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All today's news from the site and beyond.....
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Welcome to Monday's live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.

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Live blog: 

09/09/2019, 19:25

Vuelta Stage 16 highlights as Roglic tightens grip on red jersey

 

09/09/2019, 19:15

Design graduate invents barcode jacket to ‘protect’ cyclists from self-driving cars

A design graduate in Richmond, Virginia has invented a jacket that contains a barcode which he claims will protect cyclists from self-driving cars. It hasn’t been well-received among UK cyclists and road safety campaigners on Twitter.

Philip Siwek, who since graduating is working as a junior innovation designer with Lululemon’s Whitespace team won a bronze medal, for his jacket at the 2019 IDEA International Design Conference in Chicago, reports Richmond News.

The jacket has a barcode design that gets scanned by autonomous vehicles to let them know that a cyclist is in the vicinity and thus reduce the risk of a collision.

Barcode jacket

Retweeting a link to the article posted by Susan Claris, Twitter user Real Gaz of Trumpton described the idea as “insane” – and given the responses to his post, he’s far from the only one to think so.

09/09/2019, 17:00

US ex-gravel racer Lambie breaks individual pursuit world record – again

US former gravel  bike racer Ashton Lambie has broken his own individual pursuit world record.

Ashton Lambie (picture via Huub Design)

The 28-year-old stunned the track cycling world in September last year when he took 3 seconds off Jack Bobridge’s 2011 world record in the 4-kilometre event, setting a time of 4:07.251 at the Pan-American Regional Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Riding at this year’s edition of the event in Cochabomba, Bolivia, Lambie – who onlyy started racing on the track in 2017 and last winter rode for the Derby-based team Huub Wattbike – lowered the record further to 4:06.407.

The event, once considered the Blue Riband of track cycling, was dropped from the Olympic programme after Beijing 2008, where Sir Bradley Wiggins successfully defended the title he had won in Athens four years earlier.

09/09/2019, 16:32

Fuglsang wins Vuelta Stage 16 from Geoghegan Hart

Jakob Fulgsang of Astana has won Stage 16 of the Vuelta from the break, with Team Ineos rider Tao Geoghegan Hart - third yesterday - putting in another terrific ride to finish second today.

Also in the break today was another young British rider, James Knox of Deceuninck-Quick Step, who also burnished his growing reputation by finishing fourth today.

09/09/2019, 15:59

Dylan Groenewegen takes his second win in three days at the Tour of Britain

The Dutch rider proved the most powerful on the climb to the finish in Newcastle upon Tyne, with the day's six-man break swept up shortly beforehand. Matteo Trentin of Mitchelton-Scott keeps the overall lead.

09/09/2019, 15:53

Nice Dire Straits reference on the Tour of Britain today

09/09/2019, 15:53

Vinokurouv and Jalabert triathlon victories spark morality debate

It appears not everyone is happy that Alexander Vinokourov and Laurent Jalabert are finding success at amateur level in age-group triathlon after their pro cycling careers. Vinokourov served a one year suspension for blood doping in 2007; and while Jalabert never served a ban, in 2013 the French Senate published his name in a list of doping tests that were found to show up positive from the 1998 Tour de France. Jalabert's was found positive for EPO. 

Screen Shot 2019-09-09 at 15.48.16

Numerous followers of our Facebook page have suggested that neither should be competing given their controversial history in pro cycling - what do you think? 

09/09/2019, 15:33

What. A. Save...

We may have missed this during the last couple of busy weeks; but if you haven't seen it yet, behold the best save we've ever seen. What was the guy in the red thinking though?

09/09/2019, 14:48

Close pass operation in Cleveland and Durham

Cleveland and Durham police’s joint roads policing unit have today launched a close pass operation, targeting motorists who overtake cyclists too closely.

The initiative forms a part of a fortnight-long campaign led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which aims to raise awareness of bikers and cyclists, as well as providing them with tips to keep safe.

In Cleveland and Durham, an unmarked police cyclist will identify drivers who pass carelessly or dangerously, with those motorists adjudged to have done so given advice or handed a fine and penalty points.

Inspector Jon Curtis, from Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations Unit, said: “Motorcyclists and cyclists remain some of the most vulnerable on our roads. Through this campaign, we hope to educate and raise awareness of the dangers they face to avoid as many tragedies as possible.

“We’ll be urging motorcyclists to avoid taking unnecessary risks, and other motorists will be encouraged to be aware of other vehicles on the roads. It is everyone’s responsibility to drive safely and reduce the number of serious or fatal collisions on our roads.”

09/09/2019, 12:54

Flicked!

It would be Bouhani...

