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

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.

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.

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...

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...

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!