“My career is over. I’ve been through everything”: French pro cyclist retires from racing, saying “it’s too costly” to defend himself and fight UCI to overturn doping suspension; Cavendish calls his retirement a “fairytale ending” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“And he’s done it!”: Paddy McGuinness completes epic “knee-crushing” 300-mile charity ride on Raleigh Chopper from Wrexham to Glasgow, raising over £7.5 million
It all started with a silly “No likey, no bikey” joke, and has now ended with the TV presenter and comedian Paddy McGuinness doing a ridiculously challenging ride from Wrexham to Glasgow over a little more than four days, covering all 300 miles on his Raleigh Chopper nicknamed Patch, fundraising more than £7.5 million for BBC Children in Need.
He set off from the Scottish town of Strathaven early this morning, and has now reached Glasgow, to a cheering and applauding crowd wearing Pudsey ears.
On reaching Scotland on Wednesday, he was pictured sat by the roadside having reached the 420m summit of Shap Fell, “completely broken, dejected and finished”.
All I’ve got to say is, take a bow, Paddy, that’s one hell of an achievement.
“We need an outbreak of common sense”: Controversial cycling trial on pedestrian shopping street approved amid claims “every single resident does not want this scheme” – but disabled cyclists say trial “necessary step” to make town more accessible
For the first time in 30 years, cyclists will be permitted to ride on a town centre shopping street, after councillors approved a controversial 18-month cycling trial which they say will “enhance active travel” by making the street “more accessible” to cyclists and improving the choice of local routes for people on bikes.
Paul Troop, the secretary of Bike Users Oxford, said he believes the trial will bring benefits to the town, such as supporting mental wellbeing and physical fitness, and attracting more potential customers to the town centre, adding: “If we don’t hold a trial, we might miss the significant benefits would bring to Bicester.”
Never a bad day for a Dave Walker cartoon
“My bike is my pencil”: Strava cyclist and artist extraordinaire brings Children in Need's Pudsey Bear to life… after suffering punctures, inconvenient park closures and “carrying bike through a building” on 113km epic
Move aside amateur Strava artists, we’ve got a professional in the room with us now…
Nicolas Georgiou, who’s made a name for himself drawing up a few grand things by riding his bike and charting his route on the activity sharing and tracking app Strava, has perhaps outdone himself this time. Accompanied by a dozen riders from Rapha Cycling Club and Chain Gang Cyclists, many wearing Pudsey ears, the fashion designer Hither Green in south-east London cycled 70 miles for 12 hours before his oeuvre d’art was realised, and it truly is a work of art.
“It’s hard riding so slowly but you need to in order to stick to the route,” He told BBC London about his Children in Need’s Pudsey project.
Georgiou spent a month carefully planning and plotting the ride through London, designing even the famous bandanna and the eye patch with polka dots, eventually setting out on the ride on 1 November. But even after all the meticulous preparations, life had to throw a few wrench across their way.
“We weren’t helped by a few punctures as well as park closures,” he said. “At one point the only way to keep to the line we needed to draw Pudsey was to carry our bikes and walk through a building in Belsize Park. When we told the builders who were working there that it was all for Children In Need they very kindly let us through.”
Georgiou’s catalogue so far includes a 77.3km ride for a “fabulous stiletto”, a 204km dragon spanning from Islington to Croydon to mark the Chinese Year of the Dragon, the supremely viral cyclist to celebrate Mark Cavendish’s 35th win at the Tour de France (shared by Strava and Tour de France), a classical Greek Olympic discuss thrower before the Paris Olympic Games, a fist for “Black Unity Bike Ride” and recently, the 142-mile two koi fish for Rapha 20th Anniversary.
He added that he started doing these cycling artworks on Strava during the pandemic lockdown to keep himself. “I needed something for my own mental health and I just take so much joy in creating these routes and seeing them come to life,” he said. “I have good sketching skills but when it comes to Strava my bike is my pencil.”
Despite having so many picks to choose from, Georgiou said that Pudsey is his “favourite” so far. “It just felt like Pudsey would be such a cute thing to do and to put him on the map like this feels really special,” he added.
“This challenge is not just about cycling; it’s about creating a satellite tracked piece of art that symbolises hope and support for children in need.”
Georgiou’s not the only one to create Strava Art of Pudsey, he has the company of Leicester-based cyclist Rebecca Laurel, who came up with her own rendition, although not as elaborate. One could say being a fashion designer and a cyclist perhaps might give Georgiou the edge…
You can donate to Georgiou’s fundraiser for BBC Children in Need here.
