For reference, as per a Sunday Times 2018 interview, Chiles' current motor, since 2016, is a BMW 520d...
Better still...
All under the four grand mark, I assume...
The run had to come to an end someday... a harsh Thursday morning reminder that all of life's joys are fleeting...
Adrian Chiles, for context, is the writer and broadcaster behind such Pulitzer-worthy Guardian opinion pieces as 'I have a urinal in my flat and it has changed my life' and 'Cheddar and stout?! Salted caramel?! This messing with hot cross buns has to stop'. As worthy musings as those are, I'm not sure today's column is going to go down quite as well. In fact, scrap the speculation, it hasn't...
The man who never misses has officially missed
Massive L https://t.co/lnipBELNuR
— Harry Gray (@HarryHamishGray) March 16, 2023
A local group of Spokes, the Lothian-based campaign for better conditions for every day cyclists was quick to point out to Chiles the £3,999 price tag he was turning his nose up at might not seem quite as steep if he were to pop down to his local dealership for a new motor. That's without mentioning "the growing number of community schemes lending out cargo bikes for free," they added.
West Midlands Walking & Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter called Chiles' take "strange". "When I bought my first cargo bike for £4,000 it was so useful it enabled me to get rid of my car, saving me around £6,000 a year in finance repayments and running costs," he explained. "A few years later, I upgraded to a bigger cargo bike and sold the old one for £2,800."
Weird article. Man sees expensive bike. Shock. Makes some odd comment comparing deliveroo riders with parents. Doesn’t explain why. End of article.
— Richard Sharp (@rich7sharp) March 16, 2023
I've had a cargo bike for 3 years. It's used daily to transport kids, shopping and occasionally rubbish to the tip. It cost £3500. Expensive to buy, cheap to run and you reclaim so much time you would otherwise be sat in traffic. More are needed!
— Andy Waterman (@andywaterman) March 16, 2023
Wait until you hear about how much cars cost Adrian
— Jack N (@jack__n) March 16, 2023
The article seems to end prematurely - he doesn't explore why a bike like that might cost £4k (maybe it was electric?) or why we should consider normalising them (nobody double takes when someone takes on £20k of car finance debt) in favour of yet more motor vehicles.
— Matt Andrews (@mattpointblank) March 16, 2023
Stick to spoons, urinals and hot cross buns, Adrian...
Alright, Jake, you big show off... possibly the most beautiful three hours plus for most people? Get your favourite three-hour routes in the comments...
Look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment. Would you capture it, or just let it slip?
Will the real Peter Sagan please stand up? (On the San Remo top step of the podium)... Eminem references out the way, it's Sagan's final Milan-San Remo on Saturday, the Monument he always seemed best suited to winning but never has...
[Gian Mattia D'Alberto — LaPresse]
Two second places, one behind Gerald Ciolek's stunning underdog victory (above), another from an escape trio including eventual winner Michał Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe (below). Five fourth places, one sixth place and a tenth. Is Saturday finally the day? Stranger things have happened but the three-time World Champion will need to improve on his underwhelming start to his final WorldTour season.
[LaPresse — D'Alberto-Ferrari]
Speaking to Cyclingnews, Sagan acknowledges "I've got one chance left to win it"...
"Milan-San Remo has always been a race that suits me but has always been a difficult race for me to win," he said. "I haven't managed to win Milan-San Remo for a lot of different reasons and because every year is a different race. Losing in 2017 hurt a lot, I admit it. I felt really strong that day, but they told me information from the team car that was wrong, so I made a bad tactical decision. But as I said, Milan-San Remo is decided even in a split second and you don’t get a second chance to win.
"Milan-San Remo is also special in that sense, there so much you can't control. If you're the absolute strongest at the Tour of Flanders, you can win quite easily. Milan-San Remo is more of a lottery and everything is decided in the last five kilometres, so there's no real time to correct any errors you make or to turn things around if you have a mechanical or a problem. Milan-San Remo is all or nothing."
WARNING: Contains strong language...
A man is cycling north towards the North Circular in Walthamstow, completely ignores the cycle lane.
The driver awards him "bell end of the year award."pic.twitter.com/xMKYuAJHfW
— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) March 13, 2023
To be honest, we weren't going to share this until we spotted a glimmer of hope in the replies...(granted, we chose to ignore asking what constitutes a 'serious cyclist'?)...
It's a contentious issue but I understand why serious cyclists do this.
Cycle lanes are generally sporadic, constantly giving way to driveways and side roads so they have to stop and start the whole way and, considering they're powering themselves, that's pretty demoralising.— Stuart Clarke (@Stucashx) March 13, 2023
And at the last moment when the driver conveniently puts his phone down, we see that as with so many of them, the cycle disappears into a mess of unclear markings and shrapnel on the path pic.twitter.com/0mjVAVHEwL
— J M (@mulronie) March 13, 2023
To be fair. The cycling lanes are so badly made/maintained that they’re almost impossible to cycle on with a proper road bike. Cycle lanes are completely pointless.
— Dead Ferrets (@Deadferrets) March 13, 2023
Just a thought on this he’s cycling quite quickly and (not here) dog walkers kids etc are in the cycle lane a lot it’s safer to be on the road sometimes
— rosco. (@marktaylor584) March 13, 2023
Yes, admittedly the other 95 per cent of replies were people with football clubs in their name or picture tagging Jeremy Vine...
Anyone got any local knowledge on this one?