CyclingMikey loses out to Hitler for the title of the “worst person in history” in bonkers Twitter poll; The great helmet saga continues as Giro and Visma hit back at UCI; Evenepoel calls head sock ban “laughable”; Strava for dogs + more on the live blog

Now this checks all road.cc live blog boxes: Third-party reporting, Jeremy Vine, CyclingMikey... Adolf Hitler?

Nah, scratch that. To be fair, I saw Jeremy Vine's tweet last night and thought no way this is making to the live blog, it's way too silly (and horrifying) to write anything about, but on second thoughts...

This is getting silly now pic.twitter.com/7gJYBeLnl1

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) March 6, 2024

Yep, CyclingMikey, or Mike van Erp, whose only "crime" is filming and reporting drivers who break laws and endanger other people's lives, is apparently worse (and that too, by some margin) than a fascist dictator who committed one of the worst atrocities in human history... I can't believe I'm having to write this, what sort of world do we live in anymore!

Mikey has also shared his thoughts about the whole situation on social media, writing: "No way!!! FWIW I think this is a sign of how afraid drivers are of being caught by a camera cyclist. There are lots of us out there, and many people reporting far more bad drivers than me. No reaction without traction."

He added: "The really telling thing is that both my parents were prisoners in Japanese concentration camps in Java and Sumatra in WWII."

No way!!! FWIW I think this is a sign of how afraid drivers are of being caught by a camera cyclist. There are lots of us out there, and many people reporting far more bad drivers than me. No reaction without traction. pic.twitter.com/iJ6nSSsBsd

— CyclingMikey the Unspeakable (@MikeyCycling) March 7, 2024

And it's not like a few dozen people voted in the poll and skewed the results. The poll, published by @HonesttMatty with three Union Jacks next to his name and the words "Peace not war" in his bio, was voted in by almost 13,000 people (or bots, you never know these days). So, more than 6,500 people voted that CyclingMikey is worse than Hitler. Got you...

Well, haven't you heard, crit races are all the fever these days?

I jest, but across the pond in the Unites States, as well as other spots around the globe, Criterium races have been carving out a niche for themselves, separate from the traditional post-Tour of France processional, pre-decided events as here in the Europe (I blame shorter attention spans of the Gen Z but that's a different conversation).

And to recognise these new crits, Ribble has launched an all-new team, titled Ribble Rebellion. Its primary goal? "Disrupt the global Crit circuit," says the British manufacturer.

> Bike@Bedtime: Turntables to tarmac - DJ Spoony's Custom Ribble Ultra SL R is inspired by lyrics

The team will feature riders from the UK, US and Europe, and is aiming to compete in cycling’s most prestigious criterium races and go toe-to-toe with the world’s best crit racing teams.

Ribbble CEO Andy Smallwood said: "This is an exciting opportunity to see our bikes race in the world’s biggest crit races, getting our brand in front of millions of cyclists – we saw that with the crowds watching as the Ultra SL R won the UK National Crit Series last year."

RIBBLE REBELLION riders will be armed with the same aero-optimised Ultra SL R which won at the National Circuit Series, but this time painted in a bold and bright colourway to bring something fresh to the crit scene. In fact, each individual rider will have their own unique rider colour emblazed across their Ultra aero bars and forks, to distinguish them from the pack. Well, now that is one feature I can get behind for the pro peloton!

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Peter Sagan (@petosagan)

My two cents are that if riders are to do sponsored posts, these are always miles better than posing in front of an Ineos Grenadier or a Lamborghini.

“He was clearly overtaking a number of vehicles and took evasive action – he undertook the minibus too before he undertook me,” the cyclist says, after the driver was banned for 12 months for the dangerous close pass

> Cyclist slams undertaking motorist’s “utter bollocks” claim that he mounted grass verge “in panic” to avoid colliding with car

I mean, after rolling out its messaging feature (seriously, who was asking for this?), Strava has finally managed to regain some goodwill from your live blog host with its release of the probably the best feature imaginable: activity tracking (pup-tivity, if I may) for dogs!

Collaborating with Fi Smart Collar, the popular activity training app used by many athletes (and non-athletes, like me) now has the ability to "seamlessly integrate their active lives with their dogs, and share with their communities on Strava".

