“Brakes. They just slow you down…”: Bike shop’s customer claims brakes “aren’t working any more”… but mechanics horrified to discover it’s worse than they could have imagined + more on the live blog

Did riding a very fancy bike in the Lanzarote sun convince me to sell a kidney for Di2 and the latest carbon frame? (Spoiler alert: No)

> Finding out the hard way that all the expensive upgrades in the world won’t stop you getting dropped

Silver medals all round for Great Britain’s sprinters on the opening day of the track world champs in Chile. Emma Finucane was joined by debutants Iona Moir and Rhianna Parris-Smith in the women’s team sprint, the trio qualifying fastest and beating Colombia, before being pipped to the title by the Dutch in the final.

Finucane was full of praise for her less experienced teammates: “I’m so proud of these two, it’s their first World Championships and to go out there in the gold medal ride off, be composed, feel the pressure. I’ve been there before and it’s really hard so to be lining up next to these two I’m really proud and we couldn’t have asked for more.”

Joe Truman, Matt Richardson and Harry Ledingham-Horn also finished with silver in the men’s event, also being beaten to gold by a strong Dutch squad. It’s Richardson’s first World Championships medal since his headline-grabbing switch from Australia to Great Britain.

“Coming away with a silver medal is bittersweet but for me, my first medal at a World Championships in a GB skinsuit is going to feel amazing,” he said. “I wish it was the top step, but I can’t come away too mad about that.”

In the women’s team pursuit qualification, the British squad seeking a hat-trick of team pursuit world titles qualified second fastest and will face the Germans in the first round. The men qualified third fastest behind Denmark and Australia, but were knocked out of gold medal contention with a first round defeat by the Aussies.

The next set of action includes the women’s team pursuit final, as well as Katie Archibald taking on the elimination race and Mark Stewart in the men’s scratch. In the sprint events, defending champion Emma Finucane will take on the women’s sprint, alongside Lauren Bell and Iona Moir while Matt Richardson and Harry Ledingham-Horn compete in the men’s keirin. Let’s hope we’ve news of more medals to bring you this time tomorrow.

The women’s Tour de France will continue to officially be called the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift until at least 2029, ASO and the virtual training platform this morning announcing an extension of their partnership. Zwift has been onboard since the race’s return in 2022 and will be front and centre of the biggest race on the women’s calendar for at least four more years.

> The Tour de France Femmes’ Long and Winding Road: A brief history of the women’s Tour de France

Eric Min, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said the sponsorship has become “part of our identity”. 

“Growing women’s participation in cycling is a critical mission,” he said. “We truly believe that to be successful, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is essential. The first four years of this partnership have been incredible. The excitement is tangible and the impact is clear. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve over the next four years and beyond.”

 

 

 

 

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A couple of UCI-friendly stages in Switzerland to start, an absolutely mustard day for the TT specialists in Dijon, a summit finish on Ventoux and a final showdown in Nice. The Tour de France Femmes’ first trip to the Giant of Provence (in the modern version of the race) is obviously the big headline here and sure to have Pauline Ferrand-Prévot delighted.

The final stage, starting and finishing in Nice, is just 99km long but barely features a kilometre of flat and takes the riders on four ascents of the iconic Col d’Èze, a stalwart of Paris-Nice. Perfect for a final-stage ambush?

There’s a bit of a Paris-Nice feel to the route, excluding the opening weekend in Switzerland, the peloton heading south to the Côte d’Azur with a mix of flat and lumpy days and a visit to Mont Brouilly on stage five, a punchy climb used in the men’s stage race last season. The TT comes the day before that, 21km long with 255m of ascent, and there are plenty of opportunities for the fast finishers in the opening days.

Here it is, your 2026 Tour de France route…

Starting with a team time trial in Barcelona, the Montjuïc hill up to the Olympic stadium will be used on each of the opening two stages. Naturally, there’s an early foray into the Pyrenes, given where the race is starting, before the route winds its way up and over to the Vosges in week two.

As expected, the Alps provides the backdrop for week three, numerous mountain stages, the most eye-catching of which probably a return to Alpe d’Huez (twice! Well, sort of…)

There’s only one individual time trial on the 2026 route, that’s 26km long and on stage 16 with more than 500m of climbing, so hardly a route for the TT purists.

That brings us to the Alpe d’Huez double-header on stages 19 AND 20. The first of those [above] features the full climb and its famous 21 bends. The second, the Queen Stage of the race on the final Saturday, does finish at Alpe d’Huez, but comes the back way via the Col de Sarenne. 

With that said, it’s a much harder day with 5,600m of climbing and ascents of the Croix de Fer, Télégraphe and Galibier before the approach to Alpe d’Huez by the back door.

After this year’s success it’s no surprise to see a triple-ascent of Montmartre back on the menu for the Paris finale in 2026, however the organisers have moved the finish to 15km from the final ascent, perhaps re-opening the door to the strongest sprinters.

Some good news to bring you this lunchtime… 

> French ultra-endurance cyclist released from Russian prison almost two months after being arrested for “illegally crossing” border during cycling world record attempt

The instruments and bike of one of the founding members and leaders of the electronic band Kraftwerk are going up for auction. It’s Florian Schneider’s Panasonic Panaracer bike as ridden in the group’s Tour de France music video, no less, and the collection goes up for auction on 19 November, The Guardian reports.

