Roy Keane fed up with supposed war between cyclists and motorists; Fiona Kolbinger smashes 778km at 28km/h; Wiggo urges G to go stage hunting; Ben O’Connor’s epic breakaway; Froome talks crashes; Shoulda put a 52t ring on it + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Ben O'Connor wins Strava with epic Tour de France mountain breakaway
Ever wondered what it takes to win an epic mountain stage of the Tour de France? Maybe you’ve been watching the serene mountain scenery on TV and thought you could hold the wheel in the breakaway. How hard can it be?
Ben O’Connor achieved his career highlight yesterday, winning stage nine and has kindly uploaded his ride to Strava with all the juicy numbers we want to see.
The Aussie riding for home team AG2R Citroën snuck away early in the stage with a big group of riders, picking them off one by one over the 147km route with 4,441m of elevation. O’Connor’s average speed stayed a touch under 32km/h, even with one HC mountain and two first cat climbs and he maxed out at 92km/h on the descent of the Cormet de Roselend.
Where his numbers become even more impressive is when we look at the power data. Unlike Tadej Pogačar, who selfishly keeps his power hidden on Strava, O’Connor uploaded his ride in full. His normalised power for the four hour plus stage was 350w, which at his Strava weight of 67kg is 5.2w/kg and is nothing short of staggering. Next time you’re giving it beans up your local hill ask yourself if you could sustain it for another four hours?
When we take a look at the climbs things get even more silly. O’Connor summited the hors catégorie Col du Pré in 39:08 at 18.8km/h pushing 366w average. On the Cormet Roselend he held 367w for 21:18 before getting a touch of recovery on the freezing descent. He then covered 23.5km in the final hour as he slogged up to the finish at Tignes, 2000m above sea level at an average power of 343w…
And that doesn’t include the efforts he made to make the break in the first place…
Sign silliness
@Michael1979 we need to pamper the grass but we can freely injure children and the elderly. Call me old fashioned, but it seems like we have our priorities all messed up. pic.twitter.com/Yi8haiBiX3
— minhagim (@minhagim) July 4, 2021
Lachlan Morton stops at Tom Simpson memorial during double ascent of Ventoux...EF Education-Nippo rider almost halfway to Paris
Nice one Lachlan (Photo @JohnFox28541730 ) pic.twitter.com/aA6Dyuw4uG
— Chris Sidwells (@ChrisSidwells) July 5, 2021
No time for rest days on the Alt Tour but Lachlan Morton found a moment to pay tribute to British cycling legend Tom Simpson at the memorial on the upper slopes of Mont Ventoux. The EF Education-Nippo rider is now onto stage 12 of the Tour having summited the famous climb twice and is almost halfway to Paris. He is currently heading to Nimes before beginning the long road south west towards the Pyrenees.
Lachlan endured more rain and punctures on his journey to the #MaRégionSud and arrived at the foot of the Mont Ventoux in the late afternoon, giving him enough time for one ascent of the mythical climb. #sudavelo #villedemarseille #vaucluse
Follow here: https://t.co/6rrmhtsjfG pic.twitter.com/hi7Hsrw7A1
— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) July 5, 2021
road.cc Recommends is back with more of the kit we think you'll love this month
Here’s the latest episode of our road.cc Recommends YouTube series with a round-up of the best products we’ve tested this past month as well as a route and cafe stop for you to try…
If you liked it then you shoulda put a 52t chainring on it...Beyoncé as Tour de France caravan vehicles
— tom owen (@tomowencc) July 5, 2021
Tom Owen is back with another masterclass. Having previously brought us the madness of Nicolas Cage as bottle cages, he has now put his mind to Beyoncé as Tour de France caravan vehicles…and it’s as weird as you’d expect.
