Disc-ussion and debate continues over which brake is best but should it all stop here?; Red Bull Timelaps is back; Chris Froome’s epic in the Alps; Relatable Danish ad; Famous cycling faces invest in alcohol-free beer; New Tour kit + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Danish broadcaster TV2 releases relatable Tour de France advert that has us all dreaming of a last minute call up
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It’s coming… 🇫🇷
⠀ pic.twitter.com/Bi4Q6HNSgK— ⓑιcιcletⓞ (@Bicicleto_ZGZ) June 15, 2021
As we all know, there is so much more to cycling than shaving your legs, wearing aero kit and looking ‘pro’, but some of us enjoy that side of our favourite pass time too…something Danish broadcaster TV2 has captured brilliantly in its Tour de France ad. Those early summer rides when even you have to wonder if this is your year for a chance meeting with Dave Brailsford, who will be so impressed by your pace that he’ll draft you in as a late call up to Ineos Grenadiers’ mountain train…then you hit your fairly mild local hill and remember exactly why that has never happened before.
If nothing else the ad has had a better reception than their compatriots at the Road Safety Council got after releasing a Viking-inspired helmet safety public service announcement that starred on the live blog last week…
Amazing, and scarily relatable 😂
— J McC (@TorontoJMcC) June 15, 2021
By far the best I’ve seen in a while
— Pablo (@swimpablorun) June 15, 2021
Londoners ditch 'green' transport during the pandemic in favour of more car journeys, according to TfL data...but cycling figures are up
New Transport for London data shows the number of journeys walked, cycled or made by public transport dropped from 63 per cent to 57 per cent during the pandemic. While the initial figures might seem disheartening, it is believed the drop is largely due to a huge fall in Tube and bus passengers.
“It does emphasise our recent concerns about a car-led recovery,” Alex Williams, TfL’s director of city planning told the Evening Standard. Figures to the end of March 2021 showed that cycling in inner and outer London is up between five and 20 per cent. A 25 per cent reduction in weekday cycling in central London has been attributed to more people working from home.
The report said: “This reflects the strong relative performance of cycling as a flexible mode increasingly being used for personal business and leisure trips, offsetting a fall in commuter cycling because of the pandemic.”
Once the great American hope...Tejay van Garderen to retire after US National Championships this weekend
Tejay van Garderen, who finished fifth at the Tour de France in 2012 and 2014, will retire aged 32 after this weekend’s US Pro Road National Championships. Van Garderen was touted as a future Grand Tour winner during his early career and achieved impressive results during his spell with BMC, finishing second at the Critérium du Dauphiné twice and winning a stage of the Giro.
“The honest truth is that I don’t feel super effective as a bike racer anymore,” Van Garderen said. “Once your ability starts to be less than it was, you have to find a way to make yourself effective. I was really motivated by the rise of Hugh Carthy, and I wanted to be able to mentor him and help him. I said, ‘Okay, I’m still a good climber. Maybe I can stay with him in the high mountains and give him support.’ But the truth is I wasn’t able to just climb into a group of the 20 best anymore.”
Chris Froome continues Tour de France prep with 5,161m of climbing on 237km epic ride in the Alps
Whatever you make of Chris Froome’s comeback and the news yesterday that the four-time winner is in Israel Start-Up Nation’s Tour de France team, you can’t deny he is putting in the graft. Along with three of his teammates Froome went for an epic 237km ride in the Alps, climbing 5,161m of elevation at an average speed of over 27.3km/h…he even nabbed a Strava cup with the sixth fastest time up the second category Montée de Cohennoz depuis l’Isle.
Last week, Froome did a 220km Tour de France recon before opting to jump back on his bike for another 50km back to the hotel…will all this hard work pay off next month?
