“Sometimes you’ve got to have the balls to race…”: Remco Evenepoel lashes out at Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France antics; Newly elected Labour MP (+ his bike) head to Parliament; Giro fills Tour rest day void; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"An awful day for cycling"; Gravel at Grand Tours; "UCI doing UCI things"; Wonderful scenes in Eritrea after Biniam Girmay wins second Tour stage; Bikejacking news + more that you might have missed over the weekend
It was another jam-packed weekend of cycling news, naturally much coming from the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia Women. More on that later. We’ll start in Austria, however, where it was another tragic day for pro cycling, the worst possible news coming from the mountainous fourth stage of the Tour of Austria.
Norwegian professional cyclist André Drege died after a high-speed crash on a descent in the Austrian Alps, the race organisers confirming on Saturday afternoon, in news that once again left the cycling world reeling in shock and coming just a little over a year since Gino Mäder’s death at Tour de Suisse.
Sunday’s final stage of the race was replaced by a condolence ride. Slovenian rider Jaka Primožič, who was the only other rider in the breakaway at the time of the crash, expressed his sorrow about Drege’s passing.
“As the only witness I can’t explain how devastated I am,” he said. “This should never happen. A crash which was nobody’s fault. I would give everything to change something so that wouldn’t have happened. My thoughts are with his team and family. Rest in peace, may the cycling heaven be nice to you. I can’t say that I knew you but we shared the same passion and I will continue so with carrying you in my heart forever.”
Elsewhere this weekend, at the Tour de France, the UCI drew criticism for fining Julien Bernard after the French rider stopped during a time trial to greet his family at the roadside.
There were concerns about yesterday’s gravel stage too, prompting the inevitable debate about whether white roads belong in Grand Tours or not, Patrick Lefevere and Jonas Vingegaard on the side of them being an “unnecessary risk”.
No concerns about whether Eritrea is being inspired by Biniam Girmay’s extraordinary Tour, the sprinter who last week became the first black African to win a stage at cycling’s biggest race then adding a second on Saturday, prompting wonderful scenes…
The streets of Asmara celebrating the Tour de France victory of Biniam Girmay 🇪🇷😍 #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/74zkjzk4GA
— Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) July 6, 2024
Away from pro racing, a cyclist from Cardiff raised the alarm after being robbed of his £2,000 bike after he was punched a dozen times and placed in a chokehold. Damian Slowik also slammed the police for arriving after 40 minutes of reporting the crime despite the police station being five minutes away on foot, while also claiming that no bystanders came to his aid despite crying out for help.
Giro d'Italia Women: Home favourite Elisa Longo Borghini off to a flyer as race heads for first sprint
Praise ye the cycling gods who hath blessed us with a hallowed rest day dose of racing action. The Tour de France peloton may be doing as little as possible today, but over in Italy it’s sprint day at the women’s Giro d’Italia. Lovely stuff.
Yesterday, home favourite Elisa Longo Borghini was a popular winner of the opening time trial, getting the better of Grace Brown by just a single second. I’ve set my stall out by saying there’s a ‘sprint stage’ on the cards today, a couple of little lumps with 10km to go might tempt someone to cause an upset. Lidl-Trek will surely want to set up Elisa Balsamo for a second team and second Italian win in as many days. It’s been the Tour de France of French wins, but will it also be the Giro of Italian elation?
Tappa e maglia!
Great start for @ElisaLongoB and @LidlTrek at #GirodItaliaWomen 💪Our report from Brescia, stage 1 👇https://t.co/nq51SHNbCU pic.twitter.com/iGFfddsWeB
— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) July 7, 2024
Tour de France pro bikes you can buy yourself — from Specialized, Trek, Cannondale, Merida, Wilier, Bianchi + more
Newly elected Labour MP (and his bike) head down south to Parliament
Hamish Falconer is the newly elected MP for Lincoln, the Labour representative waved off at the station this morning as he heads down to London to take his seat in Parliament. More importantly for our purposes, however, was the item he was bringing with him…
Credit to Cllr Joshua Wells for capturing the crucial moment… now, where’s the follow-up of him trying to wrench it into those god-awful upright bike storage cupboards?
