“Utterly appalling”: Cyclist takes National Cycle Network diversion… gives up after 40 very muddy metres; Cycling Santas complete Raleigh Chopper Everesting; Uijtdebroeks transfer saga finally over + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Bora Hansgrohe and Cian Uijtdebroeks agree mutual termination of contract, rider finally free to join Visma-Lease a Bike
[Luis Angel Gomez / SprintCyclingAgency©2023/ASO]
Praise the lord, a Christmas miracle has occurred. We can finally stop talking about Cian Uijtdebroeks’ departure from Bora-Hansgrohe to Visma-Lease a Bike. The most protracted transfer saga of the off-season has reached its inevitable conclusion — a mutual termination of the Belgian’s contract.
> Cian Uijtdebroeks quick to slam Bora-Hansgrohe for “out of order” Specialized TT bikes
Bora team boss Ralph Denk released a statement, two-thirds of which were the usual PR-friendly transfer commenting… “Today is a day of mixed feelings. I was surprised to be approached on short notice with the desire to reach an agreement. But it’s well known that I’m open to talks and that I won’t stand in the way of a transfer if the conditions are right, and if it’s done according to the rules. That was the case three weeks ago and it was the same today.
[Pauline Ballet/ASO]
“I am pleased that the dust has finally settled, and that the case is now closed. The agreement shows that it’s never too late for a reasonable, personal discussion. I would like this case to remain an isolated incident for the entire cycling family: Let’s respect contracts and rules, let’s be fair with each other.”
The final paragraph, however, touches on the biggest talking point — the allegations heard in the Belgian press that Uijtdebroeks was the victim of bullying during his time with Bora. Denk continued: “Above all, I stand behind my team. When false accusations are made against our riders, a line is crossed. To be clear: these accusations did not come from Cian. They were never voiced to us by Cian as a reason to change teams.”
Cycling Santas complete Raleigh Chopper Everesting
We did it!! We cycled up Everest, all 8848m of it on a classic Raleigh chopper while dressed as Santa!! Another absolutely brilliant day but Santa is very tired now! Thank you so much for all of your fantastic support – more stats to follow. You can still donate to help us help… pic.twitter.com/dTPtnpJoEp
— Cyclists Fighting Cancer (@CyclistsvCancer) December 21, 2023
As mentioned earlier in the week, the team from Cyclists Fighting Cancer, a charity to support children with cancer getting into cycling, has undertaken (and now COMPLETED) a monster challenge for any cyclist — an Everesting. Not only an Everesting, but an Everesting in a Santa suit, on Raleigh Choppers…
The hill reps have all been worth it, the fundraising target of £1,000 smashed over on Just Giving, the current total standing at £1,775. Chapeau to everyone involved!
UCI authorises Cian Uijtdebroeks transfer to Visma-Lease a Bike
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
A brief statement from the UCI to confirm the news:
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has taken note of the agreement reached between Belgian rider Cian Uijtdebroeks, his current team Bora-Hansgrohe (GER) and his future team, Team Visma | Lease a bike (NED).
Having received the documentation relating to the agreement, and in compliance with the rules in force (cf. Art. 2.15.121 of the UCI Regulations), the UCI confirms that Cian Uijtdebroeks is authorised to join the Dutch team from the coming season.
A situation you suspect all parties will be glad to be leaving in 2023…
When cycling hits the big screen — classic and cringeworthy cycling scenes from the movies
> When cycling hits the big screen — classic and cringeworthy cycling scenes from the movies
Specialized-owned Today's Plan training platform to close in early 2024
Australian-based platform for coaching and training, Today’s Plan, will close in the new year, the company has announced. The programme was bought by Specialized in 2019 and offered a platform similar to TrainingPeaks. In a letter to users, shared by DC Rainmaker, Today’s Plan announced that “due to many factors we must cease operations as of 12 March 2024”.
“This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the impact it may have on you. Please know this was an incredibly difficult choice, and we explored every possible avenue before reaching this conclusion,” the letter continued.
Airbag cycle helmet firm Hövding files for bankruptcy after consumer watchdog orders product recall and bans sales
Old but gold: When road.cc Tony tested out the Hövding 2.0 Airbag by... deliberately crashing in a Bath car park
While we’re on the subject…
> Video: road.cc crash tests the Hövding 2.0 Airbag for urban cyclists
Alan Shearer bags a last-minute Christmas winner
It’s only Alan Shearer! lan and Trevor are delighted to hand over our final bike of the year. Lovely to see Alan upgrading from his Gen1 V+1 to the latest V+1 Gen2 in Blue stone.
