Angry Flemish cyclist flatly refuses to pass stationary truck; Bikes on trains – rush hour edition; The Ecce; British Cycling’s Christmas film; Mathieu van der Poel makes a mistake; Made in Cambodia + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Even Mathieu van der Poel can make a mistake
We didn’t think it possible.
Even Mathieu van der Poel can make a mistake.
The Cyclocross Bible – https://t.co/AwR60FTo3v pic.twitter.com/G21wTocUkx
— Cyclocross24.com (@cyclocross24) December 4, 2019
Made in Cambodia
The BBC reports that thanks in large part to rising costs in China, Cambodia is now listed as the fifth-largest exporter of bicycles in the world after China, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Germany.
It is the EU’s biggest supplier, having shipped 1.5 million bikes to Europe last year.
Cambodia currently enjoys tariff-free access to the EU, but that may be cancelled in February when the EU publishes the results of a review into Cambodia’s political situation – references have been made to a “deterioration of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law.”
There have also been calls for a review of the US’s preferential trade relationship.
An EU-Vietnam free trade agreement comes into effect next year and Robert Margevicius, the executive vice-president for US-based Specialized Bicycles, which uses Speedtech in Cambodia as well as suppliers in Vietnam and Taiwan, said: “Cambodia could be a short-term solution until things heat up in Vietnam.”
Moun Channheak, from Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce says the government is doing its utmost to support the sector.
“We gained success with bicycle exports to the EU and other countries but we need to invest in components manufacturing. We need investments in Cambodia instead of importing material.”
There is however also the question of working conditions. Zeit reports that workers in many of the factories are being exploited in a longish piece that makes for a very interesting read.
Mark Cavendish to Race Iron Man 70.3 Bahrain on Saturday (as part of a relay team)
We haven’t researched this in any great detail, but the other members of the team are Mo Farah and Australian open water swimmer Chloe McCardel, so seems pretty safe to assume he’ll be doing the 56-mile (90 km) bike leg.
An Ecce out in the wild
You don’t see many of these out and about.
We believe it’s an Ecce.
This unique wooden bicycle frame design from r/mildlyinteresting
Video: Urban Freeride Lives - Fabio Wibmer
This is one hell of a commute, you won’t fail to be impressed by the level of skill this rider has, not to mention the size of his balls! 
Breathing London air is the same as smoking 150 cigarettes a year, according to the British Heart Foundation
The charity’s analysis shows that people living in the Newham, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Islington areas of London are worst hit by air pollution.
The “posh, anti-cycling boroughs” according to Jeremy Vine.
Air quality is so bad in parts of London it equals 3 cigarettes a week. And the places most affected are the posh, anti-cycling boroughs. We see you pic.twitter.com/AMwWn799PB
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) December 5, 2019
Turns out Lord Sugar's cycle gear is too subtle for some
12 weeks since my knee replacement. 40 miles today. Some Americans fascinate me. At the traffic lights one said ‘that’s a nice bike, where are you from’… I said as a joke Germany. He said oh I love Berlin ! pic.twitter.com/yyRYMSoy3t
— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) December 4, 2019
Even the mudguards are wood
This walnut laminate road bike is a hell of a thing.
Many years in the making, you can find the story of its creation on Facebook.
British Cycling has gone all John Lewis and done a Christmas film
You never forget your first bike. Kye Whyte’s was silver.
Where will your bike take you? Share this video and tell your #ChristmasBike story
Sound ON pic.twitter.com/gEfHmMlcFi
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) December 5, 2019
The film focuses on Tokyo hopeful, Kye Whyte.
He said: “For me, it all started with getting that first bike as a three-year-old. I had no idea then where that would take me, but that moment set the course.
“From a personal point of view, my first bike set me on a path towards the Olympic Games, a dream which I hope to fulfil next year. However, the sense of freedom, independence and adventure that comes with your first bike is something that everyone can share, regardless of whether they have Olympic ambitions or not.”
Angry Flemish cyclist flatly refuses to pass stationary truck on narrow road
We’ve found a slightly longer version of a video posted to The Brussels Times website where a Flemish cyclist refuses to pass a truck, arguing that there isn’t enough room.
The truck driver says his truck’s too heavy to go onto the verge and there’s enough space to pass.
The cyclist disagrees. An angry, sweary argument ensues.
Planet Rock DJ riding 2,000 miles in two weeks to raise funds for Mind, the national mental health charity
With two days to go, Wyatt Wendels has raised almost £58,000.
Apparently he’s knackered.
