British Cycling mercilessly slammed for eight-year Shell deal; "Cyclists should be banned on environmental grounds"... car obsessive's mad mental arithmetic; Jeremy Vine's near miss compilation; New Forest NIMBYs + more on the live blog

Who's your next CEO? Sauron? 🔥 https://t.co/58jcDYcVJn

— Edward Lamb (@edwardlamb) October 10, 2022

What (and I cannot express this enough) THE FUCK https://t.co/7G0QUJuOmG

— 💗💜💙🦇 Rach 🦇💗💜💙 (@BatRachy) October 10, 2022

Cyclesport ≠ cycling.

An elite road race is a festival of burning petrol & diesel with a few bike riders in the middle of it.

This partnership is entirely unremarkable.

— John Stevenson (@johnstevenson_x) October 10, 2022

There'd have been less reputational damage if you'd picked the Mafia

— Adam McGibbon 🌍 (@AdamMcGibbon) October 10, 2022

It was all so quiet until about an hour ago, minding our own business blogging about naughty cyclists going a bit off course in the New Forest. This is probably not the last on this, so until tomorrow folks... 

We'll break off from British Cycling's whoopsie to tell you that the 2023 Worlds in Glasgow – that for the first time will bring together all cycling disciplines in one mega-event – will be shown in full on the BBC after it secured full broadcasting rights. That'll be all 13 events including road, mountain bike, BMX and velodrome action, all live on the telly between 3-13 August next year. 

The BBC's Director of Sport, Barbara Slater, said: “We are delighted to have such comprehensive coverage of a sport that continues to grow in popularity. Glasgow and the whole of Scotland are going to be a hub for cycling fans next August and we are proud to be the broadcast partner of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championship and to showcase the event across the BBC.”

We can today announce @Shell_UKLtd as a new Official Partner for the next eight years, in a commitment to sharing world-class innovation, accelerating our path to net zero, and helping more and wider groups of people to ride.

Read more: https://t.co/aay13fNkaj

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) October 10, 2022

The good thing about British Cycling's announcement is that does appear to have united its members... but it's looking like it might not be massively good for British Cycling. In fact, initial impressions are that it's going down absolutely, massively bad... 

This is ethically abominable. Whoever is behind this should be ashamed to be party to greenwashing at this scale. Oil on your hands is blood on your hands. Truly reprehensible.

— Hannah Nicklin 🌹 (@hannahnicklin) October 10, 2022

In the history of epic fails... this has to rank up there in the top 10 for sure.

— Colin Lynch PLY (@FormerTTchamp) October 10, 2022

So hard to find the words to react to this.

— Clive Andrews (@CliveAndrews) October 10, 2022

No tobacco companies that you could have got on board instead?

— Kai (@4catsnomore) October 10, 2022

We've had a look for positive comments and couldn't find any, so we'll leave it to David Bunch, Shell UK Country Chair, who said this in the presser BC bashed out an hour ago: 
 
“We’re very proud to become an Official Partner to British Cycling. The partnership reflects the shared ambitions of Shell UK and British Cycling to get to net zero in the UK as well as encouraging low and zero-carbon forms of transport such as cycling and electric vehicles.
 
“Working together we can deliver real change for people right across the country, from different walks of life, and also apply Shell’s world-leading lubricant technology to support the Great Britain Cycling Team in their quest for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.” 

And we'll leave the rest to you. Full story and probably a fair bit more reaction coming soon! 

The popular New Forest national park has once again found itself in the middle of a squabble, as Friends of the New Forest claims its survey found 700 incidents of cyclists not sticking to designated routes in the beauty spot. 

This comes after the New Forest Association said that it had recorded 550 incidents of cyclists riding off designated tracks back in January of this year, blaming them for causing damage to wildlife in the New Forest. 

But are these cyclists doing anything wrong? David Orme, the chairman of Christchurch Cycling Club, told the Advertiser and Times that there was no evidence cyclists were disturbing animals or eroding the flora and fauna in the area, adding: "Whilst the current waymarked cycle tracks in the Forest could do with better signage, there are more important aspects to consider. Firstly, the existing ‘permitted’ cycle ‘network’ is wholly inadequate: it is not joined up, it doesn’t work as a network connecting centres of habitation, there are few safe crossing points of major roads (none for the A35) and it’s not logical as to which tracks are allowed or why.

“There are many miles of gravel tracks, used by motorised vehicles (FE and land owners) and also ancient rights of way which are not ‘permitted’. These points are acknowledged by the NPA and Forestry England.”

A Forestry England spokesperson commented: “We value local stakeholders’ opinions on this and are looking at how we can add to this and the best way to provide additional information and effective signage of our waymarked network of tracks.

“There are over 100 miles of waymarked cycle routes in the New Forest. Information about these is shared directly on our website, and in a cycle map available at key information points and cycle hire destinations right across the area.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by IRONMAN Triathlon (@ironmantri)

Another race with some cycling in it going on this past week has been the Ironman World Championships, and the men's winner Gustav Iden did the 112 mile bike leg on a Giant Trinity with... rim brakes!

Although triathlon was among the slowest cyclesports to adopt disc brakes, the rim brake is an increasingly rare sight at the top of the pro ranks as most of the latest top-of-the-range triathlon superbikes have all been revamped with discs. Iden hinted that he would be sticking with the humble rim brake for the big race in Hawaii back in July... 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Gustav Iden (@gustav_iden)

Still, the fastest split of the day and new bike course record went to Sam Laidlow (on a disc brake-equipped Trek Speed Concept), who posted a blazing fast 4:04:36 for the 112 miles (180km), finishing second overall after the marathon run. In the women's race on Thursday, world championship debutant Chelsea Sodaro was the surprise winner with Briton Lucy Charles-Barclay finishing second, with Anne Haug in third. 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Roc d'Azur (@rocdazur)

The day after her gravel world championship, Pauline Ferrand Prévot wins another 3hr mountain race at Roc d'Azur

Win world title. Drive 6,5hrs. Bed at 2.30am. Wake up at 5.30am. Start 8.30am. Race. Win.

Just because yes.

— José Been (@TourDeJose) October 9, 2022

Of all the cycling achievements that happened over the weekend, this one might be the most impressive of the lot. As mentioned in our article yesterday, Ferrand-Prévôt travelled through the night to arrive on the start line for Roc d'Azur, winning it just hours after bagging her fourth world title of the season at the inaugural Gravel World Championships. She'll be running out of space on her jersey to add any more rainbow stripes... 

"Cyclists slowing down cars make cars burn more petrol or diesel. If this additional fuel use is then attributed to the cyclists, a quick calculation I did showed the cyclists doing about 8mpg. Therefore cyclists should be banned on environmental grounds."

— Stupid shit people say on Facebook about cycling (@AntiCyclingFB) October 9, 2022

Unfortunately this person did not show their working, so we're just left with this incredible take on how motor vehicles pollute. There are various theories on how this wise statsmaster worked it out, we reckon this is probably the best guess so far... 

"Quick calculation" = "something I pulled out of my ass"

— Paul Daly (@PaulDaly11) October 9, 2022