“Falls will always happen”: Lidl-Trek manager urges cycling to “invest tonnes of money in airbag systems” to boost rider safety; Cycling fans react to Israel-Premier Tech’s rebrand to NSN Cycling + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Planning to cycle in ice and snow?
If you are planning on cycling through ice and snow once the temperature drops, you should check out Tony Farrelly’s new guide to winter survival.
He details the preparations you should take before you ride, whilst on the road and riding over ice.
> How to ride your bike through ice and snow — top tips for safe cycling when the mercury drops
Active travel route across Skye receives £104,500 funding award
Skye Bridge (Credit: Google)
An active travel route across Skye has been awarded £104,500 from the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership, Hitrans.
The project aims to create an active travel path connecting the island’s bridge with Broadford, allowing people to walk, wheel or cycle from the Skye Bridge on sections of an old disused road.
The Skye Cycle Way could form the first section of a potential Sky-wide active travel network, those behind the project say.
“At a time when our roads look set to get even busier due to planned infrastructure projects, creating a safe route for all is more important than ever,” said Neil Hope, chairman of Broadford and Strath Community Company.
Kate Forbes, MSP for Skye and Deputy First Minister, believes the route will make cycling safer and easier for local people, “and for everyone who visits this beautiful part of the island with their bike”.
From ‘no surrender’ to NSN: Barcelona legend Andrés Iniesta’s company takes over Sylvan Adams’ Israel project – but what’s next for cycling’s most controversial team?
The squad formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have rebranded as NSN Cycling Team for 2026, and will race under a Swiss licence and be based in Spain. Will that prove enough to quell the protests?
Do uneven road surfaces bother you? Hover over them with the new Solo JetBike
Leo Flight JetBike (Credit: @leoflightcorp/Instagram)
Leo Flight have just unveiled a new ‘bike’, the world’s first electric air speeder, which could be yours for a target base price of $99,900.
Without wheels attached to a frame, which is what Wikipedia defines as a bike, the JetBike is a “propeller-free flying vehicle designed for everyday personal flight”.
“It’s thrilling, approachable, and ready for everyday life,” said Carlos Salaff, Co-Founder of LEO Flight.
It is powered by a clustered electric-jet propulsion system, which charges in a home garage and requires no specialised infrastructure.
“With the JetBike, we’re turning the dream of personal flight into something real and attainable,” Salaff continued.
Leo Flight also designs all-electric flying jet cars, calling themselves “he world’s first car company for the sky.”
Trek pledges to dole out over a million dollars in store credit to customers, after almost 80,000 bikes recalled due to brake defect
Trek has promised to pay customers and retailers millions of pounds in compensation, after issuing a recall and ‘cease ride’ notice for almost 80,000 bikes, including children’s bikes, affected by a coaster brake defect.
They said: “Do not ride an affected bicycle until it has been brought to an authorised Trek or Electra retailer for repair.”
Trek is offering any affected customers a $20 goodwill store credit voucher, which can be used to purchase Electra, Trek, or Bontrager items, in a bid to incentivise owners to take their affected bikes to get them repaired.
Read more through the link below.
Bus versus cargo bike...
American Fiester has posted a picture of a bus blocked from easily turning due to a cargo bike on Bluesky.
However, they point out that this can be moved by almost anyone. “Not always friction-free, but more manageable than car culture.”
A turning bus blocked by a cargo bike? Sure, it can happen, but unlike a car, it can be moved by nearly anyone, regardless of if the owner is around. Human scale transportation can better coexist with large scale public transit. Not always friction free, but more manageable than car culture.
— American Fietser (@americanfietser.bsky.social) 21 November 2025 at 13:23
As more people are switching from cars to cargo bikes, the space that they take up has become increasingly contentious.
In 2023, a couple who decided to make a small DIY parking space for their cargo bike outside their home in Bristol were asked by the council to either remove it themselves or have it removed by the council.
