Caption this 😁
Photo: @BeelWoutpic.twitter.com/TOvhX49R3o
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) January 9, 2024
Remco Evenepoel isn’t just spending his week in Calpe spinning the legs and watching Bingoal riders pass by, he’s also been busy confirming his race calendar for 2024 – which, you’ve already guessed, includes that much-rumoured and long-anticipated debut at the Tour de France – and meeting up with Soudal Quick-Step’s new signings, such as the mercurial, cult fan base-inspiring Spanish climber Mikel Landa.
It must be said, though I’m sure I’ll get used to it, seeing Landa sport the colours of Belgium’s premier cycling team feels like one of those glitches in the rider contract matrix the sport throws up every so often, like when spindly Spanish climber Carlos Barredo raced for Boonen-era Quick-Step, or Alex Dowsett and Annemiek van Vleuten’s stints at Movistar.
Time will tell, of course, if a touch of Landismo can be sprinkled over Remco’s yellow jersey hopes, or whether poor Mikel’s season will again be defined by its memeability… (yes, that’s a word. Probably).
Frome Continental and Specialized to Pirelli, Michelin, and more, here’s our run-down of the best road and gravel tyres of the past year…
> We reveal the road.cc Recommends Tyres of the Year 2023/24
📺 Bingoal fellas are having a speedy training ride, passing other cyclists left and right. Looking forward to the first races where the training pays off.pic.twitter.com/oHN4HjGAxO
— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) January 9, 2024
The Bingoal-WB boys certainly aren’t hanging about on their January training camp in Calpe, blowing by a certain former world champion like he was the kind of overly keen cyclo-tourist seemingly intent on following him everywhere he goes (seriously – has Remco ever been spotted in Spain without an amateur puffing and panting on his back wheel?).
And you just know that slight head tilt and raise of the finger was code for ‘I’ll see you at the start line in Liège’…
Days after we reported that Orange Bikes issued a notice of intention to appoint an administrator, the beloved Halifax-based bike brand has confirmed that it is currently working with a “specialist business rescue advisory firm” to help secure the company’s future.
Off-road bike specialist Orange, whose notice to appoint an administrator followed hot on the heels of the winding down of its factory mountain bike racing team at the end of 2023, said in a brief statement:
Orange Bikes and its associated companies are currently working with specialist business rescue advisory firm J9 Advisory, with a view to restructuring the businesses in order to provide a viable platform to service our customers in the best way possible, safeguarding jobs and ensuring the continuation and strength of the Orange Bikes business moving forwards.
Read more: > Orange Bikes set to appoint administrator – weeks after folding racing team citing bike industry “uncertainty”
And if you’re still struggling to get your head around what exactly is going on within the bike industry, at the start of a very turbulent 2024, keep your eyes peeled and your ears open for the first road.cc Podcast of the year, coming to a streaming platform near you on Thursday…
It’s that time of the year again, when police forces around the country launch targeted operations – coupled with the obligatory social media post outlining their endeavour – aiming to clamp down on “anti-social cycling” and other, presumably more minor, traffic offences.
Back in February 2022, Safer Transport Team officers in Hackney, working towards London’s Operation Zero bid to eliminate road deaths, fined 18 cyclists in the space of 90 minutes for jumping red lights (prompting some cyclists in the comments to ask if a similar operation had been carried out focusing on phone drivers).
And last September, Police Scotland said a ‘Vulnerable Road User’ initiative led to four cyclists fined in Edinburgh for riding through red lights, while police in Salisbury were told to “grow up” after preventing commuter cyclists from riding against a one-way system during a targeted operation in December.
Now it’s the turn of officers in the City of London Police to brave the cold and frosty conditions this morning and target law-breaking, anti-social cyclists.
“We’re down at Bank Junction hosting a joint enforcement operation targeting anti-social cycling and traffic offences,” the force’s social media account tweeted this morning.
“We’re also offering free cycle marking, alongside crime prevention advice too.”
