Welcome to Monday’s live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Wiggins: Froome “couldn’t scratch his arse” before 2012 TdF, 2016 TdF stage winner Jarlinson Pantano tests positive for EPO, Paris-Roubaix round-up on-bike footage and Sussex 11-year-old from Sussex who rode Saturday’s sportive + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond and we start a new week.
Mon, Apr 15, 2019 16:28
SUMMARY
15 April 2019, 16:28
Weekend catch-up
ICYMI, here are some of our top stories from the weekend:
– Campaigners in Cambridge ride for Space for Cycling ahead of local elections
– Philippe Gilbert wins Paris-Roubaix (+ video highlights)
– Jeremy Clarkson lost two stone by cycling
– 11 ways the pros prepare for Paris-Roubaix
15 April 2019, 16:28
The cycle paths that encourages you to sing
It is estimated that 75% of Dutch people sometimes sing while cycling, so they have created designated cycling paths where you are encouraged to sing aloud. (h/t @BicycleDutch.) pic.twitter.com/ugbe0XrDuG
— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) April 14, 2019
Apparently it’s a thing in the Netherlands!
15 April 2019, 16:28
Elation from Philippe Gilbert as he clinches his fourth monument
True emotions… This is #TheWolfpack pic.twitter.com/viDFZy7U1E
— PHILIPPE GILBERT (@PhilippeGilbert) April 14, 2019
Gilbert is seen in tears after winning Paris-Roubaix yesterday, and is embraced by team manager Patrick Lefévère as he comes to a stop on the famous velodrome. Full report on yesterday’s epic here.
15 April 2019, 16:28
On-bike footage/carnage from Paris-Roubaix
The folks at Velon managed to edit together plenty of carnage just a few hours after the finish – check out the madness and Gilbert’s victory from another perspective…
15 April 2019, 16:28
Evaldas Siskevicius has ride of his life to finish 9th in 2019 Paris-Roubaix... a year after arriving at the finish to find velodrome doors closed
One of those stories we all love. Last year, he arrived last and found the Roubaix Velodrome’s gates closed. Today, he arrived 9th. Chapeau, Edvaldas Siskevicius! Gotta love pro cycling! #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/ggejwvyrF3
— Mihai Cazacu (@faustocoppi60) April 14, 2019
You may remember the Lithuanian rider’s story of stubbornness from last year, in which he battled through exhaustion and a puncture 30km from the finish only to ignore the motorbike sweeper and continue on out of pure determination and respect for the race. Siskevicius found security had already closed the gates to the velodrome that Peter Sagan had rode through to claim victory over an hour before, and had to sneak in to cross the finish line.
A year on, and Siskevicius had the absolute ride of his life to record a top ten finish on the Hell of the North. Hard work pays off, chapeau that man.
*Edit* They do say if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen, and luckily for us Siskevicius has already uploaded his epic ride from yesterday! Link here with all the juicy data.
15 April 2019, 16:28
11-year-old Ventoux and Stelvio-conquering Alfie Earl becomes youngest to complete Paris-Roubaix Sportive
The intrepid youngster finished the 145km epic over the famous cobbles on Saturday, gaining special permission to ride as the usual minimum age for the event is 18. He completed the course in just over seven hours. He said: “I’m really proud to have done Paris-Roubaix, it was a brutal but an amazing experience. The Arenberg was horrible but after that I got more used to the cobbles and my BMX’ing came in handy as I could bunneyhop into the gutters! Lots of people were encouraging me and I got lots of high fives along the way.”
Aged just nine Alfie, who attends the The Weald School in Billingshurst, West Sussex, climbed the Ventoux and Stelvio inside 48 hours. He also conquered the Col du Galibier a few months later.
15 April 2019, 16:28
Wiggins: Froome “couldn’t scratch his arse” before 2012 Tour de France
Remember Chris Froome saying on Nico Rosberg’s Beyond Victory podcast last week that he had issues trusting Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France because of the previous year’s Vuelta, where he had to follow team orders and surrender the leader’s jersey to Wiggins, only to prove the stronger of the two Team Sky riders during the third and final week of the race, finishing second with his team-mate in third?
Well, it was bound to provoke a reaction from Wiggins, and so it proved in the latest episode of his Eurosport podcast, The Bradley Wiggins Show, when he said that Froome – who finished runner-up as his team leader became the first Briton to win the yellow jersey – “couldn’t scratch his arse” before the 2012 Tour de France.
You can listen to the full segment here.
15 April 2019, 16:28
Game of Thrones Olympics
When the world seems to be talking about something else, we always try to bodge in a cycling reference… and this time we thank The Humour Feed for sharing this gallery (original credit unknown) in which Bronn from Game of Thrones starts in the men’s Olympic Road Race (photo 14).
15 April 2019, 16:28
Another cycling and walking paradise in London thanks to an unlikely source
#ExtinctionRebellion have just blocked Waterloo Bridge to traffic. Still open to pedestrians and cyclists [ro] pic.twitter.com/RrJ3DnArAh
— BBC London Travel (@BBCTravelAlert) April 15, 2019
Last week Hammersmith Bridge was shut indefinitely to motor traffic thanks to the lack of money the council had to fix it, and this week the Extinct Rebellion climate change action group are responsible for closing off Waterloo bridge. They’ve started putting trees and potted house plants up to ensure the road remains blocked off for the foreseeable…
15 April 2019, 16:28
Tour de France stage winner Jarlinson Pantano tests positive for EPO
Colombian cyclist Jarlinson Pantano, who won a Tour de France stage in 2016 when he was with the IAM Cycling team, has tested positive for EPO, the UCI has confirmed.
World cycling’s governing body said that the rider was targeted for testing by the Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation.
