"For unhoused people, a bicycle can be a lifeline": Bikes of homeless people trashed in US; Pidcock goes running again and shows off new MTB; Sustrans urges signing letter to Transport Secretary; David Byrne bikes to Met Gala + more on the live blog

Charlie Burton, Beryl's husband and a hugely influential figure himself in the history of British women's cycling, died peacefully on Friday night at the age of 93, British Cycling announced yesterday.

Beryl Burton was one of the greatest ever cyclists, but always said that she would never have achieved her success without Charlie, who introduced her to cycling and travelled all over the world in support of the British women’s team.

The Yorkshireman was present at each and every one of the races his wife participated in. Beryl would go on to win seven rainbow jerseys, 122 senior national titles and set more than 50 world and national records.

Charlie and Beryl had met in 1952, and he had remarked at the pace she caught on, saying that by the third year of her learning, she was going out in the front of the "lads" and leading them. In 1955, they got married, and two years later, she took her first medal — a silver in the national 100-mile individual time-trial.

She then decided to take part in the international categories, and as they say, the rest is history...

> Beryl – In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete

The stories of Charlie going to lengths of self-funding his travel to watch Beryl are the stuff of legend. At the Otley 12-hour when Beryl famously caught and passed all 99 men who started ahead of her, including men’s champion Mike McNamara, Charlie was cooking steaks on a primus stove by the roadside to pass to his wife as she pedalled by.

He made the 1,000-mile journey to Milan from Leeds on the back of Morley clubmate Dick Hudson’s scooter. They camped out at random destinations en route and Charlie arrived in Italy with a spare bike for Beryl strapped to his back.

For the 1963 World Championships, he drove to Belgium in the family’s three-wheeled car. In 1966, he camped in a sleeping bag next to the hotel in Frankfurt as space in the cycling entourage was limited.

Beryl won the British Best All-Rounder every year between 1959 until 1983. She never stopped racing until her death aged 58 due to heart failure while out riding her bike in 1996.

> The Greatest – The Times and Life of Beryl Burton

Charlie, just as he did for more than 40 years, was still preparing all of Beryl’s bikes, transporting her to races and providing crucial moral support. 

Beryl's 1986 autobiography was also dedicated to her husband: “To Charlie, without whom none of this would have been possible. BB.”

“Without Charlie at hand I could rarely bring out my best – I feel as if half of me has been left behind,” Beryl once said.

Everybody at British Cycling was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Charlie Burton, husband of Beryl, at the age of 93.@jwtelegraph recounts the vital role he played supporting Beryl, countless other British riders, and the early growth and success of women’s racing.

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) May 1, 2023

A global study reveals that Dutch residents are the most physically active on earth, getting 12.8 hours of exercise each week. The key—designing activity into daily life. The average #Dutch person cycles about 1,098 kilometers per year. HT @Cycling_Embassyhttps://t.co/M9YSD5jsj7 pic.twitter.com/N6ZoIVjDVH

— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) May 1, 2023

Answer honestly, how many hours of physical exercise did you get today? (If you're reading this live on a sunny Tuesday, I'm betting not much. But hey, the days are longer and there's still time!)

A study has revealed that people from the Netherlands are the most physically active of 29 nations. On average they report spending 12.8 hours a week (almost two hours per day) doing physical exercise or team sports, double the average of 6.1 across people from 29 other countries.

On the other hand, a Welsh council officer, who drove to a meeting to discuss ways to encouage people to cycle and walk more, said this the other day: "As far as I’m concerned I do plenty of walking with my dogs. I walk at least an hour a day and I don’t need anyone telling me to do more."

> Council officers admit driving to a meeting to discuss how to encourage cycling and walking

Tom Pidcock on prototype Pinarello MTB at Gueret + Strava (Picture by Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com)

Tom Pidcock is enjoying his time after his best result at a monument, finishing second behind Remco Evenepoel at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, by going on runs along Le Doubs in France. This time, looks like after all, he did not forget to get off his bike.

While doing 8km in just over half an hour is no feat to smirk at (don't even look at my Strava profile...), those numbers would be diminshed in comparison to what Pidcock posted in February, doing 5km in a world class 13:25.

> "Maybe he forgot to get off his bike": the running and cycling communities continue to question Pidcock's blistering 5k run

Those would quite literally be an Olympic runner levels, and while no one is saying a pro-cyclist couldn't theoretically be that (Evenepoel played football for Belgium, Nacer Bouhanni was a kickboxer), that Strava post did cast a big cloud of doubt on Mr Pidcock's reliability.

