Confidence on a bike is a consequence for the habitual practitioner of what is known as…
Parkride!
Or at least that awful attempt at a Blur parody is what former Scottish mountain bike champion Kerry MacPhee is hoping to achieve with her new cycling-themed take on the unbelievably popular Parkrun phenomenon (you know, the thing where people spend their Saturday mornings running around a park for fun).
Riffing on that very concept, but with bikes, MacPhee, now a gravel enthusiast and cycling development officer with Bike Trossachs, started the UK’s first ‘Parkride’ as a summer pilot scheme in Aberfoyle, Stirlingshire earlier this year, in a bid to help parents and children enjoy car-free riding gravel trails together.
And following the success of the pilot scheme, which was funded by Stirling Council’s community grants scheme, the free event will now run on the last Sunday of every month at 10am, with participants able to choose between a 10km or 20km loop in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, following the ‘Gravelfoyle’ way-markers that were introduced in 2022, making the area arguably the UK’s ultimate gravel destination.
> Want to ride some US-style gravel in the UK? Check out this guide with some epic UK gravel routes
According to MacPhee, “Parkride is for everyone” – as long as they have a suitable off-road bike and helmet – and can be used to build confidence for beginners, while also enabling children to ride with their parents or behind or beside them in trailers.
The timed (but non-competitive) rides also include a ‘sweeper’ rider – essentially a pedalling broom wagon – who will support any nervous newbies if they puncture or suffer a mechanical, and make sure they get back to base safely.
Adding to the family-friendly atmosphere, budding junior off-roaders can also take part in the concurrent Bairns on Bikes coaching sessions for five to twelve-year-olds.
“There are no cars, it’s really safe, and you can ride ten abreast if you like, and we’ve seen a huge, huge upsurge of people coming to Aberfoyle because of the way-marked trails,” MacPhee, who last year set a new women’s record for the 338km Badger Divide off-road route, told the BBC.
“One of the girls’ mums said her daughter had improved in confidence over the last few weeks just from coming along to this and you can kind of watch them coming out of their shells... and again that fitness thing becoming routine,” coach Sarah Cairns added.
One of the parents who attended the summer pilot scheme, Judith McVinnie, also described her experience getting to grips with the gravel trails in the Parkride environment as “absolutely brilliant”.
“Over the last three weeks I’ve seen my time get faster, which is really encouraging,” she said.
“I am definitely not an expert cyclist or anything like that, but half of it is just showing up with your stuff on and doing your best. The bacon roll afterwards has been the best thing of my week.”
Bacon rolls? Where do I sign up? Oh here, this is where you sign up, as registration is mandatory.
Because after all, it appears that all the people, so many people are already really enjoying Parkride.
I’ll get my coat…
Just when you thought it was all over, it turns out it’s time – once again – to set your phone updates and dig out your Vino+Cav4ever t-shirt, as we settle into a third straight winter season of ‘Will Mark Cavendish continue racing next year?’
And yes, I know what you’re thinking – back in July, after finally securing that elusive 35th Tour de France stage win, Cavendish himself described the final stage of this year’s record-breaking Tour as “likely” his last race as a professional cyclist (give or take a few ASO crits in the Far East of course).
> Mark Cavendish bows out at Tour de France, admits it was "likely" his last race
But last week, a few rumblings began to emerge in the Italian press that the 39-year-old is considering signing on for another year at Astana Qazaqstan, the Kazakh squad which piloted him to that historic triumph in Saint Vulbas (though these rumours of yet another retirement U-turn for the Manx Missile, after his Tour-ending crash in 2023 also saw him reverse his plans to quit the sport last autumn, were swiftly rebuked by British cycling journalist Daniel Friebe).
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
However, while attending a ceremony at the Tour of Britain to mark his illustrious and staggeringly successful 18 years in the peloton, Cavendish was noticeably coy about his job prospects for 2025, insisting that he doesn’t know “what happens after” the end of the season – though he did rule out ever returning to the Tour de France again.