It added: “The rider has the right to request and attend the analysis of the B sample.
“In accordance with UCI Anti-Doping Rules, the rider has been provisionally suspended until the adjudication of the affair.
“At this stage of the procedure, the UCI will not comment any further on this matter.”
The 30-year-old’s current team, Trek Segafredo, said: “It is with deep disappointment that we have just learned that our rider, Jarlinson Pantano, has been notified of an adverse analytical finding in a sample collected during an out of competition control carried out by the Cycling Antidoping Foundation.
“In accordance with our zero-tolerance policy, he has been suspended immediately.
“We hold our riders and staff to the highest ethical standards and will act and communicate accordingly as more details become available,” it added.
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to ebiketips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
Rendel Harris 50 minutes ago
As I recall it made cycling more popular rather than doing for it...honestly, this article is an absolute dumpster fire of factual errors (Orson Welles did not write 1984 and Warner Bros do not organise MTB races) and grammatical and syntactical mistakes ("TV coverage is also, in no short order, what rings in the lion’s share of sponsorship money" - what?). What on earth happened?
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
@Sriracha It is indeed ridiculous that one can buy these illegal machines just on a promise that one won't use it on public roads; almost as ludicrous as being able to buy a motor car that can do 230mph with a promise that one won't ever do more than 70mph. By all means let's have a crackdown on illegal electric motorcycles, but there should be simultaneous legislation restricting all cars to 70mph maximum with severe confiscate/crush penalties for any vehicle that has been modified to circumvent the restrictor.
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
Yes, let's send in the army to go after the group that kills 1750 people a year and seriously injures 25,000 more, 85% of whom admit to breaking the law when it suits them. Shocking that these thugs have been allowed to get away with their illegal behaviours for so long and at such devastating cost to their victims and their families.
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
@Steve K Yep, at the time I had a back wheel conversion ebike, fully legal kit from a reputable UK supplier, all three of my LBSs refused to do a front brake fluid replacement for me; they were very polite and apologetic but they all had a policy of only working on purpose-built ebikes from well-known manufacturers. One explained that there were plenty of falsely-badged dodgy kits around with 750W motors masquerading as 250W and they didn't want to risk any potential legal issues if they were found to have facilitated getting an illegal machine back on the road.
Ollie Smith 2 hours ago
@leedorney Nowt wrong with inner tubes, but if you'd have spent £100 buying tyres to use them tubeless I bet you'd be at least marginally annoyed.
ktache 2 hours ago
The cheery face of occupation...
ktache 2 hours ago
Much as you cannot outrun a polar bear, but you might be able to outrun the bloke next to you, it's about persuading the scrote that the bike next to yours is easier to steal, though of course not as nice. And mine will always be grubbier. And it helps with the insurance payout. I like my hip lock DX1000, at the time of purchase it was the only lock that would fit around the rim and tyre, securing the rohloff to the frame and secure object. And it definitely looks the part. Yet to see the LPL attack the locking mech, the key, to my untrained eye looks better than my many kryptonites. As the above has it, these diamond sold secure locks are getting cheaper and that is no bad thing.
60somethingcyclist 3 hours ago
It's good to see that there are bike shop owners with principles. I was in a bike shop recently when some of the Deliveroo fraternity brought their bikes in. The staff saw that the bikes were illegal and refused to touch them. Fortunately the riders didn't cause any trouble, although this might have been because there were another 4 guys in the repair shop, with a lot of spanners and wrenches in easy reach! Illegal bike are a real problem, whether they're modified e-bikes or electric motorbikes. The Police and councils to occasionally run operations to try and catch them but they won't chase them. In my area they're being used for drug dealing.
60somethingcyclist 3 hours ago
Perhaps the friendly approach might work?
Xenophon2 3 hours ago
I don't believe tall stories about invincible bike locks, period. Even IF it could withstand an angle grinder, what happens if the thief doesn't use a grinder but another means? Say he douses that hard but brittle lock with refrigerant spray and gives it a good whack with a hammer? Or -what happened to me but fortunately with a low value bike- they don't manage to cut the lock and out of spite they attack the frame and cut through it?
4 thoughts on “Live blog: Wiggins: Froome “couldn’t scratch his arse” before 2012 TdF, 2016 TdF stage winner Jarlinson Pantano tests positive for EPO, Paris-Roubaix round-up on-bike footage and Sussex 11-year-old from Sussex who rode Saturday’s sportive + more”
Someday, someone, somewhere
Someday, someone, somewhere when Froome nears retirement will make a documentary on Froome, I fear they will struggle to keep it serious.. he’s given us so many larfs through the years what with his overgrown baby head, crashing into an official literally off the ramp in his TdF debut, running up Mont Ventoux, silly elbows and stem watching.. Bradley’s probably right.
I tip my POV visor to both
I tip my POV visor to both Edvaldas Siskevicius and Alfie Earl, inspiring stories both.
Pantani guilty of drug taking
Pantani guilty of drug taking. It was inevitable he would be caught. What… not Pantini?
Obviously this report
Obviously this report sensationalises it, Wiggins comments were pretty measured.
1: The point before which Wiggins said Chris Froome “couldn’t scratch his arse” was the 2011 Vuelta – I doubt many would disagree.
2: Wiggins points out that before the 2012 tour he hadn’t failed to win a race he targeted in 2012, didn’t loose a single long time trial, he won the TdF by 3 minutes or Froome.
3: He was actually pretty complimentary to Froome in the segment describing him as the best rider of his generation and his favourite for 2019 victory.
Basically Froome was showing off, he couldn’t have taken 3 minutes out of a better timetrialist in around 1000m of riding.
But the showing off worked and the rest is history.