Chris Froome has joined with energy management brand Supersapiens as a technical advisor and investor. The deal follows on from the news that the seven-time Tour de France winner will be joining Factor's board of directors and will take up a product development role.
Speaking about his latest partnership, Froome said: "I’m proud to be joining Phil and his team at Supersapiens. I’m constantly searching for improved performance from myself and my equipment. I’m looking forward to playing my part in bringing Supersapiens to performance athletes of all levels in cycling and beyond. It’s great to be part of something so genuinely game-changing"
Supersapiens glucose monitoring system aims to help atheltes inform fuelling habits by measuring spikes and troughs in blood sugar levels.
🇪🇺 #EuroRoad21
🥇 Stefan Kung 🇨🇭
🥈 Filippo Ganna 🇮🇹
🥉 Remco Evenepoel 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/RdG9xG6yff— Isma Álvarez Cycling (@CyclingIsma) September 9, 2021
Swiss time trial machine Stefan Küng can keep his European Championships jersey for another year after defending his crown. The FDJ man beat Filippo Ganna's time by eight seconds. Remco Evenepoel was third, 15 seconds slower.
Of the other notable starters, Tadej Pogacar's 12th place caught the eye. Possibly a result down to minimal racing since dominating the Tour de France. The road race follows this Sunday...and you'd expect Pog to be one of the main favourites considering the 4,000m+ of climbing on the route.
Sam Bennett not so much, but hey, if it winds up Patrick Lefevere then surely it's worth it...
North London Dirt is back for its fourth year on the scene. The team wanted to create an event that could incorporate the qualities of urban and gravel riding - two types at riding you might not necessarily assume go together. The 113km route winds through North London's overlooked paths, farm roads and winding trails.
The event is also raising money for the St Mary's community centre and is partnered with Ride 4 Unity to celebrate diversity and togetherness in cycling. Unfortunately, if you've had your head turned, this year's event is already full...but the NLD team encourage you to head over to Instagram to check out all the best photos from the big day, as well as details on a charity raffle and info on signing up to future events.
🏆 @ethan_hayter (@INEOSGrenadiers) wins stage five of the @AJBell Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 in Warrington and moves back into the race lead!#TourOfBritain🔴🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/5BR9P12Eb0
— AJ Bell Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) September 9, 2021
It was another chaotic finish at the Tour of Britain, this time because of a big crash on the final bend. Ethan Hayter and his final leadout man Michal Kwiatkowski made it through safely before the young Brit held off Giacomo Nizzolo to win his second stage of the race, reclaiming the leader's jersey in the process.
Mark Cavendish was briefly held up by the fall and had to sprint just to regain contact with the front of the race. Once back in he had little left for the burst to the line and rolled over in fifth.
Wout van Aert wasn't at the front either and missed the opportunity to sprint for bonus seconds. Consequently, Hayter will wear the blue jersey tomorrow, which he takes from his Belgian by eight seconds.
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) September 9, 2021
Sometimes you've just got to laugh...
Louis, a directors at the @WhiteandCo1871 has called me. Driver has been suspended, they are devastated that one of their drivers would hold these views. They have been inundated with calls & emails. They sound like a very decent company & they are handling this responsibly. https://t.co/hussYurCGA
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) September 9, 2021
Here's the latest update on the main story of the morning...White & Co. has reportedly suspended the driver involved and told Wandsworth Labour's Jo Rigby they couldn't responsibly have the man driving an HGV.
Swiss Side has unveiled a new pressure measurement rake that allows you to see aerodynamic drag, where it is coming from, and at what intensity.
“The Swiss Side pressure measurement rake measures the energy lost in the airflow behind an object,” says Swiss Side. “This is the aerodynamic drag. It does this using an array of 128 Kiel probes which are illuminated by 288 individually controlled LEDs, which change colour depending on the measured air pressure.”
A Kiel probe is a device that measures the pressure of a flow. Swiss Side says that its new equipment captures “a complete live colour picture of the aerodynamic drag and its intensity across the area measured”.
No device of this kind existed before, so the Swiss Side engineering team developed everything in house to its exact requirements.
“This included the design and assembly of every component from the physical rake hardware itself, the pressure measurement system electronics and data logger, all the way through to the software systems, “ says Swiss Side.
The extensive array of sensors used by the rake system are connected wirelessly over a local internet network.
Swiss Side says that its activities now extend well beyond cycling to include a wide range of industries from sports to automotive.
“The pressure measurement rake provides a hugely valuable development tool for any application,” says Swiss Side. “It also provides extremely useful data for correlation back to the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation models, which further improves and refines the development process.”
I'm all good though thanks everyone. It was a very standard Stop a Douchebag bonnet ride.
