“Amazing to see the BBC getting this wrong”: Camera cyclist “disappointed” after BBC calls him “vigilante” in now-corrected mistake; Uber’s cycling pub with £5.50 Happy Hour pints; Pogačar’s rainbow jersey; WTF electrical box bike? + more on the live blog

Cyclists are welcome to use the Glossop side of the A57 Snake Pass when it is closed to all road users later this month for repairs to sections once again affected by landslips, before performing a U-turn at the summit and heading back in the opposite direction, Derbyshire County Council has said.

> Council says “we’d rather cyclists did not ride up” Snake Pass “construction site”, but people on bikes “welcome” to use one side of infamous road during landslip works (before turning around at the top)

Wout van Aert, fresh off the back of signing a "lifelong" contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, is finally back on his back, after his crash at Vuelta a España.

Far from his usual monster rides (remember, when he was beating cyclists' PRs in Glasgow on an OVO bike?), but we're glad to see the 29-year-old back on the saddle after a tough road season! 

They say you work hard, but the PR industry works harder — and now in Uber’s latest PR move, you are invited to be a part of a carbon-negative pop-up cycling pub, where you can pedal while sipping on overpriced pints to generate electricity.

The pop-up called 55k Tonnes is set to open in Westminster for two days between October 7-9, claims to be the first-of-its-kind that is capable of generating more electricity than it uses. And it’s aiming to do so by inviting the drinkers to sit on a power bike and pedal — besides being equipped with Pavegen floor, which apparently transforms footsteps into electricity. Oh, and also, there’s “carbon neutral” beers.

The company said that the name 55k Tonnes is to celebrate the 55,000 tonnes of air pollution reduced in London due to Uber's electrification efforts since 2021, with almost 30 per cent of its journey taking place through electric cars in London.

But let’s get to the point, what’s on the tap, you ask? Well, it’s Swell, brewed by South London’s Gipsy Hill Brewing, on draft, a lager made from regeneratively grown, bio-diverse barley from Wildfarmed. The beer app Untappd tells me, Swell is “light and crisp, with refreshing florals and a lick of melon. Everything you want from a lager… just a little bit better for the planet.”

And if you make your way after 5:50pm, you can get yourself a cheeky discount and grab a pint for… £5.50. Yep, that’s London beer prices for you!

So tell me if I’m getting this wrong, it’s basically the infamous beer bikes which appeared in Belfast and Bristol (and Edinburgh too, before it ended up being seized by the police), but you just… sit in one place while reminding yourself to pedal — otherwise you’re not doing your bit to be a good citizen of planet earth and generate some electricity?

> “A bitter end to their day?”: Beer bike seized by Police Scotland citing “safety concerns” and “road traffic offences”

For context, in 2023, each mile that a passenger travelled on Uber resulted in an average generation of 191 grams of CO₂ in Europe (or 119 grams of CO₂ per kilometre), while a 2020 study also found that ride-hailing trips resulted in an estimated 69% more climate pollution, on average, than the trips they displace.

But I’ll give it to them, they tried and it’s an interesting concept… maybe not just for everyone — although, every cyclist who’s dreamed of downing a drink while on your Zwift or Peloton (I say dreamed because if you’ve already done it, why? And yes, we’d definitely like to speak to you), you can now do it with your mates too.

But either way, let us know what do you make of it? If you're in London, are you planning to go down (on a bike, I imagine) and have a pint? Or are you going to give it a skip and stick to the good ol', same ol' ale at your local pub?

Welcome to the internet, which can sometimes be a bizarre and uncanny place with bizarre and uncanny things. And in the latest update of bizarre and uncanny cycling-adjacent things, we've got this shocking contraption for you...

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Frankie LaPenna (@frankielap)

Frankie La Penna, a social media figure, known for his, erm, cakes, captioned the video: "This is how to get the BEST parking spot at every sporting event / concert known to man."

"This is the least likely to be stolen electric bike of all-time. You can leave it sitting in front of thousands of people and no one will even look at it. And in case you can't tell, this is designed to mimic as an electrical box. When you park it next to one, the resemblance is shocking. Beneath all the metal panels, is just a regular e-bike purchased from the internet."

Yeah, that is without a doubt one of the craziest things I've seen all week (and that's saying something, because I did see Kneecap perform live in Cardiff) — and somehow, this boxy design still looks better as an e-bike than Elon Musk's Cybertruck looks as a boxy 4x4.