“They wonder why the cycling industry is on its a***?”
These words don’t belong to your live blogger but a Facebook commenter — and to be fair, the truth is the cycling industry hasn’t been on a purple patch lately (by lately, I mean the last 2-3 years), to put it kindly. And cyclists, like many consumers in this capitalist society, are getting frustrated with the state of things, and looks like the latest brand to bear the brunt of that ire has been Garmin.
If you missed it, the Swiss-American company which makes fitness and sports equipments such as smart watches and cycling computers, released its latest, upgraded version of the latter yesterday: Garmin Edge 1050, its top of the line device that succeeds the Edge 1040, and is the company’s first new cycling computer since the Edge 540 and Edge 840 were unveiled together more than a year ago.
And to start off the list of complaints road.cc has already seen about the product which was launched just a day ago, is the price. It costs £649.99 — a price point at which you buy entire bikes (my Decathlon RC500, which I absolutely love, costs the same amount).
The list only begins there, more things that seem to be bugging cyclists is the lack of a solar option and shorter battery life — to compensate for the brighter screen, needing a new mount, and Garmin Pay — which allows you to make digital payments with your cycling computer — is unsupported by many UK banks.
Here are some words from road.cc readers:
muppetkeeper: “Careful of this one, GPlama on YouTube points out that the half turn mount has moved, and this unit is most likely not to fit on your existing mounts... FFS, idiots. How many of us have K-Edge or integrated mounts. I bought a1040 today, now just about affordable.”
Secret_squirrel: “What are Garmin up to? Didnt the 1030 go on for years before the 1040 was released? Personally I prefer a slightly crapper screen and almost double the battery life.
They must feel threatened by the Karoo?
I'd pay for a 1040.5 at about £399-£450. Might keep a lookout for discounted 1040’s…”
ravenbait: “Garmin pay is almost completely unsupported by banks in the UK, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting used to paying with your computer.”
60kg lean keen climbing machine: “£600 pounds for a bike computer, I would not have any cash left to buy much coffee and cake if i spent that amount on a bike head unit. I have spent less than that on a whole bike, and it works and does the job that any bike should do just fine. My current computer is Bryton 420 (£80 - £100) That does every thing I want for over 6 times less. Yes if you got the cash then "fill your boots!!" but realy are we just being marketed ever more functions, tinkering at the edges, and then paying top money for only a little more?”
However, it wasn’t all bad blood…
Jetman’s Dad: “Garmin Pay supports Starling, I haven't paid with anything other than my Forerunner for the last year or so and it has worked flawlessly. The only place I was unable to use it was a small car park in Cornwall that also refused to accept a contactless payment from my Co-op visa debit card.
I'll give you that support across UK banks is poor, but it is not a "shit function thats almost entirely of zero use”.”
mark1a: “For every halo bike or top of the range accessory, there are many alternative options below it. Nobody is forcing you to buy anything, or indeed post a comment telling the class that you don't need it. Yes you can spend north of £12k on a bike, but equally there are many models below £1k.
One could also argue that the top end products contribute to the functionality of mainstream stuff with trickle-down technology. Do you think that mechanical 105 would be as good as it is now without the Dura-Ace of 10 years ago? Do you think Garmin Edge 130 (currently £140) would be as good as it is without the likes of 1030, 1040, 1050 sales funding the development?”
Over at Facebook, things were a lot less meticulous, and a lot more snappish, here’s a choice of comments…
“Seriously over hyped & priced. Will not pay so much for minor improvements”
“So it's easier to remove your Garmin from your bike mount to pay at the cafe than the phone you have in your back pocket… Genius”
“Has the battery life improved ? Brightest / Smartest / Most connected … for how long?”
“I see more and more competition in this market. So, do these benefits outweigh the negative aspects like limited battery life?”
“If you can ride fast then you would not need more than 5hrs of battery life…”
*cue to Remco Evenepoel getting dropped in the Alps and then waiting for his team car to get a change of Garmin…
You might have heard, but GCN, after first being bought by Warner Brothers in November, has recently been sold back to its founders. And just last week, it was announced that Eurosport’s Premium subscription service will close down the day after the Tour de France ends, with subscribers told to instead sign up for Discovery+ and HBO Max – and pay a significantly larger sum to watch live cycling.
Amidst all this chaos, what many cycling fans referred to as cycling going back to the "dark ages", former British pro cyclist as well as commentator and presenter for GCN/Eurosport Daniel Lloyd will no longer be on The Breakaway show or Eurosport’s cycling commentary.
Sharing the news, Lloyd wrote: "GCN’s journey with Eurosport and live racing is something I’ll never forget - we achieved a hell of a lot in a very short time. I think we made some really positive changes for cycling, and I will always be very proud of that. However, it's been a tough 8 months or so for GCN - the shuttering of GCN+, and now the website, has meant we've lost a lot of very talented, hard working colleagues who are incredibly passionate about the sport.
The show must go on, though. GCN is still full of amazing people, and more importantly, supported by an incredible community of cyclists. I firmly believe that the next part of our journey will be more exciting than ever - I want to be part of, and instrumental in that next adventure, the next chapter.
