“Just a flesh wound”: Cyclists spot Cervélo TT bike for £820 on Facebook Marketplace which owner claims to have ridden “for years without problem”… despite giant crack in carbon downtube; Fallout to farcical Algarve sprint chaos + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"It was a wrong decision by the peloton but it's clear that we didn't do enough to avoid this outcome, which we very much regret": Volta ao Algarve statement on stage one chaos
Yesterday evening the organisation of the Volta ao Algarve, the stage race hit by “total chaos” and farcical scenes on its opening stage when almost the entire peloton went the wrong way at a roundabout before the sprint, has released a longer statement on the incident. It confirmed the brief social media statement we reported last night, explaining that there would be no winner and the stage result had been cancelled.
“The College of Commissaires interpreted the regulations and, given what happened, decided to cancel the stage because they considered that sporting truth did not prevail in the end. All the technical information was clear that the riders should go left at the last roundabout. The fact is that some of them took the right, in a lane parallel to the finish line. It was a wrong decision by the peloton but it’s clear that we didn’t do enough to avoid this outcome, which we very much regret,” explained Sérgio Sousa, director of the Volta ao Algarve.
"We're thankful that everyone finished safely, but let's use this opportunity to continue to shine a light on making the best sport in the world a safer one": Ineos Grenadiers respond to Filippo Ganna losing his Algarve 'win'
Things escalated quite quickly for everyone yesterday at Algarve, but perhaps quickest for Filippo Ganna and the Ineos Grenadiers. First, there was jubilation and a funny social media post…
And then disappointment, frustration and a less gleeful follow-up that tried to take a more philosophical view of events. The team wrote last night: “Following the finish, the decision was made to cancel stage one of the Volta ao Algarve without a result.
“Cycling is tough. Some days you win but most you lose. We want to pay tribute to the incredible love and dedication that organisers and volunteers put into our sport, as well as its amazing fans. We’re thankful that today everyone finished safely, but let’s use this opportunity to continue to shine a light on making the best sport in the world a safer one.”
"Professional cycling has once again lost credibility": Visma-Lease a Bike furious with "ridiculous" Algarve finish, slam "embarrassing and dangerous" incident that "could have ended very badly"
While the Ineos Grenadiers were philosophical in defeat, Visma-Lease a Bike and Wout van Aert went on the attack, calling out the race organisers and UCI for yet another “embarrassing” incident that risked rider safety.
In a lengthy post on the team’s website, Visma-Lease a Bike explained how it had been excited to see Jonas Vingegaard’s return to the peloton following the off-season, the two-time Tour de France champion joined by Van Aert, Sepp Kuss, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, Ben Tulett and Loe van Belle at the 2.Pro race, one of the many week-long stage races that punctuate the opening couple of months of the racing calendar. That excitement quickly turned to anger as Van Aert explained.
“This was undoubtedly a human mistake. The final roundabout was not closed off, creating a ridiculous situation. When I saw the barriers on the other side, I realised something was wrong. Some people even signalled that we should be careful. Situations like this simply cannot happen.”
Sports director Arthur van Dongen called the episode “embarrassing” and suggested the sport had “once again lost credibility”.
“The riders’ safety must be the top priority, but the organisers fell short in that regard,” he said. “Fortunately, there were no serious accidents, because this could have ended very badly. Safety in cycling remains a major issue. I hope the UCI wakes up soon.”
The incident on yesterday’s Algarve stage came just two weeks after Ineos Grenadiers, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, EF Education-EasyPost, and several other teams all refused to race and headed back to their team buses during Étoile de Bessèges, that after multiple incidents of motorists on the course, in one case causing a crash.
Boy, 7, inspired by Paddy McGuinness's epic Raleigh Chopper charity ride raises £1,000 for homeless centre
A seven-year-old from Northampton has raised £1,000 for a homeless centre in the town by cycling 100km over several rides after being inspired by Paddy McGuinness’s Children in Need 300-mile Chopper charity cycle.
Albie’s mum Katy told the Banbury Guardian: “He has also shown great perseverance and determination to complete the challenge even in the cold and miserable weather. There were many times he could have stayed inside watching television or films but he knew he had to get it done and that’s what he did.”
He raised more than 400% of his original £250 target, so far raising £1,010 for Northampton Hope Centre.
Fabian Cancellara: "Pogačar is not going to kill cycling... but obviously if someone dominates so much it becomes less interesting"
The famous French sport newspaper L’Équipe this week published a piece asking if “Tadej Pogacar’s dominance could tire the public?”
