“Absolutely ludicrous”: Residents furious over new cycle lane but council doesn’t have money to fix it; Sumo wrestler cycles after missing bus; “If I didn’t care I’d be on Bora Bora”: Primož Roglič dismisses retirement rumours + more on the live blog

When you get a reputation for putting on extreme sports, I suppose this sort of thing is to be expected.

At the Red Bull Rampage in Utah on Sunday, two mountain bikers were airlifted to hospital after crashing separately at the free ride event, the Independent reports.

First, Mexican athlete Adolf ‘Loco’ Silva crashed when landing on his head whilst attempting a double backflip. He posted an update last night where he said he had a “lower back injury” and would “focus on my recovery” for the time being.

 

 

 

 

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Then, later that same day Emil Johansson crashed down a sheer cliff face whilst attempting a tailwhip.  Posting some rather phenomenal photos on Instagram, he said he had suffered a dislocated hip and would require further surgery. It’s really not a sport for the screamish…

 

 

 

 

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The Red Bull Rampage is said to be the biggest competition in Freeride mountain biking, and footage from the event is really rather… clenching, if you want to see for yourself.  

Remember when we reported yesterday that the UCI told teams to stop using ketones as they were not found to be ‘performance enhancing’? Well, that statement has unsurprisingly riled up the ketone nutritionists.

Dan Alexander has a full write-up of the story, including a rather useful explanation of what ketones are:

> “The best nutritionists understand ketones, let them do their job”: Supplement brands hit back at UCI’s “puzzling” intervention on ketones

The owners of historic British cycling brand Mercian Cycles say that their decision to takeover the ailing company last year was like buying their boyhood football club.

Speaking to the BBC, the four-man consortium said it was “a decision from the heart, not the head” and that “commercially it’s a challenge.”

Mercian Cycles have been making bike frames by hand since their founding in 1946, and became a cult brand popular with cool people like Paul Smith and Ewan McGregor whilst also being raced by Beryl Burton and Eileen Sheridan. However, they briefly entered liquidation last year after laying off its employees.

Now, not only are the bike-builders back, but they have plans to move to a new workshop in Little Eaton, Derbyshire from their base in Alveston. And there’s a fat chance the company will be moving further afield any time soon.

“Derby is a transport hub with Rolls-Royce and the trains,” frame-builder Tim Leicester said. “It’s all about the wheel of Derby – only ours are human powered.”

Read more on the historic brand’s takeover below:

> Mercian Cycles saved as four local businessmen confirm purchase of iconic bike manufacturer following liquidation

Fresh from securing the cross-country short-track World Cup title, Evie Richards has spoken to The Times about her battle with concussion last year that nearly derailed her season.

Richards crashed in Araxa, Brazil just three months before the Paris Olympics and quickly got up to finish the race. But she was later diagnosed with concussion and spent weeks off the bike.

“I couldn’t ride, I couldn’t exercise, the only thing I could do was sleep and lie on an acupuncture mat.” Richards said.

“I’d lost my period from the concussion, which was really strange, and then I got it back and it felt like a switch of the light. I felt like I’d suddenly come round.”

Richards recovered to finish 5th at the Olympics behind Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and the 28-year old still has her sights firmly set on the Games in Los Angeles in 2028, as well as the possible inclusion of cyclocross in the Winter Olympics in 2030. Richards is also motivated to dip into the road scene for a certain flagship event.

“I can’t be like Tom Pidcock and blitz a bit of everything. I’m not quite that good. [But] there’s not many mountain bike races in the UK and I would really love to just race in my country, and if the [Tour de France Femmes] is coming through Wales, for me that’s too big an opportunity to turn down.

“I’ve already told the team, ‘You need to let me know what I need to do to qualify for the Tour because I really want to be on that start line,” the two-time World Champion added.

The Tour de France is due to start in Edinburgh in 2027 and is expected to consist of a stage apiece in Scotland, England and Wales before crossing back to France. The full route of both the Men’s and Women’s Tour de France is expected to be announced on Thursday morning.