“I’m still racing in a couple of months, and I’m definitely not finished for this year. I still don’t know what happens after,” he told ITV4 during the Tour of Britain’s final stage in Felixstowe on Sunday.
“I know that I won’t be doing the Tour de France again. I said that before the Tour, and I said it after the Tour, but I’m just taking time with my family actually and been chilling.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
“I have actually really taken time off before getting going on the bike again, and I’m training again now. When I’ve had time to process, we’ll see what happens in the future.”
Cavendish was then asked if he could potentially return to the Tour of Britain Men in 2025, prompting the mysterious reply: “Perhaps, I don’t know.”
And while the two-time Tour de France green jersey winner was careful to leave his answers open to the kind of interpretations usually reserved for Bob Dylan fans (Is he only referring to his racing schedule for the rest of the year? Does he mean he’ll return to the Tour of Britain as a spectator, a racer, or a DS?), one man at least offered a much more definitive answer concerning Cav’s future in the sport.
(ASO/Billy Ceusters)
Astana boss Alexandre Vinokourov may be currently dealing with the fallout of one of his most promising development riders, Ilkhan Dostiyev, being suspended after testing positive for CERA (the kind of noughties throwback drug Vino himself would have been familiar with), but he took some time out to speak to journalist Daniel Benson about the Manx Missile’s plans for 2025.
And unlike Cav himself, Vino got to the point quickly.
“No, no, no. I think he’s retiring at the end of the season,” Vinokourov told Benson.
“It makes no sense. Our goal was this year, I think that was all clear for everyone. But you can call Mark and ask him directly. I don’t think he races with anyone next season but that’s just my opinion. It doesn’t make sense to ride but you can call Mark directly.”
So that’s that wrapped up then. Or maybe not… Let the Cavendish winter contract rumour saga 3.0 commence! Or should that be 4.0, considering it all started with his late move to Quick-Step from Bahrain-Victorious back in 2021…
🚀 Le roi européen du contre-la-montre, c'est Edoardo Affini ! L'Italien devance Stefan Küng et son compatriote Mattia Cattaneo.
🇪🇺 Suivez les Championnats d'Europe de cyclisme sur Eurosport avec #LesRPpic.twitter.com/gNDFZJv7Em
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) September 11, 2024
There was to be no redemption story for Stefan Küng at the European time trial championships this afternoon, as the Swiss rider – who finished the event last year bloodied and badly concussed after a horrific crash into the barriers – lost to a flying Edoardo Affini by just nine seconds.
A rampant final 10km from the Italian was enough to prevent Küng from securing his third career European TT title, while Affini’s compatriot Mattia Cattaneo pipped Daan Hoole to secure the final spot on the podium in Hasselt.
Visma-Lease a Bike rider Affini’s win marks only the second TT triumph of the 28-year-old’s career and, rather shockingly, the first victory secured by a pro cyclist wearing those stupidly large, Star Trek-style Giro time trial helmets.
Maybe they only work at European championships?
Three months on from the cancellation of the 2025 RideLondon Classique – which the race’s organisers blamed on the UCI’s decision to shift its place in the calendar, making it “impossible” for it to be held in central London – the curtain has, rather inevitably, fallen on next year’s edition of the hugely popular RideLondon-Essex sportive.
Refunds are already being issued to early entrants for the 100-mile event, while organisers say they are currently working on a “new concept” to mark RideLondon’s apparent return in 2026, which will “engage more riders of all ages and abilities and inspire hundreds of thousands more people to cycle more often”.
Read more: > RideLondon to take “hiatus” in 2025 for organisers to work on “new concept”, with all entrants receiving full refunds
Cycling events in the UK just can’t catch a break, can they?
WHAT A RIDE! 👏
Lotte Kopecky is the new ITT European Champion 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/WcVT9ysj2o
— Eurosport (@eurosport) September 11, 2024
Beating time trial specialist Van Dijk by 43 seconds and everyone else, including Christina Schweinberger and Riejanne Markus, by over a minute on a 31km course?
