Latest addition to ‘Can you carry it by bike?’: Mattresses (you might need a cycling mate); Vingegaard will “decide for himself” if he’s going to Tour de France, says Visma-Lease a Bike DS; Why cyclists don’t use the cycle lane + more on the live blog

After yesterday’s top story of former Chelsea and Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard, who hung up his football boots last year only to don the jersey of Intermarché-Wanty (his favourite team, allegedly) and climbed Mont Ventoux, we can now confirm that he, along with his brothers, completed the feat via the easier Sault route from the east side, with an average gradient of 4.4 per cent.

Eden Hazard climbs Mont Ventoux 🤩🚴

Watch the football superstar conquer the mythical mountain with his CUBE bike 💪 pic.twitter.com/npfAstRg7l

— Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) June 3, 2024

> New domestique in the peloton or just a post-Real Madrid hobby? Eden Hazard climbs Mont Ventoux wearing Intermarché’s jersey

When cyclists tell you someone is an arsehole, believe them. https://t.co/icSWJVp3vJ

— Harry (@Harry_is_human) June 3, 2024

“Why cyclists don’t use cycle lanes”, reason number 362 🤦 https://t.co/TFmlPKIGPn

— Shez (@Sh3zz4) June 3, 2024

After yesterday’s news that two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard was left out of the Denmark cycling squad going to Paris Olympics, along with some uncertainty over his Tour de France ambitions, an ever darker shadow has now been cast on the reigning champion’s chances of being there at the Grand Départ at Florence on 29 June.

The 27-year-old cyclist had started the season in fine form, winning two stage races, O Gran Camiño and the Tirreno-Adriatico, but was last seen in action at the Tour of the Basque Country, where he suffered serious injuries, including multiple fractures in the horror crash which also involved many other top riders such as Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič.

> Jonas Vingegaard left out of Denmark’s 2024 Paris Olympic squad, as Tour de France selection also hangs in the balance

Visma-Lease a Bike’s sportive director Merijn Zeeman has said that whether Vingegaard will go to the Tour or not is going to be his decision. In fact, the team is relying so heavily on Vingegaard that they are ready to wait until the last week for him to make the decision and subsequently announce their team.

The Dutch DS who’s served in this role since 2012 and will be leaving the team at the end of this season to become the CEO of football club AZ Alkmaar, told Wielerrevue: “Ultimately, the point is that in the last weeks of preparation during the altitude training camp in Tignes, he must be completely available for everything we do with the Tour team.

“He must be able to perform the toughest endurance training; the intensity, the intervals, the long endurance rides. A rider who may not be at his own top level, but who is ready for it both physically and mentally. He has to be looking forward to it and have the feeling: I am completely back and can fight with the best for three weeks. If that is not the case, Jonas cannot ride.”

Zeeman noted that Vingegaard has been training in the French Alps with his teammates Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert, who’s also recovering from his own injuries sustained in the nasty crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

He continued: “Jonas will decide for himself whether or not he will go to the Tour. He has to feel for himself whether he is completely ready for it in all respects and whether he is the old Jonas again. The choice is his. We will never force a rider to take a to compete.

“I don’t think that decision can be made until a week before the start of the Tour. We do not have another rider of his level and with his characteristics in the team. Jonas is so extremely talented that he can grow to a high level very quickly if he is taxable. That means he has a special place for us and we will indeed be waiting for a long time.”

I mean, it’s only fair isn’t it? Ineos has been relying on the Dogma F line from Pinarello since 2014, back in its Sky days, and as is the case with many manufacturers, the Italian bike brand likes to keep its latest and greatest models hush and under the wraps.

However, our role as cycling journalists is to bring you any sneak peeks we can get under those wraps, and when Jamie did manage to get a cheeky look at the new Pinarello Dogma F, sat atop one of Ineos’ team cars, he was privy to a very interesting encounter with the Ineos staff, who told him and the rest of our video team to immediately stop recording — not just the new model, but also the old one!

> Ineos Grenadiers race new Pinarello Dogma at Dauphiné

Which has brought together a collection of some very pressing questions in our YouTube comments. “Ridiculous. Why would you put the secret uncovered bike on the roof rack and ALSO ride it in a filmed race!?! What a shit show,” wrote one person, while another said: “Don’t get what the fuss is about with the filming, you’re in a public space so nothing wrong with that. Tell the team to tell the tv cameras not to film any Ineos rider throughout the race then.”

Indeed, as another person mentioned, I don’t think they can stop anyone from filming on a public road? Meanwhile, pointing out at the heftier, bulkier bottom bracket that can be seen in the new Dogma F, one person wrote: “Maybe there’s a hidden motor in that bulging bottom bracket hence no cameras allowed…”

I guess we can rule that out as the team hasn’t been anywhere near winning many races recently…

So if you want to check out Jamie’s video and the new Pinarello Dogma F in detail, well, as much we were allowed, you can watch it here.

An investigation is underway into a collision which saw two cyclists taken to hospital, one of the riders in a critical condition, after emergency services were called to a crash involving the two people on bikes and an Audi being driven on the M9 in Scotland.

