Welcome to your midweek live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Luke Rowe leaves Twitter after accusation of making white supremacist sign; Caleb Ewan wins Giro stage in Fausto Coppi’s home town; Olympic triathlete Stuart Hayes hit by deer in Richmond Park; Lord Sugar gets a new e-bike + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, May 22, 2019 18:40
SUMMARY
22 May 2019, 18:40
Wearing the Maglia Rosa < getting to sign your own Panini sticker
There’s a Panini sticker book for the Giro this year, and it looks like signing them is becoming part and parcel of the post-stage press conferences.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Lord Sugar is all fired up to be riding his new Corratec e-bike
Just taken delivery of the Carratec electric bike. Did 20 miles along the cycle lane in Palma . Brilliant machine @corratec_1990 pic.twitter.com/98w1PFoUUS
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) May 20, 2019
After flirting with high-end Pinarellos (before moaning about being stuck in traffic after taking delivery of his last one because of Cycling Superhighways, apparently) it seems Lord Sugar has embraced the motor on his new ride.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Deery me... Olympian Stuart Hayes hit by deer in Richmond Park
O Deer!! Been cycling in Richmond park for 25 years and only heard stories of the wild life taking out cyclists/runners but today I was a victim, thank you @NHSuk for looking after me pic.twitter.com/oZtNr4wwPA
— MAGIC STU (@StuHayes13) May 21, 2019
Being taken out by a deer while cycling is the stuff of nightmares, and last night the latest victim was former pro triathlete and coach Stuart Hayes. Two hours ago he updated his Twitter followers saying he’s waiting for a CT scan, but hopefully he will make a speedy recovery.
Hayes competed in the London 2012 Olympics, where he played a domestique roll on the swim and bike legs to pave the way for Alistair Brownlee to take the gold medal. He is now a coach at Team Dillon coaching with his wife Michelle Dillon, also a former pro.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Luke Rowe leaves Twitter after being called a white supremacist...
Thanks twitter been a laugh, I’m outta here
— Luke Rowe (@LukeRowe1990) May 22, 2019
Ever since Team Sky began winning bike races, their riders have come in for a lot of abuse on Twitter. It seems enough is enough for Welshman Luke Rowe who has waved goodbye to the trolls after being accused of being a white supremacist.
Rowe was pictured with on the Team Ineos camper van with his teammates. The gesture that he’s making with his left hand is a classic schoolboy prank where anyone caught looking at it got a punch on the arm. This prank, known as the circle game, has been around since the 80s and featured on Malcolm in the Middle.
The ‘OK’ gesture as it’s commonly known hit headlines after users of forum 4chan started using it on social media. “The Boston Globe reported that users on 4chan’s /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board were instructed in February 2017 to ‘flood Twitter and other social media websites…claiming that the OK hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy,’ as part of a campaign dubbed ‘Operation O-KKK’”.
So, is Luke Rowe a white supremacist? No.
22 May 2019, 18:40
It's not quite RIP for rim brake bikes...
…but their days might be numbered. We’ve had a look at the market to see what your choices are if you don’t want disc brake and prefer rim brakes, and well there are still lots of options but fewer than you might imagine.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Everybody loves a sequel…
The most useless profile sticker. Episode 2 pic.twitter.com/uIS5wwmtKl
— Thomas De Gendt (@DeGendtThomas) May 22, 2019
… Especially Thomas de Gendt at the Giro. Belt ‘n’ braces though with that and his SRM PC8
22 May 2019, 18:40
If cyclists were tortoises and drivers were hares...
‘One day a Hare was boasting about how fast he could run. He was laughing at the Tortoise for being so slow. Much to the Hare’s surprise, the Tortoise challenged him to a race.’
~Fable of Aesop (on ingenuity) pic.twitter.com/v9W8jukbd3— Cycling Professor (@fietsprofessor) May 21, 2019
22 May 2019, 18:40
The next time someone tells you cycle lanes are a waste of money...
