Live blog: Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils; Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint (+more vid of sprint crash), Wiggo ‘bike drop’, Hunt newsletter fail + save, Holly Willoughby on overtaking cyclists + more
SUMMARY
Alexander Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint
This is what happened to Alexander Kristoff’s bike in the UAE tour yesterday.
Alexander Kristoff snapped his chainstay in half during the sprint up Hatta Dam today #UAETour pic.twitter.com/ENaXiCqYHA
— Frederick Dreier (@freddreier) February 27, 2019
Looks like the rear mech somehow took out the seat stay.
Kristoff explained:
You can see him come to a complete stop at about 2m30s (he’s already way in the background).
Sir Dave Brailsford has completely lost control of his hands
Sir Dave’s hand gestures have long fascinated us and Team Sky’s latest Colombia YouTube documentary thing provides a fine example why.
‘Success’ is represented by some sort of ham-fisted pottery spinning gesture, while he expresses ‘winning the race’ with an up-and-down move that we can only assume relates to different positions on a leaderboard.
He’s even got one for ‘can we use the experience of these guys to feed and fast track these guys?’
Holly Willoughby turns up the radio when her husband is judging her for not overtaking cyclists
“I do not like overtaking cyclists at all,” said Willoughby. “As soon as there’s a cyclists in front of me I’m like, oh my god just please turn left, please just get off the road, because I can’t do it. I hate it.”
Referring to her husband, she continued: “And Dan, now, looks at me… All he has to do is do that, and I’m like, ‘Stop it! Because I know you’re going to make a big deal of the fact I’m going to sit behind this cyclist until they move.’”
She said that to distract herself from his critical looks, she turns up the radio.
Brazen bike thief video
Now that’s just a brazen attempt to steal a very expensive Yeti mountain bike from a bike shop
Fizik Tempo Overcurve R5 shoes launched
Italian company Fizik has launched the new Tempo Overcurve R5 cycling shoe, a new model in a range intended to offer a timeless look, which uses the micro adjustment of a single Boa IP1 dial and a staggered collar wrapping around the ankle to provide a fast and secure closure.
The new shoes are available now and cost £140 and come in sizes 36 to 48, with half sizes between 37 to 47. More at www.fizik.com
“We are pleased to bring the new Tempo Overcurve R5 shoes to market,” says Luca Mathia Bertoncello, fizik’s Brand Director. “Showcasing the versatile new Tempo shoe construction and R5 outsole provides an ideal platform on which to deliver the all-new Overcurve system.
A study in ergonomic design, its form follows the natural shape created by the lateral and medial malleoli protrusions on either side of the ankle – the asymmetric shape lends itself to an overlapping curve along and across the rider’s foot. It means a technically superior fit option to rival many others available.”
Pinarello's Grevil gravel bike arrives in UK bike shops
You’ve read all about Pinarello’s bold new gravel bike named the Grevil, well now you can see it at your local bike shop as it’s starting to arrive in stock about now. You can also see our video where we ask if it’s hot or not.
Wiggo back racing. Sort of
Sir Bradley Wiggins has been enjoying a spot of competitive cycling in Belgium this week.
What cycle clothing for a dystopian future?
Cycle clothing brand Morvélo don’t seem very optimistic about upcoming times
“Legend has it that beyond the 500 metre high city wall, there is a green paradise. Living in the perpetual darkness and fighting for a living on the street, The Underworld Champions fight to escape a dystopian future plagued by the Hydroformers; an elite group hell bent on industrialisation and containing the last inhabitants of earth. Armed with whatever they can find, the race is on to find a way out of the urban maze and into the myth. Do you dare join them?”
Or it could just be a collaboration with artist Death Spray Custom.
Investigation into Mike Hall’s “avoidable” death was compromised by loss of evidence
Coroner also concluded that the driver involved in the collision did not commit an offence. She said this conclusion was in part due to the high standard of negligence required by law.
Velon On-Bike Footage of Nasty UAE Tour Crash
A touch of wheels at the front of the peloton saw lots of riders going down heavily 8km from the finish of yesterday’s UAE Tour Stage 5.
The footage shows quite a few broken bikes with one Astana rider even rolling a tubular tyre off the rim.
There were no casualties of this particular crash, but young Belgian sensation Remco Evenepole seems to have crashed into a stationary motorbike earlier in the stage. The crash forced him to abandon the race but a trip to hospital showed no broken bones.
