Welcome to Tuesday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Spanish women’s team say it was THEM who ‘mimicked’ Bahrain McLaren jersey and apologise; Can distance measured in KM’s still be called ‘mileage’? Epic reindeer Strava art; Corbyn’s ‘Maoist bicycle’ +more on the live blog
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Tue, Dec 10, 2019 22:11
SUMMARY
10 December 2019, 22:11
The E.T bike is coming to Edinburgh in the new year
You can get your photo taken with E.T. on his bike in Edinburgh at Capital Sci fi Con 2020! https://t.co/VwpvIYKk9j
— Capital sci fi con (@Capitalscificon) December 9, 2019
If you’re Edinburgh-based or happen to be visiting between 14th-16th February (maybe your spouse really loves E.T?) then be sure to check out the Capital Sci Fi Con, where a realistic E.T set will be recreated featuring the famous bike, complete with E.T in the basket.
The event takes place at Edinburgh’s Corn Exchange and some of the proceeds will go towards children’s hospices across Scotland – find out more here.
10 December 2019, 22:11
Cyclist Anthony Hoyte creates epic reindeer Strava art
Mr Hoyte, who describes himself as “that bloke who drew the giant Strava Snowman… and Santa… and a whole bunch of other stuff” on Twitter, spent nine hours pedalling round the capital to create a reindeer in his latest epic Strava stunt.
His total mileage was just under 128km as he painstakingly pedalled around London, beginning in Hammersmith and finishing on Euston road.
It’s that time of the year again when I cycle round congested streets in the rain looking for some festive cheer!: https://t.co/4u80fR8eNt@Strava @cyclingweekly #stravaart #stravart #gpsdoodle #gpsart #cycling #Christmas #reindeer #Rudolph pic.twitter.com/Nzm3Rch9nJ
— Anthony Hoyte (@anthoyte) December 9, 2019
The 51-year-old ‘drew’ Santa Claus in 2017 and a snowman in 2018, and his non-festive works include two elephants in Birmingham and a flock of birds in Bristol – check out his profile here.
10 December 2019, 22:11
He's doing what?
The Rafa Nadal sports centre is the perfect spot for training. Not just cycling but any sport is welcome. It’s a great location and if you are lucky you can see Nadal playing with his balls.
— Thomas De Gendt (@DeGendtThomas) December 10, 2019
If yours are fluoro yellow and fluffy, please consult a doctor.
10 December 2019, 22:11
Astana are out on their new Wilier bikes
Out for a training #AstanaProTeam pic.twitter.com/At9Ja9DKUW
— Astana Pro Team (@AstanaTeam) December 10, 2019
Last week the team announced a partnership with Wilier Triestina for 2020 – switching from Argon 18 – and here’s a swish-looking Wilier 0 SLR out in the wild.
Bahrain Merida have also unveiled their team’s bikes for 2020, which are still provided by Merida but in the new team colours – more here.
10 December 2019, 22:11
Mark Cavendish backed to return to the top at Bahrain McLaren by Rod Ellingworth
Former Team Sky and British Cycling coach Ellingworth and Cavendish will link up once more at the newly-named Bahrain McLaren with Ellingworth as Team Principal, and he believes his former main man can rediscover the previous form that made him one of the greatest sprinters road cycling has even seen.
Ellingworth told a news conference: “When Mark is in good condition, in good form and really motivated, he is one of the best in the world technically. It’s a challenge, but a good one to have.
“I presume he still has the ambition of beating the Merckx record – actually I know it’s there. He is such a winner, that’s his mentality.
“I even believe in the last two years he has still gone into races thinking he’s going to win and wondering why he hasn’t. For me it’s all about winning any race. Any race would be a marker and then we go from there.”
Ellingworth says he would “love to see” Cavendish at the 2020 Tour de France, if he is showing the form that will make him impossible to overlook. Cavendish said:
“These people are good at what they do. I’m fortunate I’ve worked with these guys and they are some of the hardest working and most brilliantly-minded people in cycling. I’m excited and full of confidence.”
