Live blog: Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils; Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint (+more vid of sprint crash), Wiggo ‘bike drop’, Hunt newsletter fail + save, Holly Willoughby on overtaking cyclists + more
SUMMARY
Alexander Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint
This is what happened to Alexander Kristoff’s bike in the UAE tour yesterday.
Alexander Kristoff snapped his chainstay in half during the sprint up Hatta Dam today #UAETour pic.twitter.com/ENaXiCqYHA
— Frederick Dreier (@freddreier) February 27, 2019
Looks like the rear mech somehow took out the seat stay.
Kristoff explained:
You can see him come to a complete stop at about 2m30s (he’s already way in the background).
Sir Dave Brailsford has completely lost control of his hands
Sir Dave’s hand gestures have long fascinated us and Team Sky’s latest Colombia YouTube documentary thing provides a fine example why.
‘Success’ is represented by some sort of ham-fisted pottery spinning gesture, while he expresses ‘winning the race’ with an up-and-down move that we can only assume relates to different positions on a leaderboard.
He’s even got one for ‘can we use the experience of these guys to feed and fast track these guys?’
Holly Willoughby turns up the radio when her husband is judging her for not overtaking cyclists
“I do not like overtaking cyclists at all,” said Willoughby. “As soon as there’s a cyclists in front of me I’m like, oh my god just please turn left, please just get off the road, because I can’t do it. I hate it.”
Referring to her husband, she continued: “And Dan, now, looks at me… All he has to do is do that, and I’m like, ‘Stop it! Because I know you’re going to make a big deal of the fact I’m going to sit behind this cyclist until they move.’”
She said that to distract herself from his critical looks, she turns up the radio.
Brazen bike thief video
Now that’s just a brazen attempt to steal a very expensive Yeti mountain bike from a bike shop
Fizik Tempo Overcurve R5 shoes launched
Italian company Fizik has launched the new Tempo Overcurve R5 cycling shoe, a new model in a range intended to offer a timeless look, which uses the micro adjustment of a single Boa IP1 dial and a staggered collar wrapping around the ankle to provide a fast and secure closure.
The new shoes are available now and cost £140 and come in sizes 36 to 48, with half sizes between 37 to 47. More at www.fizik.com
“We are pleased to bring the new Tempo Overcurve R5 shoes to market,” says Luca Mathia Bertoncello, fizik’s Brand Director. “Showcasing the versatile new Tempo shoe construction and R5 outsole provides an ideal platform on which to deliver the all-new Overcurve system.
A study in ergonomic design, its form follows the natural shape created by the lateral and medial malleoli protrusions on either side of the ankle – the asymmetric shape lends itself to an overlapping curve along and across the rider’s foot. It means a technically superior fit option to rival many others available.”
Pinarello's Grevil gravel bike arrives in UK bike shops
You’ve read all about Pinarello’s bold new gravel bike named the Grevil, well now you can see it at your local bike shop as it’s starting to arrive in stock about now. You can also see our video where we ask if it’s hot or not.
Wiggo back racing. Sort of
Sir Bradley Wiggins has been enjoying a spot of competitive cycling in Belgium this week.
What cycle clothing for a dystopian future?
Cycle clothing brand Morvélo don’t seem very optimistic about upcoming times
“Legend has it that beyond the 500 metre high city wall, there is a green paradise. Living in the perpetual darkness and fighting for a living on the street, The Underworld Champions fight to escape a dystopian future plagued by the Hydroformers; an elite group hell bent on industrialisation and containing the last inhabitants of earth. Armed with whatever they can find, the race is on to find a way out of the urban maze and into the myth. Do you dare join them?”
Or it could just be a collaboration with artist Death Spray Custom.
Investigation into Mike Hall’s “avoidable” death was compromised by loss of evidence
Coroner also concluded that the driver involved in the collision did not commit an offence. She said this conclusion was in part due to the high standard of negligence required by law.
Velon On-Bike Footage of Nasty UAE Tour Crash
A touch of wheels at the front of the peloton saw lots of riders going down heavily 8km from the finish of yesterday’s UAE Tour Stage 5.
The footage shows quite a few broken bikes with one Astana rider even rolling a tubular tyre off the rim.
There were no casualties of this particular crash, but young Belgian sensation Remco Evenepole seems to have crashed into a stationary motorbike earlier in the stage. The crash forced him to abandon the race but a trip to hospital showed no broken bones.
Brooks launches C17 Cambium Organic Light saddle
Brooks England has announced the launch of the C17 Cambium Organic Light saddle. The new model uses a combination of materials including organic cotton and vulcanised natural rubber. The nose and backplate are made from liquid wood, a 100% biodegradable biopolymer formed from waste products.
The C17 Cambium Organic Light is available in a variety of colours including natural, green, brick and rust and retails, and retails at £120.
The C17 Organic Light will be available online at www.brooksengland.com and at the B1866 flagship in Seven Dials, London from 4th March 2019.
Hunt apologises for “ALEX DOWSETT’S GF RIDES HUNT” newsletter headline
Here’s Chanel’s response to that headline.
And here’s Hunt’s apology.