Good morning
We're down at Bank Junction hosting a joint enforcement operation targeting anti-social cycling & traffic offences
We're also offering free cycle marking, alongside crime prevention advice too
197CP pic.twitter.com/urtFhMGFeV
— City Police Officers (@CityPoliceCops) January 9, 2024
However, while similar operations have been fiercely criticised by cyclists in the past, this pre-emptive tweet hasn’t gone down too well with some motorists.
“Why are you giving cyclists a heads up? You wouldn’t notify motorists of your intentions,” said an account belonging to a drone operator (apparently).
“Maybe because cyclists don’t kill 1,800 people annually?” Leigh pithily responded.
Meanwhile, Sandra asked the officers to also attend to Moorgate junction, which she described as “like Wacky Races crossing there some days!”
“Jeremy Vine will be off on one,” Jason chipped in, with the by-now obligatory mention of the Vinester.
And The Edge (not the U2 guitarist with the two chords, I presume) wrote: “Careful now, you'll trigger the cycling lobby.”
Does this blog story count as being triggered?
Another classic of the ‘Your Bike Hates You’ genre here, courtesy of this East Sussex-based bike shop:
Today's component of shame.
This is what's left of the inside of a freehub body (the bit on the back wheel that the cogs sit on).
There's getting your money's worth, then there's bike abuse, then there's criminal damage, and then there's Martin.
This may take a while... pic.twitter.com/NeHtuZCtfW— Mr Cycles (@MrCyclesSeaford) January 9, 2024
Ouch. Deary me, Martin…
Although, if I’m honest, I’d shudder to think what he’d make of my bikes at the moment. They’re still doing the job, aren’t they?
With Thibaut Pinot now committed to a lifetime of posting selfies with animals on his farm, the other great French hope of the past decade or so, Romain Bardet, has also admitted that his thoughts are now beginning to slowly creep towards retirement.
The 33-year-old Tour de France podium finisher is about to enter the final year of his contract at DSM-Firmenich PostNL – the Dutch team he joined in 2021 after a prolonged and successful spell at AG2R, during which he allowed French fans to consistently dream of that long-awaited yellow jersey triumph – and, in a recent interview with L’Équipe, says he will wait until the summer before making any decision on his future in the sport.
“If I knew for sure, I'd say so. I’m thinking about it and that's healthy,” Bardet told the French sports paper.
“I’m fully committed to the 2024 project and I’m giving myself until the middle of the year to see how I manage the sacrifices, the twenty or so days I’ll have at home between January 1 and the end of May. What do I get in return from it? Do I feel alive?”
Bardet labours up the Puy de Dôme, his local climb, at the 2023 Tour (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
That 2024 project with DSM includes a return to the Giro d’Italia, where he withdrew with illness in 2022 while sitting in fourth on GC, and a final hurrah at the Tour, the site of his most emblematic successes since his emergence in the upper echelons of the yellow jersey battle in 2014, including three mountain stage wins, two podium finishes, and a King of the Mountains jersey.
However, Bardet says he won’t feel comfortable with the kind of emotional farewell afforded to his contemporary Pinot in the Vosges during the 2023 Tour.
“I wouldn't feel as legitimate about it,” he said.
“I don't want an episode two that would be either overdone or underdone, or that we could compare, because our track records and our careers are different.”
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Bardet also admitted that he experienced burn-out in 2019 and, while he has shown glimpses of good form while at DSM, says he felt he “lacked sparkle” last season, as he ponders whether to continue on into 2025 and beyond.
“I’ve been more vulnerable since Covid, I get sick a lot more. Is that the body sending me a message? I don’t know,” he said.
“I was consistent last season, but I felt like I was lacking sparkle. I didn’t need much to turn things around, but that’s ifs and buts. I want to be good at what I do.”
And, while we all know where Pinot’s energies will be devoted this year, what would retirement look like for Bardet?
“I’m burning with energy and commitment for my sport, but I'm already looking at ways of putting that energy into something that will have a positive impact,” the climber said.
