“A dark day for hill climbing”: Widespread horror as British hill climb champs won on disc brakes for first time; Scenes on the Struggle; Worst bike rack ever; Third Cav burglar convicted + more on the live blog

Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby, Blobby….

Hey, gotta out here, you big pink menace, and take your anti-cycling mate with you – it’s time for our usual Monday morning roundup of all the weekend’s cycling news:

> Noel Edmonds in bizarre anti-cyclist rant as he tells cycle trail developer: “You are the enemy”

> Frasers Group reportedly mulling bid for Wiggle after online retailer enters administration

> Driver crashes into pro-Palestine bike ride in Madrid, injuring five cyclists

> Thief steals e-bike from police HQ and rides away on it

> Check out Chris Froome’s 2024 Factor O2 VAM

> Recovery plan for Greater Manchester’s Bee Network hire scheme gets more bikes on the streets

> Do you know this man? Police in east London seek cyclist after bike rider killed in crash involving Tesla

> Court of Appeal doubles jail term for driver who killed cyclist

Blobby, Blobby…

Ah, get away from those bikes! (Alright, that’s enough of that for one morning.)

A driver who deliberately rammed a cyclist following an argument about a close pass has been given a suspended sentence for dangerous driving and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The incident saw the victim flung into the air and left with whiplash after complaining to the motorist about an earlier overtake, telling her he had it on camera and later striking her wing mirror after she again drove too close to him.

Read more: > Motorist avoids jail for deliberately ramming cyclist who questioned close pass

Turning away from disc brakes and the national hill climb championships for a moment, one of the big pro cycling stories from the weekend was the shock announcement that the Prodigal Son himself, Nairo Quintana, was returning to his spiritual home, Movistar, after four years away from the Spanish team.

The Colombian’s return to Movistar – where he won the Giro and Vuelta, and finished second twice at the Tour during an eight-year spell between 2012 and 2019 – marks the end of his year-long exile from European racing following his positive test for tramadol at the 2022 Tour de France.

Quintana’s positive for the painkiller – which is banned in-competition by the UCI but does not result in a doping ban – saw his sixth place at last year’s Tour stripped from the record books, and ultimately led to his dismissal from Arkéa Samsic, the French team he joined from Movistar in 2020 and with which he endured some patchy form and a few hotel raids by authorities.

Glory days at the 2014 Giro d’Italia (LaPresse)

However, while the writing looked on the wall for the Colombian icon’s career, Nairo is now all set for an emotional, and surprising return, to where it all began for him, ending his spell in the racing wilderness.

“It’s super emotional for me to be back home,” the 33-year-old said. “It’s been such a tough year. The sleepless nights, so many days of sacrifice, going on my bike and trying to keep pushing, under the rain or the scorching sun. But it was all worth it.

“I won’t waste this opportunity. I know the values of the team, the values of sport. I will give my everything do things right, and I want to help the team achieve the best results.

“I’m so incredibly thankful to the Movistar Team, Telefónica, the squad, the whole squad, for this great opportunity, which I’ve been waiting for for so long. With all my heart and my legs, I’ll do my best to make them, as well as the fans, happy and proud. I hope this era now starting will be a really successful one for the team.”

Is a 2015 throwback Tour on the cards for next season? Maybe not…

He may be aiming for a maiden rainbow jersey next season, but Tadej Pogačar appears to be spending his post-season sponsor mandated business holiday in Singapore preparing for a showdown with Novak Djokovic instead…

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tadej Pogačar (@tadejpogacar)

Although by the looks of his photos, Urška Žigart didn’t seem to be under too much strain when facing both her boyfriend and Giulio Ciccone on the tennis court.

And for goodness’ sake, Tadej, please put on some sun cream…

pic.twitter.com/bLePpPCWdi

— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) October 29, 2023

Ah, the old chestnut, whatever Wout can do, Mathieu can do just as well, if not better – this time with hire bikes…

> Wout van Aert takes time trial bike to Scotland for World Championships recon —then rides an OVO bike on Glasgow’s “risky” streets

🚲🚲🚲La élite del ciclismo ha llegado a Gran Vía en @bicimad.

Ven a disfrutar del @MadridCriterium.

Acércate a verlo, en bus🚌 o con una bici de @BiciMAD🚲
#MadridCriterium pic.twitter.com/nIi4n1liyO

— EMT Madrid (@EMTmadrid) October 29, 2023

He just makes everything look cool, doesn’t he?

An 82-year-old has raised over £40,000 for a local hospice, which provided care for his partner before her death, by fixing up and selling donated bikes.