Fabian Cancellara, the legendary pro cyclist-turned-team boss with Tudor Pro Cycling, was one of those asked for his opinion, Spartacus answering: “Pogačar is not going to kill cycling. I don’t like the term. But obviously if someone dominates so much, it’s like Max Verstappen in Formula 1. I don’t know about you, but for me, it becomes less interesting, I follow the races a little less. In cycling, we could see the same thing, but when Eddy Merckx also dominated everything or when Tom (Boonen) and I won the Flemish races, then there were new riders, new names.”
Pogačar’s former teammate Marc Hirschi, who now rides under Cancellara’s tutelage for his Swiss team, looked at the question in a different way… “Some will start to get bored, but at the same time, most know cycling thanks to Tadej, who is recognised throughout the world […] It goes so fast in cycling today. You can get sick, be unwell, other riders can emerge too. Maybe next season will be Remco’s?”
What do we reckon? Would you find another year of Pogačar dominance like 2024 boring?
How to bleed Shimano hydraulic disc brakes
It’s Home Mechanics’ Week here on road.cc, so keep you eyes peeled for more stuff like this that might just save you a trip to a bike shop.
Jonathan Milan powers to second stage win of the week as crosswinds (very briefly) threaten to cause carnage at UAE Tour
Treated to echelons on a Thursday morning, the UAE Tour is good for some things at least, even if the route’s almost totally flat, boring and almost entirely unwatched by anyone at the roadside. Tadej Pogačar and his home favourites, UAE Team Emirates, led the charge as the wind blowed, optimal cross tailwind conditions seeing speeds of close to 70km/h and the peloton split into multiple groups.
Those behind got the chase sorted fairly quick however and the threat of total carnage was cooled. It all meant we got the sprint that was expected on stage four, Jonathan Milan pipping Tim Merlier and Jasper Philipsen in a photo finish.
All three are expected to head to the Tour de France this summer, setting up the prospect of some mouth-watering sprint clashes, especially when you add in Biniam Girmay, Wout van Aert, Fabio Jakobsen, Dylan Groenewegen, Arnaud de Lie and anyone else who fancies it. Shout out to British rider Dan McLay, now part of Visma-Lease a Bike’s lead-out team, who got up for fourth on the stage. No changes on GC, let’s see if the afternoon’s action in Andalusia and the Algarve is quite so barmy as yesterday.
"It's going to take a fatality for something to finally happen": Cyclists call for "complete rethink" of "very dangerous junction", after father and child hit by driver on bike lane in shocking collision
Pidcock wins again... and celebrates by getting some air
Following on from his two stage wins and overall victory at the AlUla Tour, Tom Pidcock has just won the second stage of Vuelta a Andalucia, sprinting from a small group including Enric Mas, Pavel Sivakov, Clément Berthet and his former Ineos Grenadiers teammate Brandon Rivera. He’ll have a tricky job winning GC here, Sivakov holding a handy 32 seconds on the Brit, but what a start to life at Q36.5 it’s been.
More on that coming in the latest episode of the road.cc Podcast soon…
Could a pro cyclist lose a race because their power meter has been hacked? Study suggests cyberattacks on smart trainers and cycling computers could manipulate riders' data and even put them at risk
"You want them to have navigators? Put on a tandem race": Time for your thoughts on that Algarve farce
GMBasix is, like most of us, fairly unimpressed by the Volta ao Algarve organiser’s claims that yesterday’s mistake was the peloton’s “wrong decision”… no, really.
“Seriously, mate, stick your head in a cold butt of water,” our comments section advised. “They may be pro riders but, at the last turn at the end of a stage, they will be a little bit tired and not focusing on the A to Z. Their job is to ride and, team instructions aside, ride as fast as they can. You want them to have navigators? Put on a tandem race. Any ambiguous junctions and lack of clear directions on the route is down to you alone.”
Rendel Harris: “Pretty embarrassing for VAA organisers but also a bit for Arnaud de Lie, who opined: ‘Everyone knows the finish is on the left, it’s been like that for years. The first rider followed the motorcycles, but he must have never watched a cycling race, because we all know that motorcycles don’t cross the finish line’. Presumably he said this before he found out that the first rider to take the wrong turn whom all the rest followed was Jarrad Drizners, his own leadout man.”
And a final bit of fun from mdavidford:
"I was more stressed about Tom's contract than my own!": Tom Pidcock's new teammate Rory Townsend on how "maverick" Olympic champ has lifted Q36.5 (and why you shouldn't drink too much pickle juice)
I teased that Pidcock podcast episode and would you look at that, there it is! As if by magic, maybe I should ask for an incident-free finish to today’s Algarve stage and a winning Lottery ticket while I’m at it…
"The team fully committed to me, and it's nice to be able to repay that"
Here’s what the man himself thought of that victory, Pidcock telling Q36.5’s press team: “I think yesterday I was a bit too ambitious, a bit too active too early, and didn’t really respect the race and the course. I paid for it in the final, which was unfortunate, but I learnt a good lesson.
