“Is he delivering pizza?”: New Jersey cycle courier taking shortcut across frozen river makes the news; “It’s lighter without grease”: Cyclist who pressure washes bike after every ride divides opinion + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"Is he delivering pizza?": New Jersey cycle courier taking shortcut across frozen river makes the news
Yikes…
This footage has been shared by the New York Post, a New Jersey cyclist, believed to be a courier or food delivery rider, spotted riding across a frozen river. The scene unfolded to the equal parts shock, confusion, amusement and concern of onlooking workers.
There doesn’t appear to be much more information than that, the rider apparently making it off the ice fine. “Employees on break in Red Bank couldn’t believe their eyes when a man pedalled a bike across the frozen Navesink River, sparking disbelief, profanity and jokes about a pizza delivery gone wrong,” the New York Post told its YouTube subscribers.
One of the workers was heard comparing the rider’s set-up to the iceboats on the river at the same time, the wind-powered boats in the background that sail on ice using metal runners.
“The iceboats make sense,” the worker said. “They’re skimming on the top part. He’s on a bicycle, in a river… he does not have a wetsuit on… he’s an idiot…”
Now, there are plenty parts of the world where cycling on ice is a thing, in the depths of Russia for example, but we’re guessing from the reactions it’s less of a thing in New Jersey. Whoever got that pizza better have left a tip.
Meanwhile, in Canada…
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Biniam Girmay sprints to victory in first race for NSN Cycling
Dream start! 🔥
Biniam Girmay wins the opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana — his first victory since 2024 and his first as an NSN rider 👏 pic.twitter.com/qDcVk2A17M
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) February 4, 2026
Not too much to say about the racing action this week, but certainly noteworthy that Biniam Girmay is up and running for NSN Cycling in his first race for the team. Even if it is just the 2.Pro Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana we’re talking about, and a sprint stage with climber Aleksandr Vlasov in 5th, it’s still Girmay’s first win (somewhat unbelievably) since stage 12 of the 2024 Tour de France. Imagine hearing that day, his third stage win at that year’s Tour, that it would take 19 months for his next race win full stop.
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Are you the next Jonas Vingegaard? Visma-Lease a Bike invite applications to 'Talent Day' trials
Visma-Lease a Bike reckon youth cycling in Europe limits the opportunities for lightweight climbers to stand out. It’s a hypothesis that makes a lot of sense, especially here in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, and several other major European cycling nations, where amateur and youth racing is often circuit-based and rarely has any significant climbing, let alone mountains.
So, to give the next generation of climbing specialists a chance, the team organises ‘Talent Days’ in the Belgian Ardennes. These feature standardised uphill tests “to offer talented cyclists the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in an objective, performance-focused environment”.
> Could Swansea University academics help Ineos Grenadiers spot the next Tadej Pogačar?
Brace yourselves for this next detail… male riders born between 2008 and 2011 and female riders born between 2008 and 2009 can apply… we’re all getting old, aren’t we?
The team has invited riders to apply, with staff to assess each application and invite riders to Talent Days.
“All participants receive a personal performance feedback report,” the team says. “Top-performing male riders may be invited for further monitoring and a U19 training camp. Female riders will receive individual follow-up regarding development opportunities within the team’s talent pathway.”
Any 2008-born readers out there? We suspect not but all the application info is on Visma-Lease a Bike’s site.
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"It's lighter without grease": Cyclist who pressure washes bike after every ride divides opinion — but is it really that bad for your bearings?
To pressure wash or not to pressure wash? That is the question…
It’s up there with disc brakes and socks over or under bib tights in the pantheon of great cycling debates. Naturally, the discussion today was split between the two great pressure-washing camps: the ‘chill out, it’s fine’ crew, versus the ‘won’t someone please think of the bearings’ side. Personally, I’ve got little skin in the game on this one. I’ll occasionally use a garden hose for a quick rinse after a particularly grimy ride (that’s on my bike, I should add, before any of you jokers in the comments get any ideas), but don’t have access to a pressure washer and certainly don’t swear by the hose, it’s just sometimes convenient.
