Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team…
Live blog: Terrific Bombtrack Dirty Reiver video, Wife’s stinging response to cyclist husband who shaved his legs, Panini TdF album lands at road.cc Towers, Brailsford vs Mortirolo+ more
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, May 29, 2019 19:30
SUMMARY
29 May 2019, 19:30
Half of Copenhagen commutes are now by bike
Forbes reports that Copenhagen is planning even greater restrictions on car journeys after bike commutes soared from 43% in 2017 to 49% in 2018. The city’s cycle priority plan had aimed for 50% of commutes to be cycled by 2025, but this target looks set to be surpassed.
29 May 2019, 19:30
Some speedy descending on the Mortirolo yesterday
Top speeds on that breath-taking Mortirolo descent:@giuliocicco1 @TrekSegafredo: 77.2km/h@vincenzonibali @Bahrain_Merida: 80.2km/h@rogla @JumboVismaRoad: 83.1km/h#VelonLive #Giro #cycling pic.twitter.com/o0cffL5C1G
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) May 28, 2019
The rain didn’t stop the riders from reaching some hair-raising speeds, with Roglic hitting 83.1km/h on his descent as he attempted to claw back some time on Nibali and Carapaz ahead of him… ultimately it wasn’t to be.
29 May 2019, 19:30
Dave Brailsford follows suit after his riders conquered the mighty Mortirolo, describes it as 'solid' on Strava
With Sir Dave’s team not exactly dominating proceedings at this Giro, it appears he’s taking some time to ride the course himself after the peloton has rolled through. Yesterday he took on the Mortirolo, averaging 272 watts for the segment and 240 watts for his entire 40km ride according to his Strava upload. When asked how it went, he simply replied “solid” in the comments below. He’ll be signing himself up at this rate…
29 May 2019, 19:30
Driver arrested after cyclist in Bexhill dies following collision
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A 34-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by driving without due care while unfit through drink/drugs, reports The Argus. The incident happened in Bexhill, West Sussex on Sunday, and police are appealing for witnesses.
29 May 2019, 19:30
It'll buff out...
We’ve not a scooby what happened here, judging by the caption the owner appears to be optimistic though…
29 May 2019, 19:30
Woman’s stinging response to husband starting to shave his legs hits headlines
A woman’s response to her husband starting to shave his legs because he’s a “cyclist,” posted to Australia’s version of Mumsnet, has been picked up by the press there and abroad.
Writing on Kidspot, in an article since republished by outlets including news.com.au, Olivia Williams said: “You might think one’s husband going south of the border with a shaver is just the calling card of the modern man, but my husband went WAAAAY south. Deep south.”
The husband, apparently, did the deed while his wife was away for the weekend, having raised the matter with her previously and been left in no doubt what her opinion was.
She admitted that her husband is “certainly a few pedal strokes further up the proverbial mountain than the easily recognisable and much meme-ified MAMIL,” but added that “he has no need to be shaving off milliseconds from his Saturday morning ride time with a new-found penchant for personal grooming.
“My husband is in shape,” she continued. “He’s super fit. One might say he is like a younger, balder Lance Armstrong; minus the mountains of disgrace, disrepute, doping and tell-all Oprah interviews. So not like Lance Armstrong at all. But he’s the only cyclist I could name, and that’s the extent of my willingness to research the matter.”
Concluding her post, she wrote: “So, I made a deal with him. If he shaves his legs, I’m not gonna. But I took it up a notch. I’ll grow out my underarm hair until I can braid it. My landing strip will become the literal untaming of the shrew. My legs will rival the Belanglo State Forest in both the density of native vegetation and impenetrability.
“And he liked that idea about as much as I enjoyed feeling like I’d traded in my husband for an oiled-up Peter Andre, wrapped in a silken sheathe found in the props department of a Pantene commercial. Phew.
“That’s what I call a close shave.”
29 May 2019, 19:30
Dirty Reiver… the view from the front + top pro eating tip
Here’s a very nice vid from Bombtrack (who sponsored this year’s Dirty Reiver) featuring their Dutch cycle-cross pro, Gosse van der Meer as he tackles his first gravel race. As he says 200km of gravel plus over 3K metres of climbing is a bit different from the usual “full gas for an hour” efforts he’s used to. No, need to worry though – as soon as you spot Gosse’s well sculpted facial hair you know he’s going to fit right it. Defo worth a watch if you want a flavour of what gravel racing looks like (from the front), you can get our more mortal perspective here – Gosse is good value, and it’s especially worth watching to the end for an excellent bit of nutrition advice.
29 May 2019, 19:30
Look what we've got in the post
The postie has reminded us that Tour de France fever is coming by dropping off our 2019 TDF Panini sticker album!
