Colnago Lars Boom Cyclocross

I really don't have an issue with the title of this piece. I suppose they could have changed the last word from "so" to "maybe". I just feel bad for Jonas. Seriously 2am? Sound like a bad deal to me.

Clickbait is the worst. It's borderline gaslighting. At no point did Pogačar say the early doping control was the cause of he crash. He said this.... “I don’t blame that, but it could be also a little bit connected. It’s just really sad to see him leave.” Nothing to do with the title of this article. Obviously it's not a life changing thing. It's just looking at the bigger picture. Journalism has basically become clickbait, opinions disguised as news and client journalism. So depressing.

That was a shocking piece of course selection by the authorities, a long fast sweeper running into a ridiculously tight cutback right turn with a traffic island in the mouth of it, the surprise is not that someone was seriously injured there but that more weren't. That should have been flagged as dangerous in the initial course reconnaissance and either a different route chosen or safety measures put in place. The Tour often pays for, or persuades the hosts to pay for, the temporary removal of dangerous obstacles like that lane divider, if it hadn't been there there wouldn't have been a crash.

I subscribe monthly and keep my sub going all year. I'm spoilt for choice really, some days there are 4 or 5 races on. However I have a major issue with the persistent, repeated advert breaks during the Tour de France. It is beyond irritating, it seriously disrupts one's ability to follow the action. Imagine having two long ad-breaks during the descent of the Tourmalet, missing both Pogi's 70mph exhibition and the yellow jersey's crash! So far this year, there's been an ad-free digital stream option for every race apart the Giro and TdF. But after last year's TdF, the greedy idiots started putting ads in these digital streams as well! The test for me AND for TNT Sports will now be whether they're going to repeat this slap in the face all over again. Personally I doubt that their TdF viewing figures are anything to boast about at all because I can't believe many real cycling fans can endure such crass vandalism of live cycling action! If there has been a genuine increase in viewers, I expect this is folk wandering in from other sports out of curiosity.

@tomlew a contributory factor to Vingegaard's crash, perhaps?

Good point - after posting earlier I realised that that would be a better suggestion. Albeit one that's not so great where there aren't yet separate cycle paths...

The only valid reason to wake a rider up at 2am is the suspicion of possible microdosing. No other doping-related activity would have left a trace in the body at night but not in the morning. As much as I am for absolute transparency and integrity in sport, and I do believe riders should accept the inconvenience of testing as part of their job, there is no evidence of efficacy of microdosing. Therefore the test at 2am was just pointless and stupid. Poor, poor job, ITA.

Yup, reckon jackcycles has got a full house there! To paraphrase Prof. Ian Walker's joke "tell me what you care about and I'll explain why the answer is less driving and more active travel". Cycling can indeed be framed in terms that folks all across the spectrum ought to approve of (individualist, traditionalist, business-ist *, environmentalist, socialist...) Unfortunately where that potential agreement falls down is on "getting more people to do it". There are some who feel that is a non-goal - if not a negative. ("I'm alright Jack - and it's no business of anyone to dictate what others do"). I'd just point out that the motor industries have managed to effectively achieve change that benefits them under all kinds of governments and cultures. And wish them "good luck with getting better cycling conditions / protection"... From where we are in the UK change is hard. But there's only one way ** that's been shown in practice to make much difference to numbers of people cycling. And improve the attractiveness and convenience of the same. And it's been shown to work in lots of different places. * Actually... it's not so good for the giant multinationals / those keen on emulating them. Mass motoring is a far better way of accumulating large amounts of cash (which can then be used to ... bend the politicians your way). A lot of the "good" in cycling seems to come from it being "small and low-resource-using". ** Well - perhaps two; but "turn off all the fuel stations" isn't something that those in power not seeking martyrdom choose to do...

I hope examples like this are considered when people complain about bus bypasses.

Rendell, If that isn't what you meant, apologies, but please try to be more careful and precise in your phrasing in the future if that's ok? To Chris on a trike, I do talk about cultural issues because certain commentators (environmentally-driven cycling activists on the left, and their adversaries on the right) have made apolitical activities - such as cycling and driving - political charged debates. Cycling is about freedom, individuality, and mobility, all inherently libertarian ideas, but somewhere along the line it has been hijacked by left wingers as a poster child for curtailing others' freedoms and limiting perfectly reasonable alternative modes of transport. For example, see cycle lanes and LTNs, both idiotic ideas dreamt up by pseudo-totalitarians hell-bent on controlling others' lives, wrapped up as "pro-cycling" measures. They are not. These people speak neither for cyclists not for society at large, and simply divide people. I want to ride my bike on a road, not a silly cycle track where I can leer at upset drivers stuck in the resultant jams that my lane has caused. It's just common sense and societally cohesive, and inherently fair that anything with wheels (and road legal) should share the same space - and will naturally lead to fewer"rage" incidents from drivers. On two-tier justice, police DEI schemes and a warped sense of priorities have led to cases like the one in the article being ignored, which again ultimately affects all cyclists negatively.