Welcome to Monday on the road.cc live blog with Simon MacMichael, Jack Sexty and the rest of the team.
28/01/2019, 20:34
Uma Thurman's Kill Bill stunt double in shocking distracted driving video
You may not know the name Zoë Bell, but you may well have seen her on screen – among other things, she was Uma Thurman’s stunt double in the Quentin Tarantino film, Kill Bill, and is also an actress in her own right.
She’s just popped back to her native New Zealand from Hollywood, and posted to Facebook a video of herself cruising around her old neighbourhood in a car in what is possibly the worst case of distracted driving we have ever seen.
28/01/2019, 17:10
Something's amiss with Peloton bikes in their relentless adverts
Love putting my Peloton bike in the most striking area of my ultra-modern $3 million house
— Clue Heywood (@ClueHeywood) January 28, 2019
The indoor spin bike brand, who charge £40 a month on top of £2,000 for their device, appear to be fond of showing their reassuringly wealthy clients making the Peloton bike the centrepiece of their mansion/condo/luxury apartment. They hit the headlines back in December after threatening YouTuber Shane Miller for titling his weekly cycling news segment Digital Peloton News, saying they had trademarked the word 'peloton'... after a strong backlash on social media, Peloton's lawyers eventually backed down.
28/01/2019, 16:22
Football and cycling jersey combined
Flying the flag for @wolves with my new cycling jersey. Great to be part of the #wolfpack on the road as well as at Molineux. #ONEPACKpic.twitter.com/fvEKVnt5jw
— Andy Tennant (@tennanto) January 28, 2019
Definitely not drawing attention to this because one road.cc staffer happens to follow the gold and black army... but anyway check out Canyon Eisberg rider Andy Tennant's custom Wolves cycling jersey!
28/01/2019, 16:15
Hear, hear
Managed to eat two gels and put the rubbish back in my pocket. The world did not end. I did not suddenly grind to a halt from the weight in pocket and possibly stopped a crow from getting off it's head on sugar pic.twitter.com/2b2qfUVqdh
— James Ward (@jamesward01) January 27, 2019
Is there a sight worse than gel wrappers discarded on the road?
28/01/2019, 12:00
ICYMI - here's some more bike/ski footage from a Dafne Fixed nutter (plus an altogether better solution)
The famous Italian bike shop sent this fella out in a skinsuit to try out a new bit of tech. It all looked to be working pretty well on the short Instagram vids we saw last week but this longer clip documents a bit more of a struggle! Below we see they've now worked out a slightly better solution for riding through the ice and snow...
28/01/2019, 13:28
Jason Kenny celebrates too early in British track champs keirin heat... but still manages to win the final
If this was road racing it would have been a red face for Kenny with no chance of redemption... but after mistakenly thinking he'd finished with a lap still to go during his Keirin heat and waving at the crowd, Kenny managed to re-qualify for the final via the repechage. He ended up winning by a millimetre in a furious sprint to the line, more than saving his blushes. Kenny told the BBC: "I didn't think it was the last lap but I thought I'd heard the bell. I don't know if someone dropped a spanner but with me being at the back I just reacted and lit it up and I thought it was going to be one of those days."
Shanaze Reade also became British champion in the team sprint - this was her first national title, a long time coming after her numerous world and European golds from 2007 onwards and also after her official retirement in 2017. Not really retired then are we Shanaze?!
28/01/2019, 13:13
British Cycling's squad for the CX world champs announced
British Cycling's 18-strong squad for the Cyclocross World Championships has just been announced. Three senior elite females (Nikki Brammeier, Beth Crumpton and Helen Wyman) and just one elite male (Ian Field) have been selected, and Tom Pidcock will stay at U-23 level to go for a rainbow jersey. According to our CX expert Liam, Anna Kay is a strong tip to medal in the women's U-23 category. All races will take place over this weekend (2-3 February) in Bogense, Denmark. Here's the squad in full:
Elite women
Nikki Brammeier
Beth Crumpton
Helen Wyman
Elite men
Ian Field
Under-23 women
Anna Flynn
Harriet Harnden
Anna Kay
Maddie Wadsworth
Under-23 men
Cameron Mason
Thomas Mein
Tom Pidcock
Dan Tulett
Ben Turner
Junior men
Lewis Askey
Oliver Draffan
Rory McGuire
Ben Tulett
Simon Wylie
28/01/2019, 11:42
And some more...
Cycling has the potential to prevent 34,000 incidences of long-term illnesses in seven major UK cities by 2040 – see our new forecast report: https://t.co/99aWS57GAU#BikeLife#cyclingpic.twitter.com/Vy3dU1rHjT
— Sustrans (@sustrans) January 28, 2019
34,000 instances of long-term illness could be prevented and billions saved if more people cycled according to Sustrans' latest report.