— tom owen (@tomowencc) July 5, 2021
Rest day tactics with Sir Brad...Ineos Grenadiers should let Geraint Thomas go up the road to win a stage
Felt good to be back in the mix with the boys today 💪 What else is there to do but grit your teeth and get on with it. Ready for the rest day though 🤣 #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/RPQsfJnWxF
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) July 4, 2021
In the latest episode of his podcast on Eurosport, Sir Bradley Wiggins says he believes the Tour de France is far from over for Geraint Thomas and that a stage win should be his priority in the second and third weeks of the race. “I don’t remember a Tour like it for a long time,” Wiggo said. “It’s been brutal. To think it’s only one week we’ve done. We’ve got two weeks left of the race and the field is decimated. It’s absolutely decimated.
“I don’t think this race is over for G yet. It is for GC definitely, it would be nice to see Ineos spread their numbers a bit and let G go up the road. He is capable of doing something like Ben O’Connor did and that is something you’re not used to seeing from a Team Sky or Ineos point of view. It would be lovely to see that.”
Despite losing big time on GC, Thomas was back at the head of the peloton yesterday helping his teammate Richard Carapaz who sits in fifth place, five minutes behind Tadej Pogačar. At the back of the race, Mark Cavendish made the time cut, something his former teammate and track partner was delighted to see.
“I saw him getting dropped on the first climb, and he had three or four team-mates around him,” Wiggins continued. “It shows the difference that a team makes to you, committed to a cause and committed to Mark as well and it shows he was lacking on the team front a couple of years ago, and he’s back in his rightful place.”
Cav may be eyeing a third stage win of the race on the lumpy run to Valence tomorrow on stage 10.
Rest day recap of G's nightmare start to the Tour
Just as we put Wiggo saying he wants to see Ineos stage wins at the top of the blog we’ve come across this behind the scenes video from Ineos Grenadiers about the team’s far from ideal start to the race, including footage of the aftermath of G’s crash on stage three.
Thomas De Gendt honest about level of Tour de France competition...says he's doing his best ten minute power numbers only to get dropped
Can you tell it was a hard day. @Toshvds pic.twitter.com/vwbt2aqJFB
— Thomas De Gendt (@DeGendtThomas) July 4, 2021
Lotto-Soudal breakaway extraordinaire Thomas De Gendt opened up to Sporza about just how much higher the level is at this year’s Tour de France. The Belgian is normally on our TV screens off the front of the race putting the hurt on everybody else but has this year found himself struggling off the back. Despite this the 34-year-old insists his performance levels have not dropped, in fact he’s as good as he’s ever been according to the power data…
“Yesterday I did one of my best 10 minute values ever from the start,” De Gendt explained. “Those values have been recorded since 2013. Normally I drive things to pieces with those values, now I was 100 meters behind a group of 70 riders. And I would have started from the front row. If you don’t keep up with the peloton, the general level is just much higher.
“I have to hope for a super day. I can only try. This year I already had one super day and then I won the stage in the Tour of Catalonia. So it is possible, but everything has to go well.”
"Something's got to change": Chris Froome on racing becoming more dangerous
Here’s one that got lost in the Allez Opi-Omi fallout last week…probably around the time 50 Cent gave his two cents. But the rest day it’s probably a good time to give it some airtime…
Chris Froome took to his YouTube channel to talk about modern racing and how much more dangerous it has become. Froome was taken down in the second major pile-up of the Grand Depart in Brittany and looked as though he may have to abandon.
After stage three, Froome described the action as “another mental day of racing.” He told the camera: “Something’s got to change because racing is just getting more and more dangerous. It’s unfortunate that it’s the way the sport is. There’s obviously so much pressure on all the teams and everyone thinks they can get into the yellow jersey, everyone wants to win a stage, all the GC riders want to be up front. It’s a recipe for disaster.
“The teams and riders. We’re not innocent either. Everyone’s pushing to be at the front and all that tension builds up and crashes happen.”
Hopefully we’ll see more of Froome at the right end of the race as the stages go by, but anyone got any rest day thoughts on how we can make the sport safer? Are crashes and injuries just an unhappy inevitability of bike racing or can something be done to help the riders?