Weymouth resident Danny the Bike Man – real name John Collins – has been collecting, repairing, and selling bikes from his garage for eight years, after being inspired during a bric-a-brac sale, the Dorset Echo reports.

He then gives all the proceeds to Weldmar Hospice Care, where his partner Margaret passed away in October 2021, raising over £40,000 so far.

Danny told the paper that he is planning to scale back his commitment to bike restoration due to his age, and is currently being helped by a friend – though that hasn’t stopped him working in his garage from time to time.

“People say ‘If you want a second-hand bike then speak to Danny’,” he says. “As I am retired I enjoyed working on the bikes and meeting people, and seeing them go away happy with their new bikes.”

Cycling Scotland has called on food delivery companies to provide couriers “effective training around cycling safety” and check the bikes they ride “are legal and road worthy”.

The comments come as a Glasgow cyclist says he had been left “terrified” after a collision involving a courier riding the wrong way along a two-way cycle lane, the police admitting that some couriers are riding bikes that are “absolutely” not legal.

Read more: > Cycling charity urges food delivery companies to check couriers are using legal e-bikes after cyclist left “terrified” by cycle lane collision

H/t @gear_ratio & @euancx , this is *genuinely* how the designer imagines you would lock a bike. Better hope thieves don’t have Allen keys. Or hands. 🙈 https://t.co/wmkCFgH8Em pic.twitter.com/TrKP3WEhgO

— Andy Arthur 🐣 Threadinburgh 🧵 (@cocteautriplets) October 30, 2023

Now I’m genuinely even more confused… Where’s the humble Sheffield Stand when you need one?

We’ve seen some shockingly convoluted cycle racks designs over the years, but these beauties – found in Edinburgh’s West End – are surely right up there in the useless stakes:

Just when you thought you’d seen every stupid design of bike rack that The People Who Haven’t Ever Locked A Bike™ have to offer, they go and blow you away pic.twitter.com/6mP3Rwucy5

— Andy Arthur 🐣 Threadinburgh 🧵 (@cocteautriplets) October 30, 2023

Errr, how do they even work?

I think you’re meant to swing that stainless insert out and put the lock through that, resting your bike against the sharp edges of the upright where it can scratch the frame

— Andy Arthur 🐣 Threadinburgh 🧵 (@cocteautriplets) October 30, 2023

Ah, gotcha. They sound perfect – like using disc brakes on a hill climb…

Here we go again, it’s that time of the year, folks…

The clocks have gone back in the UK, it’s dark before teatime, and we’ve flipped the switch on the latest version of our famous(ish) road.cc front light Beam Comparison Engine to help you choose from the best bike lights (or more specifically the best front bike lights) for your riding.

The beam test is now a much-loved (I suppose) annual tradition at road.cc Towers, and sees Dave and Oli head to a pitch black country lane with Manny the Mannequin to get photographs of all the beams in the test, before Dave locks himself in the shed for a few hours to plot shapes and make some graphs. Now that’s what I call a fun job.

Our beam test comparison data contains beam shots and data for 43 lights this year, and also includes historical data going back to 2015. That’s quite a lot of lights, so you can directly compare hundreds of lights with one another, to make sure you make the right choice for your winter riding.

For all your light comparison needs, read more here: > road.cc front bike lights Beam Test 2023

In what has already been an autumn dominated by off-bike gossip and politicking, the potential of yet another breakaway league – bankrolled by oil investors and revolutionising cycling’s business model one dollar at a time – has certainly divided opinion, even within the peloton itself.

Over the weekend, reports emerged that this new Cycling Champions League – backed at the moment by only a handful of teams, including Ineos, Jumbo-Visma, and EF Education – would be driven by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (the PIF of Newcastle United takeover and LIV Golf fame) and seek to overhaul and streamline the race calendar, ensuring all races end on a Sunday and doing away with those pesky clashes that we see with the likes of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in March.

> Haven’t we been here before? Ineos Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma reportedly involved in plans for new cycling breakaway league

Apparently the UCI are supportive of the proposals, and the whole thing could come into effect by 2026 (though a few teams have already voiced their discontent with Jumbo-Visma boss Richard Plugge’s vision for the sport, which they feel is mostly geared towards enriching him and his team).

Meanwhile, one of Plugge’s own riders, Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss, is sat firmly on the fence when it comes to the rumoured LIV-ification of pro cycling, and especially the threat it potentially poses to smaller races that would fall outside the mooted streamlined structure.

