Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Today’s crazy Vuelta stage the fastest 200km+ bike race in history (+ highlights); US firm in a “Spin” over its claim to have trademarked the word; Doping – a Viz reader writes; Watchdog bans Deliveroo bike delivery + more on the live blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Wed, Sep 11, 2019 18:50
11 September 2019, 18:50
Essential advice as ever from the Viz letters page
11 September 2019, 18:50
At 219.6km, today’s Stage 17 of the Vuelta was the longest of this year’s race – and at an average speed of 50.63kph is thought to have been ridden at a faster pace than any 200km-plus road stage or one-day race in the history of professional cycling.
It’s also the fastest stage in the Vuelta during the past 15 years, eclipsed only by Stage 9 of the 2001 Vuelta as shown in this list provided by Procycling Stats in their excellent livefeed of today’s stage.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/vuelta-a-espana/2019/stage-17/today/situation
As you’ll see from the list, stages ridden when EPO use was at its peak in the peloton dominate; there’s only one other stage from the past decade, from Andorra La Vella to Lleida in 2010, when there was a drop of 830 metres in altitude. Certainly, it’s well documented that the average speed of Grand Tours has dropped noticeably since the early 2000s.
A number of factors combined to make today’s stage so quick. As in that 2001 stage, there was a split in the peloton due to crosswinds and today that was followed by a tailwind.
With seven riders in the 45-strong front group, Deceuninck-Quick Step rode hard – and saw Philippe Gilbert take the win in Guadalajara and James Knox jump from 11th to 8th overall. Other teams in the front group had numbers too and an interest in distancing the other GC contenders – not least Movistar, whose quartet of riders included Nairo Quintana who leaps from sixth to second overall.
What we can say with certainty is that today’s stage was quicker than the fastest road stage ever at the Tour de France, which also came around the turn of the millennium, when Mario Cipollini won a 194.5km stage from Laval to Blois at an average speed of 50.4kph.
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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
mdavidford 3 hours ago
[That may have been intentionally specious, in which case ignore, but for anyone who's genuinely confused...] It's £311 (actually £311.88) upfront for the year, which *works out* to £25.99/month, not on top of it.
chrisonabike 6 hours ago
Or mostly here for some "specific belief bingo" (see their entry earlier)? "Tell me the issue and I'll explain how it's down to cultural weakness (wokeness)"?
Rome73 6 hours ago
‘ though customers now have the option of paying £311 upfront to bring that down to £25.99 per month instead of 30.99 per month’ So it takes about 5 years to break even? Blimey - that’s not a very good deal. Use a VPN. I watch RAI but there must be English speaking channels somewhere in the world that broadcast for free. I don’t want to sound too old fashioned and leftie, but these huge US media corporations are poisonous. They are actually killing choice and sucking us into a US hegemony (as if we are not already in one)
Xenophon2 7 hours ago
The bottom line remains unchanged after all those years, in spite of the marketing hype: - either use oil and deal with black goo - or use a wax and deal with frequent re-application I'm a wax guy. Never been able to duplicate those 'lasts for 400 km when dry' blurbs. 150-200 in dry conditions is more realistic. In the wet, eat your hat after 50 km. Still, for me it's worth it.
Blackthorne83 12 hours ago
“Unleash bare strength”. How about unleash bare knuckles, open wounds and sprained ankles.
Sredlums 16 hours ago
Ha! Your bike is still a puppy! Me and some friends exclusively ride 90s mountain bikes. 30 to 35 years old, full rigid, rim brakes… and we love it. t 56 years old, I can still keep up with most other riders who are younger and on modern, more capable bikes. No need or desire for anything more modern.
Sredlums 17 hours ago
Thanks for featuring this absolute GOAT of mountain biking!
Rendel Harris 20 hours ago
@jackcycles I'll try my best not to fight anyone unless my safety or that of another person is at risk, but in any case, not quite sure how you've managed to get from "I wouldn't fight this very large clearly psychopathic probably drugged bloke who might very well have a weapon and has a mate who could join in" to "admitting" I'd only fight women and children. Actually, I am sure, it's because you're a troll. Suspected as much from your first appearances here but gradually been more confirmed and that utterly imbecilic comment seals it.
wtjs 22 hours ago
@Hirsute I have no experience of Essex Police, but I know a lot about the attitudes of officers in Lancashire Constabulary. They don't consider motoring offences to be real offences, especially if they're offences against cyclists. This is odd, because there are very few cyclists up here in North Lancashire and not much active travel for the specific purpose of getting to a specific place, beyond walking short distances. If this assault case had been in Lancashire, I would be pretty sure that the police are deliberately not trying very hard to catch the offender, because they think the cyclist was 'asking for it' by just being there, and is now 'asking for it' by having initially reported it and for repeatedly pestering the police about what they consider to be a trivial offence.