Fiona Kolbinger completes 778km epic from Dresden to Trentino via Czech Republic and Austria...climbing 10,000m at an average speed of 28km/h
Sorry, Ben. I know we said you won Strava this morning but you’ve lost your crown. Fiona Kolbinger is back doing quite ridiculous things on her bike. This time riding 778km in 27 hours from Dresden in Germany to Trentino in Italy, passing through the Czech Republic, back into Germany, through Austria and into the Italian mountains. Epic.
Riding to what we think was third place at the ElbSpitze ultra-endurance race, she averaged 28.6km/h and racked up 10,095m of elevation on the way, including setting the eighth fastest women’s time up the HC Don Lavazé which averages 7.6 per cent for nearly 12km after more than 30 hours out on the road.
It is not the first time the 2019 Transcontinental champ has had us questioning our life choices. A few weeks back she stunned Strava followers with a 428km ride at 30.5km/h. Good luck getting near her when the Transcon race returns in 2022…
Brad back on a bike at Le Tour
“Oooh Tour de France friends” 👍
🚨 @SirWiggo is 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 on the bike from Tuesday’s Stage 10 at #TDF2021 🏍 pic.twitter.com/MnKH5xUY9T
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) July 5, 2021
Wiggo’s big comeback is almost here. No yellow jersey attempt, but he’ll be back out on the road on a motorbike with another angle to the coverage tomorrow.
Roy Keane fed up with "supposed war between cyclists and motorists"...just don't ask for him for help changing a tube
Former Manchester United hardman Roy Keane is loving life on two wheels, according to Ned Boulting. The ITV commentator currently working on the Tour de France told his Never Strays Far podcast that he bumped into Keane at ITV studios recently and had a chat about cycling.
Roy was apparently quick to say he sympathised with cyclists having to deal with dangerous motorists. “Roy said ‘you know this whole thing, supposed war between cyclists and motorists? It’s all the motorists,” Boulting recalled. “He said ‘you might get one or two idiots on a bike but until I’d experienced what it was like to get a close pass from a white van and the way people disrespect cyclists.’ He was really emphatic.”
Who’d have thought it? Keane recently shared a snap of him ready for a ride on Instagram with the caption: “I’ll wear the helmet but if you see me wearing Lycra, run me over.”
However, if you’re hoping to go for a spin with the notorious midfield general you’ll have to be a decent mechanic. Well, know how to change a tube that is…
“He’s got a great story about getting a bike and he’s even more mechanically inept than I am,” Boulting continued. “The one skill I have, inflating a tyre… he can’t even do that – and he’s never tried. The first time he got a puncture on his road bike, not only did he not repair it himself, he threw the bike away and got another one!”
5 July 2021, 08:08
5 July 2021, 08:08
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Two further points deserve a mention: 1 - We DESPERATELY need real research into cycling and disabled people. Narratives around cycling vs disabled people are common, and cannot be dismissed because we do not have objective research into how many disabled people cycle, and on what forms of cycles. From my own knowledge, huge numbers use standard cycles - but I have no demographic data of actual or potential use, only surveys of experience from disabled people who DO cycle. 2 - In respect of point 1, 40% of disabled adults (and 1/3 of retired people) do not have a driving licence - non disabled adults is 22% do not have a full driving license. That is published ONS data. To invert that - 60% of disabled adults have a full driving license, compared to 78% for non-disabled. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/disability-accessibility-and-blue-badge-scheme-statistics-2023-to-2024/disability-accessibility-and-blue-badge-statistics-england-2023-to-2024 This is a question about basic equality.
@KiwiMike In the first paragraph it says "It requires the matching £25 Thule InLock Universal Panel to fit to your bike" which weighs 730g. I mentioned Ortleib panniers because they are quite heavy. You can get much lighter panniers. Saying a pannier is lightweight compared to Ortleib panniers isn't saying very much. For example the Altura Ultralite Vortex Waterproof also doesn't use a plastic rack mount, weighs 260g and currently costs £40 on their website. It does not need a Thule InLock to mount to the bike. I see their Altura Thunderstorm Adventure 15L Pannier weighs 690 grams, which also doesn't need the InLock. There is a trade-off here between weight off the bike vs weight on the bike but both items are still relatively heavy compared to other "lightweight" products. A Tubus Fly rack for example weighs less than 400g. This rack and two of the Altura Vortex panniers don't weigh much more than the Thule bag on its own without the InLock and rack.
