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news
Live blog: Leisure cycling up according to latest figures; Rohan Dennis likely to sign for Ineos; potato as good as energy gels for fuelling; TfL consulting on Lea Bridge to Dalston Cycleway; hooray for roadworks + more
SUMMARY
The Smuggler18 October 2019, 15:25
Laurens Ten Dam switches from road racing to adventure riding and bikepacking
“In my really good years, I maybe did only ten proper interval sessions a year and the rest was riding the bike for the love it.”
18 October 2019, 15:37
Cycling rates up by 100,000 in the past year, according to Active Lives Survey
Cycling rates are up by around 100,000 in the past year, according to official statistics from Sport England’s Active Lives Survey.
The survey is based on a sample of almost 180,000 respondents and gauges the number of people who have engaged in activities, including cycling, at least twice in the last 28 days.
The report states that cycling for leisure or sport is up from 6.2m people for the previous 12-month period to 6.3m people. Cycling for transport has remained at 3.1m.
Dani Every, Cycling Delivery Director at British Cycling, said: “Cycling is the solution to so many of society's challenges - from air pollution to physical inactivity and obesity - and these figures are a reassuring sign that an ever-increasing number of people are choosing to get on their bike.
“Regardless of people’s motivations, cycling really is an activity that can be embraced by people of any age, from any background, with 41% of the population having ridden a bike at least once in the last year.”
18 October 2019, 14:45
An update on Near Miss of Today
Redline Buses has got back the cyclist involved in today's near miss.
They aren't being very cooperative.
18 October 2019, 14:22
TfL consulting on second stage of Cycleway between Clapton and Lea Bridge
Transport for London’s consulting on a 3km section of Cycleway between Lea Bridge and Dalston.
The new route would link with the Waltham Forest Mini Holland via Lea Bridge Road.
Simon Munk, Infrastructure Campaigner at London Cycling Campaign, commented: “We’re very excited to see this vital link between Dalston and the end of Waltham Forest’s mini-Holland scheme on Lea Bridge Road move forward, including much needed improvements to the hostile Lea Bridge Road roundabout in Clapton.
“This scheme marks another exciting step forward for cycling and walking between two progressive boroughs in east London, and another step for the Mayor closer to fulfilling his pledge to London Cycling Campaign and all Londoners to triple the mileage of protected cycle tracks on main roads in his first term.”
You can have your say here until November 29.
18 October 2019, 14:09
"Trans inclusion is fairness" says Rachel McKinnon ahead of Masters Track Cycling World Championships defence
“If you want to say, ‘Well, I believe you’re a woman for all of society except this massive central part that is sport,’ then that’s not fair.”
18 October 2019, 12:57
Tweet of the day...
Criterium de Dauphinois #cycling https://t.co/IMJ9ruz6Xy
— Mat Venn (@matvenn) October 18, 2019
We've been reliably informed that Mat is indeed here all week.
18 October 2019, 11:43
Rohan Dennis likely to sign for Team Ineos
Earlier this year, Rohan Dennis mysteriously abandoned the Tour de France the day before the time trial he was favourite to win.
Much talk about dissatisfaction with Bahrain-Merida team equipment ensued and when he finally resurfaced for the World Championships, he rode a BMC, not a Merida time trial bike, to become world champion.
Dennis has a reputation for being difficult to work with.
"I have been known to have a short fuse," he has said himself. “I like perfection with everything and when things don’t line up when they should or I think they should, it gets on my nerves a little bit."
Cycling News reports that Team Ineos are favourites to sign him for next season after his Bahrain-Merida contract was torn up in the wake of his Tour de France walkout.
CCC Pro Team, formerly BMC, is also keen.
18 October 2019, 11:10
Near Miss of the Day 318: Bus driver ploughs straight across cyclist’s path on mini roundabout
18 October 2019, 10:28
Taylor Phinney to retire at 29
The American suffered a horrendous leg break in 2014.
"This decision has been something that I’ve been back and forth struggling with for a long time, and by a long time I mean a couple of years, and ultimately, I feel like my body sort of made this choice for me.
"I’ve now been injured longer than I’ve not been injured as a professional athlete. And I felt that it was a good time to click out and trade in my chips and get out of the casino."
He added: "I’m stepping away so that I can be more true to myself, which means to make art, to make music, to create and cultivate. I’ve kind of had one foot in the sports pool and then one foot in the art pool, and art just won at some point."
From the Olympics to the Tour to Roubaix, there’s no one who’s done it quite like Taylor Phinney. The 29-year-old will race his last professional race race in Japan this weekend. Thank you for the memories, Taylor. And good luck in the next chapter. https://t.co/twfFNrLzUl
— EF Education First Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) October 16, 2019
18 October 2019, 09:52
Potato fuel: pro cyclist-approved...
I actually paid for someone to do this study so maybe they forgot to mention it and it might not be completely biased. #potatopower https://t.co/mHkJzvHhKw
— Toms Skujiņš (@Tomashuuns) October 18, 2019
Toms Skujiņš gave his full backing to the latest groundbreaking starch-based research, possibly even secret financial backing. I'm sure Trek-Segafredo's nutrition sponsor Namedsport will be absolutely thrilled...
18 October 2019, 09:39
Extinction Rebellion blocking Oxford Circus, and say of yesterday's tube protests: "very few of us wanted this to happened"
In the 1st #Internationalrebellion we occupied Oxford Circus to demand that Government #TellTheTruth Afterwards Parliament declared a #ClimateEmergency
Yet they did not act. 6months on and we return to demand @GOVUK #ActNow and to spread light on why must disrupt with our beacon pic.twitter.com/aN6sd6Msru
— Extinction Rebellion UK (@XRebellionUK) October 18, 2019
Today Extinction Rebellion are occupying Oxford Circus, and are facing further criticism being as most of the vehicles held up appear to be buses. On yesterday's tube incident at Canning Town, some takeaway quotes from XR's statement:
"XR’s current organising ethos is that anyone can carry out any action in the name of XR, provided it doesn’t conflict with our ten principles and values. Following two similarly controversial proposals in April and over summer, the process for ‘national’ actions has been revised such that proposals must pass through scrutiny from other teams before going ahead.
