Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals; Who heard this over Christmas dinner?; Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross; Cycle lane gift; Richie Porte targets “dream” farewell at Giro + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals
Delivery guy vs. pro cyclist 💪💪 pic.twitter.com/EEeGd1osNm
— Cycling Today (@CyclingTodayEn) December 27, 2021
e-bike or not, that’s one speedy delivery cyclist. You’d have no problems with cold food here, not just because of his lightning-quick riding, but also the 37 degree temperature reading on the Movistar pro’s Garmin.
The video is from somewhere where iFood runs delivery service like Uber Eats or Deliveroo, that means likely Mexico, Brazil, Colombia or Argentina… our fingers are crossed it is one of the Spanish team’s overseas riders drafting, and not just a keen local with all the kit.
With sandals powering the pedals, and just a baseball cap up top, the delivery cyclist nonchalantly spins ahead of the WorldTour kit-covered rider behind…go give him a turn on the front…
It reminds us of that time EF Education-Nippo’s Rigoberto Urán was drafted by a backpack-wearing local in khakis and work boots at 45km/h…
Who heard this over Christmas dinner?
It’s Christmas #2 with family, I’m listening to a relative tell me how cycling isn’t a proper sport due to the use of motors and they all dope. 🙄 More wine needed stat! #couchpeloton #cycling pic.twitter.com/dD9RnCBEZC
— Anna Mac (@AnnamacB) December 27, 2021
Anyone lucky enough to get dragged into this? Four pigs in blankets deep and suddenly you’re defending Tadej Pogačar’s back-to-back yellow jerseys…
Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross
It was a BIG Boxing Day for the Great Britain Cycling Team yesterday! 👏🇬🇧
Incredible wins for @camerooney_ and @Backstedt_Zoe in Dendermonde, as well as a second place for Nathan Smith! 🤘
Full results 📄 https://t.co/qMzIz4HUzR
📸 CorVos/SWpix#CXWorldCup pic.twitter.com/3V7kSi0gZd
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) December 27, 2021
Britain’s cyclo-cross future looks bright. Very bright indeed. The present isn’t too shabby either…Tom Pidcock finished second behind Wout van Aert at yesterday’s Telenet Superprestige Heusden-Zolder. Van Aert, doubling up from the much-anticipated Dendermonde Boxing Day cross, made it two wins in as many days, and five unbeaten since he returned to the discipline. Mathieu van der Poel was second at Dendermonde on his comeback from injury.
But back to Britain’s bright future…before the big boys contested Sunday’s event, rising star Zoe Backstead and U23 prospect Cameron Mason won the women’s junior and men’s U23 races respectively. Mason copied Van Aert by winning at Zolder yesterday too…one to keep an eye on…
Since you couldn’t watch my race on tv or in real life yesterday, I decided to edit my video super quick for you all. Hope you enjoy it 👇 https://t.co/oVoAJZgtBH @TrinityRacing_ @iamspecialized @ZippSpeed @SRAMroad @wahoofitness @maap_cc @BritishCycling @oakley
— Cameron Mason (@camerooney_) December 27, 2021
How's your Tuesday going?
Let that be a lesson to you! Don’t ride through puddles!!! Got stopped dead in my tracks and nearly went in head first 🤣 @Absolutemtb1 pic.twitter.com/2MFOP4olGO
— Drunkdale (@thedrunkdale) December 27, 2021
Coventry's newest permanent cycle lane
Not only is the new #Coventry Coundon cycleway high quality and direct for people cycling, it has improved the surface for pedestrians and brings new native hedging to the street. 22 new trees are also being planted soon.
Well done @coventrycc contractors and @pedropete99! pic.twitter.com/L2Aqma4XNy
— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) December 21, 2021
West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter brought us the news of this new segregated cycle lane in Coventry just before Christmas. What a great gift…
Amazingly in the age of Twitter barely anyone had anything other than positives…(apart from one person sceptical the shrubs won’t grow into the cycle lane come summer)…
Richie Porte targets "dream" farewell at Giro d'Italia
2022 will be Richie Porte’s final season as a pro cyclist after a career spanning 15 years and some of the biggest teams in the sport. The Tasmanian is targeting a full circle farewell at the Giro d’Italia, the Grand Tour he got his breakthrough at in 2010.
“The one thing the team really wants out of it is for me to enjoy my last year,” Porte told 7News. “If I can close the circle there [at the Giro d’Italia], that would be a dream. It’s a race I’ve always enjoyed.
“It’s nice to still be at the pointy end of bike races at 36 against these young kids who are so incredibly talented.”
Porte will not be riding the Tour de France in his final season and also suggested adding to his impressive palmares of week-long stage races is high on the agenda. Having already won last year’s Critérium du Dauphiné, as well as two editions of Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse in 2018, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Tour de Romandie and two Tour Down Under titles, a Tirreno-Adriatico win in March would all but complete the set.
