“This is what bike riders have to deal with”: Driver overtaking group of cyclists riding two-abreast knocks rider off; All the reaction to Pogačar and Vollering’s LBL wins; What’s the cycling equivalent of a sub-two-hour marathon + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"This is what bike riders have to deal with": Driver overtaking group of cyclists riding two-abreast knocks rider off
I’m afraid we’ll be starting the week’s blog action with this video that popped up on road.cc Jo’s feed over the weekend…
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Not loads of info, but it appears to be from the US, a driver overtaking a group ride knocking a cyclist to the ground. Hopefully law enforcement are now investigating.
“This is what we as bike riders have to deal with,” the uploader wrote in the post’s caption. “As the law states [when] passing bikes, keep three feet between car and bike.”
We’ll skip over the comments which demonstrate how many people don’t appear to understand how riding a bicycle works, several (apparently seriously) suggesting the riders on the driver’s side had moved out to block the passing motorist’s progress and/or the rider “intentionally” leaned on the car.
Thankfully, just as many expressed hope law enforcement would investigate and take appropriate action.
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The bad luck continues... Mikel Landa is also out of the Giro d'Italia
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First João Almeida, now Mikel Landa, the Giro’s Iberian contingent is down two major players today. Soudal Quick-Step have announced Landa will miss the opening Grand Tour of the season after suffering a winter disrupted by illness, followed by a pelvic fracture sustained in the crash involving a driver of a race vehicle at Itzulia Basque Country.
“Due to the nature of the injury, it was not easily identifiable initially, but subsequent checks have now provided a clear diagnosis,” the team explained in a statement. “The fracture has already begun to heal but will require a further period of recovery.”
Landa added that the priority now is just “to get healthy again” before resetting sights on goals later in the season.
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So, what is cycling's sub-two-hour marathon?
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It’s a really tricky one because the two sports, while endurance events, don’t translate that well when considering time, distance etc. It doesn’t help that, as a few of you have pointed out in the comments and on socials, cycling doesn’t really have a marathon-equivalent event for the pros.
One shout was for a 60km Hour Record, others put forward the sub-three-hour 100-mile record.
OnYerBike: “My take would be that the closest equivalent would be the Hour Record. It’s a well known ‘thing’ – you talk to a cyclist about the Hour Record, and they know what you’re talking about. Record holders tend to be professionals at the height of their career – Chris Boardman, Bradley Wiggins, Filippo Ganna etc. – all multiple Olympic medallists.
“It’s a largely individual competition, and ratified attempts can take place at any number of locations – world records have been set at numerous locations, in the same way that marathon records have been set on various different courses (not to say the location has no impact whatsoever).
“It’s not a perfect analogy, but in terms of being a prestigious endurance record that can be broken meaningfully by an individual I think it’s the closest option.
“Winning a prestigious one-day road race (e.g. one of the monuments) has some parallels, but doesn’t set a consistent record in the same way – the exact course varies slightly from year to year, and the winning time is influenced by racing dynamics rather than purely individual effort.
“A long time trial (100 miles?) might be a closer match in terms of physiological demand and being an individual pursuit, but isn’t as prestigious globally.”
Rendel Harris: “Our equivalent to the marathon landmark has probably already been achieved by Jonathan Shubert when he broke the three hours for 100 miles record in 2020, although that does of course have to carry the caveat that not many top-ranked road cyclists would attempt that record.
“Given the vagaries of racing circumstances, weather conditions, technology etc. road cycling greatness will always be measured more by achievement than outright speed, so maybe a different type of comparison is required, e.g. if Pogačar managed to win six Tours de France that might be seen as an equivalent ‘sound-barrier-breaking’ moment.”
One popular shout on Instagram was winning all three Grand Tours in one season, while the good people of Facebook put forward simply beating Pogačar. Shout-out to the person who suggested summitting the Tourmalet on a Raleigh Grifter.
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João Almeida to miss Giro d'Italia
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UAE Team Emirates will have to rethink their Giro d’Italia plans, João Almeida to miss the opening Grand Tour of the season.
Almeida broke the news himself on Instagram, explaining how bouts of sickness have hindered his preparations to the point where the decision has been made to skip the Giro and save his legs for future targets.
