Welcome to today’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Washed away Yorkshire bridge replaced in time for Worlds, Cyclists Vs Walkers CUK calls for law change to reduce conflicts; Fiona Kolbinger still going strong; Genius cassette cleaning tip (maybe); Zwift cheating hack revealed +more in today’s Live Blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Tue, Aug 13, 2019 19:31
SUMMARY
13 August 2019, 19:31
Fiona's still going...
Seemingly determined to make everyone else who has ever ridden a bike feel unworthy, Transcontinental Race winner Fiona Kolbinger is still hanging round near the finish line in Brest and putting in some monster mileage to ‘wind down’ from her victory – this has been her third and biggest ride since crossing the finish line last Monday according to her Strava uploads.
Check out her Transcon Race kit list here.
13 August 2019, 19:31
How to cheat on Zwift. If you really think that will benefit your life...
“You’re only cheating yourself”, so goes the old saying… and it’s more relevant than ever to anyone who would seriously consider cheating on virtual training platform Zwift. That didn’t stop one security researcher from pretending he’s a superstar virtual athlete, and Vice tell the story of how he did it. Brad Dixon said: “Ultimately I have an Xbox controller I can use to squeeze the trigger, make the little guy in the screen pedal harder, and I could [put it on] cruise control too, because who doesn’t need to get off and grab yourself a beer or something while riding.”
Dixon used the open source toolkit USBQ on a small Beaglebone Black board to intercept and modify readings from the ANT+ protocol, placing him between the sensors that detect the rider’s output and the Zwift app.
He also said that he hasn’t ‘hacked’ Zwift as such, more that the sensors they rely on can be manipulated: “It’s incorrect to say that I hacked Zwift, because I didn’t actually. There’s not a vulnerability in there. I don’t think there is anything for them to fix. It’s just the nature of the sensors that they’re using and how it works are exploitable.”
With Zwift now regularly offering prizes to top riders and running comps to select Zwifters to compete for pro contracts, is this a worrying development? Chris Snook from Zwift told Vice: “We have been aware of the possibilities of this sort of cheating on Zwift for a while, and we operate under the assumption that there are some bad apples who may be actively engaged in this sort of cheating. We have been pursuing a number of different approaches to tackling this problem, and have been doing so for some time.”
If you want to see Zwift cheating in video form, check out the detailed explainer below.
13 August 2019, 19:31
3T launch (slightly) more wallet-friendly Exploro gravel bike
3T’s Exploro has just got a whole load more affordable with new build options available from £3,600. Full story here.
13 August 2019, 19:31
"I was sleeping for 15 hours a day": Matti Breschel retires aged 34
Today we announce that our great Dane, Matti Breschel, has taken the decision to retire from professional racing.
Matti, with a heartfelt thank you, #PinkArgyle wishes you the best of luck in your future adventures.Full story: https://t.co/MSHEY2D2Oi#keepexploringtheworld pic.twitter.com/1To8a1fstG
— EF Education First Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) August 12, 2019
The Dane, who has been riding for EF First for the past two seasons, has retired from professional racing due to an ongoing psoriatic arthritis condition that has been causing him chronic pain.
Breschel said: “It was a big relief to finally take the decision to retire, because I was struggling a lot to find good form, and the medicine I was taking really knocked me out. I was sleeping for 15 hours a day, it was super tiring, especially for the head.”
“There are a lot of really good memories for me, I’m super satisfied about my whole career and I’ve been able to see so much of the world and explore it through bike racing. I’ve been a part of some of the biggest teams in the sport for so long, meeting so many crazy cool people. It has given me a lot of life experience in general.”
13 August 2019, 19:31
Harrogate businesses urged to "dress up" for World Championships
Harrogate Borough Council is urging business across the area to dress up for the UCI Road Cycling World Championships next month, with the town being the focal point of the event which runs from 22-29 July, hosting the finish of all the races.
Councillor Stanley Lumley, cabinet member for culture, tourism and sport, said: “The UCI Road World Championships are one of the biggest sporting events to take place in the country this year.
“The races will see thousands of spectators from around the world come to the district across the nine days.
“It would be fantastic to see businesses give visitors and the races a real Harrogate welcome by decorating their premises and getting involved with what is sure to be a great spectacle.”
There will also be a “best dressed” competition, with two categories – one for businesses in the town itself, the other for those across the wider district.
“The public will then vote for their favourite on social media with the winners earning themselves bragging rights as the best dressed business in the town or region,” added Councillor Lumley.
Harrogate hosted the finish of the opening stage of the Tour de France in 2014, with the town decked out in knitted bunting reflecting the colours of the jerseys worn by the classification leaders in the race.
[scald=246068:sdl_editor_representation]
13 August 2019, 19:31
This is one way to clean a cassette
Has anyone else tried this? Does it work? Will it damage your components or your dis washer? So many questions…
How to load the dishwasher… pic.twitter.com/JKMk7cv2YS
— Dave Smith (@ffflow) August 13, 2019
If this is the before, does anyone have an after picture?
