Geraint Thomas raises £300k for NHS in 3 days; Shockjock engineer returns to Twitter; Brompton call for temporary cycling infra; Froome’s crash injuries; Alé manufacturing medical coats; Nudist’s 70th birthday birthday suit ride+ more on the live blog
SUMMARY
'Veldrijden' (or cyclocross to you and me) explained
veldrijden explained to a non belgian 🤷🏼
Tiktok: averagerob pic.twitter.com/DdUIppy0CP— Average Rob (@AverageRob) April 16, 2020
Belgium’s finest(?) sporting export is performed on the wrong bikes that are way too expensive, and nobody’s watching because the crowd are all too drunk. Sign me up…
G starts his final 12 hour Zwift Shift
The 2018 Tour de France champ began his final ‘shift’ about an hour ago, and has received plenty of encouragement from the public…
Haha quality, diolch guys!!! Final 12hrs now. Let’s be having you💪💪 #GsNHSZwiftShifts https://t.co/aM5idHVg4e
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) April 17, 2020
The GoFundMe has raised £221,500 and counting for the NHS so far, donate here.
Bloody cyclists, stopping at imaginary red lights...
Had to stop at this massive red light! 🚦 pic.twitter.com/PQep5bLU6Y
— Ramos (@SezRamos) April 17, 2020
Chris Froome reveals extent of his injuries from horror crash last June
*Refrain from scrolling down if you don’t want to see the nastiness*
As you will all know, Froome sustained multiple fractures while doing a recce of the Critérium du Dauphiné TT course last year, crashing into a wall at speeds reported to be as high as 70km/h… and now he claims his remarkable recovery is almost complete, while also revealing some of the gruesome injuries he suffered. Some may also recall some rather bizarre conspiracy theories that cropped up during the time that suggested Froome could have feigned the injuries to skip doping tests. They’ll most likely find another angle, but for the rest of the developed world these images will now well and truly put those doubts to bed…
There’s also a small plug for Ineos’ hand sanitiser operation during the pandemic at the end of Froome’s post, with the firm aiming to deliver 1 million free bottles of hand sanitiser a month to NHS hospitals – more info here.
Man heads out for a nude bike ride after original 70th birthday plans were cancelled
Moving swiftly on from Froome to Frome, a resident of the Somerset town has decided to mark his 70th birthday by going on a ride in his birthday suit – and despite the streets being mostly deserted, savvy spotter Nicky Birchall managed to ‘nip’ out and grab a quick photo for the Spotted About Frome Facebook page.
Committed naturist Mike Grenville told Frome Nub News that he wanted to commemorate his landmark birthday “in another memorable way”… so headed out for an early morning ride in the buff, apart from his helmet (insert joke here).
He said: “I’ve been a naturist since I was about nine, although my parents weren’t.
“I’ve been on naturist holidays and taken part in the Bristol World Naked Bike Ride – although I’ve never taken to the saddle naked in Frome before.
“I thought as it was my birthday it would be good to start the day in my birthday suit. There were a few cars on the road at that time, but hardly any pedestrians.
“It was freezing cold though and my fingers suffered.”
Just your fingers, sure thing Mr Grenville…
G's Zwift Shifts hit £250,00
Just been told we’ve hit £250,000 – a quarter of a million pounds going to the nhs 👀 thanks for all your support and donations. Come and join me for my final 2hr leg at 5:30!
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) April 17, 2020
Over a quarter of a million has now been raised for the NHS on GoFundMe, with a few hours left to go of the third 12 hour shift. Cycling commentator Rebecca Charlton joined in for an hour, and received perhaps the most uncomplimentary compliment there ever was…
It was incredible to see so many people out (in) riding with @GeraintThomas86 supporting & donating this morning 🧡
…& thanks to the guy I won’t name & shame for saying on the open chat “how depressing, I’ve just been overtaken by Rebecca Charlton” – now that’s the spirit! 🙋🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/EVrDl7E29t— Rebecca Charlton (@BeccaCharlton) April 17, 2020
Cycling apparel brand Alé now manufacturing medical coats, and calls for "industry to get back on track" in Italy
Alé have joined other cycling brands such as Muc-Off, Santini and Scicon in helping in the fight against COVID-19, making their Veronese factories available for manufacturing medical coats.
