Tadej?! When you’re cruising up a climb… and then Pogačar effortlessly flies past; All the gear and no idea; Noel Gallagher just glad to have his bike after ‘£20 million’ divorce; Road bikes for £120 as deep discounting continues + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
All the gear and no idea...
Seem familiar? Maybe not, but the mockumentary Tourist Trap is now on BBC iPlayer apparently. Worth giving it a go for this cycling-themed scene, surely.
Road bikes are £120 now: deep discounting continues as bike prices rewind a couple of decades
Is it just us, or are bike prices starting to seem less outrageous right now? That’s certainly the case at troubled retailer Wiggle, where you can get a size extra small entry-level Brand-X road bike for £119.99. Yep, a whole new road bike (it’s here if you don’t believe us)… who would have thought it three years ago when bikes were as rare as rocking horse droppings?
There are numerous things going on here, of course, and the recommended retail prices of new bikes coming out are still mostly in line with what we’d expect. In any case, the road.cc tech team are busy researching a feature on the price of cycling in 2024 to see how dramatically the situation has changed in 12 short months, when we published our feature on the rising cost of cycling. Stay tuned…
Man embarking on solo ride to Ukraine to raise cash for orphans
Miki Nawlatyna will set off from Oxfordshire on his 1,500 mile bike trip, hoping to arrive in Kyiv on 7th April.
The 25-year-old is raising money for Shade for Children, a charity that supports orphanages in Ukraine, and funds will go towards building a new home ‘for 8-10 children who have been orphaned or deprived of parental care’.
Nawlatyna said: “Just at the start of the war I found myself together with my friend Paweł at the Polish-Ukrainian border; we were delivering supplies to the fire station where the refugees were being brought from the border. I will never forget walking into that big hall full of children at 3am. They looked so helpless not knowing what’s happening and where they are… The instant shock you go through and realisation what is happening. The thoughts that run through you when you imagine the scale of it and how much you’re willing to give to protect the innocent.”
Over £2,500 has been raised so far, and the JustGiving page is here.
There's no need to look back in anger when you have a bike, says Noel Gallagher of his multi-million pound divorce
Forgive us for going all gossip mag for a second, but a celebrity has said something bikes so we just had to go there.
Speaking to Matt Morgan’s podcast, former Oasis principle songwriter Noel Gallagher is claiming a small win out of his divorce from music publicist Sara MacDonald:
“I can get on the bike and go up to King’s Cross, and go down to the canal,” said Gallagher.
“And get on the canal outside my wonderful ex-wife’s house and give her a little wave, and go, ‘You didn’t take this from me!’”
Some might say the bike is small change when this divorce is reported to be in the region of £20 million, but it doesn’t seem like Noel is crying his heart out too much. He’s currently said to be spending most of his time living at Claridge’s hotel – where most of the rooms cost over two grand a night – and says that he’s finding London “f**king great at the minute”. Will the concierge at Claridge’s be pumping his tyres up and giving the bike a spit and polish for that price?
Anyway, it’s another one to add to our list of celebrities who love cycling, albeit Mr Gallagher’s reason for riding is a bit of an odd one…
We unveil the road.cc Recommends Bike of the Year 2023/24
Some might say today's comments section is going to live forever
It’s an Oasis pun oasis in the comments today…
Special mention to peted76 whose on a roll:
“Noel: Do you like my new bike?
“Liam: Anything special about it?
“Noel: She’s electric…”
Also responsible for… “Must be difficult to ride in London without looking back in anger all the time.. I guess he just needs to roll with it.”
essexian: “Oh… that’s a joke I’m going to ‘Roll with it’. I wonder if Noel is ‘Supersonic’ when riding? I see he rides along a canal: I hope he misses the ‘Wonderwalls’ on the way to get his copy of the ‘Hindu Times’
“Cycling on a canal could be a bit of a ‘Shakermaker’. If he fell in the water, I hope he wouldn’t ‘Look back in anger’. I bet he has a ‘Masterplan’ to ensure that he stays upright……sorry.”
