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Live blog: Brains G – Cardiff brewery honours hometown hero Thomas with bespoke beer ahead of Tour de France; French heatwave claims two cyclists’ lives; Alice Barnes shows that even GB champs don’t need to litter with their gel wrappers + more

All today's news from the site and beyond as we start a new week.....
01 July 2019, 15:51
French heatwave claims lives of two cyclists

This weekend saw the highest temperature ever recorded in France - 45.9 degrees Celsius - and now it has emerged that the heatwave has sadly claimed the lives of two cyclists, reports The Independent.

One of the victims, a 53-year-old man, died while he was taking part in a race in the Ariege department on Saturday, and with several other competitors falling ill, organisers cancelled the event.

The other fatality happened in the Vaucluse – the department where Mont Ventoux is located – with a rider dying after reportedly collapsing due to the heat.

01 July 2019, 13:53
01 July 2019, 13:52
A good day indeed!
Ben Swit Nat Champs Strava

Ben Swift has uploaded his National Champs winning ride to Strava, making it official.

Jokes aside, the stats are staggering, with an average power of 291w for 4hrs21min over a distance of 196km!

With Ineos teammate Ian Stannard up the road, Swift put in a 1,185w sprint to drop John Archibald and bridge across to Stannard. Sensing his opportuntity, Swift continued to push well over 500w to ride straight past his teammate, covering the final 900m at 374w, a fabulous effort after 4 hours of racing.

01 July 2019, 11:07
Once again, if the British champ can do it so can you

Newly-crowned national TT and road champ Alice Barnes responded to the tweet showing the contents of her pockets: "It's a shame that things like this have to be pointed out and isn't the norm."

She's recently commented on her double victory in the TT and road race this morning, saying "it still hasn't sunk in". 

01 July 2019, 12:17
Be in with a chance to win a load of wheels, kit and more from Pacenti with our latest mega comp
pacenticomp Mk2

Enter here for another chance to win some excellent wheels and gear from Pacenti Cycle Design. Best of luck folks! 

01 July 2019, 12:23
Bit rude...

Simon Geschke was pretty reserved in his reply to this weird attempted burn. Here's the kit below in the CCC team's Tour de France reveal, and we reckon it don't look half bad. 

01 July 2019, 07:48
Ever seen a better save than this?

With a moto behind showing the speedometer approaching 80km/h, the next thing we see is two-time Ironman world champ Jan Frodeno having a scary wobble as he approaches a corner on the 185km Ironman Frankfurt bike course. Frodeno keeps a cool head, hops over a road divider and manages to keep control of his bike as he briefly goes cross-country and pops out the other side unscathed.  

While Frodeno shown handling skills every bit as impressive as a single discipline pro cyclist, the same can't be said of Brit Kimberley Morrison's flat-fixing skills - skip to 3hrs 24 mins in the feed above, and you will see Morrison struggling to fill her tube with a flat-fixing sealant that doesn't appear to want to go into the valve. She eventually reaches for a tube when it becomes apparent the damage is too great for the sealant to work, but doesn't seem to have the equipment to inflate the tyre. According to the results she eventually finished the bike course in over six and a half hours, about an hour and a half slower than most of her fellow female pros... 

01 July 2019, 07:42
An unfamiliar sight...

...but one to get used to in 2019, as it's just occurred to us this will be the first time for three years that Sagan has lined up for a Tour de France without a world champion's jersey. Here he is in his bog standard, run-of-the-mill Bora-Hansgrohe kit while supporting his brother to a Slovak national champs win, looking like a normal professional cyclist but way cooler...

01 July 2019, 07:23
If the national champ can do it, so can you...

Alice Barnes triumphed on the 136km British National Road Champs course yesterday, becoming the first woman since Emma Pooley in 2010 to win both the senior national time trial and road race in the same year. She also shown that it can be done without littering, as some wannabe pros seem to think it's ok to do, with journalist Owen Rogers capturing the contents of her back pocket after she crossed the line.

On another note, wonder if Alice would have won by a greater margin if she'd have got through that Rice Krispie Square? 

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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11 comments

Avatar
Bob's Bikes | 5 years ago
0 likes

Thank you Hawkinspeter for the feed

Avatar
jaysa | 5 years ago
0 likes

Just back from riding in France during the heatwave - which is doable with lots of water.

For anyone else doing this, riding between villages is ok before noon because you can stop at fountains and douse yourself. Climbing cols is riskier in the heat because there are often long stretches with no water. Starting early helps, but 5am temps were as high as 27C.

For reference, I drank a liter an hour, plus water for dousing, and kept power below 250W to reduce head/core overheating. I found it cooler with a helmet than without. 

Izoard N and S were ok, ran out of water on the Agnel and drank melted snow.

Lots of electrolytes needed, skipped caffeine and alcohol (boo) plus slept on kitchen floor (coolest place in house).

Avatar
Bob's Bikes | 5 years ago
0 likes

Ever seen a better save than WHAT? no bloody video!

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Bob's Bikes | 5 years ago
0 likes

Bob's Bikes wrote:

Ever seen a better save than WHAT? no bloody video!

It's a FarceBook video - try these links:

https://www.facebook.com/IRONMANnow/videos/2122925761150614/

https://www.facebook.com/IRONMANnow/videos/318476015707963/

Avatar
bobbinogs | 5 years ago
2 likes

Great to see some pro riders raising the issue of gel wrapper rubbish. It is a complete load of nonsense that this is acceptable, pro rider or not. Commentators always seem to excuse the behaviour of litter dropping, saying that the rider mess will be cleaned up later. Yet even on the TdF it can be hours before a road sweeper comes through...and by then most light rubbish has been blown into the surrounding countryside to cause many issues for wildlife and litter that will be around for many years to come. No excuses, end of.

Avatar
ChancerOnABike | 5 years ago
0 likes

It wasn’t the organisers that cancelled the Ariegoise, it was the prefecture (the county council) as they couldn’t cope with the number falling ill from the heat during the ride. The organisers were charging €10 for people to change to the shorter course...

Avatar
antigee | 5 years ago
2 likes

"Ever seen a better save than this?" yes managing to mention Alice Barnes' win after not covering it yesterday

Avatar
check12 replied to antigee | 5 years ago
9 likes

antigee wrote:

"Ever seen a better save than this?" yes managing to mention Alice Barnes' win after not covering it yesterday

 

it was Sunday, imagine everyone was out riding their bike? Please request a refund of your road.cc monthly fee for this month by way of compensation. 

Avatar
Awavey replied to check12 | 5 years ago
0 likes
check12 wrote:

it was Sunday, imagine everyone was out riding their bike?

They must have filed the Ben Swift wins national road race title article from the cafe stop mid ride then clearly...

Avatar
Jack Sexty replied to Awavey | 5 years ago
4 likes
Awavey wrote:
check12 wrote:

it was Sunday, imagine everyone was out riding their bike?

They must have filed the Ben Swift wins national road race title article from the cafe stop mid ride then clearly...

We're a one man band on Sunday, rather than my colleague working a 12 hour day we decided to cover Alice' win in the morning.

Avatar
Awavey replied to Jack Sexty | 5 years ago
0 likes
Jack Sexty wrote:
Awavey wrote:
check12 wrote:

it was Sunday, imagine everyone was out riding their bike?

They must have filed the Ben Swift wins national road race title article from the cafe stop mid ride then clearly...

We're a one man band on Sunday, rather than my colleague working a 12 hour day we decided to cover Alice' win in the morning.

I'll look forward to reading it later then  3 you can cover the u23 winners in it too

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