Prince Charles jokes about lycra; One bicycle commuter vs 42 vehicles; How to decapitate someone whilst riding; Female Afghan cyclists flee to Italy; Rohan Dennis leaves Ineos; Grandma rides 870 miles on spin bike for RNLI + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Prince Charles 'jokes' that 'getting into lycra is the hard bit' after meeting group of cyclists
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So, a story doing the rounds this morning is that the Prince of Wales joked that ‘getting into lycra is the hard bit’ when he met cyclists during a visit to a small Scottish burgh.
Charles previously revealed how he was once knocked down by a bus while riding his bike around Cambridge.
Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were meeting with locals in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, taking in views from the Cambus O’May suspension bridge when the Prince made the hilarious quip.
PA report that Charles was walking around ‘Petting dogs and speaking to some cyclists’, when he said: “Sorry for keeping you guys waiting, I suppose our little trip has slowed you down.”
Asking each of the cyclists where they were headed, Charles then joked that “getting into lycra is the hard bit”.
Sadly no Lycra for the Prince, who waved off the riders on the £1m charity event covering 250 miles over four days between royal residences. pic.twitter.com/WxiF9Jg7xs
— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) June 10, 2021
One bicycle v 42 vehicles
This was a helluva lot of space taken up by 42 cars, a van and a bus. pic.twitter.com/HEeTYHXcme
— PassPixi (@PassPixi) August 31, 2021
This video from @PassPixi is a great reminder of why we should all commute by bicycle.
In the clip the cyclists casually rides past a very long line of cars, vans and buses while lots of very bored motorists looking enviously out of their windows.
How to decapitate someone whilst riding
Yet another cycling skill that has been lost over the years. pic.twitter.com/gshDBCfcKQ
— ⛑️Car Helmets⛑️ (@CarHelmets) August 31, 2021
Who wants to learn to wheelie when you could be learning how to cut someone’s head off?
Rohan Dennis leaves Ineos Grenadiers for Jumbo-Visma
Australian rider Rohan Dennis, 31, has announced he will be moving to Team Jumbo-Visma next year.
The two-time time trial world champion revealed today that he has signed a two year contract with the Dutch team.
He said: “I would also like to thank all of @ineosgrenadiers and it’s fans for the amazing memories over the last 2 years…sorry if I cause you guys issues in different colours next year.”
Afghan female cyclists escape Taliban and reach Italy
A small group of Afghan women cyclists has managed to reach Italy on board a C-130 of the Italian Air Force that landed at Fiumicino (Rome) on 27th August.
> Afghan women cycle to “make Afghanistan proud”
Six athletes are currently in quarantine, alongside a male athlete and several family members.
However, Alessandra Cappellotto, head of the Women’s CPA, said that the mission to rescue all the female riders still had a way to go.
She said: “Of course we are happy for the women athletes we were able to rescue, but we are still extremely worried about those who are still there.
“This has been a first step, but we really hope that all the athletes will be brought to safety through the International channels.
“We are yet to cross the finish line: it’s not yet time to celebrate, but this little drop of hope in the ocean of pain and suffering still means a lot».
“The Afghan athletes were in danger (and those who are still in the country continue to be) because they were recognisable and famous due to the national and International media coverage of their efforts for the promotion of women’s cycling.”
Caroline Buchanan makes history by becoming first woman to land a front flip on a MTB on dirt
Caroline Buchanan, a professional BMX biker, made history last week as the first woman to successfully land a mountain bike front-flip to dirt. Buchanan completed the trick at the Audi Nines in Germany, on August 27, walking away with a win in the Women’s Best Trick category. pic.twitter.com/CsfMaj5Hg6
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 31, 2021
Grandmother who sailed across the Atlantic three times cycles 870 miles for RNLI
Barbara Townsend, 80, from Axminster, Devon, is riding her exercise bike every day and hopes to eventually cover 870 miles – the distance from Lands End to John O’Groats.
Mrs Townsend, who has seven grandchildren, has raised £950 so far on her JustGiving page.