“Unfortunately I won’t be at the start of the Giro d’Italia next month as planned,” he explained. “Sickness in the past months has affected my preparations too much and has meant I just won’t quite be ready in time which is a shame as it’s a race I love so much.
“After talking it through with the team we decided it was best to take a rest period and switch focus to new goals later in the season. We haven’t set out those new goals yet but that will be done calmly in the next few weeks…
“For now, it’s time to first rest-up a bit and build things back up slowly.
Best of luck to the guys for the Giro, will be cheering from home.”
I wouldn’t spare too many thoughts for UAE Team Emirates, they’ll still likely have Adam Yates, Jay Vine and Jan Christen to call on for the Giro.
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What is the cycling equivalent of running a sub-two-hour marathon?
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Right, as mentioned a bit earlier there was a mind-bending endurance sports feat that occurred on Sunday, but not at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Yep, Sabastian Sawe “moved the goalposts for marathon running” by becoming the first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race.
Spare a thought for Yomif Kejelcha who, 11 seconds later, became the second person to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race. The sporting world has been trying to get its head around the extraordinary achievement and, as a cyclist who dabbles with a bit of running, I’ve been trying to work out what might be the two-wheeled equivalent?
For pure distance as an amateur, I’ve often thought a running marathon equates to something like 100 miles on the bike, but what about at the elite level ? What’s the cycling equivalent of a sub-two-hour marathon? Get you ideas in the comments and we’ll check back in on this later on…
Pogačar impressed by Seixas, Vollering unimpressed by TV coverage — all the Liège–Bastogne–Liège reaction
Sorry, Tadej, your fourth Liège–Bastogne–Liège victory was somewhat overshadowed in the ‘greatest sporting achievement of Sunday’ ranks by a certain Marathon time in London. Regardless, it means Pogačar could equal Eddy Merckx’s outright wins record at the race next season.
Add to that the fact 2027 will also see a shot at a historic fourth Flanders success too, and suddenly next spring already looks set to be yet another big one in the Slovenian’s seemingly never-ending script of wins and records.
The emergence of 19-year-old wonderkid Paul Seixas should add some intrigue, at least at future Grand Tours and editions of Liège, the talented Frenchman sticking with Pogačar until the climb of Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons.
“I was in a state of euphoria and confusion,” Seixas said afterwards, recalling following the world champion up La Redoute.
In fact, the Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider’s strength had Pogačar already thinking about a potential sprint… “After the Redoute, I actually already had a sprint in mind because Paul was so strong, but I decided to accelerate one more time on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. I know the climb well and it suits me perfectly. I did manage to drop him then, but I was also ready to sprint against Paul.”
Regardless, Pogačar admitted Seixas had impressed him on the road, this surely the first of many future battles.
For once in the Pog era the greater dominance on display came in the women’s edition, Demi Vollering taking her third Liège–Bastogne–Liège crown with a devastating 1:29 advantage over the chasing trio by the finish.
Afterwards, the subject of TV was brought up at Vollering’s press conference, the women’s race having had significantly shorter broadcast time than the men’s edition as the stream only began after the conclusion of Pogačar’s victory.
“We used to start very early but the live broadcast was longer,” Vollering told IDL Pro Cycling afterwards at the post-race press conference. “Now we only get short coverage on TV, because the stream only begins after the men’s race. But it really doesn’t have to be that hard. If the timings stay as they are now, you could either show both races at the same time or switch between them.
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@the little onion It's not great cycling, but I have the same from drivers practically every day on my commute. I don't imagine for a moment that, if I reported it, anything would be done. The key point here, which the police and court appear to have ignored, is the false equivalence of the two scenarios. If a driver leaves too little room, they endanger the cyclist. If a cyclist leaves very little room, they endanger themselves.
@ROADEAGL Have you cross-checked the HR strap with the computer? Very probably the culprit is the strap, not the computer. Or even more probably, the strap is not faulty per se, it's just that your skin is too dry (or maybe too hairy?) at the beginning of some training sessions. I used to have the same issue with Polar and Garmin, which are generally considered high-end, but still suffer major inaccuracy with some skin types. The problem went away as soon as I learned to moisten the skin, as well as the strap-sensor connection, before each ride. Good luck!