No joke. I’m utterly exhausted somewhere in Dorset….#R2R2 pic.twitter.com/1gyrSKlliY
— Wyatt Wendels (@WyattVW) December 5, 2019
He’s doing 118 miles from Eastleigh to Stonehenge today and 114 miles from Stonehenge to Trecco Bay tomorrow.
Peter Sagan says he can “see the end”
“It’s not enough just to be good on the bike,” says Peter Sagan about being a pro cyclist. “You need to be good with people, good with sponsors.”
The Slovak told Cycling News that while sponsorship obligations worried him in earlier years, they bother him less these days because he can “see the end”.
“I don’t think I can keep riding to 40 years of age with my style. I don’t have a lot of years left. But that’s more motivating than frightening, because you realise that it’s going to end soon, so you should enjoy it.”
Sagan was also asked about Mathieu van der Poel’s efforts across multiple cycling disciplines. He wonders whether the Dutchman should narrow his focus, arguing that, “trying to put two feet in the one shoe is difficult.”
We've heard that getting your bike on the train is tricky but...
#TLUpdates – Due to an object being caught on the overhead electric wires at St Albans City all lines are disrupted.
Services that operate between St Albans City and Sutton via Mitcham and via Wimbledon will not run.
More information below https://t.co/iYMraBkjSy pic.twitter.com/TtzjWZ37QK
— Thameslink (@TLRailUK) December 5, 2019
It does have a Tesla-ish look about it
new Tesla bike leaks? Elon? @elonmusk /cc @Casey @samsheffer pic.twitter.com/AOD6gS95Ub
— miszterti (@miszterti) December 5, 2019
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Latest Comments
What’s all this MTB palaver? The Tour de France was originally a gravel race. 🙃
@wtjs I've sent in 2 close pass videos to kent police, never heard anything back.
@Rendel Harris I had wondered how they might be preparing to deal with the expected heat. Got to keep them as safe as possible. My excitement is building, always a nervy first week, too many crashes in the peleton and no amount of down gearing is going to prevent that. From my cloudy memory, the pogecar lad is very rarely caught out on the wrong side of a crosswind split.
Rumor has it that riding the MMR gives you autism.
Well this looks ominous: real possibility of Tour stages being cancelled due to extreme heat. I'll put the link in a reply otherwise this whole comment will be quarantined - it's on the Guardian if anyone wants to search for themselves.
Having used the street multiple times since it was opened just over a month ago, I can report two issues which are preventing the improvements from working to their full potential. Firstly, there is no signage other than the painted bikes on the road itself, so there is nothing to indicate that cyclists have priority. The second is that the double yellow lines stop about two-thirds of the way down the road, meaning that from that point onwards, there are multiple cars parked half on the pavement and not in the designated parking places, reducing the width of both the footpath and the road to what it was before the improvements were made.
@MaxiMinimalist Really? So this applies only to drivers from Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne and Vaucluse, drivers from the other sixteen départements that make up the south are fine?
Yeah, it's great isn't it........
Handling a bike across a bit of grass is a bit different to descending rock gardens, and drop off in a XCO World Cup....... The top XC guys are on another level to elite road racers.......(Pidcock is an outlier) MvdP has struggled in recent years after spending too long away from it.
45 years without being hit wasn't a bad run. I hope you are back on the bike and are dealing well with the fear.
21 thoughts on “Angry Flemish cyclist flatly refuses to pass stationary truck; Bikes on trains – rush hour edition; The Ecce; British Cycling’s Christmas film; Mathieu van der Poel makes a mistake; Made in Cambodia + more on the live blog”
Yeah, great triathlon team,
Yeah, great triathlon team, but it would have been more interesting to have them do a different discipline each. Not sure what Cav’s running or swimming prowess is like!
Well that Fabio bloke seems
Well that Fabio bloke seems to be quite good at riding down stairs.
Cyclist demanding the truck
Cyclist demanding the truck risks overturning on a soft verge? What an utter penis…
Looks like a long straight road, the truck obviously has a number of vehicles behind it and the cyclist has literally cycled past a refuge area not more than 30m back. What a complete and utter penis…
Mungecrundle wrote:
“I’m a truck driver myself…” – nce variation on a theme.
why was he driving a vehicle that size on a track like that? What would have happened if another truck was coming, rather than a cyclist?
ConcordeCX wrote:
“I’m a truck driver myself…” – nce variation on a theme.
why was he driving a vehicle that size on a track like that? What would have happened if another truck was coming, rather than a cyclist?— Mungecrundle
As a truck driver yourself, I expect that you can answer that question quite easily. I’m not a truck driver but I imagine it would involve some attempt at forward observation, critical assessment of the situation and taking action, such as using the refuge area to pull off the road, rather than creating an issue where none were needed.