— CyclingMikey tired of road crime. 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇿🇼 (@MikeyCycling) September 9, 2021
Another day, another amusing balls story...today it's Sam Bennett playing the wasp, while Patrick Lefevere is the unamused Sir Chris Hoy. The Deceuninck-Quick-Step boss has accused Sam Bennett of "playing with his balls in public" as the Irishman prepares to represent his country at the European Championships this week.
Lefevere, who earlier this year distastefully compared his sprinter to a domestic abuse victim, wrote in his Het Nieuwsblad column that Bennett has not communicated with the team about the knee injury that forced him to miss the Tour de France. At the time, the team boss said the 30-year-old's problem was a "fear of failure", not a physical issue.
Lefevere has begun the process of cutting Bennett's salary in half from this month onwards, something the UCI allows if a rider has been inactive for three months. The Belgian believes Bennett is riding this weekend to prepare for a possible legal dispute, to prove he was fit and ready to race.
"What he's doing now is playing with my balls in public," Lefevere said. "Anyone who knows me knows that I never do that [cut riders' pay]. I continued to pay Fabio Jakobsen and dozens of other riders in full, despite long injuries. But here the rider acts in bad faith. He no longer uploads training files. He doesn't want to be operated on. And he is crying on the phone with our doctor Philip Jansen.
"I hear from his manager Andrew McQuaid that he will definitely finish the European Championship. I'm not so sure about that yet. We have already suggested that we do an exercise test at our Bakala Academy, but he does not go into that. For me it's simple; first prove that you're fit, before you take the place of a teammate."
Lefevere also sarcastically questioned why Bennett was suddenly so keen to race a hilly course with more than 4,000 metres of climbing, having not raced since May.
the company and swift action will be taken to address this very serious incident.
— White & Co. Removals (@WhiteandCo1871) September 9, 2021
Here it is... I'm guessing it has been a busy morning over at White & Co. headquarters. Joel Lewis, who first shared the picture of the comment, got back to the removal firm, thanking them for the response.
He also suggested it could be a good opportunity to re-evaluate the training drivers are given regarding safe conduct on the road around vulnerable road users. An idea that seems particularly topical in the context of the upcoming changes to the Highway Code to be published this autumn. Under the new hierarchy of road users, those with potential to cause the most danger to others will be deemed to have greater responsibility to those who are more vulnerable.
Huge turnout tonight at the @London_Cycling ride calling for safer junctions, good to see some familiar faces and that @BBCTomEdwards was at Southampton Row junction again to report on calls to make that safer for vulnerable road users. pic.twitter.com/rMhIoQKlOT
— Simone Di Michele 🇮🇹 (@simonmacmichael) September 8, 2021
These were the scenes in the capital last night for the London Cycling Campaign's big protest ride demanding action on dangerous junctions. In August, yet another cyclist was killed at London's Holborn gyratory, the seventh since 2008.
Riders were joined by Caroline Russell, the London Assembly member, and heard speeches, including from Liberal Democrat London Assembly member and Chair of the Transport Committee, Caroline Pidgeon. Flowers were laid and victims' names read in Holborn, where Marta Krawiec was killed last month.
Approaching the Holborn junction where Marta Krawiec was killed on 4 August pic.twitter.com/0vLHAVjbXi
— London Cycling Campaign (@London_Cycling) September 8, 2021
The LCC's petition demanding action on lethal junctions has more than 7,000 signatures and can be accessed here...
Time to stop the preventable deaths at London’s dangerous junctions - join us @London_Cyclinghttps://t.co/lwPxg6g3qhpic.twitter.com/YFHG6xZSWY
— Jules Mattsson (@julesmattsson) September 8, 2021
Hey @WhiteandCo1871
Is this official company policy?
Yours sincerely,
A "spandex-wearing fucker"@StopKillingCycl@roadcc@MikeyCyclingpic.twitter.com/cp5Ik3QVmH
— Joel Lewis (@jad_lewis) September 8, 2021
A HGV driver, whose Facebook profile says he works for White & Company, is today under fire after a message threatening to knock down "Lycra-clad, spandex-wearing fuckers" emerged online. Here it is in full...
Joel Lewis raised the alarm and asked White & Company on Twitter if the views were company policy? We'll see if they reply...Lewis later clarified that, "I personally would not expect someone to lose a job over one (albeit vile) social media shitpost. I would expect the company to make clear to all drivers to drive impeccably around cyclists."
It wasn't long before another user shared a negative review of the company on Trustpilot. Another said he was "unfortunately" using the company for his upcoming move to the Netherlands, and "if I had known this before hand, I would not have used them. Shame as they still have my stuff in storage, service has been good so far…However I shall now send a complaint to my contact."
Matt Burnham shared the company contact details and speculated it may be receiving a few calls asking what action had been taken.
Well for my forthcoming move, this was a good heads up. Thank you. I would have found it very wearing on removal day to deal with someone so rude and bigoted, especially as I love ‘spandex’ 😁
— Pilarin (@Pilarinciclista) September 8, 2021