@Rendel Harris it says something about the police attitude that they went looking for it If it doesn't say something, I'll say it instead: the police are largely slow-witted, malevolent b******s who view their main enemy as people, mainly cyclists, who annoy them by submitting indisputable evidence of road traffic offences that they would rather not know about. They will take any opportunity to punish them, as is shown by this '£1200 fine' case and little onion's swearing case which the Filth were forced to abandon after many months of stupidity. Speaking of stupidity, how far back into the depths of hominin history did the police have to go to find the officers for ' hold that EAPC rear wheel off the ground, spin the pedal and I'll take a picture of the speedo to prove it's an illegal electric motorbike and get it destroyed'- a quotation which 'will live in infamy', although many police officers will still not have understood what was wrong with it. The police, unlike Skynet, have not yet become self-aware!
Poorly written. They have to prove it was less than 1m. It's 5 am here
@RayG "TWW didn’t claim there was a need to prove every detail of the statement, just that it was necessary to prove the passing distance beyond reasonable doubt". But is that correct? Or would it suffice if the prosecution can prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was some other distance that nonetheless fell short of the required standard of driving?
TWW didn't claim there was a need to prove every detail of the statement, just that it was necessary to prove the passing distance beyond reasonable doubt I prepare evidence for prosecutions and BRD is effectively 'without doubt'. This arose because judges used to send people to the gallows for stealing loaves of bread. They wanted to be certain that they were right.
@mctrials23 The rider didn't submit that for prosecution, he submitted the video of another incident and that was included in the video either prior to or after the incident he was submitting and the police, one assumes somewhat gleefully, jumped on it and prosecuted the rider saying he had given less space to the car than the car he was complaining about gave him. Whether it was justifiable or serious enough to be prosecuted may be debated (I'd say no as there is no legal minimum passing distance for bikes on cars and as far as I can see the rider is at all times on his side of the road, but Nigel disagrees) but it says something about the police attitude that they went looking for it.
The behaviour of some fans on Alpe d'Huez this year was just criminal. Slapping riders, shouting in their faces (complete with spit), fights over free merch, falling into the road. The atmosphere generated by the numbers and the noise is great, but how can we stop idiots going too far and ruining the race with their dangerous disrespect? If it gets any worse there will be a fatality. Drunk idiots, motorbikes, cars and racing cyclists all in the the same narrow road space is going to cause the inevitable ...
@pockstone I mean, I'm astonished the cyclist thought to submit that. Car had priority there and he decided that he was going to squeeze through that gap for no reason instead of waiting. The reason it was £1200 will be due to the cyclist not accepting the initial fine for their bad riding and taking it to court. Thats exactly the same thing that happens if a driver does the same. I'm sure the local rags were indeed using it as a good touchpaper to start a good old anti-cycling bingo bashing fest.
@mitsky Thanks - and remember kids, West Yorkshire Police are totally institutionally anti-cyclist. I think road.cc should ask them how many of the team reviewing cyclists' submissions to their video portal actually are regular cyclists, as in, how many cycle on the public highway, in plain clothes, at least twice a week.
18 thoughts on ““This is what bike riders have to deal with”: Driver overtaking group of cyclists riding two-abreast knocks rider off; All the reaction to Pogačar and Vollering’s LBL wins; What’s the cycling equivalent of a sub-two-hour marathon + more on the live blog”
Best comment there is this unintentionally accurate one:
It certainly was in this case…
I wouldn’t want them to show both races in a single broadcast. Yes, Pog might be up the road, but as we know in cycling anything can happen. Look at the Strade where Pog crashed on the bend, or even more extreme the constant flow of events at this year’s Paris Roubaix. You’d end up with big moments in races being missed live because they’d chosen to go to the other race. It is bad enough already that you can now miss major happenings because of TNT advert breaks.
If both races need to be on the same day and you want extended coverage, the best would be to show them as separate streams, but the risk is that the vast majority of viewers will watch the men, whereas having it after the men means you may pick up viewers who continue watching (which I believe seemed to be the case with Paris Roubaix).
