Welcome to road.cc’s first live blog of 2019, brought to you by Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and contributions from the rest of the road.cc team (assuming they’ve recovered from New Year’s Eve hangovers by now!)
Live blog: Mail columnist examines “crazed prejudice” against cyclists, Farmers Weekly in e-bike review, 12 speed Campagnolo EPS spotted on Valverde’s new bike? Strava reveal ‘Quitter’s day’ when we give up on New Year fitness resolutions + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond as we start 2019 with a two-wheeled bang…
Wed, Jan 02, 2019 16:45
SUMMARY
2 January 2019, 16:45
Meanwhile...
Dude is simply amazing. Mind-blowing save from @mathieuvdpoel #GPSvenNys #cyclocross #MVDP pic.twitter.com/kN3Wfy0qXq
— Cycleboredom (@Cycleboredom) January 1, 2019
Check out this save from Matieu Van der Poel, as he straddles his saddle and somehow manages to dismount with the ground crumbling beneath him. That’s why they say he’s ‘too good’ for cyclocross.
2 January 2019, 16:45
Mesmeric CX stair climbing skills
Thibau Nys rode the stairs in the race! #skills pic.twitter.com/IdTdZBua94
— Cyclocross24.com (@cyclocross24) January 1, 2019
Thibau Nys decides to ride the stairs instead of make a run for it, and it works a treat. Somehow don’t think the result would be quite the same if I tried it!
2 January 2019, 16:45
Battle on the Beach and the Peaky Grinder open for entries (and lots of other sportives no doubt)
The 1st of Jan and with it all the New Year’s promises we make to ourselves mean that inevitably, sign-ups to sporting challenges will have gone through the roof in the past 24 hours. Two cycling events that have caught our eye include the Battle on the Beach, returning to Pembrey in South Wales for the sixth time in 2019. It involves three laps of a very gnarly course that features sand dunes and lots of fun singletrack, with entrants tackling it on everything from mtb’s, to cyclocross bikes and everything in between with a cash prize of over £1000 for the winner. It takes place over the weekend of 6-7 April, you can enter here.
Entries are now open for the Peaky Blinder. Our reliability ride taking in some of the Peak’s most iconic climbs. Something for you to aim for in ’19 ! https://t.co/TVoKoPG3FF @roadcc @100Climbs @cyclingweekly @BritishCycling pic.twitter.com/JFePv1r4L8
— Velotastic (@Velotastic) January 1, 2019
The Peaky Grinder takes place in Derbyshire’s Peak District, incorporating some of the county’s most fearsome climbs (trust us, the Peaks ain’t for the faint-hearted). There are 115km and 85km routes to choose from, and feed stations are purposely omitted until the finish line to encourage riders to support local businesses on route. It’s probably the polar opposite of the above event in that there are strictly no winners and it’s totally unsupported… “the challenge is riding up some of the Peak’s iconic climbs within the 9 hour time limit”, say the organisers Velotastic – it’s happening on the 15th September, entries here.
For a comprehensive list of every type of cycling event you could wish to do/not do in 2019, from 25 mile countryside pootles to outrageously long self-supported audax epics, head over to road.cc’s events page.
2 January 2019, 16:45
Chris Froome heading out for first training camp of the year in prep for 5th TdF victory attempt
Big goals for 2019! Going for @letour win number 5 #TDF #TDF2019
Heading to my first training camp of the year today
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success” https://t.co/pLIeljYt83— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) January 2, 2019
Froome confirmed earlier this week that he’ll skip the Giro in 2019 to focus on going for a fifth Tour de France victory, with teammate Geraint Thomas doing the same in a bid to defend his yellow jersey. Definitely not at all awkward…
2 January 2019, 16:45
A couple of lumps on route...
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, USA pic.twitter.com/R4aaNTZ1Bi
— Back To Nature (@backt0nature) January 1, 2019
Wonder how far we could ride up this?
2 January 2019, 16:45
Got a cycling-related New Year's Resolution? You'll have packed in by the 17th of Jan, according to Strava...