Brooks launches C17 Cambium Organic Light saddle
Brooks England has announced the launch of the C17 Cambium Organic Light saddle. The new model uses a combination of materials including organic cotton and vulcanised natural rubber. The nose and backplate are made from liquid wood, a 100% biodegradable biopolymer formed from waste products.
The C17 Cambium Organic Light is available in a variety of colours including natural, green, brick and rust and retails, and retails at £120.
The C17 Organic Light will be available online at www.brooksengland.com and at the B1866 flagship in Seven Dials, London from 4th March 2019.
Hunt apologises for “ALEX DOWSETT’S GF RIDES HUNT” newsletter headline
Here’s Chanel’s response to that headline.
And here’s Hunt’s apology.
Broadly speaking, the apology seems to have been well received.
We all make mistakes… well done @HuntBikeWheels for taking ownership of yours. I’m sure the team have learnt from their mistakes and can now just go back to being awesome pic.twitter.com/Vp8JiNlYLo
— Laura Scott (@Laura_Scott) February 27, 2019
The Classics are coming!
The Spring Classics are coming, and the pros have been out scoping out key sections of cobbles ahead of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Cobbles, cobbles, cobbles.. #OHN19 pic.twitter.com/AdA2GnJeyy
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) February 28, 2019
Uninsured teen driver would have known cyclist was under car when he did three-point turn
Former London cycling commissioner accuses mayor of building "fake cycle network"
Andrew Gilligan doesn’t think much of London’s Quietways.
Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils
Will Butler-Adams, the head of Brompton Bicycles, says that ill feeling between motorists and cyclists is because “cycling as a mode of transport pretty much died”.
The Telegraph, who published an interview with him this weekend, reports that he was “mid-rant” with “eyes ablaze” when he said this.
“The people who brought cycling back to life, were the people at the weekend training for their triathlon,” he said. “They whizz along at 100mph like some hardcore guy, get to work and change out of that funny stuff.”
This year’s Brompton World Championship Final will be held on August 3 at that famously Mamil-free event, RideLondon.
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
29 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
@Sheen wheels I have a version of the R8100 and you definitively need ceramic for the socket Oh no, you don't! Ceramic sockets pretty rare and, as far as I know, only with ceramic and not metal 'ball' (femoral head)
@mitsky Its another one of those things that makes no sense isn't it. Someone was saying in another thread that we need a harder driving test. I don't think we do. Everyone who has passed in the last 20 years has done a test that is more than happy to fail you for behaviour that 90% of drivers exhibit every time they get behind the wheel. The test is fine. The fact that getting your license seems to be considered some weird proof that you will continue to drive safely is the issue. The fact that when you prove that you cannot drive safely its not immediately revoked is the issue.
@Rendel Harris The issue with GPS chips, as everyone who has one of those black boxes will attest to, is that they are crap. They interpret heavy braking as poor driving rather than someone else forcing it. They see rapid acceleration where there is none. All we need is a much higher chance of people being caught and punished for their everyday shit driving. I'm sure as a cyclist that every single time you go out on your bike you will have a dozen or more times when you think "that would have been a nasty accident if someone was coming the other direction". Eventually, when bad behaviour suffers no consequences it becomes completely normalised. Then we struggle to treat it as anything but a normal, unavoidable accident when that bad behaviour does incur consequences.
Drivers regularly pull out in front of me and cause me to slam on the brakes or avoid them. Very often they have seen me and just assume I'm not going very fast or they assume I will slow down/stop (which I do). Too many drivers don't look for cyclists, hate giving way to them or expect the cyclist to be moving slowly and just pull out.
@Rendel Harris By the time someone is looking at prison time its too late. As has been proven time and time again, the severity of punishment is a poor deterrent to bad behaviour if people don't think its going to happen to them or they don't think they will be caught. Now I do think that there should be far more severe and immediate punishments for bad driving when drivers are caught but this would need to be coupled with a massive push to actually act on information/proof of bad driving. As anyone that submits footage to the police knows, its a crapshoot and certain police forces are anti-cyclist. This would try to essentially put people off misbehaving whilst driving before they cause an accident rather than getting the tired old excuse of "it was a single dangerous incident, they definitely don't do this all the time and their luck finally ran out". Perhaps it should go even further and if you have a history of speeding and you hurt someone speeding, that is looked upon in a very dim light.