It was a less positive night for others. Not that we’re petty and spent Friday digging back up all the questionable cycling comments of the past four-and-a-half years for an at-length feature. That doesn’t sound like us at all…
20mph speed limits reach anonymous opinion page
It must be the rest day... Ineos launches campaign promoting its new "cutting-edge Next-Gen Non-Bio Laundry Liquid"... and Tom Pidcock has been roped in to plug it
Ineos have used the rest day of the Tour de France to launch a campaign promoting its “next-gen laundry offering”, the “laundry liquid of choice” for the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team. In a bid to promote their product to the masses, Tom Pidcock was roped in to “power the fastest wash cycle in just 20 minutes” (enough time for him to break the 5km world record again and still have a few minutes to make a brew).
Ineos’ Head of Marketing and Innovation Caroline Reynolds was on-hand to provide those all-important PR-friendly soundbites… “Tom Pidcock and the Ineos Grenadiers’ remarkable achievements perfectly align with our mission to deliver the best possible cleaning results in every wash.
“Together, we want to set a new standard in laundry and home care. Our formula has been rigorously tested under intense conditions, proving its competitive ability to remove tough stains and odours, whilst maintaining fabric integrity. Our ongoing partnership with the Ineos Grenadiers highlights our commitment to supporting everyday performance, whether meeting the demands of a champion athlete or handling the daily challenges of busy lifestyles.”
Where would society be without marketing departments and press releases? It doesn’t bare thinking about…
What might be of interest is Ineos is giving away a signed Pidcock jersey (presumably in sparkling condition) and two paddock passes to a stage of the Tour of Britain. You’ll have to follow Ineos Hygenics on Instagram, like the campaign competition post, and tag a friend in the comments if you fancy it.
"Back with the boys!" Sir Bradley Wiggins joins Lance Armstrong’s podcast during Tour de France
> “Back with the boys!” Sir Bradley Wiggins joins Lance Armstrong’s podcast during Tour de France
Chiara Consonni wins sprint stage at Giro d'Italia
It was an Italian sprinter who triumphed on the Giro d’Italia Women’s second stage… but not the one Lidl-Trek were hoping for, Chiara Consonni getting the better of former world champion Elisa Balsamo and current rainbow bands wearer Lotte Kopecky on a slight rise to the line in Volta Mantonava.
Chiara Consonni wins Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia for UAE Team ADQ 👏🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/8k9ZHlSj7M
— Eurosport (@eurosport) July 8, 2024
Shout-out to Ana Vitória Magalhães whose plucky breakaway had looked to have a chance before the big names brought it back to contest the win. Also to Anouska Koster whose late attack added extra drama to the already pulsating finale.
Consonni said she had “no words, really” and admitted her UAE teammates had been “a little scared” when the gap to the breakaway went out to six minutes. “The team was super, they did a really, really good job,” she added.
Unsurprisingly, no change on GC, Elisa Longo Borghini keeping the maglia rosa ahead of tomorrow’s summit finish at Toano, a 12km climb with reasonably shallow gradients.
32mm rubber, tubeless galore and more prototypes from Pirelli: what tyres did the Tour de France pros use on the epic gravel stage 9?
"A message for Mr Pogačar, that's Tadej Pogačar... please do not attack, I repeat, do not attack. Today is a rest day"
Message to Tadej Pogacar :
Please do not attack during the rest day…#TDF2024— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 8, 2024
Remco Evenepoel wasn’t the only one to question Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike after yesterday’s stage, Tadej Pogačar also telling the TV cameras: “Yeah for sure [frustrated], because me and Remco did [a] good effort, we break away and Jonas was also there, so obviously he has great shape.
“You can secure more the podium, you can make a gap to the others so to the fourth one would be a bigger gap. But I guess Visma don’t want that, they’re just focussing on me and maybe underestimate the others. We will see what happens in the next weeks, but for sure today would be nice if we could already break free.”
Wout van Aert took the verbals to Strava…
"Last time I checked we did road cycling": Simon Yates joins those criticising inclusion of gravel stage at Tour de France
These were Yates’s thoughts ahead of yesterday’s stage (you probably guessed he hadn’t dressed up in full kit for a rest day press conference), sentiment echoed later on by Jonas Vingegaard and Patrick Lefevere.
