2014 News Review - the year's biggest, and some of its quirkiest cycling stories

Here’s our look back at some of the biggest – and some of the quirkier – stories that had you talking here on road.cc this year. There’s everything from a couple of conspiracy theories involving two of the year’s biggest races to a cyclist who landed on his feet after what could have been a very nasty crash, and Chris Boardman tossing his hat – or rather, lack of it – into the helmet debate.

Also, we take a quick look back at the visits to the British Isles of the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France – opening days of both events where fans taking selfies proved as much a talking point as much of the racing – but first, we’ll start with the story about that kit that made the mainstream press around the world.

Women’s kit from Colombian team sparks outrage

Far and away the most discussed cycling kit of 2014 was this one, sported by Colombian women’s team IDRD-Bogota Humana-San Mateo-Solgar, with a picture of them at the presentation of the Giro Toscana going viral and attracting discussion well beyond the cycling community.

Even UCI president Brian Cookson got involved, tweeting that the apparently flesh-coloured panel in the midriff and crotch area was “unacceptable by any standard of decency” and promising the governing body was “on the case.”

But other pictures revealed that panel was in fact gold, with the unflattering picture taken at Giro Toscana of the kit, designed by the team’s rider Angie Rojas, resulting in the shade being rendered differently.

They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, although in the case of the sponsors that’s debatable since much of the mainstream media misreported the team as being the Colombian women’s squad.

As many fans pointed out, the focus on the kit detracted from more pressing issues in women’s cycling such as low (and often no) pay for riders.

Conspiracy #1 - Did Alberto Contador’s bike snap at Tour de France?

Perhaps the most talked about racing incident on road.cc during 2014 was the Stage 10 crash that put Alberto Contador out of the Tour de France with a broken leg – not so much for the rider’s condition, nor how his departure, following that of Chris Froome, would affect the race.

No, it was whether the frame of his Specialized Tarmac bike, similar to the one shown above, had snapped beforehand and thereby caused the incident.

The confusion in the aftermath of the crash, coupled with the fact TV cameras were not immediately on the scene, gave conspiracy theorists on Twitter plenty of ammunition – especially once a picture appeared showing a bike bearing Contador’s frame number that had snapped where the top tube meets the seatpost, and also had a broken downtube.

Further muddying the waters was team mate Nicolas Roche’s description in a blog post the next morning of how he had stopped to help Contador, the Irish rider describing his team leader’s bike as “broken” – he later clarified that he meant the gear lever and derailleur, not the frame.

So what actually happened? Well, it emerged that the broken bike was indeed Contador’s, but was a spare not used during the stage – in the confusion following the crash, as he tried to ride back to the peloton despite his injury, the bike on the roof of the Tinkoff-Saxo car had become entangled with one being carried on a Belkin Pro Cycling vehicle.

Case closed.

Chris Boardman: Helmets distract from how to make cyclists safer

In February Chris Boardman – former world and Olympic champion, and now policy adviser to British Cycling – told road.cc helmets are “not even in the top 10 things that you need to do to keep cycling safe.” He added that even talking about helmets “massively puts people off” riding a bike by making it seem more dangerous than it is.

“It’s a bit like saying ‘people are sniping at you going down this street, so put some body armour on,’” Boardman said, adding that widespread use of helmets sent the wrong message to would-be cyclists.

“Once you see somebody wearing body armour, even if there’s no shooting, you think ‘Christ I’m not going down there if they’re wearing body armour to go down that street.’ It scares people off,” he explained.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast in November, Boardman found himself in the firing line when he was shown helmetless and in dark clothing going for a bike ride with the show’s presenter, Louise Minchin – the criticism detracting from the safety message he was trying to get across and leading him to write about why he chooses not to wear a helmet.

Starting gate crash at South American Games

Chile’s Irene Aravena was riding for a bronze medal in the team sprint at the South American Games in her home country’s capital city, Santiago – but ended up in hospital instead due to officials failing to remove the starting gate.

Her team mate, Estefania Ñúñez, saw an official waving a red flag, and managed to avoid the starting gate; Avavena however didn’t see it until it was too late, and sustained a fractured patella, while her bike was snapped in two. The incident was blamed on the inexperience of staff at the country’s new velodrome.

Cycling better for you than running, says US study

From one debate to another – which is better for you, cycling or running? Adherents to Rule 42 believe they already know the answer to that, and this year, researchers at the Human Performance Laboratory at the Appalachian State University agreed that two wheels are better than two legs, although they took a rather more scientific approach.