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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
sclarke3@talktalk.net 51 seconds ago
I think using AI is a cop out, surely there are better ways of designing posters... like using real images and real people... In the case of cycling clubs using AI why can't someone in the club design the poster/image? AI is getting out of control and if not controlled it will be the death of creative industries. It's up to us at ground root level to try to stem this
chrisonabike 3 minutes ago
@Hollis Jones or none at all. Indeed quite possibly it would never have been solved (and without any witnesses you wonder how it would - tracing bits of the car?). Even if it had come to court there have been a fair few previous "we know you were driving, we know your car hit them" cases where no conviction was achieved. This one is pretty unusual.
robgru76 52 minutes ago
@matthewn5 Exactly the sort of comment that drivers will use to propagate the idea that all cyclists are entitled and irresponsible on the roads. Well done 👍
Hollis Jones 55 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris Ah yes, got it. Seems pretty obvious to me now you explained it so clearly! So I suppose, then, if they hadn’t been able to prove that he got out of the car to try and remove Mr Mullins from underneath, he could well have got a much lighter sentence. It begs the question why, given he’s clearly a sociopath, that even if he knew he was trapped under the car, he could have just ignored it.
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
@HarrogateSpa could be. With some Labour / other socialist types I think it's: a) a historic reaction to the toff and/or mill owner and their horse-enhanced status. So "we'll damn well have cars also". ("Fairness", I guess). b) (partly related) many working people rely on their vehicles for work (or to get there). So "we'll fight anything that looks like them taking our independence". Of course I think excellent arguments against motor traffic dependence could be made for most political persuasions - but unfortunately it also seems that those for the status quo can also.
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
@kingleo but according to some posters here aren't those terrible places marred by very high cyclist fatality numbers, dreadful driving conditions, rampant drug use and (inevitably) "communism"? ("non-countries" eh Nige?) One major difference, which perhaps doesn't get enough attention, is that in NL they went through a process of deciding what all streets and roads were primarily "for". Then re-designating and indeed redesigning them and re-engineering the network to "make it so". "Monofunctional roads/streets". That means that it's much clearer where cycle infra is *required*, and where less obvious measures will do. That *would* be a major change for the UK. Our process has been that motor traffic appeared on streets which used to be foot / horse / carriage / cycle. We then had to add footways as it became clear the motor traffic was a danger (also as drivers demanded "their" streets). Then as the traffic got bigger / faster / volumes increased those non-vehicle spaces shrank... So now we commonly have a "high street" which is 1) a "place" or destination (so people want to drive and park there, but then will walk about) 2) maybe also a residential location 3) a major through route. And everyone complaining "our streets are too narrow to accommodate cycling".
slc 2 hours ago
@Rendel Harris Hold out for a Halfords Apollo* at least. * I did once own one. I bought it in skinter days to replace a Rudge 3-speed that I found in a scrapyard. Guess which one lasted me 4 years and which one lasted me 4 months.
chrisonabike 2 hours ago
@Mr Blackbird isn't it "this pub survived two World Wars, but will be destroyed by this ludicrous, dangerous cycle lane, which nobody wants and which will only be used by illegal immigrants riding unlicensed electric motorbikes..." ?
Mr Blackbird 2 hours ago
@Mr Blackbird The report on this case is on page 19 of today's Times. Maybe the more right wing rags didn't bother at all? It was on the BBC News website yesterday, but was not featured on this morning's Breakfast News.
7 thoughts on “Live blog: Terrific Bombtrack Dirty Reiver video, Wife’s stinging response to cyclist husband who shaved his legs, Panini TdF album lands at road.cc Towers, Brailsford vs Mortirolo+ more”
H’mm I was in Copenhagen last
H’mm I was in Copenhagen last week, and although there are plenty of people cycling to work in the city, I wouldn’t say it was as high as 50%?
Having been to Rotterdam that seemed to have a higher percentage of cycling commuters.
Still they’re both higher percentages than anywhere in the UK
maviczap wrote:
Always tricky to judge by eye, since bikes take up so much less space than cars that it’s easy to under-count them.
rkemb wrote:
Agreed. I did see a video of Copenhagen showing many cars in traffic and what appeared to be a few bicycles passing by, but when a counter was used to determine passenger numbers, there were more cyclists than car occupants.
I visit at least once a year; the cycle infrastructure is mind bogglingly good. Just watch out, as a pedestrian, if you dare to wander into a cycle lane – they are not shared use!!!
rkemb wrote:
Agreed. I did see a video of Copenhagen showing many cars in traffic and what appeared to be a few bicycles passing by, but when a counter was used to determine passenger numbers, there were more cyclists than car occupants.
I visit at least once a year; the cycle infrastructure is mind bogglingly good. Just watch out, as a pedestrian, if you dare to wander into a cycle lane – they are not shared use!!!
maviczap wrote:
My impression of Copenhagen was also that it was a city with lots of cyclists, but still dominated by cars. And the drivers were quite aggressive. There were also a lot of supercars and big SUVs driving around, which doesn’t make any sense.
Some of the bike lanes are amazing though and I imagine especially the ones for commuters coming into the city are more busy than the one in the centre where I spend my time.
OMG what happened to that
OMG what happened to that bike??? It looks like it was bitten by a shark
I was in Hastings/Bexhill
I was in Hastings/Bexhill last weekend. Very sad. RIP Fella and condolonces to the family.