09/09/2019, 12:21

Alexander Vinokurov wins 45-49 age group at Ironman 70.3 World Championships

The Astana GM and 2012 Olympic road race champ is now a fierce competitor in triathlon at age-group level, bagging himself a victory at the Ironman 70.3 world championships in Nice over the weekend. Vinokourov swam 1,900m in 33:55, biked a hilly 90km in 2:24:21 and ran the closing half marathon in 1:25:05 to secure victory in the 45-49 category. 

In the pro men's race, Britain's double Olympic champ Alistair Brownlee came up short against the young Norwegian Gustav Iden. The 23-year-old finished almost three minutes ahead of Brownlee in 3:52:35, and the victory was extra notable because Iden used a road bike with clip-on tri bars instead of the more aero tri-specific bikes that are standard fare in non-drafting triathlon; Iden said the reason for this was simply that he didn't have a sponsor who could supply him with one in time for the race, as he usually competes over shorter distances where drop bar road bikes are compulsory for draft-legal bike legs. 

In the women's pro race it was business as usual for Daniela Ryf, who won her fifth Ironman 70.3 world title. 

09/09/2019, 12:44

Laurent Jalabert also victorious at Ironman 70.3 Worlds

Remarkably the 50-54 men's age group was also won by a former pro cyclist at the Ironman 70.3 World Champs. Lauren Jalabert - two-time Tour de France points classification winner and the 1995 Vuelta overall champ - won in a time of 4:34:55, nearly two minutes ahead of Robert Skaggs in second. Jalabert commented in the Facebook post above that he was also "very happy" for Vino too. 

What is it about these former cycling greats being able to turn their hand to triathlon so well? Guess you just don't lose all that fitness in a hurry...   

09/09/2019, 12:56

Dibben back to World Tour

After an injury-plagued season saw him dropped from Team Sky, Dibben spent the first half of 2019 without a team. He finally secured a deal with Madison Genesis, only for the team to announce that it will be folding at the end of the year.

Thankfully, he's secured a spot on Lotto Soudal for 2020!

09/09/2019, 12:17

Bit of a close finish at Saturday's Brussels Cycling Classic

The win went to Caleb Ewan on the left there.

09/09/2019, 12:05

A Spanish city banned cars ... and here are the results

09/09/2019, 09:05

Things you didn't expect to happen: Franz Ferdinand's frontman offering advice on cycling past a herd of cows

Guardian journalist and cycling campaigner Helen Pidd put the question to her Twitter followers: is it wise to cycle past a herd of cows blocking a cattle grid? It turns out they didn't risk it; and of the people who chipped in to offer advice on her Twitter post, who else but Alex Kapranos, lead singer of noughties indie darlings Franz Ferdinand? Kapranos says it wouldn't be advisable if there are calves around, which seems like a perfectly sensible tip to us. Any road.cc readers/countryside experts care to offer some further advice if we were to go for it? 

09/09/2019, 09:15

Alex Dowsett falls agonisingly short of Tour of Britain breakaway victory

It's often the case with one-man breakaways that even though they look heroic, it's inevitable the lone warrior will be caught... but in the case of Alex Dowsett yesterday, it genuinely felt like the British TT champ was one final heave-ho from making it before the sprinters finally caught up with him less than 50 metres before the line. Matteo Trentin ended up with the stage victory, with Dowsett finishing in 7th; the always self-deprecating Dowsett described his effort as "doing a Cummings", referring to Steve Cummings of Dimension Data who has been known to fancy the odd solo victory here and there (often to little avail). 

09/09/2019, 09:20

"Stop stealing my KOM's"

With just the eight stage tour each year I'd consider us KOM-chasing Brits lucky... imagine the state of your Strava living in France or Italy!

09/09/2019, 09:00

F*ck em, say Joanna Lumley...

...not really, this is very much a spoof Twitter account! We're sure Ms Lumley drives with plenty of due care and attention at all times. 

09/09/2019, 08:47

Weekend catch-up

Team Ineos Chris Froome Pinarello Dogma F12 (picture credit SWPix.com (17).jpg

Here's what you might have missed if you were otherwise engaged in stuff that wasn't news about cycling over the weekend...

More surgery for Chris Froome after kitchen knife accident

E-bikes that look like road bikes - from Bianchi, De Rosa, Wilier and more

Women involved in fatal collision with cyclist on Camden road cleared of dangerous driving

Two  complaints about Velolife in last two years according to FOI request

TfL plans for 20mph speed limit in central London get go-ahead after public consultation

Jack Sexty

After cobbling together a few hundred quid during his student days off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story), Jack bought his first road bike at the age of 20 and has been hooked ever since.  He joined road.cc in 2017, having previously worked for 220 Triathlon magazine. Jack's preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking (the latter being another long story), and on Sunday afternoons he can often be found on an M5 service station indulging in his favourite post-race meal of 20 chicken nuggets, a sausage roll, caramel shortbread and a large strawberry milkshake.