Just how empty is this cycle lane? #London #Cycling #CycleSuperhighway #CS6 pic.twitter.com/l1R2ciRWMM
— Streetcam London (@streetcamlondon) May 22, 2019
Show them this.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Giro latest - sprinters are lining up
.@CalebEwan”You don’t see often so many sprinters winning in one race” | @CalebEwan ”Non si vedono spesso così tanti velocisti vincere in un GT”. #Giro pic.twitter.com/6L6tKYpox9
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 22, 2019
There’s around 35km to go, and a three man breakaway is about a minute ahead. One of those, Marco Frapporti, has already completed over 800km just in breakaways so far over the opening 11 stages.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Weird flex but ok, Mario...
Sram Red AXS, Campag Bora wheels, in the small ring?? We were initially surprised and puzzled to see Sram’s 12 speed groupset on a Campagnolo wheelset, but it appears there is already an XDR freehub for Campag and Fulcrum wheels following a quick interweb search.
22 May 2019, 18:40
Giro d'Italia Stage 11: Caleb Ewan wins in Fausto Coppi's home town
Caleb Ewan of Lotto-Soudal has won Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia in Novi Ligure today, the last but one sprint stage of this year’s edition, with the race heading into the Alps tomorrow. It’s the Australian’s second stage win of this year’s race. Valerio Conti of UAE Team Emirates retains the overall lead.
As yesterday the break – today comprising three home riders, each representing one of the Italian UCI Professional Continental teams with wild card invitations to the race – was swept up early, with the catch made with 25 kilometres remaining of the 221-kilometre stage from Carpi.
For the second day running, it was a pan-flat stage, today running from west to east along the Po Valley, with the final 40 or so kilometres taking in roads raced in the early part of Milan-San Remo as the peloton heads towards the Passo del Turchino and, beyond it, the Ligurian Coast.
That race was won three times by Fausto Coppi, whose home town of Novi Ligure provided the stage finish today and il Campionissimo will also be remembered tomorrow by a stage that starts and finishes in the same two towns – Cuneo and Pinerolo – as the stage he won by almost 12 minutes after a solo break on his way to winning the 1949 Giro.
Result and reaction to follow.
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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
mark1a 6 minutes ago
@Backladder Oh I think I can guess - the nearest indoor velodrome to road.cc HQ looks to be some distance away in Wales, whereas Odd Down Cycle Track (where this test was conducted) is just 2 miles away.
Cugel 9 minutes ago
There are a number of causes of "the divide between motorists and cyclists". Only one is to do with the technology (of bicycles and cars) and that's the nature of the car, which is designed to induce the sort of dangerous and careless behaviours that providing humans with a lot of power and glamour fetches out of us. Other causes are much more insidious - A culture of hyper-individualism bordering on solipsism, with violently ultra-selfish and aggressive anti-heroes being promoted in every mass media channel as the ideal. A "news" media that overwhelmingly seeks, creates and offers pariahs and scapegoats to the rabid individualists, which pariahs and scapegoats includes all kinds of those perceived as less powerful and therefore easy victims, including cyclists. The near complete lack of any curb upon the dangerous antics of vast numbers of media-maddened motorists by the forces of law and order, many of whom are actually members themselves of the mass media maddened motorist ilk. ******** No amount of a more rational discourse about active travel or the means of making it safer will change these root causes of the vast numbers of deaths and maiming due to inept, incompetent and deliberately violent antics of vast numbers of motorists allowed their dangerous "weapons of choice". Yet many other highly damaging aspects of modern societies would be solved by a much more effective curbing of mass media mob-building and goading along with a serious attempt to prevent motorists and a whole range of other damagers from behaving as badly as so many do. It'll not happen, of course. Large and powerful elements of the modern world obtain far too much ultra-riches and power from current conditions for them to allow any significant change. And vast numbers of the population have long had their minds, attitudes and behaviours captured and directed by various oligarchical monsters and their mass media propaganda horns. About the only chance of safe active travel becoming extant is for the population at large to become mostly too poor to afford a car, ironically one other likely outcome of the machinations of those same power and money-mad monsters that have created the car-issue in the first place. Their need for zero-sum socio-economic arrangements degrades everything, including the wallet-contents of the masses.
