“At least my gym work is paying off”: Hill climber launches huge effort… snaps frame; Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer, Jumbo merger rumble on (+ Amazon sponsorship reports) + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer and Jumbo merger rumble on (Amazon reportedly to sponsor the team in 2024)
[Luis Angel Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency]
So, where are we up to this morning?
The big report since yesterday is that Amazon, yes our online shopping overlords, will step in as a new sponsor for Jumbo-Visma to the tune of approximately €15 million, leaving a €25 million hole to be filled. It has been suggested Primož Roglič’s sale could help, yep that’s right no Amazon Primož for the Dutch team… (credit to Ryan for that one)…
Talking of Roglič, he’s available for transfer as soon as the start of 2024, with Ineos, Movistar and Lidl-Trek linked. With the Slovenian’s contract running until the end of 2025 it means whichever team comes out on top will have to pay a buyout fee to Jumbo, and while the three aforementioned teams appear to be leading the race, Bora Hansgrohe and Israel-Premier Tech have also been linked, with Bahrain Victorious and Jayco AlUla denying interest…
Is there any team which hasn’t been linked to Rogla at this point?
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) September 29, 2023
Oh, and while all this is going on…
We start our Italian block of racing in Emilia with this team 👇 pic.twitter.com/fEQ0qoncxI
— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) September 29, 2023
Another normal day of pro cycling…
Ever had that much power?
I snapped a chain climbing on my singlespeed once.
I’ve rarely felt prouder while out on my bike.
— lukebmtb.bsky.social (@LukeB_MTB) September 29, 2023
Well I did break a spoke once 🤔
— shaun (@slow_tri_guy) September 29, 2023
Me and you both Shaun, but I think the pothole gets the credit for mine…
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Pray to the weather gods that the route will actually be useable, the 2,700m monster prone to terrible weather and snow well into the early summer…
Rishi Sunak's 'Plan for Motorists' will "rob people of choice" and force them to drive, say cycling and walking campaigners
Milan forces bus and lorries to have sensors to reduce cycling collisions
The city of Milan has introduced a policy whereby lorries and buses will be required to instal blind-spot sensors in a bid to reduce injuries and fatalities, Reuters reports. From Monday, vans, buses and lorries will be banned from large parts of the city from Monday to Friday during working hours, unless they have the sensors.
“It is very dangerous to ride a bicycle, there are several obstacles such as cobblestones, tram tracks, and the city was not designed for cyclists. Add to that the heavy traffic and the high level of stress motorists endure,” Eleonora Ciscato, a Milanese cyclist said of the dangers of riding in the city.
The changes come after a string of fatalities, five this year, leaving the mayor to say the “problem is how to make cyclists safe” and that his concern is “someone, perhaps even legitimately, may be afraid and no longer use bicycles”.
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A piece of work that’s been a long time coming…
"At least my gym work is paying off": Hill climber launches huge effort... snaps frame
Ever had so much power you’ve written off your frame?
It’s a no from us too on that question, obviously…
“High torque from a standing start, did it within the first pedal stroke and just slid to a stop undramatically,” Calum Brown explained on Instagram.
Hill climbs are short events at the best of times, let alone if you don’t make it past the 10m mark. Fortunately seems like the wrong word when we’re talking about this level of damage, but fortunately this was only Calum’s recce of the Monsal Hill Climb course, up the painfully steep but invitingly short Monsal head ascent, where he’s won the event twice.
Perhaps the hardest part of this year’s will be finding something to ride it on? Nah, scratch that, the hardest bit will definitely still be the standard hill climb double-digit gradients, lungs burning, tasting blood, legs like cement, collapse to the roadside…
“End of an era for that frame, was ridden to over 20 course records. Not good prep for the weekend but at least my gym work is paying off,” he joked.
While we’re on the topic, that’s a quite impressive level of damage… snapped chainstays and seat stays, take a bow.
What’s worse, this has happened to Calum before. In 2017 he completely destroyed a crankset at the Bank Road hill climb. Don’t worry Shimano, he was using SRAM that day, modified with chainrings not recommended by the manufacturer and leading SRAM to amusingly comment, “the configuration is outside of the Red crankset’s intended use” but “2000+ watts is an incredibly impressive amount of power to generate and we applaud Calum’s strength”.
