I’ll just leave this here:
Rocking up to your home gig in style 🤩🏴@GeraintThomas86 is all set for night two of @GTCyclingClub Live thanks to @INEOSGrenadier and @Belstaff🎙️ pic.twitter.com/AU5y9KgD9w
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) November 7, 2023
I’m sure my suggestion for the title of the 2018 Tour winner’s next Christmas stocking filling book will go down a storm at Ineos HQ – although it’d probably sell more than ‘Almost Winning the Giro According to G’, if we’re honest…
Halfords and Tredz have announced support for Wiggle Chain Reaction customers following the online retail giant entering administration and being put up for sale, with Halfords pledging to honour warranties on parts and accessories.
The news was announced by Halfords chief executive Graham Stapleton who said his company has a “responsibility to support the whole market” and that where possible customers who bought parts and accessories with Wiggle Chain Reaction would have their warranties honoured.
> Read more: Halfords to honour Wiggle Chain Reaction warranties on parts and accessories
Ah, Froomey, sometimes you’re just better off saying nothing…
The four-time Tour de France winner’s claim in a recent interview, reported on road.cc over the weekend, that his recent bike set-up at Israel-Premier Tech – including his reach and saddle height – was “centimetres” off from his Pinarello-riding, grand tour-dominating position at Team Sky, has certainly raised more than a few eyebrows across the cycling world.
“I had one of my old bikes from Team Sky/Ineos days so I was able to compare the position on the two different bikes. I found that my reach, so from saddle to the handlebars, was over three centimetres of difference between the two bikes, longer on the current bike,” 38-year-old Froome said.
“I took my old bike and went to a specialist and found very big discrepancies between my positions. But now we’ve made some big changes, more than centimetres in terms of saddle height, in terms of the reach, it’s really a lot, we’re not talking millimetres.”
Somewhere in a field on the outskirts of Nice, Dave Brailsford is screaming inside an empty caravan…
Spot the difference… because Froome can’t
And it’s fair to say the implication that a rider known for meticulous attention to detail and professionalism during his 2010s heyday could fail to notice “very big discrepancies” in his bike position (which therefore could be linked to his underwhelming performances since joining Israel-Premier Tech in 2021) has been met with scorn by quite a few on social media.
Replying to our post on the story, the 2007 Tour de France’s almost-winner Michael Rasmussen – who, like Froome, also built his reputation on incredibly skinny arms and attention to detail (except when it comes to his whereabouts at any given moment, of course) – described Froome’s bike set-up explanation as “a load of BS”.
FroomeDog versus the Chicken
“What a load of BS from Froome. Any pro cyclist who has done 1000s of hours on a bike will instantly feel a change in the set-up,” the Chicken wrote last night.
“Froome could ride his Pinarello from 2015 and he still wouldn’t crack top 20 in Tour du Rwanda with his current level.”
Ouch. That hurt more than an attack on the Col d’Aubisque after a month of clandestine training in Italy…
“Yep, just two or three centimetres off this time – perfect”
Of course, it isn’t just the pros who are surprised at Froome’s bike set-up revelation.
“I am not a pro but ride around 7 to 9,000 kilometres a year,” Eurosport/GCN commentator José Been said.
“I notice when my bike is less than a centimetre off in saddle height or reach. That’s one huge oversight by a team and or rider.”
“I can’t think of any cyclist (casual amateur or elite) I know who would believe that,” added Barry McCarthy.
> Chris Froome "let down" by Tour de France snub, blames "frustrating" equipment issues
Others, meanwhile, were confused and saddened by what they regard as the 38-year-old’s latest “excuse” for his subpar performances (having finally moved on from disc brakes, of course).
“This puzzles me, a lot!” said cycling writer Dave Everett. “Surely his position would have been massively different pre to post crash. His body ain’t the same at all after that, so why would he think his position should be.
“I've been at pro riders bike fittings and seen what happens. So, so much detail. It just seems mental to believe he’s accepted a fit that's not been right , or only now questioning it.”
> Check out Chris Froome’s 2024 Factor O2 VAM
“Froome is the best grand tour racer of a generation but he’s doing a good job in ensuring no one remembers him for that and instead remembers him for all the rubbish in the past 3/4 years,” added Finn.
While many were happy to poke fun at the seven-time grand tour winner…
“Professional cyclist rides bike for three seasons without bothering to check its set up correctly,” said Gianni, complete with the classic palm in face emoji, while YouTuber/Cycling Internet guy Benji Naesen wrote: “You either retire a hero, or you continue long enough to see yourself become the meme”.
“Looks like Froomey will be going for the yellow jersey again next season. Now that he found the problem,” said Brian.
