Cycling account criticised for sexist meme posted on International Women’s Day; Mathieu van der Poel’s stupendous 1,000 watt attack; Before and after cycle lane photos; Brompton mobility hubs; New bike for theft victim, Paris-Nice + more on the live blog

Here’s another view of this street. It’s a huge improvement over how it was before. As you can see motor traffic levels are tiny compared to before. And the street is one way now with the cycle lane being a contra flow. pic.twitter.com/PqwOu3orOt

— filter more streets (@iambrianjones) March 7, 2021

 Chris Boardman loved this before and after video of Old Bethnal Green Road, calling it an “incredibly powerful before and after look at a street,” and saying that it would be “interesting to count the number of people using it in both. My guess is there’s more in the after version.”

Another angle of the new cycleway shows kids free to walk around the neighbourhood without the streams of motor traffic in the before video…

Old Bethnal Green Road:
where traffic is virtually nil and kids can muck about like this with out risking their lives. pic.twitter.com/xJTINMI6Zu

— filter more streets (@iambrianjones) March 6, 2021

off-road.cc is the place to go for your mountain bike fix of reviews and news. It has all the best bits that don’t fall under the road.cc umbrella, including a link to a new episode of the Downtime Podcast which features off-road.cc editor Rachael Wight.The mountain bike focused interview-based podcast has this week been handed over for a celebration of International Women’s Day with a discussion around equality, experiences, challenges, opportunity and the changing face of women’s mountain biking. Rachael is joined by mountain bike guide and coach Emily Horridge and Nukeproof  Marketing Executive, Katie Wooster. It’s well worth a listen and can be accessed via all major podcast platforms via this link or at the top of this post…

British Cycling and the Great Britain Cycling Team are marking International Women’s Day by celebrating a step towards gender parity in track cycling this season. Most notably, the women’s team sprint, which used to be a two-woman event over two laps, has been extended to match the male event and will now involve three female riders racing over three laps. 

The changed event will make its Olympic debut in Paris in 2024 with senior academy sprinters Blaine Ridge-Davis, Lusia Steele and Milly Tanner already eyeing up the opportunity to make history with Great Britain’s first ever Olympic medal in the team sprint.

Unseen footage from Van der Poel’s final attack in Strade Bianche: pic.twitter.com/dxrz9C1l15

— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) March 6, 2021

And some wise words from Alex Dowsett…

I guess it’s safe to say MVDP today showed Allaphilipe what it’s like to race against Allaphilipe. 🤯

— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) March 6, 2021

 

 

 

 

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On Tuesday, after Mathieu van der Poel had led out his teammate Tim Merlier to victory on the tops having snapped off and chucked away his drop, I asked on this live blog — is there anything he can’t do? Just when his brilliance seems to have reached an unbeatable level he raises the bar again. Some mind-boggling numbers at the end of close to five hours of hard racing have been released by his team this morning. The things we’d do to have his legs for a day…

Van der Poel has also uploaded his full ride to Strava, which saw him claim KOMs for the segments covering the final 25km of the race, the final gravel section where he put in his first crazy attack at Le Tolfe and from part way up the final ramp to the finish line.

A slight surprise was to see his time, strictly on the uphill section of the final climb to the finish up Santa Caterina, was only eighth fastest and nine seconds off the time his now teammate Petr Vakoc set in 2016. Although this can probably be explained by Van der Poel’s more conservative start to the climb before that incredible 20 second explosion near the top where he averaged 1,000w… 

British pro rider Lizzy Banks has told BBC Sport that female cyclists feel undervalued because of the disparity in prize money at events and are scared to speak out. Last week, Flanders Classics, who organise many of the Belgian Classics, came under scrutiny over the difference in prize money at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Men’s winner Davide Ballerini won £13,766, while women’s winner Anna van der Breggen (pictured above) took home just £800 in comparison. 

“We have so many battles to fight,” Banks said. “I don’t think this [equal prize money] is the most important thing out there in women’s cycling, but I do think that it is important. I just feel like it sends a message that we don’t value the women’s sport as much as we value the men’s.

“We’re all a bit scared to say something. It’s not that there’s a culture of fear – that’s definitely not the case – but our jobs are relatively insecure. Often we are on one-year contracts, you have to be quite careful what you say and also especially if you are the ones at the top of the sport then you are also the ones who are going to be reaping the benefits so you don’t want to seem selfish.

“In female cycling it’s always a balancing act of wanting to promote the right causes but also being careful what you say because I think being outspoken can really inhibit your chances of getting another contract.”

Not all things that come in 3 are bad luck.

Our third announcement of the week is a trial mobility hub for Imperial College London staff is, set to launch in April 2021 as the result of a research partnership between Imperial, Enterprise & ourselves.https://t.co/JyqUCTJV7P

— Brompton Bike Hire (@BromptonHire) March 2, 2021

Imperial College staff will be offered exclusive use of a Brompton bike for a two-month trial of a mobility hub based at the London university. The trial will allow researchers to assess the uptake and barriers to shared transport use and inform future mobility schemes at other workplaces and cities. Staff will be asked to leave their cars at home for the two-month period and use only their Brompton or two shared alternative fuel vehicles provided by Enterprise.

