Peter Sagan takes part in epic 24 hour, 180km celebrity water bike race… and gets accused of drafting behind the boat; Tom Pidcock says Ineos Grenadiers “don’t help me to perform at my best” amid “number of issues within the team” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Do children fundamentally change your relationship with cycling? road.cc reviewer George Hill on how he has had to learn to love cycling in a different way since the birth of his first child
One from the weekend, in case you missed it…
> The guilt, the danger, and the dichotomy of being a cycling parent
15-year sentence for drug dealer who killed cyclist while speeding at 60mph in 30 zone
A drug dealer who hit and killed a cyclist as the “reckless and dangerous” driver sped through Ipswich at 60mph, double the speed limit, has been jailed for 15 years after being found guilty in court.
Read more: > 15-year sentence for drug dealer who killed cyclist while speeding at 60mph in 30 zone
“It’s not prettier than it is, and the podium is just very far away”: Luke Rowe joins chorus of discontent as Ineos Grenadiers struggle in Spain at the Vuelta
Tom Pidcock isn’t the only Ineos rider struggling to hold back his concerns when it comes to the team’s annus horribilis on the road.
Speaking as part of Eurosport’s Vuelta coverage, Luke Rowe admitted things haven’t “been going well for a long time” as Ineos.
Reflecting on the team’s performance in Spain, 34-year-old road captain Rowe – a pillar of some of the squad’s biggest victories, and set to retire at the end of this year following an awful run of injuries – said: “It’s not prettier than it is, and the podium is just very far away. The focus was on stages, with Josh Tarling also out.
“Thymen [Arensman] was the leader, but Carlos [Rodríguez] didn’t have the full support, and he was not in the best form to go for it completely. And then [Laurens] De Plus also dropped out.
(Zac Williams/SWPix.com)
“I will do my best to say this nicely,” he said, when asked if Ineos had reached a low point in the team’s 14-year existence.
“You can’t justify it. It’s a team with a huge budget. Riders are paid to win big races. That’s just not happening now. We’re not performing. Not that one person is failing, but it hasn’t been going well for a long time.
“Staying at the top was difficult, we were chased. Now, we have to chase the rest. Several teams have passed us. I know the people at the top of the team, and they will start thinking and not give up. But it’s not solved in one or two years. I give them a few years, then Ineos will return to the top.”
Pure Landismo
Oh, nothing to see here, just Mikel Landa stopping on his way back down to the team bus, after finishing the penultimate stage of the 2024 Vuelta atop Picón Blanco, to give his Soudal (okay, one last time… T-Rex) Quick-Step teammates a helpful shove up the final climb of what must have felt like the longest three weeks of their lives:
Mikel Landa on his way down to the bus after the finish and giving a push to his teammates still climbing up Picón Blanco 🙌🏼 #LaVuelta24 #Landismo pic.twitter.com/Qr16lzkNaK
— Laura Meseguer (@Laura_Meseguer) September 7, 2024
And that’s why, along with the romantically doomed attacks, cycling fans love him so much…
“It’s been a gradual climb to here and it’s just going to get better I think”: Stevie Williams sets sights on world championships after Tour of Britain win continues “dream year”
After adding the Tour of Britain to what has already been a breakthrough year of success at the highest level, Stevie Williams has now set his sights on an especially hilly edition of the world road race championships later this month.
The 28-year-old, who dominated his home tour’s opening hilly portion, taking two stage victories and beating fellow Brit Oscar Onley by 16 seconds overall, is heading to Zurich off the back of what he calls a “dream” year, which kicked off with a GC win at the Tour Down Under and a stunning triumph atop the Mur de Huy at Flèche Wallonne.
That win – the first by a British male at the Belgian spring classic – marked the culmination of years of gradual building for Williams’ career, one that was stalled early by a succession of injuries, but which has burst into life since joining Israel-Premier Tech at the end of 2022, following the demise of the ill-fated B&B Hotels project.
(Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)
Reflecting on his season so far, the Welsh puncheur told BBC Radio Wales breakfast this morning: “An amazing year, one I could only dream of. We have another five or six weeks left of the season so hopefully we can finish the season off well and that would be perfect.
“But it’s important to enjoy these moments and let them soak in. As athletes we get easily drawn into the next competition or target. Hopefully I can let this one sink in and enjoy it.”
Following his Tour of Britain win, only the third by a British rider in the race’s modern incarnation, Williams will now head to Canada, where he will hone his pre-worlds form at the punchy one-day WorldTour races in Québec and Montréal this weekend.