They could still switch the men’s stream to follow the remainder of the women’s race once the men’s concluded, so that they didn’t lose that transferred audience, while having a dedicated women’s race stream so that those who want to can follow that or double-screen.
60 km in the hour record?
Yes maybe but remember that Sawe improved the record by roughly a minute out of 120 minutes, or less than 1%, whereas to break 60 km for the hour would require an improvement of roughly 6% on the current record so a much bigger ask. Our equivalent to the marathon landmark has probably already been achieved by Jonathan Shubert when he broke the three hours for 100 miles record in 2020, although that does of course have to carry the caveat that not many top-ranked road cyclists would attempt that record. Given the vagaries of racing circumstances, weather conditions, technology et cetera road cycling greatness will always be measured more by achievement than outright speed, so maybe a different type of comparison is required, e.g. if Pogacar managed to win six Tours de France that might be seen as an equivalent “sound-barrier-breaking” moment.
The problem with any suggested equivalent solo cycling feat is that improving aero could suddenly make it relatively easy to accomplish, I don’t know if the same type of improvements are happening in running.
Well they’re making cutting-edge shoes out of soap. Or something.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/cn898pn2x08o
That will help them slip through the air, maybe someone should try it with bike tyres!
I read that yesterday and spent some time pondering whether a more rubbish comparator could be chosen. How much does a bar of soap weigh? How big a bar are we talking about, family economy size or Trusthouse Forte? Might as well have said they weighed as much as 738 second-class stamps or eighteen oven chips.
I had the same thought. Plus, how often do people encounter bars of soap these days anyway? 97%* of the soap I encounter now is squirty liquid stuff.
[*fact]
What’s the cycling equivalent of a sub-two-hour marathon?
My take would be that the closest equivalent would be the hour record. It’s a well known “thing” – you talk to a cyclist about the hour record, and they know what you’re talking about. Record holders tend to be professionals at the height of their career – Chris Boardman, Bradley Wiggins, Filippo Ganna etc., – all multiple Olympic medalists. It’s a largely individual competition, and ratified attempts can take place at any number of locations – world records have been set at numerous locations, in the same way that marathon records have been set on various different courses (not to say the location has no impact whatsoever).
It’s not a perfect analogy, but in terms of being a prestigious endurance record that can be broken meaningfully by an individual I think it’s the closest option.
Winning a prestigious one-day road race (e.g. one of the monuments) has some parallels, but doesn’t set a consistent record in the same way – the exact course varies slightly from year to year, and the winning time is influenced by racing dynamics rather than purely individual effort.
A long time trial (100 miles?) might be a closer match in terms of physiological demand and being an individual pursuit, but isn’t as prestigious globally.
Sorry Harry, but Strava says the max gradient on that segment is 31.8%, and as we all know, if it ain’t on Strava it didn’t happen.
Never mind cycling time trials, they’re banning … er… carriage-drivers from (parts of) the carriageway:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2vzrr1wn6o
“A ban to address a long-running issue of pony-and-trap racing on roads in Buckinghamshire is due to come into force.”
Thankfully, the driver was arrested and charged with multiple assault charges. Not often the care here in the US.
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/woodstock-man-charged-after-hitting-cyclists-deputies-say
Indeed, and the social media comments in the U.S. are even worse than those in the UK.
https://www.facebook.com/AtlantaNewsFirst/posts/driver-accused-of-honking-at-cyclists-hitting-2-in-cherokee-county/1446954340804699/
One can only wonder, given the armed nature of Americans, how long it is before a cyclist decides to respond to all of this with gunfire.
Re the cycling equivalent of a sub 2 hour marathon.
How about removing and replacing a set of tight fitting tyres on two hookless rim wheels in less than an hour?
This must be done single handed and by somebody who isn’t a rock climber (finger strength). The use of a tyre lever is optional.
You mean a back-to-back marathon plus marathon?
Aged 27, Pogi was challenged by a 19 y.o. Seixas. Aged 36. Quintana just won the GC of the Vuelta a Asturias. Meanwhile Pozzovivo finished 14th at the Tour of the Alps and, two days later, 3rd at the Giro dell’Appeninno at the sweet age of 43.
Forever young.