No. No we couldn't keep up... even if Jamie has hit 100km/h downhill, taking these Los Angeles twists and turns at 60km/h plus is a completely different game entirely.
The peloton's king of descending (Matej Mohorič may disagree) Tom Pidcock met up with LA's own downhill hero SAFA Brian on his off-season trip, plummeting down Tuna Canyon. Spoiler alert: they make it down in one piece... thought you might want to know that in advance so you can uncover your eyes...
Those lads are quick...
80km/h and slightly less while bombing around tight bends... "That was a bit sketchy," Pidcock laughs at the end of the video... "We survived"... All the kudos in the world to the guy filming...
The way my heart just skipped pic.twitter.com/4eUs46fIS2
— Peter. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿🚴♂️(he/him/his) (@PBXscribes) February 21, 2023
If ever there was an excuse to watch this again (for the 7,846th time)...
"It's beautiful to watch a confident descender... but it still leaves you with your heart in your mouth!"😳
Simply 𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 (or terrifying) from Tom Pidcock 🤩#TDF2022 | @discoveryplusUKpic.twitter.com/ZfnEkzdzN4
— Eurosport (@eurosport) July 14, 2022
It's a tough ol' time for bike brands isn't it...
Off the top of my head, in recent times, we've reported on Look mum no hands! closing, UK bike sales falling to the lowest level in 20 years, the closure of Specialized's inclusive women's cycle clothing brand Machines for Freedom, Milltag entering voluntary liquidation, Specialized slashing jobs, women's cycling clothing brand VeloVixen entering liquidation (but subsequently bought by Stolen Goat)... and that's just since the turn of the year...
This is insane massive respect https://t.co/bQdHZNvFzbpic.twitter.com/X3vdm6KOBG
— Dan bailey (@Bailey83Daniel) February 22, 2023
Plenty of love for Safa Brian with the camera too...
Who was just as fast following him down with a camera…That person deserves as much if not more credit.
— Broichan (@MikeCassie) February 22, 2023
Here's a decent vid of his fastest run on the Tuna Canyon descent...
I think we know who the king of descending is now. Mind blown.
Arm warmers will stick to, and rip off, scabs. You guys are supposed to warm me of such things 😂 pic.twitter.com/XtJZMGcSKg
— Krista Doebel-Hickok (@KristabelDH) February 22, 2023
Victory for birthday boy Einer Rubio 🥇🎂
The Colombian wins solo on Jebel Jais on @uae_tour Stage 3.
_________
🇦🇪 #UAETourpic.twitter.com/JiLW8SlUQK— Velon CC (@VelonCC) February 22, 2023
Jebel Jais is usually the UAE Tour of summit finishes — 90 per cent boredom followed by a short burst of fireworks near the end. In truth it's too easy for the pros, the shallow gradients and smooth road surface mean a large group reaches the top.
And again this year a large group did reach the top... the difference? Einer Rubio, the Colombian rider for Movistar's daring attack with 10km stuck and he took the victory. The gap reached a minute but the chase behind never had the necessary urgency to pull him back, meaning Remco and co. were left to sprint for second.
Remco did indeed win that sprint ahead of Adam Yates, the Belgian taking the race lead.
Today's result sees @Harm_VH move up to 6th on GC and @andreaslek into 7th after the first mountain top finish ⛰️ #KeepChallenging#UAETourpic.twitter.com/RL0561Y7fG
— Team DSM (@TeamDSM) February 22, 2023
Right, back to the sprints until Sunday...
Two steps behind the comments as usual, you've all been discussing the Dan Walker footage and the Mail's coverage already. Anyway, the best thing to come from it, our favourite topic — pointless pedantry...
We're back here again...
> Dan Walker "glad to be alive" after being hit by a driver while cycling
The Sun got hold of dashcam footage of the incident (available here) which has since been picked up by the Mail, whose online branch came to the conclusion it showed the presenter knocked down "when rear wheel of his bike caught car's front wing". A conclusion criticised on social media...
There is no low our carbrained media will scoop down to degrade vulnerable road users. pic.twitter.com/NPbltjgAKy
— Harry Gray (@HarryHamishGray) February 22, 2023
The driver whose dashcam captured the footage told The Sun: "It was quite shocking — certainly something you don't see every day. I checked the dashcam footage later and realised I had captured the moment.
"He's lucky to be alive. Had the car carried on he would have been crushed beneath it. It doesn't bear thinking about. I'm glad he's OK. He's such a lovely guy."
Anyway, back to MailOnline where unbelievably the top comments (yep, we know we really shouldn't bother) include...and have tens of thousands of likes between them...
This is insane, who attempts to cycle round a four lane highway when there's a completely separate cycle way especially built right beside it? Honestly, some cyclists really do not help themselves.
Why didn't he use the cycle track and underpass to the left, specifically made for cyclists?
Should be illegal to not use a cycle path when it is provided
Will he come out and explain why he didn't use the cycle lane?
Depressing indeed.
Let me set the scene. It's March 18th, Milan-San Remo has quietly been meandering its way to the Med for the past six hours, but now the peloton is powering up the Poggio. Near the top and Mathieu van der Poel jumps, Wout van Aert firmly clamped on his wheel. Then, in a flash of Ineos branding Tom Pidcock darts past with Matej Mohorič, Peter Sagan riding his last San-Remo and Julian Alaphilippe in tow. Now that's something to get excited about...
We can't wait to see Pidcock take on the famous descent of the Poggio, the same slopes where last year Mohorič (and his dropper post) escaped to victory...
An excellently-breathless 3 minutes of commentary to match Mohorič’s electrifying Poggio descent. Elevates it. pic.twitter.com/eOJONh1ov3
— Graham Willgoss (@GrahamWillgoss) March 20, 2022
Which leaves me wondering who is the peloton's best descender? Alaphilippe's got credentials..
Name a better descender than @alafpolak?
After losing touch with the rest of the GC favourites on the Col du Galibier, Alaphilippe had work to do on the descent... pic.twitter.com/Dyw7RBrjKC
— GlobalCyclingNetwork (@gcntweet) July 25, 2019
As does Sagan...
La meilleure manière de relancer sa carrière, c'est porter le maillot arc-en-ciel: message reçu 5/5 par Peter Sagan, qui nous gratifie d'un enchaînement attaque monstrueuse/descente de fou pour aller gagner le titre mondial pic.twitter.com/wQtncC0crk
— Tim Drct (@DrctTim) May 22, 2021
But who's the king of them all?
You're probably alright for tips, Tom, but if you fancy, Jamie's got some for you...
Ah Tom Pidcock, you've done it again. And while I take a short break from watching that LA video on repeat all morning I thought I'd take a dip into the archives to create a live blog post in celebration of the young lad from Yorkshire's bike-riding brilliance...
Skids aren't just for kids. 📷: kev fox pic.twitter.com/r5ikRocIGW
— Tom Pidcock (@tompidcock) May 28, 2017
And it turns out with someone as prolific as Pidcock you only have to go back a few days to find some gold...
> Tom Pidcock showcases "absolutely mint" cyclocross skills – on time trial bike
Fairly successful off-season then, Tom? Yeah, not bad just went to LA, filmed a video that broke the cycling internet, took Sa Calobra's KOM and raced a bit of 'cross...
> Tom Pidcock smashes Sa Calobra KOM by nearly two minutes
[📷: Zac Williams/SWpix.com]
> How fast!? We take a look at Tom Pidcock's Alpe d'Huez-conquering Strava file
> History maker Tom Pidcock solos to rainbow jersey at cyclocross worlds
> Tom Pidcock wins Olympic mountain biking gold for Team GB in Tokyo
23 years old...