide and segregated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j-ZmKqIDgM
Let’s be honest. If they
Let’s be honest. If they installed a dedicated cycle lane (and corresponding part for pedestrians), with the cycle lane painted a different colour and cycle signs every few metres, it would still be full of pedestrians. At least that is my experience where they try to create separation.
“The jury is still out on
“The jury is still out on whether shared cycle and pedestrian paths are a good idea”
I think the jury has been in for many, many years. Both pedestrians and cyclists hate, actively hate them, with good reason. They only work for motorists to get cyclists out their way. No pedestrian, including myself wants to share a pavement with a cyclist. No cyclist, including myself wants to share a cycle lane with a pedestrian. It’s that simple.
EddyBerckx wrote:
QFT. Nothing else to say. 9 times out of 10 I’d rather have nothing at all.
Exactly Eddy. Although I
Exactly Eddy. Although I think you’ve actually said the jury’s reached a decision.
Surreyrider wrote:
Fixed!! 🙂 🙂
There’s absolutely zero
There’s absolutely zero excuse for that
Birmingham(whoops)Sheffield shared lane. Plenty of room for a dedicated bike lane seperated by a kerb to keep out wandering pedestrians.Worst kind of lip service.
Birmingham? Where is that one
Birmingham? Where is that one?
It’s the one HS2 will
It’s the one HS2 will actually go to!
I’m sceptical that a kerb
I’m sceptical that a kerb would completely stop all the wandering walkers, at least on a busy pre-xmas shopping day. That video in Sheffield already shows people walking on the far side of a kerb. And adding more kerbs can pose other problems for mobility/accessibility, alas.
As much as I love being able to cycle unobstructed, I think that a compact car-free shopping area with lots of happy free-range pedestrians is pretty much a win from an urban-planning perspective. (Which would mean this pedestrianised shopping area is arguably the least bad thing in Sheffield transport policy since WW2).
Out of all the active travellers, the small minority who are on bikes will find their way is clear again, with minimal risk of a distracted pedestrian stepping into their way, once they’re a hundred metres past Poundland.
Is the woman with the hungry
Is the woman with the hungry parrot a professional cyclist in between contracts? Why does she have 1000 $ wheels and for the love of god why does she think random people on the internet want to contribute to her wheel fetish when we are all saving up for our own n1+’s?
Googled the original
Googled the original interview with her at https://cyclingtips.com/2021/11/parrot-gets-peckish-destroys-wheel/
Apparently the parrot didn’t eat a carbon fibre wheel. The article says that this model of wheel used a “Blackcell flange” which is basically a foam fairing (hence the parrot’s ease at chewing it).
I quite liked the parrot
I quite liked the parrot story but as you say, it’s apparently only a polystyrene fairing. Surely you’d either remove the rest of the fairing and ride a weird-looking wheel, or fix it with some canned foam and black paint. Not throw the entire, perfectly functional, wheel away. Just me?!
I think you mean a polly
I think you mean a polly-styrene fairing.
Dammit
Dammit 🙂
mdavidford wrote:
Pluck it.
Dangerous cyclists – clearly
Dangerous cyclists – clearly they’re referring to the red socks, which could cause any passing purists to faint unexpectedly in the middle of the road.
If they were all singled out,
If they were all singled out, they’d be all the way out to that bend in the distance… Personally, I would think that would make them harder to overtake, not easier…
Lets be honest, the danger
Lets be honest, the danger here is the driver taking a picture of several cyclists for social media whilst driving. Although I suppose it could be the passenger taking it in which case the danger is the driver about to overtake without knowing what is the other side of the blind bend.
I think we’re all missing the
I think we’re all missing the point here. They say that “cyclists should not be able to ride like this” – obviously they think that riding a bike is one of those things that apparently defies the laws of physics, like butterfly flight, and they’re worried that they’ll just spontaneously fall over when reality kicks in.
Yeah but what about the 30 on
Yeah but what about the 30 on the right hand side of the road all in black and invisible ?
It’s because it is impossible
It’s because it is impossible to see past the bloke in blue who is obscuring the view.
Also they are all old and fat and about to have a heart attack.
They don’t have reflectors in their pedals.
hirsute wrote:
Don’t forget – “all over the road” (lane), a non-purposeful non-journey (unless they cycled to the start, got off, got on, cycled to the “end” being not same as start, got off, got on, cycled home)…
No mention of this?
No mention of this?
90 miles a day for 26 days – my legs hurt just thinking about it, and I’m less than half his age.
I thought you had to get
I thought you had to get permission of the highway authority to put a skip on the road, and to have lights if it will be overnight. I hope the phone lines to Atlantic Skips are suitably busy, and Cardiff council get it moved and charge them lots of money for moving it.
It’s not just the Daily Fail,
It’s not just the Daily Fail, here’s my local rag, every time they do a story concerning cyclists, we get the same results.
Quote:
Nick me lad, the jury of cyclists, dog walkers, and most other pedestrians came back a long time ago to say “no thanks”. The jury of planners, councillors, motorists (when in cars) etc. are mostly of the opposite opinion though.
Where they’re not a good idea – most of the time, where it’s a lazy excuse for “sign / paint make it better” or “we only have one tiny budget for a route for cyclists and pedestrians… aha!”.
Where to do it – where there are almost no pedestrians or no cyclists e.g. the countryside. Yes – I know the UK version of this is also crap but that’s because you’re often lucky if you get 40cm of mixed crumbling asphalt and greenery next to a 70mph road…