She started her ride on August 4th and wanted to raise the cash for the RNLI because both her and her husband, David, 84, were keen sailors and have crossed the Atlantic three times in their 42 foot ocean-going sailing boat.
She said:”The RNLI does a fantastic job, and when we used to pop over to France it was always so comforting to know the volunteers of the RNLI were there if we needed them. Fortunately, we never had to call them out.”
Potential winner of next TdF spotted at Benelux Tour
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) September 1, 2021
Egan Bernal won the Tour in 2019 aged just 22. A year later, Tadej Pogacar, aged 21, became the second youngest winner of the Tour, just behind Henri Cornet, who won the Tour in 1904 at the age of 19.
With the age of Grand Tour champions falling every year, could this tiny rider take victory on the Champs-Élysées in 2022?
1 September 2021, 07:52
Organisers blame combination of cash shortfall and impact of coronavirus for decision to scrap 2022 edition
Tour de Yorkshire cancelled for third year in a row, casting doubt over future of race
Organisers blame combination of cash shortfall and impact of coronavirus for decision to scrap 2022 edition
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Latest Comments
My first road bike was a Raleigh, too. A 1976 Raleigh Record. I dragged it out of the shed a few years ago and got it working again. 14kg it weighed! A 52/42 crank and a 14-28 five speed 'cluster' at the back made hills pretty hard work...
@Destroyer666 Campag cranks use replaceable standard cartridge bearings, pressed onto the axles. They're a slightly unusual size but you can find them easily enough on bearing specialist sites or elsewhere.
More use of compulsory purchase is needed. Active travel route providers need the same kind of financial and legal power that Highways England and analogous bodies have. On the other side to the jam factory, by the junction in Histon, the busway path narrows as it goes past the bus stop and housing. It is the kind of pinch point where enforcement of the limit is most likely.
Yes. Local users of the maintenance track have said such things. Continuing to say them to decision makers is likely to encourage better decisions.
A bit late to this article but I can sadly confirm what they found, since my daughter started riding out more on her own in the last year. The amount of comments shouted at her on most solo rides is thoroughly depressing. And it is all men/boys. I am glad it doesn't stop her going out, but what goes through their brains to think it is OK to harass her? It's beyond me, but I guess some of us seem revel in our ignorance.
@Mr Blackbird I read "Netherlands" first. But then I realized a hole in the road eliminated that possibility. The bastards seem to repair them before they appear!
@Bungle_52 And obviously the cyclist was obstructing the lorry's movement. Do you realize how much CO2 it takes to re-accelerate that lorry?!
Believe it or not, Raleigh was a major cultural icon in the USA also - at least for serious cyclists of my age. My first geared bike was a Robin Hood three-speed. I longed for a Chopper, but it was never to be. Then, in 1970, my father bought himself a Raleigh Gran Sports. It was third in line of the racing bikes in the US catalog. Luckily for me, my father discovered that he was afraid of cars. So in 1974, when I was 13, he gave that bike to me. I became obsessed. It had 531 tubing. It was chrome. I was in love. I eventually ended up road racing from the late 1978-1982. Then I moved to NYC to be a junior "executive" (a YUPPIE). I left that bike with my parents in the suburbs where it would be safe and bought a series of NYC-safe bikes - two of which were stolen. That bike had legs. I eventually started riding it again in the 2000s once I was in the suburbs. Eventually it sat and rusted. Finally in 2017 I started a restoration project to resurrect it into a city bike. It took two years to complete. That bike is still with me today. My faithful Raleigh. When I ride it, I am in love.
@Rendel Harris I watched him at the world champs in Glasgow and he was never going to win but he still kept going around waving to fans and has always been a top pro who appreciates the fans.
Absolutely. And cycle ball (Radball). One for fixie fans. Oh, sorry, that should be on cycleball.cc ...