The coat will be donated to hospitals and doctors in Italy’s time of need, and Alé’s CEO Alessia Piccolo called in the country to use their industry power to help fight the disease:
“95% of our production of cycling garments takes place in Italy, in our factories in Bonferraro near Verona. We have a state-of-the-art facility that, and during times like these it is our duty to make it available to the community. These medical coats are a small step, but they make us infinitely proud.
“The pandemic highlighted how, from the medical supply point of view, the Italian supply chain represented the real weak link in the chain. Today, I’m ready to make our factories available, from cutting, sewing, packaging and printing, to meet the most urgent needs, as we have done for these suits.
“Alé, though, can do much more but the industry needs to get back on track. Indeed, our economy must restart immediately. Our factory and our facilities are already equipped with all the necessary features to be able to do it. Only in this way will we be able to work to get out of this emergency quickly”.
£1,000 reward to find Somerset shover who broke cyclist’s shoulder with push from passenger seat of Land Rover
The regular at Bad Ass Bikes was reportedly pushed off by a passenger in a Land Rover Freelander near the hamlet of Charterhouse in Somerset, and the bike shop are offering a £1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
The cyclist suffered a broken collar bone and dislocated shoulder and was unable to get the numberplate, also warning cyclists to be extra vigilant of angry drivers.
Sweary engineer Hambini deletes Twitter
YouTuber Hambini – who featured on yesterday’s live blog after using a metaphor about ISO tolerances to urge his viewers to make comments about a Cycling Weekly presenter’s genitals on one of his videos – has deleted his Twitter account. On his YouTube community board he claims he has received “a load of death threats and racist abuse”; although when asked to provide screenshots in the comments, he said: “It’s not like the authorities do anything.”
YouTube have also banned the offending video. He’s since continued to interact with followers on his YouTube community board, liking a number of the comments:
He also commented back to a follower who took issue with coverage of the debacle on road.cc, claiming that road.cc will “have gone bust in 2 months.”
Update: His Twitter account’s back.
Brompton write open letter to Minister of State for Transport calling for temporary cycling and walking infrastructure
The letter – led by Brompton’s CEO Will Butler-Adams and backed by Barts Health NHS Trust, Cycling UK, British Cycling and Sustrans amongst others – calls on Chris Heaton-Harris MP to improve street layouts for the increased number of people cycling and walking to get exercise during the pandemic, and for Key Workers. While thanking the government for their support of Brompton’s Wheels For Heroes Campaign, the letter continues:
“We have vast amounts of currently underused road space which can be temporarily reallocated at low cost. This is becoming increasingly essential as key workers choose cycling or walking to get to work, avoiding potential transmission via public transport. You will have also noticed a surge in people cycling and walking for exercise in line with the government’s public health recommendations; such measures improve conditions for these groups too.
“We welcome your Department’s statement made yesterday, clarifying that local authorities have powers to take initiatives of this kind using Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders and similar procedures. Our organisations would, however, urge you to go further and provide a clear positive ministerial statement encouraging local highway authorities to consider implementing temporary initiatives of this kind.
“Finally, post the current lockdown restrictions, a large proportion of the UK population will again be moving around towns and cities, but hesitant to use public transport where there is a greater risk of transmission. In order to mitigate against a second wave influx of Coronavirus cases, we feel it prudent to plan ahead and implement these temporary measures now for key workers but also to allow the wider population to travel by bicycle or by foot in the short term as lockdown restrictions lift.”
Geraint Thomas raises £300k+ for NHS on Zwift Shift rides
Geraint Thomas has finished his three 12-hour shifts on Zwift now, the 2018 Tour de France champion looking to raise money for NHS workers.
So far, he’s raised more than £300,000.
We reckon the Cardiff boy deserves that bottle of Brain’s right now.