It seems Froome has learned from his scandalous behaviour last summer when he triggered eagle-eyed Strava followers by ending his ride on 99.4 miles…just go around the block, Chris…
I guess smashing 147 miles is one way to avoid that problem…
Danny MacAskill, Dan Martin and Zwift founder Eric Min invest in alcohol-free beer company
Famous names from across the cycling world have invested in an alcohol-free beer company. Legendary mountain biker Danny MacAskill, Dan Martin, Zwift founder Eric Min and mountain bikers Greg Minnaar and Loic Bruni have invested in Big Drop Brewing Co. Daily Business Group reports the alcohol-free beer company’s revenue has soared by 150 per cent over the last year as sales in the low-alcohol drinks sector rose by 50 per cent during the same period.
The famous cycling investors input has come via Rubix Ventures, an investment firm backed by athletes and company owners. Big Drop was launched in 2016 by Rob Fink and James Kindred who wanted to produce alcohol-free craft beer that tasted as good as the real thing. It now brews in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US and is available in more than 20 countries…perfect for when Dan Martin wins a stage of the Tour…
Get Dom to Le Tour
Tour De France, What You Saying!? @LeTour pic.twitter.com/jODJtavoKd
— Domonic (@domwhiting) June 16, 2021
Jeremy Vines takes us on a tour of the dangers of cycling down Oxford Street
Nice to see the new Oxford Street cycle lane is coming along pic.twitter.com/frk3gYizUd
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) June 16, 2021
Reaction to 8 reasons not to get disc brakes (spoiler alert... it got pretty lively)
Saying anything about disc brakes, positive or negative, seems to attract a queue of people ready to tell you how and why you’re wrong. So we should not have been too surprised to get the reaction we did to 8 reasons not to get disc brakes — find out the hassles before you switch. Cue the comments…
Plenty of people have happily had no such issues using discs…David Wilkins wrote: “Had rim brakes for 15 years, had disc brakes for last 7 months. Will never go back. Braking power and little to no noise on my SRAM Reds. Love disc brakes and I descend some steep hills with ease now.”
On a similar note, Soeren Kuehling said: “Never any problem with disc brakes, using them for years now, replace pads when gone (happens maybe after 5000km in my case). It feels safe racing downhill, can’t say the same about rim brakes on my single speed bike.”
Steven Hepworth was feeling articulate: “What hassles? I’ve been using disc brakes for years on mountain bikes, long before anyone thought of putting them on road bikes, and, especially these days, they hardly throw up any problems at all! Mega easy to change, and they actually stop you when it’s wet. Unlike rim brakes. Sure that add a little more weight to the bike, but I’ll just make sure I’ve had a good poo before I go out, to offset that weight!” I should have eaten my lunch before writing this…
Although these three did not sum up everyone’s thoughts on disc brakes…
Bill Jones is not convinced: “Here we go again, all the disc brake fanatics denying their highly flawed brakes are not as good as rim brakes. Even Chris Froome said discs are rubbish after being forced to use them. I have never had a problem with rim brakes and have used them to descend the highest hill in the UK in the wet. I have used discs and found them to be useless and require constant maintenance. Had a disc brake overheat and fail on a short descent, found discs don’t work when wet and disc pads have an alarming wear rate.”
Under our article, NZ Vegan Rider commented: “Disc brakes – unnecessary hassle with virtually little improvement in braking in the wet. I have a hydraulic disc brake winter bike. It would be fine if it was rim braked like my other bikes.”
I’ll leave you with Graham Leather…”What is the saying, disc brakes are for deciding where you want to stop, rim brakes are for deciding where you want to crash.”
Agree? Disagree? Couldn’t care less?
Disappointed Pascal Ackermann accuses Bora-Hansgrohe team boss of breaking promises over Tour de France omission
Bora-Hansgrohe sprinter Pascal Ackermann has accused his team boss Ralph Denk of breaking promises after he was omitted from the team’s squad for the Tour de France. Ackermann was expected to go alongside Peter Sagan as a second sprint option, however the team insisted the German was not up to the level necessary to be selected.
“I’m more than disappointed,” Ackermann told German outlet Radsport News. “Ralph was always a man who kept his word. But this time he definitely didn’t do it. It was said that I would be doing the Tour for three years, and it was always the case that I shouldn’t worry about it. Without this promise, I would not have signed the contract back then. You have to see that too. That’s why I am extremely disappointed.”