“They’ll be on Friday and Sunday this week, so hopefully I’ll be good there,” he said. “They’re well suited to me, punchy, hard races, so if I bring the Tour of Britain legs to those races hopefully I should be good.
“And then a big target for me a couple of weeks later will be the world championships in Zurich.”
(Will Palmer/SWpix.com)
And with a potential realistic tilt at a rainbow jersey on his mind, what does Williams credit as the main factors behind his slow but steady rise to the top?
“I think the consistency of training and also the consistency of my race programme,” he told the radio programme.
“I’ve been very healthy this year, injury free – touch wood that stays the same – but I just think that having set goals out from early winter last year to manage my goals and to set expectations and put myself in the best environment to actually go for them, I think that’s been a major factor.
“I think I’m actually in a situation and a place now where I can go to these global events and try and actually compete for the win because [of] how good I’ve prepared.
“I think as well, as athletes we continue to grow and I’m 28 now. I feel like I’m coming to a place where I’m reaching my physical peak and hopefully the next few years will be the same. It’s been a gradual climb to here and it’s just going to get better I think.”
The Zwift Racing League starts tomorrow: Are you up for putting us all to shame and joining our road.cc team?
The leaves are falling and the air is feeling decidedly crisper this week already (though I for one thoroughly enjoyed the last dregs of summer over the weekend on my bike), which means only one thing… Indoor winter training is coming and the 2024/25 season of the Zwift Racing League is about to start!
And this year, road.cc is running a B and C team, both in the Open EMEA-W Eastern leagues, which means an 18:45 start in the UK.
We still have spaces for more riders, so if you want to show a bit of live blog solidarity, go stick your name in the form and get some autumnal racing in your legs in road.cc colours.
And no, don’t even try to convince me to sign up. It ain’t happening… Alright, go on then!
Grimsby’s notorious cycling PSPO strikes again
> Cyclist ordered to pay £500 for riding through town centre, as councillor insists cyclists “who have not followed rules” will be “rightly punished”
The hardest working domestique at the Vuelta?
Chapeau to that man, spending most of the Vuelta cooped up in a giant T-Rex costume in 30 degree-plus heat. Though wait until he finds out he has to dress up as a giant sealant container for next year’s Giro d’Italia…
The future of cycling’s eco drive? US cyclocross race introduces five-minute time penalty for littering on the course
While it’s not quite to dust off the knobby tyres on this side of the pond, over in the United States we’re already well into cyclocross season, with the Englewood Open CX in Wisconsin kickstarting the UCI calendar over the weekend.
And the organisers decided to head into the new cyclocross season with a stricter, more regimented approach to that great bane of races around the world – the sight of riders leaving gel wrappers at their backsides as they make their way around the course.
And instead of the slap on the wrist, or even fine, normally meted out for littering, the Englewood CX organisers have properly laid down the law, introducing a five-minute time penalty for anyone caught “intentionally littering”.
‘Don’t worry, I’m just running back to pick up my gel wrapper!’ (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
“Please do not throw used gel packs on the course,” the organisers said on their website. “Cattle like sugar and electrolytes too, and plastic wrappers can block their digestive tract.
“This has been an ongoing problem, and if racers are observed intentionally littering, a five-minute penalty will be added to their time. This penalty will be lifted after the offending racer has performed 30 minutes of course clean up after their race.”
Cyclocross community service, I like it.
Our own Jo Burt is also a fan of the Wisconsin-based race’s new ruling, and reckons it should be implemented in all races.
“Five-minute penalty on GC or tidy away the last kilometre of barriers on Alpe d’Huez – your call Remco…”
I could definitely see that catching on.
Some wheelie cool stuff in our latest tech round-up (I’ll get my coat)
> Five cool wheel upgrades coming soon from Mavic, Giant, Cadex, Syncros and Miche
“The bike was mangled. Then, like an idiot with adrenaline, I started f***ing riding again”: Gordon Ramsay reflects on bike crash that left him seeing “a blur of vision and blood everywhere”… and saw him call on all cyclists to wear helmets
It’s been almost three months since we were treated to the gnarly sight of Gordon Ramsay’s horrifically bruised abdomen (and forced to listen to his dad-like lecture about helmets), and the culinary world’s sweariest purveyor of derivative TV competition programmes has finally opened up about his nasty run-in with a pothole while cycling, which left him covered in blood and struggling to breathe.
Ramsay, an experienced cyclist who competes in Ironman triathlons, crashed heavily while training in Connecticut in June, leaving him a large purple patch on his side… and unable to put his pants and socks on himself.