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Latest Comments
Not even a passing comment for John Tomac?
@Jakrayan God knows. On the country roads here (Kent) people are usually good at not close passing me but the consistently overtake me on blind corners etc. Oncoming cars on very narrow roads its 50:50 as to whether they will slow down at all despite passing me within 50cm. Once I get back into civilisation its a different story. Bad driving becomes the norm.
You could bé right. I live in a French Pyrenean départment with plenty of narrow, tight roads. About 80% of drivers either pull over to thé max or wait for a better space to overtake. Mind you, there's always thé odd one looking at their phone...
For a while I've thought this was an unfortunate brand name. Several times I've seen cyclists riding towards me wearing Le Col jerseys with their right arm covering the L so it looks like they are advertising e.Coli.
A driver in a BMW not looking properly at a junction? Who'd have thunk it?
@bennysnnock Which is why training for a driver's licence should include cycle training, of course.
As someone who previously worked in the custom cycle clothing industry, I have to admit this news did make me smile. I'm sure the brand will rise like a phoenix from the flames, but just the idea that they've gone pop has lifted my mood. Fair play to Yanto though, I'm sure the brand has set him up, one way or another, for life; he had a vision and he delivered on it. But, having been at the wrong end of a strategy that involved outspending the rest of the industry (on advertising) and out-discounting on retail kit, it's nice to know that their 'be the last man standing' strategy has - at least for now - failed. One trick (let's be fair and call it a strategy) that really frustrated me back in the day, was the way in which they used to give university cycle teams free kit. All very upstanding you say, however their motivation was more; 1. get people in your kit young and (hopefully) keep them for life - fair enough - but more acutely 2. remove decent revenue streams from your competitors. Uni teams were great because every year there was a new influx of members needing kit - so LeCol just took the market, not to make any money, just to kill it for the rest of us.
@Rendel Harris Absolutely. I was just making the point that Surrey has a lot of 'couldn't care less if I hit you' drivers whose attitude is get out of my way and if you don't that's your fault.
Their socks were all right.
@mctrials23 All those play out in Surrey pretty much every ride.
7 thoughts on ““At least my gym work is paying off”: Hill climber launches huge effort… snaps frame; Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer, Jumbo merger rumble on (+ Amazon sponsorship reports) + more on the live blog”
Sunak expected to limit
Sunak expected to limit powers of councils in England to curb car use
Apparently 20mph speed limits are against British Values®
What’s a 504 error? Is that
What’s a 504 error? Is that a consequence of a DDOS created by Howard Cox?
It’s a timeout error – the
It’s a timeout error – the back end server isn’t sending a response back quickly enough.
Could be due to traffic congestion in the internet superhighway 🙁
The irony’s not lost.
It’s beginning to look like incompetence the length of time it’s been going on for.
Mr Hoopdriver wrote:
Either that or they are being hacked – could be a ddos issue.
“Proper cyclists don’t need
“Proper cyclists don’t need bike lanes”
That’s a new one for the anti-cycling bingo.
But to counter-point, for argument’s sake:
Bike lanes are not designed for “proper cyclists”. They are designed for the regular average joe to have a safe alternative to cars for short journeys that are beyond walking range. As in everyone else.
It’s a shame you can’t tax/cure/criminalize stupidity.
Nah – it’s the historical
Nah – it’s the historical oddity that is “vehicular cycling” back from the past, like L-shaped cranks. (“Cranks” being apt in this case.)
A small correction – “cycle paths” please rather than lanes! Separate from the main road, with none of the protection that isn’t eg. paint or wands and orcas you can hit. Nor the inevitable road crud, leftover potholes and corduroy road at bus stops… Also taking more than an afternoon to “rip out”!
Sea otter video is flawed
Sea otter video is flawed with a bike shown and a cantilever brakes is used as part of the description. The brakes shown are most definitely centerpull brakes, not cantilever ( or “canti’s”) brakes as described. Fifty years ago centerpull brakes were on most of the top racers bikes, since Campagnolo didn’t release their superior Super Record sidepull brakes till 1974