While Doug was able to reveal an exclusive image of our Ventoux-running, excuse-heavy Tour hero’s new Factor set-up for 2024…
Three years into contract, Froome notices his bike doesn't seem to fit. https://t.co/KO4H2YsFQTpic.twitter.com/JTkAhjJHWz
— Doug van den Ham (@DvdHam) November 7, 2023
Oh dear, Chris…
Scottish endurance cyclist Christina Mackenzie, who last year was left severely injured and in “excruciating pain” after being struck by a hit-and-run SUV driver in Stirling last September, says the experience has destroyed her confidence on a bike and left her “really anxious and nervous” around close passing motorists – despite making a triumphant return to the sport, riding the world gran fondo championships and winning the Scottish women’s vet title less than a year on from the horrific crash.
Speaking at a Cycling UK Scotland event this week, the women’s LEJOG record holder – who admitted in September that she has “no hope” that the driver who hit her will ever be traced– described the crash and its aftermath, as well as the debilitating effect it has had on her confidence on a bike, to the extent that she was ready at one point to give up the sport completely.
“I had left the house that day probably the fittest I had ever been, and then was in hospital and not able to do anything for myself.
““I didn’t want to cycle, I hated cycling – I was just in so much pain and discomfort,” she said of the first three months following the crash.
"I was talking about selling my bikes. But seeing people and remembering the love I had for cycling made me want to get back into it.”
It was during a recuperative holiday in Lanzarote in January, almost four months following the hit-and-run, that Mackenzie finally began to cycle again, after hiring a bike.
“That could be a nice step back into cycling – and it felt great. It was quite daunting initially, but it was probably the best first step,” she said.
A month later, she built up the courage to return to riding on the roads in Scotland, but conceded that “it was as awful – just horrific. I remember being so twitchy, so nervy.
"Even to this day, I don’t feel like the same person, I don’t have the same confidence.”
She also says that being closed passed by motorists “makes you really anxious and nervous each time”.
Despite this bumpy road to recovery, Mackenzie returned to racing in June, riding the gran fondo road race during Scotland’s mega world championships in August, and winning a national vet title at the Scottish champs the following month, a victory she says she was “pleasantly surprised” to secure.
“"What I focus on is, like cycling, there’s so many ups and downs. It’s not all plain sailing and it’s pretty grim at times having to go out in the winter – and if you get hit and you get injured,” she says.
"But the whole experience you get with cycling with other people, whether it’s clubs or group rides, is the enjoyment.”
Feeling lucky to be alive right now.
This would have been bad, real bad if I hadn't noticed it. pic.twitter.com/frAfnMuoaN— Axolotol (@Axolotol3) November 7, 2023
The four protesters who put an hour-long halt to the UCI Cycling World Championships men's road race in Scotland in August, by gluing themselves to the race route, are due to appear at Falkirk Sheriff Court today.
Catriona Roberts, 21, Ben Taylor, 29, Romane Moulin, 26, and 28-year-old Rebecca Kerr, all members of environmental group This Is Rigged, are accused of committing a breach of the peace during the protest, which took place on the B818 road near the Carron Valley Reservoir in Stirlingshire and stopped the race for almost an hour as the activists were removed from the road. All four pleaded not guilty to the single charge in August.
They are said to have conducted themselves in a disorderly manner, sat on the road, glued themselves to the tarmac, set off powder canons, blocked the race route, chained themselves together, refused to leave when requested, and caused the race to be halted.
So quite a lot then.
In a statement released by This Is Rigged in the immediate aftermath of the protest, one of the four arrested activists, Cat Roberts, said: ““The fact that Ineos has been allowed to sponsor a team in the race around the Campsie Fells – which were engulfed in wildfires last month – is a disgrace and an insult to the both cycling community and the people of Scotland.
“We cannot continue with business as usual while our country burns and our futures are ruined. Time is of the essence and we need to act like it. The Scottish government must stand up to Westminster and oppose all new oil and gas, and implement a fair transition now.”
It seems like bike racing in Britain just can’t catch a break these days – as hot on the heels of British Cycling’s legal dispute with SweetSpot comes the news that Cycling Time Trials (CTT), the governing body for racing against the clock in England and Wales, is set to introduce a ban on events taking place on roads with 20mph speed limits, with existing courses in such areas going to have to be scrapped or modified to avoid the zones.
The news was communicated to CTT Districts in a letter seen by road.cc from the governing body’s National Legal Adviser David Guy, in which he states CTT has “resolved that such courses cannot be used for time trials” and that Districts must “ignore any such suggestion” that speed limits do not apply to cyclists.
“CTT would not approve of cyclists overtaking other vehicles which are subject to a 20mph limit and pedestrians would not expect riders to be travelling at higher speeds,” the letter says.
Read more: > Cyclists fear safe time trial courses will be lost as governing body introduces ban on events in 20mph zones
What do you think? Is this a necessary decision from CTT, taken on safety grounds in response to the changing nature of Britain’s roads, or an overreaction which poses a threat to the great British tradition of time trialling?