“I also had fun racing, so it wasn’t all bad. Today, I made amends for that — I played it smart, worked the tactics well, and it’s super nice to get the hands up in the air. The team fully committed to me, and it’s nice to be able to repay that.”
Algarve organisers' huge sigh of relief as stage two passes without incident
So, who actually won the summit finish? Jonas Vingegaard? Primož Roglič? Nope it was a UAE Team Emirates 1-2 with Jan Christen and João Almeida, that might just be even more surprising than everyone getting to where they needed to be without ending up on the wrong side of the barriers. Then again, it’s easier at the top of a climb like this…
"Just a flesh wound": Cyclists spot Cervélo TT bike for £820 on Facebook Marketplace which owner claims to have ridden "for years without problem"... despite giant crack in carbon downtube
An intrepid bargain-hunting cyclist spotted a Cervélo P2 on Facebook Marketplace for €990 (£820). Intrigued they took a closer look and were so amused by what they found they did what any sensible person of the internet would — head straight to Reddit to share. It was posted in the ‘Delusional Craigslist’ subreddit, a group for “the most ridiculous posts from Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and anywhere else idiots try to sell things for WAY more than what they’re actually worth”, which sounds like somewhere we might spend some more time scrolling in future.
Anyway, back to the Cervélo. “Switching hobby,” the seller told potential buyers. “Lower frame has one-inch crack. Been using it for years without problem.”
Okay, let’s fire up the pic of the crack that hasn’t stopped it being ridden for years… ah, right…
What’s worse? The thought of someone riding this “for years” with that or claiming you had to try to get someone else to pay nearly £1,000 for it? We’ll leave that up to the cycling High Court… (our comments section).
Like that heartbreakingly cracked Kuota we shared on the blog last week, there was brief back-and-forth in the comments over whether the crack could be fixed and, more to the point, if it was financially worth it. Yes, duct tape got mentioned again, we hope as a joke.
Someone claimed to be happy to ride it in that condition: “I’d ride that. Then it goes up on the wall. I love pushing bikes to catastrophic failure. Feels like I got my money’s worth. Haven’t lost any teeth yet, but my shins tell a tale.” Almost want to start a whip-round to check that one out.
Anyway, we’ll crack on with the rest of the day and just leave this here…
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I was quite disturbed by this story yesterday and I'm glad that it seems to be getting resolved a bit. Presumably the bike looked fairly standard and was not covered in gaffer, with tern graphics, so surely one quick web search would have shown the ridiculous expense of this machine (you pay for quality mind...) hinting at it's full legality in unmodified state and preventing this embarrassment through incompetence.
@GoodWheelHunting Or indeed if the person had a white skin I doubt the police would even have got a chance to hear their accent as they wouldn't have bothered him. As I stated on the original thread, contrary to the opinion of a certain PBU and others, one doesn't have to have an agenda or a chip on one's shoulder to know that if Mrs Fortescue-Smythe had ridden her £6K Tern past the officers with Henry and Jemima on the back on their way to school there's not a chance in a billion that they would have stopped her and accused her of having an illegal machine.
The rider can clearly be heard telling the police to take it for a ride and see... That's all they had to do - listen and act on a concerned citizen's request. No malice my arse!
Two things I cannot prove but I rate as likely: This would not have happened to a citizen with a British accent. At least I suspect a hint of unconscious bias. The case would not have been resolved so quickly if it wasn't for the BBC coverage. When has the police accepted wrongdoing so fast before? Good job UK Cycling for getting this publicised and resolved rather positively.
Isn't scooting what dogs do when they drag their bottoms along the carpet owing to inflamed itchy glands? It would be painful to do that on a road surface, as well as wearing out your bib shorts.
Police officers As Thick as Bricks shock!
@eburtthebike It appears to be Bike Foundry, as the owner, that's being compensated, though only for the bike and not the inconvenience. The rider doesn't appear to be getting anything for their time and trouble.
Balance is a bit off-brand for Musk, isn't it?
They only need to pop over to the Netherlands and have a word with the Dutch police for suitable roadside test equipment, but of course they won't or invest in such tech. https://road.cc/ebiketips/content/news/dutch-police-have-a-roadside-device-for-identifying-illegally-fast-and-powerful-e-bikes
Good to see the police admitting their mistake, and that they will be deleting the charges and compensating the owner. Will CUK and Birmingham Bike Foundry that spent a lot of time and some money getting this ludicrous decision righted be getting compensation too?
