Tadej Pogačar prepares for Il Lombardia with 190km, 31.7kph “coffee ride”; “Call it something cool like ‘rush hour’”: Motorist ridiculed after calling for “slow drive protest” against cyclists; 17-year-old British star turns pro + more on the live blog

Any pro believing that they have a chance of usurping Tadej Pogačar’s recent pre-eminence at Il Lombardia, look away now…

Because the Slovenian has been preparing for what he hopes will be his third consecutive triumph at next month’s Race of the Falling Leaves, the final monument classic of the cycling season, with the mother of all “coffee rides”.

And no, I don’t mean the kind of coffee ride that constitutes a flat hour to the café, and hour and a half of nattering and scones, followed by an easy ride home; I’m talking a Tadej Pogačar kind of coffee ride.

According to his Strava account, the UAE Team Emirates rider covered a whopping 190km on his own in the mountains around Monaco yesterday, packing in over 3,813m of elevation gain by climbing the iconic Col de Turini, Col de Brouis, La Turbie, and Mont Leuze (for comparison, Il Lombardia, at 240km-long, features 4,400m in total elevation).

Oh, and he covered the almost exactly six hour-long ride in an average speed of 31.7kph. So much for a coffee ride, Pog.

Though judging from his Instagram account, it looks like the only breaks programmed into yesterday’s mammoth spin were for a quick pain aux raisins and a few tins of Coke… Come on Tadej, no tray bakes at all?!

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tadej Pogačar (@tadejpogacar)

The 24-year-old – who’s about to turn 25 in two days, the horror – certainly isn’t averse to laying down the Strava gauntlet when he’s approaching a big goal. In July, as he turned his attentions from his second place at the Tour to the Glasgow worlds, Pogačar uploaded a four-hour ride around his home in Monaco – which also, notably, included the destruction of Richie Porte’s KOM on the fabled slopes of the Col de la Madone.

> Tadej Pogačar smashes famous Col de la Madone Strava KOM

But his latest exploits will certainly strike fear into the hearts of those seeking to end the Slovenian’s streak as the Fresh Prince of Lombardy.

Speaking of which, I for one can’t wait for another famous Strava showboater Remco Evenepoel – confirmed to race Lombardia for only the second time since his horror crash in 2020 – to upload his latest training spin from Tenerife.

> Remco Evenepoel destroys Mount Teide Strava KOM

Let the Strava phoney war commence…

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, home to Biniam Girmay and recent Vuelta stage winner Rui Costa, have been reprimanded by the UCI after members of the team complained to the governing body about late salary payments over the summer.

The Belgian WorldTour squad was one to two weeks late paying wages for riders and staff in July, August, and September, CEO Jean-François Bourlart confirmed to Het Laatste Nieuws today.

However, Bourlat also claimed that the issue stemmed from certain sponsors failing to make their quarterly payments, that the wages have since been paid in full, and that there are no concerns regarding the team’s future financial stability.

"A number of sponsors are delayed with their quarterly payments, which can happen, and as a result, we were also a bit late,” Bourlart said.

“But this is just a ‘cash hole’, a deficit in the treasury – it has nothing to do with our budget or any problem for the future.

“We had a cash flow problem for a while, and therefore it’s a problem of punctuality, nothing more. 10 days [delay in payments]? It could be. There were some late payments, but all amounts were paid correctly. It’s a serious matter when people are not paid.”

Former world champion Rui Costa wins stage 15 of the 2023 Vuelta (Rafa Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency)

Het Laatste Nieuws also reported that around a dozen members of the team’s backroom staff, including coaches, doctors, mechanics, and soigneurs, are leaving Intermarché this winter for other teams. Bourlart, however, insisted that such a high turnover in personnel is normal at WorldTour level.

“Call the other teams and ask how many staff are leaving. It will be the same,” he said.

The CEO denied that the late payments were due to Belgium’s new restrictions on gambling sponsorships, with the names of betting companies on sports shirts set to be reduced in size from 2025, and removed altogether in 2028 – with betting and casino company Circus set to decrease their sponsorship of the team by 50 percent (a reported €1 million) as a result of the law change.

“The problem is the new law on gambling advertising that has been in force since July 1,” Bourlart said. “Circus disappears as a name sponsor but remains part of our team. We had no cash for a while but that had nothing to do with Circus.

“At the moment, the budget remains the same as in 2023. I had another meeting today with a potential new sponsor. I hope our budget will increase a bit more for 2024.

“I assure you; the budget will not be a problem. If you have a bit less money, then you hire less expensive riders. That way, everything stays balanced.”