Lotte Kopecky sure isn’t messing around at these European championships, while laying down a marker for the Zurich worlds at the end of the month – and a possible tilt at a rainbow jersey double… Well, in this form, would you bet against the flying Belgian?
A cyclist in his 20s was killed this morning following a collision involving a HGV driver in west London, emergency services have confirmed.
The tragic incident took place at around 9.30am on Staines Road in Feltham, at the junction with Green Lane, and marks the fourth reported fatality of a cyclist on London’s roads this year.
The circumstances surrounding the collision are not yet clear, though the Standard has reported that the cyclist was trapped under the lorry in the wake of the crash.
“Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 09:37hrs to reports of a collision involving a lorry and cyclist on Staines Road in Feltham,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
“Emergency services attended and provided first aid. Despite their efforts the cyclist, who is believed to be aged in his 20s, died at the scene.”
“We were called at 9.34am this morning to reports of a road traffic collision in Staines Road, Feltham,” a London Ambulance spokesperson added.
“We sent a number of resources to the scene including an ambulance crew, paramedics in fast response cars and an incident response officer. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance. The first paramedic arrived in less than five minutes. Sadly, despite the efforts of our crews, a person died at the scene.”
We’ll have more on this story as we get it.
It’s been quite the week for rumours concerning pro cyclists’ plans for 2025, hasn’t it?
With Mark Cavendish’s future in the peloton once again up in the air, it’s now the turn of Jonas Vinegegaard to be the subject of some (probably unsubstantiated) conjecture, after reports in the Belgian and Italian press claimed that the Dane is apparently considering emulating Tadej Pogačar Giro-Tour double and making his debut at the Italian grand tour next year.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, whose owners RCS Sport organise the Giro (so they’ll want to get the ball rolling if Vingegaard lining up at their race is a possibility), the two-time Tour winner “would like to make his Giro debut and the team are seriously considering the idea”.
Vingegaard on his way to winning the Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this year (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Meanwhile, Het Laatste Nieuws claimed that Vingegaard “reportedly indicated internally that he would like to ride the Giro”.
However, just like Vino putting the brakes on a possible Cav 2025 campaign, Visma-Lease a Bike have been quick to quash these reports of a Giro-Tour double attempt for their star rider, whose season was derailed by his horrible crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April, a month before Pogačar’s grand tour dominating summer kicked off.
“I really don’t know where it comes from. It certainly does not come from our team,” Visma’s communications manager Sander Kleikers told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.
“We haven’t even started the evaluation of this season. I don’t know where it comes from. It is very surprising.”
Probably for the best if you want exciting racing at the Giro, if we’re honest.
Thanks DSM for supplying Cycling Twitter with this meme goldmine:
Whenever my friends show a slight interest in cycling: pic.twitter.com/fAgCA9hQD5
— Thomas Harvey 🚲 (@_ThomasHarvey_) September 11, 2024
Unsurprisingly, Lachlan Morton isn’t really easing into his attempt to complete the fastest ever full lap of Australia – it is just 14,200km and five weeks of riding, after all.
On day six of his latest mammoth bike touring extravaganza, the EF Education-EasyPost pro woke up with the aim of taking an “easier” recovery day, after almost a week of slogging it out on the continent’s wide, open, flat, and unforgivingly hot and straight roads.
So what did he do? He ended up riding 460km, egged on apparently – according to Morton himself – by the favourable winds and a flock of birds which kept him company.
“Lachy is heading further and further inland and the heat is starting to become a factor,” EF said on their dot-watching page dedicated to the 32-year-old’s massive lap of Australia.
“He started the day in flat pedals after struggling through some hotspots on his feet yesterday. The barren landscape and straight roads offered no shelter from the beating sun.”