“My life flashed before me,” the TV chef told Men’s Health UK in a recent interview.
“[I was] travelling down the hill quite fast, no other cars involved. The front wheel went down a pothole, and the whole bike just catapulted me.
“I struggled to breathe. I thought I was going to pass out. Stupidly, the bike was mangled, and I put the chain back on. Then, like an idiot with adrenaline, I started fucking riding again.”
He continued: “I bent down, started tightening up my helmet, and the whole thing had split. Then I was trying to look, and I could just see a blur of vision and blood everywhere. I honestly thought I was going to pass out.”
Ramsay was rushed to hospital after the crash, where a CT scan gave him the all-clear – though the pain from the crash wasn’t as quick to subside.
“I couldn’t even put my fucking socks and pants on,” he added. “Justin [Mandel, Ramsay’s assistant] he used to dress me in the morning. I felt like a fucking 95-year-old man, asking a 30-year-old kid to put my fucking underpants on was embarrassing.”
Despite the embarrassing repercussions of the crash, Ramsay says he’s already back in training, and reckons he owes his swift recovery to his desire to keep fit.
“If I wasn’t fit and those bones weren’t strong, I’d be screwed,” the 57-year-old said. “I’m going to put it back down to the fitness… I’m lucky to be here because I’m fit.”
At the time of the crash, you may remember, Ramsay also attributed the fact he’s still alive after his crash to his helmet, calling on all cyclists on his social media to “please, please, please wear a helmet”, a stance that unsurprisingly attracted some criticism on social media, and was described – in a tone that would have been welcomed by Ramsay himself – as “complete shite” by Cycling Mikey. When in Rome…
Tom Pidcock out of this week’s Canadian races after suffering concussion in Tour of Britain crash
Tom Pidcock’s crash at the Tour of Britain yesterday not only ended a disappointing home race for the Amstel Gold winner, one that prompted him to deliver a few home truths to the Belgian press, it’s also ruled him out of the upcoming one-day races in Canada, Ineos Grenadiers confirmed today.
Pidcock was set to race the GPs of Québec and Montréal this week as part of his build-up to the worlds in Zurich at the end of the month. But that anticipated showdown with the likes of Tadej Pogačar, Biniam Girmay, and Tour of Britain winner Stevie Williams has now been derailed after Pidcock suffered concussion during yesterday’s chaotic, crash-heavy final stage into Felixstowe.
(Elliot Keen/British Cycling/via SWpix.com)
“Following the crash in stage six of the Tour of Britain we can confirm that Tom Pidcock has sustained a concussion,” Ineos said in a statement at lunchtime.
“He will return home for recovery and remain under the supervision of our medical team whilst he follows our concussion ‘return to training’ protocol.
“Unfortunately this will mean he is unable to race in the upcoming Canadian races. We wish Tom a speedy recovery and hope he will be back to racing soon.”
Last year, Pidcock was forced to miss Milan-Sanremo, just weeks after his stunning 50km solo win at Strade Bianche, after being diagnosed with mild concussion following a heavy crash at the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race.
Police officers recover stolen bikes from teenage thieves within half an hour
Two teenagers in Sevenoaks have put themselves in the running for the much sought after title of the UK’s Worst Bike Thieves, after bikes they stole last week were recovered by police within 30 minutes.
In a statement released by Kent Police, officers were called last Tuesday afternoon to a report of bicycle thefts from a residential property near Bat and Ball Road.
After searching the area, and within half an hour of the crime being first reported, the officers had located three teenage suspects at the Bat and Ball train station and recovered the bikes. Two more bikes, suspected to be stolen from the station earlier the same day, were also seized.
The boys, aged between 14 and 15, are scheduled to attend interviews at a local police station, and the two bikes reported stolen have been returned to their owners.
Probably best to start pursuing other career prospects, eh fellas?
“To be honest, they don’t help me to perform at my best”: Tom Pidcock admits there are “a number of issues” within Ineos Grenadiers, as pressure mounts on underperforming British team after subpar Tour of Britain and Vuelta
It’s fair to say that the spotlight has been shining rather intensely on the Ineos Grenadiers throughout 2024.
The dominant, all-conquering team of the 2010s, the British squad have seemingly been reduced to a bit-part role in cycling’s biggest races – and even, as we saw last week, at their home tour – during what has become a prolonged, painful transition period in recent years.
For a squad which forged its reputation on statistical analysis, the numbers are damning.