The world’s foremost social media platform for cyclists analysed data from nearly 100 million UK uploads in January last year, and discovered the day that shown a significant drop in activity was the third Thursday in January (which falls on the 17th this year)… dubbed ‘Quitter’s Day’ by Strava. The data shown that women are in fact better at keeping to their New Year’s fitness resolutions, keeping it up for two days longer than men on average. When it’s broken down by age, the 18-29 age group tend to stick to their regime longer than older folk. The graph below also shows that group activities tend to help us stay motivated for longer, say Strava, with cyclists riding 13 extra miles per ride with a group than alone.
If this all sounds like doom and gloom, then in mitigation Strava do say this year’s Quitter’s Day is five year’s later than it was projected to be last year… meaning its users are clinging on to their fitness plans/uploading things to Strava for a little longer than in the past. Will you be proving them wrong? Perhaps a very long ride on the 17th is in order to give the data a good old shake-up…
2 January 2019, 16:45
Mayor of San Jose Sam Liccardo recovering in hospital after being struck by a motor vehicle while cycling
At 12:30 p.m., Mayor Sam Liccardo was cycling when he was struck by a motor vehicle. He suffered minor fractures, but his injuries are not considered overly-serious. He is currently resting & in good spirits. Please find his statement below.
-Team Liccardo pic.twitter.com/7u4dTCuJaC
— Sam Liccardo (@sliccardo) January 2, 2019
The Mayor of the Californian city, the tenth-largest in the US, was cycling on New Year’s day when he was struck by a motor vehicle, and is currently recovering in hospital with his injuries not thought to be ‘overly serious’. Liccardo, who describes himself as a ‘cycling geek’ on his Twitter bio, joked: “All defects to the head were pre-existing conditions”.
2 January 2019, 16:45
Valverde's new Canyon Ultimate... with a little extra something?
The World Champ’s new bike has been revealed, and it appears its rocking Campagnolo’s new Super Record 12 speed components… it’s only available as a mechanical groupset at the moment to our knowledge, but we’ve noticed that front mech looks a little different. Something new coming soon perhaps? We’ll have more on this later… in fact we’ve got more on this now – you can read our full story here.
2 January 2019, 16:45
“Oi’ve got a brand new electric bicycle … “ – Farmers Weekly reviews … an e-bike
We wouldn’t normally flag up a review from another publication, but this one has been grabbing some attention on social media, given it comes from an unlikely source – Farmers Weekly, more likely to be found rating balers, combine harvesters, muckspreaders and other assorted items of agricultural machinery.
The bike in question is an MBM Metis, imported from Italy by Powabyke, and gets the verdict of being “a nippy farm runaround.”
The review says: “An e-bike obviously isn’t going to do any serious work on a farm, but it is a pleasant way of getting around the place and the exercise is a bonus.
“It could also be useful when ferrying machinery back and forth when there isn’t a spare person available to run you around.
“On rough ground, we found the lack of rear suspension made for an uncomfortable ride, so we would probably spend a little more and get a full-suspension version.”
While we may cover Raleigh Choppers here on road.cc occasionally, we’re unlikely to be reviewing mangelwurzel choppers any time soon.
2 January 2019, 16:45
Mail on Sunday columnist examines "crazed prejudice" against cyclists
We’re used to seeing anti-cyclist rants on Mail Online and its sister print publications, the Daily Mail and Mail of Sunday – so it makes a nice change to see one of the latter’s columnists penning a piece under the heading How Prejudice Against Cyclists Can Make Normal People Go Mad that comes from a bike rider’s point of view and in the process addresses myths such as cyclists “don’t pay road tax” and must ride on shared-use paths where provided, and not the road.
> 10 of the most hysterical anti-cycling Daily Mail headlines
We may not agree with everything Peter Hitchens writes (to put it mildly), but his column published on New Year’s Eve in which he recounts his experience of an aggressive bus driver (and passengers) while cycling in Oxford is well worth a read.
