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Live blog: Trump motorcade sees cyclists (but not drivers) kettled on NYC bridge bike path, some hop barrier to use roadway; Wiggins: Team Sky mechanic would have been sacked over Campenaerts TT bike-swap (+ remember his 2009 Worlds TT woes?) + more

All today's news from the site and beyond as we start a new week.....
20 May 2019, 16:08
“Unlawfully detained” – NYC cyclists (but not drivers) kettled on bridge’s bike path as Trump motorcade passes below

New York City cyclists riding over the Queensboro Bridge, which spans the East River to link Manhattan with Queens, were held by police and secret service officers on Friday morning to let President Donald Trump pass on the roadway below.

Drivers using the upper-deck lanes adjacent to the bike path on the two-tier structure – also known as the 59th Street Bridge, made famous by Simon & Garfunkel – were not subjected to similar treatment, reports Streetblog in a comprehensive report that you can find here.

That led some cyclists who had been told they faced delays of up to 45 minutes to hoist their bikes over the guardrail and mix it with motor vehicles, with one commuter and cycling campaigner saying, “We felt we were being unlawfully detained — and unjustly because it was about our mode of transport.”

20 May 2019, 15:22
Bring back tri bars?

Mr Dowsett has a fair point, since it's a common sight to see riders with their hands out in front as if they have clip-ons bolted on anyway... should they just be reintroduced à la draft-legal triathlon?

20 May 2019, 15:16
What ya been smoking, UCI?

In the vaguest way possible, the UCI have managed to find an angle to mention the most talked about/most moaned about fantasy drama television series in a generation on their Twitter feed. Chapeau, sort of... 

20 May 2019, 12:57
Wiggins chips in on Campenaerts saying a Sky mechanic would have lost their job (and we look back at his own TT bike change disaster)

Sir Bradley Wiggins has chipped in on the discussion of the botched bike change yesterday that almost certainly cost Lotto-Soudal’s Victor Campenaerts victory at the Stage 9 time trial at the Giro d’Italia, saying on his Eurosport podcast that if it had happened to a Team Sky rider, it would have cost the mechanic his job.

Wiggins is eminently qualified to comment on yesterday’s misfortune for the Belgian, who last month broke his UCI Hour record – you may recall that riding in the colours of Great Britain, he had his own bike change disaster in a high-profile time trial a decade ago.

Still in the hunt for the bronze medal at the 2009 UCI Road World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where Fabian Cancellara powered to victory on home roads, Wiggins fell victim to a mechanical on the final lap.

In his report for the Guardian at the time, William Fotheringham described how the British rider, who would finish 21st, “was unable to get a rapid bike change because his car had been held up behind riders who were following him on the course.

“Clearly livid, he threw his bike down in disgust and was left standing by the roadside, with one sympathetic Swiss fan tapping him on the shoulder,” Fotheringham added. “It cannot have cheered him up in the slightest: his race was over in the cruellest possible way.”

 

20 May 2019, 12:26
Giro first-timers Mikkel Honoré and James Knox discuss their experience so far

The Deceuninck Quick-Step riders give us an insight of what it's like to ride a Grand Tour for the first time, and how more experienced riders on the team have helped them out so far. Definitely worth a few minutes of your lunch break.

20 May 2019, 11:45
Giro Stage 9 ITT - juicy Strava stats
giro strava thomas de gendt

The riders had to dig pretty deep on the tough 34.7km course, having to deal with a 5.2km section at an average gradient of 7% after the opening 22km. Thomas de Gendt's Strava file shown he put out a massive 419 watts for the course, topping out at 773 watts... And that was only good enough for 18th place. 

giro strava o connor

The highest-placing rider we could find who made a Strava upload was Ben O'Connor of Team Dimension Data, who finished 17th. He rode the 5km climb section at an average of 423 watts, and averaged 397 watts overall. 