After analysing blood samples from runners and cyclists aged 19 to 45 who regularly compere in races, they found that long-distance runners experienced more muscle damage, soreness and inflammation than cyclists after a period of intense workouts.

Principal investigator Professor David Nieman said: “Runners just can’t put in the same volume of exercise as cyclists without experiencing more inflammation, soreness and muscle damage.

“Long-distance runners are encouraged to vary their training schedules, mixing higher and lower exercise workloads, and to include other training modalities like swimming or cycling to maintain the highest level of performance.”

London cyclist lands on feet after car cuts across him

A London cyclist had a very lucky escape when a motorist executed a right turn into his path back in June. Posting the footage to YouTube, user CycleJack explained that the incident, which took place on London Road in Romford, happened on only the second occasion he had commuted in by bike.

The existence of the footage also helped persuade the female motorist’s insurers that she was at fault – meaning they footed the bill for replacing the Giant bike that was written off in the incident.

Conspiracy #2 - Ryder Hesjedal accused of motor doping

The tinfoil hat brigade who put Alberto Contador’s Tour de France crash down to frame failure were back in force at the Vuelta, this time taking aim at Garmin-Sharp’s Ryder Hesjedal, whom the accused of having a hidden motor on his bike.

The proof, it was claimed, was the fact that the bike’s rear wheel kept spinning after the Canadian hit the deck – as shown in this video – but as our article makes clear, there is a perfectly valid explanation for that.

Hesjedal himself said the following day that while he thought it was funny such claims had been made, he was also sad that people would actually air them – while his former team mate Alex Rasmussen used a bike to show how the rear wheel could have kept spinning after the crash.

Caravan firm sacks driver after 'punishment pass'

In March, a cyclist in Lancashire was passed by a lorry with just inches to spare in what appeared to be a ‘punishment pass.’ After he posted the video to YouTube, other users identified the vehicle as belonging to Forest of Dean Caravans.

On reviewing the footage, the Gloucestershire company’s transport manager, Mark Turley, said the firm was “horrified” at the driver’s actions and his employment was subsequently terminated.

The year Yorkshire turned yellow and Ireland went pink

No review of 2014 would be complete without mentioning the visit to the British Isles of the Giro d’Italia in May and Tour de France in July – days that will live long in the memory of anyone who was there on whichever side of the Irish Sea.

Ireland hosted the opening three days of the Italian race with a team time trial and road stage finishing in Belfast, then another road stage crossing the border and finishing in Dublin. The opening three days of the Tour, meanwhile, ended in Harrogate, Sheffield and London.

Home favourites didn’t fare well – Ireland’s Dan Martin crashed out on the opening day of the Giro, and Mark Cavendish came a cropper on the first day of the Tour as he tried to sprint into the yellow jersey in his mother’s home town of Harrogate. The following day, Vincenzo Nibali’s late attack in Sheffield brought him the first of his four stage wins on his way to being crowned Tour de France champion.

The man of the moment though was Giant-Shimano’s Marcel Kittel, winner of the four stages that ended in bunch sprints – although his win in Dublin was best remembered for a selfie a local aspiring pro David McCarthy took with him as the German lay on the ground after his victory.

The German rider accepted McCarthy's subsequent apology and got his own selfie at the Tour de France team presentation in Leeds (pictured below), but it was fans taking selfies while riders sped by them who were in the spotlight once the race started – and on the Cambridge to London stage, one contributed to the crash that would result in Andy Schleck suffering a further injury and subsequently announce his retirement.

Kittel would be back in the UK for the Tour of Britain in September, and beat Cavendish to win on the final day in London, confirming himself as the man to beat in sprints in a year that saw him take his second successive victory on the Champs-Elysées.

Yorkshire cyclists swap Lycra for lingerie for charity calendar

The build-up to the Tour de France generated dozens of stories in the opening six months of the year – but actually our biggest story of 2014 from Yorkshire was about a group of cyclists swapping Lycra for lingerie for a charity calendar aimed at raising money for the area’s air ambulance.

Taking their inspiration from the 1999 calendar by Rylstone Women’s Institute that was featured in the film Calendar Girls, women from Harrogate’s Cappuccino Cycling Club donned lingerie by the Queen’s underwear supplier. Rigby & Peller for the photoshoot by AFTA winning film maker Paul Berriff and leading fashion photographer Michael Dunne.

So those were some of our moments of 2014 ... did we miss any of your favourite stories of the year? If so, remind us - and other road.cc readers - of them in the comments below, and we'd all like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.