Trek joins Specialized in slashing prices; Ed Laverack aiming to reclaim Sa Calobra KOM from Tom Pidcock’s “crazy” time; “It’s a great problem for us”: Van Rysel delighted with interest in sold out RCR; Where’s Cav?; Giro teams + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Hill-climbing star Ed Laverack going back to Sa Calobra to try to reclaim KOM from Tom Pidcock's "crazy" time
Former British hill climb champion Ed Laverack, and former holder of the Sa Calobra Strava KOM, is returning to Mallorca this spring to try to reclaim his crown from Ineos Grenadiers’ multi-discipline talent, Tom Pidcock.
Perhaps the most competitive KOM in the world due to its popularity with the pros and peloton loads of amateur riders making the pilgrimage to its wiggly slopes, Laverack claimed the Sa Calobra best time two years ago in 2022. However, eight months later and there was a new king of that particular mountain, Pidcock rocking up on a winter training camp, ascending the legendary climb in 22:46 to knock almost two minutes off the benchmark.
Speaking about the challenge in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Laverack said: “Two years ago I went there with the goal of setting my fastest time. Tom Pidcock smashed my time by one minute 50 seconds, at the time I was gutted but at the same time I was very very motivated to see how much faster I can go and how much can I chip away at that advantage that Pidcock had set.
“Things have aligned and I feel like I’m in a good place to give it a stab.”
Naturally, Laverack is also squeezing in a hill climb while he’s on the island, taking on Kill the Hill up Puig Major too.
Those pesky horse lanes, popping up all over London...
"Huge fan" Remco Evenepoel watches Arsenal batter Chelsea 5-0
“Something not many people know is how I’ve always been a huge fan of Arsenal since being a kid,” the world TT champ wrote on Instagram. “To let off some steam after my injury and before we leave on training camp to prepare for my next goals, I went to watch Arsenal for the first time and what a game it was. Time to get back to work now and come back as strong as possible for the second part of the season.”
Declan Rice-cakes, Martin Øde(mud)gaard and Tri Havertz were presumably as grateful for the support as you are grateful to have got past those questionable puns…
"It's a great problem for us": Van Rysel delighted with interest in sold out RCR, as brand reveals first batch totalled 15 bikes
Last night we were at the opening of Van Rysel’s first London store, a custom-built retail space in Decathlon’s Surrey Quays store, featuring the brand’s entire range (including the RCR Pro team edition Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale have ridden to 11 victories so far in 2024), workshop, bike fitting studio and more.
The brand told us the first batch of £9,000 RCR Pro team edition replicas, which sold out in minutes, consisted of 15 units, CEO and founder Nicolas Pierron telling road.cc it’s “a great problem to have”. Moving forward, all bikes will be Van Rysel branded, the Triban name being dropped as “it’s difficult to have a different brand on the same project”.
“For the next generation, we decided to have just one brand,” Pierron explained, outlining his hope that Van Rysel will be a “game changer” in the cycling market and can be right near the top of the industry in the next few years, with a wide range of models from the WorldTour race-winning top-of-the-range RCR to the more “accessible, affordable bikes”.
“Bikes are very expensive and for us we have a different strategy,” he said. “I think Van Rysel will be a real game changer in the market.”
With the immediate success Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale have experienced using Van Rysel bikes, it’s impossible not to look ahead to the Tour de France this summer, especially when you’re based in Lille and supply a French WorldTour team.
“This project we’ve been looking at for many years, it’s just an incredible project,” Pierron continued. “It’s a big asset for us to feel that our product is the best-in-class product. The Tour de France is, I think, the biggest event in the world. So yes, I would like to win one stage in the Tour de France, one stage in the Giro, that would be the dream.”
Giant sues Stages Cycling and recruits four top executives from the now-shutdown US power meter brand
Ineos Grenadiers announce Giro d'Italia squad to support Geraint Thomas' maglia rosa charge
[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
It’s almost Giro time already… 2024 is flying by…
Ineos Grenadiers will head to the race with last year’s second-placed rider Geraint Thomas, the 37-year-old facing the unenviable task of having to try to work out how to beat Tadej Pogačar. The team says it will be targeting the GC, plus some stage win opportunities, TT powerhouse Filippo Ganna, Jhonatan Narváez, Thymen Arensman, Tobias Foss, Magnus Sheffield, Connor Swift and Ben Swift joining Thomas in Turin a week on Saturday.
“Obviously Tadej Pogačar is the pre-race favourite and has a strong team around him, and that changes the dynamic of the race a bit,” Thomas acknowledged. “But that also means all eyes will be on him over three long weeks of hard racing. Our plan is to be aggressive, take the race on and look for every opportunity to add pressure and take time.
