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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
SUMMARY

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
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!
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.
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…
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.


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.
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.
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).
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…
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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Latest Comments
@DrG82 is a liar. First off, who here said they got everything right? "I wouldn’t say that the Welsh government got everything right." The article contains commentary saying they didn't get everything right. I suppose saying something obviously true sets you up to lie later... "They applied the speed limit changes uniformly, without considering exceptions" You are a liar. The Welsh Government guidance contained rules that would allow councils to exempt roads from 20mph. As an example, much of my route into town stayed at 30 and 40mph because my council bothered to apply the exemptions. I particularly enjoyed your unsupported claim of "This has been a massive waste of money". The article states "collisions involving all road users on 20mph and 30mph are down 37 per cent, with casualties dropping by 35 per cent". I'd say a one-off cost of changing road signs for a permanent 1/3rd reduction in collisions is gonna save the taxpayer a chunk of healthcare costs and owners and businesses a chunk of money not fixing car bodywork. Nothing but contempt for you. Take your lies elsewhere.
With so many people using and looking at mobie phones whilst driving and other distractions, may I suggest you always wear Hi viz and stay at home.
The design of the "car" has played a role in this. SUVs and what the Americans call "trucks" are exempt from the pedestrian safety regulations which apply to passenger cars. Had the victim been hit by a car designed in the past twenty years he would have been "scooped" onto the bonnet and either over the roof or off to one side. Still a serious injury risk and potentially fatal but they have the benefit of those passive safety systems to improve their chances. With vehicles with such a high bonnet line as this Volvo has what tends to happen is the person bounces off the bonnet and falls on the road in front of the vehicle where they're then run over. This has happened time and time again and is becoming more of an issue as the numbers of vehicles exempt from the safety standards grows.
@Accessibility for all Reducing the speeds wouldn't have helped in this case as the driver was reported doing 65 in a 40 zone on the approach to the junction, his driving described by the witnesses as erratic and evidently had no intention to stop to give way even though he had been warned by the passenger who apparently shouted "bike" three times just before the collision. He would have likely flown through that junction even if it was traffic light controlled with a red light for him at the time. In my own experience the entire area i.e. east of Lymm towards Warburton and along Dunham Road all the way up to Altrincham and past into Hale Barns, all those wealthy, posh settlements around Manchester Airport are best avoided by road cyclists. A disproportionally high number of psycho drivers must for some reason live in that area because every single time I went there on my road bike in the past, I either got harassed myself or witnessed proper dickhead driving - speeding, close passes, overtaking into oncoming traffic or round a blind bend, accelerating towards pedestrians already crossing the road, you name it. I gave up road cycling in that area years ago and only use the local TPT these days.
In respect of the murder charge: based on him hitting Mr Mullins and making no attempt to help him (this killing him), how would the case compare to a hit and run driver who seriously injures or kills a cyclist, knowingly, and flees the scene without helping? Would this make the cut for a murder charge? Or is there something very different going on here that I’m missing? Genuinely curious because I don’t recall there being a murder charge before for this kind of thing unless it was premeditated. In fact, in my experience most cases like this seem to go the opposite way - where the driver can merely say the sun was in their eyes and get away with a slap on the hands.
@Rendel Harris...and there was me dishing out the praise!
@polainm He must also be an already hardened criminal. It wasn't mentioned during the court proceedings to avoid influencing the jurors and ensuring he had a fair trial, but he had been released from prison shortly before this incident and was couch surfing at his cousin's house days before. Just look at his face, he's only 35, but looks older than his victim who was 56. Must have spent half his adult life in prison.
@jaymack They did offer him manslaughter though but he declined to plead guilty. Without wanting to seem curmudgeonly, yes great that they preferred the most serious charges but hard to see how they could have done differently considering that Richardson got out of the car, saw Mr Mullins was stuck underneath and then got back in and carried on. That clearly moved it above anything that falls under death by dangerous driving.
@thrawed Agree - the UK winters are utterly grim; grey, wet & windy. Not the type of weather you really want to go out and ride. Everything get covered in filth, and takes time to clean it after a ride. Oh for colder, drier & crisper days which can be enjoyable to be out in.
@ymm In my view, lax sentencing of dangerous drivers, especially where cyclists are involved, makes the judge, jury and CPS complicit in UK driver culture. This driver is a sociopath.
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.