EDIT: Yes, Children in Need, not Comic Relief… yes, joules1975 in the comments, you are right it is easy to mistake someone with a comedy red nose for a yellow bear with a multi coloured eye patch… maybe?
Bernard Hinault suggests Tadej Pogačar should make all his data public to “calm everyone down”
It’s the off-season, so we were always bound to have a few slow news days on the sports side of things, and what better way to get everyone going than asking a former pro if the current generations’ riders are doping or not…
And not just any pro, in an interview with L’Equipe, Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France who turned 70 yesterday, was asked about Tadej Pogačar and if he thinks that the current best cyclist in the world was involved in using performance enhancing drugs.
Hinault replied: “Often these are just interpretations, and they’re always negative. I don’t understand that. Why don’t we ask these questions to French top athletes, who win everything in other sports like Pogačar? There aren’t doubts about him in other countries. If I was in his place, I would make all my physiological data public, that would calm everyone down.”
“Will Children in Need be paying for his new knees?”
Looks like he heard someone talking shit… Mark Cavendish calls his retirement a “fairytale ending”
Despite what some Dutch columnist might have to say about Mark Cavendish’s last professional ‘race’, bowing out after ‘winning’ the Tour de France Singapore Criterium, he’s having none of it.
The Manx cyclist, the greatest sprinter in the sport announced his retirement earlier this year, having completed the long-awaited ‘Project 35’ this year at the Tour de France, and now holds the record for most stages won at La Grande Bouclé, eclipsing the great Eddy Merckx.
Talking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Cavendish said: “It’s been planned and on the cards for quite a while. I’m perfect with that. I’ve got a plan in place. I was lucky to get some extra years.
“Out of my career and complete cycling, I guess. It’s the perfect time. The majority of athletes will never get to go out on a fairytale ending. The people I turned pro and raced with have all retired, their sons have also retired. That makes me feel old. There is nobody competitive at this age.”
Earlier this week, there were some fans who were not too keen to see the Manx Missile go out after being “gifted” the win at the questionably competitive crit in Singapore, with a comically slow Jasper Philipsen going so slow that one person described it as “him trying hard to not to win”.
And then yesterday, a columnist for the Dutch daily newspaper AD, penned a piece bemoaning the same thing, going as far to say that it was “cringeworthy how Mark Cavendish sold his own farewell” and opted for the Singapore Criterium his final race.
I guess it’s safe to say Cav most definitely isn’t bemoaning it too much…
Former world champion and Olympic medallist Lizzie Deignan announces retirement at the end of 2025 season, after agreeing one-year contract extension with Lidl-Trek
It’s really the end of an era for British cycling, as after Mark Cavendish calling it a quits this season, now Lizzie Deignan, one of the sport’s most decorated athletes, has said that she will be retiring from professional cycling at the end of the 2025 season after agreeing to a one-year contract extension with Lidl-Trek.
Deignan’s palmarès include 43 professional road victories, including the first Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche and The Women’s Tour. She won a rainbow jersey at the World Championships in 2015, a Commonwealth title in 2014, and holds multiple National Champion titles. Deignan also won a silver medal on home soil at the 2012 Olympics, a feat that cemented her place among Britain’s cycling greats.
Releasing a video with Lidl-Trek, she said: “Well I think winning the rainbow jersey was up there with the best of them… It takes a lot, and looking back I think to myself, ‘Wow, who was that girl!’”
“Roubaix was a totally unexpected win, and honestly the reaction afterwards was kind of bigger than I expected it to be. It was a changing point in women’s cycling and it was really special that I got to be the person to cross the line.
“I remember winning the World Tour in the pandemic year when Orla (daughter) was a year and a half old. To be consistently on paper the best rider in the world when I had a one and half year-old at home was a really impressive achievement.
“My kids… I just don’t want to see goodbye to them anymore,” she says, on the verge of tears, before jokingly adding: “Cut!”
In 2018, Deignan paused her career to welcome her first child, Orla, a choice which at the time was a rarity in the women’s professional peloton. She returned to racing at her best, topping the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings within just 18 months of her comeback.
Regaining her composure in front of the camera — not very dissimilar to what we’re used to whenever she’s in a spot on the bike — she says: “[I have] No ego and necessity to retire at the top. I’m really happy to go full circle and be somebody that helps other people in bike races. If I can help the next champion of the sport, then I’m delighted to do that.”
