“Poor countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany?”: Chris Boardman leads the way as cyclists school David Frost on claim rich countries don’t use bikes; Irn-Bru paint job steals the show ahead of World Championships + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Tech news: Details of the new Specialized Tarmac SL8 leaked; Money-no-object upgrades to create the ultimate featherweight bike; Demi Vollering's Tour de France-winning SL7
Loads of cool stuff up on the site at the minute from our tech team…
> Specialized Tarmac SL8: leaked details of “the world’s fastest race bike” appear online
The tip over to August means hill-climbing season is just around the corner, if you’ve found a winning lottery ticket down the back of the sofa here’s what you could do to make the ultimate featherweight bike…
And before we get all the weight and watt-saving claims from Spesh about the new SL8 it’s worth remembering the SL7 is still doing alright… and by alright I mean being ridden to Tour de France victory by Demi Vollering…
Irn-Bru paint job steals the show ahead of World Championships
10/10 for this paint job from Fatcreations near Chichester, ready to be used by Aimi Kenyon up in Scotland at the World Championships…
LEJOAP: Retired vicar takes on Land's End to John O'Groats for fourth time
Full credit to Jo for the headline, superb stuff, and a proper feel-good news story for your Wednesday…
This August, 90 year old retired vicar Peter Langford is taking on the challenge of cycling from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for the homeless.
To support his journey, please listen to his story, share this video and donate what you can https://t.co/zID5Lp85Ql🧡 pic.twitter.com/mdat3JtNgx
— Access Community Trust (@access_ourwork) July 26, 2023
Peter Langford, an 89-year-old retired vicar from Suffolk is hoping to become the oldest man to cycle the famous 1,100-mile route. It will be his fourth time, having completed the challenge aged 75, 80 and 85, and he’ll be raising money for two homelessness charities along the way…
“I’m getting more confident that I will actually be able to manage it,” he told the BBC. “Devon and Cornwall are far, far, the hardest part of the whole route — much harder than Scotland — because the hills are so steep and you get them over and over again.
“‘I’ve been doing about 120 miles a week but recently I thought I should do a few long rides together. Last week I did 50 miles on Monday and 50 miles on Tuesday and I felt perfectly alright afterwards.”
Mr Langford will set off on 22 August, four days after his 90th birthday, hoping to finish a month later on 21 September.
“You achieve these things in your head — more than with your knees and if you’re darned determined.”
Potholes, road rash, stray dogs, bee stings, cracked rim... Transcontinental suffering
Yesterday Christoph Strasser finished Transcontinental first having spent just 34 hours off his bike in nine days. Further back and this is the reality for the other riders, Jesko Werthern penning these words on his suffering…
Oh Albania, your roads might be the worst I’ve ever seen, but your people are ever so great. Every time I’ve done it, there was a point in the Transcontinental where I felt like the race was trying to break me. If you’re stubborn enough to push through that point, you get rewarded. Today might have been that day.
The alarm goes and I cannot walk. The road rash burns like fire and makes me literally limp onto the bike after taking a painkiller and waiting another half hour. Pedalling works, most Albanian dogs are sleepy or scared, only a big one seriously chases me. In a small village the road bends downwards, a little girl waves at me from over a wall, I wave back and see the big bump in the road too late.
A badly timed bunny hop attempt, an audible crack, I look down and can immediately see that the wobble has increased. As long as it’s rolling, no excuse to stop. Sketchy bridge just before CP3, bee sting, eggs with rice and onto the parcour. One happy rider found a backpack full of food.
A TCR off-road parcour is never easy, but doing that nursing a cracked rim, two seeing wounds, with barely functioning hands, while the thermometer shows 44 degrees (38 in the shadow, only there is not much shadow) and you get an experience that is definitely up there with the most insane things I’ve done.
It’s all relative though. I meet a rider that has been walking for 41 kilometres with a failed tubeless system and Sara did the whole thing without food, because she lost her backpack… Maybe I didn’t have such a bad day after all.
Biniam Girmay reportedly refused UK visa, as Eritrean star pulls out of Glasgow world championships citing injury
"Sad!": Biniam Girmay's Eritream teammate comments on visa denial reports
We’re awaiting a comment from the Home Office about the big story of the day ahead of the World Championships. Merhawi Kudus simply wrote: “Sad!” in reply to the rumours.