Anyway, as I’m sure you’re aware, others are more opinionated on the pros and cons of cleaning your bike. We suspect the person who shared the post knew exactly what they were doing when they posted the pic and caption, and boy did it get a response on this Reddit thread…
“It’s lighter without grease”
“The option to shorten the life of all the bearings”
“definitely gonna get someone T R I G G E R E D”
“Doesn’t this blast the grease out of bearings?”
For some comedic relief, I’ll drop in the comment from someone who reported their wife gets mad when they do this too… but maybe “because the bike is on a trainer now. In the living room”.
Back to the serious stuff, someone who said they are a UCI-licensed mechanic got involved and reckons there is “no problem” with pressure washing your bike: “Washing a bike is a normal part of routine maintenance. There is no problem here and I can tell that you take care of your equipment.”
One reply came: “Yes, washing a bike can be ok if you regularly maintain everything and have a good maintenance routine. It definitely can also decrease service intervals on some parts unless you are careful. Seen this first hand over the last couple decades of wrenching. If you are wrenching for UCI racers then the bikes you are working on see far more regular maintenance than 99.9% of non-professionals.”
Likewise, someone else suggested that “you wouldn’t ask a NASCAR or F1 mechanic for longevity advice for your Honda Accord, you probably shouldn’t look to a pro tour mechanic on how to make a bike last either”.
I told you things kick off when it comes to bearing longevity discussions…
Brands such as Shimano, Trek and Ribble have told us previously that they don’t recommend using pressure washers on their bikes and components. Those views were largely down to damage concerns, although Hunt told us while jet washing “can be extremely useful for cleaning” it “generally is not recommended as best practice for bike maintenance”.
“We find the issue often isn’t the process of jet washing itself, but in the aftercare,” a spokesperson told us. “It’s crucial to ensure that components are adequately dried off and re-lubricated after jet washing before storing the bike. Simply putting the bike away without proper cleaning and drying can lead to issues down the line.”
CeramicSpeed also couldn’t recommend the practice: “Just as when riding for an extended period in heavy rain or extreme riding conditions, the bearing seals and grease protection can be overwhelmed by the volume and pressure of water exerted against them.
“While our SLT-equipped bearings (headset and pivots) contain solid lubrication [SLT stands for Solid Lubrication Technology] that cannot be washed out by force, our traditional hand-built hybrid ceramic bearings would just need to be serviced and refilled with the appropriate grease following moisture ingress typical of pressure washing.
“All of our bottom bracket, hub, and pulley bearings can be serviced and cleaned by accessing the face of the bearing and removing the seal. We recommend properly cleaning the bearing to ensure fine contaminants are not forced in during the pressure washing, and then applying the clean UFO grease of choice and reinstalling or replacing the seal. All in, it would be more time-efficient to avoid pressure washing around the bearings when cleaning the bike, but with the appropriate service and aftercare, we do not need to worry about pressure washing around our bearings.”
What I’m taking from all this is it can be fine, but equally it can cause problems if done incorrectly? Do you pressure wash your bike?
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C'mon now. He came close to possibly scratching the parked Beamer.
You've obviously never ridden in the U.S. where a whole lot of people lack the bike-handling skill and judgement to ride 15 mph on anything other than a long straightaway. And where most of them ride on multi-use trails, often full of pedestrians, because they are afraid to use roadside bike lanes due to their beginnerish riding skills. There seem to be a whole lot of adults in this country who gained little or no biking experience as children.
Good on you West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Magistrates Court, fighting the good fight and clearly doing the right thing to keep the streets safe.
Oh if only. U.S. already has a 20 mph limit for Class 1s and 2s. The latter have a throttle. Most of them get ridden on what we across the pond call "multi-use trails.'' Most of these trails are paved, and attract many ebikes because many ebike riders in the country have minimal bike-handling skills and are thus afraid to use roadside bike paths. The lack of skill is what makes 20 mph too fast. I often now find myself heading off the trail to avoid some throttle-brained idiot who overcooked a corner and is coming head-on in the wrong lane. Maybe no one at Trek rides bikes in the U.S.
