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Hungry parrot eats owner's wheel; Anti-cyclist clickbait alive and well; Sagan visits Boca Juniors; Froome meets giant alligator; New 100 miles out the saddle attempt; Two broken ribs for Cavendish; The end of cycling in Sheffield? + more on the live blog

We're rolling into the new week full of enthusiasm at road.cc and Nick Howes will be manning the blog throughout today...
22 November 2021, 18:19
Monday motivation: a 99-year-old covered 2,348 miles in 26 days on a stationary bike to take Road Worlds For Seniors silver medal

Ok, so it's nearly 6.30pm making this more like Tuesday morning motivation... but as mdavidford pointed out in the comments, this feat by Kenneth Judd definitely deserves an airing on this here live blog. The event actually finished last month, but the BBC has caught up with Kenneth to get some more info on the Road Worlds For Seniors event.  

Essentially, all entrants compete remotely and use stationary bikes made by the Norwegian tech firm Motitech, with virtual scenery shown on a screen to keep things, erm, interesting. It's open to the elderly and those with dementia, and it's Kenneth's second year of competing, improving on his seventh position in 2020 to take silver this time around. 

He said: "I wanted to do better than last year, and so I worked out how many kilometres and hours I'd have to do each day. 

"And I did the cycling when no one else was around, late at night, or early in the morning. The night staff were good at bringing me drinks, although my tea would end up being cold as I focused on cycling.

"You've got to concentrate on your speed and how far you're going. Sometimes I watched Yorkshire, and others - areas of the Lakes.

"I won't look at the bikes again for now. But I shall consider taking it up again in early spring and having another go in next year's competition."

22 November 2021, 18:05
Cav update: "In a bit of pain"

In our updated story, we established that Cavendish had broken ribs and has a small pneumothorax after his team Deceuninck-Quick Step issued a statement. Now the man himself has taken to social media to thank well-wishers and give a few more details. 

He said: "Just want to say how overwhelmed & thankful I am for all the support and well-wishes.

"So @zesdaagseGent didn’t end the way we’d have preferred, I think it’s fair to say. Some water on the track, a high speed crash and a few barrel rolls later, I’m being treated for some broken ribs & a pneumothorax. In a bit of pain, but a couple of nights with the incredible staff here at Ghent by University Hospital @uzgent should sort me out." 

22 November 2021, 14:20
Fundraiser set up after peckish pet parrot eats owner's front wheel
Gypsy Parrot eats wheel 2

This pet parrot went viral over the weekend after making a meal out of a pricy carbon bike wheel, and her owner has now tried to make the most of the exposure by setting up a fundraiser in order to replace it.

Australian cyclist Vanessa Wallace was understandably shocked to discover her female exclectus parrot Gypsy gnawing away on the front wheel of her BMCTM01 and posted on a local bike forum to see if anyone knew where to source a new Mavic CXR 60 Elite Exalith from.

The post quickly took flight (we love a good pun!) and the photos of the destruction have since appeared on numerous websites around the world.

Vanessa has found that particular Mavic model is no longer in production though, and with old stock proving incredibly difficult to source, she is now appealing for donors to help out as she, in her own words, "is poor AF…"

You can find the fundraising page here.

22 November 2021, 16:38
Anti-cyclist clickbait remains alive and well

Some road.cc readers have happened across this story on a certain national newspaper's website today and don't appear to be amused...

Screenshot 2021-11-22 at 16.41.28

Check out the forum, which provides a link to this somewhat sensationalist story and some great reaction from our readers here.

22 November 2021, 15:50
What's the problem?

Can anybody else not see a problem with this? Maybe that last rider on the right's saddle is slightly too low?? 

Let us know in the comments section below. We make sure to read every one.
 

22 November 2021, 16:01
Trade in your old computer to save up to £125 on a Karoo 2
Hammerhead Karoo 2

Fancy a new cycling computer? Our tech team are busy putting together tasty dealz for Black Friday as demanded by our corporate overlords, and this one from Hammerhead stood out as a particularly good one even if you usually stick two fingers up to good old consumerism.

The company has just launched its Trade In Trade Up recycling programme that offers up to £125 off the purchase price of a new Karoo 2 for anyone who sends in their old cycling computer to be recycled.

Trade in a Garmin Edge 500 for example and you’ll save £45, Wahoo’s Elemnt will be £80 off and the first iteration of Hammerhead’s Karoo (1) will get you that maximum £125 deal. 