In this situation, Anna Cordle said: “Nobody owns the road, but also everybody does – not just car users. Saying cargo bike parking infrastructure needs to be dismantled to provide another space for a car to park would be telling us we can’t share this public asset if we don’t own a car.”
DIY bike parking space in Bristol (credit: Anna Cordle)
A year before, Hackney Council issued a nuisance notice on a family cargo bike parked on the pavement. The bike, which belonged to Will Prochaska, was used to transport his three children, one aged four and two two-year-old twins, to nursery and at the weekend.
Women cycles for the first time in 73 years thanks to adult training scheme
Cynthia Ashford (Credit: Dorest Council)
Cynthia Ashford, 80, got on her bike for the first time since she was seven due to Dorset Council’s adult cycle training scheme.
“I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was seven, so taking that big step to learn to cycle again at 80 was, I must admit, daunting,” she said.
“But I’m so pleased that I went out of my comfort zone as the training has really improved my confidence, and cycling is so much fun.”
Cynthia signed up using the council’s voucher scheme to buy discounted cycle lessons after it was promoted online.
Her husband, Martin, already enjoys cycling, and whilst she is not yet confident to cycle on the roads, she does regularly cycle on the North Dorset Trailway.
“It’s so good for me, and if I can cycle after such a long break, anyone can. I would not be able to do this without the training and amazing support and encouragement I received from my trainer Dilys, who was patient, kind and inspired confidence,” she continued.
“I’m a firm believer we should continue to learn and try new things throughout our lives.”
> Offer adults free training to help shift to cycling, say experts
Cllr Jon Andrews, the council’s Cabinet member for Place services, said: “Stories like Cynthia’s are an inspiration and prove you are never too old to ride a bike.
“Cycling offers so many benefits. It’s great for our health, well-being and can save time, money, and reduce stress.”
Dorset Council has teamed up with local cycling trainers and offers vouchers so people can access tuition at a reduced rate. To qualify, people must be aged over 18 and live in the Dorset Council area.
Israel-Premier Tech rebrands as NSN Cycling following a year of protests
The pro cycling team, formally known as Israel-Premier Tech, has been taken over and rebranded, following months of pro-Palestine protests and sponsor Premier Tech pulling out.
The team has been picked up by NSN, or Never Say Never, a branding company co-founded by Barcelona legend Andrés Iniesta.
Starting from 2026, they will race as NSN Cycling, calling themselves “a Swiss team with a Spanish structure”.
The team will be registered in Switzerland. It isn’t officially confirmed that Israeli owners have stepped back, but it is hinted at in the statement.
Mihai Simion on X said “They reactivated their X account too. I have no idea who are the new sponsors (looks like Sylvain Adams is gone) but it’s great that the team continues and nobody loses his/her job.”
A new chapter. A new vision.
NSN and Stoneweg today unveil the NSN Cycling Team. pic.twitter.com/AUsomVZbs3
— NSN Cycling Team (@NSNCyclingTeam) November 20, 2025
Israeli fan Irene Rabinowitz supports the changes.
She said on X, “I’m seeing on FB that some Jewish/Israeli fans are abandoning ship, but I think they are not cycling fans but were supporters of the team. I’m going nowhere. Since the ’80 when I became a fan, I’ve seen many upheavals. Now the team can get ready for ’26 season which should be great.”
This change follows a year of protests during races, including crashes, blocked courses, and the finish of the Vuelta a España was cancelled. Bike supplier Factor terminated its deal with the team yesterday.
Tomlew commented on road.cc: “Public pressure makes sense and simply works!
Even though I did not always praise the way the protests were conducted, I am so proud of the result!”
Sophie.lesbian.cat said on Bluesky, “huge shoutout to the people willing to put humanity before sport and a big middle finger to those who constantly complain about others having a moral compass”
On the rider changes, Mihai Simion said on Bluesky: “Froomey is out, Bini Girmay will come instead. It looks like the 3 Israeli riders, Kogut, Einhorn and Raisberg continue their career here, good to see.”
