Female cyclist says male e-bike wheelsucker "exponentially creepier"; Laura Kenny shuns op on broken shoulder to ride Track Worlds; Gossip special; Anti-cycling London councillor in talking bollocks shocker + more on the live blog

PSA: If you’re a middle aged dude who gets passed by a young woman cyclist, jumping on her wheel is inappropriate, rude and creepy. It is exponentially creepier when you’re on an Ebike and need to turn UP your e-assist to do so.

— Molly Hurford (@mollyjhurford) February 17, 2020

It's generally accepted that 'wheelsucking' (sitting on someone's wheel to save energy and block out the wind) is poor form unless you know the person or have asked them if it's a-ok... and author Molly Hurford claims the incident she described above was particularly uncalled for, being as the 'middle aged dude' was riding an e-bike and cranked up the assist to catch up with her. 

Do you think all forms of anonymous wheelsucking are rather impolite, or was Ms Hurford right to call out this particular gentleman more so than others? Maybe you don't see a problem with the practice at all? Let us know your thoughts as always...

Exciting to have new bikes to use in training ahead of 2020 Track Worlds!

🚴💨 pic.twitter.com/DKFGoRfKkd

— 𝙿𝚊𝚘𝚕𝚘 𝙼𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚙𝚊' (@MenaspaP) February 16, 2020

Paolo Menaspa gave us a teaser of the mean-looking bars on the bikes that will be used by the Australian track team this year - what do you reckon compared to the crazy Hope/Lotus track bike? 

Williamson suffered a broken back, neck and pelvis in a horror crash before Rio 2016, and after back pain resurfaced which forced her out of this year's summer Olympics, she announced her switch to bobsleigh in December last year - the next winter Olympics will be in 2022, giving her just under another two years to prepare. 

In an interview with Sky News, the 26-year-old said: "I'm not here to finish 10th. I'm not just one of those athletes to say I'm here because I represent GB.

"I'm here because I want to be in that top percentage and be the best at what I want to do - it's definitely going to be a difficult task but I reckon I can do it, I reckon this will be the Olympics where we can definitely the medals back.

"I want to let the performance do the talking we've got two years to slicken up and get the team running really well."

 

 

 

 

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Happy Valentine’s Day ❤️ I’m the luckiest man @tiffanycromwell 🙏🏼 • #hatersgonnahate #VB #TC #valentinesday #happiness

A post shared by Valtteri Bottas (@valtteribottas) on Feb 14, 2020 at 11:58am PST

In the second instalment of this series, on what was once the road.cc live blog and has today turned into a gossip column, is the news that Finnish Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas has confirmed he is in a relationship with Australian pro cyclist Tiffany Cromwell. 

Bottas recently announced his divorce from Olympic swimmer Emilia Pikkarainen, and judging by the hashtags in his Instagram post above, has faced some criticism regarding how fast he has moved on. Cromwell has rode for Canyon-SRAM since the team's launch in late 2015, and used to date fellow Aussie pro cyclist Richie Porte. 

 

 

 

 

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🚲 solid day of 2000m+ of climbing ⛰ • #VB77 #cotedazur #coldebraus 📷 @tiffanycromwell

A post shared by Valtteri Bottas (@valtteribottas) on Feb 15, 2020 at 1:09pm PST

It appears Cromwell has converted her new partner quickly, with Bottas posting the above pic from a bike ride two days ago; although cycling to keep fit amongst F1 riders is already fairly commonplace, with Mark Weber and Jenson Button both known to be very handy on the bike. 

The Government proposes mini-Hollands for all as a part of its cycle plans. The Netherlands is a country of 17 million where there were 228 cycle fatalities in 2018. In the U.K, a country of 65 million there were 99 cycle fatalities. Going Dutch May not be such a good idea. pic.twitter.com/MEwO9szqvt

— Vincent Stops (@VincentStops) February 18, 2020

Vincent Stops, who is a councillor in the Hackney Central Ward, claims that the 228 cycling deaths in the Netherlands in 2018 compared to Britain's 99 despite our much higher population means it "may not be such a good idea" to adopt Dutch cycling infrastructure; however as many have pointed out under his post, Mr Stops appears to have omitted stats regarding how many Dutch people actually ride compared to the UK; cycling made up just 1% of mileage of all vehicular traffic in 2018 here, while in the Netherlands cycling accounts for 27% of all trips. There is also 1.3 bicycles per person in the Netherlands and 84% of the Dutch own a bike, so it's far more likely people who die in traffic accidents will be on a bike. 

oops.
NL average cycling mileage is 13 TIMES higher than UK

— Bryan (@Bryan13571) February 18, 2020

In the same way that England is a much safer place to ski than Austria

— Jim Stanley (@flat__stanley) February 18, 2020

Mr Stops regularly shares articles warning against implementing Dutch cycling infrastructure, and also appears to be wholly against the sight of Jump dockless hire bikes in his Hackney locale... 

Somebody should be clearing these off London's streets. pic.twitter.com/6NMwonToUR

— Vincent Stops (@VincentStops) February 14, 2020

"An environmentally-friendly rubber pavement could prevent thousands of injuries in the UK by cushioning the blow when people fall"

An interesting way to make our streets more #AgeFriendly! Would you like to see rubberised pavements in the UK? Read more: https://t.co/bUxNjJAwGX pic.twitter.com/zpjDHOKuNz

— Age UK London (@ageuklondon) February 17, 2020

The idea was first conceived to cushion the blow when people fall, but iNews reports that the rubberised paving made from old tyres could also be used on cycle lanes too. It's been trialled in the Swedish cities of Lund and Helsingborg, and if successful the developers hope it could become common throughout Europe in the next five years - full story to follow. ​

The 23-year-old Colombian won the Breakthrough Award at the prestigious ceremony yesterday, becoming the first cyclist to win a Laureus Award since... a certain Lance Armstrong, who won the Comeback Award in 2000 and the overall Sportsman of the Year gong in 2003 (both were rescinded after his doping confessions). Other nominees in Bernal's category were Andy Ruiz (boxing), Bianca Andreescu (tennis), Coco Gauff (tennis), the Japan men's rugby team and Regan Smith (swimming).

Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi shared the 2020 Sportsman of the Year Award, while gymnast Simon Biles won Sportswoman of the Year. 

'Closing in on a killer' tells the story of how the killer of Dr Martin Pearson was eventually brought to justice, after the police set out on an extraordinary complex mission to find the suspect. It was found that the killer was the same man who had been involved in a mysterious death almost six years to the day - a tough watch but a fascinating one.