Given the Karoo 2 made it into our crème de la crème road.cc recommends selection - having really impressed with its navigation and training capabilities combined - this sounds like a rather good deal to us.

This offer is running through to 30th November, that’s next Tuesday. More information on how it works and a full list of eligible devices can be found here
 

22 November 2021, 12:43
Peter Sagan visits Boca Juniors before being fined for police fracas

It's been a turbulent few days for Peter Sagan. The three-time world road race champion is currently in Argentina for the presentation of the Vuelta a San Juan race and took a trip to see iconic football team Boca Juniors at the weekend.

Sagan received a rapturous reception from fans inside La Bombonera, as these photos on his official Instagram page show:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Peter Sagan (@petosagan)

Whilst that trip proved a day to remember, the 31 year old claims he has no recollection however, of injuring a police officer after violating a COVID curfew in Monaco last April.

Sagan has been fined €5,000 today for his part in the fracas and you can read more about it here 👇.

22 November 2021, 16:28
New lights incoming from Syncros!
Syncros 2022

Syncros has developed a completely new range of lights for 2022 with the focus on integration, intelligent burn time and design.

The new Nanaimo 1200 front light is designed to integrate seamlessly with Syncros’ Creston integrated cockpit and can also be mounted to regular bars, while the rear Campbell 100 is a minimalist integrated light for use on Syncros saddles, with a saddle bag, mudguard, both or mounted on it's own. 

Syncros says the power output of the Nanaimo is designed to be steady and remain at full power for longer burn times without a dip in power. 

“Many competitors make claims about lumen power but actually the biggest issue with lights is overheating and the subsequent drop in output,” Syncros says. “Our engineers focused on cooling the LEDs and providing constant current at the upper ranges; our 1200 lumen mode will stay at the 1200 lumen range and not dip after a few minutes.”

Multiple modes are available, including a light sensitive mode that automatically adapts to the ambient light to prolong battery life and give maximum visibility to other road users.

If any of this takes your fancy, you can take a closer look here

22 November 2021, 15:31
Taxi for Atlantic Recycling please as their skip obscures cycle lane

This poorly thought out piece of skip placement could easily propt a few Near Miss of the Day videos this week if drivers in Cardiff don't have their wits about them...

Let's hope motorists are paying attention as people are forced into the middle of the road to avoid this sizable obstacle which is totally obscuring the cycle lane.

It runs against Section 139 of the Highways Act 1980, which Cardiff Council have a duty to uphold, to control skips placed on the highway

22 November 2021, 15:35
An oldie but a goodie

We caught a bit of flack on Friday for posting a few items which eagle-eyed readers might have seen before so we thought we'd drop another sneaky one in today which will hopefully raise the spirits on a cold Monday afternoon 😆:

FEvLcGAXIAUa0Z7
22 November 2021, 10:45
'100 miles out the saddle guy' unsaddles up for new virtual attempt
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The man they call Cycle Jockey is attempting to ride 100 miles on rollers today, standing up the entire time!

Cycle Jockey - AKA Chad Taverna - claims he completed the 'No Saddle Century Ride' on open roads last July but faced a cacophony of doubters after making the attempt public on Zwift. We covered the original story here.

In order to silence those critics, Chad will be screening this latest attempt - which begins at 6pm GMT (1pm EST) today -  live on his Facebook page.

Make no mistake, this challenge is as tough as it sounds, especially as he'll totally unaided and barely be able to eat or drink anything during his 4+ hours (not) in the saddle!

Chad, we wish you the very best of luck, and if you're not able to follow it in person, be sure to visit road.cc again tomorrow to see how he got on.

22 November 2021, 10:16
Scans reveal Cavendish has two broken ribs
Mark Cavendish Ghent crash.PNG

Deceuninck - Quick-Step have confirmed Mark Cavendish suffered two broken ribs in his crash at the Ghent Six Day track cycling event on Sunday.

The 36 year old hit the deck after some water on the track caused a rider in front of him to slip and several other competitors were also caught up in the tumble. 

Cavendish was able to stand immediately after the crash and wave to fans but was then escorted from the track on a stretcher and taken to the Ghent University Hospital, where he stayed overnight.

As well as those two broken ribs, the Manxman also suffered a 'small pneumothorax' (collapsed lung), but is likely to discharged later today or tomorrow morning where he'll then take time off to rest and recover.