Can't afford a Cinelli Laser?
Or just don’t have enough space in your garage?
Well, Masayuki Yamamoto has carefully crafted a miniature version of the Italian bike.
Why aren’t London’s lethal junctions being fixed faster? Transport chiefs happy with “acceptable” number of crashes to avoid impacting bus times, cycling campaigners say – as “people keep dying”
New research from the London Cycling Campaign has found that the capital’s ten most dangerous junctions resulted in four cyclist deaths and 51 serious injuries betwen 2020 and 2024.
According to the group, when considering whether to improve safety measures at certain junctions, Transport for London bosses make a “calculation” comparing the potential impact on bus journey times against what they deem to be an “acceptable” number of crashes.
Ryan Mallon has written a detailed report on the research from the London Cycling Campaign.
Path closed to pedestrians and cyclists for over 50 days
Ferry Road Path CLOSED to pedestrians and cyclists from today to 16 January for installation of a security fence at Leonardo. TTRO closure order was signed on Wednesday with the below diversion: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/fi… #EdTravCyc @spokes.org.uk @edi.bike
— Robbie Ainsworth (@robbieainsworth.bsky.social) 21 November 2025 at 08:21
Ferry Road Path in Edinburgh will be closed for 56 days for the installation of a security fence at Leonardo, forcing cyclists and walkers to follow a dangerous diversion.
Commenters on Bluesky have said that it demonstrates the council’s attitude to the people walking, wheeling or cycling.
Helen Black said, “This is absurd. A private company shuts down a heavily used traffic route for two whole months. A route I cycle regularly with my child, and a wholly unsuitable diversion that we won’t be able to use.”
Shoshana R agreed, “Surely they could have figured out a diversion to avoid that terrible junction. This is why cyclists and pedestrians need to be involved in planning things like this.”
Jturner said, “Also a good example of why so many Edinburgh cyclists are cynical about the Roseburn Path changes. No real trust that necessary diversions or alternative routes will be well planned, well communicated, or well implemented.”
According to the closure order, the path will be closed until January 16th. This is to “facilitate a safe working area for the installation of a new security fence.
“no person shall: (a) walk or cause or permit any person to walk on both sides of; and (b) drive or cause or permit any person to ride a pedal cycle on any part of Ferry Road Path, from a point 2 metres or thereby east of the east side of the stairs leading up from Crewe Road North, eastwards for a distance of 500 metres or thereby.”
Lidl-Trek manager suggests cycling airbags for increased safety in the peloton
In an interview with Bici.Pro, Lidl-Trek manager Luca Guercilena, said that he would invest money in cycling airbags to prevent injury in the peloton.
He believes that road safety and safety equipment need to improve, especially as average speeds are increasing.
Although certain types of equipment may temporarily limit speed, he said, “improving speed is inherent in performance technology”.
Primož Roglič crosses the line injured after heavy crash on stage 12, 2024 Tour de France (Credit: Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
As an example, he explained that if you impose 35-millimetre rims, engineering will eventually make those as aerodynamic and with the same moment of inertia as 90-millimetre rims.
He said he “would invest tons of money in universal airbag systems that protect you in the event of a crash and prevent injury.”
“Because falls will always happen; they’re part of our sport”.
He relates the cycle crashes to Formula One: “They developed fireproof suits, then helmets. Then they improved guardrails, and at that point, even if they limited the engines, speeds rose again.
“Cycling is different; you don’t race on a circuit with run-off areas and protections. But in my opinion, the starting point should be to identify what truly keeps you safe, and then work through everything else.”
The peloton ride through the mountains on Stage 4 of the 2010 Vuelta (copyright Unipublic/Graham Watson)
He wants scientific analysis to be carried out to be carried out by objective professionals to solve the problem. The data he has collected has found that there aren’t more crashes, but instead the number of riders involved in a crash has gone up.
“Riders are all fresher, they’re all better trained, the peloton is extremely compact, and if you fall, we all fall together,” he said.
