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BREAKING: Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo set to be cancelled? Froome leads Portal tributes; Cofidis boss threatens hunger strike; C4’s Jon Snow breaks quarantine for bike rides + more on live blog

Today's live blog with Alex Bowden (daytime) and Simon MacMichael (evening)...
03 March 2020, 22:06
Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo set to be cancelled?

New advice from medical advisors to the Italian government tonight suggest that cycling races scheduled to take place in the country over the next month, including Strade Bianche, Tirreno-Adratico and Milan-San Remo will be cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The Italian website Cyclingpro.net reports that the Comitato Scientifico, which is advising Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on how to contain the spread of the virus, has recommended cancelling sporting events and other gatherings for the next 30 days.

We'll have more on this developing story in the morning, but it does not look good for those races.

03 March 2020, 20:42
Chris Froome leads tributes to Nicolas Portal, who guided him to four Tour de France wins

Chris Froome, whom Nicolas Portal guided to four Tour de France victories, has led tributes to the Team Ineos sports director, who died from a heart attack today at the age of 40.

Among those also taking to social media to express their shock and grief at the passing of someone who clearly touched those with whom he came into touch through his work were riders he worked with at Team Sky and, subsequently Team Ineos, Peter Kennaugh and Tao Geoghegan Hart.

Tributes have also been paid by, among others, Eurosport cycling anchor Orla Chennaoui, the UCI, and the Tour de France – a race where, besides Froome’s four wins, Portal also acted as sports director in the past two years when Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal won the yellow jersey.

03 March 2020, 18:56
Team Ineos DS, Nicolas Portal dies from suspected heart attack

La Gazzetta Dello Sport has reported the death of Team Ineos Directeur Sportif Nicolas Portal. He was the DS during numerous Team Sky and Ineos Grand Tour wins.

He reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack aged just 40. Our condolences to his family and friends.

More to follow.

03 March 2020, 16:48
Swapping car parking bays for bike parking

This is how they trial bike parking in the Netherlands.

With fietsvlonders…

Good old fietsvlonders.

03 March 2020, 16:18
Watch: Denmark's Team Pursuit world record from last week

Check it out: it's four Danish lads going round and round for slightly less time than people doing the team pursuit normally go round and round.

03 March 2020, 16:03
As far as we know, this is the first major UK sporting event cancelled with this as the claimed reason.
03 March 2020, 15:30
Cofidis coronavirus quarantine update

More from the UAE.

After hearing from Cofidis's plague victim president and hunger-strike-threatening sports director this morning, here's the view from one of their riders.

Haas followed this up by making a reference to recent confirmation that three other RCS-organised events - Strade Bianche, Milan-Sanremo and Tirreno-Adriatico - will take place.

"And the RCS plans to host races this weekend while riders forced to stay in UAE? Go figure."

03 March 2020, 15:18
Olympic Rings and Velodrome 3x2 (c) Simon MacMichael
Tokyo Olympics could be postponed because of coronavirus

Japan's Olympic minister has said that the Tokyo 2020 Games could be postponed until later in the year, reports the BBC.

The Games are due to be held from July 24 to August 9, but Seiko Hashimoto said it was possible it could be pushed back as Tokyo's contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) only calls for the Games to be held within 2020.

“We are doing all we can to ensure that the Games go ahead as planned,” she added.

A statement from the International Olympic Committee said: "We have full confidence that the relevant authorities, in particular in Japan and China, will take all the necessary measures to address the situation. The rest is speculation."

03 March 2020, 15:07
Jon Snow crop
C4’s Jon Snow is in self-isolation – but he’s still going for bike rides

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow is in self-isolation after coming back from Iran, where there are cases of coronavirus Covid-19.

Snow is of course also the president of Cycling UK and it’s notable that he’s still getting out on his bike.

“People have been incredibly kind and generous,” he reports in the London Evening Standard. “A bottle of wine on the step, a massive balaclava to enable me to get out incognito on my bike — yes, it’s permitted so long as I keep pedalling and give people a wide berth.”

As we reported earlier, cycling has long been recommended as a means of getting around without contracting (or transmitting) illnesses.

03 March 2020, 14:49
pollution.jpg
Air pollution is cutting three years from human lifespan

According to a report in the Guardian, life expectancy would rise by a year if fossil fuel emissions were cut to zero, while if all ‘controllable air pollution’ were cut, it could rise by more than 20 months.

More on air pollution.

03 March 2020, 13:59
Beryl Bike
Beryl bike-share scheme arrives in Watford

Beryl – the award-winning business formerly known as Blaze, whose Laserlight can be found on London’s Santander Cycles fleet – moved into the urban bike-sharing sector last year with a scheme in Bournemouth and Poole.

A scheme in Hereford followed and they’re now launching in Watford.

There’ll be a gradual rollout of 200 bikes, followed by 100 e-bikes later in the year with bikes available to pick up and drop off at up to 70 marked ‘Beryl Bays’.

Riders can choose Pay-As-You-Ride (£1 unlock fee + 5p per minute), Minute Bundles (no unlock fee and bundles starting at 100 minutes for £5) or Day Passes (24 hours of unlimited riding for £12).