15 thoughts on ““Just a flesh wound”: Cyclists spot Cervélo TT bike for £820 on Facebook Marketplace which owner claims to have ridden “for years without problem”… despite giant crack in carbon downtube; Fallout to farcical Algarve sprint chaos + more on the live blog”
Pretty embarrassing for VAA
Pretty embarrassing for VAA organisers but also a bit for Arnaud de Lie, who opined: ““Everyone knows the finish is on the left, it’s been like that for years. The first rider followed the motorcycles, but he must have never watched a cycling race, because we all know that motorcycles don’t cross the finish line.” Presumably he said this before he found out that the first rider to take the wrong turn whom all the rest followed was Jarrad Drizners, his own leadout man.
Sérgio Sousa wrote:
Seriously, mate, stick your head in a cold butt of water.
They may be pro riders but, at the last turn at the end of a stage, they will be a little bit tired and not focusing on the A to Z. Their job is to ride and, team instructions aside, ride as fast as they can.
You want them to have navigators? Put on a tandem race.
Any ambiguous junctions and lack of clear directions on the route is down to you alone.
(The “mate” in question is,
(The “mate” in question is, of course, Sérgio Sousa, as quoted; not Rendel, whose post I happen to have followed in timeline order. That’s the ambiguity that arises from following the person ahead without paying attention!)
Hopefully you’ll get away
Hopefully you’ll get away with it, bear in mind how many other well-meaning perfectly reasonable commenters to this site Rendel has hounded, bullied or otherwise abused* after a post that was “open to interpretation”
*allegedly (although probably they were all the same repeatedly banned user under different names)
😜
GMBasix wrote:
*takes head out of bucket of cold water* No harm done, needed waking up anyway.
GMBasix]
Foolproof. Assuming the last roundabout had a big sign saying “last roundabout”.
Re. Is Pogačar going to kill
Re. Is Pogačar going to kill cycling – didn’t we decide that Warner Bros Discovery had already done that?
BMC Kaius fork recall – stop
BMC Kaius fork recall – stop riding: https://bmc-switzerland.com/pages/platform/kaius-01-inspection
(Grauniad) Cycling to school
(Grauniad) Cycling to school almost became extinct – until one man revived the bike bus
Sam Balto took the idea from a local school to the White House and beyond, inspiring a global movement in which children feel the benefits of cycling together
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/20/cycling-to-school-almost-became-extinct-until-one-man-revived-the-bike-bus
Nice story. Of course, fix
Nice story. Of course, fix the roads and streets and … kids can do this for themselves. Even … in the UK! (Though it looks like most are walking in the video).
And of course, the usual link to an article / video from that place which some people don’t believe exists, and others don’t think is relevant because it’s not here and that couldn’t possibly work in our conditions etc.
In the “people take boring
In the “people take boring stuff in the built environment for granted” category:
Here’s an article written by a local (in translation) on the “pillars of Dutch Children Cycling” which almost fails to mention “infra”. But of course they do say it must be safe for very young children to cycle close to home.
In fact it is the “not-cycling-infra” which allows this to be so.
This encompasses the the macro-scale (larger network) e.g. planning to avoid routing highways through urban centres and promote less through-traffic generally. Offering alternatives to driving in the first place, and reducing the numbers of larger vehicles around residential places.
Then there is making a clear distinction between distributor roads and “local streets”. Traffic is reduced (and slowed) there by e.g. these being access-only, maybe one-way. And with modal filters to give walkers and cyclists more options (and let emergency vehicles through – maybe even resident drivers or deliveries also).
All of which (with much more detail) makes those local streets very “low traffic and slow traffic” and means parents are happy to let those children out!
“Just a flesh wound” was
“Just a flesh wound” was expecting to be the. 94th person to post…
All TT bikes are stupid and
All TT bikes are stupid and dangerous, so why not add a bit of excitement to it…
Yes. A lot of people in the
Yes. A lot of people in the media seem to be jumping on this bandwagon.
TT bikes are a large part of competitive club cycling in the UK. And provide an opportunity to compete, for a lot of people. Thousands of club riders compete on TT bikes,without misshap.
They are deemed dangerous because of the way some people ride them in the professional ranks.
There is a growing trend for riding in a head down position, looking at the front wheel, rather than looking ahead. This is usually fine on closed roads in competition, with course info from the team car on the radio. But not in training, when traffic and parked cars etc are on the road. When pros have crashed in training, the danger gets publicised and blown out of proportion.
Most open time trials I take part in, display a warning sign near the start “Riding Head Down Kills.”
A pair of aero belay glasses
A pair of aero belay glasses would suffice