Unfortunately, that means I will no longer be on The Breakaway or Eurosport’s cycling commentary. It's a part of my job that I will dearly miss, but more than that, I will miss the fantastic group of people (on screen/mic and off) who I had the privilege of working with there for the last few years. I really couldn't have asked for a better team to spend three weeks at a time with.
Thanks to all of you who have been so kind in your messages of support for GCN these last few months - it's really meant the world to everyone at the company."
As some of you will have read/seen, we recently regained financial and editorial control of PSN (PlaySportsNetwork) from Warner Bros Discovery, which means some changes for me.
I could never have imagined when I joined GCN at its inception in 2012 that we'd go from a small… pic.twitter.com/a2DvucFSMy
— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) June 25, 2024
New team name, new kit, new Twitter handle, erm... new replacement for Sergio Perez in Formula 1?
Now we know who will replace Checo 😂 pic.twitter.com/INGPIIsMS9
— Un grenoblois (@PGrenoblois) June 26, 2024
Yes, I know he just secured a two-year contract extension, but hey, with Helmut Marko at the helm, you never know! Imagine Roglič racing against Max Verstappen — I mean, Primož in the driver seat and Max on the saddle, of course.
road.cc reader Stephen was cycling the Hebridean Way, a spectacular 190-odd mile route through Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and a magnet for touring cyclists over the past decade, earlier this month when he and another cyclist were close passed on their return leg through Skye by a fellow tourist and campervan driver, in a highly dangerous manoeuvre that forced an oncoming driver to almost come to a halt to avoid a collision.
To add to my, and hopefully, your misery, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has live streamed its kit-unveiling, with Primož Roglič riding the SL9 in a Red Bull livery in front of an airplane, for some reason. The team is currently updating its website to show off pictures of its brand-new, very dark blue, very dull jersey...
There's my hopes of the leaked kit pictures being fake getting crushed in real-time. But maybe it's my fault for even holding out any hope that the kit will be anything other than dark blue given that Red Bull is becoming the team's title sponsor...
Watch out Primoz, don’t crash! 😂#TDF2024🇫🇷pic.twitter.com/BOgpgzSceQ
— Domestique (@Domestique___) June 26, 2024
I'm at least glad to see that my disdain is shared by other cycling fans.
Could it be any more boring and unrecognizable? Such a shame, Red Bull could've given us a splash of yellow like the F1 cars, or silver/blue like the cans, but no, just basic dark blue like every other team
— Arnaud_vds (@Nebrisbeef) June 26, 2024
Everything in this video is great. Kids cycling about, girl enjoying music on her bike, man in a suit riding to work on a hire bike. All in complete safety because a city chose to invest in segregated cycle lanes. We are finally getting there. https://t.co/UkIpiaF7Pi
— Jon (@Jontafkasi) June 25, 2024
The UK “continues to lag seriously behind its European counterparts” when it comes to safe, connected cycling infrastructure, a new global ranking of bike-friendly cities has revealed.
According to US-based advocacy group People for Bikes’ City Ratings(link is external), a data analysis tool ranking cities and towns across the world on how amenable they are to cycling, Cambridge tops the chart as the UK’s most bike-friendly city, but only sits 11th overall when compared to the rest of Europe, while 16 of England’s 20 highest-rated boroughs are in London.
Is it mind games, or is Pogi just really that good?
One would argue that the cyclist who's enthralled the world in the past four years, proving his immense range of skillsets and the sheer brilliance on bike, and has already had a magnificent so far this year, winning the Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Volta a Catalunya, and Giro d'Italia in a dominating manner, wouldn't really need any mind games against his rivals — and that perhaps is an even scarier situation for them.
> Was Tadej Pogačar’s Giro d’Italia victory boring? And does it matter?
Speaking on his team website, the 25-year-old Slovenian said: "I’m really looking forward to the start of the Tour, I think it’s going to be a special start for me because I won the Giro, and the Tour starts in Italy, so I think it’s going to be amazing! It’s looked like I’ve made a step forward since the Giro, and my shape is even better than what I expected.
"I’ve done some good training, and I’ve tested my legs a little bit and to be honest, I have never felt so good on the bike. I’m really looking forward to seeing if I have improved in the race situations from the Giro, but I feel good so I cannot complain!”
Comparing his performance this year to last time around, when he suffered a wrist fracture at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and was beaten comprehensively in the Grand Boucle by Jonas Vingegaard, he said: "Last year was totally different because of the injury. No one prepares like that for the Tour if they’re not injured and so many things around me didn’t go well after the crash in Liege.
"I saw who was there to help me and who wasn’t. There was some disappointment and negative energy around, and it all built up to the Tour de France – I wasn’t 100% confident. There was going to be a moment where it all built up and I was going to crack and it was probably the ITT at Combloux, after that time trial I completely shut down, there was no coming back.
"Also, after the Tour I had the world championships, nothing went right for me, and I had a tough moment. Luckily, I could recover and finish the season well. This year I also did the Giro, so it is again a different preparation from previous Tour de France races – more or less you need to train and recover, push on the big training days and recover on the easy days."