“With the plan to race the Giro and then go straight into the Tour, there has been a different approach and slower build-up this season. But I am feeling good and not thinking beyond the coming weeks in Italy. My only focus now is the Giro and arriving there in my best shape possible.”
Disturbing (leg-)breaking climb news: the UK's steepest climb Bamford Clough may now be shut off with barriers
What a shame, I’ll never get the chance to try to ride up the 500m wall that hits 22 per cent wall and maxes out at 36 per cent at its steepest point… *winks to camera*… a real shame…
Getting reports coming in the the barriers that have always been at the top and bottom of Bamford Clough have now been made permanent and sealed into the ground closing it off completetly. Boo. Will try and get out at the weekend and have a look.
— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) April 25, 2024
Anyone done the climb? A reminder of what you would have been up against…
> “There is no way on earth I can ride up that”: 36 per cent monster Britain’s new steepest climb?
Ouch.
FLIPPING ECK
They’ve resurfaced Bamford Clough.
This is more than 35% and is much harder than HARD KNOTTS
None of us were able to cycle up it pic.twitter.com/oHdsYKbUUV
— Stan (@geckobike) September 5, 2021
"The nationwide investment that is being put into delivering high-quality routes is paying off": Chris Boardman says active travel a "win-win" as Sport England stats suggest two per cent increase in number of people walking or cycling journeys
Active Travel Commissioner Chris Boardman has reacted to Sport England’s research showing that over a million more adults have walked or cycled for travel and compared to 12 months ago (equating to a 2.1 per cent increase).
“Today’s Active Lives figures show that, year-on-year, one million more adults are choosing walking, wheeling and cycling as a way to get from A to B. The nationwide investment that is being put into delivering high-quality routes is paying off,” Boardman commented.
“By enabling more people to build activity into their daily lives we’re making the nation healthier, happier and greener. It’s a win-win for us all.”
Cavendish absent again as Team dsm–firmenich PostNL win again (pulling off impressive 1-2)
Just like Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale at Tour de Romandie yesterday, Team dsm–firmenich PostNL joined the 1-2 party in Turkey, Tobias Lund Andresen winning the stage ahead of Fabio Jakobsen. No sign of Cav however, the Manx Missile coming home near the back of the peloton in 76th. Still no victory since that Colombia stage in February, and not even a top 10 since either.
𝓣𝓮𝓪𝓶𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴 by Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 🎨
Hang it in the Louvre 😍#KeepChallenging #TUR2024🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/7WEjxYTFKg
— Team dsm-firmenich PostNL (@dsmfirmpostnl) April 25, 2024
Not another cyclocross talent landing on the road scene... Thibau Nys wins Tour de Romandie summit finish
A first WorldTour win for Thiabu Nys today, the son of cyclocross legend Sven Nys and a junior and U23 cyclocross world champion in his own right. The Lidl-Trek talent took it from the breakaway on stage two, beating escape companion Andrea Vendrame, while Luke Plapp did his best to spoil the day from the peloton.
Thibau Nys’ FIRST World Tour win! 🥇🙌
The Lidl-Trek rider achieves the BIGGEST win of his career in Stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie! 👏👏👏#TDR2024 pic.twitter.com/JdlXnmplmA
— Eurosport (@eurosport) April 25, 2024
"It's really encouraging to see the public taking responsibility for road safety": Police force praises cyclists and other road users for reporting mobile phone-using drivers
Trek joins Specialized in slashing prices
Earlier in the week Specialized cut prices across the board, with discounts of up to 50 per cent off bikes and riding gear. Well, Trek has too, a “TrekFest” sale offering up to 30 per cent off until 30 April (on selected items). It’s like Black Friday all over again…
That’s the good news. The bad news for those of us tarmac-concerned is that road bikes don’t appear to be part of the price cuts. Ah well, maybe you’ve already got a bike and are just in the market for some tempting kit or parts?
On the off-road side of things, you can find plenty of savings on mountain bikes (in very specific colours), the Powerfly FS 7 Gen 3 down to £4,850.13 (in “Matte/Gloss Supernova”) and more than £1,700 off the Rail 9.5 Gen 4 (in “Hex Blue”).
There are plenty of discounts for roadies too, 40 results in the road bike gear section, to be precise. Lights, pedals, bottle cages, helmets, shoes, wheels, saddles and more.
Trek has £60 off the Bontrager Velocis shoe, £105 off the Bontrager XXX shoe, its Bontrager Aeolus XXX 2 Disc Tubular Road Wheelset down to £549.99 from £1,099, and 30 per cent savings across the Bontrager helmet range. Tyres too have been slashed (a bad choice of words… that’s enough to send a shiver down your spine, I know), the Pirelli P Zero race TLR is down to £57.99 from £71.99, and £13.50 to £21 off other tyres such as the Bontrager R4 Classics Hard-Case Lite and R3 Hard-Case Lite.