ConcordeCX wrote:
I live in Belgium and can tell you that in the Flanders region there are loads of such roads that allow unrestricted traffic in both directions. When both move to the shoulder (which is the normal way), two cars can pass, no problem. Two trucks are a different matter: one will need to back up or use cemented layby’s that are usually found every 2-300 meters. There is no rule that determines who needs to wait or back up, it usually boils down to courtesy/common sense.
If a car encounters a truck in such a situation the unwritten rule is that the car backs up because it’s a lot easier. In almost every case where I as a cyclist encountered a tractor in such situations, the tractor moves to the shoulder and slows down or stops. But obviously a tractor has the tyres to do so. In case of a truck, the cyclist is supposed to take the soft shoulder and move a bit out of the way, with the truck slowing to walking speed or stopping. As to why the guy was driving there with a truck? Probably because he needed to be in the area and because there’s no law that says he can’t. (in most cases there are no restrictions on weight/type of vehicle on such roads).
That bloke in the truck is
That bloke in the truck is bang out of order – vertical video!!!!
hawkinspeter wrote:
The cyclist who refused to
The cyclist who refused to pass the stationary truck is an utter cockwomble who gives cyclists a bad name. If he couldn’t cycle past he could’ve walked past the truck, it would have saved a lot of time for all concerned, that includes us who watched the video…
mikecassie wrote:
Stop with this collective responsibility nonsense.
The 2 drivers who earlier this week, one who killed a 12 year old and injured 5 others and the other seriously injured a pregnant woman causing the death of her baby, aren’t referred to as ‘giving other drivers a bad name’ because we understand that those individuals are solely responsible for their actions.
Engaging with that attitude that ‘the actions of one shames all’ only gives a green card for shitbag drivers to use it as an excuse when they carry out close passes or dangerous maneuvers when passing cyclists.
Looks as if the Flemish fool
Looks as if the Flemish fool actually attacked the lorry driver at the end, so is he now in a ditch somewhere?
burtthebike wrote:
Only if the cyclist was also a prostitute
(c) J Clarkson 2008
Very sweary.
Very sweary.
If it had been 2 cars, then one of them would have simply reversed back to the passing place.
You would not go on to soft ground in a car, let alone that truck
It’s not quite a Squirrel,
It’s not quite a Squirrel, but DarkCycleClothing have a new Chipmunk on a bicycle shirt
Though they already do a squirrel T shirt.
ktache wrote:
Nice, but not enough squirrel
hawkinspeter wrote:
That is terrifying
That driver had a 15 tonne
That driver had a 15 tonne truck on a narrow road he couldn’t reverse on? What an idiot.
jestriding wrote:
A$$hole on bike was identified, according to media reports (made the newspapers in Belgium). By profession he’s (wait for it)….a truck driver.
Apparently not the first time he has frustration management issues. He’ll be prosecuted for assault and obstruction of traffic.
Funny how whenever there’s a
Funny how whenever there’s a video of a motorist apparently being an arsehole there are always comments saying there must be more to it. What happened before the video starts? Is their camera distorting the distances? If you zoom in you can see the reflection of a red traffic light in a shop window which the cyclist must have just jumped to provoke the incident. Etcetera, etcetera. I don’t know, maybe this cyclist is an arsehole. It could well be that simple. Or maybe the truck wasn’t going to stop at all until the cyclist stood his ground, and what we see was preceded by a minute of the driver blasting his horn at him. Or maybe it’s a one-way street. Or HGVs aren’t allowed on that road at all. Or it’s a rat run and the cyclist is a local resident who’s sick of trucks thundering down there at all hours. Possibly he has encountered this particular lorry driver before, who certainly seems to have a problem with cyclists. But nothing excuses assault, if that’s what happens at the end.
handlebarcam wrote:
If you are going to get into conspiracy theories, maybe the whole thing is a setup between 2 truck drivers to support an anti cyclist agenda.
Or maybe it’s just someone being a complete and utter penis.
I think the video of Kye
I think the video of Kye Whyte is brilliant and I’m really good it’s been sent out by BC. He’s a nice lad from tough council estate and is an inspiration to others from similar back grounds. I was pleased to see ‘daddy’ Whyte make a little cameo appearance too as he doesn’t always get credit for having encouraged his sons, or for the coaching he still does every week at Peckham.