John o’ Groats to Land’s End (and back) in five days? The most impressive cycling performance of the week isn’t at the Giro; Major crash neutralises Giro stage; Is there any point upgrading beyond 105?; UCI bashing + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"What a load of rubbish... the UCI is slowly ruining sprints": Frustration at "absolutely ridiculous" Giro d'Italia yellow cards and disqualifications over "silly" sprint incidents
While stage five of this year’s Giro d’Italia saw yet another uncontroversial Mads Pedersen victory, some of the discussion yesterday still centred around the events of stage four in Lecce… and the UCI fines, yellow cards and disqualification fallout. Here’s the TNT Sports punditry team getting stuck in (in case you’re not shelling out the £30.99 a month and missed it)…
One rider penalised was Astana XDS’ sprinter Max Kanter, the German relegated to 103rd (having crossed the line in fifth) for his barging during the fight for position. Astana released a statement saying they respect the jury but still disagree with the decision.
Tarjeta amarilla para Bram Welten, pero porqué ?? yo no veo nada raro, el no puede desaparecer de ahí y levanta el brazo ya en meta.
Max Kanter relegado del 5º al 103º yo no he visto nada punible, quizás a los de UCI no les gusta el sorpasso de Astana.
Comisarios UCI = Mafia pic.twitter.com/BZ11ctje1L— Jesús Eguizábal (@jesus_egizabal) May 13, 2025
Sports director Alexandr Shefer added: “We find this decision very unfortunate. In our view, Max sprinted safely and in line with the actions of other riders in the group. Relegation and a yellow card is way too much. If we begin to penalise such moments, then we also need to start evaluating rider behaviour not only in the final meters but throughout the last 10 or 5 kilometres. Today this happened to our team, tomorrow it could be any other. It’s disappointing news for us.”
Stage four winner Casper van Uden’s teammate Bram Welten was also yellow carded for sitting up after his leadout. Speaking on TNT Sports’ coverage an exasperated Adam Blythe and Robbie McEwen said it shows “how silly it’s getting”.
Blythe said: “What a load of rubbish. People getting disqualified, yellow carded for nothing. Literally nothing. I really feel like the UCI is just slowly ruining bunch sprints.”
“Because of all the rules and regulations — some of them don’t match up. You can’t do this, you can do that, but if you do that, you’ll get relegated. So do that. But you’re not allowed to do that, because you’ll get a yellow card. It just doesn’t make sense how they’re applying these yellow cards and disqualifications, relegations.”
Speaking specifically about Welten’s yellow, 12-time Tour de France stage winner McEwen said: “That was a ridiculous situation. He did a great job, not just for his teammate but also not interfering with anyone else. Once you’ve done the job properly you can’t just continue at the speed of the bunch to the line. It is absolutely ridiculous.”
With stage six potentially a sprint in Naples (although a few breakaway hopefuls might have something to say about that) this might be a topic that gets plenty more discussion through the day.
New mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough claims there's a "war on motorists"... and he's ended it on his first day in office
Here’s a brainteaser for you. Newly elected mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Paul Bristow has claimed that there is BOTH such a serious and sustained attack on drivers in the area that it can be classed as a “war or motorists”, but also that he’s been able to sort it out in a single day.
Bristow was elected at the start of this month and has marked his first day in office by scrapping the target to reduce car miles driven by 15 per cent by 2030.
“I’m determined to bring pace and purpose to being mayor, starting on day one. These are just the first steps in making the mayor matter to you,” he said. “Today I am ending the war on motorists, ensuring that your money is spent effectively and putting my manifesto priorities in place. We are getting Cambridgeshire and Peterborough moving.”
"The people's champion (and groupset)"
Don’t tell the marketing departments, but one of Britain’s biggest bike races, the Lincoln GP, was won by a rider using 105. Let’s be real, the difference between 105, Ultegra and Dura-Ace is almost certainly not going to win you or lose you a race and at this level, where plenty of riders will still be (extremely talented) amateurs/semi-pros, the extra cost could probably be better spent on more effective upgrades, such as contributing to faster wheels etc.
Top marks for Jarrod McElhannon in the comments… “So you’re telling me there’s a chance…” We’d genuinely love to see Tadej Pogačar in a hypothetical handicap summit finish, what level of bike can he no longer win a Tour de France stage on?
Drop him down the groupsets. What about with some horrible winter tyres on? Entry-level wheels? Go further, take away his V5Rs and stick him on a £500 aluminium bike. What’s the point where tech would actually matter enough to lose him the race?
Interestingly, in the comments under Monument Cycling’s post, Luke Humphreys (you’re lucky the spelling’s slightly different to avoid a tortured darts gag), who’s a director at Pacenti Cycle Design suggested McKay rode last year’s Tour of Britain on his “Kinesis winter training alloy frame” after “breaking his main race bike in a crash”.