Matthew Acton-Varian: “Some Might Say that another cycling celebrity is a good thing, speaking as a non-celebrity who Definitely Maybe likes the Sunday Morning Call for the club coffee ride… I’ll fetch my coat.”
Could do with some cigarettes and alcohol to get through that lot… only joking. Top work as usual…
What's a... run?!
Police officer who crashed into cyclist was driving on wrong side of the road, watchdog confirms
> Police officer who crashed into cyclist was driving on wrong side of the road, watchdog confirms
"We've won it more than any team, and we plan on winning it again": Ineos Grenadiers eyeing return to top of the sport and more Tour de France victories
What will the post-Dave Brailsford era look like for Ineos Grenadiers? The manager and co-founder of the cycling team, originally named Team Sky but carrying the Ineos tag in recent years, has stepped away (not that he’s been particularly prominent in the past few years, to be fair) to take on a role at Manchester United… Imagine reading that sentence in 2015…
Deputy team principal and fellow founding member Rod Ellingworth is off too, leaving the WorldTour outfit during the off-season amid internal tensions. A new era then, Ineos Grenadiers in most people’s minds a team suffering a profound decline. After the days of 12 Grand Tour GC wins in the decade of 2011 to 2021, there has not been a win since, Tadej Pogačar and the Visma-Lease a Bike machine overtaking them starkly in the last couple of years.
However, perhaps unsurprisingly, new CEO John Allert is insistent and bullish about the team’s future…
“I don’t think there’s any team that doesn’t want to win the Tour de France. We’ve won it more than any team, and we plan on winning it again,” he told a media call today. “Our owners are as keen for us to win the Tour as any other team is. It’s part of our heritage. It’s therefore a badge of pride and honour for us that we put on a good show at the Tour.
“We’re in the sport to win. It’s an unambiguous objective. And I don’t see any issue with that […] We were a GC team, first and foremost, and, and want to be on the top of the podium. That’s it.”
But despite Allert’s words it remains tricky to see how, at least in the short term, Ineos Grenadiers can bridge the gap to Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar. Perhaps improvement from the team’s most promising GC contender, 22-year-old Carlos Rodríguez will help, the Spaniard fifth at this year’s Tour, but still more than 13 minutes off Vingegaard.
With 2018 winner Geraint Thomas ageing, 2019 winner Egan Bernal on the comeback trail from his horrific crash injuries, and Tom Pidcock showing signs of GC promise but still far from a bona fide three-week contender and competing on multiple fronts, there may well be more challenging Grand Tour days ahead for Ineos Grenadiers in 2024…
Tadej?! When you're cruising up a climb... and then Pogačar effortlessly flies past
In fairness to Terézia Ciriaková and her WCC Team colleagues, it’s better this happens with one of the most talented professional riders of your generation than by a couple of unserious chatting club riders on a Sunday morning while you’re doing your best just to keep things moving forward… no, no idea how I’ve got such intricate knowledge of that particular scenario either…
Today Tadej Pogačar passed the UCI WCC team and he said even ‘Ciao’ 🥰
Video: https://t.co/bjPe9EG66E pic.twitter.com/hkyUsSDGO8
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) January 22, 2024
On the climb, in your rhythm, this is okay, legs hurt a bit, not breathing too easily any more, hard enough… then the zoom past accompanied by a cheery, unconcerned greeting, in this case ‘ciao’. As we said before, better that’s Tadej Pogačar rolling past with ease than a home counties club rider whose just getting away from the kids for a couple of hours.
They’re probably going at a pace that would kill a normal cyclist and he goes past like they aren’t moving!!!
— Greg Ireland (@indie_arcade) January 22, 2024
Another favourite of the genre was back in February 2022 when a cyclist in south west London was pootling along the river, enjoying a midweek spin when a rather bling-looking rider passed at speed while drafting a camera bike… wait a minute… is that… Wiggo?!