“I think it goes both ways, I think it is exciting and good for the sport that it modernises in a way, or become more franchised,” Kuss, who claims he first heard of the proposals “in the news”, told GCN.

“But at the same time, cycling is very nuanced and there is a lot of history, there are a lot of smaller races and it’s hard to have it both, where you have a big calendar with all these historic races – or smaller races – but you also have to keep the fan engagement and keep everything concise.”

[RCS Sport, LaPresse]

Lidl-Trek rider Giulio Ciccone, having stepped away from the tennis court, was even more sceptical.

“From my side, I don’t want to lose this feeling that we have with the sport. Why do we need to change something?” the Italian said.

“It is always like this, and this is our sport, we like it as it is, and I think we need to keep the same history.

“I think for me, I really like the calendar as it is, because we have many races to choose from. If you want to do Paris-Nice, you can do Paris-Nice. If you want to do Tirreno-Adriatico, you can do Tirreno-Adriatico.

“I think it is good like this because you can split everything depending on which main goal you have. I don’t know why they want to change it, honestly, but I don’t want to say anything about it because I don’t want to make some gaffe!”

A third man has been found guilty of carrying out a knifepoint robbery at the family home of Mark Cavendish, stealing watches worth £700,000.

27-year-old Jo Jobson was found guilty of two counts of robbery by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court today, and is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Ali Sesay, 28, was sentenced to 12 years for his part in the violent robbery, as well as an additional eight years for six unrelated firearms offences, while 31-year-old Romario Henry was found guilty of two counts by majority verdict and sentenced to 15 years.

> Two men jailed for knifepoint robbery at Mark Cavendish’s family home

Following the pair’s sentencing, Jobson handed himself in at a police station in June, 18 months after officers first released his photo identifying him as a suspect.

Prosecutor Edward Renvoize said the gang threatened Cavendish and his wife Peta during the 2021 robbery, and “meted out violence” to the former world champion while their children were in the house.

He read a statement from Mrs Cavendish, in which she said that an intruder told her husband, “Do you want me to stab you up in front of your kid?”

Two Richard Mille watches were stolen from a safe, with Renvoize describing the raid as a “well-orchestrated and executed, planned invasion of a home of well-known individuals with the intention of grabbing high-value timepieces”.

However, he said that one of the intruders took Cavendish’s phone, which was later found outside the property, in what was deemed a “significant error in what was an otherwise carefully executed plan”. The court heard last week that a trail of DNA evidence and phone numbers led the police to a mobile “attributed to” Jobson, who received a unanimous guilty verdict.

Speaking after the verdict, Essex Police said a fourth suspected intruder George Goddard was still at large and was the “final piece of the jigsaw” in their investigation, and urged the suspect to hand himself in.

> Father of toddler who lost finger after getting it stuck in drivetrain brands dockless hire bikes a “menace”

Don’t mention the brakes!

I think it’s fair to say that the whole rim brake vs disc brake debate is still able to stir up the emotions after all these years, judging by the reaction to today’s main blog story.

“It’s not about the bike,” as one much less controversial cycling character once said, along with quite a few on social media, outraged by any derisory comment aimed towards disc brakes – even in obvious jest – today.

“I was on The Struggle yesterday, there was a fantastic atmosphere, a real celebration of a particular kind of cycling,” road.cc reader Miller wrote in the comments.

“I feel it’s a shame in a way that the article above focuses on Andrew Feather’s bike. The real story is his better than 7 watts/kilo for nearly 12 minutes and taking about 40 seconds off the pre-existing hill record, and the same effort expended to not quite so ProTour effect by all the competitors. It’s not about the bikes, interesting though they are!”

Hear, hear.

The source of all this internet angst…

Other similar comments were made on social media, with Tom writing that “it was the rider that won the race, not the bike!”

“Who cares? The most important point is that Andrew Feather absolutely SMASHED it,” says David, presumably shouting “SMASHED” while typing in his office.

“Illi could win riding a wheelbarrow with a flat tyre to be fair,” added Holly, praising Gardner’s dominance on the hill climb scene.

Others were perplexed by the mention of brakes at all.

Didn’t realise you used brakes going uphill 🤣🤣

— Gaz pow (@gaz_pow) October 30, 2023

“Most used feature on a rural climb, brakes,” said Rob, while Phill was scathing, writing: “Stupid statement… don’t need brakes going uphill.”

Yes, Gaz, Rob, and Phil (and basically everyone on Facebook), that’s right – but the weight of your braking system, one of the lingering arguments made against the use of disc brakes, could perhaps come into play on a really steep hill where something like, I don’t know, weight may prove important?

