Cyclist very upset in Brisbane road rage video; Storey slams Paralympics Worlds security, latest from Vuelta and Tour of Britain; Sheffield’s Jarvis Cocker heads to World Champs; Cycle Show 2019 highlights + more on the live blog

Introducing the NEW Specialized aero helmet, complete with built-in TELEPATHY #LaVuelta19 pic.twitter.com/aFHGhEyjgj

— FloBikes (@flobikes) September 11, 2019

Yesterday’s stage was described as one that “will live infamy” by EF First’s Lawson Craddock on his Strava account, and it turned out to be one of the fastest Grand Tour stages ever. Craddock’s power was recorded at a huge 337 watts for the stage, and of the top finishers who uploaded their efforts to Strava the fastest we’ve found is Tim Declerq’s, showing an average speed of 50.3km/h for the 218km he recorded. 

Carl Hagen’s file shown an average of 47.5km/h (with a bonus 10km recorded at the start for a total distance of 228km), bagging himself numerous KOMs in the process. 8th-placed Brit James Knox recorded a weighted average power of 298 watts for the whole ride – his new KOM on the 12km section from Padilla de Hita to Torre del Burgo was taken at a ridiculous average speed of 69.9km/h, helped by that huge tailwind that came after the crosswinds that split the pack and defined the stage. 

We’re not surprised someone flagged @lawsoncraddock‘s 29.8 mph activity from stage 17 of the Vuelta, that ride was [imagine a flame emoji here – road.cc ed]
(Don’t worry Lawson, we’ll take care of that flag.)https://t.co/1gGnk1YCnR pic.twitter.com/KdH8cuLVmr

— Strava (@Strava) September 12, 2019

A stunning stage 17 of the Vuelta, but here’s the 2001 version that went faster still with US Postal attacking and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano winning – at an average of 57.17kmh..! pic.twitter.com/SzOfriiYRY

— Graham Watson (@grahamwatson10) September 11, 2019

Back in the day of…errr…suspect performances, average speeds on crosswind stages were properly high.

Does this show that the peloton, if not totally free of doping, is at least much cleaner?

If he does we’re sure the crowd will gasp. Fan zone entertainment will have a distinctly Yorkshire/indie theme with Sheffield’s Cocker joined on the bill by the Pigeon Detectives – who hail from Leeds. It’s not all Yorkshire bands though – the Feeling (once nominated for the NME Worst Band Award) fly the flag for southern soft rock (well, that’s what Google says they play).

Jarvis Cocker, The Pigeon Detectives and The Feeling are among a host of world-class musical acts that will be performing at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships Fan Zone in Harrogate during the event.https://t.co/kLrdONSv9y#Yorkshire2019 pic.twitter.com/giqcSjX9ql

— Yorkshire 2019 (@Yorkshire2019) September 11, 2019

While we were at the Eurobike show in Germany we caught up with Saris. They had a prototype of their new MP1 rocker platform last year but now it’s a fully fledged thing that you can buy, albeit for quite a lot of money. It looks very dandy though, and it’s a step up from tennis balls and plywood.

Across swimming and track and road cycling, we think that’s the 34th world title of an amazing career that has also brought her 14 Paralympic gold medals.

It's GOLD for @DameSarahStorey

She retains her WC5 TT World Championship title in style!

We're just a few hours in to the @UCI_paracycling Road World Championships and we have our first British champion #emmen2019 pic.twitter.com/gClAsuIW96

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) September 12, 2019

Dan Martin reckons the front group at the Vuelta yesterday had a little bit of help from race vehicles, but as several people point out in the replies to his tweet, a more likely explanation is that it’s an optical illusion caused by camera foreshortening and the cars and motos are further ahead of them than it appears.

Which camp are you in?

Crazy fast epic racing in the vuelta but this photo really says a lot. Not only does it look like a face but what are all the vehicles doing in front of the front group? The chasers had no chance and usually the same story in echelon racing pic.twitter.com/YMGqXR0UQT

— Dan Martin (@DanMartin86) September 11, 2019

Liam took a look at the race situation and rider data that led to the second-fastest Vuelta stage in the last 20 years.

Take a look here

A County Cork man’s video of his 11-year-old son cycling to school has gone viral on Twitter, amassing more than 45,000 views on the social network.

So proud of my son who wanted to cycle to school this morning. I had to escort him though as the route is not safe. 100km/h zone with a 50cm hard shoulder, maybe less, trucks flying around you! Some scattered cycle lanes have been put down, please connect them now. #carrigaline pic.twitter.com/genrWRY3dI

— Claud O’Donegan (@oDonegan) September 11, 2019

Inevitably, some of the replies he received asked why his son wasn’t wearing a helmet and hi-vis clothing as he rode along what by any standards seems  a very intimidating road, with a speed limit of 100kph.

Speaking to EchoLive.ie, Claud O’Donegan said he didn’t think a helmet would be much use in the event of a collision and pointed out that they are not commonly used in countries such as the Netherlands.