The average age of the peloton dropping also has something to do with it, he explains. He believes that the younger riders lack the maturity and reasoning which “allows them to recognise when it’s better to brake rather than get themselves killed.”
A Belgium-based project reported in 2024 that they have developed a functional prototype for airbag cycling bib shorts.
The product, called aerObag, is designed to offer minimal impact on performance and protect your back, torso, neck and hips. It is designed so that after a crash, you can get back on your bike and finish the race, but it does not protect the shoulders or the head.
In a statement, the governing body said: “Various types of equipment-related solutions to enhance safety are also being analysed, such as the use of rider airbags, the regulations concerning rim height and handlebar width, and consideration of gear restrictions to reduce top speeds.”
According to data collected by UCI’s race incident database last year, 497 crashes, or ‘incidents’ took place.
35% of these were caused by “unprovoked rider errors”, while 13% were deemed to be the fault of “situations of tension generated by the approach of tactically important points of interest in the race, such as climbs, cobbled sectors, or sprints”.
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Finally some proper Gravel for the UCI World Championships! …no dates in the article. Racing starts today 10/11 Oct. Watch it free on SBS 6pm Go well Matt…
@Aluminium can - as an alternative to vans, yes cargo bikes (plenty in Cambridge), and I've been wondering whether supplies could be delivered from retailers - using delivery robots. and it's possible I suppose that ladders could fall in the same category - you could, instead of just hiring a bicycle, hire a ladder and it would arrive of its own accord.
... and we still had apostrophe rationing.
@Rendel Harris There was a bit in the bicycle hating Guardian, a nice little read, part of his justification was to acclimatise to the heat and humidity, which if he was in a better car might have been worth it. Good luck to him, chapeau.
@SecretSam That's not really fair, in fact not fair at all. It wasn't his fault that the last two mountain stages were shortened and on the first one he had dropped everyone and was a minute clear as he summitted the Iseran when the stage was neutralised, and on the second he stayed with or dropped all the other GC contenders. You seem to have forgotten his Giro win as well as Paris Nice and the Tour de Suisse. Only the fourth rider to have won the Tour and Giro before the age of twenty-five. Yes he probably couldn't have stayed with Pogacar even if he hadn't had the awful crash, and probably nor could any other rider in history except perhaps Merckx.
@lesterama Bernal has had two whammys. His crash, which he has probably never fully recovered from and Ineos taking a nosedive. They have no focus and no identity.
@Zermattjohn Read the comment I posted about my experience
I bought some Challenge Strada tyres. After a while the sidewalls began to detach from the tyre and the tread became rippled making them unsafe to use. The shop I bought them from asked me to drop them in and he would show the Challenge rep as he was due in the following week. The rep bizarrely firstly claimed that the tyres had failed because they may have been punctured (they hadn’t), then immediately claimed that they had failed because the rear tyre was more worn than the front! I emailed pictures to Challenge and was told they had failed because they had been fitted incorrectly. The black strip they had introduced to stop the issue I had was supposed to be above the rim. Which it clearly was shown to be correct on the pictures I sent to them which proved that the tyres were correctly fitted. This seems to be the norm now in the cycle industry, if there is an issue with a product, the company automatically blames the end user rather than look to address the issue, thereby pissing the customer off. A pissed off customer rarely returns.
@kingleo And there are hundreds, if not thousands of people holding up a shattered helmet saying it saved their life, the doctor/policeman told me.
I spend a month most years in China because of family, and a cargo bike there with an electric motorbike style front end and either LFP or advanced lead acid batteries, costs under £100 and is the backbone of every trade. There are a hundred different kinds but what they share in common is functionality and cheapness. Even the ancient pedal pulled wooden wagons with literally welded spokes from the sixties have been electrified with e-motors attached to the underside - and they cost sod all. In China cheap transport for business is a public good like drinking water. Because to get people to work you have to make work affordable. That's a secret of capitalism we in the UK could do better to learn.