If whispers of a rescheduled Tour Down Under before World Champs in September do turn out to be true, who’d bet against one final Willunga win too?
The Aussie has certainly been training hard. Christmas Day apart Porte has ridden his bike every day this month, racking up almost 100 hours…
Here was Boxing Day’s ‘Morning Ride’…
Spot the difference...
You really can’t tell the difference. pic.twitter.com/ZCHB9lRmJk
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) December 26, 2021
Want a new perspective on the world? Talk to Primož Roglič...
Tom Dumoulin has attributed a large part of his new perspective on pro cycling to a chat with teammate and fellow time trial extraordinaire Primož Roglič. Speaking to L’Equipe, the 2017 Giro d’Italia winner detailed his past year, 12 months that started with him walking away from the sport.
Now back and targeting a Grand Tour return in 2021, Dumoulin said his all-conquering teammate helped reset his focus on what is important in life. “I love talking with Primož,” Dumoulin said.
“When you talk to him about your problems, he really listens. I’ve never seen him judge anyone. He gives his feelings, talks about his experience. I want to see it now as an adventure, a story that I write, for me and for me alone. Something that you are lucky enough to experience only once in your life and of which you have to accept the best and the worst.”
Dumoulin will begin 2022 in Portugal for Volta ao Algarve and stressed he wants to target general classification at races once again.
Pablo Escobar's brother dreamed of winning the Tour de France before becoming trusted lieutenant of multi-million pound drug smuggling empire
The Independent had an interesting feature yesterday, informed by Matt Rendell’s Kings of the Mountains, in which reporter Graham Keeley profiled Roberto Escobar, Pablo’s brother, who before joining the drug smuggling cartel rode for Biciletas Ositto and dreamed of winning the yellow jersey.
Keeley writes that Escobar’s career became embroiled in the carnage of the cocaine trade in 1980s and 90s Colombia. Now 74, there is a section of Rendell’s book which explains Roberto still listens to the Tour on the radio religiously.
“Now they realise that I was good (as a cyclist),” he told El Pais in an interview where he outlined how his past as number two in the Medellin cartel weighs heavy on his shoulders.
Some wholesome Christmas content to brighten up your bank holiday
Happiness is watching your 3 year old learn to bike with pedals on a car free Lakeshore Drive. Very proud Dad moment. #MoreGirlsOnBikes pic.twitter.com/XNRbOav0zh
— Allen Cowgill (@AllenCowgill) December 27, 2021
67 years on...85-year-old man reunited with bike his parents gave him when he was ten
An 85-year-old man in France has been reunited with a bike he last saw aged 18 after a friend was called by a junk dealer who had found the bicycle. Joseph Carayon was gifted the bike for Christmas by his parents when he was ten years old, but parted with it eight years later.
That was until fellow Abelhan resident Thomas Christiny found the bicycle while hunting for antiques…
“I often recover old objects and I love to hunt for antiques,” Christiny told Connexion France. “I have a friend who contacted me saying that he had found an old bike and that on this bike there was a plate with the writing ‘Joseph Carayon, Abeilhan, Hérault’.
“Jojo is an emblematic figure here, he is 85 and works every morning delivering the newspaper about the village. The bike was in good condition.”
He pumped up the tyres and reunited Carayon with the bike his father had assembled from spare parts when he returned from World War Two. The relieved owner has since given it a fresh paint of coat and keeps it safe in his garage.
Tom Pidcock's #1 fan
What cycling is all about! 🤩 @Tompid. (IG mark_condor1) pic.twitter.com/Sm1GQ68IfW
— Cyclingtakes (@cyclingtakes) December 28, 2021
28 December 2021, 09:13
If today's live blog wasn't enough...
Best of the live blog 2021: UK's new steepest climb; Olympic controversy; Groin-BREAKING NEWS; Mr Loophole getting schooled; Cleat set-up from Hell; Jeremy Vine; Surrey traffic cops + all our live blog favourites
Check out all the top stories from a jam-packed 2021 on the road.cc live blog
28 December 2021, 09:13
28 December 2021, 09:13
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Latest Comments
@chrisonabike all active travel money should be immediately reallocated to fixing potholes and trimming hedges/vegetation. A lot of the reason why cycling and/or jogging is so difficult in my area is due to road surface quality and getting artificially narrowed by poor maintenance. That way, no more terrible, unpopular "active travel"/segregation decisions that need to be overturned
@jackcycles "a stark throwback to the days just after COVID when the lunatics were briefly left to run the asylum" You mean the Conservative government of Boris? Not a fan of him or Matt Hancock either, but I thought eg. Jonathan Van-Tam did a pretty good job? "All people want is a joined up travel experience where cyclists can use the road – along with all other forms of transport – to get from A to B with the least fuss." I tried that but I found the canal wet, being held up by rollerskaters vexing, dodging the passing lorries at 60mph scary, before I was run over by the train... "Absolutely scandalous waste of taxpayer money"... I quite agree, what on earth are they doing wasting active travel money to make active travel less pleasant (and indeed places less pleasant) and convenient?