Everyone at road.cc wishes Mark a speedy recovery.

22 November 2021, 09:25
Froome comes face to face with gigantic alligator

Having grown up in Kenya, Chris Froome is no stranger to exotic wildlife and owned a whole host of weird and wonderful pets as a child. No wonder then, he showed absolutely no signs of fear when encountering a massive alligator whilst out on a training ride in Florida over the weekend. 

While the vast majority of us would have got the hell out of there at the earliest opportunity, Chris pulled over, popped off his shoes and went for a paddle with this fearsome beast, posting this resulting video to his Instagram story:

If and when you decide to retire Chris, we're sure you could forge a career as the British Steve Irwin (hopefully without the same unfortunate ending) 🐊. 

22 November 2021, 09:54
'The end of cycling in Sheffield'?

The jury is still out on whether shared cycle and pedestrian paths are a good idea but @CyclingInASkirt certainly seemed to be having a hard time of it in Sheffield over the weekend trying to weave her way through the pre-Christmas crowds:

What are thoughts on them? A safer alternative to using traffic-filled roads or an equally hazardous way of traversing our busy city streets?

Add new comment

39 comments

Avatar
chrisonabike | 2 years ago
5 likes

Quote:

The jury is still out on whether shared cycle and pedestrian paths are a good idea

Nick me lad, the jury of cyclists, dog walkers, and most other pedestrians came back a long time ago to say "no thanks". The jury of planners, councillors, motorists (when in cars) etc. are mostly of the opposite opinion though.

Where they're not a good idea - most of the time, where it's a lazy excuse for "sign / paint make it better" or "we only have one tiny budget for a route for cyclists and pedestrians... aha!".

Where to do it - where there are almost no pedestrians or no cyclists e.g. the countryside. Yes - I know the UK version of this is also crap but that's because you're often lucky if you get 40cm of mixed crumbling asphalt and greenery next to a 70mph road...

Avatar
Rik Mayals unde... | 2 years ago
1 like

It's not just the Daily Fail, here's my local rag, every time they do a story concerning cyclists, we get the same results.

https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2021/11/penwortham-cycle-superhighway-road...

Avatar
eburtthebike | 2 years ago
1 like

I thought you had to get permission of the highway authority to put a skip on the road, and to have lights if it will be overnight.  I hope the phone lines to Atlantic Skips are suitably busy, and Cardiff council get it moved and charge them lots of money for moving it.

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mdavidford | 2 years ago
4 likes

No mention of this?

90 miles a day for 26 days - my legs hurt just thinking about it, and I'm less than half his age.

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mdavidford | 2 years ago
3 likes

Dangerous cyclists - clearly they're referring to the red socks, which could cause any passing purists to faint unexpectedly in the middle of the road.

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brooksby replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
0 likes

If they were all singled out, they'd be all the way out to that bend in the distance...  Personally, I would think that would make them harder to overtake, not easier...

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
3 likes

Lets be honest, the danger here is the driver taking a picture of several cyclists for social media whilst driving. Although I suppose it could be the passenger taking it in which case the danger is the driver about to overtake without knowing what is the other side of the blind bend. 

Avatar
mdavidford replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
2 likes

I think we're all missing the point here. They say that "cyclists should not be able to ride like this" - obviously they think that riding a bike is one of those things that apparently defies the laws of physics, like butterfly flight, and they're worried that they'll just spontaneously fall over when reality kicks in.

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Hirsute replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
6 likes

Yeah but what about the 30 on the right hand side of the road all in black and invisible ?

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Hirsute replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

It's because it is impossible to see past the bloke in blue who is obscuring the view.

Also they are all old and fat and about to have a heart attack.

They don't have reflectors in their pedals.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

hirsute wrote:

It's because it is impossible to see past the bloke in blue who is obscuring the view.

Also they are all old and fat and about to have a heart attack.

They don't have reflectors in their pedals.

Don't forget - "all over the road" (lane), a non-purposeful non-journey (unless they cycled to the start, got off, got on, cycled to the "end" being not same as start, got off, got on, cycled home)...

Avatar
joe9090 | 2 years ago
7 likes

Is the woman with the hungry parrot a professional cyclist in between contracts? Why does she have 1000 $ wheels and for the love of god why does she think random people on the internet want to contribute to her wheel fetish when we are all saving up for our own n1+'s?

