“Are you happy to lose customers?”: Dismay as Co-op replaces popular bike parking with “two useless wheel benders”; Pro cycling bullying accusations as Uijtdebroeks transfer saga rumbles on; Cycling Santas target world record + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Worst bike racks — from the useless to utterly unusable places to park your bicycle
Right on cue…
> Worst bike racks — from the useless to utterly unusable places to park your bicycle
Pro cycling bullying accusations as Uijtdebroeks transfer saga rumbles on
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
The Cian Uijtdebroeks transfer saga has taken another twist this morning, the podcast In Het Wiel of Dutch newspaper AD hearing accounts from a source who said the Belgian rider was seen as “something of an outsider” at Bora Hansgrohe and allegedly was bullied.
“Various sources say that Uijtdebroeks was something of an outsider at Bora,” Thijs Zonneveld told the podcast. “He was treated like a kind of nerd by other riders, but also by team leaders. That was because he was very fanatical about certain things. He was weighing his diet, he didn’t think his time trial bike was aerodynamic enough, he didn’t think his clothing was good enough, so he bought different socks himself.
“They thought he was too fanatical. He was like someone in high school who got an A because he studied well, only to be told, ‘Oh, you got an A again?!’ He was bullied. For example, during the Vuelta there was also an ‘Anti-Cian’ app group, without himself in it, so they could gossip about him. It’s really too childish. He didn’t feel at home in that team at all.”
In October, Uijtdebroeks made headlines by speaking out about Bora’s TT set-up, slamming the team for multiple mechanicals at Chrono des Nations. The 20-year-old Grand Tour prospect raised eyebrows by criticising his team for “out of order” Specialized Shiv TT bikes, the same model used by the discipline’s world champion Remco Evenepoel.
The transfer saga erupted on Saturday when Jumbo-Visma, soon to be known as Visma-Lease a Bike, announced the signing of Uijtdebroeks. Bora immediately responded, denying the transfer and pointing out the rider is contracted with them until the end of 2024.
Uijtdebroeks’ agent then claimed that the rider’s Bora contract had been terminated on 1 December, before he signed with Jumbo-Visma, and that “legal proceedings” had been initiated. It has also been reported that Bora are seeking around €1 million from the Dutch team to buy out the Belgian rider’s contract. Messy.
Anyway, amid the noise, Chris Froome undertook some exemplary stirring of the pot…
Cycling Santas target world record
BIG NEWS in the MK Citizen this morning…
If you’re in Milton Keynes on Saturday you might come across 150 cycling Santas riding through the city centre in search of mince pies and rehearsing for a world record attempt scheduled for next year. What’s more, you can get involved and sign up for a free costume and/or bike here…
"I don't see it as I've done anything special, as my colleagues do just as many extraordinary things on a daily basis": Bike-borrowing policeman who chased down drug dealer addresses media coverage
You might have seen this on road.cc (or elsewhere) last week…
PC Lewis Marks went viral when his force shared a video of him borrowing a bike from a member of the public to chase down and arrest a fleeing drug dealer. Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton he said despite the attention, “I don’t see it as I’ve done anything special”.
“I wouldn’t say it’s run-of-the-mill, borrowing somebody’s bicycle is a bit out of the ordinary, but, my colleagues, every other day they are having a foot chase with somebody,” he said.
“They’re catching people every day, so I don’t see it as I’ve done anything special, as my colleagues do just as many extraordinary things on a daily basis. I was surprised by how widely it’s been picked up — I was expecting it to be more of a local news story. It’s a bit of a strange feeling, really.”
Specialized reveals 2024 colour schemes and the new £3,250 Aethos 9r
> Specialized reveals 2024 colour schemes and the new £3,250 Aethos 9r
Cian Uijtdebroeks trains with Jumbo-Visma, Bora deny bullying accusation
[Luis Angel Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency©2023/ASO]
Top snooping from Het Laaste Nieuws who have today spotted Cian Uijtdebroeks not so subtly joining Jumbo-Visma’s winter training camp in Dénia… and riding a Cervélo…
Meanwhile Cian Uijtdebroeks is already at Visma training camp.
Source: HLN pic.twitter.com/oBFye7q4Qo
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) December 12, 2023
Bora-Hansgrohe DS Bernhard Eisel has denied the allegation that Uijtdebroeks was bullied by the team, telling GCN this morning “100% I can deny that. Definitely not.”
