Welcome to your midweek live blog, with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
10/04/2019, 19:48
Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for riders, says Australian study
Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for riders, says Australian study
Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for bike riders, according to a new report by Victoria, Australia-based Monash University.
The study, reported on here by the Herald Sun, followed 60 people who regularly commute by bike in Melborune and followed them on their daily routes.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/bicycle-lanes-no-guarantee-of...
Deputy head of prehospital emergency and trauma research, Ben Beck, said that the lanes made cyclists more liable to be subjected to close overtakes.
“Specifically, passing events on roads with a bicycle lane and a parked car were on average 40cm closer than events on roads with no bicycle lane or parked cars,” he explained.
“The magnitude of that difference is quite substantial. As someone who cycles myself, we all know that a painted lane next to parked cars is not a safe space.”
The solution he proposed? Unsurprisingly, create more protected cycle lanes for riders.
Rosie Pham, who took part in the study, said: “It’s scary and luckily nothing’s happened to me but there’s been a lot of near-misses, and when people yell, that scares me and I wonder if they are going to hit me.”
10/04/2019, 17:39
Fat Lad at the Back launch new jersey paying homage to cake
Featuring a wide variety of cartoon cakey goodness and 'Will ride for cake' emblazoned on the back, the lightweight jersey comes in men's and women's sizes and costs £54.99. You can buy it here.
10/04/2019, 15:23
"Choose life. Choose Bike", say Endura
The Scottish brand encourage us to bike to work with this inspiring video. 500 calories per day burnt on just a six mile commute, hundreds of pounds saved a month and a reduction in carbon footprint equivalent to a transatlantic flight each year are just some of the reasons given.
10/04/2019, 15:19
Credit: Unknown
10/04/2019, 15:12
Just to make sure the Paris Roubaix riders don't try to take the easy route..
Traditional tweet #ParisRoubaixpic.twitter.com/G7aJv55ugh
— ProCyclingStats.com (@ProCyclingStats) April 10, 2019
It's cobbles or nothing!
10/04/2019, 15:07
Brompton's new more affordable folder can be bought on £30 a month finance deal
The finance option is a first for Brompton, and as a one-off purchase the new B75 is £745. Full story here.
10/04/2019, 12:56
Cumbria MP admits he's "nuts" as he prepares to ride the Fred Whitton Challenge
So after falling off twice trying to get up Hardknott Pass yesterday I have got the fear about the @fred_whitton. Please consider sponsoring me for the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team. It is insanely hard and I am not very good at cycling https://t.co/TJablxoKh2pic.twitter.com/ynNGJc4Ugh
— John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) April 8, 2019
An MP from Cumbria will next month ride what many consider to be the UK’s toughest sportive – the Fred Whitton Challenge, covering 114 miles and taking in climbs including the Hardknot and Wrynose Passes.
The event, first held in 1999, is on the doorstep of Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, who is aiming to raise money for the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team.
On his page on Virgin Money Giving, he says: “So everyone says the Fred Whitton is one of the very hardest one-day amateur cycling challenges out there – and I’m doing it as my first 100-plus mile sportive. Which I realise is nuts. 114 miles and ten of the biggest climbs in the Lake District - some with 30 PER CENT GRADIENTS.
“The Fred was started 20 years ago in memory of a legendary Cumbrian cyclist. It is pretty jammy to get a place in the ballot but I’ve just fallen off twice trying to get up Hardknott – which you do after 100 miles – and now I have got the fear.
“The event raises money for a number of brilliant local and national charities – I’ve chosen to focus on the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team whose volunteers give an amazing service to stricken climbers and walkers on the fells from their base outside Broughton-in-Furness in my constituency.”
10/04/2019, 13:24
Victor Campenaerts discusses gearing for hour record attempt in his latest diary entry for Lotto Soudal
Campenaerts’ team are documenting his build-up to the attempt twice weekly, and with just six days to go he’s revealed that the gearing choice still isn’t set in stone: “The cadence on the track is higher compared to the road, but it still needs to feel comfortable in order to keep the right lines and to control your heart rate and breathing.
