If someone ever decides to put together a 'How to troll cyclists for dummies' guide, they'll need to take note of this one. Strap yourselves in. It all began with a post from a rider on Facebook: "Is it just me who refuses to give kudos on Strava for indoor rides? Get out there in the wind, the cold and the rain and earn your kudos! It's akin to giving kudos for a round of golf or lying on a yoga mat! Chill. I'm just having fun on FB!"
[Poor Jamie not earning any kudos from random internet man for his hour on the turbo]
That last sentence about "just having fun on Facebook" disappeared pretty quickly in the 200+ comments that have flown in since yesterday evening...
Maybe we should have just read the one asking "who cares?" and moved on with our lives, but the comments intrigued us and before long we'd scrolled through several pages, taking in the lively discussion that followed. We're guessing the rider who made the post probably hasn't trained indoors before, a brutal interval session on the turbo vs lying on a yoga mat? I think we all know which we'd find more physically comfortable. Also, anecdotally, I reckon I've done hundreds of winter rides that didn't even reach a tenth of the intensity of a 30-minute turbo thrash.
The comments made a mix of points about just how hard indoor training can be, the fact that for many people around the world the weather (ice and snow in particular) make winter training unsafe, and that indoor cycling is still cycling and anyone doing more cycling is a good thing.
"Not riding on ice.....I'll ride indoors and put on Strava. Broken bones...you're not riding anywhere," one commenter replied.
"Winter is hard for people. I say whatever motivates anyone to do something when they'd rather be on the couch deserves a kudos," another added.
"Yep just you. I try and celebrate all wins."
"I don't ride (well, rarely) indoors... but let's be real. It is nothing like playing a round of golf or doing yoga. You can get in a great workout. Watts are watts. Training stress is training stress."
"Carbon bikes are cheating too. Everyone should ride old steel bikes or I'm not impressed."
One final comment we'll include attached the picture below too..."Yeah, no. I'll be indoors until spring, kudosing everyone else who is."
So, there. Possibly a bad joke that got a bit too much attention? Probably not worth nearly 250 (sometimes angry) comments, but hey, I lost five minutes of my life scrolling through the comments, so thought I'd drag you all down with me. You're welcome.
Pro cycling reporter Matthew Mitchell shared a screenshot on Twitter this morning, highlighting new rules that will apply in races this year, the UCI introducing fines for: "Rider decelerating during a sprint and endangering other riders (knowingly staying within the line of other riders, celebrating in the bunch, talking on the radio or taking hands off handlebars while in the bunch)."
The maximum fine will be 500 Swiss francs and riders could also be relegated to last place in the group and/or receive a yellow card.
> Yellow cards introduced to pro cycling to clamp down on dangerous riding and driving during races
In stage races, offending riders can also receive a penalty in the points and/or mountains classification. How the rule is implemented remains to be seen. Will it just be if you celebrate a teammate's win and endanger other riders in the process? Or will there be zero tolerance to the behaviours listed?
The wording seems to suggest you'd have to decelerate and endanger other riders, but this is the UCI we're talking about. Who knows... I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Garmin Connect was down for periods yesterday and this morning, with users unable to transfer data or upload to Strava. The Garmin status page does now suggest all its services are back online. A good excuse for me to get out on the bike at lunchtime and confirm that...
Anyone have any issues?
The fallout to that Panorama episode has continued into the second half of the week, Ryan shortly bringing you an update on the Bicycle Association's response.
In the meantime, we thought we'd share some of your comments under George's opinion piece about the episode.
the little onion: "The problem is not Chiles. Don't make this about Chiles. The problem is the wider team of producers, programmers, staff, advisors, editors etc. that go into commissioning, creating, fact-checking, etc. these programmes.
"The fact that none of them really engaged with the fundamental problem that the majority of the cases in this programme were not about e-bikes, but about e-motorbikes. It reflects a culture whereby news and current affairs reporting on cycling is driven not just by ignorance of the basic facts, but by deep prejudice which automatically sees cycling and cyclists as a 'problem'."
Rome73: "I'm off to work soon to central London — on my TERN eCargo bike. Carrying all my tools and my spare clothes because it's so cold today. And I will have a flask and biscuits in the pannier and a work stand. E-bikes are brilliant. And legal. And game-changing for some business operating in urban areas."