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 has 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 the website 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
jamesha100 7 hours ago
Same here. I have a helmet with built in front and rear lights and have a red light clipped onto my bag plus lights attached to my bike front and rear but still have drivers putting me in danger. My commute is about two miles and I normally have around four incidents a week where I have to brake hard or take other evasive action to avoid being hit by distracted drivers. A big percentage of these are drivers coming on to roundabouts when I am already on them.
geomannie 531 8 hours ago
Glasgow's South City Way sounds great, does it not? As a user from before and after I wholeheartedly welcome the construction of the segregated route, but so much of the detailed construction is poor, if not unsafe. I provide a link to a presentation I made when construction was half complete (a personal view) and the construction errors remain outstanding to this day: crossed by high speed flared road junctions, poor colour differentiation, car door zone risks and so on. And yet cyclists come because they feel safe. It's a complex subject but IMHO the feeling of safety (or lack of) is a critical component. https://drive.proton.me/urls/B67AK44G90#CFueBGjscoWr
Jetmans Dad 8 hours ago
I can only conclude that you haven't been into a city in the last few years. Food delivery riders in particular are riding overpowered "eBikes" that are basically mopeds ... powered only via the throttle without pedalling at significantly more than 15mph. Problem is they look like normal bikes/ebikes and not like mopeds so that is what people describe them as. My reading of the article is that it is those vehicles that are being talked about here.
AidanR 9 hours ago
I have the Trace and Tracer, which have essentially the same design, albeit smaller and less powerful. The controls are a little complicated but only because there are loads of options. In reality, once you've chosen your level of brightness, you'll only cycle through 1 or 2 options and it's dead simple. The lights are rock solid, bright, with good runtimes. The only thing I find annoying is charging them - if your fingers are slightly wet or greasy, getting the rubber out of the way of the charging port is a pain in the arse.
mdavidford 10 hours ago
Dance and padel is all very well, but when is Strava going to let me record my gardening?
mdavidford 10 hours ago
You can use it to check whether it's raining.
Rendel Harris 11 hours ago
If it's dusk, i.e. post-sunset, then the cyclists should have lights on and thus the colour of their top is irrelevant. If you want to complain about cyclists not having lights when it's mandatory then by all means do but their top has nothing to do with it.
Bright Strider 11 hours ago
All of my Exposure lights with a button allow cycling through the modes with a short press. I have five of those; it would be odd if Exposure didn’t allow this functionality with the Boost 3. I also have two Exposure Burners if I remember correctly: they are rear lights for joysticks that clip on and are powered through the joystick charging port. They don’t have a button. None of my Exposure lights have failed. I looked at the Boost 3 review photos but none showed the button, so far as I could tell. I also have Moon lights. Good experience generally. One did fail, possibly because it was so thin it used to fall through the holes in my helmet onto the ground. Also, the UI and charge indicators vary for my Moon lights. Perhaps the latest ones are more consistent. My worst lights ever were from See.Sense.
STATO 12 hours ago
Steve really doesnt like exposure products does he? Boost and Strada marked down for being too complicated. While the Zenith and Six Pack reviewed by his colleagues give them rave reviews (as most exposure products have on road.cc), the Zenith even touted as 'even more intuitive to use' with the same controls.
Hirsute 13 hours ago
They are more interested in dog shit. https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/people/lancaster-police-launch-search-for-person-who-sprayed-dog-faeces-with-pink-paint-5605519
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?