Hopefully more info on this one soon…
Sausage roll power
Looks like @petosagan‘s bus & a Slovak National Cycling Team van have stopped for a @GreggsOfficial on the way to @CyclingWorlds
(cc @Trudgin) pic.twitter.com/b1JcJyZZkP
— James Lucas (@RabAusten) August 2, 2023
Police Service of Northern Ireland spend nearly £50,000 on bike repairs over the past five years
The Derry Journal reports that Northern Ireland’s police service spent nearly £50,000 on bike repairs in the past five years.
£47,048.99 was the exact figure between 1 April 2018 and 16 May 2023, with the cost of bike repairs for non-electric bikes during the same period at £33,737, while for e-bikes it was £13,311.99.
The figures were revealed following a Freedom of Information request.
Alpecin-Deceuninck notified of alleged anti-doping violation concerning Robert Stannard
Australian rider Rob Stannard, who twice finished in the top ten of stages at this year’s Criterium du Dauphiné, has been provisionally suspended after his Alpecin-Deceuninck team was notified of an alleged ‘Anti-Doping Rule Violation’ dating back to 2018 and 2019.
There will be questions about how it has taken so long to come to light, but the team says it “respects the decision” made by the UCI and noted the violation came well before Stannard joined the team.
“We respect the decision of the UCI and will conform to this. In the meanwhile, we will further inform us with the rider, his management, and the UCI,” a team statement said. “Alpecin-Deceuninck will not be commenting further until we have full clarification from the three parties mentioned above.”
New 'protected' contraflow cycle lane opens on one-way road – and drivers immediately begin parking in it and crashing into bollards
"Locals anywhere else in the world would relish stopping to watch it": More reaction to World Championship road closures going down predictably well
Thought I’d round up some of the almost 200 comments we’ve got across Facebook and the website about this story…
Kevin ‘Herbie’ Blackburn: “Locals anywhere else in the world would relish stopping to watch it.”
Susanne Reid: “Really ashamed to be a Scottish person at the moment. Scotland depends on tourism yet when it inconveniences wee Jimmy for a couple of hours locals are up in arms.”
Ollie Craig: “Better headline: Local car owners who have their roads subsidized and use them for free 355 days a year whinge about momentary disruption on a single day so that other people can use the road.”
Kris Jackson: “The town that takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end to another, I’m sure they’ll survive.”
A Frosty response that conveniently avoids mention of bikes
Well, you just shifted your argument, because your first point (which in no way drew the distinction you now make) was annihilated. Regardless of that, wouldn’t it be preferable to have good public transport outside of cities? Other countries do. Rich ones.
— Ned Boulting 🏳️⚧️ (@nedboulting) August 1, 2023
Happy Wednesday, everyone…
"Poor countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany?": Chris Boardman leads the way as cyclists school David Frost on claim rich countries don't use bikes
David Frost, eh? That’s a name I’d gone without hearing for a glorious forgetful spell, until now… Boris Johnson’s former chief negotiator for exiting the European Union, who later served in the same PM’s cabinet in a role created just for him (that was abolished on his departure) has today got more than a few people questioning if he’s ever even travelled to the continent he was negotiating our exit from…
It’s not a ‘problem’, it’s a good thing.
In poorer countries people depend on public transport & bikes. When they get richer they want cars because they bring freedom.
Public transport will *never* be good enough for a free people to move around on. https://t.co/4dtYH0iMjW
— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) August 1, 2023
Who’s going to tell him? Time for the ‘Cycling Avengers’ to assemble…
Poor countries like Holland, Denmark, Germany….?
This looks like freedom to me. https://t.co/0dUZVXcYqY pic.twitter.com/qTwMyImMtu— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) August 1, 2023
ITV commentator and cycling journalist Ned Boulting reckons: “Of course, as is quite often the case I fear, the truth is almost the perfect opposite of what you claim.”
While CyclingMikey was keen to share the view from the Netherlands on Frost’s comment: “I’m from the Netherlands, Frostie, and we’re doing rather a lot better than the UK thanks. Part of that is because we don’t waste as much on cars.”
