“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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@Rendel Harris 2 mins on google, "Vandeman's legal counsel negotiated a plea bargain. He pleaded guilty/no contest to reduced misdemeanor charges to avoid a full jury verdict, resulting in a sentence of probation, mandated community service, and a formal restraining order barring him from the parks" "Official trial details and plea negotiations are documented in mainstream journalism following the prosecution of Michael J. Vandeman on six criminal counts of assault, battery, and vandalism. Formal requests for official court minutes and dockets can be submitted through the Alameda County Superior Court." A lot of the info online is via MTB press and he would say that's biased, but his claim that all charges were dismissed does not fit with a number of reports. I doubt the media would report on a court case and present an untrue outcome - instead they all present the same. And that's my last post on all this, because Mike is a troll with more energy for it than anyone would think is normal. He's been banned from most sites.
Hi-vis vest you say? That's a cunning strategy - will throw the law of the scent! Next you'll say he had no face covering and was wearing a helmet... Local police are clearly longing for the simpler days when the criminal element wore stripy ex-prison uniforms and carried a large sack marked "swag". Perhaps they could arrange to issue them with tabards marked with the main line of business of the offender? "Twocker", "dealer" etc?
Actually, I'm getting the feeling that you might share the conservation perspective jokingly suggested by the late Duke of Edinburgh when asked what he could do: "I'd like to be reincarnated as some kind of deadly virus".
A good point! I suggest first limiting motor vehicles in the countryside as they extend the human footprint massively (vastly more than bikes). And they are the main way those bikes get into the wild. Additionally roads are terrible for wildlife on many grounds. Not least because they encourage "development" eg. housing and businesses...
@Terry Hutt Shurely the commute *to* work would be great... it's just the return that's the challenge? Going to guess that eg. public transport is not an option for that, particularly where you are? Transport in the countryside is extremely hit and miss even in the UK.
"mountain bikers refuse to address or end their lawbreaking." SOME mountain bikers do ride on paths that they don't have inherent rights to use and some do build jumps where they shouldn't. That's just people and it happens across every aspect of life. Still, that's some emotionally-charged adversarial rhetoric you're coming out with (giving you the benefit of the doubt - most would call it trolling). It's entrenched and ignores causes to generalise for effect - to polarise, mainly. If your aim was conflict resolution it's a poor effort. If your aims were to show how negative MTBing is you'd need to be more credible in your sources and presentation. You haven't changed.
As it happens, I visited a local park on Sunday and saw a drug dealer in action. He was kitted out in a high viz vest and on an illegal e-bike. The thing is that having spotted him once I subsequently saw him again and he seemed to be utilising the roads very well to get around. He is no doubt a local advocate for installation of cycle lanes to help him and his growing business....
@leedorney Please explain how pedal stack height affects crank length. A higher stack height will make the foot position higher at the base of the stroke, but also at the top, so the circle will still have the same radius. Or, am I missing something?
A sneak peek at something interesting.
I saw a truck driver plough into pedestrians on the pavement having waded through hundreds of dash and bike cam footage, so this fact is overwhelmingly true, that HGV drivers do not use the roads. 🤦
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