When you pop out to the shops and end up in the Giro d’Italia — e-bike-riding nonna steals the show; Stunning hairpin-loaded Welsh climb goes viral… except it’s in Norway; Headset spacers? Never heard of them; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Headset spacers? Never heard of them
I will never call them headset spacers again… pic.twitter.com/3YmrTO3KAG
— Rich Wood (@bigrichwood) May 20, 2023
Weekend round-up: Cav retiring?; NMotD Giro edition; New bike review; Bike industry turmoil; Dodgy cycle racks + more
Busy earning yourself a crippling hangover this weekend? (Nope, just me?) Here’s what you might have missed…
> Mark Cavendish set to announce retirement at end of the season, reports suggest
> REVIEW: Vitus Venon EVO-RS Force AXS All-Road
> Join the dots! Check out the Enve Melee with a Black Magic Paint custom finish
> Bike industry turmoil continues as UK cycle distributor 2pure enters administration
When your alarm goes off on Monday morning...
The @ballero_94 fan club in action on the roads of Lombardia 😁#Giro pic.twitter.com/VRi9Z0tX61
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) May 21, 2023
📷 Cav waves goodbye? Wheelie good crowds + a local hero — stage 15 in photos
Take a bow Zac Williams of SWpix, dropping some of the best snaps of the entire Giro d’Italia on yesterday’s packed final climb, formerly of Il Lombardia before the route finish was moved to Como…
A wave goodbye?
> Mark Cavendish set to announce retirement at end of the season, reports suggest
Perhaps everybody was just happy to see the sun.
Stunning hairpin-loaded Welsh climb goes viral... except it's in Norway
Who knew this absolute climbing gold was hidden in one of the valleys?
Probably the best thing about living in Wales, the scenery and the roads. The Barmouth estuary and climb out to Dolgellau is a favourite. pic.twitter.com/FHY4ZLLxvU
— Tuffer (@TufferB) May 19, 2023
Unfortunately for all of us (except our Norwegian readers), it’s not, and is instead the Lysevegen climb out of Lysebotn, in between Oslo and Stavanger in the south of the country…
Anyway, while a couple of people spread the word about its actual location, many of the 700,000 people who saw the post were left head scratching at where exactly this hidden gem was, considering the lack of map evidence.
The master trollsman in charge of the daring act of deception then claimed it was a restricted byway and only about two miles long, telling those curious to look for Llandiberrison, Merthyr Tydfil, Tal-y-Bont, Llanidloes and Corris, keeping the wind up rolling.
Yet another classic for the ‘don’t trust everything random person on the internet tells you’ genre. Except reputable live bloggers, of course…
Car passenger throws rubbish at man cycling with his 4-year-old son
> Car passenger throws rubbish at man cycling with his 4-year-old son
The kids are alright
Another huge win for Cat Ferguson 💪
A great day out on the roads from the GB team of Cat, Imogen Wolff (7th), Awen Roberts (11th) & Holly Ramsey (43rd) led to Cat & Imogen making the decisive attack with 1.5km to go – and there was no stopping the winner from there! ⚡️ https://t.co/YubwZ4cACf
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) May 22, 2023
Hmmm, I recognise the name from somewhere…
Ben Wiggins became the frist British male to win the GC at Trophée Morbihan Juniors! 🇫🇷
Elliot Rowe, Max Greensill, Ben Marsh, Seb Grindley and Tomos Pattinson helped GB take the team classification too 🚴♂️🚴♂️🚴♂️ pic.twitter.com/rkmxwGVDIx
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) May 22, 2023
Mark Cavendish confirms he will retire at end of season
"The sport's greatest sprinter": Cycling world reacts to Cavendish retirement news
As quick as the announcement came at the Astana Qazaqstan rest day press conference, the news spread like wildfire across cycling media and beyond. Cav almost certainly one of the few British riders whose retirement would earn a breaking news update on Sky Sports… (even if their footage is erm not exactly very recent)…
BREAKING: Mark Cavendish announces he will retire from professional cycling at the end of the 2023 season 🚴♂️ pic.twitter.com/xoOcDpY3wf
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 22, 2023
The UCI, the sport’s governing body, thanked Cav, saying his 20-year career was “glittering”… hard to disagree with that.
🎙️ “This will be my final @giroditalia and 2023 will be my final season…” – @MarkCavendish #Giro #GirodItalia #AstanaQazaqstanTeam pic.twitter.com/ofcvGwESRU
— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) May 22, 2023
British Cycling’s performance director Stephen Park CBE called the Manx Missile the “sport’s greatest sprinter”, a title repeated in much of the coverage from reporters, fans and riders alike…
“Cav is without doubt the sport’s greatest sprinter and will be remembered by fans across the world for his 53 Grand Tour stage wins, and I’m sure that we will all be cheering him on as he looks to add to that total in his final months of racing,” Park said.
“From a Great Britain Cycling Team perspective, we have seen him win rainbow jerseys on both the road and the track, a silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games, and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year title in 2011.
“What most stands out in Cav as a sportsperson is the overwhelming sense of pride he showed each time he pulled on both the Great Britain Cycling Team and British national champion’s jerseys – a quality we want to instil in every single member of our team.