Instead, he said there should be a focus on providing safe infrastructure as well as cutting the speed limit to 50kph in the area.

#Yorkshire2019 Announcement!

Allow us to introduce the finest young cyclists from Yorkshire who will reveal the Elite Women’s team for the 2019 @uci_cycling Road World Championships!

Take it away! pic.twitter.com/CjOVPUYRFm

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) September 11, 2019

The Stage 6 individual time trial at the Tour of Britain is well under way in Pershore, Worcestershire this afternoon and with 19 riders within 30 seconds of the race lead, we’re going to see a bit of a shake-up in the general classification today.

The last rider out on the relatively short 14.1-kilometre course will be race leader Matteo Trentin of Mitchelton-Scott, who sets off at 3pm.

At the time of writing, the leader is his fellow Italian and team-mate, Edoardo Affini, with a time of 16:39:62, with British national champion Alex Dowsett of Katusha having just finished 13 seconds in arrears, the second-fastest time so far today..

British time trial champion @alexdowsett gets underway in Pershore.

[: @swpixtweets]#OVOToB pic.twitter.com/xZtZ1bkm2e

— Tour of Britain (@TourofBritain) September 12, 2019

Footage has emerged of a full-on road rage incident in Brisbane in which a cyclist at one point tries to insert his bike through the window of a car, and takes a couple of swipes at the driver too.
There’s no report of what may have happened beforehand (though we could all probably have a rough guess) and according to press reports in Australia, no reports have been made to Queensland Police.

A brutal road rage fight between a driver and a cyclist has been caught on camera in Brisbane’s CBD. The footage was uploaded to Instagram yesterday. #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/FMT2Js2AO4

— 7NEWS Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) September 12, 2019

Mathieu van der Poel of Corenden Circus is back in the lead at the Tour of Britain after today’s 14.4km individual time trial in Pershore, Worcestershire.

The Dutchman was neck-and-neck with Mitchelton-Scott’s Matteo Trentin, who regained the lead from him in Birkenhead yesterday, at the intermediate time trial but rode the final kilometres, but rode the final kilometres 6 seconds quicker to take the green jersey back from the Italian.

Trentin’s team-mate and compatriot, Edoardo Affini – the 2018 European Under-23 time trial champion – was the 12th of the 110 riders out on the course today, and had a long wait in the hot seat before his victory was confirmed. 

Corendon – Circus rider @mathieuvdpoel retakes the @OVOEnergy green jersey after today's sixth stage in Pershore, Worcestershire. #OVOToB pic.twitter.com/AGjsoly2hd

— Tour of Britain (@TourofBritain) September 12, 2019

EF Education First rider Sergio Higuita launched a long-range solo attack to win Stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana in Becerril de la Sierra today, the 22-year-old Colombian finishing 15 seconds ahead of a select group including race leader Primoz Roglic of Jumbo Visma for his maiden win as a pro.

The Slovenian finished second ahead of Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde, the group also containing Rafal Majka, celebrating his 30th birthday today, and Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez, who leapfrogs Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates into fourth place overall and leadership of the best young rider competition.

On a day containing four Category 1 ascents in the mountains to the southeast of Madrid, once again, Valverde’s team-mate Nairo Quintana was off the pace on the climbs, coming over the line in the Pogacar group a shade over a minute later as the pair swapped second and third place overall.

If you’re heading to the NEC Cycle show tomorrow or over the weekend, then a bit like with the football scores before Match of the Day we’d advise you not to read on if you want all the loveliness on display to be a nice surprise…  

There were plenty of beauties from Colnago on display, including this limited edition C64…

Rucksacks made of inner tubes… 

This lovely retro number from Condor…

Funky bartape from Cinelli… 

…and for when you’re going for a ride but really need to get to the discotheque straight after, consider these out-there custom shoes from Lake. 

We’ll be publishing a gallery of the best bikes on show this evening and plenty more tomorrow from the Cycle Show, so watch this space…

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Dame Sarah Storey added to her burgeoning rainbow jersey collection at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships today with victory in the C5 time trial – but took to Twitter afterwards to criticise organisers over the security of riders at the event.

Her tweets are shown below, and she raises a number of important points, including calling on the UCI to provide adequate funding for such events to be held safely.

The concerning part about today was the low level of security on the course. Cars crossing junctions just seconds before riders approached, pedestrians casually crossing on the lights rather than at marshals direction. We’ve been plonked in a town that’s carrying on as normal.

— Dame Sarah Storey (@DameSarahStorey) September 12, 2019

This scenario wouldn’t be acceptable for the non-disabled World Champs so why does @UCI_cycling consider it acceptable to compromise for @UCI_paracycling World Champs? If this event was televised there would be all manner of comments on social media condemning the situation.

— Dame Sarah Storey (@DameSarahStorey) September 12, 2019

If the event isn’t financed properly to close these roads fully the UCI need to start investing to bring it up to standard. It’s one thing to say there’s no prize money due to financial constraints, but quite another to risk rider safety for that reason too.

— Dame Sarah Storey (@DameSarahStorey) September 12, 2019