“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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22 Comments
Latest Comments
I’d say that colour was more like fuchsia (and coming soon to a Rapha Pro Team jacket near you).
@yodhrin I believe the fairer summary is "we don't know - but making the main point advocating a form of PPE with relatively limited protection - and to a group of likely experienced cyclists - isn't very helpful..." I've only read one of the reports but that suggested the skull removal was to alleviate pressure from major brain swelling. And a given helmet *might* be better than the standard. So I think "don't know" is fairest.
@robgodd The poor guy himself suffered a traumatic brain injury and his skull was so badly shattered a significant portion of it had to be removed - do me a favour, have a look around cycling helmet manufacturers and see if any of them claim the foam hats they produce will protect against or even mitigate that level of injury. I'll wait if you like, but I can save us both the time and tell you what you'll find: none of them. Not a single one of them will. Because they don't, and they *can't* based on simple physics. Once the point of failure in a material is reached all(or as near as makes no odds) of the additional force beyond that necessary threshhold transfers through to the object beneath. Since bicycle helmets are rated for forces roughly equivalent to being dropped straight down from a stationary start 1.5m above a hard surface. Now, I'm not an expert in vehicle crash investigation, but I'm *fairly* sure that any impact or series of impacts powerful enough to render a quarder of your skull into gravel, put you in a weeks-long coma, give you massive amnesia, and leave you with ongoing symptoms of traumatic brain injury are a little bit, a teeny-weeny amount, a little smidgeon-widgeon more than what bike helmets are rated for. That's why none of the companies that make them claim they will help in such circumstances: because they know it would be a lie, and that unlike uninformed punters, carbrained journalists, or "medical professionals" who think wearing a helmet would save you from a broken arm(an actual scenario encountered by a mate, who's nurse at the A&E tutted and harrumphed her way through his whole treatment due to his lack of helmet despite his bonce having come through *being hit by a car* - another scenario bike helmets are worthless in - completely unscathed), the lawyers for those companies know their business and understand that if you lie in advertising you will get sued into the ground.
The Battle of Ypres April 1915. The German infantry division advanced using das Brumptstadt Fahrarden. The slow speed kept them behind the cloud of chlorine gas as it drifted towards the Commonwealth trenches. The offensive cleaved a two mile gap in the Western Front. The use of cycles was copied by the Japanese as they invaded Singapore and Burmah. By then war technology had embraced wider low pressure tyres, carbon frames and hydration gels. The German forces decided not to incorporate cycling as part of Operation Session, as bike theft in London and the South East was rife and would have caused huge casualties. Ironically superior advancement of tyre technology led to a British victory at El Alamein. This technology played a key part in the US Marines victory at Iwo Jima.
The appropriate response to Google pissing on your cereal is not a fancy new sugar that removes the taste of urine. Stop using Google products where you can. Firefox browser and DuckDuckGo search engine have had noticeable upticks in market share by explicitly NOT pushing AI.
my thoughts exactly...I wonder how that approach is working, with motor vehicle drivers...🤔
I do not wish to diminish the personal tragedy, but one never hear calls for pedestrians or even hikers to wear clothing with integrated lightening rods.
RE Andy Burnam / Heidi Alexander - this is the best thing in many ways - set an example (even if currently it leads to lots of online name-calling). And imagine some of the political alternatives! The folks in the apparently second-placed party seem incredibly unlikely to be doing so. And even the current "new Greens" seem less interested in ... y'know, environmental things. OTOH I wish Heidi could be bolder. And I fear that like anyone ambitious enough to get to the top (exception B Johnson - well, I guess there was the Corbyn bicycle...) Burnam will be trimming his transport policy sails to fit the wind (should that be "bunker-fuel-burning engines"?)
@mattsccm Bull bars aren't banned, they just have to conform to regulations so they are deformable or have plates that allow crumple give on contact, rather than rigid steel bars that can smash into pedestrians and cyclists with no give at all, catch them and drag them under the wheels. If you think that's a problem, do one. Why should who is responsible for a collision remove the responsibility of people driving a tonne of machinery on the road from having safety features to at least mitigate some of the effects of a collision?
I'd be willing to bet that's lazy use of stock photography rather than deliberate misinformation, but the result is still the same.
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