Broadly speaking, the apology seems to have been well received.
We all make mistakes… well done @HuntBikeWheels for taking ownership of yours. I’m sure the team have learnt from their mistakes and can now just go back to being awesome pic.twitter.com/Vp8JiNlYLo
— Laura Scott (@Laura_Scott) February 27, 2019
The Classics are coming!
The Spring Classics are coming, and the pros have been out scoping out key sections of cobbles ahead of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Cobbles, cobbles, cobbles.. #OHN19 pic.twitter.com/AdA2GnJeyy
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) February 28, 2019
Uninsured teen driver would have known cyclist was under car when he did three-point turn
Former London cycling commissioner accuses mayor of building "fake cycle network"
Andrew Gilligan doesn’t think much of London’s Quietways.
Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils
Will Butler-Adams, the head of Brompton Bicycles, says that ill feeling between motorists and cyclists is because “cycling as a mode of transport pretty much died”.
The Telegraph, who published an interview with him this weekend, reports that he was “mid-rant” with “eyes ablaze” when he said this.
“The people who brought cycling back to life, were the people at the weekend training for their triathlon,” he said. “They whizz along at 100mph like some hardcore guy, get to work and change out of that funny stuff.”
This year’s Brompton World Championship Final will be held on August 3 at that famously Mamil-free event, RideLondon.
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Latest Comments
Why do bike companies insist on differentiating their top tier and lower tier offerings by producing shockingly bad colours for the lower tier bikes? Sucks big time if you ask me.
Setting aside the tedious and untrue "extreme heatwaves" quote from the article, I've never understood why cyclists and cars alike aren't compelled to be brightly coloured. Not only would this create a highly visible scene, naturally reducing the number of accidents in the road, wearing light colours and having white cars would naturally reflect heat and sun back into the atmosphere, lowering ambient temperatures, creating less need for air conditioning or hydration. Win-win. Domestic car journeys create 16% of UK CO2 emissions, and the UK itself creates less than 1% of global totals. With the increasing proportion of electric vehicle journeys, that figure will only shrink in future. So framing this as some kind of existential argument is alarmist, short-sighted and false.
@mdavidford That's quite the marquee of someone with tunnel mindedness. I'm not sure I want to know the inner thoughts that have led you to this camp. I shall be poleite though, there are some guys patrolling on this site who are very tightly strung and all it takes some bell to get under their dome and teepee them into a right Mess. Not that I'd peg you as one of them, you seem quite grounded.
Arguments over niceties like that won't fly, and anyway, I wasn't canvassing opinions - if they want to pitch things like this they should do it somewhere else.
Maybe - but this is a little tent.
@Shades Don't forget that they've just arrived home in their SUV (40% larger and heavier than a regular car a few decades earlier) and now complain about how many potholes there are these days. Tax SUVs, call it a pothole tax, link it directly to the damage they cause.
Good luck with that; people around me get their cars out for a journey beyond the end of the road. As soon as they're home, they're raging on NextDoor about new pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes, closing off rat-runs, ebikes (they can't differentiate between legal and illegal), increased parking charges and hire scooters/bikes. They'll give up their car when you prise it out of their cold dead hands.
@mdavidford Technically this review is on the off.road.cc site, so a grassy field fits as a legitimate location. The road.cc group don't need to fork out on a whole load of new URLs just yet. However I am still waiting for the e-bike site to cover the length and breadth of the machines, and not just tease us with the tips.
Let it stay! off-on-road-gravel.(e)cc is a big tent organisation!
For yet another reason "(providing for) cycling, walking and wheeling - your least shit option" *. Let's hope we avoid the "Fosters advert" tendency ("the world is warming ... write to your MP ... or say bollocks to it and enjoy the sun while you can!") The pull of the "short term gain" arguments / "but change!" are strong though. (And "even if we don't, others will - and they'll get ahead!") * As Chris Boardman said in the context of "how can cash-strapped local authorities meet targets around road safety, congestion, accessibility, health, carbon emissions..."
29 thoughts on “Live blog: Brompton boss says enmity between motorists and cyclists is down to Mamils; Kristoff’s bike fails to survive sprint (+more vid of sprint crash), Wiggo ‘bike drop’, Hunt newsletter fail + save, Holly Willoughby on overtaking cyclists + more”
Brailsford hands lolz
Brailsford hands lolz
Holly, it is nice you feel
Holly, it is nice you feel concern when passing cyclists, but NOT passing them is also unsafe. I get sick of being intimidated by motorists waiting over my shoulder and not passing. I don’t need you to go completely onto the other side of the road, “Just Drive Forward!” For every timid driver who won’t pass you are bottling up two assholes behind you who will immediately pass closely even if not safe. The inconsistency is the problem, and you are part of the problem because you are not confident in your ability to drive safely. Take an Advanced Driving course if you have to, but get off my shoulder.
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58
Check out Sir Dave at 5.58 when he says ‘young guns’!!!
Surely it’s about time DS
Surely it’s about time DS were prevented from driving team cars whilst on the radio and well, directing the race?
Sends completely the wrong message about distracted driving.
