“Physically it’s manageable, mentally it’s relentless”: Cycling the entire Festive 500 in one ride… around a McDonald’s drive-through?!; Weirdest place to Zwift; Could £11bn power station proposal benefit cycling? + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
London Eye architect shares images of Somerset tidal power station proposal, including new cycling race track
The architect who designed the London Eye and Brighton’s i360 observation tower has published a proposal for a 14-mile tidal power station in Somerset, the plans including a new cycling circuit. The £11bn proposal suggests building a tidal power station from Minehead to Watchet, The Guardian reporting it would also feature 125 underwater turbines to “harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world”, and a cycling track for riding and races.
Another monster Festive 500 ride from New Zealand
36km/h average…
"A mistake has consequences, and I'm paying for them": Pro cyclist "kicked off team" and pauses cycling career over dangerous bunny-hopping video
Parts of newly opened cycling and walking route to be shut for up to two years due to sewage works
United Utilities and Westmorland and Furness Council have explained that parts of a new cycling and walking path in Cumbria, which only opened in June, faces closures for up to two years due to sewage works. It’s all because water company United Utilities is planning to built a three million litre underground tank next to its pumping station near Vickerstown Park in Walney, the BBC has reported.
With work set to begin in February and run until 2028, it has been suggested parts of the recently opened 1.4-mile cycling path will be shut during various stages of the project. The council insisted it will not be fully shut and said they are hoping to keep as much open as possible.
Man with "generalised hatred of cyclists" arrested on suspicion of firing shots at group ride in Italy after shocking footage went viral
Water is wet... Lucinda Brand wins again
Unstoppable ?
Lucinda Brand takes her 12th victory in a row with another strong performance in Loenhout. pic.twitter.com/n3QBEjKQ6c
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) December 29, 2025
1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-2-1-1-2-1-1
That’s Lucinda Brand’s cyclocross record this winter, this afternoon’s X²O Badkamers Trofee Azencross – Loenhout her latest victory. Kristyna Zemanová was five seconds back in second, while Manon Bakker completed the podium. Brit Zoe Bäckstedt was back in fourth, continuing her comeback from a fractured wrist suffered in a training crash last month.
Mathieu van der Poel survives spectator scare to win X²O Badkamers Trofee Azencross - Loenhout as man led away by police, but Dutchman "didn't feel like it was intentional"
On the course, Mathieu van der Poel won this afternoon’s X²O Badkamers Trofee Azencross – Loenhout, a gutting puncture for Wout van Aert the key moment in deciding the action. The Belgian’s day got worse, a second flat subsequently ending his podium hopes too, but by that time his great rival Van der Poel was easing towards another major cyclocross victory.
Can anyone stop Mathieu van der Poel? ?
The word champion takes his 18th win in a row with victory in Loenhout ? pic.twitter.com/bGZ8xF7VTv
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) December 29, 2025
However, once again one of the big talking points was fan behaviour, Van der Poel somehow avoiding a crash early on in the race after a spectator appeared to make contact with the drops of his bike.
Not cool! ❌
Mathieu van der Poel lead the X2O Trofee in Loenhout despite this fan making contact! pic.twitter.com/8E27XvLt7H
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) December 29, 2025
Belgian broadcaster Sporza has since reported that the spectator was led away by police and the event’s organisers wish to press charges.
However, despite the near disaster, Van der Poel was quite measured in his post-race comments and said he “didn’t feel like it was intentional”.
“People are often so enthusiastic that they forget there are other riders coming,” he added. “I was very lucky, though. He touched my handlebars on a straight — I barely managed to stay upright.”
London Naked Bike Ride hires more security due to increased "hostility" towards nude cyclists
> London Naked Bike Ride hires more security due to increased “hostility” towards nude cyclists
"Physically it's manageable, mentally it's relentless": Cycling the entire Festive 500 in one ride... around a McDonald's drive-through?!
Because nothing says Christmas like riding 500km around a fast food drive-through to complete a festive cycling challenge…
Matthew Fairbrother — an enduro racer who in 2022 bikepacked 1,500km from one event in Scotland to another in Slovenia and loves a long-distance challenge — has ticked off another big day out, this time completing the Festive 500 in one ride at home in New Zealand… by riding laps of a McDonald’s drive-through…
“Physically it’s manageable, mentally it’s relentless,” he told his followers on Instagram afterwards.
In the end he did 503km although some people have pointed out something appears to have gone wrong with the elevation of the activity, unless you really can rack up 2,000m of climbing via drive-through speed bumps. The GPS is miraculously clean given the length and monotony of riding 500km around the same small loop.
“My life is usually built around goals, purpose, and process,” Fairbrother explained. “Big projects with a thousand moving parts; logistics, terrain, weather, risk, timelines and always needing to think five steps ahead.
“Every now and then it’s nice to strip all of that back and do something purely for the sake of it. With no meaning, no destination to reach. Just turning up and letting my stubbornness do the work. What makes a challenge like this weirdly appealing is the simplicity. Physically it’s manageable, mentally it’s relentless. The same loop, the same sights and a million different thoughts, keeping the peace becomes the real challenge.
“Somewhere within the stupidity is a controlled space to test patience, self-talk, boredom, and resilience. Skills I’ll need when the stakes actually matter and the consequences are real.”