Jon Burke, fresh from schooling Nick Ferrari about LTNs live on LBC, was keen for some more…
Embarrassing.https://t.co/IfwVuo6n19
— Jon Burke 🌎 (@jonburkeUK) August 1, 2023
If you truly believe this I suggest you take a gander at most of Europe where they are making massive changes to their transport systems to pull people out of car dependency.
I’m sure this is because they’re poor though. 😄
— Jon (@Jontafkasi) August 1, 2023
In fact, such was the response to Frost’s thoughts, he got replies from people in… *deep breath*… the Netherlands, Barcelona, Ireland, Armenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany all united in replies calling ‘rubbish’…
When you were Ambassador in wealthy Denmark did you venture out of your Embassy? 🚴♂️
— Nicholas Davies (@MrMiniHolland) August 1, 2023
2 August 2023, 08:18
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@mitsky I agree entirely which is why I think things would improve if the police made better use of dash cam footage submitted to them. In Gloucestershire the police won't take action unless someone is inconvenienced. For example I recently reported a driver for overtaking on the brow of a bridge. The oncoming car was forced to stop so they say they will take action. If there was no oncoming car in an identical situation there would be NFA. In my opinion an advisory letter to the driver would be very useful so they know they've been caught.
@JLasTSR A 12 month ban seems pretty lenient to me but better than nothing. Will she have to do a retest before she can drive again?
It is only a matter of time before someone uses this as a defence. "I didn't know that the rules had changed, your honour.". I agree. 10 years, retake the test. If you can afford a car, fuel, insurance, etc., then paying a small fee every decade to re-test should be little burden on drivers and be at no cost to the state.
That's fair - I didn't realise this cable is used elsewhere. However, I'd argue you can order most things on Amazon, and having to order something online doesn't necessarily mean it's "readily available" - especially in comparison to USB-C cables, which you can buy cables in most supermarkets, Post Offices, and any shop that sells electronics pretty much anywhere in the world - so if you're travelling or lose the cable it can be replaced immediately. Also, it's just ANOTHER cable to remember to take with you, isn't it?
@Rendel Harris After nearly 40 years in thé Ariège département it seems from my expérience cycling that it's always wise to bé thé most careful when you see a 31 or 13 plate. Though now cars keep thé same plate when they or their owner changes département
@Rendel Harris I will second that. Although they are hard to find you can buy them at https://www.amazon.com/BaiWeiDun-Universal-Magnetic-SmartWatch-Accessories/dp/B0FBR8PD63
I had actually cycled my first century the week before the accident. I got back on the bike straight away then a hip wore out and was replaced so I missed a lot of cycling in 2024 but I was back to my normal level in 2025 not so sure what has happened this year I am not as enthusiastic as usual I have been on the bike just not cycled far. I will have to do more as I will do a 50 mile ride in September the annual charity ride. Not sure fear is the problem exactly more a feeling that there is less enjoyment.in a bike ride than there once was.
What’s all this MTB palaver? The Tour de France was originally a gravel race. 🙃
@wtjs I've sent in 2 close pass videos to kent police, never heard anything back.
68 thoughts on ““Poor countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany?”: Chris Boardman leads the way as cyclists school David Frost on claim rich countries don’t use bikes; Irn-Bru paint job steals the show ahead of World Championships + more on the live blog”
Frost is thick as mince but
Frost is thick as mince but just one of many Tory brexiters who looked like absolute fools across the table from well briefed EU negotiators.
Miller wrote:
Like, IIRC, David Davies who turned up to Brexit negotiations without any files or paperwork cos he just knew he was on the side of right…
David Frost, Rishi Sunak and
David Frost, Rishi Sunak and Mark Harper are just three of the out-of-touch tories who think that they are going to win the next election by getting drivers to vote for them, all because they narrowly won Ruislip on a single issue.
Deluded: but then, that is one definition of a tory.
There does seem to be an
There does seem to be an increasing amount of using the Trumpian approach; don’t let facts stand in the way of a good sound bite.
Been a trend for years now.
Been a trend for years now.