 

20 May 2019, 11:09
NMotD 276
Actions speak louder than words

Thames Valley Police have launched an operation targeting close passing drivers - although they didn't act against the motorist responsible for the shocker featured in our latest Near Miss of the Day ...

20 May 2019, 10:36
Reclaiming the streets

For some reason no one seems to question it when a skip appears at the side of the road... so these cunnings chaps have covertly turned one into a bike storage facility. Of course when some people found out what the skip was they couldn't get their head around this break with societal norms, apparently.

20 May 2019, 10:36
Review: Ribble SLe
road e-bikes, electronic road bikes,

Ribble have nailed e-road at the first time of asking according to the review over on eBikeTips... check it out here

20 May 2019, 10:02
Feather Cycles celebrates 10th birthday with ride-out in July
Feather_Bike

Feather Cycles has been producing some of the finest and most beautifully crafted bikes for the last 10 years and to mark this milestone the York-based company is having a day of celebration on 27th July. “The first ten years of Feather Cycles has been amazing. I’ve been lucky to be supported by some fantastic customers who have been super fun to work with on some really interesting projects.” Ricky further added, “These celebrations are an opportunity for me to say thank you to those who have supported me as well to show how far the business has come in 10 years,” says founder Ricky Feather. There’ll be a nice 40 mile ride followed by pizza and drinks, and the celebrations includes workshop tours and screening of short films featuring bikes made by Feather. Rapha will be producing a special 10th anniversary jersey and shorts available to pre-order at the event as well as t-shirts. “I really cannot wait to see all the Feather bikes together in one place and see so many old and new friends,” adds Ricky, “This promises to be a really fun filled day which I’m really excited about.”

20 May 2019, 08:35
Yes, definitely stick to cycling...

Every now and then a video surfaces of cyclists trying to play football, and every time it's gloriously bad. This time, it's Bora-Hansgrohe. 

20 May 2019, 08:17
Victor Campenaerts bike change catastrophe costs him TT stage win

If you ever find yourself in a position where you need to switch bikes on a time trial, however rare a situation that is, this is exactly not how to do it. The new hour record holder estimated that the bike change fiasco cost him at least 30 seconds, and surely would have won the stage if the catalogue of errors hadn't had occurred. Following a mechanical he swapped to a road bike for the climb, and his team mechanic attempted to give him a helpful shove before he’d managed to swing his leg over the top tube and get in the saddle. The mechanic's push wasn't exactly effective, and a fan then took over to give Campenaerts an extra bit of momentum. 

20 May 2019, 08:10
Tour of California - what a save

The final stage was one for the sprinters, and just coming in to the finish one rider took a nasty tumble which meant some pretty impressive evasive action from those around him - skip to 2:38 in the video above to see it unfold. 

The overall victory went to 20-year-old Tadej Pogačar, who was given a teddy bear instead of champagne on the podium because he's too young to drink in the states...

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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12 comments

Avatar
handlebarcam | 4 years ago
3 likes

Even the worst US presidents used to do at least one useful thing for their citizens: they provided a target for nutters with an axe to grind. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley all died, sadly, but better one figurehead than dozens or hundreds of people. Then Kennedy was assassinated, the USA went nuts, and presidents are now protected by a small army, conveyed everywhere in tank-like limousines, and large parts of cities are shut down whenever they visit. You'd think the election of a walking blob of fetid pond-scum like Trump would provide an opportunity for a rethink.

Avatar
Organon replied to handlebarcam | 4 years ago
0 likes

handlebarcam wrote:

Even the worst US presidents used to do at least one useful thing for their citizens: they provided a target for nutters with an axe to grind. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley all died, sadly, but better one figurehead than dozens or hundreds of people. Then Kennedy was assassinated, the USA went nuts, and presidents are now protected by a small army, conveyed everywhere in tank-like limousines, and large parts of cities are shut down whenever they visit. You'd think the election of a walking blob of fetid pond-scum like Trump would provide an opportunity for a rethink.