37 thoughts on “Prince Charles jokes about lycra; One bicycle commuter vs 42 vehicles; How to decapitate someone whilst riding; Female Afghan cyclists flee to Italy; Rohan Dennis leaves Ineos; Grandma rides 870 miles on spin bike for RNLI + more on the live blog”
Getting into lycra is not as
Getting into lycra is not as difficult as getting out of it, especially for an urgent wee (which happens to gentlemen of a certain age).
42 cars and a bus; funniest
42 cars and a bus; funniest thing was arriving at the lights just as they changed, perfect timing. 2nd funniest was the driver stopping well back from the “Wait here” sign.
There was a good chance the
There was a good chance the cyclist set it off as the car might have been too far back for the sensors.
nah, those things never pick
nah, those things never pick up cyclists ime 🙂
Quote:
I can’t be the only person who read that headline and thought, “Wow! That’s some good cycling!”…
And still people will
And still people will complain about the cyclist filtering through the traffic.
No amount of telling people that if the unneccesary car journeys stopped traffic would go down. In a certain soical media site I reminded someone that statistics put 38% of journeys by car in the UK are under 2 miles, and that if even half of those were walked or public transport the number of cars on the road at peak times would be greatly reduced…. the great motoring public came back with
They come up with any excuse not to get out of their cars….. and this is the problem that any form of active travel suggestion faces.
They would also be
They would also be complaining on “bloody cyclists weaving in and out” instead of mentioning, “bloody cars, hugging the kerb” or “bloody cars, hugging the centre line”.
TriTaxMan wrote:
Rather than just admitting that they don’t want to exercise.
Many people’s experience of ‘active’ travel is sofa -> car -> takeaway counter -> car -> sofa.
brooksby wrote:
You mean sofa -> laptop -> deliveroo -> front door -> sofa
jh2727 wrote:
You’re right: I was thinking about what it was like in the Before Times…
I’ve just been in a safer
I’ve just been in a safer streets consultation meeting and when the data for the increase in cycling locally was displayed, two people asked if the stats took account of the 100s of new deliveroo cyclists in the area. Apparently they don’t count. They asked if food deliveries by bike could be taken out of the statistics. They like their takeway arriving sooner yet object to the mode of transport being recognised because there were so many of them.
One of the two subsequently asked a question about how businesses were supposed to deliver in traffic calmed streets and LTNs. They couldn’t see that the 100s of deliveroo couriers, they had previously been banging on about, showed that greener modes of transport can be quicker and more efficient and were already demonstrating this in the very streets where they claimed no such thing was possible.
Might be interesting to see
Might be interesting to see the percentage of food delivery company journeys that are actually by bike. The handful of times I’ve used Deliveroo or Uber Eats, it’s turned up in a car! There are one or two noticeable guys on bikes who always look like they’re putting in a shift when you see them out and about but I have no idea how many unmarked cars are also involved.
In my local area, all
In my local area, all deliveroo, uber eats and similar are by bike – maybe as it’s so densely populated with many restaurants and fast food places in close proxity. I’ve never seen any in other modes of transport. There are some independently delivered ones that come by moped though (including my favourite Indian). I’ve never seen any by car.
TriTaxMan wrote:
Panniers are vastly preferable because of the weight distribution; otherwise excellent points.
Methinks the era of Team Sky
Methinks the era of Team Sky/Ineos is well and truly over now. It’s been a good ten years to be fair 🙂
peted76 wrote:
You may well be right… But I don’t think a TT specialist with waning powers, who has no hope of ever beating Ganna, and who could have an argument in an empty room leaving in his early thirties is necessarily evidence of it ?
Sorry, where did Ganna place
Sorry, where did Ganna place at the Olympics?