“Professional and passionate, Cav has been a real asset to our team over the years and will be remembered as both a peerless rider and a fantastic teammate with time for everyone. We wish him the very best of luck both for the rest of his final season in the peloton and in the next stage of his career.”
If a rider can achieve 1% of what @MarkCavendish has in his career he would consider it a successful one. Proud of you mate 👊🏻👌🏻
— Luke Rowe (@LukeRowe1990) May 22, 2023
Lance Armstrong, Jonathan Vaughters, Thibaut Pinot: Cycling Royal Rumble
Once upon a time on cycling Twitter there was a team boss dropping snide remarks about rival riders…
Proud to see that @_BHealyyy congratulated the winner, and didn’t go cry to the media about how life is sometimes unfair. Great attitude. Great person. Great rider.
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) May 21, 2023
A snide remark that caught the attention of the rider in question…
No sure he @ThibautPinot could read it through all of his tears.
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) May 21, 2023
To which the greatest possible answer was delivered…
Who are you ?
— PINOT Thibaut (@ThibautPinot) May 21, 2023
Oh… THAT’S LANCE ARMSTRONG’S MUSIC…
Who is he? He’s a fucking 🤡. At least based on the 30+ years I’ve known him
— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) May 21, 2023
Rumours the team doctors at EF Education–EasyPost are hoping for a quiet few days on the crash front, believed they’ll be too busy attending to Vaughters’ injuries to treat riders… second degree burns and bruises consistent with taking a kicking…
Anyway, at least everyone’s acting like the grown adults they are…
Suella Braverman criticised by cycling campaign group for "avoiding public scrutiny" over speeding offence
BIKES. BIKES. BIKES
No racing today, rest day and all, so what better to do than look at some bikes instead…
How do you like @BrunoArmirail‘s (@GroupamaFDJ) new all-pink Xelius SL ? 🤩 pic.twitter.com/I01cN0xRs1
— Lapierrebikes (@Lapierrebikes) May 22, 2023
No pressure to keep that jersey or anything, Bruno…
Our friends over at off-road.cc have been busy too, spotting this unreleased Canyon gravel bike, ridden by Tiffany Cromwell to win the UK’s first-ever UCI-level gravel race Gralloch on Saturday…
> Spotted: Is this the new Canyon Grail?
And what of the winner of the men’s race?
> Bike check: Connor Swift’s gravel race-winning Pinarello Grevil F
When you pop out to the shops and end up in the Giro d'Italia — e-bike-riding nonna steals the show
Sorry, Brandon McNulty, Ben Healy, Marco Frigo and the rest, but there was only one real hero on yesterday’s Giro stage…
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) May 22, 2023
The maglia nonna as she’s since been dubbed…
🩷🩷🩷 pic.twitter.com/ZSIhIxIGtP
— Jakub Kobik (@kobaseek) May 22, 2023
The e-bike-riding local took the acclaim of the tifosi on the final climb into Bergamo in an attack described by one fan as more exciting than the first two weeks’ GC battle. Think the UCI might have something to say about the legality of her bike but hey, at least sock length shouldn’t be an issue… Zac Williams of SWpix was thankfully on hand to keep the heart-warming images coming…
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Latest Comments
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.
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.
@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?
They may have looked, but did they see?
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.
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.
“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.
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
They might have to, but they won't. What they will do is pull out over the cycle path while they wait for a gap in motor traffic.
12 thoughts on “When you pop out to the shops and end up in the Giro d’Italia — e-bike-riding nonna steals the show; Stunning hairpin-loaded Welsh climb goes viral… except it’s in Norway; Headset spacers? Never heard of them; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog”
Given that Dolgellau is in a
Given that Dolgellau is in a valley and basically at sea level, I’m not sure how there could be a giant climb up to it ?
Just depends where you start
Just depends where you start from.
Alternatively, paging JustTryingToGetFromAtoB…
chrisonatrike wrote:
Not seen JustTryingToGetFromAtoB for ages, however there has been contributions from a StillTrying. If they are the same person, I can only conclude that they were PBU’d, or perhaps finally got from A to B.
I thought they are more of a
I thought they are more of a seasonal contributor. Certainly had quiet periods before.
Doubt they got banned for swearing!
Hirsute wrote:
I don’t think people get banned for swearing, but it’s not encouraged.
chrisonatrike wrote:
I used to run between the 2 towns across what I think was called the drover’s trail. Some climbing involved but no road.
The road between Barmouth and Dolgellau is very flat, like the joke.
On the Lysevegen climb – is
On the Lysevegen climb – is there a stopping place halfway down for you to replace your brake pads?
New cycle route pic
New cycle route pic
Cycling – The new cycle path between Jaywick and Clacton, with an artistic addition from Kevin Jay. (Image: Newsquest)
This chap seems to have been
This chap seems to have been popular; life cut short
https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23536136.9k-raised-memory-bentley-crash-victim-ben-jacobs/
Middlesbrough just gets
Middlesbrough just gets better …
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/driver-weaponised-car-reversing-cyclist-26943279
How’s my driving ?
How’s my driving ?
(wycombewheeler in the frame !)
*watches clip.
*watches clip.
*heads to comment section.
Sure enough, a few utterings of “this is why cyclists shouldn’t be allowed on the roads”.