That is a rather poor reading of the job description of US President. Trump might be the literal worse, but letting people shoot him is probably not a good idea. He is at least ineffectual. And Reagan broke the curse. 

Avatar
brooksby | 4 years ago
3 likes

I remember years ago being stopped on my commute over the Avonmouth motorway bridge. Two police were stopping all the cyclists and checking their bags for "anything which might affect the fabric of the bridge " because there was a nato conference in Newport and some of the world leaders would be driving over the bridge.

Weird thing was, they weren't stopping all the motor traffic with its onboard tank of petrol... Pretty sure that would affect the fabric of the bridge if it caught fire...

Avatar
bigbiker101 | 4 years ago
1 like

Wiggins talks so much crap, you have to ask yourself why the hell did Campenaerts suddenly decide he was a runner and head off up the road without getting on his bik firste, get on your bike and let the mechanic push you, not run after you because you decided to become a runner, this isn't the mechanics fault, it is Campenaerts.

Avatar
peted76 replied to bigbiker101 | 4 years ago
0 likes

bigbiker101 wrote:

Wiggins talks so much crap, you have to ask yourself why the hell did Campenaerts suddenly decide he was a runner and head off up the road without getting on his bik firste, get on your bike and let the mechanic push you, not run after you because you decided to become a runner, this isn't the mechanics fault, it is Campenaerts.

Disagree, the mechanic was on the wrong side of Campenaerts, gave it him in the wrong cog and pushed 'him' when he wasn't on the bike, then, stopped pushing when he got on the bike. In motorsport when stuff goes wrong like that sponsors pull out, which is why they make sure a catalogue of errors doesn't happen. 

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to peted76 | 4 years ago
1 like

peted76 wrote:

Disagree, the mechanic was on the wrong side of Campenaerts, gave it him in the wrong cog and pushed 'him' when he wasn't on the bike, then, stopped pushing when he got on the bike. In motorsport when stuff goes wrong like that sponsors pull out, which is why they make sure a catalogue of errors doesn't happen. 

There were errors on both sides. Most bikes are in top cogs, hence the pushing.  They maybe should have thought about changing it down when loading onto the car due to it being a plan to swap to that bike on the climb only but I suppose as they didn't know when the swap was.....

And then they both panicked as the worst time to have a mechanical is a TT when he was obviously leading. The mechanic was pushing the moving man and bike but Campenaerts was deciding to run and try a CX mount instead of a getting on normally. 

Avatar
ChrisB200SX | 4 years ago
0 likes

That mechanic handed over the bike and it was in the big chainring, not even on the lowest gear either!

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
4 likes

The latest Danny MacAskill video, featuring Danny being Danny with kiddie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0CmnxuTaQ&list=WL&index=8&t=0s

Avatar
kil0ran replied to ktache | 4 years ago
1 like

ktache wrote:

The latest Danny MacAskill video, featuring Danny being Danny with kiddie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0CmnxuTaQ&list=WL&index=8&t=0s

So.Much.Awesome (with a liberal dollop of kawaii)

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
1 like

Marquez is good, but I think we will find out if he's the GOAT in a decade or twos time.

Yes, you guessed right, I'm a big Rossi fan.

Avatar
kil0ran replied to ktache | 4 years ago
0 likes

ktache wrote:

Marquez is good, but I think we will find out if he's the GOAT in a decade or twos time.

Yes, you guessed right, I'm a big Rossi fan.

Me too - since the 125 days. Marquez reminds me of him back then. Like Rossi he's revolutionised how you ride a motorcycle.

Providing he stays healthy and motivated he'll break Rossi's records. It's like Rossi moving to Yamaha at the moment - Honda isn't the best bike on the grid and hasn't been for the last two seasons at least yet Marc is riding it so far beyond its limits it's still winning.

Avatar
kil0ran | 4 years ago
1 like

Even the GOAT gets it wrong sometimes

https://youtu.be/i7Ahxoe7fus

(This is how he rolls now)

https://youtu.be/iwaoT8aeVbU

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