Fresh from his ‘victory’ at the Andorra Cycling Masters, Primož Roglič says he ‘can draw a line under the Tour [de France] now’, after finishing the race for the first time since 2020 this year, and ahead of the arrival of Remco Evenepoel to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

In an interview full of typical Roglič quotes, he reaffirmed his laid-back approach to life in a frankly fantastic discussion with Cycling News, saying “Cycling has given me so much and taught me how to be happy. You feel alive, you suffer a lot, especially when you lose or crash, but it’s incredible, it’s beautiful. Life’s a daily struggle and cycling helps me with that.”

Roglič’s statements are the biggest indicator yet that he might skip the Tour de France next year. His Red Bull team are stacked with other GC riders including Evenepoel, Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari and Dani Martinez. 

Roglič meanwhile rode last year’s Tour as co-leader with Florian Lipowitz who sat third and fifth overall until the final weekend. Then, Roglič went in early breakaways and dropped down to eventually finish eight overall. But to the Slovenian, “I almost won the Tour once, so finishing fifth or tenth doesn’t really give me anything. But having some nice moments, good results — that was enough. Finishing in Paris was beautiful.”

Such has been Roglič’s laid back approach to life and racing in recent months, it was speculated he might soon retire but the 35-year-old batted away the suggestion, saying “”If I didn’t care, then I would be on Bora Bora island, not in Red Bull – BORA.”

Never change Primož…

Selfishness or “supporting national interests”? Dan has everything you need to know:

> Why is a US bike brand asking the Trump administration to include bicycles in proposed 50% aluminium and steel tariff?

The once in a generation sumo wrestling tournament at the Royal Albert Hall seemed to capture the internet’s imagination and frankly it’s still on our mind. Not least because of the sight of Sumo Wrestlers exploring London by bike whilst robed in their traditional kimonos.

It’s one thing being two-wheeled tourists in the capital, but then it emerged that after the Grand Tournament finished at the weekend that champion wrestler Tobizaru Masaya – known as The Flying Monkey – missed the bus escorting the athletes back to their hotel. The solution? A Lime Bike…

You don’t see that every day! 😄

Sumo wrestler Tobizaru – AKA the Flying Monkey – missed the bus after competing in London, so hired a bike instead 🚲 pic.twitter.com/dvu8c2rMIt

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 19, 2025

Thankfully, Tobizaru appeared to survive the journey without succumbing to ‘Lime Bike Leg’. Top marks should also go to Lime Bike for their saddle strength and suspension for withstanding passengers as heavy as these champions. It’s also a good day for Lime who, despite surging usage during the recent Tube strikes, are probably quite grateful for any positive publicity in light of recent news stories over the safety of their popular hire bikes. 

> Cyclists injured in crashes caused by “faulty” Lime bikes that “fell apart” file 12 compensation claims

> “I see at least one patient a week”: Doctor claims surge in ‘Lime bike leg’ injuries linked to tourists and inexperienced riders

Bradley Wiggins has continued his media rounds as he promotes The Chain, his new biography covering his experiences as a victim of sexual abuse, cocaine addiction and family breakdown.

> “Sky chucked me under a bus… It’ll come out”: Bradley Wiggins says doping accusations enabled team to “protect someone else”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, the first British Tour de France winner said “it was like a weight had come off my shoulders” when he first revealed he was sexually abused by a former coach as a 14-year old in an interview with Men’s Health magazine in 2022. However, he added that “It opened a wave of press articles, particularly from the Daily Mail, and in some of them the insinuation was I was lying.”

In relation to the Jiffy bag and TUE scandals that have hung over him since the end of his career, Wiggins said he “was put in a position where I had to prove a negative.” 

“The story that ran was full of innuendo, supposition, and it grew. It was a sinister act, there was a lot going on behind the scenes and continues to this day,” before repeating the assertion from previous interviews that “the truth will come out at some point. As time passes, and maybe very soon, the truth around that time will eventually come out.