"In short: very few people in XR wanted this to happen, but the ‘post-consensus’ organisational model which we currently employ is such that it happened all the same.
"It’s no less through love and fear, and due to the same conditions of oppression that we face ourselves, that we saw such a disturbing reaction from some of those on the platform at Canning Town. These were commuters trying to get to work so they can support their loved ones. We recognise that disruption at Canning Town affected those already suffering the hardships of a toxic system – those who are the most at risk from the effects of climate and ecological collapse."
18 October 2019, 08:19
Thank you baked potato: new study says potatoes as effective as gels for fuelling bike rides
Potato ingestion is as effective as carbohydrate gels to support prolonged cycling performanc | @japplphysiol https://t.co/6NOu7Pv4mu
— Dave Hughes (@HughesDC_Muscle) October 17, 2019
If you long suspected normal food with high carbohydrate levels can do the same job as sports-specific energy products, you'll love this new bit of research. The study in the physiology.org journal - simply called 'Potato ingestion is as effective as carbohydrate gels to support prolonged cycling performance' - saw 12 cyclists complete a two hour 'cycling challenge' followed by a time trial, with some fuelling with potato puree, some with commercial sports gels, and others were just given water. Blood glucose levels were just as high in the riders given potato as those given gels, and TT performance also improved with no difference between spuds and gel. The authors conclude: "Our results support the effective use of potatoes to support race performance for trained cyclists."
We may have to update our guide to fuelling for epic rides to include good old spuds...
18 October 2019, 08:14
Hooray for roadworks...
It’s interesting that CS1 in Hackney now has an excellent cycle-only section along it, thanks to some construction work. You’d like to think this could be made permanent pic.twitter.com/X8qcvozdJn
— Mark Treasure (@AsEasyAsRiding) October 17, 2019
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.
Latest Comments
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Myself and my mates always notice when we are getting closer to Bournemouth how the driving standards drop compared with the country lanes outside...
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Triathletes proving once again that there's more to riding a bike than just watts, FTP, w/kg.....
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It's certainly not the case that all religions tell you you're better than everyone else. And even if you managed to abolish all religions (which...
- Secret_squirrel 1 hour 46 sec ago
You do get that there will be no material differences between the 2 right? Apart from 150g (1/3 of a poo or a 1/3 of a water bottle full) or so or...
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That's completely unfair!...
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 56 min ago
Think you're correct on the Renault. I don't find it makes any difference to breathing, because if you look at the picture their upper arms are...
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GWR also allows you to make bike and seat reservations on its services yourself via your online account, regardless of where you got your ticket.
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Wax tends to last longer than wet lube between applications (although varies depending on brand of wax/lube). So, however frequently (or...
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On the subject of other vehicles blocking cycle lanes, there is a point on the Croydon Tram between Waddon and West Croydon where it is designed in...
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12 comments
A numerical increase isn't a 'rate', 100,000 is a 1.6% increase, however UK population increased by 1% over the same period, ergo the 'rate' of increase in real terms is circa 0.6%, and due to the population increase that means the rate of cycling for transport has gone down, so really there is no increase at all is there!
CS1 is garbage, ridiculously narrow and barriers down the centre, and people celebrate this load of poop, the mind boggles as to how people think that that is any way shape or form adequate never mind inviting to get more people cycling ... oh wait, the stats above prove it doesn't!
Steak chips and an egg, at the halfway point of a ride. That's got potatoes in it, I've been doing it for years. It works, job's a good'un.
Funny old thing eh? Carbs in whatever package (be it a foil wrapper or a potato skin) are found to be, well, carbs!
PP
Hardly a ground breaking discovery. Par boiled potatoes dusted in parmesan was a regular inclusion in the Pro peloton musette. It might still be for some of the Italian teams.
However a big knobbly King Edward stored down ones cycle shorts is going to draw the wrong sort of attention.
First it was Christmas pudding, now it’s potatoes. If they tell me that beer is as good as energy drinks, please don’t wake me, I must be dreaming!
Nothing wrong with a bit of fat, protein and some salt if your cycling that far. Salt is a major part of rehydration drinks.
I now see a market for cheesey mash in packets. I do wonder now what it would taste like cold, as I imagin it would be more palitable for me than gels (I hate them)
Sausage, mash and a pint sounds like the perfect recovery meal to me. a good dose of carbs, protein, salt and liquid. Make it a pint of stout and its even better.
It tastes great - I'm always getting in trouble with Mrs Srchar for having a couple of quick spoons of cheesy mash from the top of a cold shepherd's pie intended to be reheated and eaten for dinner tomorrow...
But isn't it also about the amount of butter and salt that you need to get a pureed potato to taste wonderful. Lots of freshly ground pepper too, but that might be sort of healthy.
If AsEasyAsRidingaBike reads this, please blog more, I am very much a fan of well written peices, and I do not tweet.
And cake is the breakfast of champions.
Chips for breakfast!! Yes there is a god!!
dirty reiver 2018 and 2019, feed stop 3 provided by pannier, boiled new potatoes, tossed in olive oil and covered in cheese - food of champions!
I heard something else was the food, or at least just the first meal of the day, for champions...
but maybe that's just motorsport.
breakfast_of_champions.jpg