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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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Latest Comments
Motivated 30 minutes ago
I considered the Strada SB because I think 2000 lumens is right for myself and my commuting. The SB is a boosted RS. They are both crazy expensive even compared to their own lights ... the 2000 lumen Diablo is 240EUR or the 3850 lumen Toro is 395 EUR vs the 2000 lumen Strada SB at 415EUR. Plus import to EU. I will not buy the Strada, but am considering the Toro - can do double duty as a commuter light and MTB light. I wish the Strada came in a dumb 2000 lumen version. I don't think 2000 lumen is so bright to justify the beam dipping. I just want a super well made light with easy button operation. I have the Axis Mk10 and the button operation is not intuitive. The Axis is also how I know that 1300 lumens is not enough for my commuting. It's great for road biking when there will be tunnels and chance of riding before or after sunset.
hotspanners 45 minutes ago
Deleted my comments because Road.cc have removed the offending poster from the article. I hope people have learned from this that using gen AI for marketing is a bad idea. Human creatives first!
kingleo 49 minutes ago
It looks like the anti-cyclists in Spalding are making up the evidence.
Hollis Jones 56 minutes ago
@Pub bike Came here to say just that. The frameset isn’t that expensive, similar to what I paid for my Condor Italia RC a few years ago. Same sort of Dedaccia tubing too! I built mine up with ‘older’ Dura-Ace, aero wheels and managed to get it all for around £3.5k and it weighs less than 8kg (in a size 61!). So yes you can spend loadsa money on an aluminum bike, but you can also build it up how you like for a lot less and still have a great bike.
Paul J 1 hour ago
This BBC article has some further details on what happened that day, including what Gabriele Debotte's (the passenger) did and did not do. It is _absolutely horrific_ what Richardson did to poor Michael Mullins. Unfathomable. Richardson must be an absolute sociopath. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmde86918z3ro
Sredlums 2 hours ago
@Borisface No one questioned your experience or knowledge. It's irrelevant, because your comment doesn't show any sign of that experience or knowledge.
Sniffer 2 hours ago
The comments on this thread mirror the comments I get when I roll out with my steel bike, a Fairlight Strael, to a group ride. Some people think it is a thing of beauty and like the idea, others don't understand why I have spent that kind of money on something that isn't carbon and weighs a bit more. I have a carbon race bike with aero tweaks. I love it for the chain gang and other fast paced riding, but when I was out on my own this weekend the steel bike was a joy to ride. Proper mud guards are back on, and it even looks good to me with those fitted. I think Mason, and Fairlight, know that there is a chunk of the market that will not be interested in a steel / alloy bike, but there will be enough customers willing to spend their cash on nice versions. If that is not you @Borisface, that is fine. I have not ridden a Mason, but I would like to. I fondly remember my Kinesis T2, bought as a full bike on the cycle-to-work scheme many years ago. The frame is still going strong, currently sitting on my son's turbo trainer.
Paul J 2 hours ago
@Rendel Harris With all the regular stories of shockingly reckless, and sometimes deliberately aggressive, drivers who end up seriously injuring or even killing cyclists we read, it is hard to be shocked anymore by the next such story. However, this story, and that behaviour - stopping to try pull the man out, failing, then continuing on and veering from side to side to dislodge the *still alive* cyclist from under the car - has managed to shock me. It is incomprehensible. How could anyone do that to another person? Not just deliberate murder, but murder with the certain knowledge that it would lead to a prolonged, slow, gruesome, most painful death. And he did this with a *passenger* with him in the car!
Sredlums 2 hours ago
@Freddy56 Following that line of reasoning, what's next? Will the First Aid volunteers be replaced by a First Aid kit and a a kiosk computer with ChatGPT to tell you how to take care of yourself? The announcer replaced by a computer voice, spitting out names based on race bibs and facial recognition? Have some pride, man. If you cannot organise an event in a proper way, with human attention and care, then don't. Just don't. Events don't have to be perfect. Perfection is not to be expected of things that are mostly run by volunteers. And perfection is overrated anyway. But they should feel human. You should feel the enthusiasm and the pride of the organisers and volunteers. An event with an AI poster send the very opposite message, and it is reason for me not to even consider partaking.
mdavidford 2 hours ago
@sheridan This is an opinion piece (it's clearly labelled as such at the top). I'm not clear what facts are in dispute - the article was in response to the existence of AI-generated promotional images for the races, and those clearly do exist.
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.