So am I enraged by Brompton
So am I enraged by Brompton guy?!?! He says cycling has been saved by mamils on the weekend but moans that it’s dead as a transport choice!! Who is he blaming?!?!?
Do I burn my brompton or what?!?!? It’s only a couple months old, I’d rather not. But if it’s for the greater mamil good…
…else I suppose I could lycra up when I ride it just to piss him off….
StoopidUserName wrote:
Yes, I wondered about the wisdom of pissing off your customers; not generally accepted as a good business plan.
burtthebike wrote:
See his clarification today – there’s no way he’s dissing anyone for cycling.
cougie wrote:
I was being a bit tongue in cheek there. I didn’t click through to the torygraph because…its the torygraph and the quotes in this article didn’t seem to be blaming anyone, just the headline made it look that way
burtthebike wrote:
Loving the double, triple and quadruple posts on the forum. Excellent software.
He could have a point about
He could have a point about the MAMIL’s on Ride London day I am always wary of the 4X4 with bikes on the back, you just know that they are going to do something they would compalin about if it happened to them!
Especially directed to the pillocks in the Range Rover that cut across me at the lights just after Battersea Dog’s home.
FFS, MAMILS are not the
FFS, MAMILS are not the problem. They make up a tiny percentage of all cyclists (and quite a small fraction of people who wear Lycra, people who are middle aged and cycle, and people who are both, if you take MAMIL to mean a very particular kind of cyclist). They are an excuse and an easy target for ridicule so that people can justify their prejudice. The problem is the constant failure to challenge incorrect views and the average person having a very poor understanding of the law and poor ability to drive. Some cyclists do give a bad image, and on my experience most of those are not people in Lycra but people on knackered, poorly maintained, old bikes who wear “normal” clothes. They tend to be the ones that cycle in a dangerous and inconsiderate way. But also they are generally only a risk to themselves and other cyclists, and no one lumps equally bad drivers and pedestrians together in the same way.
John Smith wrote:
Abolutely this.
I have to declare an interest here, I’m not a MAMIL, more an OAMIL, or OMIL for short. That won’t change any time soon. I hope also to be doing 100 mph on my commute tomorrow.
John Smith wrote:
As someone on [what looks like a] knackered, poorly maintained old bike, who wears “normal” clothes, I take exception to your generalisation.
That would be like me saying that all roadies are arrogant competitive sociopaths. And I wouldn’t say that.
We are all individuals
brooksby wrote:
I’m not
HawkinsPeter wrote:
Remember you are unique… just like everyone else 🙂
I am staggered at Mr Brompton
I am staggered at Mr Brompton’s comments – does he think that people who buy his bikes don’t think of themselves as cyclists, and never wear cycling clothes? And that triathletes saved cycling? FFS what a clueless arse hole. I’ve always thought Bromptons were a well engineered but over priced solution to a problem that only exists for a small portion of commuter-cyclists and his attitude to the wider world of cycling makes me doubt his business brain
Cyclists are not the problem,
Cyclists are not the problem. The people who think cyclists are a problem are the problem.
Will Butler-Adams, your
Will Butler-Adams, your statement about mamils was about as accurate as a cheap chinese watch – how absurd of you to abuse fellow cyclists in this way. Personally, I have always thought your bikes are absurd and I for one will never buy one.
Well well, I’m not sure what
Well well, I’m not sure what a Mamil really is – maybe I am one, i’m Middle aged and I wear Lycra when riding my road bike – which I do despite the absolute twats that drive. I have a load of bikes (it’s my hobby), two of which are Bromptons, which I bought despite their ridiculously high price because I wanted to support a British company – all my bikes are from British companies – however I can assure Mr Butler-Adams that the next folding bike I buy (for my daughter) will NOT be a Brompton you bigoted gammon faced twat! I look forward to this being his ratner moment…
that is all
Ridiculous rant by brompton
Ridiculous rant by brompton guy, he sounds like a typical moton, I’m not impressed with the actions of some people on bikes as well but that compared to the actions of far more wankers actually in killing machines is miniscule.
Not quite a ‘ratners’ moment but the potential damage to his business as well as sterotyping cyclists to confirm to the retarded daily heil mob doesn’t leave it too far short!
I stopped reading Brompton
I stopped reading Brompton man’s rant at “They whizz along at 100mph”. Could have come straight out of the DM comments.
Brompton boss. On the one
Brompton boss. On the one side (Brompton) you would think that he would be ok, being big cheese of a bike company and all. On the other hand (boss) you can picture his fat, red face behind the wheel of an executive twat-mobile-Audi.
And no, MAMILS are not the problem. Motorist killing and maiming without risk or fear of punishment is the problem.
Anyone who is taking the
Anyone who is taking the Brompton comments at face value is a fool.
Go google the guy and check out his talks. He LOVES cycling. He lives for it.
Typical newspaper making things out to be confrontational where there is none.
He’s clarified the comments today so you can all go put out the flames of your melted Bromptons.
I’ve been a road cyclist for over 35 years but my Brompton gives me more pleasure than my CF speed machines. Fantastic fun.