Elsewhere in Tour de France news, Total Direct Energie have a new kit…perhaps it will grow on me…
Un maillot aux couleurs lumineuses représentant le chemin des énergies qu’emprunte notre partenaire majeur @TotalEnergies 👌 #AllezTotalEnergies⚡ pic.twitter.com/0mvuRorpJ6
— Team TotalEnergies (@TDE_ProCycling) June 16, 2021
Red Bull Timelaps returns for 2021 with indoor and outdoor races
Red Bull Timelaps is back this year with a new indoor race to give riders more flexibility in how they participate in ‘the world’s longest one-day bike race’. On the weekend of 30-31 October riders and teams of cyclists will ride to see who can complete the furthest distance over 25 hours.
New for 2021 is the virtual/indoor category which follows on from the 2020 event. This will allow teams of riders to ride the event on an indoor turbo-trainer set up, compete against other teams outdoors, or do both, with separate race categories available based on a team’s preferred choice of getting involved. The In-person venues will be the Goodwood Motor Circuit and Red Bull Studios in London and entries are open on a first come first served basis at redbull.co.uk/timelaps.
And…for any of you feeling particularly hard there’s a solo category to see who can ride the furthest on their own in 25 hours. Anyone can take part from home too by logging their distance on Strava which will create live leaderboards during the event and allow riders to track their positions.
Yves Lampaert crowned Belgian national time trial champion, Remco Evenepoel second
An unforgettable day for @yveslampaert, who crowns himself Belgian ITT Champion for the second time in his career after a superb performance in front of his home crowd, at #BKIngelmunster! pic.twitter.com/kQeX1rAlS1
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) June 16, 2021
Yves Lampaert beat Deceuninck-Quick-Step teammate Remco Evenepoel and Victor Campanaerts to win the Belgian national champs this afternoon. Riding in front of his home crowd at Ingelmunster, Lampaert won by 20 seconds from Evenepoel who was in turn 21 seconds faster than Campanaerts. Lotte Kopecky won the women’s race, while over the border in the Netherlands, Anna van der Breggen added another national title to her impressive palmares.
ASO requires everyone in Tour de France bubble to download tracking app
The organisers of the Tour de France, ASO, will require everyone in the race’s bubble to download a tracking app. TousAntiCovid uses bluetooth to track who people have come in to contact with for more than five minutes and therefore trace possible contacts if someone on the race tests positive. Riders and media will also be kept in seperate bubbles and there will be no interviews outside of mixed zones at the start and finish of each stage
Cycling limbs...did Yves Lampaert win or have Belgium scored?
Goosebumps 🤗 pic.twitter.com/d7HIDAKxKM
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) June 16, 2021
There have been a few scenes like these popping up on social media this week…but none from a cycling race. Yves Lampaert got the full Euro 2020 treatment after winning his second national time trial championship.
16 June 2021, 08:04
16 June 2021, 08:04
16 June 2021, 08:04
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@Rendel Harris Hmm.... I stand corrected. I still think Obree had a /lot/ more talent. And Jan-Willem today clearly has dropped in levels, relative to those he's racing against.
I cycled a lot on the continent and have done fir many years. I've never been close passed, and only once had a scary overtake by an oncoming vehicle. Im close passed almost daily in the UK and dangerous overtakes are common. Some serious driver education is needed here, not to mention presumed liability legislation.
@TrainWalkWheel at least one person on here seems to have better understanding of these than I do but AFAICS the model is even less likely to lead to good outcomes than happened with eg. a certain UK bus company. The one notorious for moving into an area, putting the existing providers out of business by running more services for pence and losing money, then - having captured the market - jacking up the price and dropping services. At least in that case the intention was presumably to deliver a self-sustaining service in the end (albeit perhaps a worse, overpriced one). But AFAIK mass bike share itself has never made money directly. So one wonders what the end plan is if any one of these market-share-capture firms actually won? (Presumably that isn't important and it's all about trading / financial shenanigans in some way. I doubt they could hold the local authority to ransom for the extra cash...)
