“But remember to dress in hi-vis”: Distracted motorist drives in cycle lane while texting, sparking criticism of “victim-blaming” police campaign; ‘E-bike’ rider steals 8ft nutcracker; Vuelta “doesn’t go well” in Pogačar’s schedule + more on the live blog

Speaking of grouchiness, we love it when private property owners decide to get tetchy about cyclists using public rights of way across their land. 

 

 

 

 

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For those of you less accustomed to roboticised Irish accents, the machine says “This is security. Your presence has been detected, the owner and police have been informed.” Totally normal behaviour…

In news we’d seen, not quite understood the reasoning behind, but had presumed was already confirmed, Biniam Girmay is leaving Intermarché-Wanty and, we believe, is on his way to NSN, the Andres Iniesta-backed World Tour team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech.

Intermarché-Wanty’s financial struggles were well known, and they are well on their way to finalising a merger that would see riders and some staff join with fellow Belgian team Lotto. Girmay, last year’s green jersey winner at the Tour de France, is one of the best fast finishers in the peloton, and had a contract until 2028. Surely he was a rider that both merged teams would want at their disposal?

But it’s not to be, and so his outgoing team, always among the best when it comes to their social media game, have put out this rather touching video, reminding us not only of what Girmay has achieved, but all that he represents. Lovely stuff…

 

 

 

 

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Some headlines you don’t expect to write. But, it needs to be seen to be believed…

It’s getting the e-bike treatment in the press, but maybe some less grainy CCTV footage would bring its EAPC status into question? 

A giant nutcracker was stolen from the outside of Copper Blossom Cocktail Bar in Edinburgh on Monday night.

Manager Paul Paxton says they’re on the look for Nutcracker Nolan https://t.co/G8gDzyqv3Q

? Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/vtHBcmxy6Z

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 27, 2025

The Copper Blossom Cocktail Bar was the victim of the theft earlier this week, and manager Paul Paxton has done the media rounds, telling the BBC “it’s so shocking” that the statue, dubbed “Stolen Nolan”, could be robbed as blatantly as that.

“We were still open and had just stacked up all the outdoor furniture in front of the statue five minutes beforehand. He cycles up on his e-bike and it all happens in the space of a minute, it’s so fast.

“He pushed everything aside and pulls the tables over and one falls and breaks and then he yanks the Nutcracker away.

“He falls off his bike once while trying to put it on and struggles to lay it horizontally across him. The people on the street didn’t really bat an eyelid,” he added.

> “Stop calling them e-bikes”: BBC corrects inaccurate coverage claiming powerful electric motorbike was an e-bike

The apparent difficulty the culprit had can perhaps be explained by the 8ft Nutcracker statue weighing around 13kg. It also cost the bar £900. The other statue that formed part of the Christmas display is now being kept indoors whilst Police Scotland said their investigation was still at an early stage. In the meantime, the onus has been on Paxton to play the part of Nolan to attract clientele. 

Also in today’s filing of stories we thought had been announced a while ago, bike manufacturer Merida have confirmed they are parting ways with Bahrain Victorious, the team it co-founded and initially title sponsored.

 “After nine successful years competing at the highest level in the WorldTour, the partnership between MERIDA and Team Bahrain Victorious comes to an end for both parties to consolidate and develop new WorldTour sponsorship strategies,” a joint statement read.

“Everybody at MERIDA is grateful to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the opportunity to be part of this exciting project and is immensely proud of the many successes the team has achieved. Over the years, this close partnership between MERIDA and the Bahrain WorldTour Cycling Team Project has been the foundation for the team’s accomplishments.”

The rumour mill most recently linked Bahrain with Italian bike builder Bianchi, who most recently serviced the folding Arkea-B&B Hotels team. As for Merida, they say they will announce their future World Tour partnerships “in due course”. The statement also listed the team’s achievements over the years, including winning Paris-Roubaix with Sonny Colbrelli, and Grand Tour podiums with Damiano Caruso. From a bike perspective though, there’s surely no greater praise than Matej Mohoric’s Milan-Sanremo bike with its’ ‘dropper’ seat post…

Whilst we haven’t seen any evidence of whether Biniam Girmay is in attendance at NSN’s winter training camp, one man who has been spotted is Sylvan Adams, the funder and owner of the Israel-Premier Tech team that formally rebranded last week.

Escape Collective’s Jonny Long has the full write-up and also received comment from the team that Adams is there to “finalise the transition” and will have “no role” with the team going forward.

Still, it’s all a little bit up in the air, but one organisation hoping for clarity is the Vuelta a España. The race, which was provisionally due to finish in the Canary Islands, might be jeopardised if Adams’ exit from the team (where he’s still formally listed as a ‘partner’) is not explicitly confirmed, after the Gran Canaria Island Council insisted their “position has not changed” with regard to refusing to host a team affiliated with Adams.

From ‘no surrender’ to NSN: Barcelona legend Andrés Iniesta’s company takes over Sylvan Adams’ Israel project – but what’s next for cycling’s most controversial team?

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Olivia Walsh described her husband John as “devoted” to his family and his three sons, who would now spend “their entire lives without their adoring father”.

“John wanted them so much. He wanted to be a present, active, loving dad in every moment of their lives. He was devoted to them,” the statement read.

Read more below:

> Driver who killed Dublin cyclist while speeding on wrong side of road spared jail, after judge ruled her “dangerous driving is on the lower side”

We’ll do you all a favour this Friday and spare you the details of Beppe Conti’s mad rumours on Italian TV show Radio Corsa, but only because Tadej Pogačar has on the same programme thrown some light on his race calendar for 2026.