Politics is about what works. Trump turned up and wowed lots of people like the pied piper and using a style which was hardly unknown but that he’d taken much further than others at that time in the US. No-one could ignore that.
Doesn’t mean demagogues will always succeed but politicians are always going to copy “what works”. Like Blair with Thatcher, Cameron with Blair, lots of folks over here with the partisan brawler style (as modelled by e.g. Trump) and recently Starmer chasing after Sunak when it looked like “too much, too soon” for the some of the electorate over ULEZ / LTNs.
levestane wrote:
I can’t recall any decent sound bites coming from Trump unless you mean things like ‘covfefe’ or ‘bigly’ – he always sounds like a blustering idiot.
David Frost wrote:
“Politics”, right? (“Trolling” but much higher status and better paid). Like other provocations this would ideally just be ignored. Especially noting how he swivelled away from bikes to public transport.
Of course it’s wrong-headed several ways.
Why is being car-dependent a good thing anywhere? In other places people have both improved public transport and tamed the car (and added bikes…). Millions in several countries have found that in fact works for them and – while they still own cars – they now rarely use them. Why should “freedom” (convenience) through motoring – but then being entirely reliant on our expensive, damaging exoskeletons – be a goal?
(“It’s progress! More freedom!” Or is it just following high-status role models and indulging in prestige consumption – like a rapper swigging Cognac?)
(Don’t mention Brexit…) It’s slightly odd that Frost should celebrate the potential of jam at some unspecified date in the future in one area of his public life but then be quick to point out that public transport *right now* is poor – so ergo the concept is rubbish.
Public transport is better or worse, more or less convenient. Under no imaginable scheme will people stop driving tomorrow, or in a year’s time, or a decade. However just like lots of other places what we can do is stop moving towards “ever closer union” with the car. To stop being such a transport monoculture.
Yes – naturally the “easy” places (“inner London”, nice dig…) will progress faster and go further. That doesn’t stop a bus every hour (as opposed to twice a day) to some remote spot being useful, or adding a footway (or better – a cycle path which of course people can walk on) along a road between two villages a mile or so apart.
I may get soaking wet on the
I may get soaking wet on the way home tonight, but I will still be far happier on my bicycle than if I was being driven in a car.
There’s only one thing worse
There’s only one thing worse than riding a bike in the rain and that’s not riding a bike in the rain.
perce wrote:
Worst day of riding beats the best day of driving…
Exactly.
Exactly.
Rendel Harris wrote:
You’ve clearly never been in an Ariel Atom then (or any supercar/race car for that matter)
Don’t include me in your
Don’t include me in your weird obsession you strange little troll.
Ledner_Sirrah wrote:
You’ve clearly never ridden down a 25km clear 80kmh descent in the alps on a spring morning then.
Is a Porsche Boxter a supercar? I’ve been in one of them at 140mph (as a passenger on the autobahn), meh. About as exciting as being in a plane taking off, i.e. mildly diverting. If you offered me one of them (that I wasn’t allowed to sell to buy bikes with) or an S-Works Tarmac I’d take the bike, no question.
Rendel Harris wrote:
That’s not untrue. But I wouldn’t say that the worst day of riding is not better than a day spend cruising around Goodwood in an Ariel Atom on a sunny afternoon.
Ledner_Sirrah wrote:
I think it was fairly obvious we were talking about on road situations. Yes, I’ll concede that if I were allowed a go in Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes around Monaco it might be more fun than cycling to Sainsbury’s in the rain for washing powder. Happy now?
Just noticed your username, jolly clever! Is this thisismyusername back again after being banned as Rendel Harriz? Honestly, I know I spend too much time on here but if I went to the lengths some of you guys go to just to pointlessly troll the site I’d have to ask myself serious questions about where my life was going.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Couldn’t be happier 🙂
I don’t know what you mean, but that is a funny coincidence that my username is in fact a anadrome of yours! (without the underscore of course)
Would you like me to change it?
You want the petrol heads
You want the petrol heads site; this is a cycling site.
Hirsute wrote:
Ah thank you. I was feeling lost here.
Good, off you trot.
Good, off you trot.
There’s no welcome here for PBUs.