Daclu Trelub 22 hours ago
@jackcycles That, in turn, is a very odd thing to say.
16 thoughts on “Today’s crazy Vuelta stage the fastest 200km+ bike race in history (+ highlights); US firm in a “Spin” over its claim to have trademarked the word; Doping – a Viz reader writes; Watchdog bans Deliveroo bike delivery + more on the live blog”
I wonder if the cyclist being
I wonder if the cyclist being deliberately run over with life changing injuries will generate the same level of outrage as the cyclist head butting the pedestrian?
burtthebike wrote:
It definitely won’t. And it’ll be more to do with gang warfare than hatred for cyclists.
Obligatory call for cars to be fitted with number plates to allow them to be traced when they leave the scene of an acc… oh wait! Not that having number plates is a requirement for car drivers anymore. I often see cars driving around London without plates fitted.
srchar wrote:
My first thought, too.
Hey – maybe we’re looking at ‘headbutting cyclist’ incident all wrong… Maybe there was a previous conflict at a bridge club or something, rather than their being total strangers
brooksby wrote:
My thought too. There was clearly a close passing of the cyclist & pedestrian. Did the cyclist have right of way? Did the pedestrian say something highly offensive to the cyclist? I have no idea but there is more to this than the video shows.
burtthebike wrote:
Tricky one, it might because it was a 17 year-old, but then maybe not because it was only a cyclist… or maybe it will because perpertrator was a yoof… or maybe not because he was in a car… or maybe it will because he fled the scene.
Or the 4×4/little shit story
Or the 4×4/little shit story from yesterday.
So an American corporation
So an American corporation “owns” the rights to an English word? What’s next, no more spin cycle for washing machines?
Philh68 wrote:
the whole , spinning, is only ‘spinning’ if you are ‘spinning’ with a trainer, trained in ‘spinning’ who’s paying the American corporation, for the privellege of calling his ‘spin class’ a ‘spin class’ thing, has been going on for many years. It’s nuts, but that seems to be the way of the world now. Soon, you won’t be able to go for a ‘shit’ without someone claiming a copyright infringement, if this carries on.
Judge dreadful wrote:
they could market a toilet under the brand name Pooloton which bland beautiful people could sit on in their vast apartments in front of the landscape windows, laying some massive cable without even their t-shirt getting sweaty.
Philh68 wrote:
No, in broad terms an American corporation has the right to use an English word to sell goods or services in specified classes in a particular geography for a limited period of time. I assume their registration doesn’t cover washing machines. What I don’t understand is why the owner of the “spinning” trademark is taking action for use of the word “spin”, which they don’t appear to have a registration for. Maybe this will turn out like the Roubaix debacle, where Specialized got heavy handed over a cafe using the name until Fuji bikes pointed out that actually Specialized didn’t own that, they did.
I’m not sure what I think
I’m not sure what I think about the Deliveroo judgement.
I never actually believed that a kid on a MTB could deliver to a fleeing bank robber or to the ISS – I’d assumed it’s what used to be called “artistic licence” – so I wouldn’t have taken on face value that they could deliver “anywhere”…
I mean – Domino’s don’t deliver to my village even though there’s a branch in the next town 4 miles away, so I wouldn’t imagine Deliveroo would either.
brooksby wrote:
Dont assume anything with advertising… Red Bull lost a case based on someone who said that he was not given wings as promised.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/29550003/so-red-bull-doesnt-actually-give-you-wings.
Oh, and the rolling bib shorts into the jersey video… genius!
PRSboy wrote:
+1 on that!
CygnusX1 wrote:
That’s the way I’ve been doing my t-shirts when I go on holiday for the last few years, takes up less space than folding and gives a nice tight bundle. I bought a couple of t-shirts when I was away recently and folded them like this on the shop counter.
Redvee wrote:
I’ve recently started using fold and roll for most of my tshirts etc that go away into a drawer, avoids getting creases that get compressed by the weight of others above, and it’s much easier to find the one you want when they’re layed out visibly rather than in a stack. Keeping the bib shorts inside the jersey is a minor stroke of genius though.
I’d be most happy if they
I’d be most happy if they change their name to “America corporate fitness giants are a bunch of c*nts”