Adressing the claim the team had a separate groupchat without the Belgian at the Vuelta, Eisel said: “He had a team that looked after him, Aleks Vlasov had his team that looked after him and, from my point of view, they did an incredible job to protect him. We did everything we could for him. I have to deny that one. It’s that simple. 100% no.
[Pauline Ballet/ASO]
“Honestly I’m tired of the whole thing. I would say it was three times the effort for him than it was for Aleks in the role. If that’s not enough then it’s going to be difficult. From a professional standpoint in support, it was 100 per cent for him in the race. I’m not willing to add more. We did what we could and that’s it.”
The UCI has commented on the transfer dispute, saying “the rules will be enforced”…
All I want for Christmas is... not this. Gifts not to buy for cyclists to avoid a festive faux pas
The moment we’ve all been waiting for…
> All I want for Christmas is… not this. Gifts not to buy for cyclists to avoid a festive faux pas
Fundraiser to help Ukrainian mother replace stolen e-bike raises €3,000
Here’s a nice story for your Tuesday afternoon…
BBC foreign correspondent and Dutch News from the Cycle Path presenter Anna Holligan has set up a fundraiser to help a Ukrainian mother who lives in The Hague and had her e-bike stolen. The bike was the means for the woman, whose partner is fighting in Ukraine, to take her seven-year-old daughter to school 11km away.
In just 24 hours the fundraiser has easily passed the €2,700 target, now just €12 shy of €3,000…
Anna wrote on the fundraising page: “This e-bike was her lifeline — for school run and generating a small income. If you can help her with a few euros each I’m sure we can assist in supporting her a new set of wheels. She asked to borrow a bike but if we can get her her own it would be a wonderful Christmas gift.”
Link to the GoFundMe page here…
I can’t believe it, we’re almost there 🥺❤️🙏🏽
Thank you so SO much everyone.
What a spirit of unity, such a gift 🤗 pic.twitter.com/K0H7Xeg5WZ
— anna holligan 🎙 (@annaholligan) December 12, 2023
Council set to scrap £100k leisure cycling route – after bike riders branded it a "waste of money"
> Council set to scrap £100k leisure cycling route – after bike riders branded it a “waste of money”
"If I can't find a decent rack or a fence or signpost close by, I go elsewhere. Have done for decades..."
Reaction time for our main live blog story of the day…
E6toSE3: “Agreed about the ‘racks’. If I can’t find a decent rack or a fence or signpost close by, I go elsewhere. Have done for decades.”
redimp: “We have those crap wheel benders at our local Morrisons. I lean my bike against the wall and lock through the frame and back wheel to them. I usually means I am taking two ‘spaces’ but I am not using those inadequate wheel breakers in any other way.”
bigwheeler88: “As sad as it is to say, the shop probably doesn’t care about losing customers by being bicycle-unfriendly. If the wheel benders are the only parking option I just bring my bike into the shop with me. It’s no different or dirtier than a pair of shoes walking around. Sometimes security get confrontational about it but I just stay calm and explain that they have no rules against it and they have never stopped me from going in. More cyclists should do this so we are seen and not just treated like invisible customers.”
mattw: “Time to start wheeling the cycles around the shop because they cannot be parked safely outside. (Yes, I’ve done it).”
Still nothing from Co-op by the way.
"Are you happy to lose customers?": Dismay as Co-op replaces popular bike parking with "two useless wheel benders"
The Norwich Cycling Campaign was alerted to the situation at the Hall Road store by a member concerned about the removal of four popular, and perfectly practical, Sheffield Stand bike racks to make way for a postage locker. In return the supermarket’s cycling customers got… *checks notes*… two dodgy wheel-bender parking spots instead…
.@EoECoop you’ve removed the cycle parking from your Hall Road store (which had space for 8 bikes) and replaced it with 2 useless “wheel benders”.
Are you happy to lose customers? pic.twitter.com/6j8K5eclnI
— Norwich Cycling Campaign (@NorwichCycling) December 11, 2023
“Are you happy to lose customers?” was the question Co-op was asked, after all how are people meant to visit if their dedicated, secure parking provision has been replaced by something much less practical?
Peter Silburn from the Norwich Cycling Campaign told us this isn’t the first time he’s seen this, the Sainsbury’s at Longwater doing similar…
“The bike racks were popular,” he explained. “One of our members alerted us to this. She says they were very popular, especially with families who could lock several bikes up at once. She says that although she used to shop regularly at the store on her way home from work she will now shop at the nearby Tesco Express instead which has plenty of cycle parking.
“There’s plenty of space down the side of the store which would seem to be a suitable location for the locker.”