Carlos Rodriguez during his unsuccessful white jersey defence at the Vuelta (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Ineos have achieved only 14 wins this season so far. Tadej Pogačar alone has 21 wins in 2024. In 2018, the team’s last full year as Team Sky, and one which saw them win both the Giro and the Tour courtesy of Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, they managed 56 victories. Even in 2010, Sky’s first awkward teething year in the peloton, 30 wins were bagged.
Not only are the figures damning, so is the anonymous manner in which Ineos are currently being swatted away by their bike racing superiors.
At the Vuelta a España, where Primož Roglič finally clawed his way to the red jersey after a valiant two-week-long defence by Ben O’Connor, Ineos were nowhere to be seen, at a grand tour that became surprisingly open in the absence of Jonas Vingegaard or Pogačar.
They failed to win a single stage, and a poor final weekend saw GC hope Carlos Rodríguez slip to an almost completely anonymous tenth overall (Haimar Zubeldia would be proud), and even down to third in the young rider’s classification behind Mattias Skjelmose and Florian Lipowitz.
(Elliot Keen/British Cycling/via SWpix.com)
At the Tour of Britain, which should be the team’s bread and butter, things were even worse. Despite attempting to impose themselves on the front of the peloton on stage two in classic Ineos style – in one long line, at a hard but steady pace – they were caught out, again, by a flurry of chaotic attacking and what turned out to be the race-deciding move into Redcar.
While exciting British talent like Stevie Williams, Oscar Onley, and Joe Blackmore battled at the top of the GC standings, and generational stars like Remco Evenepoel stole the show with some swashbuckling attacking rides, Ineos were again anonymous.
The veteran Ben Swift was the team’s highest-place rider on GC, in 15th, while Swift also secured Ineos’ best stage placing, with third.
And, while cycling punditry has been rife with criticism of Ineos’ performances in recent years, it seems the murmurs of discontent are beginning to emanate from inside the camp.
Last week, the British squad lost their engineering and performance team of Dan Bigham and Jonny Wale to Vuelta-winning Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, a month after Bigham publicly declared that the struggling team “should be doing things a lot better”, have “lacked clarity” since Sir Dave Brailsford’s departure, and are missing out on key performance gains.
(Elliot Keen/British Cycling/via SWpix.com)
And now, it’s the turn of arguably the team’s biggest star to speak out, as Tom Pidcock told the Belgian press at the Tour of Britain that “issues” within the team are hampering his own performances.
Pidcock, who won Amstel Gold this year but found himself playing catch-up for most of the Tour of Britain after missing that key move into Redcar, told Het Laatste Nieuws that he was “definitely not as good as I thought I would be” at his home race.
“In that second stage I really wanted to disappear, because it was really embarrassing to be dropped by the peloton. Especially after we had opened the race ourselves,” the 25-year-old said.
“The level in each race is so high that you really have to be ready every time. But I feel I am getting better every day and that is good for the races in Canada and those later in the season. Because there is still something to come.”
(Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)
When asked for his view on the season as a whole, Pidcock added: “As in so many seasons, there are positive and negative things. It’s just so damn hard to win. There are only a small number of riders who win the majority of races and I want to be one of them. That is not the case now and that must change.
“After the Olympic Games I told my girlfriend that from now on I really want to focus on the road. I really want to perform there. And I’m not just talking about the rest of this season, but certainly also next year.”
The Belgian paper then asked Pidcock if he wasn’t necessarily getting the freedom to race how he wants at Ineos.
“Yes, it is true that there are currently a number of issues within the team that I have to deal with,” a hesitant Pidcock said. “And to be honest, they don’t help me to perform at my best.
“I have to think about a lot more than just performance-related things at the moment. And that means that the focus on the things that are really important, namely racing, is not ideal.”
Pidcock then refused to elaborate on whether his comments were related to the structural issues within the team’s management – and, notably, whether he could be set for a move away this winter, potentially following Bigham to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
“I have a contract until the end of 2027. That’s all I can say.”
Old habits die hard: Peter Sagan takes part in epic 24 hour, 180km water bike ride from Corsica to Monaco… and gets accused of drafting behind the boat
It’s been a few months now since Peter Sagan hung up his racing wheels after taking part in the Tour of Slovakia and his home national mountain bike championships earlier this summer. So, what has the three-time world champion been up to in the meantime?
Well, apart from taking in the Olympics as a fan and reflecting on his illustrious career with road.cc (cheap plug, I know), Sagan ended his summer by adding another cycling-related string to his multidisciplinary bow – in the form of water biking.
