“Every. Last. Drop…”: Bike shop mechanics stunned by cyclist’s “toothless wonder” jockey wheels that should have been binned months ago; Pogačar has “blacklist” of riders he’s “not so fond of”, Tour de France teammate reveals + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Tadej Pogačar has "blacklist" of riders he's "not so fond of", Tour de France teammate reveals
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
In comments made to the Schlag & Fertig podcast (and first reported by Cyclinguptodate), UAE Team Emirates’ Nils Politt revealed the team has a “blacklist” of riders they don’t like.
“Tadej and Remco like each other, both on and off the bike. They are friends, which isn’t the case with Vingegaard. Tadej and Jonas respect each other but don’t necessarily like each other,” the German said. “In the peloton, you have friends and riders you’re not so fond of. On our team bus, there’s also a list of riders who are friends and a blacklist. You don’t want to be on that list.”
Politt also spoke about his teammates times on the Tour’s big climbs, namely going faster than Marco Pantani: “You can’t really compare that any more. Our bikes are now 6.8kg, back then they were 9kg. All our equipment is tested to ensure it’s the fastest: helmets, socks, base layers… That wasn’t the case before.
“People don’t realise what we do for it and that what happened in the past is really no longer possible. We have to be available for doping checks literally all day long, and in the Tour, Tadej was tested every day and sometimes even twice a day. They would come into the bus before a stage, where he had to provide a sample. An intrusion into privacy. But the questions are part of it, and we know that too.”
In one final paragraph of punchy quotes, Politt spoke about Primož Roglič and his crash woes, suggesting “there are crashes of his that make us all wonder what he’s doing”.
“He’s ridden the Tour six times and has crashed out three times,” the former Bora-Hansgrohe rider said. “His crashes are, of course, widely covered, and there wasn’t much he could do about this one in the Tour. But there are crashes of his that make us all wonder what he’s doing. In that second week, 160 riders passed through that corner without any issues, and he crashes.”
Talking of Nils Politt... From Deux Moulins to Dumoulin: Pro cycling's most iconic toilet stops
> From Deux Moulins to Dumoulin: Pro cycling’s most iconic toilet stops
If it's not on Strava...
GB win gold and break world records on night one of track cycling action at the Paris Olympics
[Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com]
An incredible start to the Olympic track cycling for Team GB in Paris, Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane winning gold in the women’s team sprint and breaking the world record three times at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.
The men’s team sprint trio of Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin clocked the second fastest time of the evening behind the defending champions from the Netherlands, as the GB boys progressed from the qualifying heats and will hope to win a medal later today.
There was team pursuit action too, Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood, Dan Bigham and Ethan Hayter setting the second fastest time, behind Australia, going into today’s first round. The women’s team pursuit squad gets its campaign underway later too, the action starting at 4pm BST.
Last night was all about the women’s team sprint, however, Finucane telling British Cycling it was “insane” to execute three perfect world record-breaking rides on route to gold.
She said: “We nailed that final, and I believed in us. Before we went up, I knew we could do it, but to actually execute lap one, lap two, lap three pretty much perfectly is insane. To cross the line first, I was like ‘no way’. It’s a dream come true, and I’ve dreamed about this since I was 10 years old. To have these two by my side has been unreal.”
Capewell spoke afterwards about her own “personal battles” and said she wished her dad “was up in the stands watching it” but “I know he would be super proud of me”.
“It’s not felt real all day,” she added, Marchant saying she has “no words” about the “phenomenal” achievement. Chapeau!
Dave Walker’s latest work may or may not be helpful, depending on how new you are to this cycling really fast in a circle business…
"I made it to the finish line last but believe me, I was the happiest person on this planet": Uganda's Charles Kagimu reflects on Olympic road race
[Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com]
A little over half an hour after Remco Evenepoel had soloed to the base of the Eiffel Tower, dismounted and posed for one of cycling’s greatest ever victory salutes, the final athlete to complete Saturday’s Olympic Games road race crossed the line. But this is not a sad story, Uganda’s Charles Kagimu calling himself “the happiest person on this planet” having finished the race in a week when he was ill and went into knowing it would be “a horrible day on the bike”.
“My only goal last Monday was to make it to the start line and in a better health condition,” he wrote on social media. “I knew it would be a horrible day on the bike but I didn’t care about all that at all, I just wanted to go into this race and enjoy the experience fully. Fast forward… I made it in the breakaway straight from the start and that was something really cool to do for me and almost 7hrs later from the start, I made it to the finish line last but believe me, I was the happiest person on this planet the moment I crossed that finish line.