@licenced I would be all in favour of grants for ebikes for people like yourself, at a minimum making up the shortfall between the cost of an equivalent unpowered bike and the powered one. As I said above in response to Trolly, the financial benefits of helping people with disabilities to get out and ride, in terms of alleviating the burden on the NHS of treatment for mental and physical illness caused by lack of exercise and independence, would mean the investment would quickly pay for itself.
I don't know enough about Ayr local politics to get a proper handle on this, but those Independents look like the type of Foggy from the "Last of the Summer Whine" party we currently have throughout England, who are Reform or Restore without the logo. Given the Conservative Party culture-war politics since about 2023 they now 'have permission' to be cavemen in public, and to make populist claims divorced from any evidence - which is the facilitator of policy failure. I'm not sure what game the Labour MP is playing, but the constituency has had MPs from SNP, Con and Lab within the last 10 years elections so is contested (but not usually marginal) and perhaps tends away from extremes (Corbyn really poleaxed Lab in 2019).
@OldRidgeback Leith Walk news: https://cycling.scot/news/scotland-s-bike-lane-networks-break-new-records Vehicle counter statistics: https://storage.googleapis.com/dft-statistics/road-traffic/downloads/traffic/local_authority_id/dft_traffic_local_authority_id_29.csv (from https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/local-authorities/S12000036)
@OldRidgeback Unfortunately I don't think it's true that cycle journeys outnumber car journeys in Edinburgh. The latest news I heard (will post link separately) was that there was a recent survey (conducted in May 2026) in which the number of bikes exceeded the number of cars on Leith Walk in the morning rush hour. Whilst that is positive news, the unspoken implication is that outside of the morning rush hour, in locations other than Leith Walk, and potentially at time of year other than May (which typically has fairly clement weather), the number of cars still outnumbers the number of bikes. I haven't found good statistics for "number of trips" by mode, but Government statistics (link to follow) show far more cars than bicycles at pretty much every counter location in 2025.
The team bibs are excellent. I've tried Assos, Endura, Veloccio, 7mesh, Fox, Castelli. No question for me, the Rapha ones are the best ... tested at Istria300 and ~20,000km per year training. I buy their bibs despite not being a fan boy - models wearing mustaches is a huge turn off. I do like their support of Lachlan and Kate Courtney. From my perspective ... buying bibs every 3-4 years does not seem enough to sustain a company. I do not buy anything else because I get my jerseys from events. If event promoters offered an upcharge to get a Rapha jersey for the team event, I'd try it.
Their statement reads the same as the copy for this bibs
@Rendel Harris I reckon this can be fixed with a simple new law. The operators of vehicles on list A (ebikes, escooters, range rovers, teslas, carbon race bikes, bmws, and so on) may not pass, obstruct, or even approach vehicles on list Z (my bike).
I know Ayr is a bit teeny compared to Edinburgh but it's worth noting that cycle journeys in Scotland's capital now outnumber car journeys. Clearly, some Scots want to take advantage of active travel.
17 thoughts on “Roy Keane fed up with supposed war between cyclists and motorists; Fiona Kolbinger smashes 778km at 28km/h; Wiggo urges G to go stage hunting; Ben O’Connor’s epic breakaway; Froome talks crashes; Shoulda put a 52t ring on it + more on the live blog”
Tri-athlete on the cycle part
Tri-athlete on the cycle part of the Bolton Ironman knocked off by hit and run driver in closed road section.
These incidents will become
These incidents will become more and more common as the offenders see that the penalty for ‘running’ is no worse than for the original offence, and there’s a chance they will get away with it.
“Sign silliness”: I think
“Sign silliness“: I think some punctuation may be missing from that sign…
In other Bradley Wiggins
In other Bradley Wiggins-related news, I was cycling down a slight incline on my usual ride today when a yellow VW beetle tried to go past me, despite me cycling directly behind another car, in primary.