> Pesky cyclists not using cycle lane! Oh..wait…that’s Wiggo!
Be warned, if you happen to be passed by a flying Remco Evenepoel and by some minor miracle are able to follow, he might not be too pleased…
> Remco Evenepoel tells amateur to stop following him during interval session
“Yeah, mate, could have followed him but I know he likes to train in his own space, so didn’t want to bother him… yeah of course that’s the only reason…”
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Ards and North Down Cycling Campaign earlier this week held an event with local police encouraging drivers to leave a safe passing distance of 1.5m when overtaking cyclists This will achieve nothing whatsoever, because the drivers and the discouraged potential cyclists all know that the police postscript to the pretend encouragement is: 'but if you choose not to, don't worry because we have no intention of even thinking about enforcing the 1.5m distance, just like all the other UK police forces, and it doesn't matter if it's only 10% of that. Try not to hit them unless you have to get them out of the way, but if you do, scarper and you'll probably get away with it. If you've been drinking, just say you had a few drinks after you got home to calm your nerves after hitting what you thought was a fridge or a sack of potatoes, if they show up at your door.
Sadly, I feel that the reaction to this will be the same as the many multiple shootings that the US endures, every year - shock, tears and platitudes, swiftly returning to the status quo (untill the next time)
@Velo-drone I did not submit reports of either of the two heinous close passes I experienced with my daughter while on holiday there in half term But you could show them to us! I sent one to upRide today: it's the silver Kuga above, and will likely be viewable in a couple of days, and the long holdup on here can be sidestepped by simply omitting the 'h' from the https at the beginning of the link. It's all very easy to do. Other hosting sites are available.
@matthewn5 On which - I've not been there (and I've heard from a couple of cyclists online who say that they *are* good...) but I suspect the following blog post (from 2012 - As Easy As Riding A Bike) nails it: "They built it, and they didn’t come – the lesson of Milton Keynes" Verdict: the place was designed (1) for very convenient driving (not surprising - aspirational driving was the thing at the time, they had a blank canvas etc). (2) While the designer genuinely tried to provide for cyclists that comes across as "we need to get the cyclists off the roads because we fixed it for the cars to move fast". As is common (across the decades) in the UK it's nominal safety from motor vehicles but at major cost to convenience. Not to mention lack of social safety. FWIW there's also videos online by Alexei Sayle of him cycling around giant car parks there...
@mitsky Doesn't matter ..... Insurance / No insurance, License / No license These types will drive anyway!
@VIPcyclist Agree regarding cycle lanes, but the article is referring to cycle _tracks_ in Milton Keynes, which if I remember rightly are segregated but also don't run next to roads, so they're often quiet, dimly lit and secluded.
First, the actual change from issuing a bunch of "warning letters" to basically taking no action on anything is more or less no change to be honest. There is no evidence that sending a warning letter does anything. Not all forces even keep a record of warning letters. I'm aware of no actual empirical study of outcomes from sending a warning letter. Its main purpose therefore can only be to say that something has been done, rather than to actually improve road safety outcomes, because nobody cares enough to check if it achieves any outcome. It's the equivalent of finding a bike thief, and popping in a note through the door saying "please don't do that", and considering it an effective response. The apparent discrepancy between the NPCC position given early in the article, and the judgment later on that the Derbyshire policy "appears in line with the guidance" muddies the water considerably. There is a gaping lack of clarity over what police forces can and can't (or will and won't) do under the NPCC guidance. The suggestion for cyclists to provide speed measurements is silly - most cyclists don't have that capability, or won't be using it on e.g commuting rides. It's not clear why the speed of the cyclist is particularly relevant in any case? The Highway Code guidance relating to passing cyclists refers only to the speed of the motor vehicle. Saying you'll only take action in "exceptional circumstances" but not giving any indication what those circumstances might be is tantamount to saying "don't bother reporting, because it's 99% likely to be a complete waste of your and our time and we're not going to tell you how you might assess whether your case might be in the 1%" So, unsurprisingly the Derbyshire Police policy does seem to have at least one clear impact. I did not submit reports of either of the two heinous close passes I experienced with my daughter while on holiday there in half term. Why would I? Why would anyone? And why would it be a surprise that some drivers in Derbyshire choose to drive as if they have a free rein to endanger cyclists lives without fear of any consequence - because in fact they do. The notion that "forensic analysis" is needed to determine if a close pass is actionable or not is nonsensical. I would say laughable, but it's not really a laughing matter. It is not necessary to determine if the car is 140cm vs 151cm away. It is generally perfectly obvious whether the car is less than a car's width away, or more than a car's width away. That's sufficient to make a reasonable judgement on whether the driving could be considered careless or not - bearing in mind that the vast majority of actioned cases would be easily visually identifiable as substantially below that distance.