In the last hour, Cavendish has publicly thanked his current team NTT (previously Dimension Data) and praised them for their charity work.
My prime reason for joining was to have an impact on something much greater than bike racing. So proud on any difference I could make & what we’ve achieved in helping @Qhubeka deliver 100,000 bicycles to genuinely change lives. Thank you for the opportunity https://t.co/Y4W8fdsV1s
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) December 10, 2019
10 December 2019, 22:11
Mileage, kilomtre-age? Let's sort this out with a poll
Over on Facebook, Phill Prince someone picked us up on referring to the ‘mileage’ racked up by Anthony Hoyte in his epic reindeer Strava art ride (see it further down this page)… when we’d reported Anthony’s distance in kilometres…
Because we’re bitter and petty, we’ve took the time to make a poll to decide if Phill has a point, or we’re within our rights to use the word ‘mileage’ even if we’re working in metric. Simply make your selection, and let us know what a better word would be for metric adopters in the comments below if you think there is one…
10 December 2019, 22:11
The UCI have (finally) registered women's World Tour teams for the 2020 season
The UCI have announced that for this first time, Women’s World Tour licences will be granted. Initially the period will run from 2020-2023, and the teams awarded the status are:
Ale BTC LjubLjana (Italy)
Canyon//Sram Racing (Germany)
CCC – Liv (Poland)
FDJ Nouvelle-Aqutaune Futuroscope (France)
Movistar Team (Spain)
Team Sunweb (Germany)
Trek-Segafredo (USA)
The maximum number of licences that can be awarded is eight, with space for another team at a later date. The UCI say they are “delighted to witness the development of women’s cycling at the highest level.”
10 December 2019, 22:11
Jeremy Corbyn denies 'Maoist bicycle' claims in Mean Tweets video
Jeremy Corbyn reads mean tweets pic.twitter.com/4kS29k0kHk
— Real Change Lab (@realchangelab) December 9, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn released a spoof video yesterday in which he dissected mean tweets directed at him. On his ‘commie hat’ (actually just a hat), Corbyn said: “What is a commie hat? I wear a cap! It’s a bit like when I was told I was riding a Maoist bicycle. It’s a bicycle!”
10 December 2019, 22:11
Social media accuses Bahrain McLaren of drawing 'inspiration' from the jersey of Spanish women's team VIB Natural Greatness
Equipe espanhola Vib Natural Greatness (esquerda), que lançou seu kit 2020 em 29/11/2019, foi copiada pela @Bahrain_Merida ? pic.twitter.com/P0uJpNjezm
— País do Ciclismo (@DoCiclismo) December 10, 2019
We’re saying nothing, but according to some cycling fans the newly unveiled Bahrain McLaren jersey looks more than a bit like the jersey that will be worn by the VIB Natural Greatness women’s team in 2020.
Bahrain McLaren’s new kit is made by British brand Le Col, while the VIB Natural Greatness kit is from Spanish manufacturer Ulb Sports. The women’s team is ran by the charity Funda Marcelino Oliver, which supports cyclists who have been in traffic accidents; their 2020 roster includes Irish talent Jennifer Neenan.
What do you reckon, simply a big old coincidence?
10 December 2019, 22:11
Head of Rwanda cycling federation resigns due to corruption and sexual abuse scandal
The BBC reports that Aimable Bayingana and his entire executive team are said to have stood down, following corruption and sexual abuse allegations. Mr Bayingana has denied wrongdoing, however the Rwanda Investigative Bureau said they are investigating the allegations but provided no further comment.
The scandal began when Jonathan Boyer – the former pro cyclist who was instrumental in popularising cycling in Rwanda – fell out with Bayingana and went public with alleged misconduct within Rwanda’s Cycling Federation.
Rwanda’s sports ministry are also going to investigate the allegations, and said they plan to introduce a policy against sexual abuse that would apply to all sports in the country.