1st, with a gold medal, and a
1st, with a gold medal, and a world record…or dont the track cycling events count 😉
Re – overtaking cars stuck in
Re – overtaking cars stuck in a jam. I did a lovely 100 k ride on Sunday, past Lewes and then headed for the coast. There was a road closure just before the point I wanted to cross the A27, which sent me on a detour…that popped me out on the A27 at Wilmington, almost 2.5 km from where I had wanted to cross this road. The A27 is never a nice road to ride along; there are sections with a cycle lane alongside, but not at Wilmington. But luckily for me, there was a set of temporary traffic lights back at the place I had wanted to cross the road, and the queue of cars waiting to get through them just reached where I was, so I set off on the white lines, pulling back in every time a burst of cars going the other way appeared. There was a motor cyclist doing it too; I let him lead the way until he chickened out for some reason.
A bit later on, this was repeated at Cuckmere Haven, I passed another line of traffic and got to the lights as they went red. A car ahead of me went through and I followed him because it meant I had a head start on the climb the other side, and the following traffic wasn’t on my tail until near the top of it.
One would have thought one’s
One would have thought one’s saddle wouldn’t be too low when one set off cycling, orf with the saddle height setters head!
Gotta give a little kudos to
Gotta give a little kudos to the old parasite for getting on a bike and getting on with it…
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/dereham-cyclists-anger-over-hit-and-run-driver-8285042
Awavey wrote:
I don’t get why the police aren’t pursuing the driver for leaving the scene of a collision. Surely that doesn’t require much in the way of disputable evidence?
I assuming “as it was the
I assuming “as it was the caravan that hit her, the driver was unaware of the collision so did not need to stop” is the excuse used there.
What I don’t get is how a “decision maker, experienced in road traffic matters, has concluded the evidential tests have not been met to satisfy criminal offences relating to this collision”. If someone passed a cyclist and took them out with something they were towing, charge them with careless driving. Look at where her body and bike fell, she wasn’t in a wrong position. I’m assuming the other cyclist was her “training” partner, surely his account should have been used as evidence. Yet CPS or someone in the Police Force decided they weren’t even going to try.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
Except that there is an eye witness that saw the driver stop
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/dereham-cyclist-knocked-over-in-hit-and-run-7940276
Checked if something had
Checked if something had fallen off the caravan, confirmed that nothing had so continued on their merry way. Wasn’t looking for the fallen cyclist at all, I’d imagine
So even more that it should
So even more that it should have gone to court with eye witness statements and let the Judge/Jury decide. Why is one eye witnesses account not good enough but the drivers “sun in the eyes/ hit a deer/ didn’t see them as no hi viz/ how am I supposed to know what the caravan has done” excuse means no prosecution can be proven.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
Agree. Time for a cycling body that aggressively runs private prosecutions to shame the CPS into doing their job, an RSPCA for cyclists if you will.
Yet another example of why I
Yet another example of why I no longer cycle without a camera.
One thing that Charlie did do
One thing that Charlie did do for my village yesterday, brought traffic to a standstill, that was good….except when you have to be somewhere. I was “escorted” to the cashpoint because there were hoards of people and his bodyguard cleared me a path. Haha.
Gkam84 wrote:
Why was someone storing up people? 😉
brooksby wrote:
Soylent Green isn’t cheap, you know
Good on the lady for putting
Good on the lady for putting an effort in on her exercise bike and persuading folk to hand money over to a very worthy cause the RNLI, (which shouldn’t need to be done as it should be publicly funded as should the Mountain Rescue Service)
BUT a pedantic point of order, she has not cycled 870 miles on a bike that doesn’t move – its the laws of physics and all that kind of thing, she has put in an effort, she has turned the pedals she may have a recorder/app/calculator that says she has done 870 “somethings” but they ain’t miles 🙂
Nice to see HRH out on 2
Nice to see HRH out on 2 wheels, but I might respectfully suggest a bike fit, he would be much more comfortable if that saddle was raised somewhat I think.
Re: Cycling out of Context
Re: Cycling out of Context tweet
Does anyone actually know the context. Did they sneak in? Win a competition to ride in the Neutralised start? Child of one of the racers?
The kid is Philipe Gilbert’s
The kid is Philipe Gilbert’s son, so you got your first glimpse of the winner of the 2033 Liege Bastogne Liege