We hear of fans’ inspiring stories and acts of kindness in the community, and we want to give them the recognition they deserve!

Our first #CountyHero is Phil Robinson, who shows exactly how County fans stick together. Click below for the full story 👇 https://t.co/mKxtZYDuTL

— Stockport County (@StockportCounty) March 3, 2021

Phil Robinson has been named a ‘County Hero’ by Stockport County after he bought a fellow fan a replacement for his stolen bike. Andrew Rowden, affectionately known as Oaf at Edgeley Park, had become well known for cycling to home and away games and had racked up thousands of miles following his team around the country.

Andrew had his bike stolen during a time when he was mourning the death of his father, which also prevented him from getting around as it was his main form of transport. Phil contacted his local bike shop, Woodson’s Cycles, and paid for a replacement with the help of the shop’s owner who offered discounted price. 

Oaf’s new bike was delivered to his home where he said: “I can’t believe that Phil has done this for me, I am completely overwhelmed. I’m very lucky to be a part of a Club with such incredibly thoughtful fans.”

I like how Strava calculates MVdP’s SB win to have been at 92% intensity. https://t.co/ITdOoAMT0y

— nyvelocity (@nyvelocity) March 8, 2021

We’re still trying to get our heads around Van der Poel’s power data. The educated conclusion seems to be it’s bloody impressive… Over on Facebook, Rod Leach suggested it’s all very well winning Strade Bianche with a 1,000 watt attack but he’ll need to up his game if he wants to win any Zwift races… 

Best not put my Sunday ride up, don’t want to embarrass the lad😳😂

— vic bates (@victorbates) March 8, 2021

pic.twitter.com/IFepQ7EDHh

— AJ (@AJ48775486) March 8, 2021

🏁 🇳🇱@ceesbol1995 l’emporte au sprint à Amilly et 🇦🇺@blingmatthews s’empare du @MaillotJauneLCL.
⏪ Revivez le dernier kilomètre.

🏁 🇳🇱@ceesbol1995 claims the win in Amilly and 🇦🇺@blingmatthews takes the @MaillotJauneLCL.
⏪Relive the last kilometre.#ParisNice pic.twitter.com/WIoPepYA1l

— Paris-Nice (@ParisNice) March 8, 2021

Cees Bol earned Team DSM a first win under their new sponsorship on stage two’s uphill sprint in Amilly. Mads Pedersen was second, while Bol’s former teammate Michael Matthews took third. With Sam Bennett fifth and outside the bonus seconds, it will be Matthews who pulls on the yellow leader’s jersey for stage three tomorrow. The stage in question is a 14km individual time trial which will be crucial to deciding the overall victory come Sunday.   

#ParisNice – Stage 2 – Top 10 pic.twitter.com/OSgamUagIb

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) March 8, 2021

Clearly there isn’t any time that sharing this would be acceptable, but posting this meme that has been criticised as creepy and sexist to your 9,000 Twitter followers on International Women’s Day seems tone deaf at best. Awesome Cycling posted a video asking ‘Which one are you?’ showing the supposed different types of cyclists you pass on a ride. The ones who give you a nod, the ones who wave coolly, the ones who wave enthusiastically and apparently the ones who ogle female riders and take photos of them…  

One reply from Chris Gerhard summed up the mood in the comments Awesome Cycling got for their post: “The creepy sexism here is really not acceptable. It’s not funny, it’s disturbing. Take it down.”

David T.Isaac added: “Don’t be the pervert. And @AwesomeCycling it’s really weird that you included “sexual harasser” as like a fun little type of cyclist that we can all joke about. It’s not funny. Be better.”

You take a lighthearted look at cyclists greeting each other then add in a ‘creepy as F’ behaviour that is totally unacceptable.

I hope you take this down and educate yourself 🤬

This is NOT cool 🤨

— Kris Wright (@climb8b) March 7, 2021

Holy crap. Let’s celebrate the kind of male creepiness that limits women’s freedom to do stuff outdoors that men take for granted.

— Jon (@ormondroyd) March 7, 2021

In all Dutch interviews I was referred to the “female cycling commentator” or “first female cycling commentator.”

In the hundreds of 🇺🇸🇳🇿🇬🇧🇨🇦🇦🇺reactions after my @gcntweet debut only a handful were about me being a woman.

That is progress to me 👏🏻#InternationalWomensDay

— José Been (@TourDeJose) March 8, 2021

Here are some of the best International Women’s Day posts from the cycling world we’ve seen today to make up for the last blog post…Elisa Longo Borghini and her Trek-Segafredo teammates have decided to put their prize money for her second place at Strade Bianche back in to the sport to help women’s cycling grow. Fans raised more than €25,000 in extra prize money for the women’s race…

On this special day we – my @TrekSegafredo teammates and I- have decided to make a new step in the long road for women’s empowerment in sport.

Happy international women’s day to all of us! pic.twitter.com/euTxSVq1wH

— Elisa Longo Borghini (@ElisaLongoB) March 8, 2021