“It’s the man that counts not the bike,” Humphreys added. “This guy is made of steel.”
Yep, don’t think he’d be too worried by only 105 if he did that…
A cautionary tale in taking risky swamp detours
How it started:
How it finished:
Here’s bit of fun (for us at least) from Reddit, an account called lavinadnnie sharing the tale of how they were tempted into a risky route, but left with regret and a soggy foot.
“During a five-hour bike ride in the woods today, I see a raised, narrow wooden platform over a swamp and decided it would be fun to bike on it…
“I knew it was risky as fuck, but I was like ‘I gotta do it for fun’. Midway, I realise I need to steer the shitty, wobbly bike to keep balance. But there is nowhere to go. So I just topple over straight into the muddy water, with all kinds of shit in it. I feel stupid. Especially because I knew this would happen. So I bike around for hours with muddy water soaking through my pants like an asshole…”
Sadistic Giro route planner sends peloton up double-digit berg... in the neutral zone
When the neutral zone is the most selective climb of the first week. https://t.co/3n7fM1hMW4
— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) May 15, 2025
Look mum, no paws! How to ride with your dog
> Look mum, no paws! How to ride with your dog
No, you don’t need a Dogma or VanWoof.
Merida reports Q1 revenue up a third on last year, hinting at improvements for the bike industry in 2025
In the latest sign that the situation for the bike industry might finally be improving after a tricky few post-Covid years, Merida has reported its revenue is up £43m on the same period last year. Q1 revenue was TWD 7.57bn (£189m), up 29 per cent from TWD 5.85bn (£146m) during the opening quarter last year.
The news follows Giant revealing it had started 2025 with a revenue boost too thanks to increased orders and high demand in the Chinese market. However, optimism was tempered slightly in April, revenue dropping 17 per cent compared to the same month in 2024.
Giro neutralised after huge crash in the bunch, Jai Hindley abandons
💥 Massive crash in the peloton, with many riders involved, including @RichardCarapazM, Jai Hindley, @PaulMagnier1 and others.
The race is neutralized for the moment, we’ll provide updates as soon as we can. #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/tZMaNvGIwO
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2025
With all the medics still dealing with the injuries behind, the race has been neutralised. Jai Hindley a former winner of the Giro and teammate of Primož Roglič has abandoned. After several minutes rolling along, the peloton and breakaway have now stopped, frantic conversations between the organisers and riders continuing. That was a shocker.
UPDATE: Racing back underway at the Giro
Sarah Ruggins' story: From paralysis to world record attempt... the extraordinary journey
As well as attempting to set a new record, Sarah is also raising money for The Bike Project and Bikes for Refugees, two charities important to her. The fundraising page explains how Sarah has “seen first hand how a bicycle can change their access to people’s opportunities and quality of life, in a way very different to but resonating with the way it has changed hers”.
In her childhood, Sarah was a promising track athlete with aspirations of the Olympics and representing Canada, however at 15 she developed an autoimmune condition known as one of the world’s most painful diseases, which ended her running career.
She lost the the ability to walk, to use her hands or move. She was transferred abroad for urgent 24/7 care and would spend years fighting to recover.
“I want to show that just because life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad life,” she said. “My future was bright, but I developed a disease where I lost my ability to walk and use my hands. I had gone from Olympic hopeful to requiring 24/7 care. My family was incredibly supportive and we were fortunate to find a charity that helped us stay together when I was transferred to another country for medical care. Thankfully, intense rehabilitation helped me recover and return to school.”
Having returned to running she set her sights on the LEJOG running record but, a few weeks before, suffered a significant injury. “My new body was just not strong enough to run again,” she explained.
“Not wanting to lose what I had worked for years to rebuild, I purchased a bicycle. I just had to learn how to ride it. In five months I went from novice to competing in some of the hardest ultra-endurance cycling races in the world, and in a surprise to everyone including me, achieved a finish near the top of the pack.
She’s now after the JOGLEJOG record to raise funds for charity “and to close the chapter on all the versions of my life I did not get to experience”.
“The Bike Project and Bikes for Refugees are close to my heart, as I come from a family that has been active in fostering, adoption and emergency caretaking throughout my life, including successfully petitioning for the end of discriminatory adoptive practices in government agencies.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with referral organisations to sponsor several female refugees and asylum seekers to live in my home, heal from their ordeals and transition to life in the UK. I’ve seen first-hand how a bicycle can change their access to opportunities and quality of life, in a way very different to but resonating with the way it has changed mine.
“I want to document this project to show that just because life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect, doesn’t mean it’s a bad life. And to remind us that there is a whole community of people waiting to greet us when we are open about our struggles and fears in the pursuit of big goals.
“We must always keep going.”