@Pub bike 10,000 men find out a year they’ve got prostate cancer too late. We need to get those numbers down. There’s no screening unfortunately in the UK There's no blanket overall prostate cancer screening because the experts in the UK National Screening Committee have decided that it would do more harm than good. It's not because of cost, it's because the PSA test is not that good. There are big trials in progress to improve testing. When it comes down to PSA testing of specific groups, such as those with a genuine family history, the risk-benefit balance may well be different. I suspect thar Sir Chris has had at least tacit approval of his "just google ‘prostate cancer UK risk checker’ and there’s three questions, it takes you 30 seconds and that will help you assess your individual risk. If you’re high risk, go to your GP and ask for a PSA, a blood test" advice so it's probably reasonable. I am 74 and have never taken a PSA test. I have no family history I know about. 'Better to be safe than sorry' is bad advice when it comes to prostate cancer screening.
As well as a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test another non-surgical test you can have is a Digital Rectal Examination (DRE) which a GP can do very quickly and gives some more indication about the state of the prostate. See https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information-and-support/prostate-tests/digital-rectal-examination-dre
28 thoughts on “Tadej?! When you’re cruising up a climb… and then Pogačar effortlessly flies past; All the gear and no idea; Noel Gallagher just glad to have his bike after ‘£20 million’ divorce; Road bikes for £120 as deep discounting continues + more on the live blog”
Ian Stannard flew past me on
Ian Stannard flew past me on the (small) hill out of Thornborough years ago. By the time I reached the top – he’d disappeared!
Some Might Say that another
Some Might Say that another cycling celebrity is a good thing, speaking as a non-celebrity who Definitely Maybe likes the Sunday Morning Call for the club coffee ride…
I’ll fetch my coat.
Can’t see an article on this
Can’t see an article on this death
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/gao-gao-cyclist-hit-and-run-hackney-london-trial-sentencing-b1133890.html
“Prior to the collision, he had driven the wrong way up a one-way street, driven through a red light and had crossed to the wrong side of the road to overtake two cars immediately before crashing into Gao Gao, who was wearing bright clothing and had a flashing light on the front of her bike.”
“Anna Dutka, prosecuting, told the court that the car’s speed was estimated at 46mph, with a range of 43mph to 49mph.”
20mph limit.
Nine years after guilty plea
Nine years after guilty plea reduction is nothing for all of that. All too common.
It’s also not clear he’ll get
It’s also not clear he’ll get even that. He’s “facing” nine years (I’m assuming that means the maximum) but sentencing hasn’t happened yet.
Standard wrote:
except that
Not too keen to plead guilty – fled the scene and handed himself in two days later – so why does he get a discount at all?
Because once he was certain
Because once he was certain they had him absolutely dead to rights he did the honourable thing and plead guilty to the crime that was easily provable. What a thoughtful and kind man.
Lets hope Noel doesn’t get
Lets hope Noel doesn’t get Morning Glory on his ride..