We’ve contacted the Co-op, as the cycling campaign group has also, but neither of us have heard back. Another local rider said they’d raised the issue and been told “they ‘thought’ that they would be reinstated around the corner in the car parking area. We’ll see…”
Someone else reported: “They have also removed the Sheffield stands at the Ashbourne Road branch in Derby and replaced them with nothing.”
Wheel benders or nothing? Pick your poison…
How frustrating. Those were just about the only locks on that block of shops. Clearly a decision made by someone who had never used one
— Paul (@No_pun_in_10did) December 11, 2023
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Latest Comments
Likely due to the right wing oligarchs that almost all our media. Even the BBC is right wing and will even frame questions using a far right wing world view when interviewing Greens or Lib Dems (are they even still around?).
Alas, the immediate UK response to increased petrol prices after decades of "we have to drive" is more likely to be cycle lanes blocked by drivers! Those would be a) protesting about paying fuel taxes when fuel prices go up and b) parking in the cycle infra to avoid driving around looking for a legal parking spot. We collectively missed an opportunity in the 1970s with the oil crisis. That was one of the factors that propelled the course correction by the Dutch. (The outlines of that story told here. https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/how-did-the-dutch-get-their-cycle-paths/ They were primed by them being a bit behind the UK in the adoption of the car ahead of all other modes. And indeed the bulldozing of cities to make room for it, and the spike in road deaths resulting from it. Plus they still had mass cycling and reasonable public transport. Indeed they already had some "cycle infra" albeit the primary purpose may have been for the safety of moped riders.)
Give them the sugar sandwich treatment: 1) they have to cycle around London - as likely many / most have simply no idea of the cycling perspective, and the few that do are perhaps "cyclist myself" occasional roadies. 2) then send them for a few days in somewhere cycling is normal so they understand how or could be. So NL - or perhaps better Copenhagen, Seville etc. so they don't simply say "that could never work in the UK". 3) ... and finally they have to do some rides back in London to see just what all the blockers to safer, more pleasant urban areas are.
Straits of Hormuz closed. Petrol predicted to rise to £2.00 a litre. Let's see how underused cycle lanes are now!
exactly - cyclists generally don't need saving from themselves hopefully, this will mean more resources put into general roads policing
If a spell cycling around london were to be a prerequisite for traffic officer and video reviewer posts I suspect we would see a huge improvement in the police response to poor driving around vulnerable road users.
“ In 2026, I can get from almost anywhere in the capital to the various centres of London using separated bike paths” Sorry, but that’s not true. If you cycle in central London there are lots of separated paths. But they are far from contiguous. For example, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea don’t offer much, if any. In some outer boroughs there are also CS lanes (but only in a minority of boroughs) and they are not ‘separated’. They are often ‘quiet ways’ or paint. But it is loads better, I agree. I started cycling to primary school in London about half a century ago, so I have experienced a lot of change, indifference, neglect and improvement.
Something nobody seems to have remarked upon is that the Cycle Safety Unit was primarily concerned with cyclist behaviour rather than taking action to keep cyclists safe. They didn't go around ticketing cars parked in the cycle lanes or reporting on how junctions could be improved to make cyclists safer; they generally gathered in groups stopping cyclists and telling them off for not having lights, riding through reds et cetera. I well remember seeing them in action a few years ago as I was riding through Elephant and Castle on the top deck of a bus: it was the day after a cyclist had been tragically killed through no fault of her own by a left-turning lorry driver. The cyclist safety unit was out in force, but rather than stopping lorries and checking their paperwork and advising them on how to drive safely around cyclists, as one might expect/hope, I saw three of them surrounding and haranguing a cyclist who had stopped at a red light with his front wheel over the stop line. The closure of the unit will make little or no difference to cyclist safety in London.
Key word is "combination". To be clear: their wheel with one specific tyre is tested as safe. When your first set of tyres wear out you'll very likely stick on a set of tyres that they haven't tested as safe.
I have just sent off for a helmet mounted mirror, partly because an average week’s riding includes town centre roads (food shopping) and the A603, a single carriageway road with 50mph traffic including eighteen ton lorries. If anyone is seriously interested I will post a description of how useful it is. I wrote the above in answer to to two people's comments, but re-post it here in case it is not accessible for everyone else.
12 thoughts on ““Are you happy to lose customers?”: Dismay as Co-op replaces popular bike parking with “two useless wheel benders”; Pro cycling bullying accusations as Uijtdebroeks transfer saga rumbles on; Cycling Santas target world record + more on the live blog”
Assumed that wheel benders
Assumed that wheel benders was just a new insult for cyclists ?