The West Midlands’ Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Adam Tranter, has hit out at motorists who claims that policies and measures to encourage active travel are “anti-car”, arguing instead that “good transport is about balance and choice”.

Tranter, who last month made an urgent plea for action to “turn the ride on aggressive driving in Birmingham” after a spate of cyclist deaths in the city, criticised the divisive discourse around cycling and walking schemes in a Twitter post today.

One of the biggest fallacies in the discourse on active travel at the moment is that providing choice for people is anti-car.

The Netherlands is one of the best countries in the world to drive. Cycling is enabled and popular but car journeys are also more than well catered for. pic.twitter.com/qmadGYwwA8

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) September 19, 2023

“One of the biggest fallacies in the discourse on active travel at the moment is that providing choice for people is anti-car,” he wrote.

“The Netherlands is one of the best countries in the world to drive. Cycling is enabled and popular but car journeys are also more than well catered for.

“Good transport is about balance and choice. Many journeys are very short where safe walking and cycling reduce demand for car trips, freeing up space for those who need to drive.

“Cars are good tools for longer trips but we need to acknowledge they’re not good at scale in cities.”

He may not be a household name, but Tottenham Hotspur full back Japhet Tanganga, currently on loan at German side FC Augsburg, has made a daring bid to be included in road.cc’s star-studded Footballers Who Cycle XI – by falling off his bike while trying to come to a stop at the club’s training ground.

Japhet Tanganga, now close to joining German side Augsburg on loan deal from Tottenham 🚨🟢 #THFC

Loan move will also include buy option clause, being discussed right now. pic.twitter.com/1x2WReYpFN

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 31, 2023

The 24-year-old English defender, a Spurs academy product who has played 50 times for the senior side since 2019, has been struggling with a knee injury since joining the struggling Bundesliga outfit on loan in the summer.

As he eyes up a return to first team football, Tanganga has joined in on Augsburg’s tradition of riding bikes from the changing room to the pitches at the club’s training ground.

However, it’s clear that the full back has struggled to adapt to the German side’s two-wheeled habits, with Augsburger Allgemeine reporting that Tanganga, along with fellow new arrival Kevin Mbabu, had issues while coming to a stop during one training session, with both players tipping over, causing a domino effect that took out a whole row of parked bikes in the process.

Oops. How very Spursy of him...

Let’s just hope that Tanganga’s spell in Germany will improve his bike dismounting skills, and that he won’t have any more embarrassing tipping over incidents.

Or, as they’re called in the football/cycling crossover industry, ‘doing a Michael Owen’…

First ride of the year and I forgot the golden rule - if in doubt, clip out!😂🙈 pic.twitter.com/CHZm01XZ5N

— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) February 26, 2021

Never gets old…

What? Local councillors claiming that segregated cycle lanes are a “nuisance” and that they’re “trip hazards” making roads even more dangerous, somehow? Well, I never…

> Council shuts down complaints about plan for new cycle lane segregation as councillor claims “nuisance” lane will be a “trip hazard” 

So, it seems that yesterday’s blog story on Kevin McKenna’s, ahem, somewhat inflammatory column in the Herald, in which the writer called on motorist to channel their repressed “pulsing” rage “directly onto cyclists” (yes, really), has stirred up quite the debate on social media. Quelle surprise, indeed…

One of McKenna’s many, many questionable suggestions in the column – which ranged from boring, outdated tropes about hardworking drivers to head scratching environmental conclusion – involved the journalist telling his readers that when he’s driving behind a person on a bike, he now takes “a deep breath before gently edging out and around the cyclists and taking up a position directly in front of them. And then slowing right down to about two miles an hour”.

> “Easily triggered?”: Scottish journalist publishes bizarre column urging motorists to “transfer your pulsing rage directly onto cyclists”

That manoeuvre, McKenna says, “will lead to better mental health outcomes, knowing that you’ve given these insidious and sanctimonious weapons a taste of their own medicine”.

As ridiculous as the whole column is, it appears that some drivers on social media have latched onto that particular suggestion, regarding it as a serious solution to the pesky problem of cyclists, yes cyclists, bringing the UK’s cities to a standstill.

“Drivers should do a slow protest. Bring the cities to a slow crawl,” Tony posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, with no apparent hint of irony at all.

The response? Just what you’d expect.

Call it something cool like “rush hour”

— Three U-locks in a trench coat (@KillTheCars) September 19, 2023

“They already are.”

“They do everyday.”

“Let me know when the protest is over!”

“Call it something cool like ‘rush hour’.”

Ah, Twitter may be a raging cesspit these days, but every so often it can still come up with the goods…