Now which one of you is going from London to Brighton on a Santander bicycle?!
Whoever the person behind this, at least they didn't take it all the way up to Mont Ventoux!
If watching the Netflix documentary of TdF has got you intrigued for more behind the scene team radios and communications, the organisers might have something cooking for you.
Ouest France reports that the race organisers ASO have proposed to this year’s participating teams that their race radio conversations be broadcast on the live stream, like last year's Tour de France Femmes. However, team bosses are split.
Groupama-FDJ's manager Marc Madiot told the newspaper: "Can you imagine we’d reveal our conversations on TV?"
"Do you really conceive a TV camera being allowed to film a football team trainer giving his players their half-time instructions?"
On the other hand, Jean-René Bernadeau of TotalEnergies seemed more open to the proposal, saying: "We have nothing to hide, so we’re ok with this."
His sports director Benoît Génauzeau was in on the idea as well, saying that "this forms part of the evolution of our sport", and shutting down Madiot's claim that this will give away any secrets. "If it's screened [before being broadcast], I can work with this," he said.
It definitely does lay an interesting proposition, while this could make the race more interesting and enjoying for the viewers (it's been a thing in Formula 1 forever), but with strategy being such an important part of a stage race, could this hurt teams and force them to adapt their communication techniques?
I wouldn't mind listening to Madiot go absolutely ballistic and cheer Thibaut up a double-figure gradient climb, or see if Lefevre still misses Cavendish or not. But what do you think?
That's a new one for the anti-cycling bingo! We have had residents concerned by "giant and ugly" bike hangars, even naming them a "green measles", we have had them accused for "deliberately blocking" drivers' precious parking spaces.
This time, we have residents who think they are unnecessary because they are never in use, complain about how much they are annoyed when they are being used.
Inslington Tribune reports that residents from a "small picturesque" street in Highbury are saying that they have too many bike hangars for demand, calling them "unsightly and unnecessary" if they are not being used.
“We want that hangar gone for starters,” said resident Val Hammond, about one of the facilities which they claim is permanently empty. “We want proper numbers because our research absolutely does not match up with the council’s .”
At the same time, a man with a mobility scooter was reported to be saying that he has to wait to get out of his home whenever someone is using the hangar.
So are the hangars being used, or not being used? Does anyone want to open and see? Or should we let the mystery of Schrödhanger remain a mystery?
If yesterday's Team DSM kit klaxon left you a bit cold, this Bora-Hansgrohe kit might make you slightly warmer.
did you already check out our @LeTour kit 2023? we celebrate our 10th #TDF2023 and offer the kit at a special price 👉 https://t.co/twPXNtJ1jmpic.twitter.com/hf3br1nOH6
— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) June 14, 2023
Marking 10 years of participating in the Tour, the very, very, very pearl green kit, completely does away with the white and orange accents, and I think it looks pretty neat. And if you look close enough, it has the names of all the Bora riders who have made history with the team over the last decade.
And if you forgot, the names include Peter Sagan. Lots of Peter Sagan.
Team manager Ralph Denk said: "Time goes by incredibly fast and this year we are competing in the Tour de France for the tenth time. But the stories we have written over the years remain unforgettable. Taking seventh overall with Leo König in our first appearance. The first stage win with Peter Sagan in 2017, followed shortly by the low point, Peter's disqualification.
"Two green jerseys. Fourth place overall with Emanuel Buchmann in 2019. The list is long and the memories are incredibly beautiful. Through this jersey, I would like to thank all the riders who wrote these stories with us. Without them, none of this would have been possible.
"I definitely hope that we can continue to create special moments at the world's biggest cycling race this year, and in the future, and that we inspire fans with our passion."
How much is too much to ask for? Apparently, a wee bike shed for a Clontarf couple in Dublin, Ireland. But fret not, a lovely chap has a "modest proposal" to get around the rules.
In a letter to the Irish Times, Dara Hogan reveals how to pull a sneaky one and stick it to the authorities and get yourself a nice, okay maybe not so nice but completely permissible bike storage space.
Sir, – There is a simple solution for the Clontarf couple who were refused permission for a bike shed in their front garden (“Bike shed in front garden ‘detrimental’ to Victorian home setting, planners rule”, News, June 13th).
Simply apply for planning permission for a driveway, cover the front garden in concrete, park a dilapidated old van in the driveway and store their bikes in it. – Yours, etc,
Wonderful world we live in, where bike sheds are detrimental to Victorian homes but a concrete driveway parked with oil-burning, smoke-spewing, old vans are not!