Pumps, Lidl-Trek pro team water bottles, bar tape, inner tubes… you get the picture, they’ve all seen their prices cut.
Some of the seemingly endless bike industry sales are because of the over-ordering that came from increased demand when we were all locked away looking for activities to get us outside during the pandemic, buying bikes and bike stuff. Too much stock that’s hard to shift given the economic situation, inflation hitting people’s bank balances and reducing spending = price cuts to try to shift said stock… Low prices, flash sales, clearouts, it’s all left us wondering…
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It's much more serious than that. I recently had a text from a Chinese number suggesting that I transfer £500 to a Chinese govt bank account, or they would let all of my Wattsap contacts know that in July, I rode 593 miles at an average speed of 16.8 mph and didn't use a heartrate monitor. I had no option but to pay up. I am terrified that they will come back with more demands.
@Mr Blackbird So another advantage is that China copies my training regime and does worse at the next Olympics?
MPs? Journalists? Lawyers? Bankers? ...
I cycle there a lot and I am shook. Lovely country lanes, generally pretty quiet (esp. on a Sunday morning), beautiful area. This is terrifying and feel so sad for the people affected by this.
@Rendel Harris Precisely. Its such bollocks and I particularly hate it when cyclists spout this utter horse shit. Which other groups are hated because of the actions of some of their members and so publicly, openly and so widespread. I can count on one hand the number of times a cyclist has put my safety or life in danger at all. I can count on one hand the number of times a driver rolls that dice every fucking time I go out on a ride of more than 20km. Fucking cyclists though eh.... I could sit at the side of the road near me for 20 minutes at rush hour and probably catch 40% of people speeding, 20% of people cutting corners, 95% not giving way to pedestrians at junctions and then some token close passes on cyclists for bonus points. Oh and lets not get started on pavement parking blocking the pavements for disabled people and prams. But yeah, fucking cyclists.
I'm not defending the cyclists not giving way. However I do think a percentage is due to ignorance. The solution to that percentage is a public education exercise. But it won't happen as it's somehow seen as the nanny state.
I'm assuming from that specific police link to these two killings, that Essex and Kent forces share the same 'shut-out' policy over video evidence of road traffic offences/ incidents: you can't submit evidence until they magnanimously award you a link. Is this true, Essex cam-riders out there? It's not obvious that this policy is more hostile to cyclists than the Lancashire one where you can send any number of videos, but they proudly announce that they're far too busy to look at most of them and they go straight in the bin.
@Mr Blackbird There is far less traffic in the early hours of the weekend but as you say, it attracts a certain type of moron. Certainly at the moment with the sun so low there were plenty of places on my last ride where I wondered just how likely a knob driving too fast on one of our twisty little lanes was to see me.
Clearly posted speed limits , double yellow lines, bike lanes etc don't stop some folks from acting as if they aren't aware, so good luck with your suggestion. Increased police presence and enforcement is what we need.
@NickSprink I wanted to say exactly that. Entry level tyres and wheels generally are poor to bang average, depending on price point. I don't see how specifically suggesting these Chinese wheels were the improvement. When in fact a reasonably priced set of wheels from an established western brand could so easily have given similar performance boosts, and as you say, the tyre plays a far bigger part of the overall package. And going from Maxxis cheapos to a set of Vittoria Corsa Pros (the ones that generally come out on top of all rolling resistance tests) is not a fair way to test the rims you stick them on And another thing that NEVER gets mentioned when these Chinese brands get tested - There is always time to mention the spokes and the width and the depth. But - WHAT OF THE HUBS??? Never ever gets a mention. So have we been lied to all these years and DT Swiss hub quailty isnt important? These Chinese brands could be running on Novatec hubs made of cheese, who knows? And since we all know most of a wheels value goes into the hubs, not the rims I find it a false comparison to many established brands where you know the hubs are of a reliable quality. I decided to have a look and even on the website they just say CNC aluminium hubs with ceramic bearings . They could be anything and Ceramic alone is no guarantee of quality or performance. Tell me they are 'CeramicSpeed' and you may have a point but they aint so they may just be bog standard cheap bearings with shonky seals and a poor lifetime. And that is why I will always stick to brands I can trust. Brands you always told us to trust.