10 December 2019, 22:11
New report predicts 130 million e-bikes will be sold in the next three years, far surpassing electric car sales
The forecast from Deloitte also predicts cycling to work will increase by 1% globally, and that e-bikes will continue to hugely outsell other electric vehicles in the 2020’s and beyond – full story over on eBikeTips.
10 December 2019, 22:11
Looking forward to riding home?
According to the forecasts and from just looking out the window, it looks like it’s going to be very much like the above (and dark of course) for most of us! Not only that, but there’s also the angst of getting your kit off the radiator/in the drying cupboard etc and preying it’s not still soggy from the morning. Have you taken the day off bike commuting or do you really ride in all weathers?
10 December 2019, 22:11
Bahrain McLaren and VIB Natural Greatness jersey likeness: women's team admit to "inadvertently and mistakenly mimicking" Bahrain McLaren jersey
Remarkably VIB Natural Greatness have now admitted it was them who copied Bahrain McLaren, not the other way around as speculated by some on social media. The Bahrain McLaren jersey was only launched yesterday while the VIB Natural Greatness team unveiled theirs in November as far as we can tell, which may be why many assumed the ‘mimicking’ was done by Bahrain McLaren.
VIB Natural Greatness said: “The VIB-Natural Greatness UCI Continental Women cycling team would like to clarify that its proposed 2020 jersey design has inadvertently and mistakenly mimicked the jersey design of Team Bahrain McLaren and the Bahrain Cycling Academy. The team apologises for this error and will change its jersey design for 2020.”
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
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).
24 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
mctrials23 4 minutes ago
Drivers regularly pull out in front of me and cause me to slam on the brakes or avoid them. Very often they have seen me and just assume I'm not going very fast or they assume I will slow down/stop (which I do). Too many drivers don't look for cyclists, hate giving way to them or expect the cyclist to be moving slowly and just pull out.
mctrials23 27 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris By the time someone is looking at prison time its too late. As has been proven time and time again, the severity of punishment is a poor deterrent to bad behaviour if people don't think its going to happen to them or they don't think they will be caught. Now I do think that there should be far more severe and immediate punishments for bad driving when drivers are caught but this would need to be coupled with a massive push to actually act on information/proof of bad driving. As anyone that submits footage to the police knows, its a crapshoot and certain police forces are anti-cyclist. This would try to essentially put people off misbehaving whilst driving before they cause an accident rather than getting the tired old excuse of "it was a single dangerous incident, they definitely don't do this all the time and their luck finally ran out". Perhaps it should go even further and if you have a history of speeding and you hurt someone speeding, that is looked upon in a very dim light.
KiwiMike 38 minutes ago
Can we talk about “Washing up liquid contains a lot of salt – not a great idea to use a corrosive substance on a bicycle”? This is an urban myth. I have washed all of our many bikes using Fairy liquid or Ecover for decades. I’ve never found any evidence of corrosion, paint, laquer or decal wear, or any sign of anything. I regularly service forks and bearings, swapping a lot of gear, and everything has always been fine. Here’s far too much info below - long story short, Fairy liquid in 5L of hot water has a borderline-homeopathic amount of salt, it’s fine to use on a bike. ============ The honest answer is that neither Fairy nor Ecover publicly disclose the actual sodium chloride concentration in the consumer products I could find. The safety data sheets list hazardous ingredients above reporting thresholds, but sodium chloride is not reported for either product. However, we can put some realistic bounds on it. Fairy Original The SDS lists: Sodium laureth sulfate: 20-30% Lauramine oxide: 5-10% Alcohol: 1-5% No sodium chloride is declared. 