Meanwhile, the Ineos Grenadiers' rider, who's also an off-road specialist, has been testing out a prototype Pinarello mountain bike (MTB) with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at the French Cup in Guerét. While she won the women's race, Pidcock had to withdraw due to a mechanical failure.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by ᵀᴼᴹ ᴾᴵᴰᶜᴼᶜᴷ (@tompidcock)

Both the MTBs were full-suspension and covered in black and white camouflage designs. We'll have a story up on off.road.cc soon, so stay tuned...

"After a week of nonsense on the internet I'm especially thankful to everyone in the peloton and sport who continues to affirm that Twitter is not real life," Killips reflected after her victory...

> Austin Killips becomes first trans cyclist to win UCI women's stage race

Two former Zaaf Cycling Team members have been blocked by the Spanish Federation from racing at this year's first proper stage race of the season La Vuelta Fememnina, which kicked off yesterday.

In what comes as more bad news for the beleaguered Spanish women's team and its members — and now, even former members, with New Zealand’s Michaela Drummond, who left Zaaf on April 17 and signed a contract on April 28 to race with Farto-BTC, confirming through her social media that she will not be at the start of the seven-day race.

Zaaf had suffered a mass exodus in recent weeks amidst accusations of not paying wages to its members since the start of the season. On Saturday, the team lost its UCI status after Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed became the eighth cyclist to quit the Spanish team within a month, which left it with just seven riders — below UCI's minimum requirement.

> Zaaf loses UCI team status after eighth cyclist leaves team

Drummond also said that her health had been suffering due to the recent events with Zaaf and the Spanish Federation's decision to refuse her from registering with the new team, even though her former teammates have successfully transferred to new Continental and WWT Teams, has come as another blow.

My health is struggling, with the last few months having a serious effect on me. Now with the Spanish Cycling Federation refusing to register me in my new team. I am in total dismay. I would love to be able to race again as soon as possible. Part 2 in the comments ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Y0We6JdmnA

— Michaela Drummond (@Micky_Drummond) April 30, 2023

"I can’t understand why the Spanish Cycling Federation does not follow the example set by the UCI," she wrote.

Italian cyclist Debora Silvestri, who became the ninth rider to announce departure from the team yesterday, also won't be able to take part at Vuelta. She said: "I won't say nothing more from what media are saying, only things haven't gone how they had to go.

"I just want say a big good luck and big thanks to all the nice girls I met in this team. Its not the end, maybe some news are coming."

Last week, Vuelta organisers Unipublic had confirmed that Zaaf’s management opted to pull out of the week-long race and the team won’t be lining up at the start in Torrevieja — the first edition since its expansion from the men’s race.

Meanwhile, Jumbo Visma took the win in yesterday's opening time-trial stage at the Spanish Tour, the Dutch team setting a time of 18:03 that none of the eight other teams could beat. Canyon-SRAM came second and was a second slower, with Trek-Segafredo third at 18:12 minutes.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves👏

If the Government knows that #ActiveTravel is so beneficial to our health, economy & the planet, then why have they decided to drastically cut funding by over £200 million?

It's a short-sighted decision that simply doesn't make sense. pic.twitter.com/bjVgVkDaIQ

— Sustrans (@Sustrans) May 2, 2023

The cycling, walking and wheeling charity has once again called out the government for active travel cuts while persuading followers to sign an open letter to the transport secretary Mark Harper to show the Government "how detrimental the recent cuts to active travel funding are to our communities and environment." 

It comes as The Times reported yesterday that Sustrans, that the publication refers to as a "cycling charity behind low-traffic zones", received £40 million in contracts from public bodies over the past five years... before going on to point out that a lot of that money wasn't spent on LTNs. 

In its spare time, Sustrans maintains the nearly 13,000 mile National Cycle Network for those who didn't know... 

> Xavier Brice: "For Net Zero, cost of living and the NHS: leaders must double down on Government active travel promises"

Brecel stormed to Belgium's (and mainland Europe's) first snooker world championship title last night against the indefatigable Mark Selby... and if we were to say that the Tour de France is as prestigious in cycling as the Worlds are in snooker, then he just needs four more plus a bunch of other titles to match the legend of Eddy Merckx according to our very unfair calculations. Although Eddy's first name doesn't rhyme with the sport he participated in, so a bonus point to Luca there...