Speculation so far has been light on the Slovenian’s schedule, with recent rumours suggesting he would wait until Strade Bianchi in March for kick-starting his season. He’s raced the white roads around Sienna several times before, and started his season there in 2024.

Despite the wishes of the Giro d’Italia organisers, he’s likely to race a lighter classics schedule in the spring, all the more important considering what awaits in the second half of the season. Whilst it’s still inconceivable for Pogačar to avoid the Tour de France, the challenge of balancing his workload in the autumn is complicated. 

Next year’s World Championships take place in Canada, utilising a similarly hilly course to the GP Montreal, and only two weeks after the Canadian World Tour races. Racing the Tour de France and the Vuelta would mean a reduced preparation for a third successive year in rainbow bands, a point Pogačar admitted to… 

Pogacar on WC 2026 parcours: “I won in Montreal before and it’s a similar parcours, even if it’s different with the national team”

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) November 28, 2025

“It’s always so hard to combine Vuelta with the Tour and with the thought of World Championships. I always say that if they switched Vuelta and Giro, it would be much better in terms of weather and riders going to the race. But for sure one day I will have to do the Vuelta and I’m looking forward to that day,” he said. 

Then, as if his autumn isn’t busy enough, come the European Championships, for which he’s also the defending champion, held in Slovenia of all places. And of course then come the Italian autumn classics, culminating in Il Lombardia, a monument he has won five years in a row. In short, something’s got to give. Turns out starting in his backyard might not be enough for the Vuelta to entice the best rider in the world.

It’s November, which means rider interviews tend to focus on questions of retirement, and how “my beloved sport isn’t what it used to be, there’s no respect in the peloton anymore” and so on…

Thankfully, Jonas Vingegaard has yet to succumb to that level of grouching, but he has opened up on his thoughts beyond the peloton, and he appears to have two clear, but differing voices inside his head.

“I always said I wanted to do something with numbers, probably something in banking. I have always been good with numbers,” the two-time Tour de France champion told Danish channel TV MidtVest, who also ruled out staying in the field of pro cycling after retirement. But then came this revelation…

“After becoming an adult and renovating my own house, I realised that I actually like manual labour more than I thought,” said Vingegaard, who added of his future plans, “Time will tell. I am very fascinated by carpentry.”

We like this idea, the stoic, reserved Dane deriving personal satisfaction from private constructions. To be clear, this is probably some way off, with Vingegaard’s current contract running until the end of 2028, by which point he will only be 32, rather young by traditional standards. Either way, between banking and carpentry, all we know for sure is that there’s a biblical reference somewhere that we’re definitely not informed enough to make.

What’s interesting though, is that speculation was rife during the Tour de France was rife that he was struggling to maintain any form of work-life balance. The rumours began after his wife Trine Hansen gave an interview saying that Visma-Lease a Bike had asked their star rider to stop working on DIY projects in order to avoid risking injury.

“He needs to be at home with us”: Jonas Vingegaard’s wife accuses Visma-Lease a Bike of “pushing him too far” with altitude training camps and not prioritising Dane’s GC challenge, but Visma racing chief dismisses concerns and says “sacrifice is necessary

Thankfully, with Vingegaard never one to indulge or engage with tabloid speculation, the story subsided, but it’s further proof – if it were needed – that the Dane, refreshingly, has interests beyond two wheels. Maybe his love of carpentry is fuelled in part by its “forbidden fruit” reputation that it’s acquired thanks to his employer. Anyway, in the depths of the off-season, we’re all here for it.

 

 

 

 

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“Very ergonomic and good for the spine” apparently. Think we’ll take their word for it… 

Don’t think we were going to ignore Black Friday entirely…

The best e-bike deals for Black Friday

There hasn’t been a British men’s team besides the Ineos Grenadiers since Saint Piran folded in 2024. Now Sir Mark’s has set the rumour mill running once more, not least because he seems to have new ideas for how to make more money! Ryan has the full write-up…

> Mark Cavendish hints at creating own pro cycling team in future “that is more along the lines of other sports” like Formula 1, claiming riders “aren’t doing enough to make money in their own right”

The cyclocross specialists now know which races to target and avoid over the Christmas period, as the seven-time World Champion will set about indulging in his winter hobby.

 

 

 

 

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Nothing gets the blood pumping like another police campaign that fails to understand who is responsible for driver-cyclist collisions…

It being November, An Garda Síochána (the Irish Police) used the time of year to justify rolling out a new campaign urging pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter drivers and motorcyclists to wear hi-vis.

? Can you see me now? The importance of visibility on our roads cannot be understated, particularly for vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter drivers and motorcyclists. #CanYouSeeMeNow #KeepingPeopleSafe

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— An Garda Síochána (@garda.ie) 27 November 2025 at 07:59

Why are so many unmarked Garda cars black or dark coloured?

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— Cosáin Climate (@cosaingalway.bsky.social) 28 November 2025 at 09:40

“Why aren’t cars required to wear high-vis?” asked Brendan Halpin.

“All the hi viz in the world won’t save a cyclist from a driver looking at their mobile,” campaigner ‘Cycling in Kilkenny’ wrote.

“Apparently like yourselves, I have also never seen a black car.” Steve wrote.

Perhaps the best proof of all came from user ‘Citizen Wolf’ (and their rather sweet dog Raven) who shared footage from earlier this week of a driver somehow cutting across a segregated cycle lane! 

Drivers are never not at it. This guy was texting on his phone and managed to forget to turn. He ended up driving straight into the segregated cycle-lane. But hey, remember folks, dress in head-to-toe HiViz when out walking or cycling.

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— Citizen Wolf (@citizenw0lf.bsky.social) 25 November 2025 at 20:23

Some battles are harder to win than others…