A great way to end a busy year before we head off for Christmas lunch. #vielo #nufc pic.twitter.com/7TxhtgVWqS— Vielo Sports (@VieloSports) December 22, 2023
> Footballers who cycle XI — the Premier League stars who love life on two wheels
Lance Armstrong has bikes worth more than $100,000 stolen in storage unit burglary
> Lance Armstrong has bikes worth more than $100,000 stolen in storage unit burglary
"Utterly appalling": Cyclist takes National Cycle Network diversion... gives up after 40 very muddy metres
A cautionary tale from the live blog comments section. road.cc reader Hirsute had “decided to try a cycle route today as I had lots of time”. Who knows? Perhaps this National Cycle Network offering would become a new traffic-free favourite of theirs — accessible, practical and a pleasant escape from the road network? Ah…
Another one for the collection of official cycle routes unusable in winter unless you’re a mountain biker. As much as anything this post will be a great starting point for all your snaps of local mudfests…
“Gave up after 40m of NCN 1. Utterly appalling — there are better routes in Dutch small towns,” Hirsute commented.
Fellow live blog regular Chrisonabike agreed: “What kind of bugs me is not so much that ‘cycling’ still mostly equates to ‘recreation’ for the powers that be (when they think of it at all). It’s that even that ‘recreation’ is qualified […] so it’s ‘narrow footpath down a muddy track/round the garages at the back of a chocolate-and-glitter-path estate’.
“I know that this is the National Cycle Network (being charitable here — an amazing effort to somehow stitch together some kind of continuous routes across the UK). I know that ‘but nobody cycles’. It’s the vicious cycle we have to break out of (for any change) — somehow…
“Meanwhile other countries not only have a network for actually getting around everywhere — just like the roads. They also have much better-quality ‘narrow paths in the countryside’ for recreation also! Heck — they signpost these with the intention that people will ride to the ride!“
And while I’m sure this post will get the usual cries of ‘oh, but that’s nothing, we’d be grateful for a path that clear’, the underlying point is more about the wider state of off-road (and road for that matter) routes for cyclists and walkers in the UK. If a seasoned rider from the road.cc live blog comments section is put off, think about how a family trying to make more journeys by bike might feel.
This will be a scene repeated up and down the country no doubt, for example NCN4 which Miller reports is a canal towpath that “looks just like that, and worse, with the added amusement of threatening you with an unguarded deep cold canal”.
"Nothing unusual I'm afraid": The f̶l̶o̶o̶d̶g̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ mudgates have opened... rounding up all your National Cycle Network struggles
Right on cue…
What did they want in Britain’s woodland in winter?
— Back Again (@trollornotto) December 22, 2023
Thank you, Brednan…(had to triple check that spelling)…
If my experience of Aberdeenshire is anything to go by, these routes are not much less of a quagmire in the spring, summer or autumn.
— Brednan Gavrin (@Brendan_garvin) December 22, 2023
Hirsute checked the “rest of the route I could have taken on Google Maps. Goes to a quiet road, that then has a bridleway. However, the images showed the next section was as muddy. Summer only.”
Apologies to Chrisonabike for ‘correcting’ his earlier comment, now I see why you spelt it Notional Cycle Network… onwards with the tales of NCN disappointment…
Bob Bending: “We used some riding from home up to Harwich for the ferry. In the summer the biggest problem was overgrowth – nettles and brambles, but I could imagine some stretches being a muddy nightmare in winter.”
Will Rogers: “I tried to take NCN51 years ago. Suddenly took me down a hill on fairly sandy soil mixed with sharp flints. Had to walk and pray I didn’t get a puncture. Have avoided their routes ever since.”
Rod Spurrier: “The NCN is a signposted aspiration. It needs a real effort to take it to a standard where it can be used by a fully-laden touring bike at the very least. otherwise, it’s useless.”
Rodney Forster: “Looks like Scarborough to Whitby, but could be any part of out national superhighway NCN1.”
Nothing unusual I’m afraid… https://t.co/ZF9T0vpQdZ
— @2_Wheeled_Wolf @ mastodon.social 🇪🇺 (@2_Wheeled_Wolf) December 22, 2023
Merry Christmas from everyone at road.cc!
The live blog will be back in some (possibly slightly hungover) form next week… until then put your feet up, pour yourself a glass of something nice, and stuff your face with all that glorious grub to burn off in the new year!
Merry Christmas!
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I had actually cycled my first century the week before the accident. I got back on the bike straight away then a hip wore out and was replaced so I missed a lot of cycling in 2024 but I was back to my normal level in 2025 not so sure what has happened this year I am not as enthusiastic as usual I have been on the bike just not cycled far. I will have to do more as I will do a 50 mile ride in September the annual charity ride. Not sure fear is the problem exactly more a feeling that there is less enjoyment.in a bike ride than there once was.
What’s all this MTB palaver? The Tour de France was originally a gravel race. 🙃
@wtjs I've sent in 2 close pass videos to kent police, never heard anything back.