15 In detergent formulations, sodium chloride is commonly used as a viscosity modifier (thickener) and is typically present at around 0.5-3%, sometimes lower. The absence of declaration suggests it is either not present or present at a low concentration that does not require reporting. This range is an informed formulation estimate, not a value stated by Fairy. Ecover The Ecover ingredient information lists: Sodium lauryl sulfate Lauryl glucoside Cocamidopropyl betaine Alcohol Lactic acid Sodium octyl sulphate Again, no sodium chloride is listed. Ecover's formulations tend to rely more heavily on plant-derived surfactants and may use little or no salt for thickening, but I could not find a published concentration. 63 What does this mean for bike washing? Let's assume a worst-case 3% salt content in Fairy. If you add: 10 mL Fairy to a 5-litre bucket Then salt introduced would be approximately: 10 mL × 3% ≈ 0.3 g salt Distributed through 5 L water ≈ 60 mg/L salt For comparison: Typical seawater: ~35,000 mg/L Lightly salted winter road spray: often hundreds to thousands of mg/L The wash bucket above: ~60 mg/L So even under a pessimistic assumption, the salt concentration is hundreds to thousands of times lower than the salt exposure your bike gets from winter roads. From a corrosion perspective, the quantity of salt introduced by washing-up liquid is essentially negligible compared with: Riding on salted roads Coastal spray Leaving winter grime on the bike Therefore my practical conclusion remains: ✅ Fairy or Ecover in a wash bucket is extremely unlikely to contribute any measurable corrosion risk. ✅ The important thing is rinsing and drying afterwards. ✅ Winter road salt is the real enemy, not washing-up liquid.
mitsky 39 minutes ago
Another example of a driver's actions that would have been a straight fail in a driving test but is barely likely to lead to a disqualification... I'm wondering if having a driving licence is like a "Get out of jail free" card...
Sheen wheels 44 minutes ago
Yes indeed. I have a version of the R8100 and you definitively need ceramic for the socket.
mctrials23 53 minutes ago
@perce I'm not sure I agree with that. I think thats just confirming that he is take fully responsibility and recognises that the cyclist could have done nothing to mitigate it.
Paul J 2 hours ago
If we don't fight it now, we'll all end up forced to wear baggy shorts!
kinderje 3 hours ago
@Rendel Harris Agree, I am baffled that the 84 year old who is now banned from driving for year can then start driving again without a retest. We should be re-tested regularly.
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
@mitsky Just checking the figures and apparently the 2026 average cost is £58,000 per year per prisoner; worth noting that is only the direct cost, you then have to factor in ten years of lost tax income from the prisoner, ten years that the prisoner is making no contribution to society as a worker or as a consumer, plus the fact that if they were the primary breadwinner very likely the costs will include benefits for their family as well. None of which should be a reason for keeping violent recidivists out of prison of course, nor drug/drink drivers who kill, but it is a factor worth considering for lower-level offences.
Rendel Harris 4 hours ago
@Surreyrider I ride in Surrey a fair bit and absolutely many do look like that but the point is they all *think* they're driving perfectly reasonably (as one discovers when remonstrating with someone who's skimmed one by 30cm, "I gave you masses of room") so deterrent penalties have little effect. That's why we need to strike at the root cause and actually train drivers properly and test them stringently (and more than once over the course of a potential 70+ years of driving, it's absolutely absurd that competence and knowledge in what for most people is the activity in their life that will run the biggest risk of killing people you never have to have your qualifications renewed).
24 thoughts on “Spanish women’s team say it was THEM who ‘mimicked’ Bahrain McLaren jersey and apologise; Can distance measured in KM’s still be called ‘mileage’? Epic reindeer Strava art; Corbyn’s ‘Maoist bicycle’ +more on the live blog”
Kilometreage.
Kilometreage.
I measure my distances in
I measure my distances in obsolete Russian and Ottoman units, so I call it arshinage. You might call it something slightly different.
It depends on what bike I’m
It depends on what bike I’m on. If I’m riding the pennyfarthing, I measure the distance covered in furlongs and leagues
Unreal. LAZY le Col designer
Unreal. LAZY le Col designer has spent 10minutes on google images searching for Orange cycling team kit. FFS hope he/she gets p45.