13 thoughts on ““Falls will always happen”: Lidl-Trek manager urges cycling to “invest tonnes of money in airbag systems” to boost rider safety; Cycling fans react to Israel-Premier Tech’s rebrand to NSN Cycling + more on the live blog”
Carry on parking on the
Carry on parking on the pavement cos we don’t care.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-11-13/90829
TBF to Lillian Greenwood, she
Lillian Greenwood MP who answered the is a cycling commuter in and to London by train/cycle from Nottingham since she was elected (more than a decade iirc), and is well aware of the issues.
This is more about the Govt being generally timid, I expect.
She was knocked off her Brompton by a van doing an illegal turn in 2023:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-64583464
I confess I don’t understand
I confess I don’t understand how government works, but tomorrow will be 5 years since the consultation on pavement parking closed. Surely the DfT have used this data and come to some conclusions. Aren’t we entitled to know what the findings were, after all we, the tax payer, paid for it?
We are, once the sub
We are, once the sub-committee into the terms of reference of the data-gathering study has reported back, and then …(continues into the political long grass, to be taken up a decade later, starting from the same point as last time).
Too cynical?
Or is it just those who “see the problem” are far too optimistic that we can a) get others to agree on what seems “bleeding obvious” and that will then translate into b) agreement to *do* something meaningful in response? Particularly given nearly a century of motornormativity. Obstacles include contrary political objectives (and easy short-term wins for saying “we’re behind motorists!”), a public who’ve been told driving is an essential right and sold the motor transport dream and the multi-billion pound motoring and related businesses who all see their future in a direction which likely conflicts with this kind of idea?
I don’t know if it’s sad or
I don’t know if it’s sad or just pathetic that governments don’t just make decisions based on the evidence.
Me too.
Me too.
BUT … isn’t politics about making choices for *people*?
So while there’s already abundant evidence that a different approach would be beneficial (*if* we can get there) – there’s also tons of anecdata that many people wouldn’t like it. Indeed some people *really* wouldn’t like it.
Opposition (even if irrational) could mean it is hard to achieve. And instead of the open goal win it ought to be, or even just something that quietly happens, it becomes an “issue” and noisy.
And that when it comes to vote people might feel that this detracted from some other major story the politicians want to tell…
With regards to the “Bus v
With regards to the “Bus v Cargo Bike“
The Lord of the Rings meme of Gandalf v the Balrog popped into my head…
“YOU… SHALL… NOT… PASS!!!“
Anuone else thinking of the
Anuone else thinking of the alleged connection between FC Barcelona and Dr Fuentes?
Tomlew commented on road.cc:
Tomlew commented on road.cc: “Public pressure makes sense and simply works!”
No it doesn’t because this post-summer little sitcom in the pro cycling community has had no impact whatsoever on the ongoing events in Gaza.
After publicly talking trash about his former boss and team’s owner, Derek Gee may have trouble getting a new contract.
The ‘NSN’ in the news here
The ‘NSN’ in the news here recently is the ‘National Socialist Network’, which is a more dramatic about face from ‘Israel…’ than I would have expected.
I think someone should be
I think someone should be testing weaving some aramid into lycra. Shoulders and hips. If done right it shouldn’t impact the performance of the fabric. Bit of RnD, some real world testing, it might help reduce road rash.
And Tannus tyres. No more flats and it will slow all of them down.
ktache wrote:
Armaurto already offers cycle clothing with abrasion- and impact-resistant options:
https://armaurto.com/
I have never understood why more manufacturers don’t use aramid (or equivalent) materials. Why isn’t there more innovation?
That order doesn’t mean the
That order doesn’t mean the path will be closed for fifty days but that it can be closed for up to fifty days to facilitate the works. I used to work for a council and it was normal for the majority of ttros to run for six months, even if the work was completed in a week. The extra time was to allow for delays due to weather, any snagging or for extra works that were needed due to unforeseen circumstances. It was also easier just to copy and paste the location into a boiler plate order.