@Rendel Harris I had wondered how they might be preparing to deal with the expected heat. Got to keep them as safe as possible. My excitement is building, always a nervy first week, too many crashes in the peleton and no amount of down gearing is going to prevent that. From my cloudy memory, the pogecar lad is very rarely caught out on the wrong side of a crosswind split.
Rumor has it that riding the MMR gives you autism.
Well this looks ominous: real possibility of Tour stages being cancelled due to extreme heat. I'll put the link in a reply otherwise this whole comment will be quarantined - it's on the Guardian if anyone wants to search for themselves.
Having used the street multiple times since it was opened just over a month ago, I can report two issues which are preventing the improvements from working to their full potential. Firstly, there is no signage other than the painted bikes on the road itself, so there is nothing to indicate that cyclists have priority. The second is that the double yellow lines stop about two-thirds of the way down the road, meaning that from that point onwards, there are multiple cars parked half on the pavement and not in the designated parking places, reducing the width of both the footpath and the road to what it was before the improvements were made.
@MaxiMinimalist Really? So this applies only to drivers from Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne and Vaucluse, drivers from the other sixteen départements that make up the south are fine?
Yeah, it's great isn't it........
23 thoughts on ““Utterly appalling”: Cyclist takes National Cycle Network diversion… gives up after 40 very muddy metres; Cycling Santas complete Raleigh Chopper Everesting; Uijtdebroeks transfer saga finally over + more on the live blog”
Notional cycling network
Notional cycling network
Also, I can’t stress enough
Also, I can’t stress enough how much I dislike Sustrans and the NCN – I’m absolutely convinced they do much more harm than good, by allowing any old nonsense to be labelled as ‘cycling infrastructure’. It means councils and government are able to claim to be doing something, even if it is basically unusable or useless.
the little onion wrote:
Agreed, though there are some good Sustrans routes like the Bristol-Bath cycle path (was that their first?). Otherwise, they’re like a parody of cycle infrastructure from more sensible countries.
Also, why do we have to rely on a charity for basic infrastructure when that’s what taxes should pay for?
hawkinspeter wrote:
Yes. Back in the seventies/eighties, when they were a local campaigning organisation called Cyclebag, IIRC.
hawkinspeter wrote:
UK standard – from social services to picking up the tab for broken soldiers.
OTOH we’re still pretty “socialist” (even now) compared to, say, the US…
the little onion wrote:
Yes, but there is a “but”…
That was my view of the organisation, back when. Some great volunteer folks but basically an almost parasitic organisation hungry to get to positions of influence. Creators of the national sign (-off on whatever rubbish to garner credit and cosy up to local authorities) network.
However… not sure what they’ve “done” recently* but there has been a sea change in the comms coming out in recent years. Including some (almost) self-criticism eg. re-appraising the”network” (albeit for accessibility). They now seem to have sensible statements of what actually constitutes good cycling infra. Plus they distinguish between cycling and walking, “recreational” and everyday usable infra.
* Given that it’s a very small charity this is mostly “organising other people to do stuff that they or a local authority will pay for”.
Also – looking back I can
Also – looking back I can sometimes summon up a sympathetic view: this was done in the climate of “encouraging cycling”* (that has essentially existed my whole life). Lots of the time “cycling” was actually a dirty word. Presumably part of the reason why “Sustrans” and not putting the cycling part front and centre – because politically that was a red flag?
With some exceptions (eg. “National Cycling Strategy” more than 25 years ago**) mostly nobody was paying for this at all. And when they did only at “paint and sign” level.
Have they made a positive difference? That’s definitely debatable. I guess I can see this (in a less critical mood) as a strategy of trying to get inside the official tents and work with those in power from there. To keep non-motorised transport on the agenda. How else do you make change happen nationally?
Of course (as I have) you can view another way…
* With a few warm words, and by building infra for motor vehicles, some of which could theoretically be used by cyclists.
** https://www.cyclinguk.org/blog/national-cycling-strategys-25th-anniversary-lessons-today
I remember being baffled
I remember being baffled going down Cycle Route 5 from South of Birmingham to Oxford. It is a really useful route, indeed nearly every time I go out on my bike I seem to stumble across it – rather like any time you go walking in the West Midlands it is compulsory to walk on a section of the Heart of England Way.
However, somewhere down by Banbury, when I plotted a ride for a group of us, about 15 years ago, I decided not to follow the map as it looked to me like it went down a footpath rather than a country lane. When we rode it, indeed the signed NCR passed through a gate and a footpath which was pasture, not even a proper path, yet, 20 metres further along was a right turn down a pleasant country lane. I could not fathom why that was. I wrote to Sustrans at the time, but puzzled me that someone should have had the mindset that mud trumped tarmac.
Had to contend with this
Had to contend with this yesterday. No way I could have got through under that bridge, it looked to be quite deep. There were some steps that I could carry the bike up and round though, so not too bad. I did ride through the one at the bottom, about a foot deep, but why didn’t they fill in that slight dip when they built the path?