Can we talk about “Washing up liquid contains a lot of salt – not a great idea to use a corrosive substance on a bicycle”? This is an urban myth. I have washed all of our many bikes using Fairy liquid or Ecover for decades. I’ve never found any evidence of corrosion, paint, laquer or decal wear, or any sign of anything. I regularly service forks and bearings, swapping a lot of gear, and everything has always been fine. Here’s far too much info below - long story short, Fairy liquid in 5L of hot water has a borderline-homeopathic amount of salt, it’s fine to use on a bike. ============ The honest answer is that neither Fairy nor Ecover publicly disclose the actual sodium chloride concentration in the consumer products I could find. The safety data sheets list hazardous ingredients above reporting thresholds, but sodium chloride is not reported for either product. However, we can put some realistic bounds on it. Fairy Original The SDS lists: Sodium laureth sulfate: 20-30% Lauramine oxide: 5-10% Alcohol: 1-5% No sodium chloride is declared. 15 In detergent formulations, sodium chloride is commonly used as a viscosity modifier (thickener) and is typically present at around 0.5-3%, sometimes lower. The absence of declaration suggests it is either not present or present at a low concentration that does not require reporting. This range is an informed formulation estimate, not a value stated by Fairy. Ecover The Ecover ingredient information lists: Sodium lauryl sulfate Lauryl glucoside Cocamidopropyl betaine Alcohol Lactic acid Sodium octyl sulphate Again, no sodium chloride is listed. Ecover's formulations tend to rely more heavily on plant-derived surfactants and may use little or no salt for thickening, but I could not find a published concentration. 63 What does this mean for bike washing? Let's assume a worst-case 3% salt content in Fairy. If you add: 10 mL Fairy to a 5-litre bucket Then salt introduced would be approximately: 10 mL × 3% ≈ 0.3 g salt Distributed through 5 L water ≈ 60 mg/L salt For comparison: Typical seawater: ~35,000 mg/L Lightly salted winter road spray: often hundreds to thousands of mg/L The wash bucket above: ~60 mg/L So even under a pessimistic assumption, the salt concentration is hundreds to thousands of times lower than the salt exposure your bike gets from winter roads. From a corrosion perspective, the quantity of salt introduced by washing-up liquid is essentially negligible compared with: Riding on salted roads Coastal spray Leaving winter grime on the bike Therefore my practical conclusion remains: ✅ Fairy or Ecover in a wash bucket is extremely unlikely to contribute any measurable corrosion risk. ✅ The important thing is rinsing and drying afterwards. ✅ Winter road salt is the real enemy, not washing-up liquid.
Another example of a driver's actions that would have been a straight fail in a driving test but is barely likely to lead to a disqualification... I'm wondering if having a driving licence is like a "Get out of jail free" card...
Yes indeed. I have a version of the R8100 and you definitively need ceramic for the socket.
@perce I'm not sure I agree with that. I think thats just confirming that he is take fully responsibility and recognises that the cyclist could have done nothing to mitigate it.
If we don't fight it now, we'll all end up forced to wear baggy shorts!
29 thoughts on “Live blog: Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils; Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint (+more vid of sprint crash), Wiggo ‘bike drop’, Hunt newsletter fail + save, Holly Willoughby on overtaking cyclists + more”
Brailsford hands lolz
Brailsford hands lolz
Holly, it is nice you feel
Holly, it is nice you feel concern when passing cyclists, but NOT passing them is also unsafe. I get sick of being intimidated by motorists waiting over my shoulder and not passing. I don’t need you to go completely onto the other side of the road, “Just Drive Forward!” For every timid driver who won’t pass you are bottling up two assholes behind you who will immediately pass closely even if not safe. The inconsistency is the problem, and you are part of the problem because you are not confident in your ability to drive safely. Take an Advanced Driving course if you have to, but get off my shoulder.
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Surely it’s about time DS
Surely it’s about time DS were prevented from driving team cars whilst on the radio and well, directing the race?
Sends completely the wrong message about distracted driving.
So am I enraged by Brompton
So am I enraged by Brompton guy?!?! He says cycling has been saved by mamils on the weekend but moans that it’s dead as a transport choice!! Who is he blaming?!?!?
Do I burn my brompton or what?!?!? It’s only a couple months old, I’d rather not. But if it’s for the greater mamil good…
…else I suppose I could lycra up when I ride it just to piss him off….
StoopidUserName wrote:
Yes, I wondered about the wisdom of pissing off your customers; not generally accepted as a good business plan.
burtthebike wrote:
See his clarification today – there’s no way he’s dissing anyone for cycling.
cougie wrote:
I was being a bit tongue in cheek there. I didn’t click through to the torygraph because…its the torygraph and the quotes in this article didn’t seem to be blaming anyone, just the headline made it look that way
burtthebike wrote:
Loving the double, triple and quadruple posts on the forum. Excellent software.