“Where are you going?” I asked, politely indicating there was no space. “Fuck off Bradley fuckin Wiggins” was the reply from the passenger side.
Imagine that? Being compared to Sir Bradley Wiggins! Made my day.
I know it’s never gone away
I know it’s never gone away as such but I wonder if in a few years we’ll be looking at this years TDF and the like and be thinking ‘how can they have been so naive?”. Hopefully there’s no undetectable ‘super drug’ or something being used in the peleton but we have seen a lot of amazing riders come through in recent years.
I’m happy to give the benefit of the doubt and just enjoy it unless something is proven otherwise but when I first got into cycle racing I read all the usual books about doping in the 90’s etc and it is starting to have a familiar feel to it.
But as I said, I’ll just enjoy it for now, no need to get paranoid 🙂
EddyBerckx wrote:
I was happy to give benefit of the doubt last year. I was happy to give benefit of the doubt after the TT. I was suspicious after Saturday, and convinced there is a new drug after yesterday. Pogacar is on it, but I don’t think he’s alone. If TdG says his numbers are similar to what was destroying the field, but now going backwards, its a solid circumstantial case. They need to investigate this further. If it’s too good to be true…
When De Gendt won Stage 8 in
When De Gendt won Stage 8 in 2019 his average power was 4.97 w/kg, or within less than 5% of O’Connor’s wattage yesterday. Given that De Gendt was 32 then and O’Connor is currently 25, it’s perfectly possible to attribute the difference to age, stage type and advances in training without immediately claiming everyone’s on a new drug with no foundation except “I think they are.”
I’m not worried about O
I’m not worried about O’Connor, he didn’t do it 2 days in row, arguably 4 days in a row. Pogacar however…
A possibly naive suggestion
A possibly naive suggestion but maybe it’s the upsurge in endurance fuelling like Beta fuel and that Algae stuff. So it’s not that peak power output is much better, but that sustained and therefore average powers are held for longer amounts of time. If you have a whole team being able to put out high powers over longer time frames it’s going to flatter the team lead/front man.
The real red flag would be if repeated efforts are high day on day by the same rider.
Add that to having had ~10 years of the marginal gains philosophy trickling down to junior levels and into a lot of national setups, it’s maybe enough to explain everything.
Team budgets are another possible explanation that I don’t have data any for, but I’d be interested to know if they have been increasing linearly or non-linearly.
Secret_squirrel wrote:
I would have thought Ineos and the other teams would also be using the same beta/algae foods. The difference between the usual favourites is just too distinct, riding in the big ring quite nonchalantly whilst others are grimacing in the little ring doesn’t fill me with good vibes. I hope I’m wrong, but we’ve been here before.
EddyBerckx wrote:
Well I was enjoying it…
brooksby wrote:
Sorry!! Genuinely, I don’t look at races and think everyones doped up, it was just a thought that occured after the De Gendt article above. I don’t see the point in believing everthing is fake but then continuing to watch it (and moaning) – I’d just stop watching tbh
I think in a few years people
I think in a few years people will know this period as the h7379 era – or perhaps a more catching name for the substance….
Quote:
Hi-viz
Stop riding 2- (or 3-, or 4-, or 5-, or 6-) abreast
Stop riding through red lights
Make them get insurance
Make them get licences (oh – wait – they already do…)
Use the cycle lane (oh – hang on – that one’s against the rules…)
….
mdavidford wrote:
Hi-viz
Stop riding 2- (or 3-, or 4-, or 5-, or 6-) abreast
Stop riding through red lights
Make them get insurance
Make them get licences (oh – wait – they already do…)
Use the cycle lane (oh – hang on – that one’s against the rules…)
….
You forgot road tax! tell em about the road tax!
Make them have a registration
Make them have a registration number fitted to their bike so they can be easiliy identified …. oh – hang on – they already do that too.
Someone needs to tell Cav
Someone needs to tell Cav that’s the shower tray. The bath is a separate thing… 😉