Evening!
London's cycleway #C3#CS3 on Victoria Embankment1, 2, 3, 4, .... pic.twitter.com/hD1QLhtnXD
— London Cycleway C3/CS3's Crowdsourced Count (@CS3Count) January 30, 2024
Legendary South London bike shop Brixton Cycles has launched a fundraising campaign after a three week-long power outage at the end of last year cost the shop around £30,000, off the back of what was already the business’ worst financial year for two decades.
Founded in 1983, Brixton Cycles is the oldest and most durable of the workers-owned co-operative bike shops that popped up all over the UK in the 1980s, winning London Cycling Campaign’s Best Small Bike Retailer award in 2014.
After its former residence next to Stockwell Skatepark was earmarked to be demolished to make way for flats in 2015, the enterprise launched a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign to enable it to move to its current location of 296-298 Brixton Road.
> Brixton Cycles campaign: 10-year old beard gets the chop if new fundraising goal achieved
And now, almost a decade on, Brixton Cycles has once again turned to the crowdfunding method to ensure its survival, after an electrical fault left them fixing bikes by torch for almost a month.
“It’s no surprise to anyone that times have been tough in the bicycle industry since the cost of living crisis,” Brixton Cycles said on their new GoFundMe page, which was set up with the aim of recovering the £30,000 lost due to the outage. “While we have strived to provide the best service to all our customers and kept our crew on a sustainable wage, our business has been suffering this year (2023 was our worst financial year for 20 years).
“Towards the end of 2023, the lights went out, literally. A three-week external electrical fault brought us to our knees. Our insurance has covered some of the loss of earnings and the damaged equipment but not all of it. We kept our doors open and did our best to repair bikes with the aid of head torches, but we are, in all honesty, struggling to bounce back.
“Now we are asking humbly for some help. Our target amount is 30k. This corresponds with about 3-4 weeks of loss of earnings from our power outage. This amount would help us to get through and bounce back.
“We have served the community for 40 years and would love to continue to do so and be at the heart of Brixton’s independent shopping experience.”
You can donate to Brixton Cycles’ fundraising campaign at the shop’s GoFundMe page.
I think it’s safe to say which Groupama-FDJ rider best represents my own response to hard winter training. And it’s not Valentin Madouas and his nonchalant enjoyment of the view, I’ll tell you that for nothing…
Did you spend the build-up to Christmas wishing for your own life-size Remco Evenepoel doll, only to be let down when you discovered it doesn’t exist (actually, on second thought, don’t answer that).
Well, like an aero gain-hunting Father Christmas, Belgian Cycling has delivered on that front, by announcing this week that it’s creating full-scale dummies of its two star male riders, Evenepoel and Wout van Aert, which will be used as non-thinking, docile stand-ins (no elite cyclist personality jokes, thank you very much) when the riders themselves are racing the Tour and the Giro.
The dummies, which will cost the Belgian governing body tens of thousands of euros, according to DeMorgen, will ‘take part’ in extensive wind tunnel tests as kit supplier Bioracer aims to create the fastest skinsuit possible ahead of the men’s Olympic time trial in Paris, which Belgium will enter with sky-high medal hopes courtesy of world champion Evenepoel and double world silver medallist Van Aert.
The dolls will be based on 4D scans of Wout and Remco, taken during a test on the track at Zolder while wearing the nation’s current TT kit.
(Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com)
“You can also do the test with the rider, but that requires a lot of time and energy, especially with repeated tests spread over months, as in this file,” a Remco ‘insider’ told DeMorgen.
“In addition, a comparison test with a doll is more accurate. A doll is static, while the rider constantly adopts a different position while pedalling on his bicycle. In the latter case you measure the difference between the positions instead of the difference between the time trial suits.”
While Van Aert’s doll is already in production, Evenepoel Jnr (now, there’s a frightening prospect) will have to wait until March for his wind tunnel debut. Of course, this isn’t the first time Van Aert has been subject to the life size doll treatment.
Back in 2021, Jumbo-Visma, working with the Technical University Eindhoven, also created their own WVA and Primož Roglič, with horror movie-like consequences (at least for their rivals)…
Yikes.
Some have claimed that the Wout doll is a better interviewee than the real thing, but we’ll not go into that today…
One straightforward edition of the Etoile de Bessèges, that’s all I’m asking for…
After last year’s chaotic second stage of the early season French stage race, which was cancelled after a nasty mass crash, the opening stage of the 2024 race – set to take place this afternoon – has already bit the dust… thanks to protests by Jeremy Clarkson-idolising farmers (I know, you couldn’t make it up).
Farmers across France have spent much of the past week blocking roads with tractors and causing disruption in a bid to put pressure on the government to take measures against the current agricultural crisis and accept their demands for better remuneration for their produce, less red tape, and protection against cheap imports.
And these protesting farmers’ somewhat unlikely hero and inspiration? Only Stewart Lee’s second-favourite Top Gear host, of course. In an interview with the Telegraph, 30-year-old Robin Leduc, who has a 200-hectare farm in Canly, said “we need one of our French celebrities to do the same as Jeremy Clarkson. It’s everything he explained, that’s why and how we are here today.”
The Clarkson Island (sorry, I mean Farm) star even tweeted his support of the protest, writing: “French farmers. I bet no one has ever said this before, but good luck, coming from England.”