Over the weekend, the Slovakia superstar teamed up with gravel bike-loving F1 star Valtteri Bottas to take part in the second edition of ‘The Crossing’, an epic 180km water bike relay challenge between the Corsican town of Calvi and Sagan’s residence in Monaco. How the other half live…
The event, organised by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation (for which both Sagan and Bottas are ambassadors), aims to raise awareness and funds for water safety and drowning prevention.
The aquatic version of Milan-Sanremo also saw a host of other stars, including Visma-Lease a Bike-bound Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, former Giro d’Italia stage winner Gustav Erik Larsson, and – weirdly – Tyson Fury-conqueror and heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Not sure Strictly can compete with that line-up, eh?
(Canyon-Sram’s Tiffany Cromwell was also initially down to race alongside Sagan and her partner Bottas, but a little thing like the Tour de Romandie Féminin took precedence.)
So, only another 30km to the Poggio after this…
Even without Cromwell, Sagan and Bottas’ Team Serenity had a great start along the open waters of the Med, surging ahead at the halfway mark as night fell.
However, as Monaco’s coastline came into view around dawn on Saturday morning, Ferrand-Prévot’s Team Lionheart unleashed a Sagan-esque sprint to nab the win, 22 hours after leaving Corsica, with the former Paris-Roubaix winner and co. eventually fading to third (but that’s still good enough for some green jersey points, eh Peter?).
Despite the 34-year-old trying out a brand-new cycling discipline in this new post-retirement phase, some on social media noted that old habits die hard, and that the Slovakian – who was docked 20 seconds at the 2018 Vuelta for drafting for too long behind his team car after coming back from a mechanical – was enjoying perhaps a bit too much time in the slipstream of his follow boat during his relay stints.
“Drafting with the boat is okay?” asked surfboard enthusiast Grant on Instagram – and you’d think he’d know how many watts per litre you’d save by drafting behind a boat…
“How much draft or help do you feel from the boat?” asked Rudy, while Doug chipping in: “Always be drafting!”
Well, I suppose there was little chance of Sagan being penalised for a sprint deviation, anyway.
Where are the commissaires?
However, the Black Cyclists’ Network’s Mani Arthur predicted what could potentially happen if Sagan aims to take on water biking as his new career, writing: “Boats will be drafting Peter soon”.
You never know – Sagan and water biking for LA ’28? I’ll start the petition…
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Latest Comments
@kingleo So by that logic, if they're forced to carry bottles of fulminated mercury in their pockets they will never crash? I think you just solved the problem!
@mdavidford No, you're confusing it with liquified steam.
@Zebra It's in the article. The airbag can be quickly deflated again.
The more safety gear the riders wear, the safer they feel, the more risks they will take, the more often they will crash.
I thought Laura did well, and capped the bullshit firehose effectively - especially as she had never had an attempted mugging from a far-right shock-jock before. Her "the Netherlands was not the Netherlands in the 1970s" is a genius point, which I will remember. She could have added "Why do you want to live in a Carry On film" if she wanted to put JHB back in her hot air balloon.. But nonetheless - enjoyable, even though personally I probably preferred Laura's debagging of Richard Madeley on Jeremy Vine iirc with sheer logic.
If a pro hits the deck wearing one of these and is uninjured apart from some road rash, will he or she be able to jump back on and keep riding? Or will it be necessary to wait and change into a new jersey / skinsuit? That could be a deciding factor for their use in elite races.
My greatest fear is being struck from behind while cycling. If this demonstrably reduces injuries from such an attack, I want one. Anything that improves safety gets my support.
As I think that poster liked to remind us, explosion in the hi-viz aisle of Decathlon is also a big risk for cyclists.
@IanGlasgow indeed - my point was really just in answer to the reviewer's apparent surprise they didn't add discs - but the Kinetic kits show it actually requires quite a lot of change.
...And another one turning up on a bicycle to another former poster's soirée and then being hurt by his reaction?
1 thought on “Peter Sagan takes part in epic 24 hour, 180km celebrity water bike race… and gets accused of drafting behind the boat; Tom Pidcock says Ineos Grenadiers “don’t help me to perform at my best” amid “number of issues within the team” + more on the live blog”
Intried some of inios’s
I tried some of inios’s washing up liquid. It was on offer at Waitrose , and claimed to be better for my hands. Not as good for washing up as fairy platinum, but better than method. The method pump is just genius though, lasts for years. The inios bottle is very weak, which I suppose is less packaging. Seems alright on my hands too.
Their team tactics just seems to be off, not by much, but repeated.