Done! And over £300k raised 👀 thank you everyone for your support and donations, they kept me going 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/g6JMN1LGBR
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) April 17, 2020
17 April 2020, 08:08
The Re-Cycle range uses recycled plastic and can be recycled into new helmets once at the end of its product life
Coming soon to a head near you? The recycled urban cycle helmet
Re-Cycle range from Dashel uses recycled plastic and can be recycled into new helmets once at the end of its product life.
17 April 2020, 08:08
That once a day thing? It's not always the case so we're now told...
Exercising more than once a day is reasonable during lockdown, says new CPS guidance for England
Official advice given to prosecutors and police forces on interpreting emergency legislation during coronavirus pandemic
17 April 2020, 08:08
Ineos won't be taking any chances, says the boss...
Sir Dave Brailsford: Team Ineos could withdraw from Tour de France if health at risk
Meanwhile, a leading public health expert insists rescheduled race could be “recipe for disaster”
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Latest Comments
@eburtthebike Most of the people cycling mikey confronts with his vigilante behaviour are using their phone while stationary in traffic; while illegal, conflating those offences with the murderous actions of this deviant person is patently ridiculous.
@Rendel Harris Of course it wouldn't work; the sort of person that would be banned would have plenty of mates that would fill jerry cans for him so he could fuel his car at home.
@BroomBroomBroom I cycle commuted for 30 years, with a number of close passes and a few crashes that gave me pause to consider the risks of cycling on public roads, but what made me give up was a diagnosis of osteoporosis because cycling was my exercise activity and because cycling is not weight bearing exercise, it leads to bone loss; I now mix walking and jogging to commute and have introduced a program of weight-lifting to try and reverse the osteoporosis.
More on the "e-bike scourge" from the beeb: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn068ywr9e1o OTOH well, yeah - stuff that facilitates crime (and is cheaper / easier to get than cars / ICE motorbikes) is gonna be used by criminals. Plus: Well... I'm not happy either with the lack of interest in doing something about the mass sale of things which almost all aren't going to be used legally. But ... like guns? Don't think that's a helpful analogy there.
@Rendel Harris It should be simpler. In this case, and other cases where individuals drive while banned, there will be many people who know there is a banned driver behind the wheel and turned a blind eye. If we could find a way to make it culturally unacceptable the cases would drop. The change it attitudes around drink driving made a huge difference and it wasn't just the punishment. Unfortunately, we see the media run campaigns on the 'war on motorists' rather than try and change societal attitudes. The sequestration of vehicles as a punishment I think is an opportunity. Car removal, for many motoring offences and if you let a banned driver drive your vehicle I would include vehicles from employers and associates of a banned driver.
"Over the course of the evening, your friend made Gabrielle Debotte write a note on her phone with a false account that she had not seen you on the day of the collision at all." I sincerely hope that friend is in police custody awaiting trial for aiding and abetting and perverting the course of justice. And I hope he gets the same judge.
@rbrtribble All accidents including eg: a touch of a bumper should be reported to the police and an interview with a traffic cop before driving away from the scene What sort of dream world is this?! None of these fanciful wishes will happen in the car-crazed 'we'll give you a subsidy so you can drive and park everywhere with no thought to sensible fuel-conserving driving' UK. Sadly, the succession of dreadful Tory nonentity transport ministers has been followed by a succession of equally dreadful Labour ones, all desperate to avoid being accused of the 'war on the motorist'. Lilian Greenwood was charged with implementing the January 26 Government Road Safety Strategy until she was moved to be replaced by another deadbeat intent on doing nothing for fear of upsetting drivers. Labour could fight the established police strategy of ignoring and actively opposing any legislation to the benefit of cyclists, but they won't. The police are intent on protecting motorists from VED evasion, MOT offences, mobile phone offences, white line offences and most importantly cyclist-close-passing offences. I ask yet again for the evidence of effective police action against this latter offence (not the joke advice letter or joke driving course), but this evidence never appears. The obvious conclusion is that this police action does not exist.
@kingleo They aren't the only ones!