Avatar
brooksby replied to joe9090 | 2 years ago
5 likes

Googled the original interview with her at https://cyclingtips.com/2021/11/parrot-gets-peckish-destroys-wheel/

Apparently the parrot didn't eat a carbon fibre wheel.  The article says that this model of wheel used a “Blackcell flange” which is basically a foam fairing (hence the parrot's ease at chewing it).

Avatar
Balthazar replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

I quite liked the parrot story but as you say, it's apparently only a polystyrene fairing. Surely you'd either remove the rest of the fairing and ride a weird-looking wheel, or fix it with some canned foam and black paint. Not throw the entire, perfectly functional, wheel away.  Just me?!

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mdavidford replied to Balthazar | 2 years ago
9 likes

I think you mean a polly-styrene fairing.

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Balthazar replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
0 likes

Dammit  1

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eburtthebike replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

mdavidford wrote:

I think you mean a polly-styrene fairing.

Pluck it.

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squired | 2 years ago
10 likes

Let's be honest. If they installed a dedicated cycle lane (and corresponding part for pedestrians), with the cycle lane painted a different colour and cycle signs every few metres, it would still be full of pedestrians. At least that is my experience where they try to create separation.

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Tom_77 | 2 years ago
1 like

I'm generally not a fan of shared paths. If I go cycling with my wife we use them, as she's not very experienced at riding on the road. I think the ones near me just about work as very few people use them, they'd be a lot better if they were two or three times as wide and segregated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j-ZmKqIDgM

 

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anke | 2 years ago
1 like

Froomie trying to loose some weight...!?

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brooksby | 2 years ago
9 likes

I was watching that Sheffield video thinking how awful it looked, and then we get to the end where there's a clear marking that it is intended to be shared-use between pedestrians and cyclists.

I think after the first thirty seconds I would have said, "Sod this for a game of soldiers!" and moved over onto the road.

And yet the council thinks that they've done something good for active travel, I bet...

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Awavey replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

and worse when it comes to building more infra, they copy and repeat the same mistakes because none of their surveys or tracking tools  show you went "sod this it doesnt work" and moved a few metres across onto a road, it just shows a cyclist went between two points that coincided with some bad shared paths.

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Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
4 likes

There's absolutely zero excuse for that Birmingham (whoops)Sheffield shared lane.  Plenty of room for a dedicated bike lane seperated by a kerb to keep out wandering pedestrians.

Worst kind of lip service.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
0 likes

Birmingham? Where is that one?

 

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brooksby replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
1 like

It's the one HS2 will actually go to!

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bobrayner replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
2 likes

I'm sceptical that a kerb would completely stop all the wandering walkers, at least on a busy pre-xmas shopping day. That video in Sheffield already shows people walking on the far side of a kerb. And adding more kerbs can pose other problems for mobility/accessibility, alas.

As much as I love being able to cycle unobstructed, I think that a compact car-free shopping area with lots of happy free-range pedestrians is pretty much a win from an urban-planning perspective. (Which would mean this pedestrianised shopping area is arguably the least bad thing in Sheffield transport policy since WW2).

Out of all the active travellers, the small minority who are on bikes will find their way is clear again, with minimal risk of a distracted pedestrian stepping into their way, once they're a hundred metres past Poundland.

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Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
12 likes

The problem with these shared cycle paths is that a large number of the pedestrians actually got into the city centre by car, but then don't understand the hypocrisy of using a facility designed to enable cycling as an additional pavement, yet will be frothing at the mouth when encountering cyclists using the road rather than these worthless cycles lanes.

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Secret_squirrel replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
2 likes

Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

but then don't understand the hypocrisy of using a facility designed to enable cycling

Right sentiment - wrong target.  They are using it exactly as the council has chosen to (poorly) mark it.  Not the drivists fault in this case.

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Owd Big 'Ead replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
6 likes

Agreed.

However, many of the pedestrians/motorists know exactly what they are doing by walking in the shared space.

Then people wonder why their is potential conflict betweens cyclists/pedestrians/motorists.

Crap infrastructure achieves nothing apart from raising more issues than it solves.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
3 likes

Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

However, many of the pedestrians/motorists know exactly what they are doing by walking in the shared space.

Disagree.  Pedestrians are utterly indifferent to cyclists until one impinges on their awareness, and tbf on well designed infrastructure they shouldn't have to.  Expecting informed behaviour from a bunch of mindless weebles wandering about doing their shopping is asking for trouble.  We've all been there ourselves.

 

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