Hardly new. I wrote to
Hardly new. I wrote to perhaps the UK’s largest supplier of wheelbenders several decades ago, asking them to remove them from their product line.
AnotherChrisOnAnotherTrike
Mixed about these. They’re pretty useless to me because “UK rules” apply e.g. you want to lock your frame here. Many of us have nicer cycles, they stand out (because not many cycles).
OTOH in places where there is mass cycling you need LOTS of lock up points all over the place (because people get everywhere by cycling). So for cheap / high density storage / rack doesn’t take up space itself – these are fine in e.g. shopping areas (actually in some shopping areas there may be no room for ANYthing to lock to and people may not). Plus there tend to be more practical bikes sold complete with most of the key features we expect in a car (e.g. lights, protection from spray, a way to carry luggage … and a built-in lock).
As noted on another thread though for overnight storage / where it’s windy wheelbenders aren’t ideal anywhere.
P.S. you can just be AnotherChrisOnATrike if you want! I’ve not been on one in ages so should probably change to chrisonabike, it just sounds nicer…
Time to start wheeling the
Time to start wheeling the cycles around the shop because they cannot be parked safely outside.
(Yes, I’ve done it)
As sad as it is to say, the
As sad as it is to say, the shop probably doesn’t care about losing customers by being bicycle-unfriendly. If the wheel benders are the only parking option I just bring my bike into the shop with me. It’s no different or dirtier than a pair of shoes walking around. Sometimes security get confrontational about it but I just stay calm and explain that they have no rules against it and they have never stopped me from going in. More cyclists should do this so we are seen and not just treated like invisible customers.
Excellent point. I have done
Excellent point. I have done that with a drop bar luggage bike that I gavecaway in lockdown but, until reading your comment, I’d forgotten about it. Equivalent to pushing a pram or pulling a wheeled shopping basket. Having taken 60mm off my urban bike straight bars, I’ll get back to that approach. Thanks.
Ditto. Same issues at times
Ditto. Same issues at times with security. Needed to explain that “you have lots of other crap being rolled around on wheels in here. You have no written rules about these wheels. Now, you can try to throw me out, and we can all end up in court. Or you can get out of my way, let me get what I need, and I will be out of here.” At least one store, which had no secure outside bike parking stands, installed them after one of these encounters.
We have those crap wheel
We have those crap wheel benders at our local Morrisons. I lean my bike against the wall and lock through the frame and back wheel to them. I usually means I am taking two “spaces” but I am not using those inadequate wheel breakers in any other way.
You kind of feel that the
You kind of feel that the bullying accusations in the Uijtdebroeks saga were due to rear their head… Based on the limited information we already had about the saga there just had to be more to the whole incident than was initially suggested.
Whether workplace bullying is an acceptable reason to break contract will ultimately be determined by sports lawyers, and if they get the EU involved they will take a very strong stance supporting Uijtdebroeks against Bora.
You get the feeling that if the bullying is the central pivot point of the case then Visma Lease-A-Bike might have a strong case for coming through this mostly unscathed. But allowing the announcement to be made before everything was ratified was a poor move. I understand that teams, agents and riders want to know where they stand as early as possible, but any legal proceedings regarding Uijtdebroeks’ move to terminate his Bora contract should have been left to come to a conclusion before making any announcements. V-LaB management’s jumping the gun looks to have potentially derailed the initial proceedings that would have ultimately led to an incidentless announcement.
For all we know, had the announcement not been made, the UCI may have already ratified or denied the move to break contract and Cian’s 2024 team would have been known.
The more details come out the more I feel for him as I believe he should absolutely be able to break from that toxic environment at Bora, but rules should be followed properly to avoid this kind of embarrassment.
One of the two teams are going to end up with egg on their face and the other are going to end up feeling rather smug, when both teams should share the blame for the messy situation.
As seen here previously…
With regards to the removal of bike racks, as seen here previously…
“Cyclist gets shopping centre bike ban overturned”
https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-gets-shopping-centre-bike-ban-overturned-279937
Agreed about the ‘racks’. If
Agreed about the ‘racks’. If I can’t find a decent rack or a fence or signpost close by, I go elsewhere. Have done for decades.
It costs £1 to become a CoOp
It costs £1 to become a CoOp member for life, if you join up you can exercise your membership rights and raise issues with them … if enough cyclists joined up and acted together it could theoretically help.