“I’m responsible for my own life. So it’s not something that I sit looking to blame anyone. I think I should have taken more responsibility for my own care and looking after myself, and should not have been dependent on anyone else.” Wiggins concluded.

The full report found “potential inconsistencies” in charging decisions and court practices “mean that some dangerous drivers are not being held properly to account for their actions”. 

> MPs demand lifetime driving bans and stricter phone laws to address justice system “failing” families of those killed in collisions

 

 

 

 

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When announcing the signing of Laurenz Rex, your cultural references can only be royalty or old-timey reptiles. When your sponsor has a dinosaur-named super glue, the choice makes itself… 

Some good news from the Scottish Capital, where the Edinburgh Minute newsletter are reporting that Voi’s bike hire trial has been a big success, with the number of available hire bikes set to increase sevenfold (almost) from 50 bikes to 340. The ‘map’ of the bikes will also be extended further into Newhaven, Leith and Holyrood park. 

Just in: Voi is increasing its Edinburgh cycle hire trial scheme from 50 bikes to 340 bikes. So far 5,800 riders have clocked up 60,000km across 21,700 trips since September. Boundary will expand on Friday 31/10 to include Holyrood Park, Meadowbank, Bonnington, Leith + Newhaven.

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— The Edinburgh Minute (@edinburghminute.bsky.social) 21 October 2025 at 16:36

It’s also a perfect excuse to reshare our interview from Saturday with Spokes Lothian, the volunteers who have been campaigning for active travel in Edinburgh and beyond for the last 47 years!

> “If your campaigning doesn’t generate a response, you’re not being radical enough”: Active travel campaigners Spokes on making spaces bike friendly

Bilal Jama and Michael Ogbeide-John, both 18, were sentenced to three-and-a-half years and four years in prison respectively, police in Manchester linking them to a series of violent robberies between December 2024 and January 2025.

> Violent robbers jailed for series of “carefully planned attacks” targeting people buying bikes from Facebook Marketplace

A new bus stop and cycle lane installed outside Shrewsbury train station has been met by an online petition calling for its removal, but the council says it doesn’t have the money.

Shropshire Live reports that the new infrastructure was installed with funding provided by the UK Government and the then Conservative-led Shropshire council approved the project, but that residents had complained about reduced traffic flow and journey delays.

However, the town’s Mayor Cllr Alex Wagner wrote on Facebook that the proposal had been “sorely lacking in details”.

Wagner, a Liberal Democrat, wrote the council were looking at ways of minimising the disruption and had downscaled a planned two-way cycle lane elsewhere in the town and “will use easily removable street furniture rather than permanent concrete”. 

However, he said that plans to “completely remove the new cyclist lane and ‘floating’ bus stop” as called for in the petition, were not possible due to “lots of strings attached” to central government funding and that costs to remove the floating bus stop could run into the “hundreds of thousands or even millions”.

The online petition was launched by Martin Monahan, owner of The Buttermarket music venue, who called for the lanes placement and the bus stop could then be relocated directly outside the train station and the road could be converted to two lanes.

As summarised by one resident, Wendy Haywood, on Facebook, “the whole point of this whole debacle of a design was to make traffic flow better, less traffic through the town, less pollution” when “traffic is still going through the town because it needs to” adding “I don’t think I’ve actually seen one comment that says it’s easier to access and quicker to get through town.”

Floating bus stops are a popular means of integrating cycle lanes into a road network whilst maintaining separation between cyclists and vehicles. However they are also controversial and have been criticised by disability charities whilst the former Conservative Transport Secretary considered banning them from road planning. 

> Warning government considering ban on floating bus stops “could stop new protected cycle lanes”

> Floating bus stops improving safety of Cambridge cyclists suggests report

As long as residents complain, and the council don’t have the funds to remove the floating bus stop however, it is unlikely this is a debate that will be going away anytime soon.