He could have a point about
He could have a point about the MAMIL’s on Ride London day I am always wary of the 4X4 with bikes on the back, you just know that they are going to do something they would compalin about if it happened to them!
Especially directed to the pillocks in the Range Rover that cut across me at the lights just after Battersea Dog’s home.
FFS, MAMILS are not the
FFS, MAMILS are not the problem. They make up a tiny percentage of all cyclists (and quite a small fraction of people who wear Lycra, people who are middle aged and cycle, and people who are both, if you take MAMIL to mean a very particular kind of cyclist). They are an excuse and an easy target for ridicule so that people can justify their prejudice. The problem is the constant failure to challenge incorrect views and the average person having a very poor understanding of the law and poor ability to drive. Some cyclists do give a bad image, and on my experience most of those are not people in Lycra but people on knackered, poorly maintained, old bikes who wear “normal” clothes. They tend to be the ones that cycle in a dangerous and inconsiderate way. But also they are generally only a risk to themselves and other cyclists, and no one lumps equally bad drivers and pedestrians together in the same way.
John Smith wrote:
Abolutely this.
I have to declare an interest here, I’m not a MAMIL, more an OAMIL, or OMIL for short. That won’t change any time soon. I hope also to be doing 100 mph on my commute tomorrow.
John Smith wrote:
As someone on [what looks like a] knackered, poorly maintained old bike, who wears “normal” clothes, I take exception to your generalisation.
That would be like me saying that all roadies are arrogant competitive sociopaths. And I wouldn’t say that.
We are all individuals
brooksby wrote:
I’m not
HawkinsPeter wrote:
Remember you are unique… just like everyone else 🙂
I am staggered at Mr Brompton
I am staggered at Mr Brompton’s comments – does he think that people who buy his bikes don’t think of themselves as cyclists, and never wear cycling clothes? And that triathletes saved cycling? FFS what a clueless arse hole. I’ve always thought Bromptons were a well engineered but over priced solution to a problem that only exists for a small portion of commuter-cyclists and his attitude to the wider world of cycling makes me doubt his business brain
Cyclists are not the problem,
Cyclists are not the problem. The people who think cyclists are a problem are the problem.
Will Butler-Adams, your
Will Butler-Adams, your statement about mamils was about as accurate as a cheap chinese watch – how absurd of you to abuse fellow cyclists in this way. Personally, I have always thought your bikes are absurd and I for one will never buy one.
Well well, I’m not sure what
Well well, I’m not sure what a Mamil really is – maybe I am one, i’m Middle aged and I wear Lycra when riding my road bike – which I do despite the absolute twats that drive. I have a load of bikes (it’s my hobby), two of which are Bromptons, which I bought despite their ridiculously high price because I wanted to support a British company – all my bikes are from British companies – however I can assure Mr Butler-Adams that the next folding bike I buy (for my daughter) will NOT be a Brompton you bigoted gammon faced twat! I look forward to this being his ratner moment…
that is all
Ridiculous rant by brompton
Ridiculous rant by brompton guy, he sounds like a typical moton, I’m not impressed with the actions of some people on bikes as well but that compared to the actions of far more wankers actually in killing machines is miniscule.
Not quite a ‘ratners’ moment but the potential damage to his business as well as sterotyping cyclists to confirm to the retarded daily heil mob doesn’t leave it too far short!
I stopped reading Brompton
I stopped reading Brompton man’s rant at “They whizz along at 100mph”. Could have come straight out of the DM comments.
Brompton boss. On the one
Brompton boss. On the one side (Brompton) you would think that he would be ok, being big cheese of a bike company and all. On the other hand (boss) you can picture his fat, red face behind the wheel of an executive twat-mobile-Audi.
And no, MAMILS are not the problem. Motorist killing and maiming without risk or fear of punishment is the problem.
Anyone who is taking the
Anyone who is taking the Brompton comments at face value is a fool.
Go google the guy and check out his talks. He LOVES cycling. He lives for it.
Typical newspaper making things out to be confrontational where there is none.
He’s clarified the comments today so you can all go put out the flames of your melted Bromptons.
I’ve been a road cyclist for over 35 years but my Brompton gives me more pleasure than my CF speed machines. Fantastic fun.