Absolutely scandalous waste of taxpayer money that the road was originally shut to cars... A stark throwback to the days just after COVID when the lunatics were briefly left to run the asylum, when activists and agitators ran amok against all rationality and economic sense. How many (less than) useless LTNs and no-car zones were set up at this time, under a supposed free market Tory government, costing countless hours of congestion and destroying livelihoods and town centres? Whilst it's great that the cheque book has been removed, there are yet more brainless initiatives today, such as pointless "20" zones (er, just enforce the existing 30 please). All people want is a joined up travel experience where cyclists can use the road - along with all other forms of transport - to get from A to B with the least fuss. This country isn't set up to remove long-established road infrastructure, and as recent figures revealed countries that have spaffed countless millions on cycling infrastructure (such as the Netherlands) actually have *worse* KSIs than the UK, despite our potholed, shoddy roads.
@mark1212123 "One solution states removing bias in a human being requires a pause before a decision is made." Was the other solution to remove their brain and replace it with something more rational, efficient and dependable?
@mdavidford Hmm, if comparing designs where the load is "between the wheels" (2-wheel "bakfiets" style and 8freight) as opposed to having the load higher (longtail) I wonder? Also unless you're really shifting heavy stuff the main mass is the rider. But I've never ridden a two-wheel front-loader cargo bike (brief use of a 3-wheeler, but that's a different thing again...). I have used some indirect linkage-steer bikes (recumbents) and they all seemed easy enough to learn and manage *. Many (all normal?) bike designs tend self- balance when moving - perhaps this applies to such cargo bikes also? * Aside from brief initial "don't look at the front wheel" confusion. And assuming steering is not loose/faulty, which is likely rarer but still possible with a more direct system. And once you realise your turning circle is more like "car"...
@chrisonabike "Don’t rely strongly on “rules” great point. "How to avoid conflict on the roads?" Not possible. Expecting conflict is the daily for me on uk roads.
@mark1212123 make sure you instruct it that you need your answer in ternary, starting from 1. How to avoid conflict on the roads? Don't travel! How to reduce that but some travel has to happen? Reduce the number of interactions, reduce mental workload, increase the time to detect and deal with conflicts (your "pause"), work *with* human mental architecture (energy-saving behaviours, emotions, strong feelings about "fairness" and "cheating", in-group/out-group effects). What that implies? Don't mix modes of travel where they have very different speeds/mass/behaviour patterns. Mixing *can* occur where you can ensure that modes are more similar (eg.slow down drivers...) Don't rely strongly on "rules" or (signed) instructions for safety - because humans.
@mdavidford "let me know which side the bias is on, and I can start automatically fixing it"...
@qwerty360 Things the Dutch did/do which are not often hailed but are probably crucial: a) many years of recategorising all the roads in the country in terms of a single function. Is this a through-route (which they've also spent years diverting *around* urban areas not through them)? Is it a distributor, or is this a street / place? If like so often in the UK "all of the above" that was fixed. b) The way the various parts of government (and the legal system) work together to deliver all this, and crucially the feedback mechanisms. Apparently they are remarkably light on regulating exactly what can be built, BUT if people are injured using it / there are environmental consequences (including noise!) then people can be held accountable. That means that there is some flexibility to eg. innovate but motivation to voluntarily adopt the (centrally maintained) best practice guidelines. Presimably there is at least a belief that they may have to defend their actions in court.
@qwerty360 it's all tricky in the UK - even ignoring "popular" outpourings about "but my route / parking space!" - since much of the government machine is still set up to work effectively "for" more driving. So "mixed messages"... I think Chris Boardman has been doing a very savvy job. However there are some difficult barriers to this in the UK. There's having "capacity" to make stuff eg. enough people who can avoid getting the details plain wrong / enough financial and political capital to get a project all the way to the end, mostly intact. In the UK with all the "but this local detail, but that requirement" and over 100 years of building in "transport is drive" it's not even simple for those *with* the knowledge to come up with a "good enough" solution that isn't "take up all the roads and let's rethink". (Not a bad idea but not practical).
4 thoughts on “Movistar pro drafts speedy food delivery rider smashing it in sandals; Who heard this over Christmas dinner?; Mud, Glorious Mud! All the best of festive cyclo-cross; Cycle lane gift; Richie Porte targets “dream” farewell at Giro + more on the live blog”
Errm, that 37 is soeed in km
Errm, take a close look: that 37.9 is km/h not C! I’m sure it’s a warm night, but not that warm!
Bitsy squirrel story.
Bitey squirrel story.
Doesn’t end well.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/28/stripe-the-bitey-squirrel-meets-a-sad-end-after-terrorising-welsh-town
ktache wrote:
…and so it begins
hawkinspeter wrote:
I think whippets are needed.