Agriculteurs français. Je parie que personne n'a jamais dit cela auparavant, mais bonne chance, venant d'Angleterre.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) January 30, 2024
In a predicament that would provoke quite the bit of soul searching in farming enthusiast and road-blocking protester punching supremo Bernard Hinault, these Clarkson-inspired protests – and their road blocking actions – have forced the Gard department’s president to pill the pin on today’s first stage of the Etoile de Bessèges.
The planned loop around Bellegarde, earmarked for the sprinters, features the A54 – a target for the protesting farmers – and would have led to stretched police resources. However, the organisers believe the rest of the race will go ahead, though the cancellation of today’s stage will certainly hit the coffers of such a small French stage race.
(Pauline Ballet/SWpix.com)
“Given the current social context in the department, the Prefecture of Gard has asked the organisers of the Etoile de Bessèges to cancel the first stage of the Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard which was to take place this Wednesday, January 31, 2024, between Bellegarde and Bellegarde,” the organisers said in a statement last night. “It is with regret that the first stage of the Etoile de Bessèges-Tour du Gard 2024 is cancelled.”
“The worry is not at all the same for the other days of racing. In the Gard department, this area around Bellegarde is more impacted than the other roads that we will take from Thursday,” race organiser Claudine Fangille also told DirectVelo.
“We will then go back towards the north of the department and there will certainly be fewer problems with blockages. This is a less hot zone than [Wednesday]. Ditto for Saturday’s stage and the Bessèges stage,” Fangille added, before noting that the race had planned to allow the farmers to speak at the start, and that the protesters were not planning to stop the race – but that the local government “decided not to take any risks”.
📺 Mads Pedersen is making his final preps for Etoile de Besseges.pic.twitter.com/Q9URqeX44Y
— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) January 29, 2024
So, if former world champion Mads Pedersen asks why he didn’t get a chance to add another obligatory early season win in the south of France to his growing collection today, just tell him to blame Jeremy Clarkson…
Cycling could help men reduce their risk of prostate cancer by more than a third, a new study has suggested.
That is the finding of new research out of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm, and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which reports that improving cardiovascular fitness by three per cent in a year was linked to a reduced risk (as much as 35 per cent) of developing prostate cancer, suggesting that activities such as cycling, swimming, or running can reduce a man’s risk of developing the disease.
Read more: > Cycling can help reduce risk of prostate cancer, new study suggests
The whole ‘camera cyclists catching phone drivers’ debate has been a long and draining one in recent years (just ask Cycling Mikey), polarising opinion between those who believe that cyclists who spot illegal and dangerous behaviour behind the wheel are fulfilling an important duty… and those who reckon they’re just a bunch of busybody grasses interrupting a motorist’s precious WhatsApp traffic time.
But rarely has the issue of phone drivers and camera cyclists been more polarised than in the reaction to a recent clip posted on YouTube by road.cc reader SRanger, which showed an ambulance driver appearing to hold their phone while driving in traffic.
The incident took place on Surbiton’s Tolworth Way, with the cyclist later reporting the driver to police.
“The driver was reported and I received an email from the Met Prosecutions stating that action against the driver is being considered. Therefore, I believe this driver would have been prosecuted,” SRanger said.
“I would expect paramedics to know not to use their mobile phone whilst driving. Paramedics are not exempt from traffic offences.”
However, judging by a cursory glance at the comments underneath the video, quite a few people didn’t share SRanger’s opinion – to put it mildly.
“Pedantry. I’d give a paramedic/patient transport a free pass in a traffic jam,” said YouTube user PickChore. “Could be checking all manner of work-related info for all you know. A paramedic with blues and twos checking TikTok are the ones you want.”
“And you’re riding on the central reservation! Well done, I hope you sleep well at night,” wrote The Chappers.
Several other commenters also ‘observed’ that the cyclist was apparently riding on the pavement – only for SRanger to clarify that it’s a shared-use path.
Lee, meanwhile, was even blunter in his appraisal of the situation, writing: “The person driving, very likely a paramedic, wouldn’t have time to pedal around town filming people, due to the (at least) 12-hour shifts. They do more good in one day than the cyclist filming has done in their life.
“And I don’t want to hear how deadly dangerous her behaviour was, operating a phone while barely moving, sitting in heavy traffic.”
“Mate they were stationary, it’s not like they were driving 70 miles an hour down the motorway, plus as you said they’re a paramedic, how do you know it’s not work related?” Stan added.
“These people risk their lives to help strangers. If you broke your neck tomorrow, who would you call to help you, so stop doing this to people who are just trying to do their job.”
“Help, I’ve been run over on my bike. Sorry we have nobody to send, the responder has been suspended,” added Mark Paul, prompting SRanger to respond: “It’s not my fault the driver decided to commit a driving offence”.
However, rather amazingly, not everyone was lining up to attack the cyclist’s actions.
“It amazes me that the people in the comments are actually having a go at YOU for filming and reporting this illegal behaviour,” said Mr Frog.
“It is indeed a twisted world we are living in, it seems that personal responsibility and accountability has gone completely out of the window! All I see around me now is grown adults, who should know better, acting like children!”
“Nobody is above the law,” concluded SRanger. “I am just a member of the public who happened to witness a driving offence taking place. Therefore, I decided to report it to the police as with all my encounters with offending drivers.
“There are a lot of cyclists with cameras reporting driving offences to the police, it is not just me.”