The Olympics road race;
An epic bike race I will never forget in my life time.
Went into the race week with sickness and my only goal last Monday was to make it to the start line and in a better health condition. I knew it would be a horrible day on the bike but
1/ pic.twitter.com/rEKO6SZYKr— Charles Kagimu (@kagimu_charles) August 5, 2024
“It was a great life experience to race in Paris and I’m proud to have represented my country out there. This is something very helpful to me and aligns well with my goals of inspiring people in whichever they do.”
And while Kagimu was the last rider to finish the race, the DNF list included Tour de France stage winners Elia Viviani and Matej Mohorič, as well as one of Tadej Pogačar’s trusted domestiques Domen Novak.
"We have sadly raced our last race": British cycling team who had 14 bikes stolen at Tour of Britain collapses, two months after overnight raid described as "absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team on a stretched budget"
"Further units may be required and installed subject to demand and available budget": 500 bike hangars to be installed in Glasgow
[📷: Similar Cyclehoop shelter design as seen in London]
News from Scotland next, where the Glasgow Times reports 500 bike hangars are to be installed as the council spends its £2.5million budget for increasing the city’s cycle storage options for people who may not have space to store a bike in their accommodation.
Around 200 units were installed during a 2021 pilot, a 96 per cent take-up rate and 3,000-strong waiting list following. Now, £2.5m will be spent trying to meet demand. With each hangar providing storage for six bicycles, the 500 will provide a total of 3,000 spaces available for residents to rent.
Mairi Miller, the council’s director of legal and administration has reportedly said that further units “may be required and installed subject to demand and available budget”.
Royal approval for GB's team sprint
☑️ World Record
☑️ Olympic Gold
☑️ A first for @TeamGBA huge congratulations to @EmmaFinucane123, @SophieECapewell and @katymarch from your very proud Patron!
🚴♀️ @BritishCycling | @Paris2024 | @Olympics pic.twitter.com/9CCPqjyB4B
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) August 6, 2024
"Nasty and unsafe" road plans that will force cyclists to use backstreets "overrun" with lorries referred to Active Travel England, as councillors slam "compromise" scheme that sees drivers "not losing out in any way"
Nairo Quintana bloodied in Vuelta a Burgos crash
Concerning scenes at the Vuelta a Burgos this afternoon, a touch of wheels right at the front of the peloton bringing numerous riders down. Nairo Quintana was one of them, his team sharing footage of the Colombian continuing with some nasty road rash.
🟣⚪️ #VueltaBurgos
Por si necesitan prueba de que @NairoQuinCo y los ciclistas profesionales son todos unos berracos.
🎥 @rtveplay pic.twitter.com/uz6LN73iZB
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) August 6, 2024
Fuming former Conservative MP says cyclists "must dismount" on paths and slams "dangerous, irresponsible, and unnecessary" decision to protect cyclists with bollards on busy road – weeks after calling for all bikes to have number plates
"Every. Last. Drop...": Bike shop mechanics stunned by cyclist's "toothless wonder" jockey wheels that should have been binned months ago
Pain…
This jockey wheel set-up was dubbed the “toothless wonder” by the good folks over at Trench Tales, the absolute best Instagram account for seeing the horrendous crimes people commit against bicycles.
I’m pretty sure it was road.cc regular Jo who first made me aware of this gold mine for mechanical misfortune (he’s always got good suggestions, so it wouldn’t surprise me), but since that glorious day I’ve enjoyed images of salt-corroded handlebars, rusty chains and impossibly worn tyres on my timeline, all making me feel much better about the state of my steed.
Enough rambling, back to the “toothless wonder”…
Quite stunning levels of commitment to getting every single last mile possible out of that jockey/pulley wheel (whatever your naming preference). We’re genuinely so interested to see that set-up with a chain on to try to understand how it worked…
A fellow Trench Tales enthusiast on Insta replied to the post with a comment that made us chuckle: “Here, just use this chocolate cookie as a derailleur pulley.”
Bit harsh on the structural integrity of a cookie, to be honest…
In an era of oversized pulley wheels, perhaps this is where the tech might go next? Super-light, minimalist jockey plates, allowing a smooth, at times non-existent passage of chain through derailleur cage… hmmm, okay, probably not.