Rendel Harris 27 minutes ago
@Astralstroll The hierarchy of road users does not mean priority of road users except in certain circumstances, e.g. stopping to let pedestrians cross junctions before turning. It doesn't mean that cyclists have priority over motor vehicles at all times any more than the pedestrians have priority over cyclists at all times. It certainly doesn't mean that you have priority in the circumstances you describe; personally, unless the driver is being a complete dick, on a narrow country lane I accept that it is easier for me to turn around and go back to the nearest passing place, which is never that far if you're on a bike, than for a tractor or other large vehicle to reverse back down the road for my benefit.
Backladder 29 minutes ago
If you were spending that much money on the device the obvious thing to do is to book a couple of hours in a velodrome for testing in a stable environment, I can't understand why Road.cc tried to do it outdoors.
kinderje 30 minutes ago
@chrisonabike 'Minimisation' please!
wtjs 50 minutes ago
@Astralstroll The Hierarchy of Road Users, announced with great fanfares in 2022, has been rendered into complete fiction by the attitude of the police: there is this hierarchy/ priority list but we don't take it seriously and if drivers ignore it we don't care! The same applies to the ludicrous notice of close-passing - No KSI'd cyclist = No Offence ttps://upride.cc/incident/lwa190_minicooper_hierarchy/
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
Hope Barcelona keep the transport improvements (they've been making for a while) coming! Better streets, more infra to help active travel where necessary. And while it's a major investment (though can be lower operating cost than busses) maybe more trams where they can. That may be more effective in making places active travel friendly and replacing taxis than mass public bike hire. They've a good start with 6 lines already.
chrisonabike 1 hour ago
I think this is a positive story. They're not getting rid of public hire bikes - they're expanding their in-house one. They're merely kicking out cowboys who've shown they've a lack of interest in the game they claim to be playing. It seems logical that companies whose business model is to extract (venture capital) money by invading public space are even less likely to make the efforts to keep things in order than a local "in house" scheme. (After all the "bikes and riding" part of these schemes always *costs* money, they don't generate it.) So not surprising their experience shows those firms are not particularly motivated to follow the rules - especially when scrapping for "market share". It's nice the European Cyclists’ Federation is thinking about tourists also (i hesitate to say "follow the money...") - as they note, where it's safe to cycle locals will largely get their own bikes. Tourists aren't going to stop coming because lack of public bike share - I think this is mostly a "nice to have" ("hey - why don't we go on one of those bikes there? ").
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
Harm minimization - at least they're not driving...
Gm_Crop 10 hours ago
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
35 thoughts on “Live blog: Luke Rowe leaves Twitter after accusation of making white supremacist sign; Caleb Ewan wins Giro stage in Fausto Coppi’s home town; Olympic triathlete Stuart Hayes hit by deer in Richmond Park; Lord Sugar gets a new e-bike + more”
I once rode into a deer, in
I once rode into a deer, in the dark, in Richmond Park. They are fairly solid, and easily annoyed.
Hit pheasant last week, took
Hit pheasant last week, took off from the undergrowth at side of road and i clipped it with my right hand/bar. Was pretty sore and caused a speed wobble as was going downhill at around 25 mph. Last night just missed deer and a rabbit, both of speedy downhills!
Could have had a good stew if i got them all.
Must have been one of those
Must have been one of those no eye deers.
My front spokes decapitated a
My front spokes decapitated a butterfly over the weekend, heart breaking times!
alansmurphy wrote:
So the answer to Alexander Pope’s question is ‘alanmurphy’. Finally cleared that one up!
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Brilliant.
alansmurphy wrote:
and caused and typhoon in the China sea.
burtthebike wrote:
Quote:
Am I naive, in that I would use that as either “OK” or “Be seeing you!” (depending on the company)? I wouldn’t have known for a second that it was a white power symbol…
(And, my kids do the hitting-each-other-on-the-arm thing too, but I’d never heard of that before either).
brooksby wrote:
It’s also American Sign Language for “arsehole”.
brooksby wrote:
Thats what it is/was (meaning ‘ok’) but….
The shitposting, basement dwelling, unwashed, incel edgelords that reside on some of the festering arsehole places of the internet (4chan, 8chan…. really, dont go there) thought it would be funny to appropriate certain symbols and then post everywhere that it is a symbol of white supremacy / far right movements.