Alas it's another part of "because cars / 'change', we can't just copy a well-proven design eg. from NL" On top of this is the UK "not invented here" making it up / no expertise or standard designs AND a "we must fit cyclists in around existing road space" causing strange contorted layouts. So what happens is we get things like bi-directional cycle *lanes* (not separated cycle paths) because cheapest / easiest to patch in. So that means that pedestrians don't have a space to wait *after* crossing the cycle space and *before* they have to deal with the road. (It also puts another block in the way of cycling convenience at traffic lights - say at a T-junction - because unlike NL the lights then apply to cyclists going straight on, whereas in NL that would be an informal cycle path crossing for pedestrians with no lights applying to the cycle path part - so cyclists just keep rolling).
In 2019, Shanghai and other Chinese major cities implemented strict regulations and clean-up operations tp remove millopns of abondoned dockless bicycles that had created public nuisances and blocked pavements. One can't blame local authorities for taking actions in order to stop a messy situation triggered by unruly users.
@Jakrayan Criticising people for not riding primary is like criticising a victim of domestic abuse for cringing when their partner threatens them with their fist. People don't ride in the gutter because they want to, they do it because if they don't they know there's a better than even chance that in any given ride at least one driver will be so affronted by the ENTITLED BIKE NONCE TAKIN' UP THE WHOLE ROAD!!!11 they'll do a deliberate punishment pass that could kill you or leave you maimed for life. Getting over in the gutter isn't a great solution, but multiple uncomfortable but not life-threatening passes is better than one potentially catastrophic one. It shouldn't be a cyclist's responsibility to put their life at risk just to remind drivers to obey the rules of the road they should be doing regardless. And as for "just getting off and walking", putting aside the reality that a ridden bike takes up *less* space than one with the rider walking alongside and so I'd argue the most considerate way to use that inadequate infrastructure(presumably there are no safe alternatives within a reasonable distance or why would anyone on a bike be using it at all) would be to proceed across on the bike at walking pace and then stop and put your foot down if someone needs to get by you; plenty of people use bikes as mobility aids and so "just get off" isn't as simple as it's made out to be. A couple of years back I had the worst sprain of my life, I could barely even hobble for two weeks and had a huge honking brace on my foot, had to sleep on the sofa downstairs because climbing them was a no go. I could still ride my bike though, do my shopping, see my mates - plenty of people have impairments that aren't temporary, to them "just get off" is tantamount to saying "just stay home". Let's keep it a benjamin as the kids say: "shared responsibility" and "keeping everyone safe" are, literally, copouts. They've framed the entire campaign so they can justify only taking actions that don't piss off drivers, and don't require them to actually do any work except harassing a few cyclists as they do a lunch run to the local Greggs, because that's the level of seriousness police in this country - in an institutional sense - believe road crime deserves.
"Scott says that it ‘redefines cable routing in the mountain bike industry’. While we’re yet to see if that claim rings true" I have a Spark RC Pro (2022) with mechanically controlled components. Because we use the front brake lever on the drive (right) side in the UK I have the rear brake hose and two cable housings (dropper and shock) on the NDS entering the headset. On my current bike I use 3.0mm Jagwire housing with no problems. I can install them by just pushing them through the headset without dismantling it. The new 2027 Spark has two openings either side of the headset so it is set up for a rear brake to be on the DS (right). Maybe they are dismissing countries that have the UK's brake lever configuration.
The first link is to one of their cycling computers.
To be fair when I'm out on the roads, car or bike, I see very many instances of people cycling who could be doing better. Ignoring the delivery riders, most of whom we know aren't actually riding bicycles / Ebikes, the most common issue I see is people riding too close to the edge of the road. Yes, drivers absolutely should do better, however this type of riding does little to discourage drivers from overtaking, and they will still pass too closely leaving the rider with FA room to the left either. So educating riders as to how to ride more safely isn't a bad idea IMHO. As for that narrow bridge, if it's popular with pedestrians I don't see how getting off and walking a few yards is a massive issue. And I'm normally in SPD-SL road cleats!