Ah, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Gianni Bugno, the very ‘90s green, red, and yellow kit, Richard Virenque, the ridiculous climbing times, all the EPO… I think it’s fair to say that, for cycling fans of a certain generation (or anyone prone to rose-tinted nostalgia) Italian steam ironing brand Polti remains an iconic part of an admittedly tainted era of the sport.
And in the same week Michael Rasmussen launched a social media war against Chris Froome, we’ve been treated to another pro cycling throwback, with the confirmation of the news, first reported in July, that Polti is returning to the sport as lead sponsor of the second-tier team formerly known as Eolo-Kometa.
💥📢 Our new name from 1st January 2024https://t.co/wOeZBR97WH
— EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team (@EoloKometaTeam) November 7, 2023
Polti, and potentially (fingers crossed) its brilliantly garish kit, will replace the blue of Eolo at Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador’s team (more nostalgia), as they aim to improve and internationalise a squad that has taken two mountain stage wins at the Giro d’Italia over the past three years, courtesy of Lorenzo Fortunato’s epic win on Monte Zoncolan in 2021 and Davide Bais’ victory on Gran Sasso d’Italia in May.
(CorVos/SWpix.com)
Whether Polti-Kometa can replicate the success of the 1990s-era Polti remains to be seen. Founded in 1994, after splitting from the old Lampre-Polti outfit, the team immediately achieved success through former Giro winner Bugno at the Tour of Flanders, before the ‘Tashkent Terror’ Abdoujaparov sprinted to a stage win and the points competition at the Giro and backed that up with two stages and the green jersey at the Tour de France.
Polti also tasted victory the following year at the Amstel Gold Race and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, courtesy of Mauro Gianetti, and the Tour of Lombardy in 1999 through Mirko Celestino. In 2000, the last year of their sponsorship, the exiled and always tearful Virenque – still in denial over his doping at Festina long after all his mates had confessed to taking EPO – won the Morzine stage of the Tour de France.
While Contador and Basso would take even a fraction of that success for the new 2020s-era Polti team, I’m sure they could do without the accusations of widespread doping on the squad, first aired by Jörg Jaksche in the late 2000s.
But at least the new name gives fans the opportunity to bask in some brightly colourful and turbo charged nostalgia…
I'm ready for a rush of nostalgia pic.twitter.com/gldTMUpxOv
— Thomas Pultz (@VonPultz89) November 7, 2023
As long as the nostalgia just sticks to the kit, okay lads?
Tour of Britain organisers SweetSpot say they are currently “in discussion with their lawyers” after British Cycling yesterday announced that it had terminated its agreement with the race promoter following what the governing body claims is a financial dispute over unpaid rights fees.
In what may prove another bitter blow for a struggling UK bike racing scene, British Cycling confirmed that it has cancelled its contract with immediate effect with SweetSpot – which has organised the race since its rebirth in 2004 and in 2019 agreed a new deal securing its role until the end of the decade – while a leaked staff memo seen by Cycling Weekly and the Guardian claimed that the termination was the result of the “non-payment of agreed rights fees”.
According to the Guardian’s Jeremy Whittle, British Cycling claims that SweetSpot owes £700,000 in unpaid instalments dating back to last year.
“The agreed rights fee forms a significant part of British Cycling’s earned income,” the memo said, before adding that “the current situation is untenable, with a clear financial impact on our organisation and our ability to invest in the growth of the sport.”
The memo also said that British Cycling is now “progressing plans to ensure the successful delivery of the (men’s) Tour of Britain in 2024”.
When contacted by road.cc for comment, SweetSpot said that the group is currently “in discussion with their lawyers regarding the recent announcement from British Cycling concerning their alleged termination of the Tour of Britain contract”.
While yesterday, SweetSpot’s Tour of Britain CEO Hugh Roberts was quoted as saying that the organisers were pushing “full steam ahead” into planning for next year’s race, this morning’s statement stopped short of promising the delivery of the 2024 event – but did assert that SweetSpot would continue to organise the Women’s Tour, the future of which also hangs precariously in the balance following the race’s cancellation earlier this year.
“SweetSpot Group are still progressing with planning for the Women’s Tour in 2024 and beyond,” the group said.
If you’re a pro cyclist and multiple grand tour winner who’s just noticed some “huge discrepancies” in your bike position and set-up (not aimed at anyone in particular), luckily for you Jamie has just uploaded a new video to road.cc’s YouTube channel, with plenty of helpful bike fit tips to prevent you from getting dropped by the gruppetto again…
We’re always happy to help, Chris – just give us a ring if you need any more tips. I have a few hill repeat sessions from back in my junior days that you’ll love…