Jonas Vingegaard will be looking for a three-peat at the Tour de France (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Incidentally, the tables have turned this time around, with Vingegaard suffering a serious and very unfortunate injury at the horror crash at the Itzulia Basque Tour, where two of Pogačar's chief rivals, Primož Roglič, runner-up in 2020, and Remco Evenepoel, making his debut at the Tour de France, were also injured.
With Pogačar sounding so confident about his skills, is there anyone you think can beat him right now? Or do we stop overthinking, sit back, and relish the greatness for the next three weeks? As always, feel free to share your feelings in the comments
After suffering through Red Bull's dominance in Formula 1 and going through their liveries — which have basically stayed the same for the last 15 years — it looks like I'll have to bear with the team's boring design choices, if not their dominance in cycling as well now.
After initial drawings of the jersey did the rounds on the internet, now an image of the jersey on a mannequin has leaked, and the Austrian energy drink company looks like it's ready to announce its entrance to the pro cycling world with a bland, lifeless dark blue jersey to take over Bora-Hansgrohe's beautiful emerald/neon greens.
Será assim o uniforme da Bora Red Bull?
Pobrinho.#TDF2024#ciclismonaespnpic.twitter.com/GULkkjcKCd
— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) June 26, 2024
Please, please, I cannot bear the sight of more blue kits in the peloton!
The UCI has warned any rider attempting to race with a hidden motor in their bike during the Tour de France that it is “impossible to slip through the net”, as cycling’s governing body announced that a new unspecified inspection tool will be used during the race to combat any potential technological fraud in the peloton.
In a statement released this morning, the UCI has said that, before each of the 21 stages of the Tour, which gets underway this Saturday in Florence, checks will be carried out using a magnetic tablet on every bike being used at the start of that day’s stage, in a bid to detect any hint of a concealed motor.
As we inch ever closer to the Florence Grand Départ (how are you all containing your emotions because I, for one, can’t wait to spend whole days glued to the tele with the Tour and Euros on), pro cycling continues to gift us with new kits for the Grand Tour.
Zoom sur un design auquel il faudra vous habituer ces prochaines semaines 👀😄🚴🏼♂️ pic.twitter.com/qByDArLrrI
— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) June 26, 2024
After yesterday’s horrific disaster of Alpecin-Deceuninck’s grey double denim, I feel the bar for a special jersey for quite low, and thankfully, Cofidis hasn’t lowered it with a perfectly fine, decent, passable kit — that looks like the rough draft of a fresh graphic design school graduate.
Okay, I’m being a little too harsh there. For what it’s worth, the jersey isn’t blue — unlike Visma-Lease a Bike’s “Renaissance” jersey, along with half the rest of the peloton.
At least the launch video’s alright…
Nouveau design et nouveau maillot @MobelSport pour @LeTour et @lavuelta !
Direction Florence dès samedi ! pic.twitter.com/9tWfTO3301— Team Cofidis (@TeamCOFIDIS) June 26, 2024
It’s time for another hot or not, road.cc pre-Tour de France edition.
One of Jeremy Vine’s favourite things to capture on his 360-degree camera, and perhaps one of the things cyclists have to be the most cautious about when riding in the town, is seemingly unaware motorists turning across you on the bike lane — despite the Highway Code specifically asking them not to do so.
And I’m not sure how many readers of this live blog will agree with me, but it’s especially infuriating when you’re following another cyclist, and the driver stops and gives way to them, but decides to completely ignore you and go on their way as usual.
That’s exactly what happened to one cyclist in London, who shared a video of the incident, writing: “There's a certain type of drive who (presumably) sees a cyclist go by in the bike lane and then thinks, “well it's entirely impossible that any other cyclists come along so I can just pull across without looking”… All whilst indicating too late and failing to look or give way.”
There's a certain type of drive who (presumably) sees a cyclist go by in the bike lane and then thinks
"well it's entirely impossible that any other cyclists come along so I can just pull across without looking"
All whilst indicating too late and failing to look or give way. pic.twitter.com/jorCXokS75
— AZB (@azb2019) June 24, 2024
It’s sometimes really baffling to see the number of people defend such driving and instead pin the blame of the cyclist for trying to be too brave and righteous and put themselves at risk, when we are simply cycling and trying to follow the rules, hoping that others do too (following the rules part… okay, hoping others cycle too).
“What sort of cyclist knowingly puts themselves in danger in the smug knowledge that an inquest will posthumously find they were ‘right’?” wrote one Twitter user, while ignoring to highlight which part of the Highway Code were they referring to in claiming that the cyclist was “in the wrong” here.
However, a lot of cyclists were critical of the driver too. “That should attract points and a fine. But it won't, because this is car-loving Britain,” wrote Lee Jones, to which the cyclist replied saying that the driver is being prosecuted.
They have the object permanence of a 3month old baby
— AZB (@azb2019) June 24, 2024
Say goodbye to your skipping gears, ticking chains and annoying rubbing noises as we diagnose and fix some of the most common issues with your road bike or gravel bike’s gears.