Made in Chelsea, stolen in Clapham: Reality star related to King Charles has bike pinched despite using three locks worth £200; Pogačar and Žigart booed by tennis fans… for being late; No Paris-Roubaix chicane at Arenberg Forest + more on the live blog

The fastest cyclist on earth, the GOAT of the modern era of sport, accompanied by the Slovenian road and time trial champion — but a reminder that you’ve got to respect the clock if you’re at a tennis court.

 

 

 

 

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Tadej Pogačar after winning his second Tour of Flanders on Sunday and smoking the likes of Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen on the Kwaremont cobbles, was back at his home in Monaco yesterday. He decided to unwind and relax after the riding the fastest-ever De Ronde by going to watch 23-year-old Chinese tennis player Yunchaokete Bu take on Italy’s world number 16 Lorenzo Musetti (sporting trimmed hair, if anyone’s confused) at the ATP Monte Carlo Masters.

> Tadej Pogačar shares Tour of Flanders destruction on Strava... and doesn't get flagged this year

The world champion was accompanied by pro cyclist and his partner Urška Žigart. However, as the play was about to be resumed after a short stop, the duo were late in getting to their seats.

And if you ask any tennis (or snooker) fan, they’d tell you that’s where they screwed up… Disturbance in the crowd while play is going on is a strict no-no, as Pogačar and Žigart found out the hard way when the umpire was quick to fire away a stern telling off.

POGACAR tomou pito da arbitra do Master 1000 de Monte Carlo por chegar atrasado para ocupar seu assento. 😂 pic.twitter.com/gl0lOWQyrS

— O País Do Ciclismo (@opaisdociclismo) April 8, 2025

“Please take your seats. We are waiting for you,” the umpire said through the microphone, followed by unceremonious boos and whistles from the rest of the audience before the pair eventually sat down, smiling awkwardly.

Some cheeky comments over from Instagram:

“Takes me ages to get down some steps the day after a big ride too. Tadej might be human after all!”

“Clearly, he needs to work on his descending skills.”

“Sorry but he couldn’t find a free place to lock his bike safely, we all know the bad guys that roam all around town.”

“He can’t always be the fastest!”

Monte-Carlo open tennis and two spectators show up mid-game. The umpire calls on the man to quickly take a seat so the player can serve while the crowd start whistling and booing at the interruption... he looks familiar

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— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 7 April 2025 at 20:49

We hope he doesn’t bring this attitude to Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. With reports of rain about to make things trickier for the riders as they take on the terrifying pavé, he’d need to be at his best once again to win his first title at the Hell of the North.

A Kent cyclist has just ticked over the one-year mark on an 18,000-mile round-the-world bike ride – raising more than £4,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital along the way.

Jacob Zintel-Warner, from Folkestone, set off from the hospital gates in London on 8 April 2024 and has so far pedalled over 12,000 miles (19,312 km) through 24 countries – with the finish line in sight for later this summer.

Currently en route to Sydney, Australia, Zintel-Warner is riding solo while on sabbatical from his job as a history teacher at Brockhill Park Performing Arts College near Hythe. He’s hoping to complete the journey by August and raise £10,000 in total.

Describing the challenge as “challenging” (fair enough), he says the toughest parts haven’t been what you'd expect.

“Some of the things I thought would be difficult weren’t necessarily as bad as I thought they would be – spending long days on the bike,” he told the BBC. “Things that I wasn’t prepared for I found a lot harder – the solitude at points and dealing with logistics when things go wrong with your bike.”

While he’s taken a few unavoidable flights to skip oceans and impassable borders, Zintel-Warner has otherwise kept the pedals turning.

The idea to raise money for Great Ormond Street came from personal experience in the classroom: “I chose to raise money for Great Ormond Street partly because back home I taught one student who often frequented the hospital for treatment,” he explained.

“It’s an amazing cause that really helps children live more of a comfortable life and gives them some really promising prospects in the future.”

He’s now pedalling across Australia with Sydney as his next milestone – and still has thousands more kilometres and several continents to cover before returning to where it all started in London.

You can donate to his charity ride here.

If you thought watching UAE Team Emirates butcher a series of three-pointer shots was tough, just imagine what it was like for a basketball pro…

Well, Reggie Miller, former NBA star and Olympic gold medal winner, did see the excruciating clip — and has come up with a genius plan that could serve both parties.

After hanging up his basketball shoes, the NBA Hall of Fame player has spent quite a bit of time on two wheels, testing his riding skills in gravel and mountain biking. In fact, the 59-year-old has even taken part in XC, enduro, and gravel races, and is currently working hard on his road bike, even linking up with Tom Pidcock last year.

 

 

 

 

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Miller shared the video in another Instagram post with the caption: “Hey Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates, I see a win-win scenario here. I become an honorary team member, and y’all teach me how to ride in the peloton, in exchange, I will give basketball shooting lessons. Because clearly we BOTH need each others help in the others' field.”

 

 

 

 

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The theme for today’s blog seems to a crossover of ball sports with cycling… and it’s not looking very good for team cycling.

First, Pogačar and Žigart arrived late to tennis; now some social media/PR intern seems to have had the idea of making riders try putting a ball in a hoop, and I’m not going to lie, it’s one hell of a tough watch.

With yesterday’s time trial stage of the Itzulia Basque Country starting at the Fernando Buesa basketball stadium in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava (don’t ask me why), UAE Team Emirates posted a video of their riders making use of the court.

And if you ever doubted why cross-training and hitting the gym on the odd days is important for you as a cyclist, this video makes a strong case for it, as the cyclists struggle to even get the balls anywhere close to the hoop from the three-point line, flopping some feet away embarrassingly.

 

 

 

 

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“Yeah, this was harder to watch than I thought,” wrote Kevin, while Willy wrote: “More bricks than Paris-Roubaix.”

One person said: “Leg FTP 450… arm FTP 50”. Yet another person perhaps summed up your live blogger’s feelings: “Like needles to my eyes.”

But as someone pointed out: “I’d love to see the NBA players climb the Alps or race any bike race for that matter. Who cares, they’re bike riders!” And now, I’m stuck with the idea of LeBron (who has a stake in Canyon Bicycles) getting on his Aeroad and joining Pogačar for an “easy coffee ride”.

> “He does us the favour of not dropping us because otherwise he has no one to talk to”: Tadej Pogačar’s ‘easy’ recovery ride “the hardest training session of my life”, says F1 star, who admits “we completely die trying to follow him” during coffee rides

Team Picnic PostNL’s John Degenkolb will be forced to miss this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix after the team confirmed that he’s suffered a fractured collarbone, elbow, and wrist after being caught in the big crash at the Tour of Flanders.

The Dutch team’s two other riders, Tim Naberman and Alex Edmondson, also sustained injuries as a result of the crash, a broken wrist for Naberman and a sprained ankle for Edmondson.

 

 

 

 

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Team doctor Camiel Aldershof said in a press release: “John hit the ground with quite a lot of force in the crash, and the in-race medical team immediately suspected a fractured collarbone. He was transferred to the local race hospital where further checks and x-rays were conducted. Those then unfortunately confirmed that John indeed fractured his collarbone, alongside his wrist and elbow on the same side.

“He will undergo surgery on his wrist, before a period of recovery. Timelines can often change, but we expect him to be out of competition for two months.”

36-year-old Degenkolb, who won the 2015 edition of Paris-Roubaix, would only be missing the race for the second time in his career, having previously not raced the Hell of the North in 2016.

The German rider finished 11th last year, and the year before, was part of incredible drama on Carrefour de l'Arbre where he made contact with eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel, crashing out of contention.