I checked on the rest of the
I checked on the rest of the route I could have taken on google maps. Goes to a quiet road, that then has a bridleway. However, the images showed the next section was as muddy. Summer only.
I did find a nice segregated shared pathway later on but it gave out too soon !
And these people do highway
And these people do highway maintenance …
When I first saw your post
When I first saw your post yesterday I read it as 40 miles, and then you finally got to an iffy bit.
How wrong I was.
The Ultimate Commuter is currently set up to tackle horsey bridleway and light forestry working mud.
The only thing so far to defeat them, (3inch Surly Dirt Wizards), has been full on forestry work filth. It’s been my fault for failures in less, of course. But they will handle horsey bridleway mire where my feet have been in the ooze at the bottom of the pedal stroke. But this was a light brown forresty work quicksand where my front disk was in it. But they are ridiculously slow and draggy on tarmac.
I don’t think Ive had to sing the kickstart/junior kicksteat theme (you dab, you sing) since fitting them early November. It has been quite wet this year. But mild, I would normally be washing the big winter gloves over the holidays, but I’ve not had to wear them yet, some of them take three days to dry.
Lol, if I’d managed 40 miles,
Lol, if I’d managed 40 miles, then it wouldn’t have been much of a story !
Someone sent me on a short cut before and it turned out to be quite muddy to the extent that it tooks 10 mins to clear out the mudguards with whatever small sticks I could find !
I’m sure this post will get
I’m sure this post will get the usual cries of ‘oh, but that’s nothing, we’d be grateful for a path that clear’
I’m guilty! But anybody who has pushed a bike with trailer out of Settle on the Pennine Bridleway in January is grateful if they can even get the wheels to turn through the physics-defying hyper-glutinous mud caked inside the mudguards, all over the chainrings, tyre and stays- all the time unable to grip despite fell-running shoes, so I’m not the best judge. It seems I was so knackered, I didn’t even take a photo, so instead I’ll display the ‘story of Ruswarp by his statue at Garsdale on the Settle-Carlisle’, a story which unfailingly brings tears to the eyes: the dog who truly stayed with his dead master for 11 winter weeks in remote hills in 1990
National Cycle Network. Are
National Cycle Network. Are they more about putting signs up, and making routes online than actually making routes you can ride a normal bike on?
I’m contemplating riding Portsmouth to Bovey Tracey next summer; NCN2 on the puter looks the obvious choice. There’s also 5 small ferry crossings to include, which the child in me is looking forward to, so it all looks promising. I suspect the reality is signs will vanish just when you need them, there will be stretches on dual carriageways, there will be some swamp/bogs that you could never ride through and some parts will include back alleys around shops & goods delivery yards littered with glass etc etc
Ride from Plymouth to Gatwick
Rode from Plymouth to Gatwick, a few years ago.
Didn’t really follow NCN2, but I tercepted it occasionally.
The ferries were a definite feature – even eschewed the road bridge at Teignmouth, just to ride the ferry.
Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Exmouth, Sandbanks, Mudeford, Lymington and Ryde.
Great trip, but haven’t done any more due to pandemic, so need to get going again.
Can dig the GPX traces out, if you like
Dealing with the really
Dealing with the really important things such as road traffic laws and pavement parking
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/simpler-road-signs-to-protect-small-animals-and-boost-safety
Well I’m sure there will be
Well I’m sure there will be campaigners here cheering, and possibly petitioning for more arboreal-rodent-appropriate signage…
Well I suppose the old one
Well I suppose the old one did look more like it warned about potholes ahead, but I’m not expecting drivers to take any more notice of it.
plus I thought we were meant to be decluttering roads from signs that really aren’t much use.
The problem is the minuscule
The problem is the minuscule budgets this country allocates to active travel. Sustrans took shovels into their hands to build some of the first routes in this country such as the Bristol to Bath Railway Path, which is excellent (I helped build it). But for most routes relies on the commitment and funding of local authorities to get things done. Sustrans are a catalyst but need wider commitment and resources. Without them we’d have even less routes than we do!
Pleased to see that cycling
Pleased to see that cycling made it onto exploding heads
Why?
Why?
What is “Exploding Heads” and were you being ironic/ sarcastic or genuine?
Exploding heads do satrical
Exploding heads do satrical sketches and one of the characters from it is colin from portsmouth. He’s a sort of daily mail angry letter writer.
To be included in his list is a sort of badge of honour.
“My grandson’s doing his Nativity play. They’ve made Jesus’s mum a pregnant migrant woman crossing a border with her husband WHO ISN’T EVEN THE DAD.
The school’s gone woke!”
“You said this last year, Colin.”
“Which is proof that Sunak’s migration policy is failing!”
British Values