Freddy56 wrote:
agedlikemilk
Fluffed wrote:
You reckon? I call bullshit. No way that’s a coincidence, and how can they possibly have copied the Le Col design if they launched their kit last month and Le Col only launchedtheirs yesterday. Unless someone on the team works for Le Col?
Suspect that team might all of a sudden by able to afford a new team car very soon… :
Swedish miles for club rides:
Swedish miles for club rides: ‘We’ve only got another four miles to do’ = ‘You’re not getting a coffee for another 25 miles’
One Sewedish mile = 10km = 6.2 miles
You’re not Northern are you
You’re not Northern are you Hoski?
227g is a quarter of a pound…
Edit it’s half a pound! What is going on beastmode?
Seventyone wrote:
I assumed it was an imperial quarter (which is 1/2 Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays) vs. Metric quarter thing
Terence the Tractor wrote:
Germany has ein Pfund, which is defined as exactly 500g. I find this almost as annoying as the US definition of 100 proof to be exactly 50% ABV. If you’re going to use archaic Imperial units, do it properly rather than re-defining them to something metric.
I’ll use metres, centimetres
I’ll use metres, centimetres but I won’t use km, miles is ingrained and it’s easier to fathom distances (see what I did there) between places, even when abroad I’ll still convert to miles. We did both imperial and metric in maths at school so have always been able to use both interchangeably, having 113.5g of kayli (coloured/flavoured sugar to dip your dab in for you southern jessies) doesn’t sound as good as asking for a ‘quarter’.
and why would anyone use furlongs and leagues, not particularly accurate measures compared to yards and miles, why not use decimetres?
The metre measure in itself is a bit transient, it keeps getting changed and scientists can’t make their minds up, this has been going on over the last near 350 years.
The latest way to give as close to an accurate measure is to use the Ceasium fountain atomic clocks, I bet you can’t get that on your GPS or kilometreometer so god knows how far you’ve actually travelled when you use km
.
CyclingInBeastMode wrote:
…227g…
…a ‘quarter’…— CyclingInBeastMode
You sure…?
hoski wrote:
brain fade post fall at work, maybe I did get a half pound, I was a rather large kid hahaha
Inching towards metrication.
Inching towards metrication.
I call mine kims.
I tend to cycle further and
I tend to cycle further and faster in kilometres so I use those. But nothing wrong with using a bit of archaic language.
Maybe it’s just me, but I
Maybe it’s just me, but I reckon Corbyn would look perfectly at home riding the Maoist “Flying Pigeon” bicycle.
It’s mileage, regardless of
It’s mileage, regardless of units of measure.
If you get confused by “his mileage was 128KM” then you probably shouldn’t be outside without supervision.
Doesn’t matter what you call
Doesn’t matter what you call it – if you’re measuring in kilometres you’re doing it wrong in the first place.
Cycling has been a metric
Cycling has been a metric sport for me for years, perhaps because I’m a trackie.
Small team launch jersey the
Small team launch jersey the month before the multimillion (insert currency) WT team, but the small team take the blame an plead plagiarism. Yeah right. How would the designer of the jersey for the small team who probably got paid a small fee, have access to the WT or Le Col’s design department? I wonder if the small team’s annual budget just went up several large notches yesterday…
Jimmy Walnuts wrote:
Well, if they negotiated a sweetener to change their kit for next season, it’s not exactly a bad outcome for them.
At the risk of horribly
At the risk of horribly simplfying the whole mileage/kilometres debate, would ‘distance’ not cover it all? “The total distance was 161km”…or “100 miles” if you’re a philstine 😉
They’re not kilometres, they
They’re not kilometres, they’re Belgian Miles.
I honestly prefer the VIB
I honestly prefer the VIB version of that kit … really don’t like all those tiny vertical stripes on the Le Col version, give me good old-fashined solid colour blocks any day of the week.