13 August 2019, 19:31
Decent bike infra: not such a new idea...
Continous footways from 1978 bicycle planning book. pic.twitter.com/bU5OVRaeC8
— brian deegan (@bricycle) August 13, 2019
More than 40 years on, we can only dream in most parts of the UK!
13 August 2019, 19:31
E-bike riders get MORE exercise than regular cyclists, according to results of new study
The recent study followed over 10,000 participants in seven European cities, and found because the e-bike riders often take longer trips, they actually got more exercise than cyclists on conventional bikes. Full story over on eBikeTips.
13 August 2019, 19:31
Yorkshire bridge collapse won't affect Road World's route as replacement installed
The organisers of next month’s UCI Road World Championships have confirmed to road.cc that the collapse of a bridge on the route of the men’s elite road race will not affect the event.
Work is ongoing to put a temporary bridge in place to replace the one swept away at Grinton Moor in flooding during late July as more than three inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours.
A Yorkshire 2019 spokesman told road.cc: “North Yorkshire County Council are working hard to repair the recent damage and we are aiming to retain the race route as previously planned, using the temporary bridge.
“Should there be any further issues and a diversion is required, it would be minimal and not involve any significant changes to the Men Elite Road Race course.”
13 August 2019, 19:31
Royal-in-law donates pre-nicked cargo bike to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home
We’re not sure whether you, dear readers, follow the society columns as assiduously as we do here on road.cc – after all, you never know when the sister-in-law of the Duchess of Cambridge might do the Race Across America – and now we bring you this heart-warming tale of James Middleton, brother of Pippa and Kate … sorry, the Duchess of Cambridge.
He’s been battling depression for the past few years. Many of us have been there. And two things well-documented for battling mental illness are bicycles and having dogs around. James took that to the nth degree by ferrying an entire pack of pups around on his Babboe Dog bike.
Sadly, his bike got nicked earlier this year. Happily, it was recovered. But it wasn’t in a good way.
Still, he got it refurbished and has now donated it to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, where it will be used to help some of the less abled of the four legged residents get around.
He said on Instagram that he had donated it to a place “where I know it will get lots of use moving various residents around from the elderly to the injured to the overly excited pups wanting to get to the park quicker!”
The puppies certainly look happy – More of this sort of thing, please.
And if you would like to adopt a dog or cat from the home, head here.
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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
chrisonabike 8 hours ago
"All that's required is an to roads policing" - that's a big all... Although no doubt the "idiots just keep coming" aspect does apply: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9lel2wz93o "Man charged after car crashes through bowling alley" - luckily they only skittled over skittles.
chrisonabike 8 hours ago
Almost any change to roads and streets is accompanied by a period of heightened danger, and in the UK "look out for cyclists" will need to be learned... practically. And over the time it takes for cyclists to become a regular feature. OTOH once (if...) good designs are in and frequent enough such that drivers encounter them AND the cyclists on them regularly (another big if) I don't think they should be much more difficult than a footway to deal with. These things are all over NL - don't have the collision stats but they should. (NL isn't perfect but collecting info on the safety of designs to feed back into better designs as required is part of the "sustainable safety" philosophy - if they're really a killer I think they'd be altering these.)
wtjs 9 hours ago
I'm in the happy position of agreeing with everybody here! I've never considered a bike with a stand, yet I'm impressed by the ingenuity and adaptability of this axle. I tow a Yak Bob with a Robert Axle, employing my El Cheapo Vitus gravel bike and I just have to be very careful where I stop. Hedges are generally a dead loss, and I seek walls, telegraph poles and signposts and generally lean the widest part of the Bob against it. One very awkward task is removing the two steel pins which lock the trailer arms onto the special mounting slots on the Robert axle, and when you have one out, the sodding weight in the trailer can twist the whole caboodle and bend the Bob fitting before you can get the other out and unhitch. I doubt if a stand would help with that. You can imagine that this combo is a real pain when you have to get it over the bridge at railway stations, and it nearly resulted in Merseyrail nearly parting me and the trailer on the platform from the bike on the train. It's a long story for another time. Another axle example recently featured on here, with a 12mm front axle bearing the Herculean weight limit of a monster American front rack.
HoarseMann 11 hours ago
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
AidanR 11 hours ago
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
Sredlums 12 hours ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 12 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 13 hours ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 13 hours ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 13 hours ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
11 thoughts on “Washed away Yorkshire bridge replaced in time for Worlds, Cyclists Vs Walkers CUK calls for law change to reduce conflicts; Fiona Kolbinger still going strong; Genius cassette cleaning tip (maybe); Zwift cheating hack revealed +more in today’s Live Blog”
Fiona Kolbinger’s probably
Fiona Kolbinger’s probably going to cycle back home soon.
henryb wrote:
I heard, and according to her own Strava rides, she’s going to do PBP, mental mileage.