The press then picked up on it and instead of saying “oh look, the worst people in society are trying to bait us into something”, they instead run with it and next thing you know, all these various previously innocuous things are associated with the far right.
Then you have donkey-brained fuckwits like Luke Rowe, who being one of millions of dumb meme consuming children who grew up on the internet, think its really funny to do this in photos without realising exactly what it is he is doing. Shit hits fan.
For those that say that its still an innocuous thing, just remember that the swastika and the sauwastika were (and still are) Indian symbols of good luck but were appropriated and now mean something else.
zanf wrote:
Thats what it is/was (meaning ‘ok’) but….
The shitposting, basement dwelling, unwashed, incel edgelords that reside on some of the festering arsehole places of the internet (4chan, 8chan…. really, dont go there) thought it would be funny to appropriate certain symbols and then post everywhere that it is a symbol of white supremacy / far right movements.
The press then picked up on it and instead of saying “oh look, the worst people in society are trying to bait us into something”, they instead run with it and next thing you know, all these various previously innocuous things are associated with the far right.
Then you have donkey-brained fuckwits like Luke Rowe, who being one of millions of dumb meme consuming children who grew up on the internet, think its really funny to do this in photos without realising exactly what it is he is doing. Shit hits fan.
For those that say that its still an innocuous thing, just remember that the swastika and the sauwastika were (and still are) Indian symbols of good luck but were appropriated and now mean something else.— brooksby
Damn, that’s irritating behaviour all-round.
Can it not somehow be put about that MAGA is a secret code for expressing support for the Islamification of the west?
FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:
Can it not somehow be put about that MAGA is a secret code for expressing support for the Islamification of the west?— FluffyKittenofTindalos
What MAGA should be associated with is… look up Jeffery Epstein, who his friends are, who got him a really good plea deal and who that person works for now and who said he was ‘…a great guy. The bestest guy’ (probably).
If Luke Rowe didnt know what he was doing and what it has come to mean, then he needs to get up to speed really fucking quickly.
zanf wrote:
God, the US system is so corrupt, and it’s not just Trump.
I’m not sure about “what it has come to mean”, though. Should the alt-right be allowed to just take an existing symbol for themselves?
There’s something quite devious about the way the right employ mock-irony and faux-trolling for plausible deniability. This quasi-appropriation of an existing inoccuous gesture seems entirely typical. Sow confusion and dischord among those who don’t in fact support you, while being able to signal to your own, at the same time as acting innocent.
zanf wrote:
Very unfair both on Luke Rowe and on young people. Given the comments on this article, he’s not the only person who had no idea that the OK/zero/Don’tLookGame hand signal had been appropriated by internet-dwelling morons. By simply leaving Twitter and not reacting, I think he’s actually shown maturity. How many people who live in the real world actually frequent 4chan (which I’ve heard of) and 8chan (which I haven’t) anyway? It’s going to be awkward next time I go diving…
By the way, you’ll see swastikas of various designs throughout South and Southeast Asia, where its appropriation by the Nazis is either ignored or not widely known; it continues to be used with its original meaning, same as Luke Rowe was doing here, without anyone being accused of supporting Hitler.
srchar wrote:
All very true, but there has always been a group of people who have to be offended at something, even if it is innocuous to most people. Unless it is clearly a deliberate attempt to be fascist, racist, or whatever -ist, then relax, take a breath and tell yourself it really doesn’t matter compared to the rest of the shit we have to deal with every day.
zanf wrote:
I must also be a donkey brained fuckwith for not knowing some internet dwelling right wingers have appropriated a hand sign that’s in common usage and still has other innocuous meaning to the vast majority of the rest of the western world’s population.
In fact, the more this donkey brained fuckwith thinks about it, the more I think the biggest donkey brained fuckwits are those people who a) allow rightwing donkey brained fuckwits to appropriate things from them and suck them into being offended b) thinks everyone else who doesn’t even know or care about these right wing idiots is a donkey brained fuckwit.
They may have appropriated the sign from you, but they haven’t appropriated it from me thanks all the same. Right wing internet dwellers are currently drinking beer and laughing that internet snowflakes have been successfully swayed into being offended by someone using this sign.
and Luke Rowe is probably more interested in riding his bike than learning about right wingers approriating a wanking gesture.