“Last time I checked we did *road* cycling…”
Simon Yates doesn’t appreciate off-road stages in road racing 🇬🇧😠#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/ZAZ91tYDmn
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2024
The cynical part of me reckons Yates not being particularly proficient on the gravel (he finished 138th, almost 12 minutes down and in the same group as plenty of sprinters) might have something to do with it.
"Tell me that didn't just happen": Aleksandr Vlasov abandons Tour de France with broken ankle, after Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe slammed for allowing dazed rider to immediately continue racing after heavy crash – but team boss says head injury was "minor"
"Sometimes you've got to have the balls to race...": Remco Evenepoel lashes out at Jonas Vingegaard's Tour de France antics
Has Patrick Lefevere been giving Remco Evenepoel media training lessons? The white jersey had some punchy comments for the TV cameras immediately after yesterday’s gravel stage, the adrenaline possibly still running high and leaving the fiery Belgian to question if two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard has “the balls to race”.
“The podium could have been decided today”
Remco Evenepoel says he was disappointed that Jonas Vingegaard didn’t ride with him and Tadej Pogačar, but that he understands why he didn’t 🤍🇧🇪#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/mmDoZdQIQn
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2024
“I think Tadej and I were not happy with it because maybe the whole Tour could have been decided today,” Evenepoel said. “We have to accept race tactics and race situations, but sometimes you also need the balls to race, and unfortunately maybe Jonas didn’t have them today. But it’s no problem – the race is still very long, and I totally accept the reasons why he didn’t pull, why he didn’t race.
“Of course, Tadej and I both like to attack pretty far away from the finish, so we wanted to continue. Jonas is sometimes a bit more defensive, but we have to accept it. He will have all the good reasons to have raced like this, so I also completely understand why.”
Vingegaard later made the case for the defence, stating that considering Visma-Lease a Bike had several teammates still in the peloton, more than Soudal Quick-Step or UAE Team Emirates, they wanted to have riders with the Dane “in case something happened”. The defending Tour champ had suffered two punctures on the stage, perhaps evidencing a reason for the cautious attitude, the team’s goal simply “not to lose time” yesterday.
In the end, Vingegaard completed 100km on the Cervélo of teammate Jan Tratnik, the chaos of the stage never giving an opportunity to get on his spare.
Were you frustrated to see Jonas refuse to work with Evenepoel and Pogačar? Did it make sense for Vingegaard to wait and let as many teammates join as possible? It’s going to be a long rest day, so get your thoughts in the comments…
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Latest Comments
@Bikebeer77 American Fork police being an example of the worst of USA police. Some interesting stuff on line.
I should know, I was one Must be why you're so good at writing bollocks, especially pro-police bollocks
the excuse that cycles are not fitted with speedometers seems very lame in this day and age The police just love their dodge that no cyclist speedometer is anything other than a worthless child's toy, rather like the bike it's monitoring, so I'm not keen on the idea that the b******s can suddenly choose to accept them when looking to victimise cyclists. LancsFilth initially said they couldn't do anything about offences like this because I 'might have been travelling at less than 10 mph which would make the manoeuvre legal '. https://upride.cc/incident/t27gjh_astra_dwlcross/ This was before they hit on the Master Dodge of just ignoring all reports of driver offences from cyclists.
Well done for doing the research. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/suv-risks-warnings-road-safety-buyers-uk-study
Not as rare as they should be after taking milage into account. Clearly part of that equation is better education of pedestrians , but I have no issues with making cyclists subject to the speed limits. The majority do not exceed 20mph, except for the rare occasions they have a good breeze or an incline in their favour. Those that have the capability are often already recording their data anyway, the excuse that cycles are not fitted with speedometers seems very lame in this day and age.
But then there would would have been grounds for prosecuting the driver in that circumstance as he would have been substantially exceeding the speed limit. The cyclist was innocent under the law but I consider him profoundly responsible for that death. We ask for considerable consideration by motorists and we have now been given legal backing for it, it does not become us to defend hairing round public park roads in substantial excess of a speed limit considered to offer reasonable safety to vulnerable road users.
Not as rare as they should be after taking milage into account. Clearly part of that equation is better education of pedestrians , but I have no issues with making cyclists subject to the speed limits. The majority do not exceed 20mph, except for the rare occasions they have a good breeze or an incline in their favour. Those that have the capability are often already recording their data anyway, the excuse that cycles are not fitted with speedometers seems very lame in this day and age.