Must be difficult to ride in
Must be difficult to ride in London without looking back in anger all the time.. I guess he just needs to roll with it.
Noel: do you like my new bike
Noel: do you like my new bike?
Liam: anything special about it?
Noel: she’s electric ..
OK I’m done for the day.
Oh… that a joke I’m going
Oh… thats a joke I’m going to “Roll with it.” I wonder if Noel is “Supersonic” when riding? I see he rides along a canal: I hope he misses the “Wonderwalls” on the way to get his copy of the “Hindu Times””
Cycling on a canal could be a bit of a “Shakermaker.” If he fell in the water, I hope he wouldn’t “Look back in anger.” I bet he has a “Masterplan” to ensure that he stays upright.
…..sorry
Quote:
“And get on the canal outside my wonderful ex-wife’s house and give her a little wave”
Parklife!
No, wait, that’s the other lot, isn’t it.
Cycling though…its the
Cycling though…its the universal.
And I thought he lived in a Country House.
ubercurmudgeon wrote:
It gives him an enormous sense of wellbeing 😉
https://www.kentonline.co.uk
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/i-m-100-still-driving-and-have-no-intention-of-stopping-300408/
Hmm.
How did that amateur rider
How did that amateur rider manage to take a photo of ‘a not best pleased Evenepoel’ with both hands on the bars?
I think it was a still from a
I think it was a still from a GoPro video.
That Wiggle bike discount
That Wiggle bike discount seems to be on the same principles as apply to shoes and some other clothing – often extreme discounts on the least popular sizes (usually v small?) once their season is past / the new range is out. I recall Decathlon doing similar – was sometimes tempting just to buy it to strip for the components. It possibly doesn’t say much about the market as a whole.
It is true that extreme sizes
It is true that extreme sizes can benefit. I am out of UK where Wiggle delivers, but it would really tempt me as a 1.65 girl entry level Sunday bike, I believe with a slightly longer and taller stem she could fit in it.
I am size s but would try it
I am size s but would try it like you to experiment with stem, and if no good just use all the bits to refresh a larger frame that’s lying around. But the buggers won’t deliver out of UK! Wonder exactly how many sales they lose due to this.
Well now with brexit I guess,
Well now with brexit I guess, things got a little complicated.
It is definitely a bargain for those who can fit in it and located in UK, even with these skinny tires.
cyclisto wrote:
That’s done it now, the place will filled with right wing bullshit telling us how great brexit is.
don simon fbpe wrote:
Right wing ≠ Brexit
selfish = right wing = brexit
selfish = right wing = brexit.
Chao!
I can be a bit selfish, but I
I can be a bit selfish, but I’m not brexit. (I’d say I’m not right wing but Maoists exist so perhaps I am to some?)
Perhaps the equation should be selfish = right wing + brexit ? Setting brexit = 0 (in my case – although I was negative about this, now it’s more “well better get on as it’s happened and no-one’s rushing back…”) then suggests that I’m as selfish as you consider me right wing?
What about left-wing Brexiteers (e.g. this chap, or this baroness)? Does using the amended equality suggest that perhaps they might not be selfish – as their negative right-wingness offsets their positive brexitivity?
Brexit is a wholly selfish
Brexit is a wholly selfish act.
One could equally defend slavery in the same way, “it’s here, let’s make the best of a bad job”. Me? I’m up for changing it so that kids can have the same benefits we had, at the very least. FoM takes nothing away from brexiteers and only adds to the future of the country.
As for Corbyn, he’s not perfect.
Who hasn’t had a casual chat
Who hasn’t had a casual chat with a pro rider while climbing a grand tour climb?
I picked up an Orro Venturi
I picked up an Orro Venturi SC Signature with all the bells and whistles for less than £3k from CRC.
£2800 for a stunning frame, 55mm Vision hoops, SRAM Rival AXS and Blktech R8 handlebars and stem. They even had Conti 5000 TLR tyres.
Absolute bargain.