Agreed, although I did wimp
Agreed, although I did wimp out of the the 6am start for the 25mile cycle commute in a biblical downpour this morning. I will go to the gym as penance tonight and then get the bike out tomorrow
In principle yes, in practice
In principle yes, in practice id have been happier in the car today.
at least then the muppet who tried to undertake me through a bus stop, or the Ford truck who tried to overtake through a pinch point that it barely fits thru by itself, you dont then hear the squeal of their brakes & lockups at the last second as they change their minds, on a wet road in the pouring rain.
Who doesn’t feel more alive
Who doesn’t feel more alive after a ride in bad weather ?
Blazing sunshine and warm windless summer days are the most miserable experiences.
Maybe he should look at
Maybe he should look at countries like Germany and Holland where public transport works well for urban centres and also between them, mostly due to the fact that it is convenient, clean, integrated and reasonably priced.
My typical commute to work
My typical commute to work here in NL is now something like this (note I’m currently working at a production facility that’s not in a city/town centre:
Distance covered approx 55km in about 1 hr 10 mins at a cost of 28.85 euros return including OV fiets bike hire…that’s what poverty looks like
KDee wrote:
That’s pretty pricey rail travel (52c/km), I thought the UK was uncommonly expensive. But I have examples of Exeter to London – £60/ 250km = 24p/mile and the utterly incredible £6 from London to Newhaven 79km or 7.6p/km. I suppose that’s because anyone travelling to the poor countries in the EU via the ferry can’t afford more.
Your calculation is off, but
Your calculation is off, but that’s because my comment wasn’t totally clear.
It’s about 55km each way, so about 26c/km.
It was pointed out that the
It was pointed out that the same people who campaigned for Brexit are now leading the anti Green propaganda.
Kapelmuur wrote:
It’s almost as though their goals are totally against what benefits the rest of us.
The soul destroying
The soul destroying realisation that the Tories will do anything, including destroy this country and planet, just to widen the gap between the rich and poor.
hawkinspeter wrote:
weren’t they also the covid recovery group, whose objectives around covid were about as close to recovery, as their opinions to europe were to anything based on actual research
The sooner they are behind
The sooner they are behind bars doing time and the UK has applied to rejoin the EU the better for us all.
essexian wrote:
As I understand it, if we did rejoin the EU we would then just be any old member state. We wouldn’t have all of the perks and exemptions that we had before so it’s not the same as simply reversing Brexit (Tixerb?).
And we’d have to apply for membership and I can’t imagine the EU states really trusting us to stay in there (look at our recent history for keeping our word and keeping to international agreements and laws…).
(I still think we should apply, mind…).
It will be a long road back
It will be a long road back and one which will mean joining the Euro, free movement and the loss of all the perks we had previously. I for one says “bring it on.”
Better being in the EU than being out any day.
Kapelmuur wrote:
And for the same reason: greed.
Overjoyed this morning at not
Overjoyed this morning at not getting soaked on the way to work this morning, considering what the rain radar looked like last night, small shower but mostly damp through tree rain.
Which of course got me thinking, there must be a better expression than tree rain?
And secondary prcipitation doesn’t work…
They really need to make a full sugar “Premium” Irn-Bru
ktache wrote:
I thought if you’d reached that stage it was straight to the Buckie?
Sugar? Check
Caffeine? Check
Alcohol? Check
Monks? Check
* Just in case – from the label “the name ‘Tonic Wine’ does not imply health giving or medicinal properties”
ktache wrote:
Arboreal Weeping?
Tree Piss?
Twig tears?
Twig tears?
Kendalred wrote:
Maple water – the sugar free variety of the more popular breakfast accompaniment
Kendalred wrote:
Cano-pee (like canopy, geddit? oh, I spoiled it didn’t I )
ktache wrote:
I registered for no other reason than to point out that Irn-Bru 1901 exists, is full sugar, and (IMHO) tastes better than the pre-aspartame stuff.
Availability, particularly of the cans, has been a bit limited / sporadic, but seems to have got better in recent weeks.
Many thanks for putting the
Many thanks for putting the effort in.
Now I know it exists I will look for it.
Gotta admire the mental
Gotta admire the mental acrobatics it takes to swing from “only the poor use public transport and bikes” to “we’re too poor to have public transport and bikes.”