I believe "hi-vis" isn't actually worth that much - certainly not compared to eg. the value of "reflectives" as soon as it gets darker. But even those are still just PPE though - this is the lowest rung (least effective) on the hierarchy of health and safety hazard controls. And "visual aids for drivers" do nothing if drivers don't do their part, no matter how much is worn...
Not the best timing, but not the major issue he's trying to turn it into either. Fitness amongst young people is a problem when it comes to armed forces recruitment, as many are having trouble with the requirements needed to pass the tests because of their inactive lifestyles. This investment will help deal with the problem.
Seemed pretty visible to me - and she was sporting light-coloured hair, bag, footwear and bright trousers. What if she'd been approaching a motorist "out of the sun", or passing a field of oilseed rape or stand of autumnal trees later in the year? If you think that's flippant, note that "sun" and "tree leaves" have been advanced as defense / mitigation in court despite cyclists following guidance ('should'). Frankly she's already done the best preaching possible: been a "normal person" riding a bike.
28 thoughts on ““Sometimes you’ve got to have the balls to race…”: Remco Evenepoel lashes out at Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France antics; Newly elected Labour MP (+ his bike) head to Parliament; Giro fills Tour rest day void; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog”
Vingegaard will race the
Vingegaard will race the smartest race he can. Thats why people love Pogacar and are largely indifferent to Vingegaard. One makes racing exciting despite his domination at times and the other is just a mechanical machine slowly grinding to victory. Hes entirely allowed to do that however. Its just dull as anything.
‘People love Pogacar’.
‘People love Pogacar’.
He is quite self-satisfied and smug, which makes him hard to like.
I can’t say I’ve ever seen
I can’t say I’ve ever seen that. He always seems to be the first to congratulate stage winners, even if it comes at his expense. He just loves to race hard, and that’s great to watch.
It is fairly evident the vast
It is fairly evident the vast majority of people do really like him. It is totally ok not to, but you are in a rather small minority.
Pog doesn’t make racing
Pog doesn’t make racing exciting with his dominance. He makes achievements exciting – his predictable beating of everyone* is dull.
* Except Vinny in the Tour recently, where he’s been smashed.
Just to add I don’t dislike
Just to add I don’t dislike any of the top 4 GC riders at this Tour.
I find the strong man racing
I find the strong man racing intelligently for GC much more exciting than the boy who’s trying to get some stage wins (and who is failing to talk his stronger competitor into a tactical blunder…)
Not terribly sporting of
Not terribly sporting of Remco one feels, I am not a great fan of Vingegaard, finding him rather dull and uninspiring in his racing (I’m sure that will bother him immensely), but every tinker has his own way of walking and he’s entitled to do what works best for him, if Remco and/or others can show that their way is better by beating him then great, if they can’t then it kind of proves that his way works best, at least for him.
Additionally, the whole peloton knew (because several teams were mentioning it on their radios) that Jonas was riding Tratnik’s bike; Tratnik is 2 cm shorter than Jonas and about 8 kg heavier, so although he was Jonas’s nominated spare bike provider there must’ve been a fairly considerable difference in reach (they were saying on commentary that the stems were certainly different lengths), tyre pressure, saddle angle et cetera, enough certainly for Jonas to feel that he wasn’t going to contribute to a break with the other two galácticos knowing that with them on their perfect-fitting bikes they would probably get less tired than him on somebody else’s and so they could have had a chance of putting time into him over the last 20 km. Refusing to go in a break with them was a sensible pragmatic decision.
Whether it is agreeable or
Whether it is agreeable or not, it is undeniably true that Jonas’s choice not to ride exhibited zero panache. Negative racing is never nice.
eniaessem wrote:
If my supposition above is correct and Jonas felt that going hard on the wrong bike was going to take more out of him then if he had his own machine, so if he did work with the other two they would possibly take time out of him towards the end, what was he supposed to do? Give up a substantial amount of time just so people wouldn’t call him boring? As I said, I don’t find him terribly exciting to watch but in the specific circumstances of yesterday I think his behaviour was perfectly understandable.
Really?
Really?
Read somewhere else this spoof conversation:
Pog: We can set the podium here so ride with us.
Remco: Yeah, come on, it’ll be fun and you can show you have balls.
