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Live blog: Full reaction to Sky pulling sponsorship including Brailsford and Froome, Thomas looks back on Tour de France success, Vaughters says news a “wake up call” to the sport + more
“I don’t think there’s anything negative at all” says Team Sky boss; in other news, Bahrain Merida and McLaren chiefs give more details of their collaboration
Wed, Dec 12, 2018 16:48
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to ebiketips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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wtjs 8 hours ago
@FionaJJ These officers deployed next-level stupidity, and it must be difficult for the police to find people this dim. It doesn't even need rolling-roads or whatever, just a reputable bike computer on a quickly changed mount for the difficult cases where a proper EAPC has been modded, although you would need to look hard in Lancashire to find a police officer who knows how to make a pedal cycle go. Most illegal electric motorbikes are immediately obvious, not least because the crim is wearing a face mask. I saw an obvious one tonight coming out of Garstang Sainsbury's, not pedalling but without a face mask because everybody knows that the police only come into the town to hide away in the police station 200 yards away.
bikeman01 9 hours ago
Gustav Gullholm.. that's not a good look mate
mdavidford 11 hours ago
@Chris RideFar I think what you meant to say was "REMOVE this and put it on PODCAST CC".
jaymack 13 hours ago
As Mary Whitehouse never said - one doesn't have to read the article if one doesn't want to read about an off-road bicycle.
Rendel Harris 13 hours ago
@FionaJJ In London they're allowed to stop on single and double yellows to deliver packages or empty pillar boxes; in practice they take this as carte blanche to park wherever and whenever they want, such as this chap on the Brixton Road who pulled into the bus/cycle/motorcycle lane without indicating, as I approached at 20mph, to park on a red route, response to a remonstrance, "I suppose you never get post delivered do ya?"
FionaJJ 14 hours ago
@Rendel Harris We have a pavement parking ban, but around here at least, royal mail vans are already exempt, subject to certain caveats, such as allowing at least 1.5m, and only being stopped to do their work.
FionaJJ 14 hours ago
It was already embarrassing for the police that they made such a mess of their attempt to determine whether a bike was legal or not, but I had assumed it was a group of well intentioned, but under-trained officers acting on their own initiative, having spotted something they thought looked not quite right. I'm now discovering this was a planned activity, something sufficiently organised to have been given a name - Operation FRISLEN, designed specifically to identify and remove illegal e-bikes and scooters. It's apparent that the officers were sent out without adequate training, never mind the kind of equipment that should be used for this sort of work. I'm not saying they always need specialist equipment to spot all illegal bikes, but at least if they'd been given a demonstration with that equipment, they'd have realised why their approach was not going to end well.
Geoff Ingram 16 hours ago
Have put drop bars on a 2001 B1 mtb, a 2007 stumpy hardtail and a 2010 stumpy full suss. In all cases fairly basic conversións leaving gearing and wheels broadly the same and concentrating on correct positioning of bars and fit. Oddly, with all 3 I was happy with the result when recently done, but after a few months found that the extra speed on easy trails was more than offset by the lack of ability (probably mine) on tougher routes and finally preferred flat bar with slammed and inverted stem as best overall compromise. Good fun playing around, though.
mark1a 16 hours ago
The photos in this review look they are for a different bag?
mattw 18 hours ago
This is a strange reactionary knee jerk overall. But what is this "are essentially motorbikes in disguise" waffle? "One letter claimed that high-powered electric ‘e-bikes’ were “essentially motorbikes” in disguise, with many being used without lights, helmets, or any hi-vis clothing." Surely, they simply ARE motorbikes?
21 thoughts on “Live blog: Full reaction to Sky pulling sponsorship including Brailsford and Froome, Thomas looks back on Tour de France success, Vaughters says news a “wake up call” to the sport + more”
As it says on the bike in the
As it says on the bike in the picture it’s Mclaren, McClaren are the ones who make prams/buggies.
RobD wrote:
No, the prams are Maclaren. McClaren is a football manager.
Mark B wrote:
Also debatable
kil0ran wrote:
Must be the Dutch spelling.
Sniffer wrote:
Eh, not Mclaren, McClaren or Maclaren, it’s actually McLaren, but whatever.
bigblue wrote:
It was a reference to Steve’s famous interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8
Sorry it passed you by.
RobD wrote:
Gets it right on the headline, gets it wrong THREE TIMES in the story. Yesus.
That’s what happens when go
That’s what happens when go for team ride with a dildo on your bike. Joke’s on them now.
Actual problem is more likely the STUPID amount of money Sky has sunk into F1 and the like and it actually has competition these days.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
they should go for sponsorship from KY jelly, then they won’t have to change the branding very much, and they get some excellent lube for their bottom brackets.
ConcordeCX wrote:
Or for the full money-shot they could just get a porn company to sponsor them, after all there is a precedent:
https://road.cc/content/news/179795-only-italy-worlds-3rd-biggest-porn-site-sponsors-cycling-team
I hope they do manage to find
I hope they do manage to find a replacement sponsor, I do wonder how much of a budget drop they have worked out they can take without it becoming a different kind of team.
Surprising that the new Sky owners have decided to pull the plug though, at the end of the day the bad publicity seems to have mostly passed, and with it being such a tiny part of their marketing budget you’d think it’d be an easy option to keep going with it, after all they’re the highest profile team out there.
I’m wondering which other companies with big enough marketing budgets could actually step in, particularly with the heavily European focus to most of the season, and an image that would fit somehow with cycling.
This is the only sponsorship
This is the only sponsorship choice now
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
We’ve seen these as cycle team sponsors, wouldn’t be the worst cycle sponsor by any stretch …
The dildo does suggest that
The dildo does suggest that BBC might be a good sponsor
These relationships can’t
These relationships can’t last forever.. a ten or eleven year agreement at that level has been frankly magical for British Cycling results.
Also Sky from a ‘sponsorship’ perspective have surely gained as much as they can from the deal (however they measure it). I’ve personally really enjoyed seeing team sky on those sky vans up and down the country…
I hope that Sky will be replaced, if anyone can approach the issue of cycling sponsorship in a different more global thinking manner, then it’ll be that team surely.
Cycling is a huge sport, but the likes of QuickStep appear to not have a clue when it comes to getting sponsorship.. it’s incredulous to think that the best team in the world by far in 2018 struggled to get a decent sponsor for next season, I’m pretty sure they’ve secured Flemish Fish Flans of Flanders for next season…
Skexit?
Skexit?
Would love to know the sorts
Would love to know the sorts of clauses riders who’ve just signed new contracts have, if any.
Egan Bernal signed an unprecedented 5 year deal this summer and Thomas has just signed up for another 2-3.
That’s the Oracle shopping
That’s the Oracle shopping centre in Reading, outside Vue cinema – I’ve seen that guy around there a few times, as it seems to be the hang-out point for Deliveroo riders.
There’s also a guy (might be the same one) on a neon pink Planet-X TT bike.
Yes, it’s the Oracle in
Yes, it’s the Oracle in Reading. Haven’t seen Sky deliveroo bloke in a while, my impression is that cycling enthusiasts aren’t as enthusiastic about deliveroo as they were at the beginning. Your deliveroo contractor is moving to electric bikes is my impression.
What’s the story regarding
What’s the story regarding dildos and Ann summers? Very confused am I
Given the dildo thing and
Given the dildo thing and that Sky are a media company, the next sponsor has to be Virgin.