“When I were a lad we were
“When I were a lad we were lucky to have a unicycle. Who could afford two wheels?”
“You were rich, I had to make do with just a wheel.”
“That’s nothing, if I were lucky I got to take turns with the family inner tube…”
GrandTourer wrote:
Inner tubes!? We had no inner tubes, only handfulls of grass and nettles that we had to wrest from starving grannies who had collected them for their one meal a week. (They still fought back, mind).
Family!? We had no family, only a monstrous bloke that hit us once every 3 minutes then left for a month with the savings jar, all three farthings of it, to join our mother at the pub where she was scavenging for cast aside fag-ends to make up another fag with toilet paper pinched from the pub netty.
Ah the good old days. I
Ah the good old days. I remember the starving grannies having punchups at jumble sales.Try telling all of that to the youth of today, they’d never believe it.
The conspiracy theoriest who
The conspiracy theoriest who cites 15 minute city nonsense should be hit with the ban stick. Hard. No time for that nasty crazy stuff.
(also, they should look at the history of the ghetto, as in, the original Venetian one, and what it actually meant. Then take a good hard look at themselves for making that comparison. And never say anything here again).
Irn-Bru, eh? “Tell me that
Irn-Bru, eh? “Tell me that you are in Scotland without actually saying that you are in Scotland“
Girders are the last thing
Girders are the last thing you’d want your bike to be made from, surely?
belugabob wrote:
Extra weight is always helpful when going downhill, at least that’s what I tell people as I freewheel past them on descents!
Made in America, from girders
Made in America, from girders.
What’s happened to the Spesh
What’s happened to the Spesh Tarmac SL8 article? It’s disappeared from the home page and the link above gives a 403 error. Did you have to pull it?
My guess – road.cc has
My guess – road.cc has embargoed material on the SL8 and Spesh thought that “we’re just reporting on someone else’s breach of embargo” wasn’t a good enough excuse.
Regarding Jesko’s TCR#9 post,
Regarding Jesko’s TCR#9 post, what is a “failed tubeless system”?
I’m a basic luddite when it comes to bike tech and haven’t been persuaded to shift away from inner tubes, but what might have been the issue here that “shove an inner tube in it” wouldn’t solve?
I can only think a hole/tear
I can only think a hole/tear so big that the tyre can’t be patched. That’s not a tubeless failure though, it’s just one of those things that will ruin your day with or without tubes. More likely, probably wasn’t carrying a spare tube.
Could have been running one
Could have been running one of those tyre/rim combinations where it is impossible to seat the rim without a shot from a compressor, in which case if the tyre comes off or you have to take it off, spare tube or not you’re going to have to walk until you find a garage or a friendly mechanic.
A normal pump will seat the
A normal pump will seat the tyre if there’s an inner tube. It’s can be a useful trick with a new tyre as you can then remove it leaving one bead seated and only one to worry about.
ChasP wrote:
Cheers, never used them myself, was just going on what I’d read.
You’d need an emergency tyre
You’d need an emergency tyre boot if the tyre was badly damaged.
There were a few stories on here of where people made their own emergency one (steve K maybe ?)
Im pretty sure theres a TCR
Im pretty sure theres a TCR story from one of James Haydens wins where he was riding one of the parcours when he had a big nail go through tyre, tube and *RIM*, then had to fix it with a plastic £5 note and lashings of gaffa tape.
(I may have forgotten most of the details but it was one of the WTF moments that attracted me to following the TCR)
Plastic £5 note rings a bell.
Plastic £5 note rings a bell.
I’d just like to offer my
I’d just like to offer my best wishes and respect to Mr Langford, who, at nearly 90 years old is riding from Lands End to John O’Groats for charity. Good luck to him. Kind of puts into perspective the silliness of one poster on here.
I agree
I agree
Go for it Pete!
Go for it Pete!
It should have read,
It should have read, Christophe Strasser finished the TCR first again.
The guy is a phenom.
To be fair, they did cover it
To be fair, they did cover it yesterday
Something something always
Something something always two master and apprentice yoda quote.
I thought there had been too much talk here of cycling, bikes, transport infrastructure etc. recently. Back to “culture war” and Brexit now though!