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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
mdavidford 37 seconds ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 32 minutes ago
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.
Rod Marton 33 minutes ago
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.
eburtthebike 49 minutes ago
“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.
Jakrayan 2 hours ago
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.
bensynnock 2 hours ago
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.
bensynnock 2 hours ago
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.
Safety 3 hours ago
"We have enough regulation." I agree with the exception being legally allowed to sell something which is virtually illegal to use. How many purchasers own a suitably large piece of private land?
Tradescant 6 hours ago
@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
DS2025 7 hours ago
Chrisonabike There are a number of police forces in England and Wales that are using portable testing equipment already... How effective it is another matter, I haven't looked into the results of failing (I would hope they just seize and crush the motorbike without any faff but I am sure there are appeal processes, promises not to use them on public roads etc).
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.