“The reason I initially wanted to retire was because I no longer have the motivation for my own results,” admitted Deignan. However, a discussion with Lidl-Trek sparked a new motivation. “They spoke to me and offered me a contract in the vein of being a road captain and somebody that can mentor the younger riders coming through. That kind of sparked a bit of motivation in me and I thought, yeah, actually that’s something that I am really motivated by. I really enjoy bringing out the best in the people around me. I still love cycling.”
Cyclist killed during major sportive after hitting cracked and uneven speed ramp with “badly worn” markings and warning signs covered by vegetation, inquest finds
The son of a cyclist killed during a sportive after hitting a cracked and uneven speed ramp with “badly worn” markings, leaving him with severe brain and facial injuries, as well as multiple fractures, has called for improved signage to be used in future at similar events to alert cyclists to obstacles on the road.
“My career is over. I’ve been through everything”: French pro cyclist retires from racing, saying “it’s too costly” to defend himself and fight UCI to overturn provisional doping suspension
It’s been a tough year for Franck Bonnamour, the 29-year-old French rider who’s been involved in a long-running saga with the UCI over “unexplained abnormalities” in his biological passport, first being provisionally suspended by the UCI in February and then subsequently being dropped by his team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale.
Bonnamour, who has continually denied any wrongdoings since then, has now announced that he cannot afford to continue scuffling with the UCI, claiming that it’s “too costly” and that he has accepted that he’s never going to race again.
Speaking to Ouest-France, he said: “It’s too costly in financial terms so I’m stopping. We had to start proceedings before the UCI tribunal before going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“If we had been successful, the UCI would have appealed, which would have pushed back the deadline by a year-and-a-half, increasing the costs. I can’t afford to lose everything and that’s holding me back financially.”
Bonnamour won the most combative award at the 2021 Tour de France while riding for B&B Hotels, following a series of attacking displays. His abnormal profile has been traced back to 2016, when he had just turned pro after becoming the junior European champion, after a test showed high haemoglobin levels.
He added that he’s been forced to sell off his apartment to fund his battle against the UCI and has spent thousands of Euros hiring experts and lawyers, including €4,000 to a biologist who carried out an analysis “which clearly explained there was a possibility of a defence.”
“He could explain my atypical variations and profile. Before signing his report, he contacted me and my lawyer, telling me that he wouldn’t be going any further because some of his research was funded by WADA. He gave up on us.
“It’s been difficult for the last six months and I didn’t want it to go on like this for two or three years. My priority is keeping my family together.”
Bonnamour remains on the UCI’s list of provisional suspensions, with the reason being ‘Use of prohibited methods and/or prohibited substances’ and faces a four-year ban from the sport.
His lawyer is negotiating the length of his final sanction and eventual fine, but Bonnamour accepts that he won’t race again.
“My career is over. I’ve been through everything,” he said. “There have been difficult moments, morale-wise, but I have the support of my family and I’m also receiving counselling.
“I’m afraid of the future, but I know what I have and haven’t done.”
At the time of his provisional suspension, Samuel Meraffi, doctor at the B&B Hotels squad he raced with in 2021 and 2022, said: “I have never noticed anything abnormal in his monitoring.”
According to Pascal Chanteur, president of the French Riders’ Union, Bonnamour’s case is based on a test taken during the penultimate stage of the 2022 Tour de France – when Bonnamour is claimed to have been suffering COVID-19 symptoms and dehydration – and an out-of-competition test from October 2018.
“What interest would he have had in doing that?” Chanteur asked Ouest-France in June. “It’s a total and flagrant injustice. I don’t understand why no value is attached to the tests carried out in 2016, which showed an atypical profile. I don’t understand why a year went by between this test at the end of the 2022 Tour de France and the UCI’s notification.”
“We’ve got a lot still to give, a lot still to do”
> “The idea is to create a positive out of a negative”: Cancer My Arse’s Kev Griffiths on living with stage four cancer, Sir Chris Hoy, and why he’s encouraging everyone to ride out of the saddle for charity
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Latest Comments
Some years back a driver in Gloucestershire managed to open their door in front of a bus and got it ripped off, if they couldn't see a bus nothing else stands much chance. I have asked the safety group if they are aware of the law, or just trying to mislead drivers into thinking it isn't their resif they injure anyone.
To be fair, actors on TV shows hardly ever cycle or take part in any physical activity other than fighting or sexual intercourse. It always seems odd when soap characters, who have never shown any interest in sport, suddenly start having a kick around when the world cup is on
I think the suggestion is that everyone should look before they leap 🙈, it's not absolutely necessary to go dutch.
