All’s right with the hill-climbing world as British national championships won on rim brakes (despite Andrew Feather’s 5.4kg disc build); British pro runs super speedy 1:12 half marathon + more on the live blog

Not quite Tom Dumoulin levels of pro cyclist goes running very quickly, but incredibly impressive nonetheless.

Here’s a quick round-up of everything you might have missed over the weekend, most notably perhaps Van Rysel reacting to DT Swiss and Swiss Side’s summer recall over wheel delamination fears by recalling two RCR Pro road bike models featuring the wheels in question.

The notice communicating the recall stated affected RCR PRO Ultegra & RCR PRO Dura Ace Bikes’ riders have a risk of “serious falls and injuries” due to delamination issues with affected Swiss Side HADRON2 Classic 500 and HADRON2 Ultimate 500 wheelsets.

Elsewhere, it was reported new rules announced by the government and the Mayor of London to support housebuilding in the capital include reduced requirements for the building of cycle parking.

It has been suggested Sadiq Khan’s emergency rules on affordable London housing “reduce requirements for cycle parking” and allow financial “contributions” instead of building bike racks.

Last night, our latest Bike at Bedtime featured Gregario, the Italian brand which won the ‘Best New Builder’ award at Bespoked 2025, boasting that it’s the first manufacturer to create a truly monocoque custom carbon-fibre frame, thanks to a patented variable geometry mould.

And finally, if that wasn’t enough for your bike fix, Stu has been getting to grips with the Genesis Croix De Fer 30 and has penned some thoughts in a review, concluding it’s a “versatile and capable adventure gravel machine that’s still nimble enough for some fun”.

The culmination of the Track World Championships this weekend saw Great Britain continue to rack up the medals in Santiago, finishing second in the overall table behind the impressive Dutch squad. There were gold medals for Josh Tarling in the points race, madison duo Katie Archibald and Maddie Leach, and Josh Charlton and Anna Morris in their respective individual pursuits.

Sprint coach and seven-time Olympic champion Sir Jason Kenny told the BBC TV cameras on the ground in Chile that things could have been even better but the medal haul represents “a really good place to start the Olympic journey”.

“We’ve missed out on some medals that we felt we could have been competitive for, but we’ve come away with a really good haul with some new medallists, so it’s really exciting,” he said. “The fact that we were on the podium more than ever shows that we were competitive across the board, and it’s really positive.”

“Next year’s World Championships will go towards Olympic qualification so things will start getting really serious, and I think given the age profile of the team — and the fact that we are so competitive in so many events — is a really good place to start the Olympic journey.”

Sprint hopefuls Emma Finucane and Matthew Richardson both ended the World Championships without a rainbow jersey, Finucane admitting she was “gutted” after a quarter-final sprint error saw her out of contention there. She showed plenty of resilience to land a silver in the keirin on the final day of competition, while Richardson also took silver (his in the men’s sprint) after coming up against an imperious Harrie Lavreysen, the Dutch powerhouse’s seventh consecutive world title in the event and taking his career world-title haul to a staggering 20.

However, perhaps the most popular win of the weekend came in the men’s elimination race, Elia Viviani winning a rainbow jersey in the final race of his career before retirement and sparking incredible scenes at the Velódromo Peñalolén.

A lawyer from Cycle Law Scotland has questioned incoming ‘dangerous cycling’ laws in a column published in The Scotsman. As we reported last month, the Labour government is set to introduce new ‘dangerous cycling’ laws which would bring punishments for cyclists who kill or injure by dangerous or careless riding in line with those for drivers.

> New ‘dangerous cycling’ laws are on the way, but government confirms “no plans” to make speed limits apply to cyclists

Writing in the Scottish newspaper, lawyer Thomas Mitchell argued: “Singling out the cyclist as a scapegoat for the public’s anger and frustration at the rising death toll on our roads is not, in my view, the right way to go.”

He went on to suggest supporters of the legislation, such as Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, may be wrong to believe the new offences would create parity with offences for drivers.

“I believe that is fundamentally wrong,” Mitchell continued. “We shouldn’t be seeking to create parity between a vulnerable road user group and a powerful one. The law needs to protect the vulnerable and be a safety net to account for the inequity that exists when a vehicle and bicycle collide.

“One could point out that the same needs to be true of pedestrian versus cycling incidents, but the collision statistics simply don’t support that argument. We already have offences of careless and dangerous cycling. Adding these harsher offences and punishments may deter people from cycling, which is not what the government wants.

“Whilst it is not in vogue to criticise the motorist, the simple fact remains that people who drive cars kill far more pedestrians and cyclists than any other road user group; nearly 2,500 between 2019-2023, over 200 times the number of deaths involving a cyclist.

“Why isn’t the government focusing on cutting down the number of these deaths, rather than aiming at the low-hanging fruit and chastising the humble cyclist? From a road safety standpoint, I believe these new offences will do virtually nothing to contribute to less deaths on our roads and therefore, their introduction remains largely pointless.”