In total, Matthew was on the bike for just over 20 hours, the elapsed time including breaks three minutes shy of an entire 24 hours, even at a 24.6km/h average speed. Bonkers.
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Latest Comments
Really? Even if we allow that it's five days, rather than a full week, it's only averaging 37.5 miles a day. Taking out his imperial century leaves him an average of a whopping, er, 22 miles to do on the other four days.
@tomlew I think Terry's reply is a bit more sensible than yours. It's easy to make any light look like that with the right camera settings and a long enough exposure time. Suggesting it has to be photoshopped to achieve that effect suggests a poor understanding of how cameras can be used. As for the colours... the grass is green, the tree bark is brown... *shrug*. White balance setting on the camera can affect colours too, do you consider that "tweaking"? You have to choose a white balance, you can't take a photo without the white balance set.
@OnYerBike for sure, there's congestion and ULEZ zones, but I don't remember any "investigative journalism expose's" looking into the inexorable rise of the motor vehicle and it's detrimental effect on society. There have however, been multiple "war on motorist" and "parking wars" style programmes...with a string emphasis on how hard done by, the motorists are. Having said that, I find it baffling that dockless schemes were allowed to go ahead - especially as the "Boris bikes" weren't.
@Boopop The correct question is: What makes you think the world actually looks like in that photo? Can't you really see how distorted the contrast is, how badly unreal the colours are, how unbelievably white anything illuminated is etc.? Either the photo was doctored or it was taken to present a VERY distorted picture. Either way, they knew exactly what was getting published and sorry, but with professional marketers and multi-million budgets I just don't believe in innocent ignorance. And I do feel responsible to spot such obvious BS.
So they're unsuitable for gravel, simple as that. A gravel wheelset that can only take champagne gravel and an official system weight limit of 100 kg is in my book a road wheelset. At best. As seen, if the force is relatively high, even a 72 kg system weight will wreck the rim. Who hasn't ever dinged a rock or made a mistake while selecting a line and hit something with a bone-jarring thud? You want your rims to survive that. What's a 100, 200, 300 gram weight saving worth if it costs you the race or worse, you end up in hospital? Thanks for the fair review and the warning!
@tomlew That was my first thought but we don't know the effective ISO, f-stop, or exposure time. It is a meaningless photo without that information. The real test is how many drivers flash their brights at you :-)
@BroomBroomBroom "These are profit-seeking enterprises taking over pavements..." Aren't they currently seeking profits in the sense of "not making any yet"? I think the issue is that mass public cycle hire schemes don't even cover their costs from the actual users. (High costs because relatively fragile, portable property, and an "attractive nuisance" for youth. Low income because they're competing with "free" - many people have access to bikes and/or feel that bike stuff should be very cheap). So they need things like council funding, advertising etc. That can be an issue because - unless the money is from the local authority - their motivation is not particularly aligned with the cyclists OR the locality. And worse - in these cases doesn't much of the money still come from venture capital? So I don't think they're necessarily great. But as the article notes - two things can be true. I bet a *far* greater acreage of footway is in fact covered by the products of profit-seeking enterprises. That is vehicles which are definitely illegal there*, completely immovable when stopped, more dangerous when moving. * Oh sorry, it's only illegal in practice when you've got a policemen or two there to witness them being driven there and they're bothered - and they'd probably get in trouble with their boss if they did.
Make sure you put the soft side of the velcro straps against the paint. Get it wrong and you'll have a lasting reminder on your top tube...
@riggbeck I'm a skinny 5'10" and go for Small in Sportful and Lusso (if anything the Lusso straps were a bit too long and loose)
I enjoyed the cyclist apparently riding through a red light on camera (5:19) and, for a bit of BBC balance, the police van parked on the pavement (4:35).
6 thoughts on ““Physically it’s manageable, mentally it’s relentless”: Cycling the entire Festive 500 in one ride… around a McDonald’s drive-through?!; Weirdest place to Zwift; Could £11bn power station proposal benefit cycling? + more on the live blog”
A McNugget from the window
A McNugget from the window every lap?
Fix a selection of dipping
Fix a selection of dipping sauces on your stem. Wouldn’t that be bloody marvelous?
I’ve noticed that Strava has
I’ve noticed that Strava has started messing up the elevation for rides imported from Garmin connect. Maybe something like that happened? You can fix it by selecting the option from the menu on the Strava activity page.
Not so much messes up as
Not so much messes up as never wholly reliable in the first place. Its a barometric pressure altimeter which is never calibrated to the weather system you’re riding in. I did a ride last week that started at -300ft and never went above sea level allegedly . The Strava fix just forces a measured known altitude to your track.
United Utilities and
United Utilities and Westmorland and Furness Council explained they had never heard of project management methodology and feasibility studies until the cycling/walking pathway was completed.
Got a similar height error on
Got a similar height error on Saturday 27th December. It seems to have started me at about 200m below true height at -197m and credited me with immediately climbing 200m, all exported to Strava. Maybe it’s Edge 1040 beta 30.11, but Strava corrected it, presumably from the map, into a reasonable elevation graphic. However, it still left me with Garmin’s reported elevation gain of 693 instead of the more believable 490 or so