I think the suggestion is that everyone should look before they leap 🙈, it's not absolutely necessary to go dutch.
I think the suggestion is that everyone should look before they leap 🙈, it's not absolutely necessary to go dutch.
My main issue with only mentioning cyclists (rather than doing both at once) is the drivers who will argue its the riders fault (despite the law meaning they are liable regardless of best practice for riders) And the reality that you can't always allow 1m clearance. (1m clearance, both sides + width of bike = 2.6m minimum; Given margins of error, probably closer to 2.7-3m. And arguably should allow for a cargo bike that could be 1.5m wide.) Unless we start saying obstruction by illegal parking happens if there is less than 3.5m clear space, probably more it isn't always possible to allow 1m clearance from parked car doors. (Plenty of residential areas have tighter parking than this). We would also need to start prosecuting a good chunk of overtakes near parked cars to allow space to manouvre...
Unfortunately many drivers will just drive at you or force an overtake pushing you closer to parked cars. Much like the cyclists paradox of simultaneously riding like a speed crazed demon and being too slow, tgere is the paradox of riding too close to parked cars or the edge of the road and not being far enough over.
That example illustrated by the police (ie. 1.5m from centre of bike) is, & always has been, wrong. 🤬 The 0.75m from the car to centre of bike shown in the link is stupid, 0.75m from the kerb is also nonsense. The bike & rider are probably somewhere between 0.5 & 0.7m wide.
Re having extra locks put on bikes, I once had someone lock their (crap) bike to mine at Brighton station. The Brighton transport police dealt with it in around ten minutes, cutting through the other lock and taking the other bike with them. Police can sort these extra locks quickly if the mood takes them.
A large amount of my cycling is through rural villages. In many of these I have to overtake parked cars or delivery vans as the housing and shops are 18th / 19th century or older and have no provision for off road parking. Better public transport would certainly reduce the amount of cars, but I don't think it's feasible to eliminate them.
30 thoughts on ““My career is over. I’ve been through everything”: French pro cyclist retires from racing, saying “it’s too costly” to defend himself and fight UCI to overturn doping suspension; Cavendish calls his retirement a “fairytale ending” + more on the live blog”
Comic Relief’s Pudsey Bear
Comic Relief’s Pudsey Bear you say ? there I’ve been for nearly the past 40 years thinking it was for Children in Need and the BBCs Pudsey bear instead.
Oh come on, it’s easy to
Oh come on, it’s easy to mistake someone with a comedy red nose for a yellow bear with a multi coloured eye patch.
Textbook overtake from a very
Textbook overtake from a very patient driver today. Normally drivers risk the blind bend !
Quote:
You can be professional at this now? Are they selling NFTs of them or something?
Random comment on Clifton
Random comment on Clifton Suspension Bridge from BlueSky
“But it is a profoundly evil bridge. I was standing looking at it in 2017 by the observatory, somehow slipped and spent 8 weeks in plaster with a broken fibula which had to be screwed back together. Definitely the bridge wot done it, not me just being clumsy. The rehab got me cycling.”
The Suspension Bridge Trust
The Suspension Bridge Trust announced that they were coming off Twitter/X cos Elon, and apparently they were inundated on every other medium with people complaining and saying they were giving in to the woke leftist elite (or something).
Hirsute wrote:
I assume this was in relation to the Bridge AND MUSEUM leaving X.
Built by one of my relatives, that bridge. (Possibly)
Yes, it was by Cllr Emily
Yes, it was by Cllr Emily Kerr (don’t turn up on my doorstep sweaty from your bike !)
https://bsky.app/profile/emilykerr36.bsky.social/post/3laxzqxgabx2a
Road.cc are there now.
Hirsute wrote:
I’m there now too, if anyone wants a follow/wants to follow me. @cyclingtheseaso
Anyone ever seen them in the
Anyone ever seen them in the same place at the same time?
Motonormativity in practice:
Motonormativity in practice:
My teenage daughter’s boyfriend has just passed his driving test and his parents (of course) bought him a car for his birthday.
Whereas before, he would walk to school, he now drives “because I’ve passed my test”.
Whereas before, they would walk to a nearby supermarket at lunchtime (maybe ten minutes, tops), they now drive there “because he’s passed his [edited, spelling] test”.
