Town needs ‘proper infrastructure, not cheap and easy 20mph signs’; St Patrick's Day: Kelly on the Poggio; Book a MTB tour to help Ukraine; Cycling UK's 145-mile Kent route; Bikepacking; Coffee or petrol?; Loulou races Cheltenham + more on the live blog

With Tadej Pogačar widely expected to blow Milan-San Remo apart on Saturday, some riders are coming up with ingenious plans to outfox the Slovenian superstar:

This is how you get ahead of Pogi. Set off on Wednesday. Not just a pretty face, Wout van Aert 😉 #MilanSanRemo pic.twitter.com/Myj973fMae

— Katy M (@writebikerepeat) March 16, 2022

While it seems as if many within the peloton, including Julian Alaphilippe and defending champion Jasper Stuyven, are trying to avoid yet another hiding at the hands of the 23-year-old by simply not showing up: 

At this rate, Pogačar will go solo because he'll be the only rider in the race.

— Sadhbh O'Shea (@SadhbhOS) March 17, 2022

Though for anyone jumping the gun about Pogačar’s perceived ‘boring’ dominance of the sport, check out this thread by former Procycling editor Ed Pickering: 

I think the ennui about Pogačar's current dominance in cycling is very premature. A short thread.

— Edward Pickering (@EdwardPickering) March 17, 2022

I know you didn’t ask, but here are my thoughts on the whole ‘Oh, Pog is going to ruin cycling’ debate:

I’m not at all convinced by the arguments that the sport is in danger of becoming predictable at the hands of a rider who is contributing to the most exciting and attacking racing we’ve seen since the 1980s, who is trying to win every race he enters (a real novelty in the sport’s modern era), and who hasn’t even won many of the races fans are willing him to fail at, for fear the sport will become boring.

Perhaps when Pogačar has captured his fifth Tour in a row, second Giro, third Vuelta, fourth Liège and Lombardia, third Flanders, San Remo and Roubaix (you get the point), then the critics will have a point.

But until then, we should just appreciate – with a healthy dose of scepticism instilled through years of watching cycling – a generational talent winning and racing in a manner which we never thought we’d see again.

And if he rips Saturday’s race to pieces on the Turchino, then even better…

The other day we featured on the blog a throwback to one of the all-time great football and cycling collaborations: namely, an old photo of the Yates twins as children with a floppy haired David Beckham.

Well, someone at Inter Milan (the city rivals of Becks’ old club AC) must have been inspired by the idea of a football-cycling crossover, as the three-time European Champions have teamed up with another venerable Italian brand, Cinelli, on a limited-edition joint range of cycling gear and bikes.

Basically, if broadcaster James Richardson has been a fundamental part of your sports viewing life (on Channel 4’s Football Italia and Eurosport’s Tour de France coverage), or if you had posters of both Marco Pantani and Roberto Baggio in the 1990s, then this is right down your street.

The first part of this collaboration, the ‘Made in Milan’ collection, was released today and features a jersey, bib shorts, socks and cap all inspired by the city’s industrial history and art.

Inter and Cinelli have also worked together on a very cool range of bikes, including two Vigorelli track bikes, a Nemo Tig gravel bike and a very classy Nemo Tig road bike.

The collection all forms part of Inter’s aim to show “that the club is capable of thriving in worlds beyond football and forging ever deeper bonds with iconic Milanese brands.”

Speaking of Milan icons, the collaboration will be officially presented in the city’s famous old Vigorelli velodrome (just down the road from Inter’s San Siro home), on Saturday before the start of Milan-San Remo.

The above video features players from Inter’s U19 women’s team and men’s Primavera Youth team (another nod to Saturday’s classic), as well as the Cinelli racing team, further underlining this “meeting of the worlds”.

The collab’s second round will feature colour variants (woohoo!) and will be launched in June.

I wonder if this footballing-cycling mashup will catch on. If it does I for one can’t wait for the Wolves-Le Col crossover…

A town council has proposed to make all speed limits 20mph in a bid to reduce the number of collisions and to promote cycling and walking – however, the plans have been met with a mixed response from cyclists in the town.

Building on the recent ’20 is plenty’ campaign, Wantage Town Council has applied to Oxfordshire County Council to implement a 20mph speed limit across the town.

According to the proposal, speed limits will be reduced to 20mph in all residential areas, outside schools, and in the town centre.

The town council said: “It is hoped by reducing the speed limit on roads that the traffic will flow more steadily, there will be less accidents and it will give more people confidence to cycle and walk.

“It is also hoped that this will help make the town safer, easier to navigate and as a result more attractive and friendly.”

However, one cyclist has claimed that the council’s proposal to lower the speed limit in Wantage has been suggested simply because it is a cheaper alternative to building ‘proper cycling infrastructure’.

Tama Javorfi told the Herald that the 20mph limit was not enough to keep cyclists safe.

“If the authorities really cared about cyclists and pedestrians then they would have built the new roads wide enough to allow safe overtaking,” he said.

“[Lowering the speed limit] is cheaper this way, and also putting out 20mph signs is easier than building proper infrastructure that is safe and efficient for all.”

The chair of Cycling UK Wantage John Tranter said the new speed limit proposal was a good “starting point”, but also called on the council to implement additional safety measures in Wantage, such as the introduction of more segregated active travel routes to replace the current painted cycle lanes.