Bristol ranked eighth best city in Europe for child-friendly cycling – but UK "lags behind" due to unprotected bike lanes and "lack of political ambition", researchers say
Race organisers outline situation for rest of Giro's sixth stage
🩷 Mads Pedersen won’t take part in the sprint in Napoli.
He’ll be wearing the Maglia Rosa tomorrow for the first mountain stage of the race. #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/DeXjuRSPyN
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2025
The GC time for today has been applied to the race situation at the moment of the crash, meaning that Mads Pedersen is certain to still be in pink tomorrow as long as he finishes the stage. There will be no time limit and no points or bonus seconds will be awarded at the RedBull KM, or at the finish.
It all means that anyone who doesn’t want to contest the sprint in Napoli has dropped back into a group taking things at a more leisurely pace, the race on up road for those teams with a sprinter who are willing to mix it. Perhaps wisely, Mads Pedersen has opted not to contest the win, and risk being caught up in any further incidents on the wet city roads, and is part of the group taking things easy.
Kaden Groves wins stage six
🔻 Not one, but two attempts at anticipating the sprint. And despite coming close to the win, the sprinters would battle it out in Napoli
🔻Non uno ma due tentativi di fuga per anticipare lo sprint. Una coppia sfiora l’impresa a pochi km dalla gloria, ma sono i velocisti a… pic.twitter.com/hyvRmPx90g
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2025
One hell of a day at the Giro. Ultimately, it was Kaden Groves who won the sprint in Naples, but the stage was dominated by that crash and neutralisation earlier on. In the finish there were fortunately no further crashes, although what appeared to be a protest saw multiple people run towards the lead group as they charged towards the final kilometres at 60km/h. We’ll have more on that shortly, the fallout from today is likely to rumble on well into the evening and tomorrow morning…
"What on earth is happening?": Suspected protesters run into Giro d’Italia peloton and attempt to block road during chaotic, crash-marred Naples stage
John o' Groats to Land's End (and back) in five days? The most impressive cycling performance of the week isn't at the Giro
You might not have heard but there’s a pretty extraordinary cycling achievement unfolding as you read this. Dr Sarah Ruggins is on the home stretch of her attempt at the record for John o’ Groats to Land’s End to John o’ Groats (or JOGLEJOG for short).
Just the 2,700km to be ridden, Sarah aiming to beat the current outright record of five days 18 hours. The women’s record is currently 10 days five hours, but Sarah wants to set an outright record to make history by “joining an exclusive group of incredible female athletes who hold the outright record for a feat of endurance over their male competitors”.
Now into day five, she’s been the length of the UK, spent 30 seconds at Land’s End, and raced back up through England and into Scotland. According to the live tracker, she’s averaged 25km/h on the bike and has a little over 350km to go.
In the latest update from the support crew, they explained: “No one is getting ahead of themselves though, we’re concentrating on every mile, every feed, every nav turn. Sarah is smashing it so hard we could cry.”
We’ll bring you more on this and Sarah’s story throughout the afternoon…
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The defence may well have argued that, and the magistrate may have accepted it, but that's not what the law says. It says that you have only driven without reasonable consideration for others if someone is inconvenienced. But the offence is committed if you drive without due care and attention, OR without reasonable consideration for other person. You have done the first if the driving falls below what would be expected of a careful and competent driver, regardless of whether anyone was inconvenienced. And CPS guidance specifically cites driving too close to another vehicle as an example.
Some years ago (before there was a cycle lane) I used to commute on Sidmouth St. But only because I worked on the London Road campus, from anywhere else there are better alternatives. As a cycle route it runs from between two busy roads, neither of which are exactly cycle friendly. So it's hardly surprising that no cyclists use it.
The officer's comments unfortunately reflect the reality of UK law. While the Highway Code guidance indeed refers to 1.5m, that is not anywhere in the law. And the criteria in law for proving a charge of careless driving does in fact rest on whether the rider is being "inconvenienced", as the discovered several years ago when the Met prosecuted a taxi driver who nearly hit me when cutting into my lane from the left near Marylebone. The prosecution lawyer was a barely competent newbie who fumbled over his words. The court computer was barely capable of playing the video footage, which kept freezing and crashing. The cabbie had an highly assertive defence lawyer who immediately seized on this point, and argued to the magistraite that I clearly hadn't been "inconvenienced" because I had not stopped or swerved, and had carried on my journey. Never mind that didn't have time to do either of those things, or that I was centimetres from being hit - the magistraite acquitted him on those grounds. That is unfortunately the outrageous reality of actually prosecuting a close pass incident. I know it's popular to blame the police and the CPS for not prosecuting enough close passes ... but the fact is the law is inadequate, and if the driver has a good lawyer then they can likely get off most close pass prosecutions.
Let's not forget the protruding "side" mirror...
HTML rules are clearly only partially implemented
please can we have the ability to use bold and italics for emphasis back as well?