Nick W wrote:
this guy right here, gets it.
From a quick check, rkemb, I
From a quick check, rkemb, I understand that is the case, no wonder the nasty fascists use it to acknowledge each other.
Anyone remember Fox news
Anyone remember Fox news accusing the Obamas of performing a “terrorist fist bump”?
“Then you have donkey-brained
“Then you have donkey-brained fuckwits like Luke Rowe, who being one of millions of dumb meme consuming children who grew up on the internet, think its really funny to do this in photos without realising exactly what it is he is doing”
that makes no sense, he is the oppersite to what you describe because he doesn’t realise that symbol has been appropriated in the way it has.
As a membase beginer (basically the begining of meme-times) even i didn’t know the symbol had been appropriated like that, and your right, don’t go to 8Chan/4Chan and shame on the media being tards and not doing any actual fact based investiagtion on claims like this with out evidence.
Deer should have number
Deer should have number plates, insurance and wear hi-viz.
PRSboy wrote:
Are you a ‘civic leader’?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/cows-could-fitted-lights-hi-6131963
The “OK” hand gesture is used
The “OK” hand gesture is used in scuba diving where the thumbs up signal means something entirely different and potentially dangerous if you have a misunderstanding.
Answer is not to let the facists appropriate our signs and symbols. I hated it when the BNP appropriated the Union Jack and there was a time when displaying our own national flag was almost considered an act of racism. Fortunately the 2012 Olympics finally put paid to that stupidity and it was cool to wear the flag again.
This “OK” thing is the fault of the stupid MSM. Maybe there should be a show of strength by high profile sports people and celebrities to reclaim it, rather than letting the wannabe nazis have it.
White supremacists can have this sign from me.
Fluffy, I have ridden over
Fluffy, I have ridden over Hungerford common, it is on the NCN4 (and as I discovered yesterday EuroVelo2) I was both charmed and suprised to see roaming cattle. It was a lovely bit of the world. Damn those speeding motorists.
I’m guessing that the New Forest people will have to do the same thing with their ponies, after they sort out their problems with those pesky cyclists.
Who the **** reads 4chan?
Who the **** reads 4chan?
Organon wrote:
Not me though that’s more of a political protest against their choice of space cargo:
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/4chan-b-baby-squirrels-rocket-launch/
I did some googling on that
I did some googling on that hand gesture thing, and there are so many differing opinions it’s just insane.
Some articles claim it was already in use as alt-right code *before* the 4chan post saying hey let’s make up a story so the msm look stupid (as a smokescreen).
Others reckon the 4chan thing is genuine and was the start of it, but that the alt-right never seriously use the symbol and have left it out there just to screw with people.
And others say the 4chan thing is genuine, that it started it and that the alt-right do genuinely use it as a secret handshake.
The whole thing kinda pi$$es me off, honestly.
Luke Rowe tries to hoop
Luke Rowe tries to hoop people, gets accused of being a white supremacist. No he isn’t, childish, and about 10 years behind the times, maybe.
Look at this damn nazi…
Look at this damn nazi…
And don’t forget the thumbs
And don’t forget the thumbs up nazis. Yes, you thought thumbs up was innocent, but no more, you nazi filth.
I think it’s time that us
I think it’s time that us cyclists appropriated a sign or two. Has the raised fist been taken yet?
burtthebike wrote:
The only thing left for cyclists to appropriate is the exhaust noise.
Fight the horsepower!
burtthebike wrote:
Black Panthers / black power, I think…
What about the raised middle finger?
I reckon that Rowe was either
I reckon that Rowe was either flicking a bogey or about to do rabbit ears on his mate in front.
The dimwit above having a go at him is just a self interested attention seeker. “he” can’t even express himself without swearing in public , an indication of low intellect and is obviously one of those people who feel that being nasty is being clever. Reminds me of the 7 year olds I teach.
use of any thing by anyone is totally irrelevant if it if its not being used by another person for that same purpose.
I guess that everytime I signal a score of zero with a clenched fist I am also a supporter of Malcolm X.
Click bait as expected of RoadCC and idiots respond.:)