"Not just a sticky bottle, a whole crate": 24 riders disqualified at Giro Next Gen for holding onto cars and police motorbikes; Tour de France radio to be broadcast live; Discount on Boris bikes + more on the live blog

Now this is absolutely hilarious, I'm not sure if I should laugh or be disappointed! I mean, there's cheating, and then there's blatant, obvious, no Fs cheating. If you were wondering which kind took place at Giro Next Gen, it's the latter.

24 coureurs disqualifiés en Italie au Giro Next Gen hier, mercredi 14 juin 2023 au Passo dello Stelvio. Mais pourquoi donc ? Forza ! Johannes Staune-Mittet le leader🇳🇴 de @JumboVismaRoad n'a pas besoin d'aide, lui... pic.twitter.com/DWeFq5ajWQ

— 🅰ntoine VAYER 📸🖋️ (@festinaboy) June 15, 2023

Giro Next Gen, the under-23 version of Giro d'Italia is currently going on, and it has blessed us with a car to hold on to, err, I mean a gem to hold onto. Gotta hand it to the boys.

Also known as Baby Giro, it's an amazing platform for young riders to showcase their skills and is the most important race on the Italian U23 calendar, with previous winners including Francesco Moser and Gilberto Simoni.

I am trying to imagine how it would have went down, and all I can think of is the riders in that classic, schoolboy mischievous frame of mind, imagining if all of us bend the rules together, they can't kick us all out right? RIGHT?!

And what's even more hilarious is that the riders weren't just holding onto their team cars, but literally latching on to police motos.

Anyway, if that's already enough craziness from the pro cycling world to you, it's also the queen stage day in Tour de Suisse today. Will 22-year-old Mattias Skjelmose look to regain his lead today or wait until the final time trial, with world champion Remco Evenepoel just behind him currently.

Meanwhile, if you're missing the beautiful scenery from Giro, here's a magical shot for you.

Stelvio ✔️🥵

📸 LaPresse pic.twitter.com/TMLSBkZmTy

— La Conti Groupama-FDJ (@groupamafdj_ct) June 14, 2023

Having recently overhauled its Force line of groupsets, the American brand turned its sights to its fourth-tier Apex range in a bid to revolutionise the entry level and bring AXS electronic shifting to the core of the market — a clever play considering the current cost of living crisis.

> SRAM Apex XPLR AXS first ride review - premium electronic groupset at a pleasing price point

It seems ages since I kicked off the blog with the Baby Giro story, a lot has changed since then (by a lot, I mean the entire blog!).

Well ICYMI, yeah the blog borked but Dave managed to salvage two posts and set up a redirect link which seems to be working nicely (anulo mufa, none of you dare jinx it!). So probably the only person gutted about the whole deal is... HoldingOn for losing their shiny trophy in the comments blackhole.

But back to the point, to sum up what happened in the U23 Giro in a very tongue-in-cheek way:

Safety in numbers belief confounded when 24 riders are thrown off the race for holding onto, well, anything moving up the hill that wasn't another cyclist.

(HT @roadcc) https://t.co/aDPu0C5Btm

— LukeB_MTB @mastodon.social (@LukeB_MTB) June 15, 2023

If you haven't been keeping up, let me do a quick rewind of the last the last four days at Tour de Suisse for you...

Stage two winner: 23-year-old Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty)
Stage three winner: 22-year-old Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo)
Stage four winner: 25-year-old Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën)
Stage five winner: 20-year-old Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)

Seriously this is getting a bit much...

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐰, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐧 👏

20-year-old Juan Ayuso wins Stage 5 of the Tour of Switzerland! 🇪🇸#tourdesuisse23 pic.twitter.com/mdHegytfmj

— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 15, 2023

Jokes aside, a massive perfromance by Ayuso, soloing to his second victory of the season in the final 15km of today's queen stage of the Tour de Suisse and moved up to third in the general classification standings.

Meanwhile, Skjelmose , in an extremely strategic move, regained the yellow jersey after taking some bonus seconds on the finish line, after losing it to Felix Gall yesterday. The Austrian, who won his first pro cycling career stage yesterday, stands second in the GC table, after losing four seconds in the final meters. 

Remco Evenepoel's struggles, however, continued, as he slipped down to fourth in the GC, 46 seconds behind Skjelmose.

Respect 🤝

What a stage!? That had us on the edge of our seats but a second place for @skjelmose_ behind Ayuso sees him moves back into yellow 💛#tourdesuisse #tds2023 pic.twitter.com/zyaUJrh04G

— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) June 15, 2023

Ayuso, after winning the stage which featured the most difficult climbs, with Furkapass, the highest of the Tour at 2436m, said: "The two races I’ve done have been here [in Switzerland] and I’m happy to be able to win a stage in both races. Now, we are going to focus on the GC, it’s going to be hard but I think it’s possible so we will fight for that."