Anyway, it’s all a great excuse to bring back the greatest hits of bike abuse we’ve ever seen on the live blog, starting with the rust-ridden “tetanus express” that no amount of WD-40 could cure.
Where to next? I know, the battered “single speed… maybe with multiple cadence options” that Trench Tales were too afraid to see if it still worked.
We have to give an honourable mention to the impossibly worn tyre too… the one that apparently earned the bike’s owner a standing ovation from shop staff when they only came in “for a tube”.
During the creation of your “toothless wonder” you have to go through the “sharp stage”…
You feel better about the state of your bike now, at least, don’t you?
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Latest Comments
@chrisonabike wrote "* The fact that most speed limits don’t directly apply to cyclists isn’t well known and might seem unfair to many people." I think you are correct to use "directly" here. One of the examples for prosecuting cyclists for "Causing injury by wanton or furious driving" is exceeding the speed limit. All roads have a speed limit and it seems to me exceeding it leaves a cyclist open to prosecution should anything go wrong. Another example is racing.
@Krislord "I feel it’s on the cyclist to ensure he leaves the cycle lane safely or waits until the bus has moved on." The basic problem here is having a bus stop in the so called "cycle lane". The safer thing to do is wait till the bus moves off and follow it. This is obviously very inconvenient and time wasting but it does provide a less confident cyclist with a relatively safe option. More confident cyclists should be able to use the road in this situation without constant abuse from irate car drivers. "We can’t expect every cycle lane to be 3M wide and away from cars." Yes we can and we should. This is yet another example where poor infrastructure can be worse than no infrastructure at all.
Wow. I feel like an idiot. It turns out that not only does plastic come in colours, but somebody already invented a retro-reflective material. They've even made both these innovations available in traffic lane dividers. Then they've gone one step further and put a flexible bright and reflective pole on top. What a time to be alive!
It's unfortunate that plastics are only available in black. Otherwise it would be logical to use yellow or orange. Also a shame that there's nothing like some sort of retro-reflective material that could be placed on them. Something that works a bit like how a cat's eye does with a torch.
From what I can work out, he left the cycle path due to an obstruction, but in doing so hit the divider. If he’d crashed into the kerb would he also complain? I feel it’s on the cyclist to ensure he leaves the cycle lane safely or waits until the bus has moved on. As cyclists we seem to hate cycle lanes that are just painted on the road, and also hate them if they put a divider like this. We can’t expect every cycle lane to be 3M wide and away from cars.
@Mr Blackbird Do speed limits apply to bicycles?
@AidanR Indeed; they make it sound like it was designed to fuck him up. He could add that to the charge sheet. We all know that if it a similar divider was present in a car lane it would have been painted in yellow and black stripes and covered in reflectors.
I'm a little confused by your analogies. None of us would have sympathy with driver hitting a cyclist in the cycle lane and blaming barely visible lane dividers, because they should have seen *the cyclist*. Compensation claims for injury on hitting dangerous potholes are paid out when it is shown that the council are aware of their existence but didn't fix them. Why should this be any different?
If, as the inventors claim, accuracy is questionable above an FTP of 280, how many truly serious cyclists are going to be interested?
Some fast off road paths / circuits would be Utopia. With regard to 30mph limits and 20 mph limits in the villages in question, road surface, incline and bends mean that 30 mph would be unachievable and competitors are obliged to follow the rules of the road and cycle at a speed suitable for the conditions. I guess this last point, coupled with speed limits not applying to cyclists covers off the case where a course has a fast downhill section through a 30mph zone. CTT are stricter on 20 mph because it is far more likely to be exceeded in an event and because the zones are more likely to have chicanes, road narrowing etc, making racing so much more dangerous.
22 thoughts on ““Every. Last. Drop…”: Bike shop mechanics stunned by cyclist’s “toothless wonder” jockey wheels that should have been binned months ago; Pogačar has “blacklist” of riders he’s “not so fond of”, Tour de France teammate reveals + more on the live blog”
Jockey wheels were originally
Jockey wheels were originally toothless if I remember correctly.
Struggling to see why teeth
Struggling to see why teeth in a jockey wheel would reduce friction or otherwise aid function – alignment maybe?
Without the teeth there’d be
Without the teeth there’d be a chance of the chain slipping over the wheel which would wear a groove in the chain rather than the wheel rotating on a bearing that’s designed for it.