“The 59 X 14, 60 X 14, 61 X 14 as well as the 63 X 15 are options. But with the 59 X 14 and the 63 X 15, I would have to maintain a cadence of 104 and as I am a road cyclist by nature, that turned out too high for me. So the 61 or 60 X 14 remained, being 100 to 102 revolutions per minute. That does not seem like a big difference, but it still is. Bradley Wiggins managed to hold 104 revolutions during his attempt, the highest of all modern Hour Record attempts, but he was also trained on the track.”
Campenaerts will attempt on either the 16th or 17th April at the Velodromo Bicentenario in Aguascalientes, Mexico. You can check out the bike he'll be riding in more details here.
10/04/2019, 13:22
Youtuber does Paris-Roubaix tribute ride... in Cheshire
The owner of the Chicken Dinnerz Youtube account, who describes himself as a ‘cyclocross racer and editor of silly videos’, does his own version of Roubaix in Blighty in tribute to the famous race. He explains: “We don’t really have mountains in the UK so it’s hard to do Tour de France or Giro d’Italia-style riding.
“What we do have is grey skies, terrible roads and quite a few cobbles, so I thought I’d do my own version of the Paris Roubaix.”
10/04/2019, 12:28
Gocycle offering employees 40p per mile to cycle to work
The founder of the folding bike brand says UK employers should incentivise staff who get to work by electric or non-electric cycles, rather than driving, while urging government to help businesses do so. Gocycle estimate that if its 15 staff commuted by e-bike three days per week it could cut around 38,000 car miles per year. More over on eBikeTips.
10/04/2019, 11:34
Chris Froome says he had issues trusting Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France due to experience of previous year's Vuelta:
Chris Froome says he had issues trusting Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France due to experience of previous year's Vuelta.
He made the disclosure to ex-Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg for an episode of his Beyond Victory podcast which also includes the pair discussing issues such as training and the pressures faced in their respective sports.
10/04/2019, 08:47
Human barrier in Wellington, NZ formed to protest against lack of protection for cyclists
A people-protected bike lane was formed by fed up protesters in New Zealand's capital this morning, highlighting the slow progress the city is making on protected cycleways. Stuff reports that 45 cyclists formed the human barrier, waving and shouting at cyclists to get into the protected zone.
Cycling Action Network project manager Patrick Morgan told Stuff that cyclists have lobbied Wellington City Council for twenty years to build cycle lanes in the city centre: "They've made some good progress on Hutt Rd and Oriental Bay, and in Kilbirnie, but there are almost no bike lanes in the CBD. We're fed up. We need protection."
He said an estimated 250 cyclists rode through the people-protected barrier between 7.45am and 8.20am.
10/04/2019, 08:33
That Cecile Uttrup Ludwig interview is just as entertaining in Danish
The 23-year-old Dane captured the public's hearts with her storytelling of the Tour of Flanders, in which she described how the peloton were going full gas and said she was a "dead fish" at the end. She also gave a similar interview to the Danish media, and her enthusiasm comes across just as well in her mother tongue. Watch it on TV2 here.
For those of you that haven't seen the English language version, here it is below...
10/04/2019, 08:28
Sean Conway's new book 'Big Mile Cycling' available to pre-order
It's the fifth book written by the adventurer, who has ridden around the world and holds the record for the fastest ride across Europe unsupported.
The book focuses on his many challenge attempts and failures, and tells the story of his 4,000 mile Europe cycle record in detail. Conway also looks back at some of his cycling heroes, heroines, and discusses the boom in ultra-cycling in the last decade. You can pre-order it here.
10/04/2019, 08:21
Something new from Wahoo?
Here's some speculation to start your morning off, courtesy of an email we got from Wahoo... what could it be? The Elemnt and Elemnt Bolt have consistently rated well with our reviewers but any negative comments usually refer to the mapping capabilities. Something more trail-orientated perhaps? We'll have the full story tomorrow.