Read the full column here.

Anyone in the comments section want to own up to having done this before? 

Just arrived on holiday in Wales and managed to put my own back window through!
Handlebar of one of the kids’ bikes went straight through it!
After the massive high of last night’s show, life clearly decided to give me a quick kick in the arsebone to keep my feet on the ground! pic.twitter.com/C2sY95eKUX

— Jason Manford (@JasonManford) October 25, 2025

> Cyclists accuse politicians of “riding crest of populist wave” after MP claims new one-way system is “clogging up roads” and ruining town

While the hill climbers were up in Matlock thrashing their lightweight bikes up a short, sharp berg, Tim Bishop was completing his fifth straight year of riding 100 miles on a vintage WW2 bicycle to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. No disc brakes here, either…

Bishop rode 107 laps around the Caerleon one-way system on the WW2-era bicycle and received support from the local cycling community who came out on slightly more modern steeds to help.

The Caerleon and District Royal British Legion’s JustGiving page is currently nearing £1,000 of the £3,000 target. 

If the home trainer has tempted you these past few weeks, Zwift has some news it is excited to share. The virtual training platform has announced a 31km expansion to its New York City map, the one set 100 years in the future with a “futuristic network of glass sky roads around Central Park”.

Well, now it also heads outside of Manhatten, taking in Times Square, over Brooklyn Bridge and into Prospect Park.

“31km makes this Zwift’s biggest map expansion in five years,” the marketing team tells us, before somewhat predictably dropping… “The Big Apple just for bigger”.

There will be 15 new routes to explore with this (12 ride, three run) and Zwift plans to add an additional five to be unlocked over the coming months.

> Chinese bikes and components galore, 21mm tyres and rim brakes FTW: some of the most intriguing bikes and set-ups from the 2025 National Hill Climb Championships

Supermarket giant Lidl has bought a majority stake in Lidl-Trek cycling team following the “successful conclusion” of the previous contract between Lidl and Trek. In a statement released this afternoon, the team confirmed Trek would retain a “significant stake” in the team and remains a co-owner and technical partner, but Lidl is now the majority stakeholder.

There’s no shortage of ambition, Lidl-Trek saying they want to become the most successful team in the sport. Thomas Rohregger, Lidl’s head of brand partnerships and head of cycling, said the brand acquiring a majority stake is a “monumental moment”.

“We approached this project with immense respect for the legacy that Lidl-Trek has built, and we are now formally and jointly committing to the next chapter,” he said. “The partnership is based on the strategic goal of transferring Lidl’s organizational excellence to Lidl-Trek and combining the expertise of both co-owners to achieve our ambitious goals. The combined resources and expertise are intended to accelerate the team’s performance development in the coming seasons.”

> Taxi driver who left cyclist paralysed after jumping red light avoids jail

Don’t fear, live blog readers — this isn’t the bit where we have to tell you our beloved national hill climb championships was won by a rider using disc brakes. Andrew Feather, fresh off beating Tadej Pogačar in the Slovenian’s own back yard, raced his admittedly rather gorgeous custom 5.4kg disc brake SWI Leve to a third place finish, but it was Harry MacFarlane who defended his national title on Bank Road in Matlock.

There was something of a surprise in the women’s race, Illi Gardner looking to win her fourth consecutive title but beaten by two seconds by Rachel Galler.

Between them Feather and Gardner have seven national hill-climbing titles, but MacFarlane and Galler fared better on the short, explosive effort Bank Road’s 800m double-digit thrash required, both worthy winners of their crowns.

In the open event, MacFarlane’s margin of victory was a comprehensive five seconds over Kieran Wynne-Cattanach, Feather in third a further half a second back. Madeleine Heywood completed the women’s podium, while newly crowned junior road race world champ Harry Hudson won the junior open event and Ruby Isaac the junior women’s. Even more impressive is that Hudson’s 2.20.8 would have seen him finish fifth, just .4 seconds off the main open podium. The future’s bright.

On the bike front, we took you through MacFarlane’s ride in Tech of the Week, the now two-time champ, building a 4.8kg hill-climbing machine for the big day, complete with his name cut out of the frame and plenty of weight trimming touches.

That included a bonded stem and handlebar. Not an integrated cockpit. A separate stem and bar fused together by a carbon expert, as well as a prototype hexagonal chainring, AliExpress lights that weight less than a gramme each, a “Frankenstein saddle”, and 770g wheels.

> “The craziest bike build you’ve never seen”: A 4.8kg hill-climbing dream

Galler, Gardner and Hudson were also all representing good ol’ rim brakes too so it’s good to see they ain’t dead yet. We’ll have a tech round-up and gallery to bring you a bit later on too which we’ll of course share on the blog as well. Stay tuned.