The only professional cyclist with all of the letters of 'LOCKDOWN' in their name is Lawson Craddock
— Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) January 4, 2021
Sorry for reminding you...
Team DSM and @MarcHirschi are to part ways for the 2021 season. Thanks for everything, Marc!
More: https://t.co/ckHtrEaopOpic.twitter.com/t6eLwjw3eq
— Team DSM (@TeamDSM) January 5, 2021
Well, here's some unexpected news for your Tuesday afternoon. Tour de France stage winner Marc Hirschi has left Team DSM, formerly Sunweb, with immediate effect. The Swiss rider became a household name last year following the Tour de France where he claimed three top-three stage results before ending his season on the podium at both Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the World Championships.
A team statement said: "Team DSM has reached a settlement agreement with their rider Marc Hirschi to terminate their present employment before the original end date of 31 December 2021. It has been agreed that the agreement will be terminated with immediate effect and that no further comments will be made.
"Team DSM wishes Marc Hirschi all the best for the continuation of his career and expresses its gratitude for what Marc Hirschi has contributed to the team."
What happens next will be very interesting indeed.
Brexiteers weren't satisfied with sending angry comments to Dutch Bike Bits...They've also been leaving negative reviews. David Hembrow posted on Twitter: "A BBC article this afternoon used our business as an example of one that is having difficulties sending products to the UK at the moment. This has resulted in lots of non customers placing one star Google reviews to hurt us. Please fix this.
"My real customers are a pretty decent bunch and I really am sad about not being able to deal with them at the moment."
Last week we reported that Dutch Bike Bits were shipping to every country in the world except the UK. Some of the website's real customers have tried to balance the negativity by leaving genuine reviews...
It’s a very easy mistake to make. https://t.co/hTTOwXRhOm
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) January 5, 2021
Who hasn't gone out to buy potatoes and returned with a new bike? That's a decent upgrade in my books...
Never successfully in over 10 years of living in this part of town...
— Gus Hoyt (@MrGreenGus) January 5, 2021
So that's three vans and two cars parked in the cycle lane within a single 50-metre stretch of road...
Ryan Best discovered this nail trap on a popular trail for mountain bikers and walkers in Dartmoor over the weekend. The trail from Wotter to Trig Point has been targeted for some time with boulders used to stop cyclists causing Ryan to crash recently. On Saturday, he found nails hidden along the route while out walking his dog and came across a mountain biker with a double puncture having ridden over them. Ryan collected all the nails he could find and told us the incident was particularly concerning as the trail is popular with horse riders and dog walkers — not just cyclists.
Sadly we've seen a rise in the number of these homemade anti-cycling traps over the past few months. A cyclist in Wales found a plank of wood with more than 100 nails, hidden under the soil of a riding trail. While, in May, another Welsh cyclist was injured after piano wire was tied across a path and required treatment at the University Hospital of Wales.
#NouvellePhotoDeProfilpic.twitter.com/CGzqVqXzYw
— Romain Bardet (@romainbardet) January 5, 2021
Having spent all nine years of his professional career with AG2R La Mondiale, it's weird seeing Romain Bardet in anything other than the famous brown shorts. It just doesn't look right to us.
One more day till all those “new year new team” photos. I’m most excited to see @romainbardet in non Ag2r kit. pic.twitter.com/BdvTOuvj0i
— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) December 31, 2020
It's another explosion in a logo factory kit in 2021 for the Italian team run by Gianni Savio. At least they're consistent and as one colleague at road.cc pointed out imagine the psychological toil you'd feel, dehydrated and tired, late in a race having to follow a kit with two water bottles printed on the back. Very clever.
A new study from GolfSupport found that mentioning that you play a sport on your CV increases your employability by 39% and that 68% of successful candidates at the 200 companies surveyed said they played a sport. 12% of recent hires mentioned that they were cyclists, making it the fourth most successful sport for increasing employability. Applicants who take part in athletics were the most successful, with 20% of recent hires including it on their CV. Tennis and rugby were second and third with 16% and 14% before cycling came next in fourth, ahead of football and boxing.
GEORGES.
que d’amour. 4/01/21 🤍 pic.twitter.com/d0X53OErKh— Wout van Aert (@WoutvanAert) January 5, 2021
Alex Dowsett, Dylan Groenewegen and now Wout van Aert have all welcomed little ones into the world in the past week. Meet Juliette Dowsett, Mayson Groenewgen and Georges van Aert. Some frightening cycling genetics between them.
The early bird catches the worm.
Mayson Groenewegen.
Geboren op 2-1-2021 om 02:17 — 2576 gram
Onze mooie zoon. Wat zijn we gek op jou en wat ben je perfect💙Ondanks een vroeg geboorte van 6 weken doet Mayson het super goed, een gezond sterk kereltje. pic.twitter.com/VEQZq2ySPo
— Dylan Groenewegen (@GroenewegenD) January 2, 2021
Juliette ❤️ pic.twitter.com/0tVcjnykjw
— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) January 4, 2021
Mortified to find some talentless moron has defaced our iconic beryl burton mural over the festive holiday. We’re absolutely gutted. @BBCLookNorth@letouryorkshire@yorkshirepost@Welcome2Yorkspic.twitter.com/09msct802C
— woodrup cycles (@woodrupcycles) December 29, 2020
The BBC just picked up the story about our not currently shipping to the UK because of the cost of paying tax in that country. Not something a small company can do.
My inbox is now full of incoherent nonsense from brexiter types.https://t.co/BYTCBwgoiGhttps://t.co/pfgd6XwIoy— David Hembrow (@DavidHembrow) January 4, 2021
Over the weekend we reported that cycling advocate David Hembrow's website, Dutch Bike Bits, was now shipping to every country in the world except the UK. Yesterday, it was included in a BBC story about businesses that have stopped shipping to the UK because of a Brexit tax that came into force on January 1. Despite the owner of the bicycle parts website repeating that the change wasn't necessarily a Brexit issue, only that the government couldn't have made the change until after Brexit, his website was flooded with messages from Brexiteers...
One wrote: "I see you have removed the United Kingdom from your list of countries to which you supply. What a spiteful thing to do. I always loved the Dutch country and people but you have ruined the place for me now. We saved your asses during the war and as soon as it gets a bit hard for you, you turn and run. You should be ashamed of yourselves."
Another said it would be "your [the Netherlands] turn next to pull from the corrupt clutches of the EU!" While someone else simply wrote: "Stick your bike bits."
It's turned off now, temporarily.
Before I did so I got a few more idiot replies including something about saving donkeys during the war, a reference to corrupt clutches & one casting aspersions about the BBC Model B. How sad. I enjoyed "Elite".https://t.co/BYTCBwgoiGpic.twitter.com/L0Y8VfesaJ— David Hembrow (@DavidHembrow) January 4, 2021
The changes brought in on January 1 mean that VAT is now calculated at the point of sale rather than the point of importation. Dutch Bike Bits said on its website: "For providing this service, [HMRC] intend to charge a fee to every company in the world in every country in the world which exports to the UK. Clearly this is ludicrous for one country, but imagine if every country in the world had the same idea.
"If every country decided to behave in the same way, then we would have to pay 195 fees every year, keep up with the changes in taxation law for 195 different countries, keep accounts on behalf of 195 different countries and submit payments to 195 tax offices in 195 different countries, and jump through whatever hoops were required to prove that we were doing all of this honestly and without any error."