Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals; Who heard this over Christmas dinner?; Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross; Cycle lane gift; Richie Porte targets “dream” farewell at Giro + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals
Delivery guy vs. pro cyclist 💪💪 pic.twitter.com/EEeGd1osNm
— Cycling Today (@CyclingTodayEn) December 27, 2021
e-bike or not, that’s one speedy delivery cyclist. You’d have no problems with cold food here, not just because of his lightning-quick riding, but also the 37 degree temperature reading on the Movistar pro’s Garmin.
The video is from somewhere where iFood runs delivery service like Uber Eats or Deliveroo, that means likely Mexico, Brazil, Colombia or Argentina… our fingers are crossed it is one of the Spanish team’s overseas riders drafting, and not just a keen local with all the kit.
With sandals powering the pedals, and just a baseball cap up top, the delivery cyclist nonchalantly spins ahead of the WorldTour kit-covered rider behind…go give him a turn on the front…
It reminds us of that time EF Education-Nippo’s Rigoberto Urán was drafted by a backpack-wearing local in khakis and work boots at 45km/h…
Who heard this over Christmas dinner?
It’s Christmas #2 with family, I’m listening to a relative tell me how cycling isn’t a proper sport due to the use of motors and they all dope. 🙄 More wine needed stat! #couchpeloton #cycling pic.twitter.com/dD9RnCBEZC
— Anna Mac (@AnnamacB) December 27, 2021
Anyone lucky enough to get dragged into this? Four pigs in blankets deep and suddenly you’re defending Tadej Pogačar’s back-to-back yellow jerseys…
Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross
It was a BIG Boxing Day for the Great Britain Cycling Team yesterday! 👏🇬🇧
Incredible wins for @camerooney_ and @Backstedt_Zoe in Dendermonde, as well as a second place for Nathan Smith! 🤘
Full results 📄 https://t.co/qMzIz4HUzR
📸 CorVos/SWpix#CXWorldCup pic.twitter.com/3V7kSi0gZd
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) December 27, 2021
Britain’s cyclo-cross future looks bright. Very bright indeed. The present isn’t too shabby either…Tom Pidcock finished second behind Wout van Aert at yesterday’s Telenet Superprestige Heusden-Zolder. Van Aert, doubling up from the much-anticipated Dendermonde Boxing Day cross, made it two wins in as many days, and five unbeaten since he returned to the discipline. Mathieu van der Poel was second at Dendermonde on his comeback from injury.
But back to Britain’s bright future…before the big boys contested Sunday’s event, rising star Zoe Backstead and U23 prospect Cameron Mason won the women’s junior and men’s U23 races respectively. Mason copied Van Aert by winning at Zolder yesterday too…one to keep an eye on…
Since you couldn’t watch my race on tv or in real life yesterday, I decided to edit my video super quick for you all. Hope you enjoy it 👇 https://t.co/oVoAJZgtBH @TrinityRacing_ @iamspecialized @ZippSpeed @SRAMroad @wahoofitness @maap_cc @BritishCycling @oakley
— Cameron Mason (@camerooney_) December 27, 2021
How's your Tuesday going?
Let that be a lesson to you! Don’t ride through puddles!!! Got stopped dead in my tracks and nearly went in head first 🤣 @Absolutemtb1 pic.twitter.com/2MFOP4olGO
— Drunkdale (@thedrunkdale) December 27, 2021
Coventry's newest permanent cycle lane
Not only is the new #Coventry Coundon cycleway high quality and direct for people cycling, it has improved the surface for pedestrians and brings new native hedging to the street. 22 new trees are also being planted soon.
Well done @coventrycc contractors and @pedropete99! pic.twitter.com/L2Aqma4XNy
— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) December 21, 2021
West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter brought us the news of this new segregated cycle lane in Coventry just before Christmas. What a great gift…
Amazingly in the age of Twitter barely anyone had anything other than positives…(apart from one person sceptical the shrubs won’t grow into the cycle lane come summer)…
Richie Porte targets "dream" farewell at Giro d'Italia
2022 will be Richie Porte’s final season as a pro cyclist after a career spanning 15 years and some of the biggest teams in the sport. The Tasmanian is targeting a full circle farewell at the Giro d’Italia, the Grand Tour he got his breakthrough at in 2010.