“I’m thinking about models to attract big companies to cycling, to create a link between business and cycling, which rugby does so well.”
Preciso desse coletinho pic.twitter.com/3dE2Vt5WmE
— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) January 9, 2024
Blimey, I’m not sure even the most devoted anti-cycling enthusiast – keen to pick apart any and all aspects of a rider’s attire – could find fault with this seemingly Tron-inspired example of night club-ready bike fashion, courtesy of safety garment manufacturer Gofluo.
Although I do know a fair few cyclists who would take umbrage against the use of those coveted rainbow bands – ‘But, but, but, have you actually won the world hi-vis championships?’
A cycle lane that local cyclists say has been rendered “pointless” by drivers knocking over the plastic wands that segregate the infrastructure from traffic in order to park their vehicles at the roadside, which at one spot is a mere 20 metres away from a multi-storey car park, is to be beefed up with “more robust” bollards, the council has said.
The cycle lane on Park Row in Bristol has proved to be a regular feature over the years here on road.cc, with one cyclist telling us in December 2022 that the route resembled “the aftermath of a Harry Potter battle” – with “broken wands everywhere”, in case you didn’t get the reference – thanks to the plastic segregation being easily knocked off the road by motorists parking in the bike lane.
But now, finally, Bristol City Council is set to launch a year-long project to make Park Row and three other streets “safer and more pleasant” for active travel journeys– including, notably, the installation of proper, “more resilient” bollards. So, hopefully that’ll be the last of the wizarding references (for a while anyway).
Read more:> “More resilient” bollards planned for cycle lane made “completely pointless” by drivers parking in it
Another story to add to the relentlessly growing list of idiots caught cycling on motorways, as police in Hertfordshire pulled over a cyclist riding on the hard shoulder of the M25 at the weekend, before seizing the rider’s high-powered, illegal e-bike.
Hertfordshire Police said they were alerted to the rider at about 3.15pm on Sunday, stopping him at Potters Bar and taking his bike and reporting him.
Referring to the cyclist’s unrestricted bike, the police tweeted: “With a power output of over 250w and a maximum speed of 22mph it falls outside of EAPC regulations and cannot be ridden on our roads.”
In the UK, the maximum assisted speed legally allowed for an e-bike is 15.5mph.
RP21
This was found being ridden on the M25 motorway.
With a power output of over 250w and a maximum speed of 22mph it falls outside of EAPC regulations and cannot be ridden on our roads.
Vehicle seized, rider reported.
411729 41775
Potters Barhttps://t.co/ooEEwtRNl9pic.twitter.com/f6BTZOPvhv— BCH Road Policing Unit (@roadpoliceBCH) January 7, 2024
In a statement, Sgt Jamie Cooper, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Road Policing Unit, added: “I would like to remind everyone that it is illegal and unsafe to ride any type of pedal cycle on the motorway.
“Some pedal cycles – like the one stopped by our officers – are also illegal on any road in the United Kingdom, due to them falling outside of the EAPC regulations.”
So remember folks, avoid the motorway for goodness’ sake (unless you’re Phil Gaimon riding on the permitted cycle hard shoulder of an American Interstate, annoying frothing motorists stuck in traffic, that is. Then it’s very much welcome.)
Snow has been a-fallin’ (in some parts of the UK, anyway), so that means only one thing – time for road.cc to roll out our handy tips for riding your bike safely, and not falling off, when things get a touch too wintery…
> How to ride your bike through ice and snow — top tips for safe cycling when the mercury drops
We’ll have more on a new bike mechanic apprenticeship scheme from retailer Go Outdoors, designed to address the “needs of the cycle trade” and the current “national bike mechanic shortage”, shortly.
But before then, do any of our live blog regulars work as mechanics or have bike shop experience?
If so, what do you reckon is behind the current shortage of bike mechanics across the UK? Is it as simple as the pay’s just not attractive enough? Or are other factors at play?
Let us know in the comments!