“Any experienced regular cyclist such as myself will tell you that you see near misses pretty much every day,” Tranter said.

“Many motorists are polite and courteous, and some are impatient and careless, but unfortunately sometimes that kills people.”

Stunning Scottish scenery? Check. A great mix of gravel tracks, cycle paths, and lovely quiet roads? Check. Some of the world’s finest distilleries? Double check.

If all of those things are on the list for your next bikepacking holiday, check out Markus Stitz's newest short film, Wild About Bikepacking, where the long-distance cyclist explores the new Bikepacking Argyll's Islands route.

Commissioned by Wild About Argyll and CalMac Ferries, and created by Bikepacking Scotland, the route maps a 496-kilometre trek across the Isles of Mull, Jura, Islay, and Bute, offering plenty for new and experienced bikepackers alike.

“For me, boarding a ferry to an island is the perfect start to a bikepacking adventure, and this route includes some of the most scenic ferry journeys in Scotland,” Stitz says.

“A gravel bike is the perfect bike to cycle the Bikepacking Argyll’s Islands route. What I really like about it is the combination of great cycling, culinary offers and accommodation.”

Great cycling, places to stay, and top-notch food and drink? Sign me up. Though I better start doing some proper training…

You can read more about the route over at off.road.cc. 

A Ukrainian bike mechanic is using his mountain bike tour business to raise funds for his country’s defence and evacuation efforts.

Yurii Panchenko fled Ukraine with his wife and daughter after a Russian missile exploded near their home. He runs a mountain bike company which offers cycling tours in and around Kyiv using Airbnb.

With the Ukrainian capital on the receiving end of indiscriminate missile strikes and shelling by the Russian army, Panchenko was astonished to find that someone had booked a tour in the city last week.

“First, I didn’t understand. Then I read a note from the customer, where they said they didn’t want to take the tour and they just wanted to support us,” he told ABC News. 

That gave Panchenko an idea – he changed the name of his tours from ‘Mountain Biking in Kyiv’ to ‘Support Ukrainian Army Mountain Bike Tours in Kyiv’, and the number of bookings suddenly skyrocketed.

In the past week he’s received 500 tour bookings, raising over £11,000 – even though he dropped his prices to allow more people to donate.

“People from all over the world have booked tours for several months ahead just to support us,” Panchenko said. “Except for Russians. We haven’t had bookings from there yet.”

The money will be used to buy fuel and medicine in support of evacuation efforts in Ukraine, as well as body armour, helmets and special devices to be used by Ukrainian troops.

Panchenko’s family are now living in Vienna, after travelling for four days through Romania with a single bag of clothes and essentials and under £800 to their name.

They managed to find temporary housing in the Austrian capital, where Panchenko has also found work as a mechanic in a bike shop.

He said: “We’ll be here for at least three weeks. We’re faring much better than other families who are still stuck in Ukraine. We’re trying to help those in need as much as we can.”

Motorists complaining at filling up with fuel approaching £2 per litre when cyclists have been filling up with coffee at almost £3 per cup for years!

— Bike Boom! (@bikebooom) March 17, 2022

Speaking of which, almost time for a coffee... 

St Patrick’s Day, good people in green - always makes me think of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche... pic.twitter.com/RKQYzTL7bx

— Graham Watson (@grahamwatson10) March 17, 2022

Just in case you hadn’t already noticed on social media, it’s St Patrick’s Day – the day the good people of Chicago, for some inexplicable reason, dye their river a radioactive shade of green.

So to celebrate Ireland’s patron saint – and the fact that Milan-San Remo is just 48 hours away – let’s start the day by looking back on one of Irish sport’s greatest moments: Sean Kelly’s daredevil descent off the Poggio to win the 1992 edition of La Classicissima.

Kelly’s second Milan-San Remo win is legendary. One of the dominant riders of the 1980s, by 1992 the man from Carrick-On-Suir was 35 and in the autumn of his career. Despite taking Il Lombardia the year before, the future Eurosport commentator wasn’t considered a big favourite for Milan-San Remo, a race he had last won in 1986.

But with old rival Moreno Argentin looking set to take the victory as he led by eight seconds over the Poggio with three kilometres to go, Kelly launched his iconic move off the front of the peloton.

Even now, thirty years later, Kelly’s descent is something to behold. Sprinting out of every corner, he practically bounces off the walls and greenhouses that line the descent of the Poggio to catch the Italian at the bottom with just one kilometre left – prompting an audible groan from the home fans at the finish as they hear the ominous news.

The tifosi were right to groan. Kelly duly dispatched Argentin in the sprint, taking his second victory at La Primavera and the last big win of his illustrious career.

You can relive it all here, complete with the brilliantly idiosyncratic commentary of the late, great David Duffield:

Is Kelly’s breakneck descent of the Poggio your favourite Irish cycling moment?

Or is it Phil Liggett’s iconic cry of “That looks like Roche. It’s Stephen Roche!” at La Plagne in 1987?

Perhaps it’s Dan Martin being chased by a panda on his way to the 2013 Liège-Bastogne-Liège? Or even Paul Kimmage’s infamous appearance on RTÉ’s Late Late Show after A Rough Ride was published?

Pour yourself a Guinness and let us know in the comments!