Vinny: OK, no problem. Umm, can we just stop first so I can get on my bike?
Pog and Remco: No! We need to put time into Rog.
Vinny. Err, he’s not the threat here – you two are so I’ll stay like this ta very much.
That’s not negative. It’s pragmatic. It’s tactics. Just like Pog and Remco wanting to push.
Rendel Harris wrote:
Riding a bike that isn’t set up to your preference can certainly make you feel like you don’t have any balls.
It can make you feel a lot of
It can make you feel a lot of things, but that’s one one I don’t think I’ve ever experienced.
quiff wrote:
I think it might actually make you painfully aware of the fact that you have them!
If you push on through the
If you push on through the pain you can get to comfortably numb.
All well and good, but now T
All well and good, but now T-Pid’s got to wash the kit he was wearing – he’s just going to get stuck in an infinite
cycleloop there.Whats the best streaming
Whats the best streaming service (paid) to watch the big tours and the women’s tours this year?
Came across this tweet
Came across this tweet
“find cyclists who make all the traffic behind them travel for miles and miles at 15 mph incredibly selfish. Sat in a line of more than a dozen cars, vans, buses etc behind a lone cyclist out on a casual and very slow ride for miles on a main road”
So far 2700 replies and going.
“miles and miles”
What’s the longest distance you reckon you have held anyone up for ?
Not long!
Not long!
I have driven behind a couple of cyclists for maybe getting on for a mile despite them waving to me to pass, simply because this was one of those country roads where I couldn’t see far enough ahead for a safe pass. How many miles of tailbacks this caused I couldn’t say. But in fact nobody seemed very happy with this…
Hirsute wrote:
The length of a decent pistol shot.
I’ve spent my whole life in
I’ve spent my whole life in rural countryside – the sort of places that are always crawling with recreational cyclists. I can count on one hand the number of times (in 17 years of driving) that I’ve been stuck behind a cyclist for more than about 30 seconds.
At the start of last year, I spent 12 hours in traffic trying to get from Cheltenham to Carmarthen (on roads cyclists aren’t allowed on!). In the space one journey, drivers have “held me up” more than a lifetime of cyclists – by an order of magnitude.
There you go again applying
There you go again applying some common sense to the cycling vs driving debate. Somewhat unsurprisingly I have found the same to be true. In fact I will go a step further. Cyclists hold me up for about 1/100th of the time that other drivers do when I am driving. When I am cycling anywhere remotely built up I am again, massively held up by cars and thats ignoring the fact they behave like utter twats and put my life in danger with their lack of attention.
You can always bet on drivers to overestimate the time they spend behind cyclists and underestimate the time they spend as part of the traffic. I think partly because it royally fucks them off that we don’t sit there like lemons when its busy.
mctrials23 wrote:
Totally agree.
Motorists know that their vehicles are nearly the width of a lane and just take it as read that they can’t pass the car in front if there is oncoming traffic (well, unless they are trying to overtake a cyclist, when they seem to imagine that their car is three feet wide or something…).
They forget that if their cars were not nearly the width of a lane then the cyclists they hate so much would be able to easily get past and get out of their way
Probably 250.
Probably 250.
* According to a driver
Well here is my example
Well here is my example
https://road.cc/content/news/near-miss-day-786-293709
And lets not forget this
And lets not forget this genius:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7enDsD5bpc&pp=ygUOdGhlbWl0c2t5IHNhMDU%3D
Had a lovely 80km cafe ride
Had a lovely 80km cafe ride with friends on Sunday, came across a family of 5 or 6 all riding on the road to a village pub.
A couple of the kids had been in the lead and we were just about to pass the lead children when the lad at the front signalled right to enter the pub and was very cautious, so we held back, encouraged him and let him turn into pub and we all worked together to let them go where they wanted to go and we got to go on our merry way.
Great to see the family not crammed into an SUV even if the weather was a bit suspect, no need for MGIF or abuse, just everyone enjoying a ride and getting to their desintation safe and happy.
I recently followed a group
I recently followed a group of club cyclists for over 4 miles, my choice as the road wasn’t great for overtaking, they were moving at 20/25 mph,I was interested how they were riding and their bikes etc.
But I’m the sort of person who will stop to watch people kicking a ball around on the park.