@Sniffer This is why I would like to see every driving licence having a readable chip that showed the driver status and making it impossible to get fuel from a petrol station without presenting it at the pump as proof of validity. Of course there would be ways around it, getting mates to fill up the car etc, but with an estimated 650,000 unlicensed or licence suspended drivers in the UK restricting the fuel supply could do a lot to hamper them. The same chip could carry proof of insurance and MOT for the car, again, no proof, no fuel. Cut offenders off at source.
Whilst extreme cases shouldn't make law, this case does demonstrate that the justice system is failing to protect innocent road users. If people continually break the law, then either the crimes aren't being detected or the punishments are not severe enough. In the case of road law, it's both, and the chances of being caught driving dangerously are miniscule, and even if caught, the offender will at most be banned, which they can and do, ignore. So how to get dangerous drivers to reform or make sure they don't drive? 1. Police on bikes. Just look at how many criminals cycling mikey has had convicted. A real police constable could do so much more. 2. When caught, immediate impounding of vehicle, rapid review by a judge, so the punishment immediately follows the crime. 3. No points on licence, no hardship pleading, just removal of licence. Three months for a first offence, then rapidly escalating to lifetime ban for the fourth. 4. Anyone caught driving whilst banned gets an immediate three month prison sentence, second offence a year, third ten years. I'm sure there are plenty of other good ways of making our roads safer by removing the incompetent and dangerous drivers, but it's a start.
11 thoughts on “Geraint Thomas raises £300k for NHS in 3 days; Shockjock engineer returns to Twitter; Brompton call for temporary cycling infra; Froome’s crash injuries; Alé manufacturing medical coats; Nudist’s 70th birthday birthday suit ride+ more on the live blog”
road.cc wrote:
Nope, those losers will point to the lack of a face in the photo.
(No subject)
😀
Wasn’t the conspiracy theory
Wasn’t the conspiracy theory that rather than feigning the injuries he crashed deliberately? Which is even dafter: if you find yourself suddenly needing to evade close medical scrutiny, what better place to end up than … intensive care?
captain_slog wrote:
There was that as well, but the main one I remember seeing was questioning whether he was even picked up by an ambulance, and that the French authorities and Dan Martin and everyone else who allegedly wasn’t there were in on it. All perfectly feasible of course.
Ouch, should send that to MBR
Ouch, should send that to MBR for Old Boys and Girls Who Should Know Better
Re: Committed naturist Mike
Re: Committed naturist Mike Grenville
Does he take advanced bookings for appearances? There’s plenty of Nimby strongholds at the moment, complaining about “The lycra clad menace of cyclists”. It’s only fair to show them an alternative.
Quote:
He’s not all bad then.
I know we’d all like to at times, but I’m not sure it’s the best response.
Wouldn’t have thought his neck would be the first thing he’d be worried about getting cold.
The world needs people like
The world needs people like Hambini. I just wish he was more like “The Lock Picking Lawyer” or “Bosnian Bill”.
When Hambini says something is OK, it probably is. Just like when LPL and BB rated a lock as “trickey to pick” I believe it will make my chain the weak link (sorry for that pun) in my bike security. When any bike web site says “this is a great lock” I go to LPL and BB to see how long it took either of those gentlemen to get through it.
Also, Hambini has given me an enhanced vocaublary for dealing with the, all too common here in the US, white SUV that cuts you off so they can stop at the stop sign 0.5 seconds before you.
I have yet to watch many
I have yet to watch many Bosnian Bill videos, I know that he might have made a few picks.
I enjoyed Hambini’s earlier
I enjoyed Hambini’s earlier videos, where the emphasis was squarely on education and debunking some of the cycling world’s sillier myths and practices. But like a fair few others, I’ve found his persona of late has been ever-more bombastic and antagonistic, and he crossed a line with the latest video. I hope he reconsiders his approach.
Also, playing the ‘that’s racist’ card when CW blocked him? Come off it, that’s ridiculous. He got blocked ‘cos he’s a sweary troll with an audience, not because he’s brown.
Agreed.
Agreed.
He should stick to the tech, which he does well 😉