In total, the estimated value of the entire collection of items up for auction is $450,000 to $650,000 (£335,000 to £485,000), and it is to be held by Julien’s Auctions at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Alongside the bike, fans are also invited to bid on his collection of more than 100 brass and woodwind instruments, numerous Polaroid photographs, his sunglasses, the passport he used while touring until 1978 and his VW panel van.

Perhaps our money-no-object Christmas gift guide needs a quick update?

Cycling UK co-ordinated more than 60 ‘glow rides’ yesterday, raising awareness about the need for safe and accessible cycling infrastructure to allow more women to cycle, particularly now the nights and mornings are getting darker.

Research by YouGov, commissioned by the charity, found that over half of women (56 per cent) say their local transport journeys are limited because of concerns about walking alone after dark or because the roads don’t feel safe enough to cycle on.

Almost 3,000 riders attended glow rides from Plymouth to Perth, lighting up the evening with bike lights, glow sticks and reflective gear, all in the hope of continuing “to shine a light — literally — on the barriers women continue to face”.

Kitty Cresswell Riol, a glow rider from Norwich, said: “This is an important issue because everyone should be able to travel freely and feel safe doing so. Too many people — particularly women — are put off cycling by fear of traffic, poor lighting, or harassment. When we make streets safer for women, we make them safer, fairer and more welcoming for everyone.

“Improving safety for cyclists means more than adding painted lanes — it’s about designing streets that feel welcoming and secure for everyone. Protected cycle lanes, better lighting, and well-designed junctions make a huge difference, especially for women riding after dark. Lower traffic speeds, connected routes, and visible cycle parking all help create an environment where cycling feels safe, practical and inclusive.”

Cycling UK continues to call for long-term investment in cycling and walking, and for cycling networks designed and delivered to reflect the journeys that women “actually need to take”.

That means, the charity says, not just building commuter corridors for city workers, but developing routes that serve school runs, shopping trips, healthcare visits and other everyday journeys — particularly within local neighbourhoods. The charity believes this could be achieved if governments “in all four nations invest 10 per cent in cycling and walking from their transport budget, and if routes and networks are designed with the experiences of women in mind”.

> “The people don’t want cycle lanes”: Councillor brands new bike route a “waste of money and space” – but cyclists slam “outdated” views and claim most locals support cycling projects

MKP Bikes in Cheltenham put a warning up on the shop’s Insta page, urging the person who stole a pair of Wahoo power pedals from the workshop to return them by 5pm the next day to avoid all their details being plastered across the internet.

 

 

 

 

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The theft was caught on camera, the shop giving the thief “your opportunity to do the right thing — return the kit, avoid criminal charges and further consequences”. Well, that deadline came and passed, but yesterday the shop posted another update on Instagram… “Pedals returned; thief taught a lesson”.

“Case closed — the pedals Are home,” they wrote. “You couldn’t write a better ending. This morning, the father of the person responsible walked into MKP Bikes and returned the stolen Wahoo power pedals himself. Turns out, he’s part of the police force — and was alerted when the new BMW he’d bought for his son’s 25th birthday appeared in our post last night.

“Let’s just say the conversation at their house was… intense. The father was deeply apologetic, professional, and clearly disappointed. He’s now ordered his son to complete 20 hours of community service and get a job — a fair outcome, considering. The pedals are back. The post worked. And justice — in true MKP fashion — found its way home. Thank you to everyone who shared, messaged, and supported us. This was more than a stolen item — it showed how strong our community is when we stand together.”

When a customer walked into a bike shop and told the mechanic their “brakes aren’t working any more”, the mechanic probably expected to be spending the next half hour fitting some new pads or perhaps a cable. 

Brace yourselves…

[Minechaser05/Reddit]

It’s the latest photo to send the Justridingalong page on Reddit into meltdown, that’s the social media platform’s dedicated forum for sharing “pictures and stories of some of the most egregious user-error and bad luck damage on bicycles”. Yes, it’s a hard watch sometimes.

Incredible work by the user who replied to this with: “Brakes. They just slow you down…”

Somehow at some point the calliper became the brake, the tyre slowly eroding those knobble-sized gaps in the side. Explaining the disasterpiece further, the mechanic who shared it explained: “Rubber does a lot more damage against aluminium than you would expect. Especially with the grit from the road being kicked up. The brake pad was also still engaging as it was going. This was certainly a slow process, until it wasn’t.”

Another mechanic who’s spent 25 years working in bike shops said they’d seen many a steel and aluminium frame get similarly ground down.

“You’d be surprised,” they said. “Each individual knob acts like a tooth on a saw blade. I’ve seen dozens of steel and aluminium frames get ground down on just one wrongly sized tyre (or out of dish wheel). It does not take several tyres worth of rubber. Just one tyre and about a month or two of normal riding. Or less…. I’m not running a highly scientific collection of data. That being said, this level of carving accuracy is truly fascinating.”

The ‘jeat’ or ‘jaddle’ as it’s been dubbed is just a nice finishing touch to a truly unique bike…