Well, despite what sounds like the worst cycling holiday ever, Morton has already passed the 3,000km mark, less than a week after setting off from his hometown of Port Macquarie in New South Wales. Just another 30-odd days to go to beat the record…
While I’m busy putting off a return to the shed for as long as possible, Dave has already powered up the turbo, fiddled with the WiFi connection, and recalibrated his lungs and legs after a summer of long, slow rides for another season of hard and fast racing on Zwift with our new road.cc teams:
> Zwift Racing League. I remember now, it’s hard
Each to their own, I suppose…
And if you’re desperate for a winter of pain and suffering (like Mark Cavendish if he performs another retirement U-turn), we’re still looking for more riders to fill out the rosters of both the B and the C teams. Head to this form to register your mad, mad interest…
What’s that I hear? Oh, it’s the sound of Tadej Pogačar breathing an enormous sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge his plans for Tour de France domination remain intact, after it was revealed today that Ironman and Olympic triathlon star Kristian Blummenfelt has abruptly pressed pause on his rather audacious bid to switch sports and win cycling’s biggest race by 2028.
Ahead of the Olympic Games in July, Blummenfelt – a former Olympic champion and the reported holder of the highest recorded absolute VO2 max in history – was busy making headlines in the non-swimming and running cycling world, after his coach Olav Aleksander Bu said the big Norwegian was “90 per cent” likely to turn pro as a cyclist in 2025.
With his star pupil heavily linked to a move to Jayco-AlUla, Bu rather confidently predicted that the 30-year-old would be able to race the Tour de France by 2026, be in a position to win some jerseys and stages by 2027, and win the entire thing by 2028.
However, after a disappointing 12th place in the triathlon in Paris, those, let’s face it, overly ambitious plans to enter the peloton and almost immediately start winning have been shelved for the time being, with Blummenfelt now likely to continue his swim-bike-run focus until LA ’28 at the earliest.
“After the Paris review we have decided to aim for Los Angeles 2028,” Bu told Velo this week. “Despite the results in Paris, we are more confident after the race that going back from Ironman to Olympics is possible. We want to give it one last shot.”
So, with one last tilt at another Olympic triathlon gold taking precedence over racing the UAE Tour next year, any hopes of conquering the Tour de France will have to wait until 2029, when Blummenfelt will be 35. To put that into perspective, Gino Bartali and Cadel Evans are the Tour’s oldest post-war winners at 34 (though I’m sure Primož Roglič reckons he’s capable of eclipsing that record next summer).
In any case, somehow I reckon Pogi isn’t worrying too much about someone entering the sport at 35 and challenging him for the yellow jersey, regardless of their VO2 max score…
The European road championships are underway in Belgium this morning (just don’t tell the Great Britain team, who have decided to skip their third Euros in four years), and for Dutch time triallist Fee Knaven they couldn’t have started in crueller fashion.
The 17-year-old, the daughter of former TVM, Quick-Step, and T-Mobile pro Servais Knaven, looked set to win today’s junior women’s time trial – only to be held up on the 13.3km course’s final twisting, technical section by her Swiss minute rider Lara Liehner.
Where Fee Knaven lost that one second between silver and gold…….
Gutted for her. pic.twitter.com/RpxvqQCdlt
— José Been (@JoseBeenTV) September 11, 2024
That bout of terrible, frustrating timing ultimately cost Knaven the gold medal by one solitary second, as Spain’s Paula Ostiz won the European title.
One second between silver and gold. And knowing exactly where you lost it, and that it was out of your hands, must sting even more. But I’m sure Knaven’s time will come again.
A classic example of the UK’s top quality, extremely safe “elite level cycling infrastructure”, courtesy of this death trap route posted on Twitter by Brighton-based cyclist Anthony Pope:
I imagine in this instance the shared-use path sign actually refers to the order of people and bikes currently stuck at the bottom of the conveniently opened manhole right beside it. The pothole Pot Noodle guy would have some difficulty covering that one up, anyway…
In case you missed it last night, here’s our story on C6 Bikes in Cambridgeshire, the cycle shop that was the victim of an extraordinarily organised targeted break-in which saw 90 per cent of its stock taken and left the business fighting to claim insurance money due to the lack of any trace left by the thoroughness of the raid.