Cyclist fined for causing oncoming driver absolutely no inconvenience whatsoever: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cd9w2l2wqvdo
@MaxiMinimalist One may also wonder how much of your time you have given to charity recently. Froome is giving his time, his experience, his contacts, his expertise...couldn't you just say that's good that he's doing something rather than implying that it's not genuine unless he puts in his own money?
Today's TDF stage was pure theatre.👏
@Pub bike Exactly. So many people act like they need something just like a motorbike, claiming they need it to 'keep up with traffic' in spaces where a motorbike is legal. I have no issue with you getting an electric motorbike and riding it at 30mph. What I do object to is you riding something with the power to do that in a bike lane, and the mere hint that someone might think it OK to ride one on a shared path is the best way to ensure that all bikes, certainly all currently legal pedal assist, bikes are banned from shared paths and pedestrianised zones. The simple fact that some people want these demonstrates that we can't rely on people being sensible with more powerful bikes.
Whereas I want brazed or welded steel or titanium. When we had to have tight fitting lugs for 753, I wanted the lugs as plain as possible. Just as well people have different tastes. I had a hankering for 953 frame and fork but eventually reconciled myself to a carbon fork when I found that they didn't, after all, crack or turn into carbon dust after a couple of years - I now have a carbon fork which seems fine after 26 years. Then I found that the steel for 953 had to come from the USA, and production is now paused due to tariff wars, so I switched consideration to 853. Then I found that the steel for 853 has to come from Germany, so I thought 'Sod it, I'll go for Fairlight 853 welded in Taiwan' which is the present plan.
One may wonder how much of his personal money has Froomey injected into his own Foundation. The man's net worth reportedly amounts to $45 to 50 million. Four days at 10 grand, I'll have to pass because my banker rejected my request for a loan.
19 thoughts on ““Is he delivering pizza?”: New Jersey cycle courier taking shortcut across frozen river makes the news; “It’s lighter without grease”: Cyclist who pressure washes bike after every ride divides opinion + more on the live blog”
So whose to blame for that borked wordpress update in the middle of the night? Did you have to roll back the database? I noticed some of the latest articles are missing from the homepage.
Someone pressure-washed the site at the end of the day.
That makes sense: I’ve lost my bearings.
Oh wow. Properly threaded replies in comments?
I preferred them when they were press fit?
Everything should be there, some bits are missing from the homepage though. Steadily working through the issues, apologies.
The rest I can live with, but “2 like” is egregious.
Even worse, when I click the ♥, it changes to 3like, not 3 like.
I can see and comment on some threads but on others (like todays Blog) I can’t see any comments!
Hopefully they’ve fixed it I’m seeing and commenting in here now!
that’s odd
Hmmm – An automated WordPress update has failed to complete! Please notify the site administrator.
Oops – can’t edit that message to add that you can get that if you click on the “Edit your profile” link at the bottom of the comments.
i.e. https://road.cc/wp-admin/profile.php
Just to see if things are working, I’ll say that I’ve never washed my gravel bike since it arrived in October 2019. I leave that job to the rain.
Shame on you!
Ah but… I’ve just had to replace my El Cheapo rear wheel. The hub came with the bike, but the rim was replaced nearly 3 years ago. The ratchet ring was worn so the pawls couldn’t engage. There was only a single bearing in the freehub, at the outer end, and it was horribly knackered and crunchy. A new freehub wasn’t available anyway, but the ratchet ring was what finished it off. The punchline is: but the 2 sealed bearings which transmit the load to the through-axle were perfect and smooth, and there was no mess in there to indicate water ingress. I attribute this to an absence of washing, power washing in particular.
It’s 2005 all over again with this site ‘redesign’
He’s pedalling, so it can’t be food delivery.
Can someone explain why a man cycling across a frozen river – one so frozen many others are using it for recreation, as a perfectly normal thing to do in regions with deep winter freezes – is “Yikes!”?
This seems to be just another case of “Oh no… a cyclist doing something normal! Cyclists are so stupid!” general anti-cyclist nonsense.