Trips that end outside a Beryl Bay are charged a £5 fee to encourage responsible parking.

For more information visit beryl.cc/bikeshare.

Beryl CEO Phillip Ellis, said: “We are delighted to partner with Watford Council to make sustainable travel around the town as easy as possible. We’re eager to demonstrate how a high-quality bike share scheme can reduce barriers to cycling, be it as part of a commute to work or for leisure. Our service also offers control and order to busy streets as riders pick up and drop off Beryl Bikes in marked bays.”

03 March 2020, 13:21
Carrot/stick training innovation
03 March 2020, 12:19
When was the last time you warmed up for a ride with an 11,000km smash across a continent? No, us neither.
03 March 2020, 11:40
Peers don't have to take a black cab to the House of Lords

Green Party peer Jenny Jones has been sourcing alternative forms of transport.

Last week:

This week:

03 March 2020, 11:27
Riley Evitts (via 10 News)
Eight-year-old Adelaide boy riding 800km for charity

Riley Evitts is going to do 800km from Melbourne to Adelaide. He’s eight.

10 Daily reports that he’s been training for nearly a year, doing 150km on Saturdays with his grandfather, Paul Turnbull.

Riley apparently came up with the idea for the ride when he was five, after meeting round-the-world unicyclist Ed Pratt.

"He had a really big adventure and I really wanted to do a big adventure like that as well."

Riley and Turbull will leave Melbourne from Marvel Stadium on March 22 and arrive at Adelaide Oval on March 30. They’ve scheduled a rest day in there too.

He’s raising money for the Little Heroes Foundation, which supports seriously ill children.

03 March 2020, 11:08
Paris-Nice to go ahead but teams will be tested for coronavirus

Roxana Maracineanu is France's sports minister.

03 March 2020, 10:24
Bike tracks puzzle

Simple question.

If you've made up your mind, here's the answer.

And here's an explanation.

03 March 2020, 09:57
The life and times of a pothole
03 March 2020, 09:53
"Keep out of the crowds; ride a bicycle to and from work"
03 March 2020, 09:31
Staybridge Suites Abu Dhabi
Cofidis sports director threatens hunger strike

It’s not just Cofidis president Thierry Vittu who’s unhappy with the team being kept in an Abu Dhabi hotel following the UAE Tour coronavirus scare (see below).

The team’s sports director Roberto Damiani has told Tutto Bici that he is prepared to go on hunger strike in protest at being prevented from leaving.

"I believe that we have now passed the limit of decency, albeit in the name of public health and the danger of contamination. You already know what has happened in recent days, but to date only the members of three teams have been forced to stay in their rooms for fear of coronavirus infection.

"I want to clarify that the Cofidis team has never had any problems and that we have been confined here to the fourth floor, with the other two teams, without it having been taken into consideration that for a week, at least, about 500 people have met [on the race] and stayed together for several hours a day," he pointed out.

"I must say that RCS, as an organiser, is doing everything it can to solve the problem, but they, too, seem to be coming up against a brick wall.

"If, in the next few hours, the situation doesn't improve. I will start a hunger strike to at least defend the riders and staff members for whom I am directly responsible at this race."

03 March 2020, 09:19
"We're being held against our will" – Cofidis President from UAE hotel lockdown

Four teams remain confined in a hotel following the coronavirus scare at the UAE Tour: Cofidis, FDJ, UAE Team Emirates and Gazprom.

In a statement, Cofidis president Thierry Vittu said that the situation is, “really not normal.”

“We are held against our will in a place we have not chosen and for an unknown period of time,” he said. “It is this last point that is the most difficult to live with: we constantly hope that things will get better soon and nothing happens.”

He says: “When you meet someone from the hotel in the corridor, they run away... that brings me another comparison: we are treated like plague victims. Our rooms have not been cleaned since we arrived five days ago. You have to go to the elevator and there is a cart and we get sheets, soaps, towels.”

Vittu adds: “It would be good for the media to take hold of our situation, just to add pressure where it is needed. But hey, morale remains good, this story will end well one day.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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4 comments

Avatar
Rome73 | 4 years ago
1 like

'I'm having to get black cabs to work and back cos of my broken foot. (And no, before you ask, I don't claim for them.) Today had one moaning about immigrants, using ukip style 'facts'. I asked him to stop but he wldn't. No tip for you, then'

viz comic (remember that?) had a character called Cockney Wanker. In one episode he did 'the knowledge'. So the examiner says to him as they are driving around London 'I want you to take me from Victoria to Earl's Court to White City'. After doing that successfully the examiner goes 'excellent, now I want you to take me from Top of the Pops to Spice Girls to send 'em all back' 

Avatar
eburtthebike | 4 years ago
4 likes

That fietsvlonder temporary cycle parking device is amazing, and should be adopted immediately by UK councils everywhere. 

Avatar
Derk Davies | 4 years ago
2 likes

Ummmm, your in quarantine. 

Avatar
lesterama replied to Derk Davies | 4 years ago
0 likes

I think it's more the arbitrary rules being applied (they tested negative, but are being kept in quarantine as they are on the same floor as someone who tested positive, while many others have left) and being treated like crap.

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