20 thoughts on “Trek joins Specialized in slashing prices; Ed Laverack aiming to reclaim Sa Calobra KOM from Tom Pidcock’s “crazy” time; “It’s a great problem for us”: Van Rysel delighted with interest in sold out RCR; Where’s Cav?; Giro teams + more on the live blog”
It seems a cyclist was
It seems a cyclist was injured by those runaway horses. No details on how badly, that I can find. Most news outlets seem to be more interested in the condition of the horses and the property damage to taxis and buses. And in trying to pin blame on construction workers, rather than asking why the fuck does the army waste its limited budget on keeping dangerous animals in the centre of a major world city, so they can parade up and down in front of those parasites in Buckingham Palace.
Tourism ££££.
Tourism ££££.
Want to know which Royal
Want to know which Royal Palace gets the most international tourists?
It’s Versaille.
So in the interests of the British tourism industry, let’s follow the French lead!
the little onion wrote:
Well, yeah, but they had to get rid of the Royal family first!
[Whisper] I think that’s the
[Whisper] I think that’s the point the little onion was making [/whisper]
I’m overwhelmingly indifferent to the house of Hannover, but I’m willing to don the Phrygian cap when Rishi Antoinette inevitably tells the people “Let them eat shareholder value”
ROOTminus1 wrote:
D’oh! <slaps forehead>
And the view from across the
And the view from across the pond… 😉
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/04/horses-loose-in-london-today-running-escape.html
When I first heard, I
When I first heard, I immediately thought that Chris Morris was back for a reprise of The Day Today!
Strident and outspoken
Strident and outspoken republican me, but I don’t mind watching Trooping the Colour, I like a military marching band, my canal commute takes me past a few barracks and they occasionally practice. Very little on TV on a Saturday morning too, until I discovered Radio 6’s excellent They Huey Show, tell your friends. But what got me after all the horses, bringing up the rear were 2 lads with the most incredibly shiny axes. So incongruous, had to look them up, ceremonial farriers axes, tablet prevents me from easily posting a pic, I’m sure they more practical ones back in the day. Specifically for the dispatching of horses.
ktache wrote:
Not just the humane dispatch of horses & mules lost in theatre (which was the purpose of the spike on the back), the blade was also used to cut off a hoof which had the individual animal’s serial number branded on it, in order for it to be accounted for and prove that it had died rather than been sold. Yep, even horses & mules had number plates. The RAVC still have an axe as part of the dress uniform.
What caught my eye about the
What caught my eye about the leaderboard of Sa Calobra was #7; Sam Hill. Is that the Enduro and DH legend Sam Hill, Mr Flat-pedals-win-medals?
I’d like to use the cycle
I’d like to use the cycle lane
Talk me through how you thought that this action was ok.
The bit at the start and end
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
I’m hoping I’ve just missed
I’m hoping I’ve just missed the joke – you’re not really suggesting this was a mistake?
I can just imagine the futile argument I would have gotten into (and the black eye I’d no doubt have received) if they’d done that in front of me.
I dunno, probably not I
I dunno, probably not I assume they were picking up the scaffolding as there was other space they could have parked in, but I half expected the rider to get to the front and be looking at a bemused driver with a vacant stare as their brain tried to work out what they were driving on
as that middle bit looks terrible for a “cycle lane”, half chewed up tarmac, with the other half is that shell grip ? barely any paint markings, no signs. if you just saw the clip from the moment the truck turns onto it, to the moment he passes by them. How if youve never seen that setup before, do you go oh yeah thats totally still just a cycle lane, instead of thats just part of the road with a bit of a cycle painted on it the cycle lane feeds into ?
On the London horses, and how
On the London horses, and how they are startled by noise, I’m interested that the conversation has been about banning horses from London, rather than reducing motor noise.
mattw wrote:
I regularly see the Household Cavalry and Royal Artillery horses exercising when I’m out and about in London and they are absolutely fine with motor noise and busy traffic, apparently this incident arose because a load of building materials was accidentally dropped from a height and landed right next to them.
On the wider point of making the streets quieter of course absolutely on side!
That may have been the cause
That may have been the cause of the initial startling, but they were never going to calm down quickly with all those cyclists. Not to mention empty carrier bags.
What got me was that Radio2s Jeremy Vine show did half an hour about it on Wednesday and not playing of the Rolling Stone’s Wild Horses, the Osmand’s Crazy Horses or America’s Horse with No Name.
I regularly see them on the
I regularly see them on the commute alongside the Serpentine. It’s quite odd because on a typical ride in the country if I see a horse it’s dead slow, check if they’re happy for you to pass, no freewheel noises, don’t look at them funny and hope they don’t have an aversion to lycra / helmets etc*. These chaps seem generally pretty unfazed. Still massive though, so I give them a wide berth.
* once did a charity ride for an assistance dog charity and a charity ambassador turned up for a photo with our group with a dog who didn’t like helmets or gloves…
Well done Trek and
Well done Trek and Specialized for fucking up the 2nd hand market too!