“The one thing the team really wants out of it is for me to enjoy my last year,” Porte told 7News. “If I can close the circle there [at the Giro d’Italia], that would be a dream. It’s a race I’ve always enjoyed.
“It’s nice to still be at the pointy end of bike races at 36 against these young kids who are so incredibly talented.”
Porte will not be riding the Tour de France in his final season and also suggested adding to his impressive palmares of week-long stage races is high on the agenda. Having already won last year’s Critérium du Dauphiné, as well as two editions of Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse in 2018, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and two Tour Down Under titles, a Tirreno-Adriatico win in March would all but complete the set.
If whispers of a rescheduled Tour Down Under before World Champs in September do turn out to be true, who’d bet against one final Willunga win too?
The Aussie has certainly been training hard. Christmas Day apart Porte has ridden his bike every day this month, racking up almost 100 hours…
Here was Boxing Day’s ‘Morning Ride’…
Spot the difference...
You really can’t tell the difference. pic.twitter.com/ZCHB9lRmJk
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) December 26, 2021
Want a new perspective on the world? Talk to Primož Roglič...
Tom Dumoulin has attributed a large part of his new perspective on pro cycling to a chat with teammate and fellow time trial extraordinaire Primož Roglič. Speaking to L’Equipe, the 2017 Giro d’Italia winner detailed his past year, 12 months that started with him walking away from the sport.
Now back and targeting a Grand Tour return in 2021, Dumoulin said his all-conquering teammate helped reset his focus on what is important in life. “I love talking with Primož,” Dumoulin said.
“When you talk to him about your problems, he really listens. I’ve never seen him judge anyone. He gives his feelings, talks about his experience. I want to see it now as an adventure, a story that I write, for me and for me alone. Something that you are lucky enough to experience only once in your life and of which you have to accept the best and the worst.”
Dumoulin will begin 2022 in Portugal for Volta ao Algarve and stressed he wants to target general classification at races once again.
Pablo Escobar's brother dreamed of winning the Tour de France before becoming trusted lieutenant of multi-million pound drug smuggling empire
The Independent had an interesting feature yesterday, informed by Matt Rendell’s Kings of the Mountains, in which reporter Graham Keeley profiled Roberto Escobar, Pablo’s brother, who before joining the drug smuggling cartel rode for Biciletas Ositto and dreamed of winning the yellow jersey.
Keeley writes that Escobar’s career became embroiled in the carnage of the cocaine trade in 1980s and 90s Colombia. Now 74, there is a section of Rendell’s book which explains Roberto still listens to the Tour on the radio religiously.
“Now they realise that I was good (as a cyclist),” he told El Pais in an interview where he outlined how his past as number two in the Medellin cartel weighs heavy on his shoulders.
Some wholesome Christmas content to brighten up your bank holiday
Happiness is watching your 3 year old learn to bike with pedals on a car free Lakeshore Drive. Very proud Dad moment. #MoreGirlsOnBikes pic.twitter.com/XNRbOav0zh
— Allen Cowgill (@AllenCowgill) December 27, 2021
67 years on...85-year-old man reunited with bike his parents gave him when he was ten
An 85-year-old man in France has been reunited with a bike he last saw aged 18 after a friend was called by a junk dealer who had found the bicycle. Joseph Carayon was gifted the bike for Christmas by his parents when he was ten years old, but parted with it eight years later.
That was until fellow Abelhan resident Thomas Christiny found the bicycle while hunting for antiques…
“I often recover old objects and I love to hunt for antiques,” Christiny told Connexion France. “I have a friend who contacted me saying that he had found an old bike and that on this bike there was a plate with the writing ‘Joseph Carayon, Abeilhan, Hérault’.
“Jojo is an emblematic figure here, he is 85 and works every morning delivering the newspaper about the village. The bike was in good condition.”