Hitchens says he wrote the story “as an illustration of two things. The first is the madness of crowds, the wild, irrational conformism that infects groups of otherwise perfectly sane people. The second is the crazed prejudice against bicycles and those who ride them, which has infected our country and which (I am sure) the comments on this article will faithfully reflect” (he was correct about that).
Being the Mail on Sunday, there is some unnecessary detail about how the bus driver “was not English,” but Hitchens concludes his column by expressing the hope that “after a bit of thought, he will know better in future” about how to share the road safely with cyclists.
“But will anyone else?” he adds. “Honestly, could this have happened in any country where a prejudice against cyclists was not raging?” He’s got a point.
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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
Pub bike 4 hours ago
If anyone reading this article is looking for reasonable alternatives Decathlon sell a range of bum bags including one with a bottle holder that comes with the bottle all of which are less than £20. I've got a bum bag I bought a few years ago to replace a North Face bum bag that has lasted really well including commuting and cycle touring that was only £10 and that doesn't seem to have any of the drawbacks of the pack on review.
Pub bike 4 hours ago
@Borisface The frameset is similarly priced to e.g. Condor aluminium framesets such as Italia RC Integrato so it doesn't look too far off the mark. Obviously if you dress any old frame up with Campag Record 13 wireless and some decent wheels the final price is going to be somewhere north of £5k.
VecchioJo 5 hours ago
@Freddy56 @hotspanners Hi, just for for starters I didn’t boycott the race, if you read to the end of the article you’d have seen that I decided I was going to attend and try and implement a positive change… Just for clarity, if it helps with the credibility of my words and something I didn’t include in the blog for brevity and fear of willy-waving here’s an incomprehensive list of cycle events I’ve helped organise over the years - all Brighton Big Dog MTB events (about 12 i think), three league CX races and one Singlespeed CX Euro Champs (niche, i know), a few SAMS MTB races - maybe three or four it was a while back now, a Morvelo City Cross, I’ve stood on a corner in a high-vis vest at quite a few MTB, CX and road races too, and just helped wind up tape at last weekend’s CX race. I’ve also had the privilege to design logos, draw images, and create one-off pieces of artwork and give away prints as prizes for enough races and events for me to forget how many, all for free as part of ‘doing my bit’… Also if you made it through to the second half of the article you’ll have read that I have every sympathy for event organisers because of the experience of all the above and also from having conversations with various organisers on a regular basis so I am acutely aware of all the challenges faced. I chatted today with the future local CX race organiser mentioned, face to face in a field, and he has a similar hatred of AI and is more than happy for me to create a hand-drawn image to promote that race and also help out on the ground where possible… Might even draw a duck in there somewhere for giggles…
Rendel Harris 7 hours ago
@Borisface Not entirely sure why some alleged good times set in the last century validate the silliness and ignorance of your rejection on the grounds of materials and weight of a bike that the reviewer (who, if you look at his bio above, has rather a lot of experience himself, not only of riding bikes but of engineering too) describes as "absolute perfection in every aspect". Thanks for the unrequested permission but I'm not actually looking to spend 6k on a bike at the moment; if I was, on the basis of this review and the photographs I'd certainly be putting this on my shortlist and looking for a test ride. But then in this area at least I have an open mind, you see.
hotspanners 7 hours ago
@Freddy56 as the article says, Jo boycotted our race because he thought we’d used AI to design our flyer. I’m with him 100% but he got the facts wrong. People don’t like AI slop. It’s lazy and generic. But you’re right - these grassroots events run off volunteering. I wave flags, design kit and artwork, ferry things to our lockup etc - perhaps Jo could be the change he wants to see. He could volunteer to the London and SE CX league that he races in to help them out with artwork - he created Mint Sauce!
Freddy56 8 hours ago
Currently riding home powered by this for the last 6 months after someone stole my SeeSence beam, LOVE it. super durable and batter life gets me home on full beam for 55 minutes
Freddy56 8 hours ago
Comments and an article by people who organise NOTHING! Promoting an event is mostly by volunteers and an AI poster done at midnight after sorting the British cycling insurance, the toilets, the Marshalls, the council and a landowner is so draining. The effort is massive for usually a small team. Grab a flag and help rather than moaning about a generated image...o look the image is eye catching so it must work .