"Yesterday, I had no legs and I just had to suffer but today I felt much better. It was a very hard stage, very long with lots of climbing and lots at altitude so it was very tough. But, at the end, when the pace started increasing, I felt better and better. I attacked with four or five kilometers to the top of the climb but I was confident that I could hold the gap."

The stage started at Fiesch and finished on a steep descent at La Punt, after the Albulapass climb. With 12 km to go, Ayuso caught up with the leaders and distanced them almost immediately. After around four kilometers of attacking at the top of the final climb, Ayuso had almost a minute on the yellow jersey group, and even more on Evenepoel and Skjelmose.

But he couldn't celebrate just yet. Up ahead of him lay a very technical descent, and Ayuso left no stone unturned, no patch of the tarmac unused, as he used every bit of road to maximise his speed (95+ km/hr), sweeping roads down into the valley to ride onto victory.

Almost like Mohoric on the Poggio, or more like Pidock on Col du Galibier.

Juan Ayuso ha estado espectacular hoy para llevarse la victoria en la 5t etapa del #TourdeSuisse
Brutal en la subida final, y volando en la bajada.

Mattias Skjelmose recupera el liderato. pic.twitter.com/cWXjrJcWNq

— David Gómez Hidalgo (@davidesportista) June 15, 2023

Another happy kid today, who gave it all and won it fair and square (wink wink Baby Giro)! Tour de Suisse does seem to be shaping for a strong end, and maybe a massive upset too!

This one is courtesy of psychologist and road safety researcher Dr Ian Walker. A research from Cambridge University about brain injuries, which has nothing to do with cyclists in the entire research, has a cover photo depicting a bike under a car and a helmet strewn across on the ground...

Just saw this press release from Cambridge. A study of brain injury, concluding that most happen from people falling over, and with no reference at all to cycling, and what image do they use to illustrate the topic...? pic.twitter.com/hrZpRKZnnq

— Ian Walker (@ianwalker) June 15, 2023

So basically, the only way to get head injuries is riding a bicycle.

Anyway, Happy Clean Air Day, everyone.

— Ian Walker (@ianwalker) June 15, 2023

London cyclists on Boris bikes (CC BY 2.0 Waterford_Man via Flickr)

After we yesterday's spotting of a Santander bike all the way down in Brighton, we are hearing that Transport for London could be exploring options to offer cheaper fares on the popular London bike share scheme.

To mark Clean Air Day, TfL has announced a new Cycling Action Plan setting out new targets for a significant expansion in the capital’s Cycleway network and a big increase in the number of cycle journeys.

And as a part of that plan, TfL will be "exploring the possibility of, subject to funding, adding concessionary fares to the capital’s record-breaking Santander Cycles hire scheme to support the most disadvantaged Londoners", including job seekers and council house tenants.

The Santander bike share scheme, colloquially called the Boris bikes since they were originally introduced in 2010 by Boris Johnson during his first stint as London mayor, has played a significant role in the nudging people towards being comfortable with riding bikes on London roads.

Under the scheme, there are currently 12,000 bikes and 500 e-bikes, and TfL has also proposed a significant expansion from central London "outwards towards the North and South Circular roads".

However, there have been reports of a big drop-off in Boris bike subscriptions, possibly because of the hike in costs — the cost of a 30-minute trip on one of the Santander-sponsored TfL hire bikes rose to £1.65 last year, while the annual subscription jumped £30 to £120. 

The drop-off could also be because the new charges means that the "auto renewal" system could not operate and riders have to manually reactivate their membership for another year.

TfL said: "This could include discounts for job seekers and/ or council housing residents – as we have done on other modes or on other cycle hire schemes outside London and the UK. We will also explore ways to support more disabled people to access the scheme."

Under the plan, TfL is also aiming to increase the number of daily cycle rides in London from 1.3 million to 1.6 million by 2030.

Walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman said: "To diversify cycling we must ensure our schemes support a wider range of journeys, including trips to schools, local shops and amenities, rather than focusing solely on the commute.

"We must reach the communities that stand to benefit the most from cycling, including areas of higher deprivation. Our network of cycleways must branch outwards into outer London boroughs, with a focus on orbital routes connecting town centres."

So is anyone still considering taking a Boris bike all the way to Mont Ventoux?

> Video: Boris bike vs Mont Ventoux

While we are at, in light of the other headlines coming out today, I would like to remind anyone taking a Boris bike to not be misled...

Not to be that guy who starts the day with a downer, but this is from Ryan from last evening. After we reported that Dumfries residents who called the restrictions due to the UCI World Championships in Scotland in August as "unacceptable, impractical, and ridiculous", and even sought a compromise from the council, it's the future of Tour O The Borders that has been put under question after complaints from Peeblesshire residents about the event's road closures.

Just to note though, the 2023 edition of the sportive will still go ahead as planned on 3 September, using a partly new 120km route designed to by-pass the area at the centre of the controversy, Ettrick and Yarrow. So if you had been meaning to head out to Scotland in September, don't miss out on this.

> Tour O The Borders sportive faces cancellation after residents complain about event’s road closures