As a Reading resident and cyclist, I can say I cannot think of a single occasion when I have seen a cyclist using the Sidmouth St cycle lane, nor can I think of any reason I'd use it myself. It doesn't connect to any other useful cycle routes. I don't rejoice that some of it is going back to motor traffic but I can see why the council is proposing to do that. Reading could really do with a cycleway to cross the town centre west to east and east to west but I'm not holding my breath on that.
Giant are one of the most trustworthy brands out there when it comes to manufacturing components given that they actually own their own production facilities. None of that matters though when it comes to road hookless, I and most other people won't touch it with a barge pole. We're surely at a stage now where it's toxic amongst consumers and it's only a matter of time before the UCI ban it for racing.
Filling the road with one person per car is using the road space more efficiently, amazing, I never realised that.
I bought a Giant Defy recently and immediately sold off the hookless wheels at a pretty big loss and won't ever do that again. I'm not buying hookless for road ever. Giant in particular has very short list of what tires they test with their rims so it's way too restrictive even if I was going to ride hookless wheels. Which I won't. Very short sighted by Giant.
20 thoughts on “John o’ Groats to Land’s End (and back) in five days? The most impressive cycling performance of the week isn’t at the Giro; Major crash neutralises Giro stage; Is there any point upgrading beyond 105?; UCI bashing + more on the live blog”
Massive shout out to the
Massive shout out to the Yorkshire Evening Post for this story on a pedestrian being hurt (sadly) in a crash involving the rider of an electric motorbike. If it were the BBC or some other newspaper, it would be reported as a e-bike.
Sadly, this sounds pretty serious. Wishing the victim a full recovery.
Given the glaring typo in the
Given the glaring typo in the headline (at 11.49 BST) it would seem that any good reporting is good luck rather than good management.
UCI should be replaced by a
UCI should be replaced by a new rider-sanctioned governing body. The UCI are like the MET Police; they don’t want to tackle the big-problems, but instead pursue petty little things they perceive as easy convictions, like sock lengths and 0.2% line deviations. Not-fit-for-purpose.
The absolute best part about
The absolute best part about the Giro d’Italia yellow cards debate is the presenters looking back at the big screen, which isnt there because they’re just in a huge green screen studio. I’m sure if you turned the sound up enough you’d be able to hear the directors instructions to turn around into Orla and Matt’s earpieces.
Looks like Cambridgeshire and
Looks like Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has just become a worse place to live.
“Yes please, I’d love 15% more miles driven by 2030. I want there to be more cars on the road, driving more often. Preferably bigger ones too please, if you can manage it.”
Hardly going to be
Motorists are largely poorly
Motorists are largely poorly informed and only think about travel in terms of their cars. Most of them will think that a target of reducing miles driven by 15% will be via punative measures designed to punish the browbeaten motorist rather than by encouraging active travel and making it better and easier to get around without having to get in a car.
Good old Paul Bristow.
Good old Paul Bristow. Recently elected as mayor for C&P. The former Conservative MP, who was a Brexiteer and member of the European Research Group (who never did any research) and who backed Liz Truss’s leadership bid and carried Nadine Dorries’ handbag in the Dept of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, before losing his seat in the last general election.
With such a reign of mediocrity and backing the wrong horse behind him, it is no surprise that he is making such a tin-eared start in his latest role. One of his pledges is to “End the war on the motorist”.
A future model Peterborough citizen will need to be overweight, drive everywhere and whose only interests will be : shopping, visiting chain eateries and watching Peterborough United.
“Peterborough! If your city doesn’t have it, you can be sure that we won’t have it either!”
And today’s “It’s all kicking
And today’s “It’s all kicking off in the Grauniad”:
Just ignore all the myths about low-traffic neighbourhoods: they’re popular, effective and here to stay
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/15/ignore-myths-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-ltn
I have a strong suspicion
I have a strong suspicion that this is not satire
No – they’ve been infiltrated
No – they’ve been infiltrated!
I just googled it and Résistance is a French word! It’s those continentals meddling again.
To be fair, the French do it
To be fair, the French do it better….they grow fields of them.
I went around planting unused
I went around planting unused bikes…
Someone went around planting
Someone went around planting unused bikes some time ago…
Good for you Paul! How dare
Good for you Paul! How dare people try and reduce road congestion. That’s a deliberate attack on motorists’ right to be stuck in traffic jams
“We’re going to get
“We’re going to get Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (more) gridlocked.”
How are motorists supposed to
How are motorists supposed to update their Facebook status safely if traffic is continuously moving?
The answer to congestion has
The answer to congestion has never been more vehicles.
or more roads
or more roads
Great to hear Ned Boulting
Great to hear Ned Boulting commentating on the Giro in that clip. How can I watch/hear his commentary for the rest of the race? (Currently watching highlights on Quest)
A lot of conspriracies here !
A lot of conspriracies here !