> Cyclist in critical condition after collision on major motorway, second cyclist also taken to hospital

Trek is set to launch a new road bike that was ridden to victory on its debut outing by Lidl-Trek’s Mads Petersen in the Dauphiné yesterday, but what is this new bike that appears to say both ‘Madone’ and ‘Emonda’ on the top tube, and what do we know about it so far? And let us know your predictions for what the bike will be eventually called!

> Trek’s new road bike: what is it and what do we know so far?

A cyclist from Surrey has raised the alarm after being violently attacked by masked thugs on motorbikes while using a segregated cycling route near Box Hill, the rider suffering broken bones and a punctured lung when he was aggressively shoved from his bike on Wednesday evening.

> Police release image of suspects accused of violent attack on cyclist near Box Hill which left victim seriously injured with punctured lung when masked thugs on motorbike pushed him off popular cycle path

A British professional cyclist set to compete at the Tour of Britain Women which begins this week will not be racing after suffering injuries when she was hit by an impatient driver who tried to overtake at “high speed” on a blind bend in a narrow country lane.

Kate Richardson, who rides for Lifeplus Wahoo and won last month’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, shared the news on Instagram where she recalled the incident that is now being investigated by the police. According to her Strava, she had been training near Holmfirth in Yorkshire yesterday morning when she was hit by the motorist and suffered a refractured scapula, road rash and an “incredibly bruised and swollen right hip”.

Read more: > British cyclist to miss Tour of Britain after being hit by driver who tried to “squeeze huge 4×4 past at high speed” on country lane blind bend before returning to “verbally abuse and threaten” female rider

Israel-Premier Tech’s Derek Gee has won his first WorldTour race as he pulled one last surge out of his legs to pip Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire and claim bragging rights at the third stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

With 400 metres to go, Gee was the first one in the peloton to react as he launched an attack on his own, which was followed by no one else but Grégoire who got past him and tried to turn his chase into a runaway win. But the 26-year-old Canadian doggedly stayed with him and in the final moments pulled one last attack out of his bag to get past Grégoire.

Wow, what a battle between Derek Gee and Romain Gregoire! The Giro Hero Derek takes the W, first pro win outside of the nationals and WT win right away! #Dauphine pic.twitter.com/HOm4Gulmde

— Eemeli (@LosBrolin) June 4, 2024

Leave it to the Dutch to find the most innovative ways to transport seemingly impossible things by this wonderful thing called the bike. And just like that, we have a new addition to our series of ‘Can you carry it by bike?’.

This video shared shared by Sikkom, a Twitter account based in the Dutch city of Groningen, shows two cyclists — apparently students — finding a superb way of carrying a mattress back home by resting it over their heads and holding it from the edges.

💚Groningen en het studentenleven

Eem een matrasje vervoeren op z’n Gronings. Inclusief stukje tegen het verkeer in. Kan alleen in Stad. pic.twitter.com/zNYjD7vFUO

— Sikkom (@Sikkom050) June 3, 2024

“Groningen and student life… Transport a mattress the Groningen way,” the account wrote.

A person replied under the video saying that they saw two cyclists carry a sofa in a similar way as well, maybe there’s something to learn over here?

This adds mattress to a long list of objects that you’d consider almost impossible to carry on a bike, including a fridge, a television set, gas cannister, watermelon, wachine machine, even a Specialized MTB! Or if you’d take a page out of Simon’s book, you can hire a cargo bike and get a big old chest of drawer all the way across London.

In fact, ferrying big loads using cargo bikes — something we are big fans of here at road.cc — has already become something of a common occurrence in the capital, and has even received backing from Transport for London (TfL).

> “But tradespeople can’t carry their stuff around by bike” – oh yes they can! How cargo bikes are changing the way people work

“Cargo bikes support the Mayor’s ambition for London to reach net zero carbon by 2030 and contribute to the wider ambitions of having healthier, safer streets as set out in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy,” TfL said in its Cargo Bike Action Plan published in March last year.

Major companies including Amazon and DHL now use cargo bikes for last-mile fulfilment in the city, but independent traders are also increasingly turning to them as a means of transporting themselves and the tools of their trade around the capital, with Cargo Revolution highlighting several case studies.

So, have you carried something unusual on a bike that’s drawn a look or two from passerby? And if yes, then feel free to share with us what was the object in the comments.

Japan 1935, koloriert: #carryshitolympics

Quelle: https://t.co/mNBHLEeAGy pic.twitter.com/9mQdCb0ySG

— Jota Pluralis (@Llusafin) April 12, 2023

But you can’t move a two seater sofa on a bike…. #tern #gsd #terngsd #betterbybike #leavethecarathome #bikelife #ebike #cargobike #cargobikesofinstagram #bosch #cargoline #deepcar #sheffield pic.twitter.com/myjjKXFZ3a

— Wanton and furious cycling (@Twisted_Fish90) April 14, 2023

You can’t carry a washing machine on a bicycl… Oh.

Spotted in #Oxford #quaxing #carryshitolympics pic.twitter.com/4YS5A9hWPP

— Cllr Emily Kerr 💚 (@EmilyKerr36) September 13, 2023