“How do you tell the
“How do you tell the difference between a footpath and bridleway in England or Wales? Without a map or fingerpost actually telling you, it’s nigh on impossible.”
– And in several cases I can think of the waymarker signs are incorrect, showing bridle paths as footpaths. It may be innocent mistake, but there have been rumours of ramblers and land owners doing it intentionaly.
“There’s no real criteria for one or the other, and whether you can cycle or ride your horse on the trails criss-crossing the countryside of England and Wales is down to historic, rather than suitability of use.
“Add in county, parish, regional borders and your footpath can change to a bridleway and back, whilst the surface varies not at all.”
– Unfortunatly true, but I hope that people who find these make appeals. There is not long left, but a path that changes from one to another at a parish boundry is a prime example of a miss catagorised route.
Personaly I think there does need to be a massive change to let mountain bikers use footpaths. I do think there should be some local exceptions for particularly busy paths, and even then possibly only for limited times. If Snowdon can accomodate cyclists and walkers then surely the vast majority of footpaths accross the UK could. I am sure the ramblers association will be up in arms about it, but I regularly cycle on my local bridle ways and trail run on our local footpaths, and it is rare that I see anyone else.
I recently cycled The North
I recently cycled The North Down’s Way using Cycling UK’s ‘official’ gps route. What was frustrating was having to move off a bridleway/byway/permissive route onto the bitumen when the trail became a footpath that was identical in width and surface to what I was currently riding on. A common sense approach to changing rights of way access is definitely needed. This would make the North Downs Way a lovely ride indeed. I understand that some sections aren’t rideable too – genuine ‘footpaths’, and that’s fine, a simple ‘no cycling’ sign with alternat signage is all that is needed.
Having said that, I frequently disobey the law and ride (consideratley) on footpaths to link up safe riding routes. I am rarely challenged as all the footpaths are more than wide enough for walker and cyclists to pass. When I am challenged I simply dismount and make my ‘width’ even greater by walking next to the bike – this makes the point to the challenger that there is more room for him/her if I am on the bike rather than off it.
rights of way need more
rights of way need more protection. I’ve been told by an angry farmer that a bridleway is for ‘horses and feet’ and told be I’d be shot if he saw me cycling there again!
On another bridleway there are are signs that say private and dangerous dogs running loose.
A gate has been locked on another with barbed wire put across it, with the bridleway being ploughed up and crops planted over it.
A fairly important path between some houses and a local supermarket has been fenced off to enlarge the garden and driveway of a house.
I contacted the council, but they won’t do anything. It’s a joke.
HoarseMann wrote:
And of course that all looks even worse when you have stories like this – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49320661 – in the news.
brooksby wrote:
Jeezus! What is the matter with some people, that is just horrendous. That happened in Barnsley!
HoarseMann wrote:
Making threats to kill. A matter for the police and quite a serious crime.
I think there are some occasions where the route of a path needs reconsideration as much as its status. A path that runs through a farmyard for historical reasons might be as inappropriate now as allowing 4x4s on a route that historically that was used by a horse and cart.
Encroaching on public land is, unfortunately, a big problem, with parks and so on as well as paths.
I think the greater cause of
I think the greater cause of conflict between cyclists and walkers on shared use paths is that of the pampered rats on extendo-wires. As a cyclist and owner of a real sized dog, I am aware of the need to, and how to, control my animal. Those bloody yippy flat-faced embodiments of vanity inbreeding are the greatest threat I’ve ever encountered on a trail whilst walking and cycling. Admittedly a generalisation skewed with confirmation bias, but the folk who seem to think I’m at fault for their pooch running under my wheels/ feet seem to be the kind of person who has an affinity for that particuar excuse of a dog. (Not to say all little dog owners are like this, but those who are rarely own anything larger than a collie)
I’d like to say I have the common decency to slow down when I’m approaching people on the bike, I smile and say hello and warn people if I’m coming up behind them, and 95% of the time I get an equally pleasant response. I’ve only once had someone tell me “You can’t ride here” whilst on a bridleway and then I think he was mostly upset that I interrupted his fishing, as he had poles strewn across the towpath. I fear I may be disproportionately fortunate in this experience.
The only time I think there should be enforced segregation is at trail centres, where walkers find themselves wandering up a rather inconsistant rooty staircase, and someone at full tilt on an MTB appears, suddenly bearing down and looking for the softest bush to bail into.
In short, I commend Cycling UK for trying to make improvements, but I think there are bigger fish to fry.
[/rant]
Fundamentally England & Wales
Fundamentally England & Wales should have the trespass and access laws thrown out and replaced with those in force in Scotland.
Quote:
Quote:
“Harrogate Borough Council is urging business across the area to dress up for the UCI Road Cycling World Championships next month, with the town being the focal point of the event which runs from 22-29 July, hosting the finish of all the races.”
I think that should read 22-29th September.