28/01/2019, 11:06
Why investment in cycling isn't a waste of money
The Dutch invest €595 million—or €35 per resident—annually on cycling (15 times that of nearby England). Seem expensive?
Those 17 million people collectively cycle 15.5 billion km.—or 912 km. per resident—annually, saving their healthcare system €19 billion (3% of their GDP). pic.twitter.com/x2S1UApvVj
— Modacity (@modacitylife) January 27, 2019
28/01/2019, 10:18
When your next door neighbour steals your KOM...
No need for an alarm clock at my Nanna’s house this morning when you have plank wars going off at 8am pic.twitter.com/rJH37JiKox
— taran stokoe (@StokoeTaran) January 26, 2019
28/01/2019, 09:35
Jens Voigt the ‘Snowflake’ generation want instant riches without the hard work,
Ex-professional cyclist Jens Voigt says today’s ‘Snowflake’ generation want instant riches without putting the hard work in.
Speaking to India’s Economic Times during a trip to Mumbai, the 47-year-old, who began his career with a four-year stint in a specialist sports unit of the German army, contrasted his experience with that of young people coming into the sport now.
“Millennials or snowflakes, or whatever you want to call them, struggle with the idea of having to work hard to be up there,” he said.
“They want to be a millionaire in two weeks. It doesn’t work like that. You have got to be realistic about yourself, work hard and when you get results, you get a reward. You cannot start a career asking for rewards and maybe 10 years later you deliver.
"That’s the lesson I’m teaching my kids — work hard first and then everything else will come.”
In the interview, the father-of-six also talks about family life and how wanting to get home to his kids “in one piece” after races led to younger riders teasing him, “Hey Jens, you’re descending like a grandmother!”
28/01/2019, 09:32
28/01/2019, 09:26
How did Pedal Me get on in their Dragons’ Den appearance?
London-based cargo bike taxi and delivery service Pedal Me made their much-anticipated Dragons’ Den appearance last night.
Tonight’s first nail-biter – will Ben, Robert, Chris AND their bike get in the lift? #dragonsdenpic.twitter.com/cYVaxZFwuM
— BBC Dragons' Den (@BBCDragonsDen) January 27, 2019
We already knew they’d got a bit of a savaging from Touker Souleyman, who called them “delusional” – so how did they get on? Well, you can watch them on Dragons’ Den on BBC iPlayer here (they’fre the first pitch), otherwise click through to the show’s Twitter feed and scroll upwards from the tweet above to find out.
28/01/2019, 09:22
The cyclist who hit a horse during last year's Royal Windsor Triathlon has been found guilty of riding without due consideration
A triathlete who hit a horse during the cycling section of last year’s Royal Windsor Triathlon has been ordered to pay £926 after being found guilty of riding without due consideration.
Video footage from the event, which took place on June 17, showed a number of cyclists closely passing a horse and rider on both sides at significant speed. Iain Plumb made contact as he passed.
Plumb had already been given a lifetime ban from participating in events organised by Human Race.
28/01/2019, 09:18
Teenage driver who killed cyclist after "misjudgement" on narrow road handed community service and driving ban
A number of road.cc readers at the weekend contrasted the punishment handed to the Iain Plumb for hitting a horse during the cycling leg of the Royal Windsor Triathlon with the community order handed to a 19-year-old driver convicted of causing the death through careless driving of cyclist Jason Ingle in Lincolnshire last year.
Hadley Fisher was given 300 hours of community work and was been banned from driving for two years after admitting the offence. He had been overtaking Mr Ingle at 60mph on a narrow road when the fatal crash happened.
28/01/2019, 09:14
Video: New South Wales motorist films himself driving along bike path ... to overtake cyclists ... footage goes viral on Facebook (includes swearing - lots of it)
A motorist in New South Wales who was angry about a couple of cyclists riding two abreast on the road in front of him (not illegal) drove along a bike path to overtake them, hurling abuse as he went and filming the incident on a mobile phone (all illegal). The footage had 12 million views on Facebook within 12 hours of being posted yesterday. Follow this link to see it.
28/01/2019, 09:07
Weekend catch-up
Click through on the headlines to catch up on some of the other stories you may have missed over the weekend.
Near Miss of the Day 243: Driver towing caravan almost hits cyclist as they overtake at pinch point
All the 2019 pro race bikes, but which is your pick of the peloton?
LEJOG record holder to give talk at this year’s Hammersmith Cyclists’ Film Show