Freddy56 8 hours ago
I have Wizzard works bag from 2018 (bought for my 30th) and this is a complete rip off it!!
Borisface 8 hours ago
6 times division champion, 1st cat road man, semi-pro for 3 years. Sub 21 min 10 and sub 55 min 25 on a steel road bike. Forty five years riding. Forgotten more about riding bikes than most on here will ever know. If you want to pay £6k for an aluminium road by all means go ahead.
Rendel Harris 8 hours ago
@Borisface Probably for the best, if you're as ignorant about bikes and materials as your comment suggests you wouldn't appreciate it anyway. Go and buy something on the UCI weight limit made out of the latest space age super carbon and wobble around on it looking daft and feeling uncomfortable and to hell with aesthetics, practicality and real-world use cases, at least you'll have the right numbers ("6.85 kg, awesome!") and words ("Yeah, it's UHM 12k carbon, actually") for the cafe. Enjoy!
8 thoughts on “Live blog: Mail columnist examines “crazed prejudice” against cyclists, Farmers Weekly in e-bike review, 12 speed Campagnolo EPS spotted on Valverde’s new bike? Strava reveal ‘Quitter’s day’ when we give up on New Year fitness resolutions + more”
Can’t help noticing the
Can’t help noticing the difference in the language used in the mayor’s collision with that used by our media in the UK. He was “struck by a motor vehicle” but the same incident in this country would be “cyclist collided with car”. Yet another demonstration of quite how car-obsessed we are in this country if even the Americans report car/bike collisions much more objectively.
burtthebike wrote:
Sadly, I’ve had cause to read thousands of US press reports on collisions involving cyclists over the past decade; I’d say this one is very much an exception, if anything the general standard of reporting them is even more prejudiced against the rider than it is here (and for some reason, even more so when the victim is a child).
Simon_MacMichael wrote:
Can’t help noticing the difference in the language used in the mayor’s collision with that used by our media in the UK. He was “struck by a motor vehicle” but the same incident in this country would be “cyclist collided with car”. Yet another demonstration of quite how car-obsessed we are in this country if even the Americans report car/bike collisions much more objectively.
— Simon_MacMichael “Sadly, I’ve had cause to read thousands of US press reports on collisions involving cyclists over the past decade;”
You have my sympathy. A dirty job but someone’s got to do it. I can only hope that it was sufficiently financially rewarding.
“I’d say this one is very much an exception, if anything the general standard of reporting them is even more prejudiced against the rider than it is here (and for some reason, even more so when the victim is a child).”— burtthebike
Thank you for sharing your experience; I doubt that many people have read that many USA cyclist/car collision reports.
Thibau Nys: Mesmeric stair
Thibau Nys: Mesmeric stair avoidance skills, shirley?
In defence of Hitchen’s ‘the
In defence of Hitchen’s ‘the bus driver was not English’ comment, this did come after explaining that he didn’t know if other countries had laws that require cyclists to use cycle paths, where provided, so it was actually relevant to his story.
The link to the Peter
The link to the Peter Hetchins article doesn’t work, but this one should https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2018/12/how-prejudice-against-cyclists-can-make-normal-people-go-mad-.html
Never thought I’d say this about a Mail article, but it describes perfectly the blatant prejudice which has been stirred up by……The Mail. Fortunately the comments return us to the sanity of the normal DM reader, in spades, demonstrating a prejudice and ignorance so massive that they would instantly be convicted of various crimes if the comments were about racial, sexual or religious groups.
And Peter Hetchins has a refreshingly realistic view of helmets https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/11/cycle-helmets-for-everyone-that-will-put-more-cyclists-at-risk.html
burtthebike wrote:
Don’t worry, normal service resumed in “Pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers should get priority when new roads are built to help tackle the obesity crisis – not the motorists who paid for them, health watchdog says”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6555841/Pedestrians-cyclist-public-transport-users-priority-roads-built-upgraded.html
Jimbonic wrote:
Thanks, I think. Who could have predicted that?