The_Ewan wrote:
hard to believe a plastic wheel will significantly wear the metal chain. after all the chain has obviously worn the jockey wheel to get to this point
The chain uses these teeth to
The chain uses these teeth to turn. If they are not there, the chain is just slipping over a wheel which may turn but at the same time drags over it too which = friction/resistance.
Also, if the chain is dragging it’s likely to introduce dirt into the chain as it tears apart the plastic it’s moving over. A wheel moving smoothly is always going to offer less resistance.
Well, if the chain actually
Well, if the chain actually starts slipping over the jockey wheel, then I’d say that’s because the uses less energy than to have it turn those wheel. Otherwise it would just keep turning those jockey weheels.
Anyway, only the top jockey wheel has to have teeth, as it is the wheel that guides the chain sideways when you are shifting.
I suspect the problem is that
I suspect the problem is that the chain could slip sideways off the jockey wheel and become jammed. The teeth prevent this happening.
Yes and no. There were
Yes and no. There were experiments with both types of jockey wheels on early cage type derailleurs. The most common setup, and the best performing, used a toothed wheel for the guide or top pulley, and a toothless wheel on the tension. The toothed wheel at the top kept the chain in a consistent position – selecting gears with friction without it was much harder.
I have a 1949 Claud Butler with an earlier model of the Cyclo “Benelux” 4 speed derailleur as pictured below. This was one of the earliest designs to move away from the original rod derailleur with which you had to back pedal to change gear.
And both jockey wheels are
And both jockey wheels are aluminium, by the way, not plastic. If the cup-and-cone bearings (which are tiny) get clogged and even partly sieze, the wheel won’t rotate and the chain will start to slide over them. It would start to damage a chain.
It’s easy to forget that jockey wheels see the most rotation under tension than any other drivetrain component. Always in contact with the chain no matter what gear you are in, and rotate more times than anything else. The only thing they aren’t subject to is the drivetrain load – the forces you apply to it when riding. They get a lot of abuse for a part that often gets ignored during maintenance.
Yeah my 1976 Raleigh Record
Yeah my 1976 Raleigh Record still has toothless jockey wheels on its Huret derailleur. They work fine
That tyre doesn’t look so
That tyre doesn’t look so much worn, as left in the shed a few years to perish.
Quote:
…depending on whether you’re trying to understand the Omnium, in which case it’s about 8 years out of date.
[To be fair to Dave Walker, it’s not his ‘latest work’ – it appears in the Cycling Cartoonist book, published 2017, just after the format was changed (and presumably too late to redo the cartoon.]
One wonders what Pogacar
One wonders what Pogacar thinks of Politt’s comments, to me it makes the team sound a bit primary-school-level childish, these people are in our gang but we don’t like those people…just a simple “there are some riders you’re friendly with, others you don’t know so well but you respect, and a few who maybe you’re not so fond of…” might have been more politic?
It gets clicks.
It gets clicks.
Suspect it’s been lost in
Suspect it’s been lost in translation, and no more than list of riders who the team can rely on to help work with them in breaks, climbs, control a stage etc and those they can’t.
The full screen splash ads
The full screen splash ads are rendering this site unusable
Use an ad blocker. It’s
Use an ad blocker. It’s stupid for sites to destroy themselves with too many ads some ads are OK but when they go too far it’s time to install the blocker.
If you’re using firefox, have a look at ghostery – it does a good job of getting rid of those annoying cookie popups too. I don’t know how well it works on other browsers – I’m in a microsoft/apple/chrome free zone.
Firefox private window – no
Firefox private window – no popups
Just looked up Trench Tales
Just looked up Trench Tales Instagram. Pure nightmare fuel. The half-cantilever-half V-brake? Nope.
Matthew Acton-Varian wrote:
It took me a couple of looks to realise that was what I was looking at.
“Well, its all bike brakes so it must be the same, innit?”
I can understand why someone
I can understand why someone with no prior experience of bike brakes (and doesn’t have any advanced maths qualifications) wouldn’t understand at all. It isn’t obvious at first glance as well, but once you know, you won’t want to ride it.
I really enjoyed the writing
I really enjoyed the writing and different take from the frothingly hate filled anti cycling guardian…
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/article/2024/aug/03/cycling-mens-road-race-paris-olympics-2024-montmartre-remco-evenepoel