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Video: Lancashire cyclist races train across the country

Cameron Jeffers was stripped of Zwift national championship earlier this year

Cameron Jeffers has posted a video in which he races from Lancaster to Darlington in an attempt to beat a friend who made the same journey by train. The Lancashire cyclist – who was stripped of his British Cycling eRacing national title earlier this year for unsporting conduct – is a committed YouTuber. He also filmed a recent attempt to ride a Boris Bike up Alpe d’Huez and return it to London inside 24 hours.

The distance from Lancaster to Darlington is 115km and the train takes 3h30m.

This meant that Jeffers – who rides for the St Piran cycling team – needed to maintain 33km/h (20.5mph). His route took him through the Yorkshire Dales, over what he calls “some pretty gnarly terrain.”

Jeffers’ friend Chris took the train (in his cycling kit) and the loser had to wear an inflatable sumo suit through the streets of Darlington.

Jeffers became British Cycling eRacing national champion in March, but was later stripped of his title, fined £250 and handed a six-month suspension from racing after being charged with unsporting conduct. (We’re pretty sure informal train racing doesn’t breach that ban.)

In another of his YouTube videos, Jeffers explained that the charge related to the bike he rode in the qualifiers and finals: a Zwift Concept Z1 bike – widely known as a “Tron” bike.

To unlock the Tron bike, users have to climb 50,000m within Zwift. Jeffers allowed a third party to log into his account and they used computer software to simulate the necessary efforts.

Jeffers accepted that his conduct was unethical and apologised, but also pointed out that British Cycling’s technical regulations for eRacing were written several months after he had gained access to the bike.

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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15 comments

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ccamire | 4 years ago
0 likes

Total lack of class

that was not the best timing for the comment

negative with a positive story is not the best strategy

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Pantster | 4 years ago
1 like

What the hell does Zwift have to do with this story?

The way Cameron was handled by British Cycling (note NOT Zwift) was awful. The competition was a shambles, did anyone look at the most basic aspects - putting everyone on a bike with the same weight and aero would be easy! Yet I can bet that many of those who criticise what he did will be happily cycling around on Zwift with the "trainer difficulty" set to 50% which it is by default, meaning those 10% climbs are actually feeling like 5% meaning they can do more.

 

Stick to the actual title of the story and stop the clickbait, it's cheap

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Cowens49 | 4 years ago
2 likes

what a hit job of an article, misleading the reader in to a simple rehash of previous wrongdoing

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peasantpigfarmer | 4 years ago
0 likes

I had a problem getting video to play. When It eventually played,I attempted several times to edit the previous comment. Unfortunately, website maintenance page kept appearing. Finally can post this update!

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peasantpigfarmer | 4 years ago
0 likes

There appears to be a problem editing a previous comment

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CXR94Di2 | 4 years ago
2 likes

Entertaining, very decent figures.

The Zwift misdemeanor, once checked out was extremely badly handled by the authorities. He won the Zwift racing, but was stripped with retrospective rules not in place at the time of the misdemeanor

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Rapha Nadal | 4 years ago
1 like

That was quite an enjoyable watch!  Very Top Gear-esque.

 

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CyclingInBeastMode | 4 years ago
1 like

Going across country from home to a friends in Bucks is about 34.5 miles of undulating roads (could be 4 miles shorter but part of the route is garbage for cycling and it's more uppy/downy) takes around 2:15-30 including three busy towns to navigate through.

Train wise door to door it would take me 2:45 minimum, that's 10+20mins cycling to/from station. 10 mins extra time before train departs, a few minutes exit time out of end station plus 2:01 fastest train (2 trains) as I have to travel into London and out again.

By car it's an easy 55 minute drive, I haven't done that in nearly three years now!

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peasantpigfarmer | 4 years ago
0 likes

What a waste of an article. So where were the results ?? How did a train race become an article about something we have read previously....
Better stop smoking funny leaves Alex!

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Deeferdonk replied to peasantpigfarmer | 4 years ago
1 like
peasantpigfarmer wrote:

What a waste of an article. So where were the results ?? How did a train race become an article about something we have read previously....
Better stop smoking funny leaves Alex!

If you're that bothered watch the video which would have been spoiled if they told you the result in the article!

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number9dream | 4 years ago
1 like

Well i thought the article was a helpful intro. I had heard of him from the zwift story which made hime seem a bit of a tool but the video is great and i think he comes across well and seems really likeable. It's also a route i know well and it's hilly af so that was a high quality bit of riding irrespective of whether he beat the train or not. 

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bechdan | 4 years ago
3 likes

what a bloody pointless article, misleading the reader in to a simple rehash of previous wrongdoing

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crazy-legs replied to bechdan | 4 years ago
1 like

bechdan wrote:

what a bloody pointless article, misleading the reader in to a simple rehash of previous wrongdoing

Agreed - do you think you could do some more positive and interesting news road.cc?? A news story related to the title of the headline would be a good start.

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grumpyoldcyclist | 4 years ago
1 like

......and the winner was........

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pavlo | 4 years ago
3 likes

It's a shame that road.cc used this opportunity to rehash more words about Jeffers's Zwift story than the actual story about bike vs train to which the headline relates.

Perhaps this story was actually meant for the Sun newspaper?

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