He pumped up the tyres and reunited Carayon with the bike his father had assembled from spare parts when he returned from World War Two. The relieved owner has since given it a fresh paint of coat and keeps it safe in his garage.
Tom Pidcock's #1 fan
What cycling is all about! 🤩 @Tompid. (IG mark_condor1) pic.twitter.com/Sm1GQ68IfW
— Cyclingtakes (@cyclingtakes) December 28, 2021
28 December 2021, 09:13
If today's live blog wasn't enough...
Best of the live blog 2021: UK's new steepest climb; Olympic controversy; Groin-BREAKING NEWS; Mr Loophole getting schooled; Cleat set-up from Hell; Jeremy Vine; Surrey traffic cops + all our live blog favourites
Check out all the top stories from a jam-packed 2021 on the road.cc live blog
28 December 2021, 09:13
28 December 2021, 09:13
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Latest Comments
Are you sure they weren't overshoes?
Winning GC is irrelevant, what a relief. The best thing about knowing Pogacar will most likely win GC, is that it frees us to focus on all the more interesting aspects the mountainous chess game that is the TDF. The real challenge for all (riders, teams and spectators) will be the hot weather. This might be the last TDF to be ridden in the heat of the afternoon. There will also likely be major climate protests against the rampant sports washing by fossil fuel corporate sponsors that defiantly continue as the core funding strategy of pro cycling, despite all evidence that their products are endangering the health of the greatest grandstand in all sport. Corporate surveillance and AI will not be far behind for protestors in coming years (if not this year), as a world on fire impacted by corporate greed and wilful ignorance towards the human rights of all earths citizens begins to bite; all whist cycling through some of the planets most glorious and endangered lands. The irony is palpable and the suspension of public disbelief seems about to crack. The onus is on the UCI to shift policy. Protests and epic TDF crowds could yet be the deciding factor in 2026.
I had very much enjoyed his rides around Birmingham previously.
A fine career from a great rider, backed by an exceptional team. I hope that we haven't lost him completely from the world of cycling. There were a few solo breakaways, when and where I cannot recall, but they were just great and for me unexpected.
The LBS had a few copies of this when I had to pop in a few weeks back, needed a new rim, grrr. It piqued my interest, I like exploring the Chilterns and beyond and I love cake. Almost purchased. But noticed that the ride description wasn't up to what I liked, and the maps are all navigation app based, not really suited to a luddite such as myself. So I'm going to have to stick to my 1p very tatty copy of Nick Cotton's 24 one-day routes in Berks, Bucks & Oxfordshire. Much less cake based mind, but suited to the way I ride, that and a few local OS explorers.
"Continental’s GP5000 S TR tyres are a stable in the pro peloton" Really? A stable? There's a thing...
It's trying to gazump everyone else in the claim to be 'the fastest bike ever' - what's faster than a bike that can only exist in a particle accelerator?
The writer's name is Ty (handy synchronicity for Ti ) Rutherford, hence Rf. I'd have to have a bike made of an alloy of silicon and tungsten, which does exist, but it's apparently used in computer chips rather than bike frames. Hey ho.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing! Hope you enjoy the bike! Have to ask though, I get the Ti as it’s a titanium frame. But why Rf, a notoriously unstable synthetic and highly radioactive element?
I’m surprised by some of the comments here. I’ve always found Le Col kit pretty decent, from Pro Aqua Zero jerseys to their bib shorts, especially the Pro range.
4 thoughts on “Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals; Who heard this over Christmas dinner?; Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross; Cycle lane gift; Richie Porte targets “dream” farewell at Giro + more on the live blog”
Errm, that 37 is soeed in km
Errm, take a close look: that 37.9 is km/h not C! I’m sure it’s a warm night, but not that warm!
Bitsy squirrel story.
Bitey squirrel story.
Doesn’t end well.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/28/stripe-the-bitey-squirrel-meets-a-sad-end-after-terrorising-welsh-town
ktache wrote:
…and so it begins
hawkinspeter wrote:
I think whippets are needed.