Especially in a subsection of the sport where riders go to great lengths – including chopping off their drops or stripping off their bar tape – to achieve those sweet, sweet marginal weight gains?

Just putting it out there that nobody was actually talking about the ability to stop on a 20 percent gradient, in case that went over anyone’s heads…

Meanwhile, some were angry it was even being discussed.

“Please don’t sink to the level of the shameful politicians. Don’t be divisive,” said Morgan, while simultaneously ducking as the joke grazed their hair on the way past.

For those at the back – the whole disc debate is a bit of light fun, an interesting tidbit and talking point from a day of sporting excellence, not something to get angry on the internet about, you know? It’s only the live blog (and cycling) after all.

And, anyway, we all have a common enemy we should be united against…

a real dark day would be if an E-bike won it

— professional (@Techienumber1) October 30, 2023

Again, it’s a joke!

Of course, the British hill climb championships aren’t just about featherweight climbers and their stripped-back bikes flying up impossibly steep gradients at impossibly fast rates amidst the lovely autumnal countryside, while the mere mortals further down the results sheet grind up the climb in a horrific, contorted scene of lung-busting suffering and pain…

They’re also about the fancy dress and madcap scenes at the side of the road!

And there was certainly no shortage of the vibrant atmosphere that makes Britain’s hill climb season so special on the Struggle yesterday:

National hill climbing champs. Pure pain cave! Lots of utterly inspirational riders. #ambleside ⁦@100Climbs⁩ ⁦@BritishCycling⁩ #cyclewise ⁦@lakedistrictnpa⁩ 💪💪💪💪 #bikes pic.twitter.com/eTDmD2khfY

— Cyclewise (@cycle_wise) October 29, 2023

COME ON!!!!!!! #thestruggle pic.twitter.com/sGUndsgdor

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) October 29, 2023

Ah pandas, dinosaurs, and Salbutamol-wielding doctors, the true classics… 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UK Cycling Hill Climb National Championships 2023-The Struggle (@strugglehillclimb)

@100Climbs pic.twitter.com/5wIH0xhH7U

— Simon Bromfield (@SimonRBromfield) October 29, 2023

 What a sport.

Ah Halloween, that time of the year when we revel in strange, spooky, and often downright scary phenomena, and things we just can’t wrap our heads around…

And that was certainly the case at yesterday’s UK hill climb championships – the crown jewel of that annual British suffer fest season – where Andrew Feather flew to his fourth national title… while riding a bike with disc brakes.

I know, scary times indeed.

Fortunately, Feather’s interesting, tradition and weight weenie-bashing choice of hill climbing equipment wasn’t exactly of the jump scare variety – earlier this month, road.cc took an in-depth look at the uphill expert’s disc brake-fitted Cannondale SuperSix Evo LAB71.

> Rim brakes really are dead! Here’s why the British National Hill Climb champion has switched to disc brakes

When asked by us why he’d eschewed his trusty old rim brakes – adding half a kilogramme to his previous title-winning steed in the process – Feather said: “I think [rim brakes aren’t dead] at the moment, there are still rim brake bikes around, but if you look at the latest technology it is all disc really. The weights are coming down and the margins are pretty small.”

In any case, the extra weight didn’t seem to hamper the appropriately named Feather at yesterday’s championships in the Lake District, blasting up the infamous Struggle climb and its 20 percent gradients in 11.48 to reclaim his title, 18 seconds ahead of Ed Laverack and a whopping 1.17 clear of bronze medallist Paddy Clark.

While climbing aficionado Simon Warren described (with his tongue firmly in his cheek) Feather’s disc brake-abetted victory as a “dark day for hill climbing”, others were convinced the four-time champ has other as-yet-unheard-of tech aids at his disposal.

“Where can you buy this anti-gravity mod that Feather seems to have?” asked Eddie on Instagram. “Absolute machine.”

A dark day for hill climbing. First champs to be won n on discs. pic.twitter.com/jX91PtTy1P

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) October 29, 2023

However, before you all mourn the final demise of rim brakes, in the women’s event European Climbing champion Illi Gardner secured her second consecutive national title, beating Wahoo teammate Lizi Brooke by almost a full minute – and 212 of the 275 male participants to boot – using the good old trusty tech of hill climbs gone by.

I’d say that’s 1-1 in the Great Hill Climb Brake Battle of 2023.

See, rim brakes aren’t dead, they’re just half-dead, I suppose. A zombie rim brake horror film, now I’d watch that for Halloween.