And so on…
I find it very frustrating, and alien, and my wife and daughter can’t understand why.
brooksby wrote:
To be fair, not sure if that’s motormativity or it’s just new toy syndrome. When I’d just passed my test (roughly around the time that Pontious was pilating) I wanted to drive everywhere I could.
Maybe. I think I’m just
Maybe. I think I’m just different because I didn’t pass my test until I was in my early thirties – my wife expecting our son was the final (er…) driver to get me to finish driving lessons.
While I agree that driving
While I agree that driving relatively short distances is wastefull and unneccessary, I drove to 6th form daily for 6 months after I passed my driving test.
(A decent distance to justify it, given the door to door bus journey was a good hour.)
It was invaluable and I have always recommended it (doing the same journey repeatedly) to hone driving skills after someone passes their test, if the opportunity is there.
I only started cycle commuting when I was working so looking back, that would have been the better option.
But I don’t regret it as knowing how to drive helps with road safety and knowing how to cycle with drivers around.
“A man who deliberately
“A man who deliberately knocked a Metropolitan Police officer off his motorcycle, leaving him with life-changing injuries, has been jailed for five and a half years.
At his sentencing on Thursday he was also disqualified from driving for 81 months.”
While I welcome the relatively strong sentence, though I think it isn’t enough given the severity of the crimes…
Why is this punishment greater than the many times that cyclists are hurt or killed?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ce3ykgqkdxeo
“Policeman” always helps
“Policeman” always helps encourage the legal system.
Incredible
Incredible
https://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/24725382.specsavers-donate-hi-vis-vests-safety-awareness
Wow…
Wow…
What’s next – helmets for battered domestic partners?
Not the first of this kind of thing however, by any means. Volvo gave it a try.
And what about radio tags for cyclists, to let drivers know where they are?
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands … someone flipped the idea on its head and proposed that cars should have external airbags to protect cyclists in collisions (Original in Dutch / Google Translate version). (Not that I’m entirely convinced this is a great idea but just shows thinking which isn’t blaming the victim).
In other news, Specsavers
In other news, Specsavers didn’t donate 50 pairs of glasses to a load of shite drivers who had failed to see vulnerable road users.
What I find most amazing is
What I find most amazing is that they didn’t use this an opportunity to encourage drivers to check their vision and get an eye test. I was waiting for the article to mention this very obvious bit of marketing which they seem to have totally missed in favour of victim blaming.
They also need to understand
They also need to understand the difference between looking and seeing:
Motorist: “D E F P O T E C”
Also, motorist: “Empty road”
Given recent news, I thought
Given recent news, I thought it might have been a cartoon from the other topic Dave covers.
It’s a bit ironic that those
It’s a bit ironic that those of us who have already disembarked the sewage supertanker that is Twitter (up yours Musk, no I will not call it X) can’t read your reason for (partially) doing the same. Somewhat intrigued by your saying that your reasons might be different to those of others, so it would be nice if you could share them here too.
Rendel Harris wrote:
As a Twitter non-user, I’d guess that it’s something to do with them wanting money for official accounts.
I’ve totally blocked Twitter in my browser (along with FaceBook and Instagram), so I get a lot of missing images in the Live Blog.
Too long to summarise but
Too long to summarise but mentions random posts that are irrelevant to the topic.
This reply sums up why so many are ditching twitter.
“Your use of the term disinformation makes me believe your real reasoning behind smearing X and pumping blue sky is politically motivated. Congrats. You’re on your way to losing 60% of your readers and followers.”
Musk’s ai identified him as the worst spreader of disinformation.
Thanks – I hope road.cc never
Thanks – I hope road.cc never acts against random posts that are irrelevant to the topic on these message boards, it would become a ghost town! I know what they mean though, from my memories of having a Twitter account it could go from me posting a video of a close pass to me being accused of supporting Chairman Mao’s purges of the intelligentsia within a few minutes.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Well, I can’t recall any time that you’ve explicitly spoken out against any of Chairman Mao’s policies
hawkinspeter wrote:
Damn you, you’re right and now I have to report myself to the police for hate speech by omission.
There you go, you had a
There you go, you had a chance to correct your tacit support for the cultural revolution (and you’ve been silent on the burning of the Library of Alexandria too, coincidence?) … but you passed on it. Tells us all we need to know – plus your judgement of the speed and closeness of passing vehicles therefore cannot be trusted!
Just noticed sjs cycles have
Just noticed sjs cycles have reduced prices on winter tyres, although I’m too far south to make use of them.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/winter-tyres/