Indeed. Some lanes are so narrow, and with overgrown vegetation, that the driver may not be able to see anything behind in his wing (door) mirrors, and vans usually don't have a rear window so no rear-view mirror either. Much easier in this situation to just turn around and head back to the nearest farm gate, it won't be far. After all, 'share the road' works both ways. And before someone comments to say if you drive where you can't clearly see what's behind you, that driver may have no choice - deliveries, tradespeople etc.
22 thoughts on “Disc-ussion and debate continues over which brake is best but should it all stop here?; Red Bull Timelaps is back; Chris Froome’s epic in the Alps; Relatable Danish ad; Famous cycling faces invest in alcohol-free beer; New Tour kit + more on the live blog”
That TdF ad is absolutely
That TdF ad is absolutely glorious. I’m going to wear some old team kit on my next leisure ride now. MAMILs ahoy!
Very jealous of Froome. Haute
Very jealous of Froome. Haute-Savoie is hands down the nicest part of France and easily the best climbing (and in many cases the hardest) in all of the Alps.
If you get home and you’ve
If you get home and you’ve only done 99.4 miles it’s easy enough to go once more round the block. But what if you find you’ve only climbed 4,994m? I guess you’d have to take the Garmin up and down the stairs a few times before you saved the ride. (These are not problems I encounter often.)
captain_slog wrote:
I’d change my settings back to feet.
mdavidford wrote:
Im sure the MP for 1850 and father of the house Jacob Rees-Mogg would approve.
…on your abacus?
…on your abacus?
Big Drop have already done a
Big Drop have already done a collaboration with cycling brand Paria – a limited edition beer and a jersey. https://shop.bigdropbrew.com/products/paria-collab-tailwind
you can’t deny he is putting
you can’t deny he is putting in the graft
Yes! Very good luck to him even if he is really Kenyan. I’m still hoping for Geraint: 100% UK!
Two Monégasques, accents aren
Two Monégasques, accents aren’t important, darling.
Aww that’s nice.. Total
Aww that’s nice.. Total Direct Energie let primary school kids design their kit. Very much on point re pride month too! (Or will pride month be over once the tour starts..?)
Mr. Froome: 237km – 5.161m
Mr. Froome: 237km – 5.161m elevation – 27.3kmh avg speed.
Fiona Kolbinger: 428km – 5.042m elevation – 30.5kmh avg speed.
I think there is something that I can’t understand.
That was probably a base
That was probably a base mileage / low effort ride for Froome.
also more climbing per km,
also more climbing per km, although neither ride qualifies as flat
Ctulhu wrote:
Probably unnatural angles and eldritch dimensions – I’d’ve thought that would be right up your street
I start babbling about
I start babbling about horrifying, unnatural angles at about 15%.
Streetscape judicial review –
Streetscape judicial review – sounds like TfL have won the appeal case.
not sure why road.cc feels
not sure why road.cc feels the need to continue the divisive and binary debate about brakes. A well adjusted and maintained brake is better than a poorly adjusted brake. And all brakes require the user to understand how to use them and the limits of the equipment and the operator. context and conditions play a huge part. full stop.
love the tv ad…can imagine
love the tv ad…can imagine they could use a similar strategy for many sports… the upcoming olympics…or even getting back to commuting after a year…..
Global Nomad wrote:
I loved it too. Treating sport with humour,a sense of the ridiculous, and without pomposity. Football, looking at you…..
The disc-brake article was
The disc-brake article was ridiculous clickbait. Half of the ‘issues’ can also apply to rim brakes, the rest were hardly major. As for weight…there is already good evidence that weight doesn’t matter as much as we thought.
And the debate is over. Disc won.
SecretSam wrote:
you mean I can take two bidons on a long ride?
I don’t see MTB-ers having
I don’t see MTB-ers having this discussion – they work, that’s it!! Move on…Road cycling seems to attract technophobes, whereas MTB is far more willing to embrace it…..