“Strava data has shown that pets are a key motivator for many athletes in pursuing their goals,” said Mateo A. Ortega, Vice President, Connected Partnerships, Strava. “This partnership with Fi is a natural fit, and a way for athletes to not only include pets in their community, but get credit for all of their movement including the daily dog walks.”

> Strava to automatically flag suspicious activities in hopes to improve leaderboard accuracy

The new partnership allows Strava to log distance traveled and number of steps taken, and tracks Fido’s progress towards goals like activity streaks and daily step totals. The app will then upload a route of your dog’s walk or game of fetch onto a map that you can see.

If you were wondering: No, dogs won’t be eligible for KOMs or course records. But you’ll be able to see in the Fi app how your four-legged friends’ activities stack up against other local canines based on daily activity, with competitive categories based on size.

Back in the day, when pro cyclists would kick up a fuss and claim the UCI’s policies were turning the peloton against the sport’s governing body, it was usually about doping.

Now, apparently, it’s about head socks.

After a week that’s been dominated by that helmet from Visma-Lease a Bike and Giro, riders in the peloton have expressed all sorts of thoughts and opinions, following the UCI’s announcement to review the regulations amidst “even more radical designs of helmets”.

Ahem, radical designs like these, I would hope? Except the Cybertruck one of course, that can go straight to hell. I mean, imagine rocking up to the races in a Daft Punk helmet (Research is still ongoing on whether listening to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack while riding turns your bike into a light cycle).

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Fette (@fe.tte)

But after Thomas De Gendt and Sam Welsford agreed in unison that it might be a good time to pack up your bags, go home and give up the ghost of cycling in light of the new helmets that have broken the internet over the last couple of days (at least in the cycling realm), now, it’s Remco Evenepoel’s turn to weigh in, albeit on a pretty different tune.

Because one thing that got slightly glossed over in all the hullabaloo of the UCI’s announcement about its impending decision on time trial helmets, was that it was also banning those funky ‘head socks’, as seen poking out from under Specialized’s TT5 helmets for the last 18 months, with effect from 2 April 2024.

> “Can someone tell me this is real and not AI-generated?” Has cycling finally jumped the aero shark? Visma-Lease a Bike and Giro unveil crazy, protruding time trial helmet at Tirreno-Adriatico

Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com

Specialized supplies its helmets to Bora-Hansgrohe, TotalEnergies, and of course, Soudal Quick-Step, with the current men’s time trial champion, Evenepoel. While the American company said that it had been “disappointed” with the decision taken by pro cycling’s governing body, claiming that it would greatly affect the riders and teams who’ve spent months training with the equipment, Evenepoel used a little less of that corporate lingo, instead opting for the more Belgian no non-sense approach.

“It’s laughable. There are rules around brake levers, but I still see riders riding around with their brake levers tilting inwards,” the 24-year-old told Sporza. “Two years ago, they authorised our helmet, and now they’re taking it out. I kind of feel like they want to play with our balls.”

“It’s not very friendly what they're doing. There are other teams that are almost riding with a time trial helmet in the peloton. I’m thinking of EF Education-EasyPost. They are dragging cycling into the ridiculous and they’re making all the riders turn against the UCI.”

The slight at EF Education (the team with the best 2024 kit) comes obviously in light of the new over-the-ears aero POC helmet, to be used by the team in road races. Ineos Grenadiers also announced that they would be running a similar over-ears helmet with the Kask Utopia, looking for those marginal gains.

The comments from the outspoken rider came just a day after Evenepoel criticised his ex-teammate Tim Declerq for his antics during the team time trial stage at Paris-Nice two days ago, accusing him of riding in front of the Soudal Quick-Step effort behind on a technical bend after the punchy domestique was dropped from Lidl-Trek’s TTT effort.

“A thank you to him. That was really nasty. Tim may have been an ex-teammate, but you don't do something like that. Did he do it on purpose? I hope not, but it is possible,” Remco said. However, not long after, the 24-year-old cooled off and wrote on Strava that he was “a bit overhyped” and “I don't blame him for getting in our way [...] the commissioner should have warned him so he knew we were getting closer[...] Tim didn't make us lose the race today.”

Pro cycling chitter-chatter and the UCI’s seeming clampdowns on whoever steps out of line aside (the Big Helmet industry to blame, I say!), all this means that come the time trial championships later this year, Evenepoel will be without the head sock on his TT5 helmet to defend his rainbow jersey.